While a relatively small group of Twitterers were sharing their #ramday experiences, I wrote this blog post: “What the Hell is #ramday?”. It was an attempt to jump on the coattails of the #ramday meme and vault the blog post as high as possible in Google. Christopher S Penn had a similar meme-jumping experience with Youtube and Rickrolling.

Did it work??

For a personal blog with very little traffic (5 - 10 uniques a day?) I had 406 unique visitors on Friday July 25th (aka the inaugural #ramday)!

And here are the search results in Google:

Incredibly enough, and this is  testament to how great Google is as a search engine, this page highlighted above was result #51 on Friday July 25th 30 minutes after I wrote it!

Here is a recap of week one of the Hundred Push up challenge (more info here):

Day 1 Was a little harder than I thought it was going to be. Looking at the training sheet, the number of reps (in sets) 10/10/8/6/*7 doesn’t look intimidating. But after the first two sets, I was pretty tired in the biceps mostly. But here was my final tally for day 1:

Set 1: 10
Set 2: 10
Set 3: 8
Set 4: 6
Set 5: 9 *

* The goal of set 5 is to due as many push ups as you can over a minimum amount (7 in this case).

Day 2 Wasn’t as hard as I had anticipated. I did a couple of push ups in the off day and thought I was in trouble for day 2. The number of reps (in sets) for day 2 was 12/12/10/10/*10. I thought I was in good shape heading into the “power set” (the * set) but I ran out of steam and could only clear 2 more than the minimum 10.

Here was my final tally for day 2:

Set 1: 12
Set 2: 12
Set 3: 10
Set 4: 10
Set 5: 12 *

Day 3 The number of reps (in sets) for day 3 was 15/13/10/10/*15. Again I ran into trouble in the “power set” (the * set) as I ran out of steam and fell one short of the minimum 15.

Here was my final tally for day 3:

Set 1: 15
Set 2: 13
Set 3: 10
Set 4: 10
Set 5: 14*

So I feel pretty good about reaching the goal of being able to do 100 consecutive push ups after 6 weeks. I don’t think I will have use of my arms for a few days after doing 100, but hey, you have to have goals!

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#ramday is a twitter meme started by new twitter friend @thespottedduck. It means Random About Me Day and it is when people tweet (a message to Twitter) a random piece of information about themselves that would not normally come up in conversation.

It has been an interesting way to learn new things about people (and meet new people in general).

Some favorites so far:

Update:

News Article: Smithfield hockey pioneer Shannon Sullivan fighting cancer a second time

I also wanted to give more info about the benefit and alternate ways of contributing:

The game to benefit Shannon Sullivan, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30, will feature volunteer players who are at least 16 years old, and will include a slapshot contest for spectators and a puck throw competition for children. Game tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12. Tickets for the after-game buffet at Ticker’s are $15. For more information or to sign on as a player contact Alyson Aceto at 401-487-7085 or aaceto21@yahoo.com , or Jenny Trainor at 401-255-7582 or jenn_trainor@yahoo.com .

If you would like to contribute online, please use the ChipIn link at the end of the article. There is absolutely no contribution that is too small.

Original post below:

————————————-

Do you have the kind of friend that no matter how long it has been, you can get on the phone and pick up right where you left off? There are no preconceived notions of how often you need to stay in touch to maintain “friend” status. There is no: “I haven’t spoke to her in years, she’s off the wedding/Christmas/BBQ invite list”.  They are truly and simply just your friend, always.

Well, I do and I hope you are lucky enough to have one too. Trouble is that my friend, Shannon, needs some help. She was just recently downsized from a company where she worked as a graphic designer for 12 years, leaving her with no health insurance. Here’s the scary part, she was just diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time.

Here is her story (reprinted from her Lotsa Helping Hands page):

Shannon is a 32 year old woman diagnosed with Breast Cancer for the 2nd time and this is her story. Shannon began her hockey career in 1988 with the RI Panthers. It wasn’t long after that, that the town knew of Shannon’s strength and fight as she became the first female to play for her high school team the Smithfield Sentinels. Little did we know that Shannon would once again have to fight like she had never fought before when she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in 2004. With amazing strength and bravery Shannon took on her course of treatment: lumpectomy, sentinel node biopsy, chemotherapy, radiation, and oral medication for the last 5 years Eventually, she was considered in remission and was working hard as a talented Graphic Designer in Massachusetts. Her curly hair grew back and a sense of normalcy returned to her life.

Recently, her inspirational story has taken a twist. After 12 plus years with her employer she was downsized leaving her without medical coverage. There wasn’t a pretty severance package and extended benefits. That alone is a daunting situation many families have felt and are experiencing during these difficult economic times. What separates this situation from others is that Shannon was informed a week later that, “the breast cancer is back.”

Shannon is facing her next battle with breast cancer which has metastasized to her lung. The treatment will be similar, the side affects all too familiar and with YOUR HELP the outcome will be positive. So help us by being a part of Shannon’s next chapter in life because there is more story to be written.

There is a charity hockey game at the end of August to support Shannon. I am collecting money through ChipIn and will pass along your well wishes and donations at that time. So help out if you can: a small donation or a prayer, anything will help. I am lucky to call her my friend. And I want to have this friend for a long, long time.

PodCamp is what you make it. If you simply go to the sessions and keep to yourself, you won’t get much more out of it then if you had read through a few blog recaps of the event. The attendee list is full of friendly and approachable people just waiting to share ideas and grow their network.

I have to disclose that I only attended a 1/2 day on Saturday and a 3/4 day on Sunday due to being a loyal husband and loving father. (In case my wife reads this blog). But in that time I met some great people and learned a thing or two about social media, branding, SEO and networking.

Sessions I Attended

• Turning Buzz into Business - Christopher Penn
• Smart Social Media Marketing Panel Discussion - Greg Verdino, Doug Haslam, Adam Broitman and Philip Robertson
• Building Your Brand Through Passion & Community - C.C. Chapman
• Social Media Strategies - Chris Brogan
• Extreme Website Makeover - Michelle Wolverton, Whitney Hoffman, Chris Penn

Sessions I Wish I Attended

• What is Seesmic?  - Phillipe Lejeune
• “Making the Case for Social Media: Compelling Information to Deliver to Skeptics and Loved Ones Alike” - Ben Grossman and Marta Kagan
• Academic Technology - Kabren Levinson
• Social Media Marketing is not Evil - Matt Peters
• Breaking Into the Conversation, Busting the Cliques - Leslie Poston
• SEO 101 - Srikar Nagubandi
• Integrating User Generated Content into Your Marketing and Sales Mix - John Wall
• Marketing Over Coffee with David Meerman Scott, John Wall, and Christopher Penn
• Spam in Social Media: Lessons Learned from Email - Kee Hinckley
• Email Marketing’s Role in New Media - Greg Cangialosi

Networking/Mingling Recap

• Great pre-un-keynote round table discussion with @bengrossman @jamesconnors @andykenneally (Andrew just happens to be cousins with a college friend of mine, small world) among others
• Discussion about social media in a traditional industry with @tinkugallery who drove down from Toronto for PodCamp Boston. Good luck with the new gallery!
• I met a friend of @andykenneally, Rory, who used to live across the street from me in Sommerville, MA back in the day (very small world indeed!).
• Lunch on Sunday with @jamesconnors @gradontripp @danitifft @repcor @thespottedduck @dmitrigunn @mikelangford and others I did not have a chance to speak with.
  
• Conversation with CC Chapman about Twitter-themed baby clothes from Old-Navy and Twittering Teddy Get’s a Fail Whale.
• Met a twitter friend and fellow #redsox fan @jstorerj
• Had Chris Brogan apologize to me if he had already introduced himself since he ‘does a lot of drugs’
• And sadly I missed out on the prize drawing at the closing un-keynote on Sunday. Too Bad!

So a big Thank You to the presenters and organizers of PodCamp Boston 3 for making this event great. Your hard-work and dedication to the event is much appreciated.

I am starting the Hundred Pushup Challenge on Monday July 21st in a weak attempt to get back into shape! Atleast it’s a start right! The reason why this challenge is appealing to me is that I was always able to do tons of pushups in high school. But when I did the initial test I was only able to do 20, well below “tons”.

So I will post here with my weekly (or possibly weakly) results as a way to keep myself motivated to finish the six week challenge.

Find out more here: One Hundred Pushups

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I needed to be able to automate the download of specifically named files from an FTP server and then delete them upon successful download. The need arose when the old script I was using was downloading some zero byte files (likely due to poor network conditions, workstation issues or remote server issues) then deleting the source file! D’oh!!

This script checks that the file is not a zero byte file before deleting from the remote server. Not great error/consistency checking, but better than I had before. It also copies the successfully downloaded files to an IMPORT directory and then archives the originally downloaded files to an ARCHIVE directory.

Hopefully you find it useful.

Note: I updated the post to include logging.

#!/bin/bash
################################################
# Set some of the variables that will be needed
# during the execution of this script
################################################
# set current date
now=`date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M-%S`
#
# set the root dir
rootdir="/ftp_files"
#
# set the download directory
dldir="$rootdir/DOWNLOADS"
#
# set session download dir
sessdldir="$dldir/$now"
#
# set the import dir
importdir="$rootdir/IMPORT"
#
# set the archive dir
archivedir="$rootdir/ARCHIVE"
#
# set up logging
LOGFILE="$rootdir/LOGS/ftplog.txt"
#
################################################
# Lets get to work
#################################################
# create a directory based on todays date
mkdir $sessdldir
#
# change to the new directory prior to FTP connection
cd $sessdldir
#
if [ -f $LOGFILE ]
then
echo "****** FTP PROCESS STARTED AT: $now ******" >> $LOGFILE
else
echo "****** NEW LOG FILE CREATED AT: $now ******" > $LOGFILE
echo "****** FTP PROCESS STARTING AT: $now ******" >> $LOGFILE
fi

## FTP Connection parameters
ftpserver=server.com
username=youruser
password=yourpass
remotedir=/directoryname

## Connect to FTP server and download all TXT files
ftp -inv $ftpserver >> $LOGFILE <<MYEND
user $username $password
cd $remotedir
bin
mget *.TXT
bye
MYEND

## Test for existence of files in the session download dir
## (we cd'd here earlier)
if [ `ls | wc -l` -gt 0 ]
then
echo "" >> $LOGFILE
echo ">> Files have been downloaded" >> $LOGFILE
dlfiles=`ls`
echo ">>>> Downloaded files:" >> $LOGFILE
echo "$dlfiles" >> $LOGFILE
echo "" >> $LOGFILE

## Create the FTP delete script in order to remove the downloaded
## files from the FTP server. We will be sure to check for empty
## files below. The FTP delete script will be created in the session
## download directory and named ftp.$PID
echo "open $ftpserver
user $username $password
binary
cd $remotedir" > $sessdldir/ftp.$$
echo ">> Creating delete script to delete non-zero files from remote server" >> $LOGFILE

## Iterate through the downloaded files one by one
for i in $( ls *.TXT ); do
## If the file exists and is larger than 0 bytes, THEN add
## a delete command to the FTP delete script. This will allow
## us to delete all non-zero byte files from the FTP server.
## Non-zero byte files could be a sign that the file didn't
## download properly due to an FTP timeout or other network
## issues. By not deleting the non-zero byte file we can attempt
## to download it the next time the script is run.
if [ -s $i ]
then
echo "del $i" >> $sessdldir/ftp.$$
echo ">>>> $i will be added to delete script" >> $LOGFILE
fi
done

## Finish off the FTP delete script
echo "quit" >> $sessdldir/ftp.$$

echo "" >> $LOGFILE
echo ">> Here is the delete script">> $LOGFILE
echo "" >> $LOGFILE
cat $sessdldir/ftp.$$ >> $LOGFILE
echo "" >> $LOGFILE
echo ">> Running the delete script" >> $LOGFILE
echo "" >> $LOGFILE

## Run the FTP script
ftp -ivn < $sessdldir/ftp.$$ >> $LOGFILE

## Copy all the non-zero byte TXT files to the import folder
echo "" >> $LOGFILE
echo ">> Copying non-zero size files to IMPORT" >> $LOGFILE

for i in $( ls *.TXT ); do
if [ -s $i ]
then
cp $i $importdir
echo ">>>> Copying $i to IMPORT directory" >> $LOGFILE
fi
done
fi

## Copy session specific download dir to the ARCHIVE folder
echo "" >> $LOGFILE
echo ">> Copying entire $sessdldir to $archivedir" >> $LOGFILE

cp -R $sessdldir $archivedir/

## Delete the session specific download dir
rm -rf $sessdldir
echo "" >> $LOGFILE
echo ">> Deleting $sessdldir" >> $LOGFILE
echo "" >> $LOGFILE

## ENDING LOG FILE FOR SESSION
echo "****** FTP PROCESS ENDED AT: $now ******" >> $LOGFILE
echo "******************************************************" >> $LOGFILE
echo "" >> $LOGFILE

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