Today was different than I expected. Yesterday I felt like I was over programmed and overwhelmed. Today I felt like I was almost back at full strength. It’s so strange not being able to predict how much energy or focus I’m going to have on a given day. It’s always an interesting surprise. Today I had several opportunities to express my opinion in front of large groups of people.. for some reason I was in the mood to do it.. and it felt good to talk passionately about technical stuff. I can feel myself getting a little more excited about my work each day. What was even better was that I managed to have several non-hurried deep personal conversations about family, about Sam and about how I was doing with friends from work. Each time I reminded myself to slow down and make the time to have the conversation I wanted.. not the conversation that my meeting schedule thought I could afford. . My work day was good partially because I was looking forward to what I was doing after work. I’d arraigned to meet my friend Homer at UVM to see a cool set of machines for scanning and ‘printing’ 3D objects. . Homer brought two of his buddies, Eben and Carter (who is a chimney sweep.. so very good luck !) .

We all met at UVM around 6:30. We tracked down my good friend Victor and he took us down to see the equipment. UVM has had the 3D printer for about 2 years.. it’s a very cool piece of equipment that can print and 3D solid object. The machine can convert anything you can draw on your computer in 3d inot a real live object in a few short hours.

The cool new addition is a 3D scanner that can take any small object and scan it into a 3D model on the computer. Victor just got the machine running and is still experimenting with it. . He wanted to give us a demo so I asked him to scan in a SamStone. First, I put the SamStone in the scanner..

then the thing scans it with several Laser beams..

Then it turns the object a little and scans the object again. In the end you have a 3D model that you can edit on your computer

 and eventually send to the 3D priner. In some ways it’s a very simple 3D copier.. After the demo… Homer and I headed over to India House for a very nice

dinner. I absolutely love talking to Homer.. he’s an artist, inventor and sign maker who has one of the most creative minds I’ve every encountered. He is both a wonderful storyteller and a wonderful listener.. a rare combination. We talked about our kids, our wives.. and about blowing stuff up.. which I what most guys talk about when they get together. Towards the end of the meal, Victor came and met us which was also very nice. It was a great guys night out….. I guess the 2nd in a week after yoga.. or I guess that was really a ‘guys night in’ since it happened at our house… I really appreciated that both Victor and Homer were so generous with their time. It was so fun talking to guys who really make things for a living.. hardware is so much more real than software !

    Speaking of generous.. I wanted to alert folks to an extreme act of generosity on the part of our friend Michael Adams. Michael is a freshman in college and has already started a company,, Eddie’s Energy Bars (www.eddiesenergy.com “The Best Handmade Energy Bar EVER!” , The company makes energy bars out of all natural ingredients. Michael is participating in an event called ‘beCause’ which brings together vendors of all sorts of items who will be donating 50% of their profits to worthy causes. Michael is donating 50 % of his profits for the day to Sam’s Foundation .. which is unbelievably generous. I encourage everyone to go check out the event… It’s this Saturday, April 14th from 9-4pm at the Grace United Methodist Church on Maple Street in Essex Junction….to the right of ADL Middle School. Admission is free, but donation of a canned good is appreciated.. Please show up and give Michael and the other vendors your support for this good set of causes. This community is full of really wonderful people Sam….. really wonderful.

-jc