There are many people who have made the Allpods Project possible, and if I started trying to thank them all, I'd surely miss someone. But there's a special place in my heart for my co-pilots, the people who have, amazingly, volunteered to spend over a week with me, most of it with me in a total frenzy. These folks have studied and learned my systems; have made tremendous contributions to the web site; and have supported, sympathized and surprised me with unexpected ice cream!
To the co-pilots, I say thank you!
Christa rode with me on the very first trip to Roswell, in 2000. Everything was new and untested-- plus we were out to get video interviews with a bunch of people. The web cam system was much more complicated and unreliable than it is now. Add all of that to the usual stress of a caravan-- a caravan of people who had never caravanned before-- and it's no surprise that I was a total basket case.
Christa acted as yin to my yang. When I was stressed, she was calm; when I broke down in tears, she brought me ice cream. She ensured that we met everyone, and remembered their names, and made friends while I wrestled with the technology.
Her contribution to the site was immense-- she took over the photography, and ensured that photos were uploaded nightly with informative captions. She conducted all of the video interviews. She supplied a critical piece of technology in the web cam setup-- her iBook. And she drove all the way to Roswell!!
So for being the co-pilot on the most difficult and taxing year of all-- and remaining my friend!-- I have to say an extra big thanks to Christa!
In addition to being my co-pilot in 2003, Stephanie has been my roommate for all but the first year, and as a result has been there to deal with my foul moods, stress, and yearly crying episode. I can think of few other people i would want to have around in those situations, and most of them would probably get sick of it after a while. If it weren't for Stephanie, I don't know how I would have gotten through the last three Allpods years.
As if that weren't enough, she enthusiastically trained to be my co-pilot in 2002, and when at the last minute we had to cancel our plans, she happily came on board as co-pilot in 2003 and did a fantastic job of wrangling the web cams, blogging constantly, and driving spacepod.
Thank you Stephanie!!
I was slightly panicked when I lost the co-pilot I thought I was going to have this year (2004), but immediately thought of Dan. He's a Mac geek (like me), loves to shoot video (which works out well since I prefer to edit), is a fantastic photographer, and a better programmer than I am. It's hard to imagine anyone walking into the job with these qualifications; I'm just lucky that he lives nearby and wants to do it!
As I've been preparing for this year, Dan has been immensely helpful by writing some critical pieces of code, helping to generate and develop ideas for the site, and listening to me prattle on about what I've accomplished each week.
He's well aware that I may become a basket case at some point during the trip... but I have no doubt that he'll be a steadying influence should that happen. He just rocks that way!
Thank you Dan!!