Dean Karnazes successfully completed 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days.
The final race was the NYC Marathon and he completed it in 3 hours. Incredible.
This is just one of his many endurance accomplishments but it gives you an idea of what the guy is like… he’s not a quitter.
In his recent blog post, he included this Teddy Roosevelt quote about the nature of failure:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
During tough times, we can all benefit from this mindset.
Make the world a better place.
While at Blackbaud, I have been fortunate to be able to observe the work of some of our local Charleston, SC non-profit customers. Recently, I observed the National Association for Continence and our local Ronald McDonald House chapter. My project was to observe and understand what a day is like when working on the “other side” of the phones I talk on everyday. Though I learned a lot about how these organizations work and how they use our products, I also picked up on an amazing search engine they use, and I think it’s something worth sharing:
www.goodsearch.com
Enter the name of the charity/school of your choice, and each time you use their search engine (just like Yahoo or Google), a portion of their advertising profits go to your designated charity. More about Good Search
They also have a shopping site:
http://www.goodsearch.com/goodshop.aspx
It offers links to popular shopping sites, such as Amazon and Ebay, and a portion of your purchase goes to the charity of your choice. They also offer coupons and deals beyond what you would find on the regular sites.
What could be easier? Plus it’s free!
Pass it on!
In my younger days, I used to be a competitive swimmer. Now, I'm dabbling in running. This past Saturday, I ran an 8k to support sustainable development projects. (My long-term goal is to be faster than Greg).
Since Earth Day is just around the corner, I thought it appropriate to list a couple resources on how to "Go Green" at the office.
- GreenTech, a TechSoup initiative, gives useful tips on how to recycle, use less, buy products, and just be green.
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GreenNonprofits also provides education and assistance to meet this challenge.
Don't forget those activists at Ben and Jerry's are having their infamous Free Cone Day, Tuesday April 21st!
Anyone feel overwhelmed by all of the blogs, vblogs, news feeds, podcasts, and comic strips that you have to keep up with each day? Hopefully you're reading this post through your RSS Reader (aka aggregator, feed aggregator, feed reader, newsreader, etc) so you are not visiting this page each morning just hoping that the Endurance blog has been updated. 
If you need more information RSS (or really simple syndication), Blackbaud's Lindsay Robbins describes the whole process on Chatterbox. And don't miss out on Douglas Clinton's witty take on the topic on Web Stings.
If you don't already use one, here is a thorough list of feed aggregators . If that's still too much to choose from, I'd stick with the web based readers such as the oh-so-popular Google Reader or Bloglines.
Another option is to use a program you already have installed such as Microsoft Outlook 2007, Mozilla Firefox, or Internet Explorer 7.
Really simple, right?
Verbal Kint , one of your organization's power users, has an issue that no one else is experiencing.
Troubleshooting has been exhaustive. You decide to delete his user name and create a new one.
The new user name works fine!
Issue resolved right? ...not so fast. An hour later Verbal shows up at your desk - frantic.
His home page favorites, action reminders, and the ability to use the 'only show my queries' feature - all gone.
To avoid this situation, here is a solution to pass along to anyone with rights to add and remove users from the database:
BB55385: What to consider before deleting a user name and what information is lost when deleting a user?
The proper way to track down compatibility info is the System Recommendations page. That having been said, it’s a bit of a hassle to locate this information when you are juggling multiple products. So here is the rundown for SQL 2008 – hope you find it useful:
Raiser's Edge:
7.91 will be SQL 2008 compatible. 7.91 will be released in the second or third quarter this year. We have no plans to end Support for SQL 2005. Since we still support SQL 2000, it will not likely be soon... 
Financial Edge / Student Billing / Education Edge:
SQL 2008 is already supported with 7.77. There are no plans to end support for 2005 at this time.
Blackbaud NetCommunity:
The version released during Q3 of 2009 will require SQL 2008, SQL 2005 will no longer be supported at that point. Microsoft SQL 2008 will improve our product platform and provide additional capabilities.
The Researcher’s Edge:
SQL 2008 will not be compatible in the immediate future. SQL 2005 will continue to be supported.
I’ve been a runner for 15 years. This summer, I began training for my first marathon.
26.2 miles bears little resemblance to the 10Ks that I am accustomed to and I needed to prepare myself for the experience.
I discovered an abundance of available information in a variety of places: friends who are veteran marathoners, online forums, websites, experts at the local running store, books, and magazines. By culling information from all of these sources, I was able to mentally prepare myself and cross the finish line relatively unscathed.
Of course, this blog isn’t going to be about running – it’s about software support (but hopefully the analogy is sinking in).
Here are some Blackbaud resources that are available to you on our site:
Forums: There are specific forums for
NetCommunity,
Direct Marketing,
Database Administrators/Technical and
VBA/API
Learn from other organization’s past mistakes.
Shared Client Documents: Policies and Procedures for RE
Design Playground and BBNC Idea Bank: Help our designers anticipate your future needs
Please add a comment to share your favorite resources!
This blog is intended as a forum for sharing best practices regarding the support of your Blackbaud products.
Think of Endurance as a dedicated support partner – helping you tackle the hills and sharing the endorphin rush!
Greg