Mick’s Miscellaneous Meanderings

I spent the weekend at Temple University in Philly attending a 2-day conference called Podcamp/Searchcamp Philly. Topics included using social media, search uses, blogging, usability, creating podcasts, social bookmarking, and a bunch of other stuff. I learned quite a bit and got a few ideas for incorporating and tracking results from social media. Also made a few contacts, my favorite one being Kim Krause Berg of cre8pc.com and cre8asiteforums.com. She had some good information in her sessions and I plan on picking her brain some more.

I think what impressed me most about the conference was the atmosphere. Not only was it a geek town (I was in heaven!) but the entire conference was built on Creative Commons licensing – share and share alike. The presenters offered a lot but many of the participants added their 2 cents (where’s that cents key again?) too. The cost was negligible ($20) so it was really only the cost of the travel and lodging but would have been well worth a $400 admission price. There were about 230 participants.

Jen M.

Also had a good time hanging out with Jen M. We spent most of Saturday soaked. In the morning we were soaked from sweating to death on the 2 mile walk from the hotel to Temple in the warm, humid air. Jen had a high tolerance for my whining! By the time we dried off, we got soaked again on the way back to the hotel from hurricane Hannah dumping down on Philly. Thank goodness H.A.R.D. gave me the tip about putting newspaper in your sneakers to draw the moisture out or I’d have had soaked shoes all day Sunday too.

And probably the biggest thing to come out of this weekend is that I’ve finally decided to close my band instrument repair shop…sort of. It’s this geek stuff that I want to do. My heart is not in repair anymore and hasn’t been for a long time. In fact, back in March, I turned my web dev stuff into a full time gig at PCAR/NSVRC and the repair stuff into a part time business. I still enjoy doing the challenging repairs and messing with machining but that’s few and far between. I want to get back to doing the Probirt website that I’ve been neglecting for the past year and a half because of being too busy with repairs. So, while I’ll be closing the shop (hopefully within 2 weeks – when I get the customer instruments finished), it’ll still stay where it is at the Washington band hall because it’s needed for Probirt.

Anyone want to buy a website that ranks high for the key phrases of “band instrument repair,” “clarinet repair,” and “saxophone repair”? You can have the site, rankings, and content! You gotta get your own webcams though!

Ken and “Force”

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Had a wonderful time eating spaghetti and watching the Olympic men’s marathon on TV with the HARD Runners group at Gail (“Force”) and Ken’s house this evening. It was a wonderful evening rooting for Ryan Hall (our favorite male runner) but sad because it was also a send-off party for Gail and Ken. They will be moving away from the HARD family this week. Ken works for Lowe’s and has taken a position at the corporate office in North Carolina. We will miss them terribly but are happy for them as they start the next chapter in their lives where Ken will be doing less traveling and they can be together more. We wish you all the best!!! Keep in touch and don’t be surprised when I show up on your doorstep when I hike the Appalachian Trail!!!!!!!

Now where did I put that Home Depot flyer….?

Popcorn WILL catch fire if you leave it in the microwave too long.

Had a fantastic day today in Lancaster, PA making my way through a corn maze with some friends. It was Carol’s birthdayfest and this was one leg of the celebration that kicked off last evening at Color-Me-Mine and will end with kayaking on the Susquehanna River on Sunday.

I had been to a corn maze in Reading last year and was expecting this to be the same – get a card with the maze printed on it and find your way through it to different points where you get your map punched to show you’d reached each station. This one had a twist to it. You had to find your way through the 5-acre maze to get a little 1/15 piece of the map to stick on your paper. The more pieces of the map you could find, the easier it was to navigate to the other pieces.

Since there were six of us in the group, we split up into 2 groups – the speedsters (Carol, Neal, and me) and the saunterers (Dayna, Sally, and Dayna’s daughter). The three of us headed out and started wandering around….taking all left turns. Having no idea where we were going, we devised a system. We’d get to a place with multiple intersections and then go on a reconnaissance mission. One of us would stay put as the anchor and then the other two would venture out as far as we dared go without getting lost. If we found one of the mailboxes where the map pieces were hidden, we’d make a ruckus and the other two would find their way over. If not, we’d meet back at the anchor point. We were pretty proud of our system and the speed that we were making our way through the maze. We had 6 or 7 pieces when we bumped into the other group. They were sauntering around aimlessly and they had collected 9 pieces!!!!!!!! Ahhhh! :-\

The three of us regrouped with renewed purpose. We put Neal in charge of the map and deciding where he thought the pieces would be. I swear he could sniff them out because he took us right to several of them. Along the way we also took time to play on the various obstacles. A short zipline, a bike hooked up to spray water when you peddled it, a tightrope walk, a winding slide, etc.

We collected all our pieces and made our way out of the maze in an hour and 40 minutes. About 45 minutes later, the other group surrendered and requested a search and rescue from the maze staff. We headed back to the cars tired and hungry, comparing maze stories. We chowed down at Applebee’s with some lively discussions.

It was a great day with great company and great weather.

Cute video of the 2008 Mudfest. I’m even in one of the scenes. There’s a short clip of “flailing legs guy” at the end.

Jen, Nicole, Me, and Bonnie

Ran the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon on Sunday with the HARD runners group. What an awesome day!!! It started out a little teary when we all assembled at Shawn’s at 5:45 am for pictures and car pooling only to find out that our matriarch, Shawn, wouldn’t be attending due to dog problems. I was bummed! Without Shawn HARD wouldn’t even exist. She had to go! Unfortunately, all the persuading was fruitless. She couldn’t go. So we broke up into groups and piled into cars. I picked up my backpack and computer book and headed over to the last group to form. It was five of us…Jen, Gail, Nicole, me, and….Marc. Hmmm. I looked at my book. I’ve been spending every spare minute with my nose in it to learn a new programming language. I looked at Marc. Then I walked over to my car and threw the book in the back seat. No need for that. Marc would be providing non-stop entertainment on this trip. Guaranteed.

We jumped in the car and headed out. Sure enough, Marc didn’t disappoint us. He had us in stitches the whole way up to Allentown, telling us about the 5K he ran the day before. He was such a softy…letting some little kid beat him at the finish line. And then we got to know the true Nicole…who revealed she would have taught that kid a life lesson and kicked his butt.

We got there in just enough time for potty stops at a McDonald’s (at Dunkin Donuts for Marc!), to get our packets from Stevie, to attach our race chips to our shoes, and to get to the starting line with a few minutes to spare. We took our spots at our respective pace groups. I attached myself to Bonnie, the epitome of a steady pace. The gun went off.

It was Bonnie, Nicole, Jen, Krumy, and me in a group, constantly getting boxed in by others, then breaking free to get back in stride. About every mile or so there was a live band playing – everything from rock to violin trios to bagpipes. The most memorable was the all women pop band called the “Menopausal Maniacs”. Appropriate since almost everyone in our group is in their 40′s and 50′s (except me…just wanted to clear that right up!).

During our run, I became increasingly sure that Shawn had just been messing with us in the morning and she actually came to the race to cheer us on. What made me think this?

• We ran around several piles of what could have been Sampson’s pooh
• There was side walk chalk all over the place
• There were rumors of beer at water stations

But, no. She really wasn’t there.

As we got tired, our little group started crumbling. People were hitting the wall. It was down to Nicole and me. We got into the final stretch. I looked over at her…was she about to teach me a life lesson? We put it in high gear and crossed the finish line at exactly the same time.

We hung around, stretched, and cheered the remaining H.A.R.D. Runners in and then headed to an Italian restaurant for the post race festivities. We rehashed the race for another couple hours over pizza (some with hot peppers!) and sodas/beer before jumping in the car and heading back to Annville. What an absolutely wonderful day! I think my sides are more sore from laughing than my legs are from running. Thanks H.A.R.D.!!! We missed you Shawn!!!

Some of the group

The Smith family

Nicole and Bonnie

And what did Gail say that shocked Dave some much? Hmmm…

Marc, ???, Nydia, Ann, Al

Jen and Mike

Krumy, Gail, Dave

More on this someday. Maybe.

I think I’m getting numb to these Ron Horn (wacky race director) trail runs. What used to seem like a really wild time just seems to be an average, normal trail run…even with the blizzard conditions at the beginning and the 4 calf-deep creek crossings. But then, I wasn’t one of the few chosen for the raw egg carry…carry a raw egg all 9+ miles of the race without breaking it and win a prize. And this time I was expecting the egg hunt, marshmallow peeps, the sneaker-sucking mud holes, and the “beverage” stations.

I did still have a good time though…especially running with Dave. He had me cracking up with his dances as we waited for an opening on the trail to pass other runners. Don’t know if it’s because we talked the whole time and I didn’t pay much attention to the trail or if the course really was much easier (although longer) than Chilly Cheeks and Ugly Mudder. Seemed to be much less uphill.

But hey…I got the t-shirt!!!! And that’s what matters.

Ran the Ugly Mudder trail race over the weekend. Definitely an easier course than Chilly Cheeks. I actually felt like I was running more downhill and level trail than uphill on this one. Although it did have it’s share of doozy uphills. Not much to speak of in terms of ice this year. A few slippery spots but not many. We did have a “situation” though. Let me explain….

At about mile 1 we came up to this water station. I don’t drink during races unless they’re like half marathon length or more. So I cruised right through along with the 300 people in front of me. When we were about a 1/4 mile past the water station we heard a ruckus and turned around to see what was going on down at the water station. Some people had turned right instead of slightly off to the left past the station and were starting to turn around. They had gone the wrong way. Derrrr. About 5 minutes later some people caught up with us and started yelling that WE were going the wrong way. Yeah, right. All 300+ of us. And the water station people just let us all go by without telling us. Uh huh. So we continued on. Up hill, down hill, over rocks, roots, downed trees, up rock scrambles, down lightly snow covered trail. Passed 2 more water stations. And had about a mile to go. It suddenly occurred to me that we hadn’t seen the Pagoda. Maybe I just had my eyes so focused on the trail and my brain zoned out and I missed it. I mentioned it to the people around me. Nope, they hadn’t seen it either. No matter. Ron had said that the trail was slightly different this year…we wouldn’t be running up the steps of the Pagoda because they’d been condemned. We’d be running around or under it or whatever he said. So we continued along to the last hill scramble. Up I went on all fours and then through the parking lot of cars to the finish line. I saw the clock…1 hour and 10 minutes. Holy $%^&*&(*()_!!!!! I felt like I was flying but that was fast for a 7.25 mile trail run for me. Dang!

I ran through the chute and went over out of the way of finishers and started stretching. Ron Horn called everyone’s attention with his bullhorn, “Those of you coming in right now…the first 400 runners, in fact…did NOT run the full course. You took a wrong turn. You ended up running 6 miles instead of 7.25. No big deal. Just don’t go home feeling all good about yourself because you think you set a PR. You didn’t.” CRAP!!!

Well, it still would have been a PR for me…add on another 1.25 miles and I probably would have finished about 1:25 or so. Still pretty good for a Reading trail run in my book.

Next up is the Mt. Penn Mudfest 15K trail run in late March. Woohoo!

I’ve just been through what was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life – a two-week long quest to get a backup of some files on my hosting account from a web server that suddenly no longer existed. (Don’t even get me started.) Fortunately I had a current backup of all of my sites. Unfortunately, there were a couple other sites on my account that I was just hosting and didn’t develop. There were some files that they needed. I requested a backup of the files from the server. They do daily backups after all…all hosting companies do. Three days later I had a lovely 166 Meg backup file that was completely corrupted. I could only extract 3 files from it…none of which I needed. I argued with the web host that the file was corrupt. They finally agreed after 4 days that the file was indeed corrupt and promised to get me another backup. After repeatedly getting conflicting information and multiple promises (6 at last count) that a request would be submitted for a second backup but never was, I was told yesterday that a backup could no longer be retrieved. That they only keep 3 days worth of backups on hand and then they’re overwritten. Yeah, sure. I’ve thrown my hands up in disgust, filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and the online Better Business Bureau, and sent the corrupted backup to a data recovery specialist to see what he could extract.

I’ve moved all the sites that I had on the 1and1.com account over to my private server at HostMySite.com…which is located in Delaware….close enough to actually wring some necks should anything like this go wrong with them. Not likely though…they are an outstanding company.

I’ll be adding the pictures back to this site as I have time. (read: over the next few months or so)

Moral of the story…backup, backup, backup, then backup another 10 times.