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MythBusters

I went to the MythBusters: Behind the Myths Show at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. It was a pretty good time. You forget sometimes that these “Actors” are real people doing really dumb things, and that they do really get hurt sometimes. I typically tease mike a little when he tries to show off something that he made…not all the bugs are worked out typically by this point and 70% of the time the Demo Fails and doesn’t work. Even in the performance tonight they had some technical failures and even an injury to a stage hand who slipped on paintball paint that made the stage slick. All in all, even with “real life” situations and not everything going 100% smoothly or perfectly, it’s nice to see that they are real people. 🙂 I had a great time tonight! The show started just as the snow started to fall, and I am glad we lived so close to the auditorium. Free parking due to the parking ban *BONUS* and a slippery drive home was less stressful since it was a short distance to travel. We debated walking, but the heated interior of the car was easy to convince us otherwise.

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Dreaming of creepy things :(

I had a bad/scary/sad dream. It started with a narrator.

A sad saxaphone cries in the background a sad melancholy blues song. (Think this kinda feeling) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWQz8YUIyOU (deep voiced narrator such as James Earl Jones)

“A teenage girl plays by a bridge across the street from her house. The slow pace of life in this part of the world. It’s a dark part of town, a dark and dismal life. Her sister looks on from the front porch of their small apartment. The streets are dark with rain, and dirt and in the shadows of the large city. On one end of the bridge is a teenager playing, the other end arrives an old hunched backed old woman. The old woman with slow and methodical steps eases her way across the bridge towards the teenager. As if it was a game the teenager notices something not right about the old woman, like she is giving chase, a slow motion chase. She’s a frightening old woman in tattered clothing and holding a painting in her hand. She walks nearly up to the teenager when the teenager is alerted to the urgency of not being caught by the old woman. There is a reason the old woman has given chase…a chase the teenager hasn’t figured out. Her sister yells to her from the front porch”

“Hurry, before she catches you!!! Get in, don’t let her get you, Hurry!!”

The teenager makes her way across the street only keeping a 10 foot advantage, also running in a slow mocking speed.

“She can’t catch me, I am running too fast!”

(Slow motion running)

“Noo!!” says the younger sister.

“The two girls slip inside the house just in time to close the door, the door closes on the old ladies hands as she hisses, her ‘i’m going to get you’s’ and giving her creepy stares. The locking mechanism is on the outer door that didn’t get closed, so the only way to keep the creepy cold woman out was the weight of the younger sister pushing on the door.  (Hissing and scratching at the door frame) The door finally gets closed but isn’t able to lock. She collapses in front of the door to be away of the old ladies one goggled eye’s gaze. As panic pours over the girls and the family inside, how do they keep the old woman out? How do they get away from her creepy window peeping. As 5 minutes passes they notice no more movement at the front door”

“Has she moved on? Has she given up? Is the chase over? Has peace been restored to the front door? The old woman seem to have vaporized back to the dreary, wet, dark cobblestone path. What was the point? Why did she give chase? At least she is gone!”

“Little did that family know, but the old woman has not moved on, for the old lady had managed to slip in undetected, she slipped in undisturbed and left behind something not yet discovered by the family. On the mantle she slipped a framed picture of her…a frame that worked as a window into their home for her to observe from. A picture the family will soon discover and not be able to remove from their home. Horror and grief come over the family as they realize the old lady has made her way into their home, their sanctuary. They realize their safety has been compromised. They are not safe.”

(The same saxaphone and slow deep voiced narrator continues the story for a new part of town, saxaphone still playing a sad melancholy song in the background.)

“A child steps off the bus from summer camp to find his father has taken on a new lover, a new stepmom to greet him at the front door. This new face in the family is the start of a lot of trouble in the home. The new face is young face of the old woman, who will haunt this family for generations to come. The father has no idea what he brought into the house, what destruction is will do to his family.”

 

And…then I woke up…Weird. It’s almost like a Stephen King book, Melancholy and gloom.

Engadget Expand

Made the trip out to NY, NY for the Engadget Engage Event. Which was way more fun than most events that Mike brings me to. This event is like an inventor’s fair where the new and innovative products get to be shown and explained. I really enjoyed this event because of the diversity of the products being shown, and it wasn’t all open-source companies like OSCON. It crazy large event floor either. I could comfortably talk to every booth and have time for a talk or two all in one day. Which didn’t give me the panic, we will never finish feeling. Got to see some neat inventions, like the “Grow Cubes” http://m.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2013/10/computer-assisted-aeroponic-growing-future-urban-farming/7207/ Which uses social media recipies for growing different vegitables in a box with a rotating slats. Everytime the slat rotates the computer senses what it being grown and doses out the nutrients from that recipe and the proper type of light to get that plant growing good and strong. They might not have won the prize to further this invention, but it’s a really cool idea!

There was a therapy/assistance product on display to help get paralyzed people out of the wheelchair and moving those legs again. The EKSO GT Suit is an exoskeleton suit that helps train people who can’t walk, walk again. This is a device that as of now is only to be used with a therapist for support/stabilization, because it does train the body to walk, but it doesn’t have a correctional access to prevent the patient from falling. I was highly impressed by the man in the wheelchair giving demos, strapping in and walking around. There is so much hope for the future which companies like this working hard to change the world. http://eksobionics.com/

There was 3d printers of all types too! One used a liquid resin that prints the items with a much higher resolution, and hardens the resin with uv-light. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/formlabs/form-1-an-affordable-professional-3d-printer They are based out of cambridge and invited us to their office party this weekend! Sweet!  There was the other 3d printers which involve melting plastics and layering the plastic as if you cut out each layer on a piece of paper and stacked them all up. There was also different type of scanning equipment for making 3d models of people. In the future, we might be able to print our own cake toppers complete with the actual bride and groom, instead of store bought bride and groom that look nothing like you. http://captureddimensions.com/weddings/ Some professional studios are already doing this.

There was the arm piece of a Mech that a man with a dream is trying to build for Mech racing in the year 2016. This was very neat and had just one of the arms/legs moving for the show. The only problem is, this piece is huge and it’s only at 1/3rd scale. It’s only part of a VERY LARGE Mechanical beast. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/gonzo/building-a-giant-mechanical-exoskeleton-one-six-foot-leg-at-a-time-15880279 It was so powerful and exciting. Mike worries that someday this device will be what we will have to run from, but the man in the flight suit assured us, that it doesn’t have a brain, it has a pilot. He hopes to race them someday. He’s well on his way!

Aside from booths there was many speakers that graced the Engage stage. LeVar Burton was there, giving a talk on how technology has changed from tv to ipads and how he’s moved his reading rainbow from tv to ipads to keep the kids engaged. We also got to hear the inventor of LOL Cats (I can haz cheeseburger). We also saw Reggie Watts Perform, who is a comedian/musician. Mike even got to meet Ben Heck, who inspires Mike to make different projects by watching some of his youtube video electronics projects he posts. (Step by step how to do.)  Very fun!

There was so many fun and innovative booths happening throughout this event! I had a great time and I am so happy I was able to go.