Peter Bis: an introduction.

Some of you may know Peter Bis; he's somewhat of a fixture on Capitol Hill. He's the homeless man that sits in front of the gasoline stop on Mass. Ave near Union Station, usually underneath the tree, where he's usually greeting people as they walk past. I had an interesting encounter with him last week: I was walking down Mass. Ave in the morning to work and he said, "Three days a week." I'm assuming he's talking about how many days I work a week. He's either got good observation skills or he's usually just bored and keeps track of people he sees often.

He stopped me and asked if he'd given me his name card. Intrigued, I naturally consented. A plain white card was handed to me with the name "Peter J. Bis" on it in type-writer font, and "http://peterbis.blogspot.com" directly beneath. He began engaging me in conversation and talked about his ex-girlfriend who was a spy in Japan and had been assassinated. I laughed, thinking he was trying to be humorous. Big mistake. Next thing I know, he's cursing at me and calling me arrogant; little to say, I told him to have a good morning and left to work after he'd rambled on for a little bit.

I'll most likely see him sometime in the coming weeks on my way to work again. Not exactly sure how I'm going to speak with him or if he'll acknowledge me. I guess the adventure will continue. I looked him up online and someone else blogged about a more pleasant encounter with Peter and apparently NPR did a 3-minute blurb on him as well.

General Updates:

• I'm still working about 20 hours/week at USCC. Things have been interesting; they've kept me busy so I've appreciated that. Doing research on Chinese energy companies and investments they're making in ASEAN countries.
• Had lunch with Jake Wolf today at TGI Fridays and happened to bump into DMF coming out of a cab on the way to the metro.
• Went to Elephant & Castle tonight for a drink with team co-members at YPFP. Never been in there before, was nice.

Reading Updates:

• Almost done with Iain Murray's The Forgotten Spurgeon, which I borrowed from the CHBC library. I'll most likely post some thoughts later on.
• Today I picked up The Prize by Daniel Yergin from Gelman.