When talking about the August 24th meeting of the Edmonton .NET User Group (please note it is in the Edmonton room this time), I am going to forego my usual tradition of excessive hype and ridiculous Photoshopping.  Instead I want to tell you, the reader, a story.  

A story about *life*!

A story about a man.

A story about a man - with no life!

An uncommon man.  A man who stood as a drunken beacon of light in a sea of darkness.  A man, dare I say it, with a *dream*.  And when his dream grabbed hold of him, grabbed him by the testes, and beat him over the head with a broken beer bottle, the man started *listening* to his dream.  It wasn't the booze talking this time, no.  This time, he said to himself, things were going to be *different*.    He was going to get off the street, get out of that rumpled dress, and into a new life.

His friends laughed at him.  So did his parents - but they always had, so he ignored them.  For when you have a dream and you know that your dream is right, it doesn't matter that your parents are putting out full-page ads in the paper saying, "My son is crazy, please take him away and make him put on pants."   He was going to prove them *wrong*.

And he *did*.

Others watched as this man grew from just an ordinary yahoo to a respected visionary.  He built a team around him full of impressionable, bright-eyed, strapping young men with no concerns as to the repeated questions of his sexuality.  And he *succeeded* in his dream - he made the community...no, no, the *universe* around him a better place.  

Sure I made fun of him; heck, I still make fun of him - but I have to admit, after watching the man in action, I went from grudging respect to admiration.  And his group - probably the raddest group of 5 men ever assembled, and that includes the Beatles and the New Kids on the Block.  But this wasn't a story about that team and the adventures they shared; this was about the man that *brought them all together*.  The man, who I am happy to say, is finally stepping into the spotlight to get the recognition he deserves.

So even if you haven't respected him in the past (and who can blame you?), even if you've made fun of him at times, it is time for us to give our appreciation to the man who I've been talking about for this whole post...

KEITH KOGANE, the leader of the VOLTRON FORCE!!!


Seriously, I always used to make fun of Voltron back in the day, being an unabashed Transformers fan.  Let's get this out of the way: Transformers is pretty much cooler than *anything*, especially some cliched rip-off that only involves 5 robots that aren't even *sentient*.  I'm pretty sure even *Bumblebee* could kick Voltron's ass in a fight.  But I had to give Keith Kogane some respect; you've got to be pretty darn brave to wander off into battle with only some cheap plastic knock-off lions and a monstrous mullet as your primary weapons.

In time, I grew to appreciate Voltron for what it was - a bloody and violent Japanese anime filled with death but *also* transforming robotic lions.  I'll admit it; transforming robot lions, even if they are cheap ripoffs of the real thing, are wicked cool - after all, I own several.  Like my grandfather always used to tell me when I was growing up, "The only thing cooler than transforming robot lions are transforming robot zombie lions."  But where do you find any of those, right?

And finally, how can you *not* respect a guy that can coordinate a 50 foot combining robot's breakdance moves?


There was something else I was going to talk about in this post but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.  Oh, *RIGHT*!!  Code generation at EDMUG from the white Georges LaRoque himself, Donald Belcham, on August 24th.  It should be awesome, if only because yours truly is the MC of the evening!  All this talk about Voltron and I nearly forgot about it entirely.  But you can't really mix Donald and Voltron in the same post, anyway.