Inside The Perimeter

It’s been a rough one with little relief in sight. However, time marches on so I will march on into March with it.

How Stupid Do I Look?
Don’t feel compelled to answer that.

Yesterday I received an email from Curry Honda containing the following passage:

HeyPaul, we have great news for our Loyal Service Customers! If you have been thinking about getting a new or pre-owned vehicle this New Year here is the opportunity you have been waiting for. If you purchase a vehicle in our inventory within 14 days of your last service visit, we will reimburse your service bill for up to $1000. That’s cold hard cash back in your pocket!

So let me get this straight. I give you $2700 to fix my car and you want to offer me up to $1000 of that back so I can go into debt and return to having a car payment? Yeah, no. That’s alright you can fuckoff.

ITP Flickr Pic
$30 per week means eating some pretty basic meals.

However, I’m not complaining about eating sandwiches because I thought that they were pretty good — especially for $0.45 each.

Another One Bites The Dust
The faltering economy combined with the change in lifestyle has taking its toll on another local business. Last night I found out that local CD merchant Ella Guru will be shuttering its doors.

The timing of the notification is the strangest part of this scenario. Just the other day I passed Ella Guru on my drive into work and wondered how it was doing, and hoped that it wouldn’t be closing any time soon. Admittedly, I had yet to visit the store since it moved from its Toco Hill location to Inman Park last September, but that was more about my desire to no longer purchase physical media than a condemnation on the store’s quality.

Hell’s Kitchen: There Is No Thrill Of V-C-I-T-O-R-Y Tonight
Nobody on this season’s Hell’s Kitchen is a winner, they are all losers.

Hell’s Kitchen was open for breakfast! (I lurve me some breakfast!) This time the customers were children, annoying little football-playing boys and cheerleading-girls. I couldn’t believe my eyes to see that Colleen was cheering along with the girls while in the kitchen instead of cooking. Way to put a bulls-eye on your back, Einstein. (Oh, and I laughed my ass off when she misspelled “victory” while reciting a cheer.) However, the ladies rallied to serve all of their guests first and for the first time this season the men lost the reward challenge. The men’s punishment seemed far less brutal than last week’s lugging of beef and eating of primary cuts, however. For their punishment the men had to prep all of the food for the night’s service.

As is always the case the night’s episode contained an unhealthy portion of in-fighting and back-stabbing.

For the elimination both teams faltered and Gordo shut the kitchen down. In doing so Gordo told each team to nominate two candidates for elimination. In the end it was Smartass Seth to get the boot for his lack of cooking chops. I, for one, am happy to see him go.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, busy, hectic
Current Music – watching/listening to last night’s Hell’s Kitchen
Website Of The Day – Emory University is hold a recycling event tomorrow.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – stair climbing, six flights of stairs

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 27 (27)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 26
Marta Rides – 0

February Goals
- Complete all necessary work on my bed room
- Lose no fewer than one pound
- Run no fewer than 30 miles
- Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

My commute home took me right past Manuel’s Tavern but I decided not to stop and join the TweetUp. I just wasn’t in the mood to socialize, and wanted to head home to cook some of the food I purchased the other day in order to stay on my Eat/Drink for $30/Week course. From all of the tweets I’ve seen from participants it appears that a good time was had by many and that some people received free t-shirts. It’s a good thing I don’t need any more t-shirts.

ITP Flickr Pic
Given this week’s Seven Day Project it should come as no surprise that my shots this week center on food.

What should come as a surprise is that I am cooking at home even though the plumbing is still in limbo; makes life a little more challenging.

Tonight May Be A Trivia Night
Before agreeing to play the $30/Week game I agreed to join Meet The Hashers for Team Trivia at Raging Burrito. I guess I’ll be eating chips and salsa for dinner?

Top Chef : Dance With The Man Who Brung Ya
And another Top Chef is in the record books. This season seemed to fly by, and I can’t believe that an entire season has passed since watching Richard Blais compete in the last finale. [that's called "foreshadowing," kids]

We return to The Big Easy for the head-to-head-to-head competition between Hosea, Stefan, and Carla. Tonight’s competition is “simple,” cook the best three-course meal of your life and win the title of Top Chef. Since we’ve already seen a return of this season’s losers, bring on people who failed to take the title in previous seasons.. [enter Marcel, Casey, and Richard]. Knives were drawn and teams were formed.

- Hosea and Richard
- Stefan and Marcel
- Carla and Casey

The teams spent the night prepping their meals to get ready to cook at the world-famous Commander’s Palace for the competition. When faced with a Top Chef finale you should remember the following two rules

1. Don’t be bland, cook with bold flavors
2. Cook the food you know

To break either of those rules is to risk losing Top Chef even if you’ve proven yourself as the best cheftestant all season.

As the cheftestants entered Commander’s Palace they were confronted with the day’s twist. No, they weren’t going to have to cook solo, they were going to have to create an appetizer based on one of three local ingredients — crab, red fish, alligator. In order to decide who would pick their ingredient and then assign the other two, the cheftestants ate King Cake until one of them found the baby (HAHAHAHA!). Hosea found the baby, chose red fish, assigned the crab to Carla, and strategically assigned the alligator to Stefan.

Each chef team began the cooking…

Hosea chose to make a menu sans dessert because he wanted to cook what he knew and not leaving a lacking dessert as a lasting impression = SMART
Carla, decided to listen to Casey’s suggestion to souvee the meat and later to create a souffle for dessert. Neither of these techniques are Carla’s strengths = DUMB
Stefan used an unconventional method of freezing carpacchio and then made a really strange, lackluster dessert = DUMB

Want to take a stab at who won?

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, although I want my eyes to return to their normal state
Current Music – listening to C|Net’s “Buzz Out Loud” podcast
Website Of The Day – I still don’t have a Kindle2 (nor one on order) but I am still interested in eBooks. Check out Bookworm if you are too.
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) – 26 (26)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 25
Marta Rides – 0

February Goals
- Complete all necessary work on my bed room
- Lose no fewer than one pound
- Run no fewer than 30 miles
- Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

If you read the short little post I put up yesterday afternoon then you’ve already seen the “news.” It seems that my friend Tami at Running With Tweezers has a contact with one of the AJC’s blog writers, John Kessler. Kessler picked up the “Eat/Drink for $30/Week” gauntlet and ran with it by posting a blog entry, which pointed at Tami’s blog, which in turn pointed at Seven-Day Project, which forced me to get that online asap. It is. It’s barren. But I am still pleased.

Cleanup From Yesterday
I was going to jovially announce that the clock in my car finally illuminates, making the $1850 in repairs all seem worth it. Well, if you were around yesterday your know the rest of the story. There is a long story about the clock’s inability to illuminate, but I’ve lost the momentum on it

My mother turned seventy-nine yesterday. Seventy-nine. I’m not sure that I’ll make it that far, but I am glad that she has.

Yesterday is behind me, I’m moving forward.

ITP Flickr Pic
$28.79 spent at Kroger

Not all of this will be eaten this week, therefore not all of the $28.79 gets applied to my $30 for this week.

Rethinking My Marta Strategy
The past two days I took Marta to fetch my car from Curry Honda. I’ve been thinking of taking the train more often, including making it a future Seven-Day Project. However, I may have to rethink this based on the past day’s service.

On Monday a train departed the Dunwoody platform as I arrived, more my problem then theirs. But then the next train blew through the Dunwoody station without stopping causing us all to wait at least another five minutes.

Last night once again the train left the platform as I arrived. Again, not their fault, just bad luck. The next train arrived in a timely matter, only to come to a halt at the Buckhead station for about ten minutes as we waited for not one, but two, disabled trains to clear the Lindbergh Center station.

Tonight It’s All About TweetUp And Top Chef
One of Atlanta’s monthly TweetUps will be occurring tonight at 7pm at Manuel’s Tavern (damn, I should have packed some laundry). I’ll be there, sticking to budget, and perhaps doing some photography.

However, I’ll be leaving the TweetUp early enough to get home to watch tonight’s Top Chef finale.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – broke, but relieved
Current Music – listening to this week’s “MacBreak Weekly” podcast
Website Of The Day – I was a very late adopter of Arrested Development but now can’t wait until the movie is released. (oh, and I guess I should finish watching the series on dvd)
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car (w/o involving Curry Honda!)
Exercise (b)Log – nothing

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 25 (25)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 24
Marta Rides – 0

February Goals
- Complete all necessary work on my bed room
- Lose no fewer than one pound
- Run no fewer than 30 miles
- Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

If you’ve found your way to InsideThePerimeter.com via John Kessler’s blog in the AJC then welcome!

This is my no-holds-barred personal blog. The escapades of my $30/week challenge are soon to be found on Seven Day Project as of later tonight. I encourage you to head there each day and follow along if this project interests you.

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Things have gone from bad to worse. I am tired. This is great for my $30 / week project because I am thoroughly depressed and not the least bit hungry.

Until tomorrow,
Paulie

Everywhere I go I seem to run into someone I know. This morning I saw a woman at Curry Honda who runs at George’s and sits at the “Reserved” table in the back. If she recognized me she didn’t let on to that fact. (I know if I showed up to George’s more often then she would have easily recognized me.)

Guy Fieri And I Finally Have Something In Common
On Saturday morning I ate at the Silver Skillet. Much to my surprise when I turned on Food Network on Sunday afternoon they were showing Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and were was he going? The Silver Skillet.

I had originally planned to eat at Java Jive, but there was no parking remaining in their lot, so from there I headed over to the Silver Skillet. I was also going to practice my food photography with my point-and-shoot, but the blinds were drawn and the place was so crowded I felt a bit intimidated.

Have We Been Together For 90k Already?
Well, almost. The Jackmobile is about to rollover its odometer to 89k and with a pending trip out of state on the calendar I thought it was high time I get it into the shop for its 90k (read “at least $650″) maintenance. June 2009 will some how mark the seventh year the Jackmobile and I have been an item (well, save the six weeks that the bad guys had it back in 2004). Hard to believe that it’s been so long since I paid off the black 1996 Nissan 240sx and got new car fever a mere five months later. I have no such desires with the Jackmobile, hell it’s been payment-free for about four years now. And if you are wondering, I’m hoping to be typing up a blog some day when good-old-Jack and I celebrate 190k miles.

As it stands now my relationship with the Jackmobile is my longest relationship to date.

ITP Flickr Pic
On Friday I joined a handful of hashers for lunch at Tasty China in Marietta.

This was the green bean, olive, and pork dish that I ordered. Man was it delicious!

Introducing The “Seven Day” Project
I have been kicking an idea around in my head for a little while. The idea centered around spending and unemployment. While at the art auction last week I was in a really interesting conversation with Tami who runs the incredible food blog Running With Tweezers.

The conversation was about food, more specifically the cost of eating well. She mentioned that she was going to make an effort to budget $30 for an entire week of eating (apparently she discovered that $23 is the national average for a person receiving Federal assistance.) I mentioned that I was thinking of doing something similar, and lo and behold the idea was consecrated.

If you remember some time back I used to watch a show called 30 Days, which was created by Morgan Spurlock. The premise of the show is that a person would change his/her lifestyle drastically for thirty days. I cannot commit to such a long period of time (and forget that Lent starts Wednesday) so I have decided to commit to a lifestyle change for seven days. I have registered the domain name Seven Day Project (don’t go there yet as I’ve not set up the blog yet. I’ll announce that later in the week); sadly SevenDay.com, 7Day.com, OneWeek.com, and 1Week.com were already claimed.

Each Monday on Seven Day Project I will announce the task for the week and each day I will post my progress. This website could be really intriguing or really boring, only time will tell.

This week’s Seven Day Project is to eat for $30 this week. I will admit that this is going to be incredibly hard for me to accomplish.

The Amazing Race : I Hope She Never Tries Hashing
The Oscars? Pish-Posh! Week Two of the The Amazing Race was on last night.

It’s evident which teams have been observant views of past seasons as they request a cell phone from their cab driver and make plane reservations as they travel to the airport. The teams are headed to hang-glide off the side of a mountain and I’m assuming that this season will be all about scaring people like me who are afraid of heights. The caveat of this Road Block is that if they wind doesn’t cooperate, the contestant can bail on the hang-gliding and run down the mountain trail instead. All teams but one choose the “run” option, and somehow Linda gets lost running down the path. This is going to cost them, I’m sure.

Once down the mountain the teams head to the next Road Block where they choose to either trow pies in each other’s face until they find one with a cherry filling, or maneuver a Segway through an obstacle course. Once completed they must find a little which slices a piece of wood which alerts them to head to the Pit Stop. This brings about the best part of the night when the two flight attendants misinterpret the challenge and wind up in a stable where they find a piece of wood that they intend to cut. HA!

The hardest thing for most teams appeared to be driving through Austria. The major frustrations of the night were between team members who argue about directions, as well as when to stop and ask for help.

For the first time that I can remember the show makes mention of how long it has been since the day started. At one point the show flashes up that it had been fourteen hours since the race started that day. More than that I am amazed the time duration between the first team to finish the leg (Tammy and Victor) and the last team to finish (Linda and Steve). Of course this only being the second leg of the race Linda and Steve are eliminated from the race.

Tammy and Victor blew away the competition in this leg, which should provide them a big advantage next week — at least until they hit a closed park/business or airline issues.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – scared, things don’t seem to be the way they should with me
Current Music – listening to Leo Laporte’s “The Tech Guy” podcast
Website Of The Day – Ever struggle to remember a word? Try Tip Of My Tongue to see if it can help you out.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car / service van
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monday Morning Weigh-In – 199 pounds

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 23 (23)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 22
Marta Rides – 0

February Goals
- Complete all necessary work on my bed room
- Lose no fewer than one pound
- Run no fewer than 30 miles
- Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

My eyes have been bugging me this week. Perhaps I’ve been sitting in front of a computer for too long recently (I know, it seems as if that’s always been the case in my life). This week I’ve had a hard time focusing on my computer screen without wearing my glasses. Getting old is not that much fun.

Timing Is Everything
And for some things I have great timing, for others, well…

My official policy for last night was to stay at home and do nothing. That was until I found out about a cool gathering happening at Zach Arias’ new Used Film Studios in Decatur.

Arias’ name has been all abuzz on the internet recently for the inspirational video he posted on Scott Kelby’s blog on Wednesday. I have wanted to find out more about Arias for some time and decided to change my plans in order to get in on the action.

Prior to heading to the studio I met up with Maigh and Shawn at The Grange Public House. I ordered on of the night’s specials, the chicken pot pie, and was surprised (happily) that it turned out to be more of a chicken pot pie muffin served with a side of mashed potatoes and green beans.

ITP Flickr Pic
Okay so I finally uploaded a new photo. Let me explain this one.

1. I almost always place a photo of a beautiful woman as the background image on my computer, call it “inspiration.” Rarely have I taken the photo (at least not yet).
2. The Post-It Notes that you see attached to the monitor are there to remind me to ground myself prior to touching electronics. This week I feared that I damaged my laptop the other day when I was shocked as I touched it.

Hell’s Kitchen : Sticking It In The Man
I made it home just in time to catch the beginning of Hell’s Kitchen.

It should come as no surprise that I think that Hell’s Kitchen is rigged. Last night’s episode convinced me of this.

The cooks (notice that I don’t even give them enough respect to call these people “cheftestants”) started with a “Name That Steak” contest by matching the cut to the part of the cow from which it is cut. Not surprisingly, many of these cooks were clueless. The men were whisked away to a winery for a day with Gordo, while the women were forced to lug and separate two sides of beef for the night’s service.

For elimination each team commanded Hell’s Kitchen, Steak House Edition. First the ladies played waitresses and sabotaged the men who were cooking for the customers, and then the rolls were reversed. Both teams had problems (surprise!) and in the end the women were declared victorious.

The two guys put up for elimination were mouthy-stalker Seth and body piercing-lover Charlie. To me it appeared that it was Seth’s time to go, but he makes for better television than Charlie, so he was spared.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, although a bit bothered by my eyes
Current Music – listening to Leo Laporte’s “The Tech Guy” podcast
Website Of The Day – Fancy yourself as an animation freak like me? Then you must check out Comic Mint.
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) – 20 (120)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 19
Marta Rides – 0

February Goals
- Complete all necessary work on my bed room
- Lose no fewer than one pound
- Run no fewer than 30 miles
- Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Leaving the house around 6:30am and returning home near 12:30am was probably not the best idea that

It Was A Night Of Stars!
Okay, it was really a night of rain, tornado warnings, and a poorly lit restaurant with a live band. Last night’s Atlanta Photo Exposure raised over $600 through the sales of photos. I’d venture to guess that there were perhaps thirty shots for sale, so while no one photo went through the roof a handful of people acquired quality work at an affordable price. This is my way of putting a positive spin on the fact that my photo sold, but not for that much. In fact I don’t know the final bid as I chose not to find out. I was also hoping to see it in the hands of one of the many attractive young ladies in attendance, but I believe that too was merely a pipe-dream.

I had never been to Eclipse di Luna before. While it seemed to be a good place to get dinner, unless of course you wanted to hold a conversation, the venue was not ideal for the event. Eclipse di Luna is a poorly lit space with a live band which happened to be right next to the area in which the photos were displayed. I’m not saying that bidding was reduced due to this, but a better lit, quiet gallery-like space may be better suited for this.

All in all I was impressed with the organization and hope that my donation, no matter how small it was, helps them thrive.

ITP Flickr Pic
I took a couple of artsy shots of the print I was selling. However, I have not had the time to even download them from the camera.

Would anyone like to guess where this shot was taken?

If you said Avondale Estates, give yourself a point.
Have I ever mentioned that I love geometric shapes and shadows? Well if I haven’t I have now.

You Could Say It Was An EARLy Start
I arrived at The EARL at 10:15pm, which proved to be perfect. I located my friend Mike among the sold-out crowd (I accidentally bought two tickets, btw) and within minutes Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit took the stage. I was pleased with the “early” start time. I’ve seen Isbell perform before and knew that I’d be in for a good time. What I failed to recall was that Isbell and his mates would perform for over two hours. Some technical difficulties as well as a short intermission also stretched the evening out. Some time near 12:30am my eyes could no longer bear the stress, so I headed home to fall asleep immediately.

I realized something about myself last night — I’m no longer in my twenties and that I hang really well for someone who will be entering is mid-forties. Hell, I probably hang better now than when I was in my twenties.

Top Chef : Shhhhh, I’ve Not Seen The New Episode
Coming home at the hour I did cost me the opportunity to see Top Chef last night. I believe that I was being punished because I attempted to Top Chef flirt with a young lady at Eclipse di Luna as she left. She went into the pouring rain to go watch Top Chef with her parents than stay and chat with me. When will I learn? When will, I learn?

In other Top Chef news I’m still miffed that Hulu update its Top Chef offerings. It’s probably Bravo’s fault as here is what is posted on Hulu’s website:

Hulu can offer two full-length episodes from Bravo’s lineup each calendar month. The episodes featured and when they are posted are at Bravo’s discretion. We’ll continue to request complete series on our users’ behalf.

When will they learn? When will, they learn?

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – tired
Current Music – none, it’s silent here right now
Website Of The Day – Have you ever wondered if your favorite restaurant is “gree?” Check out the Green Restaurant Association’s site.
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) – 19 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 18
Marta Rides – 0

February Goals
- Complete all necessary work on my bed room
- Lose no fewer than one pound
- Run no fewer than 30 miles
- Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Did you feel it? Yesterday was the day that television stations were to shut off their analog tv transmissions and go all-digital. Or NOT… That’s right, the All-Knowing Government stepped in and mucked things up again, so from now until June 12th (the supposed next time that all analog tv transmissions are to cease) who knows which stations will be in digital only. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I Must Be Off My Game
How could I forget the Eagles as one of the oldest NFL teams named after an animal?
Walter Payton was the first NFL player on a Wheaties box? Really?

Last night I joined some Twitterers at Neighbor’s Pub in Poncey-Highland for some Trivia Zone trivia. It’s been some time since I’ve played trivia, so maybe my skills were rusty.

Our efforts earned us nothing.

iPhone Owners, Have You Tried Amazon Remembers?
Yesterday I was introduced to a feature on the Amazon app on the iPhone called “Remembers.” It’s a feature of the app which helps you find things based on a photo. Here’s how it works:

1. Get iPhone
2. Download Amazon app (why haven’t you already?)
3. Launch Amazon app and select “Remembers” on the bottom
4. Take a photo of the item you want Amazon to find and remember
5. Wait for Amazon to find it
6. If found, buy!

Very cool, no? No, I’ve not taken a photo of my plumbing problems…

ITP Flickr Pic
Not shooting, but I hate not having a photo.

This was from that photowalk we did around Avondale Estates a few weeks ago.

Art And Music
I should be easy to locate today.
Work from now until about 6:30pm.
Atlanta Photograpy Exposure’s Silent Auction from 7pm-9pm.
The EARL to hear Jason Isbell afterward.

Things This Morning Were Not All Buttoned-Up
For tonight’s APE auction I wanted to wear a nice shirt (nice pants less of an option due to current waist size). I thought, and thought, and then made a decision. After fastening one button the second one came off in my hand. Dangen! Even though I do own one of those (As Seen on TV) Buttoneer, there was no time to mend and I have a big desire to not look like a dork missing a button on his shirt. Double Dangen! Currently wearing Option B.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, but weirder than normal
Current Music – listening to yesterday’s “Buzz Out Loud” podcast from C|Net
Website Of The Day – Who wouldn’t want to listen to music online? Favtape is another service to help you do so.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing of note

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 18 (18)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 17
Marta Rides – 0

February Goals
- Complete all necessary work on my bedroom
- Lose no fewer than one pound
- Run no fewer than 30 miles
- Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

After having the ‘E’ key on my “new” laptop pop off, I popped off. “ENOUGH!” I quickly fired off a spiteful whine onto to Twitter, and therefore Facebook as well. I then realized that this was not good for me, and probably not that great for all who read it. I have put myself into the Social Network Penalty Box and will not be checking either site for a while. Of course I can be reached through this blog, or through the email address listed in the right-hand galley.

I Guess We Can Say “At least we are neither Las Vegas nor Detroit.”?
This morning on the Yahoo! Home Page there was a teaser for an article titled America’s Emptiest Cities. Here is an excerpt

Las Vegas edged Detroit for the title of America’s most abandoned city. Atlanta came in third, followed by Greensboro, N.C., and Dayton, Ohio. Our rankings, a combination of rental and homeowner vacancy rates for the 75 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country, are based on fourth-quarter data released Feb. 3 by the Census Bureau. Each was ranked on rental vacancies and housing vacancies; the final ranking is an average of the two.

Yikes! We’re number three?

It’s Almost Official
Last night I worked through a “Hello World!” application using Apple’s iPhone Development Tools. Sure, this is not going to shake the world, but it’s a start.

To get to this point has been somewhat of an effort. First, I had to download the iPhone SDK, which is a whopping 1.7GB and takes a while to download. (on a further note: two of the three times I attempted this the resulting file was not 100% correct.)

To become an “Official” iPhone Developer I must also fork over $99 to Apple for some additional tools which allow testing on an actual iPhone or iPod Touch instead of just a computer simulation. Last night I began the process of applying and was thwarted by what should have been a simple question — “Do I want to be listed as an Individual or a Company?”. At first I thought “Company, of course.” but then read the fine print where I might have to provide papers of incorporation to do so. Bummer, I don’t want be listed by my name, I want to be listed by a company name. Next up: either incorporating or becoming an individual.

ITP Flickr Pic
I have nothing for today. I am not shooting nearly enough. I finally made a first pass through the shots I took at Red Top Rumble and have mixed emotions about them.

Does Any One Know A Good Place In Atlanta To Buy A Photo Mat?
I need to purchase a mat for the photo I am donating tomorrow. You know, for the Atlanta Photography Exposure’s Silent Auction. Do you know of a good place to purchase a pre-cut mat? If so, please let me know today.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fair
Current Music – listening to the latest “The Word Nerds” podcast
Website Of The Day – My breakfast today will never be found in the Eat Well Guide. However, you should go there if you want to be a healthier person.
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) – 17 (17)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 16
Marta Rides – 0

February Goals
- Complete all necessary work on my bed room
- Lose no fewer than one pound
- Run no fewer than 30 miles
- Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas

2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]