Videos from Game 1 of 2015 World Series ... Rediscovered on my Phone Today #Royals

Carrie and I had the opportunity to attend Game 1 of the World Series on October 27, 2015.  Of course, we were there to cheer on the Kansas City Royals!

We did some tailgating in the parking lot prior to the game.  It was raining steadily as we sat in the parking lot.  We had purchased the tickets the day before when Carrie saw them advertised on StubHub for cheap.  It was not planned in anyway.  What a great night though we had!

We wore our ponchos into the game as it was raining steadily while in the parking lot and prior to the game.  Just about the time first pitch was supposed to happen, it did stop raining.  We made it to our seats which happened to be our favorite area to sit.  We love sitting in left field by the fountains. The seats are roomy and we are close to the beer!

During the game, I broadcast via Periscope and forgot until today that I had recorded those clips to my phone too.  We got excited last week with the re-signing of Alex Gordon and after looking through my phone for pictures/videos, I came across these and wanted to share them too.

The first video is from before the first pitch.  Everyone is ready and #TheK is packed! We meet the two guys next to us which were a lot of fun. One was a manager of Johnny's West in KC and the other was the bartender for Johnny's West.  Could not have asked for better guys to sit next to for a game let alone my first ever World Series game.  It is rather long at 12 minutes.  I also did not realize that with Periscope that I could shoot it wide screen until late in the second time shooting a video.

Bottom of the 9th inning and Alex Gordon hits a home run that sends us to extra innings. It starts off with Salvy at bat. This video is a little over seven minutes long. When Gordon hits that home run, we all go crazy! There were high fives everywhere... hugs....  I realized after watching this whole clip that at about the six minute mark when someone on Periscope said to go wide screen, it does not change when I posted it.  Oh well, you can still hear us yelling and the plays. "Enjoy the rest of the game" was my last comment in the video and little did we know it would go on a while after that... Fun night!

I am not going to apologize for my screaming during the videos.  That was something new that I started toward the end of the regular season.  Trying to throw off the opposing team.  Plus, I feel like it is good luck, so I keep doing it for other sports too.

Image Copied from KC Royals Web Site

The Royals ended up winning the World Series... in case you did not know...  Carrie and I only made it to the first game.  The rest we watched from my lucky chair where I yelled, screamed, and cheered for the Royals.  Looking forward to the 2016 to start and it is good to hear and read about contracts and new additions to the Royals. #ForeverRoyal is right!  I know I have been a fan since I was little and so fun to see the #Royals the past past and last year making it to the World Series.

Sometime this spring, Carrie and I will be traveling with brother-in-law Greg and his girlfriend Erin to watch minor league games in Arkansas.  We are all looking forward to that and hopefully we will see some up and comers that will soon be playing for the Royals.

Go Royals!!!!

Old iPhone 5 and Wanting the Newest Features... Why Not?

Don't you love it how technology tries to keep you "current"?  Well, more accurately put, the companies that produce the technology that we (I) like to use keep us current by forcing us to upgrade our phones, computers, cars, etc.  Just so we can get the new gadgets, new features, or just look "cool".

OK, I admit, I have an iPhone 5 which at this point is over three years old.  In terms of a phone, it is old.  A friend of mine just recently upgraded their iPhone 4 to the iPhone 6.  I am not that bad, but it does make me frustrated when my iPhone 5 (released September 21, 2012) can no longer do the fancy new features that are being produced for the "new" phones.

Case in point, my phone will not do the WiFi calling nor will it do the newly published iOS 9.3 feature of Night Shift which was released earlier this week.  So, I have the new operating system and I have been providing feedback for likes, dislikes, and suggestions for features, but my iPhone 5 will not do the new cool feature.  What's the point of allowing me to test my "old" phone with the beta software if the cool new feature will not work?

I have been part of the iOS public beta program since it was released.  I have the Mac OS beta installed too along with the iPhone beta.  Overall, I have enjoyed the experience.  I got tired of reporting that the phone app on the iPhone with the beta software is slow or crashes.  I think I have reported this issue every other time the beta has released.  Once again with 9.3 I am seeing the slowness with the phone app.  It either takes forever to change from contact, keypad, or voicemail or simply crashes back to the home screen.  I provide the feedback and the next release it is fixed.  This makes me wonder if it is because I am running an old iPhone 5 and it works great in iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, but who knows.  It keeps happening to my old phone.

I still remember when I was a BlackBerry fan.  I really enjoyed the Blackberry!  Well, more appropriately the BlackBerry 8330.  It was probably my favorite phone and never thought I could start using a phone without a keyboard.  The only frustration with that phone (BlackBerry) was that not a lot of people were using it, thus, there were hardly any apps for the phone that I could utilize.  The funny thing now is that with my iPhone, I use a core set of apps.  When I could not get those other cool apps for the BlackBerry, I jumped ship to get the cool new phone.

The core set of apps that I use now include email, Twitter, browser, calendar, FaceBook, fantasy sports, and a few other odds and ends.  Probably all apps that could easily have been done back in the day on a BlackBerry.

Back to my current phone of iPhone 5....  It is over three years old.  It is an old phone by any standards.  I plan to keep it at least until iPhone 7 which is due to be out in September 2016.  I am sure I will continue to test and complain about future iOS beta installations.  I will continue to complain about the horrible battery life my phone maintains (i.e. it dies with anywhere from 5 - 10% battery life).

The Night Shift feature released in iOS 9.3 public beta sounded perfect.  I have a bad habit of as soon as I wake up I grab my phone to check email, Twitter (see previous post), and a glance at FaceBook.  Even though I have auto dim set on my phone, the screen is usually so bright that I can barely look at the screen without my eyes watering.  It does not matter whether it is 3 am or 6:30 am when I wake and grab my phone to see what has come through since I was sleeping, I still am drawn to the phone to check what was happening.  Not the best habit, but so far I have kept from responding to email or Tweets at those odd times.

Anyway, because of my old phone and the fact that Apple decided not to release the Night Shift feature to anything less than a iPhone 5s, I miss out on this new feature.  Granted, as some friends said, this is likely because the iPhone 5 is unable to handle this feature and I agree, but I feel like I am missing out with this old phone.

OneDrive for Business Next Gen Sync Client for Personal and Business Accounts

I signed up for a beta test a little over a two months ago to test the new OneDrive Sync tool.  It had worked well where I was primarily using it on my work computer.  The beta was to test new processes for the OneDrive sync as well as finally make it available for the Mac OS too.  During the beta period, I did not have a chance to try it on my MacBook Air where I am limited on local file space.  

As of today, the OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client is now available.  It is available for PC or Mac.  Just as it did during my testing, it allows to sync everything or only certain folders.  Since I installed the new client on my work computer, I did not have any problems with file syncs.  Unlike the old OneDrive for Business client where it would often fail and I would have to re-sync everything, this new client seems to have resolved that issue.

The new client allows me to specify what folders are synced for both PC and Mac versions.  Extremely handy if I want to only sync certain folders to be able to work on files at home.  I have only installed the Mac version as of this evening, so after I run it for a few days I will post another update.  I am happy to see an improved OneDrive client that will work between multiple environments.

Windows installation directions available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=717725.

Mac installation directions available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=717727.

Problem with Comments Corrected

I was made aware of a problem with posting comments to items I post.  That issue has been resolved.  Thank you to @davedelaney for letting me know.  I had checked that they worked a while back and did not realize that they were not working until Dave sent me a Tweet about it following our #blogchat last evening.

If there are any other problems, please feel free to contact me through this web site or via Twitter.

Chats via Twitter and My Experience

I have been using Twitter since April 2009 when I first created my account. In the early years, I did not use it too much.  I created the account simply to see what all the cool kids were using.  In the past few years, I have been using Twitter on a regular basis.  I enjoy Twitter much more than FaceBook and typically use Twitter to interact with others about an event whether that is a sporting, television, or other major event being discussed.  Mostly I have used Twitter to discuss Royals, Chiefs, Washburn, or KU.

Recently I had heard about #TwitterChat. This was new to me, so I wanted to find a #TwitterChat I could participate.  The first few I found were not so much "chats", but rather random people posting web sites to check on the topic.  I checked a few others finding the same thing of not a lot of discussion back-and-forth with the Twitter accounts, but simply people posting web sites to check on the topic.

I found a couple of web sites that listed Twitter Chats that had been compiled by various people.  Again, a few of these were helpful and a few were not.  I would find a topic I wanted to discuss and search for that hashtag finding no discussion at all was taking place on the particular topic.

I did find a Twitter Chat schedule that seems good and each of the times I have checked the schedule, there are actually chats occurring at the scheduled times.  The one I found is hosted on Google as a document.  It is simply called Twitter Chats 2.  By way of this chat schedule, I participated in my first #TwitterChat last Sunday.  It was a great time and I connected with others on the topic.

The chat I participated in was simply about blogging with a hashtag search of #blogchat.  It was exactly what I expected from a chat where a topic was posted by the moderator and people began responding, connecting, and interacting on the topic.  The topic of #blogchat meets every Sunday at 8 pm CST and I plan to take part in it again tonight.

My goal is to post on a regular basis here on my blog.  It was a inspiration to take part in the #blogchat and get ideas, motivation, and see what others were doing with their blogs.  Obviously having a blog, I want people to read and participate in said blog.

One interaction I had during the #blogchat last week was that I do not get a lot of comments, but I can see that people are accessing and reading the posts.  My thought on why I do not get a lot of comments was primarily because I post so inconsistently.  I believe if I start posting on a regular basis that will result in regular followers that will begin to post comments.

The #blogchat is very fast paced.  A lot of posts and it is recommended that you use a client that can separate those discussions in a easy manner.  I use Tweetbot for Mac and iOS that does this for me.  Many people use TweetDeck or HootSuite for this purpose.  I see fast paced discussions when following sporting events, but unlike those, I do not try to read or respond to every post like I did with the #blogchat discussion.

Until next time, have a great week!

Remembering December 30, 2014 -- A Year Later -- My Dad's Passing

It has been well over a year since my last post.  The past year, I have not felt much like posting.  I have not done hardly any exercising since 2014.  Part of that has just been plain laziness... the other part is that as many of you  know my Dad, Alvin "Beebe" Haverty, passed on December 30, 2014.  It was a surprise to all of us as he had gone into the hospital for the flu.

It seems like just yesterday that Carrie and I were planning to leave early December 30, 2014 morning with Brenda to drive to see Javier and eventually Corrie on New Years Eve.  That all changed when I got a call shortly after I had awoken on the 30 of December.  The call came through about 6 am after I had just realized that we had no hot water in the house.  I am not sure why, but I still feel like it was a sign from my Dad that he had passed.

A year later and it still feels like I can pick up the phone to call home and talk to my Dad.  We miss him so much.  After his passing, I was able to go back and get a number of voice messages that he had left.  Usually they had to do with computer questions needing some help with something.  Not until after his death and the past year working with files he had updated did I realize he really did a good job with computers, Excel files, and browsing the Internet.  He had things very well organized and actually used Excel formulas.

A typical message I would receive from Dad (and Mom usually in the background) is the following...



I recall when I was in grade school when Dad and I attended a class on Apple programming.  It was not even at my school as we went to another school across town.  I remember learning and writing programming with my Dad in a coding class.  My first one ever and that was well before I knew I would be doing anything in computers.

So many great memories of Dad that they keep going through my head.  What to talk about and what to share from pictures to voice messages, that has been part of the struggle.  Finally, I decided to simply post a message in his honor.

I just remembered another voice message I wanted to share.  When we first got Oliver (our Japanese Chin pictures in the first picture above), we would put a camera on him so we could monitor him during the day while we were at work.  I shared that stream with my parents one time and they really enjoyed checking in on Oliver throughout the day.  They would be watching the video feed knowing that Carrie and I would be home soon and once they saw us come through, they would call my cell phone to tell me all about it.



Dad did well with Excel files, browsing the web, etc., but as he got older some things just baffled him.  The video camera being able to show our dog was one of those baffling things.  When we would be over and show a YouTube video or movie on their TV via the Internet, he would comment how he was not sure how that could happen.

I wanted to keep this short and it has managed to get lengthy.  I miss Dad a great deal that words cannot describe.  I am thankful to have my Mom in good health and a strong family to laugh, cry, and remember about our Dad and be there for one another.

Pictures to remember Dad are available on Flickr.  The recording of comments at his funeral can be found on my YouTube channel.

The funeral service from the January 10 (approximately 36 minutes) service is below. Thank you to Trinity Lutheran Church in Lawrence, KS and Audrey at Warren-McElwain Mortuary and Cremation Services for their help and support!



Until next time, have a Happy New Year and thank you for reading as I remember my Dad.

Fell Off the Exercise Wagon... Eating Better?

My last post on July 18 (Week Two Done... Prepping for Week Three... Jog On!) was my last post here.  So, obviously I have not posted or worked out in a very long time! Ok, so I worked out a few times after the semester started, but that ended about halfway through the semester. Officially, it ended on September 29 (Endomondo Workouts).

The start of October was difficult to get anything going consistently in terms of working out.  The bad eating and beer drinking was in full effect from the start.  The Blues Festival that second weekend of October and Royals baseball games all through the month helped to keep me out of the gym, off the road, or basically finding any excuse to do anything healthy.  I was not even eating well during that time finding myself weighing in the most I have ever in my life on November 16.  Really, that was the first time I had weighed myself since sometime last year.

Yes, that November 16 weigh-in was a wake up, but only to the point of starting to eat right.  Cut back on alcohol and that's been bout it.  I weighed myself about a week after that first weigh-in and found I had lost three pounds... so it is a start!

Many of you know that I love the spin class at Washburn Student Recreation Student Center, but I have not been to class since the last part of September.  I had plans to start going back in November, but now we are about to the end of November and not having the motivation to get to the gym at 6:30 in the morning.  So, I am going to try and start working out after work and do running instead of biking.  Previously when I was running I had races as targets so I could train, but I have not been to a race in over a year, so I am going to set small targets with running.  Focus on pace and distance instead of on a goal of running a race.

This next week is of course Thanksgiving, so not the best time to start.  So, I will target the Monday following Thanksgiving to start working out after work.  Try not to go crazy with eating during the holidays and try to get a start on getting back in shape before the new year starts.

Happy Holidays!  I hope to be posting soon with my progress in eating right, exercise, and meeting my running goals.

Week Two Done... Prepping for Week Three... Jog On!

Posting a update on my progression of getting back into jogging.  How out of shape do I get when not running at all?  It is bad!  I did not think I would be able to motivate myself to get out and run each three days a week.  So far, I have been able to do two days a week.  Hoping to start a three day week kicking it off on Sunday.  I have felt alright when running the past two weeks, but not great!

The first week was brutal.  As I mentioned, I have started up the Couch to 5K again.  The first day I could barely keep up with the routine.  I was breathing heavy and possibly wheezing, but I was able to get through it without too much trouble.  Keep in mind that day one of C25K is the following:

• Warmup 5 minutes
• Repeat 5 times
• Jog 45 seconds
• Walk 90 seconds
• Jog 45 seconds
• Walk 60 seconds
• Cooldown 5 minutes

Yes, I was about done at the end of the first day.  That night, my legs hurt, and the next day, it was difficult to go up or down stairs.  My legs were yelling at me for not running for so many weeks.... or months.

Moving on to the start of week two where I found that it did not hurt as bad, but still it was not great! The only good part with starting week two was that I was not completely sore that evening nor the next day.  The progression of C25K was doing the job and progressing me slowly toward week three. I ran the end of week two last night.  A week consists in C25K terms of three segments, or days, before it moves to the next week.  Still a long way to go in my training and I hope to be ready for the Washburn Alumni Association 5K in the Fall.

I still need to get motivated and back to spin class.  I love it so much, but I have been lazy.  That is the plain and simple about it that I have been lazy.  I enjoy sleeping until about 7 or 7:15, rolling out of bed, shower, and at work by 8.  It also does not help that work has been happening where I work out (SRWC) which I have been using as an excuse.  Granted, I could still be working out at the SRWC as they are still open, have showers, and classes are in session.  I am looking for excuses not to get up in the morning.  That has to end!

The only race I have planned for now is the Washburn Alumni Association Fun Run in the Fall.  That has not helped my motivation by not having a target race for training.  Now it is all mental and relying on my motivation to get out and run.  

Tonight though, I sit back, sip a cold beer, and cheer on the Kansas City Royals.  Everyone have a great week!

Exerice Again... Gave it up for a while... back now.

Yes it is true. I gave up running for a few months. I finally started running again last week. I ran two days last week. I had intended to run three days last week, but only got in two. The first day was Tuesday and it was rough. I started the couch to 5K again from the beginning. I was sore Wednesday and Thursday. I ran again Thursday night for day two week one and felt much better. Tomorrow night will be the end of the first week and hopefully get on a three time a week running routine this week.

I figured what better way to get back into running than to start blogging about it again. It helps to motivate me into exercise. I know I need to do something with my eating too. I have not been making the best selection of snacks or desserts. A few weeks ago with I had three nights where I had ice cream each of those three nights. It was great, but yeah, that needs to stop.

So, this is hopefully one of many updates that I am back to running. I am going to try and post progress over the next few weeks with my progress. Instead of posting tweets or FaceBook updates when I finish a week, I plan to post on here with how my progress is going and how my jogging is progressing. Right now, I know I could not run a 5K without stopping. Hoepfully in about eight weeks, I will be able to run a 5K without any problem and post about it too.

Happy jogging and have a great summer!

Enjoying My First MOOC from Duke University

A MOOC was recommended to me by a fellow Washburn Leadership alum and since I had not taken a MOOC, I decided to try it out.  After all, the class was free, and it was about higher education.  The name of the class is "History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education".  We are more than halfway done with the course, but I am finding it very interesting.  We only have two weeks left of the class.

So far, I have done fairly well on the quizzes.  Along with quizzes we also are to watch videos from the instructor Cathy N. Davidson and I have enjoyed watching the videos.  The videos are split up into smaller videos so you can watch at your leisure, on your mobile device, etc when you have time. The course is put on by Duke University and they have done a very nice job with the delivery and class content.

The other interesting piece of the class is peer assessments.  For this assignment, which so far we have had two, we are assigned the task of writing 500 words about a topic.  We write up our comments or views on that topic and then we evaluate up to five other authors from the class.  Essentially, we are giving a grade based on our review of their writing.  This is done by at least five people for every essay that is written.  The average of the peer assessments is then used to assign the grade.  A interesting process to review the 1,000's of students taking the class where it would be impossible for a instructor to review all of the assignments.

The other important piece of this class is of course the discussions in the forums.  It took me a little bit to get into the forum posting on the site, but I have the hang of it now and I have been participating in the discussions.  The other area of interest is discussion outside of the course.  Using the #FutureEd Twitter hash tag, I have been discussing with others in the class about topics from the class.  For me, discussing using Twitter instead of the forums is easier as I am almost always on Twitter or have it close by most of the time.  I created a saved search for #FutureEd so I can jump into any discussion.

This course while being done through Duke University is presented on Coursera web site.  I have already started reviewing the Coursera site to find additional classes that I can take after this one is finished.

If you are interested in taking this class, watch their web site (https://www.coursera.org/course/highered) for future classes.