Monthly Archives: June 2014

Thursday night – makers in the house

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Nice treat this evening. I friend John hosted the second makers mixer in his beautiful home in Shelburne. The last meeting, this meeting brought together makers from all of the area maker spaces,maker organizations, the maker fair, universities, industry, and venture capitalists. It was great to see so many familiar faces and meet some new ones. We spent the two hours exchanging ideas and experiences as the maker movement spreads across the state. We had some common experiences and some different ones.

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One of the issues that we have to decide as we grow up is when do we converge and when do we work in parallel… There's actually a little friendly competition that goes on between maker organizations as they vie for the attentions of the makers in the area. I think that's healthy!

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One thing that was clear is that we're making huge progress in building interest in making things around Vermont . Then again Vermont has always been known for its ingenuity. It's a very exciting time.

Night all, night Sam
– Me

 

Wednesday night – Showtime

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I did one of my favorite things tonight.. I did a Jolts and Volts show tonight for about 50 folks in the old Community Center in Jericho Center. . No matter how much public speaking I do, i’m never happier than I am with a group of elementary and middle school kids making a scientifically interesting mess . This must be the buzillinth time I’ve done the show in the last 23 years.. but it never gets old for me..

 

thank you Jericho center for reminding me why it’s so wonderful to be so funny looking !

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

Tuesday night – VoMIT meeting

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Tonight was our summer board meeting for VoMIT, Vermont’s Own MIT club.. My friends Jeff and Biz generously  hosted and fed us.. It was very nice getting together.   In honor of our visit, they even broke out their best MIT china. THese are from the 1930’s and show various MIT buildings.. how cool is that ?

 

here’s the campus from above..

 

Building 10 from the great court

 

and the presidents house.

the order of business tonight was pretty simple.. 1) say a fond and sad goodbye to one of our founding members George. He and his wife are moving to Pasadena California  as she recovers from a stroke she had late last year. We will miss them ..

 

 

The 2nd order of business was to fold, tape and stamp 350 invitations to the VOMIT summer Cookout on July 20th at Waterbury reservoir.. .. At least all that fancy education prepared us for something hands on like this. It was delightfully bring and thought free which gave us all time to catch up…

so nice to see everyone..

 

ok.. gotta sleep.. more tomorrow !  Nite all. nite sam

-me

Monday night – specs

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I’m seeing the world differently tonight… and I mean that most literally. . I picked up my new hi-tech glasses this afternoon. They are titanium, super light weight and more or less bulletproof. I’m always working with tools and several times over the years my glasses have saved my sight. I always were safety glasses.. but hey.. you never know.

I htink im goign to like these.. they are a little stronger than my last pair.. and .. I’m happy to say.. just as unfashionable… I shopped around for a long time dodging fashionable 20 somethings trying to get me into something square or heavy rimmed.   I finally found someone who understood what I meant when I said    I was goign for Dumbledoor  🙂

 

I am the kind of guy that worries that my old glasses feelings will be hurt.. so I will take a picture of them as well.. Thanks for your service guys.. you’ve helped me see  (if not think) clearly for several years…

FWIW.. these are an engineering marvel…. the frames are titanium .. they are so light i can hardly feel them.. and they’re blended trifocals.  I’m a mix of farsighted and astigmatic.. I can see far away.. but cant read anything closer than new hampshire.   With my glasses off, I see double.. which is nice in that I feel less lonely.. but kind of hard when I’m welding or soldering or something..

 

The funny thing is .. I didn’t see in good stereo for years..  I only got glasses right before the Colony because I was tired of faking to folks that I could still read.. … Even then, I just used grocery store readers that I wore all the time..   First time I got trifocals I felt I was in a bad 1970’s anti drug movie.. the walls were breathingand the floor was moving…

 

 

now I’m sort of used to it..

 

sort of..

 

nite all. nite sam

-me