From 26 Years to 26.2 Miles

Earlier today, my twin brother, Mike, completed The San Francisco Marathon.

For those of you that know Mike, I am going to pause there for just a second.

For.

Dramatic.

Effect.

Mike smoked cigarettes for 26 years, two-thirds of his life. On March 13, he smoked his last one.

On his third tobacco-free day, he started feeling anxious and realized he needed something to get him through the craving, something to replace the few minutes he "used to spend with the Marlboro man".

That something was running.

After work on that third day, he wandered into the mall, purchased a pair of  running shoes and shorts. When he got home, he ventured out on his first run.

"I ran ONE MILE.  It hurt.  It hurt a lot.  I was out of breath and my legs hurt.  With that said, I certainly didn't feel like having a cigarette then.  The next morning I woke up at 5 am and ran ONE MORE MILE before work.  Yes, it still hurt, but again, it made me stop thinking about cigarettes."

From that point, Mike was hooked on running. He quickly went from running a few days a week to running nearly every day. With every additional mile, he realized he wanted more and more. His leisure 5k evening runs turned into 5 miles and then 10 miles. In just after a couple of months, he was already amassing 300-mile months. Three hundred miles in a month! As a cyclist myself, I am in awe that he is putting in those kind of miles. Running.

"It became my way to stay a non-smoker.  It then became bigger than smoking ever was."

Mike spends a lot of time on the road for work. Well, to be more precise, he spend a fair amount of time up in the air as well, but you get my point. Recently he was in Manila, just as he has been many other times. This time was different. This time he was in Manila as a non-smoker. That was new. Everyone in Manila smokes. Not Mike, not anymore. Mike runs. Recently, Mike was in Indiana and he called me late in the day. He said he went out for a run at 6 AM. It was 80 degrees and the humidity was somewhere north of 95%.

The thought of running a marathon, although seemingly an impossible feat, was something Mike started thinking of pretty early in his running days. Can I say early in his running days? It's still early in his running days. The marathon was a long-term goal. He was more focused on his first "half-mary". Yes, he quickly started speaking a new language, too.

"I ran my first half marathon in June.  It was the Pillar Point half marathon in Half Moon Bay.  Right along the coast.  It was so awesome!!  While I've never tried to be "fast", I felt great for my first half marathon.  I had no time goal set, but was able to complete it in less than 2 hours.  13.1 miles.  For me, that was quite an accomplishment.  Ok, how much below 2 hours?  Fine.  It was 20 seconds below. I finished in 1:59:40. One of the proudest personal days of my life."  

After his successful half-mary, he continued to escalate his miles. Distances quickly moved from challenging to easy; what was nearly impossible only a week or two before, became a simple warm-up. A few weeks ago we were all meeting in Manteca for an afternoon of swimming, volleyball and BBQ. He ran. To Manteca. Twenty two miles. Solo.

That was his longest run. Until today.

Mike completed The San Francisco Marathon, his first marathon, in 4:28:52.

I couldn't be prouder.

Way to go bro!

Check out the pictures I took, here.

Sadly, we missed seeing Mike cross the finish. See, Mike crossed a millisecond after the green guy crossed... and our eyes (and cameras) were fixed on him. I didn't even realize that Mike was in this shot until well after we met up him. Ooops.

Movin' on Up...

Whew... done. After many, many months of pain on the RapidWeaver side, I am thrilled to finally have this site on WordPress.

RapidWeaver was a great tool for many years, I just wanted more flexibility and the ability to update on the go. Thanks to the fine folks at GoDaddy for upgrading my hosting to a server that is modern enough to handle WP.

Maybe I'll write more.

Use Evernote to Track Your Accomplishments

As I wrote about before, it is important to track all of your accomplishments in real-time; Manager Tools talks about maintaining your "career management document".

There are many ways to keep this vital task simple. One great way to do it is to use Evernote, the note taking application. With desktop versions of the software available for iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, and Droid, desktop versions for Mac and Windows, and available on Evernote.com, there is no excuse to not use Evernote. The free account offers plenty of features and online storage space for most consumers.

Set up a new notebook and give it a catchy name like, ‘Master Resume’ or ‘Accomplishments for Resume’. Every time you have an accomplishment, add it to that Evernote notebook. To make it even easier, create an e-mail address to send notes directly to Evernote.

Next time you get an e-mail from your boss complimenting you on your awesome client presentation or when you get the monthly report that shows 50% sales growth in your territory, send it to Evernote. When you call us to have your resume updated, you’ll have a bucket full of accomplishments.

Thanks for the Toilet Seat Covers

Princeton defines management as “the act of managing something” and “those in charge of running a business”. What comes to mind when you hear the word “management”?

When I hear “management” used as a group of unnamed people, I think of toilet seat covers. Specifically, I think of toilet seat covers in public restrooms. Sometimes the packaging says: “Provided by the Management For Your Protection”.

Oftentimes I see signs at retail stores that say things like “No Bills Larger than $20” signed by, of course, “The Management”. Also, I hear things like “It was a management decision” or “I will take it up with management”.

As a manager, I take responsibility for my role and for my decisions.

People make decisions. Managers make decisions.

“Management” provides toilet seat covers.

Professionalism Defined

The term “professionalism” is used a lot, usually in connection with someone’s lack thereof. What does it mean exactly? Well, I’ll spare you the dictionary definition.

I define professionalism as, simply:

Behaving in a situationally appropriate manner

How do you define professionalism?

2010 - Some Stuff I Did...

Twenty-ten (or two thousand and ten) was a great year. I experienced a few firsts, met some amazing people, and, in general, had a blast. After Forbes named Stockton the second most miserable city in America, Rod and I had the opportunity to be on KXTV and KCRA (and Rod finished the trifecta with his solo appearance on KTXL.

I helped a friend get his Kickstarter project, The Amazing Fist, funded, by producing the promo video.

To help raise money and awareness of sexual violence against women, I walked a mile in high heels. Ouch!

I joined the Stockton Earth Day Festival committee and served as emcee for the annual event at Victory Park.

Along with my partner in crime, Rod, I co-emceed the SJDC Media Fest. We even found a way to show up wearing nearly identical shirts.

With the help of many great friends, I had the chance to perform Podcast Stockton Live at the Taste of San Joaquin and Way Out West BBQ Competition.

Dressed up as the Mad Hatter, and along with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, we particpated in the Library & Literacy Foundation’s Trivia Bee. We didn’t do any better than my past teams, but due to a rules change, we made it to the second round (the rule change was to allow all teams to compete in the second round).

Wes, Rod and I held our second and third Stockton Tweetups, bringing social media enthusiasts together in real-life.

What a year!

Goodbye 2010. Hello 2011.

2010 - Pictures

I took a lot of pictures this year, 12,223 to be exact. Twenty percent more than I took last year and three times as many as I took, on average each year 2001-2008. Of course, the big jump last year was because of my Canon T1i (have I told you how much I love this camera). First, some my favorite pics of mine from 2010 (click each for the original).

I had a lot of fun learning more about my camera and lenses this year. Experimenting with manual shooting really helped me understand the impact of aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

Here’s my personal favorite picture from this year. As simple as it is, I learned that a simple piece of plain copy paper could make a good back drop. Also, because, it meant something to my friends who live Autism as a part of their day-to-day lives.

After going through my favorites from my Flickr friends, it was far too difficult to find one single favorite of 2010. So, here are six of my favorites (again, click each for the original), in no particular order.

Happy shooting in 2011.

Book-a-Week 2011

I have a lofty goal in 2011: to read 52 books.

I have always enjoyed reading but in 2009 and 2010 I fell off the wagon a bit. Typically, I would start each year with the goal of reading 15-20 books, a goal I accomplished about as much as I didn’t.

For 2011, I want to read more but I needed some inspiration. Along comes Daniel Johnson, Jr., one of the coolest guys I know but have never met face-to-face. His Facebook post about How To Read a Book a Week was just the inspiration I needed.

Since reading his post a few weeks ago, wanting to start a little early, I have read four books. That’s more than I have read in the last six months. I already have my next few books selected. Let’s see how it goes. I do not exactly have a great track record for these types of challenges (anyone remember my feeble attempt at my 365 Flickr set? or when I tried to ride my bike every day for a year?).

So, here’s looking forward to a great year of reading. Have a suggestion for me? Would love to hear what you’re reading.

Want to follow what I’m reading? Check out my list here -http://www.goodreads.com/mattbeckw.

Links: http://www.facebook.com/danieljohnsonjr/posts/168385256526315 http://inoveryourhead.net/how-to-read-a-book-a-week-in-2010/ http://www.goodreads.com/mattbeckw

2010 - Music

Now that 2010 is coming to an end, let’s take a look back at the year in (my) music. What was I listening to? What was I buying? Country music made up the largest percentage of what I bought in 2010. This shouldn’t surprise anyone that knows me well. Coupled with Bluegrass, they made up more than half of my new music this year.

Some of my favorite purchases in 2010:

Dierks Bentley - Up on the Ridge - This is one of my favorite records of 2010. I wasn’t a big Dierks Bentley fan before this release but hearing the simple acoustic tunes on this one turned me in to a fan!

Newfound Road - Same Old Place - I only recently discovered this band after perusing YouTube one night. The band is chock full of very talented bluegrass musicians but it’s their great vocals that keeps me listening over and over again.

Orianthi - Believe (II) - My kids downloaded the song, “According to You”, earlier in the year and it made its way to my iTunes. I originally thought it nothing more than a run-of-the-mill pop song. When I actually listened to the whole song I loved it. The guitar licks are unmistakably influenced by 80s rock. The riffs and solo would be at home on so many of the great 80s rock albums in my collection. It was only after I watched the video that I learned that the singer was also the lead guitarist. Orianthi was hired by Michael Jackson for the tour he was planning before his death and can be seen in the documentary, This is It. The rest of the album is pretty “poppy” but I love the guitar work.

Snap Jackson and the Knock on Wood Players - A Breath of Fresh Air - These guys are the epitome of the “newgrass” sound I love so much! Their sound is traditional with a modern twist (whatever that means, right?). This album, released on iTunes on January 1, is full of great songs. My favorite is “She Only Loves Me”. And did I mention they are from right here in Stockton? First time I heard them was when I stumbled upon them playing at a local park. Also, Snap is an amazing photographer.

Bruce Kulick - BK3 - I am a huge Kiss fan. Kulick, whose brother worked with Kiss for many years, was probably the most talented guitarist to play alongside Gene and Paul. This album, his third solo record, has a great edge to it. “Ain’t Gonna Die”, featuring Gene Simmons, is a great track. It’s what I would expect Gene to record on a solo record, just with better guitar work.

Honorable mentions:

Kurt Nilsen. I had never heard of this artist before I came across a video for the song, “Hallelujah”. For some strange reason, I had this song stuck in my head for weeks. One night, I decided to look for it on YouTube. The first video that came up was this one. I didn’t recognize any of the singers but immediately loved this version. I was looking away from my computer screen when, at the 2:04 mark, Kurt Nilsen started his part. I got chills. His voice is so powerful and beautiful. After winning World Idol, he has released pop and country albums.

Michael Seymour / Suddenly Seymour. I met Michael earlier this year when I interviewed him on Podcast Stockton. I got hear a couple of acoustic versions of his songs before they were fully produced. Michael has a great voice that goes perfectly with his music. I recently saw him play an acoustic show with just him and his drummer. They were awesome. Their EP, Searching For, is a great listen! Check him out on Myspace.

What is your favorite music of 2010?