Happy April everyone, (and happy daylight saving time). It is now officially too late for me to post anything in March making it the first month I've missed entirely in two years. I thought I'd fill people in on what I've been up to.

Picking up from where I left off last time, the rest of my Florida State Fair trip was just as crazy as it began. 12 hours or more a day, outside, when it's in the 30's in Tampa, FL, babysitting a robot. The state fair was even more like the stereotype than I expected with all the animals and hicks and carnies. All the food was either deep fried or on a stick or both. I had a great idea for a fair stand, called "Deep Fried on a Stick" where you could have anything you bought anywhere else deep-fried and put on a stick. We didn't get a lot of sleep getting up in the morning to shoot spots for local news and various other things. We had a lot of fun though playing with the kids, renaming people, Quasi amassing his staff to take over the world. A trip I won't soon forget. I took a lot of pictures.

Since then I have been working full force on the fountain project for Atlantic City. I can't officially say too much about it now, but there's nothing else like it you've ever seen, it's fun to work on, and it will be really cool. Because the place won't be ready to open by the time out semester is over it is likely that Lenny and I will get hired for the first month of the summer to finish the test and adjust.

I've also been working on my resume and portfolio for getting a job. Anyone need a freelance technology developement coordinator?

Sunday (yesterday) morning Lenny and I set out on our 20 hour, 2 day adventure to drive the loaded down Enterprise rent-a-truck to the Florida State Fair in Tampa. We had no idea what adventure was in store for us with this truck.

( Incredibly long and hilarious account of the travesty that was today's travels )

So now we're here at the fair. I showered only smell slightly like diesel. We have to get up at 7 to handle things with Enterprise and set up our stuff. I'm pretty worried since we saw that the space we're supposed to be in is basically just a horse corral with very muddy ground. They are going to lay event floor but I don't know if that will be enough to keep Quasi and the Jam-o-Drums from getting muddy or dusty or ruined. I don't know that we should really be here wasting our time and ruining our equipment, but we don't have much of a choice. Hopefully things will get better in the morning.

Quick update on the recent events so that I can get to the story I really want to tell about today.

( Quasi at PirateFest )

( Thinkwell charette for the Atlantic City fountain project )

As a preview to the World's Fair for Kids, the WFK team will be showing stuff at the Florida State Fair, 2/9-2/22. We ended up having to be part of that with Quasi and 2 Jam-o-Drums. It is kind of insane because we're so busy and we don't really have time to do this and to actually do the two projects. Also, we're supposed to be in some kind of shed outside where everything will get dirty and where the Jam-o-Drums won't even be visible. They actually asked if we could run them without the projectors, even though that's all they are! We joked that I could hang from the top and draw in realtime with a whiteboard marker.

We're splitting up the event so that Lenny, Camilla, and I are down for the first half and Andy, Seema, and Chris for the second half. Lenny and I were to drive down this Sunday/Monday. This past week has been very hectic getting ready.

( Quasi Prep )

On the Jam-o-Drum front, it was down to the wire to get the tables built. Things went really slowly. The team was more involved than we wanted to be but it didn't help much. There were some issues with the new spinner and pad designs. Lenny and I both had to pull all-nighters on Friday night. We finally finished getting them built, tested, and packed onto the truck at 3am Saturday night. They've only been slightly tested so we're worried about that. Lenny and I had to leave Sunday morning so we had to get a little sleep.

But if you think all that is bad, just wait until you hear how our trip down went...

This weeking the entire Worlds Fair for Kids team had to go with Quasi to NY. The WFK had schedule for Quasi to be meeting guests and promoting the event this April in the NY Hall of Science in Queens. In addition they had scheduled for us to show Quasi on the local WB11 morning news on Friday and Fox & Friends, Fox's national morning show, on Saturday. Fox ended up cancelling however, due to hurricane Rita. It was an exciting trip, here are the highlights.

Thursday we drove down in a truck and suburban. When we got there a closed road and one way streets made it quite a puzzle to find a semi-legal way to get to our hotel (once we figured out where it was in the first place). We were staying right at 40th St and 5th Ave. After I solved that puzzle, it was 1:30am and we had to be at the news station at 4:45am so 2 hours later I was awake again.

In the morning we loaded Quasi off the truck and into the TV studio. As soon as we got in there they asked us if we could film a teaser in 5 minutes, so that was one rushed Quasi setup. Originally they had wanted to cancel when they found out that Quasi was an animatronic figure whose character is a robot and not an actual robot, but we convinced that that this was worthwhile as well, and if we show the pupeteer people wouldn't be misled. Andy taked about Quasi while Lenny operated him, and then they let the newsgirl try it out. They called us all on, but then they nevered showed up. I can't wait to see the footage. Supposedly they got a lot of calls about it.

( Read more... )

I haven't written in a while because there hasn't been much to report so now I'll fill it all it. This semester I'm working on a project for the Worlds Fair for Kids. This is an event this April that is meant as a sort of "family spring break". Last semester a group of 10 students build an animatronic character, Quasi the Robot. The WFK came to them and wanted Quasi to be their official mascot. So this semester we are both supporting Quasi and getting him ready for the fair in April and also developing some other exhibits for the WFK.

Besides that, I'm still working part time for PlayMotion!, where I was this summer. I'm taking welding as an elective. I'm helping out with PlayMotion! and audience interaction in Building Virtual Worlds (but not oficially TAing). That's pretty much my world right now.