Status Update – 1.11.2015

Sticking to my New Year goal of blogging once a week. In the process of working on a longer more thoughtful post but here’s a quick one for now. Stay tuned for a more detailed post later this week. Below is what I’m up to currently.

2015 Goals

Here we go, 2015 is off and running! I’m continuing my tradition of sharing my goals for the New Year on my blog. Different from years past however, I’m revisiting a few past goals (about half) which I didn’t quite hit the mark OR pursued previously and enjoyed the outcomes.

As a co-worker once shared with me, goals are important to set perspective for the coming year. They help determine a general direction for your life. The alternative as they framed it is often much worse; wandering aimlessly without any sense of purpose or focus.

So here they are, below are my goals for 2015

• Blog once a week (returning goal)
• Run a half marathon (returning goal)
• Read a book once a month (returning goal)
• Take the GRE (returning goal)
• Create a new savings vehicle
• Spend more quality time with my dog Judo
• Develop and maintain a workout routine
• Learn basic JavaScript
• Improve my Spanish
• Invest more in personal relationships

What are your goals or plans for 2015?

[Photo Courtesy of Justin Mier]

Love Lost In Foursquare Breakup

As a hardcore Foursquare user, I hate to admit it but the service has lost a bit of its mojo with the recent update which split the service into two components – Foursquare and Swarm.

The new Foursquare functions similar to Yelp and expands on the service’s previous efforts to focus on local discovery and recommendations. Foursquare continues to deliver on both aspects but now relies on Swarm, its sister app for new location data.

Swarm functions much like the original Foursquare and is faster than its predecessor for check ins. Some of the components migrated over from the original service include the ability to see nearby friends, check in to various locations, and view venue specific info. Added to the service is an increased awareness of your location when you open the app, stickers to represent actions, and similar to Facebook’s recent “Nearby Friends” feature, the ability to broadcast and share your location with friends to increase the chance of impromptu meet-ups.

Core components missing from the new apps include the stat board, badges, points, and Foursquare's popular Mayorships.

The Foursquare breakup while not perfect isn’t a death sentence for the location service necessarily. It’s likely only the beginning of the next chapter.

As a longtime underdog in the social media world Foursquare has adapted and changed with the times. It has proved it can be resilient and focused on an established vision. All being said however with its increasing age, it runs the risk of losing ground to newer apps on the market. One of the most notable is Move. It was recently acquired by Facebook and tracks movement and location without the need for user driven check ins. Paradoxically, it’s powered by Foursquare for location data.

For now I’m still in, even if it means I can’t be the Mayor of my favorite spots.

Orting – Hometown by Default

I’m never really sure what to say when people ask me where I’m from. The short answer is always, Orting, Washington. This answer used to get a couple of pauses and a brief, “awe, where is it located exactly?” Like I frequently do after receiving a puzzled look, let me give you my Orting pitch to help you understand this little town nestled arguably dangerously close to Mount Rainier.

Orting is a picturesque town in a lot of ways. As it was once described to me it’s an island of sorts which sits between two major rivers – the Puyallup and Carbon. Both flow down from Mount Rainier. On clear days the mountain will take your breath away with its scale and varying colors which change with the sun and weather conditions.

As a former rail stop between a few mining towns further east, Orting has a distinctive “downtown” core which spans a few blocks located near the old station. While no urban metropolis, it offers up a mix of amenities including a local drug store, library (my name is actually engraved on a clock located here), Mexican restaurant, and a few other small shops. The downtown is split in half by the City Park. When I was growing up the park was the place to be during Orting’s few city specific festivals such as Red Hat Day, Summer in the Park, and the yearly Daffodil Festival.

My favorite part of the town is the extensive bike trail which runs all the way from Puyallup to South Prairie. When my older brother and I became farm hands one summer on a local raspberry farm we used the trail to commute. In the early mornings after we were done picking berries my brother and I would race down the trail back home and then eventually to Blockbuster to rent video games.

Past the town parts of Orting the rail reaches back into the woods and runs adjacent to the Puyallup River for miles along an old railroad track. The calming nature of the woods is enough to make even the most stressed person relax.

And I can’t forget about the Lion’s Club field located just on the outskirts of town. It’s not much more than a giant patch of grass with a few lines setup for soccer but it’s an amazing place to be during the Fourth of July. The whole town usually comes out for the event and you start to ask yourself, “is this town really so small?”

While I spent my high school years in Orting it’s not my original home. Throughout childhood my family lived in many places along the Puget Sound including Seattle, Federal Way, and Kent. Orting was our final destination. While I often hate to admit it at times, wishing I was from somewhere “cooler,” more “cosmopolitan,” or “famous,” Orting is where I hang my hat and call home.

It’s the place I became a “track star,” my father achieved his dream of becoming a city councilmen, and my family established a name for itself. Like many things in this world, meaning is derived from context; for me that means where I’m from has varying degrees of complexity but the short of it is, I’m from Orting.