Saturday night after my drunk post, I wandered down to Earnestine & Hazel’s for a beer. There I ran into a guy who calls himself Mr. Roboto, who writes a blog called Thursday Night Fever which is somewhat of the Nashville equivalent of my blog. Apparently he has been aware of my site for a while and checks it out from time to time. Enjoyed talking to him… he told me that at one point, his blog was averaging 500 visits a day (this blog currently averages about 60). He said if I wanted to attain “celebrity blogger” status, he had some tips – a lot of it I agreed with, like more pictures for one thing. He also suggested that I come up with a catchy name for the blog, as he did for his site. Hmmm…. that one I’m going to have to think about… I kind of like it being MY blog, rather than a blog about going out downtown (which it frequently is). I’ll think about it.
I do need to redesign the look of this blog, though. That’s on my list of things to do in the next month and a half or so. I’ve always referred to winter as “The Sleepy Season” and have considered it a good time to catch up on personal projects. Because if I don’t get them done now, they sure won’t get done once it starts to warm up outside (which in Memphis, tends to happen in March). Once that happens, I’ll want to start going out every day of the week like I did last summer.
That means that I may be missing some regular weekly outings (like Tuesday night trivia) a little more often between now and March. Don’t worry, once it warms up I’ll be a full-timer again.
One weekly outing that will definitely NOT be affected is Sunday brunch at Sleep Out’s. You better believe I’ll still be there. Yesterday they asked me to fill out a comment card suggesting changes to the place – they’re thinking about things like adding a mezzanine area above the bar with couches, or replacing the tables with booths, or getting rid of the ties that have been hung. Here’s how I responded: DON’T CHANGE A THING. Keep the big-screen TV, but otherwise leave it alone. The regulars are happy there. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Actually, after I turned in my card someone else had an interesting suggestion… crawfish night. Boiled, cooked crawfish by the pound. Now, I would be all over that. As one of the other regulars pointed out, no other bar downtown has a crawfish night, and crawfish are so cheap that it would be a sure money-maker for SOL’s. Hope they decide to do it.
I haven’t talked about Mpact in a while. I rolled off the board of directors in November, but am still a member. I’ve decided that this year I’m going to be a “consumer” rather than a “producer,” to use terms coined by our Membership chair. Meaning, I’m just going to go to the events and enjoy them, rather than take an active role in planning them (unless someone specifically asks for my help).
One event coming up is the annual Non-Profit Expo, scheduled for Thursday, February 2 at the Memphis Botanic Gardens from 5:30-8:00. There will be about 35 nonprofits there, providing info on how you can volunteer and help them out, be it on a one-time or ongoing basis. Great way to get involved in the community and meet people. You don’t have to be an Mpact member to attend. Last year I believe it was $5 for non-members; not sure about this year.
Another event that I’ll likely attend is the After Hours/Mpact 101 at Fresh Slices Cafe, at 1585 Overton Park Avenue in Midtown, this Wednesday, January 25 from 5:30-7:30. After Hours is a chance for members to hang out and get to know one another socially; it’s one of my favorite recurring Mpact events. They will also be doing Mpact 101, which is an opportunity for people who want to find out about the organization to get some information. Non-members are encouraged to come – no fee other than your tab. Never been to Fresh Slices and am looking forward to see how they stack up against other local pizza joints.
Okay, I want to get on my soapbox for a minute. The address above (1585 Overton Park Ave.) came from BellSouth’s yellowpages.com website. It certainly didn’t come from Mpact’s site – their event listing shows the address as “Overton Park.” Come on, guys, you can do better than that. Overton Park is a park. Overton Park Avenue is a street. They’re two different things. Fresh Slices is a building on Overton Park Avenue, and like all the other buildings, it has a street number. Hopefully people will find the correct address on their own and won’t be driving through the park looking for a pizza place.
This kind of stuff has been happening too often in the organization. I remember last year, when I showed up at the Blue Monkey for a 6 PM pillar meeting. Three other people and I were sitting there for 45 minutes wondering where everyone was. I made some calls and discovered that an e-mail had been sent out at 4:44 PM that day saying that the meeting was cancelled. Hey, you know what? A lot of people have already left work by 4:44 and won’t see the e-mail until the next day… This kind of stuff shouldn’t be happening. There are a lot of people with great ideas, but sometimes the implementation of those ideas falls apart at the detail level, and it makes us look bad.
Okay. Rant over. Let’s talk about something else.
I take walks every day at work to break up the monotony of sitting in a cubicle. One thing I’ve been noticing lately is all the different types of cars in the parking lot. When I was a kid I used to know all the makes and models of cars, what types of engines they had, length/width, options, etc. But since the last time I bought a car (11 years ago) I’ve been out of touch. I need to buy a book on the 2006 cars and catch up.
Last week I went to the mall and they had 2006 Buicks on display and I was really impressed with the product line. Recently Buick had been putting out some really boring cars. Their entire line – Century, Regal, LeSabre, Park Avenue – all looked alike, just shorter or longer versions of each other. So for 2006 they made a bold decision. They scrapped the entire line and started over. There are now only two cars – the Lacrosse is the LeSabre’s replacement, and the Lucerne replaces the Park Avenue as the top-of-the-line luxury sedan. These are really sharp looking cars, and very distinctive. With Cadillacs becoming gaudy ghetto status symbols more and more every year, Buick may turn into the true upscale model line for GM.
All right, that’ll do it for now. It’s Monday and I’m going to need about a gallon of caffeine to get through the day. Haven’t yet decided if I’m going to hit Rio Loco for their grand opening tonight. Hope your week is off to a good start, and I’ll see you later…