End Of May Day

Where did May go? Five months down, minor progress made along life's path.

Caught In The Wild
It's rare when I find myself on the lens side of a camera these days. It usually only occurs when someone else snaps a picture of me as rarely do I take self-portraits (btw- Maigh, I still have your plunger, in no worky with my camera).

On last weekend's photostroll my buddy Darren managed to capture me capturing something else.



It's a shame that the pipe obscures my awesome calves, but other than that I actually think it's a pretty good shot of me (look closely and notice my Mona-Lisa-like smile).

Margot And The Nuclear No Shows
Last night wasn't my fault (this time). After my photography class I rallied myself off the couch and headed up to The EARL around 9:30pm to see the live music for which I had purchased a ticket. The bill last night was to be (some band), Margot And The Nuclear So & So's, and Film School. I was there to see Margot et al, and Film School.

When I entered The EARL I thought it odd that the tv's were turned to baseball and that the place was relatively empty. I walked up to the table leading into the music room and saw the sign "Margot And The Nuclear So & So's cancelled". Given that I was there to see two bands and that it was about 9:45pm I asked "Does this mean that Film School will go on early?", to which the reply "They will probably take the stage around 11pm." While I have no qualms sitting in a bar for an hour, I don't really like doing it alone, so I decided to cut my losses and head home so that I could get a decent amount of sleep.

And as they say, misery loves company.

If The Hotel Is A Rockin'...
My July trip to Chicago is a go! The other day I took my chances and used Hotwire to book my hotel room for the weekend of the Paste Music Festival in Chicago. When I booked my room all I knew was that it was to be at a "Four Star" hotel in The Loop for $131 pre-tax per night. What I found out afterwards was that my room is in the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago, which seems fitting for the reason that I am travelling to Chi-town (which is a term probably loved by Chicagoans like Atlantans love Hotlanta).

Next on the agenda, buy a ticket for the recording of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!.

Run Like The Wind
I'm planning on a George's running outing tonight. It should be nice and steamy come 6pm, perfect weather for sweating out and toxins I injested over the big Memorial Day weekend. A look at the calendar reminds me that it's time to start training for the annual Atlanta Hash Peachtree Pub Crawl on July 4th.

"Water Bad! Beer Good!"

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - okay, thanks
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Ben Folds -- "Bitches Ain't Shit"
Website Of The Day - Maybe I'll do my Peachtree training via HyperStrike - Online Personal Fitness.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Flirting With Disaster

That Would Have Been A Shitty Way To Start The Week
Cruising up 400 this morning there was a State Trooper with a radar gun. Eventhough I was amongst a pack of cars and I wasn't speeding, that much ;), my heart skipped a few beats when I saw him get into his car and turn on his blue lights a second later. I was certain that it was my turn (again) since I was in the shiny red Honda Accord, but luckily some other poor soul got the pleasure of flirting with Johnny Law this morning.

Moving This Blog, Part 436
I tried this weekend to cut ties with Blogger and move this space to my Wordpress setup. For someone who has twenty years of computer experience this process is going embarrassingly slow. This weekend I did go out looking for a new theme/skin for the blog. The latest selection is currently up at www.InsideThePerimeter.net.

I've got a meeting with the minds set up for June 7th, afterwhich I will undertake a no-holds-barred attack on getting the move done. Look forward to the ribbon-cutting around that time.

OTP: Two Out Of Three
That's right I crossed the fence twice over the weekend. On Saturday my buddy Darren and I went to Milstead, GA to take photos of the remnants of an old mill which once sat along the Yellow River. We had hashed past this site a few weeks ago and I was ready to go back with the camera.



This shot highlights my fascination with old manufactured parts that have information about the part forged onto it. If you look closely at this shot (or click through to get to see a better view) you'll see that this is/was a "fire door hanger" and was patented in 1901 and 1909. Eh, I think it's kinda neat.

I Prefer Fat Tires Over Flat Tires
Yesterday my friends Betsy, Melissa and I decided to do a grueling bike ride in the middle of the day. About two miles into the ride we saw three women on the side of McLendon Ave having difficulties with one of their tires. I, being brought up in an era where chivalry was still taught, asked them if they needed help to which they replied that they needed someone to help free the tire from the rim. We stopped, and secretly in the back of my mind I knew that I would look like a putz if I couldn't complete the task. After much struggling (and sweating, even in the shade) I admitted defeat (note to self: time to return to the gym). The woman's friends took off and started to ride back to their cars.

We remounted our bikes to resume our ride and about two blocks later Betsy's rear tire was punctured by a staple. Oh bother. While fixing her tire (we managed to get hers off the rim) the first woman passed us on her bike alerting us that she had gotten a real "fix it" man to help her out, and that he had ruined his housekey in the process. While I contemplated finding a stick to shove into her spokes, the task of fixing Betsy's tire was still at hand and I couldn't be bothered with filing police reports, etc. Once the tire was repared we decided that it was time to drink beer instead of ride so we headed back to our start. I accused Betsy of sabotaging her tire in order to restore my manly bravado, but thanked her for doing so. While the beer wasn't Fat Tire Ale, it was rather tasty.

CD Pick Of The Week
Readers, I hate to say this but you are on your own. I haven't a fucking clue about any of the CDs being released today.

Asobi Seksu? Boards Of Canada? Jim Dickinson? Matthew Herbert? Peeping Tom?

Perhaps one of you could educate me.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - unsure
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing The Faint -- "Desperate Guys"
Website Of The Day - If you've got the moxie to flirt in traffic, perhaps you should sign up for offline dating at Flirting In Traffic.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - a short Black Sheep hash on Sunday, an even shorter bikre ride on Monday

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

In Memory Of Memorial Day

I have spent the last handful of Memorial Days in Newnan, Georgia with hashers at an event known as Hedon. Hedon is a "camping" weekend on private property where the rules are "No dogs. No illegal drugs." and there are two beer trucks on site dispensing beer the entire weekend. Sound fun?

In the I have had a lot of fun at Hedon and about a month ago I signed up for this year's event. However, my recently-relentless schedule combined with last weekend's campout convinced me that Hedon was not for me this year. Instead I plan to spend a mostly-restful weekend doing whatever the hell I please.

Not Too Tough An Act To Follow
This morning I followed the "You Have But One Chance To Make A First Impression Act Of 1978" by taking the Jackmobile in for some TLC at Catcus Carwash. She looks fucking hot, even with the smattering of lint still present on the windshield. Seriously, I like Cactus Carwash but for what they are charging to wash cars could they not afford lint-free towels?

In two weeks I will take the Jackmobile in for her 50,000 mile checkup as she turns the ripe-old age of four. She still looks a like this picture from a year or so ago, with the addition of a few gray hairs and a few more wrinkles




Speaking of the Jackmobile, the other day I received a phone call from a District Attorney asking me questions about my carjacking which occurred in August of 2003. Ah, the swift wheels of the criminal investigation process...

When WiFi Turns Into WoeFi
When I made the monumental leap from my ancient Palm Pilot III to an iPAQ last year one of the big perks was getting the ability to surf the net wirelessly when I was at a location with a WiFi hotspot. It was great, until last week, when my iPAQ decided that it didn't want to do this any longer. It sees WiFi networks, but refuses to attempt to connect to them. Rats!

The timing this couldn't be much better since I am seriously considering moving to a Treo 650 from Sprint (Sprint's prices for data plans seem so much more reasonable than Cingular's and Verizon's). Cool kids like Susan and Mark carry them (although not necessarily of the Sprint variety), why should I? And let's face it, I'll never be as cool as Maigh so a Blackberry is out of the question...

Don't Know Much About Geography
Yesterday I found out that I will be spending a day or two in El Paso, Texas in the middle of July for training. Don't be that way, nobody likes it when you are so jealous of me. Do you think it will be hot then???

Not being a cartographer myself I pulled up Google Maps to locate El Paso. Holy Fucking Hell (almost literally) it's almost due South of Albuquerque, New Mexico! And it being almost directly on the US / Mexico border I can get a look at the new fencing being put up in efforts to stop illegals from entering.

Customer Disservice, Part 1
In preparation for my trip I decided to sign up for Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns^(R) frequent-flier program. I consider doing this like getting immunization shots before travelling; I may not need them, but having them can't hurt.

After providing all of the required information on their web site I was greeted with an error message. So I tried again, same error message. Naturally I then turned to calling customer service where I was promptly greeted with the standard message that

• their menus have changed recently, please listen to all options
• my call was important to them
• call volume was higher than "expected"
• all of their loyalty agents were currently helping other customers

Loyalty Agents? Oh Please, stop this fucking nonsense! They are (on average) underpaid call service representatives who'd give their left nut/teet to get the hell out of Dodge and we all know it.

Customer Disservice, Part 2
June marks the end of my Natural Gas Fixed Rate plan. To prepare myself for sigining another contract I surfed on over to websites of the major gas marketers to check their rates. One of the marketers had a rate plan called the Choice plan which was in between the non-fixed-rate plan and their "normal" fixed-rate plan. Want to know what this means? Me too! From their site I could never figure out what the hell made this plan "choice." I am sure that you understand why I didn't dare call them because I had no desire to sit on hold to wait to talk to one of their Loyalty Agents...

Well, that's a lot to digest. I'll probably be posting on Monday, so check you aggregators then. If not, I'll have plenty of nonsense to discuss on Tuesday. Have a safe Memorial Day Weekend all!!!

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - nervous
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- "Phenomena"
Website Of The Day - Are you planning to travel to where the Internets may have not reached yet too? You may want to do like me and grab some of your favorite apps from Portable Apps and put them onto a USB thumb drive.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

You take the good, you take the bad

You take them both and there you have
The facts of life, the facts of life

I have to apologize in advance because I really don't feel like writing today. Today my world is a little like this...



I Gonna Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom
I tried taking a picture of the zoom lens to try and show the foreign object I've been mentioning... I failed.

I tried taking a picture of my whiteboard to perhaps show any problems... I failed (I could not get far enough away to focus, nor could I get decent lighting).

I guess that I am just going to keep the lens because I really hate having to ship shit back to online retailers.

InsideThePerimeter v2.0
I've made progress on the move to WordPress (visit my .net counterpart to see where it stands). I am still not happy, especially because I spent a good hour poking around trying to understand how the right-hand galley was populated (it's not like Blogger where you violate good web design by adding data to the css template). If you go to the site you will see that I never figured it out.

I've got a "Come To Jesuses" meeting set up with Maigh and Dave in a few weeks. In the meantime I will be playing around with css, probably wind up trashing the .net site, and starting all over again after we meet.

Ladies And Gentlemen, We Have A Winner!
Last night I watched the finale. American Idol? Um no, Top Chef. I know, I was the only person in America to watch Top Chef, but I kinda enjoyed it. It was no Hell's Kitchen mind you... On a related note, Hell's Kitchen v2.0 starts on June 12th.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - mixed -- one the one hand very happy; on the other notsomuch
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing The Avalanches -- "Frontier Psychiatrist"
Website Of The Day - This week's Web 2.0 wine evaluation site is.... Cork'd. Don't get this name confused with Corky, the characted with Down Syndrome on "Life Goes On."

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - running, approx 5 miles; walking, approx 1 mile

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Extreme Density

Seriously, Am I This Dense?
I am having major difficulties figuring out how to use Wordpress with Dreamhost. Every time I think that I have found the proper document which explains how to set up my blog there I get routed to yet another document. I know that it shouldn't be this hard, and that I am not that stupid (although I am starting to have my doubts).

Can one of you Wordpressers point me in the right direction? The longer I wait to move from Blogger, the longer this process will take.

Flickr Is Acting Like A Fuckr?
Here's another shot using the zoom lens I bitched about yesterday. (note: at "press time" Flickr is unable to show this photo. WTF?)



If the lens imperfection were to rear its ugly head it should be near dead center in this shot. Today I'm going to try and get shots of things like my whiteboard so I can make a final decision on whether or not to keep it.

What The Zot Is That?
I've been sucked up into the Mac World just a little further. The other day while listening to a podcast I heard about this site called MacZot. I don't fully understand MacZot yet other than that they sell Macintosh software at a discount.

MacZot is currently offering a mystery grab bag of software, where the price is increasing as mystery items are revealed. I nearly jumped in on Day One when the price was $19.95, but I got cold feet. Of course I went back on Day Two and purchased the mystery grab bag for $24.95 (sometimes my financial decisions are weak). I'll reveal the contents of my purchase when I find out.

Pulling My Falcons Season Ticket Rip Cord
Good news, I have been offered an upgrade for my Falcons season ticket (moving from section 316 to section 123). Bad news, the cost has more than doubled (to about $750). I've decided that with at least one trip, a couple of technology purchases, and some home and auto maintenance on the horizon that the cost is too rich for my blood so I have passed.

Look for me on my couch on Sundays during the Fall watching football on a big screen tv instead of at the dome live. It's the way God intended it.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - dense
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing The Plastic Constellations -- "Sancho Panza"
Website Of The Day - Maybe if I start exercising and begin enduring I can contribute to We Endure the social training log.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - With my photography class at 6:15pm-8:00pm Tuesdays are rough. How's that for a lame excuse.

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Take My Life, Please

I Hate It When I Lose My Friends
I've been a manager at this Nationally Distributed Satellite Television Company for more than seven years.

Yesterday another of my employees turned in a resignation. This one hurt a little more than normal because not only do I think that this person is a talented software developer, (s)he has become a good friend in the time that we have worked together.

I work hard to bring them in and try to keep them happy. It's inevitable that some will fly the coop for better opportunities, but it doesn't lessen the pain and guilt.

To Return Or Not To Return, That Is The Question
With time to burn before trivia last night I took my new zoom lens out for a nature hunt -- in Piedmont Park. In part I was trying to get the necessary photos for tonight's homework (which didn't work out so well) and in part to test the limits of the new lens. I was excited to use my new lens. However, when I attached the lens to the body I looked down the barrel for the first time and saw what appeared to be a defect in the lens, or a foreign object inside the outermost lens. Welcome to my world. I am now trying to decided if I should return it for replacement since I purchased it online. Why does this bullshit continually happen to me?

Here are two shots (as always click through for better image quality, although I am not uploading the originals right now due to the length of time necessary to do so).





At lunchtime I am going to try and capture more shots to see if the perceived imperfect is reflected in my photos. If I can notice it my decision is simple, if now I have to decide if this is a big enough inconvenience for me to return the lens and lose use of it for awhile. If you see a whacko around Perimeter Mall taking photos at lunch, honk your horn to say hello.

I'll Take "Arrowhead Stadium" For 74,000 Please, Alex
Last night Meet The Hashers gathered at Taco Mac in the Highlands for Team Trivia. While we were not at the top of our game (I should have remembered that this was the first season since 1979 that the St Louis Blues have missed the hockey playoffs!!!) we managed to "finish" the game tied for second place. The host called for team representatives (which was me last night) to come up and get a tie-breaker question.

What is the seating capacity of Arrowhead Stadium?

The team which came closest to the actual seating capacity would take second place.

Knowing Midwesterners are nuts for their football I knew that the number would be high, but not as ridiculously high as something like "The Big House" in Ann Arbor. My best guess was 74,000. The answer I found on the Internets this morning is 79,451. The team we were playing against turned in an answer that was eight seats further away from our guess (they went over, we were under), thus we claimed second place.

Google Is My Calculator
I may have blogged about this before, but do you know that if you enter a mathematical formula into Google's search bar it will parse it and provide an answer? Why bother trying to find that calculator application on whatever operating system you are using, simply Google the answer!

I calculated the height of my photos today, knowing that I needed them to be 80% of the original height of 333 pixels, using this formula 333 * .8

What Day Is It Today? Tuesday!!!
And I admit that I don't know much about the bands releasing CDs today. While I know The Dixie Chicks I've never been a fan. Mission Of Burma is playing the Pitchfork Music Festival (my Chicago trip) so I suppose that I should attempt to familiarize myself with their music.

It's that simple Kids! Today I will suggest that you check out Mission Of Burma's release of "The Obliterati." Like we say around the office "It's not rocket science."

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - feeling like I've got my first poison ivy of the year
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Gomez -- "Hamoa Beach"
Website Of The Day - Morigami!!! If you liked last week's origami link, go check out Origami Tessillations. (thanks Sarah!)

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing but walking around Piedmont Park (BOO! HISS!)

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Hardly Getting Over It

Twisted Ankle: A Great Photo Shoot Spoiled
Picture in your mind a beautiful state park in Northwest Georgia. Picture in your mind a picturesque lake with fauna, and breathtaking views with flora. Got them? Good, because those are the only images from my past weekend you will see.

On Friday I had planned to drive up to Summerville, set up my tent and then go for a little hike and a drive into Summerville all the while carrying my camera. When I got up there, some of my friends had already arrived and together we started drinking while attempting to guard a few select camping spots for the friends that were yet to arrive. Who am I to leave a fun group situation to go away alone? A quick trip to town to purchase food and beer was all I managed.

Saturday's Twisted Ankle half marathon was once again challenging. If you ignore the three friends who completed the half marathon in a shorter time, then I finished first amongst my friends. And for those that ran the marathon? Holy shit did I kick their collective asses!

In all seriousness, the day was warm, warmer than this Clydesdale (who ironically will drink almost any beer except Budweiser) who didn't train nearly enough enjoys. My calves began cramping around mile nine, which if you know anything about a half marathon, is about four-point-miles before one wants this to occur. I'm not saying that without the cramping I would have passed any of my friends who finished before I did, but I would have broken the three-hour mark (those of you scoffing at a three-hour half marathon need to go out and run this course before doing so). Maybe next year? I'll have to wait until the memory of the pain from this year subsides.

Once the race was over there was no way in hell that I was going to hike back out with the camera in hand to take photos.

Sunday Achy Sunday
I had huge plans for Sunday, many of those went by the wayside thanks to aches, need for sleep, and a battle with allergies.

Two major accomplishments occurred, the purchasing of a Frommer's travel guide for Chicago (trying to be optomistic for my July trip) at Borders



and lunch with some great friends.

One major accomplishment did not however, as I decided that I have been pushing the limits a bit too often recently and chose not to go see the Flaming Lips in concert. I also could fathom the thought of being around a slew of free concert-goers. Had this been a ticketed event my decision may have been changed.

Not "If" But "When"
This is my renewed attitude toward exercising. I was reminded often this weekend that I used to be in much better shape, and that if I want an improved attitude I will have to return to the daily hard work that I used to perform.

The "gym bag" has been packed with running attire, it's now up to me to use them.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - still achy and run down, perhaps it's not allergies afterall
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Margot & The Nuclear So And So's -- "Quiet As A Mouse"
Website Of The Day - I love free wifi. Apparently, so do the people at I Love Free WiFi which is a new community for listing free wifi hotspots.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - 13.1 miles of trail running Saturday

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Winding Down To Wind Up The Week

Well, I Thought I Was Going To See Live Music
I really need to stop buying tickets for shows and then bailing. Last night I just could not get motivated to go out. I think waking up at 5:30am had something to do with it, but I really think I just couldn't get worked up to go out.

Post-Survivor Blues
Wow, while staying at home on a Thursday night I actually missed being able to watch Survivor. Who would have thunk it?

At Least Someone I Know Is Exercising
This is one of my many toys in the office. His yellow arms are scrawny, but he can hold this pose for days.



My Turn Comes Tomorrow
Tomorrow I will in Summerville Georgia, more specifically in James "Sloppy" Floyd State Park to run the second annual Twisted Ankle Half Marathon. I ran (if you can call the speed at which I completed it running) this course last year. In theory I'll be in better shape this year, although I am not expecting to make great gains...

And Last But Certainly Not Least
There's a little concert going on this weekend downtown. The only bad thing about the concert is that it is free. Now I'm a Democrat (or Libertarian depending on your definition) so I don't mind free things, but free concerts are generally the worst. Free concerts bring out thousands of people who go to only because it's free, thereby oftentimes ruining the experience for those of us there for the music. I'll be there on Sunday night (probably annoyed by the crowd) to see The Flaming Lips. Come back here on Monday because you are guaranteed that I will have stories...

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - out of the loop
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing The Replacements -- "Message To The Boys"
Website Of The Day - You may think that I bring you a whole lot of nothing, bere here's a blog called Whole Lotta Nothing that actually advertises the fact.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Speak Loudly, I Am In Suwanee Today

It's a full day of training for me today. I am currently in a far away land known as Suwanee. Yikes!

Chicago On $200 A Day?
When I first decided to go to Chicago a few months ago I considered to be an inexpensive alternative to going "across the pond" for the first time. It's Chicago, midwest living, how expensive could it be? The answer is "very expensive."

While I was able to convert SkyMiles for my flight, I don't have the same luxury for a hotel room. If you've been reading my blog since my trip to Manhattan last year you know that I usually travel solo (and don't like to, which is why I travel infrequently) and don't require a stay in the Four Seasons to have a pleasant stay. Let me re-introduce you to the Shoilet that was in the Hotel Thirty Thirty that I stayed at last year.


(click through to get a better look -- if you dare)

For the last two weeks I've been searching for a Chicago hotel that is

• in Chicago
• not a complete shithole
• costs less than $150/night before taxes, fees, etc

It's been very hard to find such a room. Even at $150/night my four-night stay will wind up costing my $800 (once you add in all the taxes, etc) for the hotel room alone! Tack on food, beer, and other entertainment expenses I'm looking at a Chicago trip which costs nearly the same as a new computer.

I am really having a hard time rationalizing this and am thinking about bagging the trip completely.

Any BellSouth DSL Customers Out There?
I'm considering switching DSL providers. My connection is okay, but not stellar especially for what I am paying. I admit to not being a big fan of BellSouth because I think that I am paying a lot for minimal land-line phone services (which I cannot drop), but I am willing to consider them as an option if I get enough rave reviews.

Back On The Live Music Circuit
Tonight I'll be back at The EARL, this time to see Pretty Girls Make Graves. I don't know much about the band, but since I am only working a partial day tomorrow I am willing to investigate on a School Night.

What A Bunch Of Flags!
SKIP NOW if you didn't watch last night.

While I was somewhat unimpressed with the grand finale of The Amazing Race I was pleased to see the Hippies win it all. There was just something about the Frat Boys that bugged the shit out of me.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - in pain, I have a pinched nerve in my neck
Current Music - nothing today
Website Of The Day - Seek inner peace by checking out the origami art of Richard Sweeney.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing (a-gain)

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, None Of That Is Given To Me

Mac In Black?
Yesterday Apple introduced the much anticipated MacBook. It's the 13.3" widescreen laptop which replaces the iBook series. Apple has decided that people should now also be able to ejoy a laptop in black in addition to white, only for certain models however. It's like ebony and ivory. The song title puns cannot be stopped!

Now I Know My Alpha, Beta, Gammas
After coming back from lunch yesterday I swung by Flickr and something struck me as being slightly different. When I looked at Flickr's logo I realized that they have transitioned from Beta to Gamma. It looks like the change consists of mostly menu changes, and not having to go to other pages to select menu items, but change has occurred.

Want to check out the new version? Click on the picture below (it will also allow you to see my other fantastic works of art that I call photos).



Like Rodney Dangerfield I Get No Respect
Twice in the past two weeks I've try to play "Scoop the Reporter" and rush a story to one of the Big Blogs in hopes of getting some recognition. (the Flickr story was one of these stories) On both occasions the only recognition I received was as part of a "Thanks to everyone who reported this" mention. I tell you, I get no respect.

Down The Hatch
Richard Hatch, the winner of Survivor 1 has been sentenced to fifty-one months in jail for tax evasion. Ouch! As always you can pay The Man now, or pay him later.

I just hope that my sentence isn't that steep if GA Law officials say that I gypped the toll booth on 400 by a quarter. The arm was raised and the green light which reads "Thank You" was on, so I assumed that it correctly read all 50-cents that I dropped into the basket. I really don't want to lose my recently re-obtained virginity to a man. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

No George's Again?
Microsoft's Outlook has a major problem scheduling meetings for participants in different time zones. I found out that the meeting which I thought was to last until 7pm tonight, really is supposed to only last until 5pm. This meeting was scheduled by someone in Denver, hence the Mountain - Eastern time zone differential. Because of this I didn't pack anything for running tonight. Perhaps I'll show for a beer.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - in pain, I have a pinched nerve in my neck
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Husker Du -- "Could You Be The One"
Website Of The Day - If you've never been to The Smoking Gun, where have you been?.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - zilch

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Not Feeling The href Love Today

This post is almost completely devoid of hyperlinks. Why? Because I am lazy.

Trivia Interruptus
Well, the plan was to have Meet The Hashers meet up and play trivia at the newly-relocated Johnny's Pizza in the Old Fourth Ward last night. That plan lasted all of one and one-half question, at least for me. The trivia hostess had a mirade of microphone issues and I couldn't be bothered to stay all night and watch her attempt to troubleshoot her problems, so I left.

The new Johnny's location, formerly occupied by Jake's Ice Cream, is a maze of small, connected rooms which, at least until the weather is suitable for patio sitting, is not very conducive to larger groups; Meet The Hashers usually averages eight players.

How Would You Shoot This Differently?
The answers "Why bother." or "Throw it out." are not the sort of criticism I seek here. I think this could be a rather interesting shot, but I don't think that I've executed it perfectly. I can easily get back to this location for a re-shoot, I'm seeking some advice as to what I should do differently next time.



I was trying to capture the series of gas pipes in the image as if they part of a grand pipe organ found in cathedrals.

The Wasting Is The Hardest Part
Admittedly my weight-loss program is not a smashing success. I love to eat (and drink beer, but that's a different posting). One of the things that was drilled into my head by depression-era parents is that food is sacred and should not be wasted. I was trained to "clean my plate" and to "take what you can eat, and eat what you take." On the surface this seems like sound advice.

This morning I stopped at Joe's coffee (yes, Ellen was working), and picked up a blueberry muffin in addition to my morning coffee. The muffin was your typical repackaged Mondo Muffin from Sam's Club or Costco. After eating about two-thirds of the muffin I smooshed the rest into the cling wrap and tossed it into the trash. I felt the wrath of my mother's voice asking me why I was wasting food as I did so.

Mental conditioning, it's not just for breakfast any longer.

It's A New Music Tuesday
What happens when Jack White and Brendon Benson form a side-project group? I select their release as my "CD Pick of the Week", that's what. The newly-formed project known as "The Raconteurs" have a cd in stores today called "Broken Boy Soldiers".

Tessa over at Drive A Faster Car posted some 411 and a link to one of the songs on this cd in this here post. Check it out. Go ahead, I know that you want to...

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - fair (which if you've been paying attention is a 30-day high)
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Mates Of State -- "Fraud In The '80s"
Website Of The Day - At Johnny's trivia we can earn an extra five points if we can identify a movie scene in which the actors' images have been removed. Think you want to give it a shot? Swing by FilmWise and give it a shot.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nuttin'

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Beer, Swamp, Survivor. A Mostly Successful Weekend.

When forty-eight hours doesn't seem like enough time to do the things I've planned, and I've had to opt out of at least two more things (nevermind still not moving this blog to Wordpress) I know that I need to find a way to plan better.

I'm Too Shifty
What can I say, I was having so much fun working the Thomas Creek tent that I didn't stop working until about 5:15pm eventhough my shift ended at 4:00pm. Of course I was sampling the beer whilst "working", which never hurts my commitment level.

The booth was hopping (get it? beer. hops. okay, bad joke.) as can be seen in this action photo snapped by fellow blogger Mark.



My name sticker originally read "Available, Inquire Within", but was later ammended by some (married) gal to read "Occasionally Available, Inquire Within (O.B.O.)" because she said the original version sounded too desperate. Either way it didn't work.



I saw many of my friends and fellow bloggers, too many to list, throughout the day. I also got to serve and briefly chat with some of the guys from National Grain who played a set at the festival. I was amused how surprised they were when I said that not only had I heard of them but that I also owned their CD.

The only downside of the day is that the festival was so popular that we had leave the East Atlanta Village to eat. My friends Darren, Laura, and I wound up in Oakhurst eating at Universal Joint where I feasted on a hamburger and some spicy chicken spring rolls (I really needed meat).

In The Swamps of Loganville?
Yes Virginia, Loganville possesses swamps and I think that yesterday's Black Sheep Hash went through almost each and every one. Recently hashing has frustrated me a bit as I realize that I am getting slower. When I arrive at the end and people who I think that I should have been able to keep up with are already in stirs my internal competitive engine. I must keep repeating our beliefs that "The Hash is not a race." and "There are no winners in the hash, we're all losers."

I can't complain too much however as I did get plenty of exercise (slogging through swamp is hard work) and I've found a couple of locations that I want to capture with the camera.

It's A Wrap!
Well, the person I predicted to win Survivor last night won, however the person I wanted to win (Terry) did not.

As Stacy, Phil, Bill and I watched Danielle's fire finally burn through the string (I knew that Mark Burnett's editing team was fucking with our heads last Thursday) I predicted that Arse was going to win the million dollars. I still believe Danielle misstepped when she brought Arse over Terry, eventhough the Jeff Probst's straw poll on the reunion show indicated otherwise.

Btw- Is Terry's last name "Breeder" because holy shit there were a lot of children in his Family Moment. He should have been given a second SUV instead of giving it to Cerie.

Using My Brain For Good Not Evil
I'm trying to rally Meet The Hashers to play trivia at the newly-relocated Johnny's Pizza tonight. I'm craving some Za (80's slang) and I can make it vegetarian. I am interested to see what they've done to the place. Besides, if I don't go to Taco Mac I won't feeled compelled to drink beer.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - worn out, two+ hours of hashing killed me
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing The M's -- "Plan Of The Man"
Website Of The Day - I'm a sucker for "found item" sites. Here is one that collects found grocery lists, appropriately called The Grocery List Collection. I keep looking for one that has two items on it, BEER, LOTTERY TICKETS.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - hashing on Sunday

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Memo To Mother Nature

Re: For Raining On The Day of Notoberfest

FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING FUCK!

More Of A Promo Than A Post

I am in a really crummy mood, so this will be brief. Today I feel like I am wearing a fat suit. Unfortunately, I don't get to take it off at the end of the day.

Beer Me!
Tomorrow I'll be volunteering at the East Atlanta Notoberfest. My shift runs from 12-4, and afterwards consumption begins.

Fit To Be Tied
Did you watch?
I'm miffed.
Are you?

Remember, Sunday is the Survivor Finale.

Sunday Is Mother's Day
Yes, I remembered. I even included a check for $25 so that mom can kick some ass in the bingo halls of Florida.

Here's A Picture Of A Pretty Flower To End The Week On A High Note


Hope you are much better than me...

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - the sun is up, my mood is still down
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing The Raconteurs -- "Steady As She Goes"
Website Of The Day - Go check our the cool things the Imaginary Foundation has to offer.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Beer, Glorious Beer!

Rocky Mountain Oysters?
Hells No! I had Rocky Mountain's chicken wings. As I mentioned yesterday I met up with my buddy Darren at Rocky Mountain Pizza Company last night.

Damn the wings were good, and to further enhance my experience the bottles of Smithwick's I had last night cost $2.50 each. That's no typo my friends, Smithwick's (and various other decent beers) costs a mere $2.50 each and every day at Rocky Mountain! Don't get me wrong, I love my East Atlanta haunts and will continue to frequent them, but damn(!), two-fiddy?!? I am sure that I can do a few photo strolls over the Tech way and wind up at Rocky Mountain for a cold one afterwards.

Last night they were also having Team Trivia at Rocky Mountain. The team sitting behind me were cheating big time, oh how I miss being in college. I even helped them with an answer "Bob Jones University" -- go make up your own question.

Why Did The Geese Cross The Road?
I guess it was to eat. On my drive from filling up the Jackmobile with $42 worth of gas to the office this morning a gaggle of geese, many of which were goslings (why do they have special terms for geese?) decided to walk across the road in front of traffic. Miraculously none of the geese nor any of the drivers were harmed in the impromptu road crossing.

There's No Crying In The Amazing Race!
Did you watch?
I'm happy.
Are you?

Smiling Pretty
There are probably levels of Hell awaiting my arrival. This morning I have my semi-annual dental check-up and cleaning. In honor of this event I am eating a Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Clif Bar, ooh they have more calories than I imagined, for breakfast. It's not as bad as stuffing a bunch of Oreo cookies in my mouth, but I'm sure it's not that different.

Call it sweet revenge for all of the pain I've suffered in the dental chair in my lifetime.

It's A "Happy Birthday" Day
My friend Phil is having a birthday today, this makes him one more than thirty-five. The best thing about Phil's birthday, at least from my perspective, is that we are all meeting up at Taco Mac after work for a party. Woo Hoo. While there I will get to add to my list of passport beers, get a free glass (is it tacky to then turn around and hand it to Phil as my birthday gift? What if I stick a bow on it), and curse myself for already using my two-days of meat eating (I'll be the one with the veggies in front of me).

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - tired, missing the sun
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Beck -- "Beercan"
Website Of The Day - Since I am often frustrated at my photos I should visit Digital Photography School and learn a few things.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I Oughta Be In Pictures

They Call Me The Early Bird Special
My early work schedule and 6:15pm Photography class caused me to eat an early dinner. I guess I'm practicing for when I am 80, like the majority of the people around me at Lettuce Souprise You last night. Yeah, I ate vegetarian again last night. So far I am sticking to the plan pretty well. There have been minor slipups such as when I opened the can of Bush's Baked Beans yesterday without remembering that hunk of pork which swims in most cans of beans (I am proud to admit that I did my best to fish it out and toss it, however).

Tonight will be a different story. Tonight I am skipping the George's run (it's going to be nasty weather anyway) and going to get a large plate of chicken wings placed in front of me when I meet up with my friend Darren. I've been Jonesin' for Rocky Mountain Pizza Co's wings since I had them there a few months ago. And there will be beer. Much beer.

Tag I'm It
I spent a good bit of time last night adding more tags to my Flickr photographs. I realized that I was a little too stingy with my tags. My new philosophy, at least for shots that are identifiable for an area is

Country (if none US assumed) : State : City : Neighborhood : Main Subjects : Minor Identifiers

For instance, if I were to format the tags for this shot it would look something like

(none) : Georgia : Chamblee : (none) : signage, advertising : paint, blogged



Um This Is Digital 102, Right?
Week two of my Digital 102 class was last night. Unlike 101, 102's makeup is mostly younger people (around my age and younger). Almost all of the class participated in 101 together, so a couple of us have a familiarity learning curve to overcome.

Last night I noticed that many of the shots submitted for critique had been altered in Photoshop, or some equivalent, and the suggestion made for one of my shots was to take it into Photoshop and alter the colors. I thought that the purpose of these classes was to learn how to capture what we see (as well as some things overlooked by the human eyes) onto digital film. If I'm going to alter my shots significantly what was the point of buying an SLR and trying to learn how to use it?

Meh, perhaps I'm too much of a stickler for details.

Cancel That, I'm Shopping Elsewhere
Since joining the Amazon Prime world I have been looking to them first for all of my purchases. Six weeks or so ago I placed an order for this zoom lens for my camera. The price was right and lack of sales tax with the free two day shipping was going to make it a super purchase. The problem was that it was on backorder, to be filled by the end of April. When the schedule time for order fulfillment passed Amazon let me know that the new time frame for my purchase was going to be the beginning of June. Fuck! That!

Last night I found out that Newegg had the same lens for the same price, in stock, and they were going to charge only $5 for three-day UPS delivery!

Amazon order canceled. Newegg order placed. I can't wait.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - sneezing, hopefully from alergies not a Spring cold
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Camera Obscura -- "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"
Website Of The Day - Maybe I should give up photography and join the Stencil Revolution.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing, this week is not shaping up to be one that gets me in shape

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

It's 5/9 : Sounds Like The Pefect Height To Me

When I was a kid I always wanted to grow up to be six-feet tall. However, my genetics deemed that I stop growing (vertically) at five feet, nine inches. Eh, being 5'9" certainly has advantages -- I can fit in any car comfortably and leg room in a plane is not really that much of an issue for me.

In Land We Trust
After receiving a phone call from Mark I changed my plans from rushing home to get a bike ride to meeting up at La Fonda Latina (veggie tacos) and then walking over to the Lake Claire Community Land Trust to do a photo stroll.

Like me, Mark is a new owner of a Nikon D50 so we are both learning how to use this new beast. I guess I snapped about twenty shots, at least fifteen of them hit the trash bin when I got home and uploaded them to my Mac. You see, I've still not mastered my aperture settings, and it wasn't until late in the shoot (after the sun had disappeared from view) that Mark mentioned shooting at a higher ISO and I realized that I was still at ISO 200. *slaps hand upon forehead repeatedly* Therefore many of my shots required a slower shutter speed than my shaky hands could accomodate (one of the two reasons I didn't become a doctor), resulting in out of focus shots. Well, at least the Land Trust is close to home...



For Once My Timing Was Almost Perfect
On the drive from work to meet Mark my "brake lamp" light came on. No biggie, I'm certainly capable of replacing a lightbulb (it takes but one Paulie to screw in a lightbulb). What brought a rye smile to my face was that this happened just after I had passed an auto parts store, while turning from Clairmont onto Buford Highway! Had it happened a block earlier I was in the right place at exaclty the right time.

Luckily I used to work near Buford Highway and North Druid Hills (oh, how I miss that) and am a rather observant individual. My grimace became a smile as I remembered that there was another auto parts store not more than two miles ahead. I pulled into their parking lot, determined which bulb had burned out, went into the store, and replaced the bulb on the spot. It wasn't exactly performed at NASCAR speed, but it was done efficiently, if I do say so myself.

And On The Eighth Day Paulie Obtained .Net
Before I start let me say how hard it was for me to convince myself that I had spelled "eighth" correctly.

Whilst doing a vanity search (why not?) on Sunday I came across a mention that the owners of www.InsideThePerimeter.net had let their domain registration expire. (this makes yesterday's mention about my GoDaddy frustrations abundantly clear now, doesn't it?)

Like a vulture swooping down upon roadkill I snatched it up yesterday. Thanks to k1ng I used the "777" code provided and did a domain registration and signed up for a year of hosting at Dream Host for $10. After seeing the site I kicked myself in the ass because I realized that this was the hosting service that Maigh suggested. For some reason I confused Blue Host for Dream Host so now I have hosting at each for the next year. :S

Let The Drooling Begin
I. Cannot. Wait.

(photo stolen from Engadget)

Yes, I am still a child at heart...

CD Pick Of The Week
Last week's pick, Gomez, was an easy one because I knew that I was going to see them perform later in the week. This week's pick, Grandaddy's "Just Like The Fambly Cat", is an easy pick because this will be their final production and I will never get to see them in concert. I picked up a promo copy of "Just Like The Fambly Cat" (because I still don't have enough clout to be sent them for free) two weeks ago and have spun it on the iPod a few times. To me the sound is, well, Grandaddy.

If you are not into Grandaddy's sound, or don't wish to support a band's swan song cd, there are a few other cds of note released today.

Indie music favs Snow Patrol release a new cd today called "Eyes Open." If memory serves my they are performing to a sold out crowd later this month. Obviously I don't have a ticket...

The Pearl Jam crowd may be interested to know that the Red Hot Chili Peppers release a double-cd today (so that's what they've been doing all these years!). The Peppers were a bit peeved last week when their new cd was leaked on the internets. While I cannot blame them for being mad, it is a bit naive to think that this sort of thing doesn't happen for almost every cd produced (although I don't know who would spend the time to leak the Nick Lachey cd which drops today).

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - otiose, undeveloped
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing R.E.M. -- "Harborcoat"
Website Of The Day - I normally won't pimp the behemoths like AOL, but when they are streaming full cds for free I'll show them some love. I understand that they do this only to get you to buy cds, but I figure that I am going to do that anyway...

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - really long, hard bike ride photo stroll

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I Was On Exile Island This Weekend

I am starting to understand trolls. Not the internet variety, but rather the trolls that live alone under bridges. This weekend I was hardpressed to go out and be around people. I'd tell you why, but then you'd probably want $125/hr to read my blog and frankly I can't bring myself to pay it.

I overcame my reclusiveness by having lunch with a friend on Saturday on Saturday at Neighbors in VaHi, having brunch with the running group on Sunday (weather made "run & brunch" just "brunch") and then having corned beef at Twain's on Sunday. Other than that I was home, catching up on recorded programs, surfing the internets.

GrrrDaddy
Last night I tried to register a domain from GoDaddy. I chose GoDaddy because they advertise on (sponsor?) many of the podcasts that I listen to, and each of these podcasts usually has a discount code. The last time I tried this (registering eatlga.com) I had difficulty getting their website to apply the discount. It appeared that the site recognized the code I entered, and then completely ignored it by showing a discount of $.00. To get the problem rectified I had to send an email to the person whose podcast I received the code so that they could inform GoDaddy of the problem.

Last night I had the same difficulty. WTF GoDaddy?!? Are you hoping that consumers won't notice and complete the order without the discount, or are you developers so incompetent that they cannot get this to work?

If you have a better registrar suggestion, please send it to me or leave a comment.

Framing The Art That Exists Outside The Museum
This is the only picture that I took inside the High (using the pocket point-and-shoot) that came out half decently.



Is There Such A Thing As "Photographers' Block"?
I have heard of Writers' Block, the inability to think of anything to write when you have something to submit. I am suffering the same fate on the photography side right now. All weekend long I looked for images that would satisfy the word list that I posted on Friday. Nothing! Man this really blows. I am feeling so uncreative at the moment.

Ending On A Positive Note
One of the programs I watched over the weekend mentioned a Windows program that makes it possible to play the songs resident on your iPod through a computer. The program is called PodPlayer. I've not yet had the opportunity to try it because all of the PCs at my house have access to my iTunes library directly. However, I intend to give it a shot when I drag the Windows laptop out into the "real world." When I do, I'll give you all an update.

For those Mac users out there (of which I am one as well) there is another app called Senuti which supposedly performs the same task.

I understand why Apple doesn't let you copy songs from your iPod to a computer (psst, these applications do that as well) but I've never understood why they wouldn't let you play songs which live on your iPod through iTunes.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - uninspired, depressed
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Built To Spill -- "Conventional Wisdom"
Website Of The Day - One of the things I saw this weekend was an awesome animated music video done by Nylon Motion. Go poke around their site and see if anything stimulates you.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing all weekend -- bad mood, bad timing, bad weather

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Stinko de Mayo

If I decide to go drinking tonight you'll either find me at Limerick Junction in VaHi or somewhere in East Atlanta. You'll definitely not find me at one of the many Mexican establishments that will be jammed packed with people. For many different reasons I really don't need to be around the "it" crowd tonight.

And Me Without A Camera, Again
I never would have suspected that for an act as big as Gomez that I could easily be centerstage, three people deep. And did I bring my camera? Noooooo. Last night I found out that the only things worse than being stuck behind a really tall person when standing on the floor is being near a couple that constantly grinds on each other, and being behind a guy with no rythm who rocked back and forth like he was Rain Man. I swear I was tempted find a box of matches so that I could drop them and see if Rain Man could count the ones on the floor. I had had enough after about five songs and moved from the floor to the seats.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, Gomez had a new cd drop on Tuesday. I waited until the show to pick up my copy, and was rewarded with an extra cd insert which was signed by the band (there'd be a picture of it here today had I not gotten home near 1am).

The show was predictably enjoyable for me. Gomez, consisting of six members, has a rich sound and songs with great hooks (if you've listened to "alternative" radio in the past ten years you've undoubtedly heard at least one of their songs). The band members really looked like they were enjoying themselves, and they played a set consisting of many new songs peppered with crowd-pleasing band hits. Perhaps my only frustration with the show (that has not been previously mentioned) was the nearly forty-minute delay between the opening act, Atlanta residents I-Nine, and Gomez. Seriously, could it take that long to get things checked?

Spring Training
Observing Lent-For-A-Day I rode Marta into work this morning. One hour, door to door. Given the current price of gas I was surprised that the train wasn't more crowded; surprised, but pleased. As I've mentioned it's not the morning commute which brings reward when train commuting, so I am anxious to see what my commute home is like tonight.

Open For Interpretation
For my Digital 102 class I have an assignment which requires me to take two photos. Each of these two photos should capture the essence of one of the following words.

• fast
• slow
• lost
• found
• soft
• new
• old
• open
• together
• alone
• wild

My challenge to you is to tell me what you think of when you hear these words...

Is There A .mac In The House?
I'm a target. Admittedly I have not done a good job backing up my data (either on Windows or OSX) and am ready to openly sob when one of my main drives goes south.

I've been searching for a good solution to back up my Mac data. One ($99/year) option is to go through Apple using their .mac solution. Has anyone out there used .mac for thier solution? If not and you are a Mac user do you have a better solution? Thanks!

Sunday Will Be A Meat Day
This Sunday is a NY Corned Beef Society of Atlanta Sunday at Twain's in Decatur. I find that while attempting to stick to this 5/7ths vegetarian thing that days that allow myself to eat meat become big event days. Therefore this Sunday around 4pm you will find me drinking beer and eating some meat at Twain's. Won't you join me?

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - really tired and harried
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing The Jesus & Mary Chain -- "Happy When It Rains"
Website Of The Day - Want to see what cool things are coming our way? Want to promote cool things that are coming our way? Then go sign up and use Upcoming.org. I'll give you three guesses to come up with my account name, the first two don't count...

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Ode To Be Normal

"I consider every day I don't contemplate suicide a success.
It's been a long time since I have been successful."

Sometimes life is not all fun and games.

Boulvard Of Broken Dreams
I know that I misspelled "Boulevard", that's key to this story. Well, that and the age-old edict that "Timing is Everything."

A few weeks ago on a return trip home from downtown I noticed a street sign which marked the corner of Boulevard and Highland Av. On the other side of the intersection was a similar construct which marked the intersection of Boulvard and Highland Av.

The misspelling of street signs is hardly earth-shaking news, but I thought that the juxtaposition of the two signs would make for an interesting photograph. Of course when I went to shoot it the other day the misspelled sign had been removed by someone.

Yes, timing is everything...

You Have To Walk Before You Can Run, But When You Can't Run You Have To Walk
Whew, just typing that made me tired.

Last night I didn't have "it", where "it" is whatever drives one to keep running even when all parts of the body scream "no!". Luckily for me my friend Betsy also wasn't in the mood to endure the difficulties of running, so we decided to walk the last two miles of our George's run last night.

Admittedly the beer doesn't taste nearly as rewarding when failing to achieve the appointed task, but I managed to drink two regardless.

Spring Training?
You would think that a $42 fill up this morning would motivate me to become a dedicated train rider once again. It has not.

There is an addiction, whether it be the 25-minute morning commute (instead of an hour), not having to deal with anyone else, carrying as much shit around with me in my trunk as I desire, whatever, but that addiction exists. Yes Mr. President -- I am addicted to oil.

For Cinco de Mayo I am going to make an effort to give up my addiction for a day; let's call it Lent-For-A-Day.

It's Tough To Be A Vegetarian
Thursday is a meat day. At least today will be. It's not that I awoke craving meat, in fact just the opposite. However after gassing up the car this morning I went into the Quicky Mart to buy a biscuit/croissant/bagel/pancake sandwich/burrito, actually anything that would fill my stomach this morning. Every single option contained meat, whether it be ham, bacon, sausage, or ground beef. It wasn't like there were empty slots where the veggie options were, there were just no veggie (egg only) options!

So today is a meat day. Oh boy, I can't wait for lunch now!

Good Day At The Brewery? Bad Day At The Brewery?
The other day I opened a twelve-pack of delicious Sweetwater 420. When I pulled out this bottle I felt a little like Charlie when he found the Golden Ticket







Sure the outer label was mangled, but I thought it was cool that my bottle had two labels! Sometimes it's the little things that keep me going.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - tired and conflicted
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing The Streets -- "Never Went To Church"
Website Of The Day - Remember The Milk (btw- "my cow" Stacy and Phil) is a little Web2.0 To Do list application. Someday when every device we possess has net access these Web2.0 apps will be incredibly cool.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - walking/running, 4.75 miles

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Check Please!

Is It Possible For My Brain To Work Even Less?
Yesterday I decided to join my friend Barb and volunteer as Crew for the Atlanta 2 Day Walk for Breast Cancer to be held on September 16-17. It sounded like a good time in mid-September so I happily logged on and ponied up my $50 to be part of the crew. Then last night it hit me that this was the same weekend as the wedding for one of my good friends. I have this wedding noted on two different calendars, but did I think to check either before spending the $50? Nope. What a fucking dumbass I can be sometimes... The only consolation is the hope that my money might help out somewhere. So. Fucking. Stupid.

Allow Me To Rant
Apple is now on my shit list. To be specific, apple.com is on the list. Yesterday at the office I needed to look up something on the Apple website and found that they have inserted a Quicktime ad with audio on their homepage. Imagine my embarrassment when this started blaring from my computer speakers. To make matters worse there are no volume controls on their webpage, so I was forced to dismiss their page as quickly as I could.

C'mon web developers, THINK before you create.

Working Toward Greener Pastures
Hey Paulie, what's up with EATLGA.com and when are you finally moving away from Blogger?

Well, that's a fine set of questions little Timmy.

Yes all, I am finally and far too slowly making the move away from Blogger. I've have contracted with Blue Host for a year's worth of hosting and now am trying to figure out how to do this whole CSS thing. In the short term if you want to have a giggle or two check out www.eatlga.com and that will take you to the new site (actually there is nothing there yet so be patient -- give me at least another week). I will update www.InsideThePerimeter.com and www.eatlga.com in parallel until the big cutover day when there will be all sorts of pomp and circumstance associated with the move.

btw- Anyone who is eager to help me can feel free to speak up. Thanks. :)

Oh Showcase, Why Did You?
Last night marked week one of Digital 102 at Showcase. As expected this was a review week of Digital 101 with some added techniques that appears my camera can't do. :(

Unfortunately, in addition to the $10 increase in the cost of the fee they have also decided to cut the size of the instruction room in hald by pulling closed a collapsible divider while keeping the size of attendance the same. So now not only are we more cramped in the room we can hear another class being taught on the other side of the partition. Unless I am guaranteed that this will not take place next session I doubt that I will be signing up for any future classes.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - back to meh
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing Arctic Monkeys -- "A Certain Romance"
Website Of The Day - Maybe I should just donate smaller denominations to many different charities using Give Meaning.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - nothing

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

This One Is Biggie Sized

Craving Something Different
I have to hurry and make a blog entry about my dinner at East Atlanta's newest restaurant Crave (nfws) before everyone else takes all of the clever play on words surrounding its name. For those of you who are addicted to Yelp, you may want to skip a head because this will be a Very Special Encore of my Yelp entry for Crave.

"I made my first trip to the newly-opened Crave this evening. Crave has garnered some attention this week thanks to a review in the Creative Loafing.

Being hungry I decided to try a starter and entree.

The starter I ordered was Andouille Queso which was served with deep fried pita chips. The chips were good, the queso I was not thrilled with. I guess I was expecting white cheese with either chunks of sausage or ground sausage. Instead the cheese was an orange melted cheese and the sausage was almost non-existent.

My entree on the other hand was fantastic. I ordered the braised short ribs served with bock choy over a bed of jalepeno grits. All components "worked". The beef was succulent and the jalepeno grits provided a nice, spicy foil.

The food was consumed with a lovely beer."

He'll Be Coming Around The Mountain
Don't I wish...

Yesterday's exercise consisted of a bike outing of thirty-five miles from the Candler Park Marta station to Stone Mountain and back. About three miles from my completion one of my pedals malfunctioned and I had to hobble back using the DeKalb Path and McLendon Avenue in an effort to avoid traffic. I sort of knew something was up with the pedal because entering and exiting it seemed a little different than in my past rides. Perhaps this is the impetus needed to buy some new pedals and shoes (finally!).

The ride I took on Saturday afternoon nearly cost me big time. When riding solo I am a proponent of packing ID in case something happens to me. You know, to identify the body, that sort of thing... Anyway, I seemed to forget this detail at the end of Saturday's ride and didn't discover my error until Monday morning. That meant I went a day and a half of driving without having my driver's license on me. Luckily none of Atlanta's Finest decided that I was a threat on the roads this weekend... So, do any of you athletes have a suggestion for a substitute ID that will work for riding and running?

When RealiTV Collides
Being a huge fan of Iron Chef as well as a fan (and one-time short-term employee of) Alton Brown (who I believe still lives in the area) it was a natural for me to watch the American version of Iron Chef when it started up a few years ago.

Being a fan of BBC America as well as the shows they made starring chef Gordon Ramsey it was a natural for me to watch the Hell's Kitchen when Fox aired it last year.

On Sunday night (at least that's when it was recorded to my Dish Network DVR) these two worlds collided when Hell's Kitchen runner-up Ralph Pagano was the challenger on Iron Chef America. It was kind of odd, like when you find out that you have common friends with co-workers.

What Pops Music Into Our Heads?
Occasionally I am able to determine why a certain song enters my brain after years of absence. It usually has something to do with an old movie I've been watching, a tv commercial which has adopted the song or band, or something associated with a phrase that I've heard recently.

However none of those explanations cover the reason for me singing (in my head at least) "Stop Making Sense" by the Talking Heads this morning. I've owned the cd for the past 15-20 years, but couldn't tell you the last time I played it. One of the many good things about owning an iPod which can store one's entire music collection is that in a case like this you can feed the monster by playing the cd on your way into work; at least that's what I did this morning.

CD Pick Of The Week
This week's pick is a slam dunk! Considering that I am a big Gomez fan and that I am going to see them in concert when the play the Variety Playhouse on Thursday night it's easy for me to pick their release of "How We Operate" as my pick this week.

Gomez not your cup of tea? Okay, there are a few other interesting releases in today's drop.

You could always go Old School and pick up one of the releases from Pearl Jam or Tool. I own previous releases from each (and saw Tool in concert circa 1993 in New Orleans at Lollapalooza), so those intrigue me as well. The Pearl Jam disc has been receiving some love on the Blogosphere as well. Check around, you'll find some.

Not Old School enough? Well my friend Neil Young is releasing a war protest album (it's really a cd but this is Neil Young I'm typing about so album seems more apropos) today. Feed your inner-hippy and go buy it. Play it on your iPod at the next anti-war rally and you'll have all the bases covered.

Too much testosterone? Alrighty then, everybody's second favorite Alaskan (Maigh should be on the top of your list) Jewel also releases a cd titled "Goodbye Alice In Wonderland" today.

Still not satisfied? How about a cd which features the incredibly-talented musician Alejandro Escovedo? While I was unable to see him perform at The EARL a few months ago because the show sold out I hear that it was a fantastic show.

And if none of that satisfies your tastes I can't help you, try again next week.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - behind
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 26, playing The Plastic Constellations -- "Sancho Panza". (everytime I hear them I think 311?)
Website Of The Day - I admit to being a RealiTV junky. I think that I will be wasting many an upcoming hour scouring the Reality TV Digest over at Reality Blurred.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - biking, 35 miles (Candler Park Marta <-> Stone Mountain) on Saturday

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Mayday! Mayday!

Four months down, not much to show.

I've Taken The Fifth
As you can see from my Taco Mac Passport list I have reached beer number twenty-five; this marks the 1/5th mark on my path to 125. This beer was consumed after a morning of pseudo-successful picture taking in East Atlanta, Inman Park, Old Fourth Ward, and near Ga Tech. Of the shots taken on Friday that I consider half decent (most hit the virtual editor's floor), this is my favorite.



Take The Crap Out Of The Ballgame
This is where I am suppose to gloat about the Mets winning two out of three over the Braves this weekend. However, I have axes to grind.

I am a child of the Cold Wars. Back in my childhood we were shown video of parades held in the evil Soviet Union which highlighted their military power. We cursed the Soviets for doing this. On Friday evening at Turner Field I withnessed a Navy induction ceremony prior to the ballgame followed by a flyover by the Blue Angels during the National Anthem. In my opinion this sort of jingoism, admittedly on a smaller scale, is no different than the old Soviet military parades.

To add to my dismay over our jingoism, I was further angered at the display of commercialism around the third or fourth inning. After the completion of one of these half innings the Budweiser Clydesdales were paraded out onto the field where they proceeded to encircle the field. To me it was a two-plus minute Budweiser commercial! As the horse-drawn carriage passed sections fans were standing and applauding as if these were great American heroes.

Please do me a favor and just play the fucking ballgame...

A Farewell-Ju Well?
While scouring The EARL's website over the weekend I saw a listing for a July 1st show featuring A Fir-Ju Well. This show is listed with the tag "(final performance)". Bummer! If you've been reading this space over the last year you'll know that A Fir-Ju Well is probably my favorite "local" band currently.

I've sent an email to their management in hopes of finding out the real story, but they have not gotten back to me yet.

Never Has One Man Done So Much With So Little
Sunday's ominous weather changed my plans from going to the Inman Park Festival to going to the High Museum.

Currently at the High there are two exhibits, one is a quilt exhibit that I had no interest in seeing, the other is the Chuck Close exhibit. For those unfamiliar with Close he is an American photorealic artist. His exhibit consisted of media which spanned his nearly forty-year career. The thing that that struck me the most was that his entire collection consisted of self portraits. Admittedly many of these portraits were done using different techniques and all display enormous talent, but they were all self portraits!

My outing at the High was nearly cut short when the "budding photographer" in me climbed a flight of stairs to get a picture (not of the art, because I know that is not allowed within the High) with my little pocket point-and-shoot. Unfortunately I was discovered and stopped by museum security before I could get the shot.

A note to the people in charge of the High Museum... If you send me a $2 coupon for "member" parking and then charge $10 for "event parking" in your parking garage, I will park for $6 over at Colony Square every day of the week. Of course I looked for free street parking first but couldn't find any.

Speaking Of Places You Can't Take Pictures
In an odd coincidence this weekend I picked up a copy of the Atlanta INtown newspaper. One of their monthly features is called "In Case You Were Wondering". This month's ICYWW features the old Eiseman Building facade which is located inside the Five Points Marta station. This is the facade that I had intended to shoot prior to being informed that it was illegal to take pictures inside a Marta station without permission. If you happen to see this article in the paper [btw- I'd link to the paper's article, but they didn't put it online] you'll notice a long escalator in their picture; that is the same escalator that I mentioned last week in my blog.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal...
Current Mood - fair
Current Music - none, listening to the TWiT podcast.
Website Of The Day - The Computer History Museum is a different type of museum, the type that makes this geek happy.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I've picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as "blogged."

Exercise (b)Log - biking, 38 miles (EAV <-> Stone Mountain) on Saturday

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]