TriMutiny.com is a group effort between three good friends from high school that just happened to all go into nicely accenting fields in the web market. After having quite a few good ideas we decided early this year to finally pull the trigger on it and see if we could make some of these ideas into a reality.

TriMutiny is a mobile applications company that is currently specializing in iPhone applications.  Our main theme for the applications that we create are for purpose.  ”We create tools with meaning, bringing purpose to your mobile life.”  - that’s our motto.

Beyond that we also are creating mobile applications for other companies in a contracting role which is something that we have worked in nicely.  Being that our partners in the company work both as contractors and with contractors we know what to expect in that type of relationship and we know how to deliver under deadlines.  More information will be coming on both aspects of the company, but for now head on over to the website and check it out!

TriMutiny, LLC

Seriously, it’s getting a little wierd.  Billy Mays has been dead for a while now and I still see him on commercials way too much…and I don’t even have cable!  I noticed it again the other day when I was eating lunch at the Green Mill.  I can’t even remember what the product was…I was too distracted by the fact it was a dead guy selling me products!   I’m sure he’s got a good 3 months worth of commercials queued up that he did, but seriously people…refilm your ad or don’t air it…it’s getting excessive!

I have always been under the opinion that rally car racing is the greatest and most difficult form of racing.  There’s really no other motorsport that can compare.  When some of the obstacles that you face are fans, cliffs and the the possible random deer or cow crossing the course…discussion is over.

I would love to be like Ken Block and just decide one day…well I’m going to be a rally car racer now…oh and I’m also going to just be one of the best in the country right out of the blocks.  Granted, I know that I don’t have his kind of talent behind the wheel but I definitely did my best to practice growing up on gravel roads with my parents’ Ford Escort and Ford Aspire!  (if you happen to be either my mom or dad reading this…please disregard the last sentence )

Anyways, I saw this video posted on autoblog today and the crash at the end of the day looked like just as much fun as the rest of the day of racing.  Now I just need to find a sweet rally car racing school that has a low insurance deposit

So in closing…I’d suggest for you to do the same thing that I would suggest to the polar bears, evolve!  It’s not getting any colder and you’re not getting anymore useful to me!

p.s. Say hello to the dodo birds once WIFI is adopted.

</rant>

UPDATE: I had mistakenly name Comcast in the original post.  It was Charter that we get spammed by, not Comcast.  My apologies.

Initially I thought that the swimming portion of the triathlon was the most dangerous portion of a triathlon, as it turns out, it’s the 2 days following it.  Let me summarize.

So Sunday I woke up at 5:30 with “woke up” being loosely translated here.  I barely was able to sleep.  So after what probably ended up being a total of 5 hours of sleep I woke up, took a quick shower and headed out to the location of the triathlon.

All marked up and ready to go

Lisa and I got there around 6:30 to give me enough time to get my biking and running gear set up in the transition area, have my body numbered with magic marker, strap on my chip timer and pee about 3 times because my body was super hydrated.

By this time it was about 7:30 and things were about ready to start.  By about 8:20 or so my wave of triathletes was called up to the line.  I was happy to notice that the water was much warmer than I expected maybe even warmer than the water of the lap pool at the local gym.  A little bit later they start the countdown and off we go.

Me: dead tired. Those nice ladies: passing me.

Now for the swimming portion, I thought it would be a good idea to just stick towards the back of the pack.  I could swim, follow the people in front of me and not have to worry about getting elbowed or kicked a whole lot.  However, I found out my plan didn’t quite pan out.  Instead, I spent the entire time running into people’s legs, elbowing the the people I started passing and then eventually kicking the people who I had passed.  I think the next time I’m going to move myself to the front and maybe practice swimming in the lap pool with my eyes closed for a portion of it….to practice swimming in a straight line with out a line to go off of.  That seemed to be the hardest part.  Beyond that it was just a little swimming, not nearly as bad as I had expected.  Don’t get me wrong…by the last stretch I was pretty much exhausted, but it was definitely manageable.

So after all that drama was done, I got up to my bike and found the second flaw(s) in my plan.  I had attached my number to my shirt with safety pins (not knowing that they make special straps for belting them around you instead).  This proved to be an issue when I pulled the shirt over my head and ended up ripping the safety pins out of my number, due to my shirt stretching over my arms.  Along with that I had used the towel to just dry off my feet, instead of my upper body too, so I had to awkwardly stretch this super lightweight stretchy shirt over my odd shaped torso.  Which I’m sure if anyone was paying attention outside of the transition area, it would have looked pretty darn funny.  After everything was sorted out, I started running my bike over to the “mounting line” where you can actually get onto your bike.  The whole time running next to my bike I just remember thinking, “don’t trip, don’t trip, don’t trip”.  I probably should have practiced that a little bit, but it turned out ok.

Getting onto the bike and ready to roll.

So then I was off to the races on my bike.  This turned out being what I planned for it to be, get a solid time and let my muscles recover a bit.  It was a little windy, so I had to work a little harder on the way out with the hills and the wind, but on the way back I was able to keep a really good pace.  A couple of times I tried pushing it a little harder and could feel my calves start to cramp up, so I just took it easy.  Overall I managed to average about 20 mph which was my goal.  At one point I was going down a hill with the wind at my back and actually stopped pedaling because I was somewhere around 40mph and had never gone that fast on my bike before so I was a little apprehensive as to what it’s top speed was :).  I could just see my front axle popping out of it’s fork and me flying over the handlebars.  In total I only passed a couple people with bike troubles.  One guy just had his chain slip off and another poor lady was walking her bike back.  Soon I was back to the transition area and getting ready to jump off my bike to start my run.  That is however a little easier said than done, as demonstrated by a lady in front of me.  She gracefully side stepped off her bike and went directly into a run only to promptly land flat on her butt right in front of the guy behind her…who locked up his breaks and toppled over next to her.  Luckily I was far enough back that I could hit the breaks and wait for the smoke to clear, but the first thing that passed through my mind were the videos you see on ESPN2 of the Tour de France and some poor sucker hitting the asphalt only to bring half of the pack with him.

The second transition was pretty smooth and off I went on my 5k, but not before rocking out a little to the cheesy music they had blaring over the loud speakers at the transition area.  I remember laughing to myself at the “Final Countdown” blaring while I changed into my running shoes.  By this time my muscles were pretty tired and there wasn’t much excitement, just a nice little run with plenty of people.

It’s interesting how much easier it is to do any of this during the actual event when there are people right along with you.  I found the event to be a lot easier than I was expecting, but that I think has a lot to do with the amount of practice and training I was able to do in advance, thanks to Lisa keeping me motivated to swim my laps, ride mile after mile on my bike and put in countless laps around the RAC track.  Overall I had a great time (minus the major fever I had later that night and into the next day) and I’m pretty sure I’ll try it at least one more time!

Finishing! (and that wasn't my actual time, that was how long it was since the first heat took off, my final time was 1:21:21)

The only thing that slightly worries me is the “open water” part of swimming.  Open water is a bit of an issue due to the lack of lane lines (to keep you swimming in the right direction), multiple people (49 to be exact) around you (splashing water into your face when you turn to breathe, accidentally kicking and elbowing you as you jockey for position).  I’m seriously considering just hanging back for 10-15 seconds to let everyone else swim in front of me.  It’s the same strategy I used for my first couple motocross races and it seemed to work fine.

Anyways, after I finish that it’ll just be a matter of a fun little bike ride and a nice run.

So far the last week of prep is going good and I’m confident that it’ll be a fun day!

With their cover set up, these “Secret Millionaires” get to talk to different people in the area and learn their personal stories.  By the end of the show, the secret millionaires have to choose who they will write checks to (from their own personal account) and how much. The lower limit is $100,000 for how much they give away but they can choose to give more.  Of the few shows we’ve seen so far, people have given away as much as $300,000.

Here’s where the tool “G” shows up.  First sign he’s a tool, he refers to himself as “G”.   That’s his brand that he’s given himself.  His real name is Gurbaksh Chahal and he has created quite a few internet start ups to make his fortune.  Now most of the secret millionaires have given themselves aliases to go by, so that someone doesn’t recognize who they are (even though they traveled a good distance from their home town).  Not this failure.  First, instead of traveling to some other location he goes to just the poor portion of San Francisco…his home town.  Then, instead of using his real name or possibly his Americanized name that he used to start his initial companies, he opts to use his brand name “G”.  Next, to add to the ridiculous he walks around these poor communities in designer jeans and a fashionable hoodie.  At some points it really just gets comical how insecure this multi-millionaire really is.  That is, until the end of the show when he stakes his claim as king in the land of Douche and it becomes more enraging than funny.

Keep in mind, all of these millionaires end up giving away tons of money…because they see the personal stories and have the ability to do so.  Also keep in mind that conservative estimates put this guys net worth at somewhere around $100 million.  What does he end up giving away?  $90,000.  The show requires that they give away $100,000.  $70,000 of what he gave away was completely tax deductible and you know he pays more than that in taxes each year and in total he gives away $90,000.  Supposedly there were more donations that were edited out (which I find hard to believe).

But even so….really?  You gave away .1% of your net worth (without taking into account the fact that $70,000 was tax deductible, so it was more like .03%).  I hope those fake tears that you shed on camera helped you sleep at night.

One great example of the best customer service is what I found at Faini Designs in Sioux Falls, SD.  This place is complete class in all ways you could imagine.  The store front is almost aesthetically perfect and the people are what make it exceptional.

A little over a year ago I was in the market for an engagement ring.  I had done all my research, knew my 4 C’s, knew about what I should expect to pay for a diamond and had some very very vague direction from my soon to be fiance.  After checking around at a few other places in town and being bummed out about either their prices, their service or both I went to check out Faini after a good review from one of my good friends.

Everything went excellent with them.  Not only were they great to work with, but they made a custom ring for the same price or even less than what I was seeing around town and it was exactly what I was looking for.  Fast forward to a year later.  I had been in there once before to get the ring cleaned and being that it had been a while since the last cleaning, I brought the ring back to Sioux Falls with me and stopped by to have it cleaned.  Now what inspired me to write this post and what blew me away, was the fact that, Lisa, one of the people who helped me out initially actually greeted me by name.  I can’t imagine how many customers they have go through their store daily, but it blew me away that a year later they could greet me by name.  That is just one of the reasons why I’ll deal exclusively with them from now on, even though they’re 3 hours away.

As some honorable mentions…Honest Bike Shop (Rochester) and Oertli & Pleschourt (CPA’s in Rochester) have also treated me well.

Snapshot:

Breaking News: Vick leaves prison

Latest News:

• 3 dead, 2 missing in Navy copter crash 18 min
• Ex-gangs unite: ‘You don’t have to kill’
• Father urges mom and sick boy to come back 34 min
• Husband, dad arrested in death of wife, sons 15 min
• Long-lost brother found across street
• Bizarre twist leads to missing student’s body
• Ticker: Schwarzenegger handed big defeat
• Time: How Pelosi got into the CIA mess
• Commentary: Democrats on defense
• Against odds, some grads find Wall Street jobs
• Teens chase down towering waterspout
• iReport.com: Ask an astronaut live from space
• Fortune: Where millionaires were made
• ‘Idol’: ‘Guy next door vs. the guy-liner’ 
• Rapper Dolla mourned for his ‘big heart’ 50 min
• Miley Cyrus to critics: ‘Stop calling me f*t!’
• Elton John: I was lucky not to be HIV infected
• 1.5 pound cat may be world’s smallest
• CNN Wire: Pakistani military has targeted…

That’s seriously the latest news.   So I need to know…What do you use for your world news source?  Post any suggestions in the comments.  Thanks!

So far training is going good.  I did a quick 10 mile bike ride yesterday to make sure I can still set a good pace.  Beyond that I’ve been consistently getting better in the pool.  So I’m pretty sure I can finish the swim portion of it.  My goal is to be able to swim the entire 1/4 mile doing the front crawl only and not having to switch to the back stroke to catch my breath (which I’m not sure how effective it would be in open water).

Overall, my goal is just to finish and enjoy the experience…with 8 people registered in my division so far, I’m aiming for a top 10 finish! 

Well, even though everything hasn’t quite gone as planned, I’m signed up for it!  It’s only a “sprint” triathlon.  So I’ll swim 1/4 mile, bike for around 10 miles and then run a 5k.

Now, here’s where I’m at.  The 10 mile bike ride: I’ve always had strong legs and the amount of attention I’ve  put into my explosion power in my legs for playing fullback through high school and into college has made biking relatively easy.  I have a good crossover type road bike and can do a 10 mile ride in a pretty good pace.  The running portion: this has been a little harder and I’ve just recently been able to complete a 5k in a little under 30 minutes (just on it’s own).  Something that I couldn’t have imagined doing a year ago at this time.  Finally, the dreaded swim.

I was originally planning on starting to train for the swim around March or so, after I was happy with my other skills.  However, breaking my collar bone this last winter put a bit of a damper on that.  Now, with my collar bone completely healed I need to play a bit of catch up.  Worse case scenario I just flip onto my back and back stroke it to the first transition.  This’ll be my first ever triathlon and I don’t plan on coming in the top half of the pack…just want to finish it.  I’ll post a couple times to let you know my progress…but the triathlon is June 28th, so it’ll be here before I know it!

This last Friday Ben, Joe, Nathan and I all went down to BigOmaha to represent the Blend family to the entrepreneurs and interactive types from around the Midwest.  Thanks to Karla for finding out about the event, we were able to make some great connections and listen to some excellent speakers.

Just from the speaking aspect of things, it was a treat to listen to these people talk.  I had taken about a year of Toastmasters while I was at Daktronics and so I’m now a little more aware to what makes a good speaker.  Granted it didn’t hurt that a majority of the speakers went around to conferences like this around the world to speak, but their skills were very impressive to say the least.

Beyond that, the content was great.  The weekend was based primarily around entrepreneurship, which is right down my alley.  Being that probably not a lot of you know, I’ll informally announce a new endeavor that I am starting with a couple of friends.  The basics of it are…we have way too many good ideas buzzing around in our heads about mobile applications and just happen to have the perfect skillset to bring these ideas to fruition.  More about that in another post though.

All and all a great weekend and Ben and I topped it off with a stop off at Dixie Quicks (a cool little place featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives) for breakfast on Saturday morning.

Make sure you keep this in mind the next time you go out to cast your vote!  (this being just one of hundreds of these cases)  Maybe then you’ll think twice before looking condescendingly on someone who chooses not to be an enabler for people involved in this system.  Sometimes an extremely corrupt system just needs to be rebuilt from scratch.

However, I think it can relate to everyone!  Even if you are going to do your own development, there is information in this book for you.  I started reading this, not knowing what to expect, but after getting about 5 pages in, I couldn’t put it down.  Finally, at about 11:30 with an early morning ahead of me I figured I should get some sleep, but I was easily able to finish up all of the books after the next night.  That is what made the books so valuable.  The information was compacted into a short amount of writing interlaced with interesting experiences of the author, which kept your attention and made you wanting to finish the current page, just so you could read the next.

Everything is covered, from the basics of what you need to release an app to the iTunes store to ideas on how to market your application.  The information is light, but also contains facts along with personal experiences to back up any ideas that are put out there.  Finally, the $13.99 price tag is tiny compared to the amount that you will save and potentially earn just from reading this book.

So grab your pick axe and your favorite gold pan and jump into this modern day gold rush!

The problem that I’ve noticed recently though is that font is starting to get way too small to read.  I first noticed it a while back when I tried downloading some new baseball game.  I hadn’t played a baseball video game in years…except for my wii baseball and was dissapointed that I never actually got to play the game.  The on screen tutorials to show you how they had made normally easy tasks such as hitting the ball, impossible were also written in impossibly small font.

The next time I noticed it was when I was playing my Shaun White Snowboarding.  The font was again small..this time just barely readable.  However, now I have the black bars across my screen…reminding me that “HEY!  YOU DON’T HAVE A BIGSCREEN TV!!”

The most recent example off it was something new that I haven’t seen.  I was riding my trusty “go nowhere” bike at the gym the other day and was watching the Wild game.  Up by the score, they unravled a very well placed add up by the score/time boxes that are constantly on the screen.  It was about the same dimensions of a banner ad, however the text was so small that on this normal sized TV, you literally couldn’t read the text.  I could tell that it was advertising Dodge trucks…and that’s probably all that they cared about me getting out of the ad, but it was a bit annoying being reminded again that hey…you’re being left behind!

In the end, it’ll probably be a while before I end up getting a big HDTV, but right now I feel like the guy running the 800×600 resolution screen, wondering why he has to scroll sideways on the new website.

My first thought was, really?  That’s a big deal?  But especially for Apple, that fits right in line with their marketing strategy.  (especially their new direction)  From what I can tell (and I’m not “in the know” or pretend to be with marketing) Apple has based their marketing on two things.  Originally it was, all about filling the schools with macs so that macs was all the kids new coming out of school.  It showed kids that you could use macs for “anything” and it got the macs to feel like home.  So when college came and it was time to buy their own, macs was the familiar choice.  Heck, even in a recent post out on Gadgetopia, Deane showed a homework assignment from his daughter that was on how email works and the window was a window from a mac.  So we know that they are still sticking with that plan.

The second type of marketing is the most recent.  From what I can remember it all started with the iPod.  It is all about status.  You’re cool because you own X.  That’s where this new “nana nana boo boo” marketing comes into place. You see someone else has it…and you really want it too.

On a side note…I noticed blackberry started doing it too and it kind of made me laugh.  Although in all fairness, there is a bit of the “I’m cool I own a blackberry” going around, but that’s more in the “I need to look important (and possibly conservative)” crowd.

I knew he was secretly jealous of me!

(ok and in all seriousness, this guy’s a stud and I’m surprised he even used an ambulance.  I would have thought he would just finish up the race quick, get first place and swing through the ER on his way back to his hotel)

Yesterday’s was a little extra enjoyable, this guy apparently received this Halligan Bar as a gift but luckily hasn’t had to use it so far…

I keep mine leaning against the wall in the corner, where it waits for the day when I need to smash into or out of something… or I hear screams of “He’s trapped inside!” or “The Zombies are here!”

If you’re wondering what heck a halligan bar, just imagine the tool you wish you would of had in the first level of Half Life.  If that description doesn’t do it for you…it’s a crow bar with an attitude.