Eagle '04

Piling up

Got some more equipment from Julie today: a printer, two keyboards, a mouse, and the largest computer I've ever laid eyes on. Should come in handy.

And even more

Just got back from the Fambles' house. One of my classmates, Allex Fambles, heard about my project and told her dad about it. He got together three computers, a laptop, two printers, and several mice and keyboards and donated them to me today. Thanks!

Even more

Just came back from Colonel Lindemann's amazingly awesome house. He gave me a box of four hard drives and four network cards, I believe. They'll definitely come in handy - I've been given several computers without hard drives or boardband-compatible network cards.

I've been told that I can ask that people support my project "in whatever fashion they deem appropriate." In order to leave your options open, I'm including a handy link to my PayPal account. You can also support the project by sending me an email if you feel that you can donate equipment - right now I'm looking especially for hard drives and computers aged 3-4 years max. I'm afraid that I cannot take any more monitors at the moment, though. Mice, keyboards, speakers - those are great too. Also, if you live in the San Antonio area, have a decent amount of computer know-how, and would like to help me work on rebuilding these computers, please send me an email.

Thanks!

Back in mauve

Picked up a printer and monitor from one of the school's librarians, Julie, on Monday. Also picked up a box of computer parts from Mrs. Shurgot, my math teacher, on the same day. On Tuesday, I went to Mr. George Sheldon's house to pick up a computer, monitor, and printer. Mr. Sheldon saw and replied to the ad I placed at Alamo PC, which amazed me.

I had a Krispy Kreme sale today to raise funds for the project. Before doing this thing, I'd been told that the school's band had sold 175 dozen donuts in one day before. Bearing this in mind, I called Krispy Kreme yesterday and ordered a hundred dozen donuts for today's sale. I picked them up this morning and it was uncanny how well they fit into the car - it was as if the car had been sculpted singly for the purpose of transporting 100 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. I also took about 20 of those cool Krispy Kreme hats when nobody was looking. The sale didn't exactly go as planned - I had to give away something like thirty or forty dozen donuts, even after slashing prices twice. But the good news is that, thanks to a few donations, I had a profit of $10! That'll pay for the gas and for the money Ira Dunne spent on shipping me that box of wireless mice.

More

Mrs. Severe, one of the school's history teachers, donated two computer cases a few days ago. I'm sure they'll come in handy.

Long distance

I just got off the phone with a man named Ira Dunn from Long Island, New York. Apparently, he was browsing around on the internet and somehow bumped into this site. As it turns out, he's an Eagle Scout himself (circa 1996) and knows how much work it takes to do this sort of thing, so out of generosity - and, most likely, quite a bit of sympathy - he offered to send me a box of computer-related odds 'n ends that he has around the house (wireless mice and such).

This is, in a word, awesome.

So he's going to be sending me a box of techno gadgets, and I get to put 'em toward the project. Cool. Thanks, Ira!

Donuts

I spoke with Mrs. Westerman today, who I'm told is the head of the school's calendar or is at least authorized to make decisions concerning fundraisers. I've been trying to talk the administration into letting me have a Krispy Kreme fundraiser for about a week. They weren't sure about the whole thing because I am not a school organization or club, but they finally gave in because their unwritten rule about not permitting extra-school organizations to have fundraisers is just that - unwritten. Therefore, the deal is that I'll be allowed to do my fundraiser, but next year there'll be a special clause written into the Upper School Handbook forbidding exactly what I'm going to do.

Score.

I just called Krispy Kreme, and they say that I just need to bring in a form when I pick up the donuts - I can order them ahead of time. Also, they only need one day's notice. I'm thinking Friday, March 26 for the date of the fundraiser - I'll check with Mrs. Westerman about that and, if she OKs the date, I'll find some way to regulate the process of students signing up to work the booth during their free period.

Sixteen tons

ClearChannel Communications donated 16 computers to me today through the generous hands of Mr. Randall Hawkins and his son Jordan Hawkins. It was quite an experience getting the things loaded up and transported to the storage facility. I got my first look at the facility today - it's pretty nice; it'll be a little warm when we're doing our work, but there are some massive fans. The monitors filled up a pickup truck and an SUV. The pickup truck was driven by Robert Martinez, who graciously donated an hour and forty-five minutes of his time to the cause.

It was a good day for the project.

Oh. Yeah.

Forgot to add that I was given two computers two days ago. One was from David Gross in exchange for a ride home; the other was from Laird Loomis, a teacher at my school. Looks like I'll be picking those monitors up late Sunday.

Cool.

Ring a ling

Just got off the phone. From the sound of things, I'm about to get an email sent out in my honor to 2800 people, all of whom work at Southwest Research Institute. The email's going to contain information about my project and how to contact me, as well as the URL of this very site. If people are interested, they'll bring their old computers to a certain room in the Institute, where I'll pick 'em up. Nifty.