Matthew Darby's Blog

I want to thank everyone who has donated money so far and those you still planning to donate. There is still time to give your donation to St. Baldricks even though the date I get my hair shave is this coming Saturday, March 4th. For those of you who have or want to spread this message to other people please feel free. The money goes directly for the benefit of these children. The only thing I receive is the pure joy of doing something responsible and charitable for someone else. We are getting there with my goal of $500 and it would be even greater if we shoot above it.

I have also received a time to get my hair shaved at 4:00 pm this coming Saturday, outside of the Hibernian downtown location in Raleigh, NC. I will be out there from at least 3:30pm to 4:30pm for anyone who would like to come out to support me. It should be fun. For those of you who won't be able to make I will be filming the even hopefully and will post the video here on the blog for download.

Until then the hair is still growing and I am preparing for life after bald.

Since late December I have been growing my hair out. Why you may ask? I decided to participate in a campaign with St. Baldrick's, an organization committed to raising money toward the awareness of cancer in children. My part in this will involve shaving my head on March 4th at the Hibernian in downtown Raleigh, NC. My goal is to raise $500.

You may wonder why I would participate in such an event. To be honest, I felt it was only a small part I could play toward such a great cause. I have been blessed so far not to feel the affects of cancer nor to my knowledge anyone in my immediate family. Therefore while I reap the benefits of a blessing, it is the least I can do participate and in an event to help does who have not been as fortunate.

Sadly, I don't have a recent picture of myself on hand. Really I don't have a camera all together and I do a terrible job keeping up with pictures I receive in the first place. When I can get my hands on both of these items I will update my photo. So far though, I have a mini afro growing which is the first time in about five years I have allowed my hair to grow out for so long. Once I am shaved, it will be first time ever I will have been bald. While I might feel like Sampson when it comes to my hair and keeping it looking neat, its only a small price to pay as I meet my goal.

What you can do is donate money toward research in curing cancer in children. I have a webpage hosted on Stbaldricks.org that you may go to so that you can donate money online either in my name or directly to St. Baldrick's. If you prefer to just send a check you can write to:

St. Baldrick's Processing Center
c/o RT Lawrence
14111 Freeway Drive, Suite 200
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670

Or you even have the option to phone it in by calling 1 (888) 899-BALD.

St. Baldrick's is a non-profit organization with the Federal ID 20-1173824. I want to thank for reading this if you got this far, a truly thank you if you have donated or plan to donate. You can check back on this blog to see the time I will be shaving my head if you would like to come out and support or make fun of me.

If you have checked out the main page for this domain at http://matthewdarby.com you will notice there is an ugly place holder with my name on it. For months I have been trying to come up with design ideas for what will become my personal site. It will include my portfolio, info about me and whatever else you would expect to find on a personal site. Unfortunately I have been stalling on making progress with the site ever since I got sick, and it has been hard for me to find that same drive I had earlier to launch this blog.

As a developer I get writer's block. My brain fatigues and I suddenly become disenchanted with doing anything creative toward web programming. I am sure this is quit common for many other people when it comes to other areas of creativity. It just so happens however it couldn't come a worse time.

My motivation to go ahead and launch my personal site has been driven by my participation in a fundraiser for the St. Baldrick's Foundation (more on this in a later post). What I would have wanted to do is set up a page so that I could not only raise the money I needed for the event I will be participating but also use it as an opportunity to showcase my site to my friends and family. However, it seems procrastination and motivation loss got the best of me.

Thankfully tonight, things took a change for the better and now I have come up with a least a template for the new look and feel of my site. So with the ball starting to roll, lookout for some changes and hopefully the release of my new web site within the upcoming week.