Friday, October 11, 2013

Riding the Rock Island Trail

About a year ago I started riding my mountain bike on the Rock Island Trail.  The trail will soon span 35 miles from Toulon to downtown Peoria.  I have ridden it to Toulon going North, and to Peoria Heights going South.  It is great exercise for me.  I have a 1987 Schwinn mountain bike that was handed down to me from my father in-law.  Not the latest in lightweight technology but gets the job done for me.  I have accumulated several photos on the trail which I post here in my public Rock Island Trail photo album.  These were all taken with my smartphones. 

I use Cardio Trainer and MyTracks to track and data log my rides.  So far my longest single ride was 54 miles.  I am up to about 200 miles a month.  So far my highest month was August where I rode 246 miles.  I also have a Polar Wearlink+ Bluetooth heart rate monitor that integrates with both of these apps (but only one at a time).  I figured out I can ride about 2,000 calories worth until I run out of fuel.  I started bringing protein bars with me so I can refuel and rest.  I also learned to consume plenty of protein before I go.  One way I get protein is with Bolthouse Farms protein drinks.  These are available in most grocery stores. 

Friday, September 27, 2013

Sharing pictures via Google+ on Android

This is a very simple thing to do but it seems I run into many people who dont understand it yet so I thought I would try to make it clearer.

Start by opening a photo in your favorite photo app.  The gallery app on most devices works well.



In my case the g+ icon is already shown because I use g+ often.   If yours is not showm, click the share button.




This will open a menu with all the apps you can share too.  The list will have many things like g+, Gmail, other email programs, etc.
 
One of the great things about Android is this sharing functionality.  It is very quick and simple to share content between apps.  OK, so now select the app you want to share to.   Now all you have to do is click the app to share to.  In this case, we want to share to g+ (Google+).


Now just type in any message you want in the text field, select who to share to (this showing I am sharing public but you can select any circles you want).  When you are done click the "Share" button on the top right.  This will create your new post.

You can share many other things too like complete albums, links, etc.