 Monday, September 01, 2003
Staging in Kathmandu (4,500')
Staging in Kathmandu (4,500')
Wally met with us today for the “talk” about the ins and outs of the expedition. Also met the climbing sidar Sherpa today, a very impressive man who has summitted 4 times. We fly to Lukla Wednesday to start the trek. We will be arriving at Mt. Everest Base Camp on September 11th, a strange day to make it there. A Buddhist ceremony early in the morning on the 12 marks the official beginning of the ascent for the rest of the team. Kevin and I will be spending at least 2 nights at Base Camp helping the expedition get settled in.
Here are the climbers bios:
Wally Berg, Canmore, Alberta
A four-time Everest summitter, Wally Berg is BAI’s founding director and head guide. His achievements in planning, organizing and guiding successful mountaineering expeditions have established him as one of the world’s foremost expedition leaders.
David Burger, Boulder, Colorado
David Burger has guided throughout the world for decades and has climbed to above 6,000m more than 50 times. In 2002, he was part of the successful BAI guiding team on Ama Dablam. When he is not guiding, David is an executive coach and senior team builder.
Maegan Carney, Seattle, Washington
Two-time World Freeride/Extreme Skiing Champion Maegan Carney aims to be the first American and first woman to complete a ski descent of Mt. Everest. Now making her home in Chamonix, France, her passion is for climbing peaks and skiing obscure, steep couloirs. In 2002, Carney made the first descent of 24,000-foot Cholatse Peak in Nepal.
Brad Johnson, Ridgway, Colorado
Brad Johnson has climbed 25 peaks between 17,000ft. and 27,000ft. high via 30 different routes and summitted Cho Oyu in 1999. He has participated in two expeditions to Makalu and K2. With over 20 years experience as a climbing and trekking guide, Brad spends much of each year leading mountaineering expeditions in Peru.
Garry Porter, Olalla, Washington
Since retiring from Boeing, Garry Porter has dedicated much of his life to mountaineering – and being a grandfather of four! He has reached the summit of Aconcagua, Denali, Cotopaxi, Island Peak, Huayna Potosi, Illimani and Ama Dablam with BAI in 2002.
To The Summit and Safe Return (4,500')
To The Summit and Safe Return
Train Harder. Climb Longer.
After more than 8 months of preparation, Kevin and I are in Kathmandu to begin our trek to Mt. Everest. We are waiting for the other 5 trekkers and 4 climbers. (who are going to the top!)
To all of my friends and family reading this, you know me well, I will be safe. Thanks for your support. And Dad, one day I will return to this mountain with you.
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Bangkok Day 2
Bangkok Day 2
After sleeping in I got up and got a haircut for about $0.30 and did my laundry that piled up while in KL.
Spent the day seeing the sights I have not seen before, spent a lot of time in the National Museum. Waiting for Kevin Collins to arrive in from Tokyo tonight then one more night of fun before we head to Kathmandu tomorrow!
Saturday, August 30, 2003
I ain't goin' out like no punk-bitch
I ain't goin' out like no punk-bitch
It seems that in KL they really like House of Pain’s Jump Around and the DJ at one club last night mixed it in with Kriss Kross’ Jump for an insane party. Add that to the almost local Panjabi, of course mixed with Jay-z. After an epic night of partying in KL with fellow speaker Chris Featherstone, it was time to say goodbye to KL.
So I have arrived in Bangkok and have to move from speaking/working mode to R&R mode for the weekend before moving into trekking to Everest mode on Monday. Bangkok is one of those places that I just seem addicted to and have to visit if I am in the region (Paris is another). Fun, cheap, and very friendly, Bangkok has lots to offer everyone including many Royal and Buddhist sights, awesome shopping (can you say custom clothing) and of course the wild and crazy nightlife. Now my third time to Bangkok in the last year and a half, I already know the cool places to party down at Pat Pung, so if any of you are down at Lucifers’ tonight or tomorrow, come dance with me to Indian Hip-Hop and a little old school Irish Rap (they like House of Pain here too)... And Tom, I am wearing my purple shirt that you hate so much…
Friday, August 29, 2003
The Malaysian Rainforest
The Malaysian Rainforest
Today a bunch of us speakers went on a trek for 8 hours in the Malaysian Rainforest where we did battle with malaria laden bugs, leaches and lots of natural obstacles. At times it was sweltering hot (to quote Tim) and we had to strip down and cool off.
This was a truly amazing experience. We used a machete to cut through the jungle and climbed through water, drank water out of roots and learned basic jungle survival (like how to cut a water bottle out of bamboo-I don’t think my bamboo water bottle is going to make it through Thai customs tomorrow).
The reward of the day was a phenomenal series of waterfalls and lots of wildlife.
DEV315 Using Regular Expressions in .NET
DEV315 Using Regular Expressions in .NET
The RegEx session went over very well. The crowd liked how my mom made my life difficult and helped me with this expression: Ste((v|ph)en|ve). They also found the flaw in this test for US Phone Numbers: 1-\(?\d{3}\)?-\d{3}-\d{4}
Code and slides avaliable here.
Thursday, August 28, 2003
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Rozenshtein Comes to Asia...
Rozenshtein Comes to Asia...
Who said TSQL is not fun? Dr. Rozenshtein is now a popular man in KL. Code and slide download for DEV206 "Efficient and Secure Data Retrieval in Your Middle Tier Using Stored Procedures and ADO. NET " is available on gotdotnet here. Enjoy!
There is no code for EDM207 ".NET CF Database Development with SQL Server CE 2.0 ROI" since it is a case study.
Party KL Style
Party KL Style
Ok, Clemens finally showed up and we did our usual routine: drink a lot, dance like wackos and have an awesome time at a local bar last night with some other speakers and local MS folkes. Too bad for Clemens that he had an early session, mine is not until 4pm. :)
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
DEV203 ASP .NET DataGrid Drill Down
DEV203 ASP .NET DataGrid Drill Down
Since Commnet and Wireless are down this is for those of you who attended DEV203 today, here is the code and slides download, examples in both VB and C#.
To Query String or Not to Query String
To Query String or Not to Query String
That is the question before Adam Cogan and I at breakfast this morning. He loves them. I hate them. He likes to make an HTMLa report and then use query strings to save the parameters and then email the URL to other people so that they can see the same thing. I’d rather save a view (parameters, etc) and let someone click on that. Or use postbacks. I don’t like Query Strings for a two main reasons reasons:
- The user can change the query string and possibly see data they are not allowed to see, or you have to write code to prevent that.
- Query Strings leave you wide open to SQL Injection Attacks and Denial of Service attacks (especially when you use sloppy code by concatenation of a SQL statement-something that you should NEVER do.) So you will have to write some RegEx expressions to validate the query strings.
Adam says that since you can code the responses to #1 and #2 query strings are useful and worth it. I tend to disagree and only use Query Strings when absolutely necessary. Who is right? We both are. It all depends on how much time and energy you are willing to spend, Adam wants particular functionality and is willing to pay (write validation code) for it, I am willing to pay (write functionality code) in different ways.
Monday, August 25, 2003
The Discovery Channel-Malaysian Style
Today Scott Case, fellow RD Tim Huckaby, and I went to Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre in central Malaysia. This facility, run by the Malaysian Government, takes elephants that are endangered and relocates them to the protected natural rainforest where they roam just about free. The centre also looks after orphan elephants. We got to spend the day with some of the relocated elephants that have not entered the general population yet. I am talking up close in nature with some serious elephants-at times it was quite intimidating like when we had to run out of their way! That said this was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done in my life.
First we got to hang out with an orphan baby female elephant. She was very tame and really enjoyed having us pet her and play with her. She especially liked when we would put our hands in her mouth. At 20 months old she was already over 1,000 pounds!
Then we went into the preserve and hung out with five adults and a child elephant. This was a totally wild experience. After that we got the chance to bathe and hand feed the elephants. After washing and feeding them, they treated us to rides, on land in the river. While in the river the elephants liked to throw us overboard, we were told it was a sign of affection by our guide Razali-who was a very cool dude.
When we were all done, we visited another preserve and saw a nearly extinct bear (who loved me) and some deer and other cool animals. This was quite a unique experience.
What a great day to spend my off day at TechEd. Well it is back to work tomorrow, five sessions in 3 days!!
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