Rock Climbing — A Metaphor

I am not a rock climber, but I dated someone who was. Through her and from the numerous television shows I’ve watched on rock climbing I’ve learned a valuable lesson — going straight up is not always the best way to reach the top. Sometimes you must back track, shift to the right or left and carve a new path, or jump to another rock in order to reach your destination.

Rock climbing, it’s a metaphor for life.

It’s Like Being At Stanford, Well Not Really
This week I started downloading and watching two podcasts produced by Stanford University. The two courses I am “taking” are Programming Methodology and iPhone Application Development.

For me the Programming Methodology class is like teaching a professional cyclist how to ride a bike, but starting from ground zero is not always a bad thing so I am going to continue with it. The iPhone Application Development class will be more like drinking from a fire hose.

ITP Flickr Pic
We have a winner! It’s not me, but I’m trying.
We Have A Winner!
Again I’ve gone nearly a week without once pressing the shutter button. Pity.

RealiTV Update: Hell’s Kitchen — Oh, Come On!
This may well be the last season of Hell’s Kitchen for me.

In last night’s episode Ramsay toyed with the hearts of Andrea and Ben by pulling them out of line at the very beginning as if he was going to fire one on the spot. Instead, he combined the read and blue teams into one “unified” black team.

For the reward competition each cook was given fourteen ingredients from which they were to make a dish containing each. Remarkably Ben was the winner, and he chose Robert to join him on a trip to San Francisco. The losers were sentenced to unloading delivery trucks and prepping food for the night.

During the night’s service it appeared that Ramsay was going to fire Andrea mid-service in the same way that he 86’ed J and Lacey in the previous two weeks. However, she was allowed to gather herself and rejoin the cooks. Giovanni found himself digging his own grave by mouthing off to Ramsay during service. In the end Andrea and Giovanni were nominated for elimination and Gio was let go.

At the very end of the show Ramsay called all five remaining contestants from their slumber, and did we need to see all of Robert’s fat as he lay in bed, to come back down to the kitchen. Ramsay told the cooks that he was dismayed and the he was closing Hell’s Kitchen. Yeah, right, what-the-fuck-ever. You can tell from the coming attractions that the contestants “convince” Ramsay not to close the restaurant, in fact I keep having images of them begging like little children — “Can we puhlease keep Hell’s Kitchen open? We’ll be better. We prooooomise!”

There Were Two New Episodes Of “The Office” Last Night?
Looks like I should have used my time to watch The Office instead of Hell’s Kitchen last night. The EARL to take in the Great Lake Swimmers show. The rest of the weekend will be consumed with various activities which involve beer — shocking, I know.

What’s on your agenda for this weekend? Really, I’d like to know.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – late
Current Music – listening to Leo Laporte’s “The Tech Guy” podcast
Website Of The Day – Want to purchase eco-friendly art supplies? Check out Stubby Pencil Studio. Hell, I’d check them out for that name alone!
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 10 (10)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 9
Marta Rides – 0

April Goals
none, and this is not an April Fools joke

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
– Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño 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]

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13 Responses to Rock Climbing — A Metaphor

  1. Martha says:

    Well if you really want to know…

    Tonight will be spent in Symings. Tomorrow is going to be busy. Jerry and I are going to head up to Red Top for some trail running, we are doing a 10K at Chicoppe in a couple of weeks and he’s never ran off road. Then I’m off to drop Dylan at his new home, I’ll be down to two pups…the house is going to be much quieter. Then to Decatur to celebrate with Ralph and Debbie.

    Not sure about Sunday, maybe Wheelhopper, maybe a run, maybe yard work, maybe Easter brunch somewhere…

    Of topic and for those not on FB, please keep Michelle and her folks in your thoughts, they just found out they lost their house to the wildfires sweeping Oklahoma.

  2. Cool.

    Oh, and since so many hashers read this space — Which hash ran through Inman Park recently? I saw flour on my drive in to work this morning (and obviously forgot to mention this in the blog).

  3. Martha says:

    Ever a question about ‘what hash ran where’?

    http://atlantahash.com/?page=events&subpage=map

    Looks like there was a moonlight on Monday…

  4. Barb says:

    here’s my schedule –
    tonight – dinner at the house with some friends (I’m sure there will be some serious wine drinking involved, my wine rep friend Leslie is bringing the wine)

    tomorrow – hopefully a bike ride, hopefully some reccy for the Wheelhopper 300th, then to a friends to work on cabinets & stuff in their garage. Allan’s big mouth (you should do this, and this, and move this eletrical outlet, etc.) has gotten him in trouble, they are making him help do it! I’m sure we will get a decent dinner out of it, and I’m sure there will be more wine drinking.

    Sunday – Wheelhopper in Marietta. All you ITP readers should join us….. especially Sal, it is close to home.

    To Michelle – I’m so bummed for you & your parents, I can’t imagine losing everything this way.

  5. It’s easier for me to ask here. 🙂 (thanks). Monday, hmm I’m surprised that today was the first day that I saw the flour — which went up to Highland and headed toward the Old Fourth Ward. I thought it may have been a Full Moon or SLUT last night.

  6. For those who haven’t heard, our friend Michelle’s parents lost their house due to fire recently (last night?). Luckily they were not at home. Unluckily it sounds as if it has burned to the ground. Their loss is great and I extend my condolences to them.

    Since this is my blog I will use this as a soapbox opportunity.
    1) Check/replace the batteries in your home’s smoke alarms (you do have smoke alarms, right?).
    2) Back up your computer data to an offsite location! I worry about asshats breaking in and stealing everything, but sometimes Mother Nature has other ideas and intervenes through fire, flood, tornado, earthquakes.

  7. Martha says:

    You probably couldn’t see the marks through the haze of yellow pollen until today.

    My biggest concern is a fire when I’m not home…really the only reason I’ve even considered getting an alarm system (monitored) is if there is a fire, hopefully the dogs can be rescued.

    (i do have a smoke alarm, it is laying on the dryer as we speak, yep, doing a lot of good there)

  8. Bob says:

    Michelle, sorry to hear about your parents place.

    We now have 2 smoke detectors (one sat in the garage for months until I finally put it up). I am also looking in to data storage, with all the baby pictures we are accumulating I would really hate to lose them. You can pick up a 250 gig drive for $50 now. I plan on getting 2 so I can keep a current copy at home, and a copy at an off sight location. I’ll just swap them out once a month.
    One of my biggest fears is to come home to a burned down house.

    On a lighter note, my weekend plans are to get back in touch with my inner redneck. I’m camping and dirt biking all weekend. Yay me!!

  9. Bob, will you also be shooting off guns and/or fireworks while camping? 🙂

  10. Barb says:

    Hey- does everyone have carbon monoxide detectors? I’m more worried about waking up dead from that than dying in a fire……..

    Oh yeah – we’ve got at least 2 smoke detectors. You can get them for free at your local fire house, and if you are a real pain in the butt, you can have the firemen come install them for you. Well, at least in in SW ATL you can, they even come door to door and ask & check sometimes.

  11. martha says:

    Barb, I’m very worried about ANYONE waking up dead, I’m scared of zombies, lol.

    Can you request a ‘specific’ firefighter to come to your house? The problem in my house (and the reason my detector isn’t installed) is it is so small, every time I cook, it would set it off. When/if the kitchen is redone, there will be an exhust fan installed to prevent this from happening.

  12. Steve says:

    I know I have a fresh battery in the man-cave, but I’m not so sure about the house- something wrong about that…

    Depending on how much house cleaning we get done tomorrow, in preparation for the Easter onslaught, we may make the trek to Ralph and Debbies’ par-tay tomorrow. Sounds like a fun evening.

    -FP

  13. Barb says:

    Martha – go up to Station 13, check out which shift has the cutest firemen, then ask on that day……. but wait, they might be getting new guys soon. Allan is rumored to be really moving to Buckhead in the next wek or two, but who wants to bet that the City delays it again?

    Years ago a plumber I knew had to fix a water heater that had a gas leak that would have killed the family if they wouldn’t have caught it. He was “dead” serious when he said if it would have been at night, and they wouldn’t have had it repaired, they would have woke up dead. It makes me laugh everytime I think of that line.

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