blog of Taylor Brooks.

Garmin 405 Unboxed from Taylor Brooks on Vimeo.

Garmin just released their new Forerunner 405 GPS watch this weekend at the Boston Marathon Expo.  The watch was originally supposed to release mid-February; but, for unknown reasons, the release date keeps on being pushed back by Garmin.  Word on the street is that the watch won't hit stores for another 2 weeks.

Luckily, I have a friend in Boston and is running the marathon today.  He picked me up a new Garmin 405 with the heart rate monitor.  The question now is: to eBay or not to eBay?  There have been a handful listed since Saturday and they are currently selling $100 over retail price.  I think I'll keep it for now and be one of the exclusive few in the country to own one…

What's so cool about this watch?  Because it uses satellite technology, it can track how far you run, how fast you ran, where you ran (Google maps integration), the elevation changes of your run, and it wirelessly downloads all this information to your computer when you are within a 50 ft radius.

Check out some cool vids of the watch here and here. 

I want to hear your thoughts on global warming.  Feel free to write long and lengthy comments.  I think this will provide great conversation.

*As a note, I do not believe in global warming and will share my thoughts in a later post. 

I just bought this T-shirt from CafePress.  I think it's absolutely hilarious.

Today I discovered the new little marketing phenom, SayNow.  I won't go into the details of what the company does because you're smart enough to figure it out on your own.

As records sales continue to plummet, it is imperative that the musicians find other ways to make money and embrace technology all the more.  I believe SayNow is the next big thing for the music industry.  Soon after MySpace Music launched, every band had a page on the site.  Now, bands have a MySpace page, a Facebook page, a blog, a main site, a Flickr stream and the list goes on…

What is interesting to me is how older artists try to adapt with the times, only to leave the tech-savvy just shaking their heads in disbelief.  I'll give you an example. 

Listen to Soulja Boy's SayNow shoutout:

And now listen to Dave Coulier's (of Full House fame) SayNow message:

Coulier has absolutely no idea what he's doing.  Could he sound any more awkward?!?!

Soulja Boy gets it.  He always has.  That's the way he got started.  YouTube and MySpace rocketed him into stardom.  The musicians, bands, business people, students, politicians, parents, and CEOs that understand and embrace technology will always have a leg up on their competition. 

Bill Thorn is arguably the best high school Track and Field coach in the Southeast and hands-down the best in Georgia.  I ran for Coach Thorn in high school and he was, for many years, "the thorn in my side."

I always thought him as a mean, crusty, old man, but he just wanted the best for his team and to see people succeed athletically.  He would never let you quit and made you push your body's limits to the max.  His battle cry was "given time, hard work beats talent."  And that very maxim rang true in his own life.

When Coach Thorn developed cancer, instead of submitting to chemotherapy, he of course chose to run it out.  At 77 years old, he's the only runner to complete every single Peachtree Road Race since it's inception in 1978.  "The Peachtree" as it's known to the locals, is the world's largest 10-K race.  At Landmark Christian School, my alma mater, Coach Thorn led the track team to an amazing 7 consecutive state titles ('96-'02). 

He's well respected as both a runner and a coach.  I'm proud to say that I've run for Bill Thorn.  Every time I run I can still hear him yell, "Change speeds Brooks! C'mon Brooks, change speeds!"  I always thought I was in top gear, he seemed to think otherwise…

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Question: Have you ever bet someone $500 to shave only the top half of their head?

Ok, maybe that's just me…  I did in fact make that bet and I lost.

Shawn has a great account of the ordeal here. 

Current TV is so cool.  It's not your typical TV station.  The channel doesn't have any regular shows or programming.  Instead, the content is user-generated (anyone can send in their video) and the episodes or "pods" are pretty short at 3-5 minutes long.  You can also see exactly what pods are coming up next by tracking them on Current's site.

I watched a fair amount of Current this weekend and I noticed that most of the stories are not focused on the U.S or something pertaining to Americans.  It was pretty enlightening to see how insulated I've become from events happening outside of my own little world.

Below is a video of one of the more sarcastic pods featured on Current TV…

Have you ever gone to a buffet with the intention of eating your money's worth?  It's nearly impossible.

Netflix is my buffet and I just championed it.  I rented more movies in February than I have any other month.  And it's the shortest month of the year! 

So here are the movies.  It's quite a varied mix.  Not bad for $13.99…