Last Saturday was Jugband Jubilee, as well as the school's fall celebration.homecoming. We had a dance friend come in for the weekend, who I didn't get to spend much time with, as I had to be out at the fields at 11. The school had every fall sports team scheduled for a game, including the middle school, so for several hours you had your pic of watching either soccer or field hockey. Lots of people came out and it was a lot of fun. My team had a great win, and them I stuck around for varsity, which won as well. The kids had their homecoming dance that night, which I didn't attend as I headed to jugband jubilee. I only made it for the last 3 bands, which were excellent. One of our friends brought her portable dance floor, and they had been dancing all day. Shortly after I got there a woman came up to talk to our friend from out of town. She and her husband were from Cincinnati and have been coming to Jugband Jubilee with friends for years. She loves watching us dance and invited us out for brunch the next day, their treat, the next day at a marina a bit upriver. Brunch was terrific. The other people were all retirees, but fans of jazz music so we had plenty to talk about. I ended up seated next to a guy who also sails and is a stride pianist. It was a great morning.
Immediately after brunch I had to head to school as I was heading to Memphis for a school visit with a bunch of other faculty. We stayed at a hotel just of Beale street, so there was plenty going on. The school visit was to see a school that uses a block schedule in action and talk with students and faculty about it as we are going to a block schedule next year. It will be very similar to the schedule I had in California. Our hotel was literally across the street from the Memphis Gibson guitar factory, which makes semi-hollow and hollow body guitars. After we got back from the school visit I managed to just catch the last tour of the day. I had a bunch of work stuff to do so I didn't get to tour much of the city, just the few blocks around our hotel on our way to and from dinners. We got back at the end of the day on Tuesday, just in time for me to hop on a bus for a soccer game.
Today I spent the day at the Louisville Mini-Maker Faire. My school was one of the sponsors and we had a good tent with a bunch of activities for kids. I also took my boat down to show it off, and met a few other small boat fans. I was set up right next to a woman who runs a boat building and adventure trip school revolving around building traditional skin-on-frame kayaks and camping with them at lakes and rivers around the area. Due to a later addition to the soccer calendar, the other coach and the team were Elizabethtown at their annual JV soccer tournament. We have one more game tomorrow, so I will have another busy day tomorrow. It's a long shot, but if we advance out of group play I'll be back down in E-town next weekend. And if not for all this stuff I would have been in Chicago at a dance event, which Collyn went ahead and went to. The event is being affected by the radar fire sabotage you likely heard about, as the flights of most of the instructors were cancelled and they haven't been able to get there. Like I said, busy weekends.
I don't have much for pictures as we've been relying on Collyn's smart phone, and she forgets to upload them for me. I did get a few today before the battery died.
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| Chalk paint car at the start |
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| Chalk paint car late in the day |
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| The kayak builder |
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| A large ballista. Unfortunately there wasn't space to fire it. |
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| Tennis ball machine gun. 5 rounds per second with a 150mph muzzle velocity. |
What struck me about the fair is how few builds were showcased. Almost everyone their ran programs for kids either as part of school curriculum like robotics, or through after school programs targeted at kids like Newton's Attic. Even LVL1, which is the adult hacker.maker space in town, brought very few member builds to showcase. It was far more commercial than I was expecting it to be, with so many people there representing a business or organization,that I was the odd one out. People kept asking me if I was selling boats or taught boat building classes. I just wish more people had brought things they made as I really enjoy talking to people about making stuff. The Newton's Attic people were so busy I didn't even have a chance to chat with the founder, who seemed like an interesting guy.
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