Upcoming
Some time ago I built a decorative bauble, a uranium-glass marble surrounded with seven ultraviolet LEDs in a decorative copper ring circuit. I liked the result enough to make a few more, mostly as gifts for friends. Then I took a few of them to Wicked Faire, where I had people throwing money at me to buy them. To meet this unexpected overwhelming demand, I have 11 more finished pieces ready to sell. I might be able to get one more finished before the Steampunk World's Faire, which is coming up in a few weeks. I am very much looking forward to it.
Laurie will be gone for the entire weekend, visiting a friend in Chicago. She'll be taking my laptop with her. We'll also most likely be emptying and defrosting the refrigerator that weekend, which means the only reason I'll have to be at home the entire weekend will be to sleep. If it's anything like the Winter Wicked Faire was, I won't want to miss any part of it. It looks to be an amazing collection of entertainments assorted, in addition to the possibilities for networking and selling my creations.
I should really start working on some sort of costuming for the event. I have a nifty set of clip-on magnifying lenses, which if I can find my old glasses with the broken frames I might be able to make into some kind of steampunk goggle thing that I can still see while wearing. Not sure what I'm going to do other than that. I will probably be bringing my little walking robot to show off at the convention again. I'm not sure how much longer than that I'll be able to keep it running for. I've come to the conclusion that I've nursed this design along about as far as I can. The combination of cheap servos, simple legs with only two servos per leg, and an aggressive amble gait are just too much for the gears and servo cases to take. I have some ideas for more ambitious and hopefully more durable designs I'd like to work with, but nowhere near the budget to afford them yet.
On the somewhat longer term, our plans for GenCon are coming along. Laurie and I will be driving out with nobody else this year. I have as usual signed up for far too many events, and managed this year to talk Laurie into trying True Dungeon with me. No idea if I'll be able to bring anything interesting to show off at the con yet.
And in even longer terms, Laurie and I are trying to work out if we can manage a trip to Hawaii next year for our tenth anniversary. This will not be cheap, and might be impossible, but she is putting all her considerable organizational and budgetary skills to seeing if we can work it.
Laurie will be gone for the entire weekend, visiting a friend in Chicago. She'll be taking my laptop with her. We'll also most likely be emptying and defrosting the refrigerator that weekend, which means the only reason I'll have to be at home the entire weekend will be to sleep. If it's anything like the Winter Wicked Faire was, I won't want to miss any part of it. It looks to be an amazing collection of entertainments assorted, in addition to the possibilities for networking and selling my creations.
I should really start working on some sort of costuming for the event. I have a nifty set of clip-on magnifying lenses, which if I can find my old glasses with the broken frames I might be able to make into some kind of steampunk goggle thing that I can still see while wearing. Not sure what I'm going to do other than that. I will probably be bringing my little walking robot to show off at the convention again. I'm not sure how much longer than that I'll be able to keep it running for. I've come to the conclusion that I've nursed this design along about as far as I can. The combination of cheap servos, simple legs with only two servos per leg, and an aggressive amble gait are just too much for the gears and servo cases to take. I have some ideas for more ambitious and hopefully more durable designs I'd like to work with, but nowhere near the budget to afford them yet.
On the somewhat longer term, our plans for GenCon are coming along. Laurie and I will be driving out with nobody else this year. I have as usual signed up for far too many events, and managed this year to talk Laurie into trying True Dungeon with me. No idea if I'll be able to bring anything interesting to show off at the con yet.
And in even longer terms, Laurie and I are trying to work out if we can manage a trip to Hawaii next year for our tenth anniversary. This will not be cheap, and might be impossible, but she is putting all her considerable organizational and budgetary skills to seeing if we can work it.