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I didn’t really plan on getting dressed up for Halloween. But when Tina came by my office this morning wearing devil horns, I thought, hey, that’s exactly the level of minimalist office-costume effort I could go for. So over lunch I went to the Halloween store a few blocks from my office. I rifled through the remaining odds and ends with the rest of the last-minute shopping crowd, and found exactly what I was looking for. I think they look pretty cool. I couldn’t scare away a fly–I’m all of a sudden reminded of that scene in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (“Something There”) where all the forest birds start playfully alighting on the beast’s shoulders and arms–but at least I’m in the Halloween spirit. Yay, I’m horned. Er, horny?

Happy Halloween, kids.

The Morning News’ Clay Risen sums up a few aspects of D.C. culture, including “ID chic,” all those government procurement ads, and the peculiar dating scene:

Why do all my single friends have such a hard time meeting people? I don’t have an answer, but I can speculate: young people who move to New York are looking for a better, more exciting life. They want to try anything and everything. No one moves to Washington for excitement, and those who change cities for excitement’s sake would never consider Washington. No, the only people who move here do so for one reason: work. And work they do. Dating, if at all, comes later.

Basically true in my case. Armed with my international relations degree, I had decided to move to Washington to start my international career, whatever that was to entail. The job I ended up taking and currently hold doesn’t involve travel, but at least deals with international topics. While I didn’t come to Washington for excitement per se–the proximity to New York City is nice–the big, post-college, out-to-seek-my-fortune move was itself kind of an adventure. And yes, dating did come later.

Another good recent bit from The Morning News: “The NPR Blooper Reel.”

Ooh, look, Rebel Prince is all tarted up for Halloween. Mmm, orange-y.

I love this time of year: the chill in the air, the holidays, the food–though I realize you can just go to, say, Boston Market, as Thom and I did last Friday, and have a Thanksgiving-like meal any day of the year. What I don’t love about fall is the return to standard time. It gets dark so early. Granted, I’m a night owl, but leaving the office after sundown makes you feel like you’ve been at work forever. And tonight I have class, so I’ll be getting home later than usual.

Speaking of work, I guess I should put the visions of pumpkin bread and caramel apple cider dancing in my head on pause–for now–and get back to the grindstone.

This morning on the 16Y en route to work, I noticed the following sign above the front few seats: “Asientos reservados para personas mayores de edad y fiscamente incapacitadas” (emphasis mine). Uhh, they’re missing an I. It made me think of “fiscalmente“: “sorry, sir, these seats are for the fiscally handicapped…” Obviously, it’s “físicamente” (physically).

Interesting op-ed in today’s Times by Nicholas Kristof, on recent studies on the biology of homosexuality:

Gays themselves are divided. Some welcome these studies because they confirm their own feeling that sexual orientation is more than a whim. Others fret that the implication is that homosexuals are abnormal or defective–and that future genetic screening will eliminate people like them.

For me the implication, if these studies are to believed, is different: It is that something is defective not in gays, but in discrimination against them.

The blinking study referenced in the piece is “Sexual Orientation-Related Differences in Prepulse Inhibition of the Human Startle Response” (Qazi Rahman et al. Behavioral Neuroscience, 2003, Vol. 117, No. 5, 1096-1102).

Also, speaking of gay issues, there are a couple of good opinion pieces in the fall issue of Dissent: “Privacy without the Closet: Lawrence vs. Texas” by Jean L. Cohen; and “Gay Marriage and the Domestication of Sex” by Murray Hausknecht, which makes a conservative case for gay marriage:

This reveals a logical contradiction between “family values” and “traditional morality.” The latter’s opposition to same-sex marriage encourages a promiscuity that monogamous, lifetime relationships, a basic premise of “family values,” are expected to prevent. Logic aside, though, one would expect that conservatives, who value social order for its own sake, would support same-sex marriage, albeit reluctantly, if only as a means of controlling disorderly sexual behavior.

Ooh, a handful more Rufus tour dates have been announced. That boy is gettin’ busy. Take a look in the homepage sidebar for confirmed gigs. Yay, he’s coming to D.C. (Lisner Auditorium) on November 20! I’m so there. Hm. And then there’s Philly. And Chicago. And San Francisco. Gotta visit all my message-board peeps, right? Le sigh. Must start saving money for my Rufus travel budget.

A quick update to the entry earlier this week on the new TiVo DVD-R. They’re associated with two levels of TiVo service. The models come with TiVo “Basic” included, which is a stripped-down version of what we’re all used to. Basic includes, well, the very basic features: record functions and a three-day program guide. So conceivably, one could get the new machine and not pay out-of-pocket for the service, but it’s not much more than a stand-alone VCR, as far as the TiVo functionality is concerned. TiVo “Plus” is identical in features and pricing to the current TiVo service that we’ve come to know and love. Capisce?

[Update (23 Oct 09:30): User’s guide available online (PDF, 6.6MB).]

A TiVo recorder that also burns DVDs? I so want. We’re talking serious gadget-lust over here. I used to think the “save to VCR” feature on current models would be convenient, but in practice, it’s not much fun transferring your TiVo programming to tape, since you have to do it in real time. However, burning a show to DVD, of course, takes a fraction of the actual running time. I guess the analogy would be making a mix tape (yes, audiocassettes, remember those?) versus burning a CD.

Since I got my TiVo earlier this year, with my constant wealth of stored programming I occasionally tell my non-TiVo friends, “Oh, I’ll put [this or that show] on to tape for you.” And it takes me forever to get around to it, if at all. But how cool to be all, “What? You missed the last Alias? I’ll put it onto DVD.”

Suggested retail price for the Pioneer 80-hour model (DVR-810H) is $1,199. Yikes. But I’m finding it online at a few places for considerably less. The other thing is I have a lifetime subscription for my current TiVo recorder, so if I get a new one, I’d probably get rid of the old one (hello, eBay) and have to re-subscribe. Decisions, decisions. I don’t already have a dedicated DVD player–I just use my laptop which I hook up via S-video to my TV–so that’s value added right there, right? (Last night, trying to talk myself out of getting yet another gadget, I asked Thom, “So tell me, I don’t need an iPod, right?” He replied, “You’re asking the wrong person.” He’s lusting too.)