A couple weekends ago was the National Science and Engineering Festival. It's the biggest convention of science and engineering in the country, at least as far as I know. It happens every other year, and I go every time they have it. It's really great, being surrounded by all that science, it's just really awesome.
My mom and I took the Metro there. For those of you who don't live around D.C., the Metro is our subway system. I've ridden on it countless times, and I've got a pretty good idea of how to get around on it. This time, when we went, we caught one of the cool new Metro trains. It was all high-tech and shiny, and it was really fun for me.
This year, I focused my visit to the engineering section, because that's the field I'm really interested in. A lot of it seemed like a blur, jumping from one booth to the next, grabbing swag as I went. I saw a lot of cool things as I went around, including some robots that do tai chi, some tiny robots that follow colored lines, and this one dude stuck a bunch of pencils through a plastic bag without breaking it, through the magic of polymer structures. There were a lot of colleges there, showing off. MIT had a booth, and a balloon that reminded me of a famous MIT prank, when they inflated a giant balloon in the middle of a college football stadium during halftime of the big Harvard-Yale game. There were companies like SketchUp, a CAD design software company, and lots of startups showing off cool and innovative products.
This year, I focused my visit to the engineering section, because that's the field I'm really interested in. A lot of it seemed like a blur, jumping from one booth to the next, grabbing swag as I went. I saw a lot of cool things as I went around, including some robots that do tai chi, some tiny robots that follow colored lines, and this one dude stuck a bunch of pencils through a plastic bag without breaking it, through the magic of polymer structures. There were a lot of colleges there, showing off. MIT had a booth, and a balloon that reminded me of a famous MIT prank, when they inflated a giant balloon in the middle of a college football stadium during halftime of the big Harvard-Yale game. There were companies like SketchUp, a CAD design software company, and lots of startups showing off cool and innovative products.
We walked around for hours, and after a while we went to get food. Most of the places were too crowded, so we walked over to a Mexican place and got burritos. I used to dislike burritos, but recently I've started going out for lunch at school. Most days, I walk over to the Chipotle over in the pedestrian mall about a half-mile away. A pretty big improvement since the times when I was freaked out to order from Chik-fil-a. It's gotten a bit more difficult to do that since my school relocated for renovations, though.
After we ate, we went to the second floor, and went to see SpaceX's booth. In case you haven't heard, SpaceX recently managed to land a rocket. Like a whole rocket. None of that jettisoning two-thirds of the craft and making a water landing. It's an actual reusable rocket. A little while after, my feet started screaming from all the walking, and so we left.
After we ate, we went to the second floor, and went to see SpaceX's booth. In case you haven't heard, SpaceX recently managed to land a rocket. Like a whole rocket. None of that jettisoning two-thirds of the craft and making a water landing. It's an actual reusable rocket. A little while after, my feet started screaming from all the walking, and so we left.
The following Tuesday, I didn't have most of my morning classes, because my Fiction class went to see Psycho. We met up at the theater, which meant I got to sleep in an extra twenty minutes. Twenty minutes.
My school was able to see Psycho in the nearby theater because of an educational program the theater has for schools.
Before the movie started, a guy came in and talked a bit about Hitchcock. Then we began the movie.
It was pretty cool, but I think I might prefer the book. I know, I know; Psycho was a book?!? Well yup, it was, by a guy named Robert Bloch.
After we finished the movie, I went with some classmates to go get lunch, and then we went back to school.
My school was able to see Psycho in the nearby theater because of an educational program the theater has for schools.
Before the movie started, a guy came in and talked a bit about Hitchcock. Then we began the movie.
It was pretty cool, but I think I might prefer the book. I know, I know; Psycho was a book?!? Well yup, it was, by a guy named Robert Bloch.
After we finished the movie, I went with some classmates to go get lunch, and then we went back to school.
The next day, my school had its talent show. I performed in it, playing the Super Smash Bros. main theme on the piano, but I didn't do very well. I messed up a bunch of it. But it's fine, not a big deal.
I suppose now is a good a time as any to tell you guys. I'm building this really cool thing. I'm calling it the C-Bit. It's a handheld gaming console/mini computer.
I'm really excited about it. It's the first thing I've ever done like this. I'm giving it a retro, pixel-y LCD screen, using a 3DS Circle Pad for a joystick, and I'm running it on a Raspberry Pi. I'm going to port some essential games to it, but most of the games will be original, designed by yours truly, using micro SD cards as cartridges. I've found a bunch of 8-bit versions of great songs that I plan to use as soundtracks. I'm going design my own user interface, and give it an accelerometer-gyroscope for some interesting gameplay mechanics. (That's the tilt sensor in your iPhone.) It's going to be really cool.
I'm also going to be 3D-printing a frame such that I can take a picture of it at every stage of assembly, and you guys can follow my progress on a new blog I'm creating just for it. I hope you guys are as excited about this as I am.
I'm also going to be 3D-printing a frame such that I can take a picture of it at every stage of assembly, and you guys can follow my progress on a new blog I'm creating just for it. I hope you guys are as excited about this as I am.
Also, check out this animated GIF image I made of Shadow the Hedgehog from one of my drawings. I think it's pretty cool.
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