Pony Modding

I would like to say that the whole blasé brony podcast didn’t have a lasting effect on either myself or Mark, however it has. It’s an illness that we are both suffering through together now that we’ve both accepted that we have it. Though the symptoms are embarrassing and there is no prognosis, I have faith that in time we’ll make a full recovery with some shred of our dignity left in tact.

It all began with Buttercup (or Butterscotch), the white plastic figure that I gifted Mark during the shoot of our first podcast. I little realized what I had set in motion, but once it was done the effects were swift and hugely contagious.

Mark started sending me horrible photos of his new plaything; the type of images that you’d unfriend someone on facebook for. Yeah, they were messed up in that way… but this is the langue people like us speak. Naturally I had to respond and thus the dialog of ‘Pony Modding’ began.

(that’s mayo.)

I went to Target and bought an Applejack figure.

This is the stupid cowgirl character from the show that Mark oogles over. I chose this one because she, unlike the others, was without a unicorn horn or wings… making for an ideal point of departure for the project I had in mind. Alas I came home and started shaving off her wavy plastic hair with a razor blade.

I sent Mark my progress shots… partially because I knew taken out of context, he’d think I had lost my mind :

Once he saw the mohawk mounted on top of where the hair once was he realized I was hacking the thing… and all acts of cruelty were forgiven :

This pony, is based on the war-horse I am riding in the illustration I made to promote our first podcast. I want to rip off the toy’s head and mount LEDs inside where the eyes are… to get that clean ‘fuck you laser’ effect.

Sadly, the silver spray paint STILL isn’t dry after nearly a month of sitting in the desert sun and curing… so I have moved on. There are a lot of little horses in the world.

At some point while I was at Maker Faire last month I woke up to this text :

…which inspired me to make ‘Velvetine’. Yes, I bought another white pony and took what we had been hinting at with Buttercup to another level. I gave her a proper leather thong, complete with a hole for her tail to fit through. No leather panties are complete without vinyl boots either! :

Can you spot where the unicorn Horn went? I can… :

And with the addition of a collar, I gave her some pretty eye-liner that she unfortunately messed up with her tears. :

Ain’t she perdy? :

I’m debating giving her some tattoos on her arms… and I’m trying to think of a good way to cover up the current tramp stamp on her hip so I can replace it with something clever… like a little dump truck or B-52 bomber.

Along side this project, Mark has been making a set of Blue Man ponies and a secret optic yellow one (that is suppose to be a surprise). He has also run into the same issue I am having with the paint taking forever to dry. That just means there will be more to show off in the future while we work this illness out of our systems.

I know none of this is electronic or has anything to do with robotics, but it’s fun and is a great distraction from all the other hectic stuff on the front burners of my life right now. I’ll post the epic progress I’ve made on the lower half of project L once I get the tip rotating. I’ll leave it at that. It’s going to be a great summer. =]

Pudding and 2” PVC

What is an army of robots if they are all a heap of sleeping catatons? Sure they look dazzling, especially if we’re talking about my shiny yellow deltas…. but they aren’t impressive by any means. A robot is meant to move, and to tell you the truth, I’m tired of carrying a bread board and whole stinken arduino around just to demo how my show horse works. So I sucked it up this weekend and designed the board that will control each individual in my army. It will be the first board ever that I send away to be fabricated professionally; which I am excited about! OSH Park will be getting some business from me at last.

As such… I am getting better at designing boards. However seeing this in the beginning still scares the crap out of me :

And Mark is laughing because this isn’t even hard mode. I know. But realize, this is how I think eagle (and all chip pinouts) should work in my head :

Other than that, I have been spending mostly all of my free time collaborating with Mark on another project (that’s still secret right now). Without really intending to, I seduced him with the idea of embracing his artistic instinct and following it to glory, as such, he quit his job so that he could focus on making the crazy shit we talk about when we’re drunk. Best life decision ever… it doesn’t get more bohemian than that.

During this first week of freedom we’ve been frequenting just about every craft and fabric store in town, as well as ever toy isle. In fact, we can’t complete a beer run without stopping to discuss the ponies and chibi Bjork alien dolls that we recently discovered (potentially a future podcast topic).

Life is productive. I get to work on all flavors of moving parts and film our avant-garde banter all while drinking Blue Moon, making cake, and drawing on ponies.

At some point this week I even got a tour of the Blue Man set and was able to fondle these sexy beasts. I’ve always wanted a KUKA as a pet… (since about two months ago when I learned what they were) The consensus is that I need to make a working miniature that will paint your toes. Challenge accepted! :

Tomorrow Mark and I film our next episode of Taco Time. Though we still don’t know what the topic will be (and it’s 11:00 the night before) we will be discussing whatever it ends up being to the tune of bloody marries and cream cheese frosting. You’ve been warned.

Oh, and if you were wondering… the safe word is “Pudding”

SM Taco Time : Pick a Pony

It has to start somewhere…

Two weeks ago Mark and I met on a Friday, drank a case of beer, and filmed four hours of footage involving cartoon horses. It was exciting, revealing, and everything a talk about bronies shouldn’t be. After editing it down we came up with this… a rant that captures our inner child at its most immature and perverted state.

On our agenda of topics we had some good points to make regarding the brony movement, that acknowledged the more sensitive and often ignored part of the male soul… as well as a debate about whether or not most bronies really like MLP, or are just leaping onto a new and irreverent fad. Most of these segments ended up getting cut (for the moment) because of how long they were. As a result we are releasing something that lacks any true intellectual content, however we plan to cover these points again in a future episode where we revisit the brony subject and talk about the impact it has had on us…. which sadly it has.

In the mean time enjoy laughing at our expense.

The next episode is all about mysterious project ‘L’. With Mark on a new work schedule we will have a brief moment this summer to focus on our current monstrosities. This should yield some good footage and many speed progress videos…. So we’ll lock up the liquor cabinet for now and kick into production mode.

Maker Faire : San Mateo 2013

I found my people.

We packed up the truck for the ten-hour long pilgrimage to San Mateo to embark on one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. This weekend I rediscovered what child-like wonder is as I perused the main hall, attention fracturing over the decadent saturation of brainy eye candy. I want to thank Jeff for letting me in on this secret… we had an amazing time walking around as Mr. and Mrs. Cool Goggles.

Playing to the big kid side of me (which is more than 3/4) the first cool thing I saw upon entering the first building we came to, were giant RC controllable Wall-E robots. They could look around, change expression, and even occasionally played sound bites from the movie such as the musical clip from Hello Dolly. My pants were immediately charmed off :

The very second thing that demanded my attention upon crossing the antechamber threshold into the ‘dark room’ was the stage containing the obnoxiously large Tesla coils. Now, I have seen performances on youtube by Arc Attack before, and though they are indeed the bees knees… I had never witness one in person; much more amazing. Around the time we were about to leave the dark area, they started their first performance… sending ten foot long bolts of musical lightning across the stage in deafening pulses. At some point they even took volunteers on stage and locked them in a cage which then became the object of the lightening’s affection. I stood with Jeff and his friend Mark debating whether or not I would go into that cage if given the opportunity. For some reason I can’t accept the fact that certain things don’t deviate from their defined behavior… like electricity. I was afraid that on a whim, a piece of lightening would change its ‘mind’ and fry my face off… which might be irrational, but I couldn’t shake the fear. In the end I probably would have gone in… :

I saw a whole lot of delta robot 3D printers. Enough to satisfy my craving. The majority of which were huge in scale. I even talked to someone who had designed their own delta printer and had come up with an even better bearing joint than the one Mark and I are currently using in our models (Magnets! Brilliant!). :

Jeff and I at some point stumbled across a transparent pinball machine. Though I crave making my own, seeing all the internal components at work in their analog greatness was a bit intimidating. That project may have to wait… never the less, very cool :

My old mentor would have loved these things. I would seriously have bought one if I ever planned on having a lawn to display it on. :

One of the makers at the show created professional armor from various video games/ movies. I had to take a picture of this guy because I happened to love this suite, from Dead Space. Extremely well made :

The second day of the show we had breakfast with Suz and Pawel and spent the morning walking around with them. They were collecting footage for SYN Shop’s second podcast episode. We even hijacked some chairs and set up a makeshift location for a quick talk about how fantastic the show was and what our favorite things that we saw were. :

Pawel and Suz checking out the neon yellow robot :

I collected about a dozen miscellaneous stickers from the various booths… Covered my left boob in Maker pins… and successfully dodged getting sun burned the entire time. At the height of each day, it did get quite crowded pretty much everywhere you could possibly stand, inside and out, making it difficult to see what was where. With the ebb and flow of traffic, things we hadn’t yet seen were revealed. I saw a steam-powered printing press, the Keepon dancing yellow snow ball, and I even got to try on an Emotiv Epoch in one booth (which tickled be senseless).

After all was said and done we regrouped at a little bar called the Swinging Door, ate and cooled off a little bit. The four of us returned for one last run through the main hall since it was starting to clear out a bit. Even in the last hour we saw things for the first time that we had somehow missed.

Sunday night Jeff and I went to the ‘bring your hack’ dinner at this not very hofbrau-like “hofbrau”. I sat pinned against the bar like a wall flower, afraid to mingle with the other kids until I got a beer or so in me. Eventually I dove in and started parading around with my delta on my arm like a rat dog. I met some fantastic people and got to talk to another person who had also built a delta robot out of hobby parts. =D I could have stayed there all night mingling… but apparently bars in San Mateo have last call (What is that?).

Sweetie and Jeden :

My new goal is to get into Make magazine one day! The plan is to keep creating stuff and keep meeting other cool people who do as well. My life has changed so much in the past year just due to my new surrounding influences that it strikes reverence into my heart. I could not have been on this amazing journey growing like I am if it weren’t for the people I now know.

Here’s to all of us at SYN Shop being at Maker Faire next year

fear… fear and lightening.

inflatable forest

Pawel and Suz filming

Boobs! These are totally boobs…

Cool coffee logo!

Make your own pixel bot…

Ingenious ball joints

two happy nerds

Delta Force

The SYN Shop podcast pilot is up for viewing just in time for Maker Faire weekend! Check it out! I want to thank Suz and Pawel again for thinking of Mark and I while coming up with ideas for their first show. They did an awesome job editing our rambling and childish robot play into something cool to watch.

….Oh yeah….. and a special thumbs up for including my bloody nose art. If you didn’t get a good look at it in the middle of the film… here it is in the flesh (teehee!) :

Lets just say I know how to make Mark bleed.

If you are curious about Amber, as you well should be… check out Mark’s Blog at Circuit Monkey.com

Mark & Sarah’s TACO Time

“Between the two of us we are one functioning psychopath.”
Making our very own podcast will either be me and Mark’s best idea… or just something that we do on Fridays to contribute to our extra weight. Either way, it’s been a hoot. While filming and editing this weekend, I’ve laughed hard enough to make the muscles in my face sore. So hopefully we’re as funny as we think we are, not just hyped and drunk.

We decided to start filming our dialogues because when we hatch ideas for new projects… the exchange is pretty amusing. Though our talks will be mainly about our collaborations and future projects, we’ll occasionally cover a topic of interest like the one for our pilot episode; quite the laugh.

What’s so funny? Why, the topic for our first episode is none other than a study on why and how perfectly sane men fall from grace and become bronies. The specimen is none other than SYN Shop’s very own Mark Koch, and he’s ready to fall in love!

While recording we briefly discussed the pop culture phenomenon, and after reviewing a couple episodes, Mark was tasked with making an argument according to how the show made him feel.

Right out of the chute he was already leaning way over the fence. He wants to fall, but I am a good friend and will do everything in my power keep him from going over to the dark side. I mean, I like Mark…. and would hate to have to put him down. =[

Will Mark fall victim to brony inception and pick ‘the one?’ Or can I shame him into coming to his senses? Tune in after Maker Faire weekend to find out!

And check out our fetus of a channel : Sarah & Mark’s TACO Time

Science & Technology Week

I sit here in my bathrobe, numb from the events of the past few days. Even though it was really cool, I don’t think anyone else aside from the volunteers who participated in it realized that this was “Science and Technology Week” here in Las Vegas. SYN Shop answered the call of duty for this festival. It was coordinated to coincide with First Friday, which made for a brutal gauntlet of setting up, tearing down, and giving attention to endless amounts of people.

All of the excitement began on Thursday night downtown in new Fremont with the Science Crawl. The first event was family friendly and held at our hackerspace, attracting a wild herd of parents and children for an hour of building ‘light sabers’ out of pool noodles and electrical tape. (doesn’t that not sound horrifying??) Luckily, Jeff and I escaped this madness by the skin of our teeth and went for some dinner before the pub-hopping portion of the night began.

Having bypassed that, we met up with the others at ‘Park’ bar. This was one of the stops from the Blinking Man event which I liked a lot as it had incredible ambiance. I was happy sitting there on the terrace with the others, all goggles bedecked in appropriate lab coats, but eventually the group migrated to the last stop of the crawl which was at a bar called ‘Commonwealth’. This seemed like a poor choice of venue because though the theme of the bar fit the steam punk occasion, it was over priced, pretentious, and any chance of conversation was thwarted by throbbing 80s R and B music.

Where we were all rearing to go a few hours earlier, the group quickly broke up and I found myself back home with Jeff before 11:00. This was alright as we had a long day ahead of us.

The next morning, after consuming a majestic cheese Danish at Wieß deli with my sweetie, we packed up our children and prepared to display them at the SYN Shop booth for First Friday. I don’t know what they were thinking, but the event coordinators put the pasty nerds in locations most exposed to sunlight, so I spent the first two hours or so hiding in whatever pockets of shade I could find. Once the sun set, time flew by. Over all I’d say it was a success for the shop as we handed out dozens of flyers and went through our reserve of cards.

The white arching arm on the table is a 3D scanner that one of our members, Judd, has built. It pans three cameras around a central object, taking pictures every few degrees of rotation or so. A free to use program called 123D Catch then cross references the photos and creates a rendering of the object photographed which can then be converted to STL and printed. SO COOL! :

Here is an example of an object it captured (reactor goggles) :

The night ended with midnight breakfast at Blueberry Hill, scarfing down ham and eggs while mentally preparing ourselves for a more intense repeat of the whole shebang in less than six hours.

Morning brought the Science Faire at Cashman Center. This was the event that stole my soul and left me rocking back and forth on the floor of my shower last night. I found myself and my innocent delta robots in a sea of children three to four deep. It was like a gang rape. They came at me relentlessly from all directions without any sign of stopping until my will was gone.

My stuff on the front line of defense :

Jeff and Nomad :

Brian and his Hydrogadget :

Mark with his lovely Amber :

The Sarah wearing too many goggles :

OMG Pool noodlez :

Before I go off and rant a little bit… I first want to say that I do not hate all children. I am annoyed by anyone of any age who is running around like they’re jacked up on PCP not minding other people’s hard work or personal space.

I witnessed a little girl point to my deltas and say, “Look daddy! Aren’t those cool?” only to have him tell her, “Well, you see the problem with those is that they don’t have a purpose…”

The throngs of children were one thing (and the nature of such is to be expected), but I contribute the loss of my soul to the gross number of adults who while holding the joystick in their hand and watching my delta robots move still had to ask, “What do they do?”.

I honestly had no idea how to answer them without sounding like an ass. Apparently Jeff experienced the same thing in regards to his remote-controlled robot, Nomad. It all boils down to the fact that as a whole, people can’t process the idea that something might not in fact have (need) a specific purpose to validate its existence. Or that there are people in the world who make things simply because they want to see them exist and enjoy the challenge of doing so. This being what I desire to change about the world most, there is no place I belong more than at the hackerspace’s booth as a crusader of awesome for awesome’s sake.

If there ever is a next time for me and my deltas at a family friendly event, I will simply make up a different explanation every time someone inquires about my robot’s function for my own amusement.

Though it was mostly fun, we left two hours early (because we were spent) with Nomad and the deltas to catch the last period of the hockey game at Wing Stop. To add insult to injury, the Red Wings lost. By that time, Mark too had left the event and met us for a well deserved beer. We all vented for a while. Where my robots at least made it out alive, poor Amber was completely obliterated. By 2pm Mark had to take her off the table because she couldn’t hold it together anymore. Poor girl was splayed out and loose like an 80-year-old hooker :

And that’s why humans need to evolve to phase out their reproductive organs.

In conclusion, the weekend was long and taxing but I’ll admit that it was fun for me to display my work in public. I did meet cool people in the process, some of which will hopefully become members at the shop and will add to the environment. I will now go sleep for the rest of the week. <3