Running Notes

Today's training schedule called for a 9 miler, but seeing as today was day 91 of consecutive running, I had to go for 9.1 miles. It was a great run, too. Perfect weather. I picked a nice route with only a tiny piece that was out and back. I felt really good, too. Didn't really start to tire until mile 7 or so. AND, I came in with under 10-minute miles, which is very exciting. The half marathon I am running is early October, so still to early to make any time goals, but this was a great run and I am optimisitic.

Only 9 days to go to get to 100...

Posted by Kathy Brown At 11:22 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (3)

Do you see it? "We know registration can be a hassle..." I think I may pass out. IBM actually acknowledges that accessing their stuff is a bit of a pain in the ass. And you know? That actually makes it better!

Have you ever walked down a crowded street and someone bumps into you and it totally pisses you off? Have you ever walked down a crowded street and someone bumps into you and APOLOGIZES and it doesn't bother you in the least?

At least acknowledging 'YES, we know it's a pain, but we have to', makes it a lot better. And they *almost* had a sense of humor. Baby steps. If I actually register and hit a humorous error message, I'll know I've actually slipped into an alternate universe.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:05 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, I *could* use an array, but not knowing how many names would be added to the array would mean having to ReDim the array, but that’s no fun. So enter Lists! Creating a list is super easy, and you don’t have to know how many items will be in the list. I added a little counter to count the number of items in my list as I added them. Yes, I could have added them, and then looped through afterward and counted them that way, but I actually had some other stuff to do, so did it when I added.

Dim clientList List As String	‘dim the list itself
		
	Dim n As Long	‘dim n as long for the counter
	n = 0	‘start the count at 0
	
	While Not entry Is Nothing
	‘obviously prior code would have dimmed a view entry collection and 
          'provided a way to loop through it, this part of the code just insures we are acting on an actual entry
		

	‘This next bit checks to see if the item is already in the list and if it is NOT, then increases the counter by 1,
           'and adds the entry with column value 5 as the listtag and column value 6 as the value
		If Not (Iselement(clientList(entry.columnvalues(5)))) Then
			n = n + 1
			clientList (entry.ColumnValues(5)) =entry.columnvalues(6)
		End If
		
	Print Cstr(n)	‘this prints the count of items added to the list

	‘This just shows something we can do with the list, such as printing the listtag 
          '(aka column value 5) for all of the entries in the list.
	Forall clients In clientList
		Print ListTag(clients) 	
	End Forall

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Pretty easy, huh? Easy to create and easy to use the data. So Lists! Use ‘em!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 11:23 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (9)

Boy, was I wrong. I got a PR by MORE than two minutes! Official finish time...54:58!! A course PR by almost three minutes and a distance PR by two.

View of the harbor near the race start...

My plan was to run 9 minute miles if possible. That would have given me a finish time around 56:00. My first mile I was close to that pace, I ran it in 8:50. The first four miles were close to the 8:50 pace. I felt good. It had cooled off as the sun went lower in the sky (the race started at 6PM). And there were hills, small hills, but hills. I love hills. I kicked into gear on each hill and really pushed up them. At two points in the race, I actually swore at myself out loud. One was somewhere in the middle when I hit a hill and DIDN'T kick it into gear, so yelled at myself to GET UP THAT HILL. The second time was just at the last turn. I looked down at my watch and new I could really smoke my previous time, so I didn't want to come in slow. A few choice words with myself and I sped it up for the final 0.1 mile.

The BEST part, aside from an awesome race time, is that the Saunders 10k only gives shirts to a certain number of people. You have to finish in the top number of people for you age group and gender. I didn't even come close to getting one last year. But, GUESS WHO EARNED A SHIRT? That's right, ME. I've gotten a lot of race shirts in the last couple of years, but THIS one is the best by far because I EARNED it.

Here are the splits (YAY! negative splits!!)
Mile 1 - 8:51
Mile 2 - 8:55
Mile 3 - 8:51
Mile 4 - 8:49
Mile 5 - 8:40
Mile 6 - 8:42
0.2 - 2.15 Update: For my gender and age group, you had to be one of the first 115 finishers, I was 97!!!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 9:32 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (9)

You can't just take a group of people and say Go, Collaborate. It doesn't work that way. People need to come together in communities, which then organically creates collaboration. In the office, you work with other people, technically you probably collaborate. But, do you have a tendency to go to particular people when you have a choice? Are they people who are just good at what they do, or do you have some sort of bond with them? Smart companies will create community within their organization, which promotes better collaboration.

Online communities do the same thing. Communities I've joined through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have provided way more information and collaboration than anonymous or impersonal forums of the past. Sametime instant messaging and meetings help create community and through that better collaboration.

Even the Idea Jam for the Lotus Knows campaign shows Lotus Knows community creates collaboration!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 4:42 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lotus Knows you want to.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 8:51 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some interesting (to me, anyway) stats. My time on this race last year, 57:48. My PR at this distance (from June of this year) 57:15. Now that means running 9:15-ish minute miles. When I ran those races, my training runs were around the 10, 10:30, even some 11-minute mile runs. Lately, thanks in large part to running every day, I have been running 9:30 or 10 minute miles during training runs. Hmm, some potential there for a PR. Of course, I also seem to do my best at races when I have no expectations, so maybe I just shouldn’t worry about it!

Anyway, wish me luck. Thursday will be a fun 10k, the weather looks good and it will be my 81st consecutive day of running!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 4:45 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)

One thing I wanted to add to the code was a header on the final merged document. One bump in the road I ran into, I also wanted to pass a parameter from Lotus to the header in Word. No problem, I can do that. HOWEVER, it wasn’t working. Why? you ask. Well because I’m an idiot. I was using a “directory” type output, which has multiple “records” (in Word-speak) per page. However, the header only occurs once on the page. Even though the field I wanted to use had the same value for each of the merged records, Word is not capable of discerning that. Since Word has no way of determining which record I wanted the value from for the header, it just did nothing.

Once I realized that, I easily got the value I wanted myself using Lotusscript and passed that as a string into my “writeHeader” sub and all was right with the world. Or at least the merged document.

Sub  writeHeader (textstring As String)
	
	hwd.ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers (1).Range.Select	' This gets us into the header for editing
	
	hwd.selection.typetext textstring	' enters the passed in string
	hwd.selection.typeparagraph		' creates a new line
	hwd.selection.typetext "Test Text"
	
	hwd.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.Close	' closes the header pane
	
	'checks if the window panes in Word are split, since code to return to print mode differs if open or not.
	If hwd.ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = 0 Then	
		hwd.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = 3
	Else
		hwd.ActiveWindow.View.Type = 3
	End If
End Sub

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One other change I made from the code provided in the constants database was to remove the Merge Wizard from the user interface. In my particular application, I had already formatted the template being used and did not want the users to be able to change the output. Removing the wizard in essence makes Word a nice (did I just say Word is nice, oh dear) reporting tool for Lotus Notes. I can format the output (using a self-made template) much more than I can in Lotus Notes and merge the data into the template. I love Lotus, but there is a, uh, limit to the "reporting" capabilities. So format/create a Word template, use the code from the constants database to merge it, remove the option for the merge wizard to appear, put the code in a button for the user and POOF! Pretty reporting of your Lotus data!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 8:47 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is titled "Input Validation and Translation Formulas - The Paring Knives of Lotus Notes Application Development". (Running readers, I know you are SO disappointed you don't have a subscription!)

Anyway, check it out! Hopefully more to come in the future! Feel free to drop me a line if you read it!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 12:04 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (16)

Thanks to Nathan, I have a new Running Notes icon. Which has now made my sad attempt at an icon very sad looking indeed...

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:41 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (9)

The last week or so has really been an eye opener as far as running is concerned. I used to think that you had to properly fuel your body, and hydrate it, and get the proper amount of sleep, and rest between runs. Since I was traveling last week at a conference, I neither properly fueled my body, properly hydrated it, slept or rested between runs. I was go, go, go, living on diet coke and ... diet coke. And while the runs were not the BEST runs I've ever had, they weren't the worst, and certainly I was able to get through them. And to even run while sleep deprived and in heat and humidity, I managed to impress myself!

So, today was day 70. I ran 7 miles. Not that bad at all. The weather here was beautiful. High 60s/low 70s and low humidity. Most of my route was shady with a wonderful breeze. I kept pretty steady with 10:00-minute miles. Again, this will be interesting to watch since I am hoping to continue running every day and combine that with training for a half marathon in October. Still no goals for running everyday, I just want to keep going as long as I can. (Okay, don't tell anyone but secretly, it would be REALLY cool to hit day 100!)

Posted by Kathy Brown At 2:21 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (10)

Another side to this issue (besides those mentioned in Francie's post and the comments, such as being labelled a bitch or having to listen to off-color humor if that bothers you), is behaviour. Why is it okay for several guys to hang out together, drink, smoke and make off color jokes and no one would ever dream of insinuating that said guys are sleeping together? Yet, add one woman to that equation and suddenly her morale standards are in question. Of course, the guys’ morales aren’t in question, just the woman.

Why is it if a woman and a man laugh, joke and smile together they are flirting? Two guys laugh, joke and smile and it means nothing.

Even worse, why do people question a woman’s decision to travel for work if she has children? What business is it of yours how I care for my children. And yes, I have children, which may come a surprise to some of you because I don’t talk about them publicly. And ain’t that a shame? Yet, I feel like I can’t/shouldn’t. Any men feel that way? Somehow I doubt it.

So what do we women do? I choose to act like myself and dress the way I want. Of course, that also means I have to be overly concerned with proving that I am also smart and dressing the way I want is always tempered with wondering if it's "too much".

The worst part of it all is there is not a lot else you can do. To me, there is nothing worse than a situation in which there is no course of action. As Francie said “Damned if you do…”. More accurately, Feminist bitch if you do (respond), slut if you don’t.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 6:26 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (22)

I then practically had my own little Twitterverse going on my screen with five different chat windows open, trying to explain to be people that I was fine. I was coping. I could handle it. Really, I am okay.

So the question is, how many times have YOU hit refresh?

Posted by Kathy Brown At 10:27 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (11)

Twitter I really *can't* get away with writing a wrap up about this conference without discussing Twitter. As many of you know, I am an avid Twitter user. And yes, "user" is appropriate in this context, as many tell me I have a problem. I don't see it as a problem at all. Thanks to Twitter, I have gotten to know many people in the Lotus community. This made meeting people and getting to know them that much easier in person. It is highly amusing the number of pictures of IamLUG attendees with mobile devices in hand. And I become the butt of many Twitter jokes. In no less than THREE of the sessions that I attended, the speaker made reference to me and my Twitter addictions. I was even made fun of in Chris Miller's closing.

Regardless, I think it made my experience at the conference that much more fun. For those of you who still hang back and aren't on Twitter, or are on, but don't participate, jump in! CAUTION: Be sure you REALLY are sending a Direct Message if that is your intent. And perhaps after having a beer or two, consider a ban on sending Direct Messages from Twitter. Just sayin'.

Wrap Up

Overall, I think this was a fantastic conference. I have been to Lotusphere twice and (obviously) it is a completely different experience. I believe attendance to IamLUG was near 200 people. That creates a much more casual atmosphere. People really get to know eachother. I never once passed out a business card. Isn't that funny? I think part of this was the casual and close nature of this conference. As I said, I already knew a lot of the people I was meeting face to face from Twitter. Judging from the number of new followers I got this week, I think any new people I met just started following me on Twitter rather than exchanging business cards. Although I think Lotusphere is an integral part of my year, I really recommend attending one of the smaller user conferences such as this one. It's a really fantastic experience. All the benefits of the big conferences, like great speakers and great content, but a more casual and open atmosphere.

HUGE kudos go to the team that organized this! Things really proceeded smoothly and had I not known that this was the first time for this conference, I never would have guessed it. I'm sure more work than we could ever imagine went into this conference behind the scenes, and I THANK YOU ALL.

Run Report

Final day for a run. I was running on empty! I'd had very little sleep, but I knew Paul, Karl and Paul would be waiting for me, so I went. We ran. I won't lie and say it was a good one, but we got it done!

[edited for a typo, I REALLY CAN recommend this conference! Duh. Why I should never write/tweet/email/really do anything when sleep deprived.]

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:17 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (7)

I attended some great sessions throughout the day, John Head’s Integration and Coexistence, Paul Steel from RIM showing development for the Blackberry and Julian Robichaux’s Free Your Data!

My last session of the day was Ed Brill’s session. Again, I am sure a lot of others covered the content a lot better than me, so on to…

The Run Report

This morning the group grew to five people and we didn’t lose anyone. A very very humid run, so an impressive run for all of us, especially since three of the runners come from countries where the humidity is less than it was today, which felt like it was about 10000%.

Running again tomorrow, meet at 7 AM at the fountain if you’re interested! (way to get people to run, hey join us, it's really humid!)

Posted by Kathy Brown At 9:30 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Run Report

Johnny Noltensmeyer joined me for my run this morning, and much to my surprise, so did Paul Mooney. Despite his protestations that we would have to (and should) leave him behind, Paul managed to keep up.

Anyone else who would like to join us for a run, we’ll meet in front of the fountain at 7AM…

Posted by Kathy Brown At 4:03 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (0)

I flew to St. Louis yesterday. Got here in a reasonable amount of time. Checked into the hotel. The rooms are terrific, they’re all suites with a living area and a separate bedroom. Met up with some IAMLUG’ers, had a few drinks, and wound up at a rap concert of all places. Apparently they have concerts by the arch during summer. I saw that guy, you know, the one with the two CDs. Unh huh. Him. Right. Sorry, I don’t really follow rap, but I had a fun time, probably due to the excellent company.

I had to call it a day around 10:30 or so. Need to pace myself.

Up this morning and headed out for a run. Taking the advice of the front desk, I headed over towards the arch. A nice little pathway circles around the arch, making for a very nice run. There are some river views, views of the arch of course and just for @AngryJohhny there are some stairs if you’d like to run them! The surrounding park has a nice little pond, and is shaded much of the run.

I always find running in a new place an interesting way to see it. The area near the hotel is a popular spot for bars and clubs and such, so of course running there the next morning includes seeing a lot of people cleaning up a lot of um…messes.

Also watching the crews in the park taking down the equipment from the prior night’s concert.

So, a great start to what I think will be a great conference. (I was told there will be diet Coke available all day.) Looking forward to a lot more people arriving today! And heading out for a Cardinals/Astros game!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 11:33 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (3)