Thank Your Teacher Day!

For almost 60 years, the United States has celebrated National Teacher Day each year. This year that day is May 6th, which has just come and gone without my notice as I know live in England! I have not yet been able to determine if they celebrate a Teacher Appreciation Day of sorts over here. Of course, they should...

My wife used to work as a teacher over in the United States. She taught 5 year olds and did the sorts of work in one week that I did in a month. Teachers have a tough job.

Whatever the case, I wanted to put a quick post together to say thanks to the teachers that taught me over the years and that teach my kids nowadays. Here are a couple links to some teacher related stories...

• Teacher Appreciation Week
• Google on Celebrating National Teacher Day
• Wikipedia on Teachers' Day
• Wikipedia on World Teachers' Day

So, go do something nice for a teacher today or tomorrow. :)

BREAKING NEWS - Xobni for Outlook Now Available to All

Well, before I've even been back to work to hand out some Xobni requests, I got this lovely email today from the Xobni team. I'd am calling this breaking news. However, I've only actually checked TechCrunch for a post on this so far and I DID get the email four hours ago. And I suppose there IS a story running in the New York Times about this... :)

Dear Xobni Beta User,

Today is an exciting day for Xobni. After seven months of
invite-only beta, we're proud to announce that Xobni is now
publicly available for anyone to download. Your feedback has
been essential in helping us improve the performance and features
of Xobni during this period.

If you are currently running Xobni, it will automatically update
to the latest version. If you need to re-download Xobni,
download it instantly here:

http://www.xobni.com/download

You can read more about Xobni's launch in today's New York Times
by going here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/technology/05xobni.html

Of course we will continue to work hard to improve the Xobni
experience. And we hope that you will continue to provide
valuable feedback.

Please let your friends and colleagues know that a better Outlook
email experience awaits them at http://www.xobni.com.

Thanks!

Matt Brezina
Cofounder

So all those waiting for a Xobni invite from me or anyone else, go download now. And, btw, Xobni rocks! :)

Thank God, No MicroFlickr!

Anyone of the geeky persuasion should know well that Microsoft and Yahoo looked darn well like they were about to become one. Microsoft made an offer a while back, Yahoo rejected it, Microsoft made threats, they talked some more, etc.

For us that are big flickr fans, like myself, and maybe NOT the most huge Microsoft fans, many of us were nervous. We REALLY LIKE flickr as it is. We have invested our time and photos (and now videos) in flickr and do NOT want to see it change.

Well, fortunately, it seems now like we are safe. TechCrunch has broken the news today that Microsoft will soon pull their offer off the table.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/03/breaking-microsoft-walks/

Let me be amongst those to quickly say....... Halle-freaking-lujah!

Running & Dodgeball & Foosball (oh my!)

Onward in my running quest, today the family and I visited the Virginia Water Lake that I have mentioned in a recent blog post. At first we split up with my family heading one way and me heading the other. They headed toward this totem pole that is on one side of the way. The plan was for me to run around the lake and meet them there.

Well, they ended up wandering off on another path. But I am REALLY pleased that I did the 4.5 mile loop in just 45ish minutes. That makes about 11 minutes per mile, which I think is respectable considering I just started this whole running thing. This was actually my third time out for a run.

And very cool, I got the whole trip recorded via the gps in my phone. Then, less cool, I managed to delete all the datapoints. GRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Oh well, another time. :(

And, btw, the shoes shown here are my new running shoes...

Next up... Tonight was the 2008 edition of the annual Christ Church Virginia Water youth dodgeball tournament.

I had the pleasure of serving as the referee tonight and it was really great fun. Dodgeball was imported to this group by an American youth minister they used to have. And the tradition continues in glory.

And lastly, I found this link this evening about a VERY long foosball table. This was funny as tonight before the tournament, I helped carry a REGULAR foosball table down from the youth area so non-contesting folks could enjoy some foosball. Now, if we just had one of these.... :)

Thanks to CrunchGear for the originating link...

Walking Away from 20 Million Dollars

I have absolutely got to wonder what it feels like to WALK AWAY from 20 million dollars. Well, that is exactly how team Xobni feels right now.

Xobni is a startup company which provides an outlook plugin that brings much more rich content out of the pile of data that is your email. It find phone numbers, connections between contacts and makes it SO MUCH EASIER to find that file someone sent you several weeks back.

Well, they have apparently been in talks for several weeks with Microsoft to sell themselves over to Microsoft. And they have walked away. Yep, $20,000,000.... No thanks, we're fine. In short, they were a bit unsure in the long run where the future would hold Xobni in a Microsoft world. They are working on a version for Yahoo mail and will likely follow up with Gmail, etc. Those options would likely have disappeared with this deal.

Way to go, Xobni! I am SO looking forward to Xobni for Gmail! :)

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/30/xobni-walks-away-from-a-microsoft-deal/

If anyone wants a Xobni invite, leave me a comment. I have a handful left....

A Quick Running Update

I am trying to keep enthused with my most recent passion - that being to start training to run a half marathon, then later a marathon. If all goes well I'd really love to run the London Marathon 2008. However, before I really start training I need to get some details sorted out regarding my knee and the pain that sets in about 1/2 - 1 mile into a run.

Fortunately the doc was perfectly happy with granting me a physio referral. And over the weekend or so, I got a notice of my physio appointment on the morning of May 8th.

I have been cheating a bit. I did a LITTLE running on Friday of last week and am thinking about doing more sometime this week. According to the most solid web advice I could fine (and the doc's advice, now that I think about it), I should take it easy. However, I think my case of ITBS is pretty mild at this point in time.

Also, there are some things that I can do to improve the situation myself. On that short list includes acquiring some proper running shoes and running on a better surface.

Someday this week I am going to go into London and visit a store called Run & Become. R&B is a specialist running store. According to a few mates, the shoes will cost the same there as at my local sports stores. However, they actually have people on staff that know how to fit you properly, how you should run, what works, etc. According to some reading I have done, my ITBS may simply be improved by running in actual running shoes.

And then secondly, my first bits of running has been on pavement. From what I have read, this is the worst place to run, especially when just starting. So the plan is to jump over to the Virginia Water Lake sometime soon and give it a go. A nice natural environment is not only beautiful in which to run, but soft ground also puts less stress on your joints, tendons and iliotibial bands.

The Virgina Water Lake is really is a gorgeous area. The lake is prettu much manmade as the original lake was really just a glorified stream. It was first created by the Ranger of the Park in 1946, who was William, Duke of Cumberland. Unfortunately, the original lake was destroyed by a flood in 1768, but was recreated in 1780 in a much larger form by Paul & Thomas Sandby. They also added a lovely artificial waterfall at one end of the lake where the River Bourne, which feeds the lake, exits. The loop around the lake is 4 1/2 miles, which would be a great run for now.

Anyhow, one last thing. I read this interesting story today that a guy wrote up about his experience running the boston marathon. Check it out, quite amusing...

http://www.cockeyed.com/personal/boston_marathon/boston_marathon.php

Announcing - Kicks & Grins, My New Photoblog

I would like to announce Kicks & Grins, the newly created photoblog of me. Ok, not of me, but of my photograph work, etc. Read more at http://photos.captbunzo.net.

I tweeted about my new photoblog an hour ago. And my lovely wife very amusingly responded:


She's such a funny gal.... Well, I now have an actual photo post, um, posted. So go check it out!!!