So much emotional swirl around us.. lots of struggle… lots of sadness.. loss, pain, need . Somehow I feel strangely calm about it.. hoping to help.. hoping to understand more

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

woke to the hard realization this morning that puckett was gone..it seemed like a dream.. but couldn’t wake from it.  so much crazy stuff swirling around us right now. still dealing from Alan’s death just two weeks ago. Not sure whats going on with the world..

Struggled to get a handle on the day..

I got some lift today serving as a judge for the UVM Cs department programing contest.. I was on the team of judges assigned to the advanced projects. It was very fulfilling getting to talk to these really sharp kids and see what they’d come up with.

here’s the IBM sponsor team

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this team was working with mu friend Jenn to collect

‘found sound’

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this guy wrote an emulator for 1980’s video games. 

 

this woman was using a LEAP motion controller to read ASL for the deaf

 

here’s our fears department head posing as the goddess she is.

 

and the winner is !!! (the emulator guy one 3rd place !)

 

later this evening I went over to Lee, Brad and Ann Maries.. A couple of folks were over there with Puckett’s grandmother. It was nice to hang out some more with them. Everyone was still in shock.. but doing OK

 

ok.. gotta geton a work call.. 10:30 PM.. work day never ends

 

nite all. niote sam

-me

what to say ?

This morning we received the very sad news that our good friend Jon Puckett  age 23 .. had died last night on his own terms. . Puckett was one of Sam’s best friends.After Sam died we stayed close. Puckett was a funny, genuine, talented and brilliant person. He loved his family.. .. his grandmother Jill, his two sons, his brother and sister.. and he loved music and he loved his friends.  He had just moved down to Florida to begin a new chapter in his life.. I even checked on him last night in Facebook. He was enjoying being with his Mom.. enjoying the work.. and loving life.. I just don’t know what happened.  …

he posted this great picture of himself just hours before he died.

 

 

tonight about 30 of Pucketts friends gathered here at our house to be together .
We all told stories about Puckett. I remember  seeing him and Brad way up on the 60 foot lift working on our house.. with Puckett trying to pretend he wasn’t scared of heights.. he was scared of heights.. any sane person is .. I have some great pictures of that. Others told about his music, his sports stuff as a kid. other crazy stunts.. His grandma told about how Puckett had rubber banded the kitchen sink sprayer once to fool her. You really couldn’t be mad at him.. Puckett sister and brother were there and they told some great stories about growing up with Puckett.

I found some pictures and hung them around the house..

 

it was quiet and sad and nice.. all at the same time 

here’s Puckett  with his brother and sister as kids.

I dug up some more pictures of Puckett over the years.. Heres’ Pucket with Nick, jeff and union in Black night vengeance .. the band Sam was in.. you can slither their music at https://myspace.com/blacknightvengence

 

 

 

here’s pocket with his older son Sam.. i remember when he told us he’d named hi on Sam.. it was so amazing. 

 

ugh.. here’s our old yellow couch

 

Puckett and bradley up on the lift

 

black night vengeance at higher ground !

I really am in shock.. i’ve bene going in an out of normal and crying all day.. this is going to take a long time to sink in..

Puckett.. I miss you man..   You’ll always be part of our family

night all, nite sam ..

-me

I had a funny thing happen today. A couple of days ago VT Public TV aired a really nice interview with me on their show Connect that was done by my freind Fran Stoddard  (see http://vermontpbs.org/show/21408/117)  I really liked the questions she asked.. and overall really liked the piece. The only catch was that they listed my old job title.. one that I haven’t had in more than 5 years. I emailed them to find out where they’d gotten their out of date info. LinkedIn they told me.. and sure enough.. my profile there slithered my old job definition..   For someone who uses social networking as much as I do.. sham on me for letting info like that get so out of date..

I went in there and updated my profile  to reflect my current role (IBM Fellow , Watson IoT Division). As soon as i did that I got about a bazillion notes congratulating me on … something ? a perceived promotion ? On remembering  to update my profile  ? Who cares.. even though nothing happened other than a little cyber housecleaning, it was nice to hear from so many friends !  Thanks for writing everybody.. !

 

nite all, nite sam

-me