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As 2011 is drawing to a close it’s time to start thinking about running goals for the upcoming year.

As this year progressed I really felt like I was getting back into a running groove. Since Blake was born in 2010, it has taken us about a year to start getting back into a rhythm. In the last few months my running has returned to pre-baby levels (albeit at a slower pace).

With all that in mind, I am hopeful that 2012 will be a great year for running. I’ll turn 40 this year, so I’d love to make it count.

Goals:

1. Run a sub 25:30 in the 5K (not a PR, but a good goal I think)

2. Set a new Half PR by breaking 2 hours (still mad I haven’t done this yet)

3. Run 1000 miles in the calendar year of 2012 (Hopefully this one just happens)

4. Run a marathon (so I can get this damn monkey off my back)

That’s it for running. I should probably come up with some other life goals, but as of late my passion for running has returned full strength and I am eager to hit some goals.

Happy running!

I finally got my garage in a state where I can fit my utility trailer and both cars. This is great since I abhor scraping the windshield in the morning before work.

We have two garage doors, and two openers. One of them is a Craftsman, and one is a Genie. However, when we first moved in we noticed that Craftsman was unplugged. When plugged in it appeared to work fine using the wall unit. Quickly we realized the reason it was unplugged was because the Genie was on the same frequency and would actually open and close both doors simultaneously. I didn’t really bother to look at it until recently, because we really only ever used on side and I, like the previous owner, was cool to just let it unplugged.

Now that I am using it all the time this is a serious pain. Today I decided to look into the issue. After all this can’t be the first time someone had two door openers on the same frequency.

Turns out the fix is easy. The Craftsman (I didn’t look at the Genie) randomizes the frequency it selects when you reprogram all the remotes. It was easy as clearing the remotes, and reprogramming them.

Happy parking!

We bought a new house a little over a year ago. It’s a nice place, I dig it. The biggest downside has been the shrubbery around the place. It’s a 15 year old house, and I am pretty sure that was the last time they shrubs were trimmed. As a result, they are overgrown and there is no hope at all in trimming them back.

At the beginning of summer I paid a dude to come out and take care of it. He charged me a bunch of money and really didn’t do crap. He did pull out 6 shrubs, but for the most part he barely trimmed the rest back.

I have come to the conclusion that I really just needed to get a truck and start pulling out shrubs and replacing them with new, smaller ones. However I didn’t really want another car payment. After a while I came up with the idea to get a hitch put on the Kia and then buy a trailer. So that is what I did

Yes I realize it’s about the most unmanly way in the world to solve the problem, but whatever it fits my current sitch.

Today my aunt came to visit, and she likes to work outside, so I got her to help me with hauling some branches I had cut from the tree out front to the compost site. After that was done both of us still had some gas in the tank and decided to start cutting back some of the shrubs. Well, each one we touched we decided to tear out. After a short while I was getting pretty warm, so I decided to take off my sweatshirt. In doing so I thought the best possible place for my glasses was hung over the side of the GARBAGE CAN WE WERE PUTTING THE CLIPPINGS INTO.

Needless to say, 10 minutes later when I wanted my glasses back on to have a look at our work, I realized what I had done. We found them…in the can…bent to hell and back again.

Grr. So I have a solution to my yard issues…but it requires I buy new glasses. Crap stick.

It’s a little strange having a son with a birthday the same day as mine.

Today we celebrated his first birthday. It was hard not to be somewhat reflective. Remembering back on my childhood, of endless summers and birthday parties it was pretty sweet to have a big cookout and celebrate my son with family and friends.

I am reminded of the Ben Folds lyric “So strange to be back here”.

Next year is a big one, for both of us. He’ll be two, and for the first time he’ll understand what’s going on around him, and well…I’ll be 40.

Can’t wait. Big cookout. You should save the date.

Being a technologist is essentially being a problem solver. If you are implementing some bit of technology you are more than likely addressing some problem for someone.

Typically you have a customer, and they have presented you with a business problem, and in response you are offering them a solution to that problem.

I think it is important, from time to time to revisit the idea that as technologists our function is to solve problems for customers.

I think recognizing your customer is a little easier when you are a consultant. The work you are tasked with implementing was defined before you set foot in the building and so you know that you need to deliver X.

For regular technology employees it can sometimes get lost in the work-a-day world of IT.

Chances are, your job is not to set up Linux boxes, or write iptables rules, or write mountains of Ruby. Likely, your job is do those things to support some business function that makes money.

It’s your responsibility to get to know those business people, and to lead them in the direction that makes the most sense for the business that pays your salary.

It is very easy to overlook that, and characterize business people as “idiots that don’t understand what they want”. I posit, that if that is your outlook, you don’t understand your role.

Your job, is to enable the business you are working for to make money. That can run the gambit from streamlining the onboarding process for new employees, to configuring a firewall to permit Margie in accounting to connect to the ERP system.

That’s all, I just wanted to point that out. Know your customers and remember, your role is to provide services to them as a subject matter expert.

(note: If you are a tech company, you still need to know your customers, they just won’t be your coworkers).

I signed up for the Geisinger Humdinger. It is a 7.1 mile trail run on March 5th 2011.

It should be a sloppy one.

I don’t do many trail runs, so I figured I better at least do a few between now and the race. To that end I went out to Kings Gap State Park yesterday, and did 2.25 miles out on a trail, and then picked up the road and ran back to the car. It was so much fun. And my legs are sore today. I loved the new challenge. I feel like over the last 6 or 7 months my running has been consistent, and stale. Adding a new wrinkle to my training has injected a new enthusiasm.

This morning I woke up tired and sore, and totally fired up. I headed back out to Kings Gap, this time to run the road to the Mansion and back. This is a 3.5 mile hill climb to the Mansion, and then a fast 3.5 descent. It flew by. So much fun.

Yesterday’s Run
Today’s Run