Oh, Hello There

I’m on a paid holiday today, but if you’re not here’s short blog to tide you over until tomorrow.

The $200+ Bike Ride
Sometimes I wonder about my sense of reasoning.

I woke up an did what was almost an incredible East Atlanta <-> Stone Mountain bike ride on Saturday morning. For the longest time on the ride I thought the worst of it was going to be the rock that I hit square-on while not paying attention which I thought for sure had bent my front rim. That was until I stopped for a traffic light and switched podcasts on my 160GB iPod Classic.

When I pushed off from the stoppage I slipped the iPod into the leftmost pocket of my jersey. The iPod felt uncomfortable in that pocket so I went to put it into the middle pocket while riding, and that’s when it happened… Out of my hand and onto the street the iPod fell. I quickly stopped and retrieved the fallen iPod and was relieved to see that it seemed to only suffer some surface dings but still worked.

I had questioned taking the 160GB iPod that morning because I’d performed a sync on my old 8GB iPod Nano on Friday afternoon and that would have served me well on the bike ride. But no, I took the “big boy.”

My relief turned to horror when I arrived home and tried to sync the 160GB iPod with my Mac.

“iTunes has detected a corrupted iPod. You need to perform a Restore.”

No problem, I’ve done this in the past and figured that a clean slate might be a good thing for this iPod.

“An error occurred and iTunes cannot Restore this iPod.”

And that’s the last time I saw my beloved 160GB function properly. All attempts to put it into “Disk Mode” so that I can force a Restore failed. All functions, except for the hard drive tests, seem to pass muster using the “secret” Service Menu Tests. As you might guess the hard drive is a crucial, and perhaps most expensive, component in the old iPods.

Did you know that refurbished 160GB iPods still cost over $200? Neither did I, and had I known this on Saturday that iPod would have never gone out on the bike ride with me.

ITP Flickr Pic
I did some photography at the Peachtree Road Race on Sunday.

This was the lead pack for the men. Somewhere in this pack was the day’s eventual winner. These guys are F. A. S. T.

On a critical note: Although I really like this shot (as well as the post-processing I performed on it) I assume there will be a day during which I stop trying to shoot so damn tight and get everyone’s feet into the photo. I have to learn to remind myself that it’s not a crime to shoot a little wider and crop.

I’m Spending Too Many Nights Alone
When I was a kid I never understood why my parents rarely went out at night with friends. Other than local family it seemed as if they had no other friends, but from what I understand now it may have been related to our lack of finances as well.

I see myself starting to fall into that same pattern of staying at home alone on many nights and I don’t like it. Yes, I do a lot of things — eating out, going to concerts, etc. — mostly during the week, but also I do most of these things alone. I don’t feel a need to do everything with someone else, see also my Colorado driving trip that I will relish taking alone in August/September, but the amount of time I spend alone at nights is really starting to concern me.

A case and point: For perhaps the eighth out of the past ten Fourth of Julys I stayed at home alone. I remember one year going over to Maigh’s old apartment to shoot fireworks photos, and I’m fairly certain that Jeannie and I did something the one Fourth of July we spent together.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – I really don’t know today
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Did you know that our Federal Government has a website? Yep, it’s at USA.gov.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday: cycling, ~37 miles; Sunday: walking, ~3 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3 miles miles, Wheel Mileage – ~37 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 5 (5)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 4
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

July Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month (still waiting to accomplish this)
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 150 miles
– Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
– Complete at least one iPhone application
– Completely plan out my August/September Colorado trip

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I’ve sadly gained weight; I’m at 203 pounds]
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
– Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Sharpened Stone.
– 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 Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]