The Death Of Blogging
Not this blog of course. I am nothing if not loyal (a valuable characteristic which has not gotten through to the ladies because I am not 6′ tall and handsome); I’m here to stay.
On Saturday I received an email that Metblogs, including Atlanta Metblogs, will be shuttering its doors on May 31st. I’m not sure how much it costs to run a blogging empire which does not compensate its content creators — one of the big reasons I didn’t churn out many blog entries for them, but apparently it’s more that the founders of Metblogs can, or are willing to, afford.
The Fox Was Fabulous As Usual
Early Saturday evening I headed over to midtown for the live broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” at The Fox Theater. As expected the place was swarming with khaki-wearing, middle/late age, mostly caucasian attendees — yours included, except I was wearing blue jeans instead of khakis. My seat was down in the orchestra pit, row O, so I had a fairly good view of the show, as well as a really cute usherette who was working the orchestra pit stage right. The seats in The Fox are generous, so generous in fact that I able to pull out my iPhone and see the text message from ITP-Reader Lisa telling me that they were listening to the show up in Raleigh, North Carolina without bumping into either of my seat neighbors.
I enjoyed the show very much. I always find it amusing to see how the sausage is made, and finally recognized the APHC sound man Fred Newman as the same Fred Newman who was on Nickelodeon back in the 1980s/1990s.
Given that the show started a little before 6:00pm (it goes on air at 6:00pm) I got the hell out of EAV early enough to miss many of the East Atlanta Beer Festival drunkards exiting the beer festival, and out of the show early enough to go get dinner. I knew that I didn’t want to deal with the EABF aftermath, so my first thought was to eat near The Fox at Baraonda. Of course Baraonda was packed after the show, so I hurried back to my car to beat the mass exodus from the parking lot in which I had parked. I decided that I was going to eat at The Shed in Glenwood Park (at which I’ve yet to eat!), but there was some large function going on that night, so I settled for Matador in Glenwood Park instead.
ITP Flickr Pic
Remember that statement about having five new photos this week? Nothing like destroying it on Day #1, huh? I had an opportunity to go out shooting cars this weekend, but decided that I didn’t want to. Instead I stuffed myself with pancakes from The Majestic and then I helped ITP-Reader Steve move some stuff into a storage unit on Saturday.
Saturday must have been “Good Deed Day” for me. In addition to helping Steve out, I was very nice to the frazzled parking attendant at the parking lot in which I parked Saturday night. When I pulled in there was no one manning the gate. So, grabbed a parking space and went to find someone (mostly so that I didn’t get towed or booted). When I found him I mentioned that I’d not gotten a ticket from him, and he then gave me one. Then, he tried to hand me a $10 bill, which I refused, and he walked away. At that point I could have parked for free! But, being an honest person (another of those “sought-after” characteristics women always pretend to want) I followed him back to his booth. “I’ve not given you any money for this ticket.”, I said, and then proceeded to pay for my parking.
Wait a minute, I guess that I’m really a sucker after all!
If your a sucker too keep staring at the text in this section to see if you can make out a photo from all of the text I’ve crammed into it today.
I Got Lost Yesterday
Though it had nothing to do with the finale of the series “Lost.”
There are times when I “get” mortality. Yesterday was one of those times. The idea of driving to Fairburn to run a Black Sheep Hash that was billed as “not for the faint of heart” and “flashlight required” didn’t appeal to me much. I’m sure that is was one of those “Oh man, that was the greatest trail ever!” hashes, but I had an option that was much closer to home — Wheelhopper.
The Wheelhopper hash started at Jackson High School on Glenwood. If you are an old-timer to life south of I-20 you know this complex better as Southside Comprehensive High School. The trail was being laid by Wil You Suck and Stiff Pisser, so I had an idea of where trail would, and would not go. I wasn’t very right with my assumptions. Most of the pack was stumped by the first of what would only be two check marks, and I, along with ITP-Reader Bob (aka Check My Bags), Lick-o-La, and Mastergator, decided to box back up Boulevard toward Glenwood Park where flour had been seen early by Check My Bags as he went to an ATM before the hash. As we rode toward Glenwood Av we discovered flour on one of Grant Park’s side streets, and lo and behold, we were back on trail! What we didn’t expect was that we’d found the very last part of trail, so we were at the on-in after riding a mere four miles. Knowing that the rest of the pack would not be in for some time we decided to go out and pick up a few extra miles before returning to the end as FRBs (twice in one hash!).
I Tried To Like LastPass, Really I Did
Yesterday I came to the conclusion that I cannot enjoy using LastPass. Perhaps it’s because I started using 1Password first so I became used to their methodology, but for whatever reason I cannot change my ways. So, it’s a shame that I forked over the $12 annual fee to become a LastPass Premium user, and that it looks like I’ll be forking over more money to have a 1Password app running on my iPad.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – good, but fat, and I guess slightly bitter
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – Today is actor Gary Burghoff’s (M*A*S*H’s “Radar O’Reilly”) birthdayRadar O’Reilly. I wish that website was dedicated to the actor, but I respect O’Reilly since I purchased four $9.99 e-books from them just last Friday.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – ~10 miles of Wheelhopper + 4 miles to get there and back
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – ~41 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 24 (24)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 23
Marta Rides – 0
May Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
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
- 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 Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
What was Fred’s function on Nickleodeon? I watched a fair share at some point in my life… I listened to parts of the rebroadcast yesterday and was fairly unimpressed.
FRB twice at the same hash? Hopefully, you were suitably punished (rewarded).
I rode a new 40 mile route from JEFDSDR and it was mostly pleasant, except for the heat, and a couple of nice hills. My legs are feeling it today.
And thanks again for your assistance on Saturday.
-FP
Fred hosted a children’s talk show (which apparently gave REM its first television appearance) and did stuff with “You Can’t Do That On Television.” I look at APHC much in the same way that I do SNL; it’ll never be 100% funny/entertaining, but it’ll have its moments. Saturday’s performance had much more music than I remember the one I saw back in 2003 at The Fox.
I was rewarded with a down-down for being FRB, as well as being a Too-Long.
wait – I leave for a week and Paulie goes to a Wheelhopper hash? I’m in shock over here!!!
Utah was awesome, Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon were incredible, I’m not a hiker, but we hiked some incredible stuff & many more miles than I ever thought I could handle. I even now own treking poles (since I learned really quick I have bad knees). I’m so ready to go back to Zion & see more.
Moab was interesting, I realized I’m not a desert mountain bike rider, and camping in sand is no fun. They say the wind was worse than it has ever been for this campout we went to, but I’m not sure if I believe them. (it was hell, and I have a new respect for the soldiers that have to deal with the sandstorms over in the Middle East).
And – brush with fame (only Steve may actually know this guy) – but we met Dave Weins, the winner of six Leadville 100s. Allan knew him way back in the mid 90s, and didn’t think he wouild remember him.
Barb, I joked yesterday that I had to wait for you and Allan to go out of town before I could return to Wheelhopper.
Glad to hear that Utah was great, a co-worker of mine is heading there this week. I’d love to take an extended vacation and visit this country’s great outdoors some day.
I recognize the name Dave Weins, but could have explained why nor be able to pick him out of a police line-up.
Oh, and I just scheduled a brake job at Lam’s for Wednesday. I plan to put my mountain bike on top of the Jackmobile and use the bike as my transport from Chamblee to work.
I’m putting (“expensive”) tires on the Jackmobile today. It looks as if this week is the week for the Jackmobile to suck the money out of my wallet.
Yeah, I know this is yesterday’s post – Cooper enjoyed the idea that he was listening to a radio show and Uncle Paulie was at the show – did it help that we texted you right before intermission?
It did indeed. I had my phone on vibrate, so I wasn’t worried about the phone going off at any time.
As an aside, I need to find a time to get out of town for a visit. Also, I’m supposed to be in Raleigh in early October for NC State’s career fair.
We’d love to see you in Raleigh soon. Of course, we are now entering the summer traveling season for the Beebe family. We’re camping this weekend near Brevard, NC (not too far a drive for you, by the way). We’re off to Ohio next weekend. After that, we have 4th of July in Wisconsin and then the first week in August will be spent with Sani on the Outer Banks of NC.
This weekend is out, it’s my iPhone development weekend. I’ll consult my calendar.