Back In The Saddle Again

Sadly, this has nothing to do with running nor vegetarianism. Happily, it has everything to do with writing for Atlanta MetBlogs. Last night I posted an article to MetBlogs about the upcoming The Long Ryders shows at The EARL. (WOW! I just realized that it has been two years since I’ve posted to MetBlogs.)

Thanks to Christmas and New Year’s Day this is the first Thursday that I’ve worked in three weeks; I like Thursdays better when they are paid holidays.

Speaking Of The MetBlogs
Last night was the monthly meetup of Atlanta MetBlogs authors. Once again we met up at Joe’s Coffee Shop in East Atlanta which gave me the ability to have dinner in the ‘hood beforehand. Last night I chose Holy Taco as my food provider of choice. While not the best meal that I’ve had there, it was somewhat tasty and filling.

The group meeting went as planned and inspired my to spend the hour I had intended on using for reading as blogging time instead.

ITP Flickr Pic
I knew there were free-standing hearths down near Moreland, Georgia. I remember seeing some while bicycle riding down there. Before attending Steve’s party on last Sunday I was fortunate to find this one near Turin, Georgia.

I’ve added to my virtual collection Home Was Where The Hearth Is.

It’s Called Cartography Even Though Cars Were Not Invented When It Was
I’m a map addict, perhaps not as much of an addict as ITP-Reader Stacy, but an addict nonetheless. When Google announced Google Maps, including the ability to mark up their maps and save it as your own, I was excited.

Yesterday I created a map for my free-standing hearths project the
Home Is Where The Hearth map. This map is open to the public, and I believe that I’ve set it up so that you can drop a pin onto any location possessing a free-standing hearth. When I take a photo of a free-standing hearth I will convert the pinpoint icon to a camera icon. Some day I also plan to figure out how to tie my photos to the map so that when you click on the camera icon a photo, initially my photo, will appear.

Here’s the pretty embedded version of the map

View Larger Map

[Update @ 9:53am]
Oh yeah, after getting a text message from ITP-Reader Stacy the other night letting me know that Georgia Public Broadcasting was airing a show containing content about free-standing hearths I did a Google search and came up with this article from The Gainesville (GA) Times).
[End Update @ 9:53am]

Top Chef : Aaaaaand We’re Back!
Because of Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve Bravo held back new episodes of Top Chef. And strangely last night they played back episodes leading up to the new episode out of order.

If we hearken back to 2008 we remember that no one had been told to pack up their fucking knives and leave before Christmas, so this meant that last night two cheftestants would be on the chopping block.

The night started with the cheftestants making a dessert sans sucre (I threw that out in French in honor of the French d-bag chef who would be the night’s guest judge). Almost immediately the cheftestants talked about making a dessert using some shitty diet soda as the base; my BULLSHIT monitor went to eleven!!! Lo and behold that same shitty diet soda company was advertising on Bravo. I wished that I had my iPhone, which is much better than the shitty cellphone manufacturer and cell provider also pimping their shit on Top Chef, so that I could call someone and tell them to piss off with their over-the-top product placement/pushing. The cheftestants whipped up their best efforts and the word “interesting” was tossed out often at tasting. Radical won contest with some sort of bread pudding; I was bummed because she is not one of my favorites. To my surprise no one was eliminated immediately.

With no one eliminated at the QuickFire Challenge how would two get booted in one night? Come to find out that the cheftestants were split into two different groups, given $100 to spend at Whole Foods (what costs less than $100 at the Manhattan Whole Paycheck?), allowed to cook whatever they’d like — no restrictions, and their food would be judged “blind.” The other “twist” for the evening was that unbeknown to them the cheftestants were going to be judged in-part by their competitors. Many bizarre dishes were created, none looking especially appetizing to me, and in the end my girl Jamie won the night. Of course in true Jamie style she announced that it was “about time” that she won, overconfident much?

With a winner announced it was time to chop-chop a couple of cheftestants! This pleased me because I can’t remember the names for all of these cheftestants and it’s time to whittle down the group so that they can start hating each other. Predictably unimaginative-Melissa and self-proclaimed-risk-taker (whatev!) Gene-Gene the Tattoo Machine were correctly ousted.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, hoping tomorrow my college football team will be National Champions
Current Music – listening to the “Net @ Nite” podcast
Website Of The Day – Who’s your Splenda Daddy?
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – none

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 3 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 8 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 7
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]