All posts by johncohn

Wednesday night – secret island

Had a long hard work day.. So when it turned 6pm I was ready for something differ.. Gabe came up to me with a machete and asked if I wanted to explore the secret island he found in the river near our house. Just what I was looking for.. I got on our bikes and rode about a mile to the trail head then rode down to the river. We ditched out bikes in the woods then waded across the river. The last few days of rain had it running fast and cold and up to IMF though. It was pretty hard walking across the current, but we got to the island still pretty dry… Gabe took me though a small opening in the brush . We walked thought a narrow trail then came in to the coolest clearing..it was in the center of the island, totally out of site of neither bank of the river… We spent a while clering some small trails and exploring the island.. E even came across an orienteering marker in the center of this very hidden place.. So funny

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I love living in a place where adventures like this are just a walk , run or ride away,..
Ok.. Time for Bed,. More tomorrow
Nite all, nite Sam
-me

Tuesday evening – robots !

Busy day. Just finished my work and it's almost 11pm. I did have some fun today,though. Before work I went to the Vermont fablab at uvm and helped prep WCAX host Molly Smith for a piece on the high school summer program that my friend Mike F is holding in the lab.

 

 

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I met the kids about a week and a half ago.. It was so great seeing the progress they've made on their robots.. I walked in this morning and they were soldering, coding and cutting out things on the laser and printing on the 3d printer. I wish I had that kind of maker experience when I was oin high school ! Check out these cool devices they've built

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This guy is programmed to find other small robots and catch them in its jaws.. Hence it's name 'the lobster' . It worked just as advertised !
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Here's the components they cut out on the laser cutter
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Another team opted to print out some of their components of the 3d printer
 
 
 
 
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One creative guy even made his own metric ruler using the laser cutter… How cool is that ?
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I gotta say, seeing those kids working in this space we created did my heart good.were making a whole new crop of makers !

 

Speaking of makers.. The Champlain Maiker faire (sept 29th, shelbourne farms) is actively looking for makers of all types.. High tech, low tech, craft, food, music, you name it. The event is going to be awesome… We're even bringing in some surprise guests. Please check out http://champlainmakerfaire.org and sign up to be a maker… Or send it to friends who you think would enjoy showing their stuff..

 

Ok..gabes home with ice cream.. Gotta go

Niall, nite Sam

-me

 

Sunday evening – back from the vibes

Woke 'early' this morning… (8 am) to find most of the entire campground still asleep.. Hat what happens when the last musical set ends at 4am.. I actually hit the hay kinda early last night.. I caught the absolutely wonderful late night set of STS9 with Ben and the folks from the bio bus.. But I decided to skip the 2-4am set of The Eall, a pink Floyd cover band (not huge fan of pink Floyd.. Not sure why) the sts9 show was the perfect ending of my visit to the vibes.. I really like electronic music.. And this was exceptional stuff.

Overall, the trip to the vibes was great.. It was wonderful hanging out with Gary and his family, paul, and kenny. The uvm students had a ball, and did a GREAT job showing off their project. I had some great requirements aching for my hoop p roject and I met lots of nice hippies.. One other thing I noted was how many people figured out that I was from the Colony.. In fact it happens more and more now. I think it's because the show is now on Netflix. That's always fun. Because people have questions about the show.. It was also a good place to come from while we're there talking about the benefits of solar power generation.

I'm feeling recharged from my trip..music does that for me. It's funny how I can channel the energy I get from music and people into my work.. And I need that energy right now. I'm insanely (!!!) busy at work and trying to focus on 3 key projects.. This will be a busy coming set of weeks… I just need to keep the music track going in my head

 

🙂

 

Nite all, nite Sam

-me