Inside The Perimeter

My Chumby had some issues this morning (not) playing music back via the Pandora app. Perhaps it’s just as confused as I am these days. When I looked at the calendar it said “December” and when I last checked I was still inside the perimeter. Why then is it warm and muggy outside as if I was living in Florida again?

Beer, Beer, Beer I’m Gonna Have Some Beer
Last night I met up with a handful of Flickrites at Little Five Points newest drinking hole, The Porter. For old-time Atlantans, The Porter is located where Bridgetown Grille used to be. The Porter is a cool drinking hole with a wide selection of beer and half-decent food, think “Brick Store Jr.”

The Porter is another one of those Atlanta bars that has its own interpretation of the city’s smoking laws. According to The Porter’s website they are a non-smoking environment until 10pm and then after that no one under eighteen years of age is allowed in the building as smoking is then allowed. According to my interpretation of the city’s law you either choose to allow smoking, or you choose to allow children, and there is not provision for a time cutoff.

Regardless, I can see myself returning to The Porter, although it will have stiff competition from my other L5P favorites, The Yacht Club, The Vortex, Brewhouse, and The Corner Tavern.

The Xbox360 Conundrum
The other night I purchased a new shelf for my entertainment system. The extra shelf allows me to sandwich the Xbox360 into the system making it extremely difficult to remove from the rack. The entertainment system is a metal bread rack, so I’m not concerned about my components overheating.

After getting the rack put back together I turned on the Xbox360 so that it could take a software download. To my dismay the box booted and then, after a few seconds of inactivity, displayed a red light on the front panel. At first I feared that this was the dreaded Red Ring of Death which means that the box is dead. After some investigation on the internet I found that the red light that I am witnessing means that the hard drive may be corrupted and tonight I will attempt to correct this problem. I would have decided to add the Xbox360 to my growing list of Microsoft devices that I dream of ditching, if not for the fact that is and will always be, my only HD-DVD player on which I can watch my Planet Earth HD-DVDs.

As of today I have no desire to own a Blu-Ray player.

ITP Flickr Pic
Baby Jesus must have been out back taking a smoke break.

Oh wait, this is somewhat accurate because He is not supposed to arrive until Christmas Day.

Holy Shit, Christmas Is Next Week!
I’ve so much to do in order to prepare for Christmas. And before I know it Christmas will be gone again for another year.

Tonight I must prepare and mail Christmas cards. This weekend, in addition to the two hashes I plan to run, I want to watch many of the Christmas shows I own on DVD. I’ve already watched “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” I still have “How The Grinch Stole Christmas,” “A Year Without A Santa Claus,” “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” “It’s A Wonderful Life,” and “A Christmas Story” to watch before next Tuesday. Who needs a DVR? And if possible I’d like to make it to the Horizon Theatre to see “The Santaland Diaries.”

I’ve come to the conclusion that there will be no Christmas tree in the house again as I braved Lenox Mall last night and came up empty on the pathetic Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Oh well, it’s not like there would have been presents under the tree anyway; I see no point wrapping gifts to myself.

Beer, Beer, Beer I’m Gonna Have Some Beer
Tonight is the monthly Atlanta TweetUp and I will be in attendance. This month we’ll be convening at Thinking Man Tavern in Decatur(ish). I plan to make this an early evening consisting of food and a beer or two. It should be a fun time.

note to self: Be home in time to watch Top Chef.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – confused, mostly by the weather
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Long Winters — “Fire Island, AK”
Website Of The Day – In these troubling economic times why not save a little money? Register a credit card or two with Rewards Network and if you eat at participating restaurants you’ll get some cash back for doing nothing at all. I’ve been doing this for years.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 8 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 17 (17)
Vegetarian Days – 9
Carnivorous Days – 7
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]

I feel as if my life is moving backwards. Last night I visited a laundromat for the first time in over eleven years, I also had a very discouraging phone conversation with my mother. What’s the opposite of progress? Congress…

Rats!
I was all excited to find a Christmas tree I wanted, until I couldn’t find the Christmas tree I wanted. Yesterday I found out that Urban Outfitters is selling a replica of the pathetic Charlie Brown Christmas tree. However, the Urban Outfitters on Ponce didn’t have any in stock, and I didn’t inquire about buying the one on display. Rats!

I’m not sure I have the internal fortitude to make a trip to Lenox Mall to see if they have one in stock there.

Thirty Minute Wash, Four Hour Dry
Say what you will about laundromats they are the model of efficiency.

Last night I popped into the Publix on Ponce (after failing at Urban Outfitters) for some laundry detergent and fabric softener. From there I struggled to figure out where one parks to use the laundromat across from Manuel’s Tavern that I’ve driven past so often. Once inside the rather dingy environment I took out a roll of quarters that I had procured from Wachovia at lunch and started four loads of laundry at once. The original plan was to read a magazine or write out Christmas cards while waiting, but I was sucked into people watching instead. In about an hour and $8.50 later my loads were done and I bagged up the damp laundry and high-tailed it home.

For the rest of the night, literally for four hours, I tortured my dryer with the laundry I had washed.

ITP Flickr Pic
I am obsessed with weird angles.

Therefore it was such a joy to luck into this someone strange juxtaposition of fire hydrant and pine trees.

It’s Time To Drink At The Porter
Difficult decisions must be made this time of year as often there is more than one thing happening on any given night. Tonight is one such night. I could attend the annual meetup of Atlantans With Blogs Who Get Together To Drink, but instead I am going to find myself at The Porter in Little Five Points to meet up with some Flickrites for a beer. It’s nice to have options…

Digital Download Of The Week
I’ve looked at the list of things being released today and all I can say is “meh.”

Instead I’ll suggest you check out the release from The Warm Fuzzies. They’ve also come up with really cool CD packaging for their disc, but you know me… it’s all about the digital download now.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – worried for my mother, not health related thankfully
Current Music – watching the latest “Photoshop TV” podcast
Website Of The Day – Recently I bought a “bonus” pack of ten bars of soap. It was a “bonus” pack because it had ten bars instead of eight. I was amused to find that the last pack of bars of soap I bought contained twelve bars, so in essence my “bonus” pack contained two fewer bars. More examples of this can be found at The Consumerist’s — Grocery Shrink Ray.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 8 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 16 (16)
Vegetarian Days – 9
Carnivorous Days – 6
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]

Don’t get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed all of the drinking and celebrating I did this weekend, but my drinking left me nothing short of useless to do anything else. I had aspirations of being rather productive, which I guess I was if you can measure the productivity in drinking too much beer, eating too much food, getting depressed because pants are not fitting, and sleeping like a champion.

VeggieFails
I’m giving up for the time being; I cannot continue on the 5/7ths vegetarian lifestyle. I’m unhappy and on two out of the past three days I ate meat when I was not supposed to, even if on one occasion it was only one (wafer thin) slice of venison sausage.

Worse than that, not only am I not losing weight, I’m gaining weight. I blame this phenomena on my lack of exercise, but if that is the reason that I’m not losing weight then my meat restriction is uncalled for.

On the positive side of the ledger I’ve learned about myself and I’ve learned about a lot of food that I’ve ignored.

ITP Flickr Pic
We had many Santas on the pub crawl Saturday but only one Papa Noel Miguel.

I can’t blame the child for crying as we’d been drinking crap beer all afternoon and probably smelled like ashtrays thanks to all of the cigarette smoke in the bars.

Bonus ITP Flickr Pic
On Sunday I attended the annual cookie swap done by my Sunday Morning Runners Group. As in past years I failed to actually run, but unlike the indiscretion of last year when I brought store-bought cookies, I produce these

These are molasses spice cookies that I baked up prior to going out for the pub crawl on Saturday. When I ate a test cookie on Saturday morning I was rather pleased with myself. Unfortunately for my tastebuds the cookies hardened up overnight to the point that made a cup of liquid in which to dunk them necessary — at least for me.

Perhaps The Best Decision I Made On Sunday
The cookie swap was held at a friend’s house in Grant Park. Figuring that I wasn’t going to get a run in I mapped a two-mile path, which was pretty much a straight line, and walked. Yes, I walked. When I was a child people used to walk a lot. I’ve used the sketchiness of the neighborhood as an excuse not to walk all too often, albeit somewhat justifiably so. I’m hoping that I choose to walk to more places often, it certainly won’t hurt my waistline.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – listening to the “Sound Opinions” podcast
Website Of The Day – I’m not sure I can commit to Flaab, but it seems like an interesting concept.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: walking, 4 miles

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 8 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 15 (15)
Vegetarian Days – 9
Carnivorous Days – 5
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]

Who wants to fix my house and bake some cookies for me to take to Sunday’s Sunday Morning Running group? Oh well, I thought I’d give it a shot.

Ack, I Used That Much Natural Gas?
You’d think since I haven’t been cooking at home and the amount of hot water I’ve been using has been lessened because I am doing less laundry that my monthly natural gas bill wouldn’t be that scary. However, November was a cold month and my house is large. The latest gas bill delivered to me by Scana was $152. YIKES! Unfortunately this will cut out one of the charitable donations I was planning on making. I guess that the old adage is right, charity really does begin at home.

Fun With Facebook
Every once in a while I have bizarre thoughts. Okay, I admit that it happens multiple times a day. Recently Facebook has been a good breeding ground for these notions. In Facebook you have the ability to become a “Fan” of some one, some thing, or some idea. (and oh how I wish that I could become an “Enemy” as well — I’m looking at you Rachel Rachael Ray.)

This morning I became a fan of “Warm Weather.” Yes, that’s right, someone had created a fan page for warm weather, and not only that, sixty-eight people had become fans before I had. But wait, it gets better…

When I searched for “warm weather” the “Fan Page” was the first result, some “Fall Foliage” application was next, and then the next four pages were profiles of women — including their photo — who live in Atlanta. HA! Could Facebook be the new hookup site?

ITP Flickr Pic
In case you hadn’t noticed, one of my prevalent photographic “styles” is to shoot from an extremely low angle.

This was the road which led to the abandoned house that we shot at last weekend. The shadow is me of course. I would have experimented more with this shot but stupid cars kept coming down the road.

Wait To You Read About My Final Attempt To Meet Women
My plumbing woes have forced me to consider doing something that I’ve not done in ten years — going to a laundromat. Thankfully, I should only have to run multiple loads of washing and then take my damp clothes home for a rousing day of drying and folding.

Does anyone know of a decent laundromat? Preferably one which draws a cute, female clientele? Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I tried to become a “Fan” of “laundromats” on Facebook?

At Least One Person Should Be Crawling By Day’s End
Tomorrow I will be one of the three enablers for the annual Atlanta Hash East Atlanta Village Holiday Pub Crawl. I’m not sure who started this tradition but this year will mark my fourth year of helping.

This year’s $20 entry into the day’s event will get you the opportunity to drink at the following stops

1. Flat Iron
2. Midway Pub
3. A Pine Lake homage stop (with bottled beer)
4. Grant Central Pizza (pizza provided)
5. Holy Taco
6. Gravity Pub
7. Mary’s

If not for the fact that Holy Taco is on the north side of Glenwood this would be the first year that I can remember that we wouldn’t cross Glenwood to hit East Side Lounge, Blue Frog Cantina (nee Heaping Bowl and Brew), or The EARL. It seems somewhat strange to think about it.

What a great way to waste spend the day. The weather will be cold but dry, come join us!

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – happy because it’s Friday
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing The Dandy Warhols — “Godless”
Website Of The Day – Tired of your music collection? Go look for new stuff at Mufin (correctly spelled incorrectly — gotta love Web2.0).
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) – 12 (12)
Vegetarian Days – 8
Carnivorous Days – 3

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]

I had a different title in mind today until I updated WordPress to version 2.7. I’ve done many WordPress upgrades, but unbeknown to me they planned to change the user interface with this version. Boy have they ever! I sort of like the change (unlike Flickr’s) but it’s taken me a little time to figure out how to write a new post.

Rain Rain Go Away
Seriously, why must we have so much rain in such a short time period? I know, we need the rain. However, we need the rain spread out among many days so that it doesn’t just run off into the streams and rivers.

Holy Taco! I Managed To Eat Vegetarian Last Night
Late in the afternoon yesterday I caught wind of a group of Tweeters meeting up at East Atlanta’s Holy Taco. Lo and behold, I was one of the invitees so I naturally jumped on the opportunity (this is me trying to widen my social network). My only quandary was that it was to be a vegetarian day and I knew that the menu of Holy Taco contained many delicious-sounding meaty options.

However, in a strange moment of discipline I managed to stay vegetarian. I ordered some chips and salsa, and my dinner consisted of a vegetarian quesadilla and an order of tostones. Sadly the Holy Taco was still out of Fuller’s London Pride beer, and I drank them out of Tetley’s last night as well.

ITP Flickr Pic
The eye has it!

My optometrist has a Canon 20D set-up that allows him to take a photo of the inside of one’s eyes. Cool. He had this last year as well and I didn’t think to blog about it. Because I mentioned that I have an interest in photography he offered to email me one of the photos.

Because I am squeamish I’m only showing the thumbnail size in case anyone else out there is as squeamish as I.

If you wish to see this photo larger, click the thumbnail and it will take you to the larger version on Flickr.

Top Chef: I Don’t Know Because I Fell Asleep
It’s only one week into my life without a DVR and I’ve already had my first FAIL.

I arrived home from Holy Taco shortly before 10:00pm and thought about going straight to bed. A few minutes later I remembered that it was Wednesday night and I no longer had a DVR to record Top Chef. I popped out of bed and joined the program already in progress as they were crowning the winner of the Quick Fire Challenge.

I continued to watch, including suffering through commercials, for another twenty minutes or so… before I fell asleep. When I awoke the show was ending and I had no way to watch what I missed. Well I had one way, as Bravo replays Top Chef at 11:00pm Eastern, but there was no way that I was going to stay up and watch.

I have a feeling that I am going to be watching a lot less television now that I have no dvr. You know, this might be one of the best things to happen to me in a long time.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – okay, although my undisclosed medical condition is being painful today.
Current Music – listening to Leo Laporte’s “The Tech Guy” podcast
Website Of The Day – Since I’m showing a photo that I didn’t shoot, I’ll pick a website that contains a ton of photos I didn’t shoot. Google has archived the photos of (the now defunct) Life Magazine. (thanks to Barb for alerting me to this)
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) – 11 (11)
Vegetarian Days – 8
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]

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.

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]

This morning Absolute Zero hit my home internets. Nothing. Dead. Silent. DAMMIT. Oh well, who needs information in this Information Age anyway?

The DVR-less Era Has Begun
Yesterday I not only received on of my digital-to-analog converters (hoping UPS delivers the other one soon and without me having to track it down, as well as my new ViP222k Dish Network (beta) receiver. The ViP222k will provide me with more HD channels than my previous beta receiver, but sadly lacks a hard drive so I can no longer record television. You’d think that the lack of recording would be the most devastating feature loss, but it’s not; once I realized that I no longer have the ability to pause and skip live television I shuddered as if I was experiencing detox (or so I imagine since I’ve never actually detoxed).

I’ve reentered a Brave Old World of television.

Back In The Twenty-First Century Realm
I have created a Google Calendar for the Black Sheep Hash. Why have I done this?

1. Because the calendar name “Black Sheep Hash” was available and I could.
2. I will post the hash number in each entry
3. I will post the sign-in list in the notes for each hash

This Black Sheep Hash calendar is a public calendar, hopefully only editable by myself and those I choose, and will serve as a recorded history of the hash. This should help me keep “accurate” stats and resolve future conflicts. Hopefully this won’t also add a load of painful extra work to my life.

ITP Flickr Pic
Semi-dormant wasps resided inside the abandoned house we shot at last Sunday.

This is the hand of HamWithCam getting an up-close and personal shot of one of the wasps.

‘Tis The Season To Give
Believe it or not I am not referring to Christmas, but rather the end of Fiscal 2008. It’s time for Paulie to check his list of charities twice and open up to coffers to those who have not been naughty, but instead nice.

One of the better offers I’ve seen recently is from singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton. Coulton has partnered up with the Electronic Frontier Foundation so that if you donate $50 or more you will receive a USB drive containing twenty of Coulton’s favorite songs (of his, of course).

Also on my radar for potential financial support this year, in no particular order

• Trees Atlanta
• Camp Eureka!
• Horizon Theatre
• NPR (or one of Atlanta’s affiliates)
• High Museum
• and of course, Paulie’s Plumbing Fund

See anything that I should be considering? If any of you readers run a non-profit and are 503c 501(c)3 (thanks non-birthday Stacy) compliant (I get a tax credit) feel free to post the charity’s name in the comments or send me an email at the address shown in the right-hand galley.

It’s Birthday Time For One Of My Long-Lost Friends
Today is the birthday of my friend Stacey. Stacy belongs to that group of friends with whom I’ve lost too much contact because they procreated. I seriously doubt that she’s an ITP-reader as she’s a hoity-toity Executive over at Turner.

If any of you out there know her and still see her, please tell her that Paulie says “Happy Birthday, Yo!”

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – okay, although I thought today was Sunday
Current Music – listening to the “This Week in Tech” podcast
Website Of The Day – Google something for someone and he/she has knowledge for a day. Use Let Me Google That For You and he/she has knowledge for a lifetime.
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) – 9 (9)
Vegetarian Days – 6
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]

That was a line uttered on last’s weeks “Five Hundy By Midnight” podcast. Did I ever mention that I was a typography nerd?

Question…
Did anyone see the final score from Saturday’s SEC Championship Game? Oh wait, here it is:

Alabama 20
Florida 31

MUHAHAHAHAHA! Hey Oklahoma, see you in Miami!

GO GATORS!

I’m A Hard Driving Man
Remember a few weeks ago when I was all geeked up about getting that hard drive cable kit? Well I put it to good use this weekend and had a great time cleaning up my past. This weekend I used the device to clean off:

• 1 – 120 GB PATA hard drive
• 1 – 160 GB PATA hard drive
• 1 – 500 GB SATA hard drive
• 1 – 16 GB GB PATA hard drive

Unfortunately, the 2.1 GB PATA hard drive had its power supply connector too close to the PATA connector, so I couldn’t clean it. But seriously, how much important data could I have put on a 2.1 GB hard drive?

I also used the device to verify that a 500 GB SATA hard drive that I purchased a few months ago was DOA (note to self: it should be under warranty), and that you cannot connect an old ZipDrive to a computer using a USB port and expect if to function.

Overall I conclude that buying that cable kit was money well spent.

ITP Flickr Pic
Yep, I found another one…

This was near a town called Bostwick, Georgia. I went out to an abandoned house with a few other Flickrites and was pleasantly surprised to find this nearby.

Unfortunately I Missed Santa
This weekend was East Atlanta Santa at Joe’s Coffee Shop. I really wanted to go sit in near Santa’s lap, but timing (and cash on hand) didn’t permit. However, here’s a shot of yours truly, twenty or so pounds lighter and nine years younger.

Bonus points to any one who can figure out who is in that Santa suit.

It’s A Tough Job But Somebody’s Got To Do It
For the past few years I have been one of the hares for the Atlanta Hash‘s Annual East Atlanta Pub Crawl. Tonight I will be meeting up with my co-hares Martha Screw-It and Portuguese Water Dog as we reccy the trail by performing our very own pub crawl. You see how hard it is to be a hare some times?

The Amazing Race: The Grand Finale, Were There Really Three Teams?
The Fat Frats won?!?!?! That was the most amazing comeback ever!!! Oh sorry, I just woke up from a horrible nightmare.

There are so many things I like about The Amazing Race. The show is entertaining, the editing is clever, and their season finale is only one hour long with no nonsensical “remembering the players past” or reunion segment.

In last night’s finale we see the Final Three take off from Russia on the same flight. And that’s the last time we see the Fat Frats near the other two teams. As (bad) luck would have they get a cabbie in their own country who doesn’t know the city! For a second I feel badly for them and then remember that they aren’t even supposed to still be racing.

So it’s down to the Final Two. Tina tries hard to remember of Nick and Starrrrrrr still “owe her” because she thinks this is the perfect time to play the “Remember that one time I said ‘YOU OWE ME!’” card. Unfortunately for her she looks into a mirror and scares herself so badly that the Wonder Twins get away. The Final Two get to the logging camp — Ken and Tina first because Nick and Starr’s cabbie missed a turn; I think about all sorts of jokes about Starr and wood, and then get put off when I see Tina there as well. For some reason Ken and Tina choose the climbing option, pssst Ken if you want to be a good partner you should remember things like Tina is afraid of heights. Nick and Starr finish first and are off, only to have their cabbie screw them again by missing a turn to the designated bridge.

The Final Two are neck-and-neck, the Fat Frats are on their way to Seattle, and perform a zip-line down to the ever-popular The Amazing Rave memory game (note to whomever wants to by my Amazing Race partner: I no longer have the ability to remember details). Nick and Starr’s youth and stamina help them get off quickly (yes, I went there) and make it to downtown Portland first. Luckily for them Ken and Tina’s cabbie takes a poor route downtown and then they get all confused about where the clue is hidden. At this point it seems a shoe-in that Nick and Starr to win this season of The Amazing Race…

But WAIT! Even though Nick and Starr are the first to get to the Russia food cubby, they get directions to the donut shop from Comic Book guy and not RenFest Woman. RenFest Woman provides a shorter route for Ken and Tina…..

The Final Two make it to the donut shop and then neither can find a cab! Were this France I would have assumed that the cabbies were on strike, but this was downtown Portland, Oregon so I have no idea why this was an issue. Two teams, two cabs, clever editing — WHO. WILL. WIN??? We see one cab slowly pull into the final Pit Stop and then one second later we see the Wonder Twins sprinting to the mat; “soon after” Ken and Tina arrive. And then, surprisingly while it was still light out, the Frats arrived. I am assuming that once Nick and Starr finished, or perhaps when Ken and Tina arrived, the show’s producers went out and spared the Frats from having to answer all of the questions, and then finding the green dinosaur, and then the Russian food cart, and then the donut shop. Fuck, typing that out makes me realize just how far behind they were.

It’s not until after the show that I realize that I never saw Toni and Dallas at the end. Strange, since all of the other teams were there, including those about whom I’ve long since forgotten. Later last night I read an interview with Dallas who cleared up the lost passport fiasco (he wasn’t completely to blame because production people intervened and the editing made it look worse than it was), the fact that even though their passports were returned to a US Embassy (not Suites I’m assuming) it was too late for them to get back for the ending, and that he and Starr are “doin’ it” (at least for now).

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – okay, although slightly miffed
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Okkervil River — “Plus Ones”
Website Of The Day – Are you a RealiTV junkie? If so then check out Reality Blurred.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday = 4 miles of hashing

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 4 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 8 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 5
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]

End of year meetings have nearly booked my entire day. Frustrating… Sneaking this one in during my tiny window of opportuniy using the stuff I *did* prepare last night. :p

My DVR Life Is Ending Next Week
Well, I knew the time was coming and yesterday it became official. My Dish Network DVR receiver is going to be turned off next Friday. Bummer, there goes the ability to record any channel available to me. Somewhat sadly(?) this also means that I’m going to be missing shows that I would otherwise be watching. The reasons for this is that I often times record two shows at the same time, and I rarely watch any tv in real time.

Luckily TAR finale is this Sunday so I shouldn’t miss a single minute of this. As for the other shows that I will not be at home to view I guess I’ll have to use the other outlets available to me such as Hulu, Sling (if I can get their website to accept my information), network websites, and of course bittorrent.

ITP Flickr Pic
I had nothing in the hopper for today. Frustrating.

Anyone Out There Have Connections With The Band “The Warm Fuzzies?”
In a roundabout way yesterday I heard of a band from Athens, Georgia called The Warm Fuzzies. I found out that the band has just released a six-song EP called “The Bubblegum EP” which they are streaming on their website and have for sale (no digital download however) for $10. While I gave the music a good listen and like what I heard, very Weezer-like, I can’t bring myself to spend $10 for a CD. Can any one out there get me a free disc, or preferably convince them to sell their music online at a discounted price? If not I guess that I’ll continue to hit their site up for a listen when the mood strikes me.

I Regret That I Have But Time To Run But One Hash
This weekend there are two hashes that I’d like to attend. The first, the Atlanta Hash, is going to be hared by my friend and part-time ITP-Reader BWanA so it should be an excellent trail. The second, the Black Sheep Hash, is the one that I should attend since I am the stats keeper (who has fallen way behind) but will most likely be the one sacrificed in order to get some home chores completed.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Daily
Current Mood – frustrated
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – My life is in the toilet and even though I don’t care for tattoos I’m intrigued with Toilet Tattoos. However, my desire for uncluttering my house, including appearances of appliances/fixtures, means that I won’t be getting any of them. (Thanks to Barb for providing the website)
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 5 (5)
Vegetarian Days – 4
Carnivorous Days – 0
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]

I am in meetings all morning, there may be no blog today. Check again after lunch.