Yearly Archives: 2014

Friday night – short fuse

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Good and busy day for the last day of spring. It only got up to 65 degrees and that’s hot enough for me. Thanks to Diane’s green thumb, the yard is a riot of colors already ..

After work I had a rush maker job to create some electrically lit fuses for Chris’s burn tomorrow night (Helios.. the sun g-d)   > I took apart an old soldering iron and took out the nichrome wire..    hooked it to copper wire annd taped them to paper..

Then I measured out 180g of Potassium nitrate and 120 grams of sugar and melted them in a pan on the grill outside.. I did it outside because I once almost burnt down my friend Jeff’s house doing this

I then spread the melted KNO3/Sugar mix over the nichrome res , wraped them up and let them harden. I did a est and they worked GREAT.. sorry.. forgot to take a picture !

After than .. Gabe. Jack and Luke decided they would go camp on one of the Islands in the Winooski tonight. They packed up the canoe

and headed down the river.. Diane and I managed to see them go buy while we were out walking the dogs by the river.. We’re standing about 300 yeards from our house.. we  feel lucky to live in such a  beautiful place !

OK.. gonna try to watch some TV tonight. haven’t done that in many weeks. wish me luck..

nite all. nite sam

-me

Thursday night – Eco Logic

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Just back from a quick trip down to Boston. Stayed at Mom’s last night and attended a good work meeting this morning in downtown Boston. The meeting was in the famous Porter House Hotel. .. Hoe ot the prter house rolls and of the boston creme pie. I hadn’t been in there since my grandmother stayed there when I was in College more than 30 years ago.. I don’t think it’s changed a bit.. .. The halways are decorated with storys of the famous folks who have workde or stayed htere .. including

 

folks like Walt Whitman

 

 

JFK had his bachelor party there

 

 

Malcolm X worked there

 

Charles Dickens stayed there

 

and Nathaniel Hawthorne did too.. 

 

and my baby sister Mary even got married there 10 years ago !

 

that history made the meetings even more interesting..

 

 

I left the moment the meeting were over and managed to make it back to Burlington in time for a 6 oclock social and meet-up at Generator.  First there was a mixer.. there was beer, wine and food !

 

The topic tonight was ‘Eco-Logic’ ..   (Ohhhh.. I just got it as in Ecological !).. My friends Rebeccah and Ken and another cool woman.. an ecological economist..  spoke on art and the environment..

the talks were all really great.. The first woman spoke about better ways than GDP ays of measuring collective well  being . Rebeccah spoke  about the role of Art in ecology and visa versa.. she’s very intreseted in using trash as art to start a conversation on mass consumption. Ken specifically talked about 3d printing. and the transformation its drivign in creativity, rpduction, ownership, etc..

 

I loved the energy and conversations there tonight.. Thanks ya’ll for coming out !

 

gotta sleep.. falling asleep at the keyboard here..

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

Wednesday night – National Day of Making

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Busy day.. at one point on three phone call simultaneously.. and paying attention to each pretty well..

It was a noteworthy day as Pres Obama declared to today a ‘National Day of Making’.. and marked it with the first ever Makerfaire. at the white house.. I saw that several of my friends got invited .. which is pretty exciting !

 

I didn’t make anything today (though I did make lots of stuff this week) .     I did manage to take an hour out to meet with the good folks at Vermont Works for Women. They are looking for help on how to interest more ‘women children’ (aka ‘girls’) to the joys of programming. We had a very good brainstorming session on the topic. I’d like to ask any of you to share your ideas.. How can we get 7’th to 12th grade women more interested in programming ?  Please share your ideas…

 

I loved the energy and insights of the group.. this is the same group that runs the very cool ‘Rosie’s Girls’ program that my buddy Kat is part of. She teaches girls to weld. .. how cool s that ?

 

 

I’d invited my friend Karen tot he meeting. Karen is a whiz at the programming language Ruby.. actually… Karen is a whiz at many tings related to programming. Today she brought her very cool electric scooter.. and we all got to take it for a spin .

 

 

 

Now I’m in Sherborn at my moms..I’m down for an early mornign meeting in Boston tomorrow. It’s so weird walking  in to this house  since my Dad died..   I keep looing around for him..

 

These things take time…..

 

nite all. nite sam

-me

 

 

Tuesday night – Happy Birthday Maximus

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Happy brithday Max. My son Maxwell Mariano Cohn is 26 years old today.. He’s such an amazing, loving, smart  and funny kid..

 

 

He came upf or Gabes graduation and stayed for his birthday. That was a great treat for all of us.

We celebrated Max’s birthday with a Hike up T Mansfield. It was hot and buggy, but fun anyway !  >.

We met mr tree-swallowsign..

cooled our head ina tiny waterfall

stopped by butler lodge

then scrambled up racks to the top. some of it was o steep that it freaked me out

We took the ‘Wampahufus trail, gabes favorite.. we’ve always caused it the ‘Wampahupus’.. i like that better

Soem tight spaces to squeeze through

gabe and max did a little cave exploring

then we were on top of mansfield !

a quick snack then down again

We got home around 6:30/ I quickly showered the ran off to pick up the present that Gabe and I had made.. We’d taken it to  from Geoigi..at Yankee Tattoo who helped us by adding the Kevlar wick ..

I brought home sushi and we had a feast.. then we had cake.. and candles..

then Gabe and I gave Max the gift we’d made. It’s a flame wand for fire breathing and othe r fire art.

.. it’s made of three rods of 1/4 inch steel . Gabe and I welded them together at one end, then used the oxy-acetalene torch to twist the three rods .. then we clamped a samstone in the other end..

Georgi sewed on a 2 inch kevlar wick..

Max really seemed to like it

Max, gabe and I ended the night bby makign a rocket. this time we tried dding a little Ferro-titanium powder to the sugar/ KNO3 . We wanted to get a visible trail of sparks. and it worked fantastcally. Max made these three short vids about the process. i really like them

nice way to end the visit..

now.. i gotta sleep

happy birthday my son.. we love you so much !

nite all. ntite sam
-me