Random Tuesday Thoughts

-I need to stop drinking my hot chocolate so quickly in the morning. I end up warmed up for a minute with a burnt tongue that lasts all day
- We will NEVER go back to Saturn of Greenville again. (more on that later)
-I like jolly ranchers - only the watermelon flavor. I like how the wrapper slides right off.
-LOST is starting to get on my nerves. I can't follow the story line anymore. I don't anticipate
the next week's show like I used to.
-SO glad that bright, warm Spring days are here
-I really need to start working out again
-I thought I had more random stuff that would make this post interesting to the 2.5 people that read here

Curly Brackets

Real quick FYI, one of the software packages we use at work is from across the pond. I called today and got a guy with a real thick British accent. Have you ever heard someone from England say the phrase "Curly Brackets" several times in few sentences. I almost laughed out loud on the phone. Hilarious.

City Review: Nashville

I recently spent 5 days in Nashville for work. Apparantly, they are marketing it now as Nash-Vegas. What happens in Nashville, stays in Nashville. My manager didn't agree though, and still wanted a full report of everything I worked on and how it went.

Previous visits: I'd been through there before about 15 years ago (back was Opryland was a theme park and not a mall) and I've been through there and shopped at Opryland Mills twice before when staying near Nashville and spent one night there for work before. (although with my job, that means I got there, worked until the wee hours of the night, slept 4-5 hours, drove back).

Downtown and Dining: I was very impressed by my downtown dining options every night of the week. With few exceptions, most downtown areas in a city that size or larger are ghost towns by 7 pm. At the end of a 4 block walk in most large cities, you'll be forced to give 32 people money, forced to purchase drugs, be mugged 3 times, pick pocketed, punched in the face, threatened within inches of your life, and have all your drugs taken from you at gunpoint. And that's just 4 blocks. And no stores or restaraunts would have been open. Nashville was quite the opposite. There were several blocks worth that were hopping every night of the week. Most restaraunts were of a bar and grill type format, several with musicians performing every night. And it was crowded. Downtown is the place to be it seemed like. I never had to wait long for a table, but at the same time felt safety in numbers.
That said, I really enjoyed Demo's Steak and Spaghetti House. Rotiers was a hole in the wall near Vanderbilt that was excellent (try the cheeseburger and fried zucchini). Also, Big River Grille and Brewing Works was so good, I went two nights. The homemade root beer was great, so was the Chicken Fried Chicken. All in all, I was impressed that they were able to keep the downtown area clean and safe.

Music: Like I said before, if you like live music, Nashville is the place to be. Walking down 2nd Ave and Broadway on Saturday and Sunday night looking for a place to eat, I'd say every other establishment had someone performing. Also, I saw two music videos being shot and one band playing on the sidewalk outside the smallest record store I've ever seen.

Navigation: One of the important aspects of any city to me is how well I can get around. Nashville was laid out pretty well and lots of one-way streets helped keep traffic flowing. Aside from parking being a bit of a problem, I'd say getting around in, as well as in and out of the downtown area was pretty good.

Overall, Nashville was a nice city. I could see going back there, but I'm not sure that there would be much to do if you didn't like live music (especially country music) or eating. Those seemed to be the two main attractions.

I'm old

Yesterday, I got invited to my 10 year high school reunion.  That one stung a little, I knew it was coming up, but the reality sunk in yesterday.  10 years?  Has it really been that long since I packed up the "Yellow Dream" and headed off to college?  Where has the time gone?  I guess I spent half that time in college and the other half working my tail off and wooing the girl of my dreams.  I think I still have some work to do, I'm supposed to be halfway to a million by now, according to the plan. 
Oh well, its been a fun ride.  Thinking back to who I was then, I'm certainly glad that I've changed a lot since those days.  Now if I can just find my cane so I can get back to making the benjamins.

Maybe i'm not saying it right

I went out to dinner last night w/my friend Jaygirl Jones on Woodruff Road. After dinner I headed over to a store we'll call "Bircuit Bity" to get a gift card for another friend's birthday. While I was in line I noticed that among the normal looking cards there was one that was a small CD that you could load on your computer & get free tunes. I was looking on the card to see if there was a fee for this & couldn't find it. I hand the card to the check-out girl.

Me - Is there a fee for this since you can download music?
-she looks over the card front & back & then up @ me-

CO Girl - Now what was your question again?

Me - Is there a fee for the card since you can download music?

CO Girl (still looking confused): I'll have to go ask
-She walks away to go & talk to someone. I don't see the interaction but she seems to have a smirk replacing the confused look earlier-

CO Girl - It's a gift card, ma'm, you put money on it to spend in the store

Me - Yes I know that, just put the $ on there

Somehow I walked out feeling like I was the moron in that scenario.

Irregardless and Whelmed

One of my coworkers new favorite word is 'irregardless'. It's driving me crazy? Why? Because its not a real word. How is something irregardless of another. By being in regard to it. It's a double negative. The ir- prefix means not, so the meaning would be 'not regardless.' But that's not how it's being used in context. If statement A that was just uttered has nothing to do with upcoming statement B, the correct word to use is regardless. Otherwise, you would say, 'with regard to' or similar.
What drives me even more crazy is that after sitting in a meeting where the made up word was used like 6-8 times in 90 minutes, I ended up using it later in the day. Twice!!

In other wordplay, lately I've been finding myself overwhelmed. Which makes me wonder, in times when I'm not overwhelmed, am I just whelmed? On vacation, am I underwhelmed? The guy down the hall, he seems pretty underwhelmed by his workload. Oh, to be whelmed more often, I look forward to the day.