Saturday, September 25, 2010

An Updated Nerd’s Halloween

[Update: corrected a minor typo. Also, I find it heartening that Peter is 70% of the way to his donation goal. Thanks to those that contributed.]

I don’t blog much any more. Partly that’s just blog fatigue (I started in 2003), and partly that’s having two little kids (one of whom just started Kindergarten), a new gig (at Relevance! Doing Clojure!), and having just moved to a new house. But I came across something that’s a pretty interesting, and a bit too long to do full justice to on my Twitter account.

Once upon a time, in a small way, I helped a guy make an awesome Halloween. He emailed me the other day to let me know about his latest project, which is even crazier and more amazing. Check out the picture of what he’s going to try to do:

But he needs some help raising funds. In his own words:

Craig,

It's me again, the guy who likes Halloween more than most humans! This was the post you did on your blog:

http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/craig/archive/2008/10/01/you-think-you-like-halloween.aspx

If you don't remember me [Ed: how could I forget?!], check out the quoted material at the bottom of this email.  I noticed that you're not blogging much lately, but you are using Twitter. I was hoping you could blog and/or tweet about a project I'm trying to do this year. I'm trying to get the word out about my fund raising efforts to build this giant steampunk drilling machine prop (see attached photo) for Halloween this year.  Someone who had emailed me on my site (www.SoCalHalloween.com ) a couple of years ago created this entry on his blog:


http://superpunch.blogspot.com/2010/09/help-fund-building-of-giant-steampunk.html


A plug on your blog (or a tweet) would really help.


I'm using a site called "Kickstarter", which is designed to help do fund raising for any sort of creative project, using Amazon for payments. The rules are really simple: If you make or exceed your funding goal by the specified deadline, you get the money. If you don't make the goal, you get nothing.  In my case, my deadline is October 14, so there are 21 days to raise the money.  Also, people get gifts to thank them for pitching in. Any amount is helpful.  $10? Sounds great.  $20?  Even better.  $50? Say, you *do* care!


Please go to my Kickstarter page for Halloween 2010 to get more information, see how the fund raising works, and (hopefully) donate if you're so inclined: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1163328321/halloween-2010-journey-from-the-center-of-the-eart

If there are any problems with line wrapping, here's a shortened URL that will take you to the same page: http://tinyurl.com/2879mqk

I have also modified the main page of the SoCalHalloween website to carry the video, a link to the Kickstarter page, and some pictures.  It also has all the rest of the video and pictures that are always available: http://www.socalhalloween.com

So if, like I do, you think this is a really great idea, consider helping Peter out with a few bucks. Thanks!