A few minutes ago, I posted this to LinuxJournal.com — it expresses my feelings as much here as it does there, so I’ll let it speak for itself.
Today is a day of grief for Linux Journal. This afternoon, Associate Editor Shawn Power’s home burned down — though we don’t know many details yet, we do know that Shawn, his wife Donna, and their three girls are escaped unharmed, but their pets were lost.
Shawn is one of the warmest, kindest, and most big-hearted people we know. Anyone who has met him, in the offline world or online knows that he is an amazing person, and is constantly focused on others. We at Linux Journal are privileged to know him, and compelled to offer whatever assistance we can in this troubled time. Read the rest of this entry »
A lot of you guys know that I have Obsessive-Compulsive disorder. Some of you may know that the disorder involves having intrusive, irrational, disturbing thoughts that produce varying levels of anxiety — thoughts the individual knows are irrational. The “solution” to the anxiety these thoughts create is to develop a compulsion — some activity or series of activities that, though it is equally irrational, relieves the anxiety.
I have a number of obsessions and the accompanying compulsions. One I’ve had for years — long before it was diagnosed — was the obsession that something awful was going to happen to my Grandma between the time I left and the next time I saw her. I had no idea what specifically was going to happen, but it was something awful, and it was imminent. Of course, I knew nothing awful was going to happen, but that didn’t change the obsession — it was there, it wasn’t going away, and it created a great deal of anxiety for me.
For years, every time I left, she would tell me she loved me and to be careful. Eventually it developed into the compulsion for my obsession. The ritual went like this:
Grandma: I love you. Me: I love you too. Grandma: Be careful. Me: I will.
Now, I’m not stupid — I know that saying those lines in that order isn’t going to influence the Fates in the least. If something is going to happen, it’s going to happen, ritual or not. But, it relieved my anxiety, and we always went through it. I forgot until I was in the car on a couple of occasions (and nearly knocked the door off the hinges once to get back in). I forgot entirely once — only once — on a Monday. Grandma fell and broke her hip that Friday. Read the rest of this entry »
For those who don’t know, I’m a big fan of action (or “extreme”) sports. I won’t watch football, couldn’t care less about baseball, and would rather be covered in honey and left on an ant hill than watch golf, but I’ll watch BMX, Motocross, and — my favorite — skateboarding as often as it’s on.
To provide professional athletes in BMX, FMX and Skateboarding with financial support after a severe injury and granting funds for rehabilitation, equipment, long-term disability and educational scholarships.
I’m always skeptical about things like this — they remind me of the “Forward this and Heinz will donate baked beans to starving children in Ethiopia” chain emails from the 1990s. However, I checked it out and it certainly seems legit, not to mention that tracking streaming video views strikes as pretty easy to do. These guys definitely have earned two-minutes worth of watching a video for the performance they put on event after event and all the kids (and adults, too) they’ve inspired.
The ARF video is immediately below — I hope you’ll take the time to queue it up, even if you just leave it to run while you go get a fresh cup of coffee. Below that I’ve included a couple other videos for those a bit more interested in the topic. Read the rest of this entry »
