Al B. Hard does it Pony Style

In a previous post I discussed my dismay at the fact that some unused fencing had gone missing from my driveway. I would just like to clarify, for history’s sake, that the pieces were not apparently “stolen,” as I had assumed. Instead, my neighbor (an older gentleman, of whom I think no ill) decided that he should do the job of getting rid of them for me.

As best I could gather from our rather hurried conversation on my front porch (during a dinner party, no less), he was concerned that I had been waiting for him to do something with these pieces of fencing, possibly because of conversations held between him and my realtor. This was his primary motivation for removing them and taking to them to the dump. Perhaps secondary to this was his belief that the items represented an obvious target for theft. I’m only guessing here, really.

At any rate, the mystery is largely solved, and with it part of my faith in the inherent decency of neighborhoodkind has been restored. I thought the internet should know.

This afternoon Rolf came over to watch me change the oil in Lucille. It was exactly the same as changing the oil in other cars, only much easier, since I have a huge engine compartment compared to the size of my actual engine. That, and the filter is right there on top; nice and easy to reach.

The process would have been completely uneventful except for the fact that I seemed to have a real knack for spilling used motor oil on the ground, myself, and anything else that I came into contact with. Making prodigious use of a roll of paper towels, I managed to get most of it cleaned up, but there are still two rather unsightly spots left on the asphalt “driveway.” I will figure out some clever way to get rid of them soon, no doubt. Maybe I’ll just get rid of the whole driveway! Yeah! Cellular paving here I come… someday.

After the oil change excitement, Lucille and I went over to Steve and Missy’s place for a delicious chili cook-off. There were four five different kinds of chili (mostly pictured), all but one of which was vegan — all were amazing and amazingly varied. I probably ate too much. The Sweetwater 420 keg from the Cattington Acres housewarming party was there, and I arguably drank too much of that — but I just had to help finish, didn’t I?

I arrived at home to find everything mostly in order, but I noticed something strange when entering the driveway…. The dislodged wooden fence pieces had gone missing!

I know this must have happened before today, since I realize in retrospect that they were not there while I was doing the oil changing, but I’m not sure exactly when they were scooped up. I do know, however, that I didn’t really want them anyway, and I suppose that whoever got them — while still an insufferable bastard for having the nerve to steal something — will find them more useful than I had thus far.

The general concept of that occurrence does give me pause somewhat, as it is further evidence of the popular notion that anything not nailed down easily removed will be in this ‘hood. It is rather disappointing, really, but at this point an unchanging fact. Perhaps someday we’ll even have a neighborhood assocation that can organize some sort of collective dealing with this problem. Ahh, dreams.

UPDATE: The case of the missing fencing was resolved a few days later, and theft was not at issue.

Tonight I obtained a beautiful piece of machinery: a dark blue 1982 Mercedes-Benz 300SD (pictured). It is, for its age and use, very attractive. I plan to continue to baby it in every way possible.

Those of you who are familiar with the now-cancelled best-TV-show-ever Arrested Development should notice a resemblance to the car that was driven in the show by Lucille Bluth. While I could not find a picture of the car itself, I can provide a picture of Lucille, for whom my car is named.

I look forward to many hours reading the ShopForum and tinkering all around with her. Hooray!

Yesterday I went over to the new house to begin work installing various kitchen items (more about that later). As any sane person in the Atlanta summer would do, I first turned on the air conditioner. After a few minutes, I noticed that it was not blowing cold air, and began to investigate.

Soon enough I found that one of the basement doors was unlocked, which was unusual. After opening the door, I quickly figured out what had occurred: someone had stolen the guts of my A/C condenser! Not only that, but they broke into the house just so they could cut off six more feet of the copper line running to it!

It didn’t take long to figure out that they had also taken the condenser from the neighboring house too, the bastards. I filed a police report just so they would know what’s going down. According to the officer, I’m lucky that they didn’t get more copper-greedy and start ripping things out of the walls. It’s rather amazing what desperate people will do.

So, now I’m in the market for a new condenser and a reliable installer for it. Any suggestions?

I’ve been irked for a while over the fact that lots of the images I upload to Flickr look washed out in comparison to what I see on my computer. At first I thought this was due to gamma issues and was assuming that maybe my browser didn’t recognize settings or something like that.

I finally researched it this morning, and it turns out that it’s actually Flickr’s fault. In order to save storage space (we assume), they strip color profile data from (at least) all resized images. So while the originals might look as you expected, everyone who’s just looking at the resized versions is being misled.

A workaround has been discovered by smart people well before now, however — convert your images to the sRGB colorspace before uploading. Actually, using Adobe Bridge’s workflow options make this quite easy to do in the same step that I’m already doing to convert from Canon RAW to JPEG.

Unfortunately, this convenient workaround is only useful when uploading new images to Flickr. As for the hundreds of shots I’ve already posted, the only way I can imagine to fix them is to manually re-upload and delete the existing ones. That seems like a huge pain. Maybe I can write an application using the Flickr API that will do this for me… but it seems unlikely to happen.

One highlight of last weekend was the collaborative yard sale that was held at Topher and David’s place. They had the entire front yard covered in everything from clothes to computers, and as things were sold a tally was kept of whose it was and how much it went for. But that was just the traditional part….

The fun began when they made a big batch of Pink Panty Pulldowns, a classic drink that I learned about years ago in a party far, far away. They were deceivingly alcoholic and delightfully pink, as usual. Of course, when drinking, it helps to have some unhealthy good-old-American hot dogs to grill, so you know that was in effect as well.

For most of the day Topher’s big ass stereo speakers were providing a pleasant musical accompaniment to the situation, and then it struck me: clearly, with the ready availability of turntables and records, we should be deejaying this operation. So we did. That made the fun move at twice the speed.

Experiencing all the buzz that came from such a thing made it obvious to me that a similar event needs to be happening in Atlanta very soon. We can hold it on the grassy lot in front of the Sampson Street lofts (or somewhere else, if there is sufficient space). We can have a barbecue and music and it will be all manner of fun. And maybe I can finally pawn off some of those records before I move!

Who’s with me?

Saturday night at the 40 Watt was pretty cool. DJ Epic opened things up to a crowd composed mostly of other DJs (me, Joe, Roux, Mahogany) and he tore things right down. Definitely a skilled worker, that one. Going to try to get a gig in the ATL worked out so he can visit.

Topher was next up to rock the spot, and he did, with aplomb. Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t have much net growth during this time, so the proper dancations could not seem to get off the ground. Our best guess about the lack of crowd was something about people resting up for next weekend, which is Athfest. That seems like a crock, though, because who the heck needs to rest for an entire week in advance of something that you’re staying in town for in the first place?

Mahogany definitely put down some exciting jams. Lots of disco-flavored soul and the dance moves to match. The crowd finally started dancing at this point, and after a wedding party arrived and doubled the numbers, things got pretty darn fun. It was definitely a sweaty good time.

Stay tuned for details of the potential upcoming ATL Deejay extravaganza.

I don’t know what you’re thinking of doing this Saturday night, but cancel it. Come with me to Athens for an evening of dancetastic soultacular groovin’ and shakin’ with my main man Topher and friends. From the Flagpole:

DJ EPIC, DJ ROUX & DJ MAHOGANY

(40 Watt) Tonight’s multi-tiered dance party offers a variety of sounds. Athens newcomer DJ Epic mixes anything and everything, from pop to soul to hip hop to country, smoothly blending beats. DJ Roux focuses on hip hop, dance and classic rock, and DJ Mahogany delivers his well-known mix of classic soul and funk and will work some “sweetly nasty” classic hip hop into his set. “All three of us will be spinning mostly vinyl all night long,” says DJ Mahogany. “There is a slight possibility that towards the end of my set that I will invite the other two deejays back out and we’re going to beat match vinyl literally off the cusp.”

Depending on the scene, I might even get up there and throw it down. Or perhaps I’ll play a behind-the-scenes Afrika-Bambaataa-style selector role. ZULU!

This has been a big week for ol’ Al and his economy. It all started last Saturday when I showed my Acura to two different interested parties. The first left and promised to call back later. The second, somewhat to my surprise, offered me my asking price on the spot with no haggling. Obviously I accepted.

These developments have had me pleased as punch throughout the week. Today I actually finalized the sale of the car, money-in-bank style. This will come in handy tomorrow, when I close on my new house. I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more about that soon.

I got a call from the car’s new owner a few minutes after sitting down to lunch. He had let his redneck friend drive it back from our meeting to Conyers, and the dude was apparently not very smart. He drove it in Tiptronic-transmission mode and didn’t realize he had to shift. So there was lots of red-lining and the car generally got angry at him. But I think it’ll be OK. Not my problem either way, suckaz.

Today is opening day for Al Gore’s new film "An Inconvenient Truth" in Atlanta, at the Tara. I have a ticket for the 10 o’clock show, as do some other cool people I know. It should be fun. You should get a ticket too!

In related news, the film has been grossing more per-screen than any film in the country for the past two weeks, averaging $17,615 at only 77 locations last week. By comparison, the top grossing film, "The Break Up," averaged $12,760 per screen at 3070 locations.

I’ve also been reading the book version, which is like a coffee table book on science. I look at the pretty pictures and graphs that spell doom for humanity and am inspired. Try it!

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