Inside The Perimeter

Thirty years ago my family moved to Florida
Twenty-five years ago I graduated from high school in Florida
Sixteen years ago I moved out of Florida
Last night I drove nine hours to return to Florida
Four hours ago I completed thirty miles of riding in Florida
Now I am on vacation (and since I found a internet connection will be posting tomorrow)

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

I don’t feel “I want.” I feel “I lack.” I decide “I want.”

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

ITP Flickr Pic
none (but I’ll be shooting today… weather permitting)

On A Somewhat Sad Note
Today is the last day for Kool Korners Grocery near Georgia Tech. It was my favorite lunch destination, for a Cuban sandwich, when I worked on 14th Street. Sadly since my company away from that location in 1999 I haven’t been able to get there often.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - good
Current Music - nothing
Website Of The Day - My thirty miles today were ridden on the Pinellas Trails.
Exercise (b)Log - cycling, 30 miles
Monthly Foot Mileage - 34 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 30 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - n/a
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 9 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

On my drive in to work this morning I saw the hasher known as Wife Beater out running. It’s only a survey of one, but could it be possible that in order to be in better shape and run faster one must get out and run regularly? What a concept…

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

I am more careful now when I make the jump from “I feel” to “I want.” I see not that this jump is the difference between feeling a lack and deciding best how to fill it. The more closely I listen to the particular sensations I am having at the moment, the more satisfactorily I can decide what word to call them and what action to take. Sometimes the feeling turns out not be “lack” at all.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Home Is Where The Heat Is
About what will I blog if when I get my new air conditioner? Unfortunately, it seems that day will never come as my schedule keeps conflicting with that of the guy I am hiring to do the work..

Fear not, I am sure that I will find some sort of grit to germinate my blogging pearls.

Last night when I returned home at about 7:30pm the house was 85 degrees Fahrenheit. That is far from Farfegnugen.

Efficiency Be Thy Name!
To say that I will be really busy for the short-term foreseeable future is an understatement. In the coming months I will have plenty of project work, further attempts to simplify my life, as well as serious considerations about my future to resolve.

The only way that I will hope to accomplish the slew of self-imposed deadlines is to increase the efficiency in which I conduct my life. Look for Julyberation to spill into Augustberation (not nearly as catchy)n and perhaps Septemberation where I struggle to maintain my sanity and hold on to as much personal time as possible.

ITP Flickr Pic
I am still smarting that I had to pass on the She & Him show at Variety Playhouse last night. To heal my wounds I will post a shot that I took at the Tilly And The Wall show that I saw there last Thursday night.

Nearly a week ago already? Holy shit time just flies…

One Forgotten Resolution
On Monday I received an email from Ticketmaster telling me that they are finally going to refund my money for the Elvis Costello concert which has finally been officially canceled.

You may remember that Costello was going to play The Tabernacle in April; that was until the tornado rolled through town in March and damaged the venue.

All I can say is that it’s about time you refunded my money Ticketmaster, even if the tour was only just recently officially canceled.

RealitTV Update: The Next Food Network Star — “I’m Calling Shenanigans!”
While staying home to get some things done last night I watched the finale of The Next Food Network Star. I couldn’t have disagreed more with the outcome.

In the finale each of the three contestants produced a five-minute pilot of the show that they intended to pitch to Food Network. Of the three I thought that Aaron’s was the worst. Aaron seemed to stumble over his words and was far less technical in his cooking jargon that Adam and Lisa.

For winning the competition Aaron was put to work immediately and tasked to put out the first episode of his show this Sunday night. How can a rush job like this possibly be successful? Way to set up your new “star” for failure, Food Network.

Speaking Of Food Network Failures
Let me start off by saying that I really like Ted Allen. I used to watch him back when Queer Eye For The Straight Guy was new and popular, and think he adds a lot of talent to Iron Chef America when he is present as a judge.

I attempted to watch the first episode of his new series Food Detectives last night. I really want to like this show, but truth be told it was an utter train wreck. Take two-parts Mythbusters, one-part Bill Nye, The Science Guy, and a pinch of Good Eats, toss them into a blender and what you have is Food Detectives. I doubt that I will return for another viewing.

In even more Food Network news…
You can sign me up for a full season of Ask Aida. I could sit there and watch her butter toast and be a happy man. Go ahead, judge me. I don’t care.

And Finally…
No George’s for me tonight.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - on the border of meh and good
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Kate Nash — “Pumpkin Soup” (why is Left of Center playing this pop shit?)
Website Of The Day - You may not know this about me but I really dig Industrial Design. The Official Web Site Of Raymond Loewy is the website dedicated to one of the kings of Industrial Design.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 34 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 8 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Getting things checked off my To-Do list invigorates me. Unfortunately, for every one that gets completed, two new chores appear in its place. It can be rather defeating at times.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

Several months ago I discovered that I was interpreting a particular sensation in my abdomen as “hunger” which, when I listened more closely, turned out to be “tension.” Now when I have this feeling I like breathing deeply and stretching my back better than going to the refrigerator. When I was in Berkeley I experienced very powerful sensations which I interpreted as a desire for sex. Later I became close friends with several women but didn’t have sex with them, and these feelings lessened. Maybe the feelings were more a desire for companionship than sex partners. But now I am in the mountains and am alone much of the time and the feelings have gone altogether (almost). It is equally logical for me to assume that in Berkeley what I really longed for was solitude. But I think the better answer is that feelings are not words (”tension,” “hunger,” loneliness”). Feelings are sensations, and no two feelings are ever quite identical.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Everywhere I Turned Last Night, I Knew Somebody
I wound up eating dinner at the Yacht Club last night before heading over to Variety Playhouse for the Wolf Parade show. I know, the lack of creativity in my life is staggering.

Upon winding my way out of the Yacht Club I heard my name being called. As I turned I saw that it was (ITP reader) D.D.D.Dave so I stopped and hung out with him and his buddies for a while (read “a couple more beers”). As we stood there a birthday cake arrived at the table near the window and the bar started singing “Happy Birthday.” ( foreshadowing….)

I headed to Variety with Dave and his friends and hung with them through the Wintersleep set. I had heard of Wintersleep before, most likely by listening to CBC Radio 3 podcasts. Wintersleep put on a really good set with the exception of the seemingly ten-minute long final song. On a sad note the band mentioned that all of their gear had been stolen two nights ago in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. What a shitty thing to have happen.

As we progressed down toward the stage I took a quick detour to toss my empty beer bottle and lost track of Dave. I wound up in a great position in the middle of the crown for the Wolf Parade set however. Man was it warm in the venue last night, this coming from a guy who’s not had air conditioning this Summer. At about the half-way point in the set I fought my way through the sold-out crowd and went to buy a bottle of cold water. In the lobby I ran into my co-worker Mitch, as well as a couple of people that I’ve started to see at all of the shows I attend.

The Wolf Parade set was incredible. The band sounded tight and though the heat inside the building was obviously affecting this bunch of Canadians they played right through the sweating. But perhaps the best part of the evening was when one of the guys in the band told a story about how earlier in the evening they were in a bar up the street and lied to them by telling them that it was someone’s birthday. And before they knew it they were getting free ice cream and the entire bar was singing “Happy Birthday.” Suffice to say I had no idea what the band looked like prior to last night’s show, so even if I had my camera I probably would not have taken shots of the birthday celebration, but how cool would that have been had I?

Have I Ever Mentioned How Much I Hate Poison Ivy?
When I laid trail nine days ago I didn’t realize that I had come in contact with poison ivy. I am not naive, I know it’s everywhere this time of year, but I didn’t recall running through any. For those that don’t know, I am highly allergic so even on the hottest of summer days I wear running tights on my legs when I hash. Apparently I must have come in contact with some poison ivy on my arm and it has managed to find its way to one of my legs — coincidentally(?) exactly where the yellow jacket had stung me the week before. Since the splotches are starting to turn a deep red I assume that they are on there final stages.But damn, nine days?! It’s enough to make me consider retiring from hashing.

ITP Flickr Pic
One of the benefits of seeing the “Dead End” sign that I featured yesterday was that I entered a cemetery that I would have never noticed otherwise. Inside the cemetery was this excellent bridge which was erected in 1899(!) by the George E. King Bridge Company of Des Moines, Iowa. Just how did a bridge company in Des Moines, Iowa get a bridge contract in Athens, Georgia in 1899? It boggles my mind.

Sure, I admit that I did some post-processing on the photo, but I really like it nonetheless.

Things That Are/Will Be Working By Day’s End
- Hurrah for me!!! I successfully transitioned Jalapeño Beach! No longer must you append “pixelpost” to the URL. In addition I have also created a JalapenoBeach.com email address (paulie [at] jalapenobeach [dot] com) that will be a part of The Machine. When time permits I will look into changing the template as well since I don’t wish to look like the default set-up forever.

- Today I will be securing camping space for the Mystery Mountain Marathon Twelve-Mile Run to be held on November 2nd in Fort Mountain State Park. Unlike for the Twisted Ankle Half Marathon back in May I probably will not be soliciting for a campsite-mate, nor will I create the shitstorm of emails that I did in attempts to organizing the camping for that even. I will be camping Friday and Saturday nights for the Sunday event, if that sounds like fun to you then sign up for the race and reserve yourself a campsite.

- I received two more “love letters” from Uncle Sam yesterday and I’ll be opening them today. I assume that my request for dropping of the tax penalties that they’ve levied against me has been denied and that I owe them even more money for making such a request. Let’s hope that the letters also don’t mention anything like an audit — not that I am not clean, but I just don’t need that hassle in my life. ** Update ** Doesn’t look like an audit will occur, but they are still researching my case to see if I still owe them $733.

- The death of Randy Pausch last week didn’t impact me as it had many in the computer science community. Truth be told, I had never heard of Pausch, nor of the “The Last Lecture” that he gave at Carnegie Mellon last year.

Yesterday I watched the hour-and-sixteen-minute lecture on YouTube (embedded below)

I was completely moved and totally understood why those who knew Pausch were so taken aback by his death even though they all knew it was going to happen soon.

- The Jackmobile is officially registered with the State of Georgia through July 2009 and now bears the green sticker stating so.

Digital Download Of The Week
I am looking at the list and seeing nothing of interest.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - beaten
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Cold War Kids — “Something Is Not Right With Me” (did they write a song about me?)
Website Of The Day - Oddee is an entertaining blog containing some of the strangest content on the internet.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 34 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 7 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I had a good, albeit tiring weekend. Sit down before you read this…. I went OTP twice this weekend.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

“All I want is to be loved.” — Wanting to be loved, to be lovable, is not really a desire for how I want to be, but for how I want others to be.

“I need your heart and your eyes and your ears and your touch and your words. I want you to see me and hear me and feel me and speak to me and love me.” But by giving what I want, I realize that I have what I thought lacked before.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Athens By Day: Mission Accomplished!
I awoke near the butt crack of dawn on Saturday for my day trip to Athens. I was out of the house around 6:00am, but that seemed not to matter much for my photography since the morning was nothing but a blanket of gray sky for most of the morning.

The words “vegan carrot ginger muffin” don’t come out of my mouth often. Therefore I was as surprised as you probably are when they did on Saturday morning as I ordered one at Big City Bread in Athens. The muffin and coffee were delicious and all I needed to supply my morning food needs. I also didn’t want to eat too much since I expected to find lunch in Athens later in the day.

I drove around Athens, a quaint little Southern city, seeing things I’ve only heard about in the past — 5&10, Georgia Theater, 40 Watt Club, the former Steverinos, Sanford Stadium, etc. I can easily see myself returning, especially since I bought tickets for two future concerts at the 40 Watt Club, just not on UGA game days.

After making my ticket purchases I decided to walk around downtown, but was quickly overwhelmed by the heat and humidity that was present on Saturday. Instantly lunch plans were ditched and the thought of sitting in an air-conditioned car for an hour or so seemed like a fantastic idea. I was back ITP by 1:00pm

Not Every Girl Is Driven Crazy By A Sharp-Dressed Man
A two-hour power nap was the medicine the doctor ordered on Saturday afternoon. After waking and showering I finally got around to trying on my suit and was pleased to find out that it fit, not perfectly mind you, but well enough for a wedding.

The wedding was nice, a smallish affair, held in an impressive location. The ceremony was held in the lobby (converted to an intimate setting) of Fernbank, and the reception was held amongst the dinosaur bones. My attempt to chat up the only single woman in which I had interest failed mightily. The only other woman who caught my eye was one of the wedding photogs, but I chose not to try and chat her up since she obviously had no taste — she was shooting with Canons. Okay, in reality I knew that she was there to do a job so I didn’t want to interrupt her while working.

I left after consuming my body weight in food and beer, and before the button on my trousers had the opportunity to fly off and put someone’s eye out.

When They Say “Lift With Your Legs, Not Your Back” They Fail To Remind You About Your Knees
Yesterday morning I was returning a couple of packages of roofing shingles to the utility room now that it had sufficiently dried after the leaking water bottle debacle. I’d say that the packages were on the order of thirty to thirty-five pounds and sitting on the floor. After hearing and repeating the phrase “Lift with your legs, not your back” I did a deep knee bend and lifted.

What no one ever reminds you is not to damage your knees when lifting with your legs. I tweaked my left knee nicely after hoisting the second package. Man this getting old thing really sucks.

ITP Flickr Pic
In Athens they feel compelled to point out this seemingly obvious fact.

I had to get one jab in about my trip to UGA territory.

Truth be told, I was happy to see that sign because it forced me to stop and enter the cemetery. I never knew that Athens was that old.

Rule Of Photography — “Always Be Ready”
Not once, not twice, but thrice this weekend I didn’t get “the shot.”

Saturday morning’s breakfast was more than photo-worthy but the camera was in the car… fat load of good it was doing out there.

Later in the morning I had a fantastic vantage point for photographing a hawk sitting in a tree after being chased by a mockingbird. I was literally fewer than twenty yards away from the bird. Sadly, I didn’t have a telephoto lens on me and the sky was flat gray, so the shot I wound up getting was rather pedestrian.

And finally, I made a beautiful sausage, egg, and cheese omelet for breakfast yesterday, but lacked any photogenic garnish and was super hungry, so I ate it without snapping a single shot.

Not quite as catchy as “Always Be Closing”, but “Always Be Ready” is something that I obviously need to remind myself of.

RealiTV Update: Next Food Network Star — And Then There Was Finally One
I didn’t get the opportunity to watch The Next Food Network Star last night, but I have it recorded. Sadly, I already knew the winner because I had read it in someone’s blog post who failed to include the standard “Spoiler” disclaimer.

I will probably try to watch the episode tonight even though I know Aaron wins the competition. Oh yeah, “Spoiler!”

If you remember last week’s RealiTV update I put Aaron as the long-shot to win. Obviously I have no right to go about setting odds.

Back To Variety, Once But Not Twice This Week
Tonight I’ll be at Variety Playhouse sans camera for the Wolf Parade show. I’ve decided that tonight’s show is going to be crowded and that I really don’t want to have to deal with fighting the crowd for photos.

I was planning on going to go back to Variety tomorrow night for the She & Him show (and there is still a slim chance that I still will) but I have a real busy end-of-the-week ahead of me and may need the night in. You’ll have to wait until week’s end to see what’s up with me — and unfortunately it’s got nothing to do with getting a new air conditioner.

And Finally, Happy Birthday Wishes
Former Atlanta resident, part-time ITP reader, and all around great friend Lisa “Cheese” is celebrating a birthday today! Here’s hoping that you get to have a celebratory beverage tonight somewhere in Raleigh.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - okay, a bit bloated and my knee hurts however
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Morrissey — “Tomorrow”
Website Of The Day - Even with all of my efforts to de-clutter my house I can learn a thing or two from Getting Rid Of Things.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 34 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Monday Morning Weigh-In - 197 pounds
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 6 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Take a Wednesday off as a “mental health” day and Friday mentally feels like Tuesday. However, once you realize the error in your ways you are much happier.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

“I just can’t write her off.” — It’s not that. It’s that I can’t admit my uselessness to her, I can’t allow myself to be written out of her life.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

I Can Be My Own Worst Enemy At Times
Time to kill. Time to kill I had. Not being immediately hungry I dropped into Decatur CD — always a dangerous idea.

I walked out with three “new” CDs, and by “new” I mean “used” in accordance with my media purchasing edict. Purchased yesterday were:

• De Novo Dahl’s “Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound”
• My Morning Jacket’s “Evil Urges”
• Weezer’s “Red Album”

fwiw- Did you know that A Capella Books has opened a small selling section inside of Decatur CD?

After Decatur CD I still had time to kill, and now I was gaining some hunger. I then had the absolutely brilliant idea of heading to Fox Bros BBQ for their “happy hour.” Six smoked-chicken wings, two-thirds of a half-Tomminator, and a glass of water later I left after paying my $5 tab. The waitress there was a cute as could be, especially when she asked me if I wanted change for the $20 bill that I gave her to pay for the $5 tab.

Enough With The Old 97’s Already!
On Tuesday I saw the Old 97’s play at Variety Playhouse and had a good time. Last night when I arrived at Variety for the Tilly And The Wall show they were playing The Old 97’s latest CD as the house music. While waiting for the show to start they played the entire CD nearly three times. Enough already! I was ready to get my iPod and let them use that for a while. Crap, I may never need to hear that Old 97’s CD again now.

Introducing The Worst Opening Band Eva
I hate to be so cruel but The Coathangers’ set could not end quickly enough for me last night. True, I was twice as old as most of the people in the room, save the chaperons and band family members, but this music was just bad.

Instrumentally the band was adequate, but the shrill screaming of the all-girl, four-piece sent pain through my body like someone scratching nails on a blackboard. Hell, I even got up and went into the lobby for a while in order to escape their “singing.”

Tilly And The Wall put on an entertaining, energetic show. I took about fifty shots throughout the show and have yet to have time to completely process them. I am sure that I’ll have to delete at least ten of the shots because the girl in front of me who was “dancing as if no one was watching” kept swinging her arm into my line of sight. Because of technical difficulties which occurred before Till And The Walls set, I wound up leaving before they played any encore. It was getting too late for this old man.

ITP Flickr Pic
Walking around Little 5 Points before the show last night I noticed something that I had never seen before.

On what appears to be the second story of the Variety Playhouse there is this little, narrow door and an equally narrow balcony.

Who’s got the skinny on this?

Am I Going To Have To Take My Gator Tag Off To Save My Car
Come hell or high-water I will be headed to Athens, Georgia tomorrow morning — early tomorrow morning. The plan is to drive over for sunrise photos (assuming decent weather of course), kick around for a few hours and make a double ticket purchase at Schoolkids Records (uh oh, somebody let their domain registration lapse!) for the Hold Steady and Okkerville River shows to be held at 40 Watt Club.

I realize that I am headed for the heart of Dawg country, and even though my car is “UGA red” it does have a Gator license plate surround. Serious question… Is this going to cause me difficulty? I really am in no mood for confrontation about something as stupid as the university chose to attend twenty years ago. I stopped reading the AJC’s sports page years ago because all it turned out to be was chest-beating between UGA fans and other school’s fans.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - not bad, especially considering my house was 83 degrees when I return home at midnight and I only got five hours of sleep last night
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Superchunk — “Driveway To Driveway”
Website Of The Day - If you have twelve seconds then I have the website for you, 12 Seconds TV. I will warn you that you will probably wind up spending way more than twelve seconds watching the video there. I am especially fond of Veronica Belmont’s videos.
Exercise (b)Log - zip, zilch, nada
Monthly Foot Mileage - 34 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 3 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I really planned on making it to George’s for a run and a beer last night. However, time passed quickly yesterday and I lost track of it while I was resurrecting Jalapeño Beach.

I miss every other goal this month, but at least I accomplished one!

The process of uploading software and tweaking configurations to get the photoblog back on line took much longer than I expected. The process has yet to be completed as I’ve not found a way to get the photoblog to be displayed without having to tack the “pixelpost/” onto the end of its URL. I’ve attempted to forward “www.jalapenobeach.com” to “www.jalapenobeach.com/pixelpost/” but that seems to fail. All of the Pixelpost code resides in a folder off the root called “pixelpost”, should I not be so anal and just move all of the files up to the root directory?

If any of you networking gurus have tips I’d certainly like to hear them.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

Let’s say I want sex with a woman. If she doesn’t want sex with me and I allow myself to accept this fact completely then I will probably no longer want her in that way either.

But I doubt it.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Hey Amazon, How About Using Some Common Sense!!!
Last night I opened the box I received from Amazon on Tuesday. Much to my dismay, Amazon couldn’t be bothered to put fifty cents worth of padding into their box in order to protect the $400 lens I purchased from bouncing around during shipping. What the fuck, yo?! While the lens is packed tightly into its own box would it have killed them to protect it further against the inevitable roughing it would take in shipping? I am more than a little frustrated with Amazon about this and am trying to figure out how to report this poor customer experience. I am even considering returning the lens to Amazon on the principle that I purchased precision glass for my camera and I’d appreciate it if they’d protect my purchase as if they were buying it themselves.

I’d Buy That For $1.00 $0.49!
At least Amazon provides reliable downloads of music.

Yesterday I heard that Paul Westerberg (you may of heard of a little band he was in during the 1980’s called The Replacements) had released a new album called “49:00″ on Tuesday and was selling it for $0.49. The album which consists of one song entitled “49:00″, which is inexplicably only 43:55 in length, is rather entertaining. I’ve given it at least one full listen and venture to guess that it will be the best four bits I spend this week.

ITP Flickr Pic
One of the many benefits of staying home yesterday was cooking a batch of chicken wings for lunch. There are a few pre-cooked photos on Flickr, but this shot is my favorite.. the aftermath.

Sadly there is no great shot of the cooked wings because I let my bbq get too hot and burned the heck out of the wings. The meat was delicious however…

A Band Without A Drummer? Inconceivable!
Tonight I will be haunting Variety Playhouse again, hopefully camera in hand, to see/hear Tilly And The Wall. I am really looking forward to the show. I’ve seen the band once before and pulled a patented Paulie last-minute concert cancellation once as well.

Tilly And The Wall is unique in that they have no drummer. The source of the band’s percussion is a tap dancer. I shit you not!

Oh YouTube, Your Value To Me Grows Daily
I don’t do drugs, but if I did I would certainly feel like I was on a fucked up trip when I stumbled upon this YouTube video yesterday.

The video is of my all-time favorite band Husker Du (wish I could easily type umlauts) performing and being interviewed on the Late Show hosted by Joan Rivers.

Radical!

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - rested
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Neutral Milk Hotel — “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”
Website Of The Day - Can’t remember the title of that song you can’t get out of your head? Fancy yourself a good enough singer to sing it to Midomi and have the website help you figure out what song it is?
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 34 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 2 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Thanks again to all who wished me a happy birthday yesterday; it was much appreciated.

Welcome to one of my “mental health” days. I think, no I know, that I over-enjoyed my birthday a little too much — but it was fun while doing so.

With any luck I’ll be able to knock a few things off my To Do list by taking the day off from work.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

What is the difference between “I want food” and “I want sex?”

Consent.

(Man, I’m hungry.)

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

It Was More Than A Career Fair, It Was A Documentary Waiting To Happen
Yesterday’s career fair did not return much in the way of potential employees. However, it did initiate the thought for an independent documentary called “Outsourced.” “Outsourced” would capture video of people who work career fair circuit and their interactions with the applicants who are now unemployed due to outsourcing of America’s jobs.

It sounds stupid, but the roomful of people that I encountered yesterday looked like it was straight out of Central Casting. There was the woman who brought a stroller and her two children. There was the man who nearly crushed my hand with his handshake (and one of my coworkers had a similar thought when they shook hands). And there were numerous “character” actors amongst the sea of people.

Dinner And A Show, A Great Way To Celebrate A Birthday
Last night I had a few beers at Taco Mac with some coworkers after work.

From Taco Mac I shot down to Little 5 Points and found a tabletop at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club. While waiting for my friends to arrive I consumed a basket of boiled peanuts and a frosty beer. With the arrival of my friends food was ordered, of course my target was a beef brisket sandwich.

After dinner we walked down to Variety Playhouse for the Old 97’s show. I was pleased with all of the music I heard last night, and had to cash in my chips around midnight…. it’s tough getting old.

ITP Flickr Pic
Sorry that this is almost a re-run of yesterday’s photo. I was planning on taking photos at the Old 97’s concert last night but then realized how much I had been drinking and decided not to take the equipment with me. No need to put my gear in danger, never mind the fact that there was probably little hope that I’d get sharp photos in my condition.

I promise that tomorrow’s will be different.

Dear Apple…
I really like your AppleTV product. In fact, you already made $11 from me thanks to the purchase of the entire first season of Start-Up Junkies. However, if you expect me to continue to purchase media from your store you are going to have to make a concerted effort to deliver pristine video, especially if you are going to charge me $2 or more for each purchase. I refuse to continue to pay for videos which cannot be delivered glitch-free, and if your hardware is incapable of rendering video then I suggest that you fix it immediately deliver the fix.

I Wish It Was Easier To Buy Your Music
Occasionally when I attend a concert I get turned on to a band that I had previously never heard. Such was the case last night with opening band #2, Sleepercar.

With a few beers rushing through my system I was digging their set and went out to get another beverage and their disc (which would violate my “no new media” edict). I ran into a technical difficulty however when I arrived at the merch table to find out that their CD was SOLD OUT! What the??? Never has an opening band sold out of their music while still on tour. Fail.

Not to be shut out I attempted to buy Sleepercar’s music as a digital download, only to find out that it wasn’t available digitally from Amazon. Fail.

My next outlet of choice was iTunes, which actually had Sleepercar’s music available — but for $9.99. I still refuse to pay that much for downloaded music, even if it is DRM-free. Fail.

Chicken Wings… It’s What For Lunch
The other day I decided I was in the mood for chicken wings. Watching a few podcasts recently that featured chicken wing cooking had nothing to do with this yearning, I’m sure.

After buying chicken wings at the store I returned home to a blazingly hot house which zapped my of my desire to cook, leaving me with chicken wings to cook today. Photos just might come out of this adventure…

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - fine, but guilty that I am not at work
Current Music - listening to the Daily Source Code podcast, wishing I would have fixed my satellite dish so that I could be viewing the Tour de France
Website Of The Day - If you are like me, and you should seek counsel if you are, then you are intrigued by Ghost Towns
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 34 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - N/A
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 1 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Welcome to ITP blog post #1000! When I started this blog nearly four years ago I never would have expected it to be such a large part of my life. I was just a guy who wanted an outlet to vent after having his life upended by getting carjacked.

It is not completely coincidental that post #1000 also occurs on my 43rd birthday! Weeks ago I tried to figure out when post #1000 would occur and it mapped out to yesterday. Then I realized that if I conveniently skip posting on July 4th, then post #1000 would land on my birthday.

Two years ago I got to celebrate Pine Lake #1000 on my birthday and today I am headed out to Marietta (yikes!) to work a career fair. Truth be told I’d much rather be hashing. From the career fair I will be headed safely back ITP so that I can have dinner with some great friends at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club and then attend the Old 97’s concert at Variety Playhouse.

In my absence make fun of me in the comments and enjoy any cake that is leftover… wherever you may be.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

You say you just want to be my friend. I know you mean you want to relate to my mind but not to my body. I can understand that, and will not ask you to relate to me in a way you don’t want to. But likewise I refuse to castrate myself for you by pretending. If you want to have me as your friend you will have to accept my penis along with me.

(Okay, this one cracked me up!)

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Who Would Have Thunk It?
My first job as a programmer was with Intergraph in Huntsville, Alabama in 1992. At Intergraph I worked in the Public Safety division on an application to help Emergency 911 dispatchers. For testing purposes I jokingly created a police unit called N0722 (get it?) and created numerous emergencies on Poole Drive, because it was the closest street name to “Paul” in our testing database.

Last night I received a birthday wish from one of the people who has had the greatest impact on my life. My friend Doug, who I met at Intergraph and now lives with a wife and three kids in Australia, was the person who convinced a 245-pound version of me to start working out. Doug humored me by playing half-court basketball, until I realized that we were doing more sitting than playing and then started lifting weights and doing step aerobics instead.

The email shocked me because Doug and I don’t keep in touch all that much these days. However, I laughed heartily when Doug confessed that he remembered that it was my birthday because of my N0722 police unit. I then laughed again when I wondered why Doug would send me the email a day early, until I realized that it was already July 22nd in Australia.

ITP Flickr Pic
Because the house was so bloody hot (at least until the rain arrived) last night I had to live in the basement and fight the heat. Last night I knew that I needed photos for today and planned to take some tasteful self-portraits. However, I was driven mad from the heat and wound up with very different results.
Me at nearly 43.

Dammit! I was going to post a photo of me on my 38th birthday celebrating with the person I thought I would marry but I apparently have never uploaded the photo to Flickr! Now-the-same-age, ITP-reader, and on-her-way-to-Iowa Barb has told me that she has married, had a child, and rumored to be getting divorced. Funny how divergent lives can be…

Since I don’t have that photo, I’ll embarrass myself a bit by posting a couple of photos of a Young Master Paulie (long before the Inside The Perimeter days)

Proving that once a Jets fan, always a Jets fan.

In 1972 my family did the classic New York to California car trip. At that time I’d venture to guess that gas was about 38-cents per gallon. As you can see from this photo the colorization of the Grand Canyon had yet to be completed.

(I’m the one on the left, standing there with my father)

A Break In The Streak
Today I didn’t make my bed. No, it’s not because it’s my birthday, but rather because I threw everything into the washing machine before heading to work. Technically I could have replaced the linens with another set, and since I did not I’ve broken the streak at 110 days. I’ll be starting a new streak tomorrow.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - fine
Current Music - watching the Tour de France and wishing I could watch all morning instead of working
Website Of The Day - Thanks to Maigh I have today’s special Website Of The Day Cake Wrecks — a blog dedicated to cakes gone wrong.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing, too much heat, too much smog
Monthly Foot Mileage - 34 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 0 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Because I can’t find the time to take photos. Perhaps time will appear this week now that my Black Sheep hash is done.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

I don’t like the way I acted toward Alice. I was experiencing her as a very attractive woman, and yet the whole time I acted like an asexual nice-guy. When I feel like a man I want to act like one and not like a polite eunuch.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

When In Rome, Do As The Romans. When In Athens, Do As The Athenians.
When in neither, do whatever the hell you want.

Again my plan to drive over to Athens, Georgia fell through — this time due to my own fatigue. On Friday it seemed perfectly logical to think that I could go out and scout trail Saturday morning, get home shower and relax, and then make the drive. However, I didn’t factor in how much energy I’d expend scouting for the trail. Gentri and I walked at least six miles Saturday morning and by the time I returned from eating lunch at his house I was whooped.

I’m Ready To Turn In My “Man” Card
What I did manage to do on Saturday night was watch Juno, which turned out to be one of the best movies that I have seen in some time.

If you never saw Juno, it’s a movie about a high school girl who gets pregnant and decides to give the child up for adoption rather than have an abortion. Juno is a girl who is a Y-Generation version of John Cusak’s character in High Fidelity, so offbeat, so opinionated about music. The couple for whom she is carrying the child are Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa (Jennifer Gardner) Loring (not a bad looking couple mind you) who are incapable of having their own child. In the end Bateman gets cold-feet and decides that he’d rather divorce Gardner rather than become a father. The critical point in the plot is a note left by Juno on the Loring’s doorstep upon hearing about the couple’s decision to split. As we find out later the note says “Vanessa, If you’re in, I’m in. Juno” (may not be the exact quotation, mind you). We then come to realize that Juno has figured out that she is in love with the boy who impregnated her, Paulie, who is played by George Michael Michael Cera, who at this point must be vying for the title “Oldest High School Student In America.”

As a man I am not sure that I was supposed to enjoy Juno as much as I did, and as such am ready to turn in my “Man” Card.

Success Was Ours!
With the exception that I forgot to bring in the limerick written for me so that I could blog it today, nothing went wrong with yesterday’s hash.

The trail wound up being about four miles long, which given yesterday’s intense heat was long enough. We, the hares, also were thoughtful enough to provide the pack with a water stop about half-way through the trail.

The pack was an intimate crowd of nearly twenty, who for the most part enjoyed their trip through Union City’s finest brush and bramble, and not having to slog through a swamp (mostly because there are none in the area).

Here’s the funniest thing that happened this weekend. On Saturday Gentri and I were out making last-minute modifications to the trail. As is always the case with trail scouting you wind up finding odd things that people have carelessly discarded. In talking about these I offhandedly said “That’s cool, but I like finding money.” While dropping flour yesterday I looked down and quickly scooped up a bill that turned out to be a $20 bill. Score!

ITP Flickr Pic
Since I have no new photos I will post a map of yesterday’s trail instead.

If you want to get all interactive with the map, go here.

RealiTV Update: Next Food Network Star — “And Then There Were Still Three”
The competition for The Next Food Network Star has one more show in Vegas Baby! In this episode we’ll watch the three cheftestants do Vegas-related promos with “I was once in your shoes” Guy (who couldn’t be more dislike me) Fiere and then have to prepare buffet-style food for fifty Vegastainers.

I am sure at Harrah’s the odds on this competition are something like
Lisa: 5-2
Adam: 3-1
Aaron: 5-1

Given the past performances from each. As for me I don’t think that any of these people have the chops to be the next Food Network “Star.”

Surprisingly, Aaron nails his thirty-second promo. Of the three remaining cheftestants Aaron has been the least camera-savvy. Lisa struggles with her promo, and Adam does a fair job at best.

Without judgment the competition moves on to having the cheftestants spending $1000 at Whole Foods for fifty mystery Vegastainers. But first, we see that the cheftestants will receive a sous-chef, who in RealiTV land is always a cheftestant who has been booted previously. Why should this show be any different? Here come Kelsey, Shane, and Jen….

The three cheftestants and their three sous-cheftestants boogie to Whole Foods where we see another staple of RealiTV, the leave-behind which is gleefully caught on camera, but never revealed to the participant because fuck-ups make for entertaining RealiTV. On tonight’s episode we watch Lisa accidentally push one six-pound package of fish off her shopping cart and not notice as she speeds away. Whoopsie!

With the buffets ready for consumption each cheftestant gets three-minutes to entertain the Vegastainers and then serve them some grub. Lisa does her best Liza Minelli and sings a song, Aaron performs some sort of crazy comedy act, and Adam bores us to tears with his science of smoking. Truth be told I fast-forwarded through much of this since I hate watching people make asses of themselves.

Now it’s time for judgment and to crush the dreams of one of the remaining three cheftestants by sending them home. BUT WAIT! It appears that the judges can’t decide who to boot and wind up returning all three to New York for the “Final Competition” next week. I am reminded of Thanksgiving when the President picks out a turkey and “spares his life” but we all know that all he has done is extend the inevitable for one “unlucky” turkey…

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - fantastic, and quite glad the hash is behind me
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Death Cab For Cutie — “Cath…”
Website Of The Day - I’m always looking for alternative forms of entertainment, especially when it’s related to food. iFoods TV is a site that uploads instructional food recipes.
Exercise (b)Log - running/walking ~10 miles this weekend
Monthly Foot Mileage - 34 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Monday Morning Weigh-In - not taken
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 110 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I can’t think about today because I am too busy thinking about my future…

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

I feel sensually attracted to Leah as she walks in the door with Bill. Now, if I am open, if I broaden my awareness to include Bill’s presence, Gayle’s presence, my emotions, etc., then my response will be in rhythm with the situation as a whole. It is only when I am mentally myopic that my actions become excessive or restricted.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

But First, A Shot At The Recent Past
Last night I left work “late” and did not have enough timme to eat dinner before heading to the Horizon Theatre.

It’s rare that I say that a play would have been great if not for some of the performances on stage. Such was the case last night with Hallelujah Street Blues. With the play one-week into its run I expect the actors to nail their lines, after all these are professionals and not high school students. The theater last night was near-capacity, and during the intermission I heard at least two other patrons discuss the awkward timing between actors due to delayed line delivery.

Hallelujah Street Blues is being worked up as part of the New South Play Festival which “focuses on working with Southern and African-American writers to tell stories that resonate with our audiences here and now.” The play centers around gentrification of an African-American neighborhood and struggle for one woman to live out her days in her home. Each character within the play confronts the changes in their own way, and in the end is forced to come to grips with the way that their life has played out.

Hallelujah Street Blues will be performed until August 24th. I highly recommend that you make time to see this play, and hope that by the time you do that the kinks have been worked out.

This Weekend
This will be a busy, busy weekend. While I am guarding my free time tonight like a mother guarding her child, I have already accounted for Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday is a no-brainer because on that day I will be laying my birthday Black Sheep Hash on the “south side” near Union City. Should you be so inclined to run through brambles in 90-degree weather then I highly suggest that you plan on attending.

On Saturday morning/afternoon I will be joining my buddy Gentri and putting the final touches on Sunday’s hash. Later that afternoon I am planning on making that trip to Athens that I put off last weekend, unless the weather is shitty. With any luck the predicted sunny weather will continue and I will also get some photography opportunities.

ITP Flickr Pic
Nothing again today. What can I say, I looked at the other concert shots that I took the other night and was not impressed. I’ve decided only to show exceptional work, even if that means showing less work.

Instead today I will show you a 8.5″ x 11″ print that I bought from 20×200.

Why did I buy this? Because it amuses me greatly.

Buying from 20×200 was an experiment that I am not sure that I will repeat. Don’t get me wrong, their website and service is great, even if their terms of sale stipulate that there is no recourse for receiving damaged 8.5″ x 11″ prints. It’s just that the shipping for this $20 print was $8.50 and there is nothing special about the print quality, at least to my eyes.

2009: Canada And Beyond!
This year I was to make a return to Canada, specifically the Maritime regions of Eastern Canada. Next year I really want to follow through and do this.

If I am financially stable next year I think that I will also attempt to make my first trip abroad, perhaps to England or Ireland (note: I am sticking with the English-speaking countries for the time being.)

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - cranky, I’ve got issues
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Flaming Lips — “Do You Realize”
Website Of The Day - I keep seeing commercials for Feed The Pig while watching the Tour de France. With the amount of money that I am spending this year I am definitely not going to be their spokesman any time soon.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing, too busy
Monthly Foot Mileage - 24 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 107 (107)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]