Last week SWARM attended the Barbots event. It was a great success!
Jon proposed:
So here’s the plan: I will get some 3/16 plywood and some 2x4s (anyone have some scrap?) and if I can find it some thin astroturf carpet. I have a spare piano hinge. The idea is to make a runway edged with 2x4s, and a small hinged ramp at the end, also edged with 2x4s. Under the ramp is an foot pump like for inflating air mattresses (anyone have one to borrow?) Someplace on a table with a bottle with a cork that has two tubes through it. The output tube goes down to the liquid; the input tube doesn’t and is connected to the airpump. Rolling an orb up the ramp depresses the pump, which pumps air into the bottle, displacing liquid through the output tube into someone’s cup. It will be punk rock but it should work…
And darn if it didn’t work! We had orb mini-golf at BarBots!
I was a philosophy major in college for 6 glorious weeks, long enough to sign up for a bucket of classes tastier than KFC, classes like “Theory of Human Nature” and “Nietzsche and You”. But all I really needed was SMBC Theater!
The Workshop Weekend guys have a really impressive lineup at Tech Liminal on March 17 & 18. And they’re trying out a Convention pricing model… $30 gets you into any and all of the classes (a lot of classes have materials fees, but hey, that’s stuff you take home)!
Join us on March 17-18 to solder, program, build, craft, make and explore. New this year, a flat $30 admission gets you as many workshops as you can handle!
Register by Wednesday, March 7 and get 10% off admission with discount code EARLYBIRD2012. Select your workshops at https://whatwillyoulearn.com/catalog
We have 25 workshops to choose from at this Workshop Weekend:
Arduino for Newbies: Build an Arduino TV-B-Gone
Programming the Arduino for Fun and Profit (but just fun)
Make a Bug-in-a-Book: Clandestine Listening Devices
Exploring DNA Sequencing
Soap-making
Natural Bath Salts
Learn to Knit: Cowls
Geeky Cross Stitch
Scrapcycling: Recycling Old Fabrics into New Clothes
Millefiori Jewelry Making
Origami Photo Album-making
Electroluminescent Wire Workshop
Stop Motion Animation: Story
Stop Motion Animation: Characters
Learn to Program
PHP Web Development
Build a Camping Stove
MacGyverClass
Building Robots
Build a BeetleBot
Learn Lockpicking
Sewing Circuits
Learn to Solder
Obamacare: About America’s Healthcare System
Smart Aquaponics
Register and select workshops online at https://whatwillyoulearn.com/catalog
I think I aced my first Chem 32 test today. I’m happily surprised.
I definitely aced the first Phyc 10 test tonight. :-)
I’m rather terrified about my Anat 25 test tomorrow. About 100 questions like these:
9. In receptor mediated endocytosis, coated vesicles add cell membrane receptor proteins to the endosome membrane. Pieces of the endosome membrane containing these proteins bud off. Which of the following happens to them ? (a) They are destroyed by lysosomes. (b) They add to the nuclear envelope. (c) They are returned to the plasmalemma. (d)They join the Golgi body. (e) They become peroxisom
27. During muscle contraction, which is the second event to occur in the following list? (a) troponin changes shape (b) calcium binds to troponin TnC (c) tropomyosin moves (d) myosinbinding sites on G-actin molecules are exposed (e) calcium ions released from sarcoplasmic reticulum
You didn’t think I did my taxes early because I’m just a good person did you?
Do taxes, so I can fill out my FAFSA, so I can apply for loans and grants for school. Yipe, the spring application deadline for CalGrants is in 3 days, Friday. But I can’t apply until my FAFSA clears… in 3 days. Talk about cutting it close!
TDAmeritrade took their time getting me my tax info. Then I mostly did my taxes. Then I was waiting for some tax help from CCSF. But that was a bust. I knew more about taxes then they did. So I just did my taxes on my own.
I thought that maybe I could put money into my IRA and pull it out when I needed it for school next year; I thought maybe this would be a good way of getting tax free money for school. But it turns out that while I would not be subject to the 10% penalty (because of a school withdrawl), I would still have to pay taxes on the money taken out of my IRA. So it’d be a lot of paperwork for not much gain.
And now I’m down to the wire on this grant/loan cycle.
AND I have big Chemistry and Physics tests tomorrow and an Anatomy test Thursday.
And today I rode to CPMC Pacific Campus (where I’m doing my hospital volunteering for school and such) in 30 minutes… less time than it would have taken on the BART + shuttle bus. And it was easy.
Hurray!
And here’s a shout-out to the guys at Pedal Revolution who set me up.
