Fun in the California Sun

Maker Faire - scott beale at laughing squid

Maker Faire Matrix – Scott Beale @laughing squid

I’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 nice with sunny skies and warm temperatures.

This will be my fifth Maker Faire and I’ve enjoyed participating in all of them. This time, I’ll be showing folks how to make smoke bombs and fire pistons, as well as expounding a bit upon the Art of Living Dangerously.

My friends at Twin Cities Public Television will be demonstrating a way-cool machine they call the Make: Television Vending Machine. Bring any USB drive in and download individual episodes of the television program onto it for free. Besides that, there will be a special stage on which Make Television crew will be demonstrating various projects from their show. The line up of presenters includes a number of film makers and television personalities from the TV show including my friends Mr. Jalopy (who hates it when I call him J-Lop) and John Edgar Park (who hates it when I call him Eggy.)

If you’re attending Maker Faire, give me a shout if you see me. My schedule looks something like this:

Saturday at 2:30 PM – I’ll be in the Make Demo area showing people how to make smoke bombs. Don’t worry dad, it really is educational (wink.)
Saturday at 6:30 PM –I will be on the main stage, giving a talk based on material from my new book “Absinthe and Flamethrowers.” The presentation is called “The Art of Living Dangerously” and I think it’s quite an enjoyable talk and (I hope) thought provoking as well. And, the slides are pretty good.
Sunday at 2:00 PM – Do you know what a fire piston is? Well, come on by and I’ll show you how to make one. Fire pistons work as cool as they sound.
Sunday at 5:00 PM – A reprise of my talk on “Absinthe and Flamethrowers: The Art of Living Dangerously.”

Do drop by to say hello!