I picked up some new fidget toys from the Rooster Gear booth at Maker Faire Detroit.
It was $5 for 2 of their Flippy Chain Fidgets, which are simple, but extremely satisfying. A 2 pack sells for $7.99 on their Amazon store.
I also bought their Fidget Pad for $5, which is much better than my Fidget Cube. Normal price is $9.99.
Ever since seeing the CrossFit Regional workouts, I’ve been wanting a bigger sandbag to do cleans, holds, squats, and carries. Rogue has been sold out of their strongman sandbags for months, so I bought one of the StrongFit sandbags for my garage gym. The Gorilla tape pictured is mine and I added the second zip tie, but the lacrosse ball, ring, and one zip tie all came with the bag.
It was less than $6.50 for two 50 pound bags of Play Sand at Home Depot.
Filled up the bag, followed the instruction video, and it seems solid.
The Tesla Orchestra did a show with their mini Tesla coils almost every hour at Maker Faire Detroit.
Each spark unleashes a bolt of plasma that makes the air explode. Repeat these explosions fast enough and you get a musical note. Four coils, four notes. Custom electronic hardware and software convert MIDI encoded music to pulses of light. At the other end of four fiber optic cables, the powerful amplifiers in the bases of each coil transform 300 volt DC power into hundreds of thousands of volts of musical lightning.
Even in slo-mo, lightning is fast!
On Sunday I spent almost 6 hours at the Henry Ford Museum for Maker Faire Detroit. It was a great venue for it because attendees had access to the museum as well.
Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, Maker Faire is a venue for these “makers” to show hobbies, experiments, projects.
We call it the Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth – a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness.
Glimpse the future and get inspired!
It was inspiring to see all of the makers and I had a blast geeking out.
Other posts about the event…
I’ve been using an AeroPress since Christmas and I love it. I often get the shakes if I drink multiple cups of coffee, but the 4 ounces I get out of the AeroPress isn’t quite enough on most days. Yesterday at IKEA I bought this mini French Press. It’s 13.5 oz, which produced a much better amount of coffee this morning.
By the way, “Upphetta” is the IKEA product name for a French Press.
I had my new YI Action Camera in one of those strap bags on my back today at Maker Faire Detroit and must have bumped into something. 😦 Hopefully it’s not too expensive for a new screen and easy to replace.
Update: Roughly $70 for a like-new replacement screen on eBay. Apparently it’s pretty easy to replace.
Figured since I was only 20 minutes away I’d visit my first (maybe last?) IKEA.
Charlize Theron is a badass, especially since she did her own stunts. I’m looking forward to seeing where they take the series. Theron’s character, Lorraine Broughton, has the potential to be Jason Bourne, or even better.
We stayed the night and played Forest Dunes Golf Course this morning, which is ranked #5 in Michigan by Golf Digest for 2017-18. It’s a great course, but after having so much fun on the Loop, we think our expectations may have been too high. After the round, we struggled to think of more than one hole (#9) that was really memorable. The course was similar to a lot of other places in the state, only a lot more expensive. Don’t get me wrong, the course was in excellent condition and I loved putting on their greens, but if we were to go back, we both said we’d rather play the Loop twice so we could play both directions.
Nestled on 500 acres of heavily wooded land within the Huron National Forest, Forest Dunes has become one of the country’s most peaceful and exciting golf experiences.
In this pristine setting, British Open Champion Tom Weiskopf designed a parkland-style classic with modern enhancements.
“Forest Dunes replicates classic style and emulates a risk/reward involvement on most every hole,” Weiskopf said. “I consider this golf course to be in the top three which I have ever been involved in the United States.”
Forest Dunes features a number of intriguing challenges including wide open meadows, hardwoods, century-old red and jack pines, rugged native dunes, scruffy sand areas and water features. The front nine at Forest Dunes highlights parkland-style holes meandering through corridors of red and jack pines, with elaborate bunkering and sandy waste areas on the sidelines.
Today, I played The Loop course at Forest Dunes with my buddy Jere. Hands down the funnest course I’ve ever played.
The Loop is a one of a kind because the 18 greens can be played in two different directions. One day the course is played clockwise, referred to as the Black version, and the next day it reverses as the Red, which is what we played. It switches back and forth every day all season. The course won Golf Digest’s best new public course for 2016. In GD’s rankings for 2017-18 it’s rated as #8 in Michigan.
The Red routing plays counter-clockwise around The Loop, starting to the right of the 18th green and playing toward the red flag in the distance. There are red flags on the front nine and white flags on the back, but if you’re ever unsure of which way to go, keep right except to pass!
The Red is a more traditional design, in the sense that the starting holes give you a bit of time to loosen up. There are a couple of hard holes going out, but the challenge really turns up a notch from the 8th through 11th holes, and the short par-4 12th can produce a six as easily as a 4, for those who get too greedy. The last four holes are a difficult finish.
