Inside The Perimeter

This post is almost completely devoid of hyperlinks. Why? Because I am lazy.

Trivia Interruptus
Well, the plan was to have Meet The Hashers meet up and play trivia at the newly-relocated Johnny’s Pizza in the Old Fourth Ward last night. That plan lasted all of one and one-half question, at least for me. The trivia hostess had a mirade of microphone issues and I couldn’t be bothered to stay all night and watch her attempt to troubleshoot her problems, so I left.

The new Johnny’s location, formerly occupied by Jake’s Ice Cream, is a maze of small, connected rooms which, at least until the weather is suitable for patio sitting, is not very conducive to larger groups; Meet The Hashers usually averages eight players.

How Would You Shoot This Differently?
The answers “Why bother.” or “Throw it out.” are not the sort of criticism I seek here. I think this could be a rather interesting shot, but I don’t think that I’ve executed it perfectly. I can easily get back to this location for a re-shoot, I’m seeking some advice as to what I should do differently next time.

I was trying to capture the series of gas pipes in the image as if they part of a grand pipe organ found in cathedrals.

The Wasting Is The Hardest Part
Admittedly my weight-loss program is not a smashing success. I love to eat (and drink beer, but that’s a different posting). One of the things that was drilled into my head by depression-era parents is that food is sacred and should not be wasted. I was trained to “clean my plate” and to “take what you can eat, and eat what you take.” On the surface this seems like sound advice.

This morning I stopped at Joe’s coffee (yes, Ellen was working), and picked up a blueberry muffin in addition to my morning coffee. The muffin was your typical repackaged Mondo Muffin from Sam’s Club or Costco. After eating about two-thirds of the muffin I smooshed the rest into the cling wrap and tossed it into the trash. I felt the wrath of my mother’s voice asking me why I was wasting food as I did so.

Mental conditioning, it’s not just for breakfast any longer.

It’s A New Music Tuesday
What happens when Jack White and Brendon Benson form a side-project group? I select their release as my “CD Pick of the Week”, that’s what. The newly-formed project known as “The Raconteurs” have a cd in stores today called “Broken Boy Soldiers”.

Tessa over at Drive A Faster Car posted some 411 and a link to one of the songs on this cd in this here post. Check it out. Go ahead, I know that you want to…

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - fair (which if you’ve been paying attention is a 30-day high)
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Mates Of State — “Fraud In The ’80s”
Website Of The Day - At Johnny’s trivia we can earn an extra five points if we can identify a movie scene in which the actors’ images have been removed. Think you want to give it a shot? Swing by FilmWise and give it a shot.

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 - nuttin’

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

When forty-eight hours doesn’t seem like enough time to do the things I’ve planned, and I’ve had to opt out of at least two more things (nevermind still not moving this blog to Wordpress) I know that I need to find a way to plan better.

I’m Too Shifty
What can I say, I was having so much fun working the Thomas Creek tent that I didn’t stop working until about 5:15pm eventhough my shift ended at 4:00pm. Of course I was sampling the beer whilst “working”, which never hurts my commitment level.

The booth was hopping (get it? beer. hops. okay, bad joke.) as can be seen in this action photo snapped by fellow blogger Mark.

My name sticker originally read “Available, Inquire Within”, but was later ammended by some (married) gal to read “Occasionally Available, Inquire Within (O.B.O.)” because she said the original version sounded too desperate. Either way it didn’t work.

I saw many of my friends and fellow bloggers, too many to list, throughout the day. I also got to serve and briefly chat with some of the guys from National Grain who played a set at the festival. I was amused how surprised they were when I said that not only had I heard of them but that I also owned their CD.

The only downside of the day is that the festival was so popular that we had leave the East Atlanta Village to eat. My friends Darren, Laura, and I wound up in Oakhurst eating at Universal Joint where I feasted on a hamburger and some spicy chicken spring rolls (I really needed meat).

In The Swamps of Loganville?
Yes Virginia, Loganville possesses swamps and I think that yesterday’s Black Sheep Hash went through almost each and every one. Recently hashing has frustrated me a bit as I realize that I am getting slower. When I arrive at the end and people who I think that I should have been able to keep up with are already in stirs my internal competitive engine. I must keep repeating our beliefs that “The Hash is not a race.” and “There are no winners in the hash, we’re all losers.”

I can’t complain too much however as I did get plenty of exercise (slogging through swamp is hard work) and I’ve found a couple of locations that I want to capture with the camera.

It’s A Wrap!
Well, the person I predicted to win Survivor last night won, however the person I wanted to win (Terry) did not.

As Stacy, Phil, Bill and I watched Danielle’s fire finally burn through the string (I knew that Mark Burnett’s editing team was fucking with our heads last Thursday) I predicted that Arse was going to win the million dollars. I still believe Danielle misstepped when she brought Arse over Terry, eventhough the Jeff Probst’s straw poll on the reunion show indicated otherwise.

Btw- Is Terry’s last name “Breeder” because holy shit there were a lot of children in his Family Moment. He should have been given a second SUV instead of giving it to Cerie.

Using My Brain For Good Not Evil
I’m trying to rally Meet The Hashers to play trivia at the newly-relocated Johnny’s Pizza tonight. I’m craving some Za (80’s slang) and I can make it vegetarian. I am interested to see what they’ve done to the place. Besides, if I don’t go to Taco Mac I won’t feeled compelled to drink beer.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - worn out, two+ hours of hashing killed me
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing The M’s — “Plan Of The Man”
Website Of The Day - I’m a sucker for “found item” sites. Here is one that collects found grocery lists, appropriately called The Grocery List Collection. I keep looking for one that has two items on it, BEER, LOTTERY TICKETS.

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 - hashing on Sunday

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Re: For Raining On The Day of Notoberfest

FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING FUCK!

I am in a really crummy mood, so this will be brief. Today I feel like I am wearing a fat suit. Unfortunately, I don’t get to take it off at the end of the day.

Beer Me!
Tomorrow I’ll be volunteering at the East Atlanta Notoberfest. My shift runs from 12-4, and afterwards consumption begins.

Fit To Be Tied
Did you watch?
I’m miffed.
Are you?

Remember, Sunday is the Survivor Finale.

Sunday Is Mother’s Day
Yes, I remembered. I even included a check for $25 so that mom can kick some ass in the bingo halls of Florida.

Here’s A Picture Of A Pretty Flower To End The Week On A High Note

Hope you are much better than me…

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - the sun is up, my mood is still down
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing The Raconteurs — “Steady As She Goes”
Website Of The Day - Go check our the cool things the Imaginary Foundation has to offer.

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]

Rocky Mountain Oysters?
Hells No! I had Rocky Mountain’s chicken wings. As I mentioned yesterday I met up with my buddy Darren at Rocky Mountain Pizza Company last night.

Damn the wings were good, and to further enhance my experience the bottles of Smithwick’s I had last night cost $2.50 each. That’s no typo my friends, Smithwick’s (and various other decent beers) costs a mere $2.50 each and every day at Rocky Mountain! Don’t get me wrong, I love my East Atlanta haunts and will continue to frequent them, but damn(!), two-fiddy?!? I am sure that I can do a few photo strolls over the Tech way and wind up at Rocky Mountain for a cold one afterwards.

Last night they were also having Team Trivia at Rocky Mountain. The team sitting behind me were cheating big time, oh how I miss being in college. I even helped them with an answer “Bob Jones University” — go make up your own question.

Why Did The Geese Cross The Road?
I guess it was to eat. On my drive from filling up the Jackmobile with $42 worth of gas to the office this morning a gaggle of geese, many of which were goslings (why do they have special terms for geese?) decided to walk across the road in front of traffic. Miraculously none of the geese nor any of the drivers were harmed in the impromptu road crossing.

There’s No Crying In The Amazing Race!
Did you watch?
I’m happy.
Are you?

Smiling Pretty
There are probably levels of Hell awaiting my arrival. This morning I have my semi-annual dental check-up and cleaning. In honor of this event I am eating a Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Clif Bar, ooh they have more calories than I imagined, for breakfast. It’s not as bad as stuffing a bunch of Oreo cookies in my mouth, but I’m sure it’s not that different.

Call it sweet revenge for all of the pain I’ve suffered in the dental chair in my lifetime.

It’s A “Happy Birthday” Day
My friend Phil is having a birthday today, this makes him one more than thirty-five. The best thing about Phil’s birthday, at least from my perspective, is that we are all meeting up at Taco Mac after work for a party. Woo Hoo. While there I will get to add to my list of passport beers, get a free glass (is it tacky to then turn around and hand it to Phil as my birthday gift? What if I stick a bow on it), and curse myself for already using my two-days of meat eating (I’ll be the one with the veggies in front of me).

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - tired, missing the sun
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Beck — “Beercan”
Website Of The Day - Since I am often frustrated at my photos I should visit Digital Photography School and learn a few things.

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]

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

I’m an old dog in Internet years trying to learn a new trick. I may not be as old as your father, but I am probaby much older than you.

They Call Me The Early Bird Special
My early work schedule and 6:15pm Photography class caused me to eat an early dinner. I guess I’m practicing for when I am 80, like the majority of the people around me at Lettuce Souprise You last night. Yeah, I ate vegetarian again last night. So far I am sticking to the plan pretty well. There have been minor slipups such as when I opened the can of Bush’s Baked Beans yesterday without remembering that hunk of pork which swims in most cans of beans (I am proud to admit that I did my best to fish it out and toss it, however).

Tonight will be a different story. Tonight I am skipping the George’s run (it’s going to be nasty weather anyway) and going to get a large plate of chicken wings placed in front of me when I meet up with my friend Darren. I’ve been Jonesin’ for Rocky Mountain Pizza Co’s wings since I had them there a few months ago. And there will be beer. Much beer.

Tag I’m It
I spent a good bit of time last night adding more tags to my Flickr photographs. I realized that I was a little too stingy with my tags. My new philosophy, at least for shots that are identifiable for an area is

Country (if none US assumed) : State : City : Neighborhood : Main Subjects : Minor Identifiers

For instance, if I were to format the tags for this shot it would look something like

(none) : Georgia : Chamblee : (none) : signage, advertising : paint, blogged

Um This Is Digital 102, Right?
Week two of my Digital 102 class was last night. Unlike 101, 102’s makeup is mostly younger people (around my age and younger). Almost all of the class participated in 101 together, so a couple of us have a familiarity learning curve to overcome.

Last night I noticed that many of the shots submitted for critique had been altered in Photoshop, or some equivalent, and the suggestion made for one of my shots was to take it into Photoshop and alter the colors. I thought that the purpose of these classes was to learn how to capture what we see (as well as some things overlooked by the human eyes) onto digital film. If I’m going to alter my shots significantly what was the point of buying an SLR and trying to learn how to use it?

Meh, perhaps I’m too much of a stickler for details.

Cancel That, I’m Shopping Elsewhere
Since joining the Amazon Prime world I have been looking to them first for all of my purchases. Six weeks or so ago I placed an order for this zoom lens for my camera. The price was right and lack of sales tax with the free two day shipping was going to make it a super purchase. The problem was that it was on backorder, to be filled by the end of April. When the schedule time for order fulfillment passed Amazon let me know that the new time frame for my purchase was going to be the beginning of June. Fuck! That!

Last night I found out that Newegg had the same lens for the same price, in stock, and they were going to charge only $5 for three-day UPS delivery!

Amazon order canceled. Newegg order placed. I can’t wait.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - sneezing, hopefully from alergies not a Spring cold
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Camera Obscura — “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken”
Website Of The Day - Maybe I should give up photography and join the Stencil Revolution.

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, this week is not shaping up to be one that gets me in shape

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

When I was a kid I always wanted to grow up to be six-feet tall. However, my genetics deemed that I stop growing (vertically) at five feet, nine inches. Eh, being 5′9″ certainly has advantages — I can fit in any car comfortably and leg room in a plane is not really that much of an issue for me.

In Land We Trust
After receiving a phone call from Mark I changed my plans from rushing home to get a bike ride to meeting up at La Fonda Latina (veggie tacos) and then walking over to the Lake Claire Community Land Trust to do a photo stroll.

Like me, Mark is a new owner of a Nikon D50 so we are both learning how to use this new beast. I guess I snapped about twenty shots, at least fifteen of them hit the trash bin when I got home and uploaded them to my Mac. You see, I’ve still not mastered my aperture settings, and it wasn’t until late in the shoot (after the sun had disappeared from view) that Mark mentioned shooting at a higher ISO and I realized that I was still at ISO 200. *slaps hand upon forehead repeatedly* Therefore many of my shots required a slower shutter speed than my shaky hands could accomodate (one of the two reasons I didn’t become a doctor), resulting in out of focus shots. Well, at least the Land Trust is close to home…

For Once My Timing Was Almost Perfect
On the drive from work to meet Mark my “brake lamp” light came on. No biggie, I’m certainly capable of replacing a lightbulb (it takes but one Paulie to screw in a lightbulb). What brought a rye smile to my face was that this happened just after I had passed an auto parts store, while turning from Clairmont onto Buford Highway! Had it happened a block earlier I was in the right place at exaclty the right time.

Luckily I used to work near Buford Highway and North Druid Hills (oh, how I miss that) and am a rather observant individual. My grimace became a smile as I remembered that there was another auto parts store not more than two miles ahead. I pulled into their parking lot, determined which bulb had burned out, went into the store, and replaced the bulb on the spot. It wasn’t exactly performed at NASCAR speed, but it was done efficiently, if I do say so myself.

And On The Eighth Day Paulie Obtained .Net
Before I start let me say how hard it was for me to convince myself that I had spelled “eighth” correctly.

Whilst doing a vanity search (why not?) on Sunday I came across a mention that the owners of www.InsideThePerimeter.net had let their domain registration expire. (this makes yesterday’s mention about my GoDaddy frustrations abundantly clear now, doesn’t it?)

Like a vulture swooping down upon roadkill I snatched it up yesterday. Thanks to k1ng I used the “777″ code provided and did a domain registration and signed up for a year of hosting at Dream Host for $10. After seeing the site I kicked myself in the ass because I realized that this was the hosting service that Maigh suggested. For some reason I confused Blue Host for Dream Host so now I have hosting at each for the next year. :S

Let The Drooling Begin
I. Cannot. Wait.

(photo stolen from Engadget)

Yes, I am still a child at heart…

CD Pick Of The Week
Last week’s pick, Gomez, was an easy one because I knew that I was going to see them perform later in the week. This week’s pick, Grandaddy’s “Just Like The Fambly Cat”, is an easy pick because this will be their final production and I will never get to see them in concert. I picked up a promo copy of “Just Like The Fambly Cat” (because I still don’t have enough clout to be sent them for free) two weeks ago and have spun it on the iPod a few times. To me the sound is, well, Grandaddy.

If you are not into Grandaddy’s sound, or don’t wish to support a band’s swan song cd, there are a few other cds of note released today.

Indie music favs Snow Patrol release a new cd today called “Eyes Open.” If memory serves my they are performing to a sold out crowd later this month. Obviously I don’t have a ticket…

The Pearl Jam crowd may be interested to know that the Red Hot Chili Peppers release a double-cd today (so that’s what they’ve been doing all these years!). The Peppers were a bit peeved last week when their new cd was leaked on the internets. While I cannot blame them for being mad, it is a bit naive to think that this sort of thing doesn’t happen for almost every cd produced (although I don’t know who would spend the time to leak the Nick Lachey cd which drops today).

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - otiose, undeveloped
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing R.E.M. — “Harborcoat”
Website Of The Day - I normally won’t pimp the behemoths like AOL, but when they are streaming full cds for free I’ll show them some love. I understand that they do this only to get you to buy cds, but I figure that I am going to do that anyway…

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 - really long, hard bike ride photo stroll

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I am starting to understand trolls. Not the internet variety, but rather the trolls that live alone under bridges. This weekend I was hardpressed to go out and be around people. I’d tell you why, but then you’d probably want $125/hr to read my blog and frankly I can’t bring myself to pay it.

I overcame my reclusiveness by having lunch with a friend on Saturday on Saturday at Neighbors in VaHi, having brunch with the running group on Sunday (weather made “run & brunch” just “brunch”) and then having corned beef at Twain’s on Sunday. Other than that I was home, catching up on recorded programs, surfing the internets.

GrrrDaddy
Last night I tried to register a domain from GoDaddy. I chose GoDaddy because they advertise on (sponsor?) many of the podcasts that I listen to, and each of these podcasts usually has a discount code. The last time I tried this (registering eatlga.com) I had difficulty getting their website to apply the discount. It appeared that the site recognized the code I entered, and then completely ignored it by showing a discount of $.00. To get the problem rectified I had to send an email to the person whose podcast I received the code so that they could inform GoDaddy of the problem.

Last night I had the same difficulty. WTF GoDaddy?!? Are you hoping that consumers won’t notice and complete the order without the discount, or are you developers so incompetent that they cannot get this to work?

If you have a better registrar suggestion, please send it to me or leave a comment.

Framing The Art That Exists Outside The Museum
This is the only picture that I took inside the High (using the pocket point-and-shoot) that came out half decently.

Is There Such A Thing As “Photographers’ Block”?
I have heard of Writers’ Block, the inability to think of anything to write when you have something to submit. I am suffering the same fate on the photography side right now. All weekend long I looked for images that would satisfy the word list that I posted on Friday. Nothing! Man this really blows. I am feeling so uncreative at the moment.

Ending On A Positive Note
One of the programs I watched over the weekend mentioned a Windows program that makes it possible to play the songs resident on your iPod through a computer. The program is called PodPlayer. I’ve not yet had the opportunity to try it because all of the PCs at my house have access to my iTunes library directly. However, I intend to give it a shot when I drag the Windows laptop out into the “real world.” When I do, I’ll give you all an update.

For those Mac users out there (of which I am one as well) there is another app called Senuti which supposedly performs the same task.

I understand why Apple doesn’t let you copy songs from your iPod to a computer (psst, these applications do that as well) but I’ve never understood why they wouldn’t let you play songs which live on your iPod through iTunes.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - uninspired, depressed
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Built To Spill — “Conventional Wisdom”
Website Of The Day - One of the things I saw this weekend was an awesome animated music video done by Nylon Motion. Go poke around their site and see if anything stimulates you.

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 all weekend — bad mood, bad timing, bad weather

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]