Today is my 35th birthday and Baby G got me this balloon:
Category: John Beck
Athlete. Artist. Agnostic. Humanist. Skeptic. Unfinished.
My Kentucky trip using social media
Towards the end of last week I decided to take a little road trip out to Kentucky by myself. The main draw to Kentucky was of course the Maker’s Mark distillery. I made some reservations at a Hilton branded hotel and off I was.
I left New Jersey at 3:30 AM and got to the hotel at 3:30 PM. In entirety I was on the road for just shy of 1,800 miles and almost 29 hours.
I was armed with nothing but my Garmin nüvi and my iPhone 3G. I only programmed the hotel into the Garmin and everything else I was just gonna figure out when I got there.
The drive was long, especially through the mountains of West Virginia and Western Maryland. I drank a lot of water so I had to make frequent potty breaks. I would just type in “rest area” in the Garmin and I would know how long it would be until the next one would arrive and whether I should pit then or not. Also, the Garmin showed the closest gas stations. I felt extremely confident even out in the wilderness.
I made it to Louisville, Kentucky with no problems. I used the Yelp app to find places nearby based on my GPS location and judging by the reviews and ratings I decided on where to go and found a real good tavern/cafe. When I would get to each place I would check-in using Foursquare. Foursquare would then post my check-in to Facebook for all my friends to see. From there, my Facebook friends saw where I was and ended up recommending even more things to me that I would never have thought of by myself.
Having my iPhone 3G really helped me while I was away. It helped me find different places to go eat and it helped me stay in touch with everyone. Using the Garmin as my GPS unit was much better than using the iPhone’s map program. Not only did it get me where I wanted but helped me with the rest stops and gas stastions. Here’s a list of some of the places that I found on Yelp and were recommended to me on Facebook:
Day 1:
Zeppelin Cafe (found on Yelp)
Kentucky Exposition Center (saw from the road)
Liquor Barn (Maker’s Mark posted a list of places that carry Maker’s 46 to Twitter, I searched for Liquor Barn using iPhone’s Google Maps app and found the closest one on that list)
Day 2:
Speed Art Museum (found using the Garmin after searching for art museums)
Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory (found using the Garmin)
Muhammad Ali Center (just around the corner from Louisville Slugger)
Churchill Downs (found using Garmin)
Zanzabar (found on Yelp)
Blues and Barbecue Festival (folks at Maker’s Mark sent me a link with things to do and this was listed, used the Garmin to find it)
Day 3:
Maker’s Mark distillery (already programmed into the Garmin)
Jim Beam distillery (saw from the road)
Brown Hotel (friend on Facebook recommended it after seeing my check-ins)
The Highlands (area of Louisville, waitress from Zeppelin Cafe recommended it)
Lynn’s Paradise Cafe (friends on Facebook and Twitter recommended it after seeing my check-ins)
Day 4:
Heading home today, used my Garmin to find the Woodford Reserve distillery after folks I met at Maker’s Mark told me that it wasn’t too far off the road. It wasn’t far but the tour started too late for me to stay. Next time!
Arcade Fire
Today I got 4 tickets to see Arcade Fire at the Mann Music Center on August 2nd. I’m very excited. Arcade Fire seem like they would be incredible live. I can hardly wait!!!
111,111
This evening, on my way home from the Trenton Thunder game, my car reached another milestone, the odometer now reads 111,111 miles. Great job Honda! Here’s to 222,222!
Tank Full of Wheat
My wheat beer is ready and the labels are on. Thank you Mr. DeNito for the wonderful label artwork.
Reclaimed desk space
So, I finally retired my 12 year old PowerMac G3/G4 tower. It took up so much space. It’s a great machine and it still works fine. I had cables all over, the keyboard took up so much space on my desk and it was just ugly (even though I repainted it). So now I organized everything. My MacBook Pro is now at the center. I have an external monitor hooked up to it which I keep iTunes and the like opened in it. I also now keep my Wacom tablet hooked up all the time and use it as a mouse/pen pad. I put up a little cork board on the side for notes and stuff instead of having Post-Its and paper all over the place. I have a nice little syncing/charging cradle for my iPod and iPhone, so everything is nice and tidy looking. There’s a shelf above my desk where the printer and negative scanner is and a small desk to my left which has my flatbed scanner. What I’m looking for now is a thin piece of white plastic that I can put on the top of my desk. Take a look at the picture and you’ll see what I mean. Do you think maybe Home Depot will have something like that?
Ray Lewis Way #52
Yesterday Steffers and I went down to Baltimore for the day. Part of our itinerary was to stop by the corner of North Ave and Broadway where less than a week ago they officially unveiled a new street name in honor of Ray Lewis. Some kids on the corner saw me take the picture and started yelling “RAY LEWIS WAY!! RAY LEWIS WAY!!”
IndyCar racing coming to Baltimore!
IndyCar racing is set to come to Baltimore in May of 2011. So awesome! I’m totally gonna be there for the entire race weekend. That would be so cool seeing them racing down the streets of Baltimore. Wish it was NASCAR but IndyCar will have to do. Here’s the link on the IndyCar site: http://www.indycar.com/news/show/55-izod-indycar-series/37225-baltimore-race-moves-closer-to-green-flag/
I got an iPad!
I got an iPad for my mom on mother’s day. It finally arrived today. It is actually pretty awesome. It’s definitely not a computer replacement and seems pointless if you already have a laptop and an iPhone but for my mom it’s perfect!
I installed a bunch of her favorite apps for her already. Configured her email for her and so on. I even installed some kids apps for when she babysits. I also put a book on there that she’s been wanting to read. So far she loves it. As do I.
Lost Blog
I haven’t been updated my blog here too much. I’ve been on the PlayStation 3 a whole lot. Love that thing so much! If you’re on the PS3 my PSN is ‘beckinabox’. Add me as your friend, let me know who you are, I don’t accept strangers.
Instead of updating my blog here I’ve been on Twitter a whole lot. I find micro-blogging on Twitter a lot easier sometimes. I’m also on FourSquare. So you can see what I’m up to on Twitter and where I’ve been on FourSquare.
Twitter: beckinabox
FourSquare link
Next week I hope to start painting again. Looking forward to it. I haven’t painted in years. I’m also going to start using Rosetta Stone again. Started learning Italian last summer and never followed through with it. Also planning on going to Baltimore with Steffers. Tonight we’re going to see Jønsi, although I think I’d rather stay home and watch 24.