For the first time, I am participating in a St. Baldrick's event for cancer research. It's a great cause; I have family members and friends who are either battling with cancer, or are themselves survivors.
My goal is to reach $1000 in donations towards cancer research through the St. Baldrick's Foundation. If there's anything you can do to help, I would very much appreciate it, and there are many others out there who can benefit from your help.
Alright, folks, the bearding has commenced.
Now's your chance to make a pledge for the Carolina Hurricanes Kids 'n' Community Foundation. Just hit the "Pledge a Friend" button, and put in "Benjamin Reed".
If you know me, you know my dedication to never exposing my unfortunate double-chin to the horrors of sunlight. Don't let this sacrifice be in vain! Pledge now!
In the '05-'06 Stanley Cup run, I grew a pretty substantial playoff beard, just for the heck of it. (see fig. 1, pictured right)
This time, the Hurricanes are doing a great charity event for the Kids 'N Community Foundation: the Beard-A-Thon!
When the regular season games are over, I'm going to shave, and then grow a playoff beard as hard as I can.
Now, as I mentioned, it's a charity event, and I need you folks to help me out, by pledging at the Beard-A-Thon page. Don't forget to enter "Benjamin Reed" where it says, " There's a specific beard grower I'd like to support."
I swear, this is the only political post I will do before the elections. No, really!
As the elections get closer and closer, the more I realize Neal Stephenson is not an author, but a prophet. He (co-)wrote a book called Interface
I know it sounds pretty crazy, but in the context of the book, it actually flows pretty believably.
Anyways, he goes on to run for President, and his campaign works out a way to use this memory-trigger to their advantage. They pick a small sample of people that represent a cross-section of the country, and then hook them up to a little Dick Tracy TV with an EKG in it that transmits their immediate emotional response to whatever they show them back to the campaign (sound familiar?). The campaign then triggers various memories so he can change tactics instantly if he starts losing support during a television appearance.
It's insane, and basically completely believable with current technology. Polling has become more and more prominent, to the point where polls about people's opinions about how they feel about how they think other people will react to polls is considered normal.
My favorite part of the book is when his campaign manager, Cy Ogle, is explaining why the issues don't matter in the current political realm.
"In the 1700s, politics was all about ideas. But Jefferson came up with all the good ideas. In the 1800s, it was all about character. But no one will ever have as much character as Lincoln and Lee. For much of the 1900s it was about charisma. But we no longer trust charisma because Hitler used it to kill Jews and JFK used it to get laid and send us to Vietnam." ...
"So what's it about now?" Aaron said.
"Scrutiny. We are in the Age of Scrutiny. A public figure must withstand the scrutiny of the media," Ogle said. "The President is the ultimate public figure and must stand up under the ultimate scrutiny; he is like a man stretched out on a rack in the public square in some medieval shithole of a town, undergoing the rigors of the Inquisition. Like the medieval trial by ordeal, the Age of Scrutiny sneers at rational inquiry and debate, and presumes that mere oaths and protestations are deceptions and lies. The only way to discover the real truth is by the rite of the ordeal, which exposes the subject to such inhuman strain that any defect in his character will cause him to crack wide open, like a flawed diamond. It is a mystical procedure that skirts rationality, which is seen as the work of the Devil, instead drawing down a higher, ineffable power. Like the Roman haruspex who foretold the outcome of a battle, not by analyzing the strengths of the opposing forces, but by groping through the steaming guts of a slaughtered ram, we seek to establish a candidates fitness for office by pinning him under the lights of a television studio and constructing the use of eye contact, monitoring his gesticulations-- whether his hands are held open or closed, toward or away from the camera, spread open forthcomingly or clenched like grasping claws."
Spooky, isn't it?
It's been a crazy month, and it's gonna keep getting crazier. June 11th I went to WWDC. Then, last weekend, I was in New York for the Origami USA convention. Now I'm headed out to Glasgow to speak at aKademy.
Then, in July it's off to the OpenNMS Dev-Jam, and immediately after that, LinuxWorld Expo, where we'll be in the .org pavilion.
Phew!
So anyways, if you'll be at any of those events (heh), drop me a line!
So I've been sitting on this for some time while I made the plans, but it is now officially official, I'm going to be speaking at aKademy 2007 in Glasgow! I'm really looking forward to meeting all the folks I've only talked to in IRC before and really get a chance to hang out with the amazing KDE developer community.
If you'd like to get together, just drop me a line and we'll figure something out.
...I'm now Mr. Benjamin Reed.
Er, waitaminute... <grin>
On October 7th, I married Cynthia Fulbright at the Longview Center in downtown Raleigh. We had our reception at the Matthews House in Cary. We honeymooned in Scotland. (It was awesome!)
It was an incredible ceremony, we got a ton of compliments on it, which means a lot since we put it together ourselves. Cynthia was stunning. I'm glad we did the "you can't see her in the dress until the wedding day" thing, it was wonderful seeing her dressed up like a princess, coming down the aisle. We both smiled the whole time (I'm told I "grinned like an idiot"), and while I was nervous before everything started, once we were up there it was like it was just the two of us and the rest of the world didn't exist anymore.
Cynthia, I love you, and I can't be happier to spend the rest of my life with you!
We've put up a web site for the wedding, although it doesn't have much on it yet. The goal is to have the ceremony as well as photos of everything from the rehearsal to the honeymoon (no, not those photos), but it will take a while, we took over 1500 pictures in Scotland. We're getting there. :)
Thanks to everyone who's wished us well, and to those of you who were able to come to the wedding!
I finally got around to switching my blog over to point to RacoonFink.com, instead of ranger.befunk.com/blog. I've had the domain for some time (and have been using it for Fink e-mail) but had never gotten to updating the blog links.
Unfortunately, I noticed too late that it made RSS readers see everything as new. Please excuse the spamming, it won't happen again. :)
I'm here in Portland at OSCON until Friday night. If you're here, send me an e-mail and we can try to find each other and say "hi". I've gone ahead and set up a "Birds of a Feather" meet-up, at 8:30pm Wednesday night, in room F150. If you're interested in Fink, give us a visit.
If you're not at OSCON, well, you're missing out. ;)
So I'm going to veer away from Mac stuff for a sec.
I went to a Carolina Hurricanes game late in the regular season with my fianceé, mom, and aunt, and I got totally hooked (we've already got season tickets for the next season). The Hurricanes made it to the playoffs, and I heard about the tradition of not shaving until you win (or you're eliminated).
Now, I've had facial hair in some form pretty much continuously since junior high, I'm all about not having to shave. Not to pass up yet another excuse not to shave, I thought "what the heck, I can grow a playoff beard!"
The Hurricanes went right to the end, and won the Stanley Cup this year! In the process, I managed to grow a nice substantial amount of facial hair. Of course, I couldn't let that much hair just pass without having a little fun with it...
So I present to you: Operation: Playoff Beard!
