Halle-Freakin-Lujah We are Out of Here

"It's like someone turned off half of your body."

That's how Diane describes the physical disability of a stroke.


Her balance is completely gone, as is most of her eye sight and physical coordination.  We currently live in an extremely small living space, about 400 square feet.  The 4 inch step-up into the kitchen and 4 inch step-down into the bathroom presented Diane with some severe fall opportunities and I held my breath every time she got up to move from one place to another.

We have made arrangements with her son Adam to rent a 3 bedroom, two bath house about 3 blocks from the HeliOS shop.  Having her son there will be a great relief for me.  There will now be two people helping to look after Diane's needs.  Trust me...I am thankful for the help.

There is no way Diane was going to be able to recover fully, living in the cracker box that is our home now.  Thanks to Carolyn and Jason Smith and a few other friends, we should be out of this "closet" by the end of the weekend.

A few people that knew ahead of time that we were moving asked if there is any thing we will need.  If anyone local has any usable furniture, we can more than certainly use that.  What we have now is serviceable but not enough to furnish our new place.  A decent vacuum cleaner would be fantastic as well.  We fully plan on having a house warming party in September so those that wish to attend, can email me and let me know.  We will announce the date a week or two in advance.

Again, thanks for helping us with this move.  Diane should be able to more fully do her physical therapy with the additional room.  Plus, the psychological chains this cramped and dumpy place wrapped around her will be gone.  Oh, and the picture on the left?  That's Skip Guenter's immediate reaction after I asked him to help us move.  I'm not feelin' real good about my chances here.



Did I mention it's three blocks from the shop?  Now I can go to work without worrying about not being there when she needs me.  That in itself is uplifting.

All-Righty Then

HeliOS Teaches Computer 101 - Meet the Instructors.

When the City of Taylor donated HeliOS a 2200 square foot building for our use, we were stunned.  I had personally spend 3 years begging and pleading dozens of Austin business owners, property managers and private individuals just for a corner of some warehouse for our use.



Of course, there was always the danger of the same thing happening there that happened in the shared space at Lakeway.  As their business grew, we got squeezed into such a small space that it became unusable.  It was simply a place for us to store stuff.  We did most of our real work out of Skip Guenter's garage and workshop.

So when we began construction and renovation of the new place in Taylor, we realized we had a HUGE amount of space that would not be needed for storage or physical work.  So instead of traveling all over the greater Austin area to give classes, we set up this large left over area for our classroom.  While we do concentrate our efforts on Eastern Williamson County, anyone who wants to make the drive is welcomed to attend.

Scheduling the classes wasn't easy at first.  We wanted to hold the three day, one hour a day classes for every other week.  They run from Tuesday to Thursday, 7-8 PM.

That would have been a doable thing until Diane suffered two strokes and renal failure.  As important as HeliOS is to me, I cannot in good conscious leave her alone when she needs someone there with her.

So what were we to do?

Thanks to several community-minded folks that have worked with HeliOS in the past, we are able to offer our classes on the above schedule, with a qualified and dedicated instructor for each night.

Let me introduce you to the HeliOS Project Instructors.

David Ashley

David Ashley has almost 30 years of IT experience on a wide range of platforms. He has worked as a software developer, consultant and IT instructor during that time. David currently work for IBM in Austin as a software tools developer for AIX and Linux. He is also the project lead for the Open Object Rexx Project (http://www.oorexx.org/) which is an open source implementation of the Rexx language and contributes to other open source projects as well. He has been married to his wife Lynn for over 40 years and they reside in Austin, Texas along with a house full of dogs and cats.

David also volunteers for the Dogtoberfest of Austin and the We Are Girls Project of Austin.  It is a common thing to see one of David's Shelties pacing the floor with David as he teaches his class.

Carolyn Smith

Carolyn is a PHP developer with Drane Associates here in Austin, She lives in North Austin with her husband Jason.  She has been an invaluable volunteer asset to HeliOS for two years now.  The term "invaluable" gets used and tossed around a lot but in our case, the term invaluable is far from hyperbole.  Carolyn has been a part of the past 7 major HeliOS events and she now teaches the Thursday evening class for our 101 offerings.  She is professional, phenomenally intelligent, witty and probably the most important to me, Carolyn is dependable.  We would be hard pressed to do many of the things we do without her.

Justin Carnahan

I know I will pay for this in the most extreme of measures but I've got to be truthful here.

In reality, Justin IS Batman.

When not fighting crime, he spends his time doing web development.

A few years ago, we were offered 65 Sony 21 inch Trinton monitors by the gaming company Edge of Reality.

Bringing those 81 lb monitors down three flights of stairs brought me to my own Edge of Reality.  Had it not been for Justin:

)1. - I would not be vertical and expelling carbon monoxide today

)2. - getting those monitors into the possession of HeliOS just would not have happened.  Justin was the only one in the position to volunteer that day to help me get them picked up.

So thankfully, we have the instructors we need.  Of course, Skip or I can fill in when needed.

If you would like to look over the pdf version of our class material, you can download it from here.

I want to personally thank these great folks for not only bringing a whole new level of professionalism to our project, but allowing me to spend more time at home with someone who needs me.

All-righty Then

Thank you

Many of you lifted Diane's spirits while in the hospital and from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.  Phone calls came in from 4 continents and she was a bit emotionally overwhelmed by your concern.

She was released and is home resting comfortably. If you still want to call her, you can do so at 512 291 6137.  She would love to hear from you.  If a phone call isn't good for you, you can email her at dianekfranklin@hotmail.com.

Again, thank you very much.

Ken

I Guess a Stroke Wasn't Enough.....

As if we didn't have enough going on in our lives right now.....

Diane collapsed on the floor yesterday early afternoon, writhing and crying out in pain.  Her entire lower back felt as if it were on fire and her legs ached to the point where she couldn't stand.

Diane has suffered renal failure.

She is again in the hospital and depressed beyond our comprehension.  I've spend the day with her and am now at home tending to the dogs, washing clothes and cleaning up the house a bit.  I have a speaking engagement I cannot cancel but it's only for an hour, then I will go back up and sit with her.

She was beginning to recover nicely from her strokes and now this.  If you have time, I am sure she would be comforted by a phone call or two.  Many of you know her, some of you don't but it doesn't matter. 

She just needs to know that someone cares.

If you want to just say hi or offer encouragement, you can call her room directly at 512 324 4532....that is the Williamson County Seton Hospital.

While they were doing an MRI, they also found some fairly severe disk damage in her lower back so she has that surgery to look forward to but first, they have to get her kidneys functioning again.

If you have time...let her know there is someone out there thinking of her.

I would consider it a personal favor.

Ken

Konnect a Kid This August

With school starting soon, we are gearing up for the demand that is sure to come.  So far in the month of August, The HeliOS Project installed 16 computers.  The area we serve is significantly depressed and the need for our services is great.

As of now, we have the machines to meet these needs, at least through November, with current stock.  Fortunately we've done well in collecting useable computers and monitors for our kids.

Unfortunately, about 60 percent of the computers we've installed over the summer months are without Internet service.

For a while, we operated under the premise that we should find ways to pay for a year's Internet service for our kids but as we mature as an organization and come to understand out clientele a bit better, that well-intended idea isn't as good as we thought it to be.

Given the fact that many of the kids we serve are in their teens, they are entering into the part of life that begins to teach them responsibility.

You can't teach responsibility by giving a kid everything without any effort on her part.

That's why HeliOS has changed our philosophy a bit when it comes to getting Internet into these homes.  Now, we're talking about 35 bucks a month here, give or take a dollar or two.  We know full well that 35 dollars is pretty easy to earn in a 30 day period.  Lawn work, babysitting, shopping for shut-ins...there are plenty of opportunities for a kid to make 35.00 a month.

HeliOS has decided that we can prime the pump so to speak, but we won't haul the water over the entire year for them.

Through our Austin Prometheus Project, The HeliOS Project strives to raise enough money to pay 3 months of Internet Service for our families.  After that, it will be up to them to pay their way.

I think it is one of life's truisms that no one appreciates a hand out...especially one that is constantly given.  It becomes expected instead of appreciated.  In that spirit, we ask that you come together with us to help us kick off our Austin Prometheus annual drive.  A donation of $35.00 will represent one month's service for one of our computers.  The drive is from the middle of August until 1 September.  Hopefully in that time, we will be able to raise enough to get 3 months internet service to the families we provide computers for.

If you are interested, you can simply click this link and it will take you to our non profit donation page, and of course, you will receive an electronic receipt for your donation.  If you prefer a paypal method, contact me directly for that information.  helios  at fixedbylinux dott komm  will get to me.

As well, the few dollars we generate by our adsense ads being clicked will go to Austin Prometheus.

I will pledge and donate the first 300.00 to this effort in good faith.

We are working with a couple of small businesses in Austin that encourage their employees to donate to Austin Prometheus.  I want to personally thank them for recognizing the need in this area.

We'd appreciate your help in getting the word out of this effort.  This isn't really "news" so it won't get posted to any of the Linux sites.  We will depend on our readers to pass it along via Google + , Facebook and Twitter.

As always...thanks for helping us do what we so.

All-Righty Then...

When Children Attack...

We talk a lot about the Linux computers we install for disadvantaged kids.  Most of the time, it is deeply gratifying and it assures me that I am in the right place within The Universe.

But it ain't all Unicorns, Glitter and Rainbows...

Many of you may remember that I suffered a minor knife wound when an angry and intoxicated uncle cut me for not leaving a computer in his nephew's home.  They had a new car, a large screen TV and every family member was doing their best to imitate Mr. T's gold necklace collection.  The family may not have had any "conventional" income, but there was a money pipe gushing cash into that house somewhere.

I'll leave it to you to figure out how.

We've run into stuff like this often in our work.  Since 2006, I've been stabbed, had guns drawn on me three times,  a door slammed on my face, a rock thrown through the back window of my car, I've been bitten by the family pet pig and gang members have demanded I pay them to come into "their" housing project to do my work.

When you work in rough neighborhoods, you expect rough behavior.

But not in the suburbia.

Mom has a tough gig.  She is the single mother of twin 6 year old boys exhibiting obvious symptoms of ADHD.  On top of that, she has an 11 year old son and a 16 year old daughter doing her best to emulate Paris Hilton.

Mom is herself disabled with a severe back injury and lives on Social Security and a meager child support payment every month.  When MHMR contacted us, we of course responded.

I brought the computer into the house while the boys circled around me like twin tornadoes.  It was all I could do to get into the home without tripping over one of them and taking them down with me.  The mom stood in the kitchen watching the whole thing, seemingly unaware of the possible danger of me dropping a 25 lb piece of hardware on one of her little sweetheart's head.

I sat down at the desk in the living room she had set up for the machine and began hooking it up.  One of the little cherubs kicked my heel rhythmically and asked me questions as I worked on my hands and knees under the desk.  


"Does that puter have race cars on it?  I want race cars.  Does that puter have race cars on it?"


The evil twin yelled back.


"No!  Dinosaurs.  I want Dinosaurs on it.  MOM!!!!! Make him put dinosaurs on it?

The first twin started screaming at his brother, demanding race cars.  He picked up a boot from behind the front door and chased his brother into the nether-regions of the house.  From the sound of it, the boot did find a soft, fleshy target.


The cable guy had been there at 10 AM that morning to hook up Internet for them.  We had paid for 90 days of service for them through the Austin Prometheus Project.

After 90 days, they would start paying for it themselves.

I sat at the computer, changing some themes and wallpapers, enjoying the relative quiet of my immediate surroundings.  I was just drawing a breath to tell the mom to bring the kids in so I could start showing them how to use the computer when I felt the nasty sting in my back.

"I WANT RACE CARS!"


Those were the words the first twin screamed just before he shot me in the back with a pellet gun.


I jumped up from the chair and turned around as he was trying to cock the pistol again.  With one move, I snatched the gun from him and firmly belt-carried him to the living room sofa.  I pointed my finger at him and told him firmly.


"If you get up from that couch, I'm going to take the computer away."


With gun in hand, I looked up and over to the kitchen to see if Mom was going to threaten him with time out.


She wasn't there.  


I walked down the hallway and stopped at the first open bedroom door.  The daughter sat at her mirror applying makeup with a trowel.


"Where's your mom?"


She shrugged without turning around and met my gaze via the mirror.


"Probably taking a nap".  She made a pouty lip face and went back to her construction project.


I knocked on the bedroom door at the end of the hallway, guessing it was the master bedroom but no one answered.  It was locked when I tried to open the door.  


I went back to Madonna's bedroom and told her to watch her brothers while I made a phone call.  I called CPS and told them the situation.  It was less than 15 minutes before the caseworker arrived.  I answered the door, gave her my business card and told her to call me if she needed any more information.


So yeah, our work is gratifying, but there are those days when you wonder how things can become so unbalanced in any given environment.


If anyone wants to start a pool, my bet is that the computer I left will be broken in 3 days from this post.


I'm just sayin'.


All-Righty Then...

Through the Eyes of Henry

The HeliOS Project is both honored and happy to offer computer 101 and 102 classes in our home town of Taylor Texas.  We've ranged from a full classroom to only two students attending.  Between the summer doldrums, folks on vacation and quite frankly, more enjoyable things to do than sit in a computer class...

We haven't exactly had them beating the door down to get in.

But we're just getting started. 

The city has begun announcing the availability of our classes in the monthly water bill for Taylor residents.  They are encouraged to call HeliOS and insure they have a seat for the next session.

Today, I got a call from Henry.

Henry has never touched a computer.  He is like many of us...unwilling or simply unaware of how important learning something new can be.  Henry called me today to secure a chair in the next class.  He said his grand kids and his great grand kids want to send him pictures from Idaho.  Henry wants to see them as well.

Henry is 93 years old.  Henry has never touched a computer.

Born on a farm outside of Atlanta Georgia in 1918, Henry was raised in what he refers to as indentured servitude.  The third oldest of 9 children, Henry's family raised and sold peanuts, blueberries, peaches, assorted greens and cantaloupe to survive.  By the time Henry was 12, his family had yet to purchase a car, enjoy indoor plumbing or piped water.  He, along with 1 older brother and 1 younger sister rode the same horse to school.

The horse returned home after depositing the kids and was released from his plow harness to pick them up after school.  He did so every day with plodding predictability. 

Henry said the horse was named Moses.  And no, he had no idea why.

He joined the navy on his birthday in 1942 and was assigned to a gun crew on the USS New Jersey.  Henry's gun team pounded the island of Guam in preparation for US Marines and Soldiers landing on the beach.  Henry remained in the service and saw combat during the Korean conflict, but figured that two wars in the same 10 year span was enough for him.  Henry met and married a young USO volunteer after leaving the Navy and settled down with her in Taylor Texas.

He spent the next 40 years working for the railroad.

Talking to Henry, I came to realize just how much life Henry has lived.  He has seen our country go from horseback transportation to putting people into space.  He's seen a dozen or more presidents come and go and most importantly, he's seen the explosion of world technology.

And now he wants to be part of it.

So when the volunteer instructors for The HeliOS Project stand before their class, be it two or ten people, they know that many of them are taking a big step in their lives.  Henry outright admits he's scared to death of a computer.  He has no idea of how it works or why it works...to Henry, it's dark, smokey magick.  But he's willing to look past the smoke and mirrors and learn how the gears turn.  He says he's willing to give it a try.

Henry is 93 years old.

It will be a pleasure to show him the gears....but more so, it will be an honor.

All-Righty Then...