Hello Again World

Well it's been a few months since I've posted anything but this past week has been exiting. I had a presentation at the Austin Dorkbot introducing the Planck.
The Planck is like a horizontal guitar one plays like a piano( by tapping on the strings) but that can do certain things like sound like a koto, sitar, or pedal steel. It can do some of these things because the frets are raised 1/4 inch and there
is a lot of space underneath the string to push it down. If you are familiar with scalloped fretboards and the Chapman stick it will make a little bit more sense.
People really seemed to like it and how it sounds when I debuted it.

In other news,I lost my internet service provider. I managed to archive my web pages, though.
I will post them online as soon as I can get some web hosting. Sorry, Don't mean to be so mysterious about it. I will do a page about the Planck for sure.

I also got to hang out with some folks from Make Magazine last week. They were very cool and might be planning some fun stuff for Austin. Who knows? I hope it works out.

As for Dorkbot, you should check out if there is one in your town especially if you are an inventor or do strange things with electricity.
Woof!

This is Fun!

Wow, this is all very cool! I got a subscription to Make some time back from a very special someone who knows my brain like no one else. When I received my first issue , I was like, 'Holy Crap!' Someone just decided to make a magazine for little 'ol me. It was like they used me as the sole participant in a focus group for DIY and then started this magazine.'....and so I read from front to back marveling and people's ingenuity and creativity. And then there were instructions! Good ones , too... I realized I'm not the only one who does this. Yay!I was psyched like mad!

There are thousands of people like me who just...make stuff. OK, so I'm a little new at the web as it relates to the DIY movement so please forgive my exuberance. I just find it so cool that I can connect with people doing these things as well
as get raw information on someone's making process.

Others are in on this, too, adopting the same DIY paradigm for crafts as well as for gadgets. In Austin,TX we have the Craft Mafia and Sublime Stiching as my favorite examples of this. I just learned to use a sewing machine recently and have used this skill to make my mom a Christmas stocking.

There's also this Finnish woman who is doing some kind of doctoral thesis on this. Here's a link to her thoughtful blog.

So thanks to Bre Pettis and Make magaine for peeking into my little stringed high-voltage world.

The Stump

This is what is called The Stump.
You can read about it and listen to a sample
of it here

One wonders what sound a giraffe makes. Yes, indeed.
I have my theories.....

Yodel Lay Heee Hoooo !!!!

Hello World

Hello World! I was resistant to the idea of doing this but I met this nice fellow named
Bre (pronounced 'bree') at the SXSW interative festival here in Austin. He makes things.
He has a site called http://imakethings.com. You should visit it. He's a good egg.
He convinced me this was a good thing.
I make things too but I never thought of sharing the things I make except at parties and for visitors.

So, very soon, I'm going to have a website. If all goes according to plan you'll see an interview with me and some of the things I've made in a couple of weeks on Bre's site. Yay! This is fun!
I don't know how often I'll post but I'll try to make it an interesting read.
Woof!