GEEKNOTE: Catching My Breath

GEEKNOTE:  For those of you who might not be aware, I've served as the race director for the Coteeman for four years now.  As race director, I have ultimate responsibility for EVERYTHING connected with the triathlon. 

In addition to actually being in charge of the event on race day, this includes signing off on the special event permit, coordinating with city departments to make sure that EMS, police, public works, and recreation department folks are in the loop, and making sure that all of the other pieces come together so that the athletes have a safe and fun event. 

Being race director also includes handling the event registration and the USAT sanctioning process.  I completed the final paperwork for USAT post-race reporting yesterday and I've got just a handful of other post-race issues to resolve (eg. an athlete who was listed as female instead of male and another who was in the wrong age group).

Chopper Davis came through again this year with a great group of volunteers to man the course.  The thing I love about Chopper is that you can give him a job and you know that it is going to get done.

My assistant race director Greg Smith was there helping every step of the way from the initial planning to helping put everything back in storage after the event.  There is absolutely no way I could have pulled the event off without Greg's able assistance.

Athlete check-in went well in large measure because the twins and their mom were once again helping my wife at the check-in table.

Needless to say, my stress level goes up in the days leading up to the event, but the smiles and "thank you" messages from the athletes make it all worth while. 

Now that I have the insanely busy period leading up to the annual Coteeman Triathlon behind me, I should have plenty of time to work on several projects that have collected on my "to do" list at work.

First off, I'm going to learn how to make the most of my new smart phone.  After being told last week of a CBS News report stating that 25% of two year olds now have their own smart phones, I decided I better upgrade.  The phone came in handy this weekend as I was able to forward copies of email addressed to my race director mailbox to my phone.  The new phone is also easier to use for texting than the old flip phone.  I was concerned Thursday about whether or not I'd be able to figure out how to make calls and answer the phone while visiting customers.  I've come quite a way since then.  I even have my Outlook Calendar synced with the phone.

One of my web customers has a new audio file that needs to be edited before going on the website.  Editing audio files isn't hard, it just takes a little practice.  A good Sunday afternoon project.

Another web customer has asked me to do a complete makeover of his website.  I've been waiting on some updates to my authoring software and those updates arrived last week.  Now the fun begins... "New Toys!!!"

I'm going to attend a webinar Tuesday to learn about all the latest stuff from Intel. 

It should be a fun week.

As always, feel free to drop me a note or give me a call (847-2424) if you have any questions about your computer or the Internet.

Rob Marlowe
Senior Geek
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
http://www.gulfcoastnetworking.com