Senderismo en Chamonix

En los últimos años viene siendo una costumbre que mi marido y yo dediquemos una semana de vacaciones a hacer actividades de senderismo. Este año el escenario elegido ha sido de excepción: el Valle de Chamonix, en los Alpes franceses.

Chamonix desde la parte superior de L'Aiguille du Midi (+3,800 m)

Han sido seis días de caminar, sin faltar ninguno, con lluvia y niebla o con sol, lo que tocase. El valle es profundo, a ambos lados montañas de altura considerable, especialmente las situadas al sur, en el macizo del Mont Blanc, con varios picos que superan de largo los 4,000 m de altitud. Los paseos han sido sencillos, con desniveles positivos por debajo de 1,000 m y negativos poco más exigentes. A este ritmo, de buena gana hubiera seguido unos días más (muchos).

Está claro que la explotación del valle está en la base de la economía de esta zona de la Alta Saboya; la infrastructura de accesos a la montaña es realmente impresionante, y está muy cuidada. El entorno natural es simplemente precioso: nieves perpetuas en las cimas, glaciares en retroceso pero todavía de longitud consideranble, bosques, prados, cascadas, rios...

Mi afición por el senderismo y la montaña cada año va en aumento; en escenarios como éste, y en compañía de las personas con las que he viajado, espero seguir practicando este deporte durante mucho tiempo más.

Fotos: dia 1, dia 2, dia 3, dia 4, dia 5, dia 6

Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" and a nice example of data visualization

My first - well, second, to be precise - reading of Orwell's work has been "Nineteen Eighty-Four", one of his two most famous novels. He wrote it between 1947 and 1948, towards the end of his rather short life -Orwell died of Tuberculosis in 1950; a sickness that, thankfully, very few years later became curable in many cases. Sick and all, it seems to me that Mr. Orwell possessed a brilliant brain and an enviable gift for putting complex thoughts into simple, clear words with a clear meaning. He had rather strong opinions about the subject of language: read his essay "Politics and the English Language" to see what I mean.   

Orwell imagined a terrifying future for humanity in his "Nineteen Eighty-Four" novel. In 1984 the world is divided in three big nations that are constantly, endlessly at war; where governments are totally authoritarian and untruthful, most of the population barely struggles to survive, there's no freedom even to think and, most terrible, where there is absolutely no hope for a brighter future.

I suppose Orwell, shall he had lived a longer life, would have been glad to see that his imaginary "Nineteen Eighty-Four" did actually not became a reality, at least the scale he envisioned it in his novel.

Unfortunately in today's world there's still war, poverty, ignorance, lack of freedom, hidden agendas, greed for power, brutality...and a long etc. of terrible in-human behaviours and situations that are present in Orwell's novel. In this sense Orwell's message is as actual as ever.

I do not want to finish this post without sharing a video that I happened to visualize while reading "Nineteen Eighty-Four" . Typically, I keep IT-related topics separate from my "out of work" readings, but this time I'll make an exception. The short video embedded below is a powerful and beautiful example of data visualization techniques. It gives us a glimpse into economic and health growth in the last 200 years. Look at the second part of the 20th century: thankfully, the real political and economical situation at the end of the century looked much brighter than that in Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four"! Enjoy the still one-way "telescreen"!

 

Celebrating Three Years as a Certified Project Manager

Almost three years now since I took the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam! And now here I am, happy to share that I have just renewed the certification for another three years!

Early in June 2011 I was encouraged by my employer to become a certified Project Manager. After many years leading different IT projects I was already possessing the necessary experience for the Project Management Institute (PMI) to accept my application. I then become an eager student of the PMBOK Guide and the even more famous Rita's book.

I have to admit that spending my personal time preparing for the exam was not exactly fun, and that at the beginning I was a bit sceptical that I should gain some valuable knowledge. However, as I became more familiar with the project management areas and how they are developed in the PMBOK, I certainly became aware that there was much to learn. I realized how many of the things I was doing in my day to day work were being done in the correct way, and I also understood how others could be improved.

A good thing about the PMP certification is that you have to work to keep it. The certification is only valid for three years, and if you want to renew it you have to keep on learning about this Profession - in addition to pay the fees to the PMI.

So now I've got my renewal for another three years. This means I have to start planning how to gain my next 60 PDUs so I can celebrate another renewal in due course!

Khaled Hosseini's stories about Afghanistan

Sad stories make good books? If you think so you might love Khaled Hosseini's novels, they are all sad. Afghanistan recent history is another common denominator in all his three books to date.

Hosseini published his first book, "The Kite Runner", in 2003. Later, in 2007, a movie inspired in the book became very popular and it was then that I learned about the book. I did not see the movie and I did not read the book. I had the notion that the story was about children, and that it was not exactly fun. My own kids were little at the time and I did not feel like it was the right moment for this book.

A few years later, while searching for a new read in a bookstore (that was before I got my kindle), I came across "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (first published in 2008). I bought it and then I devoured it in just a few days. I loved the story and how it was told.

After such pleasant experience, when I saw Hosseini's new book "And The Mountains Echoed" (first published in 2013), I also read it and enjoyed it.

And then, a couple of weeks ago, I decided the time for "The Kite Runner" had come. Tears have been shed, as I was fearing they would. Having read the other two novels though, I knew that despite the very sad and terrible events described in the book, I would still find in it a strong set of characters that would speak of courage, conscience, compassion and hope.

All novels from Hosseini have some common themes: Afghanistan tragic history in the last 40 years, a certain yearn for how Afghanistan was prior to the Russian invasion in the seventies, Muslim traditions and cultural aspects, the loss of youth only too early, the Taliban.

Khaled Hosseini is himself an Afghan, although he moved away from his home country when he was still very young. The stories he writes are all hard but, at the same time, they are warm and so very human that you just keep on wanting some more.

The Secret History

"To live without thinking" is what one of the main characters of this novel says he has always wanted most. How very appealing and yet how devastating to live by these words can be!

In my regular searches for new books in Amazon I've come across this novel, The Secret History, a fair number of times. Despite its numerous very positive reviews I did not pick it up, the reason being that this is a story about a few young people in their college years and I somehow did not think I would have a mind for it. Then one day a friend of mine happened to recommend it and offered me to borrow his own hard copy version; and this just tipped the balance.

This novel by Donna Tartt is definitely not the typical light read about a bunch privileged, happy, unconcerned youths in their University years, far from that. The characters are quite unusual, each of them deeply troubled in a different way. They all have in common a fair share of "living without thinking" though, or at least without thinking straight. Their lack of morality is also stunning. I'm still wondering if the unbelievably high amount of drinking, smoking and drugs they do somehow explains their behaviour or is just a consequence of it or both.

If you are interested in the plot you can easily find it in the net, I will not touch on it here. Personally, I've very much enjoyed the first and last thirds of the book, while I could have lived without some of the middle chapters in which little action takes place. I've definitely enjoyed Tartt's elegant writing style and the way she hints at things and then fully reveals them at just her own pace.

Donna Tartt's third and latest book is now on sale and enjoying great success, "The Goldfinch". Here's a short video of the writer and her work:

Now, at the risk of exposing my dumbness only too much, can anybody explain me what the title of this book really mean?