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

Nice quiet day around the house.… We both needed that. We did get the dogs out for a longer walk… Then we put on our skis because we knew the rain was going to take away the snow. We went to the YCCT explore some of the trails in the back.… It’s really beautiful up there… And it’s fun to be looking back towards our house from a place so close to our home thatwe’ve never seen before.

One thing we saw while we were skiing was that the snow fleas were out. When I first discovered these things a couple years ago I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. There are millions of these tiny black bugs that come out of the snow and hop around… They tend to congregate in animal tracks… I think it’s because they come from the ground and the animals foot prints make a path to the soil… They’re kind of cool and somehow they kind of freak me out

We spent the rest of the day working on one thing or another… I did it tonight our friends Ellen Will and Uboe came over and fix dinner for us. It was really really delicious. Our friend Savanah joined us too.

We were all heading to another warm dog show this time at Zenbarn. I decided to try my hat trick there again.… It’s not really well suited for a dark place like that… But people still liked it. I now have a bunch of different eyeball patterns on it. I really appreciate the people at adafruit who came up with the basic design

We got to the show just as the warm dogs were starting… I just absolutely love this band. All the folks in it are friends of ours. But I think I would love the band even if they weren’t

It was fun watching people’s reaction to my hat… Several folks tried it on

OK… Time for bed. We have an early morning tomorrow.

More from then

Nite all, nite sam

-me