Where is John Wilson?

by John Wilson

My wife gets Runner’s World Magazine in the mail. Strangely enough, just having this magazine around the house inspired me to start running in late December. I ran a 10k in 2007 with my wife without training, which was a very bad idea, and I got very sick from doing it. So this time I’m going to actually train, and hopefully in that training lose a few pounds (40?). My ultimate goal is to run a half-marathon in Las Vegas in December.

Running for the sake of running started as difficult for me. I would just run for time with no real idea of how far or how fast I was running. Sometimes I’d get on the treadmill just to be able to track my progress. Having played 11 years of football, including four in college, I was used to having every aspect of my training measured. Be it a timed 40 yard dash or a measured benchpress, it was pretty easy to see increases. It was much more difficult with running. Enter: Nike+.

A gadget geek at heart (much to my wife’s dismay), I saw an advertisement for it somewhere, and knew I had to have one. Nike+ is a three part gadget: a pedometer like chip that goes into your shoe, your iPod, and a receiver attached to the bottom of it. The chip has an accelerometer that can determine when your feet are up, and when they are on the ground, and can tell you your speed and distance accurately (after calibrating to your running style).

With the device, you can set your race distance or time, and it will talk to you throughout the run about your pace, time and distance remaining. At anytime throughout the run you can push the center button and it will tell you time, distance and speed. What I typically do is set a distance, run away from my house until it tells me I’m halfway done, then I turn around and come back. There’s no way you can do this without a device like this. I tried to pre-map runs like this before I got Nike+, but I could never remember where to go once I got out there.

What I enjoy the most is sitting down after a long run and plugging my iPod into my computer. The iPod automatically uploads my run data, including second-by-second speed readings, to the Nike+ website through iTunes. You can use this data to track your improvements over a long period of time. It’s fun to see how many miles you’ve done over the month, how many calories you’ve burned and how fast (slow) you are. You can also track friends (which is motivating in that you don’t want them to see you loafing), set challenges for yourself (a specific number of runs in a specific amount of time, for instance) and upload your time and distance to your favorite social networking site.

As silly as it sounds, this device has definitely motivated me to run when I certainly didn’t want to. This month’s stats:

• 10 workouts
• 3:32 total running time
• 18.61 miles
• 11’24 mile average
• 3125 calories burned
• fastest 5k: 35:32

Not bad for my first month running, ever.

Check out the Nike+ website for more information or to buy your own.

Photo taken by me. See my Flickr feed here.

by John Wilson

Inspired by my friend Lauren’s Website about Books I wanted to list a few of the books I am reading now. I’m typically a nonfiction book reader, but every once in a while I’ll pick up a classic. Mostly because it makes me feel smart. I also have a habit of reading more than one book at a time. So here is what’s in my “library” currently:

I’m on page 150 of 900! of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. This is one of those books that I’ve always wanted to read, and had heard great things about, but have never taken the time to pick it up. The story is great so far, the lessons (at least 1/6 of the way through) are timely and the characters well-developed. I’m looking forward to knocking this one off, as it was one of my New Years Resolutions to finish it.

Another one of my resolutions was to read the Bible. You can read my adventures of purchasing a Bible here. Instead of plowing through it from page 1, I found a great website that guides you through it depending on your interests. Go to Bible Gateway.com to choose your path. I am using this one.

I recently finished Glenn Beck’s Arguing with Idiots. Regardless of how you feel about Beck’s politics, his books are always humorous and well written. This book shines a very bright, conservative light, at subjects such as the economy, unions and the public school system. I believe it’s a strong read for folks on both sides of the aisle.

And, with only a week or two to spare, I’m reading Caveman’s Guide to Baby’s First Year: Early Fatherhood for the Modern Hunter-Gatherer. I’m only a quarter of the way through this book, but it is very informative and entertaining. It leans a little too much on the caveman history side, but the baby-content is very useful and friendly.

Lots to read, and coming soon, probably very little time or energy to read.

by John Wilson

Today it was pretty cloudy, and I got a late start, so I didn’t want to venture too far from home. I shot these at the Charles Pickney National Park on Long Point Road. I didn’t have much sunlight, and I have a bad habit of blowing out the skies when I shoot near dusk. Once I get better, I think this would be a great place to shoot spooky photos.

Here are some of my favorites. If you’d like to see the whole set, visit it at Flickr. You can see all of my pictures by visiting my Flickr site.

by John Wilson

For photowalk number three I went to Isle of Palms and Breach Inlet.

I learned a lot today about my camera and taking pictures at the beach. I took probably 250 pictures over the course of an hour or so, of that, about 230 were over exposed. I used the aperture priority mode on the camera, but I think I had it too low (or high?) and the shutter couldn’t fire fast enough. I was able to save some of the pictures (see below), and I enjoyed the 74 degree weather we are having in the middle of January.

You can see the whole set here. My favorites are below.

This is my favorite from the set. It is the rust that has formed below the spout at the shower beside Coconut Joe’s.

Me and this guy danced around for quite a few minutes. This is the best one that came out.

This picture got blown out, but I got a nice shot after playing with it in iPhoto.

by John Wilson

It’s a rainy Saturday and the WVU Mountaineers are stinking, so I took the time to update a few out dated sections of this website.

The “About” page has a little bit better description of what the website is about. It’s really a variation on the theme of “where” and how “where” has changed a few times since I started working on the site more than two years ago. I read once that the average life of a blog is less than one month, so we’re not doing too bad.

The FAQ page has answers to some of the most basic questions I get asked, via email, from readers.

The Gallery page is a few of my favorite photos from recent photo shoots. It also has links to my Flickr account to see all the photos from my photowalks. I’m not completely happy with the way the gallery looks, but I have yet to find a WordPress plug-in I’m happy with.

Some new things coming soon for the site:

• The birth of my son
• A link to my twitter feed
• The oft-requested newsletter
• The return of “Are you John Wilson” directory

by John Wilson

As found at Drudge Report.

Weight Watchers clinic floor collapses under Dieters

Read the article here.

by John Wilson

Here are some photos of a game played by the Charleston City Champion Benefitfocus Flag Football Team. I typically play but I twisted my ankle in the game before this one.

I learned two things from this shoot:
1. I need a tripod
2. The field needs more lights

I took almost 250 pictures, but because I didn’t have a tripod, most were too blurry. Also, the ISO was so high there was a good deal of artifacts in the pictures.

Click here for the whole set, or visit my Flickr page.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the night:

by John Wilson

This week’s set was taken at the Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park. It was REAL cold, so I didn’t stay very long. The further out the pier I went, the stronger and colder the air got.

Below are my two favorite. You can see this set, and all of my other travel pictures on my Flickr site:

by John Wilson

These are 9 things I hope go away from my TV in 2010:

• We are… – No, you ARE NOT. You are NOT Marshall. They came up with this, it has deep meaning there. Stop stealing it. It’s rude and disrespectful.
• Verizon vs. AT&T commercials – They’re not funny, and AT&T’s commercials are horrible. When was the last time you needed to talk on the phone and surf the web at the same time? Being able to surf is meaningless if you don’t have a signal.
• ASPCA Commercials – I have to change the channel every time. If I donate, will they stop sending the signals to my TV?
• “Now more than ever” – This is trite, boring, lazy, over used and adds nothing to the conversation. For the love of the animals, please stop.
• “If you call in the next five minutes.” – Please stop insulting our intelligence. You don’t know when these commercials play, and there’s no way your operators in India are sitting around with stop watches.
• Kidz Bop – Creepy
• Mac vs. PC commercials – There are 100 reasons here, but frankly, the PC guy is way cooler than the geeky kid from Ed.
• Drug Commercial Disclaimers – I’m pretty tired of these commercials that tell what the drug does for 12 seconds and then spends then next 48 or 78 seconds telling us all the different ways it will give you diarrhea, mood swings, and possible death. Driving could do each of those, but I don’t have to listen to a disclaimer every time a Toyota commercial comes on.
• “Outside of the box” – If you have to tell someone your thinking or your policy is “outside of the box,” it probably isn’t. Inside the box is the new outside of the box.

Picture thanks to videocrab via Flickr

by John Wilson

I got a new camera for Christmas, and as I was learning about improving my photography skills I ran on a group of photographers who have challenged themselves to take at least one walk per week with the intention of taking pictures. My goal is to do as many of these weeks as possible, post them on my Flickr site, as well as putting the highlights here.

This set was taken down in Battery Park in Charleston, SC. You can see the whole set here.

Here are a few of my favorites: