The War Is On

The one in which I declare war on Atlanta’s traffic, as well as all of the other things in my life that annoy me. Fear not, I shan’t list them all because I don’t have enough electrons inside this MacBook Air to display them all.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Write down a positive health change you’ve made, and reflect on how you overcame any challenges.

We all need positive reinforcement, and what better source than from ourselves? By focusing on one change you’ve made to better your health and remembering the hurdles you overcame, you remind yourself that you can take on other things, too! Being successful at one thing can set the stage for others.

I don’t have many points in this category. I guess I can take some credit for rejoining a gym last year and working out, with the exception of that unfortunate bout with tendonitis.

War Of Attrition
I have two project at work to which I am assigned. I was supposed to be transitioning from project “A” (on which I have been an instrumental member for over 3.5 years) to project “B” (where I am a n00b). And then Miss “K” resigned and moved away, reducing the development resources by more than 25%. And now this week a long-time friend, and project manager for Project “A”, resigned. Oh boy!

I’m Over The Hump
I really should have thought of a better section header when referring to my first trip to the LA Fitness at Ansley Mall. 😉

I wound my way through slight traffic and was able to fit in an hour stationary bike ride before the Brave Combo show. Yea me! For some reason, perhaps the newness of the equipment at this location, this hour was one of the most inspired that I’ve had in a very long time. Maybe it was the fact that all of the women I gazed at did not return a disgusted glance because they thought I was gay? Ha! I pedaled fast, I pedaled steadily, there were constantly drips of sweat leaving my nose and landing on the towel I had placed on the handlebars, it was almost reminiscent of my olden days of taking Spinning classes at Jeanne’s Body Tech. By the end of my sixty minutes I was spent and felt proud of my accomplishment.

And it was a good thing I worked so hard, because I then I went and ruined my hard work.

War Of Nutrition
As I sat in my car briefly after my workout I received an email from “Public Enema” altering me to the fact that Brave Combo was playing at Smith’s Olde Bar. I chuckled as I then immediately saw he and “Saddle Sores” getting out of their car one row away. I met up with them and the three of us walked over to HOBNOB for dinner where we met up with “Afterbirth” and “Cluster Fuck” before heading over to Smith’s. HOBNOB was apparently chosen for its offering of poutine, which the five of us shared. To top off that bit of unhealthiness I had (amazingly large) order of chicken “fingers” (more like breasts) with fries and two JailHouse IPAs. In those olden days I never would have consumed so many calories after a rewardingly-hard workout; my how times have changed.

At the show we were joined by “Jus Lix Dix” (or however she spells her hash name). Nuts! I just realized that I missed the opportunity to as her about her plans for Brussels.

Side Note: I know all of these hashers well enough to use their nerd names, but the use of hash names just seems to add so much more color.

The show, oddly down in the much smaller “Atlanta Room” of Smith’s was a lot of fun with cavorting and dancing (by others) all night long. Brave Combo took the stage around 8pm and the show ended just shy of 11pm. To counterbalance the damage I did at HOBNOB I stood for the entire show and did not allow myself to have another beer. Baby steps…

War On Decision
Had I consulted my calendar more often I would have realized sooner that I am double-booked tonight. This being the second Thursday of the month means that there will be a CocoaHeads Atlanta meet up tonight, which I’d like to attend. In fact, attending that meet up was one of the big reasons that I decided to ride MARTA to work today. Little did I realize until my MARTA ride this morning was that I also have a theatre ticket for tonight’s performance of “The Tall Girls” at the Hertz Stage of the Alliance Theatre.

Being a season subscriber I can exchange my ticket for another performance, but I fear that I’ve waited too long to do so. I’ll call the box office today and see, and if not I’ll suck up the loss and pay to see the play another time. I really want to see this play, not because of the subject matter, but because the ice storms last month completely fucked up my attendance for performances of other plays and I wound up eating the cost of each of those tickets.

Today’s Personal Project
Prepare for tomorrow, it’ll be a big day of chores not to mention work.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – silence as I try to get this done prior to a conference call. fwiw – I failed, but so is the conference call number so I’ll keep working on this.
Website Of The Day – While listening to a podcast recently (I can’t recall which) I found out about this cool iOS tips website called RocketINK.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – Jackmobile + MARTA train
Exercise (b)Log – stationary bike, ~1 hour
Morning Weigh-In – Arg, I keep forgetting to jump on the scale

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3.9 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 4 (4 cardio)

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

March Goals
– have Austin CocoaConf trip plans in place (new)
– exercise no fewer than twenty days (new)
– ride my bike no fewer than five times (new)
– have European trip plans in place, if not carved in stone
– 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
– walk no fewer than 75 miles
– publish an app to the iOS AppStore

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

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]