What If?

What if your impact on life wasn’t greatly noticed? I started thinking about this yesterday as I read about the Writers’ Guild of America strike which has been underway for a week. I realized that I hadn’t really noticed that since with the exception of a few series, I watch very little television that has been scripted. While I understand that the full impact of the strike has yet to engage because many comedic series had episodes already in the can, but I doubt that this strike will impact my life in a negative way. Who knows, maybe I’ll find the time to listen to more music, watch more podcasts, do chores around that house, or *gasp* read. Oh, and by the way, I think the writers are right.

File Under: I Am A Terrible Ass-Kisser
Apparently my boss turned forty on Friday and I had no flippin’ idea. As I thought about it more, I realized that I have never known the birthday of any of my bosses. How about you?

Opening The Door For New Podcasts
On Friday night I stayed home. While there I cruised through a lot of the podcasts that I had downloaded. Feeling a bit in a rut I started searching for new material. I’ve now added the following to my collection

  1. Beautiful Places TV: I am rarely awestruck by video. Tony Farley is taking a HD camera with him to some amazingly scenic areas and putting the results on the web. Go check out his episode on Yosemite Falls. It’s a hefty download (~100 MB) but well worth the effort to get it.
  2. Amtrekker: Brett Rounsaville has fifty tasks he wants to complete before returning home to California. Regrettably for me he has already passed through Atlanta.
  3. Shortorder.tv: Host Aparna makes dinner for one in about three minutes. I think that she should give herself a few more minutes and increase the meal complexities, but I may be able to pick up some ideas from this podcast.
  4. Terra: The Nature Of Our World: As you may have figured out, this is a nature podcast.

As I look at the list it seems that I am on a bit of an outdoors kick. If you have any suggestions for new podcasts I’d be glad to hear them.

The Sobriety Society Is A Small Circle
After deciding that I wasn’t going to make it out of the house on Friday, which meant that I was neither going to go for a run nor was I going to make it to the Jonathan Coulton show I decided to make cookies — pumpkin cookies to be exact. But what to do with a batch of cookies when you are trying to lose weight? Take them to a morning run of course.

I struggled over a seven-mile course convinced that it was only the music delivered by Podrunner that got me through it.

After the run, cookies and bacon washed down with water began for me as my companions drank a variety of morning alcoholic beverages with their food. As the unseasonably cool warm morning turned to an unseasonably cool warm afternoon I cashed in my chips and headed home for a nap. Little did I know at the time that I’d be lured back to my friend’s house by the call of brats. I again stubbornly held my ground against joining my friends in alcohol consumption (I think that they really just wanted me to make a beer run and figured I’d be more willing to do so if I was drinking) and called it a day (again) after a few brats.

ITP Flickr Pic
The blog is a little later than normal today because this is how I looked this morning.

Not All Animals Are "Morning Animals"

I just couldn’t seem to get out of bed.

However you may recognize this as a zoo animal, signifying that I went to the Zoo Atlanta yesterday using my new membership. I think that having the membership will be awesome because now I can go hang out for an hour or so, leave, and not feel like I am getting screwed.

Do I Think The Hash Missed Me? Nah.
Sunday’s Black Sheep hash was held in a place called Emerson, Georgia.


View Larger Map

Yeah, I didn’t think that you knew where that was either. I decided that I didn’t want to trek that far OTP in order to punish myself.

Did Food Network Tip Their Own Hand?
I guess that I should put a spoiler warning…
Not even midway through last night’s The Next Iron Chef finale there was a Kia commercial featuring John Besh. As far as I know there was no corresponding commercial for Michael Symon.

Psyche! Michael Symon is the Next Iron Chef! I guess that Kia figured that they could only use this commercial one time so they’d better get their money’s worth.

Also, in case you were wondering which Iron Chef is going to be replaced by the Next Iron Chef, last night’s episode should have convinced you that Mario Batalli has abdicated his position. Batalli was the only one of the American Iron Chefs that was not present on the panel.

While I understand why the Iron Chefs were the judges, it miffed me some. Here you have Ruhlman, Donatello, and Knowlton who have judged the entire way only to be pushed aside at the end? Sure, they had some input but I still thought that they were slighted.

Should His T-Shirt Read “Who’s The World’s Worst Daddy?”
Okay, I am already hooked on The Amazing Race 12.

If I had a father like Christina (think “Asian”) I’d not be around to write this blog — I’d either have killed myself or killed him. What an annoying sonnabitch. They were my pick to get ousted last night, and it will not be an episode too soon when they do.

Should someone forced CBS to put a Mature Audience rating on this episode because Grandpa stripped down to his Speedo in order to do the creek crossing? Is this the same network that digitally blurs butt crack on Survivor?

Here comes the spoiler
The married lesbian ministers were nice, but never had an ice cube’s chance in Hell of winning. Face it, having them on the show was CBS’ attempt to stir up controversy, and in turn increase ratings. I had nothing against them, but I doubt that I will miss them.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – a bit like a fool, my emotions today are rather mixed
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Tokyo Police Club — “Nature Of The Experiment”
Website Of The Day – Fellow Georgian Craig Tanner has a really neat blog called The Radiant Vista. You should check out is Daily Critique podcast as well.
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday: running/walking, 7 miles
Monthly Foot Mileage – 26.5 miles (psst- I finally completed a goal)
Monthly Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car
Beers Consumed Since 11/03 – 0

November Goals
1) Run no fewer than 25 miles
2) Not worry about running the Atlanta Half-Marathon
3) Read at least one book

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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13 Responses to What If?

  1. Barb says:

    I don’t know my boss’s birthday either, but someone will say something before, as we always get a cake, or some sort of birthday sweet.

    Strange challenges last night, but it worked out okay in the end. I wonder how long it really took to hoist those things.

  2. Elizabeth says:

    I don’t work in the same office as my real boss, and the person who supervises my work in the office is not one to make a fuss or have a fuss made about her, so we don’t do much for her birthday. We do have a birthday calendar with everyone on it, but we’re not a very social office, so passing around a card for signatures is usually the extent of our efforts.

  3. Stacy says:

    Nope; never seem to know my bosses’ birthday. Not unless it’s very close to mine and we do that whole “oh! you’re a Leo too?? bonding thing.” Which is not too uncommon, as it’s in the most popular month for babies to be born. (Random trivia there)

    Who in the world lives in Emerson that there’s a hash there?

  4. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    Emerson probably has the type of shiggy that Black Sheepers like as opposed to being the home of a hasher. One of the major consequences of the construction in the Atlanta-metro area is the loss of our hashing grounds.

  5. Barb says:

    since WineHo & GE were the hares, I’m guessing there was some mountain climbing involved. It really isn’t that far north – just up near Carterville.

  6. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    > It really isn’t that far north – just up near Cartersville.

    I’m sorry, did you forget whose blog this is? 😛

  7. Martha says:

    Yeah Barb…I was a little nervrous about the drive for the bike ride…

    Paulie, you now have one less box of stuff at your house. I have a reciept for you also.

    Saturday was one for the books…you were awsome running 7 miles and not drinking. I never thought the day would come where running 12 miles was easier than just saying no!

  8. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    @Martha: Thanks, I appreciate you taking that stuff. Some lucky Goodwill customer will have the opportunity to sport hashing t-shirts now. 😉

    I wish that I had the ability to run the entire seven miles without walking; that and without having to stop to figure out why my iPod Shuffle was being such a pain in the ass.

    Not drinking wasn’t hard, although at one point I noticed that I *always* had a glass of water (or OJ) in my hand. No wonder why I get so messed up when that beverage is beer instead.

  9. Barb says:

    now Paulie – you are the guy that goes driving backroads WAY out of the way to get pictures…….. and – it woundn’t have even taken you 45 minutes I bet to get to that hash. It is all perception. I don’t blame you for skipping the hash, (I don’t do their trails anymore either) just using the location as the excuse, that is weak, but expected – Mr. ITP.

  10. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    I really just didn’t want to give away my whole Sunday. I had things to do, which of course didn’t get completed. I am actually disappointed that I didn’t get to run GE’s trail — I am sure it was impossibly hard.

  11. willy says:

    Hey, Paulie…. Did you know that “What If” is the title of a local bands second record? The Dixie Dregs…..

  12. I was not cognizant of that fact, Willy? How is it that someone turning 29 tomorrow knows such information?

  13. willy says:

    Paulie …simple…. Time Travel…..

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