I Let It Fall Apart

While I don’t believe in “jinxing” I think that I jinxed my secret plan. The secret plan was to drive to Montgomery, AL on Saturday afternoon, finally take in a Montgomery Biscuits ballgame, stay overnight at a hotel, and return on Sunday to run the Black Sheep Hash.

When I woke up Saturday morning I was tired and sore (and hadn’t worked out), made it out to take some rather unspectacular photos at the Race For The Cure, and then returned home where I decided that I just wasn’t up for another excursion and didn’t feel like dropping $150 in the process. At this time I doubt that I’ll ever make it to Montgomery for a Biscuits’ baseball game. 🙁

A Night At The Gallery
Friday night’s gallery exhibit was a success, even though I did not sell a single piece. Pity, as I did see people looking at my work in my bin. Perhaps I’ve priced my work too high, I’ll reconsider my pricing if nothing sells again this Friday night when the gallery is part of the Castleberry Hill Art Stroll.

All Decked Out
The deck is stained, and looks really nice.

All that’s left to do is return the bench to its proper corner, though having it in its current place is starting to grow on me. The bench is heavy as a sonnabitch, which is why I’ve not moved it back already. I figured that I’d destroy the stain job if I dragged the bench back to its original place.

If you need any work done at your place, you may want to get a quote from Seth Grad Home Improvement, LLC. (btw, I get nothing from endorsing his work, I was just pleased enough with the job that I want to do so.)

ITP Flickr Pic
On Saturday morning I made it out to the Susan G Komen “Race For The Cure 5k.” I thought that this was going to be a great people-shooting outing for me, but alas my inability to feel comfortable shooting strangers made the outing rather fruitless.

And WTF was with all of the dudes running the race? I understand that guys have friends and relatives who’ve suffered from breast cancer, but I really thought that this was a female-only race.

RealiTV Update: The Amazing Rage — First Class FTW
If you haven’t figured out that there are SPOILERS ENCLOSED, you haven’t been paying attention.

My title today refers to the seat position in a plane over the moral character of those who finished first.

For the longest time last night I thought we were being teased into believing that Team Thing One, Thing Gay One were going to land on the Pit Stop mat only to have their hearts broken when Phil levied a time penalty on them for flying first class. With Team Brokeback so close, this obviously would have given them the win. I was aghast when this didn’t happen.

It wasn’t until this morning that I scoured the internets for the reason that Team Thing One, Thing Gay One weren’t punished:

Teams are required to purchase economy class airfare when they fly, using the credit card provided by the show. Teams may ask the airlines to upgrade their tickets to first or business class as long as they only pay economy fare. Teams may be forbidden from flying on certain airlines or restricted to specific airlines in some cases.

Team Thing One, Thing Gay One were certainly within the rules to move up to first class, however I thought the whole “I put my backpack in front of you, therefore I’m ahead of you in line.” was a classless act; this shady move was the reason I was disappointed that they won.

I was not disappointed to see Team Model Citizens fall way behind and not be a factor in the outcome. The exchange between Brandy of Team LezBeFriends and Caite made me realy uncomfortable; I could feel the vile bitterness spewing from Brandy’s mouth right through my television! Imagine if Team Model Citizens had won it all…

It’s a pity that such a decent season had such childish behavior.

Trying To Take A Shine To Chrome
Today’s blog post is not being written via my iPad, instead it’s being on my MacBook using Google’s Chrome browser. I’ve been a big fan of Firefox since its initial release years ago. However, over the past few releases I’ve been less and less enamored, and like any technology magpie I’ve been distracted by the shiny new Chrome (sorry, that pun could not be avoided).

Also, I’m making inroads into shifting my password management from 1Password to LastPass. While I love the functionality of 1Password, I’m a little perturbed that I have to pay $15 for their iPhone/iPad application when I’ve already paid $40 for the Mac application. I’m a developer, so I know that making apps for the other platforms is not free, however it still bugs me. Instead I’ve chosen to pay $12/year to LastPass and use their functionality on the iPhone/iPad for free. Another reason for my switching is that 1Password doesn’t have an extension for Chrome because the browser is still in beta.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sore, more physically than mentally
Current Music – listening to the “This Week in Tech” podcast
Website Of The Day – I like science. However, I think that I might like Fake Science even more.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 203 pounds (somebody needs to restart his diet)
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77 (somebody needs to restart his reading routine)

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 10 (10)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 9
Marta Rides – 0

May 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

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]