Author: Joe

Categories
Adventure

World Maker Faire: New York

Maker FaireDecided to finally attend the Maker Faire, which I’ve kinda wanted to do for a couple of years. It just looked really cool to me and making stuff is always good.  I asked NGM if he wanted to check it out too, and we made the adventure to experience it in person.

First I woke up pretty early so that I could drive to NGM’s home. I remembered how to get there and everything, and didn’t take a single wrong turn. This is a big achievement for myself.

We then departed from his home and went to Trenton (I think that’s where we were) to board a train to NYC. The train ride was pretty exciting, I really don’t get out much. However, what would make this trip forever standout were the completely drunk/high couple seated behind us.

They were truly amazing and I doubt my words could truly do them the justice they deserve. They were completely shot and I have not idea how they even walked onto the train (without tickets of course). The whole ride up they didn’t shut up once and constantly talked about some amazing nonsense.

Here are some excerpts that stood out to me:

  • wow (said like a million times)
  • asked if they had disabled tickets
  • the need of rain jackets
  • a tall building that is exactly 1776 feet high
  • trading in their Sebring for an Altima
  • crosswords make your brain smarter
  • how do you spell 2?

They appeared to be getting on NGM’s nerve, as well as the rest of the train’s as well. I didn’t mind and just took in the entire treasure for what it would be. It was truly amazing.

Once the train arrived in NYC, we boarded the subway to the New York Hall of Science inQueens where the Maker Faire was held. It took a little while to get out there, but the journey while interesting, wasn’t as eventful as the train ride for me. Sure there were some very weird people on the subway, but not as amazing as the train couple.

When we arrived to the Maker Faire, I was pretty overwhelmed. There was just so much going on, it took a while to figure out where to go and what to see. Once we walked around for a bit, and settled in we started to check out the various exhibits.

There was some really interesting stuff and it’s always impressive to me to see people actually making stuff and not just relying on a big company to make something that they have to then go out a buy at a Wal-Mart. I have a whole lot of respect for that crowd, that’s not an easy thing to do.

I mostly wanted to check out the electronics stuff, mostly the Arduino tents. I’ve been meaning to make something cool using that. There were some pretty amazing robots and other little contraptions that were very impressive too.

Though one of the coolest things I saw, and the only thing I bought a kit for were the Wool Buddies. Apparently you can make simple little stuff using wool and poking it with a needle. Some of the little critters offered were really cool looking to me and I would up buying a blue whale one that I’m hoping to complete soon.

We did check out an impressive Mentos and Diet Coke show. It was pretty amazing what those 2 guys were able to pull of with a simple combination. Also of note was the human mouse trap. Just like the board game, but much, much bigger. They put on an entertaining show.

The food there was a bit strange. I got a weird grilled cheese, tator tots for lunch. Eh, not so good but not bad. Then we got fancy ice cream sandwiches. I got fried chicken and waffles flavored ice cream on mine. I thought I’d be a bit adventurous, and it turned out to be not so bad.

After the faire, we stopped in Manhattan to get something to eat. The place we went to was some diner employing some Broadway people. I kinda hate Broadway, so having all the staff constantly singing way over the top renditions of songs was quite annoying. The food also was sub average, so I gotta say I was a bit disappointed with dinner. Oh well, I won’t forgot how annoying the staff was to me though.

Subway and train ride how were pretty smooth. No insane couples seated behind us, but we couldn’t stop quoting them the entire ride home.

Good stuff and a pretty awesome event. Even if you’re not into all that building stuff, it’s still pretty amazing to check out.

Categories
Adventure

Honey Badger Scavenger Hunt

Last night was our first every Honey Badgers Scavenger Hunt! We had a pretty great turnout, with current and past teammates as well as family members and friends too. I was very happy with the interest in the event and was glad to see it turned out well.

I decided to have the teams look for things on the OC boardwalk and beach, and take photos that they would have to share in person. I thought this would be easy, and also require some element of speed to cover as much ground as possible.

I also wanted to include some type of puzzles or riddles too. I was torn between a physical type of challenge or a mental one. I went the mental route with some riddles, a geometric puzzle and some trivia. I think it went over very well, and it was vey entertaining to watch the teams struggle with some of the questions. The triangle puzzle turned out to be the most challenging for most.

Then they had more things to find and take photos of for the last leg. I kinda wanted to mix up a scavenger hunt with the Amazing Race, and I do think it worked out well. Most teams seemed to finish up in an hour and a half or so.

The Meghan team were the victors in the end, narrowly edging out Jared and John B and Ginny, Dustin and Sean. It was very close, and I was very anxious to see just who would finish first!

Some stand out moments for me was watching the various teams try not to tip off the other teams. The frog with a crown and spinning wedding bears were both very funny for me to watch. Some teams just boldly took a photo, while others were a bit more convert and sneaking a photo in. Very funny to watch!

I’d deem this a very successful event and one that we will have to hold again!

Categories
Books

Kenobi: Star Wars

Kenobi: Star WarsI was pretty excited when I saw Kenobi: Star Wars at the library. Ben Kenobi was always a bit of a mystery watching Star Wars growing up, so a story about his time before episode IV seemed like something that would be cool to read.

It was a pretty good story. It was kinda written like a western, with the stranger coming into town (Ben) and helping the locals. Almost like an A-Team episode now that I think about it. I thought it was pretty well done and liked that the story didn’t just name drop well known characters from the franchise just for the sake of it.

While it hardly touched on him actually looking over Luke, it does do a great job of explaining his thought process after all the events at the conclusion of episode III. Being alone and unable to really do much about it, and his struggle with this new role of his while keeping his identity a mystery.

 

 

Categories
Video Games

Earthbound

EarthBoundBeing the super video game nerd that I am, I always wanted to play Earthbound, since I didn’t play it way back when it came out on Super Nintendo so very long ago. I recalled it being in the really big box with a guide, but I just wasn’t playing many games at the time as I was so busy with school and working part-time and all.

So when I saw that Nintendo released Earthbound for download on the Wii U, I was pretty excited to finally gvie it a shot. Plus, I really needed something to play at the moment too.

Despite being an old Super Nintendo game with now ancient, graphics, sound and gameplay, it was still a pretty amazing game. I was always such a fan of the JRPG’s growing up (especially on the Super Nintendo), and to play such a great one was a treat.

The story was pretty entertaining. Very funny and quirky, and a great change from the typical JRPGs. What an amazing game. The dialog was pretty funny too. If I were a kid (I guess I still am if I got so excited over a game) it’d of been pretty hilarious.

The only drawback might be the difficulty at the very beginning of the game. It got pretty tough there, but after some good old fashioned 90’s level grinding was able to get through it.

Awesome game, and I will now say “fuzzy pickles” whenever I take a photo. Though I have no idea what that means.

Categories
Books

They Eat Puppies, Don’t They?: A Novel

They Eat Puppies, Don't They?I picked this one out to read based solely on it’s cover. Take a look at the cover, it’s pretty amazing to me. A communist looking pug is pretty awesome!

The book turned out to be pretty good too! It was some solid political satire. Though I have to admit, while it was satire I wouldn’t be too shocked if some of the personalities weren’t similar to some real folks in such situations.

The whole idea of starting up things with China was pretty funny. I especially liked the ideas of getting the Dalai Lama with a panda based virus. Creative stuff.

Clearly a book can be judged by it’s cover. Thank you communist pug!

Categories
Sports

SJSL Summer 2013 Kickball All-Star Game

This summer the SJSL kickball league decided to have their first ever all-star game. What a great idea! Each team had to nominate a male and female player to represent their respective team in the game.

Being so amazingly awesome the Honey Badgers insisted that I would be our guy on the team. I truly believe that we have several guys on our team more deserving to play this season than myself, but they really went out of their way to select me and there was no way I could back out of this one. What a bunch of amazing teammates!

Choosing a girl was a bit tougher. Both Irena and Caitlin have had an excellent season for the Badgers in contrasting ways. One dominating with offense and the other with defense. Ultimately we went with Irena, but either way we were sending a great representative. They are both pretty terrific and I’m so glad to have them on my team.

The league also chose me to act as captain for our respective division. Yes, apparently I’m kinda a big deal in the SJSL. If only my entire life were so! An autograph session will be held shortly of course.

So the first order of business was to learn everyone’s name and where they were comfortable playing. I knew everyone’s face, but to finally get a name to place was great. We’ve played so many intense games against these guys over the years it was nice to be with them for a change. I was really impressed with how team first everyone was.

The game itself was very fun. We dug ourselves a really deep hole getting off to a rough start in the field. It was obvious we weren’t yet comfortable playing with everyone just yet.

I have to admit I was pretty nervous the first inning. I had hardly played in the field most of the season, letting my guys play and also resting my elbow. So playing right field with no substitutes did have me a little nervous to start. I did drop one I really should have caught in the first, but after that I settled down and things went well.

Irena was amazing and had one of if not her finest overall games! She really made us look good and came up with some big kicks in some big situations. Mike was dominant at third, pretty much single handedly getting us out of a few jams with some great plays.

While we had some excellent plays, we also had too many sloppy ones too. But that kinda comes with playing with different people. I do have to say that that a few of our opponents girls had some amazing kicks getting behind out outfielders. One of the girls really shocked us with her range, she did not look like she would be launching balls that far.

I didn’t feel comfortable telling people too much of what to do, as they’re all pretty great and it’s an all-star game, so I tried to lead by example. So I decided to run, and run a lot. Covering the infield on every play, helping out at 2nd, being the cut off man, and sprinting on the bases each and every time. I’m not sure if it worked or not, but I do know that I was drenched with sweat and completely exhausted by the end of the game.

Sadly despite a pretty amazing comeback, we would go on to lost the all-star game to a very solid team. They did a great job out there and just made more solid plays on the night.

It was a really great experience and I’m so glad my team was so generous to select me to play. It was great to see all the Honey Badgers who turned out to cheer us on. I’ve got some pretty amazing teammates.