Saturday at the Maker Faire
Wow. Maker Faire.
I was not sure what to expect when I went, but let me just tell you that I have never seen such a collection of involved and amazing stuff in one place. The Faire is HUGE, first of all. Ten booths just for the Robot Group here in Austin. A whole floor of electronic geekery, a field of organic foods, a store of kits and books, a barn full of DIY. I was worn out well before it was finished.
So, what was there? Modded computers, animatronic animals, air & water pianos, robot spin art, mechanical flowers that open up, a kick ass beer brewing setup, mini transistors to make, crazily articulated models, dimming 3-color LED lights – oh, and Instructables was there 
…
Organics: lots of tea, brownies, vegetables from multiple places, honey, goat cheese
Art cars, make-your-own buttons, carnival rides, demonstrations on several stages, Tesla coils, Jacob’s ladder, mechanical wood carvers (at least 3 kinds), Darth Vader Legos, Tinker Toys
(deep breath)
Sewing demonstrations, a truckload of yarn to try out, a big ol’ clothing swap & fashion show made of re-made clothes, spinning and weaving demonstrations, and various kids of machines that screamed and wailed when you touched them.
And dude, they had those guys with the Mentos and the Diet Coke – the Eepy Bird guys. And did I mention the rockets?
Seeing all the Austin people represented was very nice, although clearly there were a lot of out-of-towners as well. Very inspiring to go to, very obvious that a large part of Austin certainly doesn’t go home after work and crash in front of the TV.
So tired now. Will do show and tell later.
