I’m officially a ‘nutcase’

I still don’t know if nutcase is the right word for the French ‘cinglé’ but it seems close to the Dutch ‘malloot’ which seems close to the French word. Anyway as I mentioned in my last post (ages ago) I was going to cycle and camp with my wife through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and France. And along the way try to climb the Mont Ventoux 3 times on one day. Thus becoming eligible for membership of the Club de cinglé du Mont Ventoux with the climbs. And just last week I received the official notification that I now am a member of the club. It is an honour to be accepted although the experience itself was hard, tiring, cold (rain in the descent), warm even hot but very gratifiing.

And the goal for next year has already been set. Some of my collegues have entered our company in a tour up the Alpe d’Huez. Not once, but six times. At least that is the personal goal. Overall goal of the tour (Dutch web site here) is to get as much money as possible for Cancer research in the Netherlands. And that is what we will be doing in between training. Get Sponsors!

I did it

Today I posted the letter containing my application for entrance into the (I like to think) very select Club des Cinglés du Mont Ventoux. Now it is only my application and I still have a long way (literally) to go before I make a real member. But it is a first step.

For anyone that does not read french very well, there is also a Dutch version and a blog in english of a group of dutch cyclists that completed the tour this spring.

So in the last week of august I will be trying to climb the Mont Ventoux on my bicycle three times in one day by three different routes. The distance of 136km is not the problem , I ride that kind of distance about once a week during training. The problem is there are no mountains here in Holland and I will have to climb 4443m. The nearest hill is about 200km away from my home and the highest is 395m, which is lower than the start of the climb of the Mont Ventoux. My wife came up with a nice solution for all this. She proposed to make our holiday this summer into a preparation for the Ventoux. So on the first of august (as my birthday present as I considerate it) we will leave home near Amsterdam on our bikes to arrive about 2 or 3 weeks later in the vicinity of the Mont Ventoux. A perfect preparation and we will pass a lot of mountains where I can practice my climbing skills. Although I must say we will not be climbing too much with all the camping gear on our bikes. We found a perfect route that skirts all the mountain ranges in France but hardly ever enters them. On the days we do not travel, I can climb some mountain nearby and my wife can train for the Marathon van Amsterdam she has planned in the fall.

I’m looking forward to it all and I know I am a little bit crazy to even try it, but that’s just me.

Dangers of an IT-marriage

Dizwell has pointed me in the direction of a nice daily cartoon site. Today it featured this. Anybody married to someone that also works in IT? You have been warned!

Frameworkia, the new PL/SQL standard

I couldn’t help but digging this. I just hope everybody sees the beauty of this standard.

Ode to NULL (Ram Srinivasan)

Reading up on oracle-l I encountered a poem. Yes, a poem! Having been bit by the null-bug more than once I could relate to the subject. Moreover, most of the people who are going read this will at least have heard about Lex de Haan and his ‘passion’ for everything concerning NULL. Jared noted that the poem should have a permanent place on the internet. Now I know a blog is nothing really permanent, but at least it is on the internet. The poem was written by Ram Srinivasan. Here it is…

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Ode to Null

It is neither a mountain nor a creek;

It is neither Latin nor Greek;

It is neither strong nor weak;

It is neither courageous nor meek.

It is neither nothing nor something;

It is neither a good thing nor a bad thing;

It is neither a big thing nor a small thing;

But it is something we have to deal with among all things.

It is neither a lender nor a borrower;

It is neither a zero nor a blank;

It is neither here nor there;

But, in programming, it is everywhere.

Oh! NULL, Oh! NULL!

You are neither a push nor a pull;

You always make us mull

Ov’r your dangerous effects, Oh! NULL!