Rough Start

These unseasonably cooler temperatures have returned me to the ways of Winter hibernation. Recently once again I’ve started getting up, turning off alarm clocks, and return to a warm bed to sleep again.

Taco Mac, Party Of One
After work last night I went over to Taco Mac for a couple of beverages and some dinner. My iPad and I were led to our seat past the longest table of people that I have ever seen. I didn’t count the people at this “one” table, but there must have been thirty people (coworkers as I came to understand through eavesdropping).

As a regular at the Perimeter Taco Mac I was surprised how few of the waitstaff that I recognized, and dismayed to see that many of them were dudes.

Last night I also noticed that my “Wee lil Bit” plaque has yet to be moved from the Bachelor’s Degree Achievers’ board to the Master’s Degree Achievers’ board even though I passed the necessary beer count to be considered a Master’s Degree achiever weeks ago.

Green With Disgust
I’m losing confidence in the power of rechargeable batteries. I have been a long-time proponent of rechargeable batteries (getting my first ones as 9v batteries (remember those?) in the 1980s).

Recently my Apple bluetooth keyboard and trackpad have been eating battery charges like candy. I’ve been slow-trickle recharging AA batteries, in pairs, and within two weeks the devices are reporting low-batterty conditions. There is a chance that the devices are to blame instead of the batteries (which by the way are “major brand” batteries) but for some reason I have more confidence in the quality of the Apple hardware over the batteries themselves.

I’ll keep trying to save the world by using rechargeable batteries, but at what point does the power consumption needed to keep recharging the batteries so regularly outweigh the use of “disposable” batteries?

Leveling Up My Nerditude
2011 has been different that 2010 in many ways. With the addition of last night’s absence of the monthly Roswell Photographic Society meetings I’ve now missed every meeting this year. However, I will be attending tonight’s iOS Atlanta [hmm, I’ve once again managed to break Text Expander as it won’t expand my new snipped for the iOS Atlanta link. Dangen!] meetup which means I’ve made virtually all of them this year.

In case it hasn’t been blatantly obvious this year I’ve refocused my efforts from photography to software development. Stealing the quote stitched into the Life Is Good shirt that I wore yesterday, “Do what you like. Like what you do.”

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – oddly tired, late, getting mentally prepared for PT
Current Music – listening to this week’s “Build and Analyze” podcast
Website Of The Day – Did you know that this is “Craft Beer Week?” The people at Craft Beer certainly did.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – not checking because I know that I’m not losing weight and now just hope that I fit into my nice pants for jury duty selection next week

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights

Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)

Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 16

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

May Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least once
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than five days
– Lose three pounds
Go out on a date with someone else
– Read an entire book, specifically The Laws Of Simplicity

2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– 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
Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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13 Responses to Rough Start

  1. Martha says:

    To answer yesterday’s question, we did make it to Ocoee Zip on Friday. We weren’t sure if the weather was going to cooperate, we started to see lightening off in the distance at the 5th tower…we managed to finish up and make it into the van as the rain started.

    It was fun, we enjoyed it and will do it again. And wouldn’t you know it, yesterday’s living social deal was for rafting at the same place. I know you’ve ‘gone off’ facebook but pictures and video are posted.

    Yeah, uh, what’s up with this weather?? It feels like Feb out there, I almost grab gloves for walking the dogs this morning. Blood Mountain was just this side of miserable…when it started to rain I thought we were done, thankfully it never rained very hard and it turned into a nice hike, no beautiful views at the top, just clouds/fog.

    How old are the batteries? My charger will tell me when they are used up and need to be replaced? The only issue I’m having now is my electric toothbrush, I have to keep it in the charger or it won’t work, it use to last a few weeks on a single charge.

  2. Glad you had a good time. I like ziplining, though I think I want to try the place in Lula GA (near Gainesville) because Barb and Allan said it was more fun.

    I’ve all-but given up on Facebook and Twitter. I admit that in my ample solo time last weekend I needed a break from programming so I logged on to each to see if anyone had reached out to me — which they hadn’t, thus confirming my intuition that I would not be overly-missed if I quit.

    The batteries are relatively new. I’ve purchased so many in the past three years (I’ve been trying to eliminate disposable batteries from my life) that I can’t recall when any specific pair were purchased.

    I do know that certain batteries were purchased with certain chargers (of which I’ve owned about six in the past three years, some “fast” chargers and some “slow, trickle” chargers, so I wonder if the battery/charger combination may be my problem).

    Off to PT…

  3. Barb says:

    well Paulie – when you tell us you quit FB, why would we send you messages there?

    We’d maybe be interested in going back to the N. GA Canopy Tours zipline again, but we’d have to get another deal, it is a little pricy without it.

  4. Steve says:

    For those who might not have seen the picture posted late yesterday on the blog, apparently the Grove metality of storage has hit the BMC Team mechanics warehouse- it cracked me up.

    http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/photos/bmc-racing-team-behind-the-scenes-at-the-service-course/174047

    I managed a little run last night of about 3 miles and the achilles tendon was not too painful. I’ll try and run at Jorges tomorrow night.. I believe that will be my 3rd visit this year!! Been tough so far.

    And Martha is right, those rechargables do have a limit. It’s possible you got a bad batch?

    -FP

  5. bob says:

    Too funny Steve, that looks a LOT like the Garage Mahal!

    Anybody participating in the ride of silence tomorrow?

  6. Barb says:

    I’ve sent the picture over to Allan, I’ll see what he says.

    Where/what time is the Ride of Silence?
    Probably not, hoping to meet up with our backyard landscaper, I think he wants to start next week. Yep – we will be broker than broke after this one, but it will be a damn nice paver stone patio & retaining walls once it is done.

  7. bob says:

    Ride of Silence is 6:30 at Piedmont Park. I always hit George’s afterwards too.

  8. Barb says:

    and – this is pretty much a question for Steve- why the heck do they call a warehouse of bike stuff a Serivce Course?

  9. Steve says:

    Sorry Barb, I think that’s more a translation issue. I believe it started in Italian and got butchered into English. Maybe you could ask SOMEONE who works there? Or TJ?

    Spoiler alert- The Manx Missle takes it with Alle-jet eating dust in 3rd.

  10. You’d be surprised how many people have started to follow me on Twitter even though I’ve not posted anything in over a month. Besides, when do people believe that I’ll do what I say I’m going to do? 🙂

    For semi-obvious reasons no Ride of Silence for me this year, though I rode the still-functioning mountain bike last year. I wish I could go since I’m now almost one of the poster-children of this ride — thankfully I’m still around.

    Good luck with the landscaping Barb. Believe or not I started contemplating a 5-year plan for the ITP-Estate. I probably won’t commit to it though.

  11. Barb says:

    I ask you Steve, because I’ll get an quicker answer 😉
    Actually, I think I have asked the family more than once, no one has a good answer – well, one that made any sense to me.

    Paulie – landscaping plan? no way! 😉

  12. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    No landscaping for me, Barb (maybe some tree limb maintenance). I’m considering radical things like fixing broken things in and on the house.

  13. Steve says:

    Barb, I looked around, tried Google Translator from the source Italian I remembered, but no luck. I did find a good blog on pro cycling..

    http://www.theservicecourse.com/

    Kinda snarky and certainly not as prolific as some bloggers we all know and love, but good stuff nonetheless.

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