mashby | The personal blog of Michael Ashby

March 1, 2004

I’ve Only Met One Rude French Person

Phone Booth Every culture has something about them that others use to stereotype them. The Irish drink, the Italians have hot tempers, etc. For some reason, the French have been given given the label that they are rude. I don’t know where this stereotype has come from, but whenever I’ve been to France, I’ve never found them to be rude. In fact, I’d have to say that my experience has been quite the opposite. I found the French to be very hospitable. Being from Louisiana, with it’s rich French influenced history, I used to say that I found France to be the birthplace of Southern Hospitality. However there was one notable exception and I used to like to tell this story from time to time, well that is until I became the punch line of my own story.

My first time travelling in France was back in 1990. I had just graduated from LSU and a buddy of mine and I decided to take our bikes and ride through Europe. We started in Ireland and made our way through Wales, England, Scotland and Belgium and after two months we were in Paris. Both of us were new to bicycle touring and extended travel and as a result we were together most of the time. Spend two months with someone 24 hours a day you really get to know them, wether you like it or not. 😛 So by the time we hit Paris, I had had about enough of my companion and I was ready to go solo. Well, I can’t say that I was ready to go solo, but I was ready to get away from my cycling partner to say the least.

February 28, 2004

Spending The Day With Gracie

Gracie after a haircut I love my dog. There’s no two ways about it, when I work from my home office, I get to spend the entire day with Gracie and I can’t describe the joy she bring me. Throughout the day, she’s my little shadow as I work, eat, and relax. I didn’t realize just how much being around her means to me until I had a particularly long day away from the house.

After a long day at work, Holly had a function with an organization she belongs to, so it was almost 10pm when we got home. After going through the usual routines of sorting the mail and shrugging off the gear from the day, I plopped down in the chair to catch the end of ER. Holly made the comment, “You want me to let Gracie out of her crate?” My mother had come by the house around 7pm to tape “Friends” for us and to walk Gracie, so I said “Sure.”

All dogs have quirks and Gracie is no exception. One of her quirks is that when you open her crate, you have to pet her belly before she’ll leave it. She gives you this dog eyed look that says, “Why did you leave me in this cage? Don’t you love me? Prove it to me by rubbing my belly.” Sometimes she’s so ready to get out, all it takes is a quick pass; however some days you could be rubbing that tummy for a good minute before she’s ready.

February 27, 2004

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde

Director(s): Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
Writer(s): Eve Ahlert, Dennis Drake, Kate Kondell
Category: Comedy
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some sex-related humor.
Runtime: 95 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 2003

Plot: Sassy postgrad Elle Woods is all about animal rights. In fact, she puts her nuptial plans on hold to head to Washington D.C. to get an anti-animal testing bill passed. Her building’s doorman quickly shows her the ways and workings of our nation’s capital.

Review: There is a curse in the movie industry. It’s name – the sequel. For some reason, trying to follow up a hit movie with a sequel is very difficult for most studios because most sequels suck eggs. I forgot about this curse when I rented Legally Blonde 2 – Red, With & Blonde recently. It’s not that the first movie, Legally Blonde, was a masterpiece or anything, but it was good for what it was. It was a happy, shiny movie where you dismissed a little reality and just went with the story. Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) may be a silly character, but you go with it just to watch the character grow and mature. In addition, there were a nice assortment of memorable characters peppered throughout the story that really “kicked it up a notch”.

Since Legally Blonde was a big hit, you’d think that the producers wouldn’t mess with the formula that made it such a success. Haven’t we learned anything from New Coke? 😉 Unfortunately all the elements that made the first movie such a fun guilty pleasure are absent from the sequel and all you’re left with is a bitter taste in your mouth making you feel wrong for liking the first movie.

February 26, 2004

Grazing Across Louisiana – Part ThreeMary Lee Doughnuts & LaFonda’s

It’s been awhile since my last entry on the “Grazing Across Louisiana” series, but I haven’t forgotten. 🙂 Here is part 3 of an expected 6 part series.

La Fonda's Mexican Restaurant and Lounge We started off our grazing for the day with hot Mary Lee doughnuts. If you haven’t heard of Mary Lee, that wouldn’t surprise me. The only place that I’ve been able to find them have been in the south. I know a lot of people rave about Krispy Kreme doughnuts, but I think Mary Lee are MUCH better. Unfortunately the only place I can find Mary Lee is in Baton Rouge, so it’s a staple of breakfast when we come to visit. In fact, it’s almost a ritual.

On the first morning of our visit, James, Holly’s Father, goes out and purchases 1 – 2 dozen glazed doughnuts. This time he only brought back one, but if there were more people staying with them, he would have brought back an extra. Holly is normally still sleeping and I usually wake up and enjoy a cup of coffee with Judie, while James goes to get the doughnuts. Upon his return, Holly usually wakes up so that she can eat them while they are hot. All doughnuts taste better when they are hot, and Mary Lee are no exception.

February 25, 2004

The Starbucks Oracle

The South Beach Diet Timing is everything. No sooner did I publish my entry yesterday, then I received an instant message from a friend of mine with a link to a web site. I clicked on the link and was presented with the “Starbucks Oracle“. The idea is that you enter in your drink order and the “Oracle” tells you something about yourself. I put in my usual drink order, “Venti Coffee Of The Day and a Doppio Espresso”, and was told the following:

Personality type: High Maintenance

You pride yourself on being assertive and direct; everyone else thinks you’re bossy and arrogant. You’re constantly running your mouth about topics that only you would find interesting. Your capacity for wasting other people’s time is limitless. Your friends find you intolerable, that’s why they’re plotting to kill you.

Also drinks: Water. Bottled, chilled, with four ice cubes, a twist of lemon, in a crystal glass.
Can also be found at: Trendy martini bars

I nearly wet myself from laughing so hard. With over 150,000 words entered into this weblog thus far, I think the “Oracle” was pretty darn accurate! ???

So be sure to visit the “Starbucks Oracle” today and see what your drink order says about you. 🙂

February 24, 2004

My Take On The South Beach Diet

I was watching TV the other day and I saw an expose on the Atkins diet on Dateline, 24 Hours, or one of those other news programs and it irked me when they lumped the South Beach Diet in with the Atkins diet and proceeded to take “pot shots” at its validity. Then I was talking to a friend of mine who recently went to the doctor concerning his health and was told that he needed to lose some weight. When he inquired about the South Beach diet, the doctor “poo poo’d” the plan and recommended instead to cut portions and fat. With both of these experiences hitting at about the same time, my quills have become quite bristled and I figured it was time to weigh in on my two cents regarding the South Beach diet. There’s a lot of misunderstanding regarding the South Beach diet, so let’s get those out of the way first. 1. South Beach is NOT a low carb diet. 2. South Beach is NOT a low fat diet. 3. South Beach is NOT at all like Atkins. 4. Although it’s gained a lot of popularity, I don’t view it as a FAD diet. So just what IS the South Beach diet? Well, I think Dr. Agatston says it best so I would encourage you to read this excerpt from his book, but to put it in my own words; the South Beach diet was designed by a cardiologist to help his patients eat more healthy and lose weight. The fact that it worked so well and so fast was as much of a surprise to him as it is to those that have tried the diet. Dr. Agatston was compelled to create the diet simply because there was nothing else out there that did the trick. Pritikin is simply too difficult and complex, Atkins is too unhealthy and the food pyramid simply doesn’t work. In fact, the current rise in obesity is directly related to the food pyramid. So Dr. Agatston felt forced to try and come up with a plan that would be easy to follow, allow for and expect setbacks and didn’t require measuring, counting, or tracking what you ate. Continue Reading

February 19, 2004

Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things

A child swinging With this being my third entry in three days, it would appear that I’m getting back into the swing of things. As I alluded to in this entry, things have been a bit chaotic for the past month or so. Now that I’m back to my usual writing, I thought I’d take a moment to go into a little more details as to the root of the chaos.

Before the start of the new year, I had a pretty good morning routine down. I would wake up, take Gracie for a quick walk, feed Gracie and myself and write a weblog entry while sipping French Press coffee. By the time I was done with the entry, Gracie was ready to go outside again. We’d go for a longer walk, then I’d hit the showers and get to work. It was a good routine and one that I liked very much. This routine was pushed aside shortly after the start of the new year because of two things: 1) Getting Organized and 2) Dieting.

February 18, 2004

I May Never Fly The Same Again

Have Portable DVD Will Travel I was ticked off when I arrived at the airport last week. My return flight had been entered by mistake and I was forced to leave the 2004 PalmSource Developer’s Conference a day early. It was a great conference and I was sorry that I had to leave so early. With airport security being so tight, I needed to ensure that I arrived in plenty of time to catch my plane. The 12:20pm flight I was taking was the last one Northwest offers out of San Jose. Sitting at the gate finishing up my early lunch, I looked at my watch and noticed that I had about an hour before the plane boarded. With an hour before boarding and 6 hours of flight time I was looking at a LOT of time on my hands. Coupled with the time was my feeling of exhaustion. The concentrated time I spent at PalmSource left me feeling overwhelmed. Normally I work on the plane, but my brain was fried. A little pissed and a lot tired I was wondering what was I going to do with all this time?

[QUE HERO MUSIC]
InMotion Pictures To The Rescue!

I had seen InMotion Pictures kiosks in several airports, but I’d never really investigated them, so with an hour to kill, I decided to take a peek and see what the deal was. The concept is pretty simple, you can rent DVD movies and DVD players from a kiosk, watch the movie on your plane and simply drop of the movie and/or player and your next destination. And the price is reasonable too. The basic player rents for $12 and includes one movie; additional movies are $4. If you have a DVD player, then movie rentals are $5.

February 17, 2004

Traveling With South Beach

Suitcase Since starting the South Beach Diet two weeks ago, I’ve been fairly insulated from the “real word” of food. I’ve been fixing my three meals a day and two snacks for 14 days and so I haven’t had the opportunity to test the diet. Traveling to the 2004 PalmSource Dev Con gave me a chance to try and stay on the diet “in the wild” and it was definitely an experience.

I knew that there would be temptations along the way, but I really had no idea what to expect. One thing I was somewhat sure of is that my usual snacks would be hard to come by, so I packed a handful of string cheese snacks. These little cheese tubes don’t need refrigeration, so it made it easy to keep something handy in case I got hungry. Little did I know how handy they would become.

February 9, 2004

A Quick Update

Dashing On A Bicycle I know I haven’t written in awhile and I want to thank everyone that sent me an e-mail, or dropped me an instant message to let me know that they missed my entries. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. 🙂 Anyway, I thought I should at least give a quick update on what’s been going on and why there hasn’t been any entries in over two weeks.

For starters, I’ve been busy keeping my New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve given this year a nickname – this is the year I “cut bait, or get out the kitchen.” In other words, either I get what I’m involved in organized and working properly, or I drop it and move on. This has translated into a lot of work, but this are progressing nicely and I’m finally starting to see some of the fruits of my labor.