Keefer Madness

Riding Tour de Cure 2013 Tomorrow

// May 17th, 2013 // No Comments » // Cycling, Personal Crap

So tomorrow I’m riding the Tour de Cure, a fund-raising bike ride with proceeds benefiting the American Diabetes Association originating from Garmin in Cary, NC. I did it last year, and am happy to do it again this year — hoping to make it an annual tradition. I’m undecided whether to play it safe and do the 27 mile route, or push myself and do the 45. My gut is to push it and do the longer one.

I haven’t been on the bike hardly at all, but have done plenty of running, so feel like my conditioning won’t be too bad.

Weigh in and let me know which route I should do. Play it safe at 27, or man it out for the longer 45?

If you’re feeling really generous, feel free to make a donation in my name. My original goal was to raise $200 for the American Diabetes Association, but thanks to my employer, Centerline Digital, I blew through that. New goal is $300. So far, only myself and my parents have contributed to that goal.

Donate to Tour de Cure in my name

Appreciate it!

I’m Plagued with GymPact and RunKeeper Issues

// May 9th, 2013 // No Comments » // Health & Fitness, iOS, Personal Crap

Just wanted to use my blog as a way to vent today. I’m not sure where the fault lies by GymPact and RunKeeper aren’t playing well together lately, and I find myself having to write a lot of support emails.

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Running a Faster 5K

// May 8th, 2013 // No Comments » // Health & Fitness, Personal Crap

I’ve been on a running kick lately. It’s easier (and therefore more likely to happen) to gear up and run multiple times during the week during the lunch hour. A friend and co-worker have been ramping up both distance and pace and usually feeling pretty good while doing it.

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10 Foods to Fuel a 5K

// April 18th, 2013 // No Comments » // Food & Drink, Health & Fitness, Personal Crap

With my second 5K of the year this coming Saturday, seeing this article was pretty good timing — a nice reasonable lists of foods for fueling those short races.

As for doing another 5K on the heels of the Kidney Kare 5K last month, I’m really trying to stick to running at least 1 a month for the remainder of 2013, maybe even mix in larger distances as my fitness continues to improve. A couple of us are already consistently able to hit 5+ miles on our lunch runs at a reasonable pace.

Let it be known though — despite recent trends, I’m still a cyclist first and foremost. Running is just a way to squeeze some workouts in on days I wouldn’t get a bike ride in on. I’ve definitely found though that my running helps my cycling, and vice versa.

10 Foods to Fuel a 5K

I Made the News Yesterday

// April 3rd, 2013 // No Comments » // Health & Fitness, Local (Raleigh Durham), Personal Crap, TV Talk

Meant to post this last night after we got situated, but the Carolina Hurricanes game left me ready for bed and no more screen time.

Anyway, a group of us have been running at lunch. Yesterday, Ben and I just happened to be running by the WRAL camera when Elizabeth Gardner was talking about how chilly it was. That’s me in the bright yellowish green long sleeves and long pants she’s referring to.

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Meet My Makerbot

// December 28th, 2012 // No Comments » // Personal Crap, Tech

So I got an interesting email and call a week before Christmas. I’m quite the lucky dog — it seems a contest I enter via Twitter a couple weeks back netted me a 3D printer from Make Magazine.

I was quite skeptical, but after a few emails and calls back and forth, it turned out to be legit. They wanted to get my details and get it to me before Christmas. Tracking number and Make Magazine confirmed it’d arrive via FedEx on Christmas Eve. Well that Saturday morning prior to the holidays beginning, my brother in-law and I were assembling one of my son’s Christmas presents when the FedEx truck dropped it off a whole two days early.

Immediately after completing the Christmas present, we unpacked and setup the Replicator. It wasn’t too difficult at all to get up and running, but quite more challenging to get it dialed in.

Sadly, by mid-day Christmas Eve, it’s become a doorstop, not able to be powered up. With the holidays, I haven’t heard anything back from Make Magazine, but have gone back and forth with tech support over at MakerBot. They’re shipping out two new parts, though its board which I need to replace is a constrained part, and could be awhile till I actually get it. Bummer. The two days I had it were fun, but I’m dreading having to repair a unit that was only two days old when it failed.

I almost wanted to wait to post after that was all resolved, but figured I’d share the experience thus far.

The unit looks nice, with laser-cut wood. It makes cool robotic-like sounds as it prints layers. Getting the extruders just the right height and printing out the ABS is quite tedious. I’m looking forward to eventually printing with the PLA material. It sounds like it may be a bit better experience than the ABS, though all the PLA is backordered. Before I order, I want my machine reliably working and printing. After that point, it’ll be at least a month after till I can play around with PLA.

Regardless, looking forward to having it back up and running, but not looking forward to having to wait or get it back up and running. Look here and on Twitter (@ryankeefer) for updates. Hoping they’re sooner, rather than later.

Here’s the blog writeup about me winning on Make’s blog:
And the Winner of the MakerBot Dual Extruder is…

Merry Christmas From the Keefers

// December 25th, 2012 // No Comments » // Family, Holidays, Personal Crap

Wishing you all a safe, happy and merry Christmas!

— The Keefers

Keefer Madness is Back

// December 12th, 2012 // No Comments » // Keefer Madness, Personal Crap

The site’s back. Well, actually I guess the site never went away. It just hasn’t had any posts in a month. I’ve been having a lot of issues with 1and1 hosting and just finished the transition over to Dreamhost. Their support alone made it worth the switch.

Bringing over the site to Dreamhost posed a bit of a challenge as well, with a database of 12 years. I culled a bit in the move — dropping it back to 8 years worth of posts. I may do some even deeper cuts yet.

Regardless, expect posts to be more frequent once again. 1and1 left a bad taste in my mouth, but that’s cancelled and looks like site’s completely functional here at Dreamhost, along with Keefr.com, TylerKeefer.com and AmandaKeefer.com. Those last two are in need of some serious updating themselves!

Regular posting here at Keefer Madness begins… now!

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

// October 22nd, 2012 // No Comments » // Family, Personal Crap

Happy birthday to my wonderful, loving wife, Amanda. Sorry our birthdays fall on Mondays this year, but hoping you had a good pre-birthday weekend, and have a good actual birthday day. We love you!

My Little Zazzle Store

// June 21st, 2012 // 1 Comment » // Personal Crap

Two sayings I find myself saying a lot are “One character can ruin your entire day” and “It’s such a fine line between clever and stupid.” The former is one that as far as I know, original. The latter is from Spinal Tap.

So what’s better than saying them? Wearing them. So I found out about Zazzle from a co-worker and whipped up a set of text-only t-shirts. Thought others might be interested, so put them up on Zazzle for sale. There’s nothing ground breaking about ‘em, but thought other developers, code monkeys, etc. might appreciate ‘em.

I’ll eventually get some more variety, and some with some art, instead of just typography. But for now, these’ll do.

BTW, they’re not anywhere as cool as another co-worker and friend’s site, Nice Stache

Check out my new Zazzle store