As of June 13, 2001 at 12:01 Eastern Time Zone (US East Coast) Facebook is allowing users the opportunity to pick their own username URL. You could essentially call it a vanity URL. So instead of a user name being a very unrelenting random series of numbers, you can actually get one in your own name or nickname. It makes it easier to share with others.

For example, my previous Facebook URL was (and technically still is) http://www.facebook.com/people/Ryan-Cameron/690149531. As you can see it’s a little relentless with the numbers, but it won’t connect to my page without the numbers.

Now that the vanity URLs are available, my new URL is http://www.facebook.com/RyanCameron. This is a definite improvement.

Thank you Facebook for finally getting with the program, as now my Facebook URL is now as easy to remember as my Twitter URL (http://www.twitter.com/RyanCCameron), my MySpace URL (http://www.myspace.com/roxabba), and of course, my blog URL (http://www.RyansIncredibleWorld.com).

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Since running has become part of my routine and my endurance has been building steadily since I started my running program at the end of November 2008, it seemed that the cheap Court Classic brand shoes I bought from Costco many, many years ago but barely used prior to my running program needed to be retired. They were fine for a couple of months, as I went from a complete novice at running to about the point when I first got afflicted with shin splints. I suffered through the shin splints and the increasingly sore knees for longer than I should have, but what can I say, I’m a little stubborn about feeling like I’ve not gotten my money’s worth out of the products I buy.

I was chatting with Antonio Roderick, a friend of mine from college via the chat feature of Facebook and he was applauding my running program having read one of my progress reports I posted here to my blog. He suggested that I really ought to go to a store specializing in running shoes and have them evaluate my run so they could pick out running shoes that are ideal for my feet. Not only would the shin splints go away, but they would make a world of difference.

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Thanks to having attended “Xanadu” at the La Jolla Playhouse, I ended up on their mailing list for future shows. I was sent a mailer inviting me to check out a limited run show as part of their Edge series of plays. The Edge series is designed to bring new and adventurous works to the stage in the hopes of presenting groundbreaking and innovative theatre. This season’s selection is called “Continuous City” produced by The Builder’s Association.

“Continuous City” tells the tale of how modern technology from the likes of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace allow you to connect no matter where you are, as if you’re in one great big continuous city, but yet, even with the technology it’s very isolating. The story gets told through the perspectives of four people. J.V., is the project manager for a fictional social networking site called XUBU. He spends much of the time trying to run the project while juggling video conferencing calls with family and girlfriends. He’s also tasked with keeping existing investors content as the site approaches launch. Finding investors for J.V. to keep happy is Michael. In addition to battling jet lag and finding investors, Michael finds it difficult to connect with his daughter, Samantha, back home when he’s trying to use the technology to stay connected but finds his daughter growing distant without a definitive answer of when he’ll be home to be with her in person. Additionally, Samantha is left in the care of Deb, a video blogger who is out exploring the city she’s in when she’s not taking care of Samantha.

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I must admit I was not a big fan of MySpace when it was all the rage. It seemed more like a pain in the butt to set up a page and even more of a pain to customize it. And let’s face it, looking at some other people’s pages, between their background images and the fonts and colors picked for text, they’re practically unreadable. The ability to play a cool song you wanted to share was nice, but also annoying when you’re browsing the web late at night not wanting to wake everyone else in the house up and forgetting what volume level the computer is set at.

Well along came Facebook, and it just seems like a more grown up version of MySpace, and what a welcome relief it is to use Facebook. It’s done away with the gaudy background images and unreadable text of MySpace and offers a more consistent experience across the board of checking out other people’s profiles. The text is simple. They status updates are awesome, and even the ability to use and tag photos is very user friendly.

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Raymond Aaron, one of my mentors since 2006, and the author of the wonderful book “Double Your Income Doing What You Love: Raymond Aaron’s Guide to Power Mentoring,” has launched a special month long program designed to teach ideas on how to double your income in such a depressed economy.

To achieve this Raymond is utilizing a number of tools to help share a wealth of information covering such diverse topics as eliminating debt, to applying the Law Of Attraction, and building a list of potential clients using social media services like YouTube, FaceBook, and Twitter. One of Raymond’s tools is a blog site that is located at http://www.DoubleYourIncomeChallenge.com and as incentive for signing up for updates on the site, Raymond Aaron will send you MP3s of Jack Canfield discussing several topics from his “The Success Principles” book.

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At end of November I decided to take a more proactive stance on my fitness level, or rather lack there of. So I have been forcing myself to use the treadmill that my roommates have available in the house. Granted prior to this decision, I’ve probably used the treadmill a total of three times since I moved in.

I definitely needed a better motivator for getting on the treadmill with some semblance of regularity, as telling myself I should was not translating into finding myself anywhere near it. So I decided I was going to have to forcefully create some motivation by creating a negative consequence for failing to do so. And so as of November 30th, 2008, I employed the strategy that I was not allowed to touch my computer until I had done at least one mile on the treadmill. At least until the being on a treadmill enough times had become habitual enough that I wasn’t going to avoid the treadmill by getting caught up being online.

The first week was a struggle, as everything tends to be when you start something new and want to make a habit out of it. I spent the first week just adjusting the speed of the treadmill up and down sporadically as I needed but aiming for one mile as my target goal. Each day I progressed a bit further in my ability to either stay at longer durations at higher speeds or pushed it further to higher speeds. And to make the sessions more tolerable, I employed the use of my iPod playing sections of various custom made music mixes I’ve made over the last decade.

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