Introduce Yourself
Well, now we have a suitable place to do this... let everyone know who you are, school?, job?, future plans, etc...
My Name is Paul - I'm a Mechanical Engineering student (third year) and I go to school at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando.
I currently don't have a job (other than little things around campus) - but I'm looking for an internship or even better an externship. As for the future -- I really don't want to work for someone else after I graduate. I don't know how that's going to work out just yet - so I continue to network...
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Feb 22, 2008. 7:37 AMchooseausername
says:
I like tuna rillettes. Do you prefer them with green olives or natural ? Else, welcome !
Feb 22, 2008. 9:45 AMBardouv
says:
Hi I'm Brandon. I am an American. When I took the SAT last year (7th grade) I received a score in the 1400's. I hope to go to Davidson County Community College for Highschool and that way I can earn a Two year Degree while I take normal school. I hope to be a sleep scientist when I get out of college. In no way am I satisfied with the quality of teachers in NC. I like shoes, bikes, and parkour.
Feb 21, 2008. 10:29 AMAnarchistKid
says:
im Casey, i enjoy ThC, alcohol, and the female anatomy, im 16, a junior in high school, smarter than i look, actually enjoy studying electronics, all d.i.y culture and such, hobbies include dumpster diving, stenciling, airbrushing, bonfires, and roaming the streets at 2 a.m
Um, I'm like ah me. I'm big on Instructables that a written by people fully knowledgable on the subject that there wrigting on. I'm entering high school here in Texas, I'd love to go to MIT for Aerospace Enginering, and I've always wanted to live in Scotland or NZ.
Gagh, what an improper intro... I'm Clark, 15, self taught. I have numerous interests, mainly in the field of aerospace sciences, females, and hand to hand combat. I fence, ride, build rockets, blow up stuff, pursue females, eat, sleep, eat some more, and whatnot. I inhabit the state of Texas I hope to have a career either in aerospace engineering (Motor boatin' to Mars baby!), or possibly at Jagex (RuneScape creators, Cambridge England sucka!), or even Squid Labs (Awesomeville Earth). I wouldn't mind moving to the UK or NZ, but I'm never living in mainland Europe if I can help it (those people have been in the same gene pool for to long...)
Jun 17, 2007. 1:30 AMmikesty
says:
"I'm entering high school here in Texas, I'd love to go to MIT for Aerospace Enginering, and I've always wanted to live in Scotland or NZ." Push yourself as hard as you can in high school and see how you feel then. I wouldn't pump yourself towards MIT yet - it's a cool school I'd bet, but there are a lot more out there and you really don't know what awaits you. Take your time and enjoy it but work hard.
Uh, that was rude. I think he's trying to give you some good advice. I'd agree. I chose not to go to MIT and I'm glad I did. It's a mighty expensive place to be figuring out what you really want to do in life. I might end up there for graduate work, but an art college was the perfect place for my undergrad studies. Cheers.
Jul 28, 2007. 4:40 PMmikesty
says:
I'm hoping he was just being sarcastic or maybe he meant to reply to someone else, because what he said doesn't make sense. Either way, you're also correct, Royalestel.
FWIW, my father got his masters at MIT and specifically DIS-recommended it as an undergraduate school, though he was never entirely clear about the reasons. Based on my own experiences in the Ivy League I would say he was right; the transition from high school to college can be pretty traumatic. If you're capable of doing well at MIT as an undergraduate, you can almost certainly do well enough at a less ... intense... school to get into MIT for postgraduate work, with a lot less stress. And you may find that your actual interests lie in different directions than you thought; a rather large number of people end up with post-graduate degrees only somewhat related to their undergraduate degrees.
That's exactly what I was going to recommend to the fellow.
Oh yah, would anybody be willing to tell me what I need to do to go to MIT?
A super strong work ethic. The best people I met while at MIT all worked really really hard.
Ok. I remember applying to MIT and my mindset, and I know at that time I wouldn't have accepted "strong work ethic" as an answer; I would have pressed for more specific details. So, here you go: - I got straight A's all through highschool. My highschool actually did percentage grades, so my transcript was full of 99's and 95's. - I took every AP class offered, and with 5's on the tests placed out of the first semester of chemistry, biology, calculus, and physics at MIT (I actually opted to take the first semester of "physics with advanced math" known as 8.012 because it sounded like fun. Good thing I did, because the professor, Wolfgang Ketterle, turned out to be a Nobel Prize winner. I explicitly remember the day he showed up obviously frazzled for class, apologized for not having slept because his research group had made a break-through the previous evening, and explained how to make Bose Einstein condensate.). The European and American history, and Government AP tests didn't get me out of anything, but I took them too. - I got a 1380 on the SATs. I don't know how many times they've been re-centered, so this number may have no bearing on you whatsoever. My verbal score of 520 was embarrassingly low. I had no concept of what a comma was, or how to use it, and my vocabulary was poor. Both have (marginally?) improved since. - I started "The Outdoors Club" and organized caving and rock climbing trips. - With my best friend as vice president, I ran for school president anonymously. We plastered the school with "Vote Mystery!" posters ("Ignorance is Strength, Vote Mystery!" was one of my favorites), and only announced who we really were at the last minute because we couldn't get "The Mystery Candidates" on the ballot. We won a plurality, but the school decided to hold a run-off, which we very narrowly lost. My entire plan was to expose school government as a sham popularity contest and dismantle it from the inside. Word of my plan got out, and probably was the cause of the run-off, the first ever in the student government's history. Tongue-in-cheek, I publicly called the whole thing illegal, and declared that if the all students would rise up with me, I'd cancel pep-rallies and we could all go home early rather than pack into the gym to pretend we liked the football, or worse, the basketball team. I used this experience as the basis for my application essay to MIT. - I was actually arrested on a couple of occasions for building and using items that now appear in one form or another on this site. Even though I said, "I plan to cause trouble at every opportunity" in my essay, I guess MIT didn't check too closely! So what should you do? Give your full and best effort to all things, both work and play.
Dec 15, 2008. 2:26 PMchriskarr
says:
I've been having trouble in school - not because I'm bad in any of my subjects (my teachers all realize that I can do the work in my classes more easily than any of the other students in my classes - besides in history, that is) but because I can't find the drive to actually do my homework. I get straight A's on the tests and I do projects, all the time, that could be used as extra credit in my classes. I know that some colleges look at grade history and see a jump in the grades at some point in highschool and say "Hey, look at that! He got motivated!", but I'm not sure how MIT would react.
I'm only fifteen years old, and I've never taken any SAT test, and I've never applied for any colleges, as I'm only a freshman. I'm just hoping to God that there's a way that i can correct my errors. I'm working, right now, to make money for MIT at my website along with for some of my research. My website is called Tesla Surplus. And, also, for donations I have a link at the bottom of the page, or you can click here
I'm only fifteen years old, and I've never taken any SAT test, and I've never applied for any colleges, as I'm only a freshman. I'm just hoping to God that there's a way that i can correct my errors. I'm working, right now, to make money for MIT at my website along with for some of my research. My website is called Tesla Surplus. And, also, for donations I have a link at the bottom of the page, or you can click here
Ha!
I got better SAT scores than that when I was in 8th grade.
Obviously you can't do much math now either, because 1380-520=860, which is hard to get out of a max 800! Heh.
I got better SAT scores than that when I was in 8th grade.
Obviously you can't do much math now either, because 1380-520=860, which is hard to get out of a max 800! Heh.
Ok, duh. I meant 620. Who cares? You can tell if someone is smart in 5 minutes, by asking, "what are you passionate about?"
It does say something about one's attention to detail. Constant vigilance!
Yes I agree. Sadly (in the 1970's) my high school grades were crap. But I hadn't had any reason to study, I was interested in few things, nothing was "shown" to me to see if I might be interested....it wasn't until 6+ years later that I got involved with "exploring everything". Grades don't tell the whole story, and even motivation can be depend on resource availability.
Jul 23, 2007. 10:36 PMJohn Smith
says:
8th grade? I thought it was only in high-school? (unless you take it in 7th grade like I did... ...for the Duke University Talent Identification Program)
I took it in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade for some experimental program. It was amusing, but killed a weekend morning.
Jul 24, 2007. 2:51 PMJohn Smith
says:
Wow...
...I really feel sorry for you. :p
The one time I took it for the Duke TIP program, last year in 7th grade (I'm going into 8th grade),I hated. I don't have any patience, which is why it was probably so bad for me, though.
...I really feel sorry for you. :p
The one time I took it for the Duke TIP program, last year in 7th grade (I'm going into 8th grade),I hated. I don't have any patience, which is why it was probably so bad for me, though.
Thanks a bunch (I think), I've wanted to go to MIT ever since I've been able to notice that the people who usually are on Scientific American Frontiers are MIT. I'm homeschooled, would that count against me?
That does make things a bit more complicated, because it's harder to compare you to other students.
A quick answer is to make sure you can prove both breadth and depth of knowledge and experience- one of the concerns with students who are home-schooled is whether their instruction is sufficient across all technical topics. In practice that means documenting your studies such that colleges will understand what it is you've learned, and doing research, participating in academic contests, and building neat things to show that you're actually able to apply that knowledge successfully.
In general, picking a few activities and doing them diligently and well is preferable to spreading yourself thin. That's where the work ethic Eric mentioned comes in. It doesn't have to be strictly academics- I swam competitively for 13 years, putting in four+ hours/day during some parts of the year. That probably looked just as interesting as the academic competitions I'd been in, really. You need the scores (grades, SATs, etc) but it's also necessary to have some other interesting things to back them up. The scores are sometimes the easy part.
Learning to do well on standardized tests is a fairly specific skill, and one that's only partially applicable to doing well in college and later life. (It's
very good at teaching you to deal with the form required to navigate bureaucracy, but I prefer to avoid those whenever possible.) At MIT, like most top schools, they want to enroll people who will be able to actually think. Applying your book knowledge is sometimes hard, so if you can prove that skill it's a big plus. A portfolio of creative projects to show off will help on that count- and I know a nice place to document those. ;)
Learn to express yourself well through speech and writing, and how to positively organize and interact with a group- it will set you apart from many math/science types. MIT requires an interview and essays as part of the admissions process, as do many other top schools.
I know that by definition all these answers are going to be vague and insufficient. Eric's suggestion of talking to the admissions office is a good one, as they'll be able to give you more details, but expect them to be insufficient and vague as well. ;)
All that said, don't stress yourself about getting into MIT or one of the other "top" schools. Some of my good friends who are most successful actually dropped out of MIT and never got degrees, or didn't go to one of these schools in the first place. The most valuable thing I got from MIT was the chance to associate with lots of bright, interesting people who do things; MIT doesn't have a lock on all of them, and you don't even have to go to college to associate with a great group of people. It does make it easier, of course, and you have to be a serious self-starter to do awesome things without the infrastructure, but don't be fooled into thinking that it's the only way to go.
A quick answer is to make sure you can prove both breadth and depth of knowledge and experience- one of the concerns with students who are home-schooled is whether their instruction is sufficient across all technical topics. In practice that means documenting your studies such that colleges will understand what it is you've learned, and doing research, participating in academic contests, and building neat things to show that you're actually able to apply that knowledge successfully.
In general, picking a few activities and doing them diligently and well is preferable to spreading yourself thin. That's where the work ethic Eric mentioned comes in. It doesn't have to be strictly academics- I swam competitively for 13 years, putting in four+ hours/day during some parts of the year. That probably looked just as interesting as the academic competitions I'd been in, really. You need the scores (grades, SATs, etc) but it's also necessary to have some other interesting things to back them up. The scores are sometimes the easy part.
Learning to do well on standardized tests is a fairly specific skill, and one that's only partially applicable to doing well in college and later life. (It's
very good at teaching you to deal with the form required to navigate bureaucracy, but I prefer to avoid those whenever possible.) At MIT, like most top schools, they want to enroll people who will be able to actually think. Applying your book knowledge is sometimes hard, so if you can prove that skill it's a big plus. A portfolio of creative projects to show off will help on that count- and I know a nice place to document those. ;)
Learn to express yourself well through speech and writing, and how to positively organize and interact with a group- it will set you apart from many math/science types. MIT requires an interview and essays as part of the admissions process, as do many other top schools.
I know that by definition all these answers are going to be vague and insufficient. Eric's suggestion of talking to the admissions office is a good one, as they'll be able to give you more details, but expect them to be insufficient and vague as well. ;)
All that said, don't stress yourself about getting into MIT or one of the other "top" schools. Some of my good friends who are most successful actually dropped out of MIT and never got degrees, or didn't go to one of these schools in the first place. The most valuable thing I got from MIT was the chance to associate with lots of bright, interesting people who do things; MIT doesn't have a lock on all of them, and you don't even have to go to college to associate with a great group of people. It does make it easier, of course, and you have to be a serious self-starter to do awesome things without the infrastructure, but don't be fooled into thinking that it's the only way to go.
I'm pretty sure there are homeschooled kids at MIT. Considering you'll be compared against kids in public and private school, my recommendation would be to seek out as many opportunities as possible so the admissions office has a sense of who you are and how you stack up against the rest of the applicants. You could also try calling the admissions office directly and asking how they do comparisons between different schooling environments.
I'll assume that Eric's point is this: hard work and a good attitude are what you need. The grades you get are a product of hard work, but there is some measure of tolerance around grades if a person shows potential. I've got some poor staff, average staff, and some bloody-good staff. The best are the hard and enthusiastic workers, the worst have the most experience, but that amounts to nothing more than time on the job. L
Jul 24, 2007. 4:25 PMBrennn10
says:
MIT would be nice. Not likely, but you never know! I got a 4.125 GPA my freshman year. Only 1 final grade of a B. (It was grammar that killed me) I am going into my Sophomore year, so hopefully I can get straight A's. Soph in latin does mean wisdom....
Feb 21, 2008. 5:20 AMJake Turner
says:
Heh, sorry bud, I haven't found a single way to get even inclined to English Grammar. If I can't see a logical reason to take it, I can't apply myself to it. :P
Jan 30, 2008. 5:59 AMJake Turner
says:
Whassup guys, name's Jake, from North Carolina. I'm in my senior year, I'll be 17 in April. I've applied to both the state university and MIT, in hopes of getting into a Computer Science and Engineering program. I'll post more after school lol.
Jan 30, 2008. 1:29 PMJake Turner
says:
Right, school's out. I get real bored at my house, so I'm liable to do all kindza crap, from cool and useful, to WTF? Most of what I mess with is electronic, and most of that is video game-related. I've made an arcade panel for a PC, built a power button into a Xbox1 controller, modded my Xbox1 and then installed it's guts into a PC case, and... I made my Dreamcast VMU's LCD backlit. Yep. But every now and then I do stuff that involves no circuitry. Right now I'm working on replica armor from the Halo series of games, I've been known to dabble in pyrotechnic chemistry, and so on. i"d write more, but I can't concentrate. Just got back from the dentist's, and the right of my mouth is annoyingly numb. :P Hit me up on AIM or MSN messenger: AIM:Nube H8ter MSN Messenger: Jakebiggsownzu@hotmail.com
Feb 21, 2008. 5:17 AMJake Turner
says:
Yeah, I'll consider doing that once and if I get another VMU. Or if I decide to (backlight?) my TI-83+ calculator's screen.
Jan 25, 2008. 2:55 AMgnomedriver
says:
Hello, Im Matt. Ive been reading some of the posting and it seems a lot of you have studied engineering or something technical. I did a machining apprenticeship when I left school and then when traveling. I found out that I liked castles, pyramids, medieval dudes in armor and stuff like that more than I liked standing at a lathe. So I went to university and studied history. I collect garden gnomes and Lenin memorabilia. As I write this I am listening to The Chemical Bothers and PJ Harvey.
My name is Joe. I'm glad instructables finally has a high school group. Technically I'm in eighth grade but i take more than half of my classes at the high school (band, jazz band, trig, language, science) and I hang out with a lot of high schoolers so I hope I'm still welcome here!
Jan 22, 2008. 6:14 PMBran
says:
My name is Brian, although I go by Bran everywhere (except legal documents)! I am 14 years old. I have a somewhat strong Southern accent and am 6' tall and weigh 180. I live in Augusta, Georgia, home of the Masters Golf Tournament. Currently, I'm stuck in 8th grade, but am heading to high school after summer. I am interested in mechanical engineer and want to further my knowledge in that broad range of topics. I plan on attending the Georgia Institute of Technology and hopefully interning at Instructables HQ.
Apr 8, 2007. 8:55 AMBrennn10
says:
Nick, 14 years old and a high schooler in Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. USA I plan on going to college that is decent for Computer sciences, electrical engineering, programming, etc etc. I also wish to play lacrosse at one of these schools. I get good grades, the occasional B. I am an identical twin, etc etc etc.
Jan 22, 2008. 6:14 PMBrennn10
says:
No, but he occasionally visits. He is not really in to the DIY mindset type of thing.
Jan 22, 2008. 5:31 PMedward32214
says:
Im Ellis..im from Texas and i am getting an engineering degree from somewhere "class of 2010"horrible year we dont have an 0 like 09' or 08' or 07 u know
Jan 6, 2008. 3:40 PMGreen Silver
says:
I'm Lo-couk, and from and still in England to the best of my knowledge.
Jan 6, 2008. 3:21 PMAntexter
says:
I'm Mike: Website designer which I've failed at and trying to find a decent job. Hobbies include hiking and computer security. Also trying to learn about electronics which is why I'm here. I suck at grammar and spelling which is a reason most of my posts will be hard to read :D.
I realized I posted here, but never did an intro, my apologies:
I am Mike, I presently work for an insurance company in the MIS dept as the night shift Systems Operator. This is what affords me large amounts of time to be online but no time at home to be able to make anything anymore.
I like to do a lot of things (was once into pyrotechnics, but wouldn't get back into that without proper equipment), hiking, bicycling, reading....not long ago I was mostly into making devices from schematics. I wore out a lot of breadboards. I do a little pyrography on the side when I have the time (and the work space). I have dabbled in JavaScripting, C#, COBOL, BASIC (not visual basic), Pascal, PL/I, XML, DHTML, and Assembly at one time or another. I read a lot (as example, I have near me right now "Hacking Matter", "Schrodinger's Machines", "Internet Piracy Revealed", "C# Programming", "Changing Minds", "The Great Design: Particles, Fields, and Creation" (Robert K. Adair), 3 books by Hawking, 2 by Dawkins, etc. It would take me over 3 days to inventory my books (I DO need to get them in order though). I tend to ramble, and unintentionally brag *sorry*
I am Mike, I presently work for an insurance company in the MIS dept as the night shift Systems Operator. This is what affords me large amounts of time to be online but no time at home to be able to make anything anymore.
I like to do a lot of things (was once into pyrotechnics, but wouldn't get back into that without proper equipment), hiking, bicycling, reading....not long ago I was mostly into making devices from schematics. I wore out a lot of breadboards. I do a little pyrography on the side when I have the time (and the work space). I have dabbled in JavaScripting, C#, COBOL, BASIC (not visual basic), Pascal, PL/I, XML, DHTML, and Assembly at one time or another. I read a lot (as example, I have near me right now "Hacking Matter", "Schrodinger's Machines", "Internet Piracy Revealed", "C# Programming", "Changing Minds", "The Great Design: Particles, Fields, and Creation" (Robert K. Adair), 3 books by Hawking, 2 by Dawkins, etc. It would take me over 3 days to inventory my books (I DO need to get them in order though). I tend to ramble, and unintentionally brag *sorry*
Jan 6, 2008. 6:46 AMTakeshi_Kovacs
says:
I'm me. You all are figments of my imagination. Good figments, but figments nonetheless.
I'm ...well..me, a teenaged kid in the little island of the duck pond of the North and Atlantic Seas/Ocean. Computers are a curiosity where there is great knowledge, and fire hurts when in close contact. shooting is a fun pastime.
Jul 2, 2007. 9:15 AMmegziewoodles
says:
G'day, I'm Megan. I'm a computer engineering student at UNSW. I'm learning to firedance. I knit, crochet, sew and solve Rubik's Cubes. I'm gonna give electronics a go later on this year. I love maths and custard. The end.
Jun 17, 2007. 1:25 AMmikesty
says:
What's up! I'm sure most people have seen me making strange but encouraging comments here over the past year and making some forum posts. I've really failed to use Instructables very well, and I apologize. Hopefully I'll grab a camera and do some mind-blowing projects this summer.
My name is Mike, Mike Sty. I just graduated from high school and I'm going to Virginia Tech next year to study engineering, hopefully of the systems variety. The whole picture is my shindig. I was an atrocious student in high school and I never really cared about things in school. I need to be more on the ball in the future.
Right now I'm technically unemployed and I'm not totally sure of how I'll pay for VT. I make day-to-day cash working odd jobs and coming up with clever schemes to make money. I usually fix computers under the table but I've been unsuccessful in finding a suitable job in the IT field. Despite being an assistant tech at my school for three years, I have no certifications and my school will not hire me.
I like to read things on the internet a lot. I like to learn things. Life is really interesting. I'm trying to learn other languages out of curiosity. We'll see how that goes.
If you want to get to know me:
AIM: mikesty22
facebook: Mike Stylianos
myspace: http://www.myspace.com/assimilat0r
Don't be shy, I like meeting people too.
My name is Mike, Mike Sty. I just graduated from high school and I'm going to Virginia Tech next year to study engineering, hopefully of the systems variety. The whole picture is my shindig. I was an atrocious student in high school and I never really cared about things in school. I need to be more on the ball in the future.
Right now I'm technically unemployed and I'm not totally sure of how I'll pay for VT. I make day-to-day cash working odd jobs and coming up with clever schemes to make money. I usually fix computers under the table but I've been unsuccessful in finding a suitable job in the IT field. Despite being an assistant tech at my school for three years, I have no certifications and my school will not hire me.
I like to read things on the internet a lot. I like to learn things. Life is really interesting. I'm trying to learn other languages out of curiosity. We'll see how that goes.
If you want to get to know me:
AIM: mikesty22
facebook: Mike Stylianos
myspace: http://www.myspace.com/assimilat0r
Don't be shy, I like meeting people too.
I was bowled over by the CG in Jurassic Park and the T2 trailers. I've been wanting to get into visual effects ever since. Back when I started college in 1996, there were no such thing as "Visual Effects" majors. I decided to go into CS and take art classes and combine the two. After a few years I decided I hated programming. I took a two-year break from school and did volunteer work all over the North and West parts of Colorado. When I got back I went to a regional art school. After a year they developed a Visual Effects major. I switched to that and got my BFA last August. Now I'm just working on my demo reel and paying off school debt until I land a new job. By day I've been a Apache simulator tech for 7 years now. Married. Two kids. No pets. Small garden. Love, love, LOVE instructables.
Cool. I took a computer graphics class and thought it was neat back in 1978, when the only way to do graphics was to do almost all of the software yourself. We had a talk by the guys at U Illinois who did the deathstar attack simulation in the original Star Wars film, and another by some people who were simulating human figures out of multiple ellipsoids, and worrying about things like how to compute (very quickly) whether two arbitrarily transformed ellipsoids intersected or not (can't have your figure's arms move through each other, eh?) Between that and the highly mathematical manipulations that went on to do things like surface shadings, I sorta decided that graphics was too mathematical for me, though I had some fun with line-drawing. Those were the days when a good-sized minicomputer was lucky to do 1 MIP, and probably less if it was doing floating point. The field has certainly changed!
Jun 14, 2007. 10:14 AMSirckus
says:
Hi, I'm Chris... just found instructables about a month ago and it has become part of my daily reading.
I grew up and live in Western New York. Pretty much been a gadget person all my life. Focusing mainly on computers and electronics with a minor in wood and nails. Now, nearing thirty and trying this whole grown-up thing, I find myself more focused on DIY projects concerning Home Improvement. It's a good excuse to buy lots of cool tools, but I still find myself trying to get back to less "necessary" projects if you know what I mean. Last year or so, I jumped back in with a pretty basic LED project.. Valentine Heart and that sort of got the juices flowing again.
Historically, some of my more satisfying projects have been stadium seating for my college apartment, self-aerating hydorponic setup for a friend's african violets, a nerd-hovel for camping out for SW Ep. I tickets and rigged up auto-skimmer for my pool (I cannot tolerate skimming a pool, so even though this was probably the most simplest project, it was also the most satisfying in recent memory.... then it broke. And only in breaking did I realize its true value. So now I need a new one.)
And if anyone knows where my Cold Heat soldering iron is, could you please let me know? I just got a bunch of LEDs and a site full of cool LED projects and they're gathering dust!
I grew up and live in Western New York. Pretty much been a gadget person all my life. Focusing mainly on computers and electronics with a minor in wood and nails. Now, nearing thirty and trying this whole grown-up thing, I find myself more focused on DIY projects concerning Home Improvement. It's a good excuse to buy lots of cool tools, but I still find myself trying to get back to less "necessary" projects if you know what I mean. Last year or so, I jumped back in with a pretty basic LED project.. Valentine Heart and that sort of got the juices flowing again.
Historically, some of my more satisfying projects have been stadium seating for my college apartment, self-aerating hydorponic setup for a friend's african violets, a nerd-hovel for camping out for SW Ep. I tickets and rigged up auto-skimmer for my pool (I cannot tolerate skimming a pool, so even though this was probably the most simplest project, it was also the most satisfying in recent memory.... then it broke. And only in breaking did I realize its true value. So now I need a new one.)
And if anyone knows where my Cold Heat soldering iron is, could you please let me know? I just got a bunch of LEDs and a site full of cool LED projects and they're gathering dust!
My name is Jerome and I'm about to turn 40. I live and work in Boulder County, Colorado. I studied Aerospace Engineering but somehow ended up in the Art Department. I moved to L.A. in '89 to attend Art Center to study Industrial/Transportation Design but they wanted me to go into Graphic Design so I opted out of school and ended up working in the bicycle industry as a designer ( I had been building my own bike frames and working in bike shops since '86.) During this time I was doing a lot of fine art painting (I'm a self taught classical artist of sorts) and had six gallery openings in under two years, two of them being solo shows. I worked in R&D at Onza ( a somewhat famous mountain bike components company) in the early 90's where I worked on everything from clipless pedals to tires, bar ends and cast 6Al/4V Titanum cranksets. Several of us left Onza and formed a company called Real Design where I did everything from design and prototype machining to advertising/packaging/product instructions, etc. My official title was Creative Director. Real Design grew too big too fast (21 distributors worldwide in the first two years) and I felt that the company was straying from our core values so after a total of 12 years in the bike business I called it quits. Real was sold to the company that now owns Litespeed and Merlin bicycles. Since I had also studied metalsmithing in school a cycling friend of mine who is a jeweler asked me if I would like to work with him in an upscale jewlery store. Nine years later I'm still at the same store and I'm in charge of the shop there- I probably do about 70% of all the custom work that comes out of the store. I get to play with fire and dangerous chemicals and even a laser welder- it's a great job. My hobbies are cycling, costuming/movie prop building and working on my house. I've also been known to work on my friends' racecars because I'm the only person they know that knows anything about aerodynamics and can weld. I can probably fabricate just about anything but in real engineering terms I consider myself to be an idiot- I seem to know just enough to be dangerous. :P I'm happily married to a fantastic woman, I have two great sons (one 5 months old (Henry) and one 3 years old (Colin). I have a dog that likes to catch squirrels (Score: Roxy- 15, squirrels- 0), three cats (Max, Teva and Chloe) and two fish (Fernando and Scoop).
Apr 28, 2007. 8:42 PMFrogotten_One
says:
Hi i am Russ and am 17 years old. I came here because a friend told me about some of the Knex weapons and I just had to see them. I love building with knex and have but many weapons with them myself. I also built an AC motor and a 150 volt AC generator (at max I got it to 300 volts but I was pedaling extremely fast) out of Knex and old transformer parts (and also a AC-DC converter so I could power stuff with the generator but that didn't use knex).
Jun 1, 2007. 11:53 AMMasta Moofasa
says:
Hi i'm josh i go to lakefield college sckool i'm in grade7. I like pyro hockey and club penguin!
Apr 11, 2007. 3:54 AMIlluminatedAntichrist
says:
I'm Nino , but some people in my school call me the weirdo for some reason. Anyway,I just turned 16 this Monday. I am a freshman highschool student.I'm your "normal" honor student. I'm a member of the "Technology Student Association" (TSA) I like building machines, robots,....and out of my school life, guns,and weapons. I really don't talk much in real life.I'm hoping to be involved in politics,and government in the future. There are some things in society I'm hoping to change. I also USED to be a magician, but not anymore.
FYI, this user was banned for comments exactly like this. Be nice, guys.
May 31, 2007. 9:00 PMtrebuchet03 (author)
says:
Hrmm.... Is it a bug that I got an eMail notification of this comment -- plus the one above?
No- it's your original Forum post, so you get notification too.
Have you said anything nice to anyone on this site yet? What's the point of being here if it makes you so angry at everyone?
I used to do some magic. Then I learned that a magic show is more about performance (which is not so much fun, for me) than making the technical bits work (which is what I liked.) Sigh.
If you like the tech and not the performance, find a wannabe magician with good presence but run-of-the-mill tricks and work with him to do new stuff. You could be the next Penn and Teller...
Apr 13, 2007. 2:32 AMIlluminatedAntichrist
says:
I liked both performance and gimmicks. I once tried to reproduce the fake illusion (because it's CGI) in the movie "Illusionist", the "orange tree illusion", but failed.
May 31, 2007. 5:48 PMlightpacker
says:
Im Jon and im 13 years old in a school that suks and i am interested in diy electronic projects and im a self proclaimed pyromaniac hahaha i have a dream of going to MIT someday
May 5, 2007. 10:10 PMtrue_geek
says:
Hi everyone!!!
I am 28 and I work as a support technition, basically I babysit the Mainframe overnight and make sure things run smoothly.
I am also part time System Engineer of a Custom H0ome A/V company called Tucker & Tucker I love to tinker with computers, gadgets, remotes and basically anything that plugs into a wall or requires batteries.
I am 28 and I work as a support technition, basically I babysit the Mainframe overnight and make sure things run smoothly.
I am also part time System Engineer of a Custom H0ome A/V company called Tucker & Tucker I love to tinker with computers, gadgets, remotes and basically anything that plugs into a wall or requires batteries.
May 31, 2007. 2:52 PMSedgewick17
says:
I busted out of the psyche ward about a year ago using A high powered air cannon built from a toliet.Which I used to shoot myself out of the exercise compound, and have been running a muck ever since. Seriously, though my name is Shawn I am 17 years old. My future job plan is to create a metal fabrication and design busniess,and I also want to be a trained electritian,carpenter,and blacksmith in short I never want to stop working because I cannot stand being inactive. I also want to patent at least 3 of my many inventions.
Apr 28, 2007. 1:43 PMtizzy
says:
Hello! - I am Lynn and I am self employed with a small business that makes cusstom dog and horse equipment. I just love all the "instructables" and cool stuff on this site as I am a born dabbler and experimenter and love DIY stuff.
Apr 28, 2007. 11:00 AMFN64
says:
Howdy everyone..
I came here from an amateur radio forum..liked what I saw so stuck around!!
I enjoy general tinkering with electronics, computers, homemade antennas as well as using these technologies in the field.
Here's one mother load of ham radio related links.. tons of good stuff.
AC6V
vy 73 de FN
I came here from an amateur radio forum..liked what I saw so stuck around!!
I enjoy general tinkering with electronics, computers, homemade antennas as well as using these technologies in the field.
Here's one mother load of ham radio related links.. tons of good stuff.
AC6V
vy 73 de FN
Apr 28, 2007. 3:17 AMBori deLeon
says:
I'm Bori, industrial design student. Found this website when i was building my chopper bicycle .
Apr 28, 2007. 2:46 AMStepsoftheSun
says:
Hi there, I'm Matt. My current studies are taking me towards a degree in biomedical engineering (possibly with some civil thrown in as well) from Duke University in Durham.
Other interests: ultimate (frisbee), trebuchets, studying up on Latin America...
Near future plans: making a trip to Uganda and building a rainwater harvesting system with my school's EWB chapter...hah, and then writing an Instructable on the experience. Any other EWB members out there?
Other interests: ultimate (frisbee), trebuchets, studying up on Latin America...
Near future plans: making a trip to Uganda and building a rainwater harvesting system with my school's EWB chapter...hah, and then writing an Instructable on the experience. Any other EWB members out there?
Have you thought about setting up home in the desert to develop: a material which is made stronger by heat (and is almost indestructable), high powered lasers and a machine to take passengers into a thrilling adventure within the Earh's core...?
Apr 12, 2007. 6:23 PMtrebuchet03 (author)
says:
That movie was terrible :P If you're going to pull off blatantly absurd engineering - don't be so serious :P I saw it once... and I didn't even commit the title to memory as it was painfully bad :P I think it could be deserving of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" for it's badness :) Too bad that show seems to have gone away :(
Yes, I liked Mystery Science Theatre. I don't quite know how to respond to someone else who has endured The Core - are we stupid, or just pointlessly curious? People say Sunlight isn't as bad, but the basic plot must be at leat 3 orders of magnitude more ridiculous? L
Apr 13, 2007. 12:11 PMJustXtreme
says:
Hello All, I"m Justin, and i love LED's I just found the site and have already gone over all the instructables :) w00t!
Apr 13, 2007. 7:33 AMrobert
says:
i am robert and i love fire explosions catapults and science i am also a aerospace engineer for nasa
I'm Jessy, from Louisville, KY. I'm going to U of L, but might not be any longer since the university has cut off my funding and I have no idea why. Yay college! Three years of hard work for nothing! My major is health and human performance, but specifically community health. I'm starting to think I could probably just spend the rest of my life building and crafting and gardening and working at Half Price Books, though. I have a boyfriend named Jason and two kitties. They're really my whole life. :D
That sucks. Find out why. Think of it as your "red tape 101" class; for sure there will be plenty more in a career in "community health"!
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