Inside The Perimeter

As I headed into work yesterday I knew something wasn’t quite right. I ached in my knees and feet, a sure sign of no good…

I felt so poorly the last couple of hours at my desk yesterday that I scrapped doing laundry last night.

I’d attempt to describe the experience I encountered as I fell immediately to sleep upon returning home last night but you’d rightly assume that I’ve lost it. I didn’t look at a clock, but I’d guess that I slept really hard from 6:30pm – 11:30pm. Upon my waking I was still tired, completely confused, and somewhat frightened by the recall of all that passed through my mind during those five hours. My concentration was so deep that I had to get out of bed in order to go watch some tv and take my mind off of everything I had just experienced.

After some couch time and returning to bed, I awoke at 7:20am, a time by which I am at work on most days.

While I feel far better, I’m still taking a sick day today. So far in 2010 I’m 0-for-3 three in staying healthy during an entire month.

Barb, I’m skipping the ride tonight.

I’m Not Feeling Very Social Today
Forgive me as I end today’s blog post here. My head is hurting and I’m still a little disoriented. I hope to be back with a vengeance tomorrow.

Hope your day is great.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – weak and my head hurts
Current Music – none at the moment
Website Of The Day – I heard about this couple who are trying to go through 2010 without producing any trash. Impressive. They keep a blog at My Zero Waste.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – haven’t gotten out of bed to check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 6 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 5, Carnivorous Days – 25
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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 left work reasonably early in an effort to get home, download Mac OS X 10.6.3 and do the necessary backups, clear my deck in preparation of a good washing/staining, and then start writing some code. Before I knew it, it was 9:00pm and I was in no condition to begin the coding process. Dangen! In fact, I may have slipped into slumber by 10:00pm without even trying.

With Every Room I Clean An Angel Gets Its Wings
I am addicted to minimalism and tidiness. Hence the state of my house for at least the past five years has been a constant nag. With the introduction of having people come work on my house and my desire to downsize I’ve been “forced” into cleaning and removing.

I love it.

Last night I moved almost everything off from the deck. All that remains on it are the frame to a patio sofa that has no cushions, the propane tank (for safety I don’t want to store it inside the house), a outdoor storage unit (which needs to be de-spidered and cleaned before coming inside), and a rosemary bush. NICE! Of course once the deck is stained some of these items will return, but in the meantime I’m digging the open space.

I also managed to make two small boxes of “junk” which will find their way to this weekGoodwill. These boxes will most likely be joined by some long-since used Halloween decorations, and some clothing that I no longer need to wear.

Slowly but surely, I’m getting my house groove back and it’s starting to feel good.

ITP Flickr Pic
Happy Colon!

Oh wait, that actually reads “Collon.” My bad!

Well they may not make for a happy colon but they do a good job on the mouth. I just opened the package and found that they are chocolate-filled wafer tubes. The chocolate is light and airy and the wafer is crisp. Collon is actually pretty tasty.

This Is More New-To-Me Music Than New Music
When I attended the Shearwater show the other night I was introduced to a band called Wye Oak (who I thought were called “White Oak” at first).

I mentioned Wye Oak in Friday’s blog, they were the duet with the drummer who played keyboards at the same time. It seems that NPR was also intrigued by Wye Oak and has posted this Tiny Desk video of them performing. The video is good, but in concert they jam a little harder (no acoustic guitar) and are even more impressive to me.

I Could Use Some Audio Book Recommendations
It’s not that I have so much time with nothing to do. It’s that I have so many Audible credits with no idea on what to spend them.

I find myself listening to and enjoying the following categories of books:

• getting-things-done / lifehacker
• business
• comedic fiction

but not:

• romance
• horror
• most biographies

Do you have any suggestions? I sure would love to hear them.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – a bit “off”
Current Music – silence at the moment, I’m trying to concentrate on the blog
Website Of The Day – If you are interested in alternative ways to find information then I suggest that you try What Do You Suggest?.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 5 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 5, Carnivorous Days – 24
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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]

Instead of lamenting my failures.

A Somewhat Successful Weekend
On Friday night I was driving along Buford Highway when I received a phone call from ITP-Reader Betsy. She was in the Lee’s Bakery shopping center with our friend Lynette after picking up a keg of beer for a party they were having Saturday night, so I stopped to say hello. My timely meeting led to dinner with them, ITP-Reader Terri and her husband ITP-Reader Pat at The EARL.

The beer consumed Friday night led to a somewhat groggy morning on Saturday. When I arose Saturday morning I had a minor freak out because I refused to believe that it was Saturday and I was certain that I was going to be late for work. Once I realized my error I settled down and started a rather productive day:

• I had breakfast with some Flickr friends at The Majestic.
• I went to Intown Ace Hardware and purchased (rather expensive) respirator refills.
• I installed a new lock on my sliding glass door.
• I managed to replace the sillcock (spigot) on the rear of the house. Though all was not perfect as the water-cut off valve near that sillcock now has a small leak that I’m hoping will heal itself.
• I raked all leaves away from the house and sprayed the perimeter of the house with bug spray.
• I trimmed some branches off of trees making getting into the backyard a little easier and dragged those branches to the curb.
• I gathered a box of wood to take to Betsy’s for her party.

At 6:30pm I went over to Betsy’s to drop off the wood and a few bottles of wine before heading to get some dinner as a base for the drinking I planned to do at the party. Betsy was nice enough to share a couple of frozen pizzas as we watched yet another episode of “The F Word” and waited for others to arrive. My departure from the party at midnight did not set up a productive Sunday…

The weather forecast for Sunday was not good. I planned to use this gloom and doom to my benefit by staying indoors and doing some coding. I quickly realized that my intent was good, but my computer setup was not going to allow me to be as productive as I wanted to be. The hours spent downloading and installing software, in conjunction with the power nap I took mid-morning, set the stage for a rewarding, if not productive, day.

I’m Back To Making Lackluster Bread
Yesterday I fired up the bread machine with the notion of making a loaf of white bread. It’s been about a month since I had the proper bread flour, so I’d switched to making whole wheat bread. The loaf I created was visually unappealing, but tasted fantastic. In fact, that loaf of bread got me through a vegetarian day yesterday as I noshed on peanut butter sandwiches all day.

ITP Flickr Pic
Can you say Cookie Puss?

ITP-Reader Betsy managed to find Carvel in Atlanta (other than the one that I insisted was the only Carvel location) .

You Can Call Me Petty, I’ll Call Myself Pleased
One of the things I dislike about Twitter is the inability to temporarily mute someone you follow. If one of the people you follow starts ranting about politics, or spewing religious quotes, or whatever, your only recourse is to stop following them.

For months I’ve been following someone with whom I’ve been considering breaking up. We had been mutual Twitter followers for a while so I didn’t want to be discourteous by unfollowing her. Yesterday I launched Friend Or Follow and was thrilled to see that she stopped following me! Within a minute I returned the favor and unfollowed her.

RealiTV Update : The Amazing Race — Attention To Detail Takes A Holiday
What is it about The Amazing Race that causes people to lose whatever common sense they may have possessed?

Take Team Noun for instance. Not once but twice last night they failed to pay attention to detail and it should have been their demise. But noooooo, it was a non-elimination leg and they were spared elimination.

I was stunned when Team Who’s Your Daddy? left their backpacks behind! Are you kidding me? They had the common sense to bring their passports and money, but do they really think they can complete the rest of the race without the rest of their clothes?

Last night’s episode was somewhat odd in that all teams were required to board the same flight to the Seychelles. Team Clouseau’s lead? Gone. To make matters worse, once in the Seychelles teams were split into two groups based on the order in which they found the clue box (just once I’d like the producers to fuck with the contestants and go in descending order instead of ascending order). It was little surprise to me that the first three teams to arrive at the Pit Stop were the three teams in the first flight of helicopters.

I wonder if CBS pays for couples counseling for its contestants? The childish relationship shared by Team Model Citizens (Brent and Caite) needs help; those two, while in their twenties, act as if they are pre-teens. Then there’s Team LezBeFriends whose relationship skews toward bitterness; those two, who are probably in their forties, spare few opportunities to throw each other under the bus. The Amazing Race seems to double as The Amazing Couples Splitter.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fair
Current Music – listening to this week’s “This Week In Technology” podcast
Website Of The Day – Friend Or Follow made my weekend so I’ll give them props today.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 4 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 5, Carnivorous Days – 23
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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]

Walking around the house this morning I had so many ideas about what I planned to write today. Where they all went, I shall never know.

Who Knew It Would Be So Difficult?
When I used the only two respirator cartridges that I had last Sunday I had no idea it would be such an ordeal to try and find more. I assumed that I bought the respirator and cartridges from Home Depot but trips to two different locations were fruitless.

I attempted to stop at the Ace Hardware in Brookhaven last night but was astonished to find that it closes at 6:00pm each evening! WTF?!?! Of course I arrived at 6:15pm.

I made my way to Lowe’s in Edgewood Retail District, but came up empty there as well.

I really hate to say this, but I may have to purchase a whole new respirator just so that I have one for which I can purchase replacement filters. Stupid consumer-spending driven society.

ITP Flickr Pic
I dug deep into the recesses of the ITP Estate last night and pulled out this 1999 Côtes du Rhône. For the record I have no idea how long one is supposed to cellar a Côtes du Rhône, but thankfully this bottle hadn’t corked and its contents tasted delicious.

Now if I’d only learn to take better photos…

Who Knew It Could Be So Easy?
The reason I pulled out a bottle of old wine last night was that I headed over to ITP-Reader Betsy’s house. When we ate dinner together last week I agreed to go over to her place and help her with an issue with her computer. Rather than go out to eat and then do computer work, we ordered in from Burger Win (FTW!) and I must admit that their Chinese/Thai food was pretty damn delicious.

Fortunately for me the only thing I needed to do on Betsy’s laptop in order to fix her problems was install some software. With the newly-found free time she and I sat and watched an episode of The F Word before I headed home.

House Work 2.0
With my new-found care for the ITP Estate I plan to spend much of this weekend attempting to repair problems that are in my scope of capability (which is not very large when it comes to house repair).

This weekend I’m also hoping to catch the ear of a couple of people who have more skills at fixing things around the house. Perhaps I can work out some sort of monetary deal to facilitate getting things done.

Also, yesterday I took a look at the windows in my basement. For some reason the burglar bars were installed inside the window panes. (note to self: clean these!) I wonder if I should see if in the future it would be better to replace these windows or to see if there is some sort of storm window which can be installed in order to make them more energy efficient.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fat
Current Music – silence in an attempt to kick this blog out as quickly as possible
Website Of The Day – If you have some free time to kill I suggest doing so by checking out Fantastic Contraption (or coming over to my house to do free labor).
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 205 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 1 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 3, Carnivorous Days – 22
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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]

Last night was a late one. I returned home around 12:30am and while I fell asleep nearly immediately, I was groggy this morning when my alarm sounded. I was so groggy in fact that I went immediately back to sleep and slept for another hour.

Praise For A Job Well Done
Yesterday A Better Gutter Cleaning had a cancellation so they were able to come over and clean out my gutters. (And it’s supposed to rain today. Good timing.) I had also asked them to quote me a price for fixing the damage on my gutters and was dismayed to hear that they wanted $325 to do so — Little Willy, is this something we could discuss?

I have to give credit where credit is due. When I arrived home I could barely tell that they had been there. This is not to say that they did a crappy job cleaning my gutters and cleaning off my roof, but rather that they did such a great job cleaning the debris which was taken from the gutters and roof.

The cost to have them come out and clean the gutters and roof debris was $105. In days gone by I’d never have agreed to pay for this much for gutter cleaning, but now I realize how “important” my time is and how my fear of heights restricts my ability to do a decent gutter cleaning job.

Atlanta Was Rich With Good Music Last Night
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit played at Smith’s Olde Bar.
The XX played at Variety Playhouse.
I went to see Shearwater play at The EARL.

I arrived at The EARL a little after 10:00pm. Even though I was not going to do so I purchased a Miller High Life (I like slumming like a Hipster at The EARL) and realized that I was still too early. I was told that the first opening band had already performed, and as I stood there a two-piece guy/girl band called Wye Oak took the stage. They were an odd duo, she played guitar and sang, he played drums and keyboard at the same time! (right hand and feet played drums, left hand played keyboard to emulate a bass guitar). I really enjoyed Wye Oak’s set and was able to tell the guy this later (no handshake of course) later in the evening.

Shearwater took the stage around 11:00pm. They played a really decent set (although for me they may nave been upstaged by Wye Oak). Around the fourth song or so I needed a break from being blasted with music so I receded to the back of the room (not hard to do as the place was only half-full at best). As I stood there I noticed a small group of noticeably older people, some sporting full heads of white hair. Not minutes after I tweeted that I thought that there may be some Shearwater parents in attendance Shearwater’s lead singer, Jonathan Meiburg, mentioned that he was from the area (though his Wikipedia page states otherwise and that he had family in attendance. I thought that was kinda cool.

ITP Flickr Pic
I have nothing for you today.

I’ve come to the realization that my concert-shooting days may be in the past. I didn’t even think to bring my camera with me last night and was somewhat glad that I didn’t. There were no fewer than six people at the stage’s edge shooting, not all with fancy-pants DSLRs mind you. I don’t want to fight to get the same shot that all these other people are getting, that’s not my style (see also: Why I stopped going to the Atlanta Photography Guild’s meetups at Elliott Street Pub). Concerts, especially when I’m paying to attend them, are supposed to be enjoyable. If I have to work to take photos, then they are a lot less enjoyable for me.

RealiTV Update: Survivor – Stupid Is As Stupid Does
Admittedly I’ve only been half-attentive to this season’s “Heroes v. Villains” season. Truth be told, if this weren’t a “Heroes v. Villains” season I’d be paying no attention to Survivor at all.

By the time I got home from eating dinner and running errands it was 8:20pm. I decided that I should check the DVR to make sure that it was recording Survivor and was aghast to see that it was not. Had I set this DVR to actually record Survivor perhaps things would have been different.

Realizing that I had no recording underway I sat down to watch last night’s Survivor “real time” and the point at which I joined was just after Rob won immunity. I vaguely remembered that each team was going to have to send someone home, so how Rob (and Candace as I found out later) won seemed irrelevant.

In watching things go down at the Villains camp I realized that Parvati, Russell (who I’m liking much less this season), and someone else (Danielle) seemed to be against Rob’s alliance. Rob, always an intelligent RealiTV strategist, devised a brilliant plan to force a re-vote and force Russell to use the hidden immunity idol. Of course dumbfuck Tyson was outplayed by Russell, didn’t follow the plan, and was himself eliminated. To you dumbass I say Goooooood Daaaaaay. You cut your own damn throat and no, you are not still awesome.

The Heroes camp had far less gamesmanship occurring. Colby, merely a shell of the Colby that played back in Season 2, came to grips that it was his time to go and asked that the team just have a pleasant day until Tribal Council. But wait, James is still injured! But, James also has a beautiful, doe-eyed, sponsor in Amanda who, politely councils James on how to play well with others. Apparently in the end “love” doesn’t endure (at least when it comes to voting someone out) and James was booted.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay
Current Music – silence as I need to knock this out quickly
Website Of The Day – I’m thinking of taking photos of items in my basement and submitting them to Retro Thing.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 3, Carnivorous Days – 21
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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’ve come to realize that one of the major contributors to my lack of happiness is the feeling that I’ve let control of my life slip away. I’m taking major steps at returning control, it’s becoming expensive, but is also rebuilding the foundation upon which I’ll live the rest of my life.

Rebuilding My House, Rebuilding My Life
My house has been one of the major out-of-control factors in my life. I’ve mentioned recently getting AT&T U-Verse installed (so far I love it!).

Soon I plan on redoing my inside phone wiring (trying hard not to fuck up my U-Verse install), install a new security system, have my gutters cleaned (some day soon I hope), have my deck restained (I have an estimate, just waiting on the gutter cleaning), replace the spigot on the back of the house which hash leaked and had its handle crumble, and install at least two new windows (with the thought of replacing most if the cost doesn’t cause me to shit myself).

Later this year I plan on finishing my insulation task (and while up there potentially rewire part of the house), fix the cracked living room ceiling, repairing the sink in my bathroom so that people who use the bathroom can wash their hands in the sink as instead of the tub (good thing I don’t have many visitors), get some quotes on repairing and replacing the rotted wood on my soffit, and paint all of the wood and iron work on house.

Oh, and then there’s that minor nit with the plumbing.

It sure sounds really expensive as I type this. It also sounds like I won’t be selling my house this year after all. Too much to fix, and when I do I’m not sure that I want to turn the house over to someone else immediately. Yeah, I’m scared as hell by this.

It’s not all building/repairing however. I am still in the process of culling a bunch of things I no longer, or never, needed. And finally, I’m working on setting up a small photo “studio” for the purpose of doing product photography.

1/2″, 3/4″, Whatever It Takes
Imperial vs Metric
VHS vs Beta
Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD
1/2″ vs 3/4″

Why must there always be competing standards? At Home Depot I had to buy two spigots, one for 1/2″ piping, the other for 3/4″ piping, because I do not know which my house has; of course I plan to return the one which does not work, but why do we have two pipe diameter standards?

And some questions for you plumbers out there: I’m assuming this spigot has been connected to the house for over fifty years. What precautions (other than turning off the water) do I need to take? Should the spigot come off with a wrench or will I need other equipment?

ITP Flickr Pic
Mine is a take off on using binder clips for cable management. For years I struggled with the hassle of losing cables behind my desk. For a while I used magnetic bulldog clips, but the magnets weren’t strong enough to guarantee that the weight of the cable wouldn’t pull them off.

Sorry for the shitty photo, but you get the idea.

An Almost-Vegetarian Day
I didn’t have a grilled pork sandwich at Lee’s Bakery last night while doing laundry. I had two grilled pork sandwiches at Lee’s Bakery last night while doing laundry. The first sandwich was delivered on a fresh-from-the-oven bun and was nearly orgasmic.

Up until I made the sandwich decision at Lee’s I had been having a vegetarian day, eating cereal for breakfast and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. I wanted to remain vegetarian but the lure of a Banh Mi won out.

As penance for my double delight I went for a little walk while waiting for my wash to finish. I walked passed the new(ish) Havana Restaurant and the Pirates’ Pub (with a sign outside indicating that it’s owned by the former owners of Fuzzy’s Place). I think that I’ll have to find time to try both places out at some time in the future.

A Non-Smoking Show At The EARL? Well Alright!
I’ve had a ticket for tonight’s Shearwater show at The EARL for some time. Yesterday I received an email alerting me that this show will be a non-smoking show. W00t! If you’ve ever seen a show at The EARL you know that it’s a lot like seeing a show inside the smokequarium at the airport, enter smelling okay, exit smelling like an ashtray.

I’ll be wearing jeans and a black t-shirt tonight. I’m debating on toting the camera with me. If you see me (which should be a lot easier without cigarette smoke billowing everywhere), please say hello.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – my knees are sore (and I haven’t either exercised) otherwise just feeling plump
Current Music – listing to the “Sound Of Young America” podcast
Website Of The Day – While in Florida over Christmas I passed a building and recalled that it used to be a Sambo’s restaurant that we ate at when I was a kid. Not many people know of Sambo’s which is why I laughed aloud when I stumbled upon Tim Putz Presents Sambo’s Photographs yesterday.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 203 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 3 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 3, Carnivorous Days – 20
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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]

YUMMY!

From First To (Tied For) Worst
Last night the critic didn’t much care for my photo. He quickly ripped it apart, and then dismissed it by moving on to the next shot. Many of my friends fared better, however. Five of our little gang of FlickrRPS members either took a place, or honorable mention in the digital category. I’ll admit that I have a competitive streak and that not placing with everyone else hurt a bit. While I didn’t entirely agree with all of the critic’s remarks about my photo I have taken some of them to heart and hope to use them to improve my future submissions.

ITP Flickr Pic
This was the shot that I submitted.

The critic didn’t like:

• the lighting in the shot (wrong time of day)
• the fact that I didn’t perfectly correct the perspective of the building (I tried, but failed)
• the blue in the sky wasn’t dark enough (again, I tried but failed)

No need to tell me what you think, I’m just posting it because some might ask and I really don’t have anything else to put up today.

Just How Do You Milk An Almond?
When last I visited Raleigh ITP-Reader Randy’s brother Kevin bought some almond milk. Both ITP-Reader Lisa and I tasted it and shook our head in disapproval. “It tastes like milk at the bottom of a bowl of cereal.” I said. Then I remembered that I always liked the milk at the bottom of a bowl of cereal.

So, lately I’ve been using vanilla-flavored almond milk in my morning cereal. It’s very sweet, but as a morning pick-me-up has been quite pleasing to me. I’m sure almond milk is not nearly as healthy as the Almond Board, or Almond Growers of America, or whatever the marketing arm of the group responsible for inventing almond milk wants us to believe, but oh well.

I’m Becoming An Evernote Devotee
If I’ve never mentioned Evernote before I apologize. Evernote is a note-keeping application which runs on a multitude of platforms. Evernote is also a “freemium” application because they know that once you’ve become addicted to their service you’ll fork over the $5/month to become a “premium” member (I’m very close to making that commitment).

With Evernote notes are fairly easy to create (from sources such as text, websites, or photos), can be stored into notebooks for organization, can be tagged with keywords, and can be searched. Even better than all that, notes are synchronized onto all of the devices on which you use Evernote.

Get a business card from someone? Snap a photo and store it in Evernote
Find a recipe you want to reference later? Snap a photo or clip the website and store it in Evernote
Like writing To Do lists? Make them and store them in Evernote.

Seriously, the possibilities are nearly limitless and the folks at Evernote keep adding features to their clients in order to facilitate future needs.

I’ve used many systems for storage in my lifetime. I’ve used Delicious for bookmark syncing. I’ve saved websites that I’ve wanted to reference later using Instapaper. I’ve created reusable To Do lists using Zenbe Lists. All of these were fine, but now I’m seeing the power of storing it all in Evernote.

If you are more of a visual person here’s a snapshot of my Evernote window on my Mac.

Short Update On Something I Mentioned Last Week
I’ve requested June 1-3 off from work as vacation days. These three days follow Memorial Day this year so that means I’ll have six consecutive days off (May 29 – June 3) to execute “Paulie’s iPhone/iPad Development Boot Camp.” I considered taking that Friday off as well and making it a nine day break, but I think that six days will be sufficient for now. Besides, I need to save a few vacation days for later this year.

Stay tuned…

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, though I’m shuddering at the thought of the amount of money I’ll be spending this year.
Current Music – listening to a KEXP “Music That Matters” podcast
Website Of The Day – I’ve not tried Where’s My Milk From? (I would have named it “From Where Is My Milk?”) on my carton of almond milk, but maybe I should.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 3, Carnivorous Days – 19
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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]

My last live-in girlfriend moved out more than six years ago. There are, make that were, still traces of her existence. When she moved out she left behind a vacuum cleaner. I assumed it worked, though I never used it because I had one that I had bought years ago. Since no Electronics Recycling Days accepts vacuum cleaners I’ve tried to figure out how to get rid of the vacuum cleaner for six years; why donating it to Goodwill never crossed my mind I’ll never know. As a part of my cleaning on Saturday I decided to kick it to curb and by the time I returned home from dinner it was someone else’s vacuum cleaner.

Out In The Yard, Up In The Attic
On Saturday I decided to use the perfect weather as an excuse to force myself to do yard cleanup. Many sticks and branches were cleared from my back yard as well as my brick pad/patio, future home of a firepit / bbq grill. In addition to that yard cleaning I used the power of my leaf blower to clean out the carport and rustle up some leaves into piles. (The person who figured out how to “rake” a yard with a leaf blower was a genius!) By the time I had blown leaves from the flower bed, and made two large piles from those as well as everything that was in the driveway and in part of the front yard I was worn out and needed a break.

After about an hour’s break I headed to Grady High School where I turned in a small box of old computer parts and cables. On Saturday evening I joined a group of friends for a birthday celebration at Tin Lizzy’s Cantina in Grant Park.

I arose early on Sunday morning and decided to get out before the rain arrived to bag some of the leaves I piled. After six bags’ worth of leaves the rain started and I decided it was time to head indoors for my next task.

When Jeannie moved out I passed the time immediately after our breakup replacing the rat/squirrel turd infested blown-in insulation which has probably been in my attic since its construction in 1957. For multiple weekends in the winter of 2003 I bagged old insulation, cleaned the remaining debris section by section, and filled the vacancy with pink insulation batting. Unfortunately, I never completed the job. For years this has loomed over my head (literally).

Since Jeannie’s departure I’ve lived alone, with the exception of rodents which have joined me on occasion by inhabiting my attic.

It didn’t take finding a dessicated rat in the attic to remind me why I hated going up there and procrastinated finishing the insulation task. Yesterday I finally convinced myself that it was time to return, and yes, I did find a dessicated rat which had shat all over the pink insulation and noshed on the poison I put up in the attic some years ago. After four hours my body had enough, the combination of the muscle soreness resulting from the yard work with the contortions I’d been performing in the attic had gotten the best of me. If I had to guess I’d say that I’m about 90% through with the insulation replacement. I’ll finish that 10% this winter.

ITP Flickr Pic
Want to see what I look like after working in my attic for three hours and then get completely frustrated that I can’t take a self-portrait with my DSLR? I took this using my point-and-shoot which chose use the flash.

Looks like I have another task to add to my “to do” list — “Learn how to use my fucking DSLR!”

Going OTP
It’s not the third Monday of the month, but last week the church in which the Roswell Photographic Society holds its meetings was unavailable. So, the monthly critique meeting is tonight instead. This month’s theme is “Abandoned or Discarded.” I’ve entered a shot I took a couple of years ago in Colorado and have no idea how well the critic will like it.

As an aside I realized yesterday that my photographic organization is not as buttoned-up as I previously believed. For my submission this month I was originally searching for a shot that I took late last year, but couldn’t find. After last year’s burglary it took me some time to re-institute a plan of action at home for my photography (you may remember how I often used this as an excuse for not having a photo for this blog). Well, it turns out that I never transferred the photos I took from the time I was burgled to the time I finally got a computer on which I could edit photos at home to my centralized data storage drive. Dangen! Luckily I back up my data on each computer so transferring them shouldn’t be too painful, but in the end I was forced to submit a different photo for tonight.

RealiTV Update: The Amazing Race — You Can’t Always Trust The Locals
SPOILERS ENCLOSED
You know, just once this season I’d like to pick the team that finishes last instead of the team that finishes next-to-last! As you may have already determined, I chose Team Model Citizens based on the previews shown last week. (btw- I don’t like “Caite” as a name pronounced “Katie” and I don’t think those two have a great relationship) In an unprecedented move ITP-Readers Stacy and Terri both picked Team Big Brother, and unfortunately for me, were correct. We’ve never specifically stated that redundant picks were, or were not, allowed. I guess that I’ll be buying two songs this week. Dangen!

All teams embarked on a whirlwind tour of the champagne region of France in their fancy-pants Mercedes Benz. Team Who’s Your Daddy (Steve and Allie) encountered this season’s first “Oh Fuck!” moment when Steve drove the car into something and destroyed the passenger-side from end. Luckily for him his wife packed some duct tape (hmm, no condoms?) and he was able to jerry-rig the bumper into place.

Team Noun seems to be getting a little big-headed; that must be what’s keeping their cowboy hats on so tight. The cowboys double faulted on driving directions, but luckily for them they were able to complete the Roadblock and Detour without too much trouble.

Speaking of the Detour, stack champagne glasses and pour a magnum of champagne into them? WTF? I was impressed that Team One Team Gay One was able to accomplish the task and was not surprised when Team Model Citizens nor Team Big Brother failed.

It seemed like the hardest challenge of the night was finding a local who knew that the vineyard they were supposed to located was not the same thing as the boutique in Reims which sells the champagne.

I contend the the best line of the night was uttered by Team Model Citizen’s Brent: “Who’s that the cowboys?” Hey Einstein, are you to tell me that you can’t recognize those two similarly-tall guys wearing cowboy hats as Team Noun? Good thing Jeebus made you pretty, my friend.

Surprisingly in the end it was Team Clousteau finishing first (must be that whole French Connection) and Team Big Brother finishing last, only this time it they were eliminated.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sore, more physically than emotionally
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – DailyMile is a social network for those who exercise. Unfortunately, I found no one who was into “attic cleaning” as an exercise.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 203 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 1 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 3, Carnivorous Days – 18
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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 need a break…

Young Augustine, A Confusing Evening
Last night I met up with ITP-Reader Betsy for some dinner. We decided that we would try Young Augustine, formerly known as The Standard, a “gastro pub” in a part of town not known for having fancy establishments (the graffiti-ridden, boarded up building which formerly held Dottie’s/Lenny’s is right across the street.)

The menu at Young Augustine is far from the norm, which pleases me. I ordered pork belly sliders and a side of duck french fries (fried in duck fat, not fries made from duck). Betsy order a vindaloo, and we shared a small bowl of olives.

Upon entering the space you seat yourself. At some point last night someone came over to take our order, at which time we ordered drinks and the olives. A few minutes later a second person came and took our food order. And shortly thereafter a third person (Ashley, who I know from my olden days at Gravity Pub) brought our drinks and olives. After sitting there a while noshing on the olives the original order taker came to us with an apology. I assumed she was going to inform us that they ran out of the food necessary to make one of our dishes, but instead she apologized that the second order taker (the one who took our food order) had gone home without ever putting our food order in with the kitchen. Luckily for me I wasn’t very hungry so the delay in food delivery didn’t concern me that much.

The food was good, but nothing special. The beer selection at Young Augustine is good and as eclectic their food selection.

ITP Flickr Pic
I love design. I especially love brilliant design.

Having to put a sign reading “SLIDE” on your door because every one is pulling or pushing on it instead is not brilliant design.

A Cleaning And Recycling Weekend
By and large I’m taking the weekend for myself. The weather in Atlanta tomorrow is supposed to be stunning, and I’m going to use this as the catapult to get me out to clean debris from my yard. As the weather warms up, I’m not considering building a firepit in my back yard — it will get cold again at some point, right?

This Saturday is also the third Saturday of the month, so there will be an Electronics Recycling Day at Grady High School. I have a small box of items that I will try to grow into a larger box of items that I’ll be dropping off tomorrow as well.

Sunday’s weather isn’t supposed to be as grand so I think that I’ll take that as an indicator that indoor cleaning and organization shall resume.

Dead Money
One of my two NCAA basketball brackets is in last place with little hope of resurrection. Damn upsets have killed two of the eight teams that I selected to make the Elite Eight.

With my Gators getting bounced by BYU in the first round what little interest I had in following the basketball tournament has gone.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – hmm, there’s a bulge around my center that’s got me down
Current Music – listening to “The Story” podcast from the other day
Website Of The Day – Keep Atlanta Beautiful. I only wish that graffiti removal was one of their tasks.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 203 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 19 (19)
Vegetarian Days – 2, Carnivorous Days – 16
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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]

My relationship to this house is probably the closest thing to an abusive relationship that I have ever had. Eleven years into ownership I feel like I’ve been beaten by it often, and yet I’m still unwilling to leave.

While “plumbing” is still the number one issue that I need to address, I am taking small measures to clean up my house’s act.

I’ve contacted a company to come out and clean my gutters, as well as provide a quote to repair the gutters where my neighbor’s tree struck them a few years ago.

Tonight I’ll be meeting with a guy who is to provide me with a quote to pressure wash and stain/seal my deck. My only hope is that there is no wood decay which will need to be replaced.

I’m contemplating replacing the shattered window that the MFers destroyed when they broke in to my home. In doing so I may also replace the other kitchen window on that wall so that there will be symmetry. If I buy energy efficient windows I can write off a portion of their purchase price as a tax credit next year.

This weekend I’ll be giving my abusive lover some love by doing a bunch of yard work, and perhaps even some work up in the attic. Who knows, I may whip my damn house into shape yet.

Trivial Misgivings
After work yesterday a handful of coworkers and I met up at Hudson Grille in Perimeter Mall. With the craptastic traffic I witnessed yesterday I was thankful that we chose a bar that was easy to get to from my office.

Our small group hung out to play Team Trivia. With only seven teams playing I thought that we had a good shot at winning some house cash. However, it was not to be. We were in second place at half time, but by the time the final question was asked we were in a three-way tie for third. Unfortunately we had no idea which of the four multiple-choice answers provided as for the final question was the correct one, so we dropped out of the money.

The question that I couldn’t answer which irked me the most was “What was ‘Satchell’ Page’s real first name?” (see the bottom of this post for the answer) I used to know trivia like this. I used to be able to envision a baseball card and “see” the answer.

ITP Flickr Pic
Some times my eyes are drawn to (other people’s) misspellings as they are drawn to a car accident.

The first thing I noticed on the menu the other day was “suuny” where “sunny” belonged.

The Kindle For Mac App (Beta) Is Here!
Another nail in the coffin of dead tree books has been hammered in today. Through the magic of the internets I found out that Amazon has released a beta version of there Kindle software which can run on Mac OS X. This is great news for those who want to buy and read Kindle versions of books without having to own either a Kindle or a WIndows PC. This may be bad news for my wallet as I may be investing in a few technical documents now that I can read them digitally.

Rumor of Kindle for Mac application from Amazon has been circulating for at least six months. It may be coincidence that the release of this beta occurred a mere few weeks prior to the iPad’s launch.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – plump, but otherwise okay
Current Music – listening to last week’s “Sound Opinions” podcast
Website Of The Day – Information Is Beautiful.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 203 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 18 (18)
Vegetarian Days – 2, Carnivorous Days – 15
Marta Rides – 0

March Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the new LLC moving…

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
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

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]

Q: What was ‘Satchell’ Page’s real first name?
A: Leroy