One more thing. That is all I want. That is all I EVER want, like that next thing will be the tipping point where I finally stop. But it never fulfills. Therein lies the problem. As a society, we have been brainwashed into thinking that we want, we need, hell- we deserve one more thing, and it will make us happy. We are bombarded with marketing that decrees that we need that one more thing- A new, better car. A faster computer, a bigger house. Have you got a CRT TV? You need a plasma or an LCD. We are a consumer society and it is turning us into morons.We pay more just because it's convenient.  We buy prepackaged lettuce. It cost 250% more that the lettuce that is not cut up into smaller pieces. We buy bottled water that works out to $4 a gallon with out batting an eye and then bitch about the price of gas. What is wrong with this picture?

I live in the United States. I ENJOY an obscene standard of living when compared with the rest of the world. I need to remind myself just how blessed I am. I have food, shelter- all the basics. I have a great family life with a wonderful, loving family, I have technological wonders to keep me busy. I have a purpose. Now, if I only had one more thing .....

I've noticed that the blog is slow to load, or was slow to load. It seems the "twit this" script was calling a web site that was slow to respond.

I killed it.

You're welcome.

Today I ran 2 miles. It might not sound like much, but believe me, it was. I learned a few things

1. The extra 50 pounds I've gained in the last 15 years works against you when you run.
2. It hurts!
3. 2 miles is further than I remember.
4. It hurts!
5. Drivers are much more rude than I remember
6. It's harder to run than I remember

I've come up with a half-assed training plan- Run one day, ride the next, repeat. Rest one day. Ride one day, run the next, repeat. Rest. Start over.

This should give me a base to train off and still give me enough rest days to recover. I'll have to revamp once I get in the pool. My plan for the swim part is to start training about 60 days out and swim 4 days a week. Not enough to get into true swimming shape, but enough so I don't drown.

OK, now I've done it. I've decided to do a triathlon this summer. Just one. I promise! A long time ago (16 years) I did a few triathlons. OK, I am lying. I did a LOT of triathlons. I think my record year was 17 of them, everywhere from the US Virgin islands, Las Vegas, Toronto and the whole eastern US coast. So, I'm an addict. I'm not proud, just honest. So what happened? I crashed, literarily. I had an accident during a mountain bike race (yeah I did that too, and road racing) that resulted in a herniated disc in my neck. I had a few scary days, but I recovered. I was not able to train after that and I had to stop.

So what changed now? I overheard a few guys talking at church and now I am stoked to start up again. So far the training has had no effect on my neck, and seeing how I've not had any issues in years, I am hopeful.

It's a sprint length in July so that doesn't leave me enough time to get into racing shape, so I'm going to try something new. Racing for fun!! What a concept. I'll keep posting on my progress.
Cya

It's that time again, the 12 of 12-

6:36 AM- This is how I generally start my day, I check my schedule and email.

6:46 AM- Some of the remnants of last nights Miss America party. My family will use any event to have a party!

6:50 AM- Dropping Becky off at work. Have a nice day!

6:51 AM This is the advantage to early morning. No Traffic!!!

6:55 AM Sunrise in Suburbia!!

9:04 AM  Barry's guitar. Today is a sad day. I'm in Church today for Barry's memorial service. Barry left us suddenly early last week. He played guitar on the worship team. Barry, we miss you!!!

11:25 AM Self portrait in one of the side rooms of the stage at church.

3:30 PM Working on the brakes on the car. They were not working very well. They are much better now!

3:50 PM These are NOT the tools we used, the brakes are fixed and we are relaxing.... honest!

6:50 PM Driving again, 12 hours since I started- no traffic again. Weird.

8:30 PM  The car that I fixed was the wife's car. I decided to take all her CD's, remove them from the jewel cases and put them in a soft case for her car.

8:47 PM This is Bingo. He is not a normal cat. That thing in his mouth is his favorite toy, basically a bell on a stick with a piece of string. He carries it around the house and will place it on your lap. He then paws at you until you play with him. He will chase it for hours. If you throw it, he will bring it back.

Went to the apple store expecting to purchase new iPhone headphones. Was stopped by a mac guy who asked if he could help, so I thought yeah, why not.

me- " how long is the warranty on the iPhone headphones?"

MC-" one year'

me- whipping out headphones- "here"

MC- "I'll have to check with the  geniuses in the back to see if they are covered. If so, you'll have to make an appointment and they'll replace them."

He heads off to the back. I see some dissussion and some head shaking. He comes back with the headphones.

MC- "this is physical damage and is not covered, sorry. You can talk to the manager about it, he is up front"

I head off to the front to talk to him and probably purchase a new set.

MM- "Can I help you?"

me- ' the geniuses in the back say these are not covered by warranty"

MM- looking at headphones " that is right, physical damage is not covered"

me-" they are just falling apart. they  should have reinforcement at those stress points"

MM- 'Are you happy?"

Me-"what?"

MM "are you happy about the headphones?"

Me- "um, no?"

MM- "I want to change that"

He did. They replaced the headphones.

I know that the iPhone has been beaten to death, but I had promised that I would do a follow up, so here is it.

It's been a few months and I still love the thing. It has integrated itself into my life and I don't care. I have been scolded by my spouse and my friends because I spend too much time on it. -In all fairness, they are correct.

I have to admit that the design is great, the scrolling interface and the pinch for the web are awesome.

The positives- too many to list.

Negatives- no video camera- seems like a no brainer
               - no MMS messges- again, a no brainer

Things I'd like to see-

Address recognition- If you get and address in an email or SMS message, it would be nice to be able to click on it and get a map of the location
Phone number recognition- If you get a phone number in an email or SMS message you should be able to click on it to dial it.

Wear and tear- 
I work in a hostile environment to electronics, I have an Otterbox defender for the iPhone and it does a great job of keeping it clean and intact, I have an Agent18 Eco iPhone Shield for the times where the big cover is not needed and it does a great job. The headphones are another story. They are coming apart right at the little button used for the answer/mic/play feature. It gets caught on things there due to the design and the stress has caused the covering to separate from the button. I will have to replace them. bummer

New York State's budget is late again. If I was this bad at my job I would have been fired a long time ago. This has gone past ridiculous. We pay an insane amount of taxes. Taxes on gasoline, utilities, food, state tax, federal taxes, it no wonder I am broke all the time. It's time for a change.

Let's vote out all the incumbents, all their jobs are in danger. They need to either change something and make it more affordable for us to live or they're gone. Let's start something here. Let's get things going. Lets vote them out of office if they're not willing to change. I'm sick and tired of them getting lifetime retirements and raises and stocks and all that stuff. It's times for this to end.

Who is with me?

What do a couple of librarians, a realtor, a software developer, a massage therapist , doctorate student and 15 or so other people have in common? They all went to the Buffalo Tweetup. It is amazing to see a bunch of people who don't know each meet up and communicate.  I met my first fellow twitter in the lot outside the Buffalo Brew Pub, but I didn't know it. Jannygirl was walking across the street and we said hi to each other out of pure kindness. Walking in I recognized jmilles reserving a table from his avitar.  The tweetup was on.

The first few minutes are the toughest. I didn't know anyone. I jumped right into the conversation. Jim got out his recorder and started to interview attendees. I spent a good deal of time talking with Shadow/Kristina who is a delight.  Bill Murphy and I had the common experience of working from home- I miss that.  Colleen Kulikowski talked about how our interests overlapped- she sells houses and I redo hardwood floors in houses. She is a prolific blogger and is very interesting to talk with. Her web site surprised me. I found out something interesting right away ( I love Hell's Kitchen). Scrolling down I found the information she provides interesting and thought provoking.

Jim came around with his recorder and asked us a few questions about what we do. It should prove interesting to see what he keeps.

Kevin Lim proved to be quite fun. He and I brought cameras and we both took a few photos. I think he took more. He surprised me by asking about my blog and then recording video of me talking about it. THAT should prove interesting. He needed a ride home, he is speaking via skype for a seminar in Singapore tonight. I am intrigued by this and his website, and I decided that giving him a ride would give me the opportunity to learn more. We talked at length at the tweetup about twitter, blogging and such. We continued the conversation on the ride to his place. 

I wish I had a chance to talk to everyone, but that didn't happen. Maybe next time

I know that this Elliot Spitzer thing has been beaten to death in the media, so here are a few thoughts on from my point of view.

1- Who cares. New York State has the highest taxes in the nation and the legislators still don't have enough money to balance the budget. There are people  living on the street. There are people starving. There are much bigger problems to address than another politician that can't keep his pants on.  
2- His wife must be pretty pissed off that he supposedly spent over 80,000 dollars on hookers. That is a lot of Tiffany's Jewelry
3- I'm surprised that he didn't know how to cover his tracks better. After all he spent years finding crooks by looking for the same stupid mistakes that he made.
4- He should have used a credit card with some sort of cash back option, he'd have almost enough for a free hooker by now. (OK, maybe that is a cheap shot)

Don't get me wrong, what he did is not right and he knows it. He has suffered humiliation, lost his job, messed up his family and screwed up his life. He has a lot of people to appease. He made a few huge mistakes, he has apologized and stepped down. It is finished.