There was a great deal of laughter today at Mindtriggerz- a few inside jokes between April and Jon and while James wasn't feeling so great, Sarah looked fabulous just home on Spring Break from Ball State. She brightened up the teaching lab with her beautiful red sun dress then came by Liverpool to enthusiastic applause.
Jerome said there were two new families - one from Community Action Council and another from Cardinal Valley Elementary. April and Joyce posted flyers in nearby apartments and we are still aiming to place the 40+ systems we have ready before we get back to working at the Dunbar garden.
I've been so focused on the STEM Fair that I am little or no help to anyone. James, Chris and Jon formulated plans for the day while I obsessed on making lists because I don't quite trust my memory. Our "booth" will be set up in the center of the action. Chris suggested we have something to draw some of the younger STLP members so it was decided we'd take a Mindtriggerz computer to break down and let them help us put it back together. Demonstrating what we do hardware wise is just as important as the open-source cookies and candies, right? Right.
We continue to recieve calls and emails regularly from folks wanting to donate their older systems and that is so very heartening to us. We made pickups this Friday all over Lexington and ended up with a variety of CPU's and accessories. We are thankful to all those who spread the word and those who remember the Mindtriggerz Project when they upgrade.
Jon has great plans for our future and we are excited not only for his continued involvement but his non-stop enthusiasm. He revitalizes our energy and renews our efforts. We are of course eternally grateful that Jesse has such an incredible "best friend."
An inside to Jon and April, "yes, we will learn to love you."
<3
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Box 'o RAM
Sparse crew today at Mindtriggerz the Liverpool lab edition - it was a blustery, cold day and we don't blame anyone for not "getting out" in it. James helped Jesse's dad set up at the Valley Park training center and before the clock struck 10:00am a young man was there with his granddad for his second day of instruction! Four families came a few steps closer to getting their own Mindtriggerz computers and we are ever-grateful that Mrs. Weck sent Mr. Weck to "go help Jerome" today. When I stopped in to help break-down this afternoon there was our wonderful "Papa Weck" assisting a mom and daughter with the Pac-Man like spelling software.
But I am getting ahead of myself. At Liverpool, while James was busily designing our new "RAM b0x0rZ" I was reformatting floppies as fast as I could. Enjoying the thrill of the new drill bit, James designed this awesomely functional and absolutely gorgeous holde
r of spare RAM in our endless effort to keep things neat and tidy around the lab. There were some additional concerted efforts and we did manage to clean up a rather cluttered area of our work stations (and cabbage a very old system). When our newest Mindtriggerz Director showed, we inundated him with queries of "what is this" "what is that" and well, Jon arrived in the proverbial nick of time.
By the time James and I returned to the Park Shelter Joyce was already dissassembling the lab computers, she swore she'd been there the whole time and we just hadn't seen her. There is something about an aversion to keyboards or is it speakers? but as always, her presence is greatly (GREATLY) appreciated.
We have plans to distribute about 50 flyers next week to the apartment complexes in the Park vicinity. Jesse's dad wants very much to have the 40+ ready Mindtriggerz systems distributed before we commence work at the Dunbar Memorial Garden in a few weeks. I am hopeful we can - especially since we are quite literally running out of storage space at our houses.
We'll be showing our stuff at the Fayette County Public School's "Science Technology Engineering and Math" fair on March 14th - hopefully this too will draw attention to what we are doing as well as the how's and why's.
This is our work, we do it for each other and we do it for Jesse. Never forget you, desu.
<3
But I am getting ahead of myself. At Liverpool, while James was busily designing our new "RAM b0x0rZ" I was reformatting floppies as fast as I could. Enjoying the thrill of the new drill bit, James designed this awesomely functional and absolutely gorgeous holde
r of spare RAM in our endless effort to keep things neat and tidy around the lab. There were some additional concerted efforts and we did manage to clean up a rather cluttered area of our work stations (and cabbage a very old system). When our newest Mindtriggerz Director showed, we inundated him with queries of "what is this" "what is that" and well, Jon arrived in the proverbial nick of time. By the time James and I returned to the Park Shelter Joyce was already dissassembling the lab computers, she swore she'd been there the whole time and we just hadn't seen her. There is something about an aversion to keyboards or is it speakers? but as always, her presence is greatly (GREATLY) appreciated.
We have plans to distribute about 50 flyers next week to the apartment complexes in the Park vicinity. Jesse's dad wants very much to have the 40+ ready Mindtriggerz systems distributed before we commence work at the Dunbar Memorial Garden in a few weeks. I am hopeful we can - especially since we are quite literally running out of storage space at our houses.
We'll be showing our stuff at the Fayette County Public School's "Science Technology Engineering and Math" fair on March 14th - hopefully this too will draw attention to what we are doing as well as the how's and why's.
This is our work, we do it for each other and we do it for Jesse. Never forget you, desu.
<3
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Failed monitors and latent power surges
As always, we were particularly glad to have Chris join us this Saturday. Sporting a new car and excellent school grades he helped James create our newest Mindtriggerz Instructional Video that can be viewed here:
After their adventures in film production, Chris and James proceeded to repair two additional computers - replacing non-working components and passing the machines off for Jesse's dad to load Ubuntu and the educational software suites.
While Jerome delivered two more computers to recipient families, it was discovered that the monitor I worked so hard to polish up (see our last post for sordid details!) decided it didn't like being clean and performed an epic fail just for its new family. We played a quick switch-up and are happy to report that Danisse now has a completely operable Mindtriggerz computer! (Later we learned there exists a bent pin that James is certain he can repair with a pair of pliers and some brute force)
Meanwhile at the Cardinal Valley Park Training Lab, the incredibly lovely and perfect Sarah showed up on break for the weekend from Ball State to help instruct kids and families. She was joined by the precocious and multi-talented April as well as our infamous hippie chic Joyce who all took a breather from computers to play some basketball with several of the children. Sarah's dad even stopped in for a bit and I think she may have let him play "Tux Type."
We'll be sending the Mindtriggerz Project information to a wider span these next few weeks releasing it to the Kindergarten students at Cardinal Valley Elementary. The aim is to place these 40 plus computers before the first of May so that ALL of us can resume work at the Dunbar Memorial Garden for the Spring and Summer.
Til next time, as James would say: "peace."
<3
After their adventures in film production, Chris and James proceeded to repair two additional computers - replacing non-working components and passing the machines off for Jesse's dad to load Ubuntu and the educational software suites.
While Jerome delivered two more computers to recipient families, it was discovered that the monitor I worked so hard to polish up (see our last post for sordid details!) decided it didn't like being clean and performed an epic fail just for its new family. We played a quick switch-up and are happy to report that Danisse now has a completely operable Mindtriggerz computer! (Later we learned there exists a bent pin that James is certain he can repair with a pair of pliers and some brute force)
Meanwhile at the Cardinal Valley Park Training Lab, the incredibly lovely and perfect Sarah showed up on break for the weekend from Ball State to help instruct kids and families. She was joined by the precocious and multi-talented April as well as our infamous hippie chic Joyce who all took a breather from computers to play some basketball with several of the children. Sarah's dad even stopped in for a bit and I think she may have let him play "Tux Type."
We'll be sending the Mindtriggerz Project information to a wider span these next few weeks releasing it to the Kindergarten students at Cardinal Valley Elementary. The aim is to place these 40 plus computers before the first of May so that ALL of us can resume work at the Dunbar Memorial Garden for the Spring and Summer.
Til next time, as James would say: "peace."
<3
Sunday, February 1, 2009
And the cheese was without form
Due to the incredibly horrible weather this week we were unable to host any work on the Mindtriggerz Project. While many in the Lexington area went without electricity for several days (and some still are as of this post fumbling in the dark) I totally jinxed Liverpool by over-preparing the basement.
Jesse's dad stopped in before the ice fell too heavy and reminding him of our last bout with a big storm we took the time to move monitors and cpu's and anything else residing on the basement floor to higher planes. As sure as Tux has no bugs, the next day about 10am the power went out at the house. I called in reinforcements while lugging the generator from its hidden corner maneuvering around pallettes of technology. Jerome rolled in about an hour later with cans of gas and a good arm and managed to get the generator going before any water collected.
Unfortunately, he didn't get to his house fast enough but thanks to Jon most everything in the basement on Brittany was moved up as well.
For about six hours we were without electicity (a far cry from the last storm when we were seven days in the dark and cold) - again, I wonder at the brevity of the power loss and my being too ready for it. I had just fanagled an extension cord from the generator up the stairs and down the hallway so we'd have "internetz" and a lamp in my room for late night reading when VOILA, Kentucky Utilities kicked in.
I was thankful not to have a flooded basement.
Liverpool even now is a layer of slush - temps topped out in some balmy 50 degree-ish range today which surely helped - especially the sidewalks that were impassable yesterday. Most of our "families" walk to the Park for the training sessions so we knew there was little chance anyone could make the trek on Saturday.
An email came in this evening for another donated machine so hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can resume our regular activities next week. *Fingers crossed*
<3
Jesse's dad stopped in before the ice fell too heavy and reminding him of our last bout with a big storm we took the time to move monitors and cpu's and anything else residing on the basement floor to higher planes. As sure as Tux has no bugs, the next day about 10am the power went out at the house. I called in reinforcements while lugging the generator from its hidden corner maneuvering around pallettes of technology. Jerome rolled in about an hour later with cans of gas and a good arm and managed to get the generator going before any water collected.
Unfortunately, he didn't get to his house fast enough but thanks to Jon most everything in the basement on Brittany was moved up as well.
For about six hours we were without electicity (a far cry from the last storm when we were seven days in the dark and cold) - again, I wonder at the brevity of the power loss and my being too ready for it. I had just fanagled an extension cord from the generator up the stairs and down the hallway so we'd have "internetz" and a lamp in my room for late night reading when VOILA, Kentucky Utilities kicked in.
I was thankful not to have a flooded basement.
Liverpool even now is a layer of slush - temps topped out in some balmy 50 degree-ish range today which surely helped - especially the sidewalks that were impassable yesterday. Most of our "families" walk to the Park for the training sessions so we knew there was little chance anyone could make the trek on Saturday.
An email came in this evening for another donated machine so hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can resume our regular activities next week. *Fingers crossed*
<3
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Four down, thirty-six to go
Jesse's dad delivered three Mindtriggerz computers this Saturday to the families who completed their training, the fourth was delayed as our little Harvard prodigy was ill. I felt a certain melancholy in letting them "go" - or perhaps it is more the reality of what we are doing and why. I know it is good work but some days it is just very hard.
Incredibly, in a couple of the homes Jerome visited there were old non-working computers tucked away in closets. One dad asked if we could fix his old machine and Jerome responded: "We only fix computers for little people, not big ones" and then was given the old computer to be donated to Mindtriggerz. Jesse would love the irony in this - we give a computer and take another one in its place.
Joyce was our "runner" hustling back and forth between Liverpool and the Park loading systems into her car for Jerome to deliver. Laughing all the way. James was here along with Jon and while the guys replaced parts and diagnosed my dysfunction (one of the machines I couldn't get to boot was due to the fact that I'd plugged the monitor into the wrong port - ha ha, yeah), I cleaned speakers and mice and demonstrated not only how I make the machines sparkle to "like new" but also the ultimate results of my comet/windex mix. Sandpaper hands, an abrasive unto themselves.
When Jesse's dad delivered the infamous STICKER MANIA monitor last week to![]()
be cleaned I was like "no way, no, can't do" but then after checking the quality of the resolution I realized I had to fix it up. I joked about stickers being the bane of a mom's existence then buckled down to work. I suspect this monitor had been stacked away somewhere for quite some time, there was a great deal of dust and embedded grime but after fifteen or so minutes of buffing it with my steel wool knuckles, well, I finally got it clean.
Actually, it took a lot longer than fifteen minutes and much more than my sad cracked hands. I scraped each sticker with my fingernails (now all shredded to the quick) and had to bring out the big guns for the large plastic h
ook attached to the side with the dreaded double sided rubber adhesive. I won't go into too many details as to the plethora of cleaning products I unsuccessfully tried but finally I discovered the magic potion: Guardsman's Citrus Spot Remover. It was an "omg" moment and as is evident by this post, I am very proud of myself for the monitors pre-placement renewed condition. There are a wide variety of "things" I am not so good at anymore but it seems cleaning is not one that I've lost just yet.
For me these systems are a demonstration of my continued love for Jesse, and Jesse loved "shiny." So they will be.
<3
Incredibly, in a couple of the homes Jerome visited there were old non-working computers tucked away in closets. One dad asked if we could fix his old machine and Jerome responded: "We only fix computers for little people, not big ones" and then was given the old computer to be donated to Mindtriggerz. Jesse would love the irony in this - we give a computer and take another one in its place.
Joyce was our "runner" hustling back and forth between Liverpool and the Park loading systems into her car for Jerome to deliver. Laughing all the way. James was here along with Jon and while the guys replaced parts and diagnosed my dysfunction (one of the machines I couldn't get to boot was due to the fact that I'd plugged the monitor into the wrong port - ha ha, yeah), I cleaned speakers and mice and demonstrated not only how I make the machines sparkle to "like new" but also the ultimate results of my comet/windex mix. Sandpaper hands, an abrasive unto themselves.
When Jesse's dad delivered the infamous STICKER MANIA monitor last week to
be cleaned I was like "no way, no, can't do" but then after checking the quality of the resolution I realized I had to fix it up. I joked about stickers being the bane of a mom's existence then buckled down to work. I suspect this monitor had been stacked away somewhere for quite some time, there was a great deal of dust and embedded grime but after fifteen or so minutes of buffing it with my steel wool knuckles, well, I finally got it clean.Actually, it took a lot longer than fifteen minutes and much more than my sad cracked hands. I scraped each sticker with my fingernails (now all shredded to the quick) and had to bring out the big guns for the large plastic h
ook attached to the side with the dreaded double sided rubber adhesive. I won't go into too many details as to the plethora of cleaning products I unsuccessfully tried but finally I discovered the magic potion: Guardsman's Citrus Spot Remover. It was an "omg" moment and as is evident by this post, I am very proud of myself for the monitors pre-placement renewed condition. There are a wide variety of "things" I am not so good at anymore but it seems cleaning is not one that I've lost just yet.For me these systems are a demonstration of my continued love for Jesse, and Jesse loved "shiny." So they will be.
<3
Monday, January 19, 2009
Hungry, Hungry Hippos (aka your pets are on the internet while you're not home)
We've fallen a little behind on posts but are claiming "busy" as an excuse oh and yes, blaming the internet too.
We learned this week that Second Life awarded its first annual Jesse Malthus Award for Best Community Influence in September during their "Hippo Awards Ceremony" - giving us great pride as well as many tears but mostly thankfulness that Jesse continues to be remembered for his many contributions to SL.
Information on the award is available here:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/09/07/2008-hippo-award-winners-announced/
Four of our applicant families have finished their training and will each be receiving a Mindtriggerz computer this weekend! We are so excited for them and for us. It has been incredible watching these young ones (ages 3 and 4) as well as their parents working hard at the Cardinal Valley Park "lab" - learning the software and the technology together. We feel certain that the dedication they have shown us will continue - and that the Educational Software (GCompris and Childsplay) will benefit the entire family.
Several other families are almost there - another Saturday or two and we'll have additional computers to place. We've been slowly moving around components from Jesse's dads house to mine so I can do the "detailing" to the machines. This equates basically to me vacuuming out dust from cpu's, scraping off "MS Windows" stickers, and using most of the cleaning products in the house coupled with some serious elbow grease to make the components look as like new as humanly possible.
Which brings me to the second half of this weeks title: your pets and the internet. Windex is a pretty awesome product and I've used a lot of it cleaning up keyboards lately. When we discovered that the computer vacuum (graciously donated to us) had a capacity to "blow" we started using it regularly on keyboards. The adage "old computer components never lie" or "every keyboard tells a story" has never been better exemplified then by what we've found lurking beneath the control key! Ha!
Seriously, today I picked up a rather amazingly clean Dell keyboard and just for the sake of doing so decided I'd run the vac just for lulz. It was after this that I decided little Muffy and Spot, Boots and Alley are not just lamely sleeping the day away while their humans are off to work. No, I suspect they spend many hours surfing websites like Purina, Petsmart and icanhascheezburger. Undoubtedly.
This thought made me smile today as I polished surfaces to sparkle and shine. Thank you to the wonderful pets whose wonderful owners donated items to Mindtriggerz. Woof. Meow. W00t.
<3
We learned this week that Second Life awarded its first annual Jesse Malthus Award for Best Community Influence in September during their "Hippo Awards Ceremony" - giving us great pride as well as many tears but mostly thankfulness that Jesse continues to be remembered for his many contributions to SL.
Information on the award is available here:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/09/07/2008-hippo-award-winners-announced/
Four of our applicant families have finished their training and will each be receiving a Mindtriggerz computer this weekend! We are so excited for them and for us. It has been incredible watching these young ones (ages 3 and 4) as well as their parents working hard at the Cardinal Valley Park "lab" - learning the software and the technology together. We feel certain that the dedication they have shown us will continue - and that the Educational Software (GCompris and Childsplay) will benefit the entire family.
Several other families are almost there - another Saturday or two and we'll have additional computers to place. We've been slowly moving around components from Jesse's dads house to mine so I can do the "detailing" to the machines. This equates basically to me vacuuming out dust from cpu's, scraping off "MS Windows" stickers, and using most of the cleaning products in the house coupled with some serious elbow grease to make the components look as like new as humanly possible.
Which brings me to the second half of this weeks title: your pets and the internet. Windex is a pretty awesome product and I've used a lot of it cleaning up keyboards lately. When we discovered that the computer vacuum (graciously donated to us) had a capacity to "blow" we started using it regularly on keyboards. The adage "old computer components never lie" or "every keyboard tells a story" has never been better exemplified then by what we've found lurking beneath the control key! Ha!
Seriously, today I picked up a rather amazingly clean Dell keyboard and just for the sake of doing so decided I'd run the vac just for lulz. It was after this that I decided little Muffy and Spot, Boots and Alley are not just lamely sleeping the day away while their humans are off to work. No, I suspect they spend many hours surfing websites like Purina, Petsmart and icanhascheezburger. Undoubtedly.
This thought made me smile today as I polished surfaces to sparkle and shine. Thank you to the wonderful pets whose wonderful owners donated items to Mindtriggerz. Woof. Meow. W00t.
<3
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Screen shot or fake (fun with the Mindtriggerz crew)
After James helped Jerome set up the lab at Valley Park this morning he traipsed to Liverpool. While in the kitchen heating a breakfast burrito he shouted down the stairs: "There are people at the front door."
I think I said something like "Well, let them in."
It was Vincent and Zack, two new volunteers who joined us thanks to the lauding of our project by Joyce and April. :) and <3.
Vincent is a student at the University of Kentucky. Zack is finishing up high school here in Lexington. Both came aptly suited technologically speaking and eased into the work and camaraderie of our group as though they'd been helping for ever. We are happy to welcome them on board and hope to see them at many more Saturday work sessions.
While Sarah and Joyce helped Jerome teach the returning kids and parents at the Park, I eavesdropped (to the best of my abilities and as most around here know my hearing is quite deficient) on the conversations being bantered around while blowing the dust out of and then cleaning the hand prints off the CPU's we have loaded and that are ready to "place."
Jon has been diligently working on a "thin client server" and is making great progress. Josh changed out a cd rom drive in another system and apparently Vincent made magic and got a system running that had been relegated to the cabbage-patch.
I am continually amazed by the abilities of them all and suspect I will ceaselessly be so, as I always was with Jesse.
Jerome reported that four out of the six families he and his crew worked with last Saturday returned again and when I dropped in at about 1:00pm there was Danisse (Joyce's "future Harvard student") dressed to the nines and casually dragging dropping moving and manipulating and having a great time mastering a "GCompris" math game I have not had the patience to yet learn. She is four years old and prior to her Mom applying for a Mindtriggerz computer, had never touched a keyboard.
This is what it's all about.
None of what has transpired and none of what is the future of this project would have come this far, this fast without many sleepy Saturday mornings, without many brilliant, talented and caring individuals. Like the Dunbar Memorial Garden this too is our "labor of love" and we will never be able to give the proper thanks where and to whom it is due. Many, many hands have participated - from the folks who donate their old machines to the young men and women who sacrifice sleep to work with us - to the countless others who simply "spread the word."
TY.
and LUVZ.
Until next week!
Jesse's Mom
I think I said something like "Well, let them in."
It was Vincent and Zack, two new volunteers who joined us thanks to the lauding of our project by Joyce and April. :) and <3.
Vincent is a student at the University of Kentucky. Zack is finishing up high school here in Lexington. Both came aptly suited technologically speaking and eased into the work and camaraderie of our group as though they'd been helping for ever. We are happy to welcome them on board and hope to see them at many more Saturday work sessions.
While Sarah and Joyce helped Jerome teach the returning kids and parents at the Park, I eavesdropped (to the best of my abilities and as most around here know my hearing is quite deficient) on the conversations being bantered around while blowing the dust out of and then cleaning the hand prints off the CPU's we have loaded and that are ready to "place."
Jon has been diligently working on a "thin client server" and is making great progress. Josh changed out a cd rom drive in another system and apparently Vincent made magic and got a system running that had been relegated to the cabbage-patch.
I am continually amazed by the abilities of them all and suspect I will ceaselessly be so, as I always was with Jesse.
Jerome reported that four out of the six families he and his crew worked with last Saturday returned again and when I dropped in at about 1:00pm there was Danisse (Joyce's "future Harvard student") dressed to the nines and casually dragging dropping moving and manipulating and having a great time mastering a "GCompris" math game I have not had the patience to yet learn. She is four years old and prior to her Mom applying for a Mindtriggerz computer, had never touched a keyboard.
This is what it's all about.
None of what has transpired and none of what is the future of this project would have come this far, this fast without many sleepy Saturday mornings, without many brilliant, talented and caring individuals. Like the Dunbar Memorial Garden this too is our "labor of love" and we will never be able to give the proper thanks where and to whom it is due. Many, many hands have participated - from the folks who donate their old machines to the young men and women who sacrifice sleep to work with us - to the countless others who simply "spread the word."
TY.
and LUVZ.
Until next week!
Jesse's Mom
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