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July 21, 2006 08:58

Dinner was really good on Wednesday night. One could even describe it as tasty. Sauteed rainbow trout filets with steam broccoli and steamed asparagus with butter. Yep, it was very tasty.

Work has been pretty busy, and I've been staying in at night. Except for last night, when I played poker over at Patrick's. I got off to a good start, with some good cards and controlled wins. Then I started to push a little, which backfired somewhat, and then I kept on getting crap cards that I couldn't do much with. It eventually turned into a game of attrition for me, and I ended the night $40 down. No matter, it was still fun, and I do feel pleased that when I played a controlled game (as I did in the first 90 minutes) I saw more success.

Today is John's birthday. He's 35. We're taking him out for food and beverages tomorrow night.

Speaking of beverages, I'm going to step off the wagon tomorrow night to celebrate John's birth. In the ten days or so that I have not been drinking I have dropped to close to the weight I had reached in my pre-World Cup dieting. Over the World Cup period I put back on seven of the nine pounds I had lost in the weeks leading up to it. I'd like for the weight loss to continue, but that will require more effort on my part, and I'm not particularly good at that sort of will-power. If, at the very least, I can increase that amount of walking that I'm doing, then that should help. I expect I'll repeat last Saturday's walk up to Java Vino for brunch, and I may this time continue on to Little Five Points.

Just one week until Pitchfork. I'm looking forward to it greatly. I'm also looking forward to The Editors, who are playing on Tuesday night, The Church, who are playing in just over two weeks, and Ladytron, who are playing mid-September. This is continuing to be a great year musically.

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July 18, 2006 13:21

Just got back from the optometrist. I've got a new one, nice and local. So local that I was able to walk there. And they were friendly, too, which is always a bonus. I went because I ran out of contact lenses a couple of months back, and my previous optometrist was way the hell up by Perimeter Mall (about a 12 mile drive), which is just ridiculous. So I got this new one and I am wearing some nice new contact lenses. My prescription is much the same as the last time and they took photos of my retina, which was lots of fun. Even better - they're going to send me copies of the photos via email. Rock!

In other news, a big group of us went to Nakato on Sunday night for Tim's birthday. Let's just say, "Lots of food." Because there was. And it was good. Earlier in the day I went grocery shopping and stocked up with good food, because, well, my fridge was literally empty.

Yesterday was busy; this morning was busy. This afternoon is probably going to be less busy as I wait for responses on questions, and some of the people I wish to speak to are unavailable today.

My rage of consumerism has continued. Yesterday I ordered a 320GB external hard drive and on Sunday I ordered a bunch of Iain Banks books. My credit card bill at the end of the month is going to be a monster. But I don't regret any of the expenditure, so no worries.

July 16, 2006 10:43

It has been a while since I last posted, and for that I am deeply sorry. I have no good reason aside from laziness, which to some might be considered an acceptable reason.

To pick up where I left you, the Revolting Cocks were great. Their new singer (Josh Bradford, I think) definitely put on a good show as a replacement from Chris Connelly. Ministry started their set with mostly new stuff, which mostly sucked, but picked up when they played their older material. After the show, the usual Friday madness of The Local and post-Local poker (until 10:30am) ensued.

Courtesy of the late poker, I was late to the Germany vs Portugal 3rd place decider game. I met up with Tim and Kris at Hand in Hand and was later joined by Jen M. After the game, Jen and I hung out for a bit and then went to Pura Vida for a very tasty dinner. Next on the agenda was my first visit to Atlantic Station, a new development on the west side of Midtown Atlanta, just north of Georgia Tech. This place is horrible; a total "Downtown Disney." The primary purpose for our visiting this horrible place - Pirates of the Carribean 2 - Dead Man's Chest. The movie was good, but not as good as the first (which I expected) and seemed a little too long. That may have been due to my excessive tiredness. Afterwards, Jen dropped me home and I foolishly decided to stop by the Local for a night cap. I didn't stay too long, though.

Sunday was, of course, the World Cup Final, and I joined the crowd (Tim, Kris, Brandy, and Brandy's friend) at the Brewhouse. It was an outside table, which was interesting for a change. On one side of us was an Italian table, on the other was a French; at our table there were a mixture of alliegences. I won't trouble you with a match report, except that Jon VW arrived later and from the resultant Italian victory I won all the wagers I had placed for the tournament. The French dude next to us bought us a bottle of Champagne, which was nice. After the game it was back to the Local and a satisfying end to World Cup 2006. Except that my darts sucked.

The week just past saw an increase in work activity, but it seems from my timesheet I didn't log all of it - it definitely fely busier than the hours I logged. But there was definitely more going on.

Now that the month long drinking binge called the World Cup is over, I have put myself on detox until I go to Chicago at the end of the for the Pitchfork Festival. Craig H, Mike S and I are going up for three days (we're catching another band on Friday night) of music fun. With probably some drinking thrown in for good measure. But until then, it's iced water for me, baby.

Since I am on the wagon, I stayed in on Friday night and watched some movies. Nothing great. But I was up early on Saturday and walked up to Java Vino for breakfast. I considered walking on to Little Five Points, but the battery in my iPod was on its last legs so I came home instead (round trip about 2 miles) to recharge the beastie. While the iPod was charging I jumped in the car and headed to Criminal Records, where I spent just under $80 on CDs (lots of CDs) and then headed to Best Buy to pick up an alarm clock with an iPod dock and to look at receivers. I'm probably going to buy a new Sony or Yamaha receiver next month and maybe new speakers the month after that. After making my purchase, I stopped by Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a blender. Around that time, Lauren called and I arranged to meet her and Matt at Hand in Hand for lunch. After lunch I came home, did some work on my timesheet, downlooaded some music, and did a fair amount of reading. I also got a call from my mum. All in all, a pleasant afternoon.

I had several options for the evening, but ended up staying in and reading more, with the occasional look at the TV. I threw on Republic. Around 11:20pm I decided to do a look-in at the Local. I played a round of darts with an equally sober Craig H against a well-lubricated Jon VW and Jaime, and it was the drunks that won. I decided that was my cue to leave, and picking up a drunk Tim along the way (and dropping him off as well) headed home to sleep.

And now, Sunday. I've updated my time sheet and expenses tracking for July and read over half of the latest issue of The Economist. I was thinking about hitting the Botanical Gardens at some point. We're looking to hit 93F (34C) today, so if I want to be outside, I should do it earlier rather than later. It's currently 85F (29.5C) but due to humidity it apparently feels more like 89F (32C). It may already be too late to head outside :-).

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July 07, 2006 07:58

As I start this I am sitting at Goodyear, having dropped my car in for an oil change and to have the front brakes worked on. I'm here early in the hope that if I'm in early then I can wait and get some work done remotely. However, I guess 7:30am is too late for that, since they are saying that they will call me around noon. Damn. So I gave my rock star neighbour, the wonderful and sexy Susan H a call and she's on her way to pick me up. Thanks, babe!

It has been a little while since I last wrote. Much has been going on in work and play. I have a new project coming up and my other projects are tootling along. I'm making refular trips to Athens, GA, and may have some more travel coming up soon. The World Cup has come down to the final teams, with Italy and France in the final and Germany and Portugal in the 3rd place game. I'm doing fairly well in the pool, having picked the correct winner in most of the elimination games; now all that is left are these finals.

I went to Manny's on July 4th to watch the Italy vs Germany game and to celebrate the United State's secession from the British Empire. That was a lot of fun, even when the rain came down and we got "God's fireworks" as opposed to man-made ones.

As for the man-made fireworks, I went to the Braves game on Wednesday night with John VW, Steve, and Chantal. The fireworks started in the first inning, with the Braves leaping to a 5-0 lead. They finished something like 14-4 in what was quite a performance - they need to keep this sort of thing up. And after the game came the 4th of July fireworks show that had to be postponed the night before.

Susan has now picked me up so I'll leave it at that for now. Tonight is Ministry and RevCo - that will be a whole lot of fun!

June 22, 2006 14:01

Well the World Cup is tearing along with teams dropping like flies. The US went out today, after a singole gritty performance, two games lacking in creativity, and an overall bewilderingly bad managerial performance. But Germany, Ecuador, England, Swden, Argentina, Netherlands, Portugal, Mexico, Italy, Ghana, Brazil and Spain are all definitely into the next round. The rest will be determined in the next 27 hours or so.

The heat is well and truly turned up over here. We've had more record-breaking days. Yesterday hit 99F (37C) and it's up to 97F (36C) today. I like it, but I really wish there was a pool at my apartment complex. I may have to close the door soon and throw on the AC, because I'm really pumped out a sweat here.

Work is tootling along. Some days busy, some days not. Today is proving to be a slow day. I caught up on my project management stuff yesterday and fired emails all over, but nothing back to action. I was up in Athens on Monday and I'm heading up again tomorrow morning. I'll be making a few more trips up there next week, too.

I saw Sonic Youth on Monday with Susan (my neighbour) and Manu, her Brazillian friend. Sonic Youth were really good, as normal. They played mostly stuff off their new album, which I really liked. Echo and the Bunnymen plkayed on Tuesday but I didn't make it to that. Ministry and RevCo are at the start of July, then at the end of July I'm going to Chicago for the Pitchfork Festival with Craig and Mike. That's looking like it will be a lot of fun, and then a few weeks later The Church is playing here in Atlanta. I am really enjoying being a concert junkie this year.

Right now I have M83 cranked up real loud. They are my new(ish) favourite band. They certainly know how to fill a space with sound.

June 14, 2006 21:46

The World Cup is well under way. There have been a lot of exciting games and many unexpected results. I'm doing okay in the pool I'm in, maybe not winning, but not too far behind. I have seen several of the games at the Brewhouse, starting with the Germany vs Costa Rica on Friday. Tim and I went to see the USA vs Czech Republic game on Monday, but the Brewhouse was so packed that the cutting on of the AC caused circuits to break, causing much upsetness. So I watched the second half from home. My initial thoughts having seen all the teams once: Czech Republic looks good, Spain looks good, Brazil looked a little lacking, but definitely capable. German showed a lot of weakness, even in their wins. England looked unsettled. The US looked awful.

Other than the World Cup, I saw Pig on Friday night with John after the soccer. I failed to see Arctic Monkeys and We Are Scientists after Saturday's games. I went to Anne's going away party on Sunday night after those games. Monday night I got an early night. Tuesday I had a later night. Neither night did I sleep very well, though, even though I was crazy tired. Tonight I'm supposed to have an early night since I have a very early start tomorrow, to go to Augusta for software training.

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June 08, 2006 13:38

You know, I almost wish I had taken this week off work. Of course, I couldn't because we were still trying to get the last bits and pieces accomplished in preparation for going live on the pilot. Unfortunately, for me that mostly entailed getting in touch with my client's customer and pushing them along to fix the problems in their contribution to the deal. The main people who I normally deal with were unavailable all week, so there was no work to do there. So I only managed to rack up a few hours a day, which seems almost pointless. Almost, but not totally, as we did finally reach the point we needed to get to, only a day later than desired, which pushed the next stage of things back more than a day. Ultimately, this means that I'll probably have a slow first part of the week next week. But I'll be on the road in the latter part, and on Monday of the following week.

But in spite of the lack of work activity, I've had a pretty busy week. On Monday night I went to the Twilight Singers show at Smith's Olde Bar. That was a pretty freaking good show (as were the other times I saw them there). Ashe went with me, and I also ran into Poppie. On Tuesday night I had dinner with Liza and Wayne at Nickiemoto; yummy sushi. On Wednesday night I went to see Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails at HiFi Buys Ampitheatre. My ticket said 8pm, and there was an opening band, so I targetted getting there around 8:30. Well, when we (Ashe, Sandi, ?ustin) got there around 8:45, we ran into some friends who said that the show actually started at 7pm, and Bauhaus had gone on at 8 and had just finished. I was more than a little pissed. What made me even more annoyed was that the only beer options appeared to be Coors and Coors Light. I did find the one stand that was selling other flavours, and I ended up getting a Sweetwater 420. Then I went to my seat. Nine Inch Nails were very good. I did enjoy that. They played a lot off Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral, which was good 'cos I really don't now the later albums very well (even though I own them, too). Oh yeah, and they played Wish and Get Down Make Love.

Today I went to the funeral for a friend's mom. I only went to the service, which was quite tasteful. Others went on to the burial and luncheon.

I was berated on Monday evening (after the show) for not updating my journal often enough. So, Danya, this entry is dedicated to you.

In less than 24 hours the World Cup will be under way. I am very excited about this. I still haven't really picked a team to follow, although I am picking Brazil to go to the finals. England is looking good, even without the Manc bastard. USA will probably have a tough time of it, but may be able to scrape past Italy into the second round. The loss of Cisse may have an impact on the French's confidence. I like the Czech Republic. The Netherlands vs Argentina should be a high-scoring game (and, as Tim points out, a high diving game). Some of my friends are looking to Iran to cause a bit of an upset, and we've all been bombarded with the story of C�te d'Ivoire.

I've gotten a bit of reading done recently. I started on Umberto Eco's The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, and Pi: A Biography ofthe World's Most Mysterious Number arrived so I started in on that, too. So far, I must say that I'm enjoying the former more than the latter. The pi book is also not as historically interesting as the zero or i book and its math is very rudimentary, not exploring (thus far) the more interesting results that pi is involved in. That may improve. I also have a new book on the history of math, book of Richard Dawkins essays, and The Highly Selective Thesaurus and Dictionary for the Extraordinary Literate. The egotist in me couldn't let that one pass by.

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May 27, 2006 15:57

By 9:15 this morning, I'd already read one book from cover to cover. Granted it was not a big book in length (a mere 116 pages) or physical size. But it was a very good book by one of my favorite authors: Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez. And I liked the title.

Most of what I have been reading lately has been non-fiction, be it catching up on my myriad of periodicals (Science, Economist, IEEE Computer, IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Communications, Discover, Harpers, CIO Insight, Baseline, MIT Technology Review, PC Magazine, Food & Wine, National Geographic, Wine Enthusiast, eWeek) or reading of the birth of this nation through The Federalist Papers and Common Sense and The American Crisis. I even picked up a couple of books last weekend containing important pieces by Jefferson and Franklin. Then there's that ethics reader I've been making my way through, Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life. And we can't neglect two other books I finished recently: Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea and An Imaginary Tale: The Story of the Square Root of -1; note that I have also ordered a book on pi.

I do need to increase the ratio of my fiction reading.

I checked the overnight rugby score, and found the Crusaders beat the Hurricanes in the Super-14 final last night (this morning). I did wake up at 3:20 but felt too tired still to get up and watch the game line (streaming) at 3:35. I was disappointed at the result (I'm a Hurricanes supporter) but the game report (and photo) suggested a surreal experience at Jade Stadium in Christchurch.

After breakfast I started my day of produtivity. I have (finally) sorted my fiction bookcase to be alphatically by author, and I've cleaned up my technical bookcase so there is better alignment of topics on each shelf, and I've thrown away or stored much of the miscellany that was also floating around that bookcase.

I made a copy of M83, Before the Dawn Heals Us, to keep in the car. I've been listening to that a fair bit since I got it, and I really like it. I am going to have to pick up more of their stuff (Oh, Amazon...).

I walked up to Wolf Camera on North Highland to acquire a 512MB CF card for my camera, and then had lunch at Dark Horse (steak and blue cheese salad with a fancy name that I can't remember), after which I wandered back home via Drewry Road. Along the way (both directions) I picked up fliers for houses and condos that were for sale.

When I got home, I collected my mail: four offers of credit card or other credit. No thank you. Also, Sports Illustrated (which I don't really read, it just arrives) and the Comcast Channel Guide for June.

I toyed with the idea of finally buying a blender, but I'm not going to need one over the next couple of weeks, so I think I'll wait until my next credit card billing cycle. The other item of (somewhat) necessity is a new bookcase to house the remaining unpacked books - two boxes of books related to language and literature and related subjects. It surprises me a little that I've let them sit boxed up for so long (nine months), but since I'm not planning on moving any time soon, I really should get them unpacked. There are times when I feel the need to look up a foreign word or phrase, and although I can do that online, there's more satisfaction in reaching over and looking it up in a book.

I dropped the box with my used UPS batteries into the trunk of my car, so I can send them back to APC for disposal. Fortunately they sent a UPS prepaid-label so it won't cost me anything extra. But they are heavy - over 50lbs.

And as of now I have just finished sitting on my deck to finish the last of my unread issues of Harpers. One of the things that is disappointing me about my apartment, or more particularly my deck, is that now we are moving into summer, the sun is at a higher angle and I don't get the same amount of direct sunlight onto my deck. This means I can bathe in the direct rays of the sun, which is rather unfortunate. But it is nice out there - the third day in a row of ~90F (~32C) - and we're expecting high 80s (~30C) for the coming week.

May 26, 2006 11:25

Whew, yesterday was a hot one. 92F (33C), and it's not even summer yet. Today is forecasted to get to 85F (29.4C), and it's currently around 79F (26C) with 65% humidity. We're expecting thunder and lightning tonight, and probably some rain over the long weekend.

Yep, Monday is Memorial Day. So far my plans for the weekend consist of dinner and handhing out with Jen M on Sunday evening, and baseball with Jenny A (and maybe George) on Monday. I'm going to try to avoid the Local this weekend if at all possible - avoid temptation and all.

Temptation may be more pressing at home - Joe dropped in a box of Guinness last night as thanks for allowing him to borrow my camera. He liked it - a lot. He even recommended it to a friend, who went out and bought one. I think I might do some photography this weekend.

Tonight is the final of the Super-14 tournament, and it's between the Hurricanes and the Crusaders. I am, of course, rooting for the 'Canes, but the Crusaders are always a tough opponent.

I was hoping to knock off a little early today (ie around lunch) but a meeting has been scheduled for 2pm. What is interesting is that I know of two people who had already planned on leaving by then, so I don't know if the meeting is going to go ahead. I'll plan on it going ahead as planned, just that there will only be three people instead of the planned five.

That's about it. I had lunch with Lauren yesterday at Eno. I had the Greek salad with Lamb Souvlaki, which was relly good. I think I'm going to make lettuce-instead-of-buns cheeseburgers for lunch today. Dinner tonight will be trout, but I'm not sure what I'm going to have with it.

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May 24, 2006 22:13

Work is busy. I've stayed in the last four nights, including tonight. I'm aiming to stay in all this week and hopefully through next week as well. I'm trying to accomplish a couple of things in this mission - a cleansing of the system and hopefully the loss of a bit of weight. To assist in the latter, I've also thrown myself onto induction Atkins for the two weeks. I need to get to the gym to help all of these efforts along.

Among my staying-in activities has been the finishing of the book I was reading about the square root of negative one, which was somewhat less entertaining than the book I read about zero, but full of equations and derivations and proofs. I've ordered another book about pi. I've also been going through the pile of periodicals that has built up over the past several months. All this reading probably doesn't help explain why I've woken up with a sorish eye the past couple of days.

I've also been waking up with a sore back. That probably has more to do with bad sleep posture and computer-usage posture. Not sure what I can do about the sleep aspect. I don't like sleeping on my back - it's not unusual for me to wake up in REM-paralysis when I sleep on my back, and I really don't like that sensation. Sleeping on my side is the culprit, so I guess I need a better mattress. I can't see that happening soon however.

I set up a new retirement account this evening. I went to roll over my 401k from my Marconi days but there is a problem with my address so I need to contact them to resolve the problem. Unfortunately, I have to wait until tomorrow to speak with a person. I'll also have to look into getting the details on my Marconi pension fund, which has recently changed. Then, when all of this has been dealt with, I'll have my retirement arrangements under way.

Over the weekend I ordered replacement batteries for my main UPS. They arrived today and I installed them. They are now charging up. Tomorrow I will plug everything back in that I've had on standard power for the past six months (or however long it has been). My next computer-related purchases are likely to be an external hard-drive for my ever-growing media collection and a colour printer. The latter, at least, I can write off as a business purchase. In theory I could do that with the drive as well, but that wouldn't be an accurate reflection of the use of the drive.

Today for lunch I made cheese burgers (with onion), but instead of buns, I used great big leaves of lettuce. It made for fun eating, but it was very tasty. When I was at Whole Foods on Sunday (I wandered down to pick up some books from Borders, ended up buying a lot more than I intended to), I discovered that they had "salmon salad," which is actually smoked salmon with a bit of mayo and parsley and maybe something else. So I bought some. It was good and tasty. And a built a salad at the salad bar, which was also tasty.

I guess that's enough updates for now. I'll be back soon!