Inside The Perimeter

My MacBook suffered some major hard drive difficulties yesterday. And, wouldn’t you know that as soon as I got everything back to where I started the day, Apple released an update to the operating system. Dangen!

I would be writing this blog using the corporate Windoze machine, but it is currently refusing to recognize the internet.

So, here I am using my iPad with my bluetooth keyboard. This setup works fairly well, at least until I need to cut-and-paste (you’ll notice that there is no statistics section today (yes, I made my bed this morning.)

So Long Convenient Bike Store, It’s Been Good To Know You
One of the odder coincidences about moving to the office location in which we currently reside (our lease is up next year, rumor has it the big wigs are contemplating moving) was that we moved from an office conveniently located to both a REI and a Performance Bike to an office conveniently located to both a REI and a Performance Bike; that is no longer the case.

If you are a dedicated comment reader then you no doubt read deep into yesterday’s comments when I mentioned that after lunch I discovered that the Performance Bike in Dunwoody (aka “Perimeter”) has closed for good. Confirmation of this fact was found on Performance Bike’s website. Dangen!

Looks like I’ll be heading to the old office stomping grounds in order to get my fill of cheap gloves — especially since I’ve misplaced yet another pair.

“Nerd” Is Not A Four Letter Word
Last night I hustled down to Spring and 5th for the monthly meetup of the Atlanta iPhone Developers. I can honestly say that even though I’ve been coding for longer than some in the room have been alive, I am a fucking n00b in that crowd. By year’s end my goal is to feel like I belong, oh, and to join the crowd at the on-after (if you will) at Marlow’s Tavern in midtown.

ITP Flickr Pic
(This ought to be interesting and frustrating all at once…)
(Related: I’m suffering from phantom mouse syndrome. Each time I remove my right hand from this keyboard I’m trying to set it on a mouse which does not exist.)

(Hmmm, that wasn’t too horrible.)
This was a hearth that I encountered while driving the back roads on my failed Macon swamp trip Sunday.

The New iPhone Is Soon To Be My iPhone
There was much hullabaloo yesterday about how hard it was to pre-order an iPhone 4. While I suffered many of the same pains, it was revealed that the process was much easier if you used the new Apple Store app on your current iPhone. And it was.

Yesterday I ordered a black (the only color available to pre-order at the moment) 16GB (same size as my current iPhone, and with the iPad I see no need to have more memory in my phone) iPhone 4 which is supposedly going to be waiting for me a the Apple Store next week. Weeee!

RealiTV Update: Hell’s Kitchen — What Is Going On Here!?!
Instead of joining the iPhone Developer nerds for beverages at Marlow’s Tavern (note to self: do this!) I headed over to Nancy’s (“Easy Cheeks”) place where I met up with ITP-Reader Betsy (“Boner Rooter”), Leigh Ann (“Tastes Like Chicken”), Andrea (“Pull My String”), and the night’s surprise guest Gary (“Rat’s Ass”) for a double-episode night of Hell’s Kitchen (no link, see below).

The evening was quite enjoyable but I must admit that I am way in the weeds for this season’s Hell’s Kitchen. I believe that I have all of the episodes recorded, so I suppose I should make it my week’s mission to catch up before I host next Tuesday night.

TextExpander May Be Dead To Me
If you’ve been reading this space regularly you know of the issues I’ve had with TextExpander not doing the one thing I paid $40 for it to do — expand abbreviations (aka “snippets”) to longer text.

I’ve been going back and forth with the tech support people, and they have (rightly) blamed the browser developers for not allowing them to do key capture, which is how TextExpander knows when to expand snippets. While not “okay” with this, I certainly understood.

After installing Apple’s update of 10.6.4 on my home computer last night and fighting with TextExpander after reboot, I went into TextExpander’s preferences. To my dismay all of the snippets I created were missing, and when I looked at my DropBox folder to which TextExpander is supposed to successfully sync, there were about a dozen “conflicts” files, none of which seemed to contain my snippets.

So, as of today I’m trying an experiment. I’ve uninstalled TextExpander and will attempt to live without it. Hell, though it’s available for the iPad and iPod, those versions of TextExpander are a bitch to work with, so I’ve kind of been living without it for a while. Perhaps I’ll seek alternatives, and if none can be found I’ll have to live life the hard way by manually typing all of my HTML hyperlinks.

The End Is Here!
That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Oh wait! I just stumbled on a nifty iPad trick when using a keyboard. Apparently you can select text by holding down the Shift Key and using the arrow keys to select the text. Once selected you can use Command-C to copy (or Command-X to cut) and Command-P to paste.

Very Niiiiiiice!

(note #1: I’m too lazy to go copy-and-paste my statistics section from another blog post though.)
(note #2: Out corporate internet connection has returned, so I’ve added them now.)
(note #3: I added some hyperlinks today once I was using a computer with keyboard and mouse/trackpad.)

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – other than being lonely, feeling fat, and concerned about my health…. okay
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – On more than on occasion I’ve mentioned my love for typography. It is no surprise then that I cannot wait until I can see Typeface.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – forgot to check, may turn this into “Monday Weigh-In”
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 5.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 89.5 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 16 (16)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 15
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 2

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]

That is if I can figure out how to pre-order one and pay the “subsidized upgrade” price instead of retail.

Man, Talk About Hot
Perhaps yesterday wasn’t the best day to commute to work on a bicycle. When I got home last night all I could do was strip down and hop into a cold(ish) shower to clean off and cool down. I was pretty much useless the rest of the evening as I lounged in bed watching videos on my iPad.

I was glad that I stepped up and rode to work, but in retrospect I think that I need to find some better routes, ones which don’t endanger my health nearly as much as the routes I rode yesterday. I caught a lot of traffic breaks yesterday (especially on my way home) that I cannot guarantee in the future.

I’m Still Trying To Downsize
All that my constantly-running air-conditioner and soon-to-be-ginormous Georgia Power bill are doing these days is remind me is that I own too much space. As I’ve mentioned in the past, part of the problem of owning space is that you acquire things to fill that space up.

I am once again fighting hard to get rid of things, so that in the near(ish) future I can acquire a domicile with less space, preferably a swank loft with enough area for a small photography studio. Don’t be surprised if I start adding a “Freecycle” section to this here blog.

ITP Flickr Pic
Normally I am not one to adorn my electronics/car with stickers.

However, when in a room with other iPad owners one iPad looks like another iPad, which looks like another iPad. So, I found the above decal on Etsy and decided to order it. I chose the design I did for two reasons:

1. It is photography related
2. It will look good whether I am holding my iPad in portrait or landscape orientation

I Eat Out A Lot
But I’m also starting to save a lot of money.

Have I mentioned Groupon and Scoutmob in this blog yet? Both companies offer a “Deal of the Day” for many cities around the country. Most of these deals are discounts to restaurants, for example today’s Scoutmob deal is for the Flat Iron in East Atlanta Village, which can be used by some defined expiration date. For Groupon you must commit to buying the discount on the day that it is offered. For Scoutmob you must have a coupon code or smart phone handy when checking out.

I’ve also heard of Half Off Depot but I’ve yet to check them out.

So Much Music, Some Of It For Free
Speaking of “deals” one of the best, under-publicized ones out there are the free, as in “I wish beer were free”, music samplers offered by Amazon’s Music Download Service.

The other day I downloaded three album’s worth of music by many of today’s better-known indie bands — for free.

Shit, with all of the money I am saving you today you could afford to buy me a beer, as in “Damn, this beer tastes great because it’s free.”

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – tired, bothered, lost
Current Music – silence at the moment, will listen to some podcasts soon
Website Of The Day – I’m feeling a bit odd today, so what better day to select the website Oddee.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – biking: ~33.5 miles
Morning Weigh-In – forgot to check, may turn this into “Monday Weigh-In”
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 5.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 89.5 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 15 (15)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 14
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 2

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]

…but she always thought I’d more sense than to ride my bike in this weather. She was wrong. This morning’s commute was on the Red Rocket, now if I can manage not to eat and drink back all of the calories spent on my journey…

I Always Knew I Was More “Banker” Than “Pioneer”
I started Sunday an hour later than desired. The plan was to drive to Macon by sunrise, but when I somehow managed to miss my 4:00am alarm, that didn’t happen. Honestly, had I not boasted of my excursion I would have blown of the trip entirely. But, I decided to go anyway.

I’ve always joked that if I were born in the 1800′s I’d be a “big city” banker and not some pioneer who jumped at the opportunity to go west. “You’ll get killed out there, you fool!” is what I’d tell them.

It should come as no surprise then that when I finally found the Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and that I was the only person there, that my ass clenched and I wound up not going on the hike to take pictures in the swamp. I blame the bugs which swarmed me immediately, as well as the warning that three types of poisonous snakes inhabit the region and are most active in Spring/Summer (what time of year is this again? riiiiiiight!)

Instead, since I had Jill2 in the car I decided to go on a hearth excursion. I managed to find one hearth along the way, and I managed to somehow wind up fifty miles east of Atlanta when I finally reached I-20 and spent nearly five hours driving in the process.

Not exactly the most productive Sunday I’ve had recently.

ITP Flickr Pic
I went way OTP this weekend and this is the only one of two shots that I am willing to post.

Sad really.

Fun Ride On Friday
On Friday evening I joined ITP-Reader Barb, her husband Allan, ITP-Reader Bob, and Carol (“Primer”, “Service My Tool”, “Check My Bags”, “Wine Ho” respectively) for a ride around Marietta and up Kennesaw mountain. I’ve only made one previous attempt to ride up Kennesaw mountain and failed, so I was pleased that, even though I had to stop twice, that I made it to the top.

We turned the ride back to our cars into a mini-pub crawl stopping at Mulligan’s, the Beer Barrel, and then ending at Rocco’s. Each stop was a hoot for its own reason. At Mulligan’s we sat outside next to a group of rather friendly motorcycle riders, one of whom even purchased us a pitcher of beer! The best part of that stop was seeing one of those riders having a lap dog which rode with him. When the guy was ready to leave he placed the dog onto the gas tank and then outfitted it with a pair of dog goggles and a mini-helmet. It was priceless, and really made me wish that I had a camera with me at the time.

Rocco’s was the final stop, and where we ordered some food. I had a delicious plate of fried green tomatoes (with blue cheese), and a bowl of Frito pie chili which was outstanding.

All in all it was a great time and I hope to repeat it many times in the future.

Just What Is My Mac Doing On The Weekend?
I’ve always wondered about this. When I shut the lid on my MacBook on a Friday evening the battery is at 100%. When I return and open it on a Monday morning (like today) the battery life is reported at somewhere between 50%-60%. What the hell is it doing? Shouldn’t shutting the lid put the machine into a hibernation state which consumes nearly no power?

I am confused.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, all things considered
Current Music – silence as I can imagine putting on my can-style headphones at the moment.
Website Of The Day – I meant to choose Creative Live on Friday because Atlanta photographer was webcasting a free workshop there this weekend. Oh well, check it out to see if any future events float your boat.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my bicycle
Exercise (b)Log – Friday: cycling, 16 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check this morning
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 5.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 56 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 14 (14)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 13
Marta Rides – 0

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]

I’m making a secret excursion sometime this weekend. There is a possibility that I may not return from this excursion, unfortunately not because I’ve decided to run away and travel the Earth. Hopefully all will go well and I’ll disclose everything on Monday.

No Cavities, But Not Exactly Painless
Yesterday was my six-month dental checkup and cleaning. Yesterday I also consented to a 360º X-Ray of my chompers. Although I was quite pleased that the verdict was that my gums and teeth look good (as good as they can after nearly 44 years), but was a bit taken aback when I found out that the day’s work was going to cost me $230(!). Sadly, my dentist is not a member of my insurance company’s network, so I wind up paying the entire cost out of pocket.

A Night At The Theatre
Last night I headed to Horizon Theatre to see “True Love Lies.” Much like many Horizon Theatre outings I started the evening off at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club. Unlike many nights at the Yacht Club my “dinner” consisted of boiled peanuts and one beer. While waiting for the play to start I ran into my friend Kim, who I’ve found out is also a Horizon subscriber.

I have to be honest and say that “True Love Lies” was far from my favorite play I’ve seen at Horizon. Keep in mind that my favorite play/movie of all time is David Mamet’s “Glengarry, Glen Ross” so it wasn’t “True Love Lies” language and subject matter that displeased me. The play, based on the deterioration of a “nuclear family” when it’s discovered the father’s ex gay lover has returned to town has (obviously) adult themes and foul language. What bothered me was that the play was a collection of two-minute scenes which which bounced around like a modern-day cut-scene highlight package. I never felt comfortable the entire time as the play bounced from scene to scene, and I guess that also made it hard for me to believe the actors as the characters they were portraying.

ITP Flickr Pic
My final shot (that I’ll post) from last weekend’s Oakland Cemetery excursion.

Hoping this weekend’s planned excursion produces as many publishable photos.

If The Weather Gods Permit
The Red Rocket is on top of the Jackmobile this morning (and unfortunately I left my iPhone in the trunk and am too lazy to go get it). I’ve locked the bike to the bike rack and have placed a plastic bag onto the seat in case a patented afternoon thunderstorm rears its ugly head.

The “plan” is to ride up to Kennesaw Mountain tonight with ITP-Reader Barb, her hubby Allan, ITP-Reader Bob, and others. The “plan” is also to end tonight’s ride with some beer and food OTP.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed…

Looks Like TextExpander Will No Longer Be My Solution
I love the functionality that TextExpander supplies, when it’s capable of supplying it. It turns out that my difficulties with the software are known issues, and are caused by Firefox (and Chrome) turning on secure event input, thus blocking TextExpander’s ability to capture keyboard input — which is vital in order for it to recognize and then expand snippets. Bummer.

Because abbreviation expanding is such a powerful feature I wonder why Apple has never included this functionality into one of its operating systems.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fat, fatter, fattest
Current Music – listening to the “This Week In Photography” podcast
Website Of The Day – It’s Friday. Go check out the amazing artwork that Peter Callesen produces.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds (ugh)
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 5.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 40 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 11 (11)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 10
Marta Rides – 0

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]

This was not the way I wanted to start my day: I realized that I had a quarterly tax payment due, found out that it is due in five days, made an effort to write a check and get it into the mail first thing this morning, and then realized that I addressed it to the wrong PO Box after I had dropped it into the mailbox. I addressed the envelop to the PO Box to which I sent my Federal 1040, and not to where I was supposed to send my Federal 1040-ES. Guess who’ll be calling his tax preparer in a few hours to see how badly he’s fucked things up?

Four More Beers! Four More Beers!
I met up with Stevie at The Fred last night. Somehow in a span of four hours I managed to consume four beers — Southern Tier Unearthly, Mikkeller 1-Hop Gold, Lagunitas Pils, Rogue Somer Orange Honey — and two glasses of water.

It was no surprise that I wanted food on my drive home. What was a surprise was that I wound up a Las Tortas Locas, and even though I swear that I ordered dos tacos I was presented with tres tacos (A quick glance at my wallet this morning indicated that I also paid for tres tacos).

So much for Losing-Weight Paulie.

ITP Flickr Pic
Another flower photo from Oakland Cemetery.

I may just stare at this photo all day and try to forget my woes. Probably not, since doing so may break my goal of “Not getting fired from my job.”

Bring On The World, Bring On The Flags
Apparently some “Big To Do” tournament is due to start soon. Although I do not follow the sport that shall be played during this event I will follow it’s proceedings thanks to the good folks at Sotto Sotto. When this event, which I shall call “Taza del Mundo”, takes place Sotto Sotto places a flag representing each country participating in Taza del Mundo on its facade. As teams get eliminated from Taza del Mundo their flag gets taken down from the facade. Sadly, my flag recognition is not all that great, so unless the US, Canada, Britain, or Brazil win Taza del Mundo I’ll be unable to tell you who won.

Google, Don’t Bring On The Bing
It’s nary 8:00am and I’ve already exceeded my daily usage of the word “fucktard.” First it was in reference to myself for mis-addressing my tax payment. Now, it’s in reference to the Google management that decided they should “Bing” their background with fancy images. Fucktards!

For the most part Google’s background has been stark white since the late 1990s. This simplicity won the hearts of many, and in turn made them a multi-billion dollar company. Now, in the face of competition from Microsoft through Bing they have placed an annoyingly-busy photo on the Google homepage. Worse yet, it’s a multi-step process in order to return the page to white, and once you do the Google logo and all of the other text on the homepage is white with bezeled edging. Fucktards!

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – pissed at myself and worried about my mailing fuck up
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – How to return Google’s homepage to white. Fucktards.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds (ugh)
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 5.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 40 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 10 (10)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 9
Marta Rides – 0

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]

I am an early riser. I used to be a later got-to-sleeper. For the majority of my adulthood I’ve not “gone to bed,” instead I’ve “fallen asleep” while doing something (reading, watching tv, listening to music, having conversations with significant others, etc). Since the installation of wireless networking in my house falling asleep happens to occur while I’m in bed.

I’m Once Again Whining About TextExpander
Another software update has been installed on my Mac and now TextExpander is refusing to expand my Snippets using Chrome. Fudge. I’ve just emailed the makers of TextExpander with a crash log so that they can get things working before I give up on them. My breaking point is nearing quickly.

Once finished with this blog I will reboot my Mac in an effort to get TextExpander to do the one thing it is supposed to do.

ITP Flickr Pic
I love water fountains, the drinking variety. Often times when I was young these fountains were turned off and it was a great disappointment to press their buttons and receive no reward.

I expected the same fate last Saturday in Oakland Cemetery when I stepped on the pedal of this drinking fountain. When I saw the water spring from its opening I immediately tried to figured out how to photograph this.

This shot, while not the greatest water fountain photo that I’ll ever take, does please me.

Return To The Fred
This week is turning into a week of drinking great beer. Last night I joined my friend Cheryl at The Porter Beer Bar in Little Five Points. Tonight I’ll be returning to The Fred in The Prado tilt a few back with my friend Stevie. The bonus attached to tonight’s drinking is that it’ll help me get closer to the 125 beer mark for my Taco Mac Passport.

And besides, good beer is good for me.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, though I have so much to do!
Current Music – listening to the “Musicheads” podcast
Website Of The Day – Good beer is good. Good food is good too. The Good Eater Collaborative is another of the many excellent foodie blogs that the internets have to offer.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds (ugh)
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 5.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 40 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 9 (9)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 8
Marta Rides – 0

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]

I am extremely disappointed today. I’m overweight, and feeling every last pound as I sit here typing; I’m overbooked, though at least my appointments are pleasurable for the most part; I’m sneezing my head off because I seem to be allergic, most likely to the muck and mire that we hashed through on Sunday.

I have to remember that I am in control of my circumstances. I control the amount of food that enters my piehole. For the most part I dictate how much exercise I get. And, while I have little control over my allergies I can continue to use modern medicine to fight my ills.

Big Update Day
As I mentioned yesterday, Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference kicked off with a bang (as well as a rare blooper). As rumored the next iteration of the iPhone, yes that Braun-like phone which was outed a month ago, was introduced. Thanks to another agreement with AT$T, this time to allow people whose contracts are up before year’s end to upgrade at the subsidized price, as soon as pre-orders are allowed to be placed (June 15th) I shall be pre-ordering a 16GB (don’t need 32GB in my phone) for $199. If this comes as a surprise to you then you obviously don’t know me very well. “What of my well-kept iPhone 3G?”, you ask? Well, that’s already been committed to my ITP-Reader/Lurker brother, that is if he still wants it after I just called him a lurker.

News also came down the pike of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 release. Once I heard of this news this morning I was on it like white on rice. Since I am a Lightroom 2 owner the upgrade price was $99. However, since I am also a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals I was able to save 15% on my upgrade. W00t!

The cheapest upgrade announced yesterday came from Apple in the form of Safari 5.0. This upgrade was free. Free is good, especially when it’s free beer.

ITP Flickr Pic
Look! Two. Days. In. A. Row!

Perhaps the shot that I like most from Saturday’s photoshoot. I may want to see about process this in Lightroom 3 (or maybe in Photoshop CS5 as well) to see about sharpening it a bit.

Chic-fail-A
I tried a “new” Spicy Chic-fil-A chicken sandwich last night. If that’s Chic-fil-A’s definition of “spicy” then they need to read the New Testament version of Webster’s Dictionary. I realize that I live on the extreme end of the “spicy spectrum”, but this sandwich was a complete disappointment to me.

I’m Not A Self-Centered Asshole, Really I’m Not
Because of my allergies my nose is being a real ass by running constantly. It’s bad today, and was worse last night.

At the Roswell Photographic Society meeting last night I heard my name being called by ITP-Reader Barb’s friend. Unfortunately I was making a beeline to the bathroom so that I could deal with my nose and decided not to make my first impression with a nasty nose. Also unfortunately I was unable to see the person who had called my name, so when I returned from the bathroom I was unable to apologize and say hello.

I am not an asshole, well at least not most of the time.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – pissed
Current Music – listening to the “The Interface” podcast, featuring Jamie Lidell
Website Of The Day – Perhaps when I get that new fancy-pants iPhone I’ll spruce up the ringtones by creating my own using Audiko.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds (ugh)
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 40 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 8 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 7
Marta Rides – 0

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]

Today is the kickoff of Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference, WWDC. I certainly would like to be in attendance, I’m not yet a committed, qualified Apple Developer (though I’m paying the $99 annual fee) to justify the expense of going out to San Francisco and attending the conference.

A Long, Strange Saturday
When I look back on Saturday even I can’t believe the amount I packed into one day.

I arose early to meet some Flickrites at Historic Oakland Cemetery to do a sunrise photoshoot. One problem, the sun rose at about 6:25am, Oakland Cemetery doesn’t open until 8:00am. The three of us made a quick executive decision to head to the Majestic before returning to do some photography. I have photos in the camera waiting to be processed…

As we were wrapping up our photoshoot we stumbled upon a large group of (mostly female) photographers assembling at the Visitor Center. I asked one of the people what was going on, and it turned out that they were there as part of a world wide photo walk being organized by a website called I Heart Faces. I learn about new things every day.

After noon I made my way over to Athens to continue my whirlwind day. I stayed at a brand new hotel (foreshadowing) whose street was not in my Garmin Nüvi’s (aka Jill2) database. Frustrating. Thankfully Google is better prepared, so I was able to navigate to the hotel using Google Maps my iPhone.

I did a little relaxing and some photo reconnaissance (though I wound up shooting zero photos in Athens) before heading to Terrapin Brewery to consume some of their beers and listen to Atlanta’s Smalltown Mayors perform. For $10 you receive a pint glass (like I need another!) and eight beer tickets, each ticket redeemable for one four-ounce pour. I dare say the humidity and lack of food got to me, as I was only able to use six of my tickets. I decided that it would be prudent to head out for food while I was still sober, and before the throngs of others who were in attendance also decided it was time to leave.

If I were to tell you that I ate dinner at a restaurant which was once a Waffle House and is attached to a Shell station you might think I wasted one of my Life’s meals. How wrong you’d be. I ate three delicious tacos — lengua, pastor, and barbacoa — at this tiny establishment called Taqueria El Sol De Zacatecaz. If I ever return to Athens I’ll also return to this place to eat.

After a short nap back at the hotel room I was out on the prowl again. This time I was headed to downtown Athens to hear Circulatory System play at the 40 Watt Club. I should be an experienced enough concertgoer to realize that I could have stopped in Trappeze Pub for a few delicious beers before going into the 40 Watt, but I didn’t.

I like the 40 Watt, even if the girl working the door was as rude to me as any stranger has ever been.

Girl: “I probably don’t need to check your id, you look old enough.”
Me: “I am, but I don’t mind showing it since I’ve nothing to hide.”
Girl: “Oh, you’re even older than I thought. You are older than me.”
Me: “Um. Well, eat right and exercise and you’ll get to my age some day.”
Me: *walks away*

The show was fun, but really long. Three bands performed that night, and as I left the 40 Watt at 1:30am Circulatory System was still cranking out their psychedelic rock.

I. Was. Bushed. So bushed in fact that when I saw the roach in my hotel room and failed to kill it because it managed to scurry behind the desk, I still fell asleep in moments. When I told the young woman desk clerk about the roach upon checking out she first thought I was joking. When I assured her that I was not, and that the fact that the building was brand new had no impact on the roach’s decision to inhabit it, she was mortified and made note of my account. She said something about trying to get me a discount on my rate, but I’ll believe that when I see it.

ITP Flickr Pic
This weekend I received payment for my sale at the Atlanta Photography Exhibit‘s “Southern Fried Photographers” exhibit.

This check covers the entrance fee, and cost of printing, matting, framing, and nets me about $20 profit.

My Hash — Done Right
Hashing is funny. When I saw the posted start for yesterday’s hash I was intrigued because it was in one of the areas I scouted last July for my Black Sheep Hash Birthday Snarefest. In fact, the trail ended exactly where I was planning to end my trail! Yesterday’s trail was fantastic, and proved that my hunch last year was correct.

Yesterday’s hares — Colonel Clit and Supersuck — managed to do what I could not. These two found incredible shiggy and a way to cross under 985 and 85 so that the trail could use both sides of the interstates and the shiggy which borders each. I was both impressed and jealous how well they organized yesterday’s trails.

A Return To RPS
Tonight I’ll be headed back to Roswell for the monthly Roswell Photographic Society meeting. Tonight is a presentation night, with tonight’s presenter being local nature photographer Kathryn Kolb. I have a special place in my heart for Kold Kolb as she was the critic who picked my photo as First Place back in February.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – weird, somewhat detached
Current Music – listening to the CBC Radio 3 “Ab-Originals” podcast
Website Of The Day – Hopefully one of the things Steve Jobs will announce today is an additional cell phone provider to compete with AT&T. If not, you better read Candid Answers From AT&T On The New iPhone Data Plans to make an informed decision about future data plans.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: hashing, 5.5 miles
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds (Jeebus, I’m getting fatter not thinner )
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 5.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 40 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 7 (7)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 6
Marta Rides – 0

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]

I still have it! Of course, anytime from right now until I go to sleep tonight I could pass out from the exhaustion which has set in from getting home at 1:20am.

Oh, and I’ll be doing laundry and then going out again tonight.
Getting up very early Saturday for photography and breakfast with friends.
Be going to two shows (one could prove to be another late one) on Saturday night in Athens.
And will be hashing with the Black Sheep Hash on Sunday.

No rest for the weary….

You Missed Out
After working my eight-hour day (leaving while the CEO and President were still on the premises) I hustled home to mow the weeds. With little hope of fitting this task in before late next week, and the impossible task of knowing what the weather will do based on the weather forecasts, it was a “must do” task for last night even though it meant risking looking like an “early leaver” in front of the Top Brass. I will say that, even using a mower blade which is as dull as a butter knife, the lawn looks half-decent when it is all at the same height.

Around 9:00pm I mustered up the energy to head out to The Star Bar in Little 5 Points for the Free Energy show. It’s been many years since I’ve seen the inside of The Star Bar, so long in fact that I could not locate the men’s room.

Once past the doorman, with whom I had some difficulty because I’d not printed out my ticket from Ticket Alternative, I saw that the first band, Miniature Tigers, were still doing their soundcheck. I was in for a late night.

The night featured three bands — Miniature Tigers, Jukebox The Ghost, and Free Energy. For the longest time I was smashing the age curve in the building as I might have been the only person to have lived through “Reaganomics” instead of reading about it in a Civics text book.

Have I mentioned how attracted I am to young lasses with short tresses? Yeah. That’s me, dirty old man Paulie.

The evening’s music was a blast. Free Energy is a young group with some talented players. I dare say that if Free Energy can produce another solid album or two that they won’t play venues as small as The Star Bar much longer. The funniest part of the night was that the remaining crowd — more on this in a minute — demanded two songs for Free Energy’s encore. They must not have been expecting this, as they replayed the song that they played to open their set.

When will bands/venues realize that having headliners go on at midnight during the workweek is a bad idea? By the time Free Energy took the stage the crowd had thinned to more than half its original size, therefore the opening band had more people watching them than the headliners.

ITP Flickr Pic
I’ll be honest. I have not had, nor have I set out to make the time, to do quality photography. My life is a current whirlwind of solo activity which has not included the pressing of my camera’s shutter (ha! I originally typed “shitter”). Believe it or not, this weekend does have some photography time allocated, weather permitting, so perhaps on Monday this space will be filled with a glorious color photo instead of text.

The Food Court At Super-H Mart Was Only So-So-H
Yesterday I checked out the food court at Super-H Mart on Peachtree Industrial Blvd just inside 285. Given all that I had heard about this Asian food grocery chain I was expecting the best. Well, I was somewhat disappointed. I ordered some fried chicken chunk dish which was smothered in a sweet, hot pepper sauce and served with rice. The dish was tasty enough, but far more Americanized than what I was seeking.

I think I’ll stick to the Chinese Food Court closer to Peachtree/Dekalb Airport.

Abolishing My To-Do List
I’m currently about three hours into the audiobook version of Getting Things Done. One thing I’ve quickly come to realize is that my To-Do list is useless because the To-Dos don’t have any To-Deadlines by which they must be completed.

So, this weekend (on top of all of the other things that I mentioned at the onset) I shall be migrating my To-Do items into my calendar and setting deadlines and reminders for each. Who knows, I might have functional plumbing by year’s end after all.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sluggish
Current Music – giving myself the silent treatment today in an effort to be focused.
Website Of The Day – Say you wanted to buy me a beer. Go ahead, say it. Well that to Teh Internets you can do so online using You Got Beer.
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 – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 40 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 4 (4)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 3
Marta Rides – 0

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]

Sadly that point is “Regardless of the number of days I take off to dedicate to iPhone/iPad development without a clear product to develop, and a deadline to be concerned about, it’s not going to happen.” I did many other things during my respit (mowing the lawn should have happened yesterday too, but did not) so I don’t consider the use of my vacation days to be wasted, but today I do not have the pride and joy that I thought I would as of last week.

• Things I Did Get Done
• relaxing with friends
• one good bike ride
• some cleaning and organizing
• did some reading
• watched a lot of episodes of The Good Life
• Things I Didn’t Get Done
• iPhone/iPad development
• photography
• get Sharpened Stone‘s website up
• not all cleaning or organizing done
• finish the book I wanted to finish reading

Back at the office today…

I Was Nearly Trampled By Turtles Last Night
More specifically I was nearly trampled by their odd-dancing fans.

Last night I joined my friend (and boss) Hank at Smith’s Olde Bar to see the band Trampled By Turtles. Trampled By Turtles is a country/bluegrass five-piece out of the great bluegrass breeding ground of Duluth, Minnesota. Wait. What? What’s even funnier is that without thinking I was wearing my The Hold Steady “Minnesota Twins” t-shirt so it looked as if I were playing up to the band, when in reality I had no clue.

The show last night was really good, though started a bit too late for a Wednesday night. As it turned out the opening band had to cancel because on of its members got hurt after their show up in Asheville. Had somebody mentioned this to the crowd prior to Trampled By Turtles taking the stage sometime after 10:00pm, or if Trampled By Turtles had started their set earlier, things wouldn’t have seem so bad.

The crowd at last night’s show was a good mix of old/young, pretty/not-so-pretty (I dare say I saw three of the prettiest young ladies — my definition of pretty — that I’ve seen in a long time last night). What was even more unusual than the crowd was that it was a dancing crowd, with most of the dancers being men. Well, “dancing” is a bit generous, they were hopping up and down and gyrating as if they were having convulsions. It made for enjoyable people watching at least.

ITP Flickr Pic
I guess I should have taken more shitty camera phone photos while out riding yesterday. At least I would have something for this space if I had.

What? Another Anniversary?
Yesterday I was listening to another great episode of the Coverville podcast when it dawned on me that it was about this time last year that I became a “Coverville Citizen.” When I searched my email archives I found that as of yesterday it had been exactly a year since I became a Coverville Citizen.

So far June seems to be a month of anniversaries for me.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – good, though my right knee hurts today. I think I need a pedal adjustment on the Red Rocket
Current Music – listening to the “Breakfast Club” podcast from CBC Radio 3
Website Of The Day – .
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – biking: 40 miles
Morning Weigh-In – failed to check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 40 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 3 (3)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 2
Marta Rides – 0

June 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
- Complete at least one iPhone application

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]