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In lugnet.org.us.michlug, Duane Collicott wrote:
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Greetings to my fellow AFOLs in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana!
(you may have also seen the general announcement, but this is an invitation
specifically to AFOLs in my area...)
On Saturday, March 11, I will be hosting the second annual Brick Bash, a
public LEGO-building party in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am looking for AFOLs in
the area come and exhibit their creations. The event will be from 12:00 until
6:00, there is no admission, and I will be providing food and drinks.
The Web site for this event is www.BrickBash.com.
This event has several purposes:
- Evangelism: Introduce more of the general public to the LEGO building hobby, creating new hobbyists of all ages and bringing adults out of their “dark ages”.
- Fun: Provide a regional event for AFOLs to display their work to the public and other AFOLs.
- Education: Raise awareness of my educational work, Bricks for Brains (www.BricksForBrains.org), which is being established as a not-for-profit organization.
If any of you are interested in exhibiting, please contact me at
duane@collicott.com.
By the way, this is a family event. Therefore, MOCs should be selected
accordingly.
Thanks!
Duane Collicott
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Bump -- Brick Bash is just a month away (Feb is a short month don’t cha know!)
If any AFOLs in the are are interested, I’d love to have you at Brick Bash,
either as a group or as individuals.
I’ll be providing food, coffee, pop, and brick badges.
Also, your organization (LUG, whatever) is encouraged to plan on a table for
publicizing their groups. No fees for anything.
Hope to see you there!
Duane Collicott
duane@collicott.com
www.BrickBash.com
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Greetings to my fellow AFOLs in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana!
(you may have also seen the general announcement, but this is an invitation
specifically to AFOLs in my area...)
On Saturday, March 11, I will be hosting the second annual Brick Bash, a public
LEGO-building party in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am looking for AFOLs in the area
come and exhibit their creations. The event will be from 12:00 until 6:00, there
is no admission, and I will be providing food and drinks.
The Web site for this event is www.BrickBash.com.
This event has several purposes:
- Evangelism: Introduce more of the general public to the LEGO building hobby, creating new hobbyists of all ages and bringing adults out of their “dark ages”.
- Fun: Provide a regional event for AFOLs to display their work to the public and other AFOLs.
- Education: Raise awareness of my educational work, Bricks for Brains (www.BricksForBrains.org), which is being established as a not-for-profit organization.
If any of you are interested in exhibiting, please contact me at
duane@collicott.com.
By the way, this is a family event. Therefore, MOCs should be selected
accordingly.
Thanks!
Duane Collicott
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This is a bit of a repost, because the date changed.
For those of you who don’t already know, I present educational hands-on LEGO®
building exhibits at museums, schools, etc. The Web site for this work is at
http://www.BricksForBrains.com.
I’m holding my first annual Brick Bash (www.BrickBash.com) fund raising party
on Saturday June 11, from 1pm to 5pm, here in Ann Arbor, MI, USA (those of you
who are familiar with other annual spring-time events in Ann Arbor will catch
the “Bash” reference).
So here’s the invitation to all AFOLs: Come show off your creations at
my event! I can’t pay anything, but I can feed you and maybe I can find some
gas money for you. Or, if you’re in the area and don’t have anything to show,
stop by and visit. There’s NO admission fee.
Funds raied at the event will be used for turning Bricks for Brains into a
non-profit organization, which will help me obtain funding, such as grants and
corporate donations/sponsorships, so that I may continue to expand this work
and present exhibits for organizations that can’t afford it themselves (like a
lot of schools and the smaller museums).
I’ll have my big cable-stayed bridge there (13.5 feet long) and my Great Lakes
ore freighter (9 feet long). Both are scale models of the real thing. There
will also be other exhibitors, including a robotics guy.
More information is at www.BrickBash.com, or you can contact me at
duane@collicott.com.
Hope to see you there! Come support education!
Duane
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Greetings to all Michigan and Ohio LEGO builders!
Bricks For Brains is the name of my educational work. I present educational,
hands-on LEGO building exhibits. Information abuot my work is avialable at my
Web site: http://www.BricksForBrains.com.
I am holding my first annual fund raising event on Saturday, May 21, in the
afternoon, here in Ann Arbor. The venue will be the Ann Arbor IT Zone, which is
right downtown. The purpose of this event is to raise the money needed to become
a non-profit organization. This status will help me greatly in obtaining funding
for my educational exhibits.
Along with other attractions and activities at this event, I would like to have
several builders show off their creations. These could be just about anything:
buildings, cities, trains, robotics, artwork, etc. Go crazy, hit me with
whatever idea you have.
Anyone who participates will be listed as a supporter of the event, and I will
aggressively promote (in mailings, announcements, signage, etc) you and whatever
organization you represent or are a member of.
Who knows, maybe this will end up becoming a regional AFOL event!
See you at House of Bricks!
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I'd like to extend my thanks to all of you for making Sumo-bot 6 a
success! When I say all of you, I mean all of you who came out to
participate, built robots or just showed up to help, thanks!
I'd like to specifically thank Joe and Rob for their contribution to the
day and their on-going support of the group over these past 3 years (oh
yeah did I mention Sumo-bot 6 marks our 3 year anniversary?). Without them
the LRGoAA would not exist.
Also, I feel I would be slighting him if I didn't thank Duane for all his
hard work on the images we used for the web site and the excellent poster
he created for us. Additionally Duane deserves thanks for all of his
event-day work manning the 4 (or was it 5?) video cameras that were placed
around the playing area. This will turn into more hard work for him
editing all of that footage down into some web friendly movies as well as
a full-blown DVD archive. Thanks Duane, you rock!
Additional thanks goes to the Ring Masters: Tim, Brian, Gabe, Steve, Josh
and Paul. In particular I would like to thank Tim for basically running
the RIS half of the event. Aside from a few moments here and there with
the scoring system, I don't think I was required to even think about how
that class was going all day; thanks Tim!
Other people that need mentioning: Josh deserves big thanks for all his
help lugging my junk in and out of the museum and for helping me get
things set-up and going. thanks to Brian, Gabe, Josh, Steve, Rob and Duane
who all brought stuff to be used by the event (rings, computers, scales,
cameras, etc.). And if you brought something we used and I didn't thank
you, then thanks!
Jona
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LEGO Robotics Group of Ann Arbor invites you to compete in Sumo-bot 6
What: Our annual LEGO-based robotics sumo wrestling competition pits robot
contestants against each other in a struggle to shove one another off of the
sumo-ring. Last year's event fielded 34 robots in 2 classes competing on 2
sumo-rings, we will be using 4 sumo-rings this year to allow for maximum number
of matches. Event rules and details may be found at www.24tooth.com/sumobot6/.
When: Saturday, September 18, 2004 from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM (doors open for
competitors at 9:00 AM)
Where: At the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum located at 220 E. Ann St. here in Ann
Arbor. The museum can be reached at 734-995-5439.
Who: The competition is open to anyone who can build a robot that conforms to
the event rules, pre-register their robot, and attend the event. Everyone is
welcome as a spectator. Free admission to museum for 2 builders per each robot
entry, normal museum admission price for spectators.
Why: For fun and experience with LEGO robotics and because based on fair
competition, Sumo-bot wrestling encourages friendships and the exchange of
ideas, showcases accomplishments, advances robotics, and seeds interest in
future generations of robot builders.
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Subject:
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2nd Annual Midwest Lego Train Show ........call for participation........
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.announce, lugnet.events, lugnet.trains.org.niltc, lugnet.org.us.michlug, lugnet.org.us.michiana-lug, lugnet.org.us.indylug, lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, lugnet.org.us.gmlug, lugnet.trains.org
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Followup-To:
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lugnet.events, lugnet.trains.org.niltc
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Date:
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Fri, 14 May 2004 02:53:40 GMT
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Highlighted:
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(details)
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Viewed:
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13999 times
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2nd Annual Midwest Lego Train Show
NILTC is pleased to announce that we will be holding the 2nd Annual
Midwest Lego Train Show in Wheaton, IL December 4-5th. This show was proven to
be a great success last year smashing all previous attendance records while at
the same time bringing together 3 separate Lego train clubs. This year we are
looking to encourage even more clubs to come join the fun. We have a large
indoor facility at the historic Cantigny Park.
Any interested clubs or individuals should contact OnDrew Hartigan to discuss
the details.
Friday, December 3rd
SETUP noon until we are done. Please note that we will have visitors in
the building until 4pm.
Saturday, December 4th
SETUP 7-9am SHOW 9am-4pm PLAY time 4pm-?
Sunday, December 5th
SHOW 9am-4pm tear down 4pm-?
Address
1s 151 Winfield rd.
Winfield, IL 60190
Directions:
http://www.cantignypark.com/NewSite/directions.htm
Last year we had 4 train layouts and 1 castle layout. While we have
named this show a "train show" all themes are welcome. From robotics to
moonbases, anything Lego will make a delightful addition to this event.
Thanks,
OnDrew
roj2323 at yahoo . com
-----------------------------------
p.s. Thank you Jason for helping me write this up.
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Hi all,
The Trash Day event will take place:
Saturday, April 17th. at 2:00 PM.
The location will be my house here in Ann Arbor, my street address is:
422 S. 7th. St.
My house is on the West side of the street about 3 houses from the intersection
of Liberty and Seventh. You can see a detailed map and also get directions from
your location by following this link to Mapquest.com:
Click here for map.
Doors will be open approximately at 12 noon for you to have time to test run the
route and debug your programs. If it is possible, please do not show up before
noon as we may not be home. :)
A word about parking...
We share a drive way with out neighbors, so parking is tight. However, there is
a street nearby that usually has plenty of parking available on it. If you find
our house and see the drive is full, continue south on 7th. until you reach
Jefferson (which intersects 7th. from the east). You can safely park on
Jefferson and walk the half block or so to my house. If this is unclear, just
stop in our drive way, and we will help you.
A word about programs and competition day...
I have successfully set up the current version of BricXcc on my laptop. BricXcc
is a front end GUI for the widely used NQC programming language for the RCX. I
also have RIS 2.0 on my desktop machine. So if you think you may be needing to
tweak your program on event day, and don’t have your own laptop to bring along,
then you are welcome to use my stuff. If you use NQC or BricXcc, then just bring
your files on a floppy. If you use RIS 2.0 then you are going need to e-mail
your files to me ahead of time (my desktop floppy drive is not functioning).
If there are any questions or concerns, please let me know.
See you Saturday,
Jona
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In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Jason Spears wrote:
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Ok, so we sorta came to a conclusion that having a meeting could be
interesting. Now we need to figure out a date and location that works for
both clubs.
Date - I haven’t polled the MichLUG members, so people are going to have
express themselves here, but some dates that I guessed might work are listed
below. While I have listed dates on Saturdays, it is possible that a Sunday
would work as well.
May 1st
May 29th
June 5th
June 12th
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I think I’d prefer to hold off until after MCCC, if possible, especially if
we’re going to hold this in lieu of a regular MichLUG meeting (May 1st, June
5th).
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Hi guys,
I have finaly received the parts ordered from BrickLink and I am about to finish
the third robot. But there is something interesting that I want to say first. I
have challenged myself on building a RIS only robot that will do the job. The
good news is I have succeded! I am using one motor for driving following the
line with the light sensor and the second motor to grab/lift the trash can. One
touch sensor detects the trash can and the other is detecting the arm position.
Cool, huh? It will not be able to U turn to pick the 6th can but it works! Now
I’m going to work on my pneumatic-arm-double-spybots robot wich it turns out to
be a monster... I hope I’ll get some time next week to finish them all!
Happy Easter for everybody!
Gabe
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In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Jona Jeffords wrote:
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May 1 might make the most sense from our point of view because we will have
just finished the trash collecting event and could easily have our robots on
hand to show off.
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Cool. Those should be very interesting.
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As far as location goes, I wonder how many people typically show up for a
MichLUG meeting? We usually have 3-8 people at our monthly meetings and
usually slightly more for our events. Since I haven’t heard a word from any
of the members concerning this joint meeting, I would expect 2 to 3 memebrs
to show up. Holding it in Ann Arbor would make it more appealing to me and
more likely that I will actually be able to attend. There are a variety of
locations for us to meet at, but it sort of depends on the head count. The
most likely locations would be a) my house, b) Rob’s house, and c) the coffee
shop.
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We usually have 8-12 members (and 2-4 member’s kids) at a meeting.
As for a location, this was brought up a our meeting this past weekend and a few
people were going to look into it. If it is a possibility, would the Ypsilanti
public library be ok on your end?
Jason Spears | BrickCentral | MichLUG
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In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Jason Spears wrote:
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Ok, so we sorta came to a conclusion that having a meeting could be
interesting. Now we need to figure out a date and location that works for
both clubs.
Date - I haven’t polled the MichLUG members, so people are going to have
express themselves here, but some dates that I guessed might work are listed
below. While I have listed dates on Saturdays, it is possible that a Sunday
would work as well.
May 1st
May 29th
June 5th
June 12th
Location - I’m not sure that we would be able to find seating at a coffe
shop, but there may be other options in the general Ann Arbor area. (I think
that something nearish to Ann Arbor might work as a location, as we have lots
of members on that side of the state.)
Anyways, does anyone have any suggestions?
Jason Spears | BrickCentral | MichLUG
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May 1 might make the most sense from our point of view because we will have just
finished the trash collecting event and could easily have our robots on hand to
show off.
As far as location goes, I wonder how many people typically show up for a
MichLUG meeting? We usually have 3-8 people at our monthly meetings and usually
slightly more for our events. Since I haven’t heard a word form any of the
members concerning this joint meeting, I would expect 2 to 3 memebrs to show up.
Holding it in Ann Arbor would make it more appealing to me and more likely that
I will actually be able to attend. There are a variety of locations for us to
meet at, but it sort of depends on the head count. The most likely locations
would be a) my house, b) Rob’s house, and c) the coffee shop.
Jona
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In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Jason Spears wrote:
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Ok, so we sorta came to a conclusion that having a meeting could be
interesting. Now we need to figure out a date and location that works for
both clubs.
Date - I haven’t polled the MichLUG members, so people are going to have
express themselves here, but some dates that I guessed might work are listed
below. While I have listed dates on Saturdays, it is possible that a Sunday
would work as well.
May 1st
May 29th
June 5th
June 12th
Location - I’m not sure that we would be able to find seating at a coffe
shop, but there may be other options in the general Ann Arbor area. (I think
that something nearish to Ann Arbor might work as a location, as we have lots
of members on that side of the state.)
Anyways, does anyone have any suggestions?
Jason Spears | BrickCentral | MichLUG
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Probably any dates are good with me.
Presumably Spencer’s might work .. but I can’t volunteer someone else’s house.
I have an RCX 2.0 and I am interested in (safely?) hacking in a dc supply
connector. Not sure this is something that might be discussed, at least the
how-tos... as presumably the robots are mostly mobile? perhaps I presume too
much. My interests are relatively diverse within lego and beyond and I just
don’t seem to have the time to devote to mindstorms. Eventually I will do more,
but it is geared towards train layout automation. Not just train operation
themselves, but other accesories and possibly some accessories triggered by...
the audience? Just thinking out loud. I am curious about use of home brew
sensors like the reed switches and use of LED lighting features I know there
are web resources, books and so forth, but sometimes this stuff if much more
inspirational to see live or discuss with someone that has done it.
Ken
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I’m interested in meeting. At this moment I don’t have anything personal of
robotics interest to show... I have a couple different line following programs
from high school AP Computer Science students in robots of my creation... but
nothing outstanding there.
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May 1st
May 29th
June 5th
June 12th
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Ann Arbor is good for me. I’d be more interested in 5/1 or 6/12 at this point.
Peter
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Ok, so we sorta came to a conclusion that having a meeting could be
interesting. Now we need to figure out a date and location that works for both
clubs.
Date - I haven’t polled the MichLUG members, so people are going to have
express themselves here, but some dates that I guessed might work are listed
below. While I have listed dates on Saturdays, it is possible that a Sunday
would work as well.
May 1st
May 29th
June 5th
June 12th
Location - I’m not sure that we would be able to find seating at a coffe shop,
but there may be other options in the general Ann Arbor area. (I think that
something nearish to Ann Arbor might work as a location, as we have lots of
members on that side of the state.)
Anyways, does anyone have any suggestions?
Jason Spears | BrickCentral | MichLUG
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In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Steve Hassenplug wrote:
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I’ve made a couple trips to IndyLUG meetings, expecting a cold responce from
from the “train” guys, only to be very welcome by other AFoLs.
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Based on the general atmosphere regarding BIONICLE on LUGNET about a year ago, I
didn’t expect a warm reception at my first MichLUG meeting either, but I was
pleasantly surprised (my one big complaint was the fact that it’s quite possibly
the biggest meeting that I’ve attended, so I felt a bit lost in the crowd
sometimes). Chris still gives me a little grief over my chosen theme, but I’m
going to get revenge on him by slipping a MOC with some BIONICLE parts into a
Train display one of these days. >:)
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Turns out, most of them have Mindstorms, but a lot are still in the box. I
guess most of them don’t know how to build a robot. :)
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I’ve bought a couple sets myself, but not the RIS. I got the two Star Wars kits
because they were Star Wars, and I got two of the expansion packs and three
Spybots for specific TECHNIC parts. My hangup on getting in MINDSTORMS stems
from my preference for form over function, the cost of building up the necessary
components from scratch (vs. what I already spend on other themes), and a
current low level of interest in learning how to program for RCX. I have an
idea for using a microscout that might require jumping that last hurdle,
provided it will actually work (do you happen to know if it’s possible to keep
it running a single program indefinitely, or will it always go into standby mode
after a while?).
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In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Jona Jeffords wrote:
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Okay, well that is good to know. This exchange coupled with the previous one
that happened on our forum made me think that was the intent. Sorry if I
mis-read you.
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Without the benefit of knowing what was said in your forum (or who said it), we
can’t really comment on what might have been brought up there. Presently,
however, despite any ability MichLUG might have to incorporate outside Special
Interest Groups, I think it would be a lot less painless for SIGs to be formed
from within MichLUG rather than trying to merge with existing groups, where
you’ll potentially have to deal with conflicting charters, having one set of
leadership give way for the other, and a lack of cross-over membership to help
bind the two groups together. I mean, if LRGOAA members just want to
participate in robotics competitions, what good would it do to force you guys to
travel all over Michigan and adjust to our schedule for meetings when you’re
doing fine on your own? I’m guessing about as much as forcing us to always meet
in the Detroit area and adjust our schedules to yours just so we can incorporate
robotics competition discussions into our meetings, which are quite busy as it
is.
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I think that the 2 groups use their meetings for very different things.
Actually, I think the 2 groups are quite different from eachother on a
fundemental level. From what Larry and you have said, I gather that there is
a huge social component to the MichLug and its meetings/shows.
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Pretty much. We mostly try to limit our fighting to the official business
portion of the meetings. :)
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It sounds like much of the time spent together is spent being together
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Not to the extent that we just hang out and talk with each other, but in regards
to our LEGO interest, yes. A lot more of the general chatting seems to happen
at the shows, but that’s to be expected when you spend about a couple days
hanging out with the same group of people for a single event.
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Additionally, there seems to be a desire to promote LEGO as a worhtwhile
hobby, which might be the actual focus o several of your shows.
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It’s a focus, but not the only one. Personal enjoyment is one of the big
reasons, and I don’t think any one of us would be doing it if we didn’t enjoy
it. And there’s also the charity aspect, where some shows are done to raise
money for worthy causes.
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So far, LRGoAA has been about robotics challenges and competitions which
happen to use LEGO as the medium of choice (for several reasons most of
which I am sure you all know and agree with).
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Well, unless you start doing stuff like Robot Wars. Punching a big gaping hole
through an RCX would be a tragedy of the highest order, especially if it’s a 1.0
model.
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Our meetings are somewhat brief, 2 to 3 hours max and they occur at night in
the middle of the week at a local, bust coffee shop.
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Ah, that’s the advantage of having a membership that’s centrally located. We’ve
got active members in the Chicago area, Indiana, Ohio, Canada, and at least half
a dozen spread pretty far apart in western Michigan. It’s nice to have the
meeting last longer than the travel time required to attend, so Saturday is
pretty much the only option.
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In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Jona Jeffords wrote:
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While I do realize that the current definition of robotics (especially in the
automotive capitol of the world) includes many things that are not commonly
thought of as “robots”, I also have to say that automating a train layout
with the RCX doesn’t exactly convince me that the MichLug is “about robotics”
as you put it.
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MichLUG is about the LEGO experience in general, not any specific themes. Every
member brings something different to the table. It’s not just about Space,
Castle, Pirates, BIONICLE, robotics, Sea Monkeys, sculpture, large-scale MOCs,
or any other specific area of interest, but all of those are themes that various
members have added to the collective whole.
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Furthermore, something of this nature, while interesting and impressive in
its own right, doesn’t pique my interest.
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I wasn’t really sure it would, which is why I also suggested setting up a
seperate table where robot competitions can be run. Honestly, I think that
would be a more appropriate format for LRGOAA to run with, since that’s what
would be truly representative of what your organization does. If you guys
automated one of our layouts it would certainly be cool for us, but it wouldn’t
really show people the essence of LRGOAA.
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The fundamental problem is that I have no interest in trains (LEGO or non-
LEGO) and so while it may be a fun thing to attend another group’s meeting,
I fear I would have a tough time justifying the action to myself and my
family.
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Despite the fact that the majority of shows are devoted to the Train/Town combo,
the MOCs displayed at meetings that I’ve attended (starting last May) have not
been at all Train-centric. Not counting my large backlog of BIONICLE-based
MOCs, Space seemed to be represented the most, followed by Castle. I probably
have about as much interest in building Train stuff as you, but I also know that
the Train shows put money in the Club account that allows us to do things that
might be of significantly more interest to me. Noone is required to participate
in any given event (except, arguably, the person who volunteered to be Straw
Boss), so it’s all fine with me. Besides, this wasn’t about getting LRGOAA to
join MichLUG as a junior organization, but about getting the two groups to
interact as equals.
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I can see myself attending a MichLug meeting if I was bringing a robot to
show-off and maybe solicit new participants to our events.
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I don’t think anyone would expect otherwise. We can both show our stuff to the
public, but they rarely, if ever, have anything to show back. Part of the
benefit of meeting each other would be for each group to see what the other
group does.
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Additionally, any benefit that the MichLug would have by adding us to its
roster of sub-groups can easily be achieved by those members who have
robotics interest to start coming to our meetings.
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That’s not necessarily true. Doing so would not immediately increase our
collective resource pool, and while any MichLUG members who chose to do so would
probably learn a lot of new techniques, it wouldn’t be the same as having the
level of knowledge and experience present within LRGOAA added to what we already
have. However, as has already been stated, MichLUG isn’t out to absorb
LRGOAA. We just want to hang out with each other sometime. Maybe some MichLUG
members might want to join LRGOAA, and maybe some LRGOAA members might want to
join MichLUG. Either way, both groups stand to benefit from any cross-group
participation.
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Right. And from what Jason is saying in his post, it sounds like he was/is
looking to fill in some down-time that the MichLug has in the summer months.
This is a good thing for a group organizer to do, to be sure, but don’t be
surprised when other groups are not jumping at the chance.
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It’s a mild risk, to be sure, but not even asking pretty much guarantees that
reaction. :)
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Personally, I would challenge any of the MichLug members who have interest in
(or simply have) Mindstorms to come to our meetings and participate in one of
our challenges.
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Speaking just for myself, my interest at present is purely observational. I’d
love to watch these sorts of events, but in addition to running a website, I’ve
got at least 20 MOCs in various stages of completion as it is (and I seem to
come up with ideas faster than I can implement them), and it’s a 5-hour round
trip for me to get to the Detroit area. Honestly, I’d have a lot more incentive
to attend if it was in conjunction with MichLUG rather than just me carting
myself across the mitten to watch by myself.
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Personally, I have about as much interest in building a lifelike train as Larry
has in building a sumo robot.
But that doesn’t stop me from trying to attend any type of LEGO meeting (LUG,
LTC, MUG, LRG, Brickfest...)
I’ve made a couple trips to IndyLUG meetings, expecting a cold responce from
from the “train” guys, only to be very welcome by other AFoLs. Turns out, most
of them have Mindstorms, but a lot are still in the box. I guess most of them
don’t know how to build a robot. :)
That’s OK. I don’t really want to build a 5 story building, a castle, a
moonbase module, or anything with Bionical parts. But, it’s pretty cool to see
what other people have done. My wife and boys love to see the layouts.
One of these days, I’ll make the trip to attend an MichLUG meeting. Really, I
will... :)
Thanks for the invitation,
Steve
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In lugnet.org.us.lrgoaa, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
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I think I may still not have made myself completely clear. In my view as an
ex officer of the club, one of the principal bylaws authors, and as a general
student of community, the club as a whole has no desire to see LRGOAA become
a SIG within MichLUG, unless that desire is mutual, our members and yours.
Speaking just for myself, I personally would not want to see it, actually, at
least not at the present time, and if it were put to a vote, would vote
against it. But that’s not what is being suggested here.
That’s not at all the same thing as doing joint meetings or joint
exhibitions. That’s all that was being asked... is there an interest in a
joint meeting, or in doing some shows together at some point if the proper
show presented itself. Nor is it the same thing as feeling that one club
excludes the other, which is a sense I’m getting from you from some previous
posts.
I’m not going to argue about whether layout automation is robotics or not, or
what makes a valid use of the RCX. My bringing it up was to contrast with
your statement that we have no robotics interest. It may not be the kind
you’re interested in, which is fine, but it’s nevertheless robotics.
We have robotics interest because people (members) introduced it to us. We
also (as a club) didn’t have any gaming interest, until members introduced it
to us, and now we play BrickQuest or Evil Stevie’s on a semi regular basis.
We also didn’t have any people interested in set drafting, until it was
introduced to us by members. Now we draft just about every meeting. Ditto for
castle exhibitions, ditto for space, stuff like the moonbase standard...
close to 1/2 of our shows now are not purely train but have other components.
We have a very impressive collection of moonbase modules now.
But, yes, we do a lot of train shows. Many train shows, frankly, are money
makers for us, and doing train shows enables our club to do other things we
want to do, like Festival of Trees, and other money losing or charity events.
So we probably will keep doing them. Besides, some of us enjoy interacting
with hundreds or thousands of people, and spreading the word about how neat
LEGO is. Trains are a good gateway to bring people into the hobby, everyone
understands them, and they’re in my view more accessible than many other
facets are.
I think it’s actually great that you find trains (almost) as boring and
uninteresting as I find sumo competitions, because if we in the overall hobby
all liked the same things it wouldn’t be nearly as rich of a hobby as it is.
That said, we need to work to understand and accept the interests of others
rather than being dismissive of them. Not that you necessarily are, but some
of your posts do leave the impression that you think others might be.
++Lar
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We could go back and forth all day with this discussion, but the bottom line is
that your group is very different from my group. An event of some sort that
brought the 2 groups together would be interesting and might be fun. I’ll leave
it Jason to suggest the specifics of such an event.
Jona
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