Converting a Micro SIM to a Nano SIM

The Sad Backstory

So, my iPhone 4S suddenly started having issues last night.  It would repeatedly connect and disconnect from the recharger while sitting there calmly, physically connected to it.  I tried hooking it up to the USB adapter to my laptop (different cable).  Same problem.  The iPad had problems with neither cable.

I tried to restore it, but that was problematic, what with it randomly disconnecting in the middle of restoration.

So, off to the Apple store where an "Apple Genius" decided it was pocket lint and started digging into the connector port with a SIM card removal tool.  My hopes grew.  Certainly pocket lint clogging the port *could* be the problem.

After the "genius" was done, there was a stark difference in performance.  Now it would not connect at all.  Hooray.

And it's 18 months old, so it's out of warranty.  Hooray.

Anyway, long story short, I had an iPhone 5, which takes "Nano SIM" cards as opposed to "Micro SIM" cards, neither of which deserve their names.

The Motivation

T-Mobile used to just cut down the cards for free.  The location I went to was eager to reap the revenue of their new $20 fee for doing that.  Sure, I could afford that, but it pissed me off that they took something that can be done literally in seconds, using a tool that costs around $5, and tried to jack me for $20.

Sure, I could have made a stink and perhaps even changed providers on principle, but cutting down the card *should* be easy... right?

So, I decided that I would punish them for poor market research and price setting by at least *trying* to cut down my card.

What did I have to lose?  If it did not work, then I had lost a little time.  If it did, I could claim triumph and perhaps even help a friend in the future.

The Resource

After searching the interwebs, I settled on this tutorial and cutting guide.  Knowing that I had plenty of tolerance in how I cut it, and wildly confident in my skill with precision knifework, I flagrantly disregarded the instructions to score/mark the card, whipped out my precision knife, and started cutting.

I cut away all of the spare card and even clipped off a piece of the contact to make the chopped off corner shape.  Still not enough.  The height of the card was good, but the width was not (I am calling the width the long dimension that goes side to side as you look at the card).

So, I cut a sliver more off of each end, wincing slightly as I boldly (foolhardily?) sliced off bits of contact.

Humorous aside: I whipped out precision knives and clippers for this work and a pair of plain old utility scissors ended up being my primary tool of choice when it came down to it.  It was just easier to grip the card and use the nice long blade of the scissors to insure a straight cut, as opposed to fiddling about trying to hold a cutting guide against a tiny card while cutting it. The only problem was having to resist the urge to run with scissors.

With the slight adjustments, it was the right dimensions now, but the corners were a bit fiddly.  So I rounded them down slightly with a handy nail file.

Bang! It fit.  It ended up being a hair smaller than the holder.  But did it work?

I slotted it into the phone...

Moment of truth...

It WORKS!

Sure, because you have to trim the contacts a bit, it feels like you are breaking it, but what the interwebs say is true, it's will still work.

So, if you want to take a shot at it, I encourage it.  you problem just need good, straight, sharp scissors and a steady hand.  I do not recommend being as cavalier as I was.  Go ahead and mark or score the card using the template.

Trying Out NetBeans Integrated Development Environment, Part 2

OK, time to start using it...

I fired up NetBeans and learned that it thinks of things in terms of "Projects".  It gave me multiple choices and, frankly, I had no idea which made the most sense.  I was a bit uncertain at first, but I selected a "PHP application" project and clicked "Next"...

Choice - Version of PHP? I went with the latest version they had 5.4  I hope it's enough.

Choice - Metadata separate or no? An interesting feature is that NetBeans was willing to let me save my metadata in a different location than the rest of my files.  I pondered doing that, but decided I would go "all in" on this first try.

I gave it my remote connection info and tested it - Success! I chose to have it upload files on save, so that I don't have to worry about the current files on the site being outdated.

Off to the races!

Houston, We Have a Problem - Upload on Save Not Working

So I decided to start out easy and create a very primitive script to run phpinfo.  Well, immediately I had a problem in that it could not upload the files, as desired.

I opened up the Project Properties and looked at the Run Configuration and saw that the defaults for Upload Directory and Project URL were off.  Upload directory had the project name, that is not what I want.  Cleared that.  The project URL was wrong too.  Fixed them...

Still no luck.

Checked FTP settings.  All looks good.  Test still results in successful connection.

:-(

Dreamweaver...is also not working...WTF?

Oh, God, is it the bloody VPN again?  Turned off VPN.

Dreamweaver works.

Uploading files from NetBeans works...file is too high in the directory on the site...fixing Upload Directory.  Hel-lo Goldilocks, that's just right!

Hooray!  I can start working now! :-D

Lesson learned: Even if the FTP test works, fire up a separate FTP access to verify as you go that you are using the correct parameters and writing to the correct place.

phpinfo

The highest version of PHP that NetBeans offers me is 5.4, which begs the question, what version is my host running?  Well, as you know, phpinfo is the way to answer that question...it turns out it is 5.4.11.  OK, good to go.

How in the HELL Do I add a Folder?

OK, so time to get to work and I want to muck about with test files, so let's create a new folder.

Right Click my main folder...umm, nothing for folder creation.  Check the other menu tabs...nothing.

Searching the interwebs...A-ha!  Hmm, you have to pick "Other"...and then "Other"...and THEN "Folder".  Wow, I guess NetBeans people don't care much for folder creation or they *really* like subcategories.

OK, So, In Practice, What Do I Think?

Not bad.  I like their syntax prompts and hints, for the most part.  Honestly, they feel a bit like an overbearing mother, but Dreamweaver felt like an absent parent.  So, NetBeans is definitely worth trying and try it I will.

Trying Out NetBeans Integrated Development Environment, Part 1

Long time, no post!

I need to get back in the habit and today I do just that.

I am trying out NetBeans IDE.  IDE stands for "Integrated Development Environment".  Basically, an IDE is a piece of software that facilitates your development of applications/content in a given coding language.  I am specifically interested in PHP and MySQL for website development, but there are many languages and many IDEs out there.

Why Am I Looking at a New IDE?

Note: This section is mostly personal history.

Excellent question.  The reason I am looking at IDEs at all is because I currently use Dreamweaver to develop web content, primarily for owlcon.com.  While it is a very austere and low bandwidth site in appearance, there is a lot of magic going on behind the scenes.  The vast majority of what you see is dynamically generated with up-to-the-second information and there is a mountain of features behind the curtain for the folks running OwlCon...the Wizard of Oz would be proud.

But I do this as volunteer work for a student organization and having them fork out hundreds of dollars a year for Adobe Creative Suite (CS) or even just Dreamweaver is probably no longer necessary.  About a decade ago, I wore many hats and had to work a lot of magic using many components of Adobe CS and Dreamweaver, so when Adobe acquired Dreamweaver, that made life easy.

But damn is it expensive and I want to see if I can find a way to obviate the need for it.

What is Out There?

You can surf the web as well as anyone, but this wikipedia comparison is a reasonably good starting point.

What Did I Look for in an IDE?

I had a number of considerations that mattered to me:

• Free and open
• Strong community
• Highly regarded
• Cross platform
• Supports PHP and MySQL development
• FTP/syncing
• Easy uploads
• Easy local testing

Free and open - it's kinda pointless to buy something different, since cost avoidance is one of the reasons for this activity.

Strong community - As with any free or open software, you are going to want a strong community to insure that you will have a reasonably good chance of 1) addressing your questions and problems and 2) the software persisting over time.

Highly regarded - I am not interested in the "sleeper" software with a "cult" following.  I need something that works and lots of developers consider it to be a solid tool.

Cross platform - I don't want to have to worry about whether or not I am on a PC or Mac now or ever.  That said, if I had to choose, I would settle for Windows-specific, since that is my primary means of development.

Supports PHP development - What I primarily mean by this is that it supports syntax and formatting of good PHP code, to include MySQL commands within PHP scripts.  So, if I mistype a function, I would like to have feedback, e.g., the text changing color or not changing color.  I would also like easy references for PHP and MySQL.

FTP/Syncing - I would like the platform to have the ability to compare my local and remote files and determine which ones are newest, then give me the option to update just those.

Easy uploads - I would like the ability to upload a file.  For example, a hot key that will upload the file to my site.

Easy local testing - I would love to be able to do any local testing without extra hurdles, be that moving my sites to specific directories, changing my database names, installing a WAMP stack, etc.

Why Did I Try NetBeans?

Well, it appears to satisfy all of the above requirements.  Yep, that's pretty much it.

I am concerned that it might not be ideal for PHP, as it was primarily created for Java (hence "beans" in the name).  But folks on the interwebs seem to like it for PHP, so I will give it a try.

Installation Notes

NetBeans has the option to download just a PHP version, but I went ahead and downloaded the whole thing, which means I can code in a number of other languages.  Hopefully, this does not create problems or confusion.  If it does, I may have to back off to just the PHP version.

Because I went that route, I had to install the Java SDK (Software Development Kit) from Oracle.  Not surprising.

While installing, I was required to accept the terms for JUnit, which was a surprise, as I had not heard of JUnit until this request popped up. It appears to be legitimate and it enables unit testing.  I am not sure if that will extend to PHP, but if it does, that could be pretty cool. Clickety click.

It Won't DIE!

After it was all installed, I ran into yet another oddity.  It would not stay dead when I closed it normally.  Rather, it would shut down, then restart, giving messages that suggested updates were occurring.  I could only completely close it by killing the process in Task Manager.  OK, not surprisingly, that is because it is trying to do things like make changes to the computer so it can update the software.

Running in administrator mode solves this problem, but I find that I have to keep it in administrator mode, even after everything is up to date, or use Task Manager to kill the process.  This worries me.  I will have to look into this more.

Ready to Rock!

OK, so now it is installed and I am ready to rock.  Until the next post...

Doha Part Deux - Boy Are My Arms Tired

So, I am back in Doha again.

I opted for 1) the shortest total travel time and 2) no transfers in a foreign country.  That had me flying out from Dallas on American Airlines to Houston, then on to Doha.  The flights were somewhat close, which meant a short overall travel time, as long as nothing delayed me...

A few minutes before the American Airlines flight boards, I find out we are delayed 12 minutes.  No problem, I have 90 minutes to spare.  I get on the plane, sit down...wait...wait...the middle seat is empty, w00t!  Still waiting.  Hmm, what are those guys in overalls doing in the cockpit?

At about the half hour delay mark, we are told there was a minor maintenance issue that was resolved and once the paperwork is done, we will be on our way.  Cool, now I am down to 60 minutes of breathing room, or less, *and* I get to take off in an airplane that was suffering a mechanical problem.  Well, it's certainly less boring than I expected.

We finally get to Houston and I blaze to the Qatar Airways terminal as fast as I possibly can, hearing my name called over the public address system repeatedly throughout my trip between terminals.   show up and there are quite excitable about me almost missing the flight.  they remind me that boarding stops 20 minutes prior to departure; lesson re-learned.  However, I look at the clock and see I still had 40 minutes until departure.  Nonetheless, they hurriedly hustle me through the gate as if the plane is starting to roll down the runway...to stand in a line of well over a hundred people walking down the jetway at a speed that is akin to George Romero's zombies.

Hurry up and wait.

The police dog seemed nice.  Too bad you can't pet them.

The 15-hour flight was made a bit easier by once again having no one in the middle seat.  Dare I say, "w00t!" again?

The weird thing is how different it is to return to Doha.  The first time I was here, it was a mysterious new place.  Now, it's just a dusty, hot workplace that is prohibitively far from home and my stuff, where I have to go to great lengths to create opportunities to execute my workouts.  Here's hoping the assignment passes/ends quickly.

Why the Concept of "Legitimate Rape" is Evil and Todd Akin is a Bad Man

Todd Akin.  I did not know this man until he slipped up and spoke his mind on the topic of rape.  If you don't know who Todd is, well, let me help you out.  In an interview on August 20, 2012, he communicated his belief in the fallacious concept of "legitimate rape".  Here is a link to a video of the comments.

“It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare.  If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child.” [Emphasis mine]

Now, most reasonable people would probably perk up and say something along the lines of "WHAT  did he just say?"  However, he does a good job of adding in some language that may cause a pro-life person to let it slide.

But what he is saying is that in the case of a legitimate rape, a woman should be physically incapable of getting pregnant.  The concept of legitimate rape was advanced by some scholars...in the 13th century.

Now, you may think that sounds crazy, and I would agree with you.  But let's keep thinking about it and see where this goes.  Let's do some quasi-Socratic discourse here.

Why would you argue that a woman cannot get pregnant from rape?

Well, in this case, it's pretty obvious.  The discussion was around the candidate's views on abortion and if there should be an exception for rape, an exception that even many religious, conservative voters think is acceptable.  There has been a strong push among the staunch pro-life members of the GOP to create a constitutional mandate completely outlawing abortions.

In the discussions around how to refine the platform, the topic of exceptions is a common point of contention.  Two key exceptions have a great deal of support - 1) an exception to save the life of the mother and 2) an exception in the case of rape.

No matter how well you can craft a speech, it's pretty hard to convince someone that forcing a woman to risk death to have a child is not reasonable.  So, they may be stuck with that one.

However, if you embrace the 13th century concept of "legitimate rape" being unable to result in conception, then you can conveniently dismiss women seeking abortions for rape and you are one step closer to completely banning them altogether.

Consequence 1: If one accepts that a woman cannot get pregnant from a (legitimate) rape, then one can more easily justify foregoing an exception for abortions in the case of rape, under the presumption that, since rape cannot get one pregnant, all pregnancies must be from consensual sex.

Is it reasonable? Nope.

Does the data support it? Nope.

Does common sense support it?  Nope.

But it is mighty convenient if you want to ban abortions for rape victims and feel good about it.

However, the concept of "legitimate rape" is not new.  It apparently dates back to the 13th century.  I am pretty sure there was no Planned Parenthood back then, so why did they propagate this lie back then?  Well...it disenfranchises women in a big way.

Consequence 2: It gives rapists a "get out of jail free" card because if a rape victim gets pregnant, then, by their logic, it could not have been rape, i.e., if a rape victim gets pregnant, then she must have been lying about being raped.

That is a misogynistic and evil outcome, especially when you consider that, in the times when this concept was first formally advanced, women were often second-class citizens.  It's a sad, tragic thing to even ponder.

So, why do I say Todd Akin is a bad man?

Look, he very clearly advocated this "legitimate rape" belief.  He's old enough to know better, but it supports his political agenda, so he propagates it anyway.

When he was called out for it, he tried to pretend it was a matter of "mispeaking".  This is indicative of someone that actually does not understand why what he said was wrong.  He thinks we are getting bent out of shape because he said "legitimate".  He does not understand that he is 1) communicating a ridiculously incorrect idea of female biology and 2) effectively condemning women that get pregnant from rape as liars.

If this was some idiot sitting on his porch, spewing vitriol, it would still bug me, but it would bug me less.  Unfortunately, propagating ignorance is not a crime.

So why isn't Todd just an idiot?  Why is he bad?  Because he is in a job where he is dutybound to know better, especially if he is going to make laws based upon the idea.

When Todd Akin made those remarks, he was running for US Senate and had already served in the US Congress.  Our representatives are supposed to 1) represent the best interests of their constituents and 2) act as trustees when issues require more than the opinions of their representatives (e.g., a complex policy issues that defy sound bite discussions).

They make the laws of the USA.  They must be held to a higher standard.

The concept of legitimate rape is evil.  People who propagate it should not be given positions of power.

Obfuscating Facts With Politics

I am a fan of Fareed Zakaria.  So, when I saw an article not just criticizing, but insulting his Global Public Square (GPS) special on saving America's healthcare system, I was taken aback.  I was further disappointed when the author did inappropriate things like speculate and imply insults, slights, etc.  For example, "he implies that conservatives are nutty and misinformed".  Comments like those were the ones I felt crossed the line from critique to insult.

However, being a fan of getting at the truth of the matter, I decided to try and evaluate his objections.  I picked what I thought was a simple one, the validity of citing life expectancy as a metric for the quality of healthcare, something the critic feels he has thoroughly debunked.

Life expectancy is a very commonly-used metric for the quality of healthcare in a country, as is infant mortality.  Fareed did not cherry pick those facts, it is established as reasonable and expected.  But let's examine the question - is life expectancy a reasonable number in this context?

Fareed's critic points out that people die for non-medical reasons.  Some, perhaps many, would suggest that any death is ultimately related to medicine because one's ability to avoid dying is typically strongly tied to the ability to get adequate medical care in a timely fashion. Even when one is shot, a resulting death may still be due to poor access to healthcare.

Let's look at the numbers for mortalities. As of this post, the most recent "final" data is for 2009.  The total deaths for both sexes over all races in 2009 was 2,437,163 (source).  The top ten causes of death were:

1. Heart disease: 599,413
2. Cancer: 567,628
3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 137,353
4. Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 128,842
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries): 118,021
6. Alzheimer's disease: 79,003
7. Diabetes: 68,705
8. Influenza and Pneumonia: 53,692
9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 48,935
10. Intentional self-harm (suicide): 36,909

Let's see if we can stop there and make a reasonable observation.  Suicide data could easily be argued as part of the problem, given lack of access to therapy, etc., but I'll throw that out to avoid controversy.  So, let's just take the top nine causes of death, which I hope we can all agree, being due to diseases, are likely related to our healthcare system's quality.

Just those nine total to 1,801,602, or 74% of the deaths, far and away a huge majority.

Now, I would be pretty content to stop there and say that life expectancy is a fine relative measure and move on, but let me speak more on the relative aspects of it.  You see, every other country is being judged in the same way.  So, they also have people dying in various ways that one might not attribute to healthcare.

The critic also goes on to show data and make claims that are inconsistent.  Case in point, he looked at this chart:

And made the simplistic statement that if your country is wealthier, then you have a higher life expectancy at birth.  On the contrary, it looks more to me like the USA, which is at the top for wealth has a stunning amount of competition for life expectancy from countries with a small fraction of its wealth.  Note: it's GDP per capita, so this is not a big vs. small country thing, it's wealthy vs. poor.  In fact, once you get to about 1/3rd of US wealth, there is not a lot of deviation around the USA baseline.

In general, I found the critique to be clumsily misleading and I expect better.  The more important point, to me, was that this is just one of many tiny points the critic makes.  Some of his points may even be 100% correct, but he has delivered in a way that reeks of the kind of commentary you expect from not-so-subtle opinion commentators with clearly partisan agendas.

So, my punishment is to leave the critic faceless in this post and simply point you to Fareed's commentary. :-)

Time Magazine Article "Health Insurance is for Everyone"

At the very least, it is a very thought-provoking view.  He also has podcasts of this GPS shows and specials.

Geek Spasm - Running, the New Style

There have been some relatively recent changes in conventional wisdom when it comes to the technique and footwear that is considered ideal for running.  In the words of the Beastie Boys, "It's the new style."

/geekspasm=start

Executive Summary

1. Buy these shoes.
2. Run this way 
3. Make a playlist of 90 beats per minute music to help your timing (a bpm database can help)
4. Win

Disclaimer: I Do Not Consider Myself a Runner

 

And yet, I have run quite a bit and know a good deal about it.  So, why do I have this perception?

Back when I was in the US Army, I had no problem acing the push-up and sit-up portions of the fitness test, but I was usually just happy to pass the running portion.  I preferred to lift weights, cycle, and swim.  Our formation runs in the morning for PT (Physical Training) were more for maintenance, esprit de corps, and discipline than enhancing performance.  I ran enough to do well on my test, but never really pushed and I knew many folks that were like gazelles.  I have run many miles; the longest to date was a 10-mile run, but that was a random "I wonder how far I can run in this many hours" experiment I did one night.

I have never run in formal competitions and have never had an interest in it.  When we broke up into fast and slow groups in the Army, I never yearned to be in the fastest group.  It just did not interest me.  Seven and eight-minute miles were fine.

Currently, I am happy with a 9-minute mile...but I confess that I might try pushing to 8-minute miles soon.  But that is the extent of my current ambition for running.

Running is just another cardio choice for me, and I do it hard enough to get a good workout.

So, I don't think of myself as a runner, but most non-runners might disagree.

The Old Style and the Heel Strike

No, heels have not, nor do they intend to, go on strike.

As it turns out, people are not born with thick, padded heels or orthopedic shoes on their feet.  So, one might question why one would slip on a thick pair of running shoes with all sorts of awesome technology packed into the heel, based on gels, air pockets, etc.  Well, it had to do with how we ran.

For some reason, it had become commonplace to stretch our leg pretty far forward of our midline when running.  This causes your heel to strike first, out in front of you.  When you do that, there are some negative consequences:

1. It causes a bit of a "braking" motion that opposes forward momentum
2. A good deal of superfluous shock is transmitted into your heels and often your knees and back
3. It can lead to a gait in which they are transferring work/shock from their muscles to their joints

Born to Run

About three years ago, Christopher McDougal put out a book, Born to Run, on his quest to understand why an old Native American from the Tarahumara tribe was kicking ass in a 100-mile foot race wearing very primitive/simple sandals.  I saw this guy on the Daily Show, during an interview back in August of 2009.  When I saw it, I thought, "huh, interesting" but that was about it.

The interesting thing to me was that McDougal was being given lots of rationales for why his pain and difficulties running made sense to the sports medicine community.  His age, build, etc.  However, what he learned about running with this tribe allowed him to overcome those things.

There is a group of runners that practice barefoot running, which has been associated with McDougal's book.  There are similarities, but at the same time, I am not a huge fan of trying to run barefoot because I live among other humans, which means sharp, pointy things on the ground every now and then, and plenty of running on unpleasant surfaces.

Adopting Minimalism

I watched as New Balance put out it's Minimus line in Spring of 2011.  Since they put out those shoes, about a year ago, I have probably run no more than two dozen times.  A big part of this is that I live in an area where the nearby streets are all inclines or declines.  This can be a dangerous way to get back into running, because of the extra danger of joint injury, especially running down hills, with the "old" style of running and shoes.  I ran more when I was visiting Doha for three months, because it was incredibly flat, I had limited access to good cardio equipment, and running along the bay was nice.

Then, last week, I decided to take the plunge.  Part of this was due to the recent release, two months ago, of their "Minimus Zero" line.  Basically, there is no heal to mid-foot drop, e.g., it's flat.

Step 1, Get the Gear

I picked up a couple of pair of Minimus shoes, one for road and one for trails, and started researching proper form.  The road shoes:

The trail shoes:

Step 2, Learn the Form

At the recommendation of the gentleman at New Balance, I headed over to goodformrunning.com and reviewed the pages and videos there.  The keys are as follows:

• Good posture, straight and aligned
• Slight forward lean, but again, with good posture, so your body should lean as a unit, not hunch
• 180 steps per minute, or 90 steps per minute for a given foot
• Your foot should strike the pavement at the mid-foot, not the heel; and should be approximately in line with your body

The videos are pretty good and cover the form in detail.

Watch the videos at least twice and be 100% sure you understand before you start.  Seriously, it's just a few minutes and your health is worth it.

For me, the pace is key.  When you kick up your pace higher, it's harder to step out in long strides, which means it is more likely you will more naturally shift into the mid-foot strike you are supposed to have.

Step 3, Get 90 bpm Tunes

Go ahead and try to reliably count out 180 steps per minute.  Go ahead, I'll wait.  Sort of a pain, huh?

Well, I have a solution.  Create a playlist of music that has 90 bpm (beats per minute) and time your running off of one foot.  For my fellow veterans, you will probably time off your left foot.  This is great because it also facilitates unconsciously maintaining the proper pace.

You don't know which songs are 90 bpm?  Well, you could Google up some, or you could just head over to a bpm database and see what they have.  Note: Exactly 90 bpm is not necessary, so just get as close as you can.  Me, I went for exactly 90. :-)

• Maybe Someday (The Cure, Bloodflowers)
• Down With the Sickness  (Disturbed, The Sickness)
• Whatever (En Vogue, The Best of En Vogue)
• (Can't You) Trip Like I Do (Filter/The Crystal Method, Spawn: The Album)
• Y'All Ain't Ready Yet (Mystikal, Prince of the South...The Hits)
• Gorillaz on My Mind (Gorillaz/Redman, Blade II)
• Shoots and Ladders (Korn, Korn)
• Modern Love (David Bowie, Changesbowie)
• World Full of Nothing (Depeche Mode, Black Celebration)
• I Feel You (Depeche Mode, Songs of Faith and Devotion)
• Rock Me Amadeus (Falco)
• All Night Long (Stereo MCs, Connected)
• In My Room (Yaz, Upstairs at Eric's)
• Closer (Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral)

 

Step 4, Run and Win!

I took this approach for a spin in my neighborhood, you know, the crappy place to run with all of the declines and inclines that are hard on the joints.  Well, I felt fine.  In fact, even though it has been four months since I last went running, I was able to match my fastest time in Doha and I was not trying to run fast; rather, I was 100% focused on good form and the proper foot strike.

I REALLY like wearing the Minimus shoes too, they remind me of Ninja-esque tabi socks, sans the toe split.  Which is to say...wearing Minimus shoes makes you more Ninja, which should be all of the argument I need.

/geekspam=end

Have fun!