The Washington Post recently did a four part series on why the Metro in DC is in rapid decline. The Metro is the subway, for all those who haven't been to DC.

When I got to DC this summer the Metro seemed to be fine, but it has become a constant day-to-day struggle getting to and from work. It wasn't always this way. When I occasionally rode the Metro in between 2000 and 2003, I don't think I ever had a problem on the system. It's quite a contrast to my current experiences, which I thought I would share.

The first thing is that something big must be going on between the Rosslyn and GWU Foggy Bottom stations. Nearly every day, without fail, something goes wrong between those two stations. A couple weeks ago it was because of construction, which I understand. But lately the train operator gets on the loud speaker and explains that something, like a car door not closing, has stopped a train somewhere ahead of us. It seems like perfect commonsense to me to unload the problematic train at a station and clear the track. Sure, one train of people will be inconvenienced. But what about the thousands of people sitting on trains behind them? Metro's solution is instead to have the car sit at a station and fix it. Meanwhile all trains have to take turns sharing one track. Super efficient. Nowadays when the train operator comes on the speaker and says, "We'll be moving along shortly," all I hear is, "You're going to be 20 minutes late to work ... again!"

The Washington Post article claims that the "vast majority" of Metro trains are on time. How, then, does it happen that the majority of mine are late? I feel that if I'm on a problematic rail line, I should at the very minimum not be charged rush hour fare because I'm not really being "rushed" anywhere. I'm sitting still in a confined space with some dude's headphones blaring next to me.

The other problems I have deal with the SmarTrip Card. That is the electronic card that lets you not have to constantly deal with paper Metro passes and works on buses. I'd venture a guess that about half the sensors for the cards don't work. While people stand behind me waiting, I wave my card over the sensor waiting for the entrance or exit gate to open. I usually have to move to another machine because waving the card repeatedly doesn't work very well. Luckily, I've mapped out the ones that work best on my way to and from work. I can only hope that they stay working. (Note: the wheelchair-accessible gates haven't failed me yet)

The other problem, which I had this morning, was with recharging my SmarTrip card. I was down to $2.00, so I had to recharge it in order to get anywhere that morning. But, as I probably should have expected, Metro found a new way to hinder my commute. The machine could not complete my credit or ATM purchases because it could not connect to whatever network it needed in order to approve me. I fought with two machines for ten minutes and eventually had to feed one of them the few single dollar bills that I had. On top of that this morning, the train was in fact stopped between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom.

In short: Metro service makes me not want to ride. When I try to ride it won't let me in the gates. When I want a card to get in the gates and ride, it won't sell me one. Can I get a "WTF, mate?"

Posted by at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

A new report by the Education trust is being released this afternoon. It details how most states are reporting inaccurate graduation data each year to the U.S. Department of Education. The Department of Ed knows about it and hasn't done anything to stop it.

The worst example is North Carolina, which boasts a 97% graduation rate, but more accurate estimates put it around 64% -- a 33% difference! This is because North Carolina gets away with it by reporting the percentage of graduates who got diplomas in four years. It doesn't even take drop-outs into account at all! Other states are in similar shape.

The report also talks about how many states don't show graduation data for different racial and ethnic groups, how states' numbers wildly fluctuate from year to year (which couldn't happen in reality). Also detailed is how states set lower goals for graduation than the rates they currently have. No need to improve if they don't set higher goals for themselves!

Read the report

Posted by at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So yesterday (Father's Day) my brother and my dad went to an Angels game. They also went with my half brother and my newphew. They were all sitting on the edge of right field. My nephew, corey, got a baseball handed to him and got some airtime on TV, along with my dad in the background.

Here's the best part, though. Derin Erstad, who hit Katerina in the head with a foul ball a few years back, tosses another ball toward the audience, this time toward my brother. Kyle bobbles the ball, drops it back on the field, and lunges over the side for it. He's being held up by his belt, thanks to my older half brother, which was also caught on TV. Have a look at what the commentators said about it:

Posted by at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Working in DC has been kind of crazy in that I've randomly run into a TON of people. I suppose it's bound to happen some because everybody from UVA is up here, but seriously, check out these stories. I can't believe some of these.

At Work

This is perhaps the weirdest story of all the run-ins I've had. I was the first intern in the office this summer. The second person to come was Rachel Hicks, who is a TFA teacher in the Mississippi Delta, Greenville specifically. In fact, my kids will feed into her class next year. Neither of us had any prior knowledge that the other would be here. How could that possibly happen?

If that wasn't enough, the third intern comes in, who turns out to be Elliot Haspel. He's the now editor of the Cavalier Daily. He was in UDems and we once butted heads in stupid UVA Student Council politics.

What are the odds that I would know both of the other people working with me? Are you going to tell me that my dad will also be working here next week?

The UDems Crew

One day I was crammed onto the orange Metro line when UDems Katie Cristol and Anna Scholl got in my car. I recognized Katie, since she was involved with UDems since her first year (when I was still around). I recognized Anna too, because she has my former position in UDems (VP) and I emailed her at some point to tell her that her programs were solid.

Later that week Dave Wasserman, the current UDems president, let me know about some Young Democrats thing that I should go to (like I need more nonsense from the YDs). I went anyway, and Sam Silverberg, the VP who succeeded me, was there along with Amanda LeTard, Dave's girlfriend and current UDems secretary. They were expected to go. But -- as we were sitting there Melissa Silverman, the former UDems secretary and now minority and women's coordinator, strolls by and sees me and the rest of us and stops to talk.

Random Run-Ins

I was walking down K Street one day and saw Lindsay's friend Mike from GWU, but I don't think he recognized me.

I was in line to get a SmartTrip Metro card and saw Katie Hamm walk in with her Truman Scholars.

I was walking a block from work and saw Katie Hamm's room mate from college cross the street.

Down in Metro Center, I'm 90% sure I saw a girl I knew from TFA institute last summer.

I also think I saw Karen Barajas, who used to be a counselor at Camp Oakes with me in CA. I'm only 65% sure of that one, though.

Posted by at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a rant that I just want to get out on the internet to give people a place to vent about FedEx and how much FedEx sucks. Over the past four years I've frequently shipped things with the US Postal Service, UPS, and FedEx. I've never had problems with the US Postal Service. UPS' service, in my opinion, is exceptional. FedEx is another story.

After my first year of college I used FedEx to ship my boxes home. I shipped four and only one made it on time. Two others struggled in days after they sat at some FedEx facility for days. The third one remained a mystery for more days and I was eventually told that it had been lost. Pissed, I faxed in my grievance in to FedEx demanding a refund for my lost articles. Rather than get back to me, they eventually found my stuff ... but it came delivered in a different box. After I had my stuff, the grievance team called me up literally weeks later to check on what happened. Great job, FedEx.

The real impetus for this post, though, happened two or three weeks ago. I had just ordered my new laptop and all its accessories from Apple. The items would come in three different packages, one with FedEx, two with UPS. I had to have them delivered to my school, seeing as I'm not home during the weekdays. I told Ms. Pruitt, our secretary, about the packages a week in advance so that she could hold them for me and make sure I got them. The one from FedEx was coming from Memphis, so it wouldn't take long. The UPS packages were coming from China and elsewhere. After waiting in anticipation for what seemed like too long, I checked the status of my package on the FedEx website and found that it had in fact been delivered. I asked Pruitt about it and she never saw it. Nor did anybody else at school. Take a look at the signature that FedEx had on file for my package:

That is definitely not my signature.

Justifiably upset that FedEx apparently gave my equipment to somebody living across the street from the school or to somebody standing in front of the school who said, "Yeah, I'm Ryan Hughes," I called them. They assured me that my speakers would be delivered by 5:00PM that day and that the signature was a mistake. So I sat and waited for them until 5:00, but nothing came. I called FedEx back and they informed me that they would need to go through a grievance procedure that would take up to two weeks to complete. Imagine how happy I was to hear that.

The next day, though, the box finally came. I had to sign some kind of "lost item" form instead of the normal delivery pad. In other words, they are so incompetent that they mixed my paper work up with someone else's AND didn't have the ability to figure it out until 24 hours later.

So -- use UPS. They're union. Their e-mail and internet integration is excellent. And I've never had a problem with them at all. USPS is also solid.

Links
'FedEx Sucks' wins the Googlefight.
This guy had the same thing happen.
This guy was let down by FedEx in an even bigger way.
This guy had FedEx violate his personal space.
This guy hates FedEx.
These people hate FedEx.

Posted by at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (29) | TrackBacks (0)

I've had this story to post for a while, but I've been pretty busy moving to DC and all. It's the story of the sixth grade end-of-the-year field trip.

For months and months we had been raising money to go on a field trip to Saint Louis of all places. It didn't seem like that great of a place to take kids on a trip, but what do I know? Finally, at the end of the year, the day came.

All of the kids going on the trip got to school at 5:30 for a 6:00 departure. Perhaps it was because it was so early in the morning, but they were pretty well behaved and quiet for the bus ride. We eventually stopped here for lunch:

After we finished eating, we made our way to St. Louis, which, in total, took about ten hours. Once we got to the city, we went straight to the arch because it would close soon. Once we got to the arch, you'd think we would have some kind of agenda, and we would have if I planned the trip. But no, we stood around for a half hour and the kids started to get restless. After doing literally nothing for thirty minutes, we finally got our tickets to go up into the arch.

We rode the small, antiquated elevator to the top. Once we got there the kids went nuts. I tried to keep the kids calm by showing them the Cardinals' field, Rams' field, and the state house, but they were still going nuts. We eventually herded all the kids off the arch and got a nice group shot underneath.

After we were done there, we went into the museum for all of ten minutes. The kids and parents did a walk-through -- lots of educational value. This was supposed to be the part of the trip that justified it as a field trip with the district office. Anyhow, after we were done, we went back to the hotel and then walked to McDonald's. Ordering dinner for a bus load of kids at McDonald's: not the easiest thing I've ever done. After that nightmare, we went back to the hotel for the night. At this time the kids were going from room to room (an adult was in each) to socialize. It got to a point where kids would likely draw attention from surrounding guests, so we cut it short. A lot of girls stayed up late talking on the phones in their rooms, but nobody snuck out or anything like that. Mr. Hughes doesn't know about it, anyway.

The next day we were going to study forces and motion at Six Flags Saint Louis. That was the official story anyway. Right away kids started getting lost from their chaparones, but I put a quick end to that. Now, look at the picture below and look at what is wrong with it:

You aren't seeing things, that girl is carrying a basketball in the theme park, as were many of the park's guests that day. At first I looked at a guy carrying a ball and thought to myself, "Now... what the hell is the sense in that?" Seriously -- who brings a basketball to a theme park??? It's like bringing snorkeling gear to church. You just don't need it. Soon my mystery was solved, though. It turns out that the park was giving the basketballs away as prizes at some of the carnival type booths. What a GREAT idea! Give out basketballs for guests to make tons of noise dribbling in every square inch of the park and dribble in front of you as you walk. Plus, they're really convenient for bringing on roller coasters. And of course my kids had to try to shoot for one of the cheap basketballs and won some.

As if that weren't enough, the kids in my group were being complete pricks. See, they were all students of a teacher who beats her kids, and they wouldn't listen to me because they weren't under constant threat of violencr from me. (Corporal punishment works so well! They'll be sure to listen to reason when they're too big to be whooped!) Kids would complain and lash out emotionally when the group didn't go on a ride that they wanted to go on. It got progressively worse as the group kept splitting up in separate directions. Mr. Henderson and I would have to call all of them back and listen to them bicker about where they wanted to go. Eventually I sat all of them down and said we weren't going anywhere until they could decide where they wanted to go. Then we would go there as a group and not run off and act crazy. They immediately got mad and started saying, "Man! I payed my $150! You can't hold me here!" or, "I'm tellin' my momma that I didn't get to do what I want!" etc, etc. I explained that I wasn't holding them and that they weren't in trouble. They simply needed to be civil and decide where they wanted to go and we would immediately go there. They didn't know how to handle the situation and kept complaining instead of making a constructive decision. It was probably a foreign concept to them, as they are usually not given choices and are instead simply beaten for being out of line. I guess I can't really blame them. After enduring the whining from the kids and the hicks from Southern Illinois that filled the park, we finally left.

After that it was on to here:

Some of the Palm Desert readers out there might recognize this as the West Field Shopping Town in Palm Desert. They would be mistaken, though. This is the Westfield Shopping Town St. Louis, but doesn't it look the same?

Anyhow, we then went into the mall to shop, which turned into a consumerism nightmare. The game was basically to see who could outbling whom. Kids went to every single store to see the shoes, ball caps, jerseys, backpacks, etc. Kids were dropping $150 on a complete new outfit, after which they would compare with other kids and decide who got the best new threads. It got old pretty quick. At least they didn't need to argue about which stores to go to.

After shopping for an hour and a half, we went to eat dinner. Each kid got $5 to spend at the food court in the mall. As you might imagine, you can't get much to eat for $5 at the food court, which was a problem for many kids because they spent literally all their money on Air Jordans and ball caps. After that hurdle was over, groups were told they have until 8:30 to be in front of Nordstrom. I don't know why I just wrote "groups"; parents were letting the kids run wild through the mall by now. The kids bought any last minute bling they needed and generally made their way out to the bus. I got out there at 8:30 sharp to find that about ten people were missing. I went back into the mall and found a few struggling people that told me that there was a group of girls busy getting their nails done. Pissed, I ran down to the nail place and told everybody that they had to go to the bus, as the driver was on a strict schedule, to which a parent said, "Oh, he's on the last hand. It'll be just a minute." Mrs. Heard called me and I told them they had to leave now and they kept waiting for the guy to finish painting a girl's damn nails. Meanwhile, the lady behind the counter starts audibly saying, "He's cute for a teacher ... I need him for my niece!" I don't know how she was saying that when I was so visibly pissed. While forty people stood and waited, these girls sat for an extra half hour and got their nails painted. That stuff pisses me off so much.

After I finally got them out to the bus, we went back to the hotel and started talking with one of my students about why kids leave the tags on their ball caps. I've always wondered that. He explained to me that they do because it proves that the hat isn't a knock-off. It makes sense if you're trying to project the bling image. I decided to try it out for myself.

I'm so white. I don't usually get that friendly with the kids, but it was the end of the year. Once the kids were in the room, we said nobody could go out because we were so exhausted. The next day we drove home with little incident. The kids were quiet and tired.

Except for one...

Next year I'm taking a select group of kids to DC, no matter what the rest of the sixth grade does. My principal's already on board. I'm going to plan it, so it won't suck. I'm also setting the terms on who may attend my trip on the first day of school. I just need to lock down some funding this summer and we'll be ready.

Posted by at 9:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)