Woke today and walked down to a quiet house. Thinking of the great gathering last night for Sam.. The Samstones are drying to get ready for Diane to apply the iron oxide in teh Sam imprint
I got dressed and headed out to TechJam at Hulu . TechJam is put on by my freinds Cathy and Paua at 7Days. Its the best collection of startups and Stem activities in the State. I was there with two groups. FIRST robotics had a fantastic booth right bey the entrance. It’s been one of the best ways we have about gettign the word out about FIRST’s great STEAM progrrams. I was also there to support BETA. We were there with our Mobildome simulator and several of our study hall demo (I’d been trying really hard to complete another demo to bring.. but didnt get it done in time š ..)Ā
THe keynote was from Matty Benedetto , the creator of Unnecessary InventionsĀ If you dont know Matty’s work., check him out.. He creates solutions for problems that dont exist !. He’s a great speaker.. funny and a very able maker He’s built an amazing brand by creating things that no one needs,. He was the perfect keynote speaker for techjam !
here are some images from this year’sĀ techjam
Huge thanks to Cathy and 7Days for all they do to put on this event !
I got home from Techjam in time for a short sunset hike to the Rivershore..Ā Ā
Linda , David and willow are here.. We’ve really enjoyed having them up.. We took a hike up to libby’s look with them
We’re coming up on the 18th anniversary of Sam’s passing. Many years we mark the day by hiking up Bolton with friends and hosting a potluck. We all get together and make samstones. . Over the last couple of years we’ve sometimes been traveling for thatĀ day.Ā We still hike..Ā
THis year we decided to have the potluck a little early because we’re goign to be out of town forĀ a good portion of november..Ā
We sent out word through facebook and text messages to all of Sam’s friends, So manyĀ of them are still in our lives.Ā
about 60 friends including their spouses and babies showed up.. We caught up with each other. .. and with Sam
Diane even made a dark chocolate red bull cake in Sams honor
And we had a redbull toast to Sam
And we all made samstones.. Its amazing that people are still placing and finding samstones after 18 years !
It meant very much to us that all these people still think of Sam.. It keeps us all closerĀ
Tonight we attended a wonderful celebration of the Generator Makerspaces 10th anniversary. THe event celebrated theĀ Ā space a, the staff and the co-founders. I’m proud to be one of the earliest co-founders. ..Ā Today also marked my last day on the board.. our bylaws say one can only stay on the board for 10 years.. so tonight I stepped down.Ā i’ll miss it.. but my aim is to cut waaaaay back on the number of boards I’m on..Ā Ā id dont enjoy meetings and minutes and roberts rules.. so takign a breather will be fun !
The event this evening was great.. Meg our Executive director spoke. so did Emma, the mayor of burlignton, and a host of others.Ā Ā There was once a plan toĀ have fluffy here for the celibration.. but fFLuffy is without a homeĀ Ā right now so cant be assembled.Ā
there were all sorts of exhibits, music, food and drink spread around to celebrate all that generator had accomplished… starting in the basement of Memorial auditorium to our current digs on the champlain campus.Ā
I shared this video of the first day setup of generator in 2014 in memorial auditorium basementĀ
check out the party
Here’s the operation game that zalex and I built..Ā
I’m super proud of all Generator has accomplished
I’m going to miss the board… but I’m still goign to stick aroundĀ
After work, Clay came over ot help me on a difficult work model I’m building (it has 9 motors !)
While eh was there, Rebar came by. I’d connected them because rebar is lookign for the perfect telescopign linear accelerator for his project with Ben.
C alay had made a very cool telescoping arm for his teams FTC robot.. it used nesting square tubing and,. spring steel coils for push out, and a geared motor. pully and unstretcahbel nnylon cord for retraction . It super well design.. Not srure if it meats rebar/bens indeas.. We’ll see
Later that evening I came across DIane working on her famous mole style chili.. Check out the number of spices and other secret ingredients that go in there .. ..
