This morning I read of a worker at The Standard on Memorial Drive getting shot in the head last night by some asshats who broke into the bar after closing. If it’s like the rest of the break-ins about which I read these days I bet they were trying to steal flat-panel televisions. A life taken over the greed and breakdown of society, our values are completely fucked. This is beyond sad; this is sickening. And before anyone plays the “these things happen in the city” card, consider that this will happen almost anywhere for as long as the economy continues to suck. Thugs are now using a poor economy and ease of obtaining firearms as excuses to destroy the ethical-fiber of this country.
Be advised that the rest of the blog was written prior to my hearing of the shooting at The Standard. My dilemmas will seem trivial if you keep this in mind while reading.
Learn From My Mistakes
A few years ago I wanted to learn about investing. I decided to join a small investment group. After some time I realized that I couldn’t contribute the time necessary to be a valuable asset to the group so I cashed out. At the time I licked my small wounds because I lost a few dollars on my investments, but felt the experience was worthwhile.
Last year I found out that the group failed to file proper IRS paperwork a couple of years that they were in existence, including one in which I was a member. Sadly, this error is going to provide me with the most valuable lesson — never do this again. After a year’s worth of battles with the Fed the group’s leader, for whom I have the utmost respect for fighting what must have been a tiresome battle, we have lost. It appears that I am on the hook for a sum of money that I obviously would rather spend on other things, let’s say plumbing repairs.
Ugh.
ITP Flickr Pic
There are many paths to travel in life. Some are clear, some are not.
Just remember that sometimes the path less traveled is so for a reason.
The Problem With $1 Drafts While Raining Is That It Has To Rain To Get Them
A rousing group of Twitters and Bloggers met last night at Atlanta’s Park Tavern. The idea was germinated by a single request by me to find out if Park Tavern still pours $1 drafts when it’s raining. I still don’t know if they do as the weather while drinking was not more cloudy than raining. That was to change upon our departure from the bar however.
It was an odd evening at Park Tavern. I believe that we may have been the only occupied table for nearly the entire evening. Unfortunately, as is usually case on slow nights the service was lackluster, although our waiter was able to keep separate tabs and to my knowledge got each one correct.
Get Your Gas NOW
On Saturday I paid $1.42 / gallon at a local QT. This morning I paid $1.69 / gallon at a different local QT. You have been warned.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – scared, uncertain
Current Music – watching the CommandN podcast
Website Of The Day – sorry, no time to track one down today
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 3 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 7 (7)
Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 6
Marta Rides – 0
January Goals
– Complete all necessary work on the dining room (not going to lie, I picked an easy room first)
– Lose no fewer than two pounds
– Run no fewer than 50 miles
– Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, and How to Be Happy, Dammit: A Cynic’s Guide to Spiritual Happiness
2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 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 I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Man, I wanted to play the OTP card, but people get shot up here is Cobb County too. What I don’t get is why shoot the person? I know if I was looking at someone with a gun, I’d say – take whatever you want, just don’t shoot me.
Paulie — the news report is saying that the employees gave these guys money and they STILL shot one of them in the head. WTF? And you’re right, its not just an ITP problem although that area is really transitional. I’ve only been there once but they had a great beer selection. On to happier things eh? I woke up to that news 🙁
From what I understand, the guy gave up the cash, there was no reason to shoot him. These people place no value on human life, their own or anybody else. I read that the guy didn’t make it.
I drive by The Standard everyday on my way to work. By the time I drove by today the police were gone and I saw someone cleaning up the broken glass (looks like they came through the front door).
I’m generally aganist captial punishment but I don’t think I would mind too much if these guys lost in a shoot out with the police.
I can only imagine that the thugs had not expected to encounter anyone upon entering the bar. When they did they panicked and probably had no way to hide their identity.
Let it be known that I am tired of justifying living in a city which is crumbling around me. Also, since my incident happened 4.5 years ago I can’t say that this is a newly-occurring trend. I’d like to live in a “safe” place, but safety is eroding and will continue to do so as the economy sucks, handguns are plentiful, we cut police forces, and allow criminals to return to society with mere slaps on their wrists.
Since we are talking about such happy stuff, did you guys hear about the City of Atlanta screwing up the water bills, and everyone is getting a bigger bill because they “forgot” to add in the increase that was approved back in July? So, from what I got from the news, they are adding it in as a lump sum. That totally sucks.
Yeah Barb, I noticed that cute little addition to my water/sewer bill last month.
so on a lighter not, your january goal – Complete all necessary work on the dining room
What does that entail? and is it done yet (I know it is only the 7th)
Didn’t notice anything different about my water bill, now I have to go check it out.
The original Stats & Goals had the entire list of chores, but things got too long. From memory here is what I listed:
– clean bookshelf, culling books that I’ll never use/read and getting them collected for donation
– clear off crap from dining room table and keep it crap-free
– fix bottom brace of dining room table
– clean out sideboard and remove items that I no longer need, collecting them for donation
– sweep floor
– clean interior of windows / windowsills
– fix crack in the walls (this one may not get done)
I’m “getting there” but nowhere near finished.
Paulie photo up! (re-post as I posted late yesterday due my new work hours)
http://flickr.com/photos/82068747@N00/3175162376/
Most of our concerns in life are relative if we look to other people around us IMHO. We all have it pretty good….
WTF is wrong with people! You give the robbers what they want and still get shot? Are we going to turn in to an shoot first and ask questions later society? Maybe we should go back to the wild west where we all carry guns, people may hesitate breaking in when they know they will be faced with a gun (and no, I am not a NRA card carrying gun nut. I have not decided where I stand on gun control).
And on a lighter note….
See? Paulie really does not eat children, he actually likes them. Nice photo Gentri
are your walls plaster or just drywall? If it is just drywall, fixing those cracks shouldn’t be too tough. (but, then you will need to repaint)
It think the “keep it crap free” is the hardest part of that goal. Mine would have to be clean it off weekly.
I need to set some goal for around the house. All I accomplished last year was to get the fence/gate fixed properly and a hard core cleaning of the kitchen.
With any luck I hope to be able to start discussing some renovation plans with one of my GP boys, come summer. I would really love to get a new coat of paint on the walls in the living room/hallway also. Oh, that just gave me a great idea!!
I too am tired of hearing that as long as the economy is bad we’re going to continue to see crimes like this. What I want to know is what are these robbers doing with the proceeds of these crimes? Are they using them to pay rent or mortgage? Are they using them to put clothes on their kids backs or food on their table? Sure, maybe some of them are, but I have a hard time believing that all these robbers are people who have been recently laid off and are struggling to make ends meet. There are plenty of honest people who are also struggling to make ends meet who do not resort to crime so let’s stop prefacing all these stories with the same tired “times are tough” refrain. That might be the reason behind SOME of these crimes, but it’s NEVER an excuse.
I believe that many of the thugs use the economy as an excuse to be evil. Many of the descriptions I hear are “young” males, so I doubt they are stealing to support a family.
Since New Year’s:
a) my car has been broken into…
b) my friend Kristina’s apartment was broken into…
c) heard The Lamplighter had to close due to a Christmas break-in…
d) had an attempted break-in on my street…
e) heard about the rash of break-ins in the Old Fourth Ward (including a busted window at Danneman’s)…
The Standard incident totally breaks my heart. I love this city, but I am beginning to hate living here…
-T(SW)
I understand and echo your sentiment Terri. In addition to that my neighbor’s house across the street was broken into and ransacked.
I wonder if the same people who broke into Lamplighter were responsible for last night’s activities.
On a funny note, I accidentally set off my car alarm this morning. I felt bad because my driveway is near my neighbor’s bedroom window. Oops.
hey Paulie – I’m going to attempt to make something similar to those green beans we had at Tasty China tonight……. but I’ll be adding chicken or pork to them, cuz I’m not one of “those people”. Wish me luck they even come out half as good.
Good luck Barb. If you even come close please let me know how you accomplished it.
The news lately has been very discouraging but I can’t think of any place else I would rather be…that being said, I’m not too disappointed that I will be spending Friday night in the ‘burbs.
I don’t really want one of those easy to get handguns, but this is the second crime I’ve read about where the robbers didn’t stop at simply taking money. Unfortunately, since our justice system is severely biased in favor of the criminals, it’s easier and cheaper just to get shot and die.