Lazy Productiveness, Sparring, and Families

Hi all!
James Richardson here. It's December 20th. The day finally came, and it was a blast. We've all been looking forward to the "launch" of the project, and here it was! Jerome started work fairly early this morning (well, moderately early, probably around 7:30). Becky picked me up about twenty minutes later and we went over to Jerome's place. He and Becky loaded the three ghetto tables/workbenches (hollow core doors and saw horses) into Becky's truck while I managed to finish my bagel. Between Jerome and myself, we loaded up the nine computers we'd be using in the lab into the truck he's using, then sat around until about 8:45, when we drove (slowly) to Valley Park. Becky beat us there, where the guy who was letting us into the building was. We went on into the main room, which has (real) restrooms off of it, and several other rooms. There were three tables with chairs already set up in the middle of the room, and we set up the workbenches in places around the edge of the room. Suzy arrived in time to help with the basic setup and table clothing of each of the ghetto workbenches and regular tablez . Jerome was able to bring the truck he was using up almost to the doors, and they unloaded them while I hooked them up. Sometime during that time, Joyce and April arrived, and helped with set up of keyboards, mice, and speakers, which were attached to five of the computers. The other four got sets of headphones. About ten-ish, Jon drifted in and started doing his thing. Sarah also arrived about that time. As the morning went on, we had several families join us, filling out the required documents (which there really aren't that many of) and testing the computers. Becky, Sarah, Joyce, and April assisted in teaching the kids how to use the computers. Personally, I'm amazed with these kids- most of them learned how to use the mice and keyboards quickly.

Sometime during the morning, Mr. Jim Adams dropped by and made a proposal to Becky, Jerome, and myself. Several people have come to him with questions about installing memory and software on their home computers, so he has asked if there is the possibility of expanding the Mindtriggerz project to include instructional sessions some Saturday mornings at the Valley park. I've been asked to head up this project, so I'm currently in the planning stages of it. Hopefully it'll be able to launch fairly soon as a sub project of Mindtriggerz - the instructional branch. As it is, we've got somewhat of an "instructional" branch with Becky, Sarah, Joyce, and April teaching the kids how to use their computers. Also in that would probably count my video last week on how to crimp an ethernet cable, which is on Google video now. How embarrassing. There's a link in the post before this one. Either way, it might be an interesting way of expanding on the project.

Anyways, back to what happened. Munch (Lunch, same thing) was ordered and hauled in by Joyce and April (unfortunately not a fresh kill, instead Pizza Hut), and we all ate, having some very interesting conversations during that little time in the back room where we had set up our "break room". We had the fourth and fifth families in during the afternoon, and once they were gone, nobody else visited our little happy festival with a large banner and balloons out front. About 1:50, we started break down, storing everything away. We got lucky in that there are places to store this stuff and not have to worry. The rooms are heated, so we didn't have to haul really anything back to Jerome's or Becky's. After that we pretty much broke up, everybody heading their separate ways. All in all, an extremely productive session. We'll be back doing this again next weekend, same day, same time, and hopefully with more families showing up. The only difference next week: We'll probably end up splitting into two crews, one at the park and one at Becky's house.

Not much else to say, except that I'm truly amazed at how far we've come with this. I hope that Jesse is happy with our progress, wherever he is. I think he'd be pleased with where we've gotten to, even though he can't be here to contribute physically. Of course, he's always here in soul and in our hearts, whether we're religious or not.

Mean time, have fun celebrating whatever it is you might celebrate (if you don't celebrate, then just enjoy some time off during the hollow days). See ya around the bend! We're waiting here, ready to pounce on you the moment you come 'round to where we are....
<3