Super fun day. I had arranged to bring 12 supporters of FIRST Robotics down to the FIRST District Regional Championship in Springfield Mass.  We were just making a quick down and back trip in a day. FIRSTinVT graciously offered to pay for a nice van and nice driver to take us down… which gave us all a great time to talk  on each of the 3 hour drives. We had folks from industry, prospective team coaches, one  robotic team member and one team coach and even a UVM Dean. It was soooo fun.. The Vermont teams met our van and brought us inside to show us their robot and show us how it worked. Then we got to go in and watch some competition. It is amazing what these kids have learned and making these robots. They’re so sophisticated. Not only did they learn, hardware, software, mechanical design… But they learn, teamwork, ethics, finance, communications… It’s really a great steam package.

It was really fun to see my friends from hackclub down there talking about our onboard program. They had lots of cool handouts and Blinky circuit boards.

we had a ton to talk about on the way back.. Everyone was excited about getting more students to build more robots !

One strange and amazing coincidence happened on the drive back . We were having a fun conversation about burning man… And I was talking about the technology there. My new friend Dave from Linden, Vermont picked up his phone looked through his pictures and then showed me a picture of a piece. I knew well. It’s the fear beast. It was designed  by Max and Becky’s good friend Tigre and a large group of makers including Max and Becky.  I actually helped with it one day on the Play in 2022.
 Sadly, Tigre decided to hand their own life shortly after burning man. There was an incredible shock to many of us.   Last December we visited the place where Tigre and all his friends built the Fear Beast .. I wrote about it here. 

I couldn’t believe that of all the pictures David would have a picture of that piece. It turns out that Dave’s sister was  Tigre’s partner   for many years. . It turns out that Tigre’s mom Linda was going up to Vermont for the Eclipse.. and we were able to reconnect with her by txt.  

It was all a really crazy  coincidence that brought back both happy and sad memories

Crazy day !  … and tomorrow is the eclipse !

nite all, nite sam
-me

Started the day with a nice ski in the beautiful snow with my beautiful wife.  

The next big thing of the day was our event at Generator. We were giving a talk/film viewing/ panel discussion and fiery dance party as part of the Generator’s Reckless Ideas  program. I’ve been so looking forward to this. Two of my big passions intersecting.. ( I was one of the founders of Generator.. ) We got there about 4 to help set up..    It was so great having Max in town for this event. He was instrumental to the way we did the lights and helped us debug generator issues from across the country !

Soon we had a crowd ! at 6:30 Meg introduced us and Duane got up and started things off. He had a few comments on ‘why fluufy’ (a question that is very often asked 🙂 .. Then we played the “Making of Fluffy” movie that Duanes son Duane III had made .. I had only seen it once.. it was a really good capture of all that went in to the early and late parts of making fluffy. Duane III got married that year.. so there’s not much in there about either the lights or the fire systems.. but the rest of the stuff is covered very nicely. Have a look !

After the panel discussion we all went outside and sparked up Fluffy..  We had a small crowd that stayed steady through the night. Max DJ’ed the entire night with was FANTASTIC !!!.. 

Super fun night.. ! Glad to share fluffy with so many others. It was always our intent to be able to roll fluffy out to more events than burning man.. and it’s happening !

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Max is in town for the eclipse.. and we marked his arrival with almost a foot of snow !   Max and Diane got in a short ski.. Tonight we went out to A Single Pebble  one of our favorite restaurants with Tim, Jen,. Nate and Hannah. It was de-lish !

We all split one dessert .. and got a candle on it for a late birthday celebration for DIane !

Happy birthday my love !

Nite all, nite sam
-me

Super excited about a project I’m h helping with at work.  I’ve been learning about carbon composites. I’ve used carbon fiber before, but never learned how to make parts out of it. It’s amazing stuff.. its crazy that something that makes up most animal, and plant matter on the planet,  part of our atmosphere, diamonds, pencil leads,  and smoke can be woven into a material that’s stronger and lighter than aluminum or steel … We’re hiring people  to help us assemble the carbon fiber components of our planes. if you or any of your freinds know about carbon fiber assembly and testing.. please let me know ! 

Nite all, nite sam

-me