Thursday 24 January 2013

Using JIRA and Confluence to Work From Mt. Everest

Nice blog post about the trek from my one and only corporate sponsor - Atlassian. I think they ought to do a special Angry Nerd shirt for me with the bird wrapped up in a down jacket and hat on top of a peak.

In other news, I have just ordered a Teach Yourself Nepali program. Honestly, I just want to learn some basic vocabulary before I head out there again. Just to be polite, you know?For example, I know some numbers, days of the week, etc. but I need a bit more than that, eh?

And finally, I have bought, received, charged, and will be testing some powercubes. I got a big 8000mAh and a smaller one at 2600mAh. I'm planning to use the bigger one for my kindle and camera and the smaller one for my iPhone. I should almost get 1 full charge for both kindle and iPhone from the big beast and 2 from the small one for the phone if my calculations are correct. I have to say they look dead sexy and I only hope that they work as well as they look!


The Perfect Presentation Template

So I've started working on my presentation and found the perfect slide template in Open Office


Anyway, writing has begun even though in many ways I'm still composing my thoughts. Nonetheless, I need to at least throw enough together for the 30 minute presentation in New Orleans. That one needs to be business oriented then rejigged for a longer 90 minute more technical presentation. Plus I may be presenting at 2 other conferences this year so who knows what length and audience those will be but it's all good publicity for The National Museum of Computing so it's worth it.

Which reminds me to remind you, please donate to TNMOC. All donations go to the museum! Here's a link to further info about the education program at the museum that I am raising money for - Computing in Education.

Monday 21 January 2013

Planning for return to EBC

So a little over 3 months from now I'll be flying out to Nepal again. Which means that my obsessive planning for the next trip has officially commenced.

Topics I'm thinking about include:

Photography - R got me a very nice camera for christmas so I need to get at least another lense and maybe a carbon fibre tripod

Language - Have ordered a basic book on the Nepali language. I'd like to be able to do a bit of bargaining, order in a restaurant, etc.

Fitness - Have had my back problem diagnosed. But that doesn't fix it. Need to work on my back while also getting into shape for the trek.

Writing - And I need to start pulling together my notes to write an article and presentation on the Managing from the Mountaintop thing as I'll be speaking at AIIM 2013 as well as ACCU 2013

In other news, I met up with Sushila (and her very patient and well-behaved son) while I was in NYC. We did some shopping and I got a steal - a pair of blue  Spyder snowpants with cute suspenders for $100. Then we were off to Woodside where we had tea before I was given a tour of the neighbourhood (fascinating) and then dinner at the Himalayan Yak (I recommend the Sherpa Stew). I must remember to get a date from Really Wild for which day I'll fly into Lukla.

And finally, I must post the photos and recipe from when I made momos!

Please vote for which topic you think I should cover first.