Moving On

Well, all two of you that have this blog in your feed reader need to move on with me. I've moved over to my very own domain, www.runningnotes.net

Yancy got me all set up on Planet Lotus, so I am good to go!

I've been told my blog may go down at a minute's notice, along with Duffbert, Paul Mooney and some others, but I have faith! :)

Some of you (okay one of you) may have been with me on my old blog and may be thinking what is with this woman? Well, this time I am switching to my own domain, so this should be the last switch for a while! :) Thanks for sticking with me!

Running Secret

Psst. Wanna know a secret? It’s about running. And, it’s a little crazy.

I hate hills.

That’s not the secret, that’s the set up. I would guess that most runners dislike running up hills. It’s hard work, your legs burn, your lungs burn, it sucks. You want to slow down, or walk. But I don’t. And it’s not because I’m a great runner, or really strong or any of that. It’s because I’m stubborn. I refuse to walk. I refuse to slow down. It really is mind over matter. That is the biggest lesson I have learned from running - what you decide, is what you can do. (Consider that a bonus tip since that isn’t the main tip in this post).

Back to hills. My secret is to get mad. Here’s where the crazy comes in. I get angry at hills, especially big hills. My run at home includes a lot of hills. Here's the elevation graph from my Garmin.



Some are long, some are short, some are steep, some are not. In my opinion, the short, steep hills are easier. You can see the top, it’s not that far off. You can push and once you get up there, you can recover. Long hills, on the other hand, are mentally *and* physically tough. You can see just how far away the top is, and you know it’s going to be a while before you get to recover. You can’t just sprint up the hill. Especially if you hit a hill with what I call a false peak. You *think* you’re at the top, but there’s just a little dip and then more hill. F%$&ing hills.

A long hill mentally and physicall defeats you. So I get mad. I refuse to let that hill beat me. I look at the road (I try not to look up to the top of the hill) and I think, “Screw you hill. You won’t beat me. I will kick your ass.” And I run. I warned you, I said it was a little crazy, but it works! I’ve sworn at hills. Whatever it takes, just get up that hill.

I am not a fast runner. I am not a great runner. I am a middle-of-the-pack runner. I don’t win races, or even my age group. I don’t even come in top 10 or 20. BUT, I get compliments on my hills. I’ve passed many people on hills and had them catch up to me later and compliment me on getting up that hill. So get out there, run those hills and GET MAD!

The Value of Twitter

A LOT of blog posts have been written questioning the value of Twitter. A lot. I know. So move on if you aren’t interested in reading another. But, I think (hope) mine has a slightly different slant.

Many proponents of twitter will argue that they get value by following like-minded individuals, mining through the worthless tweets (“I’m at the grocery store!”) for the valuable nuggets (“Oh, to fix that, just do x”). And I agree there is value like this to be had on Twitter.

However, the greatest value I get from Twitter is the community. I work in IT. IT departments can be small. Mine is. We’re well-suited to the size of our company, but still, there’s only three of us. I am the only developer (as I may have mentioned about 50 times on this blog). Twitter provides me with a virtual water cooler. A place where I can vent about silly, but frustrating things TO PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND. Seriously, if I said half of the things I say on Twitter to people “in real life”, they would look at me like I have two heads. Or at the very least, their eyes would glaze over, they would mumble something incoherent and walk away.

Twitter is a place where I can “hear” about other people’s similar frustrations. We can all laugh about stupid end users (not mine, of course, users of my applications are all brilliant). I can vent and rant, and read other people’s vents and rants. I can be frustrated and tired and not thinking clearly and tweet about it and get back six snarky and hilarious replies. The value of Twitter is that I can laugh and move on, get back to work refreshed and ready.

Seriously, isn’t that incredibly valuable to a company? Rather than pumping me full of crappy coffee in the hopes that I can caffeinate my way through the day, we should have mandatory Twitter breaks.

Lotus Temper Tantrum

(Commence Temper Tantrum) I want to go to Developer/Admin2009! I live 45 minutes away! I went last year and had a great time! Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (End Temper Tantrum)

Okay, I'm okay now. I will just have to live vicariously through everyone's tweets. And sit and wait and be patient and hope details come out for IamLUG really soon, so I can have something to look forward to that is sooner than Lotusphere!

Weird Behavior in Designer Client?

Anyone else have this? When I am in the Designer client (8.0.2) and am working on some Lotusscript, say in an action or something, if I get an email in my Notes client, the focus in Designer is taken from the action and puts me up in the "Window Title". I don't have popup notification (because it's too distracting!), just the icon in the system tray. This behavior drives me a little nutty when I'm in the middle of coding something and it loses focus. I have enough trouble keeping focus!

Has it really been over a week?

Oops. I ran the half marathon on Sunday, April 5th...and haven't run since. I took training easier this time so I wouldn't get burned out. I don't think I did. I didn't run on purpose for the first few days. Then, I just got lazy. It was too cold, or too rainy, or too windy. Basically, I needed to HTFU.

So, today, I am running. In about an hour. It is a sunny and windy 49 degrees out. I am looking forward to it, which probably means it is going to be a terrible run. But, I am okay with that.

I've only got a few 5ks and a couple of 10ks planned this summer, so I'm thinking I may try to increase the number of days I run, rather than the distance. Three miles/5 times per week, with a 10k thrown in once a week. Sounds good.

The Redhook Memorial 5k is my next planned race. I had a pretty slow time on it last year. It was hot, and I realized I run my slowest on the flats, and this race is nearly pancake flat. I've done a lot more running this year than last year, so hopefully I can have a better time. I'll never be fast, but I like to beat myself! (that doesn't sound right, but you know what I mean)

ETA: Just back from run. That was horrible. My legs hurt from my hips to my feet. Bad combination of half marathon last weekend, no running for over a week, eating horribly the last week, not hydrated and brand new shoes. Starting to get a migraine now...ugh. But the weather was really nice. :)

WOW! Amazing account of an incredible journey

Some of you Lotus peeps might know Tim Lorge, well he Tweeted this:

Wanna read a great running story? My GFs friend ran the 6 day 156 mile Marathon des Sables in Morocco. http://sportsrlife.wordpress.com/

Her story is phenomenal. Parts 1 and 2 are up now and it is an amazing read! Check it out.

Should I Call The UI Police?

So, while filling out an online application for a race (look, running and developing in one post!), I came across this field…



Seriously? The form had radio buttons for other fields, so clearly they are aware of the technique. They just chose not to use it, but THEN they have to include instructions (that no one will read), for the user to select only “a Maximum of 1”. Ugh. That isn’t even well written. Ignore the fact that it says “Mens” shirts, but that the shirts are Unisex. Oh, and there is an asterisk, as though there is a footnote, but there is no footnote. One presumes it references the poorly worded instructions in red.

The worst part is that this is a huge website, used by TONS of races for the purpose of registering racers. This isn’t some podunk little site that no one ever sees. And this wasn’t exactly their first race registration form.

I was very tempted to check them all off, just because I could.

[ETA: BTW, when I got to the race, they just asked me what size I wanted!]

Great Bay Half Marathon – April 5, 2009

The forecast kept changing from 56 and sunny to 47 and rainy and back again. I woke up Sunday morning to what looked like a sunny day. I decided to wear my running capris and a long sleeve shirt, but bring a running skirt and short sleeve shirt just in case.

Jess and I got to the Newmarket high school (which was the finish of the race) at 9:30. The race website warned that it would be hard to find a parking spot after 10AM and they were right, I think we got the last one. Well, actually it wasn’t a parking spot, but Jess parked there anyway!

It was really windy. I mean really windy. The flags on the flagpole were fully outstretched due to the wind. So, I think it was 50 degrees, but it felt cooler with the wind.

We jogged over to the elementary school around 10:30 AM. Race start was supposed to be at 11 AM. I think the race started a little late, but we were off! Our plan was to take it easy and run about the same pace as our training runs, which was around 10-minute mile pace. We took a left and hit our first hill. First of how many you ask? I have no idea because there were soooo many of them. Thousands. I think. That’s how it felt anyway.

Hill after hill after hill. Did I mention there were hills? Don’t think I’m just a wimp. My neighborhood is essentially at the top of a large, but gradual hill, so every run I go on involves quite a few hills. This *is* New England, not Nebraska. Even so, this course was pretty hilly. According to mapmyrun.com (since for some reason my elevation data is missing from my Seacoast Half Marathon entry), the Seacoast Half Marathon that I ran last fall had a total 197 foot ascent and 194 descent. The Great Bay Half Marathon had a 253 foot ascent and 249 descent. YIKES! It really WAS hilly.

It was a pretty course, too. We had some nice views of the bay through the trees at one point. However, it was during the second half of the race, so I can’t really say that I enjoyed the views. I was too tired and focused entirely on the pavement in front of me just to get up the GIANT hill at mile 8.

There was some interesting course entertainment. At mile 2 and again just before the end there was a guy playing bagpipes. There were some guys in their driveway around mile 9 just jamming, a couple of guitars and drums. They were a great pick me up. Two folk singers at one point with a guitar and an accoustic bass (I think). A female barbershop quartet. And strangest of all, belly dancers at mile 10. I promise I was NOT hallucinating, there were belly dancers. Had to be the strangest course entertainment I’ve ever seen.

Jess and I took turns feeling good. Not on purpose, it just seemed whenever she got her second wind, I was lagging and whenever I perked up a bit, she lagged. It worked out. We had some fun smiling and waving together whenever we saw a photographer. So no matter how we felt, I think we looked good in the pictures!

So the mile by mile pace breakdown:

1 10:10
2 10:01
3 10:35
4 10:20
5 10:19
6 9:53
7 10:11
8 11:27 – I SAID there was a BIG hill.
9 10:27
10 10:42
11 11:07
12 11:16
13 11:12
0.1 9:41 (pace)

Finish time-2:20:18

And a bad cell phone picture taken right after the race (in other words, I look like crap)…

THAT Makes Sense – Lotusscript to Excel (a vent and some tips)

I was asked to take some data from a Notes application and make it into a pretty report in Excel. Okay, no problem. A little lotusscript here, a little lotusscript there, a dash of VB. And VOILA, lovely report in Excel with shaded cells, borders, date formatting. Except for one little problem. I couldn’t get the Page Setup.FitToPagesWide to work.

I checked and re-checked my code. Went home and came back this morning and checked it again. It was correct and yet it didn’t work. Huh? A quick Google search gave me this…

“In Microsoft Excel, you cannot use the FitToPagesWide or FitToPagesTall property in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications code to change the Adjust To option in page setup.

To change the scaling from Adjust To to Fit To in page setup, set the Zoom property to false as in the following example:

With ActiveSheet.PageSetup
.Zoom = False
.FitToPagesTall = 1
.FitToPagesWide = 1
End With
”

SERIOUSLY?! THAT makes sense. Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? [end sarcasm] I have to explicitly turn off the zoom in order to set the Adjust To option, even though every other parameter that Excel spits out for PageSetup can be ignored.

Sigh. Deep breath.

Anyway, I know other blogs have covered this, but I thought I would share a bit of the code for creating a “pretty” Excel sheet from Lotus.

Use Lotusscript in the normal manner to get some data. When you’re ready…

‘We need to launch Excel from Lotus
Dim excelApp As Variant
Set excelApp = CreateObject ("Excel.Application")
‘We need to create a new Workbook
Dim excelWB As Variant
Set excelWB = excelApp.Workbooks.Add()
‘And of course, get a handle on a Worksheet
Dim excelS As Variant
Set excelS = excelWB.ActiveSheet

Now given the handle to the Excel Worksheet we can use a little VB to simply populate fields…

‘Either with direct text
excelS.Range("A1").Value = "Hello World"
‘Or with Lotusscript
excelS.Range("A1").Value = udoc.FieldGetText("greetingField")


We can have some fun with the VB, by inserting Lotusscript. I used the following to increment the row in the sheet each time I looped through a NotesViewEntryCollection.

excelS.Range("A"+Cstr(y)).Value = viewentry.ColumnValues(2)

Now let’s get our Format groove on. One thing I found is that code like this won’t work…

.Orientation = xlLandscape

You need the code for “xlLandscape”. Lucky for me, I found Joe Litton’s old post on a quick and easy way to get the code. I was already recording macros in Excel and poaching the VB to use in my Lotusscript, but he showed this gem…

MsgBox "The value of xlPaperLetter is <" & xlPaperLetter & ">"

Ahhh. A thing of beauty. By putting that in an Excel macro, I could get the code for anything I needed for my formatting. So this:

With excelS.Rows(“2:2”)
.Font.Bold = True
.WrapText = True
.HorizontalAlignment = xlRight
.Borders(xlEdgeLeft).LineStyle = xlContinuous
.Borders(xlEdgeLeft).Weight = xlThin
.Borders(xlEdgeLeft).ColorIndex = 17
End With

Is now this…

With excelS.Rows("2:2")
.Font.Bold = True
.WrapText = True
.HorizontalAlignment = -4152
.Borders(7).LineStyle = 1
.Borders(7).Weight = 2
.Borders(7).ColorIndex = 17
End with

And it works! So pretty.

One last tip, it’s a good idea to make Excel visible at the beginning of your code while developing, so you can see what’s happening and what’s not happening and when. But when you are done, you should probably move “excelApp.Visible = True” down to the end of your code so users aren’t watching the screen make every little format change. While magical to the user, it is slower.

Facebook – Not Interesting or Multiple Personalities?

I’m not feeling the love for Facebook lately. Or maybe I’m just not using it right. Maybe I’m like one of those people who signs up for Twitter, doesn’t follow anyone and then “doesn’t get it”.

I signed up for Facebook sometime last year, probably May, judging by the date on my first profile photo. I friended a bunch of actual friends. It was fun. A great way to share photos, catch up, etc. I put in my high school and college information and a bunch of people from that part of my life started finding me and friending me. Initally, that was fun, too. We caught up on our lives, shared more photos, talked about careers, families, and more. However, after each initial connection, there would be a flurry of discussion and then it would die down. They would become just another photo in my friend list.

Then, Facebook started gaining in popularity (I know it was already popular, but then it started gaining in popularity with the 30+ crowd). Suddenly, EVERYONE I knew was on Facebook, and started friending me. Seriously, I am “friends” with my friend’s mother. Groups that I have vague associations with now have given me oodles of “friends”.

I have co-workers as “friends”. I see these people all day at work, do I really need to get home and see that they’re making dinner or feeding the dog now? Accompanied by pictures of said dog? (Sorry, if you’re a co-worker and you’re reading this, I really did love that picture of Fido!).

I haven’t really started connecting with people from the Lotus community on Facebook. I did connect with a few, but we’re in the Domino Divas group, how could I pass that up? :) The reason I haven’t connected with Lotus people on Facebook is because I’m not entirely sure I want to mix up my Lotus world with my personal world. (I know, I know, I’ve mixed running and Lotus on blog, I’m a hypocrite, what can I say?).

I honestly find Facebook confusing enough as it is. I already get 500 requests to “pass a drink”, do I really need to add a whole new community to that? I can’t handle the news feeds either. Is there a way to filter it to only show things that might actually interest me? I WANT to see when my friend posts pictures of her new baby. I don’t really need to see that 45 people took some silly quiz.

I know there are lots of Lotus peeps on Facebook. How do you handle this? Do you have multiple personas on Facebook? Do you just tune it all out? Do you freely mix your personal life and your Lotus life? I realize many Lotus peeps can actually be your friend and that’s a bit different, but how do you handle all the people who aren’t really and truly your friend? Connect with them anyway? Let them see that awful picture of you in high school that someone else posted? Or that stupid note that your friend’s sister’s brother-in-law wrote about you and some embarrassing story from the third grade?

Speaking of Bob Balaban... (2nd Time Post)

I mentioned talking to Bob Balaban a few posts ago. I am thrilled to say my employer was lucky enough and smart enough to hire him for a bit. I have gone from self-taught-struggling-newbie to self-taught-struggling-newbie who is working with Bob Balaban!!

Can you tell I’m excited? It’s like a dose of Lotusphere every week for me!

The best part is that he hasn’t looked at my applications and said “Oh my god, you’re a complete moron, this is crap”. Not that I was afraid that was what he would say or anything…

[ETA: Sorry, again, this was another post that didn't make it to Planet Lotus, reposting - I think blogger.com must take weekends off]

Half Marathon Coming Up (2nd try)

So I suddenly realized today that the Great Bay Half Marathon is 9 days away (now 6 due to repost). That’s coming up quick! It’s close enough that there are weather forecasts! Not that they’ll be accurate, but still, there are forecasts! (High of 50F and “Few Showers”, if you were wondering).

[ETA: Apologies to those that have already seen this post, but Planet Lotus didn't pick it up for some reason and I am such an ASW that I am re-posting it).

This will be my second half marathon. My first was the Seacoast Half Marathon, last November. My time was 2 hours, 11 minutes, 45 seconds. I way overtrained for that race. It was much warmer than expected that day. I only drank the water I brought, and none from the water stations. I made the BIGGEST newbie mistake, I drank a cup of Gatorade even though I had never had it during a training run. RULE #1: Don’t try anything new on race day. I knew that, and in my dazed state at mile 11, did it anyway. I felt horribly sick the entire last mile of the race. Anyway, excuses aside, even though my time was right in line with what I wanted to run that day, I felt like CRAP. It wasn’t enjoyable. Mile 8 I think I started hallucinating. Mile 10 to the end was terrible.

My goal this race is simple: enjoy it. I am going to run slow. I am going to drink lots of water. I am NOT going to try anything new on race day. I am going to run with my sometime running partner, which should really help in the enjoying myself category. I will probably have a slower time than last race, and I am completely fine with that.

That all being said, it doesn’t mean I won’t panic between now and 9 days from now! :)

6 Days to Half Marathon

Eek. 6 days left. Weather forecast for 56 and Sunny. Just a few "short" runs between now and then. Deep breaths. I need to figure out what I'm going to wear. Not so much from a fashion standpoint as from a comfort and the weather standpoint. I *am* going to be wearing these clothes while running for two+ hours!

And there WILL be professional photographers there. Let's just say last half marathon, I looked like I felt. :P

Defensive Programming

I need to improve my defensive programming. This kind (the third bullet from Wikipedia): “Making the software behave in a predictable manner despite unexpected inputs or user actions.”

I use the tools that are available to me. I make fields that should receive numbers into number fields. I make required fields, well, required. I use field validation and translation. I don’t allow pasting or deleting in applications where users shouldn’t be pasting or deleting. I use drop down lists where possible and don’t “Allow Values Not in List” wherever possible. I use Julian Robichaux’s awesome OpenLog for error handling. The list goes on.

I test the applications. I test them myself first. I test them with actual users. I BEG them to try and do what they would normally do. I ask them (dare them) to try and break the application during testing.

And STILL those pesky users find ways to break the application *after* the final release.

I swear the UI could include a blank screen with a giant button in the middle that says “Click Here” and users will still say it doesn’t work because they clicked on the menu, and tried to select “Create” and do five other things besides hitting the giant button. . Maybe it’s my fault. I told this to Bob Balaban and he said the button should say “Click Here TO DO EVERYTHING”. :)

So my goal is to improve the ways in which I can program defensively. Yes, the onus is on me. I have to get better for a couple of reasons. 1) It is actually my job. 2) It makes my life easier (less complaints, less training, less calls).

On the other hand, complaining about users is a lot of fun. ;)

Help me find new music!

So I’ve realized that since I’ve had an ipod, I rarely listen to the radio, which means I don’t really hear new music. I put my CDs on my ipod and I listen to them. I don't hear any new music. The only new music I buy is new music from the artists I already listen to. Occasionally, the iTunes store makes a recommendation that I might try out, but not usually.

Oddly, I don’t listen to music while I run, but I do listen to music at work. It does not have to be work appropriate. :)

So, what new music should I be listening to?

My music taste is all over the place. Really. On my ipod right now, in the order they appeared on shuffle…

No Doubt
The Police
U2
Cake
Marvin Gaye – seriously, is there anything funnier than listening to your ipod at work and hearing the first few bars of “Let’s Get It On”?
Tenacious D – always makes me laugh
Bruce Springsteen
Weezer
Bob Marley
Dave Matthews
Eagles
Kid Rock
Simon & Garfunkel
Stevie Wonder
Wham!
INXS
Sheryl Crow
Daughtry
Live

Like I said, all over the place. Given that, got any suggestions?

Only 10,000 hours to master Lotus Notes!

I just finished reading Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell. I’ve been obsessing a bit about the 10,000 hours thing. I'm not doing the book or the idea justice, but he asserts that most “masters”, regardless of what they are master of, have amassed around 10,000 hours at their specialty. He uses violinists, computer guys, hockey players, etc. as his examples. This is actually good news for me. I’ve been doing Lotus Notes development full time for four years now. Let’s see…four years, 48 weeks (gotta subtract out vacation), 30 hours per week (that’s probably generous, although I’d like to say I devote all my time to development, I don’t, I can’t, there’s meetings, helpdesk calls, etc.)…that’s 5,760 hours. Sweet! I’m halfway there! That's actually encouraging.

Poor Twitter

I coincidentally got two new followers (that appeared to be junk) seconds before Twitter died today. And is it just me or does EVERY TV show/news broadcast mention Twitter in an effort to come off as cool? Doesn't that mean Twitter is completely lame?

I hope not because I am totally addicted to it. I love that I get both useful information and entertainment out of it. I have nothing insightful to say about it. Just that I love it and am sad that dorky "newscasters" think they are cool because they mention that they were Twittering the other day.

Why I Love Running *This Time*

I think I've mentioned this before, but prior to September 2007, I HATED running. Really. I wouldn't have run unless a bear was chasing me. So, now I'm running half marathons. Lots of people ask me, HOW?

I think a HUGE part of it is starting slow. A few times in my life I've tried to take up running and hated it. I got stitches in my sides, couldn't run more than 1/2 mile without feeling like dying and just generally felt miserable.

This time I started with a program called the Couch to 5k. The program starts you out with just 60 seconds of jogging. Anyone can do that! Especially if you take it slow. I ran sooooo slowly. Seriously, I'm pretty sure little old ladies in walkers could have walked faster than I was running. I started off around 12-minute miles (or 7:30 kilometers, I think if I did that right). It seemed really slow, but that is what allowed me to complete the program.

The program works you up to running a full 5k in 9 weeks. I took 10 weeks, but who is counting? :) The program works by building up your confidence and your stamina. Knowing you can do it is almost (maybe even more) as big a part as physically being able to do it.

Also, I think a huge part of my success this time was stubbornness. Yes, I know that sounds strange, but I really wanted to do it. I didn't want to quit. I realized that a few minutes of discomfort wasn't really that big of a deal. I picked a 5k race to sign up for and there was NO WAY that I was going to miss it. There was also no way I was going to walk. See, I told you. Stubbornness.

After my first race, I was hooked. I also knew I had to sign up for more races, so I would stick it. I signed up for, what else? A 10k. After a couple of 10ks and several 5ks, I decided to sign up for a half marathon. The great thing about running 13.1 miles is that a 5k seems a lot smaller! Of course, I still have bad days. I still have runs where I just have to force myself out and tell myself how great I'll feel after. I still have spells where I don't run as often as I'd like. Races really keep me motivated.

Just like anything in life, I think you have to find what works for you. Some people like to run with music. Even though I love music, I personally can't stand to run with music. Some people like the convenience of the gym or a treadmill. While I would love to get out of the snow and cold of New Hampshire, I hate the treadmill. I would never run if that was my only choice. Some people like to run with a group, and that is what I did for my first half marathon. I also started the Couch to 5K program with a friend. I also have a GREAT running partner that I run half of my runs with. HOWEVER, I love running alone, too. It's my me-time, my "inbox back to 0" like I mentioned in my last post. You just have to find what works for you.

Why I Love Running

I ran nine miles yesterday. My thoughts right now as I try to write this are all a jumbled mess. I want to type out as quickly as I can a thousand different things that all have to do with running, but none of the thoughts are in order. Or would make sense to anyone but me.

There is something about running nine miles (or an hour and a half), that takes you from jumbled thoughts that scramble through our brains a million times per minute to ... nothing. It sounds silly, but I love when I hit that point in a long run in which the thoughts just shut off. I'm just me, just running, just putting one foot in front of the other. I'm not thinking about work, or people that annoy me, or the thousand things that need to get done, or money, or cleaning the house, or anything. I'm just running.

Plod, plod, plod, car, plod, plod, plod, pretty tree, plod, plod, plod, dog, etc. That's all there is. In our crazy busy lives when we're all working on ten different projects at once and we need tools to manage our to-do lists, it's nice to think about nothing for a while. It's like getting my mental inbox to 0. A clean slate to start from, when the thousand thoughts come flooding back.

Admin for Developers

I definitely NOT an Administrator. I occasionally become acutely aware of that fact whenever I have to do something Admin-y.

Now, I am not completely inept. For my first couple of years in IT, I actually did some basic administration for our Domino server: create users, manage mailboxes, etc. However, I only know what I’ve been taught. In other words, my admin said “create a new user, here, this is how you do it”. See, I am not completely inept, just mostly inept.

So, imagine my delight when I saw Jess Stratton’s Lotusphere session “Administration for the Developer: Build and Secure Your Own IBM Lotus Domino Server Playground in an Hour!”. Fabulous, just what I need and now I can do it on my own. No need to bother the admin. Great! She made it look so easy, too. Her slide deck was terrific with step by step instructions. Yeah!

Of course, I come back from Lotusphere (and back to reality) and get busy with work, so I don’t get around to trying it until this week. Okay, download VMWare. Got it. Hmm, which VMWare product? There are approximately 500 of them (I’m exagerrating a little). Well, let’s see, this Workstation thing looks good, and I can download a free trial, let’s give that a go…downloading…installing…hey, look at that! It created an image of the computer it’s installed on. Fantastic. Jess said we could use Windows 2000 since it’s free and Domino 8.5 server works on it. But, look VMWare Workstation made a virtual machine of my XP workstation. We have the licensing, so I’ll just go with that. [Mistake #1]*.

Okay, that worked, let’s install the Domino server…installing…pretty…hey, that worked! Woohoo! Now, go to host machine, launch Notes client, make a connection doc, and a location doc. Umm. Hello? Nothing. Crap.

I then dig out Jess’ presentation slides. Prior to that I had decided to ignore them, since, you know, I know what I’m doing! [Mistake #2] Flip through the slides. Oh look, she recommended pinging between the host and guest BEFORE installing Domino. Hmm. Oh well, no biggie. I’ll just ping now. Ping from guest to host. All good. Ping from host to guest. Nothing. Crap. So then I start playing with the Network Adapter setting on the virtual machine, thinking maybe I just have the wrong setting. Which each time (I think) requires me to shut down and restart the virtual machine. Since I installed Domino as a service, this means I get to watch my Domino server start up and have to shut it down each time. [Mistake #3].

Still no go. Okay, next I Google my problem. No one ever seems to have a problem pinging the guest from the host. Lots of people have problems the other way, and lots of people have solutions, but nothing for my problem. Crap. Again.

Finally, something goes off in my brain that I remember something somewhere about XP and ip addresses. Oh yeah, and Jess said she uses Windows 2000. Hmm. Let’s try that. Dig out old Windows 2000 Server CD. Install…hey! Look at that! PING! PING! PING again, just because I can! Success. Now I install my Domino Server. Ah, look at that. A thing of beauty.

Launch the Notes client. Make a new connection doc and a new location doc (because now I’ve moved on to a new machine, new installs, etc. out of sheer frustration). And…crap. Still can’t see my server. Ping again. Yep, that still works.

Finally, I ask my admin. What the heck am I doing wrong? He comes over, tells me to put the ip address in where the connection doc asks for the server NAME. Not the tab that asks for the Server Address, I had that right, but the tab that asks for the Server Name. I do that, and sadly (because I am now embarrassed in front of the admin, who thinks I’m an idiot), but happily…it works! I make a joke about how long this took me and the following conversation occurs:

Admin: Why didn’t you ask me?
Me: Well, it was really the whole thing about XP and the virtual machine ip address that took so long.
Admin: Oh yeah, XP [blah blah] ip address [blah blah] I could have told you that wouldn’t work.

Sigh.

Moral of the story: Don’t use XP for your virtual machines and read the instructions.



*Admins may argue my FIRST mistake was actually trying to do anything adminstrative to begin with, since I am just a lowly developer. ;)

I’m in love with Big Red

Big Red, of course, being the nickname I’ve given my Garmin Forerunner 305. I’ve had it over a year now and I love it. NOTE: I get nothing in return for writing this entry. I simply love my Garmin and can’t live without it. I recommend it to all of my running friends, and wanted to share that with all of you (you know, all three of my readers).




For those that don’t know, the Garmin Forerunner 305, is a watch-styled GPS for runners. It tracks location, distance, pace, heartrate, time and probably 50 other things. The really cool thing for geek runners is that you can upload all of the data to your computer.

I love to have a running log, but I have a terrible memory. Before Big Red, I would always try to remember to write down all of my runs, try to remember the time and the distance. HA! I would forget have of the runs, or forget one or two important details.

Not just that, but in order to figure out distance, I had to either drive the route beforehand with my car, or try to use Google maps. Google maps can have a lag however, and I often found I was running on roads that didn’t exist according to Google maps. I also had to run to particular points (such as road crossings) that I could easily remember (there we go with that memory thing again) in order to plot them later on. And forget being spontaneous. If I wanted to run a particular distance, I had to run the route I planned, no matter what. I couldn’t change my mind and run a different route, unless it was one I had already plotted.

Then came Red. Now, I can run wherever I want and know exactly how fun I have run. Not only that, but I can see my pace while I’m running, not just after. You can set the Garmin to “auto-lap”, which means every mile (or kilometer, your choice), it marks a new lap. Then when you view the uploaded data, you can see how long each lap took.

Red also tracks elevation changes. Really nice when you see mile 3 took you the longest, and oh, look at that, it’s because there is a giant hill at mile 3. I found out some interesting tidbits about my running that I never realized before Big Red. I run faster uphill than downhill!

Different models come with different options, mine is the 305, so mine came with a heartrrate monitor. I wore the strap in the first six months or so of use. It was very useful for seeing how much farther I could push my running than I was at the time. Now, I’m not so into pushing, so haven’t been wearing the monitor, but it is a nice tool to have.

When I first got Red, you could upload your data to www.motionbased.com, Garmin’s site. Now you can upload your data to www.runningahead.com, my all time favorite running website, which has a really cool running log and great forums.

The Garmin Forerunner 405 is the latest model. Although it is a little smaller, I have heard some complain that it is too small, i.e. it’s too hard to read while running. People always ask me if it bothers me to wear Big Red. NO! I am very finicky about what I wear while running, too. I hate to even wear sunglasses and usually skip them, unless it’s a bright sunny day after a big snowfall and the snow glare is so bad I’ll go blind. So even though sunglasses bother me (and headbands and gloves), Big Red doesn’t bother me at all. It did take some adjustment, but I don’t even notice it now.

Anyway, I love my Garmin. If you are a runner, I recommend getting one. If you are a runner and a tech geek, then I HIGHLY recommend you get one. :)

Overwhelmed - In a GOOD way

Okay, I am once again overwehelmed. But this time, in a good way. I posted earlier how I was overwhelmed with what I DON'T know. The comments, on my post and on Twitter, by people considered gurus was really wonderful to see.

To know that the gurus don't always feel like gurus, makes us little guys feel so much better.

I feel so much better, in fact, that I downloaded some VMWare, installed a sandbox Domino 8.5 server, and started in on Declan's XPages "book". That should get me better acquainted with Designer 8.5!

Of course, I can't get my laptop to see my VMware server, but I'm sure I'll figure it out, right? :)

Overwhelmed – please tell me other people have felt like this!

Okay, so I’m a middle-bie. Not a newbie, but not an oldbie either. However, I’ve recently become acutely aware of how much I do not know.

There are times when I attend a Lotusphere session, or read someone’s blog and I feel like I could sit and read books, read code, take classes, develop, etc. for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for YEARS and still never feel up to par with these people.

I have good days, too, where I figure out some cool way to accomplish what I needed in LotusScript and I stand up and do a little dance at my desk, but today, I am just feeling overwhelmed. I don’t know Java. I don’t know Javascript. I don’t design websites, I’m not Web2.0-cool. I’ve looked at the 8.5 Designer and freaked out because it just looks so different from what I am used to. I don’t have a computer science degree and sometimes I think that fact can erode whatever confidence I may have had in myself.

I know this feeling will pass. I will take a few hours (days?) to get acclimated to the new Designer. I will someday learn Java and Javascript. I know I have to be patient. But right now, I just want to know it all, and know it all now, and feel comfortable and confident in what I know.

Anyone else ever feel that way? Anyone? (Feel free to lie and say yes to make me feel better).

I may not run marathons - but I did stay at a Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn. I'm not sure, but I think that must translate in some language to "Really Awful Shower". My only choices were boiling hot or freezing cold. Poor water temparature control + low water pressure + crappy massage shower head = boiling hot water shooting out at me every 5-7 seconds.

Anyway, since I am in the lovely city of Woburn, MA at a Holiday Inn, my running choices were a bit limited. I had to resort to the DREADMILL. The lovely Holiday Inn "fitness room" was being renovated, so the temporary fitness room consisted of a treadmill, a stairmaster, a stationary bike and a 27" TV. I got on the dreadmill with plans of running three miles. It was painful. I put on the TV, flipped channels. Mind you, there was no remote, so I had to pick my channel and volume prior to getting on the treadmill. I chose ... wait for it ... American Idol Results Show, which is redundant for boring on a good day. On a treadmill that is so loud, you couldn't hear a jackhammer let alone the TV, the American Idol Results Show is pure torture.

I started playing games with myself. Ooh, it's a commercial, can I guess what it's for before the product is shown? Hmm, let's see...a girl, playing, in the trees, ooh orange trees, it's a commercial for orange juice! Wait, no the mom is sneezing, allergy medication! Nope, Nyquil. Oh well.

Did I mention my view consisted of a brown door three feet in front of the treadmill? Really, captivating.

Communication for the IT Geek

I by no means claim to be a communication expert. However, in the course of my job, my communication skills are often called upon.

1) I am a developer. I am required to communicate with the user to determine their needs/wants/desires. After designing an application, I am required to communicate with the users to determine if those needs/wants/desires were met as well as communicate with users when they run into problems.

2) Being part of a small IT team (there are only three of us), I am required to communicate with users when my cohorts (particularly the guy who handles most of the helpdesk requests) are not around.

So, imagine if you will, a System Administrator (completely hypothetical, see disclaimer): he plans his infrastructure, he administrates said infrastructure, and what he says goes. He feels no need to communicate with the users. They will use the system he provides, end of story. You don’t like it? Tough. See this guy, I’ll wait, it’s worth it. (While hysterically funny, this should be an example of what NOT to do. Due to his own poor communication skills, he actually creates more work for himself!)

While that is an enjoyable attitude to have, let’s face it, if there were no users, we would have no jobs. So, some communication must be doled out to users.

Communication is good. Really, it is. I promise. If YOU can send out the appropriate information, in the appropriate format to the appropriate people, you will have to interact with end users far less than you currently do and those interactions will be far more tolerable, even possibly enjoyable.

So, on to the tips:

Try to think like the user (I know it’s hard, just try). They have NO idea what you do, they just want their stuff to work. They have 25 bosses yelling at them to get their TPS reports done. Are you designing an app that requires them to click through three screens to get to something they use several times and hour? Do you take down the server at noon to install an update?

Don’t be condescending. It doesn’t help anyone. The user will feel angry and frustrated. In all likelihood, the user will walk away. YEAH! You think. However, the next time they have a problem, they won’t report it and it will fester until it goes from a relatively small helpdesk problem into a large crap-this-will-take-me-hours-to-fix problem. Or they will report you to their boss and their bosses boss and who knows who else will come tromping into your office to tell you to be nicer to people. So condescending does not help in the long run (even though it feels good sometimes!).

Be PROactive more than REactive. If you are going to take down the server in the middle of the day, communicate that fact to your users at least 30 minutes beforehand. Too little time and they won’t be able to save their work and exit. Too much time and they’ll forget when it’s happening, or that it is happening at all.

Err on the side of too much communication. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone complain when I’ve given them “too much” information. If it is too much, they ignore it. Fine. At least that lets them decide. Too little information and once again, you have frustrated users. Worse, they can often fill in the gaps with their own made up info. Example, the T1 line goes down, so external email is not being delivered. Without any information from you, the user assumes Lotus Notes is down and IT sucks. If you communicate the information (the T1 is down and external email will not be delivered until the T1 provider fixes the problem) AHEAD of anyone complaining, you will have far less user frustration and misconceptions.

However, too much communication shouldn’t mean “tech speak”. Throwing out a bunch of technical terms just to get users off your back doesn’t count as communication, see the paragraph about being condescending. Have you ever had to sit in on a marketing meeting? Lots of industry jargon. It can be frustrating to sit there not understanding a word people are saying, can’t it? Don’t do that to people.

Don’t be afraid to speak to users in real life. Too often we rely on emails and IMs. In the daily barrage of information we all receive, these can often (always) be ignored.
Frequently, tone and intent can quickly be misread in email or IM. When things start to get out of hand or have too many back and forths, stop, get up and speak to the user in person.

Bottom Line. Communicating with people is a good thing. Communicating well is even better. Even just trying to be better at communication shows an effort. Believe me, you will be rewarded. When I communicate effectively with users and management, I have less work to do and WAY less frustration. You can too!

6 Baby!

As you can see from my Twitter update -->

I just ran 6 miles today. It's been a loooooooooong time since I've done that. It didn't really feel that bad either! My time was 1 hour, 2 minutes, which is the same as my first 10k RACE last June. I feel pretty good, that an "easy" 6 mile run today came it at the same time as a race I ran last year. Last February I was only running 3's and 4's, so I'm ahead of the game, which is great.

As I've mentioned, I signed up for the Great Bay Half Marathon in April. I don't have any time goals since it's the beginning of running season. Finishing would be great!

I'm thinking of repeating some (if not all) of the Seacoast Series races. They were a lot of fun, and it will be fun to see my times improve (hopefully!).

For me, I need to sign up for races in order to motivate myself to run. And I really need to run. For health reasons of course, but I really find that I am a lot nicer and a lot more tolerant when I run. It's either that or start drinking. :)

Interface | matters: A Paper Prototyping Testimonial

Interface | matters: A Paper Prototyping Testimonial

Guest Blog Post!

At Lotusphere, I was lucky enough to see a session by Chris Blatnick and Tom Duff. Chris covered low-fidelity prototyping among other things. He was gracious enough to allow me to post a guest-post on his blog. Check it out!

Running Schedule Update

Woohoo! Ran the scheduled three on Monday. Was supposed to run 3-5 today, my running partner and I ran 4. I didn't even feel that bad, especially given how long it's been since I've run any more than three miles!

This Is My Life

Amusing Domino Documentation

As a newbie developer, I constantly have Designer Help open. Thankfully, I have dual monitors, so one has the Designer client and the other has Help open, most of the time.

I love when I run across gems like this one...

Syntax flag = notesDocument.ComputeWithForm( doDataTypes, raiseError )
Parameters doDataTypes
Boolean. The method ignores this parameter. Specify either True or False.

I realize it is probably there for backwards compatability, but usually the documentation notes that. This just blatantly says, put in the parameter, put whatever you want because it is ignored!

I probably need to get a life, but that cracks me up!

Excuses, excuses

Okay running schedule for this week, 3 today, 3-5 on Wednesday, 3 on Thursday and 6 on Saturday. It's been a looooooooooong time since I've run 6. Maybe last November? I'll take it slow, really slow. Really really really slow. The forecast this week is for upper 30s and mostly sunny. I think there is supposed to be one day of "wintry mix", but I've just got to get out there and run. I've already fallen behind my running partner. She ran 5 yesterday and I skipped it. No more. There isn't enough buffer in this running schedule for me to skip the weekend "long" runs.


I had some really "good" excuses this weekend. I think I saw on the Runner's Lounge, they had a forum going about good excuses for not running. So, what's yours? And what do you do to get over it?

Running Again and Again - But Not Too Much

So I ran again on Wednesday. This is a big deal. As pathetic as that seems.

I ran a half marathon last November, so WHY would it be such a big deal that I ran yesterday? Well, while I was training for the half marathon, I ran 102 miles in October. I ran the half midway through November and only ended up running 46 miles in November. I took a little break, okay?

But then, December? Only 21 miles. And worst of all, January...8.7 miles. Total. That's for the WHOLE month of January. I think this happened for a few reasons. First, I burned out overtraining for the half. I was training with a group, and was following their intermediate plan. It was a LOT of miles. Possibly, too many. Then, winter hit. Hard. This has been a very cold, very snowy New England winter. Excuses, excuses.

Now I am back at it. I've signed up for another Half Marathon, and am going to train for it. But, hopefully, not too hard.

So, it's a big deal that I ran yesterday, and last Monday and last Sunday. It's only February 12th and I've already run more miles than last month!

Application Developer for Lotus Notes and Domino – a newbie guide

I think many people get to Lotus Notes and Domino from “winding” career paths. It isn’t like most of us started out our careers saying, “Hey, I know! I want to be a Lotus Notes and Domino Application Developer!”. In fact, most people I speak to didn’t even set out to be any kind of application developer or system administrator. Many of us started out in one place, and through various circumstances found ourselved suddenly tasked developing in Lotus Notes or suddenly in charge of a Notes/Domino server.

That is essentially what happened to me. Long story short (if you want the longer version, check out my first entry), I was never officially trained. I don’t have a masters in computer science. I don’t have a bachelor’s in computer science. Heck, some days I can’t even spell computer science. Anyway.

I suddenly found myself faced with need to know how to develop applications in Lotus. I quickly realized there was no “Lotus Application Development for Dummies” guide. It seemed that there were very few resources available. AND many of those assumed a level of knowledge that I did not have.

Of course, how you learn a new skill depends greatly on understanding your own learning style.

Go to the Lotus website and spend an hour or two navigating your way through 1000 links to get to the Certification and Training page. Find a certification path that makes sense for you, i.e. if you want to be a developer, look for the developer certification. From there, you should be able to find resources such as online and in person classes that would prepare you for the certification tests. (I won’t provide a direct link since they always seem to change).

One such provider is TLCC. They provide various online classes for learning Lotus Notes and Domino. I highly recommend these classes. If working at your own pace works for you, then these are a great option. You actually download an .nsf file that has lots of working examples of the material. WARNING: if you are like me and don’t “pace” yourself well, these may not be for you as I find I never complete them.

In person classes, offered in various locations. These can be pricey, but well worth it. I have taken classes from Davalen and Workgroup Connections. Both were excellent. Davalen also offers a virtual classroom, which is a lot more convenient than buying a plane ticket and hotel room! The great thing about these classes is that you get the official IBM book. Step by step instructions and examples to learn the material. WARNING: if you find yourself annoyed and bored if you get something and others in your class do not, the in person class may not be for you. WARNING: if you find yourself falling asleep at your monitor when you “work from home”, the virtual class may not be for you.

You will also find some IBM documentation on their site that may or may not be useful. Honestly, if you are just starting out, some of their “documentation” may be a little too much to handle. Downloading Volume 2 of the Programmers Guide might just make your ears bleed.

Get the Lotus Notes and Domino 6 Programming Bible, even if you aren’t using R6, this book is still invaluable. Realize though, that if you are a true newbie, some of this book will make your head explode. Get it. Read what you can and don’t worry ‘cuz the rest will make sense later.

Get Code Complete. If you are like me, and don’t have a programming background this book will help you write good code. It doesn’t matter what language, Code Complete discusses and demonstrates good code structure. Just like the previous book I mentioned, get it, read it and don’t worry that it doesn’t all make sense right away.

Definitely definitely definitely check out www.planetlotus.org. It’s a giant list of all people who blog about Lotus. Scan through stuff, search, whatever, it’s a great place for resources.

Last, but certainly not least. The way I learned the MAJORITY of what I know. Jump in. Go to openNTF.org and download an application (highly rated or popular). Open it up in the client, understand what it does, then go open it up in Designer. Try to figure out the code that does what you experienced in the client.

ETA: A Planet Lotus blogger just asked a similar question and got a bunch of great responses, check them out here

Motivation Monday - Update

It worked! Both professionally and for running.

Yesterday, I ran again! I also uploaded all of my runs since December and realized I was being much harder on myself than I deserved. I haven't been running a LOT, but I have been running some, which is better than nothing.

Anyway, thanks to the four questions from yesterday's post:

I went running.
I made up a running schedule to get me to the Great Bay Half Marathon in April.
I convinced my friend and running partner to also do the Great Bay Half.

I also cleaned up my desk, cleaned out my emails, organized my to-dos for the many development projects I am working on, and knocked out quite a few of them.

The four questions really can be applied to anything...

What would I like to have happen?

I would like to finish the Contact Management System I am developing in Lotus Notes this week.

What needs to happen to finish?

I need to get the specs on a couple of reports that the users want. I need to finish up the remaining requirements.

Can I?

The specs are up to someone else to create, so we'll see if I get those. I can finish my stuff while I wait.

Will I?

Yes.

See? The beauty of the questions is that you can see what is realistic for a goal. Then you can readjust. For example, I may not get the specs, but rather than be disappointed at the end of the week that I didn't finish the CMS, I know that I can do the rest and that part may or may not happen. Realistic expectations = happiness!

Motivation Monday

While Mondays can be really depressing (Ugh, I have to go to work!), I also find that I am my most motivated on Mondays for things like running schedules, new work projects and eating plans.

Yesterday I was able to attend a seminar for work that happened to also throw out some good motivation tips.

My favorite came in the form of four questions. (I sadly do not have the materials in front of me, so cannot quote the source, but will as soon as I get home). These four questions need to be asked in their exact format as they were created in such a way to be motivational and NON-accusatory.

What would you like to have happen?
What needs to happen?
Can you?
Will you?

For example:

Q: WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE HAPPEN? This question puts the desired outcome into specifics, making them easier to achieve.

A: I would like to stick to my running schedule this week.

Q: WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN FOR YOU TO STICK TO YOUR RUNNING SCHEDULE THIS WEEK? This forces the respondent to really think about what specific steps need to be taken by the respondent or by others.

A: I need to make a reasonable schedule, i.e. three days rather than five. I need to make sure I have appropriate gear for the weather. I need to enlist the aid of my running partner, so I won't wuss out.

Q: CAN YOU DO THOSE THINGS? This is a reality check. Are you actually able to do the things that are necessary? If one of the answers had been "I need to run 15 miles on Saturday", that wouldn't actually be possible. The respondent would need to rethink either the outcome or what is needed.

A: Yes.

Q: WILL YOU? Another reality check. Just because you CAN doesn't mean you WILL. The respondent may commit and feel motivated to accomplish the tasks, or may respond with "I'll try", which may require a look over the needed tasks to determine which response will elicit a YES to this question.

A: Yes.


I'm looking forward to trying these questions out in various scenarios. Hope they might help you!

Ran Again!

I ran again. It wasn't exactly as soon as I would have liked, but at least it wasn't two weeks after my last run. It was in the mid-40s this morning, I had NO excuse. I ran a little over three miles and it definitely wasn't as bad as last Monday.

I'm thinking I may try to gut it through until Spring and then keep my eye out for either a sale on treadmills or a good used one for sale. Magazines and online sites seem to have a lot of recommendations for Sole treadmills, I have yet to talk to anyone that actually owns one though. Anybody out there have one? Like it? Hate it?

I hope we have more warm temps. And by warm temps, I mean anything above freezing! A lot of snow and ice melting today, that should make the roads easier to run on. Gotta get out there again tomorrow!

Gotta Keep Chugging

This weather is really getting me down. I ran on Monday and posted about it. And...haven't run since. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 40s, as is Sunday. I've really got to get out there.

I noticed that I've been in a really bad mood lately. I thought it might just be stress at work, but then Monday afternoon and evening the mood had lifted. I felt great. Same work situation, but I had run. Stress crept back in over the course of the week. And now, I'm back in a really bad mood.

It's frigid today. Somewhere in the teens, and lower than that with windchill. Portsmouth is horrible about plowing, so the roads and sidewalks are covered with inches of ice. Even if I could stand the cold, I just don't want to risk the ice.

So, anyone have any treadmill recommendations? :)

I ran - FINALLY!

Whew. I did it. It wasn't easy and it certainly wasn't fast, but I ran. Three measly miles, but the first time in TWO WEEKS. It was 38 degrees however, so I had NO excuse. I also enlisted the help of my sometime running partner and we agreed yesterday that we would run today.

It was great weather for running. Not windy, not too sunny, not too cold, just right. I, however, sucked. Wind, that is. Well, it wasn't really my lungs so much, but my legs. My knees, and then my shins, and even my feet hurt! Seriously, I think I felt better running a half marathon than I felt today. At one point I thought cars might start pulling over to see if I needed medical assistance.

Now the key thing is, I must remember how this feels. I must remember to keep running consistently so I never have to feel this feeling again!!!

Lotusphere 2010!

Due to the high cost of Lotusphere and the poor economy, I almost didn't get to go to Lotusphere this year. In fact, had I waited to book just a month, my company would not have paid for it. Luckily, I had already paid the registration fee and it is non-refundalbe!

When I got back, I suggested my co-worker and I write up our thoughts on each of the sessions we attended. We each did a presentation that included the session titles, the session abstracts and our comments about what we learned and how it applied to our jobs and our company.

It was very well received by a partner of the firm and by the COO. The COO joked about me writing twice as much next year. [insert record scratching noise] You mean, I actually get to go next year?! I thought for sure, this would be my second and last Lotusphere. Now, I don't have anything in writing for next year, but that is certainly promising!

* Note: Almost more surprising is the fact that the COO seems to have actually read all 20 pages of the presentation!

Running Schedule

A running what now? Oh yeah, a running schedule. Seems like I made one up in preparation for the Great Bay Half Marathon that I am supposedly running in April.

Hmm, now what did I do with that schedule? Oh yes, I promptly forgot all about it. I had fabulous visions of running at least three times while I was in Florida for Lotusphere 2009. Ha! I brought all of my cute little running skirts, expecting 60 or even 70 degree temps. Try 30s and 40s. I ran once and froze. I did not get a chance to run again. Or rather, I was not willing to wear a running skirt and short sleeve shirt in 30 degree weather.

So, what is on tap for me now? Well, according to my running schedule, I am supposed to run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, between 2 and five miles depending on the day.

Judging by the upcoming temps...that may be tough.

Jan 26 - 21°/8°
Jan 27 - 26°/12°
Jan 28 - 27°/23°
Jan 29 - 27°/18°
Jan 30 - 33°/15°
Jan 31 - 28°/17°

Where did my motivation go? I seriously need to just HTFU and get out there. Anyone want to come here and kick my butt?

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog.

I am a Lotus/Domino Developer and a runner. I've blogged quite a bit on my old blog about running, and I'd like to start a new blog which incorporates one of my other passions, Lotus/Domino development.

So get it? Running Notes? Notes on running and running (Developing) Notes? Wow, I am so clever, right? Hey, what can I say? The good titles were all taken.

About me:

My running background - Prior to 2007, I was a sloth. Seriously. I was 40 pounds overweight and wouldn't run unless a bear was chasing me. I had tried running a few times before in my life and despised it. Why would anyone want to torture themselves like that? Then, in September of 2007, I decided to try the Couch to 5K program. Literally taking people from couch potatoes to running a 5k in 9 weeks. With the program, I took it slow. I mean SLOW. Like old-ladies-passing-me-slow. And in November I ran my first 5k. Slowly. 34:41. BUT, I RAN it. The whole thing.

Then, I was bit by the running bug. I loved it. Kept running all winter. Keep in mind I live in New Hampshire, so that actually means something. I ran in 24 degrees with snow blowing sideways. I built up my mileage and signed up for several races in the Seacoast Series. I ran my first 10k in June 2008.

Then, I really did something crazy. I signed up for a half marathon. So it was that just over a year after I started running, I ran my first Half Marathon in November 2008.

I've cut back since then and really need to get back into a consistent schedule. Especially since I *may* have signed up for another Half in April...

My Lotus Notes and Domino background - this one is a little longer. I started out post-college as an Actress in Music Theatre, living in New York City. After I got tired of that and wanted a "real" life, I moved to New Hampshire. I had intentions of taking a temp job and possibly becoming a web designer (I had some experience with some technical temp jobs while trying to support myself as an actress). I got a temp job in 1999, which was data entry-ish at an Investment consulting firm.

I moved up through the firm from temp job, to permanent job (Data Analyst) to Performance Analyst, to Investment Analyst. It was a small firm, so while I did the investment side, I was also part of the "Tech Team". Part of my duties on the tech team were to perform some of the junior duties of a Notes/Domino System Administrator. I was also involved in hiring and managing an outside consultant who developed an internal application for our firm. Managing the consultant involved learning the design of the application in the event he was "hit by a bus". He wasn't hit by a bus, but he did move back to India.

It was shortly before that I was made a full-time IT person. Still performing junior system administration tasks, and also maintaining and developing Lotus applications. When our consultant left, it was trial by fire. I had to learn everything about development and learn it quick.

Not surprisingly, development soon became my sole focus. So, I've been involved with Notes since R5 and a full time developer for the last several years. I am both self taught and IBM trained. I am officially an "IBM Certified Advanced Application Developer - Lotus Notes and Domino" for 7 and 8. I've attended Lotusphere 2008, Developer2008 and Lotusphere 2009. I completely feel that Lotusphere is THE best way to learn anything Lotus related.

Thanks for reading if you made it all the way here.