Man was I lucky to get invited to this CUSP conference. I said ‘yes’ to this just before I started saying ‘no’ to every thing . I am getting lots of invitations to give talks these days, but this one just sounded too cool to pass up.. and besides a friend asked me to do it.. I’m so glad I said Yes.

This worked out pretty well. I worked nearly full days both yesterday and today in my hotel.. then headed over to the conference in the afternoons.. I missed some stuff.. but still had a great experience…

The CUSP conference is hard to describe.. it claims to be about ‘the design of everything’. Most of the 300 folks here were Designers of one form or another..  The presenters were… man.. I can’t even categorize them.. we had retired priests, Islamic musical doctors, blind film writers, mountain psychotherapists, writer cartoonists, high school orchestra players, professors, futurists, improv playwrites, mdeia gurus, pilades instructures, scratch DJ’s, authors, singers.. and most of us gave really good/funny/interesting talks.

What’s even cooler is that beyond the common theme of ‘design’ there was a bigger theme of taking what we all did for our ‘day jobs’ and putting it somehow in the service of the world. There was the woman, Sarah who quit here industrial design

What’s even cooler is that beyond the common theme of ‘design’ there

was a bigger theme of taking what we all did for our ‘day jobs’ and

putting it somehow in the service of the world. There was the woman,

Emily who quit here industrial design  job designing doorknobs to found

‘Project H’   a comunity that puts industrial designers in service of

people who need it.  DOign things liek designing easier ways to carry

water from a river to a village.  Or Sarah who used her  network of

22,000 Facebook freinds to raise $150K for a local women’s crisis

center in 3 days (!!!!) . Or.. Shakeela who retired from teaching

medicine to promote interfaith understanding through sounds and music.

It was really inspiring company

My message was a hybrid . I started off with a short tesla coil demo

then into my usual  ‘Kids today Engineers talk… ” which looks at

causes of  decreasing number of engineers graduating in western

countries.. ..  I focused on the worldwide perceptions of engineering

and how they differed from what we know most kids want. I then  talked

about the power that the worldwide focus on climate environment  and

energy has to bring new, more socially focused folks into engineering

and technology. I then explained how living in a rat infested warehouse

for 58 days on The Colony was the best thing I could think of to show

kids that engineering was fun. relevant and could help the world..  I

talked about the colony experience and all the feedback I am getting

from kids, parents and teachers about how it is resonating with kids

interest in science and engineering.

 I then quickly assembled a potato gun on stage, fired it and walked off the stage with 10 seconds to spare .  I thought my talk was ok.. but I’m never really happy with any talk I’ve given immediately after.. I thought I’d left out so much.. As soon as I stopped, though I started gettign feedback from the crowd that it had gone better than I had  thought. .  More importantly,  I got the sense that my message ‘worked’ and resonated.  here.

Here are some bad pics from the day.. Here’s Emily talking about a mathematical playground design that her Project H had built in Uganda, Dominican Republic and North Carolina.. .She’s just written a book called soemthing like .. 100 products  that  impower people.

Here’s Joe from the NeoFuturist improv playwrites group playing his song “Hey Joe, you suck at the guitar”

Here’s Ryan talking about the funny aspects of going blind… .. and why he likes his stick

Here’s Shakeela the doctor turned interfaith music person , with DBR the amazing electric 6 string violing, me and DJ Scientific

I wish I got pictures of some of the other cool folks.. I loved talking to Aaron about Twitter (finally.. someone understood my obsession).. and he introduced me to ‘foursquare’.. (Damn another hour lost per day).   I had great Lunch with two very cool  Profs from Bradley University   (Robert… thanks for taking the SamStone) .   And I really loved learning how poorly I draw with Lynda..

In short… I overcame the shyness I was feeling yesterday

My talk wasn’t over until 8PM.. My cousin Peter had waited patiently for me .. As soon as we could get out, we sped out to Willmett and hung out with his family.. It was so good seeign them all. Here’s  Alison, Emma, Pete and Charlotte.:.. Pretty scary..

We all started to doze off at 11.. Pete called me a cab and I headed out to the hotel airport.. 

Here I sit. and it’s 2:15 AM.. Ugh.. how’d that happen again ? Damn Twitter/Facebook/Myspace

OK.. better sleep.. Night all, Night Sam
-me

Greetings from the CUSP conference in Chicago.  I flew out this morning after a late night yeasterday watching the 9th and penultimate episode of the colony at Jen and Jim’s.. Amy our favorite tree hugger was with us.. actually.. Amy’s holding on to this tree so she doesn’t fall off a cliff into Triple Buckets gorge.

 
We got home last night around 11:30.. then I had to pack.in time to leave home at 5:15 AM.. Yawnnnnnnn  to fly to Chicago to attend this conference. I actually am splitting my time.. I’m putting in a full day of IBM work suring the day .. then attending the two days of conferences in the evening. it’s like being in two places at once.. but not really being in either..

I’m here at the request of some friends at IBM headquarters who volunteered me to speak at this eclectic design conference. The conference approached IBM looking for a ‘quirky’ speaker…   and, they told me , I came to mind. I think they meant ‘quirky’ in a nice way.. but I’m not too sure.. Anyway, the conference is amazing.. though it’s nominally about ‘design’ . it’s got folks from all sorts of disciplines.. It’s being held in the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. which is a beautiful setting.

 Today we heard form a doctor, an ex priest wrapped in chains and bubble wrap (I missed that one). a cartoonist/writer/ an Islamic cleric, a twitter geek. a pilates teacher and a 150 piece student orchestra.

The company is fascinating.. though I’m finding

myself suddenly shy.. So shy that I can’t muster the guts to go up and

talk to anyone. though I find I’m good if someone engages me first.  I

cant figure out where this shyness is coming from.. normally I’d be

bouncing around working the room. I think I’ve had so little privacy

over the last few months.. that I’m looking for a little space.  

   Even so I did have some great conversations with a few folks at dinner..   One of my favorites was with Lynda Barry.. a cartoonist and writer who does the Marly comic strip we get in Funny Times

She gave a wonderful talk today. One thing she said that If the voice in your head that was always criticizing you and holding you back was another person.. you wouldn’t listen to them.. you’d dismiss them as a jerk.. so she asks,  why do we listen to those voices ?    Good advise..

She also said everyone in the audience was an artist.. and challenged us to go off and make a traced hand turkey to re-prove to ourselves that we were artistic.   I maintain that she’s a bit overoptimistic there.. and offer the attached sample of my own work as proof.

She also lead the folks at our dinner table through an exercise of drawing straight lines with Chinese brushes..   It was an amazing exercise in patience.. and was hugely fun to see how different folks approached the task. here’s a sampling  form our table.. Can you guess which one is mine ? If so. please tell me .. I have forgotten which one it is 🙂

OK.. all those wavy lines remind me just how sleepy I am.. I’m going to try and get a good nights sleep tonight.  SO More tomorrow..

Goodnight my friends.. Good night Sam

-me

Walked out of work today just before 6 into a beautiful fall afternoon. Maybe it was the weather.. or soemthing about the light.. but   something came over me as I got in the car. There are times like this when Sam’s presence.. or maybe his absence.. comes over me so strongly that it’s like a spell. It’s a funny mix of sad, sweet and quiet.. that lasts for an hour or so. I can actually feel it in my body.. it’s like a warmth right above my heart. … I had an errand to do on the way home.. but by the time I hit Richmond, I was deep in that spell.  I often talk to Sam when I’m alone in the car.. I don’t know if he can hear me.. but I do it for myself today ‘we’ talked about the town.. As I drove the 3 miles from Richmond to Jonesville I remembered Sam back into this place.. 

 Like k here where we’d wait for our place in the 4th of July parade…

Or the Boutin’s old place where we’d go to see the crazy Christmas lights

Or Everett’s where we bought a pie once.

I can picture passing Sam on his bike here

Sam came with me once when we were helping rebuild this barn.. since he died, we’ve had two memorial concerts for him here.  

Here’s Robin’s mountain.. the backdrop for our neighborhood.

This is the Williams.. There son Jerrod died in 2001.. I remember thinking how unthinkable that would be…

And here’s the old Jonesville store.. we all used to walk there to get ice cream on hot summer days. Our friend Dan is reopening the place into a cool hippy cooperative.

And.. here’s the rope swing where all the kids used to spend summer days. I remember coming home one day from work and seeing Sam doing a back flip off the rope .. thing was.. he had a cast on his arm.. he’d just broken his elbow. Worse yet, he decided to tell the orthopedic surgeon about doing the flip when we went to get the cast changed.  I remember  that I got in trouble for that.

here’s the winooski where we’d all tube or canoe or kayak..

ANd.. of course.. here’s home..

As I pulled into the driveway the sense passed, the dogs needed attention, I had to get dinner going.. I wanted to talk to Gabe.. Life resumed .. it was now again..
And now it’s late..

Nite folks Nice riding with you Sam.
-me