Let's Wrap This Up

I've started a final Maker Faire post a couple of times and it seems to be heading in a bad (too long and too boring) direction. Feel free not to read any further (you know who you are). My feelings will not be hurt.

The Arrival (Thursday)
Having decided to get some sleep, rather than drive through the night without any shut-eye, we arrived in San Mateo later than intended. Thursday was "Maker Day," complete with presentations by and for participating makers. We managed to catch some of the nighttime program and pick up our credentials. Luckily, the drive itself was uneventful. Due to the amount of gear we had to haul, and the fact that we'd be leaving E's car in our exhibit, we traveled separately in our own cars. After the programming winded down, we checked in to our hotel and searched the internet for late-night dining. We ended up at Heidi's Pies, which did the trick. The pumpkin pie slice we shared was excellent.

Set Up Day (Friday)
We arrived nice and early for set up. Not too many other exhibitors were in our area yet and tables and chairs were still being delivered. It was a good thing though, as we had to negotiate and figure out our space a bit. We were able to get E's Scion xB in place and work out the rest of the layout. It took most of the day to get the three things we brought set up. Our neighbors started arriving later in the day. We were right near some cool folks from a program at NYU. Our friends from Machine Project were close by too. We shared tools and a few laughs while getting everything in order. E and I made a last minute dash to Radio Shack for some extension cords and PowerSquids®.

After finalizing the exhibits, we hopped on a veggie oil powered bus that took us to a yoga retreat in Half Moon Bay. We had a very healthy dinner, took a walk down to the ocean, and hung out with other makers by fire pits. Even though it was pretty chilly, it was quite a treat.

Maker Faire, Day 1 (Saturday)
It turns out that our live 3D video display was quite popular! Our table stayed quite busy for much of the day. As I mentioned before, E and I didn't get out of the exhibit much to see anything. Somehow, it was still a lot of fun. One of the highlights for me was meeting Madretz in person. She has a great post, complete with photos, describing some of the fun things she saw at the event. You might even see someone you recognize!

In spite of our exhaustion, we headed straight to Berkeley from the show for a MobMov drive-in. It ended up being a much later night than I anticpated as we got stuck in some gnarly traffic as we made our way back to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. We learned a lot about the local drivers and came to the conclusion that many seem to be quite aggressive. I suppose it could have been the traffic. For all of L.A.'s car congestion, I haven't experienced this kind of driving.

Maker Faire, Day 2 (Sunday)
The morning started with me making a trip out to my car and feeling something really uncomfortable in my boot. I definitely wore the wrong shoes on Saturday and had switched. So, I took it off, only to discover several bits of hamster chow in the bottom! Yeah. I tossed the seeds and nuggets to a squirrel who was sitting near the hotel door. He wasn't too interested though, as he'd found a slice of pizza which he proceeded to carry up a tree. And me without my camera. Anyway, back to the show.

We learned a bit about the crowd density at our booth on Saturday, primarily that it was much thinner early on. I think since there were so many things to see outdoors at the faire, including robots and fire, that it took a while for people to wander into the buildings. So, E went off to see what he could first thing. That way, we'd have fewer technical inquiries about the 3D displays that I couldn't answer. There were some hardcore nerds asking really tough, detailed questions! When E returned, I got to look around a bit. I was excited to see the Life Size Mousetrap game in action. I took some photos and spent a lot of time in the Bazaar Bizarre area, hemming and hawing over which tote bag to get. I bought one, but ended up with two. However, that is another story.

Our overall Maker Faire experience was wonderful. The staff of the event were really nice and helpful. They really put an effort into making it as fun for the makers as for the attendees. It was also really inspiring to be around so many smart and creative people. We're planning to go next year, whether or not we are exhibiting anything. Of course, E does have some ideas brewing so we shall see.

I did mention before that I was pretty astounded by the behavior of some members of the general public. I guess that is to be expected. It did inspire me to create a list of rules, which I'm sure none of my readers need, but definitely were not followed by all of our visitors.

Exhibit Hall Rules (For Asshats)

• Do not leave your garbage or snack crumbs on exhibit tables.

• Do not manhandle, drop, or throw down items that are on display.

• Just because it is on display does not mean you can take it.

• Do not knock over items and walk away, pretending you didn't.
  

• Do not walk through the back of our booth, unplugging our equipment and causing computers to crash.
  

• Do not repeatedly swing your full cup of beer (or any other liquid) over our expensive electronic equipment.
  

• Supervise your damn children so they don't do any of the above.

• When the show is over (you and I both know that you heard the announcement)...LEAVE!

I'm slowly posting some of the photos I took. There are also many blogs, photos, and videos about the 2007 Bay Area Maker Faire if you search.

The Departure
It took a few hours to pack up and load out Sunday night. We got some dinner and then watched Lost back in the hotel room. E had burned the week's episode onto a dvd and we projected it on the wall. We slept in on Monday and hit the road in the early afternoon. We took the longer route home (the 101). It added a couple of hours to trip, but had much less uphill than the 5, which we drove in on. Our cars, especially E's, were so loaded down that we wanted to minimize the climbing. On one stretch of the homeward bound drive, I got 42 mpg, which was pretty exciting. I do too much surface street driving to ever get that in L.A.

E has moved on to the next big geek activity as this weekend is the big 30th Anniversary Star Wars Celebration. I'm working tomorrow, but will probably check it out on Monday. If I finish unpacking.

Halloween Wrap Up

I survived one of my favorite, albeit longest, days of the year for me...Halloween! I love Halloween and was up at 6am and didn't return to my bed until 3am this morning. Twenty-one hours of good times.

As I noted before, Halloween is a very big deal at my workplace. I work with children, so we do up things in a fun, festive way and avoid scary. Fine by me. My department's theme was "A Day At The Zoo." Everyone (except for that one person, yeah, that one) went all out. We had zebras, a giraffe, monkeys, tigers, zoo keepers, a bear, butterflies, a peacock, a penquin, a cougar, a kangaroo, and a couple of gorillas. I found a sweet gorilla costume that was cheap and fit me quite well, in spite of being a child size. In case you didn't know, I'm short, very short. I'm only 5 feet tall. That's it. No inches. The gorilla suit was nicely lined and pretty loose fitting. I'd say it was quite comfortable, just damn hot! Well, one of my few male co-workers, who is at least six-foot-five wore the exact same costume in the exact same size! This is one of the photos I wish I had uploaded already! The ankles of the suit were up around his knees and I know he had another person check to make sure it didn't look obsene, if you get what I mean. What a jackass. Hilarious though. As usual, we won the "Kids' Choice" award for the best trick-or-treating booth. We go all out...for the kids...and they show their appreciation.

I raced home, a little early, just before 6pm. I was already exhausted and a bit exasperated to see so many kids out already. Ack! E was scrambling to get the last minute sound and light touches to our decor up and running. Our grave yard turned out really good this year, complete with fog and lights that flashed along with scary sounds. We got one "Oh snap!" and one "This is the best yard we've seen!" The trick-or-treaters arrived at such a steady rate that I panicked and ran out to get more candy. Of course we now have tons of leftovers, which is exactly what I did not want to happen. We had some nicely costumed, very polite youngsters who came by, but I am considering posting some "rules" for the-rest-of-them next year:

1. Wear a costume. Come on...you're going to knock on my door, expecting free candy and not make any effort? It doesn't have to be expensive or elaborate. Just show that you tried. (This would be an acceptable exception!)
   
2. Say 'Trick or Treat.' It's customary and fun. Don't just hold your bag up and stare at me.
3. Say 'Thank You' instead of looking at me like "Is that it?" with your bag still open. Yes, that's it...now scram!
4. I don't condone giving candy to infants. (Besides, I know it's really for you, fat ass!)
5. One Stop Shopping. There are lots of houses in the neighborhood. Do you think I don't recognize you from an hour ago?
6. Give A Hoot...Don't Pollute. Please don't eat the candy I give you in my driveway and then leave the wrapper there. Disgusting. (Thanks to co-worker S for reminding me of this one!)
   

Once the trick-or-treating died down, pun intended, we went over the hill to West Hollywood for the huge, annual carnaval. E went all out this year and put together a Ro-Man costume from the film Robot Monster. He purchased a gorilla suit for the body and constructed a papier mache helmet, that was pretty darn close to the original one. We saw the actual original helmet this past Sunday and he took photos for reference. I ended up feeling a bit like one of those handlers for the Disneyland costumed characters as E's helmet was fogging up and he had a bit of trouble seeing. It was fun to have some people recognize the costume and take pictures of him. I was originally going to wear a 50's-style outfit and 3D glasses, but it was kind of cold and I was kind of lazy, so I just wore my gorilla suit again. We followed up the carnaval with a late dinner at the Nova Express Cafe, where E's Ro-Man was a big hit.

Halloween will continue for me later this week with a party on Friday. I'm going to break out one of my three costumes from last year.