Inside The Perimeter

It was nasty Friday, Saturday, and Sunday but now that we are back in the office the weather is perfect. Forecasts even predict perfect weather until — you guessed it — Friday. Wheeeeeee!

Wait, Was That This Weekend?
As I stated on Friday I skipped Twisted Ankle this year. The weather was crap so I didn’t mind skipping the camping, and since I wasn’t trained I didn’t mind skipping the run.

Can’t Any Of Atlanta’s Breakfast Restaurants Create A Useful Website?
Because I was staying ITP for Saturday morning and because I’ve not stocked my kitchen since about New Year’s I decided that I was going to allow myself to eat an early breakfast out. On Friday night I tried to use the power of the internet to decide which restaurant was going to be open early and where I was going to eat, and here’s what I found:

• Java Jive and Gato Bizco have no website.
• Thumb’s Up Diner has a website domain which is parked on a hosting site.
• Flying Biscuit doesn’t post its hours on its website.
• Ria’s Bluebird has annoying music which plays by default on every page.
• Sun In My Belly posted hours, but you had to click through three levels to find them.

After attempting an 8am breakfast at Java Jive only to find them close I headed to Home Depot before getting breakfast. I knew that The Majestic and Waffle House were always breakfast options but I wanted something different. I wound up at Sun In My Belly, which wasn’t as “different” as I desired, was delicious.

ITP Flickr Pic
The pen is indeed mightier than the sword. On Friday I accidentally marred this shirt by leaving a blue pen in its pocket.

I guess I’m going to have to request a new white shirt if I go to another trade show. In the meantime I might buy a box of dye and turn it into a blue(ish) shirt.

I Had A Lot If Indoor Alone Time, If Only I Had Accomplished My Reading
The weekend’s poor weather meant that I didn’t attempt to yard work, good, but did not ensure that I got my PHP reading done, bad.

Instead, I stumbled upon two video podcasts — Gardenfork and Real World Green — both with the same host which kept me entertained.

Real World Green is a one-to-four minute podcast which highlights ways that individuals can reduce their impact on the environment.

Gardenfork is a three-to-ten minute personal journey in which the host demonstrates how to perform a task. Entertainingly the host often times bungles a step in the process and, to his credit is quick to admit this.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – warm because the heat must have kicked on at the office last night. ugh.
Current Music – listening to Harry Shearer’s “le Show” podcast
Website Of The Day – Watching Real World Green reminded me of using Freecycle for getting rid of, or acquiring used good
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) – 8 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 17
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
Whoops, I didn’t even consider this. Perhaps something will be here on Monday.

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]

Last night I returned to find the gigantic pile of yard waste that I’ve generated gone. Woo Hoo. Now I am even more happy that I pushed myself to do yard work on Wednesday night. Soon I will begin creating another new pile.

Believe it or not I am still suffering from the poison ivy I encountered nearly two weeks ago. With all future yard work I’ll be clothed head to toe regardless of the temperature.

Sure, just when I jump on the Sun Bandwagon Sun Gets Bought Out
On my Mac I use Java (programming language), MySQL (relational database), and now VirtualBox (virtual machine hosting application), all of which are Sun Microsystems products.

Sun has been in business for as long as I can remember and now that I jump onto their bandwagon they sell out to Oracle. Ugh. I’m sure it’s going to take a little time for the deal to finalize and I hope in that time Oracle realizes that they shouldn’t abandon any of these products.

Save Paste
Do you know that there is a world-known music magazine called Paste located in Decatur? Yep, there is.

Do you know that Paste, like many magazines these days is financial straights? Sadly, they are.

In order to make an effort to save the publication Paste has launched a Save Paste Magazine Campaign in which you can donate money to them and receive rare and exclusive music tracks in addition to the feeling that you are helping a quality music rag stay in business.

ITP Flickr iPhone Pic
Back to the iPhone I go. With the exception of the beautiful flowers I passed as I scurried in to work today I seriously haven’t seen anything worthy of photographing.

Not that I consider myself worthy of photographing either, I just needed a shot for today.

A Weekend Of Reading And Writing, But No ‘Rithmetic
I’m actually hoping for a rainy weekend. I know, I know. It’s just that I have so many indoor chores to accomplish this weekend I don’t want to feel like I am missing out.

This weekend I need to come up to speed with some PHP programming and I hope to restart my effort to learn iPhone application development. Wish me well, I’m going to need it.

RealiTV Update: Hell’s Kitchen — Separating The Chaff From The Other Chaff
Another Hell’s Kitchen is in the books.

Last night we were down to the Final Two, each of which is helped by three castaways of course. Paula and Danny have created their dream restaurants, as well as the accompanying menus. I won’t dwell on the food because the show didn’t either.

Controversy abound. Former contestants whining. All participants failing. Sound familiar? It sounds like every episode of Hell’s Kitchen.

In the end Danny’s door opened, thus declaring him the winner and putting him in the rarefied air with Michael, Heather, Rock, and Christina. In addition Danny got to put his Molly Hatchet loving mug on the Hell’s Kitchen Wall of Fame.

I’m not sure I can get on the bandwagon when the next season of Hell’s Kitchen comes around. Only time will tell.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – scared because I am getting something I really wanted and
Current Music – listening to the “Cranky Geeks” podcast
Website Of The Day – Because people know of my love for photography I am often asked what camera they should purchase. Don’t ask me, ask the digital camera experts at Best In Class.
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 – 1, Carnivorous Days – 13
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
Whoops, I didn’t even consider this. Perhaps something will be here on Monday.

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]

April Fools! Actually, there are things I love about my house, but like anyone who owns a money-eating car, boat, house, or whatever, there are things that are driving me insane.

Back To The Front
I just keep reminding myself that my yard work is more of a marathon than a sprint. This is the only way that I can avoid being dejected.

Last night as I entertained a guy who will be making a cost estimate to repair my carport and damaged portion of my gutters, as well as paint the soffit and ironwork of my house I started to fight the front yard again.

To my pleasure my Ryobi gas-powered multi-tool (I have the string trimmer, edger, and bush trimming attachments) actually started with only a little convincing. Sure, the gas was a bit old (and stabilized) and I had to yank the cord (settle down, Francis) in order to get the engine going, but once I did it it ran like a champ.

I still have much yard work to do, but I just need to keep reminding myself that it is a marathon and not a sprint.

And did I cover in clothing from head to toe last night? You bet your ass I did.

Taking A New Look On Life (Again)
Yesterday I received a piece of news which made me stop and think. A friend of a friend passed away on his way to work yesterday; he was twenty-nine. Twenty-nine? That’s almost fifteen years younger than me.

“Why do I keep putting things off when I have no idea when it will all end?” was the first thing that crossed my mind.

I’m not going to profess to change radically, a little bit every day is all I can commit to doing. I’m not recommending that you to change if you are living the life that you desire; all I’m doing is to remind you that our time is limited — enjoy it the best you can.

ITP Flickr Pic
I made it to one baseball game in Denver.

This is obviously not the most picturesque image you’ll see from Coors Field, but it is the best shot that I took all night.

Guilty Confession Time
As a reward for working hard in the yard last night I watched a movie. The movie? 8 Mile. I was a energized by it last night as I was when I first saw it in the theater in 2002.

Oh, and as I surfed IMDB to get that 8 Mile link I saw that today is Cate Blanchett’s 40th birthday — still looking good for an old lady.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – tired
Current Music – catching up on multiple podcasts
Website Of The Day – Saw a commercial yesterday for the Fifty Million Pound Challenge and was intrigued. Sadly it’s about losing weight and not winning 50 Million units of former British currency.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – yard work

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 4 (4)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 12
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
Whoops, I didn’t even consider this. Perhaps something will be here on Monday.

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]

How do we do it? My time is being tugged in at least three different directions and my life is devoid of a significant other! How do we survive? There are simply not enough hours in my waking day to accomplish what I need to accomplish.

You’d think that all of this activity would include great news about house repairs, fantastic progress with my yard work, or some fun. Sadly, no.

After Much Difficulty, I Am Mac OS X 10.5.7 Compliant
Yesterday was not a good day. I love my Macs; I really, really love them. However, just like any relationship in which I have been, love has it’s rough spots. Yesterday was a rough spot.

Twice yesterday afternoon my MacBook stopped functioning properly. I’d get up and walk away for a little while and when I returned the screen was dimmed as if it were going into power save (which is not an unusual behavior) but all trackpad and keyboard input was ignored. To make matters even more strange, the computer hadn’t completely crashed because the audio for whatever I was playing was still coming out of the speakers and when the iTunes window was visible I could also watch the time change as the track played. Not good.

At the end of the afternoon I read that Apple had release a new operating system update, Mac OS X 10.5.7, so I gleefully kicked off a Software Update in hopes that whatever was contained within would fixed what ailed me. On two occasions my download failed part-way through the 286MB download, so I switched to a direct download from Apple which increased my download to over 450MB. Sadly, the internet at the office is not the swiftest so my download took well over an hour and my plan to leave .

Well, at least I was able to catch up on a few back episodes of The Office.

ITP Flickr Pic
Hey! Look! It’s a photo not taken with an iPhone.

This is the big blue bear which peeks into the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. I tried for three days to get a shot of this when some light was actually hitting it. Like most downtown areas Denver has a number of tall buildings which block the light for most of the day.

I’m Remembering Why I Broke Up With Microsoft
After my spat with Apple I thought that I might want to flirt with Microsoft’s Windows 7 Release Candidate. My interest in operating system whoring was twofold. First, since I’ve been unsuccessful in getting my legal copy of WindowsXP to install as a virtual machine on my Mac under VMWare I figured that this could be a legal way to have access to a Windows operating system. Second, this access would allow me to update the Black Sheep stats (which are currently clumsily compiled in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet) until I finally finish writing my Black Sheep Stats application.

All I’d have to do is kick off a overnight download of the 2.6GB file. Simple, right? Nope.

First I had to reset the password of my Windows Live (MSN / Hotmail) account since I couldn’t remember the password. Actually, I didn’t remember having a Windows Live account.

Then I had to jump through some hoops to get to the download page.

Then, because this is Microsoft, the download was not done in a standard way — so I had to disable my popup blocker.

But of course this didn’t work smoothly on my first attempt, so I deleted the partially-downloaded file and kicked off another download. But that didn’t work properly, so I tried again.

And I tried again.

And I tried again.

And I remembered why I broke up with Microsoft, quit trying to download Windows 7 RC, and went to bed.

Kicking My Photography Up A Notch
I’m tired of being a half-assed photographer and am vowing to improve my skills and marketing by year’s end. Beginning this weekend I am (finally!) going to work on my SmugMug account.

I’ve also enrolled in a two-day (June 6-7) workshop being put on locally by Digital Days Photography. Yeah, I know that June 7th is a Black Sheep Sunday; I guess I’ll have to miss yet another hash.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – scattered
Current Music – listening to the “MacCast” podcast.
Website Of The Day – The web is such a wonderful place! Where else could you find a compilation of Awkward Family Photos?
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) – 3 (3)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 11
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
It’s mid-May. I’m not going to make any goals.

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]

I’m flummoxed today and have no idea about what I wish to write.

Finally Catching Up
Last night I headed home from work and fired up my network for the first time in nearly a week. After the almost-predictable, near-heart-stopping near-non-startup of one my computers things went well and six hours later I had downloaded all of the podcasts that I missed while away.

Have I mentioned how slow my DSL is? The DSL that I pay too much for each month? The DSL that I’ve considered changing at least five times in the last three years but figure that I’d rather deal with the devil I know instead of the one that I do not?

Oh well, at least I am caught up now. Now all I have to do is find the time to listen and watch the downloaded content.

ITP Flickr Pic
It appears that it’s going to be ITP iPhone Flickr Pic week.

On my way home I stopped at Lee’s Bakery on Buford Highway and consumed this delicious crazy cheap sandwich for dinner.

So You Say You Used To Be A Grandaddy Fan?
Well my friend, let me tell you about an upcoming release from Grandaddy’s former lead singer Jason Lytle. Next week Lytle will release “Yours Truly, The Commuter” and thanks to NPR you can stream this release at their First Listen website.

Heck, while you are there you may want to give the upcoming John Vanderslice release a virtual spin as well. Vanderslice will be playing The EARL in June.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, still wishing effects of poison ivy would go away
Current Music – listening to yesterday’s “Buzz Out Loud” podcast from C|Net
Website Of The Day – This Aerial Tour Of Manhattan would be completely awesome if I could have figured out how to turn off the music.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monday Tuesday Morning Weigh-In – 200.6 pounds BOO! HISS!

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2 (2)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 10
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
Whoops, I didn’t even consider this. Perhaps something will be here on Monday.

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]

Today is the day that New Belgium Brewery’s Fat Tire (as well as its 1554 and Mothership Wit) will go on sale… or so I have been told.

In Case You Hadn’t Realized, I’ve Been Away
Yep. I flew out to Denver last Tuesday afternoon and returned yesterday afternoon. It was a long business trip sprinkled with moments of fun. I’m glad to be back home and get into my routine again, but feel it will be at least another day before I get my legs back under me.

Somebody Has A New $39 Windbreaker, And Somebody Forgot A New $35 Set Of Earbuds
Sometimes I think that I’d forget my head if it weren’t attached to my body.

On my way to the airport last Tuesday I realized that I failed to pack a pair of headphones for the flight. With no time to spare I decided to suck it up and purchase a new set of earbuds at the airport, for the not-so-low price of $35. The expense was worth it, however.

While I had correctly viewed the long-term weather outlook for Denver I had no idea that I’d be going to a Rockies game on Friday night. I also had no idea that the weather in Denver could turn so quickly and was caught off guard when the temperatures went from warm to cold and windy. At the Rockies game I couldn’t handle the cold and found myself in a gift shop looking at outerwear. The cheapest thing I found that would suffice was a $39 windbreaker. The expense was worth it, however.

As I sat in the lobby after checking out of my hotel room I realized that I didn’t have my new earbuds. I remembered that I had placed the earbuds onto my camera bag, but not into my camera bag would have made a whole lot of sense, and realized that they must have fallen off the bag when I picked it up. Sadly, I didn’t have the time to request to get back into the room and go up and fetch them. I hope that the cleaning staff enjoys my forgetfulness.

ITP Flickr Pic
I took few photos while in Denver (there are long explanations for this). Further, I’ve had no time to review/edit any of the shots taken.

So today all I can offer up is the quick shot of this poster for Antonia Lofaso’s food demonstration. Long-time ITP-Readers will remember Top Chef: Chicago when Antonia was my randomly-selected pick to win it all on EAV Buzz‘ Top Chef Fantasy League. I was thrilled to say hello to her and received an autographed apron; no, I did not tell her about the fantasy league.

WTF ATL?
I’ve been away for six days and in that time all of the plants have grown crazily, the police believe that they found one of the murders in the John Henderson case, the UGA professor who killed his wife was found in a shallow grave dead from a self inflicted gun shot, and the cost of gas has gone up about $0.20 a gallon?

What the fuck is going on here?

RealiTV Update: The Amazing Race Is Over Again — “Youth And Good Looks Get Rewarded Again”
I may have mentioned this before about The Amazing Race, I love the fact that their finale is simply one more hour-long episode without a lot of “remember whens” and wasted time.

The Final Three (Tammy and Victor, Jaime and Cara, Margie and Luke) finally get to leave China to fly to Hawaii on a nineteen hour flight. At the first challenge the teams had to carry a pig, and then properly construct a pit at a luau. Margie and Luke were the strongest team and rallied past the others and built a sizable lead. Meanwhile Jaime and Cara get yet another clueless cab driver, this time they also get one that needs to stop for gas, and I laugh my ass off when the dispatcher tells the that he/she is not their personal concierge. This misfortune will certainly cost them any chance of winning it all.

As is the case with every The Amazing Race I have seen the final Roadblock is a memory challenge. For this season one team member had to correctly identify images on surfboards and place their selected surfboards in the proper order. With a huge lead and Margie telling us that Luke has been preparing for this specific task I am certain that we will see them win. Luke had about eight of the twelve (or was it eleven?) surfboards in place when Victor started the task. Luke needed to only correctly find and place the final two surfboards when Cara (or was it Jaime?) starts the task. And just like that, Victor finishes the task and head toward the final finish line…. Luke helped out Jaime (or was it Cara?) find her final surfboard, and she in turns helps Luke identify his mistake.

With only yet another cab ride between the three teams and the finish line we are now certain that Tammy and Victor are going to win. Oh good, great looking, young, lawyers who could communicate with the locals during at least two episodes in China are finally going to catch a break and win; Cara and Jaime finished in second; Margie and Luke went from first to third.

And so ends another season of The Amazing Race.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, still hating poison ivy, glad to be home
Current Music – listening to this week’s “Sound Opinions” podcast
Website Of The Day – Tootie Foodie is yet another good food blog.
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) – 1 (2)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 9
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
Whoops, I didn’t even consider this. Perhaps something will be here on Monday.

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]

I’m in Denver to work our annual trade show. Life’s been on the hectic side as I prepared for this trip. And now you know about yesterday’s lack of a post.

Let me now explain why this may be the last post for this week — this fancy-pants hotel into which I have been booked charges $9.99/day for Internet access, posting from my iPhone (as I am doing now) is brutal, and finding the time to go somehere that provides a free and open pipe will be difficult.

Cheers for now,
Paulie [earl/ga]

Life has gotten in the way….. Be back tomorrow.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – frustrated
Current Music – none
Website Of The Day – none
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) – 2 (2)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 3
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
Whoops, I didn’t even consider this. Perhaps something will be here on Monday.

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]

I spent (too) many hours working the back yard this weekend. I worked hard, and even harder than expected, due to my chainsaw’s inability to keep its chain on its blade. About three times I had to stop to return to chain to the blade. At one point I was so frustrated that the chainsaw found its way to the trash can, only to be saved by my inability to find a reasonably-priced replacement on Saturday night. On Sunday I repaired it once again, only to have it jump the blade an hour or so in to the work. At that point I gave up and decided to start pruning the limbs I had taken down and leaving those too thick to prune.

The backyard is starting to look good. I made good progress as the three-or-so-foot of branches and brush will attest. Not being that great with time estimations I throw out a WAG by saying that I have about three full days of work left before I can throw a “Paulie Ten Year House Anniversary / Rechristen The Back Yard / Hoooray, The Plumbing Is Fixed” party. Oh yeah, I guess I’ll have to get the plumbing fixed too.

It’s A Small Twitter World After All
On Friday my office building had a fire alarm, which I cynically called a “fire drill” given that it was May 1st and I saw no fire trucks arrive to investigate.

About an hour after returning to the building I read the tweets I had missed only to read one from a guy who mentioned being on the ninth floor during a fire alarm. His tweet was timestamped a mere two minutes from my tweet about the fire alarm! “What are the odds?” I thought. So I sent him a direct message asking where he worked and indeed we are in the same building working for different companies. Life is strange and random.

ITP Flickr Pic
I took a few “before” shots of the look off my deck, but determined that they were nothing spectacular and never took any after shots. So, here’s another from the Inman Park Festival. Oh joy!

At the Inman Park Festival I did a lot of “shoot from the hip” photography. Believe it or not, this is one of the better shots.

RealiTV Update : The Amazing Race – “Millionaire Port-a-Potty”
We’re down to the Final Four on The Amazing Race and pick up from last week’s “To Be Continued…” ending. Off go the redheads (whose names I’ve never bothered to learn), then Margie and Luke, then Tammy and Victor, then Keisha and Jen. I was once again frustrated that no real-time clock is present letting us know the time separation of the teams.

Off they go! The Amazing Taxi Race is back on! Immediately the redheads frustrated by China because the Chinese refuse to recognize their beauty and double-back on themselves like Cirque du Soleil acrobats to help them win. The racers head to a shopping district to look for the Travelocity Roaming Gnome, heretofore known as the only product-placement schlock of which I approve.

With the Roaming Gnome in hand, um arms, the teams race through Tienanmen Square on neato electric bikes and then back into a cab to head either to the Beijing Opera house, well except for the redheads who go to the National Opera house first, or to a Chinese restaurant. Since Tammy and Victor speak at least on dialect of Chinese they choose to do the restaurant option of the detour in which they have to take a food order in which is spoken in Mandarin and successfully relay this order to the chef. The rest of the teams go play makeup and make each other look like drag queens after a rough night at the Clermont Lounge.

Uh oh, a non-nekkid U-Turn!!! Tammy and Victor get to the U-Turn first and U-Turn Keisha and Jen and write “Take that, bitches!” “Sorry, we can’t outrun you.” on it. Keisha and Jen now have to return to take and place food orders and for some reason interpret everything as “Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the following counties…” While Keisha and Jen fumble with Mandarin the redheads start getting on each other’s every last nerve because they can’t even find the U-Turn.

From the U-Turn the teams hit an infamous “eat a local delicacy” Detour. In this instance one team member had to eat starfish, grub, scorpion, and cricket — suddenly I think eating dog would be preferable. Victory munches, Margie munches, and sometime later Jen drinks copious amount of water while munching, and Redhead #1 munches quickly and oddly stating that it all tasted like quarterback penis — huh, who knew?

Tammy and Victor smash the competition and finish first. Margie and Luke finish second. As we see Jen and Redhead #1 munching together we know that they are going to finish neck-and-neck. And then Jen starts whining about having to pee because she drank too much water whilst munching. The two ladies finish at about the same time with Keisha and Jen leaving for the Pit Stop first.

As Keisha and Jen race to the Pit Stop Jen decides she needs a pit stop at a port-a-potty first. Are you fucking kidding me? You are racing for one half of a million dollars! You know how close the other team is (unless it’s clever editing). Pee on your damn leg for $500,000! Because Jen’s small bladder Redhead #1 and Redhead #2 and finish in the Top Three.

Here is the irony of all ironies….

Last week we thought Keisha and Jen were going to be eliminated by water — because Jen’s inability to swim. This week Keisha and Jen were eliminated by water — because Jen drank too much at the Detour. Life is strange and random.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – frustrated (about private matters)
Current Music – listening to the “Tips From The Top Floor” podcast
Website Of The Day – More from the strange and random internet — What Color Is The Empire State Building? Apparently the Empire State Building has different colors symbolizing different events.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – yard work, yard work, yard work
Monday Morning Weigh-In – 198 pounds

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 1 (2)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 2
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
Still nothing.

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]

Hey you kids, stop playing with my Maypole!

And this morning I learned that the term “May Day” when used as a call for help has nothing to do with May 1st, but instead comes from a similar sounding French phrase for “Help me.” The more you know…

Manchester Orchestra Once Again Strikes The Right Chord With Me
I’ll admit it, I’ve been a fan of Manchester Orchestra since first hearing their EP “You Brainstorm, I Brainstorm, But Brilliance Needs A Good Editor.” Last week the band released a new record (album, cd, whatever) “Mean Everything To Nothing” and I finally remembered to purchase it this week.

To summarize… I love it. “Mean Everything To Nothing” builds upon the foundation laid with “”You Brainstorm, I Brainstorm, But Brilliance Needs A Good Editor” and their first full-length LP “I’m Like A Virgin Losing A Child.” This record is packed with good rock songs and signature solo pieces from Andy Hull.

You can download “Mean Everything To Nothing” from Amazon for $7.99. Do it!

Oh Hello Creative Loafing, It’s Been A Long Time
Wow, it seems like forever since I picked up a copy of Creative Loafing. When I first moved to Atlanta I would pick up the new edition every week on Wednesday (before they moved publication day to Thursday) and would plan my weekend around it. The rise of the internet produced a decline in my Creative Loafing reading, and my readership declined further when the Loaf declared bankruptcy and reduced its distribution.

As I exited Tin Drum at lunch yesterday the stack of Loafs caught my eye and I grabbed on. I’m looking forward to perusing it this weekend for old time sake.

ITP Flickr Pic
While walking around the Inman Park Festival I noticed this shoe sitting in the street.

Shot blind with the camera resting on the ground.

Question: In looking at the shot I’m wondering if I should have removed the stick. Would you have?

RealiTV Update: Hell’s Kitchen – “We Polled One Hundred Chefs And, According To Them, You Suck”
Down to the Final Three on Hell’s Kitchen? CUE THE FAMILY AND LOVED ONES!!! Boo hoo, I’ve missed you. I’ve been gone for two months, boo hoo. Thankfully their visit was short.

Ramsay reminds the cooks how good they are (lies!) and prepares them for a big challenge. Each chef is to prepare one dish for one hundred distinguished guests. My first guess was that the guest would be Miss America contestants, and then I realized that would only be fifty women. What about bringing in Miss USA candidates? United States Senators aren’t working much, maybe they’ll be the guests? It turns out that the one hundred guest are top chefs (but not Top Chefs) from the Los Angeles area. BOOOOOORING!!! And then I quickly thought “Could we assemble one hundred good chefs in Atlanta?”. After all of the food was served the guests picked the dish they liked best and the one they liked least. Seventy-six percent voted Danny’s dish as the worst, Seventy-six percent voted Paula’s as the best, and the rest voted Andrea off the show — Kidding! Ramsay would do that later. Whoops! Spoiler!. For her victory Paula got a makeover and surprise guest shot on “Good Morning LA” (or some similar godforsaken morning show).

For the elimination challenge the cooks had to take turns running the pass. If you’ve ever watched Hell’s Kitchen before you know that Ramsay instructs his minions to sabotage dishes/orders brought to the pass, so why contestants don’t check everything baffles me. Paula and Danny seemed timid and nervous and had rather weak performances. Andrea went last and messed up a first and then turned into a tyrant; in fact she got so bad that sous chef Scott seemed genuinely pissed at her. Of the three Andrea did the best, but even that wouldn’t save her Swine-Flu-free bacon. Whoops! Spoiler!.

So now we’re down to the Final Two (in case you missed my two spoilers Andrea was booted) and they’ll settle the score next week. Of course I won’t be able to watch next week’s show in real time, so feel free to spoil it for me.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fat
Current Music – listening to yesterday’s “Buzz Out Loud” podcast from C|Net
Website Of The Day – Along the same lines as yesterday’s WOTD I present to you a website that does one thing and does it well. Let’s see if you can guess what d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y is about before you click the link.
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) – 1 (1)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 0
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
Whoops, I didn’t even consider this. Perhaps something will be here on Monday.

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]