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To finish what you

May 1st, 2013 | Posted by nniroclax in Life - (0 Comments)

I must admit that I’m god-awful at poetry. I could never get the hang of it. Even after a creative writing class, it still wasn’t something that came to me naturally. Which is why I had to chuckle a little bit when I saw this tidbit on the internet the other day.

Space is limited
In a haiku, so it’s hard
To finish what you

Fitting such intense meaning in a short 5-7-5 structure is difficult. You have to be concise, but descriptive. Imaginative, yet brief.

Here are some haikus I’ve come up for problems and events I face today. They definitely will not be as clever as the one above, nor even remotely good. But wtf, when was the last time you wrote a haiku…I think the last time I did was in middle school, right after attempting limericks.

They’re god-awful as I said before. But no one reads this anyways, so here it goes!

For shits and giggles

A foul stench lingers

Laughter at the computer

A bizarre haiku

For twenty-something life questions

Swingsets or paychecks

Youth is coming to an end

Choose stable or free

For Triathlon Training

Quads burn, Hamstrings ache

My body tells me turn back

Smile and cross the line

For Job Searching

Plugged into software

Keywords and auto-rejects

Hopes and dreams grow dim

For Summer in DC

Cool breeze and warm sun

The switch is flipped, June has come

Hot and muggy, yuck.

The ONE Thing. Can it Really be this Easy?

April 22nd, 2013 | Posted by nniroclax in Life - (0 Comments)

What is the ONE thing you can do such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unneccesary?

This one simple question is the premise behind Gary Keller and Jay Papasan’s (and my new favorite) book, The ONE Thing.

A Concept So Simple, It Must Work

The concept of the book is just as simplistic as its title. We need to pick the one thing that is most important to us in terms of work, relationships, faith, and personal life and devote focused time and energy towards it.

Our lives often seem to be centered around multi-tasking, to-do lists, and frequent distractions that keep us from doing the things that are the most important. While many of us would prefer to concentrate on one thing at a time, we are rarely able to. Keller and Papasan make a strong argument for putting your focus towards a sole goal, rather than spreading yourself thin across many unnecessary tasks.

They argue that once you find the one thing you need to do every day to help you work towards your one big goal, the goal becomes more realistic and attainable since it is broken down into manageable chunks. In a nutshell, your one someday goal breaks down into management time periods. It goes like this:

What is the one thing I want to do SOMEDAY?
What is the one thing I can do in the NEXT FIVE YEARS to get me to my someday goal?
What is the one thing I can do THIS YEAR to get me to my five year goal?
What is the one thing I can do THIS MONTH to get me to my one year goal?
What is the one thing I can do THIS WEEK to get me to my monthly goal?
What is the one thing I can do TODAY to get me to my weekly goal?

So, What is Your ONE Thing?

The hardest time I had with this book was determining what my someday goal is. I have thought about it lightly, but have never really narrowed down my focus. I usually think, oh, I want to run my own business, or oh, I want to complete an Ironman, or hey, if I live in Hawaii and surf everyday someday that would be pretty cool. I don’t think that this was the authors meant when they asked to determine a someday goal.

I think my problem here is that I’m thinking too small for my overall goal. Focusing on one thing a day can surely result in some big things happening. Here are some lofty goals I’ve come up with. You may thing they’re crazy, but isn’t that kind of the point?

Become a tech mogul, not just a female tech mogul, but someone who can play with the big boys. Focus on creating software that can really help change and enhance people’s lives.
Write a book that becomes a New York Times Bestseller. Spend my mornings writing, my afternoons skiing or at the beach, and my evenings winding down with a glass of wine and a good book.
Run an event company that puts on events that help people to challenge themselves and see that their once thought limits don’t really exist. Make it so that all can enter, not just those who can afford $800 entry fees and ten thousand dollars plus worth of equipment. (Ironman anyone?)

Breaking it Down

Ok, so let’s say I decided I want to become a bestselling author. Lofty goal, eh? I’m not sure if I have the skills to do so, but using the principles of The ONE Thing, I can at least figure out how I would get there.

What is the one thing I want to do SOMEDAY?
- I want to write a book that makes it onto the New York Times Bestseller List.
What is the one thing I can do in the NEXT FIVE YEARS to get me to my someday goal?
- Publish a first novel, non-fiction, children’s, self-help, or young adult book through a publishing company.
What is the one thing I can do THIS YEAR to get me to my five year goal?
- Learn storytelling, character development, and composition through the completion of a novel or non-fiction book.
What is the one thing I can do THIS MONTH to get me to my one year goal?
- Outline a novel or non-fiction book based on brainstorming completed in the weekly goal.
What is the one thing I can do THIS WEEK to get me to my monthly goal?
- Begin brainstorming for topics or stories I would enjoy writing about
What is the one thing I can do TODAY to get me to my weekly goal?
- Determine what my favorite stories are and why I like each one of them

In principle, its simple. Today I can figure out why I like certain stories, which could lead me through all the steps of becoming an author over time. Breaking down the process and really visualizing the process makes the end goal more achievable.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Hey, NYT Bestseller list, I’m coming for you. Mwahahahaha.

breaking down lofty goals, goal-setting, single tasking, The One Thing Book

The Top 5 Places I’d Like to Live

April 8th, 2013 | Posted by nniroclax in Life - (0 Comments)

So, I’ve been living in Washington, DC for the last few years. While it’s been a great time filled with free museums, cherry blossoms, running and biking along the potomac, and hiking at Great Falls, I’m thinking about exploring a new locale when my lease is up at the end of this year. So far, I’ve narrowed it down to around five places, so I now present to you, the top five places I’d live to live right now.

The top requirements I have are:

Access to the outdoors, whether its mountains or a beach
Walkability, congestion free driving, or public transport-ability to groceries and restaurants
Rent of less than 2Gs for a typical one-bedroom apartment (so basically no NYC)
Sunny days are more prevalent than rainy ones

1. San Diego

Mountains AND a beach AND beautiful weather

Where else can you wake up in the morning to go surfing and then go mountain biking in the afternoon? While the cost of living here may be higher than average (and lots of taxes), it may be worth it for that extra bit of happiness every day when you wake up and see the beautiful ocean and mountains in the background. There are also plenty of other twenty-something young professionals that keep the place interesting as well.

2. Kailua-Kona, HI

Swimmers in the ocean along ali-i drive in Kona, HI

A beautiful spot for a morning swim

Where else can you get small town charm with so many activities to choose from? The only place I can think of is Kona. A quaint town on the sunny side of the Big Island and the home of the Ironman World Championships. Plus the coffee…..ohhhhhh the coffee. Sooo good.

3. Fort Lauderdale, FL

The best of the east coast and west coast

I must admit, growing up in Jersey has given me an affinity for the east coast. Fort Lauderdale seems to combine the laid back lifestyle of the west coast with the go-getter attitude of the east coast. Plus, its rather beautiful if you ask me….and closer to mom and pops than some other locales on this list! Although I don’t think some of the houses in the picture would go for less than 2K a month

4. Lake Tahoe, NV

Lake and mountains and beer and bluegrass

While this one may be missing a beach, it makes up for it with awesome skiing. The opportunities for exploration seem limitless. Kayaking, skiing, fishing, swimming, mountain biking, climbing, you name, this place seems to have it. Although I’m not sure how it would be for meeting tons of new people compared to the other locations on this list.

5. Charleston, SC

Charm and southern hospitality in Charleston, SC

This place has charm. It is close the ocean, has tons of options for entertainment, and its residents exude southern hospitality. The only drawback is the muggy east-coast summers, but when I can go check out an art exhibit, sit by the ocean, and go golfing? So why would that matter?

top five cities for outdoor living, Top five places for active young adults and professionals

Competition in Triathlon App Land

February 25th, 2013 | Posted by nniroclax in Life | Triathlon - (0 Comments)

A Triathlon App

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working on an iPhone App for triathletes. Its a pretty simple app that has a workout finder based on type of workout, difficulty of workout, and length of workout, a race time based on pace calculator, a news from various triathlon blogs, as well as resources such as race checklists and motivational tidbits, although I didn’t originally plan on having these features. Originally it was only the workout selector part of the app, which looks something like this…

Uh-Oh!

Last week I completed the workout finder portion of my app. Prior to putting it on the app store I decided that I would take a look at the other triathlon related applications on the app store and to my surprise, there was a workout finder that was very similar to the workout finder I had created (which wasn’t there during my initial research). I felt a slight sinking feeling and probably said some explicative out loud that my mother wouldn’t approve of.

I guess I have some competition…and two ways to handle the situation.

Move On or Move Up.

I could decide to mope and curse the person who had the same idea as I did and stop working on my app. Or I can keep working on it and make it better than theirs. I’m not the kind of person to sit around and mope over something so silly, so of course I’m going with option two.

So far, I have the workout selector completed, although I still need to work on filling out the database with enough workouts and am currently working on the module where users can input their average pace and determine how they would finish a sprint, olympic, half, or full ironman based on those paces. My strategy is to make a full-featured triathlon app, which doesn’t yet exist on the app store and make it free (ad-supported) which is something almost all of the competition is not doing.

I’ve always followed my rule of not doing something that everyone else is doing, because if everyone else is doing it, its probably a crowded environment with a lot of want-tos. I’m going to pivot my app to something no one else is doing and hopefully reap the reward.

app, apple, appstore, Triathlon

Returning to Running After Injury

January 31st, 2013 | Posted by nniroclax in Life | Triathlon - (0 Comments)

Oh-M-G

I am so slow.

Every stride burns. Not even my carefully selected, highly upbeat playlist can get my feet to turn over faster. And those slight inclines? They may as well be Mount Everest. But I guess its all just a part of the process. The process of getting back into running after a forced year off.

After injuring my IT band in November 2011 during a half marathon, I just started running again around December 2012. I’ve been running again for around two months now and while it sucks, it also feels so good.

Running is my livelihood and without it, life just seemed so much, well, its hard to describe, but I guess you could say slower and less upbeat. Right now, even a painful three miles feels better than sitting at home watching reruns of “Say Yes to the Dress” or “Property Brothers”.

My average pace on a four mile run yesterday was above 11:00/mile. A year ago, even my shag jog would have been faster than that. While it is disheartening, I know that I will eventually get back to a place where I can go run for a care-free, pain-free hour.

For me at the current moment, its not worth stressing out over my times because I know that if I do and I push myself too hard, then I’ll just be right back at square one, unable to walk because my knees hurt too much. I must take this time to gradually build things back up again, and not worry about how embarrassingly slow I’ve become, because like, really, I am like, soooooo slow, ya know?!

But I am perfectly fine with that.

back to running after injury, injury, recovery, running

A Reflection on Six Months Without Facebook

January 24th, 2013 | Posted by nniroclax in Life - (0 Comments)

I am six months clean.

Six months clean from the time suck that is Facebook, that is.

You see, back in August, I was becoming more aware of the sheer amount of time that I spend on the site. It would be a beautiful day outside and normally on beautiful days I would be outside riding my bike, going for a run, sitting in my hammock, or doing otherwise “outdoorsy” activities. However, instead of partaking in such activities, I would routinely find myself staring out the window on a beautiful day, but then turning back to my computer to refresh my Facebook feed.

It was in one of these moments that decided to quit “The Book” cold turkey. I am happy to admit I don’t think I will ever look back. I’ve realized the benefits are more than just more free time. Here’s what I learned and accomplished in six months without Facebook.

Face-to-Face Time Rocks

Rather than seeing a virtual image of my friends, I’m more inclined to hang out with people and actually see my friends! How about them apples? It seems as if anti-social networking is more social than its counterpart!

There’s More to Talk About

Have you ever hung out with someone and started a conversation that went something like “I saw on my newsfeed that you…”?? I sure have, but now when I see people in real life, I’m more interested in how they’re doing and what they’ve been up to because I don’t look into their profiles and anonymously browse their latest pictures from vacation (which I hear is bad for you and creates social media envy, seriously, check it out here)

So Much Room For Activities!

In the time that I’ve quit Facebook, I’ve been reading more and teaching myself new things that I wouldn’t have done before. For example, I’m almost all the way through Sam’s Teach Yourself iOS5. And I’m not one to normally get through books like this!

No More Baby Posts, Engagement Pictures, and Wedding Pictures

I am in no rush to get married and have babies. However on my Facebook feed, it seems like half of the world is getting engaged or popping out some kiddos. Or, the mom’s facebook page has essentially become the new baby’s page. Why don’t you spend time with your baby instead of constantly updating your status complaining about smelly diapers.

TL;DR: Life is for living, not for stalking people you really don’t care about on Facebook.

facebook, quit

Apple Claims 40 Billion Downloads, 500 million active accounts, and 775,000 Apps

January 7th, 2013 | Posted by nniroclax in Life - (0 Comments)

A recent article on CNET tells us that Apple’s App Store has recently accounts that since its inception in 2008, the app marketplace has registered 40 billion downloads and has 500 million active accounts.

The 40 billion downloads do not include re-downloads and updates.

By doing the simple math, this means that the average active account has downloaded eighty apps!

EIGHTY APPS! PER ACCOUNT!

Sure, that’s only 0.01% of the apps available in the appstore, but I think that eight apps is a pretty large number for a single user. The 0.01% number also explains why competition to have your app downloaded is seriously fierce.

Good thing I’m learning Objective C and Coca Touch!

Check out the CNet article here.

app store, apple, apps per user, downloads, percentage of available apps downloaded by one user

Predictions for 2013

December 27th, 2012 | Posted by nniroclax in Life - (0 Comments)

1. Flash Deal Sites will Die, Obviously, Followed by Subscription Boxes

Flash deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial will die with the new year. Groupon had a pretty strenuous year with their rocky IPO and sinking stock prices, while LivingSocial had large layoffs despite great tax breaks for staying in Washington, D.C. The fad for the new year will definitely be subscription-box based commerce, but like many retail trends, that will come to pass with 2013. What will replace it, we will soon find out.

2. There Will be so Much “Content” that Real Content Gets Lost and Misconstrued

Many entrepreneurial blogs are telling people to move to a content marketing strategy for 2013. I say that while that is fine and dandy, be weary of where you’re stomping on. Generalities suck. They’re everywhere and sooner or later, they’ll get you in trouble (anyone seen this clip from Mr. Cubes rapping on a sports media member? priceless). Real information is peer reviewed and published in a well-established magazine. Stay away from the bro science, bro.

3. The Next Big Thing Will Finally Arrive

What’s the coolest, most radical thing that has changed he way we think about things since the adoption of the Internet? Motion tracking video games, 3D television, the cloud, smartphones? While these are all new and neat technologies, they haven’t been the paradigm shift that I think will move us towards a technological singularity. I think this thing, whatever it may be, is out there and will emerge in the next 365 days. Hopefully it will follow Google’s goal to not be evil.

4. A Social Site that is Genuinely Social Will Overtake Facebook

The only reason I have a Facebook right now is because it makes logging into some sites easier. I haven’t checked it in over 5 months. I feel that growing number of individuals are abandoning Facebook due to privacy issues and it’s sheer time sucking abilities. With the new year, Facebook will have to incorporate ways to get “friends” to spend real quality face-to-face time together or another social networking site will. While we still may share funny cat videos on the Internet, sharing experiences and swapping stories will never go out of style.

5. Life will Go On

Babies will be born, civil wars will be fought, taxes will be paid, new years resolutions will be broken. The Mayan calendar and it’s lost (and found) remnants show that just like the past 25,000 years or so, life will continue. Sure, there may be oddities, new discoveries, and conflicts, but the show goes on my friends.

2013, life, predictions

A Post for Me and For the New Year

December 21st, 2012 | Posted by nniroclax in Life - (0 Comments)

I’ll be upfront here. The purpose of this post isn’t for you. It’s for me. Chances are you aren’t going to read it anyways because my yearly new years goals get very few page views, but feel free to read on if you’d like.

Last year’s goals were to:

Wake up earlier
Learn more about SEO
Find something I’m passionate about
- You can read the original post here

I would say that I partially accomplished all of them and didn’t fall flat in any particular one. I now wake up early and exercise, I understand SEO, content marketing, and advertising much more, and have found an interest that keeps me up at night. I would say that I have greatly improved myself over the last year.

Oh the weather outside is weather

I have however noticed a correlation between the motivation to accomplish my goals and the time of the year. I have found that my goals are put on hold in the late spring and late summer. I accomplish the “most” during winter, late fall, early spring, and mid summer. However, when the weather is nice, I don’t have much motivation to do much. All I want to do is hop on my bike, head to the beach, and soak in the rays.

Although this could be taken negatively, during the times where it is beautiful outside, I am a much happier person and move into the next season recharged and ready to accomplish everything I set out to.

This year’s goals

Run a 10K

After last year’s nasty knee injury and my inability to run for more than ten minutes because of my knee injury, I’ve decided I need to get back in the game. I have given my body enough time to heal and won’t push myself in a way that I will reinjure my knee. Plus, I’m always happier and more productive on days that I exercise.

I’ve already started the Couch to 5K plan. Week five is over and done with and I ran for a whole twenty minutes non-stop yesterday. For someone who has ran multiple half-marathons before, I never thought I would be excited about a twenty minute run, but I am soooo excited. I feel like I’ve rediscovered a part of me that was abandoned when I became injured.

Buy Less Stuff

This year, I gave away more than a few garbage bags worth of clothes, bags, shoes, and other unnecessary things. It felt amazing. I gave it to people who would appreciate it more than I would and I de-cluttered my apartment at the same time. Looking back, I don’t miss anything I gave away.

To keep with the trend of de-cluttering, this year I would like to implement a one-in, one-out rule. For everything I purchase that is not for me, I need to give something else away.

I feel like the less stuff you own, the more de-cluttered your mind is, plus, it makes moving a whole hell of a lot easier.

Set up a stock photography account

This goal is two fold. First, it is to set up an account, but secondly, it is to take more pictures. Because you need good photographs to qualify for a stock account, this means that I will need to take more pictures to set up an account and take more pictures to upload new content once and a while.

Photography stock websites are also picky about how the photograph is composed, lighted, edited, etc. This will teach me how to capture the perfect shot and how to use Photoshop to edit my photos.

There you go. My goals for the new year.

Run a 10K
Buy Less Stuff
Take More Pictures

I can sooooo do this. Bring it on, 2013.