Impromptu Racquetball

“Looks like if we don’t play today, the next available date is Sunday.” was how the conversation started. And with that we made arrangements to play last night.

Three consecutive days of exercise? In-con-CEIVE-able! Fear not, I shan’t be withering away anytime soon as I am taking a break tonight.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Take ten minutes to review your passwords and ensure that they are secure.

Passwords need to be both easy to remember and secure, but a lot of us may opt for the former and pay less attention to the latter. By creating passwords that are harder for cybercriminals to breach, you help protect your accounts and information.

Only you can prevent people from guessing your passwords.

I Thought I Could See Or Be A Star!
I went over to Perimeter Mall yesterday to drop off my defective iPhone 5, which thankfully is eligible for free “out of warranty servicing” for one of the issues it’s experiencing.

As I exited Von Maur I saw a huge white sheet, some camera gear, and a small group of people milling about. Having once prided myself on the techniques of photography I immediately recognized the sheet as a light diffuser. I guess I was hoping to see one of today’s big movie stars like Gregory Peck or someone in the area, but I recognized no one. There were a bunch of young, well-dressed teens, and as I escalated it appeared that they were filming a Brookstone commercial (or a movie scene supposedly shot inside a Brookstone perhaps). I sucked in my gut and fixed my hair, but I was not asked to join their work; their loss I say.

Inside the Apple store I was treated with a little more respect, as one who has purchased five Mac computers, three iPads, four iPhones, four iPods, and an iPod Touch in the past ten years should expect. By “respect” I mean that I interacted with three Apple store employees and was able to drop off my iPhone 5 for repair without having to make a formal appointment with an Apple Genius. Huzzah! I was really hoping that the Genius would pull up my purchase history and decide that I was a “Valued Customer” and give me a new (refurbished) iPhone 5 for my troubles; this would have also fixed the photo spotting issue (which is not a “known issue”) that caused me to buy a iPhone 5c this year. Oh well, maybe they’ll accidentally break mine and be forced to upgrade me. Either way this device is targeted to by my iOS 8 beta device for some of the app testing I hope to be doing later this year.

llabteuqcaR
(doing it in reverse)

Because we made last-minute arrangements to play racquetball the only open slot we could find at the Brookhaven LA Fitness was for 8pm. Knowing well that we could not play on a completely empty stomachs my boss and I decided to eat prior to playing (we’re not stupid, we ate around 6pm).

Our food of choice, and no I had no beer, was Corner Pizza where I had a sandwich and fries. While sitting at their bar eating my mouth watered at the delicious-looking pizzas that exited their ovens; I see myself making a return trip for some sooner rather than later.

Admittedly the food was a bit heavy for a pre-racquetball meal (eating prior to exercising is another of the no-nos on my throat recovery plan) and I felt it badly during the first thirty minutes of play. Thankfully things improved with time.

By the time we were done playing and showering I was in no mood to have a post-workout beer, so I went home. You may not see this as a monumental win, but I did.

I Have Cross Words For The NY Times Crosswords App
Last week the NY Times updated their iOS crossword app. Normally an update to this app brings good things and at first blush this seemed to be the case — until I started digging further.

The first signal that something was amiss was when I realized that the update blew away all of my history, showing all puzzles as uncompleted. Bugger! Then things really went down hill when I tried to go back into the archives.

“Huh, they’ve really messed up the calendar navigation, I can no longer jump back a year at a time. I’ll need to go back month by month which really sucks.” I thought.

And then I read the reviews on iTunes.

Apparently the NY Times considers $17/year (the rate I pay for access to their current and previously-purchased puzzles) too paltry to allow users to access the full archives. Now, in order to access puzzles older than one year I need to pony up $40/year. Fuck that. Come my next renewal time in April 2015 I will be canceling my subscription unless the Times has a change of heart.

Today’s Personal Project
Go see ITP-Reader Betsy’s play this evening.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sore, but okay
Current Music – listening to this year’s “State Of The Platform” presentation from this year’s WWDC
Website Of The Day – As I (too slowly) continue to remove items from the ITP estate I am finding things like archaic floppy disks. 1-800-Recycling “How to Recycle Floppy Disks” may be the first article I need to read this weekend.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – racquetball, ~90 minutes
Morning Weigh-In – 216 pounds (2014-05-30)

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3.8 miles
Wheel Mileage – ~33.0 miles
Gym Visits – 2 (2 cardio)

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

June Goals
– clean my basement to the point where I could have people over
– hire a plumber to fix all of the sinks at the ITP Estate
– go away two of the weekends

2014 Goals: Measurable
– Get my weight down to 190 pounds so that I can wear a 36″ waist pants comfortably
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Completely run at least one 10k
– Fix all (or at least most) of the things which are wrong with the ITP Estate
– Sell the ITP Estate (tentative)

2014 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Continue to Simplify, simplify, simplify
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
– Start, and continue, to make my own bread using my bread machine as well as using the technique outlined in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
– Read and discard magazines during the month in which they arrive (even digitally)

Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2014

1. “Johnny Carson” by Henry Bushkin
2. “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon
3. “Chaos: Making a New Science” by James Gleick
4. “What’s So Funny?: My Hilarious Life” by Tim Conway

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]