Inside The Perimeter

The event I expected to be done by 5pm yesterday lasted until about 7pm. After that we wound up heading to Fox Bros BBQ for dinner. After a quick catch-up with The Amazing Race and I was ready for bed. I’ll be spending my lunch hour digging through tax documents in preparation for tomorrow’s appointment with my tax preparer.

If It’s Monday It Must Be Dietday
And so it begins. Again.

Today’s weight, 203 pounds. Target weight by July, 190 pounds.

Mixed Scoutmob Experiences
This weekend I decided to try out the services for a new(ish) local company called Scoutmob. Scoutmob essentially provides a new local deal each day, many of which are available to use for a longer period than that.

On Saturday I decided to eat breakfast at Sun In My Belly (who has some really beautiful photography on their site — none of which is mine) because they had a 40% off deal from Scoutmob. While driving to Sun In My Belly I was disappointed how slowly Scoutmob’s iPhone app was responding. By the time I got to the restaurant I had finally pulled up the screen for Sun In My Belly and was able to ask the attractive waitress how to claim the discount. As usual the food at Sun In My Belly was outstanding! I order the BLT where the ‘T’ is fried green tomato, which comes with a side of potatoes, and I added a side of Sun In My Belly’s delicious bacon.

I tried to repeat my success on Sunday with a 50% off breakfast at Radial Cafe. Again Scoutmob’s iPhone app was incredibly sluggish and this time I never could get the damn thing to complete the process necessary to claim the discount. Luckily for me my waiter was standing by as I tried multiple times so he had the manager apply the 50% discount anyway. At Radial Cafe I ordered one of the day’s specials, the vegan sweet potato pancakes and added a side of vegetarian sausage. (This was supposed to be the foundation of a vegetarian day, but you may correctly assume that my trip to Fox Bros BBQ involved pork.) The pancakes took a really long time to come out (about 25 minutes), but I had a magazine and give kudos to my waiter for apologizing for the delay.

Oh, and of course I tipped my servers based on the pre-discounted total. On each occasion my server helped me to get the discount and provided excellent service so she/he deserved proper compensation.

Here’s something that I learned yesterday, you only get to use each deal once — so make it count.

Overall I think the Scoutmob experience is a good thing to introduce people to new places (even though I’ve been to these two restaurants many times before others probably have not). However, they really need to improve their iPhone app otherwise I can see people becoming frustrated and leaving them in the dust.

ITP Flickr Pic
Yesterday’s planned event took me to the parking lot of Six Flags Over Georgia

My coworker ITP-Reader Rich and I were able to get one attempt at taking photo of this rollercoaster from an awesome point of view before security kicked us out. WTF. I realize that the security was only “doing their job” but seriously if the location is dangerous fence it off and if it’s not fenced off then let people photograph from there. Stupid litigious society.

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY
As I mention at the beginning of this blog entry yesterday turned out to be a rather long day of activities.

After breakfast I loaded into the Jackmobile and headed to Six Flags where I was to attempt to shoot some of my coworkers doing an autocross event in one of its parking lots. I guess having signage leading to the proper parking lot was too simple, hell even an Amazing Race style marker would have helped, and the person from whom I got instruction led me on a wild goose chase. I was directed to go into the main parking lot, and upon seeing no autocross nor having no desire to pay to get in to Six Flags I headed out.

I decided to use this time to look for some abandoned cars or houses, and to investigate the area for potential hashing opportunities (not that any part of this state shall be considered “virgin” territory at this point). At one point heading east on I-20 I saw the parking lot with autocross people in it, and attempted to get to it from another direction. This was a tactical error, although it did produce the only photo of the day which could satisfy the theme of “abandoned or discarded” — and the subject has nothing to do with houses, cars, or machinery.

On my second pass around the Greater Six Flags Area I decided I was going to give up and head back ITP. At that point I spotted a yellow Corvette towing four tires and used my incredible powers of deduction to conclude that he was probably headed to the autocross. I watched him turn into an park exit road and realized that if someone had only provided a sign, or clear an proper directions for me earlier I wouldn’t have spent so much time driving around.

The day was long, mostly because the organizers were behind schedule. In fact by the time my coworkers were about to begin their runs around the autocross course daylight was almost beginning to slip away.

I took about four hundred photos yesterday. Last night I culled at least one hundred from that group and shook my head at the similarity that 80% of them possess (same shot, different cars). Throughout the week I’ll continue to cull and work on those which are incredibly sharp, posting the best of the day’s work in this space.

RealiTV Update : The Amazing Race —
SPOILERS
I’m glad that ITP-Readers Stacy, Terri, and I all forgot to make our The Amazing Race Elimination Picks this week. I think that Stacy must have something going on in her life because she failed to assign us songs for the past two weeks as well. I’ll assume that Terri was just more interested in last night’s Academy Awards. The reason that I am glad is that because my whipping boys, Team Clouseau, somehow managed to get their heads out of their asses and finished first. Naturally I would have picked them to get eliminated for the third week in a row. It turns out that one Clouseau is good at eating and one is good at drinking beer, who would’ve guessed that?

I’m beginning to like to Team Noun (Team Brokeback) more though I’m wondering if their “Aw Shucks” attitude is not quite what has been showed of late. I’m curious to know why they chose to take a train to the statue of Klaus Wilhelm instead of hailing a cab.

Did anyone not believe that this was going to be a non-elimination leg? I’m not saying that the rules are altered throughout the game, but I find it “convenient” that Team Big Brother (a CBS franchise) staved off elimination for coming in last place.

What’s your take on this season’s new challenge, The Intersection? I’m not sure I like it because I’ve always wanted The Amazing Race to outlaw alliances, not encourage them.

Tonight Will Be A Late One At Eddie’s Attic
Not that my life needs to get any busier than it already is, but a really good band called Over the Rhine is playing two shows tonight at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur. I’ll be at the 9pm show.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – listening to the “This Week in Tech” podcast
Website Of The Day – I heard about Foodie Kits on a recent podcast. Foodie Kits are essentially spice kits for travelers. Neat.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing of note
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 – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 7 (7)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 6
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]