Another rainy day. Frankly I’m over it. I know that this is to end tomorrow and that nicer weather is in the forecast, but I’m ready for it now…
A Lot Of Work About Nothing
I spent a good portion of my weekend working. Yes, I love writing code. No, I was not happy to miss yesterday’s Black Sheep. Yep, I managed to miss both Black Sheep hashes in the past seven days.
ExSE : Introducing The World’s Worst Photoshop User
Did you attend ExSE this weekend? I did!
What, you didn’t hear about ExSE? It was only the biggest festival that wasn’t called SXSW! Actually, ExSE was a fun little spoof carried out by a bunch of us on Twitter.
At one time yesterday I tweeted about getting free schwag just by flashing your ExSE credentials. So I tried to make some…
In the hands of a skilled professional Adobe’s Photoshop can yield incredible works of art. In my hands it’s like giving a chimp a pair of scissors and expecting a decent haircut.
Here is the ExSE logo that I created.
This took me at least ten minutes and countless “undos” of poor editing choices. I had much more in mind, but could not how to figure out how to do them in Photoshop. Perhaps it’s time to think about taking some sort of Photoshop training?
One Book Down, Another Started
Since I joined Audible last month I’ve been trying to use it in order to justify the monthly cost. On my trip home from Raleigh two weekends ago I listened to the lion’s share of Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down. Over the past week I finally finished listening to the last two hours.
What next? I’ve chosen to download another book that I own physically (read “so I can get another book out of the house”), and this time I’ve chosen Michael Ruhlman’s The Making Of A Chef. At first I was disappointed that the book was not read by Ruhlman. I’m about three hours into the book and have finally gotten used to the droned voice that narrates the book.
ITP Flickr Pic
On Thursday of last week I went out for a walk to get lunch. Having my camera handy I decided to snap a photo of the old Circuit City as it now sits vacant.
The Amazing Race: The Skivvy Edition
Russia, oh Russia. How far away you are….
The teams depart Siberia and head to Nobbonovivisk (or something like that) via a neat sleeper train. I want to take a sleeper train some time, preferably not one that’s headed to New Orleans for Mardi Gras however. Once in this town it was time for them to drive cars which look like Yugos. They probably were Yugos, but were renamed to sound less Yugoslavian and more Russian. Driving a manual-transmission car in a foreign country scares me almost as much as bungie jumping off a ginormous dam, so once again I was reminded that I should never apply for The Amazing Race.
The teams drove their Yugos throughout the town either looking for a Russian bride (probably the choice I’d have taken figuring if I failed to deliver her I might be able to keep her) or drive a big-ass snow plow through an obstacle course.
Once done with the Detour the teams had to drive their way to the next Road Block which was at a Biblioteka (or something like that). For this one team member had to strip down to his/her skivvies and run 1.4 miles through freezing Russian streets. What? Are you kidding? At least the runners were supplied with trainers and tour guides to get them to the ballet.
I was almost surprised that the ballet was the Pit Stop for this stage of the race. It didn’t seem like the teams really had to struggle much in this leg.
In a twist of The Amazing Race fate, last week’s winners, the blond flight attendants, wound up as this week’s last place finishers. Kicking off blonde females two weeks in a row is never CBS’ M.O., so the ladies were granted a stay of execution and were not eliminated.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fair, although I’ve made a few unfortunate realizations
Current Music – listening to last week’s “FLOSS Weekly” podcast
Website Of The Day – Going to make some food but don’t know how much you’ll need so that you won’t make too much? Check out Love Food Hate Waste
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monday Morning Weigh-In – 199 pounds
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 2.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 13 (13)
Vegetarian Days – 8, Carnivorous Days – 7
Marta Rides – 0
March Goals
– Complete all necessary work on my kitchen
– Lose no fewer than one pound
– Run no fewer than 30 miles
– Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas
2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 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 I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I guess that was your evil twin brother we saw at the start of the hash yesterday, then?
Sort of. It was my responsible brother who actually cares enough about Black Sheep statistics to drive all the way to the start to get the sign-in sheet (as well as those of recent hashes). He knew better than to actually run trail.
Speaking of trail… how was it?
Also, I signed up for (not) Black Rock Camping last night, only to remember that we are having an interview day at the office on Friday March 27th so I won’t be able to leave the office early to drive to Tugaloo.
I’m thinking the blondes won’t be able to handle the additional speed bump next week, and will be gone. And, not sure about the running in the undies – if they would have had a few “locals” run that way too, I think it would have been more entertaining. But seeing Phil strip down was good…..
I guess it would have been more exciting for them to run around in their skivvies lost and trying to find the ballet….
We need the rain…….don’t complain too much.
I also wondered why they had to run with a number? Was there confusion about who was running in their underwear in Russia?
It would have been more entertaining for them to try and ask locals where the ballet was, while dressed only in skivvies,
I know we need the rain. I just hate not seeing the sun for days in a row. It depresses me.
Trail was good, especially if me you enjoy running (and occassionally crawling) through lwet and muddy tunnels. The rain also helped recreate some pre-drought swamps in low-lying areas. Sani and the rest of the bimbo crew did a bang up job getting up tarps and even building a small fire at the on-in. Heck, Sani (?) even brought hot mac’n cheese for all to enjoy. A great deal for the he $7 I didn’t pay 🙂
Grammar check — “if LIKE me…”
Do you think the producers have made the decision before the sart as to whether it will be an elimination stage or not? I’m guessing not, depending on who finishes where.
I’m pleased to observe the teams actually trying to say “excuse me” and “thank you” in the native language, and not assuming everyone on the earth speaks English.
I know the rental car I had in Germany was a standard, and I believe that is the norm. I’d be a little thrown off by driving on the left and a stick.
Better practice before you travel.
-FP
I wonder about if the non-elimination stages are determined beforehand. I’ve always wondered why more teams didn’t carry along a little translation card or find a way to communicate in broken local-language in order to help themselves out. Sure a large part of the world speaks English, but it seems that The Amazing Race goes out of its way to find places that do not.
Having virtually no standard-transmission driving skills is one of the glaring ManCard omissions I possess. It ranks up there with my poor house-fixing skills and my inability to whistle loudly.
My car is a stick shift…but I never thought about how it would be driving on the other side? Interesting
Most of Europe drives on the same side as us, it is just Britain and her former colonies that drive on the ‘wrong’ side. My college boyfriend taught me to drive a stick, I’m sure I’m rusty but could still manage if needed.
I watched AR for the first time last night, I’m sure wearing a thong didn’t hurt the blond girls chances of staying. We couldn’t help but laugh when they kept referring to 1.4 miles as a long run.
I know we need the rain, but I’m over running in it…on the positive side it gave me a great excuse to stay inside and finally paint the living room.
I did a motorcycle race in that muck yesterday. I know we need the rain but damn, that was some soupy mud we went through.
I was so beat I couldn’t even stay awake for Amazing Race.
On the other hand it stoked my fire to get back in shape. Paulie, are you gonna make it out for an after work Roswell ride this week? Weather looks like it will be great for after work riding.
My availability this week is dependent on my productivity at work.
Well than get crackin there mister!! 🙂
hey Martha – 1.4 miles would be a long run for me….. 😉
I did laugh when Jenn said she didn’t wear underwear, so she had to find some to wear.
That was a little TMI for me..
And come on Barb.. you rode 45 Saturday… even you could handle 1.4.
-FP
Bob (& anyone else) – ride Tuesday or Wed. night in Roswell – doesn’t really matter which night, if we get going by 5:45 again, think we can get in the longer loop? We could start with just a little warm-up by the river, then go across 120 up that damn hill on Willeo (or whatever the street name is) & finish with Martin’s Landing?
Steve – I’d have been walking that 1.4 miles in my underwear, I haven’t run in years now.
Ride will have to be Wednesday, I have a meeting till 6PM tomorrow.
I asked my boss what the hell he was thinking calling a meeting from 4 to 6 on St. Patty’s day. Not that I’m a big “go out on St. Patty’s day” guy but happy hour would be nice. Anyway, I told him to not expect me to be sober 🙂