Month: November 2008

Missionary Talks getting back on track

I have been very excited about grabbing some new interviews for Missionary Talks recently. I just need to get them edited and up on the site.

I talked with one couple today who are missionaries to the Philippines. That interview will be difficult to edit, but it will probably be the next one I upload. If nothing else, it will be a short one. We only talked about 16 minutes and I already know a couple of minutes worth of stuff will be tossed out.

Yesterday I was able to get an interview with a missionary in Mexico. He is a missionary kid (MK) and has now been back on the field for several years. Since my last interview was also with a missionary to Mexico, I thought I would put the couple to the Philippines first.

I would be working on the editing of those interviews right now, but I left my USB cable at home. I have had to borrow a cable from different people to get my sound files transfered from my recorder to the computer. I will be going home tomorrow where I have at least 3 of those cables. I will try not to forget one in the future.

Next week I have a goal to grab 4 interviews. I will be in a conference with some good friends and should be able to corner them for a few minutes to get some recording done.

Catching up to the pace bunny

In my goal to run 1000 miles this year, I have joined a group at Running Ahead. There is a tool where I am able to track my miles in comparison to a pace bunny. That bunny advances every few hours telling us where we are supposed to be in relation to the progression of the year.

Today I ran 12 miles which put me within 10 miles of catching up to the bunny. If I can stay healthy, then I should easily be able to finish my 1000 mile goal in time. I may even blow past it by a good number.

The 12 miles I ran today were on trails at a park. Some of the trails were on asphalt, but more than half of it I was running on horse trails through beautiful woods and hills. I could tell they were horse trails because of the evidence that horses leave behind.

When I got home and pulled off my socks it was fun to see where the socks ended and the dirt began. I had an instant tan. Even though my tan went away once I stepped into the shower, I also felt better.

A journey of 1000 miles is completed just a few miles at a time.

Magnets and iPhones

I was preparing this post in my mind and did a little googling last night to get some information on the problem. I was very surprised by what I found.

I previously mentioned some problems I was having with my phone. If you read the update I wrote at the end, you will see that I traced the problem to a phone case I have which has a magnet in it. The phone has absolutely not locked up since I stopped using that case. The only thing I can trace the phone problems to is the magnets which hold the flap shut.

I have read pages that talk about how AT&T employees are telling customers to not use cases with magnets. Some of the reasons are bizarre and totally impossible. Such as the magnets messing up the video or erasing the hard drive. There is no traditional hard drive in an iPhone. Magnets will effect a CRT monitor but not an LCD. I think these are reasons made up by the individual employee to explain why not to use a magnet in the iPhone cases.

I have also read where people have said there is no way a magnet could negatively affect the phone. There were some reports of problems, while not the same problem as mine, which are consistent when magnets are involved. I can verify that the magnet is definitely the culprit of my phone locking up.

All that to say, while there is inconsistent data, it does appear that magnets can affect the phone negatively. How strong of a magnet? What will the symptoms be? How long of exposure to the magnet? Those are questions I cannot answer. But I can say that if you are having problems with your iPhone and you have a case with magnets, then try some testing to see if the case is indeed the problem.

October Goals Report

Running
I have to run 83 miles a month to reach my goal of 1000 miles for the year. In the month of October I ran 93 miles. I made up 10 of the miles that I was behind this month. I am still about 12 miles behind for the year, but that should easily be made up. I ran 16 days this month which works out to running every other day.

I did this thing called a marathon. That was a first time event for me. Believe it or not, that is the reason I got behind on my goal. I had stuck to a training plan that did not pad in any extra miles. If I missed a run one week it put me behind. Of course there were the 30+ mile weeks which helped make up the losses.

The longest break I took this month was a stretch of 3 days. It was good to take that time off. This came shortly after the marathon. I began to have some sharp foot pain 2 days after the race. I believe I have a stress fracture in one of the bones along the right side of my right foot. I had been on my feet a lot leading up to and a week after my race. I began to take a high dosage of anti-inflammatory medicine and calcium (as per my personal nurse’s instructions). Those 3 non-running days were also travel days. I was able to stay off my feet completely. I did not experience any of the sharp pain shortly after that time off my feet. I did a hard run though and felt a twinge and the pain instantly returned. I have been nursing it the last week and have been able to keep the pain at bay. Running motion does not seem to hurt the foot, but walking does.

Reading
I had fallen way behind in my reading. Since this is a month to month goal, I have not let it bother me that I missed the goal of 800 pages in the past. I know that each month I get to start with a clean slate.

I again missed the goal, but was much closer this time around. I read 748 pages in the month of October. Most of the reading was done early in the month. I actually have read a bit more than that, but one of the books I am currently reading is in the car. So I am not able to get an accurate page count. I am only about 20 pages into it. I will put that onto next month’s count.

I read Dean Karnazes’ 50/50 and Joe Kurmaskie’s Metal Cowboy. Those were both fun and easy to read books. I am reading a Hardy Boys book too. I read a book called Hostage about the 3 New Tribes Mission’s missionaries who were taken by Colombian Guerrillas in the 90s. It was everything I dislike about an autobiography. It was written by one of the wives. Content was great, but I did not like the presentation. I am also reading J Vernon McGee’s commentary on the book of Revelation. <sarcasm>Now there’s some easy reading</sarcasm>.

Just 2 months to go to finish up the year. I am very pleased with being able to keep up with the goals. Previously I had never tried to push myself on reading. I just read when I felt inspired to do so. Having a goal has kept me reading consistently. The fact that I have missed my goal at least lets me know that I have at least been working toward it.

NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo

November is NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to write 50,000 words in the month of November on a brand new novel. That is about 1,666 words a day, each day for the month. That is a lot of writing. 50,000 words is the size of a doctoral thesis.

In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, there is also NaBloPoMo, which is National Blog Posting Month. Instead of having a certain number of words you are working towards, this is just about writing a post each day of the month.

I am not up to NaNoWriMo mostly because I don’t have any interest in novels–reading or writing. But, I do want to give NaBloPoMo a shot. The nice thing about it is that it is not limited to the month of November. It can be done any month. But, I choose this month to be my time anyway.

I will still be traveling for half the month, but I should be able to get some type of Internet access each day. Even if I have to write a post from my phone.

Day 1 is done!