Crushing My Cycling Checklist

My Trek 1500 road bike

A couple of years ago, I got back into cycling.

In fact, it was the Tour de France that hooked me back (and I wrote a blog post about that).

But this year I have taken my cycling passion to new heights.

1,000 miles

My goal for 2012 was to bike 1,000 miles on the open road. As of today, I have 1,049.

Yes, I’ve surpassed my goal — and there are still four months left in this year. It’s time to really crush it.

(Last year, in comparison, I had about 660.)

New top speed

My odometer the day I hit 1,000 miles.

Although I haven’t focused a ton on speed intervals, I have mapped out a few short courses near my home and focused on speed.

One course is just about 9.5 miles long, and I rode it twice last week. Each time I got a new fastest time — 19.2 mph the first time and 19.3 mph the second time.

Century ride

One more thing that I’d like to accomplish — I’m waiting for the beginning of fall and for slightly cooler temperatures — is a century ride, or 100 miles in a day.

I had planned out a day in early May to do it and, as luck would have it, severe thunderstorms came that day instead. So I’ve rescheduled for the fall sometime.

Cycling in 2013

My big goal for next year is to complete the Wisconsin Triple Crown. In May is the Arcadia’s Brute Challenge, in June is the Kickapoo Kicker, and in August is the Dairyland Dare.

I want to successfully complete the triple crown and claim my jersey, which means I’ll have to bike 50K-100K-100K at the least. (In miles, that’s about 31-62-62.)

Here’s to achieving my goals!

What goals have you crossed off your list this year?

HOW TO: Use Facebook Interest Lists

Here’s a view of my Social Media Tools interest list.

Facebook has been in the news a lot recently with rumors and new features being announced. But the service already offers a great feature that isn’t talked about much.

Time to check out Facebook’s interest lists.

What is an interest list?

Interest lists are a great way to group similar things into one stream on Facebook. You can include pages and people on your lists.

Why should you use them?

Interest lists are great for pages because you can get all of the updates from that page in your list feed. (Otherwise, because of EdgeRank, you won’t see all of a page’s updates.)

How do you use them?

I use them to follow pages that I have liked that I want to interact with more often.

One list I recommend creating: A list for your home town, with restaurants, businesses and annual events. That way, you can just click the link to that stream and see all the news of your home town.

How do you create one?

It’s a breeze to create one of these lists, and there’s two ways to do it.

• On your news feed, click on “more” by “Interests” in your left-hand rail. On the next page, click on “Add interests.” You can then search for lists or create your own.
• Or, on any page, you can hover over “Liked” (I’m assuming you have liked the page), and click “New list” from the drop-down menu.
• If you have not liked the page, on the settings icon next to “Message,” select “New list” from that drop-down menu. (This is the same way you can add people to your list, too.)

Subscribe to my lists:

• Social Media Tools
• NFL (but big focus on the Green Bay Packers)
• Cycling
• Wisconsin Food
• Wisconsin Food Blogs
• Favorite Food Blogs

Do you have a favorite Facebook interest list to share? Please do so in the comments.

Twitter’s Newest Problem: Hashtag Spam

Twitter hashtag spam of #smcmke. Photo courtesy of @carrieatthill.

No one likes spam. Get rid of that filthy flim-flam.

No matter whether it’s email, social media or snail mail, you can hear someone’s eyes roll when they encounter the nasty trash.

Social media sites have been battling it for a while. Twitter has had an up-and-down relationship keeping spam accounts at bay.

A growing problem

But the trend on Twitter has been for spammers to target hashtags. And during this past week, I saw that firsthand quite a few times.

It’s time for Twitter to make this priority No. 1.

Why it’s top priority

Users can block and report spam accounts, but it’s disruptive when hashtags are targeted.

Normally, users are having conversations or chats on those hashtags, so spammers block the flow of those conversations. And the time it would take to block and report all those spam accounts while in the middle of a chat? No thanks.

Room for complaints?

One argument I’ve seen often is that Twitter, like other social media sites, is free, so we shouldn’t have to worry about complaining. Remember: It’s free.

To a point, I agree. But the amount of spam that I saw in hashtags in the past week speak against that point.

Some complaints need to be aired.

#smbmad Go through the bride’s striptis with Usain Bolt, assess. x.co/mtjw

— Stephanie Myers (@Stephan52776784) August 15, 2012

#smcmke Haha : He published almost everythingbit.ly/ReZ4pQ

— Meghan Carden (@MeghanCarden1) August 15, 2012

Do you think hashtag spam is Twitter’s top problem right now?

My Top 10 Favorite Books of All Time

I love to read, I love libraries and, yes, I love the smell of new books. (Crazy?)

A few of my favorite books of all time.

But those reasons are why I was drawn in to the blog post that Gini Dietrich wrote on Spin Sucks about her 10 favorite books of all time. It got me thinking about my list.

(I read a lot of graphic novels and science fiction, so if you’re not familiar with those genres, you might not recognize some of the books on my list.)

In no particular order:

1. “Watchmen“. If you’ve seen the movie, it pales in comparison to the graphic novel, which reprints a 12-issue series from the 1980s. There’s not much I can say about it that hasn’t already been said. Go read it.
2. “Towing Jehovah” (and the rest of the Godhead trilogy). God is dead, and the characters in this series have to deal with those ramifications. Yes, there’s philosophy addressed, but there’s also great development and characters.
3. “Dune” (and the rest of the original series). The spice will flow. Duh.
4. “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?“ Ihad a tough time with this one. There’s probably a few other Philip K. Dick titles that could be here, but I want with this iconic novel.
5. “Crime and Punishment“. This is on the list for the tone of the novel, which haunts me to this day. There are certainly a lot of great classics that could be included, but this one was my favorite. “Great Expectations” was a close second.
6. “Crush It!“ This business/self-help/motivational scribe is the kick in the pants that you didn’t know you needed. Read it, live it.
7. “Bone“. A fantastic fantasy comic book series collected in this large paperback. How does a group of strangers in a valley kingdom have ties to that kingdom without knowing so?
8. “Cerebus: Church & State.” This series was 300 issues and lasted decades. And there’s some controversy surrounding the creator, Dave Sim, and some of the later volumes. But the Church & State storyline (volumes 3 and 4 of the series) have some of the best characters, humor and story. (The High Society storyline, volume 2, is also excellent, and would be recommended if you decide to read Church & State.)
9. “Demo“. A great marriage of moody dialogue and writing and equally as deep art create this short graphic novel, a compilation of 12 issues.
10. “Freakonomics“. Using economics to tackle questions that some would think should be tackled with other disciplines. And reaching unexpected conclusions.

Join me on Goodreads and let’s discover more great books. Or head over to Amazon and check out these books.