Subject:
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Re: What a fest!!!!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.events.brickfest
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Date:
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Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:36:55 GMT
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Viewed:
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1054 times
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In lugnet.events.brickfest, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
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I’m still overwhelmed at how awesome this fest was, I’m late for the road
this morning, we have miles to go before we get to our next amusement park
but it’s way past due that something was said!
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I’m still all aglow from Brickfest 2005! It is so wonderful to put faces with
the names of old, yet new friends. And of course it is great to be able to
talk, in person, with old friends.
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I want to say thank you to each and every one of you for an absolutely
amazing fest. This clearly was going to be a hard one to top and it was
thanks to all your efforts that we pulled it off.
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My thanks to you as well! Your lighthearted and upbeat tone and your quick witt
and silly demeanor set a great pace for the group meetings! Well done! It was
great to see you smiling so much! You looked like you were having the time of
your life.
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- John B (and Steve H)... Awesome work on the contests, and on the mindstorms/technic rooms. The technic room in particular was a great hit, although Kevin may not get his voice back for a few days. And what can I say about GBC! Wow. That was amazing. And a huge thank you for working through how best to get the award slides done and for helping other themes with theirs. Your efforts to make that happen were just so helpful.
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These two guys are amazing, and such a pleasure to work with. They make the
mindstorms/technic theme the success that they are at Brickfest. The contests
were very well attended, as were the GBC and technic rooms.
I really enjoy the show and tell times, and Sunday. Think about it. Kids come
in, and they see more LEGO than they’ve ever seen in their lives, but in most
rooms, they cannot touch. It must be very hard for them. I know this because
when they hit the technic room, I heard the parents say “Johnny, don’t touch
that”.
We only got about two lulls on Sunday, and otherwise we were busy demonstraiting
and explaining. Nathan was showing off his fabuluous heavy equipment, just
beaming at people’s interests in his work. Cale was driving his wonderful steam
engine model in and out of the pneumatic mayhem, with regular comments like
“that is amazing”, or “that is fabulous”.
For me, building with technic is about learning and teaching. I’m often
building things at the edge of my comprehension of mechanics and physics. The
failures are the best learning moments, and LEGO teaches me the most during
these times. I enjoy the natural learning that happens when people play with my
models.
It was great watching three year olders watch someone playing with my little
walkers and wait for their turn to play. To watch them grab a pump, mimic what
they saw being done, and see their face light up as they make things “go” was
really awesome.
I brought in small teaching models. I had a transparent piston, switch and pump
and would show little ones how to make the piston go up and down. Many were
fascinated, and would pump and flip the switch over and over. For the 5+ year
olders, I brought in a small pneumatic sequencer that represented landing gear
on a plane. One piston controlled the door, and the other extended the landing
gear. They could see switches controlling pistons, which flipped switches,
which controlled other pistons. Many an adult also played with this little demo
to satisfy their curiosity on how these things work.
Many a time, I got goosebumps when I’d look up, seem my two sons, helping
demonstrate models. We had seven of my models on the table and they were all
very active all day. Things would come apart from so much use, and I’d tease
the kids about “breaking” things. Many would grab the model, reassemble and go
on. It was great to see how they would intuitively know how to put things back
together.
Nathan Bell’s Dad, Dave, was great too. He basically stopped playing with LEGO
when Nathan was five, because Nathan’s abilities had exceeded his own. Many
times, he rescued a walker bound for the edge of the table, or picked up a leg
and put it back on a model, and sent it on its way. Dave even bought a small
technic model and assemebled it their at our demo table.
Dave, Larry, and Orion appeared out of nowhere with food and drink, which I
consumed between demonstrations. I appreciate this greatly.
We got many many suggestions for having compressors instead of all the manual
hand pumping. For SSC1, I think this is a good idea. The compressor I did have
could not compete with the pressure and volume produced by human power. For the
smaller models, I will never provide compressors. When kids take the pumps in
hand and pump they see the cause and effect between their pumping and the model.
It is a teaching mechanism that cannot be improved.
People just kept showing up all day. We had to turn many people away at the end
of the day, because time was up. The one person I didn’t turn away was Kjeld.
He said he had been by the room many times, but it was so busy he went on by.
He sat down at the table and together we put each model in action. When
demonstrating Go-Rilla, I explained that it was made from the Droid Developer
kit. He mentioned that that kit didn’t sell very well. He then grabbed my AT-ST
walker, and I demonstrated it. He just smiled as it lumbered along.
I showed him my pneumatic works. The small biped really tickeled his fancy. As
many were, he was impressed with the scale of SSClagorpion 1. He made sure I
demonstrated every model. The last was my inchworm, and he gasped when he saw
it crawl. He said, “Have you shown Pall this?”. I told him that I had the
pleasure of spending much time with LEGO Technic builder Dave Bird, and that
Dave was very interested and impressed with my models. After seeing inchworm
crawl he said, “You *are* the pneumatics master!”.
He was kind enough to stand for a few pictures with me. It was so cool when he
put his arm around me.
He is a true gentleman and his love for the brick is an aura around him. He is
a very gentle soul, quiet and unassuming. Spending time with him is a highlight
in my life.
As many of you attendees are, I’m experiencing the low of BrickFest withdrawls.
So many fantastic memories.
The upside is that being immersed immersed in the sum of all the attendees
creative fever, has evoked much brainstorming as I drive the slow route home.
Brickfest 2005 is the best vacation I’ve ever had!
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- Christina, you continue to amaze and delight everyone that works with you or meets you. This fest is a tribute to your skill at getting things to happen, and not letting on what’s going on behind the scenes! We couldn’t have done it without you! The community owes you SO MUCH. We love you!
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To Christina and all, a hearty thank you! For me, this was absoulutely the best
fest yet! Thank you so much!
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Finally, I saved the best for last. Thanks to each and every one of you that
attended, that brought MOCS, that pitched in to help get things done, that
interacted with the public and that generally made this the BEST FEST EVER!
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The MOCs are the catalyst for Brickfest and provide inspiration for all that see
them.
Kevin Clague
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: What a fest!!!!
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| In lugnet.events.brickfest, Kevin L. Clague wrote: snip (...) There is one person I forgot to mention. There was a very bright young man, who out of the blue, was there and helping demonstrate models. Extremely polite, great with the models and the (...) (19 years ago, 16-Aug-05, to lugnet.events.brickfest, FTX)
| | | Re: What a fest!!!!
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| (snip) (...) I can echo the feeling over on the Train layout. I was talking to a family about my red train station, when the mom made a gesture and accidentially knocked the stairway roof off. (no big deal, since it just sits on top of the (...) (19 years ago, 19-Aug-05, to lugnet.events.brickfest, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | What a fest!!!!
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| I'm still overwhelmed at how awesome this fest was, I'm late for the road this morning, we have miles to go before we get to our next amusement park but it's way past due that something was said! I want to say thank you to each and every one of you (...) (19 years ago, 16-Aug-05, to lugnet.events.brickfest, FTX) !
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