As I have been preparing for the Ultimate Florida Challenge one of the many surprises has been my need to improve my electronic/computer operations skills. I have reached the point that I am becoming overwhelmed with all the electronic gear and the need to know how to use each piece efficiently. There is my GPS with electronic maps, then there are the routes that I created electronically and then there is the task of getting the routes off my computer and into the GPS. Oh there is my smart phone that unfortunately is much smarter than it’s owner. Kind of feel like a kid that has been given the keys to the Ferrari. Then there is my new SPOT that is pretty smart and can talk to my smart phone who again is controlled by the not so smart operator. Maybe my SOPT can get together with my Smart phone and figure out how to talk to each other without the operator getting involved. Can only image what messages will be sent out during the race. Even my camera is electronic and it likes to beep. All I want to do is point the camera and shoot the picture. My watch crossed the line. I gave it up. Probably a great tool in the right hands. It had a whole weather station on it. Great I can tell you what the barometric pressure is doing but I cannot get it to stop beeping every hour and oh where did the time display go. So why did I go into all this? Good question. In looking at the Ultimate Florida Challenge I decided I would have three goals associated with it. The first was to complete the event. Seems like a reasonable goal. The second was to use the event to raise funds for a charity. I chose the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. You can go to this link to better understand what this charity does and why I have a passion for this charity. http://www.firstgiving.com/ufc2012. The third goal was to use the event to explore the different social media tools out there and get a better understanding of what they can or cannot do. I created a Twitter account , a Facebook account and lastly a blog that was specific to the 2012 Ultimate Florida Challenge. This was before Chief graciously offered a Watertribe blog. The blog is where I encountered another surprise. Keeping a blog up is a lot of work and knowing how to put videos, links, and pictures in is another skill set to develop. As with the training for the UFC I have been steadfast in trying to improve my computer/electronic operator skills and my writing skills but have also reached a point of “no more”. So with thought I have decide that for the UFC I am not going to try and keep two blogs up, or try to figure out how to shut one blog down, move everything over, and fire another one up. For the next two months I am going to continue keeping my original blog up and after the UFC I will then do everything to make the Watertribe blog as my primary blog. The link for my other blog is http://billwhale.wordpress.com/ Some posts of my other blog that you might find interesting are the following:
Nov 23, 2011 – Watertribers
Nov 25, 2011 – Fear Mangement
Dec 04, 2011 – Pain Management
Dec 17, 2011 – Decsion Making While Fatigued
Dec 23, 2011 – Capt Andy of the F/V TIME BANDIT
Jan 7, 2012 – Resiliency
Hope to see you on the beach.