June 19, 2012

Run United 2 2012



To accomplish my goal of running in the three legs of Runrio Trilogy this year, I signed up for Run United 2 2012 in the first or second week after it was announced. I wasn't really excited; it's just that during those times, I was already processing some papers and stuff for my work transfer.

When I registered at Toby's Sports SM Mall of Asia, I was disappointed with the automated registration system of Runrio. I had to restart filling up the form because of a limitation of the system, which to begin with is not user-friendly. Anyway, after paying, I only got a singlet and was advised to go to Run United Race Expo whose venue is yet to be announced.

A few days or weeks later, the venue for the Race Expo was set at Bonifacio Global City. Since I now working in Alabang and it closes at eight in the evening, I just decided to go on Saturday, which is the last day of the expo and also the day before the run. As I was near the venue, I realized I forgot to bring my receipt. Good thing I still remember my code in the receipt and got the race bib and the free race belt. I also took a look inside the stalls in the Race Expo and bought myself a running shorts.

On the day of the run (June 17), it was raining because of Typhoon Butchoy. I thought this will be my first run in the rain. However, when the gun start is already near, it is no longer raining nor drizzling. I was a little nervous on the run because it has been months since I last ran. I've been too busy with work and the transition that I had not been able to have some time running. With this in mind, I decided to just run and not force myself to finish it.

After more than 5k, my body started to feel pain. Good thing there was bananas in a hydration station. It was the first time for me to eat a banana in a run and it felt good. Slowly, the pain I'm feeling started to go away. I finished the run in 1:12:50 (based from My Tracks).

Update: Based from the official results, I finished the run in 1:08:17 (Chip Time) and 1:09:54 (Gun Time). The race analysis is also available here. Not bad! I actually beat my record last Run United 1 by a few minutes although I was unable to be near my 10k record (1:02:48) last year at the Takbo.ph NightFest.

June 10, 2012

Google Apps Developer Challenge 2012



Last week, Google announced the Google Apps Developer Challenge 2012. Using Google Apps and Google Drive APIs, entries can be submitted in any of the following categories: Enterprise / Small Business Solutions, Social / Personal Productivity / Games / Fun, and Education / Not for Profit / Water / Food & Hunger / Health. The submission of entries are due on August 24, 2012. Prizes include Chromebooks and up to $20,000 USD. There are also special prizes for students and female developers.

To know more about the contest, you may check out the official website at http://www.google.com/events/gadc2012/index.html and follow the hashtag #gappschallenge on Google+.

And as Google Developer Groups are partners in the challenge, GDGs will be conducting workshops and/or hackatons. In the Philippines, the target venues are Manila, Bacolod, Cebu and Zamboanga. More details about this will be posted in the GDG Philippines blog and Google+ page.

Update:
The Google Apps Meetup organized by GDG Manila will be on July 6-7 at the Codeflux office. More details can be found here.

June 5, 2012

Transitions

In the past weeks, I have been into some major transitions in my life.

I have moved to a new company and am now working as a mobile apps developer. I've been doing some Android apps before but this time, it is for full-time. Despite this, I'll still continue with the other non-mobile projects I have been working on.

As I transfer to my new work, I have to move from Makati City to Alabang, Muntinlupa City. As it still is far from where I live, I looked for a boarding house in Las Pinas City.

But still, the most major adjustment I am facing now is using the Macbook work laptop. I haven't really used a Mac and it's totally different from Windows and Ubuntu. Even the keyboards have differences so I cannot use the keyboard shortcuts I know.