My New Year Plan

My New Year Plan

Hello all,

My new year plan includes preparing for graduation proceedings which includes paying fees for graduation, getting the application process finalized for my transition from Capella University to CAL U which is the online college I am transferring to, in order, to pursue my passion. I am going for a Masters In Exercise Science with Post Certification options. My goal is to get certified in Personal Fitness Training. which I did earlier in my life back when I was competing as a bodybuilder. I am planning to get back on the bandwagon as soon as possible , I am doing abbreviated workouts in my apartment with an exercise wheel , and using dumbbells and doing intense sets of calisthenics(push ups,crunches, burpees,etc)

I am hoping I have an even better year coming although this one ended very well for me with my graduation from Capella .and boy does that feel great to have made another accomplishment in my life.

To review the year 2009 in a nutshell.:

March 27 -Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer

May 14Th -My Birthday

May 28 -involved in a car accident (no injuries very lucky)

July -started radiation therapy treatments for 45 weekdays until Sept 5,unofficially I am in remission. I will be seeing the oncologist on Jan 7 to review my blood test and the status of my condition.

December 11 -finished my Master’s Program in Information Technology

Things are going OK for me and I am confident that it will get better . I have also been thinking about how I am going to get certified in a tech field but I will ponder and research my options to make sure I make the right decision.

I will update you all as my situation changes

Have a safe and happy holiday

Until next time

Kirk

Hello all,

I just graduated from college with a Master's Degree in Information Technology,I feel elated but worried to some extent since I am now thinking what my next step will be . I am thinking about enrolling in a online college name Cal U based in PA to get my Master's in Exercise Science, I want to follow my passion which is a personal fitness training and start up my business, then the other option is to get certified in a technical field such as web design since I would like to design my own website geared toward exercise, , health and fitness, etc. I am weighing my financial options and that is the other thing Employment, I am still unemployed and without skills for my Master's in Information Technology but I always will have my experience with teaching, educating and personal fitness training from my Bachelor's Degree in Health Education and Sports Medicine. So that is my quandary at the moment.

Well regarding my diet and exercise routine. There is none . I am still in that unstructured mode and those remain challenging issues for me- so is life. I am losing weight and my diet has improved tremendously which became a health concern according my last visit to the doctor. I am not perfect obviously and I have to accept those qualities that bother me and be ok with them and constantly improving on them.

My exercise routine involves my "daily" Burpees and working out with my weights at home -just dumbbells and my exercise wheel along with calisthenics , I am going back to the gym as soon as my financial situation gets better.

Well if you read my last blog on Google Wave. I am happy to say it is growing on me and I am getting used to navigating around this product. I also am happy to say I used this tool to write my final project paper on and received an "A" which surprised me.

I do notice that Google is constantly improving on making this tool function better with the feedback from the beta tester's and in turn they have been giving out more invites . It does create less frustration than when I started because it is not surprising to see that hideous black box on the top on my Wave client that says I need to tell what happened before the black box showed up and then you have to refresh Google Wave and that does not please me either. It is due to the long repopulating of the waves that have been created by the beta testers My wave client is called Wave board and its created by one of the testers It does not improve upon its functionality but it allows me to use it as a standalone app for the Wave instead of my browser.

I am now writing this blog on Chrome , the beta browser for Mac and it works great and it seems to be faster as advertised although I am not satisfied with the rendering on some graphic intensive pages as well as some with Flash which sometime freeze or crash the tab that the web page is loading in.

I have started a wave called The Health and Fitness Wave and I am still trying to figure out how to integrate my waves with my blog . There are extensions and gadgets that will allow one to integrate but they are not working very well. So i am going to wait until Google fixes those issues. In the meantime I am going to continue to play around with the features of Google Wave.

It remains the reason why I spend all my time on the computer when I not doing school work and I will keep you all updated on my journey through life and Google Wave and whatever that entails.

If anyone is interested in Google Wave invites I still have some to give out.

Contact me on Twitter @fitnewbie or email me at kftrainer@gmail.com if interested.

Until next time

Kirk

My Experience with Google Wave

On Thursday November 10 I received my invite from Google to beta test their new collaboration tool called Google Wave. My first experience was one of excitement and jubilation , to be part of this beta testing group.I signed in and got started "waving" Oops I had no one to wave with.

So I started to explore and test out the many features that this new service boasts about . Before I got the invite , in preparation of receiving it. I did ton of research on Google Wave. which involved watching the hour and half video to get an idea on what it is supposed to do along with searching thru Google Alerts. a Google search tool that involves using selected words to get the best hits whether it is from the Web,or in the form of documents, news articles or blogs.

• I am learning something new everyday regarding Google Wave . I have several waves that I alone use with out any participants. so they will be considered private in nature.
• I am brainstorming on ideas on how to compile sections of my paper in individual waves and edit it to my satisfaction before I include in my final draft. I know I am taking a big chance in using this to compile and edit my paper.

And this will then explain why I am going on this risky journey through Google Wave..since it is the subject of my paper.

It changed from using wireless technology exclusively for a technology upgrade to testing out the new platform and/or protocol Google Wave to be implemented into a non profit organization called NAMI (National Alliance of Mental Illness). using the current technology

I have subscribed to many waves and adding more as I browse the public waves . Most of the waves I frequent or subscribe to focus on the technical side of Google Wave along with learning shortcuts which will help me to become more productive.

Thing I love about Google Wave

• Live Typing , concurrent editing,
• Ability to collaborate and share documents (have not tried that function fully due to the lack of contacts )
• Color coded user-created Search filters (has enabled me to streamline and save my important searches )
• Color coded user-created folder system
• Wave categorization similar to Outlook(Windows) or Mail (Macintosh)

Thing I dislike about Google Wave

• sluggishness and freezing (due tot the pre-beta status of this tool )
• Slow loading in browser( Safari for Mac )and in a wave client for the Mac( Waveboard)
• No options for switching off concurrent editing without wave author approval
• No consistency in the online status of the wave contacts that have been added to the contact list by a participant
• Limited invite only status , (starting to open the floodgates to pass out more invites) :)

This is a partial list that I thought of on the fly and I am sure that I will experience more issues as time goes on . I am sure that Google Wave Developers are hard at work on those bug issues and hopefully by the release date which will probably happen early next year . most of these issues will be resolved.

My overall opinion is it is a great idea that has the potential to become the most innovative tool that involves email, collaboration and IM in a mashup geared toward businesses that capitalizes on those forms of communication.

I will be reporting on any future experiences that may differ from the ones I listed above

If any one reads this I have 7 Google Wave invites to give out I cannot seem to give them away now,

Last month they were like gold now they are like a lump of coal. And yes it is a work in progress but Google would need feedback in order to make their product work better , so give a spin

You can contact me at kftrainer@gmail.com or contact me on twitter @fitnewbie

Until next time

Kirk