this awesome robot dude was at MakerFaireIn an effort to actually do some community arts education - something I've long said I want to be involved in but have yet to actually do - I spent some time a couple weeks ago browsing Craigslist. Not to look for a job - I have a job that I love and that I'm committed to for another year - but to see what my options might look like when I leave my current job. In a magical twist of fate, I ended up finding two amazing opportunities. First, I applied for and got an internship at a screenprinting and letterpress studio, which not only gets me back into the "real world" of running businesses and creating and interacting with people my own age, but also gets me (free!) access to a local screenprinting studio. This is something I was hoping for but didn't think existed. And it does! The second opportunity I magically found was fulfilled on Sunday. I volunteered at the Scrapkins booth at the World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. Everything about that day was great. Brian Yanish, the founder of Scrapkins, was so cool. Super friendly, and not at all in that dreadful fake way. The other volunteers were also great. The kids were obviously great. The project was also great - Scrapkins is a recycled arts program; we helped kids build pirate ships out of milk cartons and then watched them sail their ships down the very cool manmade river that Brian built.pirate ships sailing into Scrapkins LagoonAfter helping out at the Scrapkins booth at MakerFaire during the morning, I got to check out the many, many other vendors and tents. It was amazing, though probably not something I would have gone to if I had to pay (though if any of my more tech-nerd-y friends went, I'd certainly join).My favorites (based solely on the fact that these were the only business cards I took home):Jingwen Zhu - a "creative technologist" whose LED dress was just super fucking cool.Oh Jamie Elizabeth - witty embroidered artworks that I so wanted to buy but I just couldn't decide which one to get! When her Etsy store reopens I'm definitely nabbing one.
