robert nelson (dot) me

The day the Nexus One became available I hit up the store website at www.google.com/phone with thoughts of making the purchase. Of course at the time reality set in and the fact that I already have two smartphones (an HTC Hero with Sprint and iPhone 3GS with AT&T) made me aware that I really did not need a Nexus One. I just wanted one, and want is different from need.

Anyway, just a few minutes ago I was looking for some Nexus One information (for a post that I was writing on Androinica) and found myself back on that store page and decided to *maybe* make a purchase. So I clicked the nice “Get your phone” button and was greeted with a strange message.

The message read;

Your session has expired. Since buying the Nexus One requires your personal information, we want to make sure it’s still you behind the keyboard.

Still me? Of course it’s still me, I am still logged in under the same Gmail account. How could they not know that it was me? And then I did the natural, re-clicked the “Get your phone” button and was again greeted with the same message. I then logged out of my Gmail account, closed my browser, went back to the store, logged back in and once again hit the “Get your phone” button. Only to be given the same message.

Bottom line, I am sure this is a simple fix, but instead of trying to figure it out I wrote something about it here and figure that Google just saved me a bunch of money. Thanks Google.

The words “100 Miles and Runnin” could mean a few things depending on who you ask. It is of course an older NWA song, which does currently reside in my music collection. But more importantly it also serves as a goal for myself. That goal is to run 100 miles — an ultramarathon or more specifically I want to run the Keys 100 in May of 2011.

I have talked about this race before, and had hoped to run it this past May (in 2009) but timing was wrong and the finances were not available for a undertaking like this. So it was put on the back burner for a while. Now the timing is better and with some advance planning it should be easy to at least make it to the starting line. What I do from there will have to wait, but at least I know I can go in with a good plan, good support crew and most importantly plenty of supplies and plenty of training.

But in reality this post serves as a way to make my intentions public. And I am doing that because the more people that know, and the more people that I talk about my goal with, the harder it will be for me to chicken out.

Yes, attempting to run a 100 miles makes me nervous, but its a big challenge and honestly I am more afraid that I will finish and then want to do something harder, longer or crazier. But more on that after May of 2011.

In the meantime, I will continue training using my current plans, which will accommodate both my regular marathon and summer triathlon plans. I am also doing research into supplies that I need, and trying to read anything and everything that may help me in regards to ultramarathons.

But the first order of business, I need a new pair of running shoes.

Earlier today I went for a run, which by itself is nothing special as I run often. But today I found myself in another place, back to a time when running was the BEST or most relaxing thing that I could do. Now this is not to say any of my other recent runs were not special, but today it was done in less than ideal conditions.

I went running, I had my shoes, shorts, a thin but long sleeved running jersey, and my phone to track my progress and provide me with podcast entertainment.

I started out running, it was about 60 degrees (and yes for Florida that is chilly) and very windy and overcast. Not typical Florida weather, and about 1/2 mile in it began to rain, first a sprinkle then it was pouring. I thought about turning and heading back home.

But before I even made it to 1 mile in I realized that I was smiling. I have having FUN, serious fun. Like a kid playing out in the rain. And I mean I was smiling so much that the passing cars probably thought I was crazy. A mid-30 year old running in the rain with a big old smile on his face.

But it was fun, and with that I ushered in the New Year with an 8+ mile run. And then came home to a wife and two daughters that once again confirmed (in their minds) that I am slightly crazy.

My running for the year will hopefully take me back to this place many times. As for goals, other than keep this feeling — I want to run at least 6 marathons with one of those being an ultra (50K). And on top of that I plan to do four sprint triathlons in Clermont Florida over the summer.

Despite what some people may do by finding a place online to download premium shows like Weeds, I am not willing to do that. That said, I do not subscribe (on a regular basis) to Showtime, nor do I want to wait for the season to show up on DVD.

Given that, my wife and I have come up with a little trick that allows us to watch the current season in a fairly timely manner and at the same time not have to pay all that much. It does however require a little time.

All we do is wait for the season to end, then once its over we subscribe to Showtime just before the weekend begins, we also make sure its a weekend when we know that we will have plenty of time. Basically, we subscribe, then watch all of the episodes using On Demand.

This means we subscribe on Friday afternoon, watch the season over the course of the weekend and then cancel Showtime on Monday morning. That means your typical $15 (approx) monthly fee is down to paying for just about 4 days worth, which is much cheaper than buying the DVD or even renting it.

The nice part here is that when you call up to cancel, just tell the agent you were not really watching the channel. I would also suggest to be nice and polite (and ask if they have any special offers) when you cancel, because you never know what you may be offered.

For example when I recently called to cancel Showtime I was offered 3-months of HBO for free. Which means now I can also watch the latest season of Entourage.

Bottom line, this means we got to watch both seasons for just 4 days worth of service.

File this under just because I can.

Anyway I have recently launched setup my own personal URL shortening service (that I found instructions for while browsing Lifehacker). It was not only pretty easy to do, but it was also cheap.

Aside from a little setup time, you only need two other items, which are listed below;

• YOURLS, which is short for “Your Own URL Shortener”
• A short domain name. I went with GoDaddy and found several cheap 4 letter domains. Tip: they are currently offering 4 letter .me domains for $9.99 and 4 letter .us domains for $4.99.

Now that you have those two items, you will need some time. After you secure your domains (and have them hosted somewhere) you can download YOURLS and begin the setup. I would list the directions, but they offer a nice step-by-step listing in the downloaded folder and on their website.

A few nice features of YOURLS:

• Your shortener can be set as public or private.
• They offer a bookmarklet.
• They have a Wordpress plugin that generates a short URL for each post and can also automatically send that short URL to Twitter.
• You can easily track your clicks.

Additionally, the nice part here is that you are further branding your name and website, but perhaps most important is that the service is not going to disappear on you.