The second-born child came up to me a few days ago and announced gravely: “Mom! ComicCon is in October and I need to prepare. I think today I would like you to teach me how to make a sword.” “You mean: a cardboard sword, right?” “No, no, no! A metal sword–steel.” Looking piercingly out […]
Continue ReadingLast fall at GeekMom we wrote about guerrilla knitter Robyn Love’s “Messages to the Universe” project for Maker Faire NYC. Robyn had put a call out to fabric artists requesting donations of 12″ x 12″ squares that were then sewn together into yarn “flames” and draped from one of the rockets on the site at […]
Continue ReadingThis was my third year attending Maker Faire and helping at the GeekDad booth (this year, the GeekDad/GeekMom booth!). Every year is different. Our booth and the Faire have only grown each year, but the experience has also been fundamentally different each time. The first year I attended (2009), we had a lot of things […]
Continue ReadingWindell H. Oskay from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories posted up a great set of photos from the Bay Area Make Faire. See them on his Flickr set here: BAMF 2011
Continue ReadingArcAttack uses their two 500KV singing Tesla coils to play AC/DC’s Back in Black while Leah and GeekKid Hannah rock out in the Faraday cage.
Continue ReadingI had the awesome opportunity to step into Arc Attack’s Faraday cage at Maker Faire 2010 last year and see what it’s like to sit in the middle of two Tesla Coils running wild. It was, in a word, AWESOME! …
Continue Reading[All this week, we’ll take a look back to previous Maker Faires and share some of the things we’ve enjoyed, and are so looking forward to doing again this year. This post by Jonathan Liu originally appeared on May 27, …
Continue ReadingWe at GeekDad would like to send our congratulations to Michael and Evan at Siege Toys for reaching their Kickstarter funding goal four days early! We are all looking forward to some epic desktop trebuchet action at Maker Faire in …
Continue ReadingMy husband is hard to shop for, so I find it quite satisfying when I find him an interesting, unexpected gift that he enjoys. This year it was a kit to build your own mini-theremin. I’ve always found the theremin to be an intriguing instrument. It’s perfect it produces such spooky, Dark Shadows-y sounds, because […]
Continue ReadingImage via Wikipedia Tomorrow, October 20th, Martha Stewart is devoting her entire show to her coverage of the recent World Maker Faire in New York. Martha Stewart Living Magazine was one of the media partners for the event, and it was a great meeting of DIY forces. Martha has always been about doing things yourself, […]
Continue ReadingBay Area Geek Dads and Geek Moms, mark your calendars for October 24th! The Mini-Maker Faire is coming to Oakland, and they have a line-up you can’t miss, especially if you have mini-Makers under your roof. Just a sample of …
Continue ReadingLast Friday, the kids and I drove the two hours south to Phoenix on a seasonably hot day (98 degrees F), leaving the comfort of our 76 degree F weather behind. We were to check out the Phoenix Comicon as …
Continue ReadingThis past weekend a bunch of us from GeekDad attended the Bay Area Maker Faire. It was my first time, and I had a great time. I thought it would be a good place to demonstrate my Etch-a-Sketch art (particularly …
Continue ReadingWe just got back Monday night from this year’s Maker Faire. This was my second year helping to run the GeekDad booth there. Last year was quite a lot of fun as we gave out little things to people and …
Continue ReadingIf you attended Maker Faire this past month, you had a chance to see, first hand, these wonderfully dapper shirts created just for the staff of GeekDad. To say they were popular is an understatement, we had literally dozens of …
Continue ReadingAre you searching for the perfect gift for your baby, small child or even favorite grown-up? There aren’t many items out there that fit the bill for all of the above, but I have recently found one. It is cute, …
Continue ReadingGeekDad contributor Jacob Russell wandered around Maker Faire for us with his Flip camera this weekend, and put together the following video showing off some of the really cool things that were on display.
Continue ReadingThe banner is hung, the tables are set up, and the giveaways are ready. Nothing left but to have the fun! Stop by our booth in the Expo hall, play with some LEGO or Mindstorms or VEX Robots, and maybe …
Continue ReadingI’m packing my suitcase and printing out my boarding pass. Why? Because Maker Faire takes place this weekend at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds just south of San Francisco. According to the National Weather Service, it looks to be very …
Continue ReadingJust a heads-up to anyone thinking about attending Maker Faire this year (less that two weeks away!): today is the last day to purchase advance tickets at a discount. Run over to makerfairetickets.com and pick them up now, and save …
Continue ReadingJust wanted to give everyone an update on the plans for the GeekDad booth at Maker Faire this year. If you were following me on Twitter today, you might have read my excited tweet about receiving 9 boxes of LEGOs at my doorstep. Three of those large, packing-size boxes were filled to the brims with […]
Continue ReadingOur kids love craft. Something about it taps into their little fidgety fingers and burgeoning minds. We often spend a rainy Saturday or Sunday afternoon tinkering with one project or another. But we don’t do this as much as we would like. For one this it’s messy and takes a while to set up and […]
Continue ReadingMAKE:television invited GeekDad to their premiere event in Minnesota this week. GeekDad John and I played with some of the projects they built on the air, met the host, John Park and got a preview of the series. It was a fun evening and a fitting start to a great program. MAKE, the magazine, is […]
Continue ReadingI promise this this will be the last Maker Faire post of the year. Unless of course it’s about the coming Maker Faire in California next spring. But since I’ll be busy wrapping up the end of Robot Season, I doubt I’ll have the time or resources to make the trip. The guys over at […]
Continue ReadingMaker Faire is not limited to just adult geeks. There were as many or more activities for the Geeklets and many parents took the opportunity to share the joy of tinkering and making with their young geeks. I’d like to offer a special thanks to the generous and patient instructors that helped make the Faire […]
Continue ReadingThe first area inside the main gate was for the Art Cars. By far the loudest, both figuratively and literally, was the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir, a blue 1984 Volvo 240 covered with singing lobsters and fish. For reasons that I cannot quite fathom I really enjoy the art cars. For a look at the "singing […]
Continue ReadingNow that I have recovered from the whirlwind weekend that was Maker Faire Austin I’ll take a few moments to talk about the event and the four shows we saw. On Saturday I was accompanied by a friend and his daughters, ages 11 and 13. Since I’d left my kids at home it was nice […]
Continue ReadingIf you’re anywhere near Austin this weekend, check out Maker Faire Austin at the Travis County Fairgrounds. I’ll be there with a few friends and a coworker. Drop me an email with your cell # and we can try to meet up. Admission is $25 per day. There will be a large number of DIY […]
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