Frank Rich’s article in NY Mag doesn’t quite push all the buttons on its central thesis – Willard’s Mormonism and lack of discourse about his religion – but that’s okay because the election cycle will.

during the set of Slavic Soul Party in the Grand Ballroom, this solo dancer was clearly enjoying himself – among a crowd of fellow happy dancers!

HINT: “Jackson” by Slavic Soul Party!

press:

Motherboard.tv | Animated GIFs of the Coolest 3D Printers at the World Maker Faire (scroll down)

TOR | Conductive Paint, Makerbots, Knitwear & More: EtsyBrook Goes To Maker Faire NYC

mother nature network | Go ahead, Maker Faire my day

PC World | UAVs, Modding, and a New Chumby at Maker Faire NY 2011

blogs:

Dave Durant’s blog

Bath-On-Hudson (Rensselaer, NY) (roadtrip!)

flickr:

2011 Arduino WMF OSHW set on Flickr

Well, we did it! Once again we changed the world for the better. Here are some of my choice photos, followed by some important articles and coverage, and then finally some videos. Will keep updating but enjoy this selection for now:

Definitely one of my favorite moments walking around outside was turning around and being visually stunned by the Rocket Park rockets, 1960s era rocket sculpture, and Tim Laursen’s MIDI controlled robot drummers in the foreground, with people interacting with his drumbots via a drum machine. Intense!

Wonderful projection arts and chiptune sounds by Datalore

This one made even me scratch my head! Homebrew biodiesel!

Greggy and his homemade cakes were a big success!

It was great seeing kids interact with exhibits, even if only momentarily. One of the few days of the year where they can be completely free.

Bamboo Bicycles brought their mobile bike truck workshop

Wonderfall spelled things using illuminescent liquid

Little Yellow Drumbot, would take input audio from surrounding environment and turn that into a drum beat!

Huffington Post | What Barack Obama Could Learn From Maker Faire

Scientific American | A Robot in Every Home? We’re getting close.

BBC News | Tech heads display DIY projects at New York Maker Faire

Scientific America | Making, Education, and Innovation: Inspiring Makers in Underrepresented Communities

ABC News | New York Maker Faire Showcases a New Generation of Innovators (video below)

spectrum ieee | The Coolest Things at World Maker Faire 2011

Engadget | Arduino brings the (new) goods to Maker Faire New York, welcomes ARM into the fold

photosets:
World Maker Faire 2011 set on my Flickr
some great photos by ka1kjz on Flickr
the NYSCI’s Maker Faire set on Flickr

MakerBot “brought the awesome”, and documented it in this episode of MakerBot TV:

ABC News, great interview with Mitch Altman which opens with Rude Mechanical Orchestra and features a nice segment with Joe Hudy and other Makers in my area:

BIG UPS to Tim Laursen who personally helped me make World Maker Faire a success:

plenty more videos on Maker Faire’s YouTube Channel

You can tell that’s not me because my moustache has more zazz than that.

I C U

Nearly 5 years after I purchased my Canon G7, I’ve finally upgraded (I’m no brand loyalist, but I’ve stuck with Canon for many reasons which I’ll detail later – I got the G12). Ironically in the same weekend that I decided on the upgrade purchase, my Flickr account surpassed the 10,000 public photos mark – I can’t believe it. I seriously never thought I’d make it this far, and I didn’t notice it almost until it was too late.

I keep multiple backups, and my Flickr is but one that is viewable by y’all. I use Flickr for the obvious reasons like sharing – it’s nice to know what my friends like, or to share collective memories. Almost more astonishing than the 10k flickrs though are the views – also in the same week I surpassed the quarter-million views mark, and already stand at over 255k views! I don’t even consider my photostream particularly “hot” or trend-setting, but the thought that each photo gets seen an average of 25 times is pretty wonderful. And if I quit taking photos today (I can’t!) I would be happy with knowing that number will only continue to grow. So it’s interesting to look back over recent photosets, emerging photosets, and some of the photosets that started this whole craze for me.

I purchased my G7 in July 2006 and almost instantly I started taking better pictures. And thus more pictures, and then organizing them better and using better meta to track them. This makes sense! So what began with a trip to Budapest and eventually documented a nearly year-long eviction, and return to NYC after a sojourn to the Midwest and New Orleans, recently with increasing focus on Maker culture and events around that movement, has accounted for the bulk of my 10,000 Flickrs – just a snippet of which exists below (and above, the Queens Plaza development is an ongoing use of social media to document the redesign of one of the busiest intersections in NYC that I thankfully and sometimes scarily call Home!).

this piece of clever graff was spotted in the Spring Street C/E station – I’d say 99% of the billboards on the platform were covered where a moustache would be applicable!

Spotted in DUMBO, Brooklyn – this is probably the most pro drywall job I have ever seen! It’s also a bit of an overkill – such a giant warehouse to park that little car in! Hopefully they’ll actually make use of the ceiling height, otherwise they should only paint as high as they need, and that would be a waste of an awesome drywall job!

This is a sad, sad day, and not from any sense of nostalgia or sense of loss – after the first 18 very good years, having lived in Chicago, London and then Brooklyn and now Queens, I’m pretty comfortable with the thought that I’ve “moved on”. But it was – it IS – a good home. And it disgusts me that the Recession has plunged this housing crisis so far into the abyss that there’s no sign of return – and this domicile which should easily sell in the $300k range is now available for a steal (it’s like they’re paying you) for $175k, half of what it should sell for. Meanwhile there’s a $90mil apartment up for sale on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Of course I understand that it’s all about “location location location” – and St. Louis’s Tower Grove East neighborhood is not East 80th Street (the way my blog isn’t Curbed). But taking into account the initial cost of the house, and adjusting for inflation over 32 years, along with factoring in the money invested in maintaining this house (which is one of the oldest on the block and in the neighborhood at large) – just the sheer hours alone keeping the place “modern” – a price tag of $175k is gutting. Just heartbreaking really. As if in the end you’re paid $5k and told, “Thanks for the memories, Now Get Out!”

I mean just take a look at this place and tell me it isn’t awesome!

Here’s the listing proper.

This wonderful woodwork greets you as you walk in the front door:

The living room has a built-in bookcase and absolutely giant mirror:


The kitchen is old, sure, but there’s a whole another side that isn’t even pictured:

The master bedroom – this is where my parents made me! – has an attached room (through the curtains) that is as big as the smallest bedroom:

This was my first bedroom as a kid:


Then I upgraded to this room:

And finally the top floor. These rooms are HUGE. The two-tone tiles are 1′ square, so do the math. For several years of my life I had both of these rooms to enjoy:

And there’s a basement! Also not pictured. A giant room which leads directly to the back yard. And the trees out front produce these wonderful red berries that local birds love. And to top it all off, there are some hidden compartments in the house, and I embedded some time capsules in my time there too – those alone are worth the $175k exploration price-tag! Who knows, maybe me blogging this will lead to a sale, but in all likelihood this will stay on the market for a little longer and then simply fade into obscurity.

…

America has a housing problem.

I know I have one! This one was spotted on the streets around Broadway & 29th Street in LIC.

All the handball courts around NYC and by extension across America owe tribute to the sport of Gaelic Handball whose origins date back to the 13th and 14th centuries in Ireland, and whose rules were standardized in the 18th century.

(above two photos from Flickr)

Of course various forms of a “hand ball” game date back to BC, with various forms being found around the globe. But the modern version you might see played at a site such as the West 4th Street Court Facilities (two pictures above) are particularly indebted to their Irish cousin-sport.

I never knew!

Until I had discussions with West Kerry-based artist Andrew Duggan about his exhibition which is imminently ending (tomorrow!) at the Irish Arts Center on Manhattan’s west side. A site-specific video artist, I can only hope this video gets another NYC screening, because it really has a lot to do with sport & class & other issues that many New York City residents are effected by and talk about – issues of ownership, property, social recreation, public assembly, and most directly (but in an obtuse fashion) the notion of revitalizing communities and rebuilding formerly abandoned and derelict sites (i.e. for lack of a better word, gentrification).

A very simple installation of two juxtaposed video projections. The image on the right appears still but is a moving image (cars driving in the background, shadows fluctuating), of a handball court in NYC (recognizable by the maple leaf Parks logo in the upper corners of the wall, with accompanying fractured concrete) – on this screen sometimes two players emerge and hit a couple rounds of ball, their figures completely silhouetted against the court (the viewer too is inclined to cut the plane of the image, and impose their own shadow on the court!). The image on the left, however, is the “court” you want to watch. Which is ironic given these Gaelic courts are actually designed (unlike the NYC courts which are clad in cyclone fencing) to not be watched, instead they are simply pits of concrete. But a beautifully blue-dressed lady dances (not literally, but sportfully) with an equally blue ball, confronting the daunting nature and scale of this court, sometimes taking excruciatingly long breaths in anticipation of her next attack.

Such a simple juxtaposition. But this is the power of art – a power which so few other forms of cultural production seem to yield. The ability to look at a wall and interpret it in a way that dance, music, or writing simply cannot. Even my words here fail to enunciate the meaning of these two videos. Months of focus and thinking, summed up in a couple of several minute long videos and now I have an understanding of the world in a way that cannot be undone, cannot be un-thought. The world is a strange and wonderful place, and art makes it better. Andrew makes it better!

Could be a giant anaconda, or just a pile of really awesome rope!

[found on teh Interwebs]

click to embiggen. from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[full photoset on my Flickr]

So the CRASS art exhibition is up at Andrew Roth Gallery in the Upper East Side (until March 18), and it has some people up in arms (namely, the “Godfather of Hipsterdom”, Gavin McInnes, co-founder of VICE and now of Street Carnage acclaim – I actually want to say thank you Gavin for tracking down some of this content, namely the videos below, it’s really good stuff.). I guess, specifically, the “commercial” angle of the gallery has some people upset – frankly, I don’t care. I didn’t go there to buy anything, not only because I know I can’t afford it, but because I wouldn’t want to buy anything they had.

I went there to see things I had never seen before and would probably never get the chance to see again, because in the 80s and most of the 90s (when I “grew up“) the Internet didn’t exist and you actually had to see and do everything in person – and well, Punk was important to my youth and the youth of my peers, but even the big bands never came through town. We had to make our own scene, because the market – i.e. capitalism – of Punk in the midwest simply wasn’t sustainable for tours and sales. Simple.

So back then, when the ONE copy of Feeding of the 5,000 on vinyl came into town, it actually made headlines – we talked about it, maybe we could buy it together, and in the end I now have one of those “YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU” posters – but 90% of the content in this exhibition I had never seen before, and frankly it’s brilliant stuff. It’s necessary – to see it, read it, and appreciate it. There’s lots of text, it’s not splashy and visual – it takes time, you have to give this art your time. You have to read, to put things into context, to go back in time. It’s actually really good. Not many art shows do this anymore.

But scroll down, it gets better.

My only other comment about the exhibition is that the crowd – the punters – were genuinely into the show. Sure it was commercial, sure it was a little ridiculous overhearing the gallerist say to one of his clients or long-time sales-holes, “So this is Punk.” – but for the most part everyone was very excited with the opportunity to relive – not in a nostalgic way – the importance of this ephemera.

Not done yet.

On the flip side of things, Gavin recently recorded this interview with Penny Rimbaud which is another piece of brilliant content. Penny talks about the murder of Wally Hope, and over nearly 40 minutes explain how Crass came about due to Wally’s death:

“Without the murder of Wally Hope, you wouldn’t have Crass and without Crass you wouldn’t have anarcho punk and I often wonder where the modern anarchist movement would be like if anarcho punk had never happened.” – Gavin McInnes

Elsewhere in the world, Steve Ignorant is currently on tour, re-singing old Crass tunes – which also has some punks up in arms, thinking that their identity is being pillaged and ticketed without their consent. But he’s pretty clear, “THIS AIN’T CRASS.” It’s “Steve Ignorant Presents The Last Supper (Crass Songs 1977-1984)” – I get it. It actually makes sense. And it’s just another project, another interpretation of an idea. Even Penny Rimbaud concluded, “Initially I was quite angry at the time, but then I thought, “Oh, fucking hell. Lay off, Penny.” (from this wonderful interview)

I met Steve briefly in London in 2001, at the Victoria and Albert Museum (who own original record sleeves donated by Gee Vaucher) in South Kensington when he performed a Punch & Judy puppet performance (scroll down, Night of Leisure) – it was scathing, puppet-bloody and brutal, and brilliant. Had a very short chat with him afterwards (he won’t remember me), I simply wanted to gauge his position. He was very honest about his art, very grateful for his audience, and very questionable of authority. He was, in one word, true. I’m sure The Last Supper is no different.

Here’s a video of what the tour has to offer:

And taking advantage of current social media trends, on Steve Ignorant’s own website (which is proudly powered by WordPress I might add!), he’s asking punks of past to send in photos from their heyday to be projected on stage during the concerts – submit your pics here.

And lastly Steve talks about how The Last Supper originated, and what the purpose of this whole thing is about:

and here are the 2011 North America tour dates if you’re interested:

Thursday MARCH 10 New York, NY @ Santo’s Party House
Friday MARCH 11 Montreal, QC @ Le National
Saturday MARCH 12 Toronto, ON @ The Opera House
Sunday MARCH 13 Chicago, IL @ Logan Square Auditorium
Wednesday MARCH 16 Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s
Thursday MARCH 17 San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
Friday MARCH 18 Pomona, CA @ Fox Theater
Tuesday March 22 Austin, TX @ Emo’s
Friday March 25 Baltimore, MD @ Sonar

This site is under development and reconstruction

the Egyptian President’s website, recreated here for posterity, and humor.

Continuing with the recent trend in “ruin porn” – the phenomenon of almost voyeuristic hindsight and awe with America’s urban past and what has become the present – the notoriously iconic St. Louis housing complex Pruitt-Igoe will get an injection of interest next month when the new film The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban History premieres at the Oxford Film Festival. That’s Oxford, Mississippi. It’s no surprise to me of course that this film isn’t debuting in St. Louis itself, a city in almost permanent conflict with its own past, identity and desires.

For two years I drove by the grounds where Pruitt-Igoe stood on my way to high school – up North Jefferson, the main street bordering on the west (above). Not that I understood then the impact P-I had on the landscape – I didn’t – but it was even then a point of fascination that something so grande and ambitious was attempted in my fair and diminutif city during an era of otherwise obvious decline. It lasted only 20 years, and was destroyed before I was born – but for the adults around me who lived through that era, something always seemed to stick at their side. Perhaps the film will shed light on what that thing is, but I like to think not – in the same way that looking at the contemporary satellite map above, which we now have easy access to, makes one think “awwww, that’s nice” – and actually yes the green is pleasant to look at – but it’s ultimately impossible to answer the question “What went wrong?”

from Wikipedia

some footage from Koyaanisqatsi shows Pruitt-Igoe getting blow’d up:

…

on another note I’m currently reading Franzen’s The Twenty-Seventh City, which I highly recommend to any native from the region, as well as anyone looking for a good (although I think he’s very cynical at times) American satire.

I know I know, I didn’t explain anything. I’m still figuring it out myself – going to try it on some toast tomorrow morning, so hopefully I survive. Next time maybe I’ll flavor it, but for now it’s just a proof of concept. Hopefully it’ll = YUMS!

[this post was originally published at makezine.com]

Last week, seven students converged at the Madagascar Institute for that facility’s first class of the new year: “Intro to MIG Welding,” taught by the “connoisseur of terror” himself, Hackett (from TV’s Stuck with Hackett). A true group of student-makers, the class ranged in experience from absolute novices who’d never used power tools before to master carpenters who simply wanted to learn to work with metal.

Hackett (right) introduces the Madagascar Institute, and we each discussed our own skill sets, familiarities with metalworking (if any), and our comfort level with working in a shop. Hackett stressed the importance of safety and being honest with what you do and especially with what you don’t know — and he encouraged students to ask questions when they’re unsure or afraid (after all “fear is never boring”).

Hackett then gave a quick lecture on the different types of welding: “stick welding,” TIG and MIG, among others — comparing and contrasting the various applications of each. He also explained how burning, welding, and explosions are all forms of oxidation, with welding being a very precise and restrained form (hopefully!). We also went over all the basic equipment, like gloves, goggles, and the icon of welding: the helmet (and especially the benefits and drawbacks of auto-darkening filter (ADF) helmets, which use a solar panel (or other electronic component) to recognize UV light and “switch” to dark mode, allowing the viewer near-total vision the rest of the time they’re working).

Each student then proceed to metal-chop two 5″ pieces of hallowed square bar, which we ground down the edges of and would later weld back into “one piece” of metal:

Before actually welding our bars back together, we each learned to weld on a scrap piece of metal, getting our technique, breathing, and positioning down. Each student of course had their own natural method, and Hackett encouraged students to do what worked for them. Some preferred to “pull” the weld, while others preferred to “push;” likewise, some wanted an arm on the table for leverage, while others did not.

After learning the basics, we each took turns tack-welding our two bars together, and then doing full welds all the way around the seams. We had about an hour to watch and learn from each other. Some students accidentally burned holes through their welds, and we even learned to try and re-form those mistakes.

Afterwards, we all examined each others welds, and Hackett pried apart one weld with the assistance of a giant table vice to show a good and bad weld, and to explain how the weld should always be stronger than the material it is joining!

A great primer class with extremely addictive properties, I’ve found myself numerous times since the class wanting to improve the world around me… with welding! While there is a bunch of science to this art, MIG welding is considered the “hot glue of welding” techniques, so its rewards are very immediate, and as mentioned before, can be picked up in a jiffy by makers of all skill levels.

…

and now for an animated GIF exclusive to normalblog!:

Another subway-spectrum-inspired blog: last week I got stuck in central Brooklyn at 2am, having just barely missed the Q train at Beverly Road, the doors shut as I was skipping down the stairs. As it goes when it’s in the middle of the night I was trying to find ways to entertain myself (even though I had a book to read). I started wandering the platform and noticed these tiny chips of paint, which show the color-archaeology of the platform, and the numerous coatings the station has gone through over probably many decades.

I would like to see the station again in any of those sea blues.

I quit watching his stuff after 2000 anyhow – I have better things to do like blog about operating systems and snowstorms thank you.

This “race and ethnicity” mapping tool published by the NY Times, overlay on a Google Map, collects census data spanning from 2005-09. It reveals some interesting reflections of the 5 boroughs: Roosevelt Island is pretty damned mixed; there’s more red in Flushing than in Chinatown; one side of Prospect Park is solid green, the other solid blue; there is one lone red and one lone yellow dot in Breezy Point, otherwise its all green; there are people living in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, but not in Central Park; and, do any White people live in the Bronx?

(click any of the following images to embiggen)

a snapshot of the 5 boroughs:

my neighborhood of Dutch Kills is quite mixed, and the specific “tract” that I live in is only 12% White, with as many as 9% being reported as “Other”:

this detail of Manhattan (left) shows a large concentration of Asians (i.e. Chinatown) and some areas of north Brooklyn are as much as 95% white now (I wonder what color these dots would have been 10, 15, 20 years ago…):

this map of Astoria suggests there might be at least one person, a White person, living in the Con Ed power plant on the north shore:

and lastly a snapshot of the contiguous United States, which basically shows all the urban centers and their relative race-color dots:

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?view=raceethnicity&lat=40.6311&lng=-73.994&l=12

Apparently coffin-making in Ghana is like a really BIG thing, an art unto itself. Check out these images – all found via google image search – of some truly awesome caskets to get buried in (only after being paraded around in a chicken, a shark, or a nike shoe that is!). Some icons are popular and repeated: the Nokia phone representing connectivity with its E.T.-like finger-touch boot screen; the Rolls Royce representing wealth and status; various creatures and animals with their own local meanings I’m sure. Text, usually a proverb – “Everyone helps to carry the burden of a funeral” – is also common on the sides of the coffin. The more you know!:

made by J (right) – two different frames adjoined with welded parts, and spray-painted green on one side, silver on the other. very fun to watch!

video shows how it *might* work:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!

Took a trip this past weekend with Flux Factory as part of their now year-round artist led bus tours, Going Places Doing Stuff. The first leg of the tour took us to Staten Island via the ferry where we met up with our bus. We drove along the southern shore until we arrived near the Cedar Grove Beach Club, a seaside community with a controversial past and present. Around 40 private residences sitting behind public beach property have recently been claimed via eminent domain by the city, with the plan of condemning them and in all likelihood bulldozing them for the argument of expanding the beach front (even though the residents of these bungalows not only paid the city over $100k in taxes a year, but also hired a full-time custodian to keep the beach clean).

View Larger Map

We were led here by OverTake, a collective of artists who make work exploring places and then creating installations in structures that might otherwise be forgotten or are about to disappear. Cedar Grove is about to be forcefully removed from the landscape. Just a week ago the houses were accessible, and until very recently many of the residents were still around. Now there is fencing gating off the entire area, with private beach security patrolling the area. Thus we weren’t able to gain access to any of the structures, so these shots were taken through the fence, but show you the remarkable structures that have been here for more than a half-century and which will be forgotten within a year or two:

this blog has a very detailed account of the events surrounding the club; and this website has some pictures showing you the final hours of this beach community.

A shame we weren’t able to gain more direct access to the bungalows, but the vantage from Staten Island did include this wonderful view of the Parachute Drop on Coney Island – and yes, I know my lens has spots on it!

There’s one spot in the neighborhood where pigeons love to congregate at mid-day. Couldn’t tell you why. And on that note I don’t think science will ever be able to tell us why either! I mean, they’re pigeons FFS – who knows why they do anything they do?

… and where do they all disappear to when it’s raining? Has anyone ever found out?

Because they went on stage first, here’s the What Cheer? Brigade song, Ya Helo. This song is so good for so many reasons. It’s an awesome balance of drum-heavy beats backed by some booming tuba and baritone sax notes, with the trombones, trumpets and even some sexy cymbals making their way to the front for an “in your face” onslaught of punk rock enthusiasm – an almost traditional package of instruments gone bad, in all the right ways:

What Cheer? gain points for the topless dancing man and the suspense! Over a minute before the beats really drop!

Providence-based bands seemed to dominate the power meter throughout the evening, with What Cheer? being followed up later by a brass version of Smooth Criminal by the Extraordinary Rendition Band.

And then RMO came on the scene! Like when 20 members in a band is just not enough, and 30 is only starting to get interesting. How about 40+? Try six dancers alone, and three tubas, and a snare drum line, and that’s already as many members as in What Cheer? Throw in more saxophones than I can identify, a handful of trombones, other drums, clarinets, flutes, even an accordionist – oh and don’t forget the trumpets! – and even the occasional flag-bearer, and who knows what else is going on in there which I can’t see because the stage is simply so packed! Seriously high energy!

Warning: this video is potentially NSFW – no joke – because the lyrics might get you fired! (depends on how friendly you are with your “boss”)

RMO gain points for their participatory number – and yes, the entire crowd sang along as you can hear without amplification!

(PS – I’ve had both of these songs stuck in my head – again – for days now!)

19 bands, a trombone choir and a 10-minute tutti all-band jam blowout at the end – SO much energy, it was impossible to not stand and dance the entire time (actually the house didn’t catch on until the 2nd or 3rd band that “this isn’t opera” and you’re meant to shake your rump!). The videos below are approximate 1-minute samples of each band.

What Cheer? really blew it out of the water first, and then later on another Providence-based band, Extraordinary Rendition, blew it out again with a brassy version of Smooth Criminal – you might think Providence had bagged the event until the 40+ members of NYC’s Rude Mechanical Orchestra really showed the HONK! fans what’s what with their participatory – both singing and dancing – numbers. WOW!

Photos from the same night, and photos from the festival proper on Saturday and the street parade on Sunday can be found in various sets on my Flickr

Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band

+

Bread & Puppet Circus Band

+

Detroit Party Marching Band

+

Veveritse

+

Seed & Feed

+

Leftist Marching Band

+

What Cheer? Brigade

+

Springville All-Star Marching Band

+

Himalayas

+

tint(A)nar

+

Black Bear Combo

+

Dirty Water Brass Band

+

Trombone Choir

NO VIDEO – but trust me it was AWESOME! around 25 trombones plus small trumpet and tuba sections with a minor drum line – WOWEE!

+

Emperor Norton

+

Extraordinary Rendition Band

+

Rude Mechanical Orchestra

+

…unfortunately at this point my camera battery started to die to the point where it was retracting the lens within a couple seconds. I managed to snap some band pictures, but I don’t have videos for the following bands (sorry!):

Environmental Encroachment

DJA-Rara

Minor Mishap

Brass Liberation Orchestra

…

and of course at the very end there was the all-band blowout tutti jam – probably 100 people on stage:

I’m not much of an up-curler myself, but these men, photographed by Austin-based photographer Dave Mead (click portfolio, beards for 40 images, including names + locations) sure give me something to aspire to. My mustache wings are currently out to around 2.25″ long, and like I say I’m taking a different approach to it in the first place, so I’m envisioning something a little more bushy. Details coming soon!

There’s no stopping this freight train now! By this time next week we’ll be into our second day of World Maker Faire activities and events – I’m so pumped! You can click the link at the top or bottom of this post for the official and very jam-packed program guide – we have so much going on, you really will need both days to see it all! Take note of all the detail headings below, as they’ll help you with certain details – getting to the NYSCI, parking, etc. I’ll be helping install Maker projects throughout Zone A – inside and around the NYSCI – so come find me if you can! And put the Program Guide on your smartphone or other e-device to help save paper consumption!

click to embiggen:

World Maker Faire (NYC) 2010 program guide (PDF – 1.9Mb)

On Wednesday some of the Maker Faire team were in town and we met up at the NYSCI along with some Makers who wanted a walkthrough of the grounds, to take some measurements, place tents, see how the sun shades certain areas, and sort out other logistics like programming of time-based performances and events, figure out electrical needs and placement, etc. Super-fun day, and I think this was the visit where everyone could really start to see it coming together, because now we have our 400+ projects submitted and know better the size and scale of what we’re working with. The next two weeks will be intense, as this place will completely transform! I hope to have more time in the coming weeks to do these types of blogs, so everyone can really see this place change over time – for now this is what the NYSCI & the Maker Faire grounds look like:

the NYSCI recently installed some wonderful screens throughout the museum, currently displaying some Maker Faire promo pictures and information in anticipation of the event!

two interior shots in the NYSCI – lots of projects will be strewn throughout these areas!

Maker Faire founder Dale Dougherty giving one of his poignant speeches about the underpinning philosophies of how Makers interact with each other and how their projects become collaborations – their proximity and placement throughout the Faire are crucial to developing a sense of community and mutual maker-understanding!

Louise giving one of her signature gallops to show distance and fence line and to give a general impression of the layout of this area of the grounds.

taking a break under some shade with folk from the Madagascar Institute – discussing their chariot races, propane corral, and their carni-rides.

a model of the Swimming Cities “Ocean of Blood” sculptural watercraft (on land!) project and the area where it will be placed!

another interior shot of the NYSCI – lots of electric and electronic and interactive project will go indoors here!

The buzz throughout the boroughs is building in anticipation of the 1st annual World Maker Faire, and some of the team were in town to hold a mixer, gather Makers and show off some select projects to a crowd of interested and interesting peoples! Yup yup! Big ups to the Wooster Collective for hosting our event at Meet – the mixer was the jamb! The energy levels were so high – there aren’t meters with enough numbers to track the electrons everyone was giving off! (what a geeky metaphor – hey, it’s MAKER FAIRE! loL!)

some breakout boards and kits by Rachels Electronics – awesome stuff!

Joe Saavedra’s Citizen Sensor – DIY pollution monitor

Maker Faire founder Dale Dougherty (left) talking with Fran Reilly.

Again, the buzz is so good – World Maker Faire has all the signs to be a “game changer” for the city! w00t!

That’s right, the guy in the video said “over 400 Makers, crafters, artists and conceptualists” – 400!

Grab the embed code from the video or any of the banner ads below and help us promote the 1st annual World Maker Faire! Point your links to http://makerfaire.com/newyork/2010/

These YouTube videos are a hoot – two COMPLETELY different ways to describe how to play Sì-Wŭ-Liù, the first by Windy Challey from Games of Berkeley, on a proper game board with MAGIC over her shoulder; the second by U-God of Wu-Tang Clan in some stairwell probably in Brooklyn, with a wad of cash money in hand!

see the full lineup and get more details here.

Chris presented “animal superpowers” which included this helmet & optic-glove system that allowed the wearer to see what an ant might see, as it magnified objects in front (right hand) and below (left hand) by 100x to a screen inside the helmet!

Simon presented telephone telepathy and some of the theory behind this controversial subject:



this last shot was pretty genius, it was Simon’s “2 second lecture” on quantum mechanics, or physics, or whatever he was talking about! loL!

Kunal and Syed are from Babycastles and build and demo indie games – they’re like the zines of big-label game companies, they only do “local” gaming:


including this body-armor-esque suit with an embedded screen and a keyboard that the wearer holds out for the gamer, in an attempt to run a track-and-field.

But I moved my studio out of Flux and into this cute little cottage of a space:

We’ll see how it holds up in the winter and there are some already-emerging issues with the basement, but it HAS a basement, a front yard, and an 18′ apple tree. Very cute.

More on the cottage life in the months ahead – for now: MAKER MONTH HAS BEGUN!

It seems I’ve been taking 3 photos of potential-stitch environments and settings now for some time, but even I didn’t know I was doing this – it wasn’t planned anyhow.

I haven’t taken anything with 4 photos – for some reason 3 seems to capture the landscapes or crowds I encounter. Looking back it all started with the Sunnyside Yard panorama I put up a couple weeks back, which got reblogged at a couple other places. That wasn’t even a very good stitch because, again, it wasn’t shot with intent to be a stitched photo – it was just something put together for the sake of giving a wider perspective in a single frame. And of course stitch photography is nothing new these days. I used to do this stuff by hand, but now it’s the click of two or three buttons or menu commands – and frankly I don’t care if some data gets blurred out, smeared, rubbed or removed – these aren’t meant to be pro, they’re just meant to capture moments of places I’ve been. Captions to follow.

( probably the best stitch of this bunch, this is a view from the Pulaki Bridge between Queens and Brooklyn; that’s a sliver of Brooklyn on the left side, mostly Queens in the foreground with Manhattan in the background – I love overcast days like this, the buildings have a really solid and stoic feel to them, with great color )

( this was the crowd inside the Casa Galicia in Astoria, Queens – before the match that Spain eventually won! This was about 40 minutes before the match even began, so you can imagine another 100+ people eventually crammed into this room! )

( also not a great stitch because it wasn’t conceived as one, still these views offer some great dichotomies: in particular I love the little sinkhole in the bottom-left in contrast to the towering buildings of Manhattan and the Citi building in “downtown” Queens )

( a recent art performance piece by Douglas Paulson and Santo Tolone – there are 32 pieces but some of their heads are chopped or obscured – two “players” and one announcer, that’s 35 people total )

( and the first 3-photo stitch, celebrating the Sunnyside Yard’s 100th anniversary this year )

In the near-middle of that trapezium-like state of Connecticut is the city of Middletown and near that near-middle city is a world unto its own. I’m talking about Wild Bill’s Nostalgia Store, which is home to many many things – as in piles of piles of things and boxes of things stacked on stacks of stuff, leaning against walls made from containers full of objects. I mean this place has it all – one of everything.

And some things which are the only one of their kind, in this case the World’s Largest Jack-in-the-Box, a 600-pound behemoth of a head mounted on a log housed inside a giant brick silo. When this thing emerges it floats more than 30 feet off the ground, yet manages less to terrorize and more to strike awe and inspiration into all who see it! Perhaps because the only reason you would be at Wild Bill’s is because you know how freaky and strange this world already is, and a giant floating head is simply a punctuation mark on something already understood.

Originally a traveling sideshow item, the head was retrofitted to live in the silo:

the mounting mechanism:

the 600-pound counterweight! including antlers and hopefully-dead bullet rounds!

more photos of Wild Bill’s at my Flickr

So yesterday morning, real early like, my phone beeps me awake. It’s early, around 7:30am. My phone never beeps this early, or if it does I never wake up to it. For some reason this particular morning I not only woke up to it but was even further-bothered to actually pick up my phone and see why I was being prompted. I glanced at the home screen – oh, new email. Go figure. Nothing new there, I get new emails every hour, whether I’m awake or asleep. Then I actually opened up my gmail, which I NEVER DO, at least not at 7:30am! WTF was I doing!?

Well, I had this short-n-sweet email waiting in my inbox, from someone named Jason whom I’d never met before – the subject was simply “makers notebook”:

Found a notebook of yours at a swap meet thing a while back. Was just flipping though it and it looks as though it might not be something you want to lose. Let me know…

Around 7 weeks back you’ll remember my notebook was stolen at a public swap event.

Stolen. Swapped. Pinched. However you describe it, I went 7 weeks without some very valuable information. But it’s just information – names, websites, notes, drawings, etc. Nothing very valuable, and nothing I couldn’t recompile over time. Granted time was a factor in my planning of the forthcoming World Maker Faire, and after my notebook was swapped I went a couple days without going outside because I was so shook up. But the event eventually made me start thinking differently about information, how I record it, how and where I access it, etc.

Don’t get me wrong I’m super-happy to have the very physical and analog book back in my possession. But as I mentioned to Jason during our conversation over a couple rounds of beers at the Bohemian in Astoria, I’ve started to migrate more of my sensitive data to the cloud, and automate my backups more frequently. Oh yeah, that was another weird thing, was that of all places Jason lives in Astoria, and I in Long Island City, and that he’s even biked by my studio on numerous occasions, so pretty wild to think that my book was so very close to home all those weeks!

A full-time practicing nurse and self-avowed biblioholic, Jason admitted that he originally swapped the book because he recognized the “MAKER” label, and thought the book might be something about maker culture at large. Like I said, a biblioholic, the book sat in a pile of piles of books until he got around to “flipping through” his swap items. He quickly realized the mistake, and thanks to my information (POBox, phone number, email, even a bit.ly shortlink to my web domain!) being written on the inside cover, he contacted me with the above quoted email.

And while we both operate in completely different worlds it turns out we had other ideas and interests in common! Jason is originally from Albany and just happens to be the announcer for the Albany All-Stars roller derby team – a sport which I’ve developed an interest in over the past year or so. We also talked about Creative Commons licensing, copyleft and hacker cultures, cloud-based storage, how we hope Google never become evil like other info-giants, and the interesting dilemmas that technology forces us to reconcile given our previous multi-millennial dependence on analog interactions.

I also showed Jason how I moved on to a new notebook, and even had a section in my new notebook titled “stolen notebook notes” – notes I was attempting to remember or recall, or which I was reminded of in conversation or email. Jason had some regret in recognizing how much trouble I went through, but I let him know that there were no hard feelings, and it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t intentional – so in turn I gave Jason a brand new Maker’s Notebook!

Mostly I was just happy to see my notes again:

I have this method of blocking out data I never need to see again, while highlighting other information that is “done” but which I want to recall if necessary – everything that isn’t blocked or highlighted means it’s still being worked on!

And of course some drawing notes and other projects that have already happened or should still happen in the near-future I hope:

In total around 60 pages of notes, spanning 4+ months. I’m almost not even bothered to write in the old notebook anymore, because I’ve moved on to a new one which has a different layout and purpose. But damn was it rewarding to open that thing up and read all those names and details again! Hell my neon green push-pencil was still in there even – man I missed that pencil!

Most important to me now is that there are a good few dozen names that I’m reminded of, people with projects that I want to participate in the forthcoming World Maker Faire – and there’s still time for them to apply to the open call so I have a lot of work ahead, and suddenly it feels less stressful, more exciting again! And I told Jason that I’ll get him some tickets for his good samaritan assistance. It’s going to be a blast!

turned into this:

which quickly turned into a spontaneous street parade:

1 goal. That’s all you need to get people dancing in the streets!

Seen in the subway on the way to day 2 of The Next HOPE conference – a simple hack involving a piece of white duct tape. You should hurry to waste your money, there are only a few days left! Clever.

my good pals – thanks Dan! – over at the New York Hall of Science ( @nysci ) sent me a secret special flyer for a FREE kids pass to that most-awesomest science museum (the rocket pad, tornado chamber, and articulating sound pattern alone are worth the trip). What a great place to explore and have fun, and it’s in my favorite NYC park, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. There’s so much to see and do there – NYSCI, QMA, Unisphere, Futurama, USTA, Light Cycles, Meadow Lake, Queens Wildlife Center, and more! – but it’s also just so peaceful and tranquil (there are some great cattails and walks to be had around Meadow Lake for sure!).

Anyhow, you can download the reduced ticket either as PDF or GoogleDoc:

nysci-friends-and-family.pdf or view the online GoogleDoc

GO QUEENS!

In the blink of an eye the World Cup final is upon us. ¡Viva España! I say. They’re both exciting teams up to this point – and what’s really exciting is that neither of them have won a World Cup before – which means one of those two countries will become still only the 8th country since 1930 to win the coveted trophy, and joining England and France as the only countries to win once. With the last World Cup final being played between Italy and France, with Germany taking 3rd place against Portugal, and this time the final being played between Holland and Spain, with Germany having just defeated Uruguay, this signals a return of the dominance of European football, which many Latin/South American bloggers and journalists are hush-hush about – since a South American team has won the Cup every other time since 1962, this will be the longest drought in their history since Italy won twice in ’34 and ’38. Just sayin’.

The Madagascar Institute will be running Chariot Races at Maker Faire NYC, September 25th and 26th at the New York Hall of Science out in Queens. (we will also be doing a whole bunch of other stuff, like running ten years’ worth of dubious carnival rides and a whole rube-fueled midway- more to come on that later this Summer). We want you to be a part of it. We want you to make a chariot, and race it, and if you survive we guarantee that you will get so, so laid. (or, at least: screwed. Whatever.) .

We are going for something like that classic scene from Ben Hur ( ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpoKdPNM10M ) except without horses, but with more whips, dirty tricks, and Charlton Heston.

To keep things interesting, we have decided to distill out the essence of chariot-ness and leave that as the only necessary condition, and pretty close to the only rules: the thing has to move, and it needs to have at least one person standing, nobly, exposed and unsupported from the ribs up. If it fits those criteria it is a chariot. All the rest (how it is propelled, how many people ride on it, the defensive/offensive weaponry) is up to you.

There are a few more things- not rules, per se, but caveats and things you should know:

-A web entry form will be live soon, but before that e-mail chariots@madagascarinstitute.com if you want to build a chariot. Include a team name, contact info, the size of your crew and number of riders, and a little something about your chariot.
-No projectile weapons. If you want to hit your opponents with something, by all means go for it, but take responsibility for your actions and tie that water balloon to a stick.
- No whining. There will be blood: We expect, and are looking forward to, mayhem. You will prob be crushed, burnt, spindled, poked, and ground into a fine paste. People will laugh at your misfortune. If the possibility of the Hurting is too much for you stay away. Riders assume all risk. Also, the races might or might not be “fair”.
- There is no money. We are operating on a budget of zero, which after our expenses leaves zero to give you, so we will not help fund your Chariot, no matter how awesome, there will be no prize money, and we will not pay to repair you or your thing after it is destroyed during the race. However, we might provide transportation to get your Chariot from Gowanus to Queens, and there will prob be beer for participants. Details will come in September.
- No fake ideas. We do not want to hear about the awesome thing that you thought of but will not actually make.Reality is a lot more interesting. -If you want to be a part of the Chariot races but do not know how to make anything and don’t want to learn, or if your talents lie in other areas we can still use you. For example, we are willing to act as a conduit to link up workers without ideas and idea people without tools and so on, but it would be better if someone more organized than us stepped up to do this. Also, there will be a ton of work for costuming, set dressing, barking, trumpet playing, and on and on. If you want to be a part of this in any way e-mail chariots@madagascarinstitute.com.

We want this call to go out far and wide, to all the people out there making cool, dangerous shit (or, at least, really really wanting to) that we do not know and have never met; the people who are inspired and scheming and building but have been lacking a concrete goal and solid deadline. Forward this on to all of the metalworkers, gearheads, and builders, actual or aspiring that you know. Maker Faire has been a big deal in the Bay Area for a few years now, and it has become yet another chance for grubby, Burning Man obsessed Oaklanders with their ginormous spaces and repetitive fire art to shine. Enough of that- Maker Faire is coming to NYC, and this is your chance to represent.

Excelsior,
Hackett

…

the above was copied verbatim (minus the image which I inserted) from a “Mada” email. For another example of not only how serious but honest they are about their call to arms, check out this video from Gadgetoff ’09 featuring a DIY jet-powered merry-go-round they built:

(takeoff is around the 1:20 mark)

so I bought this Bell helmet with the intention of modifying it and making it more “cautious”, hazardous, and look-the-eff-out. Eventually the idea is for the whole thing to be fluorescent orange, but first I wanted to do a test. I learned long ago to put faith in rubber cement as an agent to apply to plastic and inorganic surfaces in order to later pull up the cement and anything that might find itself attached to it, in this case some spray paint. Painter’s tape is good for the foundation because it’s easy to apply and cheap, but the rubber cement allows me to make a much finer line, on curved surfaces without worrying about spray paint running underneath the cement – once the cement sets it won’t let anything through.

So first thing I did was lay my tape line in the area I wanted to test:

and then I applied the rubber cement around the edges of the cavity:

I taped off the perimeter where I wanted the design to be, and I taped the interior of the cavity space so no spray got inside the helmet. Basically with the interior tape, hold the helmet up to a light and look inside the helmet. If you can’t see any direct light, then no spray particles will be able to get in either! This will keep the inside of your helmet nice-n-clean.

then I taped a plastic bag around the entire helmet to protect the areas I didn’t want sprayed:

Get out yer paint! I probably should have painted the helmet white first, but 1. I didn’t have any laying around and 2. I was lazy to get some and 3. eager to test it out!

The helmet after one coat:

Then remove the plastic bag and perimeter tape line:

The remove the tape in the cavity area and you’re left with something like this:

Then use any tool to remove the rubber cement. Since it was only recently applied it will pull up quite easily. I’ve found a graphite pencil is ideal for most applications, because it can even be erased from certain surfaces, if necessary. Not necessary with the foam of a bike helmet, but it does work well:

I’m not sure how these things are made because the top of the helmet is like some sort of plastic, but the foam is overlapping the plastic in some places. Basically I’m setting myself up to allow for some wiggle-room in how smooth my lines are, or how strict I am about the design. In the end I think this came out really well! I plan to tape off the rest of the helmet cavities, get another can of spray paint, and finish the job – I just need a half-day or day where I can let the helmet dry and still use my bike for daily commutes. And of course I plan to keep adding to the helmet in the months ahead.

Hanging out with Becky Stern yesterday at the FIGMENT NYC festival on Governor’s Island, the boat disembarked and within 50 feet I ran into Doc Advencha and then Ohio Mike aka 0h10m1ke. The rest of the crowd proceeded on when somehow Becky and I were picked out of the crowd to have our 1-minute matchbook portraits drawn!

Simple! and Lovely! a 1-minute contour line-drawing on the inside of a labeled and numbered matchbook. Having passed the 8k mark the day before in this series, Mike says the matchbook project will end with the 10,000th portrait – how soon, where and when is unknown, as Mike walks the streets of New York and attends events like Figment to fulfill his drawing volume dreams!

Maker Faire New York 2010 Open Call is now… Open!

This has been in the works for a long time now, and I’m really happy – beyond words – to say that I’m a part of it!

If you know me you know I love culture. I love events. I love people and artists and crowds and activities and mobs and spectacles and life. Loving is the easy part though.

The best culture is D.I.Y. culture, and that means for it to happen, we have to make it happen.

WORLD Maker Faire NY is taking place later this year at the New York Hall of Science, and will provide one of the most exciting, dynamic and fruitful make it happen environments that New York City has ever seen – at least in my opinion, and during my near-6 years here.

If you Make something, I want you involved.

If you teach how-to something, I want you involved.

If you instruct-a-thon, I want you involved.

This IS the WORLD’S Largest D.I.Y Festival!!

IF YOU ARE A MAKER THEN NOW IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE!

Do you DIY:

3d printers
circuit bending
wind power
dorkbot
marching band
compost
arduino boards
origami
steampunk
LEDs
beer/wine
mycology
game-makers
telescopes
chocolate
permaculture
rube golberg
MIDI
scrap booking
book-making
silkscreens
photography
kinetic arts
circus
ceramics
beekeeping
radio transmission
CNC milling
model railroads
non-profit arts
hydro power
breadmaking
catapults
solar anything!

If YES to any of the above, then I WANT YOU INVOLVED!

How to submit a proposal? CLICK THIS LINK – It’s a VERY SIMPLE form, not complex or convoluted. It will require you to make an O’Reilly account, that’s just so we can keep track of your data and contact you through our backend if necessary.

Please please submit your proposal sooner than later. The Open Call will stay open for approximately 7-8 weeks but we are tight on resources and will start allocating them as soon as the proposals arrive.

I want to be accessible throughout the success of this project, so if you have any questions, comments, concerns, ideas or general thoughts please feel free to contact me. I’ll publish my details below, or you can access me through various social networks that I’m involved with.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading and I really want you to be involved!

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TO MAKER FAIRE NY 2010

CONTACT:
email: nick [at] geekathon [dot] net
Twitter: @nicknormal
my Facebook profile
my Flickr account

…

Do you want to help spread the word about Maker Faire NY? Great!

Blog about it! Tweet about it! Or send people to this blog to talk with me or use this shortlink to send makers straight to the proposal form:

http://bit.ly/mfny2010

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to see more of what MAKE culture is all about, visit

MAKEzine
Craftzine

or to see Maker Faire in other cities, including San Francisco and Detroit visit the main

MAKER FAIRE website

After coming back from St. Louis and seeing the Smashinistas v Stunt Devils ARRG derby match I was hooked, addicted, fiending for more. This time I was vying to see some All-Stars class sport with the Gotham Girls’ season opener at home against the Charm City (Baltimore) All-Stars. Some mates of mine wanted to go too, but we got around to the website too late and all the tickets were gone. I got in touch with the GGRD and asked if there was any possibility in getting on a waiting list for last-minute available tickets. There wasn’t, but a small batch of extra tix were going to go on sale on some day at midnight. 4 minutes after they went on sale they were GONE! I attribute that to a bug with their ticket software (that’s the nerd in me talking). Still, I persevered! A week later, just a couple nights before the bout, I got mention of a small – 20 – batch of post-press tix available, go, get them now! Needless to say within an hour of those final tickets getting posted they were snatched up!

The stress of getting a will call ticket was totally worth it, the payback was the excitement of the bouts and the top-notch class of sport played by Charm City and the Gotham Girls.

The opening bout was between Lake Effect Furies (Buffalo, NY) and the Wall Street Traitors, one of the local teams that make up the Gotham Girls All-Stars. The Traitors lost and it was unclear to me if this was in-part because some of their players (Hyper Lynx, Ginger Snap and OMG WTF) were playing on the All-Stars team and thus not playing in both bouts. It was good to see, but like I say I was really eager for the All-Stars team to make their debut.

Gotham v Charm City

It was back and forth for the first few matches, with Gotham routinely taking a lead and then Charm City coming back within a few points or to tie. Until! At some point it was 33-29 in Gotham’s favor. Then it was 44-30, then 48-30, then 57-30, then 71-30! Gotham just kept pulling away and pushing ahead and they went into the halftime at 89-34! Of course Charm City have given Gotham a fight in the past, so it was known that they could come out after the half and do just as much damage in return, forcing a tough 2nd half. But whatever pep talk the Gotham girls got was more riveting because the 2nd half saw some incredible teamwork and explosive action. Keep a watch out because if the Gotham All-Stars stay healthy and play the rest of the year the way they did, it’ll be a monumental season! Notable players that made a big impact were Em Dash (8212), Hyper Lynx (404), OMG WTF (753), Suzy Hotrod (55), Carmen Monoxide (12 – MVP), Fisti Cuffs (241 – Co-Captain) and especially Bonnie Thunders (340 – Captain) – those last two derby girls blocked and jammed their way to at least a hundred points! It’s understandable why Bonnie Thunders is captain – there were times when this ex synchro figure skater could hold her balance and skate through the pack sideways to get the lead jam and score points. Seriously impressive!

That’s Fisti Cuffs (241 – Co-Captain) on the far right in the penalty box – notice how high up her knees come!

The Gotham pack trying to hold Charm City’s jammer Joy Collision (747 – Captain) at bay. For the most part they did a damned good job!

Another shot of Joy Collision (what can I say, she’s hot, and good!) maneuvering to get ahead of the Gotham jammer to put a block on her. Joy was the clear candidate for Charm City’s MVP, as she was about the only one doing any significant damage – blocking or jamming – against Gotham.

the final score was actually 201-75 – way to go Gotham!

and lastly a big THANK YOU to Louise and Anne Frankenstein from the GGRD crew. I asked around trying to find where either of you were but no one knew exactly where to find you. so I’ll see you at the next bouts and again, thank you for organizing such a wonderful sport!

[my full photo set on Flickr]

here’s the second half of the Gotham v Charm City bout, you’ll see Gotham simply blow Charm City out of the waters!

Watch live video from Modern Roller Derby on Justin.tv

Add English (“normal”) to that list and you’ve got yourself nearly 2 billion native speakers!

(just to clarify, I found this in storage. circa 1998-1999, when I worked at SAIC – probably a joke but knowing that institution maybe not. and yes, I keep things for long time.)

This is a little late, but not really. Flux Factory finally started its first Kickstarter campaign with a drive to purchase and install a new heating system (unit, ducting, labor) for our remodeled facility in Long Island City’s Dutch Kills neighborhood.

We’re only two weeks shy of the arrival of Spring, so we’re definitely through the thick of Winter, but this campaign is still as valid as ever. Oddly enough on the day we made this film it was also warm outside, but there were definitely days where everybody was wearing 3, 4, 5 layers in order to stay toasty. Plenty of times my sock-layer scene was lived out. Or hot water became super-chilled in minutes. It wasn’t always very pleasant. We survived – clearly – but the building still needs work, adjustments and improvements. So help us raise the money we need by pledging. With Kickstarter, your money is only pledged if we meet our target goal of $5000 – and our thinking is that if everybody we know gave us $1 we should be good (yes, we know mad numbers of peoples!).

CLICK HERE TO PLEDGE $ WITH KICKSTARTER

scroll down to watch the incredibly awesome and hilarious video made by Gregg Conde and Jaime Iglehart – big ups to them for their hard work on this project.

CLICK HERE TO PLEDGE $ WITH KICKSTARTER

Wanted posters. Two-part portraits. Detective files. Booking photographs.

The mugshot is a pretty interesting phenomenon of photography. Most-interesting to me is that the notion of the modern mugshot we know today was conceived by Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton’s National Defense Agency – during the latter part of the 19th century they were two-faced, on the one face they were the first organized detective agency in the United States, and on the other face they doubled as thugs-for-hire to suppress workers’ unions or other semi-organized groups, through use of overwhelming force. They were interested in criminal justice, yes, but they were also very intimidating motherfuckers at heart, and the mugshot was merely a means to an end.

Anyhow! I was called up about 5 hours before the Thunder Gumbo III and asked if I had my camera available to take mugshots. A little ill-prepared but the results are wonderful. The lighting is a little off-mark, but works. I’m actually fond of the blue background but next time I plan on using this faux cinder block pattern I have, and some lettering or numbering to sequence the CRIMINALS!

If you recognize any of the faces, be sure to tag them on the Facebook album.

How far ahead do you plan? I remember seeing a Brownline brand day planner once that spanned two years. Yeah, 365 x 2 = 730 pages, minimum. Throw in those extra pages for currency conversions (that become outdated by the minute), distances between cities matrixes, and the accompanying non-adequate “black book” and the thing was well around 800 pages. A brick of a planner. Not the kind of thing I’d want to be carrying our when the End of the World is nigh.

(click for larger image)

The KIMCHI-ology (or how to make your own kimchi) workshop was a smashing success (they always are it would seem)!

We started with a smorgasbord of available veggies. These included red onions, carrots, garlic, ginger, radishes, red cabbage, green cabbage and some peppers and spices. Oh yeah and some apples!

Before the students arrived we laid out all the food and necessary kitchen tools. As it would turn out this wasn’t the wisest idea. We wound up inadvertently using the cuttings boards as plates and then had to wash everything again before the cutting boards could be used for their intended purposes: chopping veggies on! Anyways, I learned my mistakes when leading a FOOD workshop.

After 20+ minutes of talking about the history of kimchi, the differences between kimchi and sauerkraut, and the health benefits of “good bacteria” as told by ex-Fluxer and ceramic artists and food guru Ellen, we had a tasting session:

YUMS!

We talked about what went into each different kimchi, and it was generally regarded that the dill kimchi (either bottom-middle or bottom-left) was the bees knees. Then each student took into account how they wanted to flavor their own kimchi, and we proceeded to cut, dice, chop, mince and then pack our jars:

Here’s a kimchi student hard at work packing their jar:

We made a total (good) mess. We used every single vegetable! We packed 10 jars in total!

48 hours later, and this is what some of the jars are starting to look like:

Of course the real way to judge a kimchi is by its smell, so believe me when I say these stink! The short squatty jar on the right has apples in it, so it has a sweet and spicy smell to it. The one on the far left contains an equal volume of onion and cabbage! It also has a fair amount of garlic and ginger in it. And the middle one was basically all the leftovers packed into another jar (along with some unknown spices to produce a surprise meal).

It’ll take another 7-10 days for these to totally ferment. And then Colonic Justice!

Later this week at Flux Factory, then again later this month, I’ll be facilitating another workshop as part of my on-going education platform Open Pedagogy Programming. The workshop this month is called Kimchi-ology, a how-to on chopping, making and eating your own kimchi! We teach you everything!

The EventBrite links are below if you want to purchase a ticket; they’re $20 and will include a tasting session and each person will walk away with a “starter jar” to enjoy later!

Thursday – 12 November – 7-9pm – http://www.eventbrite.com/event/474510273
Monday – 23 November – 7:30-9:30pm – http://www.eventbrite.com/event/481698774

Meng is a fellow artist and friend of mine. She lives in a box:

Thanks to the advancement of modern technologies, she has WiFi inside the box. She recently sent me an email from inside the box, regarding some ducks I keep on my window sill:

Subject: A SECRET DUCKY THROWING MISSION

Holahola Norbot,

This is bot talking from Mengbot…bbbb….01110001……i am going to go on a secrete robotic mission for the LED Pro Julius throwing one of his duck to some secret water place.So …i am going to steal one of your duckies from your window…..would you please let me know the great time for me to be the ducky- thief?? probably somepoint this week when you are THERE or maybe when you are NOT THERE(since it will make more sense for a thief to steal somthing)….and also giving you somtime to say goodbye to your ducky friend by the window…haha

TIME FOR WINTER DUCKY MIGRATION

Mengbot talking…OVER…

Well I couldn’t let her get away with that, now could I? So I replied,

qu Ack, QuackquaC k quACK quackq Uack. Quack!

QUack QUackquackquack quack qua ck qu a cKQuaC k. QuaC Kq uAc Kquack. QuacK Quackq uaCKQuac K q u aC kqua CK.
QuAC k Q u AC k.

Quack quack,
Nick Normal

That’ll make the Mengbot think twice before stealing my duckies! She has been warned!

spotted outside Nurture Art in Brooklyn. spotted because I put it there!

Kale is delish. Drawn food unfortunately doesn’t have as many nutrients as real food. But if kale grows this well in a bucket in this weather I’m thinking I might try and grow some in this hydroponic plastic bottle system I have designs for sometime this winter.

Growing up in the Midwest meant being surrounded by a lot of craptastic fast food, which sure I had my guilty pleasures and indulged in, but this is beyond belief:

And yes, it does exist:

(image via food geekery)

this sammich is so elusive it’s only available in Rhode Island and Nebraska, FOX News reports:

oh yeah, and This Is Why You’re Fat.

someone, TELL ME!

[via Peanut Butter Jelly Time]

I’ll spare you your life: watch to get an idea of how good he is, then for the WTF-moments fast-forward to 1:16 and 2:50 or just watch it all the way through (the music is shite but he’s actually really good). Point of interest: this guy racks his bass guitars the way I rack my socks!

Jeff Koons sculpture Green Diamond (2004) was bought for a reported $12 million recently, and now it adorns the penthouse terrace of an Upper East Side building:

(via Curbed)

Meanwhile, below the streets, the MTA plans on cutting 360 maintenance and managerial jobs by 2010 including subway car cleaners and station cleaners.

(NYPost article)

and lastly, no recession is complete without a diamond-encrusted remote-controlled lamborghini neck chain piece. POW:

Long story short the new Flux Factory building is officially open for business, and once again I can look at the project and say one of the reasons why it is a success is ME. I made it happen. It ate two months of my life so hopefully it’ll pay off, otherwise I’m not sure I’ll ever invest that much time and energy in anything again without some sort of guarantee (or lots and lots of moola).

Anyways, while I’m parsing through literally thousands of feeds and emails in an attempt to catch up, here’s a selection of visual memes and intrigues that I missed while away:

I soooooo want this!

this puts things into perspective:

a building in Shanghai fell over. more images and articles here.

a K9 glory hole:

I dare you. I triple-DOG dare you!

I lived in Hong Kong for 3 weeks in 2000, and was always intrigued by its duality of East and West. A crazy city even by my standards, but I’ve always been a little nostalgic for it, and of course I love pixelmaps:

I lived somewhere to the left (north) of this area:

see the entire pixelmap here.

some politicians are taller than others:

it’s the fine print that matters:

Tomoshirinkata
what is your Ninja Name?

A- ka
B- zu
C- mi
D- te
E- ku
F- lu
G- ji
H- ri
I- ki
J- zu
K- me
L- ta
M- rin
N- to
O- mo
P- no
Q- ke
R- shi
S- ari
T- chi
U- do
V- ru
W- mei
X- na
Y- fu
Z- zi

why not to fall asleep at parties:

they’re actually constructing a giant robot in Tokyo:

My favs,

the pink chair warehouse:

where green thrives:

the snow factory:

prefab shantytown:

and lastly the mostamazingawesomemodernism:

Nghhhhhhhh na na na nah!

mostly dogs and cats, they’re the best! They make my friend Lucy go “Nghhhhhh, na na na nah”!

they arrive early next week. I need to start making these more often, in short bursts, constantly giving them away. Lots of networking and contacts to be made in life still.

So tonight a guy on the streets actually challenged me to a game of Wii Bowling. Inside his ground-level apartment (visible, and clearly safe) was a large HDtv and Wii running, ready and waiting for a challenger. I would have taken him up on it except I already had a date with the pub. I guess his offer stuck with me, made me think of these images. Pretty wonderful how enthusiastic senior citizens are with the Wii. An uncle of mine, I saw him over Christmas, and he’s by no means aged but aging, still he was kicking the kids off the Wii so he could have a go at bowling and golf and whatnot. It’s crazy how much good that platform  has done for the world. And older people seem particularly adept with the Wii compared to the other latest generation consoles.

(Quick note I think next week will be This Week In Geek Week, as in all geek all week, I have so much stuff I absolutely have to clear some of it out. Plus I’m moving house this weekend and will be out of commission for a couple days so I’ll schedule content while I’m away. So look forward to that! Dorks!)

People who know me know I love to listen to Pandora, the Music Genome Project (aka internet radio). Their ‘Quick Mix’ feature added a few months back has been a real blessing. Their algorithm will switch from Jimi Hendrix to System of a Down to Talib Kweli to Led Zeppelin all in the same session, all based on my previously created radio stations. It’s brilliant. I don’t have masses of time anymore to prepare playlists, fill up my HDD with mp3s ripped from my own CDs (cough cough), or even listen to entire albums by one band anymore; I much prefer random and continuous listening, changing beats and rhythms, all combined with my input.

Clearly a large percentage of what they play is pop or rather well-known musical pieces (the bands I just listed prove this). This is all due to licensing, legal forms, and the fact that larger labels will simply always carry more influence. However every now and then there’s a little gem thrown in, someone I don’t recognize, and it’s refreshing. They have a “bookmark” function for saving songs that intrigue you in exactly this way, but there’s no way to share the list. It’s manual and tiresome, but I’m going to keep a continually growing list here of some of the tracks that really caught my attention in the hope of tracking down these artists later.

If you got an artist to recommend, leave it in the comments!

Band – Song Title:

Beats Antique – The Lantern

Ima Robot – STD Dance

J.J. Cale – Travelin’ Light

The Rootsman – Ta Travudia

Plastician – Cha Vocal

Yoshimoto – Du What U Du

Devin the Dude – What a Job

Metallica – Turn the Page (of course I already know Metallica, I just forgot how gooooood this song is!)

Jimmy McCracklin

Rossignol

El Ten Eleven

In the LAPD Probation Department they observed the Bring Your Child to Work Day on the 21st; other organizational bodies have it slated for today.

Either way, I really just wanted to put up that image.

and poor Staten Island, what body fluid must it be composed of to make it on the map?

via Cosmic Art Gallery

genius!

So that’s how you plant peanuts! spotted in Washington Square Park.

(can’t see the slideshow in RSS? view the original post container.)

I bet they didn’t have this in Tokyo when you were there! (he loves these things)

Whereas most American roller coasters are in theme parks that are outside of some nearby city, surrounded by rural or wooded terrain, it seems the Japanese have a fascination with their theme parks being situation in urban environments, to the degree that at one point this roller coaster even goes through a building. Watch for yourself:

these paltry non-moving-image jpegs won’t tell the story of course.

click this link to see WIRED (owned by Conde Nast) magazine live, in motion, with clickable bits and draggable pages. The future of web publishing?

Even though I’m only subletting for the month, I took the liberty to rearranging my living room furniture, for the better, waaaaay for the better.

I didn’t get a before shot unfortunately, but basically the long couch was against the wall on the left, the short couch was where the long couch is now facing the long couch and the TV was on a small stand (below) in the middle, so sitting on either couch meant rubber-necking to watch the tube. There was always a table in the middle that because of its proximity to the front door meant it got clogged with the house mail and abandoned cups. I took the liberty to swapping the two tables, putting the more often looked at piece of furniture under the TV so its more-pleasant to look in that general direction, and placing the small table behind the short couch near the front door so it becomes a more-utilitarian piece of furniture; I’m certain it will still stack up with mail but eventually enough is enough and some will get thrown away.

Another purpose to putting the big couch facing the wall (with the TV at a slight angle) is to eventually project movies onto the big wall from behind the couch, theater-style!

My biggest improvement I think was integrating the plants with the surrounding design.

The speakers and stereo system were previously on the floor, which meant too much bending over and getting wires tangled on the floor. This way everything runs behind and is hidden, and sound travels better higher up too.

When you walk in now you’re confronted with your mail and gaming options, without needing to potentially bother someone watching TV by slamming mail on the table as some roommates might do.

SALES PITCH!

I love doing this stuff. I’ve done some home improvement around the five boroughs and can even refer clients but if anybody is looking for simple jobs or interior design work or painting or help with audio-visual cables and signal, drop me a note I want to do some more of this and am especially mobile in the months ahead! ( contact : nick [at] geekathon [dot ] net )

One thing I’ve never really understood about Mac users is where this perception of the habitually clean workspace comes from? There is this belief that they are the only ones capable of ordering their lives like so, and that because of such a regiment they conditionally produce more than PC users, have increased workflow and creativity levels, that they aren’t “cluttered” by all the excesses of PC living.

This perception is sometimes very sterile however:

Wow, looks nice. But not really. The clock is nifty but I’d find staring down and beyond the screens into a white void of a wall like that mind-numbing.

Furthermore, it simply isn’t true. Mac users are messy. But this perception that they are ordered is sold to them by the Apple brand via their stores, product ads and overall “lifestyle” package. It’s summed up in a moment in the Onion’s “One Button. Endless Possibilities” parody of the no-keyboard click-wheel laptop when the lady in the store who is not an Apple employee (she’s not wearing the blue-shirt uniform) spends seconds on end compulsively straightening a display box so there’s as little gap and as much grid-order as possible:

But again, it simply isn’t true. We all know it’s not true, Mac users especially. It isn’t about the branding but about the person, it’s all about the user. So check out these Mac users who are not only messy but intriguing because of such a chaotic lifestyle. Personally I like the clutter, the chaos, the choices of inspiration that users post on the walls around them, the detritus they leave on their desk, their personal sense of stability and usability and order.

I love this next photo. It’s not only a remarkable photograph but truly chaotic, and check out the row of pipes on the back wall. How wonderful!

The point is it should be about the user. It’s about what do you want to get out of computing? Why are you using such a device and interface? You want chaos, then make chaos! You want order, then make order! The argument could be made that Apple’s stripped-down design let’s you focus on the things you want to be using a computer for (or at least not distracting their customers), and is therefore in the best-interest of the user, but anybody reading this far knows that’s also untrue. Apple is a very controlling company, which yes does frequently benefit its users; but again these images are concerned with Apple’s almost forceful approach of streamlined lifestyle branding, which any computer is capable of delivering.

sick.

AOWWWW!
I never used to snore in my sleep 'til this rap shit started
Warm thoughts fill the hot-headed and cold-hearted
Your whole paycheck, you burp it and then fart it
And y'all think I'm gon' stop?  BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
In one year I got rich, now life's movin so fast
But bein broke with no food is just a thing of the past
Plus I'm the new phenomenon like white women with ass
And y'all prayin that I flop?  BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
In New York I buy clothing, in Cali I get green
In Atlanta I get sleep, in Texas I sip clean
All these rappers wanna know what I'm gettin for sixteens
Try 80, want a discount?  BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
See in just six months I infiltrated the system
If you find somebody better, then I'm sorry I missed him
Niggaz hate givin me props cause I might use it against them
C'mon, get Ludacris out!  BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!

[Chorus 2X: Ludacris]
If you mad I'm on top, then wish me gone
If you mad I'm on the road, then wish me home
And if you mad that I'm right, punk wish me wrong
But after your three wishes - BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!

[Ludacris]
It's time to saddle up the Tontos cause I'm the Lone Ranger
I eat dinner with Jews but don't talk to strangers
I'm just a few albums from filling your disc changer
If you ever think of stoppin me - BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
I'm a hustler by nature but criminal by law
Any charges set against me, chunk it up and stand tall
Next year I'm lookin into buyin Greenbriar Mall
You probably own a lot of property!  BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
C'mon and take a look, he's got gigantic balls
Plus his money keeps flowin like Niagara Falls
We all know Jesus saves and Ludacris withdraws
I'm 'bout to go on vacation - BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
Shout out to Bill O'Reilly, I'ma throw you a curve
You mad cause I'm a THIEF and got away with words
I'ma start my own beverage, it'll calm your nerves
Pepsi's the New Generation - BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!

[Chorus]

[Ludacris]
My black people show me love when I'm up on the block
And Latinos always waitin for my CD's to drop
White people love the flow, they say, "Dude, you fuckin rock!"
Yo' fans are my fans, right?  BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
So find my album in the stores and look for the white steam
Rip it open, play it and yo' momma might scream
It's hard, other albums are softer than ice cream
Yo' scans are my scans, right?  BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
Now Luda's throwin up A's, and I'm lightin up L's
Around the globe gettin paid, you home bitin yo' nails
DTP, the only label that practice fightin ourselves
We probably gettin on your nerves, huh?  BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
I been eatin and gettin FAT while y'all dyin of hunger
I get drunk in the winter, stay high in the summer
Watch out, my album's puttin up McDonald's numbers
You over 6 million served, huh?  BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!

[Chorus]

BLOW IT OUT YA ASS!
WHOO!

On an aside my webhost is really fukhing with me these days. I can’t auto-create thumbnails of the above images anymore because suddenly they’ve dropped some PHP library support. I guess with the new month they rolled out some new code and for anybody unwilling or unable to pay $50/month for the primo-package you get left in the dust. Even though everything worked before they don’t simply drop support they remove the code entirely! So I’ll have to be moving webhosts again soon in the next month I reckon. Yeah I’m really looking forward to that.

I originally thought this might by the KLVY-TV mast in North Dakota but I was wrong. Appears to be some guy-wired radio mast in Russia originally taken by Victor Professor (some great photos of high-altitude icing there!). His stuff is in Russian so don’t worry you won’t be able to read anything, but the photos are marvelous! Now imagine the radio mast in North Dakota is 2.3 times taller than the radio mast his images come from! And imagine furthermore that the Burj Dubai recently surpassed the KLVY-TV mast as the tallest structure in the world and will double as the tallest building upon its completion later this year.

And a video about high voltage cable repairmen that remains one of my favorite videos on the nets:

I hope more people who work these jobs, window washing the Burj Dubai or scaling the KLVY-TV tower to replace a light bulb take their becoming-ubiquitous digital cameras with them because this stuffs is amazings!

Now, has anyone seen satellite imagery from the event? I love that stuff!

you deserve better.

blah blah blah

“Awesome infogram” from old Wired Science blog about water distribution on this little blue planet. One stupid reference in the article however is this phrase “water footprint” as if we’ll be talking about water the same way we talk about carbon emissions. Not. “footprint” suggests something you leave behind, like an impression in the mud which fossilizes (the irony of the expression being us using energy sources like oil produced from fossil-compression and then terming the excessive use of such fuels as footprint) and leaving behind a legacy that others later will have to deal with. Water is not the same. Water is finite yes but its availability will produce “water anxiety” long before it produces a “footprint” (that term is more appropriate to the world of Dune circa the Children of Dune and the excesses of water in standing puddles on the desert planet – it is true, I am Dork).

Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam, slowly drying up. This, I guess, is a type of “footprint”.

whether they be needle nose, snub nose, vice grips, channellocks, just get yourself something where two solid pieces of metal can squeeze together to get a good bite and rip that sucker right off!

With that thought having hopefully grossed you out entirely (if not, video of said procedure is at the end), proceed:

First off get a puny 12 lb. canine to bite your nail. Yeah, you think they’re all cute and cuddly, but if you abuse them enough they’ll be inclined to bite the hand that feeds. Rather than a whole bite, make sure you get one good tooth under the nail of your choice. I opted for my right index finger; I also preferred to remove the nail from the cuticle end – a completely unorthodox procedure!

Mild bleeding will occur immediately. Be ready first to apply pressure to stop the bleeding – the pressure won’t hurt incredibly, you’ll be too shocked by what just happened to really focus on any acute pain; besides the pressure is for your benefit. Then be ready to immerse your finger in some cold water with ice to numb the nerves. Believe me you’d rather have a cold finger than feel the throbbing.

Let that sucker really dry out and start to rot before clipping it. Don’t panic, parts of the fingernail will still be alive but we’ll slowly ensure it all dies out and gets removed. Be sure to follow the rot-line but don’t feel obliged to trim-away everything that’s dead, be sure to leave a couple millimeters like so:

There now isn’t that nice.

Now don’t forget you have an exposed fingernail so be sure to keep your skin free from bacteria and moisturized. I recommend Isopropyl Alcohol to kill any bacteria and sort of dry out the skin, then an application tea tree oil to moisturize; wrap that in a bandage and continually treat like so, trimming any cracked or split parts of the nail in the following days and weeks.

Like so:

Lookin’ good! Of course eventually the entire nail will simply rot out underneath and you’ll find yourself actually wanting to remove it! Here come the pliers:

At this point you have a great opportunity to make your fingernail anew. Maybe you want to build your new fingernail to assist you with mobile computing; or maybe you need additional data storage; personally I want to figure out how to put a retractable and refillable ink pen into my nail so I always have a writing instrument at hand (pun intended!).

I’ll be working with an artist-friend of mine to design some replacement; more on that soon!

Awesome picture, depicting the power balance of nature attributed to some herbivores, in this case some species of cattle plowing through a cheetah. Reminds me of the “Big Animal Fight” video from a few years back which I guess has gone on to be an extremely popular video (42 mil views and counting, ranking in the top 100 of all time) and renamed the Battle at Kruger with its own website and merchandising arm.

Doing plenty of site maintenance today (what with the new theme and all ), and while browsing through some stats data I noticed a large number of hits for one image in particular. Bit strange I thought. Browsed some of the sites that were linking to this particular image when I noticed one of the sites in particular was using some google image search widget.

Huh? I thought.

Open up google, enter search query, click images, I am the 3rd result for jowling now!

Not even the best photo of me jowling to be honest. I’ve done better, but I guess it gets good hits because of my evening outfit.

The photo of Stefany jowling that I took is also the 6th result at this time. The other photos I took don’t even appear in the first 10 pages of results (I got bored to click any further).

(all of this meta will eventually blow up when google starts image caching the image of my search results of me jowling – how’s that for a mind-bender?)

Serves 6.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz rice noodles (or 6 oz for a less-noodles-more-ingredients approach)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• little more than 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 tbls soy sauce
• 2 tsps worcestershire sauce (secret ingredient!)
• 2 tbls vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups tofu, FIRM, drained and diced
• 1 1/2 cups shrimp, small, cooked (option, for meaties)
• 2 tsps minced garlic
• 1 egg beaten or 2 egg whites
• 3 cups bean sprouts
• 1/2 cup edamame
• 1/2 cup green onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup peanuts (or more to taste, unsalted)

First, soak your noodles for 30 minutes in standing hot tap water. After 30 minutes simply drain and set aside.

WHILE noodles are soaking, mix sugar, ketchup, water, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and a dash of cayanne if available in a bowl (this is your pad thai sauce!)

Make sure your noodles will have a full 30 minute soak before proceeding.

Now heat oil in very large frying pan. Recommend a medium setting on gas but it depends on your hob. First add garlic and stir constantly for one minute. Add tofu and shrimp (optional) and stir constantly for another 2 minutes.

Mix in your pad thai sauce and let it heat up, just barely to the boil.

Now grab those noodles and toss them in. Mix all together, stirring constantly for 2-3 more minutes or until sauce appears to have been absorbed by noodles.

Push that mixture to the side or I like to make a hole in the middle. Drop your egg or egg whites in the open part of the pan, the noodles will stop it from spreading too far. Don’t scramble yet let it sit for 15 seconds. Now add half of your bean sprouts, edamame, green onion and peanuts and quickly mix everything in the pan together! QUickLY! Stir until there seems to be an even consistency throughout.

Remove and serve, sprinkle remaining bean sprouts, edamame, green onion and peanuts on TOP after servings are divided. This way there’s some crunchy stuff on top and some cooked stuff inside!

Modify to taste, this recipe is released under NNOSC – Nick Normal Open Source Cooking.