Mudstone

Maker Faire 2008

My teenage nephew and his friend came down from Seattle for the Maker Faire. I probably embarrassed him good by going in costume, Steampunk, Scottish style - kilt, gaiters, pith helmet (hey, I wasn’t the only one). Whether it was the costume or just being at the fair I saw him for all of about 3 seconds once we got in the doors. Zoom! He was gone. I hope he & his buddy had a blast. We gave them 4 rules:

(1) don’t blow any thing up
(2) don’t get hurt
(3) don’t get arrested
(4) don’t be late (it’s a long walk home)

The faire was a blast! Just some highlights:
Hung out in the Steampunk area & explored the Neverwas Haul
Mary fan-girl’ed Abney Park’s (link sound warning) Captain Robert and Nathaniel
We made a LED hula hoop from a ProdMod kit with help from the Maker himself
Got to pet a Techno Giraffe & talked to its creators
Fire art!
Kinetic sculptures by Nemo Gould
and Tesla coils, laser harps, a life size mouse trap, ….. This event is huge and getting bigger every year. I love the DIY community. People building things that industry can’t, won’t or doesn’t see a market for, and most likely never will. And then sharing that with everyone else.

While I was leaving a reporter for the Wall Street Journal asked me a question: If I could build One Thing what would that be? He was looking for a canned answer, like a bat powered bicycle, or some thing like that. My answer was simple, I told him I would build something that was fun and that I would enjoy making. That is the essence of DIY.

My Maker Faire Pics (on Flickr)
Maker Faire Group Pool Pictures (on Flickr)

Web 2.0 Expo

The buzz word on every one’s lips this year was Cloud computing. Go on look it up, it will mess with your brain.
One of my favorite talks was by Clay Shirky, about Cognitive Surplus. You gotta follow the link to the short video of his talk. The after parties were numerous and fun. I got to go to Yahoo’s brick house, the Engine yard, and a party at HOT
The folks at HOT were really supper nice, interesting and fun. I like the focus of their company. Not to mention their space is fab!

It was great to network and learn about cutting edge concepts and other people’s experiences building web stuff, so I can learn from the mistakes and successes of others.

Best schwag from the Expo: getting my laptop laser etched at the Instructables Booth.

The Crucible’s Firebird

The Crucible did it again, another great Fire Ballet! This year it was appropriately “Firebird.” But much more than a ballet. I’ll just summarize the highlights, think of it as Cliff Notes for a fire ballet

The Firebird in a flaming tutu (with real fire)
The Firebird dancing on stage with a stunt motorcycle??!?!!?!
Blow-torch fire fingers on the villain.
Traditional ballet fused with B-boy dancing -Iron Monkey is crazy
Flaming metal trees and flowers
A real Pontiac Firebird “flying” onto the stage, with flames coming out of the hood, neon lights underneath and the firebird in the driver’s seat
Women who know how to fight
Flaming trapeze performances
Wow.
I don’t have any pictures, no photography was allowed unless you had a press pass. But here are some links
The official Crucible Firebird Ballet page
Eric Gillet’s Flickr set Firebird L’oiseau de feu (an outstanding set of photos)

The Crucible in Oakland is a nonprofit space that teaches, supports and encourages all the fire arts- blacksmithing, glass blowing, flame working fire dancing, forging and casting, jewelery, kinetic arts and many more. They also sponsor out reach programs for schools in the fire arts and support local artists by giving grants to help fund specific fire oriented projects. My kinda place. Every year they host a number of events that are really fun to go to. The next event is the Fire Arts Festival. If fire art really cranks your tractor, then consider taking a class or joining as a member you won’t regret it.

Yuri’s Night 2008

This was a one really fun event. It was this cool, weird mix of burning man, sci fi, space-geek, ravers, raw foodies, and NASA brainiacs. Oh, and Fire! What more could you want? View Photos.

This was the first time I got to go and see the hangers on Moffet field from anywhere closer than the interstate at 70 mph. Not only did it have art and performances by Zoe Keating, Bad Unkl Sista, The Flaming Lotus Girls, and Capacitor, there was also a massive list of DJ’s in the “house” hanger, and an impressive list of cool performances on the other main stage. We even caught a very entertaining talk by famous game designer Will Wright on the history of the Russian space program, which is much more colorful than our own! How come our astronauts don’t get to carry guns and vodka on every mission?

There were a lot people in costumes and generally having a good time. I got to wear my Utilikilt out for the first time, That took my friend Ursa by surprise. I kinda enjoy that moment of comprehension on people’s faces when they see you in a kilt for the first time.

I think my favorite piece was the waves of the interactive wall, that worked by measuring your silhouette on a huge screen and then creating wave patterns based on your motions. Comrades Matt and Isa of Clay Planet showed up with Yosuke, from Japan, a rep for the clay equipment company Shimpo. Yosuke used to work in Shigaraki as a potter and was in town giving a demo. His throwing is amazing (by throwing I mean on a potter’s wheel). Pretty sure he had a good time, but I think, the angel with glowing, moving wings was to much for him.

Yuri’s night don’t miss it next year, comrade!

A New Mudstone

It had to go, that old static site has been tossed in the fire, it is no more. I’m starting fresh with this site. I’ve become much more interested in the fluid open web, CMS’s, CSS and Java script tool kits and less interested in Flash driven static, skip intro type of sites. They have their place, just not my focus.
When I was working on this site I started messing around with Drupal and after a lot of work and time I decided to go with WordPress instead. I’ll be back to Drupal for another project. It was overkill for what I needed. I want to keep it simple (you know KISS, keep it simple, stupid). WordPress is a better fit for my vision for Mudstone. What is my vision? That it be a sort of sketch book. A place for me to post ideas and thoughts that are fun and interesting and may be important later.