robert nelson (dot) me

While out on my afternoon run yesterday I was running on the sidewalk when two young kids on bicycles approached from the other direction. Coming towards me.

Here we have two bikes (riding side by side) and me on a fairly narrow sidewalk on a busy road. So going in the street was not an option.

Given that I moved over as far as I could and proceeded to keep running.

Well, the little bastards on bikes decided they did not want to move and then yelled;

“How about giving us some room next time asshole.”

Now I could have fired back any number of rude comments, but instead I thought, “how about showing some respect.”

And I did not even yell it, I just thought it and continued running. I guess I am mellowing with age.

That said, they were still stupid punk bastard kids who need to be tough a lesson in respect.

I love my iPad so much that I will not even let me my wife take it to work so she can show it to one of her co-workers.

Keep in mind, that its not because I am afraid it will get broken, but because it has become so much a part of my daily life that I don’t want to spend 8 hours without having it close by.

Pretty sad on my part.

I have been using Android for a while now and have also been maintaining two phones. Now those two phone days are coming to an end. Well, maybe, let me explain.

In the past I have had an iPhone 3GS with AT&T as well as a MiFi and HTC Hero with Sprint. The MiFi and Hero have since been cancelled and replaced with a Droid Eris on Verizon Wireless. So far I love Verizon and I love my Droid Eris. Unfortunately I am missing the MiFi, but more on that in a minute.

Due to pain of paying multiple wireless bills and the joy of using a Droid Eris on Verizon I am canceling my AT&T account and turning my iPhone 3GS into a fancy iPod touch. The reasoning behind that is that its cheaper and easier to just keep that iPhone than it is to sell it and buy an iPod touch. Plus I want/need to keep an iPhone (or touch) because I really like the device, and well, I still write for a dedicated iPhone site. Plus this is not about ditching Apple or AT&T, its just about the bottom line in terms of money. Which means I am not ditching the iPhone as much as I am ditching the bill that comes along with it. I still love the iPhone, but for now Verizon has better deals on family plans. Plus I was able to get a Droid Eris for myself, my wife and my daughter — all for $20 plus shipping.

Now getting back to the MiFi, I miss it and am considering either the Palm Pre Plus or MiFi on Verizon to fill that void. Of course the Palm Pre Plus is adding another phone but it would primarily be used as a data device because it allows me to share the connection by creating a mobile (MiFi like) hotspot. In terms of prices on those, the MiFi is $60 a month and adding the Pre Plus to the existing family plan with the data and mobile hotspot only comes to $80 per month. So really for $20 extra I am getting a whole other phone. Now some, ok many will argue that its not needed, but having an extra phone can be nice at times — if for no other reason than those times when I forget to charge or overuse and drain my battery.

Anyway, that was a lot of words to say that I am turning my iPhone into an iPod touch and picking up a Palm Pre Plus to use as a fancy MiFi. Oh, and I still love my Android based Droid Eris.

Once again I am cleaning out the home office and getting ride of the items that I no longer need or use. Most of the auctions offer free shipping and have no reserve price set. Check out what I have listed and bid away.

• Sprint HTC Hero
• Sprint MiFi
• Zune 80 (in Red)
• Speck PixelSkin case for the iPhone 3G/3GS
• Club Penguin skin for the Nintendo DS Lite

Over the weekend I ran the Clearwater Half Marathon, which was a great race. Overall it was wonderful and I will say that it will be added to my “to-do” list of races for 2011. The course was nice to run as far as scenery to look at, it was very well marked and had plenty of aid stations and volunteers. You really cannot ask for anything more. But that is not to say the post-race was something to say was shabby — they had a nice finish line setup plus some good food. They had the usual oranges, pretzels, soda and water — but in addition there was also some hot food. A nice plus especially when the morning was a slight bit chilly.

Anyway, like I said the race was great in terms of support and all that stuff, and I also had a great run personally. The official results have recently been posted on the Clearwater Running website, but I ran with my phone which has SportyPal and tracks my progress by GPS so I have two sets of results listed below.

According to the official race results, I ran a 1:54:29 which means I ran with an average pace of 8:44 per mile.

According to my results, which you can see below (map above) I actually ran a little more than the 13.1, but I still had a respectable time. My race goal was 9 minute to 9:10 minute miles and I beat that so I am very happy.

• Date: 23/01/2010 07:10
• Distance: 13.55 mi
• Total Time: 01:54:41
• Average Speed: 7.09 mph
• Calories: 1372 kcal

• Start time: 07:10:56
• End time: 09:05:37
• Max Speed: 10.53 mph
• Max Pace: 05:41 min/mi
• Average Pace: 08:27 min/mi
• Total climb: 200 ft
• Total descend: 200 ft

Now I will continue to run and begin to think about my full marathon next month, which I am running at the end of the month as part of Gasparilla in Tampa.