Andrea Wasik's Blog

Exclusive Triathlon Clubs

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:34:00 +0000

A couple of my friends, who I often run and cycle with, told me how they are striving to gain membership into a local Boston area triathlon club. It's one of those situations where you have to wait to be invited to join. You can't just go online and sign up like I did so easily with my local running and cycling clubs. You have to be asked by a club member. I guess that's OK, but my friends further informed me that they don't just ask you after you've shown your interest by attending a few training sessions. No, it can take one or two years before you are invited. To even hope to ever become a member, one must show the extent of one's commitment by attending training sessions on a regular basis, volunteering at events, bringing home-cooked casseroles (low-fat vegan only, I assume) to their get-togethers, and so on. If you do this for a year, or maybe two, you might have a good shot.

That's why I have to agree with Bike Snob NYC, who recently reminded us that triathletes are actually part of the "freak cyclist" sub-category of cyclists. As he also states, Run/Bike/Swim = Dork/Dork/Dork.

I never want to take the chance of being part of any group that Bike Snob refers to as "freaks" or triple dorks. I feel a lot better now too, because this means I won't have to force myself into a wetsuit and make an ass of myself in some freezing lake. Even in the face of peer pressure, I have the freak/dork excuse to fall back on now, and no one can fault me for wanting to avoid being classified as a freak. Yet, this makes lovely friends freaks. When I'm around them I'll just have to remember not to express my true feelings about the elitist triathlete club they yearn to belong to. They never read my blog anyway; they're too busy uploading data from their 10 workouts/week onto their triathlete training software. But even if they did, I NEVER said I would do a triathlon. They also know that it is of utmost importance to me that I never give the slightest appearance of being a dork, and just because they may fall into that category, it does not mean that we can't be friends.

Foreclosures - It's Still Bad in Florida

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:58:00 +0000

I recently spent a few days inspecting some foreclosed houses and condos in Venice, FL. It's a sad scene to see houses that used to be fine, well-kept homes transformed into abandoned, stinking messes in need of thousands of dollars or even tens of thousands of dollars of repairs. I saw houses that have a lot of potential, but the thought of buying one and sinking a lot of cash into it in an uncertain rental market is scary.

All the real estate investment books say to buy when everyone else is running away - with caveats, of course. You need to buy in an area that is desirable. It could be a place where there are good jobs, or a place that has great weather and an easy lifestyle.

The west coast of Florida, south of Tampa, meets the desirability requirement. But it's tough when you can only rent consistently for 3-4 months a year. So instead of the normal equation where you would try to come as close to break even as possible with a 12 month rental scenario, that's just not the case in SW Florida. Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar are probably all you can get. And even then, you need to offer a rental that's in the right location - near the beach, in resort-like surroundings, etc. In my opinion, real estate prices need to come down a bit more from where they are right now to make this type of investment workable. Then there's the problem of condos with outrageous ($300+/month) condo fees for a small 1 bedroom unit. That kind of thing just makes it necessary that prices drop even more to make sense from an investment standpoint.

For the single family homes in neighborhoods, hit by job loss and not desirable for snowbird rentals, the outlook is even worse. I'm not sure who's going to be willing to step in and take that kind of risk. I saw some houses that were in quite good condition (these tended to be the ones not yet in foreclosure) - one in particular comes to mind, very neat, clean with updated AC, etc. The price seems low, but again, even with a low price it's a questionable investment due to the horrible rental market for family type houses.

Taxes are still high for most of these places, calculated when the house was worth close to double it's current value. This is a problem for both houses and condos, so until reassessments are done a buyer will be paying a very high tax rate. One has to wonder if the counties will be quick to reassess - they need the money!

As I rode my bike down Manasota Key, a beautiful key along the Englewood coast, it seemed like almost all gulf-front homes had for sale signs posted. I'm not sure who is buying these - they're mostly all well over a million dollars - that's prime beach-front real estate.

So overall it's a very gloomy picture for Florida real estate. Maybe it really is the time to buy, but does anyone have the guts to plunge in?

This lovely 2 bedroom brand new condo in Venice is cheap!!!

Davis Farm Corn Maze - Harder Than You Think!

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:57:00 +0000

We took a drive out to the Davis Farm Corn Maze last weekend. They grow this huge field full of corn and then cut a very complex maze into it. Pretty amazing. It took us an hour and a half to find our way through! I recommend this for kids as well as adults - in fact kids under 12 aren't allowed to roam alone - you really can get lost in the maze!

Colleen's 7th Birthday Party

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:48:00 +0000

This was another great event! Here is my lovely niece Colleen about to make her wish:

And here is Katie, passing by on her Barbie-mobile:

You can see all the pictures from the party.

Brenna and Colin's 2nd Birthday Party

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 13:18:00 +0000

My very cute twin niece and nephew! I took a bunch of pictures of them yesterday, for those who are interested.

These are two of my favorites...

Update on Palm Centro Repair

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:32:00 +0000

I sent in my Palm Centro for repair on August 11. It is now September 3. I called Palm today for a status update, and they said it was still "being repaired" and might be done sometime next week. If it actually is done next week, that would make it a full month that I would have been without a phone. However, because I switched to ATT and the iPhone, I am WITH phone.

How can Sprint and Palm expect anyone to go for an entire month without their phone? To add insult to injury, they continue to bill you for that time during which they know you did not have your phone.

If you are considering using Sprint or acquiring a Palm Centro phone, I strongly recommend that you change your mind and go for an iPhone instead. Or even go Verizon, who I have used for years without any problems such as this.

A Friendly Manatee!

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:19:00 +0000

This Manatee swam right up to our boat out in the intracoastal waterway in Englewood FL! I was started at first when his head popped out of the water, but I soon realized he was acting very friendly. He loved the attention and did not leave the side of the boat for a good 45 minutes! These must be the sweetest friendliest creatures in the ocean - and maybe on land too.

Sprint and Palm: Bad Service & Broken Phones

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:23:00 +0000

My 5 month old Palm Centro broke yesterday, stopped putting out any audio and the mic stopped working also. For some reason I CAN hear people when I put it on speakerphone - but it doesn't matter because they can't hear me.

So I went into the local Sprint store, where I was told that I could either pay them $55 for a refurbished Centro, or call the Palm Support line. The Sprint guy told me that Palm would overnight me a new phone. Wrong. He gave me a number to call for Palm, hoping to be rid of me...but alas, without a working phone I told him I had no way of calling unless he let me use his phone. So I called, and was told that it would be 5-7 business days IF it turned out that the phone was defective. I was also told I would have to pay $14.95 as a service phonecall charge if it turned out that the phone was not defective. I decided to think about my options and told them I'd call back. Oh, and by the way, Palm did not even have me down as the owner of the phone, they had some guy named "Robert" down as the owner. Only by passing the phone to the Sprint guy did they believe that it really was my phone and in my name with Sprint.

So I thought about my options, called a friend to make sure I could borrow a spare cell phone, and called Palm again. This time they had me do a hard reset and determined it was a defective phone so they would not pre-charge me the $14.95. Next hurdle - getting them to accept my UPS Store PMB (personal mail box) as a valid mailing address to which they would return the repaired phone. This took over an hour, most of that time with me on hold.

This is my 2nd very bad experience with a Palm smartphone. See my previous post on my busted Treo, which I wound up tossing as it was out of warranty. You'd think that if Sprint was partnering with Palm to sell these Centros, they'd come up with a better service option for broken devices, especially ones that are still under warranty. After all, there are banners up all over the Sprint store saying "Here's where you can get troubleshooting and repair services!!" - All I got was a phone number to call and a don't-let-the-door-hit-you-on-your-way-out.

So I'm wondering, should I give in to the iPhone madness? Yes I'd have to eat all kinds of early termination fees with Sprint, but if I knew I could walk into an Apple Store and get good, competent service and quick hassle-free replacement of a broken phone, I might be tempted. I'm discovering that Sprint has very poor customer service - even worse than Verizon Wireless, in my opinion. And I already knew that trying to get service out of Palm was like whacking your head up against a brick wall while paying for the privilege. Wait - what about the Gphone from Google? THAT might be a phone I can believe in! Oh, wait, Google doesn't even give out their phone number. But, if their Gphone is well-made and works as well as their search engine, maybe the mind-numbing customer support experience won't even be needed. I'm keeping my fingers crossed (but not holding my breath) for the Gphone!

Luis runs his first 5k race

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:36:00 +0000

Luis ran in the 2nd annual Rove the Cove 5k race in Auburndale Mass on June 21st, 2008. It was his first 5k race. He recently competed in the Special Olympics at Harvard Stadium where he ran the 800m event. He ran the 5k at a significantly slower pace, so I think he needs more long distance miles. I also want to get him on the back of a tandem bicycle. A tandem seems like a wonderful option for anyone for whom riding a bike alone would be too risky.

Venice Bike Routes

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Tue, 27 May 2008 22:13:00 +0000

Tour de Venice (Florida) Bike Route
This ride goes by all the major beaches in Venice, as well as quaint Venice Ave's shops and restaurants and the bike path along the intracoastal waterway (they call it the Venetian Waterway).

Venice Fish Pier

Sharkey's to Manasota Key Loop Bike Route
This one starts and ends at Sharkey's Restaurant/Venice Fish Pier. It brings you down to the bottom of Manasota Key in Englewood, which is an extremely scenic canopy road with the Gulf on one side and the Bay on the other. It's 35 miles long.

Stump Pass

Boomboxes are cool.

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:19:00 +0000

Boomboxes are cool. That's really all there is to say about it

There are Lots of Cows in Southwest Florida!

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:17:00 +0000

It's true that there are a lot of cows in Florida. There are the expected orange groves but quite a lot of cattle as well. I saw hundreds of them over the course of a bike ride leaving from Myakka State Forest up into Manatee County and back. I think these cows are standing in the water to keep cool - temps were in the high 80's when I took these shot last week. Today temps stayed in the low 60's - way below normal. Tomorrow we'll be back up in cow-in-water territory.

Cows in Florida

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:48:00 +0000

My Crazy Patchwork Broken Treo 700p

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 13:56:00 +0000

I have not found any mention of anyone having had this particular "issue" with their Palm Treo 700p.

I did not drop it, get it wet, throw it at the mailman - nothing. I just woke up one morning and picked it up and this is how it looked. The whole thing started the night before, when the phone started going into hotsync mode when I wasn't even touching the thing. I thought maybe it would stop doing that after a reset. Alas I never got the chance to do the reset, because once it went into what I am calling "Patchwork Quilt" mode, it refused to respond to a hard reset. Yes, I took the battery out, yes I tried a hard reset, yes I brought it into Verizon where they tried to do a hard reset.

So I thought maybe Palm would fix it for me but they said no - well, unless I want to pay $199. These things can be had refurbished on ebay for less than that. So I'm going to try mailing it into one of these non-Palm repair places, which may or may not have a more reasonable repair price than Palm.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has ever encountered this same strange patchwork display problem with their Treo, and if so, what was the cause?

I've since switched to a Centro, which seems about the same as the Treo just smaller and with a nicer keyboard. Oh, and I switched over to Sprint from Verizon. I like Sprint's broadband wireless data plan - unlimited high speed data and a basically free USB card. Apparently Verizon no longer offers unlimited broadband data plans, so I decided I ought to get in on the Sprint deal before they stopped offering it as well!

The Land of Snow

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:53:00 +0000

There is an awful lot of snow this year up in ski country - so much that everyone has to go out and shovel it off the roof to avoid a collapse.

So much that it's hard to see road signs, and many people's windows are completely blocked.

The snow woman appears to have skis for eyelashes. Note the small telephone pole to the right of her - turns out she's officially the tallest snowwoman in the world at 122 feet!

Snow Woman

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:31:00 +0000

The last time I was up here in Bethel the snow woman was just a pile of snow about 30 feet high - now it is complete, and it's amazing! It must be 100 feet tall. Pine trees for arms and tires for buttons. However I am really not sure it's a woman. I think they're just trying to make women feel some sense of equality by calling it a snow woman. Even so, it's hard not to appreciate her.

Great Biking

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:29:00 +0000

This was a very nice ride:

Myakka State Park
Find more Bike Rides in Sarasota, Florida

FriendFeed - Tracks All My Social Media Accounts!

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:17:00 +0000

I signed up as a beta test for Friend Feed, which was created by Paul Bucheit (the creator of Gmail).

Its stated purpose is "keep track of the web pages, videos, music, and photos your friends and family interact with around the Internet". It does a great job of that. You tell it about all your accounts on Social Networking sites (Twitter, StumbleUpon, Del.ico.us, Pandora, Digg, etc. You then find friends who are using the service too. You can then see a "feed" of what they are doing out there in the Socially Networked wonderland. It also has a Facebook Application so you can track everything from there if you so desire.

I'm slowly realizing that it's also a fine tool for me to keep track of my various Social Media accounts. I have a bunch of them, and I use a different alias on almost all of them. With everything else that a poor slob has to remember, like passwords, account numbers, birthdays, tax payments - it's just another layer of detail and headache-inducing clutter. With FriendFeed, I can log in, go to my settings, and there it is, a list of all of the services I've registered on FriendFeed. Thanks FriendFeed!

Charles River Interactive Wins 2007 MITX Award for Best Use of Search

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:52:00 +0000

Last night, my company was awarded the MITX Award for "Best Use of Search". It's great for Charles River Interactive to get this kind of recognition and I am very grateful to MITX and to all of our employees for helping us achieve this! Our search campaign for Bernardi Auto Group encompasses both natural and paid search. Our approach has resulted in specatcular results for Bernardi, and I know we will continue to give Bernardi and all of our clients award-winning service!

My New Cycleops Pro 300PT Indoor Trainer with PowerTap

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 12:35:00 +0000

This is one nice indoor trainer! Especially if you are interested in tracking your power output. Using a power meter is the only way to really track progress accurately in terms of your real ability to generate a certain amount of power. It also drives home the fact that power-to-weight is an incredibly important consideration in cycling. If you can somehow get your weight lower while maintaining your strength, you will be faster! I want to find the sweet spot - my optimal weight. I am sure it's less than my current weight!

The software that comes with the 300PT is about ten years behind the times, however. It does provide a display of all sorts of data from your ride including power and heart rate, but the interface is terrible. Normal things like being able to use the delete key on a selected activity just don't work. You also cannot connect the control head on the 300PT to a computer while you are riding. It would be so nice to be able to see the power data in a real-time graph as I was cycling.

I have started reading Training and Racing with a Power Meter to learn more about power and how to use all of this power information to train. My strength is obviously in sprinting and my weakness is in aerobic endurance...so I know what I need to improve, I just need a plan for how to do it over the winter using the Cycleops. Apparently it's easier to improve your aerobic ability than your brute force short duration power, so there may be some hope for me.

The next purchase will have to be a set of Zipp 404 wheels with a PowerTap hub. That can wait until spring, though. Now it's time to get ready to go for a nice Sunday outdoor ride after all of yesterday's rain. It's 40 degrees out now - here's hoping it warms a bit more by 9:30!

Google Hits the Big Boys with PageRank Penalties for Selling Links

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:51:00 +0000

This has been a fascinating day for PageRank-watchers, link-buyers and link-sellers. Google has lowered PageRank (their measure of the amount and quality of inbound link that a site has) for a number of very high-profile sites such as autoblog.com, engadget.com, forbes.com and many more.

I liked Andy Beard's report on this story. Darn, should I add a nofollow to that link? Yeah, I better, just to be on the safe side, he admits he was dinged in the latest PageRank hit and Google tells us not to associate with "bad neighborhoods"!

I'm happy about this because it's mighty hard to compete against sites who are spending thousands of dollars a month on paid links using service such as Text-Link-Ads, TextLinkBrokers, etc. This type of gaming of the system does not result in the most relevant search results for the searcher. Google will only continue its battle and keep stepping it up a notch to get reduce gaming of PageRank (and the resulting gaming of search engine rankings). Who wants to fight the Kings of All Search? Not me!

From the SMX Social Media NYC 2007 Conference

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:33:00 +0000

This is where I am now. Lots of great information on social media marketing. One thing I'm getting is a sense for the amount of time that has to be dedicated when embarking on a social media marketing campaign.

Game 1 of the 2007 ALDS Red Sox vs Angels - Great Seats!

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:24:00 +0000

It was fun to sit in row 8 at this game and watch Beckett pitch a shutout! It was a short game - 2.5 hours I think. Great warm weather in early October made it even better. Tonight we'll see if LA can redeem themselves.

The Amalfi Coast - Amazing Vistas

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:23:00 +0000

These pictures were taken while walking down from Ravello to Amalfi. They give you some idea of the sheer cliffs and hairpin curve roads that are typical of "La Costiera Amalfitana".

If you are interested in seeing a whole bunch more, you can go to my Italy pictures on Picasa.

Backing up our Windows 2000 Fileserver

andreawasik@gmail.com (Andrea Wasik) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:24:00 +0000

At my company we have a lousy old Windows 2000 PC that we use as a "Fileserver". Unfortunately it's not even being backed up, even though I'm using Carbonite to back up everyone's PC. Carbonite does not work on Windows 2000, but I think I finally found something that we can use - Migo Software's PC Backup Pro. I'm giving it a shot, it's not expensive and it has a lot of neat features such as the ability to back up to CD/DVD, hard drive, or even across our network. It's critical that we get this backup going because most of our client files are stored on the fileserver so everyone can access them. I can't imagine the trouble we'd be in if the fileserver crashed...thinking about it, and knowing how old and decrepit that old box is makes me (almost) want to run into work right now and install the Migo Backup stuff.

Next up on my IT to do list is some sort of version control software. I recall buying something years ago for this purpose but it was so hard to configure that I never wound up using it. Any suggestions are welcome.