It Felt Like Starting Over

“Stats & Goals” are back, now with more of each! And they said that it would never happen…

In a lot of ways this weekend was a new start to my year (one week after the year’s new start). I walked two miles on Saturday, and am attempting to build a good habit in which I drive to work early, exercise, and shower prior to starting my day.

I was on multiple missions this weekend:

• Find Jill #2 (my “new” GPS), the likes of which I had not seen in some time. I completely emptied the Jackmobile, which proved not to hold the secret to Jill #2’s location. I wound up cleaning out some baggage, finally locating Jill #2 (and my bluetooth speakerphone) in my cycling bag. Given that I’ve not cycled since Savannah I’m not surprised that I forgot that I stowed these in that bag. As an added bonus I also “found” the cycling socks given out at InterAmericas Hash.
• Hook up the new Roku box while cleaning the basement. Well, I at least started this effort by cleaning the sink in the basement bar and refilling all of the Damp-Rid containers I keep in the basement.
• With the help of my bread machine I made and incredible batch of buttermilk dinner rolls yesterday.
• Purge old paperwork from my filing cabinet. I’ve started, but there is much more to accomplish.
• Buy a flattering, yet comfortable pair of pants which weren’t blue jeans. And yet somehow I only came away with a new pair of blue jeans. In-con-ceivable!
• Relax. Huh, there’s a word I’ve not used in some time…
• Write a lot of code. Oops, missed this one.

Over all I had a good weekend.

Additionally, I became mildly addicted to the game “Quell” (iOS and Android versions cheaply available) from Fallen Tree Games. I wound up spending a few hours playing Quell, which is a easy-to-comprehend puzzle-solving game with many levels, this weekend.

S-s-s-saturday Night
After a long, and rather unproductive day at the office on Saturday (during which I went on my two-mile walk) I returned to East Atlanta Village. I wasn’t in the mood to cook, so I decided that I was going to give one of the village’s bars/restaurants my business. My mouth had a craving for chicken tenders, so I decided on heading to The Midway Pub. As instructed I “sat myself,” and waited. And waited. And waited. After about ten minutes of being ignored, even to the point where no server came near-enough to be haled, I got up and left. I decided to give Tomatillos (fyi, this is a Facebook link because I’m not sure if they have their own website). Meh.

Saturday night I was geared up to head to The EARL for the Olivia Tremor Control show. While admitted I was not one of the Elephant 6 Collective devotees in the 1990s (I just never got the exposure) over the year I’ve become quite a fan of the bands which comprised the collective. I had an added bonus as while walking to dispose of my empty Miller High Life bottle (when in hipster central, act like a hipster) I ran into ITP-Readers Terri and Tony and then hung out around them the rest of the night. The show was really good. I think I should add “see more concerts” to my “Unmeasurable Goals” list.

ITP Flickr Pic
Hmmm, not exactly a prolific weekend on the photographic front. So I present to you a quick snapshot of a bygone era.

The Village Vidiot was a VHS/DVD rental store (remember those?). The Village Vidiot existed during a day when I could actually walk to the village at night (read “2000/2001”).

Clean And Store
My weekly backup routine hit a bump in the road this weekend. Yesterday I encountered a “disk full” error while running my Sunday backup. I decided that this weekend was as good as any to start over. I cleaned out some unneeded files from my data repository, wiped the backup drive completely, and then started a fresh backup. Thankfully I have my computers connected to uninterrupted power supplies as the East Atlanta power grid flickered like the lights in a haunted house (I swiped that line from someone else). The backup ran for a good six hours, after which I was in possession of a quality backup my important files.

A Return To RPS
Tonight I’ll be making my return to the Roswell Photographic Society. I’m actually still on the fence as to whether or not I will spend the $25 to renew my membership for 2012 (I all-but wasted that money renewing last year), though all signs point toward “Yes.”

Tonight’s presenter will be Craig Tanner, the group’s traditional leadoff hitter, so I’m sure that many will be in attendance tonight.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fair, fighting pain in many areas
Current Music – listening to this week’s “Sound Opinions” podcast
Website Of The Day – Daily Challenge (told you I should have made it a “Website Of The Day”).
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday: walking, 2 miles
Morning Weigh-In – decided not to check today, will start again next week

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 2.0 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 – 8

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

January Goals
– Lose at least one pound (net weight loss)
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash (though I’m beginning to that this will never happen)
– Exercise for thirty minutes no fewer than twenty days
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than ten days
– Not get fired from my job, nor quit my job
– Follow up with doctors, lawyer, women in whom I have interest (the last one is here because I failed to do so on Saturday night)
– Participate in a least one dinner party (perhaps held at my house when plumbing issues are addressed?)
– Go out on a least one date with a woman in whom I have interest
– Submit 2012 paperwork for Sharpened Stone, LLC
– Gather all tax paperwork for 2011 income taxes
– Request free credit report
– Successfully arrange for automatic payments for my mortgage
– Watch all of the classes in the 2011 Winter semester of Stanford’s CS193P (iOS Development) course

2012 Goals [will be a little less fluid than last year]
– Get my weight under 200 pounds, or at least whittle myself back down to where wearing a 36″ pant size is comfortable
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than one one 10K
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
– Restore the ITP Estate to a condition where it can be put up for sale at any time
– Buy a new iPhone (iPhone 5?), a new iPad (iPad 3?), and MacBook Air [look, not all goals have to be altruistic]

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient and profitable programmer in Objective-C
– 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)
– See more live concerts than I did in 2011
– Eat more pancakes
– Drive/Fly somewhere for a real vacation

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]