I’ve known Maiki for six or seven years: we were both members of the [EGBT] counter-strike clan where we were fans of suicidal-Para runs. Lately, Maiki’s taken over the hosting and webmastering duties for MalnurturedSnay.net, for which I am grateful. Last week, I got a call from him out of the blue: he was coming into DC from California and wanted to know if I was free for a get-together? Well, of course! So, having known him for many many years over the internet, it was about one in the afternoon Saturday on a cold rainy/hot sunny day in Silver Spring when we finally got to meet.

There was a little communication mix-up: he was staying in Bethesda with friends, and I was expecting him to arrive on the Metro. However, Maiki & Co. decided to drive instead. To get out of the rain while I was waiting for them, meanwhile, I’d bought a pass and was waiting on the platform (hence, the lovely photo above). I can’t remember the last time I was on a Metro train, but I’ll just take the opportunity to say that I think living in/near DC would be cool if only for the access to that great mass-transit ability.

Anyway, having met up with Maiki and Nick, Alex, and Kelly, we strolled from the parking garages (we all parked west of 29) east past the Discovery building (Nick is a fellow Astro Empires player, so we discussed that to the amusement of everyone else: “Astro Fuckers!”), to a sort of weird street-blocked off place with a spooky “Avenue at White Marsh” vibe. After some time at Galaxies Billiards (that’s Nick I’m trying to blind with my flash, so as to help Maiki with his game — that’s Kelly on the stool, and Alex is nursing a beer somewhere to my left). After some games played and some beers consumed, we traipsed over to Pho-Hiep Hoa and had us some Vietnamese food. Maiki got a toothpick in his rice, but I’m happy to report my order was clear — as far as I could tell — of foreign substances.

On our way back to the garages (via a stop at some place called Marimekko), we all became aware of a semi-robotic voice saying “HELP WILL BE HERE SHORTLY”* — a guy, in the pouring rain, was leaning against the tall blue “EMERGENCY” call-box, pressing whatever button it is that emits that robotic voice with one hand, while digging through a flower-box with the other. Shoulda taken a photo! I was half expecting the call-box to say, “I get the message fucker, now stop pushing my buttons! More than you already have! Fucker!”

All in all, it was a pretty nice day. It could’ve been nicer — like if Mommy Nature could’ve chosen between “cold and rainy” or “sunny and hot” instead of alternating between the two — but it was a very fun afternoon, and I was glad to meet Maiki and make some new friends.

*Or something similar.

For taking my nice, well-reasoned post from yesterday, and turning it on its head. My ‘irony conclusion’, at any rate (I was really fond of that sentence…) Turns out: the mess (in Florida, at any rate) is all the fault of the Republicans! (And here I’d been, blaming it on the Democrats!)

Interesting about Florida … however, that does not appear to be the case in Michigan, according to this MSNBC article I found:

According to sources inside both parties, the two state parties in Michigan have agreed to move the state’s primary — legislatively — to Jan. 15. This is a compromise date out of respect for Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, who really wanted to move the primary to Jan. 8. Others wanted the primary on Jan. 22 as a way to, essentially, play ball with the other early states. There was a nice window being created for a Jan. 22, 2008 event. But by moving to Jan. 15, this will put pressure on the other early states to either entertain a December event or lobby the two national parties to not sanction Michigan at all.

I’m still a little unclear as to why exactly the DNC decided to strip all of the delegates from both states when they could’ve chosen only to strip half. I wonder if there’s more to the story, or if the DNC just decided on that course of action so that they could claim to be twice as focused on the integrity of the elections than their RNC counterparts. Well, bet they’re all “whoopsing” that decision now over at the DNC: Florida may have been an RNC mess, but they certainly added to it with their questionable delegate decision.

Last but not least: yeah, Lindsay’s easy on the eyes, but it makes a geek’s heart all-a-flutter to see a moon-sized planet-blowing-up battlestation on my laptop’s screen.