The Death Of Blogging

Not this blog of course. I am nothing if not loyal (a valuable characteristic which has not gotten through to the ladies because I am not 6′ tall and handsome); I’m here to stay.

On Saturday I received an email that Metblogs, including Atlanta Metblogs, will be shuttering its doors on May 31st. I’m not sure how much it costs to run a blogging empire which does not compensate its content creators — one of the big reasons I didn’t churn out many blog entries for them, but apparently it’s more that the founders of Metblogs can, or are willing to, afford.

The Fox Was Fabulous As Usual
Early Saturday evening I headed over to midtown for the live broadcast of “A Prairie Home Companion” at The Fox Theater. As expected the place was swarming with khaki-wearing, middle/late age, mostly caucasian attendees — yours included, except I was wearing blue jeans instead of khakis. My seat was down in the orchestra pit, row O, so I had a fairly good view of the show, as well as a really cute usherette who was working the orchestra pit stage right. The seats in The Fox are generous, so generous in fact that I able to pull out my iPhone and see the text message from ITP-Reader Lisa telling me that they were listening to the show up in Raleigh, North Carolina without bumping into either of my seat neighbors.

I enjoyed the show very much. I always find it amusing to see how the sausage is made, and finally recognized the APHC sound man Fred Newman as the same Fred Newman who was on Nickelodeon back in the 1980s/1990s.

Given that the show started a little before 6:00pm (it goes on air at 6:00pm) I got the hell out of EAV early enough to miss many of the East Atlanta Beer Festival drunkards exiting the beer festival, and out of the show early enough to go get dinner. I knew that I didn’t want to deal with the EABF aftermath, so my first thought was to eat near The Fox at Baraonda. Of course Baraonda was packed after the show, so I hurried back to my car to beat the mass exodus from the parking lot in which I had parked. I decided that I was going to eat at The Shed in Glenwood Park (at which I’ve yet to eat!), but there was some large function going on that night, so I settled for Matador in Glenwood Park instead.

ITP Flickr Pic
Remember that statement about having five new photos this week? Nothing like destroying it on Day #1, huh? I had an opportunity to go out shooting cars this weekend, but decided that I didn’t want to. Instead I stuffed myself with pancakes from The Majestic and then I helped ITP-Reader Steve move some stuff into a storage unit on Saturday.

Saturday must have been “Good Deed Day” for me. In addition to helping Steve out, I was very nice to the frazzled parking attendant at the parking lot in which I parked Saturday night. When I pulled in there was no one manning the gate. So, grabbed a parking space and went to find someone (mostly so that I didn’t get towed or booted). When I found him I mentioned that I’d not gotten a ticket from him, and he then gave me one. Then, he tried to hand me a $10 bill, which I refused, and he walked away. At that point I could have parked for free! But, being an honest person (another of those “sought-after” characteristics women always pretend to want) I followed him back to his booth. “I’ve not given you any money for this ticket.”, I said, and then proceeded to pay for my parking.

Wait a minute, I guess that I’m really a sucker after all!

If your a sucker too keep staring at the text in this section to see if you can make out a photo from all of the text I’ve crammed into it today.

I Got Lost Yesterday
Though it had nothing to do with the finale of the series “Lost.”

There are times when I “get” mortality. Yesterday was one of those times. The idea of driving to Fairburn to run a Black Sheep Hash that was billed as “not for the faint of heart” and “flashlight required” didn’t appeal to me much. I’m sure that is was one of those “Oh man, that was the greatest trail ever!” hashes, but I had an option that was much closer to home — Wheelhopper.

The Wheelhopper hash started at Jackson High School on Glenwood. If you are an old-timer to life south of I-20 you know this complex better as Southside Comprehensive High School. The trail was being laid by Wil You Suck and Stiff Pisser, so I had an idea of where trail would, and would not go. I wasn’t very right with my assumptions. Most of the pack was stumped by the first of what would only be two check marks, and I, along with ITP-Reader Bob (aka Check My Bags), Lick-o-La, and Mastergator, decided to box back up Boulevard toward Glenwood Park where flour had been seen early by Check My Bags as he went to an ATM before the hash. As we rode toward Glenwood Av we discovered flour on one of Grant Park’s side streets, and lo and behold, we were back on trail! What we didn’t expect was that we’d found the very last part of trail, so we were at the on-in after riding a mere four miles. Knowing that the rest of the pack would not be in for some time we decided to go out and pick up a few extra miles before returning to the end as FRBs (twice in one hash!).

I Tried To Like LastPass, Really I Did
Yesterday I came to the conclusion that I cannot enjoy using LastPass. Perhaps it’s because I started using 1Password first so I became used to their methodology, but for whatever reason I cannot change my ways. So, it’s a shame that I forked over the $12 annual fee to become a LastPass Premium user, and that it looks like I’ll be forking over more money to have a 1Password app running on my iPad.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – good, but fat, and I guess slightly bitter
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – Today is actor Gary Burghoff’s (M*A*S*H’s “Radar O’Reilly”) birthdayRadar O’Reilly. I wish that website was dedicated to the actor, but I respect O’Reilly since I purchased four $9.99 e-books from them just last Friday.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – ~10 miles of Wheelhopper + 4 miles to get there and back
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – ~41 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 24 (24)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 23
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
– Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
– Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]