So the regatta was a bust. Oh well, everything doesn't have to go according to expectations.
The only other person that entered in the hobie adventure island class flew in from Maine and borrowed an AI. Even the organizer of the AI class didn't sail in it ... instead he sailed in the windsurfing class !! So only two of us raced Friday and it just wasn't at all what I expected so Yvonne and I headed home. Plus we aren't crazy about Miami so we were happy to get out of town.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Miami sailing regatta
Last Saturday Jamie (the Giant Robot builder) spent the day and we had a good time talking about our robot projects and his DIY homestead in the mountains of Vermont. We also did some sailing in near perfect conditions. It's always refreshing to talk to someone who thinks and lives his life in the same general direction as us.
Sunday the wind whipped up pretty good so instead of building or watching football, I spent the day sailing in Tampa Bay. As the conditions were pretty rough, I didn't see another boat in the Bay other than mine. This would be my last chance to sail before next weekend's sailing Regatta that I entered in Miami. I entered the regatta for the Hobie Adventure Island class because it's the first ever race for this class of sailboat/kayak. Plus I'll be able to meet some of the people I've been talking to online who also own these boats in Florida. Several of them have been getting together to camp with their Hobie AI's in some pristine and wild everglades areas.
A cold front moved in this week so hopefully it will be warmer in Miami by the weekend.
Sunday the wind whipped up pretty good so instead of building or watching football, I spent the day sailing in Tampa Bay. As the conditions were pretty rough, I didn't see another boat in the Bay other than mine. This would be my last chance to sail before next weekend's sailing Regatta that I entered in Miami. I entered the regatta for the Hobie Adventure Island class because it's the first ever race for this class of sailboat/kayak. Plus I'll be able to meet some of the people I've been talking to online who also own these boats in Florida. Several of them have been getting together to camp with their Hobie AI's in some pristine and wild everglades areas.
A cold front moved in this week so hopefully it will be warmer in Miami by the weekend.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Robot building again ?????
For some reason my robot building passion seems to be slowly returning. For the last 6 months I haven't felt much desire at all to work on the robots ... so I didn't. Because it's supposed to be fun.
Since our older son Jeff moved to the Virgin Islands we've been appointed to get rid of his 3 tons of junk and his monster truck. So my garage is in chaos and between selling his stuff on craigs list and moving it to our garage from storage, there just hasn't been much room in the garage for building (and the sailing takes a good chunk of time too). But the last couple days I've been able to get the garage back into a state where I can again do some building.
Also a recent talk with one of the giants in robot building ... and the builder of the giant robot ... I started thinking seriously about building again. The person I talked to recently is Jamie from "The Giant Robot Project". Kind of like the giant spider robot from Wild Wild West. Jamie is unlike anyone I've ever known on this planet. He is a genius builder of anything he puts his mind to. And he has a place in the mountains of Vermont that is only accessible by foot and he lives "off the grid". He built a very cool 3 story Dome home on that mountain and is building a massive workshop up there using his own hand made sawmill that is creating the wood for this workshop. Talk about a challenging undertaking
Another thing that makes Jamie so unique is his giant robot project. He's building this massive robot using donated parts or just junk from a junkyard as well as parts he scrapes up on an almost nothing budget. If you're looking for some interesting videos to watch and some fascinating pictures and reading, I encourage you to visit his website which is at http://jamius.com/Robot/Robot.html He's not a typical person but definately my type of person.
Jamie is in the Tampa Bay area for a few months and I hope to link up with him soon to talk robots and do some sailing.
On the subject of robot building, A couple guys in the R2 club are almost done testing a superb piece of engineering that they will be offering the club members. It's some computer circuit controller boards that will make R2 come alive in a very integrated way. Hard to explain but here's a video that shows the J.E.D.I. control system in an early test phase. http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=CCEkPSlLFVo
Since our older son Jeff moved to the Virgin Islands we've been appointed to get rid of his 3 tons of junk and his monster truck. So my garage is in chaos and between selling his stuff on craigs list and moving it to our garage from storage, there just hasn't been much room in the garage for building (and the sailing takes a good chunk of time too). But the last couple days I've been able to get the garage back into a state where I can again do some building.
Also a recent talk with one of the giants in robot building ... and the builder of the giant robot ... I started thinking seriously about building again. The person I talked to recently is Jamie from "The Giant Robot Project". Kind of like the giant spider robot from Wild Wild West. Jamie is unlike anyone I've ever known on this planet. He is a genius builder of anything he puts his mind to. And he has a place in the mountains of Vermont that is only accessible by foot and he lives "off the grid". He built a very cool 3 story Dome home on that mountain and is building a massive workshop up there using his own hand made sawmill that is creating the wood for this workshop. Talk about a challenging undertaking
Another thing that makes Jamie so unique is his giant robot project. He's building this massive robot using donated parts or just junk from a junkyard as well as parts he scrapes up on an almost nothing budget. If you're looking for some interesting videos to watch and some fascinating pictures and reading, I encourage you to visit his website which is at http://jamius.com/Robot/Robot.html He's not a typical person but definately my type of person.
Jamie is in the Tampa Bay area for a few months and I hope to link up with him soon to talk robots and do some sailing.
On the subject of robot building, A couple guys in the R2 club are almost done testing a superb piece of engineering that they will be offering the club members. It's some computer circuit controller boards that will make R2 come alive in a very integrated way. Hard to explain but here's a video that shows the J.E.D.I. control system in an early test phase. http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=CCEkPSlLFVo
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Better to try and fail than to never try at all
Well, it looks like the homeless fund raising project with the robots is a dud. But you have to experiment and try things if you're ever going to accomplish anything in this lifetime. I knew the idea was unique and robots aren't for everyone but I thought I'd at least get a few serious inquiries. Oh well ......
But Thanks to Kalebra and Scott K. the idea wasn't a total washout. They donated to our project and that donation will provide food for a couple days to the people in the tent city.
I suppose our http://www.homelessrobots.org concept was flawed in a several areas. First, I guess most people just don't get excited about large lifesize robots. The scifi nuts and all (my people) like them but they're probably not the successful business types that would display them in their place of business or storefront.
Second, the economy is a little tight right now and a lot of people look down on the homeless.
Third, the TV segment aired during all the New Years college football games so the audience was limited.
Fourth ... maybe the idea was just too off the wall???
So now I have to brainstorm a "Plan B". At least we gave it a try.
But Thanks to Kalebra and Scott K. the idea wasn't a total washout. They donated to our project and that donation will provide food for a couple days to the people in the tent city.
I suppose our http://www.homelessrobots.org concept was flawed in a several areas. First, I guess most people just don't get excited about large lifesize robots. The scifi nuts and all (my people) like them but they're probably not the successful business types that would display them in their place of business or storefront.
Second, the economy is a little tight right now and a lot of people look down on the homeless.
Third, the TV segment aired during all the New Years college football games so the audience was limited.
Fourth ... maybe the idea was just too off the wall???
So now I have to brainstorm a "Plan B". At least we gave it a try.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Homeless robots on TV today
Our local 24 hour Bay News 9 TV station aired the homelessrobots.org segment today on the first day of the year. It's going to run every hour for the next 24 hours and so we'll see if that generates any interest in adopting these robots and raising a few bucks.
I have to say they did a pretty good job with the segment. We're getting some cold weather tonight so maybe that will encourage people to think about helping the Pinellas hope homeless tent city project. It's going down to 30 degrees tonight and there are over 250 tents setup in this area.
To see the online version of the story you can go to my http://www.homelessrobots.org website ... Or ...view it here:
The calendars were burned this morning and we're happy as can be that the bad 2007 year is now behind us.
I have to say they did a pretty good job with the segment. We're getting some cold weather tonight so maybe that will encourage people to think about helping the Pinellas hope homeless tent city project. It's going down to 30 degrees tonight and there are over 250 tents setup in this area.
To see the online version of the story you can go to my http://www.homelessrobots.org website ... Or ...view it here:
The calendars were burned this morning and we're happy as can be that the bad 2007 year is now behind us.
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