[Robotgroup] Dorkbot Cancelled this Week

[David Nunez]

Please accept our humble apologies, but Dorkbot is cancelled for  
August.   We will not be holding dorkbot this Thursday.

Truth is, we had a little trouble wrangling enough presenters to make  
for an interesting evening due to vacations and August weirdness.

The good news is that we are expecting a super-duper-happy-fun time  
on September 14, 2006, 8PM at Cafe Mundi and already have some really  
incredible speakers lined up.

In lieu of dorkbot this week, here's our challenge to you:

Put at least 20 minutes into making something today.  **

It doesn't have to be elaborate.  It doesn't have to be over-the-top  
technical or revolutionary.  It just has to be 20 minutes of solid  
effort.   20 minutes is small.  It's doable.  It's not staying up all  
night.  It's just making the commitment to your passion for about  
2.404750594 as long as it takes light to reach earth from the sun.   
from the SUN!

Oh, yeah.  Spend 20 minutes getting your hands dirty on something -  
physically working on something with your hands.

It doesn't count to just read about a project or surf the web for  
ideas (those things are important, but our challenge to you is to get  
past WONDERING and get to BUILDING).

If you have a project you've been kicking around in your garage -  
tinker around on it for 20 minutes right now.   Got a software art  
project that's been gathering dust?  20 minutes to add a new  
feature.  Go.   T-shirt with a stitched octopus that lights up with  
LEDs?  20 minutes to create the design.. no coffee break, please.  
Robot chassis modification?  20 minutes with a dremel and you're  
done.  That "wouldn't-it-be-cool-if" idea you have been sketching in  
your notebook?  It ain't all that cool unless it becomes real.

So make it real.

Then let us know about your project, no matter how "incomplete" it  
happens to be.   At dorkbot, the process IS the art... and this  
community could probably help you along the way.

We have an unmoderated mailing list for all us dorks to kick around  
build ideas.
Sign up here: <http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/ 
dorkbotaustin-blabber>

Thanks again for your patience and we can't wait to start hearing  
about all those mad science projects in Austin!

**(if you're already spending 20 minutes or more a day on projects,  
then, for crying out loud, email dorkbotaustin at dorkbot.org right now  
so we can schedule you for a dorkbot meeting)

dork on!

David Nunez, Rodney Gibbs, Rich LeGrand, and Luke Iseman
Dorkbot Austin Instigators

http://www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotaustin

Email dorkbotaustin at dorkbot.org to get off this incredibly annoying  
mailing list.