Imagine There's An Image

Ben and I took a Father & Son trip into D.C. this evening to attend a meeting of WAMMO, which I think stands for Washington Area MacroMedia Organization - a forced acronym if I ever heard one ... but I like it.

Ben had heard that Cold Fusion guru Ben Forta was going to give a presentation on the upcoming version of Cold Fusion, codenamed Blackstone. Now I'm a Microsoft groupie myself, but my Ben has been a Cold Fusion programmer since ninth grade. He's been working with Cold Fusion now for four years and he's quite good at it. In early 2003, he managed to get himself a real part-time job as a Cold Fusion programmer at a small company in Odenton, where he's now working full-time for the summer. Cold Fusion really means a lot to Ben, and Ben Forta has become a hero to him.

I picked Ben up at work, and we drove to the New Carrolton station of the Washington Metro. Taking the Metro to the DuPont Circle station, we walked through a handsome neighborhood to the site of the meeting on 16th Street. I hadn't been in this part of D.C. for quite some time, and I made a mental note to come back some time this summer to shoot photos here.

Ben Forta lived up to his reputation as both a guru and an engaging speaker. It was an interesting night even for a non-Cold-Fusion guy like me. Also, Ben and I were impressed that Ben F wears a kipa (yarmulke,) and we gleefully hi-fived each other in celebration of him being a Member of the Tribe. What can I say in my defense? - still crazy after all these years.

After the meeting, Ben and I went up to thank Mr. Forta and ask that he pose for a photo with my Ben, which he gladly did. Besides his towering intellectual stature, Ben F is also a pretty tall guy - my Ben at almost six feet is a bit taller than me, and you can see that Ben Forta is half a head taller still.

My Ben is a lot cooler and much more talented than his Dad, but I'm glad that at his core, there's a little of his Dad's geekiness, too.