Last week I upgraded TextExpander for $15. The hope was that this version would play nicely with Firefox 3.6 (yes, my Safari experiment ended as quickly as I predicted). You might correctly gather from today’s title that my $15 will not be the best $15 I spend this year.
A reboot of my computer has corrected the problem. But this is a Mac and rebooting in order to get something to work is such an inelegant solution — this isn’t Windows after all.
I Believe That I Made The Right Decision
Aborting my plans to attend the Black Rock campout was a big one for me.
On Friday night I attended the Drive By Truckers show at Variety Playhouse. As you may remember I was all geared up for the opening act, David Barbe and his collection of players known as the Quick Hooks. Unfortunately their set was rather boring, I never got into their sound. I wound up leaving the DBT show early since I had an early-morning gig arranged for Saturday.
At 8am I found myself meeting up with ITP-Reader Maigh to help out with her photoshoot of our friend Kim. The rest of Saturday was spent (fighting naps while) making all efforts to learn iPhone development. I’ve downloaded a series of classroom videos from a German university (spoken in English) and have started to watch them.
Yesterday was a cleaning and organizing day before heading over to my friend Bill’s (aka High Dicker) house to celebrate his 50th birthday. The birthday party was well-attended (and the chicken wings were looked so delicious that they turned a vegetarian day into a carnivorous day) and I was able to see many friends that I don’t get to see all that often these days.
ITP Flickr Pic
One of the “behind the scene shots” from Saturday morning.
Just What Was/Is ExSE?
If you follow my Twitter stream this weekend you would have been hard-pressed to miss my coverage of ExSE. Many people have asked me what ExSE is.
If you follow the interactive media / indie music scene you will undoubtedly know that this is SxSW season; this past weekend was the Interactive Media weekend, next will be the Music weekend.
What better way to celebrate the SxSW hipsters from afar than to have your own exclusive, and of course fictitious conference… ExSE.
AT&T Cometh, Or So I Believe
Today is scheduled to be AT&T U-Verse installation day at the Inside The Perimeter estate. I’m hoping that the install goes well and that the resulting internet connection will be much faster than my current DSL speed.
Faced with all that is wrong with my house it may seem frivolous to be improving my internet connection first. However, slowly but surely I’m started to put efforts in place to fix up this old house.
RealiTV Update: The Amazing Race – I Was So Going To Pick Them!
I returned home from the birthday party late last night but I was able to watch my recording before going to bed.
SPOILERS INCLUDED
Last night I chose Team One, Team Gay One to be my “Pick To Be Eliminated.” Had I remembered that Joe (of Joe and Heidi) had suffered a bum knee after last week’s bungy free-fall I would have picked them, even though they have been a strong team. Playing off her previously strong picks ITP-Reader Stacy picked Team Big Brother (which seemed like the right choice given that they’d have to perform an extra task as a penance for not getting eliminated last week). ITP-Reader Terri decided to give up on Team Noun and chose Team Lesbian.
In a strange move all teams boarded a bus in Hamburg and were bussed to an undisclosed location (it turned out to be France). What, Germany is not good enough for The Amazing Race?
While in France the teams had to drive (an automatic!) to a nearby town and find a specific bakery in order to buy a baguette (I love how contestants can butcher foreign languages) into which the clue was baked. Often I wonder how teams figure out where clues are when they are hidden, this seemed fairly obvious but tripped up at least one team.
From the bakery the teams had to play war. Most teams wisely chose to crawl on their bellies through a battle field instead of trying to decipher Morse code. It was at this point that I started to root for Terri to be correct and have Team Lesbians get sent home; those two are so full of negativity. In a somewhat surprising move Team Clousteau (so fitting for the French countryside) U-Turned Joe and Heidi — I just never came up with a clever name for those two — forcing them to do the Morse code Detour as well. At first I thought Team Clousteau had bungled the situation, after all Joe and Heidi are intelligent, were well ahead of many other teams, would certainly figure out the Morse code and not get eliminated, and would exact revenge for being U-Turned. I was so wrong…. Effort after effort to resolve the Morse code message failed and they were indeed eliminated without ever making it to the Pit Stop.
As other teams completed the War, What Is It Good For? Detour they had to march South to get their next clue before mounting vintage bicycles and riding four miles to the Pit Stop. Of course Team Model Citizens didn’t follow directions, literally, and were forced to ride their bicycles back to where they picked them up, complete the march to get their clue, and then ride their bicycles back to the Pit Stop. I wondered if this blunder would be their comeuppance but they took their mistake in stride and still managed to finish in sixth place out of eight teams. I’ve come to really like Team Model Citizens’ Miss South Cackilacka because she has a real “can do” attitude, but those two are so clueless some times. If I get the opportunity I think I know which team I am going to pick for elimination next week. 😉
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – out of touch and really tired
Current Music – listening to “The Story” podcast
Website Of The Day – I have long loved Design With Reach‘s website and the products they offer therein.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 203 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 20
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 15 (15)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 13
Marta Rides – 0
March Goals
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
– Get the new 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
– 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
– 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]
Debbie suckered me in to watching AR last night. I have to say they put a lot of effort into recreating a WWI battle scene. I’m sure the location is maintained, but the aircraft and explosions were well done. Morse code isn’t easy to decipher, even when you aren’t next to a live battle. I felt a little bad for them.. not a great way to lose.
-FP
Ha, too funny Steve. I agree, that battlefield looked intense.
Hey look! I think that I got the Daylight Saving Time fix in without needed to be reminded. 🙂
I think not going to the campout was a good decision for me as well. I managed to get a few things done and even start on a little yard work. I need to get the back yard in shape so I can be ready to host a Welcome Back Spring party.
I was good to see you and everyone else last night, I feel like I’ve been away a little too long. I snagged a few of those chicken wings myself.
Hi ya Paulie!
Had to pop in and tell you that I FINALLY made it to the Tabernacle to see Ben Folds last night, and the show and location totally rocked… Guess that gets “going to a concert” off my list of things to do for 2010!
Hope all is well yall!
Gentri
Sounds like a blast. I like me some BF5. I nearly went to a Middle Distance Runner show last night but was so pooped upon returning from High Dicker’s that I could only muster the desire to watch tv.
Things are okay. Surfing the web via AT&T U-Verse. Surfing rocks but there is static on the phone line so I may have to have them come back out to look at it — not surprising given the spaghetti wiring this house possesses.