Inside The Perimeter

Oh those fucking spammers! While I run software to try and keep them at bay they have figured out how to get around it and post comments to the site. The last few days I’ve had to manually delete a dozen or so comments which managed to find their way through the filters. To shut down these bastards I am going to implement a new policy of turning off comments for posts which are more than seven days old.

To make matters harder, my webhost seems to be having problems as well. As I try to turn off comments I am getting timeout problems.

Those Pornographers Were Fully Clothed
WTF?

After a smashing beef brisket dinner at the Yacht Club the group shambled over to Variety Playhouse for the show. To my pleasure we arrived while Immaculate Machine was still on stage. I enjoyed their set enough to buy their latest cd while on a beer run during Emma Pollack’s set.

Pollack’s set was alright. It was aptly described as “white rice” by Terri.

The Pornographers took the stage and knocked out a really decent set of music. Within their initial set they played the majority of the “known” songs from the band’s catalog. To their credit they also peppered the set with a little crowd banter, including a somewhat funny exchange between AC (Carl) Newman and the crowd as he held up the show until people stopped yelling out song titles.

The band played (at least) two encore sets. I was present for the first, but since the clock had progressed past midnight as the second encore started I cashed in my chips and headed home.

To my fellow concert-goers (those being the ones around my friends and not my friends). I’ve asked this before, but WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP DURING THE SHOW!!!!????!!!! Why people continue to be so damn inconsiderate and hold conversations during a concert baffles me. I am adding the following two band names to my list of names in case I ever start a band.
- Shut The Fuck Up!
- Stop Talking

If you are considering starting a band you have my permission to use either.

For my companions who wish to relive the experience without the joy of being near me, and without the frustrations of being around the asshats near us, check out the New Pornographers’ concert recorded in Washington DC a few nights ago by NPR.

Happy Halloween
And as far as I am concerned never Happy Hallowe’en.

ITP Flickr Pic
BOO!

I don’t think that it’s very easy to take photos of jack-o-lanterns. Try it tonight and see for yourself. btw- When this was taken I was also inebriated so that might have made it a wee little bit harder.

October Wrap
Did I achieve happiness? No, far from it actually?

Will I be able to take Sarah’s advice from yesterday to be more accepting of myself? Hopefully, but probably not. Before you jump down my throat, here is my reasoning…

People have told me for a long time to love myself. Well, that’s been more than a little difficult since I have been fairly unsuccessful in getting women to love me. It’s rather a vicious cycle.

Picture a rubber ball (a red-striped pink Spalding ball for those who grew up in the 1970’s). With each successive bounce the ball fails to bounce as high as it did previously. If the height of the ball represents my confidence, and therefore my ability to love myself, then with each rejection it’s height shrinks. Under its current course it will eventfully it will be flat at which point I give up completely.

To me the “no one will love you until you love yourself” concept is a difficult to grasp as the “no one will hire you unless you have experience, but how do you get experience if no one will hire you” paradox.

Perhaps The Scariest Thing To Be Seen Tonight
Will be the sight of me attempting to run. That’s right. Damn the torpedoes I will be at George’s tonight for a run. Who knows, perhaps I’ll even stop at a few houses for some candy. I will be in a costume after all — running gear.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – What mood don’t I have today? My body is raging with emotion.
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Built To Spill — “You Were Right” (btw- my favorite Built To Spill song)
Website Of The Day – For a long time I pimped Gmap Pedometer as the site to use for planning running maps. I’ve recently heard of Running Map, which seems to be a viable competitor.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Mileage – 16 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – Marta

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Oh sure I am alone in the strictest sense of the phrase, but yesterday I realized that I am not really alone. While reading Michael Ruhlman’s blog, he being one of the judges on The Next Iron Chef competition, I saw a handful of people like me who want to travel to Cleveland solely to eat at Michael Symon’s restaurant Lola. Like me many were swayed by the episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations where he met up with Ruhlman in Cleveland and they ate at Lola, as well as the food that Symon has created on The Next Iron Chef challenge. Have no idea what the hell I just said? Then you are not like me in regards to food.

ITP Flickr Pic
I’ve finally completed the perfect Halloween costume

Pretty frightening, no? It’s guaranteed to scare away women in whom you have interest.

Anm Additional “Aw Shit”
I felt pretty lousy yesterday. When I arrived at the doctor’s office to give my blood sample I realized that I had left my wallet at home. So much for eating breakfast at Java Jive. Rats!

When I returned home I decided that I was too ill to go to work so I called in sick. I pretty much spent the rest of the day on the couch (my back pain reflects this today).

After starting a second load of laundry and getting comfortable to watch a little evening Monday Night Football I decided to log on to Pollstar to see what shows are coming to town. Much to my dismay I realized that She Wants Revenge was playing at The Loft last night — and even worse, I remembered that I had purchased a ticket. I literally said “Aw shit!” aloud. There was no way in hell that I could have gone to the show.

Does She Like Pornography?
Another reason for sacrificing last night’s She Wants Revenge show was so that I could be ready for tonight’s The New Pornographers’ show at Variety Playhouse.

CD Pick Of The Week
You want me to pick the new Brittney Spears disc. I know that you do… Sorry kids, wrong blog for that.

Instead I am going a bit old-school/off-beat and recommending David Byrne’s “The Knee Plays”. Best know for his work with the Talking Heads Byrne has been putting out solo work and fighting the record authorities work then. From what I have heard from “The Knee Plays” this disc will definitely not be for everyone. However, I have bizarre tastes in music (among other things) so I will be giving it the nod this week.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – wishing my body could fight off illness better
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Shout Out Louds — “Tonight I Have To Leave It”
Website Of The Day – After I quoted The Office from last week my friend Darren reminded me of the Second Life parody site Get A First Life.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Mileage – 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Those two words adequately describe how I felt about a lot of this weekend’s happenings.

I Gave, And Have To Give Again
On Friday I called the doctor’s office responding to a voice mail they had left me on Thursday. Thinking that we were going to discuss the results of my blood and urine tests I was more than a little surprised and perturbed to hear that the lab lost my blood sample. (I hate giving blood, next to becoming the doctor’s finger puppet it’s the thing I hate most about physicals) I made an appointment to return to the doctor’s office on Friday afternoon only to realize on my commute to their office that I had eaten lunch and probably shouldn’t have. The nurse confirmed this when I arrived. Had they reminded not to eat when I called them, this wouldn’t have happened.

So this morning I am hanging around the house a little later than normal so that I can go get stuck with a needle prior to going in to work.

My Nuts Are Small And Shriveled
The pecans on the tree… Ew, what the hell were you thinking?!

It didn’t appear the this summer’s drought was going to impact the pecan tree greatly, but the nuts that I’ve been able to harvest are substandard. Cracking open many of the shells reveals either small nuts, or completely dried out and inedible nuts. I know that the squirrels have raided the tree as well, but I can’t imagine that their bounty has been much better.

And On The Second Day Of The Weekend
The Gators shall shit the bed and lose to Georgia…. I had a bad premonition about this game; not so bad that I would pick against them in my college pool but a bad one nonetheless. Sadly (for me) my premonition came true and the young Gator defense yielded forty-two points.

I felt little pain as the game went on, mostly because I wasn’t watching it. Instead I was in a yard drinking beer whilst eating chicken wings and pork.

ITP Flickr Pic
Also present in the yard was Reese…

…seen hear obviously upset by the Gator loss.

The Great Clock On The Wall Night Stand Is So Confused
My “fancy pants” alarm clock which can set itself when given power is once again confused. Because its internal software still thinks that we are playing under the Daylight Savings Time rules which were in effect prior to this year it “fell back” this weekend. It now displays a time one-hour earlier than it is.

I was nearly tripped up by this yesterday. I planned to carpool to the hash and meet at 1:15pm. Because I had been drinking all day Saturday I was not exactly on top of my game yesterday morning. I lolly-gagged around the house, shambled into the living room, and watched a bunch of recorded television. I finally got up and stumbled into the bedroom where the clock read “10:45am”. I was pleased to see that I had so much time. I sat down at the computer and started banging away and looked at the clock fifteen minutes later only to see that the real time was 12:00pm. I was then forced to quickly shift gears so that I could get everything I had to do prior to going to the hash done.

I Need More Sunday Food Options
I think that the tradition of going to Zocalo on Sunday has ended. Yesterday when returning from the hash we tried to pick up some food and head to a friend’s house in Grant Park to eat. The process was mildly painful…

The goal was to make this a quick pickup. Two of the original options, Nick’s Greek food and Kevino’s Subs, were found to be closed on Sundays. A decision was made to go to The Standard. The order placed consisted of three hamburgers, one Peri-Peri chicken sandwich (because I have to be different), and ten chicken wings. We were obviously not the only people ordering food-to-go as we saw at least three other orders come out prior to ours. Upon investigation of the two sacks provided to us it was found that the chicken wings were not present. Because we were really hungry, had already driven away, and the chicken wings were an “added bonus” and not somebody’s meal, I decided to say “aw shit” (or something like it) and not return to The Standard to either get the wings or the money I had paid for them refunded.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – worn out
Current Music – none
Website Of The Day – Who says that there are no free (legal) movies on the the Internet? If you like documentaries you should check out Free Documentaries.
Exercise (b)Log – about five miles of trail yesterday
Monthly Mileage – 16 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I chose not to ride Marta today because I have a lot of preparation to do today for a meeting and wanted to get into the office early. While I didn’t get out of the house as early as desired I still thought I was early enough to beat traffic. And then I found out about the accident on I85 as I attempted to join the slowly-migrating masses on the connector. Plan ‘B’ was to take I75 to I285 and while this increased the distance traveled, it also decreased the amount of time it took for me to get to work.

Vindication
I don’t follow politics closely but I can’t help hear about who’s running. I’ve seen many signs for Ron Paul and up until yesterday I was confused when I asked the question “Isn’t he a Libertarian?” and people responded “No, he’s a Republican.”

While listening to Adam Curry’s “Daily Source Code” yesterday in which he interviewed Ron Paul, Paul mentioned that he once ran as a Libertarian. What do you know? I was right all this time.

Hunting And Gathering
Last night’s traffic clusterfuck on Briarcliff Road (do you sense a theme here?) forced me off the road and into a restaurant for an early dinner. I would have gone for a photostroll if there was anything of interest in the neighborhood in which I was stuck.

Because I arrived home later than expected, and with a fully belly, I chose to spend the rest of the night migrating my music collection to my mac, going through the scads of old computer parts to see which ones will be recycled this weekend, and watching tv — yes, I watched Survivor:China and The Office.

As an aside, if you do like I have and sync your iPod to a new computer don’t forget to sync your podcasts. If you forget you will be like me and get an unexpected surprise when you try to play one.

I won’t throw out any Survivor spoilers here, but suffice to say I was not saddened by the person who was ousted.

Was anyone else surprised that that NBC didn’t make us go to their website in order to watch Michael Scott’s Dunder-Mifflin commercial?

ITP Flickr Pic
It’s been a dry year in Georgia

Water is now so precious we padlock the well pumps in our public parks.

Happy Leopard Day
If you are a Mac fan you know what I mean.

Decisions, Decisions
I could go see Matt Pond PA tonight at The Loft (I’ve already purchased a ticket by mistake — but that’s another story) or I can hang in my neighborhood for a night of drinking. As it turns out, a group of EAV Buzzers will be invading Gravity Pub for one last hurrah. I am tempted to go up there with my camera and get photos for my personal historical archive.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – sad and wishing that I could take my mind off of my chest
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Belle & Sebastian — “Dirty Dream Number Two”
Website Of The Day – Because I have no podcasts on my iPod I will be catching up with my downloads of Leo Laporte’s “The Lab With Leo”.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Mileage – 11 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Even though I felt lousy when I left work and the temperature had dropped more than I expected when I had dressed in the morning, I hopped off the train at Arts Center and started my walk toward George’s. The plan was to have some dinner and and two beers, say my “Good-byes”, and walk the remaining distance to my car.

Unfortunately for me (well, my weight anyway) two beers turned into three, four, and five (and six?). By the time that I was one of the final three hashers in George’s (what has happened to the hash when I am last!?!) I had accepted a ride back to my car.

ITP Flickr Pic
I was smart enough to bring my camera along with me for the walk.

This may sound stupid, but I think that I am finally starting to understand some of this photography stuff. I would like to have had the foreground of this shot a little brighter but then I would have blown out the sky. I tweaked this photo slightly in Lightroom but you might imagine that I didn’t have much time to play around with it when I arrived home.

Momma Told Me “You Better Shop Around”
For as much as I scream to the masses “Back up before it’s too late!!!” my own strategy is feeble. I have started making strides to correct this. I have eliminated one computer from my collection, thus eliminating a place for documents to go, be forgotten, and never get backed up. I have started looking into Apple’s Automator so that I can create an action which will move all documents (read “documents, music, videos, photos”) to a centralized hard drive (my Hammer Storage NAS). And finally yesterday I ordered two external hard drives that I will use as off-site storage (Yes, you need this too. What would happen if your house burned/flooded, or in my neighborhood got broken into?). In my situation burning to CDs or DVDs is not a great option.

My first stop for computer equipment purchases is Newegg, followed by Amazon (because I get free three-day shipping). For the 320GB external drive that I had in mind Newegg provided the best price, but was charging $7+ for shipping (and I planned to buy two). Unfortunately, Amazon did not sell the same item. My next move was to go to Pricegrabber for price comparisons. According to Pricegrabber Buy.com had the same item for about $5 more than Newegg, but they provided free shipping. As seems to happen too often on the internet, when I went to Buy.com they did not have the item in stock. I then returned to Pricegrabber to see that B&H Photo, one of my main sources for camera gear, also sold the hard drive for around the same price as Newegg. With the knowledge that my NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) membership gets me free shipping from B&H Photo I headed over and made the purchase.

A complicated story which took me longer to type for this blog than it did to execute.

Baby Talk
Ladies, look out!

In the last three weeks I have gotten confirmation that four different couples have become pregnant — each with their first child. Remember the two weddings I went to last year? They are both expecting.

This just in!: I have just found out that another of my friends is expecting. This will be her second, so make that tally five.

It’s not often that I will tout my inability to meet women as a “benefit”, but I’ve not had the fear of impregnating a women in “some time.” Of course I wouldn’t have non-marital sex without “protection”, that would be silly.

I’m just saying…

Some Dreams Faltering, Some Dreams Forming
The signs are there. My efforts are pointless. Should it be time to move on? I hate this part of my life. Argh.

On the positive side, I am starting my planning for Paulie Tour ‘08. Currently I know that I will be in southern Colorado for Labor Day in September attending the Colorado Invihashional. I am contemplating tacking on time in New Mexico following the event to do some photography. Other thoughts are going to Canada’s Maritime region (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island), or Ireland and/or Scotland.

Care to offer some input?

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – deflated mentally, inflated physically
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Akron/Family — “Ed Is A Portal”
Website Of The Day – Because I adore Luria Petrucci (aka Cali Lewis) I will pimp two of her websites today iCali TV and Dear Cali.
Exercise (b)Log – walking, approximately 2 miles
Monthly Mileage – 11 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

My appearance at George’s tonight is completely dependent on the weather, and I guess to some degree Marta. Unfortunately it appears that I have once again been dragged into a weekly 5pm meeting at work so my participation with the 6pm running group will be limited. Bummer. Tonight I am planning to jump off the train (at a station of course) and walk to George’s to meet up for a beer and dinner before continuing the walk to my car. I will only do this if it’s not raining (who thought we’d be saying that a few weeks ago?) and if Marta can get its shit straight and keep the trains running.

What’s A Matta Wit Me?
I case you don’t follow the comments, here is a preliminary update about yesterday’s doctor’s appointment.

• I still weigh too much (over 205 pounds)
• My blood pressure is good
• Things look good in the area that only doctors may roam
• I still need glasses
• Blood and urine analysis will be done this week

The doctor also prescribed an inhaler for me in order to help with my running. This will be an interesting experiment. I have never used an inhaler before.

While no bad news has been delivered, I still do not have peace of mind yet.

What’s A Matta Wit Marta?
I continue to want to like Marta. I really do. However, things that happen with the system, or sometimes on the system, make it a little less than desirable. Last week I purchased a seven-day pass and have been trying to ride more often this week to get my money’s worth.

• On Monday I saw two young boys (somewhere between 6-10) panhandling on the trains
• This morning the 5 Points station smelled (like urine to me)
• Marta was experiencing “difficulties” (again) and the northbound platform at 5 Points was packed this morning. Luckily I somehow got onto a North Springs train that arrived when I did so my travel was not delayed by much.

I’ll keep trying. Hell, if nothing else it will provide me with blog material…

ITP Flickr Pic
Jump back into the Way-Back machine kids.

This is work from the artist R. Land as captured by me at the Big Pig Jig.

Businesses Go And Businesses Come
Word on the street recently has been that the Gravity Pub will be shutting its door for good at the end of the month. Unfortunately it appears that they have closed ahead of schedule, squashing my last chance for drinking a Lone Star there. For those who are in the know Gravity was the first East Atlanta bar that I frequented. I used to be a regular and I will have many memories of my days/nights/early mornings there. Each Thursday night a group would meet up for darts and beer. When everyone but me seemed to hook up and then move away the dart night fell to pieces. I tried to go to Gravity and drinking alone, but that never worked for me.

My hood has a new restaurant however. Kasan Red opened this week. I’ve not had the opportunity to try it yet, but when I do you can be sure that I will write about it here.

In other East Atlanta news, we have found out that the Urban Gardener will be closing its Grant Park store and will be moving into the East Atlanta Village at the beginning of 2008. Who knows, this might give me the motivation to start caring for my lawn. Naaaaah.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Bright Eyes — “If The Brakeman Turns My Way”
Website Of The Day – If you find yourself bored today go read Flurb: A Webzine Of Astonishing Tales.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Mileage – 9 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – Marta

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

As you read this I might be half-nekkid sitting on some doctor’s examination table; or I might be looking away as a nurse draws blood from my arm. Over the weekend people wanted to know what was going on last week and I had to confess that I wasn’t sure, but something felt wrong. Today I am getting a physical to see what is going on.

As I write this I am very hungry which, since I cannot eat until I’ve completed my 10am appointment, truly sucks. I could really use a cup of coffee which is also verboten. Dang!

You Snooze (Figuratively), You Lose (Literally)
Well I didn’t expect this….

Last night I considered going to Eddie’s Attic to catch the Over The Rhine show. Given that every time I mention the band’s name I get a blank stare I decided to make this a last-minute ticket purchase (and I turned down getting on the list for free from their promoter a few weeks ago because I wanted to pay the band for their efforts). Much to my surprise, last night’s show was sold out and tonight’s is as well. Guess I will be forced to miss them this time around.

However, to give the band some apparently unnecessary promotion I’d like to thank them for comping me a copy of their new CD “The Trumpet Child” and suggest that you give it a listen.

What I Should Have Done
Last Friday my lighting arrived. Sadly it still sits inside the box in which it was shipped. To be honest I wasn’t prepared to have it already. I put my order in to Alien Bees last Wednesday, and the equipment arrived on Friday without having to pay for expedited shipping. Of course it helps that the lighting was shipped from Nashville Tennessee, but it was still cool to see it get delivered so quickly.

ITP Flickr Pic
With the gray skies and my inability to get much done around the house I have not shot anything this week.

I Do It Because I Care
Have you tried Apple’s iTunes Plus — music sold by download which is encoded at 256kbps and not containing DRM? I have and I’m here to say that it’s a pretty decent alternative to purchasing discs. I purchased the latest Band of Horses release (ten songs) for $9.90, which compared to my normal habit of paying approximately $8 for used discs is a little pricier. Normally I rip my CD’s to 192kbps mp3’s, so I am pleased with the encoding rate (even though it’s in AAC and not mp3 format).

Next up… buying something from the Amazon music store.

And I cannot reiterate this enough, back this shit up, because unlike buying discs, once it’s gone it’s gone.

CD Pick Of The Week
There are a couple of things which I will be checking out (the new Bo Bice disc not being one of them because I neither like Bo Bice’s music, nor do I shop at Wal-Mart, the only place the disc is available).

A few years ago I might have suggested “Teenager” from The Thrills, but my tastes have changed and I can no longer understand why a disc is not universally available on the same date (this disc was released in the UK on July 23rd).

Depeche Mode lead singer Dave Gahan has a new solo disc today. I can’t find it anywhere to get a listen, so I have no idea if it’s any good.

And then there is Ween, and their release of “La Cucaracha”. Ween is not for everyone, but they are for me therefore I am giving them the nod today.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – meh, trying to get things in order
Current Music – none, I am typing this from home listening to podcasts
Website Of The Day – My mind is focusing on food and it shouldn’t be. I’ll have to wait until post-physical to search Bake Space today.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Mileage – 9 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Most of which I never wanted to learn.

My Body Should Be A Temple, Not A Dumpster
On Friday I received a last-minute invite to a bachelor party being held at the Brick Store in Decatur. Can you say “Belgium”? I knew that you could. Staying out drinking until 1am was something that I have not done much of recently, I paid dearly by sleeping in late on Saturday morning.

On Sunday I attended a wedding at Rhodes Hall. Having driven by, hell even run by, the building many times I was excited to see what was inside. The building is an impressive house built in 1904 proving it’s never a bad time to be rich. The ceremony was spectacular, with a beautiful bride and a groom who I doubt will ever don a tux again. The fact that the bride and groom had secured some Fat Tire Amber Ale for the event also didn’t suck.

I’ve been treating myself very poorly lately, my constant over-indulgences continue to make me sick, and as of today this will have to change.

And On Saturday I Attended A Clan Meeting
By the crowds present everywhere you’d swear that nothing fun was going on Saturday, but nothing could had been further from the truth. My friend Betsy and I tried to go to the Big Green Egg EggFest, but found out that it was completely sold out, so we bagged that idea. Instead we headed to Stone Mountain where a huge crowd gathered for the Stone Mountain Highland Games amongst other attractions. What I had forgotten to mention going on Saturday was the Decatur Beer Festival. My omission didn’t hurt them, that was sold out in advance also. Betsy and I even saw people sitting near the Decatur Starbucks hold signs that said “Need Tickets”.

One explanation I heard was that Georgia had a bye week therefore many fans sought out other activities.

Walking around the Highland Games was quite enjoyable. While I had my camera gear I chose not to take photos. If I had I’d have a picture of perhaps the funniest thing I saw all day, a teenage girl dressed in tartan but made up in goth. She was obviously representing the Clan of Goth.

ITP Flickr Pic
Feeling a little hollow today, much like these husks.

Hoping for better times soon.

How Quickly The Mighty Can Fall
Apparently I need to reverse the “Opposite Theory” when selecting college football picks. Last week I finished on top of the pack, this week my picks landed me on the bottom of the back. Oops.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – bummed
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Longwave — “No Direction”
Website Of The Day – Reboiled is an interesting art project.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Mileage – 9 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – Marta

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Out of touch is what I will be today. Today is step two in the three step process that is my job. Today is a full day of interviewing candidates who have made it passed the on-campus interviewing round.

Thrashers Interruptus
There is an internal switch inside my head that must be labeled “Good Time / I’ve Had Enough”. Last night that switch flipped sometime during the third period of the Thrashers game and I headed home. On a positive note the Thrashers finally won a game this season.

Survivor? I Think Not
Spoiler Warnings!
Good-bye Survivor: China, I cannot justify giving you my time any longer. There are two problems that I have identified.

First, I am tired of Survivor supplying their contestants with food. In last night’s episode each team was provided with a basket of fruit and alcohol. While this is not the first time the show’s producers have done this, it has made me increasingly frustrated.

Second, the meek have a disproportionate power in the game. James and Aaron were punished by having to change tribes only to have to join a tribe who blatantly threw the immunity challenge so that they could be voted off. You may think that they are clever strategists, but I believe that they are stupid and if the producers would stop giving them food they would pay for their stupidity. In a true survival scenario I’d take the likes of James and Aaron to the end, and jettison the likes of Pei Ghee any day.

I though that there was an interesting study in psychology however. The attitudes of the two teams showed a fundamental difference between winners and losers.

When Fei Long, the team that had seven players — “winners” — read the latest “twist” that they would be capturing two players from the other tribe, they instantly realized that they would also be losing two players.

When Zhan Hu, the team that had five players — “losers” — read the latest “twist” that they would be capturing two players from the other tribe, they were excited because they assumed that they were being given two players without having to give up any.

It is my theory that winners expect to have to deal with change effectively while losers expect to be given things without having to do anything.

ITP Flickr Pic
This is from my Cordele trip.

Some days I feel like kicking my tv to the curb as well.

There Are A Lot Of Things Going On This Weekend
(emphasis for the grammar nerds out there)

There is so much to do in the Atlanta area this weekend…

• Want to get your Scottish on? Try the Stone Mountain Highland Games
• Rather ham from green eggs? Head to the The Big Green Egg’s EggFest
• Freaks and Goblins more your thing? Little 5 Points is already celebrating Halloween. (sometimes it’s hard to tell when they are not)

And the only reason I am staying in town is because two of my really good friends are getting hitched on Sunday. I couldn’t get a date and won’t look as dapper as I’d like, but that won’t matter because it’s really not my day anyway.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – sad, fat, frustrated, angry, confused
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing M. Ward — “To Go Home”
Website Of The Day – Feeling nostalgic? Spend a few hours minutes trolling Pocket Calculator Show and see what we used to think was the “bees knees” when I was a child.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Mileage – 9 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Or is that Martyrdom? My Marta commute took easily twice as long as a normal drive in. The commute today took seventy minutes, with ten of those being used to drive to the Marta station because I missed every light between my house and the station.

Even more frustrating was that I was abused by the exit gate because it apparently didn’t register my Breeze card swipe and closed on me mid-passage. The only reason that I can see Marta forcing us to “badge out” when we leave the system is that they will eventually start charging a rate based on the distance traveled and they are conditioning our behavior.

I Now Understand Why I Don’t Exercise
Because I am lazy? Yeah, that’s one good reason.

Yesterday I left the house around 7 AM to go to work. I left work around 6:30 PM to go home. I arrived at home around 7:30 PM. I ate dinner. I set out to organize and file stacks of papers which have been lying on the floor and bugging the shit out of me. I looked at the clock and it was 10:15 PM.

While there was a window of opportunity before eating, I was very hungry when I got home; exercising while hungry seemed foolish. Even worse, my late arrival home also ruled out any opportunity for a “proper” homemade dinner.

ITP Flickr Pic
I am trying to ease my mind by posting “pleasing pictures” for a while.

Indulge me, won’t you?

Scrap The Crap
It’s a little far away, but I want to mention this so that you have time to prepare. I started my preparation last night.

On Saturday October 27th (from 9 AM to 1 PM for those concerned that this will collide with the Hash’s annual Halloween House Crawl) there will be an electronics recycling day at Decatur High School. At no charge you will be able to drop off old electronics, batteries, and clean styrofoam for recycling.

While I did recycle that old monitor (by driving all the way to Alpharetta) a few weeks ago, I still have ancient non-working electronics that need to be put out to pasture.

For even more information go here.)

I’m Headed To Blueland
I missed the Thrashers’ first home game, which was the first ticket of the thirteen-game packet, and I also missed my opportunity to see Bob Hartley coach the team this season. Hartley was fired yesterday because of the Thrashers’ 0-6 start.

Regardless of the coach I will be there tonight. More importantly I will be at Gorin’s for a pre-game Big Beer.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – still scared (health issue, appointment set for next week, won’t divulge more until then)
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Morrissey — “November Spawned A Monster”
Website Of The Day – While the blog is called Cooking For 2 I will use it to find recipes to make for myself — that is if I ever find the time to cook again.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Mileage – 9 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – Marta

October Goal
1) Find happiness

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]