gotta love Portland bumper stickers.. i’ll miss them !

This mornign we all got picked up for our short stay up in Rhododendron.. we had two cars.. three by the time Mya will show up on friday.. and we managed to fill them all 

While we were packign, Max’s freind Casey came by.. man he hasd a story.. one day he had some  vision , speach and balance problems so he went in to get checked.. turned out he had a huge benign brain cyst.. !

miracualously he’s fine now.. still has to speak a little slowly, but even thats goign away.. super nice guy.. glad he’s doign well .. it was great to see him !

as we left the house. we took the oppertunity to get soem family pics in front of gabes house.. 

then we piled in the cars and headed towards moutn hood.. one required stop is Chepes.. our favorate Salvadoran place that is on the way.. excellent Papussa’s !

one more stop on the way.. we’d gotten a permit to gcut down an xmas tree.. $5 for any tree you choose on soem public land…. we had fun picking out just the right one 

then it was only abotu 30 mintues to our airbnb in Rhododendrom .. normally there would be feet of snow this time of year.. but we’re gettign rain.. no matter thoguht .. the place was so comfy and bright.. and so was the hot tub.
We spent the evening cooking, setting up and hanging out.. sooooooo nice !

Happy xmas eeve everyone !

nite all, nite sam.. we’re missing you !

-me

Diane and I had a busy day prepping for our trip out to Rhododendron later in the week 

That evening all of us when to Hopscotch.. a local interactive media venue.. I love the peices there.. we spent several hprs playign with the exhibits 

Later on, we all had dinner at Mirisata.. a veggie Sri Lankan place we love..then we went to movie madness to pick out vids for the week . 

as always.. I made a pilgramage to the shelf that has the Colony vids

so nice to be here with the family !

nite all, nite sam
-me

I slept till almost 10 am !!!.. latest I can remember sleepign in a. long time. I got up and headed over to gabes.. Gabe, Diane. Nova and I took a quick run.. then we spent the rest of the day helping gabe pack up the last bits of his house in prep for his move to Wüzburg. 

In the evening, Gabe went off to his Mandolin lesson, then we all  (me, diane. gabe, mya, max and becky) me up at the Moon and Sixpence.. its now officially our favorite bar in Portland.. it’s a really authentic english style pub  (We know.. we lived in england !) with live irish music.  

 

 

 

We had great fish and chips and got to talk to Gabes amazing mandolin teacher Rene and his freind Jeff Elliot.. a welll known guitar maker. They are both such wonderful peope. Rene has been an amazing teachor, mentor and freind for Gabe.. he’s a gentle, kind sou l and an amazing musiculs 

nice end of the day

nite all, nite sam
-me

I got in earlier on sunday.. .. the hackers had until 1 ( i think) to finish their project..s .. they were all still workign furiously.. writing code, training models, soldering, painting.. it was amazing to see 

Then came the time for the projects to be judged.. the judging criterion were reviewed again. then a team of judges from AMD and Hackclub began visiting all the teams. Teherewere some amazing projects that all hilighted the DELL  AI laptops with AMD Processors and Radeon GPUS as well as a the Open Source LeRobot robotic arm platform. 

We had violin playing robots. whackamole playing robots, soda dispensing robots, card playing robots, chess playing robots scalpel weilding robots, bowling robots, date ettiquite managing robots, tool sorting robots.. and many more.. . judging was hard work !

THe judges visited all the teams.. then went of to think.. and then came back with their sleection.. The winners were a  card playign robot, whackamoe and the drink despensor robots.. It was really fun to see the winnign teans reaction, The prizes were really significant… 

And jusut like that.. it was over !.. we all said our good byes.. its amazing how quixkly you make freinds in these sort of competitions.. I hoe to see many of these kids particiipating in futre hackclub programs..

The core crew hanf aroudn for a coupek more hours cleanign up the venue.. we’d made a huge mess but by 7pm .. it looked great again. .
I got in my rental car and drobre up to SFO only to find that my plne was like 3 hours late.. I eventually got to our airbnb in portland aroudn 3AM.. 

my 3rd 3am day in a row..    DIane was ther easleep.. I was so glad to be with her again.. 

what an adventure !
now switching to holoiday mode. Max and becky show up tomorrow. gabes already here.. looking forward to being with family !

nite all, nite sam
-me