Martinicity: Category Pray

Commemorating 9/11

Mike Blake — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 14:17:00 +0000

My friend Kevin Mincio from New York is currently biking across country to provide education and support for families of fallen soldiers.

Team Jesse

Kevin and Matt Sauri will be running in this 5K at the end of their bike ride.

Hero’s Run

Running in this 5K is a great way to commemorate 9/11. I just registered. If you’ll be in New York on the anniversary please join me.

Johnny B Good Fun-Raiser

Mike Blake — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:10:00 +0000

Raffle Tickets

Please click above to support the rehabilitation of John “Chip” Cusack.

Last week I played four golf courses in Orlando with four of the Cusack brothers. But there was one Cusack brother missing. From the Raffle flyer:

> Last September, John was taking a bike ride in his Northport neighborhood with his son when he fell off his bike and suffered a severe head trauma. He was airlifted to Stonybrook Hospital, had emergency brain surgery and began the long, painful process back.

You can follow John’s progress here:

And if you’d like to help out with a donation or a journal ad : johnnybgfunraiser.googlepages.com

Thanks for your support,

Mike Blake

Thoughts about my friends Brian Maguire and John Cusack

Mike Blake — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:54:00 +0000

In a freak accident back in September my friend John Cusack fell off a bicycle in Northport, NY and suffered a serious head injury. It’s been a very painful year for the Cusack family and friends. Obviously it saddened me deeply to learn that Brian Maguire suffered a similar injury.

Brian crashed on his motorcycle last Sunday night. Updates are available on Jim Abbott’s blog at The Orlando Sentinel, and There’s a Brian Maguire Relief Fund.

In John’s case, the waking up process was very gradual. After about a week in an induced coma similar to Brian’s, John began to show signs of life. The first sign of a functioning brain was the ability to blink when asked to blink. Slowly, day after day, there were subtle improvements. Response to stimuli, Open eyes tracking movement . At some point John was moved from a ventilator to a trachea. Then there was recognition of friends and family. Eventually there was movement of limbs and talking, (although talking is nearly impossible with the trachea.) . Now after a cranioplasty to restore his skull, John is scheduled to be moved to a Rehabilitation Center today where he will relearn basic muscle movements, and hopefully walk again.

The Cuscacks have set up a site here if you’d like to learn more. John Cusack .

With a brain injury, there is always hope. I pray that good news continues to break for both John and Brian, and however long it takes, I hope I can spend time with them again in this world.

The Philanthropic Programmers

Mike Blake — Tue, 22 May 2007 21:16:00 +0000

Something fantastic is happening in the Ruby and Rails World.

![](/images/ruby_shades.jpg)

Do unto others

Open source developers know from experience that what goes around comes around. Contributions to projects like Rails invariably come back to benefit everyone, including the contributor. The community is now thinking on a larger scale. Frameworks come and go, but love is timeless .

The Summer of Love
is focusing his power on Hackety Hack an amazing application that teaches children programming. And it’s likely more zeitgeist than coincidence that a professor from MIT, where the generous open source license originated, has started the noble project called One Laptop per Child . Developers everywhere like Amy Hoy are giving back in order to share the passion.

![](/images/rails_logo_heart.png)

Chad Fowler has challenged the entire community to harness our newfound passion to do great things. And the community has only just begun to respond. During RailsConf over $33,000 was raised for charity.

Witness the Transformation

Software evolves rapidly. Humanity seems to evolve at a slower pace, but if you watch carefully, with ruby colored glasses , you can see it happening.