robert nelson (dot) me

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.

I have been considering picking up a Sprint MiFi since it became available, but for some reason I cannot justify making the purchase, which is strange.

I do have a need, well maybe not really a need, but it is something that will get used. I can, and have been getting by just fine without a MiFi, but at the same time I like to write from outside of the house from time to time and it would be nice to not to have to worry about finding a location with Wi-Fi available.

That said, I consider it strange because I was once a happy Palm.net subscriber which for the unlimited plan used to cost me $44.99 a month. Sure, that $44.99 is cheaper than the $59.95 that I will have to pay Sprint, but at least the MiFi offers full Internet access, which is unlike what the Palm.net service on the Palm VIIx used to offer.

The Palm.net service offered unlimited access, but only offered access to web clips which were known as Web Clippings. Basically the service allowed you to visit only certain pages that were formatted to fit nicely on the Palm VIIx display.

Given that, why can’t I justify a purchase of the MiFi? (and yes, that was really just me asking myself that question) It will get used, most likely at least 2-3 days a week. Maybe I have just gotten cheaper with age, or possibly it just seems a little more normal to me to depend on pubic Wi-Fi now.

[Palm VIIx image courtesy of Wikipedia]

I have been wondering something lately in regards to Twitter follows.

It seems to me that everyone expects that when you follow someone they are going to automatically follow you back. Personally I cannot understand why people believe that. I have even seen people complain and stop following someone for the simple reason that they did not get a return follow.

Well screw that, I don’t expect or really even care if I get a follow back, sure it is nice to get, especially if you are following someone for “good” reasons which basically means that you are interested in them and what they have to say, not to increase your numbers.

I follow people or companies because I WANT to follow them. My reasoning is simple, it is because they are offering me something of value. That something could be insight, news, comedic relief or many other things.

Now comes the part that I think is hard for lots of people to understand, just because that person or company is offering me value, it does not mean I would be offering them anything of value in return. In other words I should not expect an automatic return follow.

Maybe this is just my warped view, but I consider Twitter to be micro-blogging. That said I subscribe to plenty of blogs and have never even thought that the person should subscribe to my blog in return. And yes, I understand that Twitter is a social networking site, but it does not have to be ONLY a social networking site.

Why does following someone on Twitter have to be any different than following someone by way of a blogs RSS feed? In conclusion, you should follow only if that person gives you value and if you want a follow back make sure you are providing value in your Twitter stream.