It took me 33 years but I have finally achieved my life’s goal of walking barefoot on all 7 continents. It happened twice actually, before and after the marathon while changing my shoes. So how was it many have asked?

Antarctica is a great place since basically there are no humans (save for a few bases doing scientific research). The marathon was more like an eco-challenge. Did a time of 6:22:48, sure that sounds slow but the winner did 4 hours and he usually does a 2:15 marathon. Basically lots of mud, snow, ice, rocks, hills and then a GLAICER! Yes a glacier we had to climb up for over a mile and a half. Then down. Then again! Got my sneaker pulled off my mud and such but it was so much fun! Finished I think 113 out of 180 (200 started), Linda did about 50 minutes faster and was in the top 60! Awesome!!!

In one day two life goals accomplished, visiting the 7^th continent and running my first marathon. I also peed on all 7 continents and made a cell phone call on all 7 continents (the Russian base on King George Island had a tower, go figure.) I maybe the first to have done that!

Well back and better than ever. Techie posts resume tomorrow.

Antarctica

Monday, March 07, 2005 1:59:57 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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I am sitting at an Internet Cafe in Ushuaia, Argentina, the world´s southern most city getting ready for the marathon in Antarctica on Saturday. Linda says that after running for 5 days in Buenos Aires in 90 degree heat running in the snow and ice is welcome! Will be offline for 2 weeks, see you on the other side...

Antarctica

Wednesday, February 23, 2005 9:57:34 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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I know this. (Ask me if I care.) Anyway, all of those folks who dislike me usually say "is there a way to shut him up." Well there is a way!!!! Have me train for a marathon. Ran 18 miles on Saturday and then a 9.3 mile race on Sunday inside the “gates“ in Central Park. I was very quiet all weekend. (Marathon in 12 days)

Another thing people thought was impossible was referencing a RANK()ing function in a WHERE clause in SQL Server 2005 or using an aggregate with the Ranking and Windowing functions. A simple solution that I did not see in any of the docs, use a Common Table Expression. Take this simple aggregate, rounding to the nearest 100th the sales figure from AdventureWorks;

Select CustomerID,round(convert(int, sum(totaldue))/100,8) *100 as totalamt

From Sales.SalesOrderHeader

Group by CustomerID

Gives you results like:

CustomerID  totalamt

----------- -----------

22814       0

11407       0

28387       600

15675       7900

18546       0

(and so on)

What if you want to rank them? Easy, make the aggregate a CTE and rank over the new field:

--rank by totaldue, summed and rounded (nearest 100)

--need a CTE to do a sum & rounding

--so this example will have a

--customerID summed with all of

--their orders

With CustomerSum

As

(

Select CustomerID,round(convert(int, sum(totaldue))/100,8) *100 as totalamt

From Sales.SalesOrderHeader

Group by CustomerID

)

Select *,

            Rank() Over (Order By totalamt Desc) as Rank

From CustomerSum

Results:

CustomerID  totalamt    Rank

----------- ----------- --------------------

678         1179800     1

697         1179400     2

170         1134700     3

328         1084400     4

514         1074100     5

(and so on)

Ditto if you want to filter a query by the results of a ranking function. Just move the ranking function up to the CTE:

--use a common table expression if you want

--to filter by one of the rows that contain a

--ranking function since ranking functions

--are not allowed in where or having clauses

With NumberRows

As

(

Select SalesOrderID, CustomerID,

            Row_Number() Over (Order By SalesOrderID) as RowNumber

From Sales.SalesOrderHeader

)

Select * from NumberRows

where RowNumber between 100 and 200

Order By SalesOrderID

Resutls:

SalesOrderID CustomerID  RowNumber

------------ ----------- --------------------

43758        27646       100

43759        13257       101

43760        16352       102

43761        16493       103

43762        27578       104

(and so on)

Antarctica | Speaking | SQL Server | Yukon Book

Monday, February 14, 2005 5:49:05 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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The Mets made a spash as did the Jets this weekend, but marathon training is right on schedule, a 5 mile race was ran on Sunday with the usual results (Kathleen beating us). This is the first of 9 races to qualify for the 2006 New York City Marathon. Antarctica marathon is 47 days away...

Antarctica | Professional Sports

Monday, January 10, 2005 5:44:37 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Come one, come all, this Thursday at the NYC .NET Developers Group, Andrew, Bill and I will give a real in-depth sneak peak on SQL Server 2005 including a tools overview, TSQL, XQuery,XML, Service Broker, OLAP and the Unified Demensional Model. Too bad Clemens will not be there, he is arriving on Friday and spending the weekend at my place for some year end partying. Maybe we will rewrite dasBlog to use SQL Server 2005. (Most likely we will just drink a lot and fall down.)

Did another race this weekend, 10K in Central Park. 8:39 pace, no way I can hold that up for an entire marathon.

Antarctica | SQL Server

Monday, December 13, 2004 10:41:30 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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We did a New York Road Runners Race in Central Park on Saturday-15k (9.3 miles). The pace we did in this race would put Linda and I on a 4+ hour marathon. Antarctica here we come...

Antarctica

Sunday, December 05, 2004 9:11:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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A year ago today was the blackout. Like most New Yorkers I can’t believe it was an entire year ago. For me personally the blackout was a turning point, a chain of events were set off for a truly amazing, unexpected and strange year that took me to Mt. Everest, Mt. McKinley (Denali) , Mt. Rainer, India, Egypt, Morocco, Malaysia rainforests, the bars of Bangkok, Hawaii, London, Paris, Amsterdam and so much more.

Looking back on a year you think about what matters most, what you learned, mistakes you made, etc. I learned a very important thing last year on Mt. Everest. Inner peace. After more than a month away from home, (a week in Malaysia and 4 weeks in Nepal), I had achieved inner peace in that bar in Lulka. It may have had something to do with the dirt cheap happy hour drinks, the bartender playing No Woman No Cry four times in a row for me, but it was more than that. I had time to reflect on life, the universe and everything. I found that nothing is more sacred than finding inner peace. You just can’t get it working 9-5 in a cube and worrying about picking up your dry cleaning and rushing to the downtown 6 train. Around Christmas time last year I contemplated moving to Lulka and buying that bar and making a living there. (Don’t underestimate my desire to get back there, one day this blog may be hosted in Nepal.)

Short of moving to Lulka or Goa, India, once a year I plan to find that inner peace somewhere, it doesn’t necessary have to be on a mountain, but that is a good place to start.

So this next year brings some crazy things. I get ready to travel back to Tech*ED Malaysia in KL with stops in Hong Kong, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Then off to Kilimanjaro in October and Antarctica in February. Somewhere, whether it is the Killing Fields of Phnom Penh or the highest point in Africa, I will find that inner peace somewhere. I just hope that all of you can try to do the same at your time and location. Don’t lose the desire to keep looking for it.

Antarctica | Everest | Kilimanjaro  | Speaking | Travel

Saturday, August 14, 2004 12:42:26 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Stephen Put on Some Pants, Andrew Brush Your Teeth 

Linda was on a mission yesterday morning to get us up and motivated to watch the NYC Marathon up at Banshee on 1^st and 74^th as she ordered Andrew and I around before breakfast. The runners had awesome weather (sunny and in the low 70s) while we drank some beer and cheered them on. A band was playing in the street and some random runners even kissed random people in the crowd.

While Linda and I are running a marathon on February 26, 2005 in Antarctica, I could not get her to commit to running the NYC marathon with me next year. Kathleen did agree. Training starts this winter.

Antarctica

Monday, November 03, 2003 2:52:05 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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