Nearly 16 years ago, my wife Merri and I sat in silence as we were told that our six-month old son likely had brain cancer. That Sunday afternoon changed our lives forever. Josiah underwent numerous operations, and then 18 rounds of chemotherapy at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In the years since, he has undergone countless blood tests, nearly two dozen MRIs1, and an untold number of physical, speech, and occupational therapy sessions.
Category: Site News
Now
At the urging of David Sparks, there’s a new page up on 512 Pixels. I intend to update it a couple of times a month.
A New Look for the Next Decade of Relay⇢
I am so happy with how Relay’s brand refresh went. We’ve been working on this for a long time.
We even dropped the FM which I used to swear we would never do, but as soon as we tried it, I knew it had to go.
Follow 512 Pixels Across the Fractured Social Media Landscape
I’ve finally gotten around to getting accounts set up across a range of social media networks beyond Mastodon.
Here’s the complete set of links:
Follow me:
Follow the blog:
I’m trying not to cross-post much outside of work announcements on my personal accounts, but I honestly don’t know these things all fit together, and I’m not sure all three will stick for me long-term.
Back at Work
Making a Dent in the Universe
We just closed down Relay’s 2024 St. Jude campaign. Thanks to your generosity, we were able to raise $1,078,348 to further St. Jude’s mission of finding cures and saving children.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. This is an incredible achievement that we share as a community.
Sabbatical
It’s been a wild year. Relay turned 10 and 512 Pixels turned 16. Later this week, are winding down our 6th-annual fundraiser for St. Jude. In January, I joined forces with David Smith and survived my first major iOS release, helping get Widgetsmith 7 out the door just a few weeks ago.
On the home front, my wife started a new job, our middle child started high school, and I took on a volunteer role that I cherish, but can prove demanding.
Relay for St. Jude 2024 Passes $1 Million Raised⇢
As of this writing, Relay’s annual campaign for St. Jude just tipped over the $1 million mark. Myke and I hopped on his Twitch channel to watch it happen:
If you haven’t given yet, and you can, there’s still time! The campaign will run through the end of the week.
Podcastathon 6
We’ll be live on the Relay YouTube channel all day, raising money for St. Jude:
$3 Million for St. Jude⇢
We just passed $3 million raised for St. Jude since 2019!
We are excited to share with you that Relay will be recognized on the wall inside St. Jude that highlights corporations and organizations with exceptional fundraising efforts for its life-saving work.
Here’s a short video of Myke and me speaking about it:
Relay for St. Jude 2024⇢
Since 2019, the Relay community has raised $2.98 million in support of St. Jude’s life-saving work.
TWO POINT NINE EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS, YALL!
That number staggers me.
With $3 million in sight,1 today we are launching Relay’s sixth annual fundraising campaign for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
In May 2009, my wife Merri and I received news that would change the trajectory of our family’s life forever. Our oldest son Josiah was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Just two years later, I wrote this:
Relay Turns 10
Ten years ago, we published the first episodes of five podcasts, and Relay was born. Just a few weeks before, Myke Hurley and I — along with some friends — had wound down our shows on 5by5 and promised we’d be back with something new.
As I wrote at the time, that entire timeframe was a blur of activity. This part of that post really jumps out at me, a full decade later: