As promised, I'm starting up my intown social events again. You can RSVP on meetup. The schedule so far:

July 10th - Transit Thirsty Thursday
July 19th - MARTA Pub Crawl XV
July 24th - Transit Thirsty Thursday
August 14th - Transit Thirsty Thursday (Portland)
August 16th - SkyTrain Pub Crawl (Vancouver)
September 12th - Capture the Flag, Part Deux

Transit Thirsty Thursday events will be near MARTA stations but you don't have to take the train/bus to get there. It's just an option for those who wish to make use of it. Like the happy hours I organized last year and earlier this year, the purpose is to get the weekend started early and for intown folks to have a fun way to meet new people.

I think I will make the Transit Thirsty Thursdays every other week at first and switch to every week if there are enough attendees.

Obviously the August 14th Transit Thirsty Thursday and August 16th SkyTrain Pub Crawl will only be useful to you if you're going to be in one of those cities on the proper date.

RSVP and events list link: http://nightlife.meetup.com/755/

Somedays you should just stay home.



I would say walk instead but as you can see, these cars (mostly SUVs) could quite easily end up killing everyone on the sidewalk.

From the trivia sections of three movies on imdb:

Broken Flowers
Jim Jarmusch said he wrote the role exclusively for Bill Murray, of whom he is a big fan. He previously planned another film to work with him, but then changed his mind.

Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola wrote the lead role specifically for Bill Murray, and later said that if Murray turned it down, she wouldn't have done the movie.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Steve Zissou was written with Bill Murray in mind and according to Wes Anderson, it "could have been no one else."

A city I'm visiting in August has had a total of six severed feet wash up on the shoreline since August. Compare that to the rest of the world combined since 2004 only washing up eight severed feet on coastlines. So, it begs the question, where do I buy armored socks? Five of them have been the right foot and one of them a left foot but really, I'd like to keep both of mine intact.

It's a strange world we live in...

Today's national average gas price: $4.032
Metro Atlanta's average gas price: $4.008

The video above is from February 28th

This time last year you couldn't turn on the tv without seeing a commercial staring a bunch of bubbas proudly exclaiming "It's got a Hemi!" Now... well, when was the last time you even heard someone say "Hemi"?

During the late 70s and early to mid 80s, poor neighborhoods were filled with huge gas guzzling cars that the middle class had traded in for next to nothing so they could get a fuel efficient compact car. It makes you wonder if soon the poor neighborhoods will be filled with Hummers and Explorers because the upfront cost of buying one will be so low. The big different this time appears to be that the large vehicles won't be moving out of the suburbs since they're increasingly becoming the new home of the lower income people who are gentrified out of the cities.

If there is a positive in all of this, many of the newly low cost SUVs make much better places to sleep for those who lose their housing than the Buicks and Oldsmobiles of the 70s.

Drinking + Wii Sports = FUN!
Drinking + Wii Fit = DANGER!

Life: it's where you are

Isn't this how most boy meets girl type of stories end, though sometimes with a reversal of pronoun genders? Heck, probably how most boy meets boy and girl meets girl* stories end too. Luckily not all do and like things being in the last place you looked because why would you continue looking after you found what you were looking for, similarly those relationship stories that don't end get out number by those that do.



Music creators like Delerium and Massive Attack** are interesting in that they don't have anyone who is the regular singer but rather they are constantly bringing in unique voices to fit the particular piece of music. Given how much focus is usually placed on the singer of any band, this is quite a departure from the norm but works to great effect.

* Somewhat related: can we all just agree that 'they' and 'their' are acceptable gender neutral singular pronouns? They've been used in that form since at least the 15th Century and even Shakespeare/de Vere used them. Hopefully the modern era's insistence on most singular pronouns being gender specific while plural are gender neutral will end soon. If anything good comes out of political correctness, perhaps this will be it.

** Faithless also falls somewhat into this category though they do have regular vocalists but feature guest vocals quite frequently... certainly more than is common

The lyrics to the song with guitar accompaniment about half way through tonight's show are the words from the theme music that you hear at the start of each show. I've never heard the guitar version before tonight but the original is called Teardrop and is from Massive Attack. The singer is Elizabeth Fraser, best known from the 80s alternative rock band Cocteau Twins... well, she's the singer on the original version, I don't know who sang the guitar version heard tonight.

The movie "Sweet Home Alabama" is on. The namesake song came on during a scene and it made me realize that I heard the song much more when I lived in California. Not sure what to make of that except perhaps it is a sign that even small things like a song about a different part of the country can seem exotic, even to those who would otherwise look down on that region.

No doubt "Wish They All Could Be California Girls" and "California Dreaming" get more play outside of California than in it.

There has been one unexpected side effect of the weight I've lost... my shoe size has changed. It makes sense that some of the fat I've lost, even if only a small amount, was from my feet. There are several pairs of shoes that use to fit fine that now are a bit loose. The size ten shoes I usually buy were always a bit roomy in the toe area but fit well otherwise. Now I have to wear 9 1/2 shoes, which fit better in the toes than ten use to so overall, things are better.

It's just funny... I never gave much thought to foot fat but the body does store fat all over, just more in some places than others.

For the two or three people on my friends list who aren't a member of the Atlanta or War Eagle communities and thus didn't see my postings there:



Funny thing is that when I searched for "free hugs Vancouver" there was a huge number of results. It's also interesting to see the differences in hug styles in the different cities. In Auburn, there were many that involved running into the person giving the hugs, picking him up, slapping the back or otherwise using strong motions. Not that they were violent or anything. In Atlanta, people seemed a bit unsure or awkward but happy about the situation.

Part of me thinks if I tried walking around town with a "Free Hugs" sign, that someone would suspect me of being a child molester and call the cops. Heck, FAB called the cops on us back in September for playing Capture the Flag on the sidewalk. But then again... this is a corporate town. Free fun isn't smiled upon unless it is sponsored by half a dozen brands.

I feel left out. Everyone is talking about what they're going to spend their $600 tax rebate/refund/bribe/whatever on. Because I earned too much money last year, I don't get a government check. Yes, I know, nice problem to have.

Given my favorable position and given that I think the whole economic stimulus concept is flawed (and a pathetic attempt at a political bribe), I've decided to put up to $600 in to Kiva.

Kiva is an organization that provides micro-loans to people in developing countries. One loan might be to help a farmer in Ghana to buy more chickens to produce more eggs to sell at the local market while another loan might be to help a small business in Peru to buy a new piece of machinery so they can double their production. The beauty of the system is that through Kiva you can give small amounts to many different people. You don't have to cover the full amount of the requested loan, as matter of fact, in most cases, there are a dozen or more Kiva members who put money towards the micro-loan.

These are loans, not gifts. The recipients are expected to pay them back. When they do, the money comes back to you but the impact of your loan remains. There is a small element of risk. Around 4% of the loan amounts are not paid back. Also you don't earn interest on the loans but you can consider both of those small losses as a donation. Given the amount of impact you can have with the loans, the expected amount of loss through defaults and inflation is next to nothing. Also you can lower your risk by only picking low risk loans. There is lots of information on the site about past performance of different loan types and field partners. For five star rated partners, the default/underpayment rate is actually negative!

So here's the deal. Most everyone is about to receive $600. If you are willing to put some of that money in Kiva, I will put an equal amount into my Kiva account and loan it out. You don't have to put in the whole $600... that just the overall amount I'm willing to match for the funds friends put into loans. You can make loans for amounts as small as $25... and remember, chances are good that at the end of the loan, you'll get your money back.

If you decide to participate, go to Kiva and set up an account. Put some money in the account and find some people on the site that you want to loan money to. Send me a link to your lender page (you can view my lender page here) and tell me how much you added to your account and I will add an equal amount to my account and make loans with it. This is all on the honor system (really, who would lie about this sort of thing?) and the lender page doesn't show loan amounts so be sure to tell me the amount you added.

Fine print: If you already are a Kiva member, cool! I'm trying to get more people involved so I'm not going to match money for those who are already doing good. Also $600 is the total amount I'm matching, not $600 per person. Should the number of people who put in money create a total loan pool significantly larger than $600, I'm likely to be moved by the awesomeness of my friends and add more matching loan money... I just can't say that I'll match up to any total amount or I might end up being the one who needs the loans!

( Video from Frontline about Kiva )

"I've got hundreds more cow bells in the car"

Click the logo to start the game

The irony is that when Rush plays here in July, it will be in Alpharetta.