Inside The Perimeter

The Hands Of Time
Since I started riding Marta I’ve had the desire to know what time it is while on the train. At first I would use my cell phone, but then that became difficult to dig out of my pocket. I then put the clock on the main screen of my iPod, but then I didn’t want to keep pulling my iPod out of my pocket.

My solution? Wear a watch. (duh!)

I’ve owned watches for years (’cause that’s how I roll). However, I discovered that it’s been so long that the batteries in all of my non-sports watches had died.

Last night I took my watches over to It’s About Time in Perimeter Mall and had new batteries installed (at a fairly resonable price). I also learned a valuable lesson. When transporting more than one watch, with at least one of those having a metal band, cover their crystals. Yes, I managed to scratch the crystal of one of the watches. Argh, I feel like such a putz!

Walking In A Winter Wonderland
A large meal at Great Wraps (hey, I was in the mall…) convinced me that I should temporarily lose my mind and do the four-mile walk from the Midtown station to the Candler Park station again. Well call me Captain Consistency, because much like the first time I attempted this feat the walk last night took my one hour and fifteen minutes (according to the watch I was wearing).

This walk was fantastic! I looked around, listened to a podcast, and got exercise! I’ve determined that when the weather is on the warmer side again, I will leave everything at work and turn the walk into a run.

A Billboard Storefront?
One of the other things I love about walking is the things you notice that you might not otherwise.

Last night I again saw that “billboard storefront” for San Pellegrino bottled water on North Highland. Because it is all white I initially thought it might be an advert for an iPod, but it obviously is not once you look at it. If you want to look at it, it sits between some swank boutique and some swank hair salon. What, that doesn’t narrow it down? Well, it’s near the intersection of St. Charles and N. Highland.

Starbucks Wherefore Art Thou Starbucks?
I think I work in one of the few places that Starbucks has yet to invade. There may be one in that new Super Target, or in the Barnes & Noble (that I’ve yet to enter) so I could be wrong. I know that I’ve not seen a stand-alone store in my foot-travels. Starbucks fanboys and fangirls - please let me know if I am wrong.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - meh, mad that I fell asleep so early last night
Current Music - nothing, listening to the Leo Laporte’s “KFI Tech Guy” podcast
Website Of The Day - Have you stayed at the Len Foote Hike Inn in north Georgia yet? I’ve just renewed my “Friend Of” membership. Do yourself a favor and “get away from it all” for a weekend.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - walking, four miles

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

The first two light switches I turned on this morning blew the light bulbs. Hmmm, I hope that this was not an indicator of things to come today…

Old Man Take A Look At My Life
I think that I am becoming a hermit. Seriously, I think that I am. I have been spending an increasing amount of time at home alone. This does not make me happy.

Saturday is a good example, because I never left the house. Well, I walked to the mailbox to get my mail at 8pm, but other than that I never left my house. I could easily blame the weather because it was about 40 degrees and rained on Saturday, but I know that the weather is not soley to blame.

Project 192
Last winter I went through the arduous task of ripping all of my CDs to mp3s. At the time I wasn’t sure about the process or the amount of disk space necessary for my collection so I ripped everything at 160kbps. At project’s end I swore never to go through it again.

On Saturday morning I started re-ripping my collection at 192kpbs. While it doesn’t sound like the music will sound that much better I am certain that it is worth the effort. And now that I have a mp3 player that has three times the capacity of my old one I should still be able to carry my entire collection with me.

On the downside, I spent the entire day Saturday feeding my computer CDs for ripping and I am only about one-third through my collection. Also, I will be unable to rip those CDs that are no longer physically in my collection.

The Eyes Have It
The last few months I’ve been getting a lot of professional help (none of the mental variety that I should probably seek).

Today’s trip is to the eye doctor (I am might even be there as you read this). Yes, after much neglect I am finally getting a checkup and some new specs. I normally request the help of a female when picking out glasses, but who knows when I’ll be dating again so I can’t afford to wait.

The good thing about my eye doctor is that it is in Colony Square so I can hop off Marta, stroll over to the doctor, and then go back to Marta to go to work. Pretty cool, eh? I entertained the though of taking today off from work (hey, I worked Friday!) and then going over to the High Museum after the optometrist, but then I remembered that the High is not open on Mondays.

SPAM SPAM Everywhere!
Last week I received a text message on my cell phone. While getting a message is not unheard of, this message was from Sprint (my provider) informing me of some new services. Dammit, I pay my bill on time each month, leave me the fuck alone!

Also the other day I received an email telling me that I had a new Flickr contact (whose name escapes me currently). This would normally make me happy. However in this instance I found out that my new contact wanted me to check out some website about music. Crap, now I am getting spam through Flickr?

Please stop this nonsense!

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - bothered
Current Music - nothing
Website Of The Day - In case I can’t see anything today I should have downloaded some free public domain audio books from LibriVox.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - running/walking, seven miles

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

It’s a Friday between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, WTF am I doing at work?!?

Walk Like An Atlantan
Possessing a Marta card has changed my perspective on Atlanta. Big statement? Yep. True? Yep.

Yesterday I planned to ride Marta to my car, dump off my stuff and then walk to Decatur. I figured that with my card I could ride Marta back to my car. Instead on the southbound ride I had a change of mind. The train was crowded last night and I figured that waiting for Marta at 10:30pm for my return trip would be a pain in the ass. So, I hopped off at Midtown and walked to Candler Park.

According to Gmap Pedometer my route was exactly four miles and the trip took me one hour, fifteen minutes. The weather was perfect, the walk was fun, and it allowed my to catch up on some podcasts on the new iPod. I wish I had thought of this a couple of months ago.

TV Watch
Tonight BBC America is debuting a new series (at least here in the States) called Creature Comforts.

The series is from Nick Parks’ (think Wallace and Grommit) studios and consists of short films that puts the voices from humans into the mouths of animals.

I think it could be quite good.

Business 2.0
There are now four new restaurants that are not open for lunch in the unnamed plaza across from my office. I thought it was just Outback Steakhouse that didn’t have a clue, but apparently idiocy is abundant over there. Nice job Cheeseburgers In Paradise, Carrabba’s, and Flemings, you shan’t be seeing any of my business.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - conflicted
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Morrissey == “Irish Blood, English Heart”
Website Of The Day - TV Party has a pretty good site (except for their allowance of pop up ads [even in Firefox]), but you should really read their article about the Rankin/Bass classic “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” “Rudolph: The Untold Story”.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - four mile walk

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Not really, I have enough body “reserve” to allow me to survive for days.

Graveyard Tavern: Opening Night
This restaurant commentary needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Get it? Grain of salt! I’m here als the week…

All of East Atlanta, and probably most the surrounding neighborhoods crammed Graveyard Tavern last night. It was the place to be, unless you were very hungry or thirsty. Anyone who showed up for the first night should have expected it to be slammed, and I definitely was.

My meetup was with my friends Glenn, Bill and Sonya, although I was also happy to see my friends Darren, Laura and Kat in attendance as well. Here are my opening night impressions

• The restaurant is beautiful (reminding me of an old train depot).
• They have dartboards and snooker.
• The bar is spectacular!
• The restaurant is (at least for now) non-smoking! (good for me)
• The beer list (what matters to me) is robust.
• The food was okay

I will return.

I Will Support!
Last night reminded me that I have been neglecting my ‘hood. I plan to live more of my life in East Atlanta, and if you ever want to meetup for a meal or beverage, let me know.

But Tonight I’ll Be In Decatur
If all goes to plan I’ll be playing trivia with the Chattooga County All-Stars at Raging Burrito in Decatur tonight. The plan also includes using yesterday’s plan by doing some extra walking tonight. If you see me trudging along Dekalb Avenue tonight, feel free to honk at me.

Well, I Thought I Had Paid Off My Car
I just knew that it couldn’t be that simple. Yes, my attempt at paying my car last month failed. Apparently I didn’t understand their system (not really my fault because I tried hard to do so) and I have one more payment to go. RATS!

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - fair
Current Music - none, I am listening to the MacCast podcast
Website Of The Day - Are you bored? Go to Meetup.com and find events that you’ll find interesting.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - nothing

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]