Fresh Learnings in the Home Laboratory

This past week, I was inspired by two pieces that caught my eye.  The first was an article on Medium.con by Rafranz Davis describing why she chooses to Tweet about something she cares about (#BTSArmy) and not always about education and EdTech.  It is important to remember that educators are more than a brand or a single line of expertise.  We have interests and passions in other areas, and we should be able to explore those interests and passions.  

I also found myself perusing books on Amazon by Seth Godin.  I already read Linchpin, and I was thinking about getting another to read.  I was caught by the sub-title of Godin's Poke the Box - When was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?  

When was the last time I did something for the first time?  I decided it was too long, and it was time to start learning something new for fun.  Some of these forays into learning over the past few weeks have been based in my own interests and passions, others are things I thought I might be interested in, but just never took time to meddle with.

Unfinished 'Bots and Builds

I have a bad habit of starting really cool projects to build, and then working on "contractor time" to complete them.  I have been building a Raspberry Pi photo booth for about a year (as written about HERE, HERE, and HERE).  More recently, though, I was inspired by one of my favorite 'bot builders, Simone Giertz.  I wanted to build a ridiculous robot.  I asked my colleague, toni, "If you could have a robot to do any stupid or ridiculous task for you, what would you want it to do?"

"I want it to unroll toilet paper for me while I'm in the bathroom."

YASSSS!  That was exactly the kind of ridiculousness I was looking for!  Of course as soon as I heard this idea, ideas for a robot came flooding into my mind.  And so began the conversation, planning, sketching, and prototyping of the Pussy Cat Toilet Paper Pusher.  

This thing has been an absolute joy to ideate and create.  I'm playing with materials, looking at cat anatomy and kitty pictures online for inspiration, and generally having a good time with lots of laughing at myself and the ridiculousness of this creation.

It's totally a blast.  I hope to share another version of it soon. 

While this is unfinished, it gets me thinking and reading about things I normally might not venture into learning.  I wasn't super interested in creating a feline form, but the Ridiculous Challenge hooked me.

Tuning In My Inner Artist

I have an apartment full of random supplies for making a variety of things in life, from sewing to robot building to painting.  I decided it was time I tried my hand at being a painter.  I selected a picture from the Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam.  I got most of the background in place, and my next step (probably tonight) is to get the flowers on the canvas.  (Picture of actual flower below, not my painted version.)

I am VERY certain that my painting of the flowers you see here will look similar to the picture.  Whether you can discern that there are leaves and flowers in the painting will be a different issue entirely.

But since playing around with paints, color mixing on a palette, and wondering about how to recreate this image, I have begun to rethink a few aspects of my process and my apartment.

First, I no longer want my walls as bare they are.  I want pieces on the walls of my apartment that represent my ridiculous tastes and interests, and then I want them spread through the apartment along the ROYGBIV color spectrum on the walls.  

Beyond this, I have been thinking about the process for my first efforts into the painting world.  I am going to try again to paint this same picture, hoping, of course, to improve upon my first attempt.  I will add pictures of each attempt to paint this flower after each is finished.  

Baker Maker

I spent this weekend diving into the world of baking.  I am trying to cook more for myself so I can stop eating all the processed foods that are shoved into our faces at the grocery stores.  So with flour, water, some oil and a lot of time, I took a chance and tried to bake my first loaf of bread.

I love the connections between cooking and science.  And baking takes the cake in science connections (see what I did there).  Watching the dough bubble away with the fermentation of sugars by my yeasty friends made me really happy.  My kitchen smelled great.  I used some whole wheat flour in my flour blend, and the bread came out a little dense, but it came out, friends.  Warm, with a crunchy crust, chewy interior.  I'm pretty damn proud of that loaf.

Circling Back

Balance in your personal life is important.  Sometimes educators forget that they are more than their classroom selves.  I did for a long time.  Exploring new ideas can help you get unstuck from yourself when you're in a rut.  It can help you learn something new about the world and about yourself you might not have known was there.  

I enjoyed doing these new things for the first time.  I am going to enjoy circling back to the Pussy Cat Toilet Paper Pusher.  I hope toni can deal with my delayed completion time as I play with other new skills and ideas.

And thanks to Rafranz and her passion for the Bangtan Boys, I enjoy listening to BTS now.  I'm not necessarily BTS ARMY material, but more than a few of their songs have a thumbs up in my playlist.  I'm always happy when they come up in a random shuffle of music.  

When is the last time you did something for the first time?

via GIPHY