Running Notes

Category Running
Kind of obvious from the title, but I am celebrating 9 months of running every day. It's hard to believe, and yet not hard to believe. I started running every day on June 1, 2009. It's funny, this seems less of a milestone than many of the earlier milestones. I think partially because it's just become habit at this point. Many of those milestones were such a struggle to achieve, and now, the streak just happens. I am eternally grateful to my treadmill. Without it, running through winter and a busy schedule never would have been possible.

I am looking forward to one year. Another reason this milestone doesn't seem to important, I guess. I'm really just waiting for the big day.

I am also greatly looking forward to warmer weather and perhaps a few races this summer.

So far, so good. I still feel healthy and ready to run. While I may not jump up to run at 8 in the evening just to keep the streak alive, I still love running. I still love what it does for me mentally and physically. I tell myself I just have to get to one year, and then I can take a break...we'll see.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 2:35 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (4)

Category LotusUserGroup.org Developers
I am pleased to announce I will be co-authoring the Lotus User Group Developer Tips Newsletter starting with the March issue. Here is a link to the February issue. It's free, so if you aren't already reading, please sign up! I will be taking over for Rob McDonagh, which he announces in this month's issue. I am looking forward to the opportunity to write with Tom Duff, after presenting with him at Lotusphere. (I know, I am a glutton for punishment.)

Please check it out and let me know if there are any topics you would like us to write about!

Posted by Kathy Brown At 7:46 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (13)

Category Running Thinking
I hate winter. Every year this time of year, I hate winter. This is my third February since I've started running, and every February, I hate winter. But what is funny, is that I don't hate winter. I always think I do. But then I have some fabulous winter run in the cold or the snow or both and I realize that I love it.

Why do I love it? What makes those runs so great? It isn't the temperature, or the wind, or the snow, or lack of it. It's the thinking. I love running because I can think. And not in any coherent way. When I run my thoughts just flow, and drift, and expand, and contract, and come together, and separate. They clarify, get distilled, and become muddy and fuzzy.

On a good run, I'll think "hmmm", on a great run I'll have an "ah ha!" moment. And you can never know which during run an "ah ha!" moment will happen. And they can happen when thinking about something else entirely.

And it's never about the thing I *wanted* to think about. You have to let the thoughts tumble and weave in and out of eachother. If you want to think about something you'll find it slips away from you and you've been thinking about something else for last 1/4 mile. Even if you try to focus in, it slips away again. It's useless. Let the other thoughts pop up. While they may not be "important", they are apparently priority. You have to deal with them before you can deal with the other.

It's like soup.

(Huh?)

Stay with me, it's like soup. You make a giant pot of soup and you try to fish around in it looking for a piece of meat. But you can't. Because stuff keeps bubbling up to the top and makes it hard to see. You can't just keep stirring the stuff back down, looking for meat. It keeps bubbling up to the top. You've got to skim that stuff off and deal with it. And a few times, too. Not just once.

That's what thoughts are like while running. You have to let the stuff bubble up to the top and deal with it. Then suddenly, the soup is perfectly clear and you can see everything in the bottom of the pot.

Of course this doesn't just happen during running, you can let those thoughts bubble up and mix around, but it happens for me during running. So I don't hate winter. I need to remember that a great run is potentially waiting for me, a chance to skim off the thoughts and see clearly.

Posted by Kathy Brown At 1:20 PM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (6)

Category Development DXLMagic
A couple of weeks ago I blogged Use The Tools, about using tools to help you. Yes, you could do it the hard way, but why? Last time I wrote about Noteman. Today I want to mention Stephan Wissel's DXL Magic. I wrote about it way back in May 2009. I happened to need it again yesterday and luckily I checked OpenNTF to see if there was an updated version. Guess what? There is! And it's super easy to use! Lots of options, easy to use interface.

In my particular instance, I wanted to search through a database to find where particular views were being used. I had reason to believe there were several unused views in the application, but I wanted to be sure I didn't have some code somewhere that called them. Enter DXLMagic. I simply used the Export button to export the design of the entire application into an XML file. Using XMLPad, I easily searched for the names and aliases of the views. Stephan has added lots of other really cool features in here and it's FREE! So don't do more work than you have to! Use the tools!

Here is a screen shot of the Windows version...

Posted by Kathy Brown At 9:42 AM Location Portsmouth, NH | Permalink | Comments (1)