Inside The Perimeter

I have what I believe is a solid plan, now if the technology would only cooperate. Just to piggyback onto yesterday’s whining, here is my data backup solution.

1. Under daily use I save data to one of three drives
   #1 (250GB internal) = my home directory for miscellaneous data
   #2 (320GB external FireWire) = music and videos
   #3 (320GB external FireWire) = photos and photo related items
2. Each night I plan to run three ChronoSync jobs in order to backup these drives incrementally to a 500GB network attached storage drive. (For now assume that the cumulative amount of data on the three drives listed above is less than 500GB.)
3. Each week I plan to copy the 500GB network attached storage to one of two 750GB USB drives which get rotated and taken off site.

Once the system is in place and running I am sure that I will be satisfied. However, it is taking forever for the initial setup and first backup to complete. Each day I go without a proper data backup I worry that a drive will fail. Further, I feel constrained to not add more data to the drives for fear that this will only exasperate to process.

In some ways this virtual data is a great metaphor for the physical items which I have been attempting to get under control for over a year now.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

Our marriage used to suffer from arguments that were too short. Now we argue long enough to find out what the argument is about.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Somebody Is Obviously Not Reading The Blog
Yesterday in the mail I received a magazine offer; this is not unusual. However the fact that this offer was for Rachael Ray’s magazine made the offering strange. Have they not read the blog? Do they not know how much disdain I possess for Ray and her cooking?

The offer went directly into the trash.

Realtors, Inventing New Terminology For The Future
On my drive in to work I saw a For Sale sign which contained a phrase that I had never heard before. That phrase was “Pre Foreclosure.” I’m sorry? Pre Foreclosure? I guess this means that the house can be bought before the people currently owning it finally give up? Is this like getting in on the ground floor of a great investment? Why must the Real Estate industry keep inventing new terminology?

ITP Flickr Pic
Another in the Peachtree Road Race wheelchair series

When my data backup solution is under control I can start processing the rest of the photos I shot on July 4th.

RealitTV Update : Hell’s Kitchen — We Have A Winner!
Last night I returned to Betsy’s abode, this time to watch the Final Finale of Hell’s Kitchen.

While the focus on the show was supposed to be the battle twix Christina and Petrozza it really turned into a show about the incompetence of Matt and the delusional behavior of Jen. Jen really believed that she should have been in the Final Two and she really believed that being picked next to last was a sign of her strength! And what the hell was up with her asking Ramsay to write a letter of recommendation for her, especially during the final competition — what a lack of dedication. She will probably find a job in the restaurant industry, but I know that if I was hiring for a chef’s position she would never receive an offer from me.

When the two menus were highlighted I really wanted to eat Petrozza’s food and did not have the same craving for Christina’s. Petrozza’s menu looked sophisticated to me; Christina’s did not.

However, in the end I was wrong and Christina won. What a twenty-five year-old Executive Chef will do for Ramsay is a mystery to me, but he obviously saw something special in her.

I’d like to say that I will not watch the next iteration of Hell’s Kitchen, but we all know that’s a lie. But until then I say, bring on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - okay, but will be better when I start exercising again and get my data backup plan executed successfully
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Bright Eyes — “Bowl Of Oranges”
Website Of The Day - You want to see what gas pain others are suffering? Check out Gass Buddy’s intriguing Gas Temperature Map. On a side note: Since Georgia no longer can boast about having cheap gas I’d like to have my ad valorem taxes back please.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 6 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 98 (98)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I spent nearly an entire night moving data around to different hard drives in the name of “organization.” Am I done? Nope. Am I getting there? Yep. It amazed me how many times the same file had been store in different directories thanks to programs such as iTunes and iPhoto. It’s no wonder why I run out of hard drive space so quickly.

Unfortunately another recurring issue that I encountered was the inability of OS X’s Copy command to have any common sense. After moving shit around I decided to get one good, albeit temporary, backup by performing a mass copy to one massive hard drive. Of course when I awoke I was greeted with mysterious error numbers and partially copied directories and not the hard drive containing the complete backup as I hoped.

If you are going to write a copy command please do one of the following
1. Make it so rock-solid it can’t fail.
2. If you cannot accomplish #1 then at least provide a detailed error log and don’t cancel the copy based on the inability to copy one file.
Is that too much to ask? I don’t think so.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

I get angry at Gayle when she asks me to do something if I sense that in refusing to do what she asks I will demonstrate that I am not the way I like to thing of myself.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Mother Nature Fooled Me Yet Again
When I got home last night I intended to go on a short jog in order to get the pendulum swinging back toward the side of exercise. However as I looked at the radar I saw a large and powerful thunderstorm heading toward East Atlanta. Even though this meant that I wouldn’t be going out to run I was excited at the anticipation of rain and cooler temperatures. As time passed I came to the conclusion that Mother Nature was nothing but a big tease as the storm cell broke up and produced nothing in East Atlanta.

Have I mentioned that I’ve yet to get my air conditioning fixed? (note to self: start that process today)

ITP Flickr Pic
Processing more of the shots taken at the Peachtree Road Race.

Told you that I had a good vantage point for shooting…

One Hard Ticket To Buy
The Hold Steady is playing the 40 Watt Club in Athens on August 9th. Seeing how my friend Mike and I have seen them the last three times they’ve rolled through Atlanta we have decided to go four-for-four by attending the show in Athens.

Buying a ticket to this show has been somewhat of a problematic experience for me. It seems that the 40 Watt Club uses some online ticket processor called “PitchATent” whose website lacks a proper security certificate. Each time I try to buy a ticket I am warned that the site to which I try to connect may actually be a site masquerading as “PitchATent” and my confidential information could be compromised. As you would expect, this concerns me greatly and I cancel the purchase.

Questions: Are there any places in Atlanta that sell tickets for the 40 Watt Club? If not, are there any record stores in Athens who sell tickets for the 40 Watt Club?

Tonight We Finally Crown A Winner
Tonight is the final finale for this season’s Hell’s Kitchen! Who will win it all (and become Gordon Ramsay’s next lackey)? My guess is that it will be Petrozza.

Digital Download Of The Week
I am starting to debate the worth of this section. Increasingly I have neither heard the releases, nor have even heard of the bands releasing them. Further, I am really starting to boycott the purchase of music due to increase costs. I still refuse to buy new, environmentally wasteful CDs, and the rising costs of digital downloads is souring me from those as well.

If I could get advanced copies of the releases so that I could at least have some idea of what to recommend then I’d have no problem continuing this. However, I feel that my lack of knowledge on the releases has increased to the point to where I might as well throw darts at a dartboard to choose.

Should it stay or should it go?

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - frustrated by my technology
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Peter, Bjorn, And John — “Amsterdam”
Website Of The Day - I am a sucker for “tip” blogs. It’s no surprise then that TipNut pleases me.
Exercise (b)Log - running/walking 6 miles
Monthly Foot Mileage - 6 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 97 (97)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Two out the three days this weekend I was insanely productive. To counterbalance those day I did absolutely nothing on Saturday; in fact, I think I only left my house once on Saturday and that was to get my mail.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

Many people think they are acting the way they feel when they tell someone off. Someone is critical of me and I answer by calling him an S.O.B. My feeling is not that he is and S.O.B.; my feeling is that he has hurt me: “You have hurt my feelings and not I want to hurt yours.” Launching a verbal attack covers up my feeling of being hurt with an appearance of strength. I get angry when I think someone has hurt me in a way I am helpless to do anything about.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

There Comes A Time In Every Man’s Life Where He Must Face His Demons (Part 1)
On Friday morning I parked myself at the corner of 10th and Juniper for the running of the Peachtree Road Race. My vantage point was incredible and had my camera skills matched my location sighting skills I would have the most incredible shots taken by these hands.

After watching the wheelchairs and then the real runners pass me by it was time to get up and wander the course so I could capture those things which could not be captured at my station.

Deep inside I thought how close I would be to the Black Sheep Hash’s beer stop for the Peachtree Pub Crawl. Demons! This what got me in to trouble last year! As I wandered the race course I had an encounter with Harold (BWanA) and Bill (High Dicker) and I knew that I must face my demons yet again. “One beer. You can do it Paulie, just one beer. This is the year that you stay sober and see fireworks.”

I made a point to make sure that I didn’t race to the beer stop, after all there would be time before the Peachtree Pub Crawl team would arrive and I knew that I could only nurse one beer and fend off any others for so long.

I DID IT! I only had one beer. I waited for the Peachtree Pub Crawl Team to arrive. I walked with them along the race course, just ahead of the police motorcycles sweeping the course. When we hit 10th and Juniper again the Peachtree Pub Crawl team took a right, I continued on straight back to my car.

I Saw One Place Where Budgets Must Have Been Cut — Fireworks
As you might gather from that last section it’s been some time since I’ve seen fireworks so I was anticipating the moon and starts. What I got was somewhat less. Per the timestamps on the photos I took from the balcony of Maigh’s loft Atlanta’s fireworks show didn’t even last thirty minutes. WTF?

Sadly, even with the preparatory reading I did about photographing fireworks most of my shots turned out blurry. I think I’ve learned why, and now I have an entire year to practice.

ITP Flickr Pic
I have a knack for seeing things differently…

This is one of my favorite oddball photos that I took on Friday. What can I say? It’s just me being me.

Set My Blood To Boil
Yesterday I watched Who Killed The Electric Car. Before even starting I knew that I was going to be angered and disgusted by viewing the film — and I was right.

For as much as I like to believe that I am tuned in to environmental issues, I was sadly unaware of the GM EV1 electric car that was introduced in 1996. It’s not surprising that I didn’t know about it however, as the movie paints a scenario that GM did little to hype their own future-forward vehicle, produced few of them for sale, and all but had plans in place to eliminate them as soon as they could. And eliminate them they did. Each of the EV1s was a lease vehicle and as soon as each lease expired they were collected and and sent to the crusher. Perfectly useful products destroyed. God Bless America!

GM is not the only villain in this story however, other car manufacturers did the same thing and let’s not forget the oil industry’s or our very own Federal Government’s actions to dissuade the advancement of non-polluting vehicles.

Perhaps the oddest part of watching this 2006 movie was to see that the price of gas in California at that time was $2.79 a gallon. When the movie was being filmed in 2005 they discussed how the price had gone up $1.00 a gallon in a year’s time. I wonder if a electric car seems like a better idea now that the price of gas is $4.50 a gallon? Probably not to the auto industry, after all they make a shit load of profits from sales of all those parts needed for internal-combustion engines.

There Comes A Time In Every Man’s Life Where He Must Face His Demons (Part Deux)
This being near-middle July can only mean one thing — it’s time for the annual Black Sheep Hash Bastaard Day hash. As I looked at the radar I saw massive lightning storms over Atlanta and swore that I would go to the start and make up my mind about doing the hash then. As I sat in the parking lot I was certain that I would not be running the hash, after all I have a healthy respect for lightning and with birthday upcoming in two week’s time I had no desire to die yesterday. And then I noticed how many other morons showed up to hash, so I was bowled over by the peer pressure.

To the hares credit they gave us a decent trail even though portions of their trail had to be abandoned due to the now rushing waters in the creeks. This also meant that the hash was unusually short, which was okay for most. However, this also meant that mass quantities of beer would be consumed, something which was not planned. Get this… the hash ran out of beer and rather quickly I might add.

A group of us wound up back in East Atlanta at Midway for more beer and grub.

Overall I was pleased with my choice to hash, I am sure that not dying by lightning strike had something to do with that.

Mark you calendars kiddies…. I am the hare for the next Black Sheep hash (July 20th). Can you say “Hash Shit?” I knew you could.

RealiTV Update: The Next Food Network Star
For some reason my head hurt after watching last night’s The Next Food Network Star. Oh wait, I know now… it’s because Rachael Ray was all over the episode! Oh how that woman annoys me…

The bulk of last night’s show was having each of the remaining contestants do a guest cooking segment on Ray’s show. Each contestant was also assigned a child with whom to work during the segment.

Perhaps the most surprising outcome of the show was that Shane was booted. I had Shane pegged to be Final Two with a good chance of winning it all. I thought for certain that this was Adam or Aaron’s week to fail, but Shane’s lack of life experiences as well as his somewhat cold personality did him in.

Next week the Final Four go to Las Vegas. I hope that Rachael Ray stays in New York.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - okay
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 18 playing Los Lobos — “Come On, Let’s Go” (changed the channel today, go figure!)
Website Of The Day - If I could count reading these One Sentence Stories toward my Kindle count then I’d already own one.
Exercise (b)Log - running/walking 6 miles (accumulation of weekend’s activities)
Monthly Foot Mileage - 6 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Monday Morning Weigh-In - 199 pounds (ugh!)
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My internal-combustion engine car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 96 (96)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

It really has been a boring week in my life this week. Admittedly my slow social life this week has been self-imposed. Last night I spent the entire evening going through stacks of paperwork making sure that I have my shit together (for the first time in 2008 — it only took me six months!)

I’ve made a decision that I am giving myself the day off from blogging tomorrow. It will make life easier for me in regards to my Independence Day activities as well as line up a super-special confluence later in the month.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

Whether written or spoken, the more intensely personal, the more uniquely applicable to him a man’s thoughts are, the more I find that what he says has meaning to me. There is usually more meat for me in a writer’s journals than in his essays.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Circle The Receipts, We’re Trying To Get Insurance
After much research and consternation I am finally getting around to meeting my insurance agent in order to get proper coverage for my electronic/camera equipment. I spent a good portion of last night gathering receipts and logging serial numbers for the policy.

You have to love the internet. With the exception of one lens I was able to get all of my purchase history and print out receipts for all of my gear. Frustratingly, that one receipt is for the lens I purchased from Dell (I know, I didn’t realize they sold camera gear until I made that purchase either!) who apparently purge their purchase records after two years. I probably bought the lens about two years ago. Dangen!

I am sure that I put all of the actual receipts in a “safe” place, but for the life of me I have been unable to recall where that “safe” place might be. Double Dangen!

There is a fine line between “Clever” and “Stupid” and I am way on the “Stupid” side right now.

ITP Flickr Pic
My Flickr-friend Romanliliy has started a business called “Blue Chalk Studio.”

I was trying to be clever and take this shot and pretend that I was going to start a rival business called “Yellow Chalk Studio.” I know, I am no closer to that Clever/Stupid dividing line.

Off And Running
The July odometer has been stuck at zero. That all changes tonight as I intend to run the Painful Member Atlanta Hash.

For the non-Atlanta hashers in the group, and you know who you are, the Painful Member hash is held every July 3rd. This particular hash event always starts at the statue on Peachtree/15th between Colony Square and the Woodruff Arts Center. The Painful Member is special because it got its name in a bizarre manner. Normally, hash trails are marked using baking flour. As I am to understand one time a hare (the person who marks the trail) used lime instead of flour and his sweat transferred the lime into his shorts making his “member” rather painful. As we are wont to do in the hash we never let a good story die, so this hash was named for that memorable experience.

If you have a need to see me in person then tonight, and perhaps Sunday at the Black Sheep Hash will be your best opportunities. Friday and Saturday I will be guarding my time heavily as part of my Julybernation project; I see a lot of photography, house cleaning, and movie watching on those days.

Have a very happy and safe Fourth of July everyone! I look forward to having a ton of shit to share come Monday.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - okay because tomorrow I will be on a one-day vacation
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Nine Black Alps — “Cosmopolitan”
Website Of The Day - Bored with Google as a search engine? Spice up your life using Viewzi.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 0 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 92 (92)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

If you are one of the early-bird ITP readers I apologize. I left my house sufficiently early…. to get to my 7:30am meeting, and have been in conversations with coworkers since its conclusion.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

“Let’s not get personal” — Unless what you say relates to me as a person it is just words without meaning. But let’s not just get personal about each other, let’s get personal about ourselves.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

How Did This Happen?
I am trying to make plans for a weekend in New York. This is the last year that my beloved New York Mets will be playing in Shea Stadium, the stadium of my youth, so I want to go up for one final time at the old stadium. While looking at my calendar it appears that every weekend between now and the middle of September is already booked. WTF?

I Sent More Mail Than I Have In Months
Yesterday was spent writing checks, licking affixing stamps, and sending mail to government agencies.

Paid

• DeKalb County property taxes
• car registration including Georgia ad valorem tax
• City of Atlanta water/sewer payment

Still Unpaid

• Payment of income tax penalty (note to self: call accountant)
• City of Atlanta property taxes

Ugh.

ITP Flickr Pic
Please thyself. That is what this photo is about.

I remind myself constantly that I do photography for me and no one else. If anyone else appreciates my work than that’s a bonus.

RealiTV Update: Hell’s Kitchen (1 of 2)
Last night my friend Betsy invited me over to watch the Hell’s Kitchen “Finale,” or so we thought. I think we made the same error that we made the last time we got together to watch the Hell’s Kitchen “Finale,” that Fox splits it into two shows.

All we saw last night was that Petrozza (whose first name I’ve long-since forgotten) won the final reward challenge, and that Christina doesn’t like the restaurant that is being created for her, even though it’s what she requested.

Each chef has assembled two-thirds of his/her team for the final finale.
Petrozza: Bobby, Ben
Christina: Corey, Louross

Matt and Jen are still unpicked.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - Good, however I wish I were on vacation
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Vampire Weekend — “Oxford Coma”
Website Of The Day - Got data that you want to keep prying eyes from seeing? True Crypt is the answer for you.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 0 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 91 (91)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

You will be seeing less of me in July and hopefully by July’s end there will also be less of me to see. Fear not, the blog will still arrive at your virtual doorstep on a daily basis. I plan to take my birthday month as a time to re-evaluate my life a wee little bit.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

But if I make you aware of just how I feel, your reaction might give me much blunt information about myself — or at least about us.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

I Finally Got Some Guts
I don’t know why it took me this long to join GUTS; it’s not like I don’t already know about ten people who are also members.

Anyway, with the notion of running the Mystery Mountain 12-Mile Trail Run in November and the lure of saving $5 on the price of entry, I finally sent GUTS a $15 check for membership yesterday. Sure, my membership will need to be reviewed on January 1, but it’s going to be worth it to me.

Now all I have to do is start training…

Some Expanding Is Good
This is kind of a commercial from which I receive no monetary incentive and is not applicable if you don’t use a Mac.

Still here? Cool.

For the past few months I’ve been using a program called TextExpander from Smile On My Mac. TextExpander allows me to define tags that when typed get expanded into other things. For example if I type the letters hrefvp that gets expanded to the http code which produces this Variety Playhouse. I think that it’s pretty cool and an awesome time saver.

Last night on the new AppleTV I watched a training video podcast from ScreenCastsOnline which was all about TextExpander. At the end of the program they announced that they had worked out a deal with Smile On My Mac to knock 20% off of the price of TextExpander if the purchase is made before the end of July. To get the deal you just have to go to this link and buy it.

I already run TextExpander on my laptop and will be buying another copy for my iMac soon. I swear that the only thing I might receive from me telling you this is thanks.

ITP Flickr Pic
Cadillac, Cadillac…

Long and dark…
Shiny and black blood red.

Hey Georgians, Let’s Buy Some Wine!
As of today we are legally allowed to order wine directly from wineries and have it shipped to our homes. We can now also take partially-consumed bottles home when purchasing a bottle at a restaurant.

Say it with me…. Hallelujah! It’s about fucking time!

Remember The Alamo!
After much deliberation I decided to finally cave and rent a car for the entire duration of my near-future Colorado trip. At first I was going to take a shuttle bus from Denver to Fort Collins for the photography seminar and then deal with renting a car then. However, when I started scanning around at the price of car rentals, even now when it’s no longer ski season, the rates were high. Of the major car rental players I was able to swing a decent deal from Alamo so I pulled the trigger.

I sincerely hope that Alamo’s car rental skills are better than the skills of the people they hired to build their website. I was going to be a “team player” and register with their site so that all of my information would be in their database and I could possibly make life easier for myself if I rented from them in the future. The first annoyance I encountered was my password selection. On the data entry form there was this statement Password must be at least 6 characters next to the password field, so I proceeded to enter a long password (on the order of twelve characters. When I submitted my data I was shown an error message Password must be between 6-10 characters. Well if that was the case why didn’t they say that originally??? After changing my password to meet their new criteria I resubmitted my data. This time I was shown an error message You must enter an expiration date for your driver’s license. Guess what, there was no place to enter this! Believe me, I looked and looked. At that point I gave up on registering with Alamo.

Digital Download Of The Week
Not much from which to choose. There is a new Night Ranger disc out today. I believe this is the same Night Ranger I saw in Disneyword at Grad Night ‘83 when I graduated from high school.

I’m more inclined to check out the Los Lonely Boys disc however. Sure, Los Lonely Boys are a poor man’s Stevie Ray Vaughn w/Double Trouble, but I rather enjoyed the disc they put out a few years back.

A Question About Friday
I am assuming that the majority of the ITP readership will not be checking in on Friday because of the celebration of the United States’ independence. Should I even bother to post anything on Friday? Or, I am considering doing a Question/Answer entry on Friday in which between now and then you all ask me questions, either through email or comment, and I answer them on Friday. Keep in mind that I will not be answering anything that I consider to be too revealing mind you (like when I lost my virginity and why I have regained it…) but feel free to ask anyway.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - wish I was on vacation
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Lykke Li — “Little Bit” (sadly, not a song about me)
Website Of The Day - Have you ever wanted to use your cell phone as a dictation device so that you can send text messages, emails, and other notes by speaking into it? That’s exactly what Jott allows you to do.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing (not that I could have included it today anyway)
Monthly Foot Mileage - 0 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 0
Use Stairs / Use Elevator - 1 / 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 90 (90)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

July Goals
1) Run/Walk no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 150 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least two books
5) Make my bed every day
6) Relaunch www.JalapenoBeach.com
7) Keep track of how many days I use stairs over elevators

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

As this is the last day of June I am certain that I’ve been in the south for thirty years. I don’t remember the exact date, but I know for sure that in June of 1978 my family uprooted from New York and moved to Florida. I always wonder what I would have become had we remained in New York. Even in Florida college was an afterthought, in New York it was unheard of for any member of my family.

For any parents in the ITP Readership let me tell you one thing… moving a child a month or so prior to his or her hitting puberty is really a bad idea. I know; it happened to me.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

When I say “you should,” I avoid committing myself. I am referring you to some supposedly objective standard and saying the circumstances or decency or what-have-you dictates that you do this, while I pretend to stay out of it.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Fifty-Five Miles Is Nothing
Especially since the ride was only fifty-three miles.

On Saturday the weather gods smiled upon those of us who chose to punish their bodies by placing them upon manually-powered, two-wheel vehicles. The ride was fantastic, and the repercussions (read “sore ass or legs”) minimal.

The course, which winds around Cartersville and its neighboring cities, consisted of rolling hills and good country roads. There were three rest stops along the fifty-three mile ride and we (Barb, Martha, Brad, Harold) stopped and relaxed at each. ITP-reader Sal also rode the course, but since she is such a good rider I never saw her on the course so I cannot comment on whether or not she partook in the rest stops.

In one small Georgia town called Kingston I once again noticed The DeSoto Hotel and wondered about its past as well as its availability. Apparently it has been around since Civil War days and was sold in 2007 for $150k with the knowledge that it would require a complete renovation.

With the ride I am left nine miles short of my June goal. Perhaps tonight I’ll go for a ride. Or perhaps not…

The End Of An Amish Lineage
Amish Friendship Bread is no more in my household. I wasn’t trying to kill it off, but accidents and mishaps made it happen. On Saturday I noticed that the containers for one of my starters had failed to contain its contents and that the counter was covered with starter.

I still had one other starter and the desire to continue the lineage through baking. I whipped in ingredients, split the starters, added dry ingredients, and got prepared to bake. I sat down to peruse the instruction for cooking directions only to be horrified to see I added the wrong ingredients to the starter. Therefore, the three generated starters had to be trashed, and the resulting “breads” would be questionable. The baked goods weren’t horrible, but they were nothing that I’d ever serve to anyone else.

I am not too dismayed to know that there is not another started in my house awaiting cooking. If you scroll down to the bottom of today’s post you will see that my weigh-in wasn’t the thing that pleased me most this morning. I’m sure that beer and too much food consumed are as responsible for my weight gain, but if I have to give up something….

ITP Flickr Pic
I finally got around to processing some of the shots I took last Tuesday.

This was one of the models waiting for the photogs to get their shit together.

Make My TV An AppleTV
This weekend I reconfigured by media center so that I could add in my new AppleTV. Afer a little head-banging I got everything up and running. I have to admit, it seems pretty cool even though I think that it will cost me some money in the long run.

Almost immediately I identified two television series that I wanted to purchase — The Henry Rollins Show on the Independent Film Channel, and Start-Up Junkies on Mojo HD. Perhaps I’ll have to look to see if these are also available on that awesome satellite television broadcaster for which I work, or on Netflix.

My Oh My, What A Big Hard Drive You Have!
As part of my “Spend Everything I Have In 2008 Campaign” I purchased two new 750GB hard drives on Friday. These new hard drives will also be part of the “Move All Data In 2008″ plan which gets underway upon their arrival. Yippee!! What could possibly go wrong?

The drives purchased are Samsung SATA drives — don’t tell me anything bad about these and spoil their luster even before they arrive. These will be the first SATA drives in my arsenal which also means that I will have to purchase new enclosures to house them. I would have purchased some Macally USB/FireWire enclosures along with the drives had they been in stock, but they were not; so begins the research phase to find acceptable substitutions.

RealiTV Update: The Next Food Network Star
When it comes to becoming The Next Food Network Star looks aren’t everything. In fact, some may say that confidence is more important than appearance. Someone should have mentioned this to Jen. For weeks we’ve watched the attractive MILF appear too unsure and constantly undermine her own presentations and food. Last night was her last straw.

In the Reward Challenge the cooks where presented with a basket of six items and asked to prepare a dish from the items. They would then have ninety seconds to describe a dish on camera. What they didn’t realize was that they dish they would be describing would not be the one they prepared but rather one prepared by another contestant. It was almost painful to watch Aaron and Jen struggle to identify and describe the dishes placed in front of them. Of the contestants Shane was the clear winner.

In the Elimination Challenge the six contestants were paired up and were told to reinvent a classic, slow-cooked meal, in only forty-five minutes. Shane, who was declared the winner of the Reward Challenge got to select his dish and then assign the others to the other pairs. Shane chose Beef Wellington for himself and Kelsey while assigning Coque Au Vin to Adam and Aaron, and Turducken to Lisa and Jen. By and large the attempts look okay, although Jen did neither herself nor her team any favors by accidentally smashing a bottle of apricot juice all over the hot plate thus forcing her to throw out her entire side dish. Still questioning why Jen was eliminated last night? Shane and Kelsey were declared the winners, and Lisa was given a pass because she was hampered by Jen. Aaron and Adam made it through only because Jen was still around — they will be the next two to depart.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - okay
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing My Morning Jacket — “Librarian”
Website Of The Day - There are only three things I dislike about Bacon Freak — 1) the URL is a landing page the must be clicked; 2) There is audio on the home page; 3) I didn’t think of it. “Bacon ‘08!” “Bacon Is The New Black”
Exercise (b)Log - Saturday: cycling, 53 miles
Monthly Foot Mileage - 22.75 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 91 miles
Monday Morning Weigh-In - 198 pounds (ugh!)
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car

Monthly Marta Rides - 22
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 89 (89)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

June Goals
1) Run no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 100 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least one book
5) Make my bed every day
6) Eat out at a bar/restaurant no more than twice in one week

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

There is what must be a fairly popular series on Bravo called “The Real Housewives Of …” where “real” in this case is as “real” as the one in RealiTV. This morning I read the following on (one of my favorite RealiTV sites) TVgasm.

Bravo’s latest installment to the “Real Housewives” has expanded to Atlanta. The preview special will air on July 30 at midnight ET/PT on Bravo. Atlanta will be interesting to say the least…the cast will have an NBA wife AND an NFL wife…hope they don’t catch their husbands cheating on them during the season.

The Atlanta housewives are:
-DeShawn Snow, a mother to three boys and wife to the captain of the Cleveland Cavaliers;
-Kim Zolciak, a single mother of two and aspiring country singer;
-Lisa Wu Hartwell, wife to NFL player Ed Hartwell and multi-business owner;
-NeNe Leakes, an outspoken social butterfly and mother of two boys;
-Sheree Whitfield, a single mom and wants her own clothing line

I wonder how many of these women live ITP? I’d guess none — but I could be wrong.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

“You ought to” means “I want you to,” so what not say so?

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Play It Again Paulie
Last night’s dinner and theater went off without hitch, well except for the fact that I wasn’t really alone at the play after all. While waiting in line I ran into Greg and Jude (known to the hash as Wet Dreams and Tastes Great) who were also there for the show. When Jude said “I didn’t know that you were going to be here.” I snarkily retorted “Then I know that you didn’t read the blog today because I said that I’d be here.” Win friends and influence others — I am a master at those skills!

Dinner was a half-dozen smoked chicken wings and a half-Tomminator (Brunswick stew covered with tater tots and cheddar cheese) washed down with a pair of Red Hook ESBs. Ah health food…. While the food was delicious perhaps the best part was that because it was Thursday night before 7pm the wings were $0.50 each and the half-Tomminator was $2.

I was up for the show “The Clean House” because I’ve heard good reviews and was under the impression that it was a comedy. The show was sold out and as I scanned the room I placed myself in the upper-ten-percent in the fitness category and the younger thirty-percent in age category. And I used to think that going to the theater was going to be a great place to meet women…

It’s hard for me to summarize “The Clean House.” The best way I can describe the play is to say that it’s an ensemble cast whose lives we follow. Matilde is a Brazilian maid who doesn’t like to clean houses; she has moved to the United States after the deaths of her comedy-loving parents — her mother died laughing at one of her father’s jokes; her father killed himself over the loss of his, one true love. Matilde aspires to be a humorist and throughout the play attempts to create the “perfect” joke. Lane is an uptight woman doctor whose house is to be cleaned by Matilde. Throughout the play she struggles with Matilde’s inability to clean, as well as the loss of her husband Charles to another woman, Ana, whom he declares to be his soul mate. Virginia is Lane’s sister; she has not become the woman she aspired to be, and has a love of cleaning. Virginia acts as Lane’s comedy foil and often the regress to their childhood through their actions toward one another. Ana has breast cancer and through a series of necessities winds up being cared for, and eventually living with, Lane. As her health declines Ana decides that she’d like to die laughing, and Matilde, who at this time has conjured the “perfect” joke, accepts the responsibility of granting her wish. Charles returns from a journey too late, only to find Ana dead.

The play was performed well by the actors. I have seem most of the cast members in other plays, so while accepting them as these characters was tough at first, I was able to make the transition.

I’d suggest that you go see the play, however its run ends this weekend and I believe that all shows are sold out.

In other bizarre Horizon Theatre news…. Last night I finally remembered that I had ponied up an extra $100 when I purchased my season tickets and that my name was to appear in the playbill. Sure enough I am in there! So if you go to the Horizon Theatre and want to take a guess at which of those name listed is my real name then I suggest you have a go. If I do it again next year perhaps I will see it they will put “InsideThePerimeter” or “Paulie [eatl/ga]” instead.

ITP Flickr Pic
It’s one thing to paint graffiti all around the insides of an abandoned warehouse.

It’s another thing to litter by leaving your empty cans all about.

One Down, Four To Go
While sitting in the parking lot of the Horizon Theatre I finished reading Nick Hornby’s book Slam. While I can’t remember my ITP Rating Scale right now I can say that it would fall somewhere in the “Traffic Isn’t Moving” range. The book did little for me, which is a shame because I’ve really liked a lot of Hornby’s previous works.

For my next book I am choosing Geoff Ryman’s 253. 253 is a character study book about the 253 people (252 passengers and 1 driver) who are occupying the seven train cars during a 7.5 minute journey from London to Elephant and Castle. Each person is described in exactly 253 words. As the ancient business cards I found in the book last night reminded me, I’ve made a few previous attempts at reading 253. This time I will either make it through the book completely or give up on trying to read it forever.

Help Me Fill My Calendar!
I feel like I am starting to put on weight again (that Amish Friendship “Bread” has nothing to do with this, I’m sure). I’ve come to realize that if I am not training for anything, then I am neither running nor riding. Make some suggestions in the comments! For what it’s worth I will tell you that I have no desires to run anything further than a half-marathon nor any desires to ride anything longer than a century.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - woefully behind
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Joy Division — “Transmission”
Website Of The Day - Now that I am one book closer to buying a Kindle I’ve started researching eBooks. One good site for offering them is Feedbooks.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 22.75 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 38 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 22
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 86 (86)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 4

June Goals
1) Run no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 100 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least one book
5) Make my bed every day
6) Eat out at a bar/restaurant no more than twice in one week

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I stood and looked around last night and realized that I am pretty much the only unattached person that I know. Odd.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

If I want to communicate with you I must keep you informed of my feelings. A question often hides my feelings. It is sometimes my attempt to discover your position before I reveal mine, or it sometimes hides a criticism I don’t want to risk stating. If I ask you, “Why do you say that?” or “Is that what you really think?” I show you little of what I am feeling. Instead I put you on the defensive without making clear what it is in me I want you to respond to.

The more abstract the question you ask me (”Are you really happy? Do you love mankind? — Your country? — God?”), the more impossible I find it is for me to get in touch with any feeling at all.

I experience the feelings that make me want to open my mouth and speak, not as questions but as demands. My words spring from my emotions and my emotions are declarative, not interrogative. Even my feeling of curiosity is a statement of what I want.

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

Good News! All Violent Crime In Atlanta Has Been Eliminated
That must be the case, otherwise I wouldn’t have seen three uniformed police officers walking the tough streets of Virginia-Highland at 8:30pm last night issuing parking tickets to illegally parked cars.

Don’t get me wrong, cars parked illegally should be fined however I think that with a short-staffed police department having three officers walking about issuing parking tickets is overkill.

Phillips HDTV Antenna FTW!
After returning home from George’s I put together the four pieces that went into constructing my new Philips HDTV Antenna and plugged it into my Dish811 receiver and in seconds I had digital broadcasting on my television.

1978 called and wanted its technology back. I won’t let them have it!

When my AppleTV finally arrives I doubt its installation will go that smoothly, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

ITP Flickr Pic
Last Saturday I took a hand-held panorama of the “secret” location in which we were shooting.

While it’s not a sharp as I’d like it to be, it does look its best viewed larger.

With any luck tonight I will get around to processing the photos I took on Tuesday.

Paulie, Table For One, Seating For One
However, tonight I am doing a singleton-date night. I plan to eat dinner at Fox Bros BBQ and then head over to the Horizon Theatre to see “The Clean House.” Initially this was supposed to be a group outing, but with conflicting schedules and sold-out performances in my way I silently threw up my hands in defeat and decided to (be selfish and) make it convenient for myself and go alone.

And you know what? I am okay with this.

Remember My Big Friday Night BBQ Plan?
It’s been moved to Sunday.

I found out that this is Corndogorama over at Lenny’s this weekend and that my friend Harold will be hosting a corn dog eating / beer swilling gathering on Friday night. What better way to prepare for riding 55 miles on Saturday (weather permitting) than to fill my body with beer and corn dogs the night before?!

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - irked
Current Music - nothing, I am reveling in silence this morning
Website Of The Day - Have a couple of coins rattling in your pocket and not sure what to buy? Take a gamble and buy something from The Something Store.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 22.75 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 38 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car (I was on such a good Marta roll there for a while)
Monthly Marta Rides - 22
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 85 (85)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 5

June Goals
1) Run no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 100 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least one book
5) Make my bed every day
6) Eat out at a bar/restaurant no more than twice in one week

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Today’s post I was going to tell you about the things I plan to purchase, and the charities to which I plan to send money. That changed when I opened the mail box last night.

There are certain entities from whom I never want to receive mail. The United States Internal Revenue Service is one of those entities. Yesterday I received a letter from them asking for even more of my money. I am not pleased in the least.

Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.

Last night I suddenly realized that each of is was wasting much energy trying to relate what we wanted to say to what the last person had just said. A funny “should”! I see now that I was not always honest when I did this. Often I could not tell what connection had been made inside me that resulted in my wanting to say what I did, so I would manufacture a relationship to the discussion in order to be able to tell everyone a good reason for my wanting to talk. The reason was simply that I want to. “I want to say such-and-such–” not “What you said raises this question–”

To all who have helped me — Thanks.

I’ve Got Gas — And I Know How To Use It
On my commute home I stopped into Lowes and exchanged my $20 and my empty LP gas container for one that was full.

Oh sure, I thought about checking to see if the East Atlanta Ace Hardware store provided this service, you know so that I could continue to support my neighborhood, but when I called them on the phone I was greeted with an annoying menu-based answering system instead of a human. Am I supposed to know what department handles the exchange of LP gas? Am I supposed to hope that I can actually talk to someone after waiting to hear all of the menu options — which have changed, or so they say? No, instead I will shop at the place that I know is both on my way home and am guaranteed provides the service I need. My neighborhood loyalty has its limitations.

Can you say teriyaki pork tenderloin and stir-fry vegetables for dinner on Friday night? I knew you could. Why wait until Friday? I’ve got plans that you will no doubt read about here…

A Night A Elliott Street
Last night I needed to get out of the house for a beer. Luckily for me it was Tuesday night at Elliott Street Pub for the Atlanta Photographers Guild. The turnout for last night’s shoot was incredibly large, so much so that it made getting time with the models difficult — especially for someone like me who doesn’t excel at portrait photography and has no interest in fighting like paparazzi.

I haven’t had the time to scrutinize the shots I took, but I feel my portraits were pedestrian and most likely just like those taken by twenty other photogs. I will probably wind up uploading the abstracts that I shot instead.

ITP Flickr Pic
On Saturday I got an invite into a semi-secret shooting location.

It was a cool location to shoot, I’d like to find more locations like this for the future.

RealiTV Update: Hell’s Kitchen
Oh for fuck’s sake… I have a hard time watching Survivor contestants get all emotional when their loved ones are brought on, but on Hell’s Kitchen it’s just fucking ridiculous!

For the QuickFire Challenge the cooks had to recreate on of Ramsay’s dishes. What they didn’t know was that they’d have to recreate the dish that they ate with their loved ones. Only Christina was able to figure out that they were being tricked and dissected the dish while she was eating. For her victory she was able to eat a fantastic lunch which she shared with Ramsay and her ‘rents.

For the Elimination Challenge each cook had a turn at the pass; they got to order around Ramsay and they got to yell at their fellow contestants. From the way all was edited we were led to believe that Christina was the weakest of the remaining three and had no chance of winning. Christina had the worst night of cooking, and her turn at the pass wasn’t that stellar either. As is always the case you can’t trust the editing, and Corey was sent packing.

Next week we get to see each cook create their own restaurant and cook the meal of their lifetime! Okay, well maybe not lifetime, but that’s what RealiTV is all about now, isn’t it.

Paulie, You Got Some ‘Splainin To Do!
Yesterday my antenna that I will be hooking up to my living room tv arrived. Antenna? Is this the 1970’s? No, but welcome to the retro future! Antennas, combined with digital receivers that will be all the rage next year are great ways to pick up those digital HDTV broadcasts on the tellie — now if I can only find a way to DVR them…….

I am still waiting on the arrival of the refurb AppleTV I purchased this past weekend. While not an option for DVR’ing the programming I mentioned above, it will give me another opportunity to watch web content, this time directly on my tv.

Let no one accuse me of not being experimental, even though I work for a company that sells television and television byproducts.

Ankle Update
I’m not ready to run, but I’m going without the support of a brace today. It’s time to start rebuilding strength.

Even though I have no plans to run I will be at George’s tonight if for no other reason than to complete the sale of my old camera to Willy. Shit, I might as well put the money in an envelope and mail it off to the Government as I am sure they’ll want what they consider to be a “fair share” of that transaction as well.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - frustrated
Current Music - watching last night’s Hell’s Kitchen on Hulu
Website Of The Day - You can watch a lot of things on Hulu, but Mojo HD offers original content. Mojo is not perfect, but it does provide an intriguing option for online entertainment.
Exercise (b)Log - nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage - 22.75 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage - 38 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work - My car
Monthly Marta Rides - 22
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) - 84 (84)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle - 5

June Goals
1) Run no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 100 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least one book
5) Make my bed every day
6) Eat out at a bar/restaurant no more than twice in one week

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]