Social Media

Social Media rules the school right now.

Every business/company/entrepreneur is sending people to their Facebook or Twitter pages. I think that is a new, effective and fun way to get information out to people and have it spread like a California wildfire.

However, everyone now says visit our facebook page or follow our tweets. I wonder if there's a study out there that says companies no longer direct people to their own website and more direct them to their facebook pages or twitter accounts.

I just wonder what the next thing is out there in internet technology or information dissemination. I wonder who out there is making a great brand new, interactive, effective, social media, viral website and will direct us to their own site versus directing us to a social media site.

It's just interesting. I bet if you asked an old school boss if it was good to direct people to other websites versus their own he might not be a fan of it. haha, being a fan on facebook. Get it?

I bet a new school boss would say anywhere to get your name out there is an added benefit. Like in the PR world-no publicity is bad publicity because you're in the forefront of everyone's mind.

For example, is Nike struggling now because of Tiger Woods or because they're on everyone's mind are people sub-consciously buying Nike for Christmas. Not until later will golf and Tiger Woods sportswear will drop. I'm not sure, but I'm interested in finding out.

Clearly the news media still directs literally everyone to Kare11.com, myfox9.com etc to find links to other places, stories and information.

I was just thinking as I was listening to KTIS on the radio in the car. She said check us out on KTIS.com or check our facebook page. I know she said her website first but I barely even mentally recognized it, seemingly only hearing facebook page.

So, what is the next big thing. Is someone working on a dynamic website that will stop directing us to social media sites for their products or will it last?

Anyhow...just wondering.

U2 Tickets!

We're going to U2!

In a pretty random occurrence of events Katy and I bought u2 concert tickets for June 27th at TCF Bank Stadium.

I went to lunch with Nick who was on the internet looking at trying to buy U2 tickets. We ate a nice lunch in the Bethel dining center and I went to Turn Style to turn over some watches and old photo coasters from our wedding. I had to register in the home part of Turn Style and while I was registering a U2 song was playing on the radio. She said that they had been playing U2 all day and there must be a concert going on or something. For some reason she explained to me that she was a Gophers season ticket holder and they got an email so they could pre-sale the tickets. I said that the tickets were hard to come by as Nick was just looking for them and the website wouldn't let him buy any yet. Then she volunteered to forward me the special email that she got to pre-sale the tickets-which she did!

Later on in the evening Katy was talking about U2 and I remembered the email which we then opened and hit the link.

We ended up checking out with 4 U2 tickets! So, we're going with Nick and Becca, and I emailed it to Paul-who ordered to and Lance will come. I also emailed it to Josh who got tickets for himself and Laura! It's going to be fun!

Katy can't wait! We figured it was a semi-once in a lifetime shot at getting tickets and for a concert, for being U2 they weren't really that outrageous. It was $55 a pop with all of the fees and extras and ticketmaster garbage.

But we're excited to go to U2!


Also on the news front. Katy sliced her finger a couple weeks ago but it's getting better, though she lost some feeling in her left pointer finger. Also, her pickup cost us a little money last week, her starter decided to stop doing its' job. So we fired it and replaced it with a new one for the fair cost of $600! Are you kidding me!

NYC Marathon Observations

The women started before the men.

Paula Radcliffe is tall and as known to many already, she has a gait that has alot of upper body movement.

Sometimes I really don't like NYC. Maybe because of the yankees, maybe because of the stress of driving through the city. But just watching Mayor Michael Bloomberg sharing the culture and the extremely diverse people of NYC really attracts me to the city.

I think it would be fun to run the NYC Marathon.

Not a real quick pace for the men's leaders. Ten miles in at 54:44 and Ryan Hall has taken his hat off.

Mile 11 55:10-Meb, Hall and many others.

Josh Moen is at the half way point at 1:06:46, putting him very close to the 2:14:30 that the Fantasy Games at Down the Backstretch predicted.

A bunch of relevant runners from around here. I ran against Matt Hooley and Josh Moen in college. Chris Lundstrom is a cross country coach around here-at Como Park Sr. High School.

Mile 17 and 18 were 4:33 and 4:37-significantly different from the 5:33 at mile 1 and 5:00 range in many of the first half dozen to dozen miles.

Mile 18-American's dropping out of the lead pack. Not what I wanted to see.

Paula Radcliffe at mile 22 still has a head bob. What a running style. Always seems gritty.

Meb is back up in the lead pack with 5-6 others.

Last mile the woman's winner went was the fastest. Wow.

Mile 24-4 American's in the top 10. Wow.

All I've got. Not going to polish this up. Great race to watch with Meb winning! First American win since what, 1982? Yeah, 27 years! Ryan Hall in 4th, Jorge Torres in 7th, Nick Arciniaga in 8th, Abdi Abdirahman in 9th, Jason Lehmkuhle in 10th.

What A Day!

Yesterday was a very enjoyable day as I did many very enjoyable activities.

My day began getting up lazily out of bed at 9 am before heading out on a run. I didn't know how long it was going to go but I wanted a decent day of running. I went down Hamline to Como Park, where I ran around the lake. However, I just happened to be running around the lake at the same time as a 5K heading in the same direction. So, I just cruised along all the way around the lake, making the 1.6 mile loop a little better effort with all of the 5kers around. I got to the pavilion and decided to stop and see who was going to win the race and in what time. Now, who do I see before the leaders come through? Dave Borner! His wife, Nikki, was running and we watched her finish 4th overall. It was fun chatting with him for a while. I then ran the opposite way around the lake for another 1.6 miles, getting myself up to six or seven miles. It was fun to run a couple miles with Nikki too, she's been running about 60 miles a week, working as a nurse and running very well.

It's always fun to run into Dave and Nikki and I just wish we got the chance to hang out more.

I then continued on my run home, but I ran the back loop of the MIAC CC championship course checking out the ground before the big races went off. I made it home and ended up gathering in 9.25 miles for my day, in 1:04 and change.

I showered, relaxed and then headed out to the MIAC Championships. Bethel's women finished 2nd and Marie Borner won by about 30 seconds. The guys finished with some disappointment, 7th overall. But Dan Greeno destroyed the guys race winning by more than 30 seconds as well.

All that time I got to run around with some good friends: Adam Erickson, Dave and Nikki Borner, Josh Tschetter, Peter Caldwell, Josh Otto, Hannah Carlson and so many more. Quite a fun time running around the course with Bethel running alumni.

After the race, Adam and I went to Caribou to get something warm in our hands and down our throats. It was fun to enjoy a coffee with Adam before getting to work and writing the articles for Bethel's athletics website.

Here's the men's article.

Here's the women's article.

So I went home and wrote the articles and enjoyed some of a quesadilla burger and watched the Phillies-yankees World Series with Katy and Paul while flipping back and forth to the USC-Oregon football game too.

All of that...and I still got an extra hour in the day with day light savings!

And now, I'm up at 7:30 am, writing a blog, waiting for Universalsports.com to air the NYC Marathon. I'm looking forward to watching Ryan Hall run, as well as some local runners from Team Minnesota USA.

What a day!

With more to come today!

Katy's Creativity

Katy bought a dress the other day at Macy's for like $10. It was a pretty simple empire waist she tells me. It's a sleeveless dress with an empire waist; white on the top and solid black below.

So, I guess she decided to spice it up. Here are a couple pictures of her progress I took with my iphone.

She found the pattern from a fabric website and decided to buy fabric, cut it out and stitch it on the dress, which she did the whole dress in about a day and a half.

I think it turned out nice, and definitely made a $10 dress a very unique piece.

A Discouraging Job Hunt

I don't know if I'll ever find what I'm supposed to do with my life...

Job hunting has been discouraging today.

Also, why do I have to create a username, password and register for each and every freaking job (company/website) I wish to apply for? Ridiculous! And ridiculously time consuming!

And maybe a little maddening.

Getting Involved

I find it hard to get involved. But I want to be.

I have too many things I want to do and learn and get experience with. How do I do that?

How do you do it?

Also, it is good to sit in the quiet sometimes. I am more creative on the pot than anywhere else these days because of the distractions and things around me. I have time to think.

TC 10 Mile Is Here

Capitol Sunshine



Post race-watching for people we know.







Laura!





Rise and shine!

Up and about at 5:15 am was the appetizer of the day! Today, was the TC 10 Mile and Marathon Events race from Minneapolis to St. Paul. You should be able to link to the course map from this link-map.

It finally stopped raining the last couple days, so it wasn't a miserable 10 mile or marathon. At the start it was about 44 degrees and fairly cloudy. It turned out to be pretty good running weather.

Nick and Becca dropped me off at about 6:05am where I just walked about for a little bit before heading to the Metrodome to relax and get ready for the run. I ended up hanging there most of the time, got in a 3:04 warm up and hit the start line. It was tough having to drop your warm ups a ways away before starting in the race. I ended up sitting there in my shorts, top, arm sleeves and gloves for fifteen minutes or so just trying to stay warm.

I said hi to a couple of people I recognized and then it was race time.

Coming off of my four miles yesterday, which was at 6:30am and cold and drizzly, I wasn't very confident. I felt pretty slow, heavy and lethargic not really the way you'd want to have a warm up the day before a big race go.

But I jumped in towards the front of the starting corral and off I went. I hit the mile split at about 6:25-6:30ish, about thirty-five seconds faster than I wanted to go out. So, I felt like I adjusted a little bit but went by Nick, Becca, Chris, Lance and Paul by Riverside Park at 12:35ish, which was about the two mile mark. That was even faster than I wanted to be at 2 miles, by about a minute and thirty seconds. But I still felt okay, proceeding to give some ground to some runners coming from behind but still maintaining a comfortably hard pace.

I got up the hill by Riverside Park and hear "that's my nephew!" I thought that was strange, so I turned my head a little bit and then heard "Dischinger!" and saw it was Mary out watching the race!

That was nice to have someone unexpected scream. I just kept on rolling, knowing I was still ahead of where I should be but there was no point to intentionally slow my pace to re-adjust. I hit about the 3, 3.5 mile mark before I saw Rachel Karel and she cheered me on too. Another time where I tried to relax and pick up the pace and stay comfortably hard.

I hit the 5 mile mark and started to get tired and then mentally faded a touch, thinking about how I had so much left to go. I hit the 5 mile mark in 31:47, if my memory serves me correctly. I continued to run faster than I wanted to, now I was about 3:13 faster than I wanted to be. My original plan was to go through 5 miles in about 35:00 and 6 in 41:00ish and start picking it up from there little by little.

So, being so far ahead, I at that point decided maybe it was my day to have a good run. I went through six miles in just under 39:00 but at that point could have been out of luck. But I must have focused back on running at that point because I don't remember a 7 mile split. I remember being at about 7.8 miles at 50:14ish, a few minutes quick still. But at that point I just had to charge hard and keep going.

I came up on 8 miles and though "ugh, two more miles still. I've got to just keep going okay, just steady for the next mile and we'll go from there." I kept rolling along on the road keeping my intensity consistent.

I got to the 9 mile mark and figured I had enough energy to continue to churn away. I was still ahead of pace after keeping a very consistent pace up to that point, surprising myself a bit. I remember thinking that if I kept rolling I could be at about 64 minutes, well ahead of my 67:00 goal.

Nine miles came and went, I veered left heading down Summit Avenue trying to continue to pick up the pace as I still felt good enough to do so. I did need someone to cheer me on a bit earlier but I kept rolling and saw the squad again at the Cathedral. At that point I felt really good and put on a nice kick to get to the finish.

It was great hearing Chris yelling "Disch!" as loud as he could as I streaked by. It was fun to see Nick smiling, Becca taking a picture and Katy taking a picture as well. I also saw Deb cheering me on but somehow missed really locking in on Bob's face. I went another 200 meters and saw Lance and Paul on the right and started kicking harder.

Also, at that point I could have just hit the ground at anytime as I was not even taking much oxygen in but was coming down the hill hard.

I come to find out later that they were waiting for me at the Cathedral and Nick approximated I'd be coming in in another few minutes-according to my predicted time. Apparently, Chris yells something to the effect of "here he comes!", still minutes ahead of where I thought I'd be. I came and went, heard Chris cheering for me and as I ran by I heard him following me yelling for me to keep going. Now that I think about it I remember trying to out run Chris at that point.

I ran through the finish in 1:02:55, about 4 minutes faster than I anticipated I could do. I walked through the finishing area got my warm ups, put them on while saying hi since they came down to the finishing area.

Here is all of my data and a link that might work? Joel's 10 Mile Race Results
(Search Dischinger)

NO	FN	LN	DIVISION	OVERALL	DIVPL	SEXPL	CHIP TIME	TIME	PACE
10376	Joel	Dischinger	M2229	96	49/436	85/2254	1:02:55	1:02:57	6:18

Well, to continue the trend of writing...

Josh came through the 10 mile in 1:24:21.

Laura came through the marathon in 3:38:27 and qualified for the Boston Marathon! From what I hear, she's also already registered!

Maybe we'll make a trip to the East in April!

More pictures will be added later. Katy used Josh's camera and we've got to get the pictures off of that.

I'll let you know what's next!

Bethel Coverage at the Roy Griak

Did you see my coverage of the Roy Griak Cross Country meet this last weekend?

I covered the men's and women's teams for Dale.

Men's Story @ Bethel's Website

Greeno Finishes Second at Roy Griak Invitational; Team Takes 14th

September 26, 2009

Joel Dischinger '05, Sports Information Assistant

Dan Greeno finished second.

Results

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Dan Greeno (Sr., St. Michael, Minn.) ran tough all morning but wasn’t able to file away his second Roy Griak Invitational victory. Greeno ran 25:40 for the eight-kilometer course finishing 13 seconds behind UW-La Crosse’s Zach Whilhelmy.

The Royals finished 14th in the field of 35 teams on a clear, warm morning at the Les Bolstad Golf Course on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota.

Bethel’s second and third runners were Sam Greeno (So, St. Michael, Minn.) and Zach Haskins (Fr., Maple Grove, Minn.) placing 59th in 27:20 and 102nd in 28:08.

Haskins has steadily improved early on this season improving on a 28:16 eight-kilometer performance at Les Duke on September 12th also improving on his team position moving from Bethel’s fourth runner to the third spot.

Austin Hinrichs (Jr., Clara City, Minn.) and Brian Anderson (Sr., Andover, Minn.) completed Bethel’s top five running 28:14 and 28:24 respectively.

Bethel University will run next at the Blugold Invitational in Colfax, Wis., on Friday night, October 2, at 5 p.m. The meet is hosted by UW-Eau Claire.

Women's Coverage at Bethel's Website

Borner Wins, Royals Finish Fourth at Roy Griak Invitational

September 26, 2009

Joel Dischinger '05, Sports Information Assistant

Marie Borner won her first Griak Invitational.

Results

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Marie Borner (Sr., Cottage Grove, Minn.) won her third consecutive meet to start the season as she took her first Roy Griak Invitational title. Borner quickly went to the front of the pack and didn’t look back as she took the win in 21:36 on the six-kilometer course.

The Royals took fourth place out of 37 teams and look to improve their USTFCCA National Rankings, as they stand in 10th place before the new poll comes out on September 30th. They also finished as the top team in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) as all eleven schools competed, giving the Royals a gauge on the competition for the rest of the season.

Alex Potter (Jr., Windom, Minn.) and Kristin Mork (Jr., Cambridge, Minn.) were 10th and 19th, respectively, in 23:05 and 23:23, while Heather Jelen (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) and Kayla Jelen (Jr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) finished out the top five for the nationally ranked team.

Bethel’s next meet is scheduled for Friday night, October 2, at the Blugold Invitational in Colfax, Wis., hosted by UW-Eau Claire.

Restaurant Review- Joe's Garage Minneapolis

Joe's Garage
Minneapolis
Next to Loring Park

Katy and I finally used our gift card from her purchase of her wedding dress at David's Bridal. We got two $25 gift cards, one for Lindey's Steakhouse and one for Joe's Garage.

(Bonus to note-we won't be going to back to Lindey's anytime soon. It smelled pretty old, was definitely not the decor Katy and I like, and truly our meal wasn't very delicious to be as wordy as a restaurant critic can get.)





So, Joe's Garage specializes in burgers and their baked potato bar. Joe's Menu.





Katy and I sat outside on the roof on a beautiful evening, other than a few bugs. They also have some indoor seating and some down on the first floor on the sidewalk.





My order: Cornmeal Fried Walleye - Served on roasted garlic, mashed potatoes, with pico de gallo, chipotle cream sauce, and garlicky green beans - $18

Now, I asked about what to get before I finally decided and was told about their burgers and their potato bar. However, I wasn't into the waitress' suggestions of very odd burgers all loaded with salt, nor was I into her suggestion of the Jamaican Jerk Baby Back Ribs.

Okay, so I got the cornmeal fried walleye. The cornmeal on the fish was just fine, it gave it something to hold on to, otherwise, the fish would have completely fallen apart. It's a pretty gentle fish that seems to fall apart on its own. However, the fish alone was pretty, actually, very bland. I wasn't completely satisfied with the fish alone.

The roasted garlic mashed potatoes were pretty good, I'd say they were a very comparable item to the potato bar menu items.

What made this dish was the chipotle cream sauce and the pico de gallo. Pick one or the other or even both and grab some walleye or the green beans and it was delicious. Also, alone the chipotle cream sauce was good as well as the pico de gallo. Alone, the pico de gallo was extremely springy and fresh, giving a cleansing effect to your tastebuds.

The garlicky green beans were okay but as I'd assume most higher quality cooking were cooked less and left a little more crisp. Growing up on Grandma K's canned green beans I completely prefer a canned soft buttery green bean. It seems as if the less cooked ones don't absorb as much flavor and I definitely prefer the softer canned.

Overall, on my meal I would give an 80 out of 100. Parts were very tasty and it was generally balanced and healthy, however I can definitely picture a better meal out of this.



This was Katy's customized burger. It was a half pound of ground chuck with delicious gorgonzola cheese draped all over the top with a side of fries. I thought the burger was done pretty well, maybe left on there a minute or two long since I prefer my meat cooked medium. But the gorgonzola has such rich flavor it really rescued a little of over cooking and made the burger perfectly acceptable.

In only having a few bites and a couple of bites I would give this burger an 83 out of 100. It was pretty well done, just a little long but the accompaniment of the gorgonzola, the bun was buttery and soft and the fries were suffice. Again, I can picture better and have had better but I, ultimately, would go back for an item on their menu that was more of their specialty.

Las Vegas Pictures

The Bellagio before the beginning of the water show.























Sunday night we went to Serendipity 3 for a hot chocolate ice cream and then sat outside talking for a while with Ashley and James.



Red Rock Casino buffet with Ashley, James and Mrs. Magnuson.



Trying to get on top.



James and Joel.



Ashley and Katy.



Red Rock again, though you should have seen the pool!



Las Vegas Nature Preserve











The strip after the Switchfoot concert.



Building the new bridge over the Hoover Dam.



The power plant inside the dam.



Inside one of the tunnels on the way to the power plant.

Fun in the Sun

Well, Katy and I are in Las Vegas. We have been since Friday night.

We spent most of last weekend hanging out on the strip with Ashley and James which was a blast wandering around, chatting, eating, drinking and checking out a few casinos with some pool time mixed in. (drinking=mostly water)

Saturday when Ashley and James got in we hung out at the house for a while before figuring out what to do. Finally we decided, and found last minute tickets to Wayne Brady's Improv show, Making $#!^ up. It was hilarious and a very well spent sum of money-considering we got the tickets at 8:10ish and went right to the 9pm show. It was an hour and forty minutes of improv comedy, skits, mockery and then some of Wayne Brady singing himself. He is actually quite a good singer. Umm, Mom- remember the show Whose Line Is It Anyway? Wayne Brady was one of those guys. He is just as impressive live as he is on television but he's gotten away from tv because he likes live performances better.

After the show we went to a couple casinos to give some money away. We did. Mom, don't worry I only have given away $7 so far. :) Then we went to Denny's because we were hungry again.

Sunday we went to the pool for a little bit before going to Red Rock Casino which is 1.25 miles away from their house (I know, I ran it) for lunch and some blackjack. Then we went to In N Out for dinner and went back to the strip for some more entertainment. We got some dessert at Serendipity 3 at Caesar's Palace. We sat outside and chatted and watched people for a couple hours before going home.

Monday we hit the pool and the buffet at Red Rock again before Ashley and James left. Oh, we also went to Public Enemies with Jim. It was a pretty slow long movie but I would grade it as a solid B movie. It was a long movie but seemed to lack a ton of detail. It seemed like a 2 hour 20 minute synopsis with not a ton of new interesting information. I think the film making and the acting was good but I'm going to stick with a B rating.

Tuesday morning I got up and ran 3 miles in the desert. It was pretty nice-hot but nice to see the scenery all around-being the mountains nearby. Then Katy and I went to the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace and did some shopping. I bought a $145 dollar shirt by John Varvatos. (for $45 bucks) and...oh I got some Theory pants for $42 at Marshalls! (Normally $225)

All in all that's about the money I've spent other than on food. So after shopping we went to BJ's restaurant and ate a delicious pizza with a pizzokie. A pizza cookie with some ice cream.

That brings us to present time. We got back from the pool again and we're not waiting for Karen to come home so we can continue this hot adventure!

Connecticut June 2009

Well, a week later here is the week of Connecticut in review.

Pictures only at the moment. Maybe comments to come.

All in all it was a very nice week to be home with Katy, Mom, Dad, M3 and Naomi. Lots of time spent enjoying ourselves!

Thanks everyone :)