War Eagle! Have to say that after touring the awesome facilities here at Auburn. (Taken with Instagram at Auburn Athletic Complex)
Going to be a fun day at Auburn! (Taken with Instagram at Auburn Athletic Complex)
Loving my pantry box from @FreahFully! Full of granola, oats, cereal, and pancake mix! (Taken with Instagram at Infomedia, Inc.)
Love this sign (Taken with Instagram at The Alabama Theatre)
Half Marathon Training Begins Today
I caught the running bug in 2010 during my life style change and it has truly been something that I have come to love. Running (unlike anything else in my life) yields a great amount of satisfaction after a defeating a grueling challenge. I accomplish a short term goal during each run (usually just trying to make it home) while at the same time checking off a workout that is getting me closer and closer to my overall goal.
The next goal for me is the Country Music Half Marathon. Today will start my training program to not only finish the half marathon but do so in less then 2 hours 30 minutes.
I would be telling a lie if I did not say that I have my doubts. Psychologically I cannot get myself to think my body can endure a 13.1 mile run. Then again, I could never visualize myself losing over 100 pounds when I began my journey to change my life in 2010.
I will be sacrificing a few things along the way, the biggest being training time (AKA time away from the family). I will be running much longer during my workouts and away from the family during this start of a new chapter in our family life. Also, I will be monitoring much closer what I am putting into my body for maximum output. This means zero alcohol intake. I am social drinker, so it will be difficult when I am out with friends and co-workers. Small scarifie though for an awesome payoff.
As always, I ask for your support. Encouragement throughout the way from my friends and family wil be the only way I can make it through this new challenge.
I <3 Chili (Taken with instagram)
Moving Day
Today (or really this evening) I am moving over completely to a MacBook Air
. I purchased a new one this past Friday and after about a week of setup, tweaking, and getting comfortable it will work for me each and every minute of the day I am moving to it.
I was completely nervous about making this switch as I am a power hungry person when it comes to computer use. I thought I needed a MacBook Pro with 8GB of Ram and a Quad Core processor to rip up some videos, play some awesome games, and make sure it could handle my use. In reality I need half of that stuff.
I rarely do any video editing anymore, I never play games (except for an occasional dungeon run in WoW), and this MacBook Air’s specs are fully able to keep up with me. Plus it barely weighs anything.
With me not traveling for work anymore (traveling meaning getting on an airplane every week) I am always around home and taking my computer with me to meetings around tow. Carrying that heavy MacBook Pro has become cumbersome.
So, on ward on march with my new MacBook Air. Looking forward to our many hours of working together.
Google Forces my Google+ Hand
When Google+ launched to the public I was asked on a daily basis by clients, friends, or business owners if they needed to start posting to Google+. My standard response was always “If you have the time to devote to another network (outside of Facebook, Twitter, Blog) then sure. If not, stick to one and do it very well before moving on.”
Unfortunately, Google+ has now changed all of that with the launch of their “Search Plus Your World.”
In case you missed it, this new feature (being rolled out to google users over time) allows search results to also include your social network, I mean Google +. It does not include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube (a google property) or any other social network that I can see (or MG Siegler, Danny Sullivan, or John Gruber).
This is troublesome. It now means my clients must post their stuff on Google+ and engage users on that network to have more relevance on Google search results. More comments, +1’s, and shares on that network are going to benefit them more then likes, comments, and shares on Facebook OR retweet and conversations on Twitter.
With that said, Google+ is not ready for the mainstream. Latest records show it only having around 62 million users compared to 800+ million on Facebook or 200 million on Twitter. It is hard to convince my clients that it is worth their time to engage people about their service on Google + with a audience this small, yet with the move Google + has made it looks like they will have to do so to stay relevant.
Hopefully this will change if/when the FTC steps in.
