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Fire Festival '09 Day 1 (for Mer)
Last night was "Day 1" of the Fire Festival for me, even though it's been going since the 15th. I like the new location, even though the parking lots are awfully dusty. It's very big, leaving more than enough room for people to walk around without feeling squished. There also seem to be a lot more exhibitors than I remember from the last time I was there, including all kinds of nifty, crafty stuff that I liked: brownies with coconut butter and walnuts, waffle shirts that say "Sweet" on them (Dad bought me a green one), and a woman who makes jewelry fashioned to look like molecules. I'm kind of torn between the creativity necklace (featuring serotonin, acetylcholine, and dopamine), the caffeine pendant, or the estrogen pendant. And I'm very tempted to get this oxytocin onesie for my baby cousin Eva.
I worked at the Pantogram, an old-fashioned engraving machine. But not just ANY engraving machine, no: it takes a larger-scale image (say, of an Eye of Horus) and translates the movements as you trace the large image onto a brass pendant that's six times smaller. We only had three templates: an Eye of Horus, a hook, and a skull and crossbones, but it was pretty popular. By my count, we made 31 pendants over the course of a little less than five hours. Considering each pendant takes anywhere from five to fifteen minutes, that's pretty awesome! A lot of people liked the interactive-style of this event, which is why I had no problem doing it for hours: instead of just watching some expert work an old machine, people actually got to do it themselves! We had people of all ages, all genders and backgrounds making their own. We got some pretty good ideas for other templates too, but I don't know if it'd be possible to make new acrylic templates in one day.
I also got to see Jessica Hobbs again, back from when I went to a web design class offered by the Richmond Beacon back at Wash (a.k.a. my high school). She was the one that basically taught me how to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop! At first, I wasn't sure if she recognized me, or if she didn't WANT to see me ("ahh, reminder of things done nearly a decade ago!"), but she seemed pretty nice once Dad more or less pushed me into the general vicinity of her space. Apparently students coming back to "haunt" their teachers makes all teachers feel old or something. (Six years isn't that long!)
I didn't spend a ton of time looking at everything or even watching the main performance, but I did get to see the Life-Sized Mouse Trap in action. Remember that board game? The one that took forever to set up and only a few seconds to come crashing down in colorful burst of glory and destruction? Yeah, now imagine it life-sized. It was amusing, albeit short for all the set-up time. I was actually hoping the players might get to do a bit more than help heist the safe up into the air using the handmade (!) crane.
Food-wise, the selection wasn't huge, but it was varied (if that makes sense). I had the volunteer food of chicken pasta, fruit salad, and a roll, and a walnut brownie. Later on, Dad and I had a strawberry and melba crepe with whip cream. For a late-night dinner, we got food at this place that blended Indian and Mexican food: I had a sauteed mushroom quesadilla with other vegetables, while Dad had a pair of lamb tacos. Good stuff, though I hope there's more variety tonight. Obviously if I could live off desserts for a night, I would....
I'm just chilling at Dad's loft for right now. I finished my Week 2 iLab assignments for my DeVry Web Graphic Design/Visual Design Fundamentals class, but as always, I have lots of other things to do. Better hop to it!
I worked at the Pantogram, an old-fashioned engraving machine. But not just ANY engraving machine, no: it takes a larger-scale image (say, of an Eye of Horus) and translates the movements as you trace the large image onto a brass pendant that's six times smaller. We only had three templates: an Eye of Horus, a hook, and a skull and crossbones, but it was pretty popular. By my count, we made 31 pendants over the course of a little less than five hours. Considering each pendant takes anywhere from five to fifteen minutes, that's pretty awesome! A lot of people liked the interactive-style of this event, which is why I had no problem doing it for hours: instead of just watching some expert work an old machine, people actually got to do it themselves! We had people of all ages, all genders and backgrounds making their own. We got some pretty good ideas for other templates too, but I don't know if it'd be possible to make new acrylic templates in one day.
I also got to see Jessica Hobbs again, back from when I went to a web design class offered by the Richmond Beacon back at Wash (a.k.a. my high school). She was the one that basically taught me how to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop! At first, I wasn't sure if she recognized me, or if she didn't WANT to see me ("ahh, reminder of things done nearly a decade ago!"), but she seemed pretty nice once Dad more or less pushed me into the general vicinity of her space. Apparently students coming back to "haunt" their teachers makes all teachers feel old or something. (Six years isn't that long!)
I didn't spend a ton of time looking at everything or even watching the main performance, but I did get to see the Life-Sized Mouse Trap in action. Remember that board game? The one that took forever to set up and only a few seconds to come crashing down in colorful burst of glory and destruction? Yeah, now imagine it life-sized. It was amusing, albeit short for all the set-up time. I was actually hoping the players might get to do a bit more than help heist the safe up into the air using the handmade (!) crane.
Food-wise, the selection wasn't huge, but it was varied (if that makes sense). I had the volunteer food of chicken pasta, fruit salad, and a roll, and a walnut brownie. Later on, Dad and I had a strawberry and melba crepe with whip cream. For a late-night dinner, we got food at this place that blended Indian and Mexican food: I had a sauteed mushroom quesadilla with other vegetables, while Dad had a pair of lamb tacos. Good stuff, though I hope there's more variety tonight. Obviously if I could live off desserts for a night, I would....
I'm just chilling at Dad's loft for right now. I finished my Week 2 iLab assignments for my DeVry Web Graphic Design/Visual Design Fundamentals class, but as always, I have lots of other things to do. Better hop to it!