Updated Cholesterol Log

Date	Result
June 16, 2009	172
April 2, 2009	147
January 6, 2009	171
November 11, 2008	182
July 27, 2008	198
May 8, 2008	231
April 23, 2008	206

Looking Good!

June 15-28: Running, Cycling, Swimming, Listening, Working, & Living

Rest in Peace

Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and lots of other people have died recently. OK. I didn't know most of these people but I try not to over emphasize the value of one person as if others are of less value. But, we all certainly knew of these folks and their work in ways we don't of most of their peers. Each was a icon for some context and era of my life. I read several Facebook based tirades about Micheal within which he was either being berated for his bizarreness or the beraters were being berated for being judgmental. He did great things for music, dance, and videos in the early 80's. He and his brothers were definitely icons my adolescence in the 70's. It was too bad his last few decades were marred by what seems to be bizarre behavior and suspicious circumstances with children. After reading these posts, I have decided to accept that I can't know the truth. I really liked Thriller, but most of the rest of his music was influential to the culture around me, but not on my I would buy that list. May he rest in peace. Farrah and Ed were famous folks that seemed be straight up and nice. I hope they too rest in peace. It is a reminder that we all age and life is short. Make it good.

Swimming Lessons

I have signed up for swimming lessons/coaching at the Y. I am hoping that it will help improve my horrible swimming speed. My goal is to see significant improvement at Mountain Lakes Triathlon in Guntersville, AL on August 8, 2009.

Podcast Listening Update

No Agenda
I have removed this one from my subscription. I am justing growing tired of the conspiracy theory stuff. It is some what entertaining, but the banter is starting to annoy me. So, I am going to give Cranky Geeks a try. I am expecting that his will be more up my alley. I miss Adam's Daily Source Code especially in the style I found it (lots of gadget talk). The "crackpot" stuff is just going over the top for me. I wish the show well and I am sure there are many that find it really hits some cool marks for them.

• #104 No Agenda For Sunday June 14th 2009 - Furries Forever
• #105 No Agenda For Thursday June 18th 2009 - The French Fry Connection
• #106 No Agenda For Sunday June 21st 2009

IT Conversations

• Mark Madsen - Using Open Source BI in the Real World
• George Reese - Cloud Applications
• Paul Otellini - Enterprise Collaboration
• Lawrence Lessig - Trust and Independence

Accident Hash

• Podsafe Childrens Album Thoughts

Data

June 28, 2009: Birmingham, AL Brownell Running
Distance:	11.16 Miles
Time:	1:49:11
Heart Rate:	140
Pace:	9:47
Weather:	Partly cloudy Temperature-82° Humidity-69%
Route

June 27, 2009: Birmingham, AL Oak Mountain State Park Cycling
Distance:	24 Miles
Time:	1:20:36
Heart Rate:	138
Speed:	17.80 mph
Weather:	Clear Temperature-82° Humidity-67%
Route

June 26, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	30:44 I was tired. We ate party food instead of my usual supper. I weighed 157 pounds instead of my usual 159 to 162. So, I think I just messed up my nutrition the day before this run.
Heart Rate:	130
Pace:	10:14
Weather:	Clear Temperature-72° Humidity-84%

June 25, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	28:16
Heart Rate:	139
Pace:	9:25
Weather:	Clear Temperature-79° Humidity-56%

June 24, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	6.18 Miles
Time:	58:45
Heart Rate:	143
Pace:	9:30
Weather:	Clear Temperature-72° Humidity-87%

June 23, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	28:39
Heart Rate:	136
Pace:	9:32
Weather:	Clear Temperature-77° Humidity-84%
YMCA, Birmingham, AL Swim
Distance:	600 Yards
Time:	19:54

June 21, 2009: Birmingham, AL Brownell Running
Distance:	11.11 Miles
Time:	1:47:28
Heart Rate:	147
Pace:	9:40
Weather:	Clear Temperature-82° Humidity-76%
Route

June 20, 2009: Birmingham, AL Oak Mountain State Park Cycling
The Alabama Sports Festival Triathlon was underway when I started. In fact, the leader had started cycling but had not reached the turn around point which is where I started. I reached the point along the race where he would finish before he did. The photographer and others clearly thought I was the leader at first. I waved off and try to make it clear I was not in the race. But, it felt good for a second ;)
Distance:	24 Miles
Time:	1:21:06
Heart Rate:	140
Speed:	17.69 mph
Weather:	Clear Temperature-87° Humidity-63%
Route

June 19, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	29:11
Heart Rate:	139
Pace:	9:43
Weather:	Clear Temperature-77° Humidity-84%

June 18, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	6.19 Miles
Time:	1:02:42
Heart Rate:	140
Pace:	10:07
Weather:	Clear Temperature-75° Humidity-90%
YMCA, Birmingham, AL Swim
Distance:	600 Yards
Time:	18:00

June 17, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	6.18 Miles
Time:	59:48
Heart Rate:	140
Pace:	9:40
Weather:	Clear Temperature-73° Humidity-93%

June 16, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	27:29
Heart Rate:	140
Pace:	9:09
Weather:	Clear Temperature-68° Humidity-93%

June 15, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	8.09 Miles
Time:	1:16:16
Heart Rate:	141
Pace:	9:25
Weather:	Clear Temperature-69° Humidity-93%

June 13, 2009: My First Triatholon

My First Triathlon, The Buster Britton Memorial Triathlon

I did it! The swim was hard. I honestly nearly swam to shore at the first buoy. I tried to swim like I practiced in the pool with my head down and turning up for a breath on every 4th stroke. But, I took in water from the waves everytime. And, I was really disoriented by all of the people and activity around me. Then, I noticed that I swam just to the right of the buoy, instead of the appropriate left side. Someone else had just done that and was going back, so I did to. Then, I had trouble getting back into the lane of people. I honestly considered just swimming for the shore. But, I didn't. I stopped trying to keep my face in the water and just swam. I only swam faster than 7 people, 4 men! So, at this point of the race I was in 470th place overall and 340th for male finishers.

Then, the ride started. I was never passed by anyone. I passed literally 10's of people. Then, came the run. Again, I was never passed by anyone. I passed quite a few, but fewer than on the bike. I finished as the 237th male. Not bad for my first one if you ask me. I will definitely be taking some swimming lessons. I had a great time and I want to do this again.

My wife and son did a great job encouraging and enabling me to prepare and do this. They ventured out in the rain with me to take pictures of my first experience. I love them and they are awesome.

The pictures from flickr:

Data

June 13, 2009: Birmingham, AL Buster Britton Memorial Triathlon Time: 1:25:43
	Swim	Distance: 400 Yards Time: 11:07
	Transition	Time: 4:13
	Cycle	Distance: 13.1 Time: 44:46 Rate: 17.56
	Transition	Time: 2:11
	Run	Distance: 3.1 Miles Time: 25:38 Pace: 8:16
	Weather	Clear Temperature-57° Humidity-67%
	Route

May 10-Jun 11: Running, Riding, Swimming, Listening, and Traveling

OK. I have not been updating very frequently. I just let myself get so overbooked at life and work. But, let's see if I can get caught up.

Traveling

Work Project Won an Award

One of the projects I am working on won one of the biggest awards offered by my company so, I traveled to Scottsdale, AZ (May 20-22) and Atlanta, GA (June 2-June 5) to participate in celebrations and conference type activity. I got to meet 2 colleagues on the project that I had only known online. That was awesome. They are both very bright women from India. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them and getting to know them in a way that is only possible face to face. Both are beautiful people. We talked about work, philosophy, approach to life, food, and all kinds of things. I have memories I will never forget and forged relationships that have enriched my life and will benefit our work, I'm sure.

Hummer tour

We got to on an excusion to the desert in Hummers. Lots of memorable things to see, but the most interesting was the Saguaro which has an amazing method for procreation. From bats, to doves, to droppings by trees, to very long lives (check it out). Our guide said the seeds must go through a white-winged dove to remove a coating from the seed so that it will germinate. Further, there were 2 critical times zones during which the seed must be exposed to water, else it will not grow. The desert was awesome.

Picture on flickr:

Washington DC with the Family

Most of recent Memorial Days have been spent in Chattanooga, TN. While we love Chattanooga, we were ready for something different. My son is in love with Dinosaurs. So, we went to Washington DC to see the Dinosaur Museum (you now, the Smithsonian). We stayed very busy and he loved every bit as much as he hoped. We also got to see "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" at the Smithsonian IMax theater. We visited as many things as we could squeeze in. Lots and lots of fun of course. One of the high lights for me was lunch at the Central Cafe. I can't describe food like a food critic, but I can tell you that if your tastes leans towards what I call European Continental and you like American cuisine, this places offers a very appetizing fusion, IMHO. There are pictures of what we ate in the show below. They are the only ones with food (IMG_6257-6261).

Here's the pictures from flickr:

Podcast Listening Update

Phedippidations

• Fdip186: A Life of Present Defense
  
• Fdip187: The Running Evolution
  
• Fdip188: John Michaels Puppy
  
• Fdip189: The Other Newton’s Laws
  
• Fdip190: A Longer Life with Purpose
  

---

This American Life

• 181: The Friendly Man
  

---

No Agenda

• #097 No Agenda For Thursday May 14th 2009 Brain Damage
  
• #098 No Agenda For Sunday May 17th 2009
  
• #099 No Agenda For Thursday May 28th 2009
  Adam Curry getting divorced and suing a newspaper for
  Creative Commons violation after posting picture. The story seems to be
  that Adam fell for a younger Dutch actress. I have to say I'm a little
  shocked after hearing him go on about Patricia and them together. But,
  one should not be judgemental. There is always more to know than one
  can know from the outside.
  
• #100 No Agenda For Sunday May 31st 2009
  
• #101 No Agenda For Wednesday June 3rd 2009
  
• #102 No Agenda For Sunday June 7th 2009
  
• #103 No Agenda For Thursday June 11th 2009
  

---

IT Conversations

• Bill Coleman - Green Data Center
  
• John Fowler - Innovation That Drives Opportunity for the Web Infrastructure
  Use of open source routines for managing typically proprietary concerns like RAID and such. Good overview and insight on web infrastructure with a view to the future.
  
• David Glazer - Google and OpenSocial: Let's Get This Shindig Started
  
• John J. Barton - Profiling Dynamic Web Applications with Firebug
  This brief podcast demonstrated how Firebug continues to be enhanced and used in innovative and helpful ways. I love Firebug.
  
• Alan Boss - The Crowded Universe
  Searching for planets with a new satellite and expecting to find many, too cool.
  
• Michel Bauwens - Middle Way Between Open and Closed
  
• Chris Messina - DiSo and The Web Citizen: Distributed
  Social Networking Starts Here
  
• Tony Hsieh - Building A Brand That Matters
  
• Jeremy Kemper - Optimizing Performance
  Learned about YSlow which sounds like a very cool tool that I can't wait to use.
  
• Episode 55 - StackOverflow
  
• Mark Callaghan - This is Not a Web App
  Running MySQL at Google scale. This was packed full of interesting and deep
  details of using MySQL at huge scale.
  
• Mark Baker - REST
  
• Carl Zimmer - On Ecoli
  

---

Software Engineering Radio

• Episode 132: Top 10 Architecture Mistakes with Eoin Woods
  Slides at http://www.eoinwoods.info/doc/JAOO2008-Top10Mistakes.pdf
  

---

Dot Net Rocks

• Ted Neward on Oracle buying Sun
  
• Rocky Lhotka on CSLA.NET for Silverlight!
  

---

Accident Hash

• Folk Festival 50 Fun
  

Running, Cycling, and Swimming Data

June 11, 2009: Blythewood, SC Running
Distance:	6.23 Miles
Time:	59:52
Heart Rate:	135
Pace:	9:36
Weather:	Overcast Temperature-72° Humidity-100%
Route

June 10, 2009: Blythewood, SC Running
Distance:	6.12 Miles
Time:	57:15
Heart Rate:	141
Pace:	9:21
Weather:	Clear Temperature-72° Humidity-100%
Route

June 9, 2009: Columbia, SC YMCA Swim
Distance:	400 Yards
Time:	13:11 minutes

June 07, 2009: Birmingham, AL Brownell Running
Distance:	11.14 Miles
Time:	1:44:40
Heart Rate:	139
Pace:	9:23
Weather:	Clear Temperature-69° Humidity-90%
Route

June 6, 2009: Birmingham, AL Oak Mountain State Park Cycling
Distance:	24 Miles
Time:	1:19:18
Heart Rate:	134
Speed:	18.09 mph
Weather:	Clear Temperature-74° Humidity-64%
Route

June 5, 2009: Atlanta, GA Running
Distance:	6.25 Miles
Time:	57:35
Heart Rate:	142
Pace:	9:12
Weather:	Overcast Temperature-67° Humidity-97%
Route

June 4, 2009: Atlanta, GA Running
Distance:	7.07 Miles
Time:	1:07:55
Heart Rate:	147
Pace:	9:36
Weather:	Mostly cloudy Temperature-70° Humidity-88%
Route (looks funny because I got lost)

June 2, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	3 Miles
Time:	29:00
Heart Rate:	137
Pace:	9:39
Weather:	Clear Temperature-70° Humidity-84%

June 1, 2009: Birmingham, AL YMCA Swim
Distance:	400 Yards
Time:	12 minutes

May 31, 2009: Birmingham, AL Brownell Running
Distance:	11.14 Miles
Time:	1:45:13
Heart Rate:	144
Pace:	9:26
Weather:	Clear Temperature-67° Humidity-87%
Route

May 30, 2009: Birmingham, AL Oak Mountain State Park Cycling
Distance:	24 Miles
Time:	1:18:30
Heart Rate:	142
Speed:	18.25 mph
Weather:	Clear Temperature-72° Humidity-64%
Route

May 29, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	6.21 Miles
Time:	58:28
Heart Rate:	143
Pace:	9:24
Weather:	Overcast Temperature-65° Humidity-90%

May 28, 2009: Birmingham, AL YMCA Swim
Distance:	400 Yards
Time:	12 minutes

May 27, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	8.04 Miles
Time:	1:18:47
Heart Rate:	141
Pace:	9:47
Weather:	Overcast Temperature-70° Humidity-88%

May 26, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	6.15 Miles
Time:	1:00:01
Heart Rate:	141
Pace:	9:45
Weather:	Overcast Temperature-70° Humidity-94%

May 26, 2009: Birmingham, AL YMCA Swim
Distance:	400 Yards
Time:	12 minutes

May 22, 2009: Scottsdale, AZ Running
Distance:	6.08 Miles
Time:	55:45
Heart Rate:	149
Pace:	9:10
Weather:	Light rain Temperature-68° Humidity-84%
Route

May 21, 2009: Scottsdale, AZ Running
Distance:	8.11 Miles
Time:	1:16:02
Heart Rate:	142
Pace:	9:22
Weather:	Mostly cloudy Temperature-79° Humidity-45%
Route

May 20, 2009: Birmingham, AL Neighborhood Running
Distance:	6.14 Miles
Time:	56:59
Heart Rate:	145
Pace:	9:16
Weather:	Clear Temperature-60° Humidity-53%

May 18, 2009: Birmingham, AL YMCA Swim
Distance:	400 Yards
Time:	12 minutes