Mark Hayward Is My Hero

Lenore and I went to a really fun barbeque today. There was all the fun stuff that you could want, volleyball, badminton, boche ball, drinks, food, a potato cannon, and fireworks. But what really added to it is that Dave has a collection of tin wind-up toys from the 1950s (which was really fun), as well as a bunch of little mechanical toys. All sorts of little widgets, mostly made of wood, that do cool stuff when you turn a crank.

The simplest of them was just a head that turns to try to see a butterfly that is always flying just out of sight, and one of the most complex was a guy who is very unhappy to be getting a tooth pulled in a dentist chair. Aside from working well, these things are really beautiful and fun. For some examples check out my friend Don Olney’s site.

Takeshi and I drove down to Columbus Indiana today to go to the Flambeau (aka Duncan) warehouse.  Takeshi had ordered some yo-yos, and I needed to get some too.  It hadn’t occured to me that I needed to place my order in advance, but thankfully Michelle in Customer Service was very kind and made things happen for me.

The warehouse is CRAZY.  There are SO MANY cases of yo-yos.  It’s AWESOME.  It just makes me want to buy them all.  I like to look at the shelves full of boxes and imagine all the joy that is going to come to all the people who will eventually get those yo-yos.  It’s my inner hippy showing through, but it’s a pretty great, and pretty big thought.

I am constantly amazed at how cool I still think yo-yos are.  I mean seriously… yo-yos are SO cool.

Today I got to go to the Indianapolis Speedway in what may have been the best possible circumstances.  I was going to see my friend Chuck’s wife Lynda ride around the track in a two-seater Formula One racecar.  Chuck bought the ride for her to commemorate her 50th time seeing the Indy 500.

It’s pretty cool, they cut a race car in half right behind the driver, stick in another seat, and weld it all back together.  Then for $450 or so you get to get all suited up and take 3 laps around the track at 180 mph.  I had never been to a racetrack that was paved when there were race cars on it, so I jumped at the chance to go.  It may have turned out to be the perfect way for me to experience the track too.  There were no crowds, no drunken idiots, no parking hassles, and I didn’t have to pay to get in.  I got to drive right up into the infield, walk a very short distance, sign my life away, get a wristband, and walk right up to the pit area where they were loading the riders.

There was only one car on the track, and it was LOUD.  I can’t imaging how loud it must be on race day.  It was really fun to watch the riders b get all set, and to watch them as they came back from their rides.  Although, I was surprised that people’s reactions were fairly reserved.  I don’t know if they were just trying to look cool in front of the pit guys or what, but I would’ve been jumping up and down with excitement I think.  After the ride we all went over to a bar called the Workingman’s Friend.  It was the perfect capper for the real racing experience.

I LOVE juggling festivals. Love, love, LOVE them. This weekend is the Toss Up Jugglefest at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire IL. Yesterday was also the Illinios State Yo-yo Contest as a part of the festival, and I was a judge. In fact, I found out once I arrived that I was head judge. I treid hard to make sure I abused my power. ;)

For me juggling festivals are fun no matter what, although I ususally don’t get much juggling done, and this fest is no exception. I already knew that a bunch of my good juggling and yo-yo friends were going to be here, but I got the added bonus that Crash, Sky, and Luke Wilson are here too!

The yo-yo contest went well, although it always takes longer than I want it to. Today I get to actually do some practicing… or at least I have the option of practicing… I will probably end up hanging out and talking.

It has now been cloudy for basically a week straight. Today I had to resort to battery power to try to work on my new solar widget. Tomorrow off to the hobby shop to try to get the last part.

Cloudy days are not a good time to try to make something with solar panels.

I am in Chicago for the next few days staying with my friends Harper and Matiss. Tomorrow is day two performing at Math Bowl 2006 down in Chicago Heights, and after that Harper and I are going to go to American Science and Surplus to buy parts to make new gizmos! It’s been too long since I have made anything cool, and my focus at the moment is solar power. I have a new project and I want to make some cool little gadgets that relate to it. With luck I’ll find just the right parts and be able to make a really cute little gizmo. I’ll post more details once I have had a chance to work on it.

Today I went to the weekly meeting of the Indianapolis Juggling Club for only the second time since I moved to Indy.  My understanding was that the club only met in the summer, and since I am usually working on Sundays in the summer, I was only able to attend once before winter came.  Today I found out that not only did the club meet for most of the winter, and not only did they meet in my neighboorhood, but they actually met in a bulding on my block!  Oh well.  Now I know.

Jay Gilligan and his buddy Erik Aberg are going to pass through town on their very brief Shoebox Tour on May 26th.  Lenore has been helping me hook up a space for them to perform at Herron School of Art, and the show is going to be incredible.  Now I just have to do some promotion and get people there since school is out, and we won’t be able to count on the students coming.  I’m letting the juggling and yo-yoing communities know about it, and I just made up some leaflets to pass out at the dog park.  We’ll see how it goes, but I sure hope a lot of people come.  Every show is better with a big crowd.

Although it is still in the beginning stages, the time has come to reveal my new big secret project.

RenewNews.com

It’s a site on renewable energy. The intention is for it to be a community where people can find all of the information that they need about solar, wind power, biodiesel, firewood etc. At some point we are going to run out of oil, and every night the national news has a story on the high price of gas and/or our dependency on oil from around the world. I think the time has finally come when more people than just the hippies and the big-thinkers are interested in renewable energy. We’ll see how it goes.

I’ve been working for the last week getting RenewNews.com installed and working the way I want it to. I have so much more respect for computer people now. It’s really hard to get a lot of this stuff working! I have resources like Harper and Dylan who have more knowledge than I do, and I have access to the inner working of several websites that Harper and I work on together, and it was still hard for me to get this together. I’m working on a graphic for the top, and a few other things, but the site is up and running now. The community aspect will expand as time goes by, but for the moment we will have a few contributors writing articles that people can comment on if they want.