Not Quite To Plan

I have made my life too complicated, and because of this I occasionally border on panic. Take today for instance. I have a full day of work ahead of me, then need to lay the Moonlight Hash, hoping that it doesn’t rain and that the bar I spoke with last week is still okay with having us there.

Because of tonight’s plan and my newly-revived desire for exercise I had an ingenious plan for yesterday. I went and had lunch at Las Tortas Locas and then did laundry at the lavanderia (made slightly more interesting because the Argentina v. Mexico game was on the tvs). From there I drove to work with the bike on my car. The plan was to do some reccying for tonight’s trail — which starts about a mile from my office, ride my bike home, and then wake up early enough to ride my bike into work this morning. My reccying was minimal and when the time came to hop on my bike the temperature was hovering around 92º F; I just couldn’t convince myself that this was a smart thing to do. I wound up driving home and then driving into work this morning.

Friday Night Started Things Right, Though
After work on Friday I drove up to Marietta to ride, thankfully not in the rain/lightning through which I drove to get there. I met ITP-Readers Barb, Bob, Steve and Allan for a ride from Rocco’s up to the top of Kennesaw Mountain and back. The ride was hot, but I was pleased with my effort. The last time I rode up Kennesaw Mountain I had to stop twice to catch my breath, and this time I made it up without stopping. I guess my commuting to work is helping.

Perhaps the only downside of the evening was that I am sure I consumed more calories in beer and food than I burned off riding.

ITP Flickr Pic
I didn’t shoot anything this weekend. Ugh.

This is the final shot from my Arabia Mountain shoot that I’ll post.

A Long Day Of Seminaring
On Saturday morning I joined a handful of Flickrites for breakfast and then we headed to the Roswell Photographic Society Summer Seminar. The information provided throughout the day was useful, but probably would have been more useful to me if the arrangement in the room did not consist of rows of uncomfortable chairs. My body doesn’t react well to many hours of sitting in uncomfortable chairs, so by day’s end I was ready to bolt.

The funniest thing to happen on Saturday was related to the door prizes which were given out. At each break two or more door prizes were given out, the first usually being something cool (like a point-and-shoot camera) and the rest for that break being 8GB USB thumb drives. After the first two drawings during the second break the guy pulled out a number and I joked with my friends “Dont’ be me. Don’t be me.” and wouldn’t you know, it was me. That’s right! I was a winner, of an $18 USB thumb drive…. Oh, it sure is better than winning nothing, but when compared to the other items being given away as door prizes it wasn’t much better than winning nothing.

Of the four speakers at the day’s event I, unsurprisingly, enjoyed Craig Tanner’s presentation the most. Tanner was the guy whose weekend-long seminar I took up in Nashville a few months ago. And his parting wisdom was as true Saturday as it was then — “You are not shooting enough.” I am not, and I am hoping to change that soon.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – silence as things download in the background.
Website Of The Day – If you are a Twitter user and are looking for a laugh you need to go to IS Parade and entire your Twitter ID. Oh, you probably want to do this with headphones on; it’s safe for work but loud.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Friday: cycling, 17.5 miles
Morning Weigh-In – 204 pounds (STILL! fuck. me.)
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 10.5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 173.4 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2 (24)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 27
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 4

June Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
– Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
– Complete at least one iPhone application

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
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account.
– 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]