Thanks

Wow. Thanks. It has been a very overwhelmingly emotional past couple of days.

While I've been on the road, I've heard from a lot of people, both in email and in person, about how they have really enjoyed following my travels. Many have told me that the video interviews and thoughts that I've had to opportunity to share have been inspirational. I know of a couple people who actually have taken some time off work to go pair with people in their area to try out the idea of journeyman-style learning and sharing. Many of these people have asked how they could help me out. Always, I would mention something about a "blog post that I've been putting off writing."

Well, I finally put the post up, and I have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback from the community. In 2 days, I was able to not only reach my goal, but surpass it by 22%, for a total today of $3660. As I stated in my previous post, half of everything above $3000 will go towards organizing code retreats in places that I visit (like this one coming up in Chicago). I will try to find company sponsorship of these events, but, in lieu of that, I'll have money to help fund food and other miscellaneous expenses that might come up while organizing them. I have some definite plans in place to create a stable form of support, while still being able to contribute to the community in this way.

So, I wanted to say thanks to everyone for the ongoing support, both emotionally and financially. I have some definite plans in place to create a stable form of support, while still being able to contribute to the community through sharing the ideas of the people that I have the opportunity to meet, and this money will help get me there. I also have a renewed fire in my belly for the future, as well as the beginnings of a crystallized goal: the eventual (perhaps around 5 years from now) founding of a software development school.

Thank you to everyone, this has been a tremendous couple of days, and it means more to me than I can really express in words (although that has never stopped me from trying).