Running – Page 2 – Sol Young

Homeless, Keyless, Wednesday

Posted on June 18, 2008June 18, 2008 by Sol Young with Leave a comment

Today was strange…

Image courtesy of Malingering on Flickr – it is not of either of the homeless men I met today.

I started off the day by going for a great morning run. On my way home I realized my house key fell out of my shorts pocket, so I was looking around on the ground for it.

A homeless man asked if I lost something, and immediately followed up asking if it was a water bottle before I could respond. After telling him it was a key he informed me the water bottle he saw earlier was very nice.

I walked away cursing the fact I would have to break in to my house, but also thinking about a man with concern over my loss who didn’t have keys of his own to lose.

Breaking in requires scaling a tall wall, jumping through a window a-la Trinity escaping in The Matrix, and finally possessing the key to our inside apartment (which I still had).

At the end of the day I hit the bank for a friend and locked my keys in the car in the process… Two key losses in a single day. It would have been my first key loss in years if it were only once.

As I waited for my wife, bringing the spare key, a homeless man with a harshly weathered and flushed face approached. The conversation went like this:

Homeless man: Hello, sir?
I kept silent, posting to del.icio.us.
Man: Sir, is that your car?
Me: Yep?
Man: <upbeat> Where are you from?
Me: Here, Philadelphia…
Man: Sir, I could use a cup ‘a coffee, could ya spare some change?
Me: …
Man: <poorly rehearsed> Sir, I’m homeless, hungry, scared, and need something to eat. Anything you can offer will help.
Me: I’m sorry, but I won’t give cash, but I’ll get us cups of coffee.
Man: <confused, back pedaling> But I’m hungry. I have 55-cents <jingles pockets> and only need a little more for coffee.
I twittered
Man: Sir, pay attention to me. I need some help.
Me: I’ll buy us cups of coffee and a snack then.
Man: <pausing again> But… I’m hungry.
Me: <Genuine smile> Let’s go get a cup of coffee, Starbucks is two doors down.

He turned his back to me and walked off without another word. His “hello, sir?” introduction was repeated to each passerby.

Posted in del.icio.us, Economics, Etiquette, Homelessness, Philadelphia, Running, Twitter, YouTube

Micro-blogging a 10-mile run – Broad Street Philadelphia, 2008 – Utterz

Posted on May 4, 2008July 12, 2009 by Sol Young with 5 Comments

I ran Philadelphia’s Broad Street run, a 10-mile race today, while carrying an iPhone, making calls, checking Twitter, and taking and posting pics. I chronicled the day with Twitter, Utterz, Flickr, and TwitPic. I used Snapture, iFlickr, and SendPics iPhone apps.

Quick Links to the streams:

My plan was to Twitter my progress and TwitPic/Flickr the pics out to my followers. But I woke up at 3am from a caffeine rush and a thought of typing for an hour becoming a nightmare – and boring. Utterz.com, a service doing pretty slick mashups of audio/video/text/photographs/etc, while harnessing APIs from pretty much every popular social networking service, caught my eye (more on Utterz later).

Here’s the day – check the Flickr photostream and the Utterz links below for my audio commentary while I running…

Posted in Blogging, Featured, Flickr, iPhone, Jaiku, Jailbreak, Micro-blogging, Microblogging, Nike+, Pownce, Running, Social Networking, TwitPic, Twitter, Utterz, Wearing, Web Services

The night before the Broad Street 10-miler – thumbs and feet ready

Posted on May 3, 2008 by Sol Young with 1 Comment

After a few months of preparing for the Broad Street 10-miler, it’s now the night before and pre-race excitement is setting in. iofy‘s new office in the Navy Yard of Philadelphia is a block away from the finish line, so this will be a pretty nice way to finish a race. There are showers and refreshments in the building… Life will be good.

The race starts at 8:30am EDT. For the first time while running a race I’ll be Twittering. This is partially because I want to try it as a social experiment, and partly because I’ve been sick and not training for the last week (read: I’d like an excuse to run slightly slower than usual).

If you see someone blow by you, with the above on the back of his shirt, send a text message to 40404 with “follow sol”…

Gear:

iPhone
Nike+iPod Nano

Software & Services:

Twitter
TwitPic (Send a pic to twitpic and have it announced on Twitter)
Flickr (Get the photostream here)
MobileTwitter (stable jailbroken iPhone Twitter client)
Twinkle (jailbroken iPhone geolocation + Twitter)
Snapture (jailbroken iPhone camera.app replacement)

Good luck and see you at the finish line!

Posted in Blogging, Flickr, Geolocation, iofy, iPhone, Nike+, Running, Social Networking, TwitPic, Twitter, Wearing

The morning habit of highly effective people – wake up for yourself

Posted on April 17, 2008 by Sol Young with 9 Comments

Valley Forge Sunrise Deer

Early Sunrise in Valley Forge – 2003

In Stephen R. Covey‘s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, shared traits and behaviors of effective people are described (at the strategic level). I’ve found one habit, at the functional level, which seems to span every effective person I’ve met. I do it too.

It’s waking up and doing something you enjoy. By starting the day and doing something focused, for yourself, you’re establishing a sort of leadership over your day. Instead of waking up and being ruled/owned by the clock, it’s getting up and taking control of the day.

Personally, I run. It starts with getting up, stretching, and hitting the pavement. This time is my time. While my legs are spinning, my mind is churning through any challenges or plans for the day. Most everyone I’ve met who are business leaders do something for themselves first.

It can be anything… Coffee and a newspaper, yoga, morning television news, surfing, gardening, art, etc. You can start off by getting in to the office at 7:00am if that’s what you want. The point is that you’re doing this for yourself and not for anyone else. Your day is starting off under your lead.

Posted in Managing, Nike+, Running

Back in my routine – daily running, RSS+flow, and dev

Posted on April 11, 2008April 13, 2008 by Sol Young with Leave a comment

Latest run results… Almost to my goal of < 7:00 pace…

Today is special… It marks the first day of getting back in to my preferred routine. Here it is:

Get up early and hit a good run.
Read RSS (and now some flow) over breakfast.
Drive to the office (while continuing to read RSS).
Have a productive day of dev.
Get home and enjoy some afternoon/evening time with family.
Read more, code more, free time before bed…

For the last few months my routine has been thrashed. Very productive, but insane…

Wake up just in time leave for the office.
Have a productive day of dev.
Get home and follow up with emails and later dev projects.
Do demolition/remodeling/construction with my wife.
Fall in to bed, catch 15 minutes of news.

The latter routine has accomplished a remodeled home, most recently the bathroom, but hasn’t allowed for much mental expansion or physical fitness.

Posted in iofy, Nike+, Running