“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

- Douglas Adams

This past weekend I completed my first-ever century cycling ride by participating in the Tour De Nez. Steve James convinced me to do the ride and I’m glad I stuck with it. We were a little disappointed in the turn out, less than 30 riders showed up combined for the full 100-mile century and the metric century rides. I love to support local events like this but I’ve competed in other athletic events with much lower registration fees that seemed much more put together. I wasn’t bothered by the lack of traffic control as it was a course that covered a lot of ground and obviously ~$30,000 to take care of traffic for 20 riders would have been a huge waste of money. After talking with some other riders who had ridden in years past, the century has always been a little shaky. I had a blast though and thank you to all the volunteers that were setup throughout the valley with aide stations, you were lifesavers!

The route took us out from downtown Reno, out through Washoe Valley and into Carson City. After crossing the city, we took Highway 50 up to Spooner Summit where we were greeted with a quick lunch stop. From Spooner Lake Park, we made our way up 28 to Incline Village in Tahoe, up and over Mt. Rose Highway to return to Reno.

What’s next? Well, I want to keep up with the distance riding and start working on climbing techniques so I can start climbing longer hills smarter, rather than stronger. And of course, Steve is trying to get me to do the Death Ride…15,000 feet of climbing, anyone?

Beauty Beats by Beats Antique

Ignite Reno #2 is coming up on the night of Thursday, July 16th at Amendment 21.

Wondering Ignite Reno is all about?
Watch the intro video to find out!

Check out presentations from the last Ignite Reno.

Shaving is usually something everyone hates to do. Who really enjoys scraping a piece of sharpened metal across their skin? My own experience has been less than pleasant. I’ve tried probably a dozen different brands of razors but all of them have been common safety razors with multiple blades.

The razor I “enjoyed” most was the Gillette Sensor Excel. Most new razors have pivoting heads that have led to some pretty painful hacking. The Sensor Excel’s head does not pivot so if you’re looking for a multi-blade razor, look for this one but do not fall for the Sensor3 which has more whizbang features and I believe a pivoting head. I used to buy 30 cartridges at a time for it at Costco but unfortunately they no longer seem to carry them here in Reno.

I’ve recently discovered the problem was the multiple blades. Multi-blade razors function in such a manner that the first blade pulls the hair and the second, third, fourth (and so on) blades cut the hair. Ouch! Earl Spriggs gave me a single-blade straight razor along with shaving soaps and a brush as a graduation present and I’ve found it makes a significant difference during shaving. Before I started using the “new” razor, he suggested I check out videos from Mantic59 on YouTube. Mantic59 has an entire channel of videos dedicated to shaving with multiple types of razors including a straight edge razor, for those of you brave souls looking for a barber shave.

While I doubt shaving will ever be an entirely pleasant experience, I’ve found that using a single-blade razor has made shaving much more enjoyable and my face doesn’t hate me (as much) afterward.

Everything I’ve watched and read about single-blade shaving stresses the importance of:

• Maintaing a 30-degree angle between the blade and the face
• Proper lathering
• Have patience when shaving – it’s not a race
• Do NOT apply pressure to the blade
• Use an alcohol-free aftershave product to help soothe and condition the skin

Not applying pressure to the blade might seem counterintuitive for most shavers because most of today’s safety razors are extremely light and require a little bit of pressure to pull and hack the hair off your face. When using a single-blade razor (as pictured right), the weight of the razor itself is enough pressure to provide a close shave without destroying the top layer of your skin. If you’re doing it right, you will know it’s working as you actually hear the blade cutting the hair, something you probably don’t hear with your multi-blade razor now. The key to avoiding razor burn is to not apply pressure!

Happy shaving!

LOCAL COMMUNITY LEADERS AND CITIZENS WALK WITHOUT SHOES TO RAISE FUNDS NEEDED TO PLACE SHOES ON ORPHANS IN KENYA

Hundreds of individuals and community leaders are gathering to support the Think Kindness organization in sending over 7,770 gently used shoes to AIDS orphans and refugees in Nyeri, Kenya. Brian Williams, youth motivational speaker and president of the Think Kindness organization, has identified an orphanage that has over 160 children, half of which have never owned a single pair of shoes in their life. “I have challenged over 25,000 students within our local school district to make a massive difference in our community. Now, the challenge has grown to the entire city. The original goal was 5,000 shoes, we exceeded that by over 2,700 in less than 90 days!”

The Think Kindness organization has compiled a team of teachers, high school students, and martial artists that will be personally flying to Kenya and placing the shoes on the feet of children in need. While there, they will be filming a documentary film that will be screened at dozens of schools and community centers to show everyone what the impact their simple act of kindness had on a child in need. “Children in Kenya or going to be thrilled to walk in the shoes of Americans! Yet, what will be just as amazing is that we will be bringing these stories and reactions home on film. Hopefully this will spark and inspire even more kindness within our local community, even something as simple as donating a used pair of shoes.” Says Williams.

To raise the funds needed to ship the shoes, Think Kindness organization, alongside UNR’s American Marketing Association, is hosting Take The Walk, a shoeless walk-a-thon. “The goal is to gather over 1,000 people to walk one mile without shoes in solidarity to help raise the $10,000 needed to ship the shoes.” Said Rori Goetze – Director of Think Kindness.

The event has captured attention of thousands across the social media networks, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Youtube. “Everyone is connected, one email or wall post can reach thousands. And its working! Everyone is blogging, wall posting, twittering, and talking about the event and how they want to “Take The Walk.” Says Williams.

“Take The Walk is more than a walk-a-thon. It is movement towards asking people to “take the walk” every day in their own lives to make our community and world a better place. It is not just a mile stroll, it is a way of life.” Says Pat Conners, owner of Tetrus Building Materials.

For more information about the Kenya Shoe Drop, please visit www.ThinkKindness.org

Think Kindness has collected over 2,500 3,800 pairs of shoes and now we need help delivering them to Nyeri, Kenya, where they will be personally placed on the feet of children in need. Many of these children have never owned a pair of shoes.

Join me on June 7th at the Manzanita Bowl at the University of Nevada, Reno for a 1 mile walk without (or with, if you prefer) shoes. Our goal is to have over 1,500 walkers so please spread the word to your friends, family, and coworkers!

Call to Action! What can you do?
1. Register for TAKE THE WALK today!

2. Visit TAKE THE WALK on Facebook

3. Print or email flyers (PDF) for your friends, family, and coworkers

4. Post the flyer (JPG) on your blog or website

Take The Walk from Brian Williams on Vimeo.

Did you create your resume using a Microsoft Word template? Stop right there. Really. Stop. Please.

I’ve been using LinkedIn (sign up if you haven’t already!) for quite a while to keep track of my academic and professional history and while I frequently send people there to check out my qualifications, I always kept my resume up-to-date saved somewhere on my desktop. I use Apple’s iWork which has some cool resume templates but the hassle of keeping it up to date still exists.

Today I was on LinkedIn and I discovered you can export your LinkedIn profile to a print-friendly PDF version to use as a resume. This is great because you can print a copy today, make a change to LinkedIn next week and print a new, up-to-date copy. It will not be the most beautiful resume you’ve ever seen but it looks much nicer than many of the resumes I’ve seen others try to pass off.

LinkedIn does throw their logo on the bottom of the resume but its a small price to pay for having your own “living document” and it provides a way for you to direct any resume readers to your LinkedIn page to view recommendations and extend your own personal network.