June 15th, 2009
Well the day has come and gone and so far I have no desire to go out and buy a new tv, subscribe to cable, or obtain a magic box that will make my old TV work. I don’t miss it at all, as a matter of fact I find it comforting that there is no chance that I will have to listen to a comercial that is twice as loud as the show I am watching. I did watch a couple of DVD’s over the weekend, other than that I found better things to do with my time. Including listening to music, reading, and visiting with my house guests this weekend.
I was able to get all of the news I needed from the paper and the internet. I had no real desire to see anything else, If I had wanted to watch the LSU game it was playing in the resteraunt where we had dinner Saturday night but I wasn’t really interested. I wish I had a log of how much of my life I have wasted watching television in the past. I wish I could have all of that time back.
Tags: no TV
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June 8th, 2009
I got back on a fitness track this weekend, I put in 12 miles on the bike both Saturday and Sunday. It’s getting hot again so all that sweating had a clensing effect on my body. More so on Saturday when I had a couple of shots of Quervo from the night before to get out of my system. We will see if I make it out today after work, it should be pretty hot by then, my motivation is to take off the weight I have put on in the last year. Last June I was twenty five pounds lighter.
I cooked this weekend and put leftovers in little plastic containers so that I can bring my lunch to work this week. Of course I left lunch on the coffee table this morning. I wasn’ too far from home so I went back for it. Not only is bringing my lunch a healthier choice it is economical too. Brown bagging lunch, or in my case blue boxing it, can save me a couple of hundred dollars a month.
My flirtation with the delivery of the dead tree edition of the Times Picayune is off to a rocky start. The paper comes really early 5 days a week and not at all the other two. Why they can’t get me a newspaper on Monday’s and Tuesdays is beyond me. They have until the end of the month to get it right. No wonder print is dead.
In the news the mayor has been qurantined in China, I guess that really puts the brakes on the recovery efforts at home. How are we going to get along without him. If we are lucky they will keep him qurantined until the end of his term. We can only hope.
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June 4th, 2009
I am sticking to my guns, after next week my TV will only be able to play DVD’s I am going to let it go to snow. We will see if I can hold out. When I moved last year I did not have cable hooked up, I figured I had spent enought time watching men catch crabs in the Bering sea. I went from total couch potato to semi couch potato. What I watch these days is usually limited to some sporting events, and news. If I really want to watch sports there are enough bars in this town that I can surely find a place to watch a Saints game. I do have a high speed internet connection and I have subscribed to the dead tree version of the Times Picayune. There is just something special about reading a real newpaper. I love the sound of the turning pages as you wonder what wonderful information is on the next page. Plus you don’t have to see those awful comments made by people who act like they are number one and there is only one number. I have a large collection of movies and a Blockbuster two blocks away if I really want to watch something or use it as a night light I still can. Wish me luck I am fighting all of my life’s addictions, first cigarettes, now TV, what’s next coffee. I don’t know about giving up cofee that would be tough. I only drink 2 or three cups a day, but if I don’t get that first one my head just aint right.
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June 3rd, 2009
For the last week or so I have been feeling really bad, bad as in ill. Can’t keep food down, can’t sleep. I am sure this is going to be a lifestyle issue, I have not been taking very good care of myself lately as far as diet and exercise. I did get a good nights sleep last night and feel decent today.
Last week my laptop died and I was very pleased with what it was replaced with. It only struck me later that the only thing I had backed up was my itunes folder. Of course everything I need for work was backed up but I may have lost a bunch of photographs. It is really stupid on my part I am in the Tech biz, I back up my work related data but when it comes to my personal stuff I blow it off. Over the years I have lost quite a few blog posts due to the fact that I did not back them up. I guess I won’t be able to smirk the next time someone says I lost everything on my hard drive. I may be able to recover some of the data. I am going to pick up an external drive interface and see if I can read anything on the drive.
It’s hurricane season and there does not seem to be as much anxiety this year. Predicted number of storms is dropping already. Of course the reality is that means nothing. You know what they say it only takes one. I read an article online the other day about the problems that Galveston is having recovering from last years butt kicking. I can really feel for them, it made me realize that storms that destroy most of your community are not quickly recovered from. While we may get all the press, most of it bad, it made me feel as if we are not alone. This kind of thing can happen to anyone anywhere.
On the crime front lets give a big cheer. We’re number one, in murders that is. City officials argue that the FBI doesn’t have our population right and that skews the numbers. Even if you use the cities numbers our murder rate is way too high. City officials need to stop trying to put lipstick on a pig and instead try to come up with some inovative ways to make a significant dent in the numbers. I don’t have much hope that that will happen, after all this is the Nagin Administration. I would put up a pic of the day but I don’t have one, 
I do have a few shots in the camera to download, maybe this will motivate me to get out and take more photos.
Tags: asides
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May 28th, 2009
My Lenovo laptop crapped out on me last night, I hated that computer I have had problems with it since the day I got it 4 years ago. It’s been replaced with a Dell XPS, nice machine. I’m happy. Work gave me a Blackberry, it’s almost hurricane season and the need to keep in touch could arise. I have to get used to the Blackberry it is a Storm which is a touch screen device and I don’t seem to have the touch yet.
Life is moving on, work is keeping me quite busy right now. For the most part I go to work, come home, go to bed and start the process over the following day. I am a creature of habit so I like the routine for now. Still not smoking but I am not getting enogh exercise, for some reason I can’t get motivated.
Local politics, crime etc., etc. etc. are the same as they always are not much new to write about. Local government is a three ring circus.
I drive to work using Lasalle Street to get to the CBD. The new housing at the former C.J. Peete site is going up fast. THere are a couple of structures that have gone up and every day it looks like anther one is up. I hope it works and doesn’t turn into the ghetto conditions of the former housing complex.
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May 23rd, 2009
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May 23rd, 2009
I wasn’t surprised by the indictment of Renee Gill Pratt. The thing that does surprise me is the scope of this criminal enterprise and the length of time that it has been going on. Why is there not more oversight on how tax payer’s money is spent. The sad thing is this type of thievery could well have an impact on whether groups that need these types of funds and are doing the right thing will get them in the future. I would like to see the ball rolling on these cases, get them to court and get some convictions. This is like some kind of political mafia, it’s time to put a stop to it.
Tags: Bill Jefferson, corruption, Mose Jefferson, Renee Gill Pratt
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May 21st, 2009
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May 21st, 2009
No cigarettes in three months, I have stopped again. Hopefully this will be the last time I have to stop smoking. It gets harder every time and each time I stop it takes longer for my lungs to recover. I got on the elevator at work the other day and I was standing next to a person who had just smoked a ciagarette and asked myself. Did I smell like that?
Tags: No Smoking
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May 21st, 2009
Nagin’s final State of the City speech did not give me a warm fuzzy feeling about where the city is heading. While we continue to slowly but surely climb out of the ruins, the mayor again talks pie in the sky instead of focusing on the basics. I found his take on crime to be the typical spin comparing the crime rate to 1994. If you look at more recent years you will see that we haven’t made a lot of progress on the muder front.
From T.P. / NOLACOM
Despite those killings, the mayor asserted that the number of violent crimes in New Orleans has nose-dived since it hit a high-water mark of 12,000 in 1994. By last year, he said, the tally had dropped to 3,000 violent incidents.
But while the year Nagin cited indeed was a bloody one — the city saw a record-high 425 murders — the tally of killings and other violent crimes in New Orleans dropped throughout the late 1990s, with only 168 murders in 1999. That compares with 179 slayings last year.
In fact, the resurgence of murders since Katrina in tandem with the city’s reduced population once again has set New Orleans atop of the list of murders per capita compared to other cities, as in 1994.
Is the Chevron building the right place to move city hall, I would have to have more facts before I could say that. One thing I do know is that with the shadow of shady dealings hanging over his administration I certainly don’t want Nagin to have anything to do with the dealmaking process.
When it comes to race relations he has done as much as anyone to divide the city.
The mayor has talked the talk before but rarely been able to deliver. I have a feeling we are going to muddle along at the same pace until he leaves office which can’t be soon enough for me.
Tags: Nagin
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