Back To My TMac

If I can get over there tonight I’m contemplating my first return to Taco Mac Perimeter since a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to go last night, but I got out of work late (by my schedule) since I had to take my tax paperwork in yesterday which caused me to arrive at work later than normal, and I was in a meeting which lasted until 6:30pm. The Perimeter Taco Mac seems to get crowded for dinner each night and I just didn’t want to deal with the crowd. Instead I drove back to East Atlanta and had dinner at Holy Taco. Oddly while I was seated eating at the bar I realized that this was the first time that I had been inside of Holy Taco since I sat there with ITP-Reader Martha toward the end of the Atlanta snow/ice fiasco in mid-January. Funny how time transpires.

Oh Hello, 1998
Last night I was going through my file cabinet looking for things to purge at this Saturday’s electronics recycling day in Decatur when I came across my old Palm Pilot III. Curious, I opened the back and saw that it had batteries (and why didn’t I take those out when I gave up on the product ten years ago?) and replaced the batteries to see what would happen.

At first I thought all was fubar as the screen illuminated without text, and then a simple press of the reset button on the device’s back sprung it to life. I tapped on the screen with the stylus to calibrate it and was brought to the settings screen. The default date setting was January 1, 1998. What a charge!

Within an hour I am certain that I could learn Palm’s Graffiti handwriting recognition all over again, but really what’s the point. If I can make it to the recycling day on Saturday I’ll finally say good-bye to a device which kept me organized for a good couple of years.

Now where did I put that HP iPAQ?

An Hour Here, An Hour There
I’ll not blame my recent event on yesterday’s time confusion, but I made the same, rare (for me) mistake twice.

I arrived at my tax preparer’s office about fifteen minutes before 9:00am. I waited outside for five minutes and then decided to go inside (mostly to beat any rain) for my 9:00am appointment. My tax preparer seemed unprepared and asked me for a few minutes to get things in order; I had no problem with this and told her that I’d just sit in the waiting area reading. A few minutes later she came out and we went over my 2010 taxes, LLC and all. When I got to my office later that morning I looked at my calendar and realized that my appointment was for 10am, and not 9am. My tax preparer was unprepared because I showed up an hour earlier than I was supposed to be there! I was embarrassed. When I spoke to her receptionist again yesterday I apologized for my blunder and asked that she be thanked for being able to work on my taxes on the spot.

Also on my calendar yesterday was a 4:30pm business meeting — or so I thought. At 3:15pm my Outlook reminder popped up warning me that I had fifteen minutes until my meeting. Had I misremembered this too? Jeebus! Luckily for me I was prepared for the meeting already, but I couldn’t believe that I had screwed up two meeting times in one day.

Maybe I should start using that Palm Pilot III again. 🙂

Related: Do you realize that we “spring forward” into Daylight Saving Time this coming weekend? I certainly didn’t until the other day.

ITP Flickr Pic Screen Grab
Okay, I know this isn’t a photo (some day my pretty, some day) but this blatant error in an advertisement which popped up on a website I visited yesterday flummoxed me.

We have become lazy, lackadaisical with our work that it amazes me. Perhaps I’m throwing stones at glass houses since I’ve had my more than my fair share of spelling and grammatical errors here (and you’ll most likely find at least one in this entry.

[Update #1: If any of you receive this blog via an RSS reader you may be shaking your head right now. As soon as I published the blog I saw that the original title read “Bac To My TMac.”]
[Update #2: I just realized that I failed to include a Website of the Day.]

Rocks at glass houses indeed.

The Now Weekly Daily Giz Wiz
For the past five years I’ve listened to a podcast called The Daily Giz Wiz five times a week. This week the makers of the podcast have decided to combine all five episodes into a single episode released at the beginning of each week — The Weekly Daily Giz Wiz? Bummer.

Sure, I could download the one podcast and split it up over five (or so days) but I just feel as if the dynamics of the show are going to change. Also, I’m going to miss seeing a new episode arrive in iTunes each weekday and trying to guess what the gadget is based on the podcast’s title.

RealiTV Update: Top Chef – The Final Four
If you don’t know that spoilers follow then you’ve not been paying attention
ITP-Reader Betsy came over last night with her pups for Top Chef. If you remember from last week, Top Chef made Top Chef “history” by taking five cheftestants instead of four, to the new location. This season’s destination is the Bahamas.

During the QuickFile Challenge each cheftestant had to battle the cheftestant who won his/her respective season by preparing a dish with an undisclosed protein (meat). The winning chef would take home a cool $10k. It’s all about the money, even when in a vacation destination.

For the Elimination Challenge the cheftestants had to cook for royalty, bohemian royalty. There have been curious errors during this season, and last night’s fire in one of the deep fryers really through the cheftestants for a loop. Because the fire department had to extinguish the fire using chemical suppressants all of the mis en place prepared by the cheftestants were ruined. You’d think that they’d all get to try again the next day, but no the show must go on so each cheftestant had to start again that night. Two cheftestants, Carla and Antonia seemed to botch big time. Antonia’s dish just didn’t sound very good (more overcooked shrimp), while Carla committed a Chef Sin by serving undercooked, almost raw, pork. Given that cheftestants have been eliminated this season for too much salt (Angelo), as well as undercooked potatoes (Dale), I naturally assumed Carla would get the boot. But there were so many negative comments about Antonia’s dish… And then Carla was asked to pack her knives and leave.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – working through the pain
Current Music – listening to this week’s “Build and Analyze” podcast
Website Of The Day – You Are Not A Photographer. And right now, I am not either. [Thanks for the link, ITP-Reader Stacy]
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – don’t care (well, I really do but now is not the time)

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 – 9

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

March Goals
– Recover from the bike crash
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run
– Lose two pounds
– Go out on a date with someone else
– Read an entire book, specifically Chef’s Story

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]