Random Thoughts

None of these are mine, but I’ve seen them all over the ‘Net and in e-mails and I generally agree with most of them. Your mileage may vary.

– I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

– More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

– Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

– Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

– I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

– Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the “people you may know” feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

– There is a great need for sarcasm font.

– How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

– I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

– I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

– The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

– I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

– How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

– Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm…Goonies”

– What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

– MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

– I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

– Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

– I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

– Bad decisions make good stories

– If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

– Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….

– You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

– There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

– I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

– “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this. Ever.

– I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

– As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

– Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

– It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

– I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

– Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

– Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…

– It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

– I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

– I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

– I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

This Could Save Your Life!

This always confuses and, frankly, irritates me. A TV station will air a promo for an upcoming piece on their newscast. It’s Saturday afternoon and here’s the promo:

(A black and white skull and crossbones appears on screen and the voiceover begins) “It’s a dangerous product that everyone uses and it could kill you and your loved ones. This exclusive interview from channel blank’s Jane Doe reveals information that will save your life! Thursday on the 11pm news broadcast!!”

Wait a minute! You’re going to make me risk my life for 5 days waiting for this information just so you can pump up the numbers for your low-rated Thursday 11pm newscast???? If it’s that damn important, tell me now!

Guess who won’t be watching, life-saving information or not!

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Posted in Personal | 3 Comments

“Cap’n, She Canna Tae Much More!”

I’m checked into my new hotel room. Everything is good though I’m not thrilled that there are no thermostat controls in the rooms, only fan controls. I assume it’s because this is an “atrium” style hotel (most of the rooms open into the enclosed atrium – see photos below) and they want to keep the temperature at a moderate level, but I usually prefer to have my room a little cooler than most people. I’m sure I’ll adjust, especially since the good points heavily outweigh that one negative.

View from my door looking across the atrium.

View looking down in the atrium.

Plus I’ve had my first amusing experience here. I had come up (I’m on the top floor, which is the 10th) to check out the room before bringing my luggage all the way up to the room. One thing I didn’t do was turn on the TV’s (one in the front room and one in the bedroom) and I know better but for some reason I didn’t do it. Later, after I had unpacked and was settled in, I turned on the front room TV to be greeted with sound but no picture. I checked the bedroom TV and it was fine. I called down to the front desk, explained the situation, and the clerk replied, “No problem sir, I’ll send the engineer up.”

Whoa! They have an electrical engineer on staff at this hotel? I mean, it’s a nice hotel but not THAT nice.

A few minutes later there was a knock at my door and when I opened it I was greeted by…the maintenance man. He came in, quickly identified the problem as an encryption card issue that required a simple reset, and in a few seconds my TV was fully functional. As he was about to leave I said, “So, you’re an electrical engineer?” and he replied, “No, hotel maintenance. But we handle most of the simple problems.”

Ah, the desk clerk must have meant maintenance engineer.

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Posted in Atlanta, Hotels, Humor | 3 Comments

Sheepback Mountain Cabin Progress

Last week, Cindy flew to Maggie Valley to spend a week with her friend Rebecca and look in on the progress of our Sheepback Mountain Cabin. It’s difficult not to get excited when you see the street sign for the road you got to name and the walls going up on the first story above the basement. Not to mention the light dusting of snow that fell on Saturday and Sunday and what the view will be like from my future office window.

Here’s one of the photos Cindy took and the others can be found here on Facebook or here on Flickr.

Monday I’ll get some more photos from Cindy’s mom and dad when we meet for dinner here in Atlanta and I believe Rebecca has some as well that she will be sending. I’ll post those when they arrive.

Our cozy little cabin on Sheepback Mountain is slowly taking shape.

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Posted in Cabin, Maggie Valley, North Carolina, Sheepback Mountain | 2 Comments

Things That Make You Feel Good

The highlight of my day today was when my grandson text-messaged me from my daughter’s phone to ask if I could chat with him on Yahoo Messenger this Sunday. We coordinated a time and I’m looking forward to it so much. As I told him, I was thinking the other day that I would like to chat with him on the webcam. And now we will!

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Posted in Mikey | 1 Comment

Hermit Crab

I’m moving to a new hotel Saturday. It’s one that is closer to my office and, frankly, has nicer amenities than the one in which I’m currently staying. Plus it’s closer to a Publix, where I prefer to buy my groceries, and to some popular restaurants when I want to eat out. In fact, Cindy and I ate at the Cheesecake Factory in that area when she visited me back in May.

But the biggest reason I chose this particular hotel is because last week I had checked our staffing list and did not see anyone from my office staying there. Not that I don’t like the people I work with, because I do (at least most of them) and they are great people, but I am just not the type who enjoys a lot of social interaction. I can fake it very well (I’m told) when I have to, but deep down inside when I get back to my hotel at night after a long day I’d rather just be a hermit in my room and that becomes problematic when your co-workers are staying in the same hotel. You know, when they find out you’re staying there too they want to go have a drink after work or go to dinner together after work or go do something together on your day off…and that’s very seldom my preference. As I say, I like my co-workers and they’re fine people, but I can probably count on one hand the ones I’d LIKE to spend time with when I’m off work (and if you’re reading this, please be assured you ARE one of those, lol). So I booked a reservation thinking I could be my “hermit” self without going through the scenes above.

But today the main reason for my hotel choice was blown apart after I discovered that several of my co-workers had just moved to the same hotel. Some of them are very gregarious and outgoing. One of them, upon finding out today that I was moving there, has already said, “Let’s get a drink together one night.” I said, “Oh yeah, that’d be great” but you probably already know what they didn’t; that I wasn’t entirely honest in my response. Now I’ll be trying to figure out how to sneak into the hotel each night and make it up to my room without being spotted, or making up lame excuses or, in some cases, just giving in and doing it so as not to offend anyone.

When I was a kid I’d pick up hermit crabs on the beach, never dreaming I’d become one someday, lol.

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Posted in Atlanta, Hotels, Personal | 2 Comments

Eating Healthy In Spite Of Myself

I went to Cracker Barrel for lunch today (the one on Jimmy Carter Blvd. in Atlanta) and ordered my usual favorite, which is the fried chicken tenderloin sandwich on grilled whole wheat sourdough.

The last time I got one of these, I was so determined to be good that I didn’t even use the mayonnaise they give you on the side, choosing to eat it “dry”, so to speak, to avoid the fat and sugar in the condiment. The sandwich is tasty enough without it, so that was no big deal. I’m trying to alter my tastes and expectations to eat a little healthier.

So I’m on my lunch hour, which means my time is limited, and the server mistakenly brings me a GRILLED chicken tenderloin sandwich on grilled whole wheat sourdough. I look at it for a moment, realize I don’t have time to wait for a replacement and it’s going to be healthier for me anyway, and take a nice big bite.

My tongue: Hey! This is pretty good!

My brain: (in a pouting tone) But it’s not as good as what I usually get.

My tongue: I think it’s very tasty. Don’t you feel all those pleasure signals I’m sending to you?

My Brain: Oh…yeah that IS pretty good!

My heart:
And it’s better for me, so we’re good all around.

Me: When did my internal organs start talking?

Anyway, sometimes I eat healthy…in spite of myself.

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Posted in Atlanta, Personal, Restaurants | 4 Comments

50 Useful Blogs for Writers

Over on The Word Blog, Randy Ray has compiled a list of 50 Useful Blogs for Writers. He’s broken them down into 21 blogs of Writing Tips, 10 Word of the Day blogs, and 19 Grammar blogs.

Plus, if you read down into the comments, there are links to some other blogs for writers that might be of interest.

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Posted in Blog, Grammar, words | 1 Comment

Undeserved Authority

Today was one of those days that make me think I should just get into writing full time.

Unqualified people with undeserved authority simply burn my biscuits.

That’s all. Thanks for letting me vent

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Posted in Atlanta, Writing | 2 Comments

A Quandry

Do I want to buy it…

…or take it out on the water?

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Posted in Humor, Photography, words | Comments Off on A Quandry

Takin’ Care Of Business

Today was a “mostly at my desk” day doing paperwork and preparing an agenda and collateral documents for a large conference call this coming Wednesday, so I took advantage of the seat time to listen to music on my iPhone using the stereo Bluetooth headset so no one could hear my tunes.

Everything was fine until, apparently, I got into the music a little too much. Foot tapping, arm waving, air-guitaring and head shaking to Takin’ Care of Business by Bachman Turner Overdrive earned me some funny looks and is NOT a good idea in a big government agency office.

Taking care of business and working overtime
Work out!

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Posted in Atlanta, Humor, iPhone, Music | 2 Comments

Swine Flu Scare Escalates

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Posted in Disney World, Humor | 1 Comment

Artwiculate

Here’s another suggestion my brother sent me that is of particular interest to people who enjoy words and expanding their vocabulary.

Artwiculate is a Twitter-based word of the day competition. To play you just use the word of the day in the proper context in one of your tweets. Other tweeters vote as to how effective your use of the word was in your tweet. You can earn points when people like your use or retweet it. But for wordsmiths, the real fun is in constructing a tweet using the word in the best way possible and in seeing how others use the same word of the day.

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Posted in Twitter, words | Comments Off on Artwiculate

Myriad Musings

Last night or early this morning I had a dream that my mother, who is in an assisted-living facility, was living on her own and had bought an alligator with a bum leg as a pet. She said it was a safe pet because with its bum leg it couldn’t move fast enough to catch anyone.

I have NO idea from which strange recesses of my mind that dream might have originated. It was almost as outlandish as my dream involving Mariah Carey a few nights ago. But not nearly as fun.

I think one of my co-workers was ticked today that I didn’t take her hint that she wanted to go to lunch together so she could talk about office politics, but I really prefer (and in this case, needed) to have some time to myself and NOT have business on my mind. I’m such a social hermit anyway.

Wow, just found out today that a lot of my friends in other departments are being sent home on Saturday.

Thinking about going to the High Museum here in Atlanta to see the Da Vinci Exhibition on Sunday. But since it’s my only day off this week, I may wait and see if we get 2 days off next week. I love just about anything to do with Da Vinci. This exhibit is scheduled to be there through February of next year so as far as I know I have plenty of time.

Today a woman walked into the men’s room of my office building while I was in the stall. I could see her through the opening between the door and the wall and was about to cough as a hint she was in the wrong room. But just before I did she spotted the urinals on the wall and beat a hasty retreat out the door.

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Posted in Art, Atlanta, Humor | 3 Comments

Hit The Road Jack – Albany Georgia Visit

Tuesday morning I had to drive 3 1/2 hours from Atlanta to Albany, Georgia for a visit with an elected official’s staff. I had lunch in Albany and while there used part of my lunch hour to take a photowalk in the city’s beautiful Veteran’s Park and the Ray Charles Plaza. In case you didn’t know, the late Ray Charles was born in Albany, and the city has a unique shrine dedicated to their favorite son. As you can see in the photos below, part of the plaza has a giant-sized piano keyboard.

The walk was a nice break before climbing back into the car for a 3 1/2 hour trip back to Atlanta. By the way, the first part of the title of this post “Hit The Road Jack”, was a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks beginning the week of October 9, 1961, just over 48 years ago. I think my very favorite version of the song is from the 1989 movie “The Dream Team” where Peter Boyle and some of the other patients at a mental health facility sing it during a bus trip to a baseball game. If you don’t crack up when Boyle sings the chorus, I just don’t know what will ever make you laugh.

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Posted in Atlanta, Georgia, Music, Photowalking | 1 Comment

The Difference Between

“It is not always easy to tell the difference between thinking and looking out the window.”

Wallace Stevens 1879-1955

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Posted in Quotes | Comments Off on The Difference Between

Shazam!

No, I’m not referring to the magical word that transforms young Billy Batson into Captain Marvel. Nor am I talking about Gomer Pyle’s favorite word of exclamation.

I’m talking about another app that makes me love my iPhone.

If you’re not familiar with it, Shazam is a “music discovery engine” application that allows you to hold your iPhone or other handheld device where it can hear a song playing and in about 20 seconds it will identify the song, singer, album AND offer you a link to download it if you so choose, and much more.

I’ve had the application on my iPhone for a while, but didn’t try it out until the other night when I was “holding court” in the hotel bar, getting soused with beautiful women hanging on my every word as I told wild, outlandish stories and regaled them with my life of action and intrigue.

Ok, that’s not entirely true.

I WAS in the hotel bar, which is also a restaurant, but I was sitting alone having dinner and reading a magazine. See how exciting my life really is, lol? Around me people in groups or couples were talking, the TV’s were on and on top of all that the bar was playing music over it’s sound system. I was checking Facebook and Twitter when I thought, “Hey, what’s that song they’re playing? Wait! I have an application that is supposed to be able to tell me.” So I opened up Shazam, clicked the “Tag This” button and then held the phone and watched it listen to and record the sound, send the clip to Shazam’s database, and return the name of the song, the artist singing it, the album it was on and links to buy it on iTunes, watch a video of the song on YouTube, tweet the tag, read a biography of the artist, look at the artist’s discography and read the lyrics. Wow!

I did it 5 different times with 5 different songs and it identified 4 of them. I’m pretty sure it was just too noisy in the bar for it to recognize the one it couldn’t identify. But in spite of all the noise and warring sounds, Shazam successfully tagged 4 out of the 5.

Shazam! Your magic word for exclaiming when a song is identified for you.

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Posted in iPhone, Music | 1 Comment

H1N1 Handshake

My employer is holding a series of H1N1 awareness classes and this past Friday morning was my turn to attend with about 30 of my colleagues. We learned to cough into the inside of our elbow and that “the bump” is gaining acceptance as a substitute for shaking hands. The President and First Lady probably had no idea they were exhibiting a precursor to staying healthy and not passing germs and bacteria around when they gave each other that famous show of affection.

Whenever I leave a meeting at a Senator’s or Congressman’s office and I’ve been shaking hands so much it seems like I might be like a politician myself, I always get out the bottle of Purell I keep in my car and liberally douse my hands and wrists before driving away. Maybe now I can convince them that we should just do “the bump.”

Wonder Twin powers activate!

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Posted in Atlanta, Humor, Obama | 1 Comment

Doubletree Dismay

I like the hotel I’m staying at. I stayed here for more than a month earlier this year and never had any problems. But I’ve been slightly ticked at the front desk staff at Doubletree this past week. I had a package arrive on Monday, October 5th. They never called my room to advise me and I didn’t know it was there until Thursday morning when I stopped by after breakfast and asked the desk clerk if I had a package. He then proceeded to interrogate me as to what kind of package, then finally produced it from beneath the counter. He thrust a pickup sheet at me to sign before letting me have the package and when I asked why I hadn’t been called when it arrived on Monday, he just shrugged his shoulders.

Update: I’ve decided that the morning desk clerk is just a sour person. I stopped by the desk after breakfast Friday to ask if he could change a ten dollar bill for a five and five ones so I could leave a tip for the housekeeping staff that services my room. I laid the $10 bill on the counter between us. The way he reacted, You would have thought I asked him to just give me money free and clear instead of change. It seemed that he wanted to draw out the process as long as possible to let me know what an inconvenience it was to him. He counted out the ones three times and then snatched the $10 off the counter before handing me the change, as if he was afraid I would run off with both the change and the $10. I’m pretty sure that one more incident with him will require that I speak to the Front Desk Manager.

I never had this problem when I was here earlier this year and I don’t remember this unfriendly desk clerk being here then. He is definitely not in the right job. His (lack of) personality makes him unsuitable for a job dealing with the public.

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Posted in Atlanta, Hotels | 2 Comments

Georgia Flood Disaster Slide Show

Last Sunday I was out in some of the hardest hit communities that were devastated by the Georgia September 2009 flood with our team of Community Relations specialists. These hardworking folks blanket disaster-affected areas from sunup until sundown with recovery information by going door to door. They took me to a mobile home community that had homes in one section that were completely submerged by the flood waters. Here is a small slide show I created using some of the photos I took from that area. The sights, sounds and even smells are heartrending. News media reports are that 10 people lost their lives by drowning as a result of this flood.

This is my first time using Picnik to create a slideshow, so I hope it works when I post it. If you do not see the photo captions in the top right-hand corner of the screen, roll your mouse over the slideshow photo area and a “Captions” button will appear at the bottom. Left-click that once and the captions should appear. Then roll your mouse off the slideshow area so the menu will disappear.

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Posted in Atlanta, Georgia, Photography, words | Comments Off on Georgia Flood Disaster Slide Show