Productive Early, Sleepy Late

By my standards last night was an oddly productive night even if I did crash by 10:00pm while watching a Stanford iPhone class.

When I pulled into my driveway yesterday I was disheartened to see the gutters, which I recently paid $105 to have cleaned, covered with crap from the surrounding trees. The afternoon’s original plan was some lawn mowing to be followed by the grilling of a hamburger on my little portable grill.

I got the lawnmower out (and it started on the first pull!) mowed the front and back lawns (swallowing a pound of pollen in the process I’m sure) and then something weird happened — I got inspired. Once the lawnmower was put away I grabbed a ladder and my leaf blower and headed to the roof! After spending some time blowing gunk out of the gutters I descended from roof, cleaned the debris off the deck, and then proceeded to blow the carport, walkway, and driveway clean. I must have been delirious from the intake of pollen.

I then returned to my regularly-scheduled evening of showering and then cooking a hamburger on the grill.

To cap it off, all this was done by 7:30pm. There was nothing that could stop me from learning and writing iPhone code.

Well There Was One Thing That Could Stop Me
Sleep.

I dragged laptop in to the bedroom (which possesses the only freely-opening window) to watch a Stanford iPhone class and attempt to write some code. I’m not sure how long it took me to fall asleep but I know it wasn’t long after I started watching the video. I struggled mightily. I decided that I was in no condition to learn, so I switched to an entertaining podcast — I fell asleep again. Not much later I gave up the ghost and fell asleep for good.

Oh well, at least I had the knowledge that I’d been somewhat successful at getting things done.

ITP Flickr Pic
Digging into last week’s shots (which means that I need to shoot more).

I baked a chicken last week. When I do I follow the manufacturer’s recommended cooking time, but then I insert a thermometer into the bird — just to be sure it’s fully cooked.

I like “environmental” shots like this, and aspire to do them as well as my friend Romanlily one day.

Ich Bin Ein Apple iPhone Developer
The paperwork was approved, the $99 annual fee has been supplied, it’s official, Sharpened Stone, LLC is an iPhone Application Developer. Now if I could only learn how to develop for the darned thing…

Actually, I’m rather stoked. This completes an action that I had tried to get done in early 2009. In order to become a “Company” iPhone developer you have to be a company and supply paperwork proving this. Now any applications I distribute through the App Store will be coming from my company name, Sharpened Stone, as opposed to my name.

Progress may be slow, but at least it’s progress.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – pretty good
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – There are a couple of really good graphics apps available on the web, Aviary is one of the best.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 200 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 3 (3)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 7
Marta Rides – 0

April Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
– Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving…

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
– Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]