I’m in good hands with Allstate. And Twitter.

This marks my first Twitter-related post, which is somewhat surprising based on how passionate I am about Twitter.  But I had such an overwhelming positive experience with Twitter yesterday that I decided it was time to break my Twitter silence.

For those that follow my Twitter stream you know I was involved with an auto accident yesterday on the way home from work.  For those that don’t follow me on Twitter, I was involved with an auto accident yesterday on the way home from work.  Thankfully, nobody was hurt, although my awesome car suffered some nasty damage.

After making sure nobody was injured, and after calling my wife and insurance company, I posted to Twitter:

 

What amazed me was the set of responses I got.  Within minutes I had Mentions and DM’s pouring through asking if I was ok, if I needed any help, if I needed a ride somewhere, etc., etc.  And these weren’t just from people I know IRL, either!  People who I only know through Twitter, some who don’t even live in Atlanta, all took time to see how I was doing.  A few even DM’ed me their phone numbers in case I needed to call.

This is only one example of how Twitter absolutely rocks.  To my Twitter friends – Thank you!  If we haven’t met IRL yet, let’s make sure we do!

Resolutions Redux

Now that we're a full two months into 2009, how am I doing against my resolutions?  In general, about as well as an AIG executive at a Senate subcommittee hearing.  Well, actually, maybe a bit better than that.

(1) Blog more?  Um, yeah, right.

(2) Travel?  Not so much.  I haven't even left Georgia so far.
 

(3) On the biking front I can say I did, actually, get off to a good start.  A friend of mine at work is training for a triathalon, so I've been riding with him pretty consistently.
 

(4) I've done ok keeping up with friends and have already connected with several good friends I hadn't talked with in a while, but I could certainly do more here.
 

(5) Work is off to a decent, although somewhat uneven, start.
 

(6) As far as "leading" vs. "managing" goes, I've had a few epiphanies lately (soon to be the subject of a blog post, see #1 above), and in sharing these with my team I think I've started to shift more towards leadership this year.  After additional reflection, however, I think I've consistently fell on the management side of the spectrum because that's what I was hired in to do.  Now that my team is generally setup and running I can disengage a bit from day-to-day management.
 

(7) Meanwhile, on the home front, I think I've changed a lightbulb or two.  Our garage door still needs fixin', and the garage certainly won't clean itself.
 

(8) I don't think I've done spectacularly well against this resolution, although I did make some nice surprise Valentine's/wife's birthday plans (W Buckhead, dinner at Brio, dessert/coffee/breakfast the next morning at Cafe Intermezzo).

So how are all of you doing against your resolutions?

It's Time for Those Pesky Resolutions!

The ball has dropped in Times Square, the peach fell in downtown Atlanta, we drank our champaign and we watched the debacle of Kathy Griffin with Anderson Cooper.  It's now time to start a new year and, with the strike of midnight, get to work on some resolutions.  Mine?

(1) I'd like to blog more.  I don't have anything mind blowing or groundbreaking to say, but it's a nice way to connect with people and also put on the digital record thoughts I have throughout the year.  So far, I'm doing ok with this resolution.

(2) I'd like to travel in 2009.  We came off of a 2007 with trips to Florida, New York, Boston, Vermont and I also got to go to the Bahamas.  In 2008 we went to... um... well... Chicago.  To visit family.  Not that there's anything wrong with Chicago (I love the city!), but it would be nice to take some vacations (i.e. Gabriel-free trips) in 2009.  At a minimum we'd better fly up to Bloomington, IL for our (gasp!) ten year reunion at Illinois Wesleyan in October.

(3) I'd like to bike more.  I actually did pretty well on the biking front in 2008; I logged around 400-500 miles on my road bike and a couple hundred on my mountain bike last year, I just didn't have much consistency.  For 2009 I want to participate in a century ride.

(4) I'd like to do a better job keeping up with friends.  I know it's a cliche, but time really does fly, and it's really easy to go 6, 9, 12 months without talking, emailing or IM'ing friends.

(5) I need to take the bull by the horns at work this year.  It's not like I coasted last year (that's for sure!), but I'm used to setting aggressive professional goals and working hard to hit them.  Last year was generally nebulous on the goals front, so I want to make sure I establish some and achieve them.

(6) Speaking of work, I'd like to start leading and inspiring more than managing.  This might just be my perception (meaning this resolution has already been met!), but I feel that I spend too much time being a manager and not enough time being a leader of my team.  The best teams I've been on in my career all had some inspiring people at the helm, and I want to create a similar atmosphere for the people that work for me.

(7) With all this energy I'll be expending at work, I need to start spending more energy on tackling home projects.  I'm not necessarily the most handy guy, but there are small projects around the house that need finishing.  It's far easier to spend time at home in front of the TV or Xbox or reading, but these projects won't finish themselves.

(8) Finally, I'd like to surprise my wife more in 2009.  Perhaps I'll come home with a cool tattoo or a navel piercing or something.  Or maybe just flowers.  :)

Well, readers (all 2 of you), there you have it... What do you think?  Are these achieveable?  Please keep me honest in 2009 and, if you have time, let me know what your resolutions might be!

Maybe I'm not as bad at mountain biking as I thought?

It was an excellent weekend all around - One of our busiest, but also a lot of fun.

On Sunday I had the chance to go riding with my friend Mike and Maaike. We hadn't had a chance to meet up in several months, so when Mike mentioned they were going to come in from Birmingham this weekend for some biking, I told him to surprise me with either their road or mountain bikes. Really, though, I was hoping they'd bring their road bikes, since I haven't had much confidence in mountain biking since Sope Creek and the Greenway.

So when they pulled into our driveway Saturday night with their mountain bikes loaded on their Passat, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. No road riding? "Suck it up!" I thought, and just to stay injury-free. Mike initially brought up the idea of trying Sope Creek again, but I suggested going to Blankets Creek, a mountain biking park about 25 minutes from Alpharetta that several people at work have raved about. I had no idea what to expect but knew they had multiple trails for all levels of riding.

We arrived, mounted up and took off to Dwellings, their beginner-to-intermediate level trail, and it was *awesome*. Blankets was the best mountain biking I've ever done! The trails are very well designed for a nice combination of fun with a workout. Apparently none of them are too technical, but they all have good hills and fun switchbacks. We did one loop of the 3.7-mile trail, then decided to hit it again instead of going to brunch. I've never done 10 miles of pure mountain biking before. Here are a few shots...



See you out there!