Ups, Downs, And All Arounds

Day two of feeling rundown with runny nose. I suppose I can not take credit for staying healthy for and entire month. Dangen! I want to feel better by tonight…

Bread, T-Shirt, And Dinner With Friends
Last night I met up with ITP-Readers Jenka and Martha (and their men) at The Midway Pub in East Atlanta. Remembering that it was Thursday I parked my car and rushed over to the East Atlanta Farmers Market in order to pick up a loaf of bread and a brand new King of Pops t-shirt (I’d also would have purchased a popsicle, but I knew that I was going to eat dinner) before going to The Midway.

Inside The Midway (which was thankfully not very smoky last night) I had three beers and a burger with fries — well about two-thirds of a burger. As I am wont to do I ordered my burger “medium” which is usually ignored and served well-done. Last night the center portion of my burger was closer to rare, so I decided that I didn’t really need to eat all of my burger.

Tonight I Get All Classy And Shit
Unless my runny nose continues to destroy my happiness I will be found attending the Theatrical Outfit‘s performance of “A Confederacy of Dunces.” John Kennedy Toole’s only published work has long been one of my favorite novels. Earlier this year I revisited it through the listening of the audiobook version. Tonight I hope that the live performance lives up to what I consider to be a brilliant story.

ITP Flickr Pic
Eye sore.

About a year or so ago this house on North Druid Hills was converted into a business. Apparently there are no signage codes because if this isn’t the ugliest thing I’ve seen in some time then I don’t know what is.
Eye Sore
Traffic was bad enough yesterday that I was stuck nearly in front of this eye sore long enough to grab my iPhone and take this photo.

It’s Been Too Short
If you are roughly my age and of my musical demographic then you, like me, used MTV as a music discovery service in the 1980’s. Sure, in hindsight I realized that MTV was a very limited music discovery service, but they served me well for nearly a decade.

If I say the name “Michael Been,” or the band name “The Call,” neither of those may ring a bell. But if you watched MTV in the 1980’s you undoubtedly saw/heard both via the music video for The Call’s song “The Walls Came Down” (you know, I just found out that I don’t possess the album on which that song appeared!).

I am not a “lyrics person,” rarely can I sing along with a song because I either don’t pay enough attention to the singer, or I can’t understand what the singer is saying. If I play an album from The Call I bet I could sing almost every song while it plays.

This morning I found out through a Facebook post from ITP-Reader Terri that Michael Been suffered a heart attack last night and passed away at age sixty. Damn, that sucks.

A Weekend Challenge
I’ve done this often, but Michael Been’s death brought the thought to mind again this morning. For most of us music, much like smell, has a transformative property. I challenge you to dig through your music collection this weekend and listen to something that you’ve not listened to in a long time, something that takes you to another place, and remember the person you were back when you first heard that music.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sad, frustrated
Current Music – silence, resisting the urge to play my entire The Call collection
Website Of The Day – Rumor has it that Darya Pino, creator of Summer Tomato, is dating Digg founder Kevin Rose. I knew from that tidbit that I’d be recommending her site today.
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 – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 102.2 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 3 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 18
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 3

August Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month (I did it once, I can do it again!)
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 200 miles
– Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
– Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
– Completely plan out my August/September Colorado trip

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I’ve sadly gained weight; I’m at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
– 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]

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11 Responses to Ups, Downs, And All Arounds

  1. Terri (SW) says:

    Sad about the passing of Michael Been (at such a young age). But, as my friend Don said, “he died with his boots on…”

    Many may remember The Call’s “Let the Day Begin” from Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign…such a great song!

    Many may want to forget “I Still Believe” from The Lost Boys soundtrack. The greased up saxophone-singer-mullet guy is NOT Michael Been (it was covered in the film by another band).

  2. And for today’s “Oh shit I forgot to mention this” moment:

    Sunday is a Wheelhopper Sunday. This Sunday’s trail will be laid by ITP-Reader Steve down in Moreland, Georgia. It’ll be “skinny tire” friendly (so says the lying hare) and you can bet your ass that I’ll be there.

  3. Barb says:

    We will be in Moreland Sunday (and actually Saturday too). Steve – did you figure out if Allan should bring any fire hose & how many feet?

  4. Steve says:

    I’m still fighting the good fight with the pool. I’m trying a little more vacuuming and trying to see if I can get it a little clearer before going all nuclear and refillling.

    That lying hare isn’t planning on doing anything you can’t ride on skinny tires- if you don’t like the driveway, well, I can’t help that!

    -FP

  5. Barb says:

    we (and I mainly mean Allan) can help with the pool – he will need to know all this stuff if he really thinks we are going to put a pool in our backyard someday.

    BTW – have you considered converting the pool to salt water at this point? (if you have to drain it?) I think I heard it isn’t that tough to change over.

  6. debbie says:

    I’d like to go salt and now may be the time.

    We’ll have one less dog this weekend. We put Zoe to sleep this morning. Sucky day at the day spa.

  7. Barb says:

    oh, so sorry to hear about Zoe…….

  8. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    Aw, sorry to hear about Zoe. Want kittens? It appears as if three have arrived in the neighborhood.

  9. Littlewilly says:

    Steve , Have you tried “shocking” the pool with muriatic acid?

  10. Steve says:

    Willy, there are some great websites for pool chemistry and I’ve done lots of things. Later this afternoon, it’s going to get a blast of Agent Orange and see if we can kill off all life forms. I’m still not hopefull about Sunday but it will be what it will be.

  11. Barb says:

    we don’t need shiggy & swamps at Wheelhopper, we have a pool with agent orange!!!!

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