April 2006 - Posts
The LiveStrong Challenge is a series of rides designed to support the work of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. For those of you who do not know, the Lance Armstrong Foundation supports folks living with cancer and its after effects. They have lots of material that is useful for the newly diagnosed, and support programs for cancer survivors. If any of you recall Jim Ross, a fellow ASP Insider and Microsoft MVP, who died from cancer back in November, one of the things that allowed him to get through the last months of his life was an exercise program initially funded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
I have signed up for the LiveStrong Challenge ride in Philidelphia on September 10th, 2005. I signed up for the 100 mile ride, though of course there is some doubt whether I will be able to do the entire 100 miles. There are shorter rides, but since I will hopefully be finishing up the current chemo on August 4th, I hope to be able to train between the end of chemo and the date of the ride.
The LiveStrong Challenge Web site has a page for you to be able to sponsor me if you wish. You can click here if you would like to sponsor me on the ride. I have set a goal of $5,000, but if you are really enthusiastic and donate $15,000, I will get an invitation to the Ride for the Roses in Austin, which would be amazingly cool.
If you are going to Tech Ed, and you are a Geek with Cancer or Other Serious Disease, or you work with one, do consider stopping by my Birds of a Feather session, at 7:45 PM on Tuesday June 13th! There are 10 million cancer survivors today in the US, most of them back in the workforce. Add in those managing other serious diseases, and you have a lot of folks, likely a number in your organization. This raises some serious issues.
We will discuss the issues, both general survivorship issues as well as specific issues for folks who work with computers. How do you handle the delicate task of talking about your disease? Who do you tell? How do you manage treatments along with working? What about succession planning?
I have an unfortunate amount of experience with dealing with such issues, being a liver cancer survivor since 1998, and currently managing Mucinous Adenocarcinoma.
I would be especially interested in discussing anyone's experience outside the US.
Glenn Johnson is the author of Programming Microsoft ADO.NET Applications - Advanced Topics. He has perhaps more MS certifications than anyone else I know. From the interview:
Doug: I am in the process of writing an article on the role of technical books in the overall career development of a software developer. Do you think there is still a place for books in this world of ubiquitous Internet access, blogs and so on?
Glenn: I think that there is place for Internet, blogs, and development books. There are plenty of people who simply refuse to read large articles on their computer. For them, the book is the answer. Also, many people like the ability to take the book to places where there is either no Internet access (I'm not sure where that is these days) or no power outlets (like at the airport).
I think that the Internet is a place to go to for specific articles, but a book typically provides a means for more structured learning of a variety of topics.
Complete interview is here.
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