Mashed Articles

At the start of Javaposse podcast #244, Dick et al explain how they got digitally disconnected from the outside world… Saboteurs digged 2 holes and cut a crucial fiber cable at 2 different locations. Hacking with a shovel!

Anyway, this is a new type of cyber attack, or is it warfare? Fiber optic cables are usually deployed as rings. So if the cable gets cut at one point, the other part of the ring still works fine and can handle all the traffic. But if you cut it at 2 points, end of story. Not only the Internet connections were down for 50.000+ people, but cell phones were dead as well.

One year ago I could not run even 1 km without stopping. Yesterday I ran my first Marathon – the whole 42.195 km!

What an experience! Nothing that words can explain. It was 4+ hours (4:14’30’’) of joy and pain (what a pain) which taught me a few things:
- There are no shortcuts – you must practice, practice and practice to be able a beat the beast
- It’s not your legs that would fail you but your head – a continuous fight between your brain and your body –“Don’t feel my legs. Shall I stop? No! Must go on!”. Or in other words – “If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But never give up!”
- Everyone needs a partner – I had Buddy Runner ‘who’ woke up with me in the early mornings for a run in the last 4 months and kept me motivated all the long way (unfortunately I spilt too much water on myself until my phone died after 3.5 hours).
- I love my family – my wife and kids waited for me in 4 different locations. Gave me isotonic drinks and energy gels (yuck), ran with me a bit but most important – gave me a reason to continue.

The run itself was painful, painful and painful. So why did I do that? I started writing the answer but understood that it is something that could not be explained…

And if you think yesterday was painful, this how I feel today.

This is the last post for me here on Liquid e-learning. I’ve rebranded and moved to www.searchfindlearn.com, because I wanted my blogging identity to say a bit more about how I learn. And search find learn reflects my learning process, from when I was little and played with alphabet blocks right through to my adult digital learning journey.

If you’re using technology with learners in an effective, experimental or innovative way, I’d love to hear from you. I can blog on www.searchfindlearn.com about your project/website/idea, or you can contribute a guest post. Send an email to michelle.gallen at gmail.com describing what you’re up to.