Paul Ryburn's Journal

This is short notice, I know, but… the candidate I am endorsing for the District 9 Congressional seat, Steve Cohen, will have his campaign headquarters’ grand opening tomorrow, Saturday, May 27, from 11 AM-2 PM at 1803-1 Union Avenue in Midtown. They’ll have BBQ and music. Steve’s a good guy and will represent the district well. Check out the Issues page of his website to find out what he stands for.

My “I bought a laptop” post seems to be drawing a lot of hits from an AMD message board this morning, so I want to follow up with a comment.

One of my main concerns in buying a new computer was making sure it could run the new 64-bit Windows that is supposed to be coming out by the end of 2006. So I started researching Intel processors – will they be able to run it or not? Couldn’t find anyplace on the web that simply says, yes, this chip will be able to run it, or no, this chip won’t. After an hour of reading, I think their dual-core chips will be able to run 64-bit Windows, and I think their Pentium M chips won’t be able to – but I’m still not sure.

AMD, on the other hand, put “64” at the end of all its chips’ names. No doubt they’ll be good to go. That’s a major reason why I went with a laptop with an AMD processor, rather than going for “Intel Inside” as I have in the past.

AMD’s marketing department is smarter than Intel’s marketing department when it comes to naming chips.

I forgot to mention something very important when I did my lunchtime post, discussing last night’s activities. I forgot to mention that the bear is back: The Gone Fishing video game is once again available on Beale Street.

Last year, I wasted stacks of dollars on the Tap Room’s stupid video crack machine, which had a game called “Gone Fishing.” Fish jump out of a frozen pond, and a polar bear swings a bat and attempts to hit them as far down the ice as possible. It was completely stupid. Yet I spent a lot of time with that bear. At one point I had the high score and 7 of the 10 high scores.

Then one day I walked into the Tap Room and the video crack machine was gone, replaced by a different video crack machine with different games. I was sad. I thought I’d never see the bear again.

But last night, I walked into the Black Diamond and ordered my usual PBR in a can. At the time I didn’t know anyone there (the BB King people hadn’t arrived yet), and I decided to see what games were on their video crack machine. And lo and behold, there was Gone Fishing. The bear and I were reunited at last.

I foresee a lot of nights at the Diamond in my future.

Sunday, as I was flipping through the paper looking for the Deal of the Week, I came across a really good price on a Gateway laptop at Office Depot. I ended up choosing a digital camera as the Deal insteal, simply because I had already selected a very similar laptop as a Deal in a previous week.

But as the days rolled on, I kept going back to Office Depot’s site and looking at that laptop. And thinking, hmmm… my computers are both four years old… they’re gonna have to be replaced within the year… why would I want to pass this up? So today after work, I went to the downtown Office Depot and bought it.

It’s a Gateway MX6440, with an AMD Turion 64 processor. The “Turion” designation means that the chip is optimized for laptop use (preserving battery life and such – similar to Intel’s Centrino chip), and the “64” ensures that I’ll be able to upgrade to the new version of Windows that is rumored to be coming out around the end of the year. It has a gig of RAM, and a 100 GB hard drive, with built-in wireless, four USB ports, a CD/DVD player/burner, and a 15.4″ widescreen. The price? $799 after rebate. Not bad at all.

I intend for the new laptop to replace both my current computers. I don’t see the point of having a desktop PC anymore when wireless is available all over town. So as soon as I get my data moved over to my new laptop, the old computers are outta here. Actually, that’s not true… I’ll keep the old laptop as a backup in case the new one breaks. As for the desktop PC… hmmm… maybe I’ll turn it into a Linux box or something. What I’m really looking forward to is getting rid of this crummy 19″ CRT monitor. I hate it so much that I want to take a baseball bat to it. I guess I could donate it to a school or something, but the poor kid who has to use that piece of crap will be guaranteed to need glasses after a year or so.

After I got home I realized I needed to download and install software – Firefox, ZoneAlarm, AVG Anti-Virus, WeatherBug, Google Earth. So I fired it up and got ready to install, only to find that there weren’t any wireless networks in range of my apartment that I could mooch from. Then I thought, wait a minute. The Saucer has wireless. And beer. And waitresses. So I went up there and downloaded all the essential stuff I need. Except for my data, it’s ready to go.

And as an added bonus, my external battery back from BatteryGeek will work with the new laptop, extending the 3-hour battery to a total of 8-9 hours.

I love it. As my friend Ish would say, “AWESOME AWESOME!”

Today’s lunchtime Wi-Fi location: High Point Coffee at Union and Belvedere. I like this place: It has the feel of a Starbucks and similar drink menu, but it also has free wireless Internet (Starbucks charges for theirs) and a TV tuned to CNN Headline News.

Just ate lunch at Pei Wei Asian Diner, also at the corner of Union and Belvedere. Here’s a copy of their menu. I had the Spicy Korean signature dish with chicken, and it was good. Pei Wei opened about two weeks ago. One word of caution – that place fills up fast. I got there at 11:15 and it was already half-full. By the time I left people were jockeying for position to get tables. You’ll do well to go for either an early or a late lunch, rather than right at noon.

Hmmm… since Pei-Wei is Asian-themed, maybe they could create an additional source of income by selling that video I mentioned in a post last month, that teaches guys how to seduce Asian girls. “Ah, so GI! You like make ficky-ficky with sexy Oriental girl? Well, now you can…” I actually knew a guy once who probably owned that tape. He had a thing for Japanese girls. “J-girls,” he called them.

I wonder if there’s a video on how to seduce “Ro-girls”?

Couple of downtown nightspots to keep your eye on…

Last weekend I bumped into one of the employees at Wang’s at Main and Gayoso. For those of you who didn’t catch my post about Wang’s a couple of weeks ago, they’re going to start having live music 9 to 2 Thursdays-Saturdays. She said their new sound stage is almost complete, and they pumped some serious money into it. She also told me they’re going to be booking some musical acts that are very well-known here in Memphis. Out of respect to her, I don’t want to spill the beans, but keep an eye on Wang’s next weekend or the weekend after, and be on the lookout for ads/announcements in the Flyer and other entertainment news sources.

Last night I had the pleasure of talking to several employees of BB King’s club on Beale – a couple of my neighbors on my rooftop, and then later in the evening, several servers who were having an after-work beer at the Black Diamond. All of them told me that BB’s is really making an effort to reach out to the locals here in Memphis and give them a unique experience that they can’t get in any other club. I was really impressed with them – they seemed like a big family and had a personal passion for the club. Downtowners, if you haven’t been to BB’s in a while, it’s worth a second look, based on all that I heard last night. I’ll try to get by there sometime soon.

Lunchtime over. Back to the cubicle.

I’m at Otherlands in Midtown, using their Wi-Fi to do a lunch hour blog post. First time I’ve been in here in a while… they’ve really improved this place. They got rid of the gift shop and converted the whole thing into seating. Cool!

Hang on, here’s e-mail. “A friend posted a new comment about you on MySpace.” And because I’m not at work and therefore outside the city schools’ goddamn content filter, I can actually log into MySpace and read the comment. Again, cool!

Ah… my MySpace friend sent me a pic. Let’s post it:

If you’ve seen my victory dance upon winning NTN Trivia games at Sleep Out’s recently, you’ll understand the appropriateness of this image.

Speaking of trivia… The Flying Saucer has finally upgraded its Tuesday night trivia prizes. Before, there was one $25 gift certificate, and second and third place got whatever assorted crap the beer distributors dumped on the Saucer (T-shirts, glasses, etc.) Now they’re doing it right… $50 gift certificate for first place, $25 for second, and $10 for third. That’s what Mulligan’s has always done, except I rarely go to Mulligan’s trivia because they don’t have waitresses in miniskirts and the place just generally sucks. Anyway, the Rapscallions broke their losing streak last night, placing third and picking up the $10 certificate. That brings our grand total to $135.

However, we’re going to need to schedule that party sooner than we thought – the certificates now expire three months from date of issue, rather than a year. That means we have until August 23 at the latest. I recommend that we wait until early July or later though, to give us time to add a couple of $50s to the pile, and to see if the Saucer makes any interesting waitress hiring decisions around that time.

Before going to trivia, I attended a private party at The Majestic to celebrate their grand opening. Free food, free booze, and a big band playing upstairs. I tried a strawberry basil martini, and spent a while talking to the chef, who has done personal chef work for a couple of the Grizzlies.

A friend of mine recommends the following Majestic dish: Grilled pork tenderloin with sugar glazed carrots and onions for $14. Portions tend to be large for the entrees, so order this one when you’re hungry.

Also at the Majestic, another friend and I discussed doing something for Steve Cohen, who is running for Congress. I volunteered for one of Cohen’s campaigns about 10 years ago and have always admired his integrity and persistence. We want to do something to rally support for him among downtowners. If anyone wants to help plan this shoot me an e-mail.

After I left trivia night, I walked to the Tap Room, where Maurice always has good TV on. I discovered a new show on the Cartoon Network called The Oblongs which is pretty funny. It’s about a family who lives near a toxic swamp. It comes on at 10 PM Central time.

New Memphis blog worth bookmarking: Memphis Wine Events. Not affiliated with any one particular group, it’s simply a resource to keep Memphians informed of wine-related events around town.

Two of the three links in this post won’t make it through the city schools’ content filter. I’ve already checked. Only the Cohen link will make it. Memphis Wine Events is hosted on Blogspot, and the filter thinks all Blogspot blogs contain objectionable material. The filter doesn’t like The Oblongs because it’s on a network that shows “adult” shows.

On the other hand, MY blog gets through the content filter just fine. Welcome, kids! Be sure to come back next week for the beginning of Tube Top Month!

Plans for the rest of this week:

Thursday night – Peabody rooftop

Friday night – South Main Trolley Art Tour

Saturday – It’s Sunset Symphony but I most likely won’t make plans. I’ll just show up on the roof and see which of my neighbors are there to hang out with.

Sunday – Sit at Kimberley’s bar at Sleep Out’s and drink champagne-flavored orange juice and play NTN Trivia and do my victory dance. I’ll be there around 11:00, most likely.

Monday – Memorial Day, which probably will turn into a bonus Sunday unless I come up with alternate plans.

And now, back for an exciting afternoon of sitting in a cubicle. Whoopee. I got an e-mail from a First Tennessee employee – they call their cubicles “loser cruisers” over there. Have a good afternoon everybody….

Click here for the rest of the pics

This is my first attempt using the Coppermine photo gallery software on my server, so I hope everything turned out all right. If there are any problems with the pics let me know. Thanks to Chad for supplying the first 14 pics in the album; the ones after that are mine. If you want any of these in a 5.1 megapixel size, shoot me an e-mail.

It’s time to go international with one of this blog’s most popular features, “What the bums are drinking this week.”

Now, we already know what the bums in Memphis are drinking this week: Mad Dog 20/20 fortified wine. But over in merry old England, the bums drink Mad Dogs & Englishmen Shiraz Cabernet, pictured below.

Just kidding… this isn’t a bum wine. And it isn’t even English. This is the wine my friends Chad and the Nuh-Uh Girl ordered Tuesday night at Meditrina, the new restaurant on Union. It’s a Spanish shiraz/cabernet blend, and it received good reviews from those at the table.

Here’s a pic of the striped bass that the Nuh-Uh Girl ordered.

I had a couple of bites of it and it was really good. Meditrina is definitely a restaurant you should check out next time you’re downtown.

For once I actually enjoy smelling my dirty laundry.

Have you ever gone to Starbucks, and then come home and noticed that your clothes smell like coffee? Or have you ever gone to a bar, and then come home and noticed that your clothes smell like nasty, disgusting cigarettes?

Well, the clothes I wore to BBQ Fest last night smell like… smoke from BBQ cookers. They smell good. I almost don’t want to wash them.

The late night I had planned for last night didn’t happen. My plan was to pace myself by doing beer, beer, water, beer, beer, water.

Here’s what actually happened: beer, shooter, jello shot, beer, jello shot, beer, beer, jello shot, beer, beer, and then a trek to the Saucer for a Woodchuck Granny Smith cider (definitely not my drink of choice at the Saucer, but it was on Fire Sale). I was passed out in bed by midnight. And then I woke up at 6 and couldn’t get back to sleep, thanks to the Mattress From Hell. It just occurred to me that my L-shaped sofa has a fold-out mattress, which I haven’t used once in the 11 years I’ve owned it. I may have to pull it out and start sleeping on that until I get this mattress problem taken care of.

Special thanks to the Sissy Bitches trivia team for handing me a wristband granting me access to the PorkStars tent last night. Even after my trivia team has handed them one ass whoopin’ after another on Tuesday nights, they were still kind enough to invite me in. Just goes to show you, at the end of the day we’re all friends.

Thanks also to GenuSwine, AdRibbers, The Pink Ladies, and Redmon’s Renegades for their generosity last night. Oh, and that booth I followed my ex-neighbors Troy and Jen into, didn’t get the name. And that booth that was playing disco music, didn’t get its name either.

I bought some plaid shirts at Old Navy yesterday. I haven’t worn plaid shirts in nearly 20 years. I’ve had an aversion to them ever since my first job (see the “What Am I Doing With My Life?” rant part I that I posted about a week ago). When I was getting dressed for work, my mother told me, “You don’t have to wear a[n incredibly boring] white dress shirt… you can wear a[n incredibly boring] pale blue dress shirt, or a[n incredibly boring] pale yellow dress shirt, or you can wear a plaid shirt.” So I wore plaid shirts. Ever since then I’ve hated plaid shirts. But Old Navy had plaid Madras shirts on sale… they’re more comfortable than T-shirts and besides, I have a good friend from Madras, India so I figured I’d give plaid a second chance.

I just realized that I had all those drinks last night, and three slabs of ribs, for $10.50 – the $7 cover charge for BBQ Fest, plus $2.50 plus $1 tip at the Saucer for a Fire Sale beer. Not bad at all… and I’ll be going back for round three later today.

Before I started drinking yesterday, I walked around and snapped pictures of the best tents. I also handed the camera over to Mikey the Camera Nazi later in the evening and he got some shots of me disco dancing. My plan is to load the pics onto my laptop tomorrow morning, then I’ll take the computer with me to Sleep Out’s and create the photo album from there. So I’ll be there from 11:30 or so until I get the photo album and Deal of the Week and a bottle of champagne done.

Out of here for now though… it’s about time to go eat some more BBQ.

FUN BBQ FEST FACT: In 1968, the Yippie Party nominated a pig named Pigasus for president of the United States.

Y’know, if Mayor Herenton wants to do something to improve his popularity, I have a suggestion for him: Declare the Friday of BBQ Fest a citywide holiday. Encourage local businesses to give their employees the day off, so the employees can go down to the river and enjoy an event that is uniquely Memphis. I bet he could pick up a good 20,000 votes or more in one fell swoop.

So last night people were asking me, “Paul, you’re actually dressed pretty nicely… I mean, you have on khaki shorts rather than jean shorts… what’s the deal?” Very simple… the khaki shorts are ones I ordered from Lands’ End that have a hidden expandable waistband. Expandable waistband = good thing to have for BBQ Fest. Lands’ End could probably set up a booth selling them and make quite a bit of money, now that I think about it.

I want to thank one team in particular that has been incredibly generous so far this weekend: GenuSwine Cookers, LLC, from Hornbeak, TN. Check out their website – they sell sauces, seasonings, rotisserie grills, lump charcoal, and grill accessories, and are competing this year in the whole hog category. I enjoyed their fine BBQ and beer last night and will be back today for a second helping. Also check out their sponsor, Colt Industries, who sell DuPont Corian, Zodiaq, and Bath surfaces, among other products.

Spent a good bit of time hanging out with my friend Chad and his uncle Paul last night. Uncle Paul is from Denver, and he told me, “You need to come check out the casinos in Denver… they have one where practically all the dealers are Romanian girls, and most of them are single.” Sounds like I need to book a cheap flight to Denver. He told me the name of the casino, but what I really want to know is, what time is shift change, and where’s the nearby bar where the Romanians go for an after-work drink?

On the agenda for tonight… in addition to a repeat visit to GenuSwine, I have a neighbor whose BBQ team’s booth has a stripper pole in it, and that sounds worth a visit. I also have an accountant friend with a triple-decker booth, and then there’s my fellow Sleep Out’s drunks who have several teams. After the fest I’ll probably end up in a late-night bar, maybe the Tap Room or the Black Diamond or Earnestine & Hazel’s.

That’s it for now… there WILL be a BBQ Fest photo album… seriously. I know I’ve promised photo albums in the past and not delivered, but this time it will happen. Also, don’t forget that we’ll be kicking off Tube Top Month in this blog in a mere 13 days – I told several people about that last night, and they all said, “That’s a good theme!” Not surprisingly, all of the people who said that were guys. Anyway, off to cubicle world, see you on the river tonight.