Well,
I must say I’ve had an awesome couple of weeks at The Geek Group in Grand Rapids MI. I went and worked on a bunch of cars and not only got to see the lab for the first time, but was given the opportunity to have a permanent place there as the Director of Vehicular Sciences. I spent most of the couple of weeks working on car projects that had been sitting for months waiting for someone to come and finish them up. The other guy bailed, and they needed help. Such and awesome non-profit that allows people to come create. I decided to take them up on the offer, and move my home from Thornton Colorado out to Grand Rapids. It will be a while before I will be comfortably living out there, most stuff will remain piled up and in storage for now. However, there are some cool things that come from it. The computer collection will have a place in the main lobby area, and the computers I keep I was thinking about letting others that come into TGG play with them if they would like to. Since I have made my appearance down there people have come out of the woodwork that love the non X86 architectures of yesteryear.
The people there are amazing, as amazing as the idea of TGG in the first place, it far exceeded my expectations of awesomeness. I cannot wait to get everything moved back and start putting together the Vehicular Sciences Lab for real. We already have people donating tools to go into the VSL, and the IRC chat has helped me put together a huge list of tools and disposables for the lab.
This is really cool, the lab isn’t exactly setup yet, which means that I have the power to create an environment where people of the automotive flavor can thrive. We can cater from the basic person wanting to learn about cars to the advanced person who wants to cut out car parts on a CNC machine and install it themselves. We are working on getting a full set of tools, flow bench, engine dyno, etc. This is going to be nothing but awesome indeed. Cars is juts a small part of it, people can come in and work on any vehicle they want whether it be a bicycle, motorcycle, UFO, whatever. That will be nice, a variety, AND I get to help people with their projects!
I’ll be honest, it doesn’t may much of anything at all, in all actuality it pays just the bare minimum for me to pay my bills, which doesn’t include eating, gas, or much of anything else for that matter. I imagine things will be different over time and get better, but for now I have an organization that I need to help get off the ground, so I will devote my time to that, and worry about the logistics of living later. As long as I’m fed, sheltered, and with internet . . I won’t mind actually living on the bare essentials, especially when it means that I have full access to a machine shop to make anything that I would ever want. There are going to be significant changes to make that happen, and I have already started the ball rolling so this change is coming permanently. I plan to be back out in Grand Rapids in the middle of August.
While I was out there I ended up falling in love with the Orbotron they have. Think of it as a 3-Dimensional swingset, you swing your weight around and you can move on any axis. I had so much fun twirling and moving around on the thing that I just HAD to take a couple of videos. So here ya go:
It was a blast, what a wild ride and one hell of a work out. You can wear yourself out completely within just 15 minutes. I kept the rides fairly short for the Camera so I didn’t have to upload such a large video from my Cellphone, but it seemed to handle it okay.
I’m not sure how I will like Michigan in the winter, the cars are rusty as hell, but at least I wont really have to drive anywhere. Everything is in walking distance, not even 30 seconds by car. So, if I need groceries, or whatever, we can manage without too much hassle.
It’s time to begin a new chapter in my life, to take things head on and conquer the challenges that are waiting for me ahead. The road will be rough at times, and good others, all in the end it makes the taste of life.. . Real.
— The Airport cut me off, but my site saved this post. I am back safely and much is to come 🙂
