Another Paulie Maintenance Day

Last week I had the choppers checked out, today I get my annual look into my peepers. With my 7am meeting canceled today and the fact that my eye doctor is located in Colony Square I’ve taken the opportunity to lazy about and write today’s entry from bed. If you are reading this “early” then you know I finished before leaving the house. If not, you know I had to wait post eye exam.

Come Join Us On The Island Of Misfit Toys
Who knew that watching Rankin / Bass’ “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” last night would turn into a rousing Facebook comment thread and a revelation about my life?…

After posting an update stating that I was watching the Christmas classic ITP-reader Stacy, Facebook-friend Liz, and I assumed Island of Mistfit Toy persona

  • Stacy = polka-dot elephant
  • Liz = cute little girl doll that cries
  • Me = Charlie-in-the-Box (not surprising for many reasons)
  • and most surprisingly, my house is the island

In past years I’ve likened myself to Rudolph (“why am I such a mis-fit”) and Hermey (“I want to be a dentist!”) however, I think the Charlie-in-the-Box is a better fit this year.

We need more participants. Pick a character in the comments and play along.

It Was Looking At My Own Music Collection
I needed a diversion last night. I was not going to head to Elliott Street Pub to do the Atlanta Photographers Guild shoot because I wasn’t in the mood to shoot with crowd. Instead I decided to wind my way home via Decatur.

The original plan was to hit the Goodwill on LaVista, which I did, and then the nearby Dollar Tree and Chinese restaurant, which I did neither. While at the Goodwill I scanned the CDs being sold and I had a weird feeling as if I was staring at my own collection — Driving n Crying, Pearl Jam, Sugar, hell there was even a Emmet Swimming disc! I nearly purchased a Thunderbirds 6 DVD until I realized that Goodwill wanted $5 for it (c’mon Goodwill, you probably paid nothing for it) and then remembered that I am trying not to bring physical media into the house.

From there I drove to the Last Chance Thrift store in Decatur where I was surprised to see just how little populated their shelves. Because I was in the epicenter of Indian cuisine I naturally chose to find some vegetarian fare for dinner. I settled on a small shop called Chopaati Vegetarian Cuisine in which I had never previously eaten. I ordered a samosa (which turned out to be an order of two) and a masala dosha. My order turned out to be too much food, so I happily took one of the samosas home with me. The food was really good, but I couldn’t help think that it was nothing that I couldn’t get in any other Indian restaurant in town.

ITP Flickr Pic
Here is a shot of the abandoned house in which the group shot on Sunday.
This Old House
For some reason I am digging the shots I took around the house more than those I took in the house.

Hey Amazon, It’s Called “Bing Crosby – Christmas Collection”
One of the good things about buying music digitally is that somebody does all of the mp3 tagging for your. One of the bad things about buying music digitally is that they don’t always do it well.

The other day I purchased “Bing Crosby – Christmas Collection” (look, I’m trying to put myself into the Christmas spirit) and was perplexed when I couldn’t find it on my iPod under the Christmas genre. WTF? Did it not download? Did I fail to sync the music to my iPod? Nope, the gurus at Amazon labeled the music as “Miscellaneous” instead of “Christmas.”

Jesus H. Christ good help is hard to find these days…

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – harried because I’ve dilly-dallied
Current Music – listening to the “MacBreak Weekly” podcast
Website Of The Day – The sound of rain is supposed to be soothing, but for me all I can think about is if my house will hold up. Perhaps I need to visit iSerenity to calm my nerves.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 4 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 10 (10)
Vegetarian Days – 7
Carnivorous Days – 2
Marta Rides – 0

Ongoing
Books To Read To Earn Kindle – 4

December Goals
1) Lose no fewer than two pounds
2) Drink no soda
3) Run no fewer than 50 miles
4) Completely read no fewer than one book
5) Write at least one program using Ruby on Rails

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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25 Responses to Another Paulie Maintenance Day

  1. Barb says:

    I wish I wasn’t blocked from facebook while at work, maybe tonight I’ll check the facebook thread.

    And – can I say, it is one UGLY rainy day out – it is pouring, and it is so dark out right now, I can’t believe it is almost 9AM.

  2. Yeah, I just arrived at Colony Square and the drive was tough. It took me about 35 minutes to get here, and it could have been worse.

  3. Sal says:

    I love a rainy day! Except when trying to get to work. 4 different incidents on the way in..sheesh…is it too much to ask people to learn how drive in the rain?

    The sky was eerie this morning….pretty cool. I loved the color of the clouds.

    I haven’t watched that show in a long time…I’ll have to check it out and see who best fits my character. In my car I have A Crooner’s Christmas CD, Elvis, Jazz, A Creole Chirstmas and an Ultra Lounge Christmas…..

    ALERT: if you haven’t signed up for Red Top Rumble….it’s too late. We are full and registration has been shut down!

  4. My Red Top Rumble registration confirmation arrived in email this week. 🙂 When do we get GUTS membership reminders?

  5. Sal says:

    Not sure we send out reminders to up your membership. It’s always at the beginning of the year.

  6. Gentri says:

    Morning Paulie, how was the eye checkup? You get your 3x readers yet? 😉

    Question. Have you ever just bought a DVR? Is it worth it or should I just rent one at sign-up?

  7. Martha says:

    Since I don’t “do” christmas, I haven’t watch any christmas shows for years, but wasn’t there a flying lion (the king?) that collected the toys and determine who stayed and who didn’t? I want to be that character, you know the bosy guy in charge of everyone.

    You missed a great run, it was wonderful to not be freezing while outside. Plus the rain missed us also.

  8. Sal says:

    I guess I would have to be Clarice the Reindeer…..the sweet one! 🙂

  9. @Gentri: Eye checkup went well (wait for tomorrow’s blog) although I decided to hit my wallet a bit more and purchase a new pair of glasses. The ones I bought before going to Colorado have started to bother me (eye strain) and my doctor confirmed that, while withing specs, they were a bit too strong.

    The purchase v. lease decision depends on how long you think you will own it, as well as how comfortable you are with its quality. Litigation aside, one of the reasons I’ve never considered purchasing a TiVo is because their “lifetime” subscription is tied to the lifetime of the dvr and not the owner. Therefore if you ever upgrade you must purchase another “lifetime” subscription.

    @Martha: I’ve already forgotten the lion’s name. Captain Goodnight perhaps?

    @Sal: No reminder? And here I thought GUTS had the best customer service ever! 🙂

  10. Martha says:

    Fine Paulie, make me google it… King MoonRacer.

    You haven’t had to “upgrade” to reading glasses have you? Two of the past three guys had them…they are making me feel old. 🙂

  11. Gentri says:

    Are you far or near? Outside of lasik, the 2nd best thing I did was buy prescription polarized sunglasses! (after surgery I just changed the lenses to “plain” glass… $60 or so at sams club).

    These have “you” written all over them:
    http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/swiss-army-sunglasses-announce-your-nerdiness-through-eyewear-235902.php

    One of my issues is going to be a lack of home phone line… updating schedules might be impossible/painful…..

  12. sal says:

    I’ll see what I can do for you Paulie. GUTS aims to please.

  13. @Martha: At least I didn’t use yesterday’s website “Let Me Google That For You” 🙂 And no reading glasses for me (yet)

    @Gentri: near-sighted. I’d talked about Lasik years ago with Dr LeVine, and he said that given my prescription and age it wouldn’t be something he’d suggest for me.

  14. @Sal: Thanks. I’d probably remember and send a check in next week without a reminder — but it’s nice to know people care. 🙂

  15. Barb says:

    Dr. Levine wants to keep you as a patient, of course he isn’t going to recommend Lasik. I had 20/2000 vision back when I had Lasik 10-11 years ago, and I think Boner was about the same or even worse and he did it. As for the age thing, reading glasses might happen, but it was still so worth it to get Lasik. Most of the Lasik docs give free appts to those considering it. Allan & I both had ours done very close to your office at the Woodham Eye Clinic.

    Gentri – I don’t know how the DVRs work without a home phone line, but it has to be possible thru your computer, since there are many people out there that don’t have home phones anymore. We have both, the one thru Direct TV and a totally separate Tivo. We did get the lifetime membership, but I heard those aren’t available anymore, they realized it was too good of deal, and they wouldn’t make any money on them.

    I just got me a new phone, I went with the LG Voyager (Verizon). I think it is way too much phone for me, but hopefully I can figure it out.

  16. Barb, while your assessment may be right but my vision is only about 20/60 and I wear my glasses more than I really need to. I never wear them when reading or on the computer. Corrected vision is required for me to have a driver’s license, and I wear them out so that I don’t accidentally misidentify people.

    The lifetime deal is not a good deal unless you keep the same hardware for a long time since the deal is tied to the box and not the user account. The phone line is needed to download guide information and to return user data to central servers (yes, Big Brother is watching your every tv move). I know Dish is slowly rolling out the possibility of using an internet connection, but I don’t know about any other service’s course of action.

    Hope you enjoy your new phone. I’m still debating my options.

  17. Debbie says:

    I want to be the Abominable Snow Person (sans the sore tooth) just cuz I like saying Adominable… and you know it gets tied up, grrrr. 🙂

  18. Well, having said that then I nominate Steve to be Yukon Cornelius. 🙂

  19. Debbie says:

    Works for me!

    He’ll need more dogs and I’m all for that, and he’ll like having a whip to crack…

  20. Barb says:

    Debbie – TMI!!!!!!

  21. Gentri says:

    Sounds like a DVR is out. In a move to avoid gov’t take over, bankruptcy and asking for a billion dollar loan a few years back, I kicked cable, home phone, dsl and natural gas (aka HEAT, as some like to call it) to the curb… so if a DVR needs an update, it’s gonna have to get it via cellphone/out of the air, download to USB or voodoo drums or not at all… on the up side, currently my home network is VERY unhackable!

  22. Hey Gentri, I keep forgetting to send you an email…..

    I have a phone holder that supposedly belongs to you. It was given to me by the Colonel a couple of hashes ago and has been in my hashbag since.

  23. Gentri says:

    HA! Sweet. Wondered where that went! I’ll swing by sometime this week and snag it. Thanks for holding it.

    See you at the Thrashers game tonight? My 1st of the season!

  24. No hockey for me tonight. I’m meeting some folks at Holy Taco at 8pm and then heading home to do a thing or two before bedtime.

  25. Stacy says:

    Wow… Re: the misfits, I think all that’s needed now is the plane and the train! 🙂 Now, when’s the party at the island? (let me guess….Super Bowl Sunday?) 😉

    Barb, let me know how you like the Voyager! I really want the Blackberry Storm but just can’t justify it.

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