AKA: A Day In The Life Of…
It was 4 years ago today I first landed in Atlanta, at that point I had no idea how long I’d be staying, might have been a week, maybe a month… In the end it was 3 months, and after a month back in Scotland tying up loose ends, I went back for, what appears to be, good. Of course, if you met me you’d never know I’ve only been here 1431 days, my accent has all but been eradicated except for when I talk to my family on the phone (much to Robyn’s chagrin) and that for 2½ years I was one of the countries public emeries, an illegal alien… I joke that I floated in to Miami on a basketball but yeah, I’ve only been an official resident since June 2006…
Anyways, for some reason that sounded good way back when, I decided that on January 24th, to mark this auspicious date in my life, I’d document that day in my life, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s boring, sometimes it’s indifferent, funny fact, this would be the first “day in the life” I’ve done that I’ve actually worked…
I haven’t been to many basketball games in my time, 2 Hawks games, 4 Bobcats games and now I can add a UNC Tar Heels game to that list.
As I said earlier, I surprisingly won a nice weekend package as part of a competition a client of my work ran, 2 nights hotel, tickets to the North Carolina Tar Heels vs. North Carolina State Wolfpack game last Saturday, a hospitality brunch and a signed UNC jersey. Pretty sweet I thought, so off to Chapel Hill we headed on Friday night, we made pretty good time and arrived around 9pm to check in.
The next morning we went to downtown Chapel Hill to The Carolina Inn for a big, all you can eat brunch before heading to the game. Now I’ve seen college basketball on TV before, I’ve followed the last 3 or so March Madness’ pretty religiously (failing each time) but I had no idea what to expect. What I got was 2 hours of noise the likes I’ve not heard since the days of going to Ibrox to see Rangers play
I think it was a combination of the band in one corner, the very boisterous student section on the other side and us being so far back that noise reverberated off the roof, but my ears were ringing for hours afterwards. Yeah, also, for tickets that was part of a competition, you don’t expect to be in the 3rd row closest to god… But it was all good.
The game it’s self was a blowout in favour of UNC, NC State barely led for the first few minutes before UNC just burned them with defensive rebounds and lights out shooting, proving why they are ranked number 1 in the country. Enjoyable, well as enjoyable as a blowout could be.
While we had no affiliations to the game (Go Dawgs!) we enjoyed the people watching, and the near choreographed routines that everyone, except for us, knew… People watching at it’s best.
I would say you should go see a UNC game if you can, but apparently it’s a loooong wait for tickets, so nevermind.
We spent the rest of the weekend in Chapel Hill, Robyn compares it to Athens, GA. in terms of look and general vibe, you can take that how ever you want. It’s a college town with lots of bars and restaurants, and not a lot of parking. Hopefully this weekend we don’t have to head back to the Chapel Hill area, 3 out of 4 weekends was more than enough…
Tar Heels vs. Wolfpack – January 12th 2007 (set)
Originally uploaded by FLC.
After much anticipation (and precipitation) we got some snow last night, by this morning it had turned to freezing rain and slush. Still, I’ve seen more snow in my one year in Charlotte than I ever did in 3 in Atlanta…
Originally uploaded by FLC.
I’ve already blogged from my sofa using the Wii before, so now I try the “laying in bed with my iPhone” trick.
It’s been one of those days where nothing seems to go your way, and it all started with the weekly team meeting at work when the subject of social media advertising came up. More specifically Facebook, and it suddenly dawned on me that those higher up in the company have Facebook profiles and are also in the Charlotte network so, in theory, they could be tracking my spells of work avoidance throughout the day… Probably not the best thing in the world, plus they could just as easily go to gregorsmith.com (cryptic, huh?) and monitor my feeds there. Technically I don’t do much, a status update here, a game of Scrabulous there, but it was still an uneasy feeling.
And it added a footnote to my Facebook theory, that it is only populated by ex-girlfiends and people you didn’t like in school, add co-workers to that list.
Even the Macworld keynote speech and the update to the iPhone didn’t exactly blow me away today. Sure its added a semi-cool faux GPS like app to Google maps, it still seems underwhelming at times. Just like the whole keynote speech in fact, on the plus side it makes it easy not to covet new toys, my one true vice…
I won’t even go into my issues with Dreamhost and Handbrake which are not related but why are all my hang-ups tech related? This can’t be normal. Silly little things compounding my mood.
Oh well, at least our weekend getaway to Chapel Hill was fun, but that’s another story…
Hmm, this is surprisingly easy, you just need to memorise any links you might use…
AKA: Days and Days Late, So Many Dollars Short
First up, the pitiful excuse, my mother was in town from December 21st through January 8th, so I tried (tried) to not be anti-social and spend countless hours on the computer doing whatever it is I do to waste time, but that said we didn’t really do much…
As I said, she arrived the Friday before Christmas… In Raleigh… One thing we’ve found out, Charlotte’s airport is close and nice and all that, but no-one flies to or from it bar US Airways, and well, they don’t go many places that helps us. Say what you want about Hartsfield in Atlanta, at least you could go places from there. So yeah, we shuttled up to Marchellina’s outside Chapel Hill to pick her up and to make matters worse, her flight leaving London was delayed… So the next day after breakfast we played Santa to Marchellina’s kids a few days early before heading back to Huntersville.
We had Christmas Dinner at Jill and Ryan’s on Christmas Eve (as Robyn’s parent’s were leaving Christmas Night to head back to Georgia). The following day we opened our presents to each other (we really didn’t get much as we splurged on iPhones barely two months beforehand) before heading back to Jill and Ryan’s to open the rest.
That was pretty much that, uneventful. We were working pretty much every other day, so it was nice to get a day off. Over the weekend John, Marchellina and the kids came down to spend a day in the village which also meant we could get the family picture we missed the weekend before.
The following week was a bit more exciting as first we attended the Charlotte Bobcats exciting overtime win over the Indiana Pacers. Like I said, it was an exciting match, and we had sweet seats courtesy of Lowe’s which made for some cool photo oportunites. As that was on New Years Eve we stayed at home and set off some fireworks, much to neighbourhood kids delight. This started a minor forest fire (seriously) which was quickly doused.
2008 started off with some house hunting in South Charlotte, as our lease is almost up here, we’re looking at our options before deciding if we want to re-up for another year. So we looked at an area called Ayrsley, which was nice, but too far for Robyn to commute to Mooresville. Later we found a new development in nearby Cornelius called Antiquity, and by new I mean it currently has about 30 houses and a whole lotta dirt. This was a much better option, right now it’s the option we’re most likey going to take, but we have to wait for our floorplan to be built, which might take a little longer than we’d really want, so do we wait or keep looking?
The following weekend we drove back to Chapel Hill to drop my mum off at Marchellina’s so she could fly back home early the following week, we thought this would be the last time we’d do that trip for a while but alas no… On Monday I got a call saying I had won tickets from a client for the big UNC/NC State basketball game the following weekend, so that 3 trips to Chapel Hill in 4 weeks for those counting at home. It should be fun, college basketball generally has a better atmosphere than NBA games so I’m really looking forward to it… Look for an update on that sometime in the next year.
Christmas 2007 (set)
Bobcats vs. Pacers – December 31st 2007Originally uploaded by FLC.
Looks like Yahoo have released a fancy new media player to integrate with blogs, forums and what have you, so I’m giving it a test run with a Bruce Springsteen playlist, I’m in a Boss kind of mood today, as my Last FM profile shows.
Thunder Road
Born To Run
Jungleland
The River
Hungry Heart
Land Of Hope And Dreams (Live)
From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)
The Big Payback
County Fair
Enjoy…
Yes, like Seth and Maigh, it’s one of those kind of posts, but mine is one of hope… It’s not that I have nothing to say, I just don’t got the time to write it down. I’ve got pre and post-Christmas roundups, an exciting Bobcats game, multiple trips to Chapel Hill, house hunting, UNC tickets competition winning and bowl game opinions amongst others on my mind…
One day soon your RSS reader will explode, then where will you be?
This was taken on July 21st 2006, at one of those APWBWGTTD nights out at Manuel’s, if I remember, this was the one that started out at Rocky Mountain Pizza but they always invariably end up at Manuel’s.
Anyhoo, who would have guessed that just over 18 months later Brian would propose to Lori. Truly awesome news, even if Lori wasn’t part of Team Awesome.
Congratulations guys, we wish you all the best in the future.
Originally uploaded by FLC.
Duane is doing a month long posting extravaganza, Lori has denounced them, I’m feeling apathetic as this year has been, as the kids say, absolutely bollocks for record buying and movie watching, I’ve really done neither. This was the year I topped up my classic collection by downloading stuff like The Beatles Anthology, the first 6 Bob Dylan albums, the best of The Eagles, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Ani DiFranco, Goo Goo Dolls, John Lennon and Carly Simon (?) And yes, I even downloaded the Spice Girls Greatest Hits, sue me!
So the pickings are slim this year, so slim that my top 2 favourite CD’s of 2007 weren’t even CD’s at all…
Favourite CD’s of 2007
1. U2 – PopMart 1997: Live From Mexico City
Yep, this was in fact a DVD audio rip. And as bad a reputation Pop had (personally I loved it), PopMart was, and still is, the best live experience a person could possibly have without the aid of hallucinogenic drugs. Sure it started off bad, but by the time I saw them at Murryfield in Edinburgh during the European leg, they were in full swing and it was downright awesome, and this is a rare U2 live DVD in that it’s a complete concert, start to finish. It kicks off with Mofo, and the full on sonic assault doesn’t let up till the very end of Wake Up Dead Man, of course it helps if you’ve seen the DVD or been to one of the concerts as you can visualise the visuals, there were lots and lots of eye candy, seriously, YouTube some videos for the greatness.
2. Radiohead – In Rainbows
The “CD” that would change the recording industry? OK, maybe not, and maybe people were clamouring for something “more”, something more like OK Computer. Overall it was a pretty polarising album, either you loved it or you hated it. I loved it, sure it was no OK Computer, nor was it another The Bends, but it stands up on it’s own., it was a real grower, and in a few years time I’m sure people will appreciate this, just give it time. My personal favourite track is Bodysnatchers which sounds like it could have been lifted from the Kid A/Amnesiac sessions, go figure.
3. Martina McBride – Waking Up Laughing
Seriously, Martina McBride has a great voice and here she does nothing wrong. This is just a wonderful album from start to finish, the stand out tracks are of course the singles, Anyway and How I Feel, but I personally like Beautiful Again, which is actually a catchy, almost jangly song about child abuse and teenage pregnancies, quite a strange mix but also uplifting at the same time. This marks the first album that she has co-written songs and produced an album solo and in the end it’s solid menu of quality songs by one of country’s best singers.
4. White Stripes – Icky Thump
Even though they’re dressed up like Pearly Kings and Queens, they still have some of the mariachi tinge from the last album left over. I like this album even though there’s no Seven Nation Army here, definitely no Blue Orchid, and certainly nothing as catchy as We Are Going to Be Friends. I’m guessing that’s actually a good thing, it shows there are not resting on their laurels in the break since Get Behind Me Satan. Instead it has the flashy Little Cream Soda, the corny Rag and Bone, the swaggering I’m Slowly Turning Into You and the Southern-fried 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues and that, my friends, is what makes this a good album.
5. Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
This is the album In Your Honor should have been, while it falls short of the downright rocking genius of The Colour And The Shape, it’s a better effort then the last few (if you count Skin And Bones). Maybe it’s my blind faith in the Foo Fighters that keeps this as high as it is, but I genuinely think this is a pretty good album, it’s got a nice flow of fast/loud and slow songs that roll along nicely, I can sit down with this and play and rewind all day long, so it has palyability value, and to be honest, not a lof of this years albums can say that, even in my bubbling under category, I’ve only listened to Modest Mouse like once, it just got in there by default.
Bubbling Under: Saul Williams – The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, The Wreckers – Way Back Home – Live From New York City, Interpol – Our Love To Admire, Rilo Kiley – Under The Blacklight, Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Favourite Movies of 2007
Again, didn’t see much this year, so it’s a list by default rather than merit…
1. Hot Fuzz
What do you get when you add EVERY American cop action movie and place it in a sleepy English country village? It’s The Bill on steroids… And it’s awesome, seriously, seriously awesome.
Simon Pegg is in great form as a cop from London planted into an otherwise quiet village where people mysteriously go missing and murders are brushed under the carpet, all is not as it seems and when he busts the cover open it’s all guns blazing in a showdown of epic proportions…
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Again that was probably because I didn’t know what was about to happen, I mean I know what’s going to happen but I enjoyed sitting there taking in every twist and turn shown on screen and not nitpicking what was left out. Anyways, Year 5 for Harry is his toughest yet, discredited by the Ministry of Magic following his encounter with Lord Voldermort at the end of the Goblet of Fire, now the dark lord is out to get him. To make matters worse, the Ministry is taking over at Hogwarts leaving Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest of the children to fend for themselves in order to prepare for the upcoming battle…
3. Sicko
As I said, this is your typical Michael Moore documentary, highly controversial and padding over some elements… But hey, I come from the UK where healthcare is free (though there are private healthcare options) and knowing some of the medical bills I’ve racked up over the last 2 years I can kind of see his point. Put it this way, even though we’re on a nice Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO, if I ever need any kind of major-ish surgery, I’ll be on a plane to the UK quicker than you would believe.
[..]
Anyways, back onto topic after that little aside, this is a very good movie. Everyone should watch it, even if you don’t agree with anything he’s saying and you may think Moore is a bit of a dick, but I’d much rather have a dick standing up, getting things like this noticed than no one at all.
4. Rocky Balboa
Rocky Balboa picks up years after the conclusion of Rocky V, Adrian is dead, Rocky runs a restaurant and his son has grown up and moved on to a life in big business, Paulie is still hanging around but, really, the years haven’t been good on anyone. So up pops an ESPN show about who would win in a make believe fight between Rocky in his prime and the current heavyweight champion, Mason “The Line” Dixon, a computer simulation says Rocky would win by knock out which piques his interest in local, small-time fighting again while also riling up the champ… The only logical way to find out is in the squared circle. So Rocky comes out of retirement with his usual, highly uplifting training regime and steps through the ropes for one last fight.
Now I won’t spoil the end, but if you’ve seen any Rocky film then you’re more than likely to know what’s going to happen. It’s just one of those feel good movies where you know the underdog is going to come good in the end… Very much recommended.
That’s it, I would put in either Transformers or Ratatouille here, but I never got round to actually reviewing them, kinda lame on my part granted, both were very good though, Transformers would have been at position 3, Ratatouille at probably 2… Overall, it’s just not been a good year.
You know, as this year rolls on ever so sluggishly, I can’t help but think that maybe Al Gore’s PowerPoint presentation was prophesising the inconvenient truth…
Take today for instance, I had to drive with the AC blasting in my car, it’s supposed to be a little over 2 weeks before Christmas…
For those who deal in real money and are visiting soon.
Seriously! It’s December and it’s hotter than most Scottish summers!
Sure, it was on Monday, but you know it’ll be on again. In the meantime, get your Vince Guaraldi on…
Here’s a classic taster.
Vince Guaraldi Trio – Linus and Lucy
Enjoy!
Up until a few weeks ago we had no Thanksgiving plans, in fact our plans was to have a mini Thanksgiving dinner at home. Robyn had dreams of a tiny turkey for two, and little portions of stuffing, sweet potato casserole and what have you. Upon hearing this, John and Marchellina invited us up to their home outside Chapel Hill, it would be a small family Thanksgiving…
So we left work at around 1:30 and made our way up I-85 suffering from a little bit of traffic around Concord Mills area. After making a couple of stops for lunch and buying 2 extra Wii remotes (we brought the Wii so they could see the fuss) we arrived at about 6pm. After a pizza dinner and setting up the Wii, we showed it off as we played Wii Bowling, Tennis and Boxing, rocked out on Guitar Hero 3, and messed around with a few of the channels. I think they were suitabely impressed, now they just have to find one…
Thanksgiving Day its self was pretty quiet apart from the meal, we had a long walk along the banks of the Haw River to work up an appetite for the awesome platter laid before us before we had to say our goodbyes and head home around 6pm as we both had to work the following day. We also needed to begin the clean up process as my Dad is coming into town today… We also put up the Christmas tree, but more on that later.
Originally uploaded by FLC.
Pack up the cowbells, for the dream is over. It was in our hands and we had victory (or at least a draw) in sight and it was stolen in the cruelest fashion. Don’t get me wrong, Scotland can take a lot from the last two or so years, but after all the hard work of beating France home and away, it all came down to the 1081st minute of the campaign and well, no one epitomises glorious failure quite like us.
Sure if McFadden had slotted *that* chance away, we’d all be dreaming about a summer in the Alps, truth is we dared to take on the two teams that played in the World Cup final some 16 months ago. Even if that shady free kick decision hadn’t gone against us, nothing was guaranteed at 1-1, but if Ukraine do end up beating France on Wednesday, it’ll just be that much crueler.
I’m still in a state of shock to be honest. I’ve never been so upset at the result of a game of football in all my life, and after nearly 30 years of highs and lows with Scotland that’s saying something.
God damn, I was hoping for something close enough to my current iPod capacity, but 8gb for 600 bucks? That’s like PS3 levels of pricing and as long as my iPod still works and my phone can make and receive calls, I’ll politely decline thankyouverymuchly…
Hmmm, well, that didn’t last as last Sunday we got iPhones, and it’s now surgically attached to my left paw. Really, I had my concerns but in the last week or so, it’s all been put to rest and now I bask in the glow of the touchscreen.
But It’s Expensive
Well, yeah, it’s now a $400 investment, still better than the high launch price of $600, but to put it in perspective when the Motorola RAZR first arrived on Cingular, it was $500 with a 2 year contract, up to $800 without a contract. New phones are expensive, just the way the market is… Of course, the flip side is the RAZR is now free most places but the RAZR2 is $300 with a 2 year contract. Wouldn’t you rather pay $100 more for an iPhone?
But I Don’t Want To Jump To AT&T/Sign A 2 Year Contract
We were already on AT&T Wireless/Cingular/at&t so this was a moot point, and even upgrading phones on AT&T Wireless/Cingular/at&t means a 2 year contract extension, another moot point. It did suck we couldn’t use the Lowe’s employee discount on our bill anymore, and we had to add the $20 unlimited data plan, but in the week and a half I’ve had this I’ve burned through nearly 80mb of data, on our previous plan, that would have easily doubled our bill. A whole month would have bankrupted us, so I think I’ll pay the extra $20.
8GB? I Can’t Fit What I Want On 8GB
Neither can I, I’ve only just managed to whittle my 27gb of music into just over 4, that’s why we’re keeping the iPod, but stuff I listen to most often is on the iPhone, and newer stuff too… I just hope I don’t have a Shuggie Otis craving one day, then I’m screwed… But why just 4 you’re asking? Well, I have a couple of movies on it too, namely Bourne Ultimatum and Ratatouille and a free episode of Mythbusters, even with these I have 1.5gb free. So I can add more if need be for when we go on trips like to the UK next year.
I Hear The Camera Sucks
It’s true, it’s only 2mp, no flash, no zoom, no video… But I like it, it has a little trouble in low light situations but then, my last few camera phones were never good at these either, you just need to find the right conditions. Also, the zoom on my last phones was pretty awful, so this is no biggie. The plus side is it’s a 1600×1200 output, great for cropping, but be warned, emailing images shrinks them to 640×480.
Bottom Line?
It’s handy, everything is handy, everything is too handy… Everything is a tap, swipe and pinch away… Thanks to Google’s Gmail IMAP option, it has all my email available anytime, it’s synced with my work calendar, the visual voicemail is awesome, near enough all the web browsing I’ve done at home in the last week has been on it, the built-in Google Maps has saved us already.
The list is pretty much endless right now, the only complaint I have is the same as with the iPod, the need to have the same library on my home and work PC and keeping them synced can be a pain. I’ve also noticed the way it’s changed how we talk about it, Robyn no longer asks for me to get her phone, it’s iPhone, it’s got brand name recognition like Coke and Hoover already. At least in our house.
Sure it could be better, 3G and larger capacity would be nice, and we’ll no doubt hate ourselves when these arrive, but that’s the way it goes. I’m extremely happy with my purchase and that’s all that matters right now.
The New York Giants rain on New England’s perfect parade with a shocking upset win in Super Bowl XLII
Seriously, as much as I wanted New England to win, and thus go 19-0 this year, the Giants defense came up big, and Eli Manning finally became what a number 1 pick should be. It looked like it was Eli of old after the delay of game penalty was followed up by an interception, but Strahan and co kept Tom Brady buried in the turf long enough for that play to David Tyree and suddenly Eli was a Super Bowl MVP.
All in all it was a very entertaining game, not the blow out some expected, nor a repeat of the high scoring regular season finale a few weeks ago. I’m pretty disappointed by the outcome, but those last few minutes were edge of the seat stuff.