Should the role of a front-end developer be limited to only client-side technologies? I have asked myself this question a lot lately. I come from a background where, as a web developer, I typically work across the following development stack to design and build a product:

• Design. Graphic design, page layout to how a page flows responsively across devices
• Client-side code. HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• Data. Flat data files, RESTful web services, relational DBs, noSQL DBs, …
• Server-side code – PHP, .NET, Ruby, Lisp, Node.js, Python, …

Recently, I have moved into a position where I am focused on fewer core languages and technologies. As a result, I find myself thinking about the value of becoming an expert in one area of the stack. Is there more value in being an expert than being a well-rounded developer?

The upside to becoming an expert in one subject is that there is more time to devote to exploring every nook and cranny of that subject’s subculture. After all, web development is an art form. We are artists who should know our medium and our style. However, it is this very focus that often makes us lose sight of the broader picture. Programming is not about a particular technology or where it falls into the stack. Fundamentally it is about solving problems. An understanding of when to execute code on the server and at what point it’s best handled it in the browser allows a developer to come up with the most efficient solution to the problem.

Jiro, in Jiro dreams of Sushi, states that “Once you decide on your occupation, you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of success and is the key to being regarded honorably.” Jiro’s skill is sushi. He dedicated his life to coming up with and mastering the techniques of making the best sushi. In order to accomplish this goal, Jiro had to master the art of finding the right seafood vendors, picking the best fish (tuna, octopus, shrimp), preparing the fish, making the rice and creating an experience for his customers. If there was a problem with any part of the cycle, the sushi would be sub-par. So it is with development. A problem, often caused by lack of knowledge, in any layer of the stack can create fragile dependencies, inefficient results or worse…buggy code.

I have heard it said that new tech moves too quickly for well-rounded developers to keep up. This is true in the sense that no one developer has the time to become THE expert in every language, framework and platform that exists today. For a new developer, it can be overwhelming to look at the options that exist and wonder where to begin. However, if we take a step back, we are able to see that this pace of innovation is actually the fuel that drives the well-rounded developer. I say this for two reasons:

1. The fundamentals of programming have not changed.
2. The new frameworks and tools allow us to stand on the shoulders of giants.

Concepts such as object-oriented programming, data models and design fundamentals stay relatively stable over time. There are many different implementations of these principals and the principals themselves are expanded upon and refined over time, but much of the knowledge is transferable between languages and platforms. Differences are found mostly in syntax and philosophies. While syntax varies greatly among languages, the ones that tend to gain the most support are derivatives of earlier high-level languages such as Fortran and C. So, a lot of syntax knowledge is transferable as well. While the creator’s philosophy of a particular language or framework can vary, there are a finite number of general philosophies in existence and code design patterns often transcend philosophies. As Solomon said: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

Programmers that have been working at their craft for a while often say that development is much easier now than it ever was. They are getting at the idea that we do not have to mess around with as much low level stuff as we used to. 30 years ago, programmers had to write device level drivers just to connect to a database or manage a network connection. Given the same amount of time today, we are able to create more feature-rich, complex applications because of the work that has been done by those that have come before us. Frameworks in any context (server-side and client-end) continue to build on this infrastructure and will only speed the pace at which we can develop amazing products.

All of this is good in a general sense, but the real time-consuming part of becoming a well-rounded developer is spent in honing the details of one’s craft. It is difficult to decide which framework is best suited for a project and even more tedious to learn all the exceptions and caveats that come with a particular language or framework. Because of this, community is a vital component to a well-rounded developer’s workflow. Pick ecosystems that have good community support. Find the best framework to use for a project from the discoveries that others have made. Share what you learn when you develop for a platform with others. And above all, build new things.

A Twitter app is necessary to do any OAuth authentication. Go to https://dev.twitter.com/apps and create a new Twitter application. Once your application is created, click the “Create my access token” button to link this with your Twitter account. You will then have a Consumer Key, Consumer Secret, Access Token and Access Token Secret for this application that is associated with your Twitter account (see an example in the screenshot below). Make a note of these values.

Next, create a text file that contains the keys from your application (leave the env line as it is).

env 'http://datatables.org/alltables.env'; set oauth_consumer_key = "kSCAs8K62d60v2RjT8Q" on twitter; set oauth_consumer_secret = "oq1WlA0itYPoKqkg1VnLdPcrmq5qugXh0aYV62oIA" on twitter; set oauth_token = "14409872-ygtLVnhRr8ABSioMu28DHD5iJ6Yj8U3CEozxlTwsD" on twitter; set oauth_token_secret = "bqY5TXGSGwy72TmLgPgYz1jpW1riExHYNJVcqPIFCUE" on twitter;

Upload the text file to an accessible URL and go to the YQL console. Run the following query in the console replacing NAME and URL with whatever name you want to reference the stored data by and the url to the text file you just uploaded.

INSERT INTO yql.storage.admin (name,url) VALUES ("NAME","URL")

The result of this query will contain an <execute> node (ex. <execute>store://my.host.com/name</execute>). Make note of the value of this node.Your application’s OAuth keys are now stored in a database table that can be accessed from another YQL query. This is important because YQL also has community tables that allow for Twitter API requests. The following JavaScript (yes, some jQuery is used for simplifying the AJAX call) requests recent tweets from the @resource Twitter account and uses the stored keys for authentication. Just change the env value (line 14) to the the value of the <execute> node that you took note of earlier.

/* Set up the YQL query (http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/) */ var query = 'SELECT * FROM twitter.status.timeline.user '+ 'WHERE id="@resource" '; /* Options for the YQL request * q = your query * format = json or xml * env = environment to pull stored data from */ var dataString = { q: query, diagnostics: true, format: 'json', env: 'store://my.host.com/name' }; /* make the AJAX request and output to the screen */ $(document).ready(function() {$.ajax({ url: 'https://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql', data: dataString, success: function(data) {$('#returnData').html(JSON.stringify(data, undefined, 2)); }}); });

That’s pretty much all there is to making client-side Twitter API read requests using YQL to do the rest of the heavy lifting. A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. The security on this is not great (it’s more security through obscurity). Anyone can use the env link to execute read requests, but they don’t directly have access to your keys. It’s always better to implement this API server side if you have access to do so.
2. Both APIs rate limit the endpoint calls. YQL has a 2,000 calls per hour per IP limit to their public API. Here is an explanation of Twitter’s rate limits. Caching should be implemented to avoid hitting these limits.

Here is the Codepen Link for a working example.

This concept was adapted from Derek Gathright’s blog post.

module Sass::Script::Functions      # Does the supplied image exist?      def file_exists(image_file)           path = image_file.value           Sass::Script::Bool.new(File.exists?(path))      end end

If this code is placed in a file named functions.rb, the Sass watch command would be:

sass --watch style.scss:style.css --require functions.rb

So, why would you ever need to check for the existence of a file at Sass compile time? One place I found it useful (I’m sure there are other uses) was when eliminating duplication of internationalized CTA (call-to-action) images. Canadian (or British) English is similar to U.S. English in many ways, but there are some words that are a different between the two (favorite vs favourite for example). The following Sass mixin selects a CTA image from a folder based on the lang attribute set on the page. In the case of Canadian English, it will first check to see if the image exists in the en-ca folder. If not, it will fall back to using the image from the en-us folder. This avoids duplication of the English images that are the same in both Canadian and U.S. English. The benefit of this is:

1. Fewer total assets, so they are easier to maintain
2. The total asset payload is smaller (especially important if used in a mobile app)

@mixin localeImage($image: null) {     [lang="en-us"] & {          background-image: url('assets/img/en-us/#{$image}');      }     [lang="en-ca"] & {          $file: 'assets/img/en-ca/#{$image}';           @if file_exists($file) {               background-image: url('#{$file}');           } else {               background-image: url('assets/img/en-us/#{$image}');           }     }     [lang="fr-ca"] & {          background-image: url('assets/img/fr-ca/#{$image}');      }}

A few years ago, a front-end developer title often defined the term “developer” rather loosely. HTML and CSS were often the only required languages for this role and are really considered to be content markup languages rather than true development languages (however you might choose to define that). A few years before that, we were building websites purely with HTML and images, using tables to implement our layouts. A lot has changed. If you are interested in learning more web history, check out Eric Meyer’s excellent podcast, The Web Behind.

Regardless of what actually prompted this recent shift, I believe there are (at least) two major reasons that the front-end developer role will continue to be significant for quite some time:

1. CSS and image support has gotten much more powerful and complex.
2. HTML/CSS/JavaScript can be used to build native cross-platform mobile apps (Phonegap, Appcelerator Titanium).

CSS3, Retina Images, and Bandwidth, Oh My!

The CSS3 spec added lots of very powerful new features. Things like rounded corners, shadows and gradients can be achieved easily in browsers that support CSS3. There are also more advanced features like CSS transforms and animations which require a bit more knowledge about things like keyframes and perspective. Specific browser prefixes must be applied for many of these new features in order to ensure backwards compatibility as the spec continues to evolve.

Of course, the downside to all of this is that CSS code has become hard to maintain. Fortunately, CSS pre-processors have been created to help make CSS code more maintainable and object-oriented (ish). Sass and LESS add features like functions, variables and mixins as well as code libraries (Sass has Compass). Sass does seem to be gaining in popularity for a number of reasons, but the point is that this is one more tool for a front-end developer to learn.

A hot topic in the front-end developer community at the moment is debating how to support images across different devices, resolutions, pixel densities and varying connection speeds. The increasing consumer use of retina-density displays and better internet access from smartphones requires developers to think about how to potentially support multiple sizes of higher quality images at lower file sizes. There are many solutions for supporting higher resolution images on retina displays. You could detect a retina display and serve up double resolution (@2x) images for those displays. This requires two versions of every image to be created which isn’t so bad. The problem is that a device like an iPhone has a retina display as does something like a Macbook Pro. The Macbook Pro could be connected via Ethernet to a fast connection and the iPhone may be on 4G now, but in seconds, it could be down to an edge connection as the user moves away from the nearest cell tower. This article does a good job of explaining the pitfalls of trying to measure or predict bandwidth at the CSS level to serve up different image sizes. So, there is some added complexity that comes with more mobile devices and retina displays.

In addition, any image, whether it’s targeted at a retina screen or a smartphone, should have as small a file size as possible. Tools like:

• ImageOptim
• ImageAlpha and
• JPEGmini

can do an amazing job of reducing file size while maintaining quality. Even with these tools, a great deal of manual effort is still required to make sure that the images maintain quality once compressed.

Mobile Apps

Because the three main “languages” in use on the presentation layer of the web (CSS, HTML, JavaScript) are so widely known, developers have come up with solutions for building mobile apps on all major platforms using these languages of the web.  A mobile app can be built completely in JavaScript (and HTML and CSS) and compiled with either the open source PhoneGap framework or Appcelerator Titanium for iOS, Android and a number of other mobile OS’s. This gives any front-end web developer the tools to build mobile apps without learning a new language. It sounds like a dream come true, but in reality, most apps that are conceived are complex in nature and require a framework (like Backbone.js) to organize the JavaScript code. With the maturity of these mobile app frameworks that use commonly-known web languages, the front-end developer role has expanded to be much larger than it once was.

Conclusion

These are very exciting times indeed for front-end devs. So much new technology is being released that the door is wide open for innovation. I’m just excited that we are no longer using table layouts.

I had first heard about the job opening from a friend. He had been doing some contract work for them and mentioned to me that they were looking for someone to help redesign and manage their website as they had a new product to promote. He set up the interview and told me that they had a great product and business and also wanted me to know that Brian, the owner, is a little eccentric. He is an inventor after all.

The Interview

I was greeted at the door by a friendly dog, followed by Brian who exclaimed, “Look at those sideburns – you look like Wolverine!” (at the time, they were very wolverine-esque). I followed Brian into the workshop at the back of the office. This workshop was really a warehouse-sized room filled with old cars, motorcycles and dozens of drum kits. We sat down around a table strewn with electronic parts, soldering irons and detailed drawings of the next product he was designing.

The interview began with Brian expounding on the history of the business, the vision behind the new product and comparisons of himself to Walt Disney. Then he gave me a piece of paper and asked me to show him how I would redesign the site. A bit thrown off, I fumbled for a little while and just said the first things that popped into my head. After about 30 seconds of this, he got up and started pacing back and forth and began telling more stories about his visits with Apple executives and how some designers from Apple were coming in the next day (Saturday) and asked if I wanted to come in to be there while they went over some of the interface design for the new product.

At this point, another employee came in to see if Brian wanted to step into another interview to meet a potential new receptionist. “Is she hot?” was his (inappropriate) response. He got up to go to that interview, leaving me to chit-chat with another employee for the next 20 minutes or so.

When Brian came back, he decided that he was interested in talking about drumming as he had heard that I played as well. While he went on about the many bands that he had played with and rock-stars he had met in the past, he walked over to a weight bench, strapped on his lifting gloves and did some bench presses. Once he had completed a few sets, it was lunch time. Brian mentioned that he had some lunch plans, but was hoping I could come back after lunch and maybe he could hear me play a bit on the drums. I decided I had seen enough for one day and politely declined the offer to come back. He said that he would be in touch about the job.

The Follow-Up

As it turned out, the company must have not really had the budget to hire because they wanted me to contract for several months until the new product was launched and then they promised to hire me full-time. Between the strange interview and no guarantee of a full-time position, I was not exactly convinced to quit the job I had at the time. I told Brian this and his response was to get together for lunch and talk about doing some freelance work. We had lunch at P.F. Chang’s and talked about some possibilities for the site, but when we left, everything was very much up in the air.

Brian called me several times, mostly to talk about another potential hire he was making. Every conversation we had seemed to go nowhere and I eventually just wanted to cut ties, so I sent this email: “Regarding the job…when you feel the time is right to create a position and you have an offer for that position, I will consider it at that point. Right now, I am not quite ready to quit my current job without something for sure to go to.” He simply responded: “I gave you Changs call me.” So, I called Brian. He proceeded to question my integrity (I still don’t know how this came into play) and tear me down personally, so I said right there that I was not interested in ever hearing from him again. That ended a very strange interview saga, and to this day, every time I go by a P.F. Changs, I think to myself “I gave you Changs call me” and I laugh every time.

• Responsive Web Design (Ethan Marcotte)
• Responsive Web Design Demystified
• Fluid and Responsive Design

P.S. I’m working on a brand new responsive design for this website. Check back soon to see it.

Leigh and I drove up from Columbus early Sunday morning. After Roy’s race instructions (enjoy yourself and DO NOT LITTER), we lined up in the brisk foggy weather for the start. I took the first section slow so as not to risk a fall in the dark and ended up running with David Peterman most of the way to Pine Hollow. There was only a bit of cold mud in the meadows and we joked that we might be found later in the race icing our sore ankles and feet in these spots. We both breezed through the aid station at Pine Hollow and made our way toward Quick Road. Mike Nicholson, who was out in front, had taken a wrong turn at Quick Road and we did the same. The three of us ran up and down the road for a bit until we all realized (seeing some headlamps through the woods) that we were just supposed to go straight across to pick up the trail. The trails were getting sloppy through this next section so I decided not to push it too hard at this point, knowing that we would hit this mud three more times and it would only get worse as more runners came through.

I decided to get some solid food at Covered Bridge as my stomach had been queasy all morning and I thought that might help settle things. I looked forward to a good mix of walking and running through the next section and got some bonus stream crossings thrown in as well.

The section back from Covered Bridge back to the Pine Hollow aid station was filled with mixed emotions. I enjoyed seeing more faces on the trail and eventually ran into the lead marathoners as I neared the aid station. I mumbled a quick hello to Vince Rucci who was leading the men and Beth Woodward who was out in front of the women. As I neared Pine Hollow, I had all but made up in my mind that I was going to call it a day after one loop. I was tired, my legs had not recovered well from a previous race and my stomach was just not settling. I asked my wife if she would meet me at the turnaround (not telling her that I was thinking of dropping). I grabbed some grilled cheese sandwiches hoping they would at least get me through the next couple of miles. I saw Roy coming up one of the sound of music hills and he mentioned to me that I only had about a mile and a half back to the turnaround. This was good news! As I got close to the shelter, I saw the first and second place runners heading out for their second loop. I still was not feeling very good at the turnaround, but I told myself that when things are bad, there is always the chance that they can get better. I was hurried out of the aid station and back onto the second loop (I guess I would not be stopping here after all).

Eventually, I caught up with Scooby (in second at this point) who was suffering from some foot pain and trying to walk it off. I walked with him for a few minutes until we eventually parted ways. As I made my way back to Pine Hollow, the endorphins must have started firing as I miraculously began to enjoy running again. The weather was perfect, the fall colors were vibrant and it was a great day to spend some time in the woods.  I took another S!Cap thinking it was about time for some more electrolytes and picked up the pace. My feet were still numb, but the sun was warming everything else up. Reaching Pine Hollow, I heard that the leader (Mike Nicholson) was just a minute or two ahead, so I made it my goal to catch him on this next section. A couple of miles in, I suddenly felt queasy again and stopped for a quick upchuck – too much salt – yuck! I felt better immediately, though, and kept moving.

Eventually, I caught up to Mike and asked how he was feeling. His response was, not great, but hey, we were 35 miles in, so that’s to be expected. From that point, I ran up the hills as hard as I could on the way to Covered Bridge, but eventually lost steam as I had burned through all the calories I put in earlier. I saw Mike again as I was heading out from Covered Bridge which was a good reminder to keep moving. Perkins Loop (the section after Covered Bridge) was a nice mix of running and walking the hills. Reaching Covered Bridge again, I stocked back up on calories as I was really dreading slogging through the mud this one final time. I knew it was going to be a long haul back to Pine Hollow, so I prepared mentally for what was to come. As I splashed through the mud and muck on the trail, a healthy fear of being passed at this point in race kept nagging in my head, driving me to keep running even though I felt like just walking it in. Nearing Pine Hollow, I decided not to stop for a refill of anything and just hammer out the last couple of miles to the finish. Well, two miles was a lot longer than I had pictured in my head, so I fought to keep moving as I knew each step brought me closer to the end. As the finish line came in to sight, I felt an overwhelming sense of joy knowing that I had run my best for the day and that there was a chair with my name on it to rest these tired mud-ladened legs.

In the late fall of 2010, fate smiled kindly on me as my name was drawn from the proverbial hat containing 4,000 other hopeful runners who had also entered their names into the Western States lottery. I rarely win any contests I enter, so I figured this would not be an exception. In fact, the only drawing I can recall winning was a Cabbage Patch doll from Drug Emporium. I quickly sold my winnings to my sister and ended up 25 cents richer that day. This year’s stroke of luck left my pockets a little lighter, but a chance to run Western States, the oldest hundred miler in the nation, was one I was not about to pass up.

Reality soon set in, and, after watching videos of some of the top runners on the course, I figured that I should probably come up with a good training plan. Unfortunately, Ohio does not have long climbs to train on like the mountains out west. It does have select pockets of rolling hills, however. I spent as much time as I could training at Mohican. When there was no time for the trip to Mohican, I would run at Highbanks. And, when I tired of Highbanks, I would spend some hours running up and down Worthington Hill. This is not even a quarter mile hill, but it is steep, paved and has lots of traffic. Some of my best training was done on this hill as it allowed me to block everything else out of my mind and just work on my uphill running form.

Preparations for a 100-mile race are not limited to the runner alone. For a while, I was not sure if Leigh was going to be able to make it out to California to help crew the race. I also was not sure if I would have a pacer, so I prepared myself for a solo trip. I realized it would be lonely, but I would make it through. Then, at the Clif Bar pace party before the Boston Marathon, Star came up to me and said that she had worked it out that she would be able to come out and pace me. So, I would not be alone on the trails! There was still the question of what to do the week before (as I was flying out early in an attempt to acclimate to the higher altitude) and for crew during the race. My Dad offered to fly out to crew if Leigh was not able to make it, but he had a busy schedule already and this would make it even busier. One morning, I was sitting at work and got an email from Leigh. “I bought a plane ticket. I’m flying to California!” It had all worked out. So, I carefully planned and packed my drop bags and clothes for the run. Then we were off on a day of flights, connections and misconnections that took way longer than it should…but that’s a story for another time.

We finally made it to Reno and tiredly drove to the hotel in Tahoe City to start catching up on some much needed sleep. Tahoe is a beautiful place. There really are no words that can describe the crystal clear waters backed by tall mountains and pink sunsets. The low humidity and clean mountain air is enough to make one question the sanity of living in a rain forest like Ohio. But, I digress.

Leigh and I spent the week hiking the course, walking by the lake, visiting wineries in Napa Valley, trying new restaurants, taking photos and spending plenty of time relaxing. If you’re not jealous by now, you should be. It was a wonderful, restful time. We met up with a runner friend, Ted Niemann and his wife, Toni and had a blast hanging out with them in the later part of the week. I went for a couple of training runs in Tahoe as well. Two days before the race, I ran up the first few miles of the course (up a Squaw Valley ski hill) and then back down just to see what that section of the course was like. On the way down, my left calf tightened up and did not loosen up before the race. Between my left calf and my right shin that had been bothering me for weeks on downhill runs, I was pretty worried about how my legs would hold up…especially on all the downhill at the end of the race.

Friday before the run, a pre-race meeting was held where we got to meet up with runner friends, Eman Ronchin (Toronto), Kevin O’Grady (Ohio), Adam Bright (Florida), Shaun Pope (Ohio) and Sandi Nypaver (Ohio). There was a really cool ceremony recognizing some of the top ultra-runners as well.

Finally, the day of the race arrived. We woke up around 3AM and made it to weigh in at the start with plenty of time to spare. Star had flown into the state just hours before the 5AM start and was there to see me and our other Ohio friends off before trying to catch a few hours of sleep. All the runners counted down to the start together and we took off up the first of many hills. Remembering advice of those that I gone before me, I decided to walk the first four miles as it is all uphill. “Cowman A-Mooha”, the second runner to ever complete Western States had started with cow horns on his head and I walked beside him for a while. I concentrated on keeping my heart rate low and moving forward. The first aid station (Escarpment) was two miles in, with the next one (Talbot) not arriving until mile 15. I topped off the three bottles I was carrying for this longer section at Escarpment and kept moving ahead.

At mile three, snow appeared on the course. Overnight, the temperatures had gotten down around freezing and all of the snow had turned to ice. Picture a ski hill, covered with a sheet of ice. Now, imagine running horizontally across this hill, just fast enough that you don’t have time to slip too far down with each step and just slow enough that you can avoid post-holing in the streams that go under the ice. That was the next 12 miles. I had flashbacks to Beast of Burden.

Soon, however, the ice section was over. I was able to put ice in my bandana and lose the shirt as it was starting to heat up at this point. Over the next several miles, I got the chance to walk and talk with a really nice guy named Dominic about the Wasatch Front 100. He was going for a sub-24 hour race and I told him if all went well today, that’s what I would like to run too. As we climbed up out of Duncan Canyon to Mosquito Ridge, I realized that this would likely be a longer day than I had hoped for. I was 30 miles in and had already started puking. The next four and a half miles consisted of a flat loop and I was accompanied by some lovely medical volunteers: Jerry, Catra and Fireman Dan. They were out making sure no one was stranded in the woods with a serious problem. It was nice to have the company as I walked trying to settle my stomach early on so I could hopefully run more later in the race. Once we got to Miller’s Defeat, I spent the next 45 minutes with some amazing volunteers who did a great job assessing the problem (low electrolytes) and trying to get me back on track. I didn’t want to sit here, but I thought that if I took care of this early enough, that I could still run a great last half of the race.

I had dropped my shirt when it began to get warm, but as I sat still for a while in the shade, I became cold. One of the volunteers offered me the shirt off of his back, only concerned that my nipples might chafe because it was a t-shirt. It was a funny and heartwarming moment that lifted my spirits. Another volunteer came to the rescue, however, offering me one of his many spare running shirts that he kept in his van.

From this point, I entered the dreaded death-march mode, hoping against hope that I could get some stomach back so I could keep a few calories down for the upcoming climbs. I tried not to stay too long at each aid station – just enough to try to get a few calories to settle. Each and every volunteer treated me like I was royalty – they are really amazing people and I felt that I couldn’t thank them enough – especially the ones that helped me through these rough early miles (and saw me lose my lunch numerous times).

My stomach was really starting to settle and I began to get back into a groove on the way down into the canyon before Devil’s Thumb. I knew what lay ahead, however, and I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty. Devil’s Thumb was the hardest climb I have had to make: 37 switchbacks, with each section steeper than the last. It showed no mercy on a weak stomach and if you sat to rest, the mosquitoes let you know it was time to keep moving. Devil’s Thumb climbed up and up and up. I honestly don’t think I have ever moved that slowly on a section of trail. I couldn’t stop shaking from the cold at the top of Devil’s Thumb, so I moved through the weight check quickly, was helped by some more really amazing volunteers, grabbed a popsicle and started moving forward again. A popsicle was the wrong move, but it tasted so good going down.

Overall, I was in reasonably good spirits considering the circumstances up until this point. When I left Devil’s Thumb, I had very little hope of being able to run the second half. After all, I was in pretty rough shape for having covered less than half of the course! When reading the runner’s guide for Western States, they warn you about rattle snakes, bears and mountain lions on the trails. Mountain lions in particular sneak up from behind and attack with very little warning. I began to hope for a mountain lion to stalk me and put me out of my misery. I could not concede to dropping out the race if there was any chance that I could still finish, but being eaten by a mountain lion seemed like a pretty good way out at that point. When that dream did not appear to be coming true, I turned to a different line of thinking.

I began to ask God to heal me. And then a few lines of an old church song popped into my head, “I believe He’s here now, standing in our midst. Here with the power to heal now, and the grace to forgive.” Often times when I am at a point of desperation, I ask God to take away my problem. When He doesn’t respond immediately, I think that it must be because I have not been obedient in some way. I realized in this moment that my view of God is so far from what He truly is like. In fact, it is despite how I behave that He has shown me grace and forgiveness many times over. He always has and always will respond to our cries in His own timing, which is always best.

I began to accept my current circumstances and focus on not falling too far behind as I was starting to think about aid station cutoffs at this point. I finally made it to Michigan Bluff shortly after 8pm. Star was there and I figured Leigh would be too so I could get my headlamp as it would be dark soon. Fearing that she wouldn’t make it to Foresthill in time, Leigh had decided to wait there and gave my headlamp to Star to deliver to me. I was starting to get a little loopy and a little irritable at this point. I weighed in and was 6lbs under my starting weight, so I had to listen to a talk from a volunteer to get my nutrition back on track. It turns out that he thought I had gained six pounds and was telling what to do to lose water weight! I was really annoyed as I just wanted to get moving and I let it show. I apologized, though, as I realized that he was only trying to help. I downed all of the chicken noodle soup that he gave me and then ran off to find a place to puke for the 12^th and final time (almost a PR or Puke Record as Star pointed out).

Star regaled me with stories of her crazy last day of work and travels out to California. The time went by quickly and I ate up all of the sport beans that she had thrown in her pocket as a last minute thought. The beans tasted good and might have even been sprinkled with a little bit of magic. At Bath Rd, just a mile and a half from Foresthill, we caught up with Ted Niemann who was dealing with stomach trouble of his own. The bug had bit a lot of people hard that day.

Leigh was at Foresthill and was a welcome sight to see. We took a couple of extra minutes to visit, fuel up and let the food settle in an attempt to run again after this prolonged hike through the woods. It worked and we were running bits at a time. We came up with a food formula that seemed to work: chicken broth, a salty potato, coke and a refill on water and electrolytes. Through the winding woods we ran. We saw aliens at “Area 54”, saw skeletons dressed in drag and heard delightful music blasting from aid station stereos. Star ate grilled cheese sandwiches and I stuck to my food formula as it was working for me. We began to pass people and I knew we were making up a little bit of time. On the way up to mile 73, we climbed up the elevator shaft, a wide STEEP road that switched back and forth in a never-ending uphill. I lamented the fact that there was no elevator around. We eventually made it to the top and then, before we knew it, we were approaching the river crossing. This was one of my favorite parts of the race. Most years, runners wade through the American River while holding onto a cable for support. The snow runoff was so much this year, however that we were shuttled across in a raft. The crew was efficient and we had lots of people there to help us into and out of the boat.

Another big climb on the way to Green Gate lay in wait on the other side of the river. It was steep, but not too bad. We hiked with another pacer for a while and suddenly I yelled out, “Star! STAR!” “What?” she said back. “Don’t take another…uh, nevermind.” I replied. We all had a good laugh when I explained that I had seen two rattlesnakes in the middle of the path. They were still there when I did a double take, but in the end turned out to be just a couple of rocks in the road. The other pacer had been looking in the sky thinking that I was yelling at the stars.

Leigh was waiting for us at Green Gate with warm clothes and words of encouragement. She had hiked a mile and a half down and then back up to be at that aid station. She is wonderful! We continued to make our way into the final 20 miles of the race. The finish was in sight at this point and we picked up the pace a bit. Stretches of running became longer and I switched to a strict diet of Cheetos and Coke. The next 10 miles reminded me a lot of Mohican. It was fun to run again and the legs felt great. There was a time where I wished for this feeling earlier on in the race, but now I was just thankful to be able to run what I could. We arrived at Highway 49 (mile 93.5), the last place we would see Leigh before the finish. Leigh and I briefly argued about whether there were 7 miles remaining or just a 10k. Turns out neither of us were right.

Some of the most amazing views popped up in this last section of the course. We paused just long enough to breathe in the vistas and kept moving. I began to tear up as we crossed No Hands Bridge with only a few miles left to go. We hiked one more dusty climb and were greeted by a dude in a mohawk who ran down the hill to take our drink orders, then ran up ahead of us to fill them and keep us moving into town. With cold cloths on our necks, we finished out the climb and ran the last mile through the town of Auburn. Following the orange footprints on the road, we ran onto the Placer High track and I crossed the finish line in 28:36:35.

It was a long journey, but I once again walk away feeling so very thankful for everyone who helped me through it. Leigh stayed up and drove all through the night just to see me at the few places they would allow crew. Star ran 45 miles with me and kept me focused and moving, all the while entertaining me with stories. Many other people believed I could do it even when I didn’t believe it myself.

Update: If you didn’t get a change to read it already, Star wrote a fantastic, well-told, humorous piece detailing the section she ran with me.

Lockport, New York, a small town 18 miles east of Niagra Falls is the host to a bi-annual race along the historic Erie Canal. When I heard the name of this race, the Beast of Burden, I knew this was one I had to run. When I saw it was 100 miles through the snow, in February, I was sold.

Winter training did not go as smoothly as I had anticipated – a minor IT band injury in December, a two week flu at the peak of my training followed by some hamstring/hip flexor strains two weeks before the race. But, as Dave would tell me during the race, “No pain, no gain. No guts, no glory.” And hey, as all you ultra runners know, this is just par for the course.

Now, the crazy thing about most of these 100 mile runs, besides running 100 miles, is that they typically start at some ridiculous hour like 5 AM. Sure, 5 in the morning is not THAT early, but it’s early enough when you have to get up around 3 to get dressed, eat, take a dump and get to the starting line without forgetting anything. If you are like me and don’t get up at 3 AM normally, then add in the nerves before race day, you can expect to get about 2-3 hours of sleep before the race. But, the Beast of Burden is not your typical race – it has a 10 AM start which allowed for almost a full night of rest!

My Dad graciously offered to crew for the race and make the drive home afterward. Dave also kindly accepted my request for a pacer thinking that this would be a fun adventure.

We awoke on race day in the Comfort Inn in downtown Lockport feeling pretty refreshed after the meet-and-greet packet pickup the night before. We had the privilege to talk with last year’s winner, Richard Cook, mingle a bit with some other runners and meet Laurie Colón the other 100 mile runner from Ohio (who I had only had a chance to chat with a bit on Facebook before the race).

The Comfort Inn had a continental breakfast, and we were pleasantly surprised to meet a few other runners who were there sampling the cereals and waffles as well. Eman and Jennifer were two runners from Toronto who had decided to come south for a “warmer” weather race. Of course, we all had high hopes for the day and nobody talked much of the forecasted 20-30 mi/hr winds. I figured at least we would get our money’s worth.

After some well wishes, some dancing to keep warm and lots of photos at the starting line, we were off and running. The course began with a nicely groomed section of trail that wound its way through some trees and a fitness challenge course (pull-up bars and the like). As we crossed a bridge to the other side of the canal, the footing quickly became much more challenging. Again, I figured that I was just getting my money’s worth. After all, I didn’t want the course to be too easy. I chatted with a couple of runners for a while and eventually settled into listening to an audio book, “World Without End”. I had loaded up this 40+ hour book since I figured it should last through the race. I made decent time through the first 12.5 miles and met Dave and my Dad in about 2:15 in Middleport (the turnaround point).

I had decided to try an all liquid diet this race since I’ve had some trouble with nausea and vomiting at my previous two 100’s. The plan was to drink water (with just a little heed mixed in) and eat 2-3 gels per hour with a rice ball thrown in from time to time. Leigh made up a bunch of rice balls for me before the race and I was set with plenty of hammer gels to get me through. I felt pretty good at the turnaround and headed out into the crazy wind. I really didn’t anticipate how much the wind would slow me down on the way back and ended up doing the return 12.5 miles in around 2:40. I got a chance to catch up with Eman a little bit along the way although we could hardly talk as the wind was so crazy. The wind had ripped my race number most of the way off at this point, so I reattached that, fueled up and headed out for round two.

It felt amazing to have the wind at my back again and I decided to take things nice and easy for this next section. Eman and I yo-yoed back and forth a bit until he slowed down due to a bit of nausea. I felt really bad for him that it was hitting this early and then I started to feel it to. I began to really slow up and pay close attention to really regulate my calories and liquid intake. The nausea was manageable but getting worse despite my efforts. At Middleport, I said a quick hello to my crew, grabbed my headlamp and headed out into the ever darkening sky. I puked twice in the next few miles and felt a lot better. Somewhere in there, Laurie passed me, but I was able to stay focused to get to the 50 mile mark back in Lockport.

Dad and Dave arrived in perfect timing just as I was heading out for a third loop. Dave had decided that he would run the last 50 miles with me (crazy!), so he pulled a quick change as I added another layer for warmth. Nighttime had fallen and so had the temperatures. They were down in the teens after being in the low 30s for most of the day. After another pukage, we were ready to go. I apologized to Dave after two more puking episodes shortly thereafter. He reminded me of “no guts, no glory” – literally. We decided to stop at Gasport to fuel up on more drink and some chips. It was nighttime and hard to see, so we asked the guy out stoking the fire where the entrance to the tent was. He didn’t respond, so we followed his trail of beer cans and entered the cozy tent.

One of the things I found quite challenging about this race was getting out of the aid stations. Of course, it was necessary to keep the tents warm so the volunteers and the food didn’t freeze. However, after warming up for even a minute or two in the tent, it was really not easy to go back out in the cold. But, as Dave told me, you can be asleep in a warm bed any night – how often do you get to run all night in weather like this? As crazy as it may sound, he was absolutely right! So, we got back out on the trail.

The path to Middleport is pretty exposed to the elements, but by this time the wind had mostly died down and we were getting a nice light snow. I think both of us were getting cold at this point, but other than that, things were pretty manageable considering that I was 62 miles into the race. We stepped inside the Freemason Lodge (the aid station) and I immediately began having trouble breathing. Now, there is a point in every race where you are faced with the decision to continue on despite the fact that it seems impossible to keep moving…no less finish the whole race. This was the point for me. After running outside and back in a few times thinking I was going to vomit, I began to get frustrated and started panicking about my situation. I said that I didn’t think I could go on. Dad felt really bad for me and was trying to get me warmed up realizing that I had been freezing out there. Dave told me that I was going to hate him tomorrow if he didn’t make me finish this thing and I understood. But, my chest was so tight and I couldn’t get in enough air to start running again. I’m not sure exactly how to describe the feeling. Just then, Nancey, a massage therapist came over and asked if she could work with me a little bit to get me warmed up. I was reluctant to say the least (since, I’m not really a big fan of people I don’t know touching me), but she asked me if I still had a desire to finish and I said yes. So, she got me calmed down and began working on some pressure points in my hands and legs to relieve the nausea and begin to warm up my core. It was working…slowly but surely! Eman and Jennifer both came through the aid station sometime during this point. Those Canadians were the most upbeat runners I have seen for how they were both feeling – I’ve got a lot to learn! Finally, I got some solid food in me (pizza!) and Dad helped me put on a few more layers of clothes as I headed for the door. He said he would meet us back at Lockport (and no, he would not be catching any sleep in between). So, Dave and I headed back into the snowy night, knowing now for sure that we were going to make it to the finish line.

The journey back was a slower run/walk, and as we approached mile 75, Valmir Nunes snuck up behind us like a ninja. We whooped and hollered for him as he came in for a first place finish (his 4^th and final lap) in just over 18 hours. Valmir is a very accomplished runner from Brazil who holds the course record for Badwater. He had never seen snow in his life until he touched down in Buffalo a couple of days before the race (and yet he still managed to secure a win and a new course record). After my meager attempt to congratulate him (he doesn’t speak much English and I probably wasn’t speaking any language fluently at that time), we went back out for the final lap.

There is another point in the race where time slows down considerably. This happened somewhere in these last 25 miles. And I too slowed down considerably. Dave did so well to keep me moving and make me run when I just wanted to walk. My Dad stayed awake through it all and even caught some pictures and video at various points along the way. In the final 12.5 miles, my left leg knee and hip flexor were screaming in pain with every step. I complained and walked way more than I should have considering that I was the one who signed up for this. I had lost my will to finish strong, but Dave’s patient prodding eventually got me to start running a little more with a 100 mile PR in sight.

As we approached the final couple of miles, Dad met up with us with his camera and made sure that we were doing alright. Dave took me through the last mile by debating which challenges were safe to do on the fitness challenge course and which ones might leave you in danger of slipping and breaking your neck. And then…finally…the Beast was laid to rest. Dave and I crossed the finish line together as Sam Pasceri, race director, greeted me with a 100 mile buckle and awarded Dave with a 24-hour buckle for being the first pacer to go 50 miles with his runner…awesome! And a 25:43:13 finish (due in large part to Dave making me run) gave me a 15-minute PR…no matter how small the victory, I will take it. I am once again humbled by the experience and so thankful to the family and friends that sacrificed to help me through it.

In 2009, Leigh and I took a trip to California. We saw things we had never experienced before, both in the city and in nature. We witnessed a forest fire in Yosemite, took a drive down the coastal highway one, communed with famous tech personalities, spent a night in Vegas and toured some of the most beautiful wine country in America.

This year, we took another trip. This trip has been characterized by the muddy trails, by snow, horses, puking and most of all friendships. This trip was a journey into the ultra running community. My first run this year with the Central Ohio Trail Runners involved 17 miles of snow covered trails at Alum Creek. To call them trails at that point in the winter is probably being generous – the snow cover made navigation near impossible if you were not familiar with their windy lines through the woods. However, on this cold wintery morning, I had the privilege of beginning my trail running journey with amazing runners like Mark Carroll, Julie Bowen-Miller, Tom Patton, Michael Patton, Dave Huss and others.

Flash forward to yesterday. I waited in delightful anticipation all day for what has now become known as a ninja run with Mark Carroll, Mike Keller and anyone else who feels so inclined to lace up their running shoes for a foray into Highbanks metro park well after the sun has set and the park has closed its gates. Sure it’s illegal, but so is answering the call of nature in, well, nature as I found out from Mike. While I have only participated in a few ninja runs I cherish each chance I get to head out for some miles after dark with my closest running friends. The first all night run I participated in was up at Mohican State Park. As darkness was falling, Star told us how cool it is to run at night despite the fact that people may call you crazy for it. To me, running all night was a magical experience. Not many people can (or want to) say that they have done it. At 4:45am, Jay’s watch alarm went off signaling that he should be getting up for his morning run on a normal day and letting us know that we had all been out in the woods together for the last 8 hours.

I often like to think that I can take care of myself and that I have things in my life under control. The reality is that I have always had people in my life to take care of me and to watch over me. This could not have been better illustrated this year by the people who took care of me at the two 100-mile races that I completed this year. To nurse a runner back to enough health that they can get their legs moving again, knowing full well that they have brought this pain on themselves, takes a lot of love and a lot of selflessness. In my moments of hubris, I like to think that I can run these races on my own power and strength. The reality is that I have many loving and faithful friends and family that gave me the gift this year of helping me along my journey.

There are so many moments this year that I have absolutely loved and will always cherish. They have marked the beginning of my ultra running trip and a new era that has already proven itself to be unbelievably sweet. Thanks to all that have participated and I’m looking forward to what 2011 will bring.

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To begin with, here is my current routine.

• Morning – get up at 6:30, stretch (about 3 mornings/week), read a little in the Bible, eat breakfast and read a lot online (news feeds, email, twitter, facebook).
• Day – Work and catch up on more online reading at lunch.
• Evening – Run, dinner, watch shows / more online reading, and sometimes go out for Whole Foods wine/beer or Scotties coffee, bed

OK, so a few things about this. One is that I need to spend less time on my online reading. Probably 70% of it is a waste of time. This is a pain point as I want to keep up on things, but not spend nearly as much time on it. It needs to become a more focused task and less of a distraction. Two – we have way too many shows that we watch (and are currently way behind on). It’s time to get rid of a bunch of them. I think the keepers are Modern Family, Outsourced and Mad Men. Any other suggestions? Three shows is probably enough for now. A third thing is that if all this stuff is cut out, that leaves a little more time in the day. Which leads me to things I would like to do or do more of…

• Spend more time reading the Bible and praying. I think you can never do enough of this and I’ve really been enjoying II Cor. lately. I think I’ll spend a little more time there.
• Write more – I need a way to do this that is not so intimidating. Even onepageperday.com seems too intimidating to me as it nags you every day and you have to write a whole page per day!
• Find ways to go outside of the normal routine. Preferably more interaction with people.
• Get the motorcycle running and sell it.
• Build a web application or online business. This is one I have been wanting to do for a long time. I’ve had a ton of ideas, but they have all been either impractical or they don’t seem like that great of an idea (and I have a hard time developing them beyond an initial image/thought).
• Do more photography, videography and design work.

So, while I feel like I can’t keep up on anything these days, I realize a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m not spending the time working on focusing on one thing at a time. It’s time to disorganize my routine, minimalize my “want to do” list and better organize my time.

Leigh snapped some photos of the starting line as I signed myself in for this new adventure and checked out the haunting Squire’s castle. Fortunately, I was able to meet up with Darris, Star and the Dr.’s Bright (as they became known) who I would spend a good portion of the day running beside. Star had emailed me the week before to ask if I wanted to join their group as they were going for a 24-hour finish. The weather was perfect for this type of a finish and I quickly said yes as a chance to run with some of the most experienced pacers in this part of the country is not one you pass up. I was also happy to run into the familiar faces of Mark Carroll, Michael Patton, Michelle Bischel, Rob Powell and Suzanne Pokorny. We all wished each other luck, sang happy birthday to Joe (the race director), listened to the national anthem and started into our run to the blast of a vuvuzela. This sound brought my thoughts immediately back to Mohican. This was good. It was where I needed to be mentally. The 100 mile distance is such a head game and I had really not been in it up to this point.

I already had the physical training in the bank from my Mohican training in the spring. I had also experienced some of the other problems that come with a 100 (tired feet, nausea, sleepiness), so I was perhaps a little more prepared for what was to come. Although, in the back of my mind, I thought that maybe, just maybe I had some of these problems figured out.

Our 24-hour group, led by Star, made its way through the first 9.5 miles of road amidst a few hundred other runners  –  all with that same energy that exists early on in a race. These miles flew right by as we chatted, stopped to pee and chatted some more. When we reached the polo field, we were instructed by Star to be in and out as quickly as possible – and we were!

The next several miles were a blur as we made our way to Ottawa point at mile 40. Leigh was there and Dave had made it up from Columbus as well. I also caught a brief glimpse of Michael as he was heading out of the aid station. Along the way to Ottawa, I had gotten the chance to chat a bit with everyone in the group and get to know them all just a little better. Darris was fighting a hamstring injury which was made even worse along the way by a nasty bee sting and a dive in the mud. Adam asked if I knew any good jokes. I told him the only one I know – my chicken coop joke. He then told me a few jokes that were in his repertoire and before I knew it, we were climbing the piano keys on our way to Boston Store, where I saw Leigh and Dave again at mile 49. Our little group was all struggling a bit at this point, so we took an extra minute or two to grab some food before moving on to the Boston Store loop. Darris dropped back at this point and decided that it was just not worth fighting his hamstring for the next 50 miles. So, we were down to four.

We moved on through one of the hotter sections of the course to see the really cool Brandywine Falls. We also met a new friend, Bo along the way who was running BR for the second time. By the time we got back to Boston Store, I had been peeing every 15 minutes and figured something was not right. Sure enough, as Dave informed me, I was low on salt. I decided to go ahead and change socks, take a few extra minutes to cool down and get some food and Endurolyte tablets in me. I probably ended up running too quickly out of Boston Store to try to catch up with the group on the way to Pine Lane. The food I ate on the way never seemed to settle quite right, but such is the case with these 100 mile runs. As Star put it, it’s a chess game to get all the pieces to line up just right to get you to that finish line. Time is often the enemy in this game. Not only are you fighting the clock to get to the finish within the allotted time, but the time spent exerting yourself starts to add up and your body begins to rebel against the strain you are putting it through.

We made it to Pine Lane where I informed Star not to wait up for me as I was taking a quick pit stop. As I was exiting Pine Lane, I passed by Michael Patton and his crew, muttering a quick hello as the nausea that had set in was not quelled by stop at Pine Lane. Minutes later, I hear footsteps behind me and see a pair of bright green shorts come flying through my peripheral vision. Michael had caught a second wind a few miles back and he was beginning to get ahead of his game. I was so happy for him as he had gone into a number of races this year with all the proper training, only to have something go wrong during the race that prevented him from running as hard as he would have liked. I wished only the best for him and thought that if he was feeling this good on his second wind, he had a great finish time in store for him.

At some point, we came out onto a road section and Michael offered me a bit of ginger to settle my stomach. I gladly took him up on his offer and then immediately ran to the side of the road to toss my cookies (and whatever else I had just finished eating). Mike Barga (Michael Patton’s pacer) hung back with me (heeding Michael’s request) to encourage me onward and forward. For the time being, my nausea was quieted and I picked up the pace. The relief was only temporary however, and my stomach was once again not too happy as I entered Happy Days. Dave and Leigh (with camera in hand of course) were both waiting for me there. Dave took one look at me and announced that he was joining me here instead of Pine Hollow. I was quite relieved to hear that he was willing to extend his pacing duties by 6.8 miles and we started off into what I think was one of the more beautiful sections of the trail.

Dave entertained me with all kinds of stories as I attempted to run the runable sections of the course and very, very slowly walked the uphills. The nausea was bad and although I tried to focus my thoughts on our conversation, I couldn’t help myself as I puked a couple more times and began to retreat to that dark place within myself.

I read an article recently that talked about pacing a 100-mile race. It mentioned that there must be an understanding between the runner and the pacer that anything that is said or not said during the race is excused, forgiven and forgotten as if it never happened. Dave understood this concept well and continued to encourage, entertain, feed me and ignore my complaining.

Just when I thought I could go no further, a giant hill loomed above us. “Oh man!”, I yelled in frustration. “I think this is Sound of Music Hill!”, Dave said (ignoring my negativity). “And look at all those people waiting at the top – you have to decide – either give the camera a huge smile or a bad-ass grimace.” I tried to smile, but yeah – it turned into a grimace.

Once we got to the top of the hill and sat down for a quick rest, a very helpful volunteer at the aid station kept trying to ask me if I needed anything. My brain was not working well at this point and I couldn’t respond – I just hoped he would leave me alone eventually. There are many moments during a 100 that, looking back, I am not too proud of. Moments where I retreat inside myself and don’t really respond to others who try to help me.

I got a little bit of food down and Dave took a little bit for the road and we headed out for the Pine Hollow loop. But, not without puking again on the way out of the aid station. It began to get dark on this loop and I was glad I had grabbed a long sleeve shirt and a light. As the darkness shrouded our footsteps, we began to go slower and slower as any running had turned to a walk in an attempt to settle my stomach. I was weaving all over the path due to, what I learned from Dave to be a lack of sugar. If there is ever a time that junk food is actually good for you, it is during a 100-mile race.

Finally we made it back to Pine Hollow where I informed Dave that I wanted to sit for a few minutes away from everyone. I got some more food down and listened to some words of wisdom from Darris who was out through the night graciously helping and encouraging others who were struggling through. The food came back up and we decided that it was better to just keep moving. We gave it a couple of tries to right the stomach and sitting just wasn’t doing it. Leigh informed us that she would see us at covered bridge in just 6.6 miles.

OK, I thought, it’s the second longest distance between aid stations, but we can do this. So, we made our way through cornfields (literally), across a bridge with 2x4s nailed to the top (traction for muddy horse feet and great for tripping runners) and on and on we hiked. Dave pointed out that being out in the cornfields at night reminded him of a scene from a horror movie and asked what I would do if he disappeared suddenly into the corn. I was trying to find some humor in all of this, but I was not able to bring myself to laugh. As we walked through a field and down a small service road, I saw a taco truck. What on earth is a taco truck doing out here, I thought? And then I realized that I must be imagining it. I rubbed my eyes, but that taco truck was still there! As we got closer and closer, the taco truck turned into a tree and I was left wondering how on earth I saw anything but a tree to begin with.

Soon, we heard a generator and realized we were getting close to the covered bridge. Leigh ran out to welcome us and ask what we needed. I responded by vomiting yet again into the bushes just outside the covered bridge. Once I had all of that taken care of, we got a chance to sit down inside the bridge. It was really a cool atmosphere on the bridge and everyone was so friendly and helpful. It was great to see the familiar faces of Mark and Terri Lemke as they filled my water bottles and brought me food while I changed my shoes in preparation for the muddiest section of the course – Perkins loop. Leigh said some encouraging words to me and we got to say a quick hello to Star as she was coming back from Perkins loop. Something about the covered bridge aid station had revived me both physically and mentally. It was as if we were all at a party and everyone there was family.

As we started out onto Perkins loop, I felt the need to run. We ran for a few short bursts until I started feeling queasy again. I told Dave I was going to have to slow down on the uphills and he said that was OK – he was just happy I had a boost of energy – even if it was only temporary. So, onward we trekked. I felt like we were repeating sections and asked Dave if we had made a wrong turn somewhere. He assured me that we were still going the right way. It was just a lot of zig-zagging through the woods. We were passed by a number of runners on this section – Roy Heger being one of them. Dave pointed out to me later that Roy has passed him on both of his 100-mile runs and both 100-milers that he has paced other people. I think Roy has got a good strategy figured out.

We made it back to the covered bridge where I ate some more fruit, puked again and headed out to do the last 15 miles. Leigh told us she would see us again in 8 and we were off. We walked some road, some more trail and took a brief stop at O’Neil woods where they had watermelon and glow bracelets. I had been really craving watermelon for a while and they were one of the only aid stations that had it at night. I had not been craving a glow bracelet, but I took one anyway.

Out of O’Neil, we hit a lot of towpaths. These were flat and we started to make pretty good time with a fast hike. It wasn’t long before we hit a manure plant around mile 92. We laughed at how the manure was dripping over the side of the wall and Dave tried to identify the different types of fertilizer they were making with it by the smell. We made it into town and something on the side of the road caught my eye. “Is that a real turtle?” I wondered aloud. “Keep moving”, Dave replied. “I’m going to go back and check it out”. Sure enough, it was a real turtle (and a huge one at that!) playing with a fish that someone had left out in a Home Depot bucket. At least I knew I wasn’t imagining it this time.

We had made good time on the towpath and Leigh was there to see us at mile 93. Now, we started thinking about timing. There was no way to make 24 hours, but 27 hours seemed to be in the cards. So, we trudged on…picking up speed as we walked. Before we knew it, we were at the next aid station with less than 5 miles to go to the finish! Dave told me to just keep moving. He would pick up any needed items at the aid station.

Things were starting to get exciting. We were passing people now and hiking faster than I had ever hiked in my life. Dave told me we could make it to the finish in 26:30. I told him I really didn’t care – I was only going for a faster time because he wanted me to get there faster. I said that I would care tomorrow, but right now, all I cared about was finishing. We hiked some stairs. Then some more stairs and passed a few more people. I told Dave that I couldn’t keep up this pace. But, we did keep up the pace. We made it to the road with less than a mile to go. “Let’s run it in” Dave said. We started running and then I stopped. “No, it hurts too much” I complained. “That’s OK, we can walk it. But, do you realize how close we are to breaking 26 hours?” “OK, fine, let’s run.” And we ran towards the finish line. Leigh was waiting with her camera. Dave said, “I’m going to let you run it in from here.” 26:00:39. I’ll call that 26 hours. Joe handed me a belt buckle and said his congratulations. Jay came over and asked if I needed anything. “No. Well, a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.” I responded. Dave came running up with Leigh and we high-fived. I was nearly in tears. We high-fived again to pose for the camera. Jay suggested that this occasion called for a hug. Neither of us are really the hugging type, but I was overwhelmed with thankfulness for a friend who was willing to go through this with me, a wife who has crewed me for two of these adventures and showed much more support for my running beyond the races, and many other friends who have run with me, supported me, encouraged me and paced me through this year.

I didn’t think I would ever have the desire to run an ultra-marathon. My first exposure to the ultra-community was doing a short pacing stint for my good friend Dave Huss at the Mohican 100-miler in 2009. He had talked about how great it was to be on the trails, but I just didn’t see it after the 4 hour, 15-mile night hike.

2009 was a frustrating running year for me in general, as I dealt with an IT injury first in my left knee and then my right, causing me to question whether I wanted to just give up on running altogether. As winter approached however, I realized that I needed something to keep me from getting too depressed during the short days and the cold nights. Right around that time, Dave mentioned the Lean Horse 100 to me as a race to possibly consider. Being a relatively flat course, it might be a good way to experience my first 100 miles. Somehow, hearing about this race that was nearly 9 months away intrigued me more than my first exposure to an ultra earlier that year.

As the winter months flew by, I got to know a number of other runners through a group Michael Patton started up this year called Central Ohio Trail Runners. I began to realize just how much everybody within this community supports and encourages each other. Soon, I signed up for some races for the year: the Cleveland Marathon, a couple of 50K’s, and the Mohican 50-miler. Miles and more miles kept adding up in my running log, and after an inspiring night run with Michael, Jay, Terri, Dave, Star, Ashley, Tom and Suzanne, I declared that I was going switch my entry from the 50 to the 100 at Mohican. I figured it was time for an adventure whether I was ready or not.

The Start

As I stood on the starting line among many familiar faces, I felt a mixture of excitement, exhaustion and anticipation for what the day would bring. This was it. All the training was finally going to pay off. The blast of a vuvuzela jolted me out of my thoughts as 241 headlamps began to pour down the road and into the woods. Michael and I chatted a bit as we made our way along the river to Covered Bridge. A slight drizzle cooled us off and we made it to the first aide station a little ahead of a 23-hour pace. As we started into the next 4 mile loop, I began to realize the beauty that surrounded us in this slice of Ohio. After a quick climb up the falls, Mark Lemke (and a horse and buggy) greeted us at the road. Dave Huss caught up with Michael and me sometime along the road section and the three of us ran along at a good clip back to Covered Bridge. Spirits were high at this point as the endorphins had kicked in and the tiredness from the short night of sleep the night before had worn off.

The next 10 miles to Rock Point went by quickly. Amidst refreshingly cool stream crossings and more vuvuzelas, there were great stories being told and encouraging words being passed around. Reaching the quaint church that signals the nearing of Rock Point, Dave mentioned that this was the fastest he ever remembered this section going by. Of course, this was only the first time running this section and, well, the day was still young.

Michael started to feel a little queasy soon after Rock Point, so Dave and I ran together for much of the road section. Despite the heat, the miles were going by like clockwork. I think part of this has to do with the fact that I feel more comfortable on the roads than the trails, as the majority of my training is along the Olentangy bike path in Columbus. When you run a familiar road or trail time and again, your mind begins to form memories that are triggered by being in that location. I tend to remember things such as what I was listening to (I usually listen to podcasts when I run by myself) or how I felt along that stretch of trail. For instance, I will always think of the time that Mark Carroll encouraged me to run the hills with him on the section from Rock Point to Fire Tower. A couple of miles out from Fire Tower, I completely bonked – mostly from my lack of experience and not realizing the amount of effort it takes to run every hill. Although it felt bad in the moment, I think fondly of that memory every time I run that portion of the trail – I learned a good lesson about running hills and I was in good company which makes it all worth it.

Because this road section (miles 19-43) was all new to me, I had the privilege of forming new memories as well. A guy running in sandals asked if he was still on course for the 50-miler. I replied that yes, I was pretty sure he was still on course, and wondered to myself why he was running in sandals. Dave pointed out to me that this was Micah True, of Born to Run fame – I guess that explained the sandals. I realized every time I come to an ultra event what an honor it is to be able to meet and run with so many rock-star runners who constantly exhibit humility and freely give advice and support to much less experienced runners like myself. Other memories along this section include a surprise visit from my beautiful wife, Leigh (who was an amazing and selfless support to me for the entire weekend) and Dave’s wife, Katie at Mohican Wilderness. I didn’t think they were planning to see us until later on in the race, so it was a huge encouragement to get a kiss from Leigh and a “Go get ‘em” to send Dave and myself back out onto the road. I will also remember Dave pointing out all kinds of landmarks that he recognized from last year (he seemed to remember one guard rail in particular that we couldn’t seem to find this year) and the absolutely beautiful farm scenery we witnessed along those stretches of road.

Around Buckhaven, Dave decided he was going to hang back a bit to try to get his stomach righted. I ran with Greg for a while back to Rock Point and was entertained by his jokes, stories and laughter. The miles flew as we yo-yoed back and forth to Rock Point, South Park and then Fire Tower. As I stopped to pee somewhere along this stretch, I thought of Mark’s blog post about inspecting the color of your urine (you’ll have to read it to understand) and realized I was getting dehydrated. I was not too concerned as I still felt pretty good and figured I would be able to catch up if I started drinking just a little more.

My Dad and Mom (who had a bruised and swollen ankle from a mishap just days earlier) had driven up from Columbus just to see me for a few short minutes at Fire Tower. As I was crossing 97, they were driving by (following Leigh and Katie) as they were trying to find the Fire Tower – just one of the cool ways that God works in every little detail. As I approached Fire Tower, I was greeted by my Dad in the woods as he snapped a photo and welcomed me in. There were many smiling and familiar faces at Fire Tower including Leigh, Katie, both of my parents and Lindsey (who we had worked with us at Covered Bridge during the “Forget the PR” 50k earlier this year). I got a chance to visit with everyone for a bit and then was sent off to continue the adventure.

Uh Oh

In the next several miles, I started to realize that something was up. Now, for those that know me, I do not deal very well with discomfort…especially nausea. So, why do I run at all when discomfort is inevitable? For me, the high felt from running is so much stronger than the lows (and lasts much longer) that it is well worth a little discomfort. And, I’ve felt some discomfort on my training runs, but I was not prepared for nausea that hit me on the way to Hickory Ridge. As I passed by others looking at least as bad as I felt, my only thoughts were on getting to mile 65 where I would see Leigh again and be able to take a little break to hopefully right myself. Ashley would be there as well to pace me if I felt like continuing on with this madness. Unfortunately, things were only getting worse and I didn’t feel like drinking or eating much of anything. In fact, I hadn’t been able to stomach any food in the last three hours. As I ran in to the Mohican Adventures campground, Leigh came running out to meet me. She knew instantly that something was wrong. I had already slowed down considerably from my earlier pace and I must have looked pretty rough. I told her I was ready to drop the race. At this point, I lay down on the ground as Leigh tried to feed me something. Almost immediately, I jumped back up to my feet as I began dry heaving on the side of the campground road.

As I was making a feeble attempt at composing myself, Jay Smithberger (who had already won the 50 and was hanging around to offer his support) came over and asked, “Steve, what IS the problem??”. I explained my situation and was assured by everyone there that I was not the only one feeling this way. They kept telling me that I would get through it. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to run – I just couldn’t bear the thought of jostling my stomach around any longer.  Dave came through Mohican Adventures at that point, tried to reason with everyone there to let him drop due to a painful knee injury, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They told both him and me that they would see us in about 7 miles. I had already sat for 45 minutes at this point, so I asked Ashley if she was up for giving this a go, and we both headed back off into the woods.

Ashley and I chatted for a bit and she offered some encouraging words to get me going. After a brief encounter with a snake (this is now the second snake I’ve seen at Mohican) and a couple of miles of trails I had run earlier in the day, I stopped suddenly (giving Ashley no warning) to leave all of the food I had just eaten earlier (the plate of food Leigh brought me, the Raman noodles that Jay had made me) on the trail. That was the moment I decided I was done with this stupid race. If I couldn’t get the nutrients my body needed, I just couldn’t keep running. Ashley did an amazing job during this section to hold it together herself after seeing my techni-color display and later bonking her head on a fallen tree. I told her as we were nearing Covered Bridge that I was all done. As we ran across the bridge, we saw Dave sitting in a chair echoing the same sentiments. “We’ve just got to get to Bridle Staging” he said, “but then I’m done”. I was so done at this point and tried to convince him that we should just radio up there to get Leigh and Katie to come pick us up, but he convinced me that we should at least try to make the 2.7 mile hike up there. Withdrawing into the misery I was feeling, I gave it a go, but just couldn’t do the up-hills without the heat exhaustion bringing on more nausea. I told Dave and Ashley that I couldn’t make it and Dave was just going to have to send someone down for me. Ashley and I made our way back down to covered bridge where I let them know I was DNF-ing. I saw Michael sometime around here and he encouraged me to just sit and wait it out as he had done the year before, but I wanted to hear none of that. I was ready to be done!

Sitting for the next 1.5 hours at covered bridge was the lowest point of the race for me. Not the nausea or the puking, but the sitting, the frustration, the disappointment. Sitting and shaking from the cold and thinking that I didn’t want to run now, but that tomorrow I was going to be disappointed with myself for not finishing. Oh well. Whatever. At least I would get some sleep tonight.

I didn’t say much to Ashley at that point and she didn’t say too much either. She had put up with my whining and complaining, and had just accidentally sat in a puke covered chair herself. It was a miserable time for both of us.

While we were sitting, waiting for a ride, Mark Carroll came rolling through with his crew. He sat down next to me and invited us to run with him and his group as they were all feeling chatty at that point and it might help take my mind off my discomfort. He told me that I could run and get through my stomach problems if I just kept sipping water and pushed through it. While I declined his offer, just hearing that it was possible to work through the issues while running got me thinking again…I began to doubt my decision to drop.

Leigh and Katie finally showed up! The first words I blurted out of my mouth when I saw them were “What took you so long?” They took one look at me, brushed my question aside, and Leigh said, “Why are you quitting? Is it because you can’t run, or because you don’t want to?” I told her that at this point I didn’t want to, but I realized that my stomach was starting to feel better. They told me that Dave kept going after Bridle Staging. Just as misery loves company, so does a little friendly competition help to motivate you to get back out on the trail. Ashley said she was up for getting me through to at least Bridle Staging where Leigh promised that she would have a pacer for me. As Leigh and Katie flew over to Rock Point to see if Ted Niemann could come to pick me up at Bridle Staging, Ashley and I had a nice hike up the trail as my spirits started to improve. Ted, a friend of Michael, had agreed to pace me from Rock Point to the end when I was looking for a pacer at the last minute before the race. We made it to Bridle and Leigh let me know that when Ted heard I had dropped the race, he had gone on to pace someone else to the finish, but that she would run with me to Rock Point instead. This was such a selfless act on her part as she had been up all day crewing already and had never run this far on trails before, but she was willing to do whatever it would take to get me through to the end. I told her that this was a tough section to run (and long at almost 8 miles) and Ashley agreed at that point to run with me through to Rock Point although it was much later than she had anticipated being out there.

At some point along this section, I started feeling miserable again, but decided that if I had made it this far, I might as well make it to the end. The mental was righted again even if the physical was not. I complained a lot, but just kept putting one foot in front of the other. The trail seemed to go on forever, but we finally made it to THE ROCK where we were met by Leigh and Katie’s smiling faces once again. I have to say, the crew at Rock Point also knew how to take care of us. It was great to see Julie, Jen, Tom and others there that had put in a long couple of days helping many runners get through. At this point, I started hearing whispers of cutoff times. My clouded mind hadn’t even thought about that until now. It was getting to be very close, but we had been moving well so far. So, after some deliberation, Ashley decided she would hang in there and get me through to South Park. I honestly don’t know what happened along this section as I began to run in my sleep. I had a dream that I had replaced my stomach with another one and I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of doing this earlier. The one thing I do remember about this section was hearing myself say that I just wish I could get better from this nausea as Ashley replied, “You know, it may not get better until the end, but just try to take your mind off of it.” Somehow, just hearing this was comforting to me. I was focusing so hard on trying to fix my problem that I didn’t realize how much it was making me focus on the problem itself. Maybe the solution was just to try not to think about it.

We were both elated to reach South Park (mile 84). Ashley had just achieved a distance PR and Leigh was there (after battling her fears of coyotes and running away from strange people in the woods) excited and ready to run with me to the end. The sun was coming up and life was starting to seem livable again. Leigh propped me up when I started to fall asleep and kept me going, going, going. She was conscious of the time and made sure that I had what I needed emotionally and physically to get me to Fire Tower before the cutoff.

A quick stop at Fire Tower and Katie graciously offered to run with me to Covered Bridge to give Leigh a chance to rest up a bit before the last 11 miles in to the finish. She entertained me with all kinds of stories, and kept me fed and on pace. Then, out of nowhere, with less than a mile to get to Covered Bridge, Ted ran up to us. After being up all night running 22 miles with another runner, he had run back (I’m not sure if he ran all the way back from the start?) to pace me in the rest of the way. Everyone was excited to see Ted because they knew I would need someone to kick my butt to the finish line if I was going to make it in time.

On to the finish line

Another miracle happened on the way out from Covered Bridge – my nausea began to subside. I still wasn’t moving extremely fast at this point, but Ted was nice enough to let me ease my way back into running. As we approached Hickory Ridge, he told me we would need to pick up the pace just a bit. With a quick stop for some Mountain Dew (I was falling asleep again) and a few words from Leo letting me know that I would make it, we got back out on trails. I was getting scared at this point that we wouldn’t make the cutoff, so I just started running every section that was not a steep uphill. “That was a 12-minute mile back there.” I heard Ted say behind me. “You only need to do 18’s to make it”. OK, I just had to pace myself so I didn’t burn out in the last 5 miles. We chatted a bit and pushed the pace anywhere we could. Suddenly I heard a voice yelling at us from up ahead, “Steve!” It was Star…and Dave! It couldn’t have been better timing to be able to run in the last mile and a half with Dave and two amazing pacers beside us. As we entered the finish line, I couldn’t stop smiling as I thought of how ridiculous the last 29 hours and 44 minutes had been.  A flood of thankfulness poured over me as I realized just how many people it took to get me across this finish line.

As a new website design launches, I thought I would put together a little gallery of my website designs over the years. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a screenshot of every version and the wayback machine didn’t load all of the images from each, but this is what I could retrieve. I’ve just included the logo from some of the designs. Notice that the new design of the website is a departure from the typical green/grey/black color scheme that I have used in every other version of the site.

One of my favorite lines from the movie Hackers is when Joey says, “I need a handle, man. I don’t have an identity until I have a handle.” I think in the hacker and cracker communities (as well as online forums), individual’s identities are still wrapped up in their handle. However, over the last decade there has been a movement in the general population (especially among creative and self-employed professionals) nurture an online identity that reflects an individual’s true identity (or a portion thereof).

For instance, I own the domain stevezeidner.com, my Twitter username is @stevezeidner and my Facebook page can be found at http://www.facebook.com/stevezeidner.

I remember a lot of talk in the past about how important personal privacy is. However, reality has shown us that there are benefits to giving up some privacy. The large benefit that people have noticed recently is social on the web. It’s so easy now to stay in touch with acquaintances, collaborate on a project and keep a central address book. The problem now is that social media has turned into a bunch of disparate systems. Every popular social platform is a closed system with separate “namespacing” and logins. The login issue is one I think we will always have to deal with. The namespacing problem however is a much larger issue – it is already tough to namespace based on your given name if it is fairly common. We need some sort of “domain” separation (like email or jabber). Maybe it is time for another bearhug?

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the topic? Do you think giving up some privacy is worth the benefits gained? What do you think should be done about the namespacing issue?

First off, I’m going through a Python book as I figure it is not too huge of a leap syntax-wise from PHP. Aside from a little bit of syntax difference, there are a few nuances conceptually (everything is an object, different data structures like tuples, etc…), but for the most part, it seems to be pretty straightforward so far coming from a PHP background.

However, I’ve been hearing a few rumblings lately about PHP gaining a little more traction as a respected language – Facebook after all uses it. In fact, an employee at Facebook has even been rewriting PHP from the ground up for speed. It sounds like it may finally be a compiled language which could help with performance issues.

Other platforms I would like to dive into include Ruby (and RoR) as well as going a little deeper with Javascript frameworks and some of the nuances between the toolkits/frameworks. I also like the idea of accountability that is a part of Kent Beck’s “Extreme Programming” style.

For now, I’m picking Python to use for my next personal project. Once I pick a project, I need you to keep me accountable to finish it.

<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv=&quot;content-type&quot; content=&quot;text/html; charset=UTF-8&quot; /> <title>Website Title</title> <!--[if IE]> <script src=&quot;http://html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js&quot;></script> <![endif]--> <link rel=&quot;stylesheet&quot; href=&quot;style.css&quot; type=&quot;text/css&quot; media=&quot;screen&quot; /> </head> <body> <!-- the header --> <div id=&quot;header&quot;> <div class=&quot;container&quot;> <div id=&quot;menu&quot;> <ul> <li>Item 1</li> <li>Item 2</li> <li>Item 3</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <!-- main content of the page --> <div id=&quot;content&quot;> <div class=&quot;container&quot;> </div> </div> <!-- footer --> <div id=&quot;footer&quot;> <div class=&quot;container&quot;> <p>Copyright &amp;copy; yyyy Website Name </div> </div> </body> </html>

Pretty basic, right? The only thing that might throw you off is the DOCTYPE. This is the way HTML5 does it – much simpler. Also, there is some Javascript included for backwards compatibility with IE.

Now, on to the CSS

/* Theme Name: Theme URI: Description: Version: 1.0 Author: Author URI: */ /* reset styles */ html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; outline: 0; font-size: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; }body { line-height: 1; }ol, ul { list-style: none; }blockquote, q { quotes: none; }blockquote:before, blockquote:after, q:before, q:after { content: ''; }:focus { outline: 0; }ins { text-decoration: none; }del { text-decoration: line-through; }table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; }body {font-size: 62.5%; text-align: center; color: #000000; }/* container - place inside each section or around the entire page depending on your layout */ .container {width: 960px; margin: 0 auto; text-align: left; position: relative; }/* for clearing any floats <br class=&quot;clearfloat&quot; /> */ .clearfloat {clear:both; height:0; font-size: 1px; line-height: 0px; }/*--- header section - put whatever you want here ---*/ #header {} /*--- horizontal &quot;block&quot; menu ---*/ #menu {float: left; }#menu li {display: block; float: left; }#menu li a { display: block; text-decoration: none; height: 50px; width: 125px; padding: 5px 10px 5px 10px; }/* wordpress specific menu stylings */ #menu li.current_page_item a { }#menu li.first a { }#menu li.last a { }/*--- content section - put whatever you want here ---*/ #content {font: 1.2em Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; }/*--- footer section - put whatever you want here ---*/ #footer {}

A few things of note in the CSS. One is that at the top, I’m using a modified version of Eric Meyer’s CSS reset. I changed some of the spacing and indentation to make it a little more compact. I also removed the ‘content: none;’ from the ‘blockquote’ and ‘q’ resets so the stylesheet would validate with CSS3. A final modification I made was to the font size (from 100% to 62.5%). This resets the font base to 10px for easy em calculations (i.e. 1.4em is a 14pt font). The rest of the stylesheet should be mostly self explanatory.

So, what do you use as a starting point when building websites? What do you like about my templates? What don’t you like? What would you do differently?

Finally, last but not least, here is the zip file if you want an easy download: SZ’s Barebones HTML and CSS.

Update: I made some minor changes to the font placement in the CSS file. It didn’t quite work properly before. I’m now setting the font size to 62.5% in the body rather than in the reset. Font size can be defined in em’s in individual classes or ids.

So, you know that ABC show, Better off Ted? It’s based around a company, Veridian Dynamics, that makes cool products based on research in their labs. I’ve found this strange phenomenon happening where I watch an episode of Better off Ted and then a few days later find that the product they created has actually just been created in RL (real life).

OK, so maybe this doesn’t happen with every episode, but I’ll give you two examples:

1. Season 1 Episode 2 – Phil and Lem (Veridian’s top two scientists) grow beef in the lab. The day after I watched this (not the day after the episode was released), I saw this article titled Scientists ‘grow’ meat in laboratory. Creepy.
2. Season 1 Episode 13 – Veridian Dynamics introduces a face-scanning Internet search program. On Dec. 7th, 2009, Google introduced Google Goggles. While this software is initially intended for identifying places, it will also, once privacy concerns are worked out, identify faces in the near future and perform and Internet search on the person.

So, how is Better off Ted predicting the future? Do they have insider information in science and tech industries? I don’t know the answer, but if I see another scenario like the two above, I will have to believe that it is more than just coincidence.

1. Don’t be evil
2. Organize the world’s data to make it useful
3. Don’t trap user data – Eric Schmidt, Web 2.0, 2006
   • Be an advocate for users
   • Compete on merit (don’t give yourself an advantage – no proprietary APIs, etc…)
4. Regarding products…
   • Go for a great product first, then figure out how to monetize
   • Don’t launch a “me-too” product – add some innovation to your product

I know a lot of people are very wary about Google especially as they grow into a larger and larger corporation. While they do seem to be reaching into more technology spaces, it is interesting to see how carefully they make their approach.

What is your take on Google and their level of “evil-ness” in the marketplace? How well do you think they follow the tenants outlined above? Are there more that should be added to this list?