Piecemeal

Today is going to be one of those weird, fragmented affairs. After eating a fantastic dinner (see photo below, yep there’s a photo today) I went home and took care of a minuscule amount work which needs to be done around the house before falling asleep sometime before 10:30pm. I slept horribly last night, awake for the better part of the hours from 2-4am before returning to sleep right before I was scheduled to awake.

Now you know why the blog is so late. 😉

Lions, And iLife, And MacBook Airs! Oh My!
As I worked yesterday I listened to Apple’s “Back To The Mac” keynote. I did so not as a shareholder, but as the Apple Fanboy wanting to hear what’s next from his computer company of choice. While I wasn’t disappointed, I wasn’t blown away either.

FaceTime on the Mac
Cool, but I rarely make phone calls never mind video conference phone calls.

iLife ’11
Interesting, but I’d rather have had them announce iWork ’11. Of the major iLife applications — iPhoto, iMovie, and Garage Band — the only one I wished I used was Garage Band because I still fantasize about being a musician.

Mac App Store
Interesting to me mostly for the fact that it’s a pain in the ass to keep up with application updates. Having an install/update center would be fantastic, but I’m not sure how many Mac developers are going to give in to Apple having approval and taking a 30% cut of the business in the Mac world.

OS X 10.7, aka “Lion”
I’m champing at the bit for this, but I’ll have to wait until it’s released in the Summer of 2011. If I keep Sharpened Stone alive (still uncertain about this) I might even become a Mac Developer in order to get access to the beta releases of Lion.

MacBook Air
Very, very, sexy machines which are underpowered and overpriced for my needs.

Overall I’m still enamored with Apple and hope that their stock continues to soar until it’s time for me to sell.

ITP Flickr Pic
While winding my way toward East Atlanta I had a brilliant idea for dinner. “Why don’t I turn left onto Peachtree and head toward the Chinese Food Court instead?” I thought to myself. And I did. And it was good. And there was much rejoicing. Well, perhaps no rejoicing, but happiness nonetheless.

This is the dish of string beans that I purchased for dinner — not vegetarian mind you, as those dark specks were delicious ground pork.

Flummoxed At Five Guys
Yesterday I walked over to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for lunch. Knowing how many french fries they pile into your bag I suggested to a coworker that we share an order of fries, and I handed him $2. To my surprise he went and ordered a large order of fries, claiming that I confused him by giving him $2 toward and order of regular fries which cost $2.50. Further to my surprise, I wholly believe that we received either the same amount, or perhaps fewer fries in the large order than we would have received with a regular order of fries. All of the fries we were given fit into the larger cup placed into the bag, and no additional fries were dumped into the bag. Weird.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – silence as I update software on my MacBook
Website Of The Day – If you’ve ever seen and perhaps the camera dial sticker that I’ve placed onto the back of my iPad you can now buy a decal of your own from Suzi Automatic .
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 9, Carnivorous Days – 11
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

October Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 200 miles
– Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
– Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
– lose five pounds
– eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I’ve sadly gained weight; I’m at 203 pounds]
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
– Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Sharpened Stone.
– 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]