the Maker Faire is the new awesome

Last weekend I died and went to DIY heaven: the Maker Faire. The Maker Faire is a yearly event put on by Make Magazine, and is basically what you get when you invite all the crazy creative, geeky genius, resourceful DIY types to get together and talk about and show off the things that they love most. These are my people.

Everything is hands on. You had to get a liability wristband at the door to be able to go on all the rides and things - (they thought Grace looked under 18 so they gave her the kid bracelet, when she is just as old as I am)


Okay, so the people that put this Faire on might be a little geeky . . .

And there was alot of this kind of humor:


But look what these geeks can do:

Guitar Hero for nerds! (these guitars play music using "a sonar sensor and a microcontroller to allow the user to play interesting melodies without requiring any musical skills," which made this great techno music just by waving your hand over it.


A lifesize version of
Mousetrap the board game:



The "Disgusting Spectacle" that picks its nose when some child laborer is running next to it in the hamster wheel.


Disgusting!


Moving robots made out of legos! (Complete with freakishly genius children there to tell you exactly how you are building your lego robot incorrectly)



An entire carnival powered solely by “pedal power” (i.e. – people on bikes).





I swear it was more fun than these two make it look:



Diet coke and mentos explosions set to music. (Bets - you should bring some music the next time you get the urge to do this on the roof)


Poems


Quite the odd assortment of bikes – there were people that had made bikes out of wooden pallets, “Franken-trikes” with all sorts of bike parts re-welded into functional (but strange) looking contraptions to ride, and the “social tandem” bike that was basically two beach cruisers welded together side by side so that you can ride right next to your tandem bike rider and take up the entire sidewalk while you do so:












One of the funniest exhibits was a stationary bike that someone had attached a little piece of bike tube to, so that when you sat and pedaled, the rubber bike tube would spin around and smack you right in the behind. A full-fledged spanking machine! The best part was the line of kids waiting to give it a try, even as they were watching their friends pedal (ouch), pedal (ouch), pedal (ouch!).



I am tempted to post even more photos, because this only scratches the surface, but I will stop because I recognize this as an unhealthy obsession and don't want to embarrass myself any more than I perhaps already have.