I just bought a Mac Book Pro!
I have been looking for a Macintosh (preferably, a laptop) for a few months now. I've been wanting to get into iOS developement (iPhone apps), for awhile. I was contemplating building a hackintosh desktop, and still might do it, but decided to get this laptop for now.
It is a late 2008, with 15.4" screen, 2.4 dual core i5 processor, 4Gb (2 x 2Gb simms) of DDR3 RAM, 500Gb hard drive, and dual Nvidia graphics cards. It had only 250 cycles on the battery (which I think 500 is the degenerating point), and is in Normal condition. It has Mavericks 10.9.2 already installed.
The owner wanted $600, but I paid $575 for it. EBay normally sells these for around $700-$800 and they sold for over $1200 new. Yes, it is an older computer and not top of the line. I'm not too sure if it even does Air Share with my Apple TV (I hope it does), but it is what I need to work on XCode.
I downloaded and installed XCode last night and played a bit with some template examples. I didn't have too much time to tinker as I went out to a free screening of "A Million Ways to Die in the Wild West"; very funny movie...but very adult humor.
I need to now figure out how to connect my dual monitors to this laptop to have a comfortable work environment. I plan on spending a lot of time on it :-).
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Jay Benson's Triathlon
Wow! I sucked....
I was in the third wave. We start off by running a, slightly further, 5k. I was having a hard time keeping up with my group. I ran about an 8 minute pace. But, I knew this was only the beginning of the race. The bike will be where the time will be made up.
The bike was crazy. As we came out onto Central, it was a gradual climb with head wind. The gradual climb went into a steep climb. This climb was much of the first half of the bike course. At the turn around on 98th street, I knew the fun was about to begin. Coming back on Central, going east, it was down hill and down wind. Yes! I topped out on my highest gear, tuck, look at my computer and see "45mph". Cool. As I'm coming up to an intersection, I see a cyclist laid out in the road with the cop moving towards him. Looks like a car crossed when they should have waited. That looked painful.
Coming into transition, I crossed over my right leg a bit early, but had enough speed to carry me up to the dismount line. I grab my goggles and swim cap. Run towards the pool and jump in. The swim is 8 lanes of 50 meter swimming (400 meters). It was very nice since the lanes were wide and one direction. In the deep end of the second lane, I saw a race belt with a bib at the very bottom of the pool (funny). I was caught up by another male contender, but in the last lane, I passed him and got out of the pool before him. I think he might have been in the next age group up from me. He patted me on the back and said "good swim". That is the mood of triathletes, always good natured, helping one another.
After my race, I cheered on the other swimmers and walked around. The food was a bit lacking, but I managed to still stuff my face with cookies and bananas. I saw my results (not on the podium), so got my bike and went to Subway.
TODO: Work on my run and breathing. Work on continuous swimming. Continue with spin class to help my bike strength. Drop some lbs; I'm too heavy to be on the podium. Get a new water bottle for my tri bike.
results
I was in the third wave. We start off by running a, slightly further, 5k. I was having a hard time keeping up with my group. I ran about an 8 minute pace. But, I knew this was only the beginning of the race. The bike will be where the time will be made up.
The bike was crazy. As we came out onto Central, it was a gradual climb with head wind. The gradual climb went into a steep climb. This climb was much of the first half of the bike course. At the turn around on 98th street, I knew the fun was about to begin. Coming back on Central, going east, it was down hill and down wind. Yes! I topped out on my highest gear, tuck, look at my computer and see "45mph". Cool. As I'm coming up to an intersection, I see a cyclist laid out in the road with the cop moving towards him. Looks like a car crossed when they should have waited. That looked painful.
Coming into transition, I crossed over my right leg a bit early, but had enough speed to carry me up to the dismount line. I grab my goggles and swim cap. Run towards the pool and jump in. The swim is 8 lanes of 50 meter swimming (400 meters). It was very nice since the lanes were wide and one direction. In the deep end of the second lane, I saw a race belt with a bib at the very bottom of the pool (funny). I was caught up by another male contender, but in the last lane, I passed him and got out of the pool before him. I think he might have been in the next age group up from me. He patted me on the back and said "good swim". That is the mood of triathletes, always good natured, helping one another.
After my race, I cheered on the other swimmers and walked around. The food was a bit lacking, but I managed to still stuff my face with cookies and bananas. I saw my results (not on the podium), so got my bike and went to Subway.
TODO: Work on my run and breathing. Work on continuous swimming. Continue with spin class to help my bike strength. Drop some lbs; I'm too heavy to be on the podium. Get a new water bottle for my tri bike.
results
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Getting ready for Jay Benson reverse triathlon
Bib #87
I haven't been exercising much for the past 4 months. It is a mix of several things: winter weather, changing jobs, moving, etc... But, the last few weeks (after finishing flooring in my house), I have been going back to the gym and doing lots of spin, treadmill running, and swimming. I've tried to get outside and ride and run a bit too, but it is only possible on the weekend.
I have signed up for the Jay Benson triathlon which will be on Mother's day. My swim lungs are not up to par, but the run and bike will be the most important part of this triathlon. I'm still trying to get my breathing acclimated to the altitude change from Houston to Albuquerque (~27' to 5100'). When I'm getting into the higher heart rate level (level 4, 5) is when it starts to affect me.
Another concern; I want to use my HED tubular 3 spoke carbon wheels, but there are issues with goat heads (thorns) here in Albuquerque. Mostly along the trails but I would not bet against getting a flat even on the main roads. I can either put flat gu in my tubes or just use my clinchers which has flat gu + tube thorn strips between the tire and tube (heavier but will not get a flat).
Another concern; I want to use my HED tubular 3 spoke carbon wheels, but there are issues with goat heads (thorns) here in Albuquerque. Mostly along the trails but I would not bet against getting a flat even on the main roads. I can either put flat gu in my tubes or just use my clinchers which has flat gu + tube thorn strips between the tire and tube (heavier but will not get a flat).
See you at the races!
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