Current Plans for this Blog

I've been asked by a few people about my current plans for this blog. Personally, I'm leaning towards wrapping it into my GitHub blog at some point, but that's not particularly well-maintained either. I haven't forgotten about this outlet, I just haven't had much time to put into it and have been involved with too many other things.

I did do some very minor cleanup of the layout here today - it was a little embarrassing to look over here and see graphics announcing "upcoming events" in 2010. There probably should be some news about myself up here at some point, too...I haven't given much detail online about the ordeal that these past few years have been. I ought to put a clear accounting up somewhere of what happened, but I keep thinking I should dig myself out of the hole before risking saying something that might make it harder to get out of it. That's been a little complicated by a few rumors going around (primarily in the AFOL community), though, so I don't know what I'll do about it now.

Need a New Place

It's gotten pretty clear that this arrangement on Blogger isn't working out. Among the issues I'm looking at is getting away from Google - anybody have suggestions on where my projects can go in the future? I'm aware of a few places for certain types of content (MOCpages for LEGO, RobotBox for robotics, etc), but I'd like some sort of general portfolio site as well. I've clearly failed to find the right amount of more traditional blogging to include alongside that sort of content, but I'd like a platform that encourages something of that as well.

Any suggestions?

Maker Faire NC recap

The first annual Maker Faire NC was April 25th, 2010, and it was quite a success, with over 2000 people coming to see more than 50 of us showcasing various things we've made.

I ran a display called LEGO DIY, which featured original creations from myself, BrickJournal editor Joe Meno, and Brickapolis. This was my first time running a display by myself and using my own models to anchor a display (generally I'm more active in group layouts instead). You can find information on all of the creations (and the modified set) I did on the NCLUG post I wrote for the event.

I believe that all the photos and videos you could possibly want (and plenty extra to spare) can be found in the official Maker Faire:NC 2010 flickr pool. I'm gratuitously over-represented in there, but for the purposes of this blog I guess that counts as less of a bug and more of a feature. I also have three photosets of my own (I only added a handful of photos to the group pool): Maker Faire NC setup, Maker Faire NC 2010, and Scrap Exchange. The Scrap Exchange hosted the exhibitor's party on Saturday night, which was also a great opportunity for me to see all the exciting things they do there. I picked up a variety of interesting things from their barrels that you can fill bags from - some of which I was actually able to use with my LEGO pneumatics to make a quick repair during the show.

The event was well-organized, especially considering that this was the first time out. It was a great show - my only regret is not getting to see more of the other displays. I'm not sure how long they'll keep the list of exhibitors from 2010 online, but there were quite a few displays that I'm interested in looking into further. Isn't that the point? That we all want to try out some of each other's hobbies afterwards?

Word when I left that night was that they'd start looking for another location in Durham for Maker Faire NC 2011 within the month. Since I will probably be involved again in some way or another (I might do a similar display again, might get a proper NCLUG group display going, or might opt to go the musical performance route with my Mindstorms band instead), I will keep you posted.

This Exists

This (an all silver Rubik's cube where the boxes are all different dimensions) exists. I need one, if only to make my little corner of the world a happier place.

That is all.

What I Was Doing Mother's Day Weekend

For a glimpse of how BrickMagic went on Mother's Day weekend, check out the BrickMagic flickr pool (all of my ~500 photos have been added here).

I'm also one of the 11 builders featured by name in this wrap-up at motherboard.tv.

I don't intend to do a full recap - since this was the first year this event was put on, the negative stuff will be sent to Joe sooner or later as feedback and chalked up as lessons learned. Many of the highlights aren't things we can share much of (set designers showing us prototypes, private info on the idea house, etc). I'm told that some video was taken for the BrickJournal website, but I have no what (if anything) will surface. Time will tell. I need to move on to the next thing now.