There’s No Place Like Home

Thanks To Georgia Power I’m Fairly Well Rested Today
Although it smacked completely in the face of my desire to lose weight I joined some coworkers at Twisted Taco for drinks and dinner last night.

Upon arriving to a warmer-than-comfortable home I turned on the air conditioning and sat at my computer to catch up on life. And then minutes later everything went black.

At 8:15pm (ish) I found my iPhone and called Georgia Power only to hear the bad news that power was out in the area and that they estimated the power to return at 10:15pm. Dangen!

My next call was to be to my alarm company to inform them of the power outage so that they didn’t send the police around. Much to my surprise and dismay I had never entered their phone number into my contacts list. All attempts to use AT&T‘s EDGE network to surf to the alarm company’s website ended in frustration; seriously, EDGE should be renamed SUCK. Luckily I was able to find an ancient bill containing the alarm company’s phone number in order to contact them.

With nothing better to do I headed to the basement (because it was at least five degrees cooler down there) and decided to enjoy the silence as best as I could.

Shortly after 10pm I was awakened by the illumination of the light I had turned on to inform me that the power had been restored. It seems that Georgia Power was quite accurate with their estimation, so accurate in fact that I’m wondering if they weren’t the source of the outage.

ITP Flickr Pic
Tired of animals at the zoo you say? Well, here’s a flower. Just consider yourself fortunate that I don’t have access to a kitten.
A Flower For My Love
(I’ll have a special “new” photo up tomorrow. It would have been uploaded last night had I any electricity with which to do the uploading.)

I’m Now An Official Citizen Of Coverville
Over time you should be noticing this site change, in layout and design not necessarily in content, as I learn some more tricks of the web development trade. Oh look! There’s a new badge in the right hand galley!

Yesterday I took the Public Radio mindset for one of my favorite podcasts, Coverville. As with many media outlets Coverville is experiencing a financial crunch as fewer advertisers spend money. Since the show’s host (and proprietor) is so good at getting podcasts out regularly (usually two a week) and has to incur the cost of paying royalties for many of the cover songs he includes in his podcast I felt it was worth it for me to donate money in order to keep the podcast alive.

Coverville has started a “Coverville Citizen” campaign which consists of two levels

  1. $40: Which gets you extra episodes of Coverville along with a t-shirt and at year’s end a dvd containing the entire year’s worth of Coverville episodes
  2. $30: Which omits the t-shirt and dvd

Since I already own too many t-shirts and have no need for a year’s worth of Coverville on dvd because I listen to them once and move on, I chose the $30 option.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – frustrated with my lack of discipline
Current Music – listening to the latest “Tips From The Top Floor” podcast
Website Of The Day – Everyone’s talking about Microsoft’s new search engine called Bing. I need a new search engine from Microsoft about as much as I need a new operating system from Microsoft.
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 – 0, Carnivorous Days – 2
Marta Rides – 0

June Goals
– lose four pounds… plain and simple

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
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o 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]

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17 Responses to There’s No Place Like Home

  1. Oh, and if you don’t see the new badge and instead see the words “Coverville Citizen Badge” then your company/firewall is blocking the image. The image used there is hosted on Coverville’s website.

  2. Barb says:

    Our electric company Cobb EMC has been in the habit of having the power go out for about 1-5 seconds, then it comes back on. Just long enough for all the clocks to start blinking (and it takes forever for the Tivo to fire back up, and they way it is set up, we can’t watch TV without the Tivo). Allan has decided to start calling them everytime it happens. They haven’t been able to come up with the explanation for why it is happening, but they know it is happening.

  3. I’ve experienced at least twice as many power outages, especially those that last a longer than a few seconds, in the past ten years in East Atlanta than I have in the previous thirty-three years of my life.

  4. bob says:

    I got your badge but can’t see the photos now. Some days flickr is blocked some days it’s not. I think our firewall team just makes random changes to see who bitches about it.

    And you brought your bike with you today right?

  5. No bike. I also wasn’t able to see if my suit fit so I’m not going to be going to the other thing that was on my agenda today.

    Instead, I’ve loaded up two huge bags of laundry so that I can hit the laundromat tonight. Why tonight? Tomorrow I’m committed to going to the Atlanta Photography Exhibit meetup. Friday night I’m going to see a play at Horizon Theatre with ITP-Reader Stacy. Saturday and Sunday are reserved for the photography workshop I’ll be attending.

  6. Sal says:

    And don’t forget to get in a run today. It is National Running Day! 🙂
    Phidippides hosted a run this morning at 6:30 complete with bagels, coffee and other assorted goodies…….

  7. I can’t run on National Running Day, I’ll look like such a poser. What if I run a washing machine, does that count?

  8. sal says:

    It’s okay to walk. Begin your first workouts with 15 minutes of alternating walking and jogging: Walk for five minutes, then run easily for two or three minutes; repeat. If you are comfortable jogging from the start, that’s fine, but do not run the entire time even if you think you can. Don’t worry about the distance you cover. On your third or fourth workout, try increasing your time to 20 minutes. After three or four more workouts, move to 25 minutes, then after another three or four workouts, try a 30-minute continuous run. Don’t force yourself to go farther or faster than what feels comfortable to you. The idea is to keep running regularly, and you’re more likely to do that if you’re enjoying yourself and looking forward to your next run.

    (as copied from the National Running Day website) 🙂

  9. Barb says:

    damn Sal – as I was reading I’m thinking – wow, she’s got the speech memorized! Your new cassette for the bike came in, now we just need to get to Cycleworks to get it, and Allan can have your bike as good as new for the ride. (well, as good as it can get to new)

    With Phidippides hosting all these events with food & drinks, I’m starting to think they must make a great profit margin on thier shoes!

  10. Martha says:

    I had hoped to run today but was just too darn tired this morning. Maybe when I get home if it isn’t too hot or the air quality isn’t too bad.

    I was asked a few weeks ago if it was hard for me to run because my legs were so muscular? WFT??? How did he think my legs got that way? He doesn’t want to run because he doesn’t want his legs to get too big. People have some strange ideas.

    Paulie, not sure what you were talking about with your ‘lack of displine’ but going out from time to time with friends is fine, everything in moderation.

    http://blogs.ajc.com/better-health/2009/05/21/thinner-you-3-ways-to-stop-negative-thinking-sabotaging-your-efforts/

  11. I’m just disappointed that I can’t seem to say “no” or even stop myself from eating/drinking too much if I go out. I used to never have these problems but now I just can’t seem to stop myself.

    I stopped at QuickTrip this morning, went inside to get coffee after getting gas and nearly hated myself for not getting something to eat as well.

  12. Martha says:

    But you didn’t get anything to eat, so that’s a good thing. You need to ‘rewire’ your brain. It takes a bit of time and some work but it can be done.

    I’m know you’ve seen me pig out, have one (okay 3) too many drinks, etc while out. It is hard to control yourself with others around you aren’t. Doesn’t mean you still can’t accomplish your goals.

    I know I’ve said it before but its been a while, food journal. Once you have to write everything down, you may think twice about putting it in your mouth. I don’t keep one any more but I did for about 2 months, it really did help me. Every now and then I’ll do it for a week or so when I feel like I’m getting off track.

  13. Ah, but I did eat. Chips, salsa, and chicken wings…. all with beer. 🙁

  14. Barb says:

    Chicken wings at Twisted Taco? I’d have never thought to order those.
    And – speacking of wings – we keep forgetting to go to Wild Wing on Tuesdays, it is half price wings, or actually, buy 1 get 1 free. Not necessarily good for the diet, but if you can make yourself take some home…… I’ve tried to start getting a to-go box when they bring the wings, so that sort of helps. (except when you keep opening it to get more)

  15. Yeah, chicken wings at Twisted Taco. Twisted Taco has some wings marinated in fajita sauce which they then grill (I believe). The wings are charcoal(y) and really good.

    I’d be up for a Tuesday at Wild Wing in the future as long as I can limit myself a little better. Note I’m not looking to cut out eating, I just want to eat more responsibly.

  16. Jenka says:

    Have you been reading my blog again? I feel like I’m constantly whining about my lack of discipline. There are weeks when I go out every night! But I’m cutting down on that. Mostly. Heh.

    We were in the middle of dinner at the Glenwood when the power went out last night! The kitchen kept cooking even though there was no ventilation so the room was quickly filled up with greasy smoke. Yuck. So we took our drinks out the bench outside and people-watched. Then went home to our OP house where the power never went out, hee!

    And, I know this goes without saying, but I second everything Martha said.

  17. Actually I have been reading your blog. It’s part of my RSS aggregator so I always know when you’ve added a new post.

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