I’ve had a herniated disc in my back for over a decade. I am able to keep it in check for the most part by doing daily spinal decompression stretches but every few months or so it likes to act up just to let me know it’s still there. The last four days I haven’t been able to exercise due to the disc bulging again and pushing on nerves. Before you ask, yes, it can be extremely painful. It’s been ok for about the last day but I need to make sure it’s good before getting back on the elliptical. I don’t need to be stupid and push myself too early. That will just cause more issues and possibly make the situation much worse than it was. Hopefully a couple more days just to make sure all is ok and then I can get back to my workouts.

I finally got off my fat ass and started working out at home on an elliptical trainer. I was surprised that I was able to get back into the swing of it without major issues. During the week I’m trying to workout early in the morning before work and again  in the evening. The elliptical workouts will have me ready to get back on the bike and pick up where I left off last fall. That’s when I was doing 3 miles on the elliptical each morning and then doing 10 miles on the bike each evening. On weekends I would ride 10-20 miles depending on my available time.

I ride a mountain bike and hope to hit some of the local KC trails this summer. There is a nice trail complex not too far out of the way between home and work. The plan is to load up the bike and hit the trails after I leave work. There are also a lot of local organized bike rides that I definitely want to participate in. Stepping it up on the bike this summer will help me get in even better shape than last year.

• To highlight the best and the brightest web-related success stories in the Midwest
• To connect nearby communities
• To demonstrate local innovation in a rapidly changing economic landscape

Highlight Midwest targeted the region’s [Kansas City, Omaha, and Des Moines] finest entrepreneurs, technologists, social media experts, and new media success stories. The turnout was very good for a conference that was put together in 9 weeks. There were entrepreneurs from four different states including Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. Social media played a big part in communications for Highlight Midwest and the word spread quickly. The event was completely sold out!

The conference was broken up into two events, the “Focused Highlight” sessions during the day and the evening “New Heights For Flyover States” reception and panel discussion. The daytime events were held at the Record Bar in the Westport area of Kansas City while the evening reception was held at the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center.

The daytime venue at the Record Bar was a little “cozy” but I found that this fostered a lot more interactions among the conference attendees which really made for a very social event. Three presentation areas were setup and the full schedule kept each area busy. Each session was a half hour in length. There were many great presentations and I really liked the fact that there was such a diverse group of entrepreneurs and projects. The venue did allow attendees to easily go from one presentation to another which is always encouraged at any “unconference” event. The Record Barserved up a great little buffet for lunch while everyone was entertained by the musical group, The Threes. After the afternoon sessions we were entertained by Jason Walsmith of the group The Nadas and once again The Threes.

The evening reception and panel discussion was at the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center. This was a nice upscale conference center and we were presented with various hors devoures and wine, beer or soda to drink. One of the features for the night was presentations from entrepreneurs according to city. Kansas City, Omaha and Des Moines were all represented. All three presentations were very good and covered a lot about being entrepreneurs and the use of social media.

The main event was a panel discussion about entrepreneurship emcee’d by the Kauffman Foundations’s Vice President of Entrpeneurshiup, Bo Fishback. Bo asked various questions about entrpeneurship, startups and social media. The panel consisted of entrepreneurs and social media experts from all three cities. The panel had some great discussions in response to the questions. An excellent eveing all around.

Overall I felt this conference went very well and provided a lot of information for the attendees. The conference did very well at bringing together entrepeneurs and social media experts from cities around the Midwest. The presentations at the conference highlighted that the Midwest does have a lot of intelligent, innovative people that are creating truly innovative projects.

It was fun to see how some people really got into their zombie roles. There were some impressive make-up jobs showing wounds, scars, etc. I’ve included a few pics here but you can view all the pictures I took at my KC Zombie Walk Flickr Photo Set.

I plan to get back on the bike starting tomorrow morning. I really enjoy riding and the cardio workout I get is awesome. I was easily doing 10 mile rides and had done a 20 mile ride about 6 weeks ago. I know that it’s really only been about 3 1/2 weeks since I was on the bike but it feels longer. Part of that is due to bad eating habits that aren’t helping with my energy levels. I intend to get my eating back on track starting tomorrow also.

I think I need to push myself and do a 10 mile ride tomorrow. That should be a good jumpstart to get back in my groove.

Friends and family know I wasn’t feeling well because I hardly spent any time on the computer. It’s amazing (at least to me) how much I missed on the various social networks and onlline happenings in general. Once I started to feel somewhat better and got online, it took a while to browse through all the RSS feeds that I follow. I had to go through about 4,000 articles just to catch up.

Today I went back to work after staying home all last week. Talk about a sucky day! OMG, everyone wanting everything done right away. Barely had time to catch up on emails. Will take a few days to begin to catch up on the work that piled up while I was out. That’s the problem with having no backups, all the work is still there when you come back.

What I missed the most was not being able to ride my bike. I’ve really come to enjoy my daily rides since I started back up a couple months ago. Hopefully I can get back out there in another couple of days or so.

I’ll keep up my vitamins and eating right and get back to my normal healthy state.

I had a great time. Everyone was cool and sincerely interested in meeting all the participants. I had a chance to finally meet a number of Kansas City area people that I follow on Twitter but have never actually met in person. Always fun to meet in person and really get a feel for the person behind the tweets!

The first hour or so was mainly meet and greet but we got together for a presentation by Ed Roberts concerning how businesses can utilize social media for interaction with consumers. He had some great examples and the topic did generate a good discussion among everyone there. Very informative and everyone was encouraged to join in the discussion. One of the aspects I really liked was all the different viewpoints from everyone there.

Besides the SocialMediaKC tweetups there are also monthly blogger meetups organized over at the My Spyderweb blog. The blogger meetup from the previous night also had a good turnout. Hopefully these meetups can continue to grow as more people become aware of the great social media scene in Kansas City.

I always like riding bikes when I was younger and know that it will definitely give me the cardio workouts that I need to lose weight. Another incentive is that a couple of friends and co-workers have bikes and helped convince me to get back into it. One co-worker is an avid cyclist to say the least. He rides his bike as his primary mode of transportation including back and forth to work.

I think I have been doing pretty well on the bike. I am definitely getting stronger and able to ride farther all the time. I want to have a chance to join in some of the organized events for cyclists. I’m thinking ahead for next year and hoping to participate in the MS 150 Bike Tour ride here in Missouri. It’s a 2 day, 150 mile ride supporting Multiple Sclerosis. It’s a great event for a great cause.

There are many people that don’t “see” how the Internet can be social. There are those that think being on the Internet is disconnecting and withdrawing from actual social aspects of life. There are aspects of being online that could be seen as disconnecting but with the plethora of social networks available and the strong communities that are emerging, the online world can offer a very “social” experience. Many members of social networks organize are arranging regular real life meetups with the friends they have established on the Internet.

Over the years I have belonged to various sites and groups on the Internet. The social networking sites of today have allowed me to meet and connect with many people online. A lot of my online friends, and I do mean friends, are located nearby. We have had multiple opportunities to meet in person for different events. I can almost guarantee I never would have met these friends otherwise.

The Internet is a very social environment for myself and many of the people I know. I can’t wait to see where social networking goes the next few years.