Super busy day at the Citori hack-athon. Second day turned out to be much busier than we anticipated. We had lots of people coming in asking for help and giving us feedback on what needed to change in the documentation etc.… It was really fun.

Tomorrow we see what everybody’s been working on… I really don’t know what to expect but I hope it will be fun. I’ll let you know

Night all, night Sam

-me

Today was the first day of our Greenup – speed up hackathon on Satori. I was a little worried at first… When 15 minutes before we were starting there were only three people there… About 30 minutes later there were 40 people which was just what we wanted.

It’s the first time we’ve had a bunch of people using the system all at the same time. There were a few bumps in the road but overall it was a very good day. We have quite a few teams hacking on the machine and so far things are running pretty well. I’m lucky to have a group of very good mentors here helping us. I’m going to make use of every moment that are here to make the experience on the machine better. It’s really fun hanging out with so many smart people

We had a nice mentor dinner afterwards… It’s really nice to get to know all of these folks



Tomorrow is likely to be a pretty quiet day because people will be hacking wherever they want… Our group of mentors will be there all day working to make the system better. If you’re around please drop by and say hi.

nite all, nite Sam

-me

I was driving down to Cambridge early this morning when I heard a story on Vermont Public Radio.. .. It was about a woman who’s son.. who’s name was Sam.. had died of an opioid overdose a couple of years ago.

The woman.. who’s name was Kris told how hard it was for her to have to turn of her son’s cell phone plan.. a year later she had a sad dream about her son.. that morning as she walked.. she put out to the world that she needed a sign from her son.. somehow a few minutes later she accidentally pocket called her son’s number .. She saw it.. and started laughing.. a sign…

A few hours later, a txt came back from the number asking ‘who is thes “‘.. that sort of changed the situation.. for a moment she thought…. no.. that couldn’t be.. .. so she answered. She explained her name. was chris and that the number used to belong to her late son Sam.. a few econds later the txt came back .. it was from a woman named Peggy.. she’d been assigned Sam’s old number.. What was crazy is that she two had had a child we’d died.. her daughter Samantha .. who went by Sam.. had died in a car accident 2 years back.. the two women texted back and forth and realized that they lived only 30 miles aways and that their kids had known each other, likesd the same bands,. took the same hikes. . they are slowly becaming friends from that shared grief…

you can hear the story here https://www.vpr.org/post/our-moms-have-talk-pocket-dial-connects-grieving-moms#stream/0

I had to stop driving to listen.. As soon as the story was over, I tracked down Kris on Facebook.. and sure enough, I found her.. I messaged her about Sam…. We agreed to talk when she and her husband get back from traveling.. I’m really looking forward to meeting them. It turns out she’s even written a book on her and her husband paul’s experience called ‘on Grief Garlic and Gratitude’.. https://www.amazon.com/Grief-Garlic-Gratitude-Returning-Shattered-ebook/dp/B07J2YD765/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=



I just ordered it. .. can’t wait to see it

The world can be sad.. but its also really cool..

nite all. nite sam

-me

Greetings from a car going very slowly down an icy freeway in Vermont. 5 of us are coming back from Montreal after a really fun birthday trip with out friend Jen

First stop was a really nice open market for a quick breakfast

The we went ton’imagine Van Gogh ‘ a multimedia celebration of Van Goghs art . It took place on the giant arsenal hall. The paintings were projected on giant 3 story fabric screens while classical music played . There were hundreds of folks in the room. Some walking, some lying on the ground (like us)

It was really beautiful !

Next stop was time out .. a realllllly upscale food court . We had conch fritters and martinis !

It was right across from the now defunct ‘club super sex’ .. a legend around here

The. Yet another bar ; called ‘darling’ right across from Leonard Cohens old house .. which i had to see

The. Finally to Hannah and Olivier’s for a birthday celebration for Jen with butter cake

I managed to help get Hannah and Oliver’s internet set up while we were there which was fun

Now we’re on our way home .. a 3 hour trip with the icy roads for one that can usually take less than 2

We appreciate Deb doing the driving .. it’s been a hard drive .. but we’re all enjoying the company

Happy birthday Jen ! You are wonderful !

Nite all, nite Sam

-me