On The Road

The Maker Faire, put on by the O’Reilly Media Company, publishers of Make Magazine and Craft, was on Saturday and Sunday at the San Mateo fair grounds.

Saturday morning we got up and attempted to wash Sam’s car before displaying it for all to behold its glory. Easier said than done apparently. The only car wash we could find was one at a gas station which I figured would still be o.k. We were hoping for a DIY car wash, you know, to go along with the theme of the weekend and the fact that you can clean your car better at those. Instead we settled on the worst car wash in the Western United States. After passing through twice we went to the Air/Water dispenser and tried to rinse off the back half of the car still covered in soap suds and then used the window squeegee we stole from the gas pumps to get some of the bugs off the front. It kinda worked, but we were running late so we went to the fair grounds as-is.

When we got there we started setting up and began our quest for a power outlet. We had requested power both days prior to the event and now we were still without power. How can a bunch of nerds survive without electricity? Well, we eventually got power and a table and were all set up ready to go when the gates opened. This year started off a bit slower for us than last year. It took a while for us to con some people into actually stopping at our display but eventually it worked. It probably didn’t help that we were outside on a hot and sunny day. (See Sam’s face for proof.) The car cooperated for the most part and there were a fair amount of interested people who really wanted more info so they could do this to their vehicles or complete doing this in some cases.

There was of course a lot of other stuff going on at the Faire that day but I saw very little of it. I only left the car to get my brother Josh through the gate when he arrived from L.A. and to wait in line for 45 minutes to buy a burger for $7.50. It was a long and tiring day. That night we went to get food and then I crashed.

The next day we were all determined to see more of the Faire. Sam and Jon got their Macbooks laser etched (it doesn’t look good on the black Macbooks so I didn’t do it.). I went around with my brothers to see a bunch of stuff. The pictures will show it all better than I can explain. But we got to ride crazy bikes, see a gigantic Tesla coil, see a bunch of crafts, a guy knitting while playing the drums, a bunch of rides made out of bikes, a robotic George Bush pulling a chariot, and lots of fire. It was also a tiring day but we closed up the car around three and just wandered around to try and see everything. I think I probably saw half of what was there. It was pretty cool. After that it was time to say goodbye to my older brother as he started his drive back to L.A. and then after a stop at In N Out we dropped of my little brother at the airport to wait for his red eye back to the East Coast. We decided to do half of the driving right away and so after six of so hours of driving and one call to the California Highway Patrol to report a drunk driver that almost ran us and a few big rigs of the road, here I am back the The Winner! hotel and flea bag casino in Winnemucca. It’s not a bad place and Jon and I were really not wanting to go any further last night.
Today we’ll finish our journey, finish sharing all of the pics we took, figure out who owes who money, and hopefully all feel good about the trip. (And I mean feel good physically. Last year the trip was immediately followed by me taking Sam to the emergency room which was then followed by bills and collections threats. I hope not to repeat that part of the trip.)

It was a fun trip and we’re already trying to figure out what to do to get in next year.

Check out Sam’s and Jon’s blogs for more pics and what not on the event.

** More Pictures Will Be Posted Soon **

Sam, Jon, and I took off for San Mateo on Thursday evening for the Maker Faire (yes, there is an ‘e’). I’ve been either busy or tired most of the trip so now I’m finally getting around to posting about the trip.

We left Thursday evening with the plan of making it halfway, which would be Winnemuca, NV. The carputer was not fully functional so we were hoping to make it out a bit early and finish the things we needed to.

After a stop in Wendover for some dinner we made it to Battle Mountain, NV and tried to get a room there. Apparently the only hotel in town was fully booked by some biker gang traveling across the country. We drove on to Winnemucca and passed through town to see our options. There were plenty of sketchy hotels and casinos to choose from, but we settled on The Winner! because we could get a non smoking room and free Internet for $40. It was a skeezy place but we all slept well, even Sam on the floor. After a good eight hours of sleep we took off again to finish the trip.

We made it to San Mateo around six on Friday after making our first of many In N Out stops in Reno, NV. At the fair grounds there were some events going on for the ‘Makers’. We got a free dinner and then saw a few guys speak. One guy who spoke helped invent the parachutes that were used in the space program. That design is still used on every ejection seat in the world. He’s the guy who took an open gondola balloon up to 100,000 feet and jumped. He showed some videos and told some interesting stories. We also saw someone from the Crucible speak. They’re an organization that does a bunch of classes here in the bay area on welding, glass working, and use a bunch of pyrotechnics in everything they do.

After that we headed up to San Francisco to meet up with a guy named Jesse Nichols who we met on couchsurfing.com. He said we could all crash at his house in his living room. He turned out to be a pretty cool guy. He works for google, reads a ton, and does photography. He also has many similar political thoughts that I have.

We got up around seven and headed out into the city to find breakfast and an oil change. We promptly found both and headed back to San Mateo so we could see where we would be setting up and work on the car for a bit. We made some progress on the car in the few hours that we had then we went to the airport to pick up my little brother Adam. That was followed by more running around to get food and stuff we needed to fix the car and some shopping in San Francisco.

We had checked into our hotel during the day so we were able to head home and get some more sleep before our first day of showing off the mostly functioning carputer.

Here are some more pics from my camera: (The rest are from Jon’s.)

This has nothing to do with traveling but is instead a month and a half long project that Carter and I have been working on that I’m pretty happy with.

Carter has been planning on pulling all the grass out of the backyard and replacing it with rocks. One day while explaining his plans I jokingly said, “Why don’t you build a deck while you’re at it?” Apparently that was all the convincing he needed. We decided to acid etch the concrete to change the color, build a redwood deck, and fill in the outer edge of the yard with river stones with larger slabs of granite or flagstone scattered throughout.

Once it was all said and done we were happy and surprised (I was anyway) that we actually pulled it all off exactly according to plan. I’ll just post a bunch of pictures of the process. We never really did anything exactly like this, but we thought it was very doable so why not try.

I realize that I said that the Maker Faire would be my next post but I’ve decided to interject something here.

I’ve noticed a trend in the past few years: It’s cool to eat sushi. I for one enjoy sushi. Eel is my favorite. Don’t ask me the name of some specific roll or anything, I just like eel. With many people, however, they will tell you exactly what roll is their favorite, using some fancy name, and tell you that you have to try it.

If you go out to dinner with these people, they will sit there ranting and raving about which sushi rolls are better and where there’s good sushi and where there’s mediocre sushi. When the food arrives they will sit there oo-ing and aw-ing about their sushi and remind you how good it is and tell you what is the best part. Perhaps they will inform you that there is a little bit too much avocado this time and they prefer it heavy on the cucumber. Or perhaps the soy sauce is a bit off tonight. Whatever it is, they seem to have a highly educated opinion on the subject.

You know what: WHO CARES?!! When you go out for pizza do you sit around and discuss which toppings are the best. “Oh, I prefer the mushrooms at Pizza Hut, but the peppers and Dominoes are the best!” or, “I really like the combination of the sausage with the cheese at Pappa John’s.” No, it just sounds silly. Do you eat Mexican food and comment on how the guacamole and the beans are so good together. No, you laugh at how every Mexican dish uses the same ingredients, just prepared differently.

For some reason, whether it was marketing or American fascination with Asian culture, people have decided that eating sushi is a status symbol. People talk about what sushi is better and then tell you where it’s good and where it’s not, as if they know what authentic is and what’s not. I eat at a dive Mexican chain called Beto’s all the time. Everyone hates this place and talks about how crappy the food is. Well guess what, after living in Los Angeles and backpacking in Mexico, I can say with some certainty, that it’s fairly authentic. American’s enjoy Tex-Mex or americanized Mexican food, not the real stuff.

This idea applies to any nationality of food. Quit being a poser and acting like your life was complete the first time you had sushi. Don’t talk about great Italian food and The Olive Garden in the same sentence (or any chain Italian place for that matter. Yes, any Italian chain.) And let’s not forget about Indian food and Thai food. No, I don’t like either of those! There I said it. Stick up your nose at me, I don’t care. I get it, you’ve been to a few restaurants and think you’re cultured because you know a few things on the menu.

I’m not saying it’s not o.k. to really like some kind of food and try to get others to try it. That’s fine. I mean how else would you learn about new foods? And I’m not saying all sushi is equal, but c’mon, is your palette really that sensitive that you can tell the difference in the yellow tail at different restaurants amongst all that other crap stuffed in rice? Plus, what you’re eating is quite possibly not what the menu said it is.

Just quit pretending like eating sushi is some level that you’ve achieved and that you’re a connoisseur of Japanese cuisine just because you like California rolls.

I haven’t done any traveling recently but I have done a few things with pictures worth posting.

The first would be Cinco de Mustache. Many Americans are familiar with the holiday ‘cinco de mayo’ which in fact is a trumped up holiday not even celebrated in Mexico. The short and skinny of it is that it only commemorates the defeat of the French in one particular battle which in the end only delayed the invasion of Mexico City. Basically Corona beer has hyped it as some sort of holiday to increase their sales; much like Hallmark and Mother’s Day. Anyway, it was decided that it would be changed to Cinco de Mustache and so everyone was supposed to grow a mustache (preferably just the guys), but some had to enhance theirs with mascara. No, seriously.

The second event was the Against Me! concert last night. The lineup was Cursive, Against Me!, and Mastadon, in that order. Cursive was pretty good. There was a bit of ska influence in their music. There were horns, keyboards, even a clarinet and flute, and the band was dressed in black suits, looking very much like ‘rude boys’.

Cursive was followed by Against Me! which was… well, awesome. I was sitting in the balcony directly in the center where I had a perfect view of their non-stop energy. They never once stopped between songs, it just went from one to another to another. The playlist was a really good representation of every single one of their CDs including four new songs I’ve never heard. They put on a really good show and switched up their songs a bit so it doesn’t sound exactly like you’re listening to the CD at home. I took a few pictures and some video, which I may upload to YouTube. Anyway, it was awesome.

I stuck around for Mastadon just to see what they were like which is more than I can say for half of the people there. I don’t know why the were headlining. The previously packed dance floor was fairly empty when I left after three songs. Oh well. It was fun.

Lastly, Dan (Sam’s little brother) just bought a house. After a house warming party that was almost completely devoid of chicas Sam was apparently feeling lonely and hopped on the back of Jon’s motorcycle. Picture Perfect.

Next post: San Francisco and the Maker Faire.