Fine, It Was A “Big Night” Of Drinking

I start with an appetizer of errata. I’ve incorrectly been referring to the movie which was the inspiration for last Friday’s dinner gathering as “The Big Night” when I should have been referring to it as Big Night. I live in a country where definite articles rule the world, unless you are Apple. Regardless of the title I drank way too much red wine on Friday night and was treated to some incredibly tasty food including Gary’s (aka “Rats Ass”) “Ballsagne”, Carol’s (aka “Wine Ho”) anti-pasto platter of delectables, ITP-Reader Betsy’s Timpano (which you may remember I helped create), and tasty desserts brought by yseterday’s-birthday-girl ITP-Reader Terri. What did I bring? Wine, bread, and a gift of splattering red wine all over the front of my light-yellow shirt. There was something about an omelet in this movie, right? Have I mentioned that I was drinking that night?

I Love To Code, I’m Obsessed With Coding
Stick a fork in me because with the exception of Friday night and the few hours spent watching television last night, I was head’s down in writing software for work. I love to write code. I am obsessed with writing code. I am a lost caused which has no desire to be lured from this behavior.

ITP Flickr Pic
I tried to have something ready for today, but I really disliked the photo of the finished Timpano I had intended on posting.

Used Car Talk?
I’ve always wondered how the Car Talk guys produced a show every week. I may have stumbled upon an answer. While listening to the podcast of last week’s episode I realized that with of the exception of the closing line which referenced iPhone data tracking, none of the content seemed timely. Here is what I jotted down:

First, Polaroid photos were mentioned in the leading story. Really? Polaroids? In this day of digital photography prevalence?

Then, here were the callers and the cars the referenced (mileage included when provided):

• Stu : 1986 Toyota Camry – 129,000 miles
• Liz : 1998 Mazda Protoge
• Smitty : 1988 Buick Park Avenue – ~150,000 miles
• Jeff : 1991 Mazda Protoge – ~110,000 miles (Is this “current” pricing? I wish my transmission replacement cost “only” $1700 last year!)
• Christa : 1994 Saturn SL1
• Kelly : 1997 Mazda Mirage – ~86,000 miles
• Yusef : 2000 Infiniti G20

None of these cars have been manufactured within the last TEN years. I’ll admit that newer cars should have fewer problems. However, my 2002 Accord has had significant problems and I’ve racked up 129,000 miles. How can a car from 1986 have the same mileage?

I realize this is not “60 Minutes”-worthy investigative reporting, nor that the sampling of this one show provides conclusive evidence, but it really makes me wonder.

RealiTV Update: The Amazing Race – Wax On, Wax Off
If you don’t want to know, don’t read any further
Well it’s happened again you’ve wasted an hour two hours of your life watching the season finale of The Amazing Race.

REWIND:
Twelve hours earlier I put a nearly-five-pound chunk of pork, seasoned with salt and pepper into a crockpot with a cup-and-a-half of apple cider vinegar. By 7pm it was done and I extracted the meat from the liquid and made a sauce from the de-fatted liquid and some brown sugar, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, and some hot sauce. Dinner, and a few lunches, for sure.

FAST FORWARD:
We begin the finale in Switzerland with four teams. This is one of the few times I’ve seen a location on The Amazing Race and thought “Holy hell I’d like to visit that place!”. At first it appears that Team Trotters and Team Assburger have found flights which’ll get them to Brazil hours ahead of Team Daddy’s Little Miss America and Team Sista Sista. But, thanks to Big Easy’s inability to hide his thoughts all teams book the same flight.

At this point I’ll mention that there were many Roadblocks and Detours in this block of two hours. I’ll not be commenting on all because I have a job to do today, and probably can’t remember all of the details to each. So, consider this recap more of a highlight reel.

The first hour of the show were all about Team Assburger’s bad day.

The first Roadblock proved the age-old belief that white men can’t dance. Once again we see Team Assburger arrive first at at Roadblock/Detour, only to leave last, or in this case near-last. Poor Zev showed the dancing ability of a storefront mannequin while Team Daddy’s Little Miss America’s Mallory and Team Sista Sista’s (huh, I can’t remember her name) both “out Samba’d” him. I also thought that Team Trotter’s Big Easy would also “out Samba” Zev, but he appeared to be having too much fun to stop dancing.

In Brazil we encounter what I believe is the worst Roadblock ever — forcing all racers to spend fifteen minutes getting waxed. Here’s my logic:

1. Some contestants have far more hair — I’m looking at you Justin — and thus endure much more pain than others
2. Regardless of the amount of hair each team has to spend the same amount of time, fifteen minutes, for the Roadblock. Therefore there is no competition, just punishment.
3. For contestants with a lot of hair — I’m looking at you again Justin — they were not completely waxed, and therefore looked ridiculous when their fifteen minutes were over.

This Roadblock should have been a Fast Forward somewhere else. Shame on the person who thought of this Roadblock.

After getting lost Team Assburger tried and failed mightily to sell bikinis at a beach. I thought this would be the Detour which launched them back to the top, but instead it was the Detour which eliminated them. After admitting defeat Team Assburger was well behind all of the other teams with no hope of catching up.

It amazes me how many times The Amazing Race is won or lost thanks to shitty cabbies or unfortunate automobile mechanical issues. Team Daddy’s Little Miss America was done in by the former as the picked a cabbie who had no idea how to get to the marina at which a Roadblock was held.

I thought the underwater personal-submarine was really neat. I want to do that someday.

I’m sure that the persons responsible for creating the final Roadblock of setting up a kitsch trailer-park trailer never intended gale-force winds to come in to play. Under calm conditions I think this Roadblock was neat, but given the wind (and Miss Rose’s accounting for it), this Roadblock became a fiasco.

In the end Team Sista Sista, who were so middle-of-the-road that I don’t remember their names, finished in first place. I am disappointed that none of the final Roadblocks involved having to remember things from the race.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, though I have many concerns
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Want a peek into what most of my waking hours have been about? Apple’s Introduction To The Objective-C Programming Language. I know you probably couldn’t care less, but it’s the best thing I have for today.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – crap, I completely forgot to weigh myself again

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 – 8

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]