Greetings one and all,and welcome to The Adventure Logs: Antarctica Adventure! In this entry, I'll give you the backstory of why I am here and a bit about what to expect in the coming posts.

First off, before I even get started, let me thank Thomas and Wes for inviting me to write about my grand adventure to the White Continent. Special thanks to Ed Dolista and Mitchell Hallock of the IndyCast for introducing me to the team here at Indy in the Classroom.

Ok, so who am I and why am I here? Well, for starters my name is Laird Malamed. I worked for George Lucas on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, I get to make video games for a living, and I am running a marathon in Antarctica on February 28.

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, driest place in the world. Technically, the place ranks as desert. No one "lives" in Antarctica. Officially, it has no language, no cities and nothing permanent. While a number of research bases pepper its coasts and islands and a station sits at the South Pole, you cannot hop over to your local international airport and book a seat. So, outside of the extreme reaches of the Congo and Amazon, Antarctica would be the kind of place Indiana Jones would go - if he liked penguins and seals and whales - inaccessible, inhospitable and super cool (in various meanings of the word).

Yet, since the end of the 19th century, lots of explorers have tried, failed, succeeded and sometimes a mix of of all three to explore the far southern portion of our planet. If you know anything about Antarctica exploration, the names of Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton might ring a bell. I'm sure I will touch upon all three during the next three weeks of this Adventure Log.