Inside The Perimeter

Damn my coworkers or whomever is responsible for giving me a cold this week. This year has been nothing but shit for me thus far. I was considering going to play trivia last night but that was scrapped as my attitude declined throughout the day.

I’m taking a sick day today so that I can accomplish the things that I was supposed to get done last night for tomorrow.

The Accidental Vegetarian
You’ll see from today’s stats that I racked up a vegetarian day yesterday. This did not happen via some Master Plan, but rather from a series of unrelated events.

On a normal day breakfast is usually vegetarian. Yesterday I ate some bread which I followed up with peanut butter a little later in the morning.

During the work week I normally go to lunch at 11:30am. Yesterday I agreed to wait for a coworker to get out of a “short” meeting to head out to lunch with him; I gave up waiting as the clock neared 1:00pm. I was no more than five steps out of the building when I realized how cold it was still and immediately turned around to eat something from my building’s cafeteria. When I got impatient while waiting in the sandwich line I decided to just get a bowl of chili instead — and then found out that there was no chili being served yesterday. I wound up returning to my desk to eat a peanut butter sandwich.

The beginning of my tired and run down condition started late in the afternoon so all I wanted to do for dinner was to head home. With little in the cupboard I wound up making to cheese quesadillas.

ITP Flickr Pic
Okay, I guarantee today will be the last day that this segment gets ignored.

It’s Credit Card Billing Cycle Rollover Day!
Let the charging begin!

Actually, the list of items that I’ll be putting on the card this month consists mostly of “needs” over “wants” with the exception of the $149 charge to attend a Mindful Eye photography workshop in Nashville in April, and the $25 donation that I’ll be making to support The Story.

Keeping My Gas In Check
Take comfort that this will refer to Natural Gas and not gas that naturally escapes my body.

I just paid my Scana bill, it was $115 for the past month. Given the extremely low temperatures Atlanta has experienced this year I’m okay with this charge, even though I was not in the house for about a week’s time during this period.

If you’ve ever been to my 1956-built house you know that it’s not exactly energy efficient, especially since one of my windows is currently a piece of plywood screwed to the window frame with a baggy taped to the inside to keep the breezes down — thanks thugs!

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – slightly pissed, but I’m going to make lemonades from the lemons given to me this time around.
Current Music – listening to the “net@night” podcast
Website Of The Day – Get smarter by going to Learn Something Every Day.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 8 (3*)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 9
Marta Rides – 0
* – since I stayed in a hotel

February Goals
- Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Wow was it ever cold this morning.

I Found A Way To Make A Jalapeño Burn
The other day I lamented that today’s jalapeños weren’t as spicy hot as days gone by.

Last night I “invented” a new dish called “Meatball Fajitas” in order to use up the leftover flour tortillas, tomatoes, jalapeños, and garlic that I had from Sunday’s Super Bowl “Gringo Enchiladas.” In order to have a meat component I pulled out some of the frozen meatballs that I’ve had stored in the freezer and put them along with all of the cut up vegetables into my toaster oven.

Once my prep work was done I headed into the bathroom to scrub my hands and take care of some personal business. Needless to say my scrubbing wasn’t sufficient and major burning discomfort ensued. I learned a valuable lesson last night…

For what it’s worth, the meatball fajitas were delicious.

ITP Flickr Pic
What do you do when you have no inspiration to shoot? You post a photo from the archives.
What do you do when you have no archival photos to post? You leave this section empty.

THIS SPACE LEFT EMPTY INTENTIONALLY

Now That They Have Space, I’ll Pimp Their Restaurant
For months I’ve been having lunch at Crawfish Shack Seafood (no website?) on Buford Highway. Tucked into a sideways-facing store front best located by the large Aloha Plaza sign next to it you may pass Crawfish Shack Seafood and never notice it.

Here’s a map which may help getting you there

View Larger Map
Crawfish Shack Seafood is at 4337 Buford Hwy, Atlanta, GA 30341

Why am I recommending them now? Because they’ve added more space so getting a table is no longer a pain in the ass, and I love fried seafood and can highly recommend any of their combo plates. During past visits I’ve loved the combo plates featuring grouper, catfish, and tilapia. Each of these plates is served with four perfectly-fried shrimp and two side dishes of your choosing (I’ve had the hush puppies — not great, corn on the cob — great, french fries — great, and boiled potatoes — good). Crawfish Shack Seafood also serves up Po’ Boys these days, but I don’t recommend them because they seem overpriced for the amount of food provided.

So if you like fried seafood (or steamed crawfish, or raw oysters) and find yourself along Buford Highway near Peachtree-Dekalb Airport around lunch time I highly recommend you pay Crawfish Shack Seafood a visit.

I Should Start Logging My Stair Climbing
About the only exercise that I am getting these days is climbing six floors’ worth of stairs every day. In fact, on many days I do this climb twice! Sure, calling this work “exercise” may be stretching the truth someone if not for the fact that I’m breathless by the time I reach the sixth floor.

I do need to make time to exercise as my pants are getting no looser these days.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – behind
Current Music – listening to the “MacBreak Weekly” podcast
Website Of The Day – I pass Savi Urban Market in Inman Park nearly every day on my drive in to work. It looks like a nice shop, I’d like to stop in some time.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check because I didn’t want to be depressed
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 7 (3*)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 9
Marta Rides – 0
* – since I stayed in a hotel

February Goals
- Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

There’s really no central theme to today’s post. Sorry, some days are like this.

The Results Are In — I’m Going To Live
Via a voicemail at home I heard the blood test results from my doctor yesterday. As he guessed there was no drama to report other than the fact that I have a slightly higher-than-desired “Bad” cholesterol count. His advice was from me to start exercising again (hmm, where have I heard that before?) in order to keep things in check.

Company Man : Identity Crisis
Yesterday I finally started to think about setting up my own Limited Liability Company (LLC). Finally! I’ve been at Step One a few times before, including checking the Georgia Secretary of State’s website to make sure that no one had previously registered the name “Jalapeño Beach LLC” — like someone would have…

What had seemingly gone unnoticed before is that there is already a Georgia company called “Jalapeño Software LLC.” This causes me concern because software development is one of the businesses in which Jalapeño Beach would delve and I wouldn’t want to cause confusion. Further, after a check of Jalapeño Software’s website I noticed that their logo and color scheme were similar to those that I was going to use for my (new and improved) Jalapeño Beach website. Harumph!

I do have another name in mind, which I shan’t share at the moment since I’ve yet to register the domain for it, so I might have to suck it up and shift gears to Plan “B.”

What would you do?

I’d like to set up my LLC very soon so that I can start making purchases of items I need in order to launch my business.

ITP Flickr Pic
What do I do when I can’t find the inspiration to shoot? Dredge up another photo from the archives, of course.

I’m Going Back To (iTunes) University
Yesterday I started downloading the latest semester’s worth of the “iPhone Application Develpment” course offered by Stanford University via iTunesU. I still have the lectures from the Winter 2009 semester but figured that there is probably new, relatively important information presented now since the iPhone OS has been updated.

I’m hoping these lectures will kick-start my iPhone (and iPad) development process.

Not Another Night At The Office
Last weekend I sat down to watch what a new episode of “The Office.” Oddly, there was no such episode on my DVR at home. Yesterday I noticed that there was a new episode on my DVR at work though.

When I returned home last night I fired up my DVR to find that all of my recording timers had been deleted. WTF? So, I recreated the ones I had for “Good Eats,” “The Office,” and “Ace of Cakes,” along with new timers for the upcoming season of Survivor and The Amazing Race. RealiTV is coming back baby!

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – uncertain
Current Music – listening to an interview with photographer Rick Sammon
Website Of The Day – If my second company name falls through I could always look to Nameboy to generate one for me.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 203 pounds (hmmm, that’s not good)
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 6 (3*)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 8
Marta Rides – 0
* – since I stayed in a hotel

February Goals
- Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Am I the only one who believes that today should be Presidents’ Day? This way those lucky enough to get Presidents’ Day as a paid holiday (which finally includes yours truly) wouldn’t have to slag in to work and deal with all of the idol chatter? Of course those lucky enough to have winning squares (which also includes yours truly) don’t mind going to work all that much today.

Don’t Go Back To Buckhead
Or the Meehan’s in Sandy Springs which resembled the Buckhead of the 1990′s that I remember. I met up with ITP-Readers Terri, Pat, and Tony at said Meehan’s to hear a really good REM cover-band called REMakes.

Meehan’s is a small bar made even smaller when the band takes the “stage” and the place is overstuffed with 30-50 year olds partying like it’s 1999 (again, including yours truly). With the exception of the young lady who was a doppelgänger for Lisa Loeb I wanted little to do with this crowd, and after about six or seven songs I, along with the three others, had to fight our way out of the bar to leave.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others
One Super Bowl party.
Seventeen adults and thirteen children.
Sixteen adults were paired into eight couples, seven of which accounted for all of the children.

Were it not for Wendy, who was in attendance with her boyfriend, I would have looked and felt like a complete freak being the only one there sans lover and child. Had it really been ten years since I saw most of these people? We all looked pretty much the same, with the exception that there were all these kids running around the house.

I had a great time at the party as we reminisced about the old days and I heard some stories which have occurred in my decade’s absence. At night’s end I couldn’t believe how much my friends had grown up. Life can really make me feel strange sometimes.

ITP Flickr Pic
There are lies and then there are damn lies. This photo falls into the latter.

I know that BWANA is something other than the acronym for my buddy ITP-Reader Harold, aka “Bitch With an Attitude” but I was gobsmacked when I saw this license plate on the campus of NC State last week.

How Does One Say “FAIL” In Spanish?
For the Super Bowl party we were instructed to bring a Mexican side dish, or entree. Undaunted I hit up the Mercado de Pueblo on Saturday to get the ingredients for what I was loosely calling chicken enchiladas.

With the exception of cheese (which I forgot to get at the store) I picked up all the ingredients for my concoction and decided to make a “dry run” on Saturday night to make sure I could pull this off.

My enchilada filling was going to be a mélange of onion, garlic, jalapeño peppers (has anyone else noticed how mild they’ve been lately?), tomatoes, black olives, chicken, cumin, and salt. I cooked all of these up in a pan, tasting along the way, until everything was incorporated and perfect.

I took this filling and started to put some into the fresh corn tortillas and everyone that I started to roll fell apart immediately. I managed to get four into a baking dish, covered these with some “enchilada sauce,” and mozzarella cheese (I said I forgot to get the proper cheese) and popped them into an oven to cook. The resulting mess was edible but far from the sort of pretty dish that I’d like to bring to a party.

On Sunday morning I headed out get the proper cheese for my enchiladas and also decided to take the cheating gringo’s option of rolling the filling into flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas so that they wouldn’t fall apart.

While no Mexican in his/her right mind would ever consider what I made “enchiladas” I thought the experiment turned out pretty well.

I Thought It Was A Simple Question
How much does a cup of water weigh?

That was a question I had yesterday in an attempt to improve my (bread machine) baking — btw, I failed. Although I can’t seem to reproduce the scattered answers that I got yesterday I will say that I was shocked that every website did not provide the same answer. One site said 11 ounces, one said 11.4 ounces and another said 11.6 ounces, with none stipulating the temperature of the water or the altitude at which the measurement was made. The whole reason I was seeking the weight of water was to get a precise measurement for my baking!

Sometimes the simple things proved to be complicated.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – Okay I guess
Current Music – Listening to the “The Sunshine Show” podcast from CBC Radio3. Holy shit I love this wacky “radio” show.
Website Of The Day – In case you missed some of yesterday’s ads you can check out Super Bowl Ads to see if you can find them.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 201 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read -52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 5 (3*)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 7
Marta Rides – 0
* – since I stayed in a hotel

February Goals
- Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I have an early morning flight back to rainy Atlanta. With a peek at this morning’s weather radar for the southeast only Jeebus knows when I’ll actually land today.

Another Successful Recruiting Trip Is In The Books
I’ll admit that when I awoke yesterday I didn’t know how much I had to give to the recruiting effort. I was tired, somewhat hungover, but mostly dreading a day using a voice which had been abused by hours of chatter on Wednesday. However, being a “professional” I bucked up and managed to push through a day consisting of eight interviews. (commence to patting myself on my back.)

I give credit to NC State for producing another crop of credible future-engineers from foreign lands with Masters degrees. Only time will tell is any of them find their way to Atlanta to work for my company.

ITP Flickr Pic
The weather during this stay has been rather unspectacular. This was the view from my hotel’s twelfth-floor restaurant on Wednesday morning.

I’m still looking for some spark of inspiration to take my photography to the next level.

Good Times With The Raleighites
One of the things I didn’t expect to happen was spending some time with ITP-Readers Lisa and Randy. Last night my coworker Joe and I met up the them and their two boys for a good dinner at of all places a burger joint called Mo Joe’s. Given that they are both vegetarian I thought it was an odd choice, but as to be expected Mo Joe’s offers vegetarian versions of all of their offerings.

Last night was an early night as both Joe and I decided we needed a night in to recover from this trip. Somehow I spent about four hours at my laptop without accomplishing anything.

Week Ending Quick Hits
I don’t have all that much to say today so I’ll finish the blog with a series of short topics.

• The TSA confiscated my friend Maigh‘s Leatherman yesterday when she attempted to fly. However, she said that she was able to board the plane with two sets of knitting needles.
• You will probably not be surprised to read that I still admire college women. I’ll never be able to be a college professor since I’d be consistently distracted. Don’t hate, I’m just being honest.
• Even more than that I’m still lusting for an iPad. It might kill me to have to wait for the 3G version to be released while others run around with the WiFi version.
• The key to my esophagus’ recovery may be the reduction of spicy food intake. I’ve not been spicing it up much here in Raleigh and things have been a little better.
• I’d like to stay at home this weekend, but have already committed myself a Super Bowl party on Sunday.
• I am like a kid in a candy store when I go to Peace Camera in Raleigh. I could spend a lot of money there very easily.
• After nearly nine years I’m still attempting to start learning photo-editing skills. I own Photoshop, am about to get the latest Photoshop Elements for the Mac, and also have Pixelmator.

  I just found a Pixelmator Tutorial podcast that I am going to start viewing soon. I wish that I had found this sooner, especially sine they appear to charge $1 per episode for some of their archived podcasts.

• For the first time ever I’ve made a pot of half-caf, half-decaf coffee to reduce my caffeine intake. It doesn’t taste the same.
• I’m still trying to find time to create my own LLC and unified email address.
• That’s strange, my iCal dock icon is stuck on February 3rd. In Snow Leopard it’s supposed to show the current date.

Discuss…

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – “off”
Current Music – listening to the latest “Musicheads” podcast
Website Of The Day – I will not be the Man In Seat 61 today but admit I wouldn’t mind being that guy one day.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – not near my scale
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 48

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2 (2*)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 4
Marta Rides – 0
* – and holding since I’m in a hotel

February Goals
- Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

For some reason I’m so tired. Oh wait, I know why now…

Anyone Get The Number Of That Flying Saucer?
After the career fair my co-worker and I headed over to one of my favorite Raleigh haunts, the Flying Saucer. My love for the Flying Saucer has grown exponentially since North Carolina started their ban on indoor smoking last month. To my delight ITP-Reader Randy was able to come out and meet us for a beer, or two, or three, or four, I can’t remember how many I had…

ITP Flickr Pic
I have a few photos that I took yesterday in the camera, but don’t have the time to upload them for the blog. For some reason I’m running way behind schedule this morning…

It’s A Large Career Fair After All
The NC State career fair is the busiest of all the career fairs that I attend. Yesterday our booth was so busy from 9:30am through 4:00pm that I nearly didn’t get a break for lunch. I must have spoken with fifty candidates yesterday and my co-worker probably spoke with an equal number. Of course I shook the hand of each (hell, I don’t care if I break their hands because they are not popular indie musicians), which now has me wondered about the sneezing I started having this morning. Harumph!

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay
Current Music – listening to the “Daily Giz Wiz” podcast
Website Of The Day – The blog is short today, so I’ll send you to a blog which contains a log of useful information — Make Use Of.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – couldn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 48

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2 (2*)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 2
Marta Rides – 0
* – and holding since I’m in a hotel

February Goals
- Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Hellooooooooooooooo Raleigh! Are you ready to rock?

My immediate apologies to ITP-Readers Lisa and Randy who I’d normally contact when a Raleigh trip is confirmed, however this time I’ll be completely booked. Besides, I’ll be back in this neck of the woods to bless you with my presence next weekend.

We landed last night with a dusting of snow on the ground. WTF? Why didn’t I think to wear a jacket? If you want to find me I’ll be the guy freezing in a fleece. Normally in a situation such as this I’d buy a warmer jacket, but I already own too many.

I Want An Airline Revolution
I’m tired of getting nickel-and-dimed by the airlines because their current business model can’t handle today’s economy.

While sitting in the airport yesterday two of my opinions about this country were confirmed:

1. We are a nation of fat people
2. We bring too much shit when we travel (and try to bring it as carry-on)

I propose that the airlines charge each passenger $1 per pound, for both their weight and the weight of their luggage. Does this discriminate against large people and those who can’t seem to cull their luggage? Sure, but I’m okay with that.

A Clean(ish) Bill Of Health
The initial verdict is that I am “healthy” with the exception of an esophagus that’s being irritated by acid reflux.

• stress? yep.
• alcohol? yep.
• coffee? yep.
• tea? yep.
• spicy foods? yep.
• smoking? nope. Hey! I passed one!

The doctor concluded that my EKG looked normal (that pleased me), that my urine passed all tests, that my blood pressure was satisfactory, and that all other parts of the body that could be checked on site were alright. Blood samples have been sent to a lab, and the results should be known in a few days. The doctor described me as a “boring” patient — I like that.

ITP Flickr PIc
I wuz in ur Village Draft House, eatin ur ribz.

Almost as if I had been there before and knew what I was doing I guided the rental car to the Village Draft House in Cameron Village. Last night the Village Draft House had $3.50 draft beers and $10 rack of ribs with fries.

Sadly this photo doesn’t do the ribs justice. Also sadly the ribs didn’t taste a fantastically as they looked.

Coming Up Short
I really like the hotel in which I’m staying, though frustratingly they don’t have wireless internet. Unluckily the guy ahead of my borrowed the last ethernet cable the the hotel had to give out.

Because I like to be prepared I had packed my own ethernet cable, but I failed to realize the distance between the ethernet port and the bed, so the one I packed is inadequately short. So, here I sit uncomfortably at a desk as I write this blog. Oh, me and my First World problems…

Happy Birthday Bro!
You card is in my trunk in Atlanta. It’ll go in the mail when I return.

My brother and I have a pact that our birthday cards need not arrive on time; I think that we both feel this way since our mother is disappointed when hers does not.

Ronnie, I hope that you have a great day. I’ll be in contact with you soon and am going to plan to make another trip up to New York for when your weather is warmer again.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay I guess
Current Music – listening to the “This Week In Photography” podcast
Website Of The Day – I’ve loved Photojojo, an excellent photography-related blog, for a long time. I think that you should check them out today.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – don’t know since I’m not near my scale
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 48

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2 (2*)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 2
Marta Rides – 0
* – and holding since I’m in a hotel

February Goals
- Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Happy Groundhog Day.

Four Guys At Five Guys
After work last night I met up with three of the usual suspects for dinner at a Roswell location of Five Guys Burgers before heading to the Roswell Photographic Society meeting.

Last night’s RPS was interesting in the fact that I didn’t feel as if I was one of the youngest people in the room, though I’d guess I fell in the bottom 25%. The meeting started with a member showing off photos from her trip to Vietnam last year, but I was rather disinterested in her shots so I caught up on web surfing with my iPhone instead. After that presentation one of the members demonstrated the use of Adobe’s Camera Raw and Photoshop to enhance/alter photos. Oddly this man constantly referred to his two books on this subject yet also continually mentioned that this presentation was not given in an attempt to sell more books. You may rightfully assume that I had my doubts.

Let’s Get (A) Physical
Today is the day that I finally go for my somewhat-annual physical. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I want to know what things are wrong with me, but know that I need to find out what’s wrong with me — in a physical way, the mental side of the house refuses inspection.

My physical is scheduled for 10am which means that I’ve had nothing to eat or drink since 10pm last night. I’m sure that I’ll be a bit peckish by the time the measurements are taken, blood is drawn, and I’ve been violated in the name of medicine.

To inflict further pain an suffering on myself I’m considering getting stress-tests (like those done on athletes) done. Does anyone out there have a recommendation for who I should see to have this done?

ITP Flickr Pic
This morning I thought “Shit, I have no new photos for the blog today.” Behold, art from the relatively-new archive.

This is the interior ramp at the High Museum.

Damn You TextExpander, Why Do You Work Sporadically?
I’ve come to rely on TextExpander to make writing this blog easier. When it works TextExpander magically converts “snippets” into longer phrases. For instance, if I were to type

htmla

TextExpander would immediately change that to

<\a href="" target="_blank"><\/a> (without those backslash characters)

But for some unexplained reason TextExpander only seems to want to work when it feels like it. Often when TextExpander refuses to do its job a reboot of my Mac will rectify the situation, however this morning this did not help. I’d expect this sort of behavior from free, Open Source software, but I’ve paid $30 for this application which does this one thing — for that I expect it to perform its task each and every time.

I’m Saying No To Rosetta
When Apple moved from the PowerPC architecture to an Intel architecture three years ago it essentially obsoleted the collection of software which was developed for the PowerPC. Initially Apple developers converted their applications to Apple’s “Universal Binary” format which would allow them to run on either platform. For those applications which were never recompiled Apple offered an emulation application called Rosetta to allow PowerPC applications to run on the Intel architecture. After three years I think it’s long-past time for developers of current software to get off their collective asses and make software that runs natively on Macs. I refuse to install Rosetta to my Mac in order to satisfy their laziness.

It had been some time since I encountered a Rosetta-dependent application, until about a few weeks ago.

When I updated my National Association of Photoshop Professionals membership I thought I was making the wise decision to accept to receive digital copies of their Photoshop User magazine instead of the printed version. Even though there was no financial reward for doing so I concluded that receiving the digital version was in line with my desire to purchase no physical media. When I received my first digital copy of “Photoshop User” I was shocked and dismayed to find out that I needed to install a reader application from a company called Zinio in order to read it. I was even further disappointed when I found out that Zinio’s reader requires the installation of Rosetta in order to be run on modern-day Macs. WTF?

On Sunday I attempted to use my old Canon CanoScan LiDE 50 flatbed scanner with my Mac. I had never attempted to use this scanner with my Mac, and even though its a good five years old I was hopeful that it would “just work” because it’s a USB device. It did not. So, I went to Canon’s website and downloaded their Mac driver for this scanner. Guess what, their driver required the installation of Rosetta. Fail. At least in Canon’s defense they probably stopped making this scanner prior to Apple’s conversion so the support of an OS X driver for this device might not make financial sense for Canon. Whoa, in getting the link for this blog I’ve found out that I purchased this scanner in October of 2003 and that Canon may still sell this scanner (for $50 MSRP).

Paulie’s Freecycle Is Rolling Again
My Canon CanonScan LiDE 50 scanner is available for a dinner, or a beer, or for free. This scanner requires the installation of Rosetta on a Mac in order to get it to work properly; I cannot tell you how well it works with current Windows operating systems.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – pensive
Current Music – listening to the (possibly soon-to-be-removed-from-my-iTunes-subscriptions) “Jordan, Jesse GO!” podcast
Website Of The Day – So you wanna be a chef? Check out Guide To Culinary Schools to see what options you may have.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check this morning
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 48

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

February Goals
- Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Another month is in the history books. I must say, for as hopeful as I was for the page to turn from December 2009 to January 2010 I was equally disappointed with the way January 2010 kicked me in the nuts, not once, but on multiple occasions.

Finally, A Chance To Give You A Real Heads Up
On Saturday I had the opportunity to see a sneak-peek at the first play of the season to be held at Horizon Theatre. About fifty or so people attended a behind-the-scenes question-and-answer session as well as a mini-performance of one of the play’s scenes. Also in attendance were hashers “Wisecracker” and “Dr. Crotch Rot”, the former of which has apparently helped out with set production at Horizon in the past.

I know that I’ve mentioned this before, but why am I, a man of forty-four, one of the youngest people attending plays? This makes no sense to me.

The opening play will be “Shooting Star,” the chance encounter at an airport during a snow storm of two former lovers who’ve not seen each other in over twenty-five years. I loved the scene which was performed for us and I’m really looking forward to seeing the entire performance later this month (February 12th to be exact).

One Day Of Missed Opportunities, One Day of Capitalized Opportunities
At the sneak-peek there was free food for those in attendance. I passed on this as I had plans to meet Maigh and her man at the bar formerly known as “The Grange,” which is now called The Marlay. During the play I also received a text message from ITP-Reader Betsy looking for someone with whom to have dinner, but I passed since I had previous plans. When Maigh informed me that she was leaving The Marlay because her man was ill, I attempted to revise my plans to meet Betsy. Unfortunately, she also fell ill, so I spent the night at home eating dinner alone.

On Sunday I met up with Betsy and ITP-Reader Tony for a wonderful lunch at Mi Barrio near Cabbagetown. With the day being cold and the Black Sheep Hash starting in Cartersville I decided to do laundry instead of running the hash in preparation for my busy week. My decision to skip the hash this week also allowed my to meet up for dinner at ITP-Reader Dean’s house along with ITP-Readers Bob and Laura (and their son, who I’m sure will start reading this space once he can read).

ITP Flickr Pic
Your humble writer…

I accidentally shot this using my MacBook at work the other day. Who knew that I’d actually use it in the blog? (note to self: take the camera out its motherfucking bag every once in a while!)

On Writing
I’ve just finished listening to Stephen King read his book “On Writing.” I thorough enjoyed the eight-hour listen, especially since it is read by King. The book chronicled much of King’s early life, moved in to his writing habits, and then gives a first-person account of his getting nearly killed by a van in Maine, while half-way done with writing “On Writing,” and the efforts it took to recover from this.

While now over tens years since its completion the book holds up and is a great way to spend a day for anyone who engages in creative arts — writing, painting, photographing, etc.

I’m Going To The Super Bowl _Party
I’m continuing my “Get Back In Touch With My Past” campaign by attending a Super Bowl Party being thrown by my friends Tom and Danielle who I’ve not seen in about ten years. This is the group of friends that are probably best described as “pre-hashing” and “pre-East Atlanta.”

When I moved to Atlanta in 1995 one of the things I tried to do was to meet women by playing co-ed sports. Through “Atlanta Sports & Social Club” and “Atlanta Club Sport” I met a great bunch of people. To their credit nearly all of them met their current spouses through club sports and if you’ve been paying any attention to this blog, you know I did not.

In fact, it was Tom’s engagement to Danielle which led me to East Atlanta. For about a eighteen months I rented a room from Tom, and lived in his house with another one of his college roommates Eric. This was my post-Domnique period when I thought having some buddies around would be a good thing. Little did I know that Tom and Eric would both become involved in relationships and I’d rarely see them, thus having the house mostly to myself. When Tom and Danielle got engaged the house went up for sale and I was forced to seek a new residence, which is the current house with which I do battle daily. My move was the only one in town, as all of the other friends in this crowd scattered to Marietta, Dunwoody, and Woodstock. That physical distance, along with the distance created being the only single (and now currently only non-parent) and my discovery of hashing led to the ten-year separation.

It’s going to a little weird for me to return to this group after such a long time. I’ve had occasion in the past, but the timing never worked out.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – frustrated
Current Music – listening to last weekend’s “Sound Opinions” podcast, though I can see myself skipping most of this episode
Website Of The Day – If you just watched the Grammys and need to know the lyrics to some song you’d never heard of before then check out Lyrics Mode.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 201 pounds (damn, that sucks)
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 48

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

February Goals
- Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]