Make(r) Fair(e)
So…. it’s Sunday night and time for bed. 
Been a great weekend though - Jeff and I spent all day Saturday at a local event called Maker Faire, which is a large scale science fair/craft show/geek fest/playground for people of all ages. From what I understand, anyone who makes anything can apply to get a booth or a space or give a talk, and whatever it is that they “make.” So it might be stuffed monsters, or robots, or burning statues, or art, or puzzles, or motored lazyboys, or life sized muffins on wheels or…. well, really just about anything.
All in all, a great day, although it was crowded (apparently lots of people realized it could be a good time), and I neglected to put sunscreen on my chest and wore a scoopy shirt. I didn’t even think to bring a camera, so I have no photographic evidence of anything, but I saw a number of other people with cameras (what! surprise!) and I’m sure you could find an ever changing slide show of pictures from the event HERE.
It was a HUGE event. We spent over 8 hours there. To the point where my feet were killing me (I wore crappy flipflops - another bad choice like the sunscreen) and I still keep seeing pictures on this slideshow of stuff I don’t think I ran across during my day there.
I didn’t actually SEE this interchange, but it gives a pretty good example of what you might just run across while strolling through the fairgrounds.
Anyway, good times. And then today we stayed out of the sun by watching episodes of Jericho, which sadly I find out was cancelled after only 1.5 seasons. 
I head back to Ohio later this week. Crossing my fingers!
dude… you got to go to Maker Faire? Awesome.
Did you make it by the Tech Shop booth? We’re only just getting some of the Tech Shop guys out here… still awaiting our first Tech Shop opening, actually.
Maker Faire sounds like tons of fun. Hope you had fun, in spite of inconvenient sunburns and achey feet.
peace,
–me
Ah… yeah, they had almost a whole building actually. With all their machines that cut/mold/etc. stuff. It was a bit overwhelming to be honest and I didn’t spend as much time there as some other places. They did have this cool machine that cut foam into pieces using a hot wire. Hmm… sounds kinda lame when I describe it.
I don’t fully understand how it works - you can go to their place and use these machines??
and yes, it was fun! there’s another one in Austin later this year! you should go.
Oh! I meant to say that I was hoping to see the Mythbusters at Maker Faire, but alas, I did not.
Yeah, that’s the basic idea–you basically buy a membership and you have access to their workshop. You can use any of the little stuff right away, but big/expensive/dangerous hardware they make you take a safety training session before they let you use it. Then, aside from the membership, all you have to buy is your own materials. You get to make whatever you want–a bunch of people’s memberships can outfit a much bigger workshop than one’s own garage…
They’ve got lots of cool stuff in there. 3-D printers, milling machines, you name it.
though you’ve probably already seen more of their hardware than I have–ours isn’t even open yet!
Too bad about not catching MythBusters, though. Oh well… they probably can’t blow up as much stuff in the middle of Maker Faire.
Austin’s still a little far from Raleigh–we’ll see, but having the time and money at the same time = not holding my breath for this one. Maybe another year…
peace to you,
–me
Did you see the Yarn Harlot? I was reading her blog before yours and it was also about the Maker Faire. Sounds really cool.