The show was amazing! But we also have tons of pictures and
bunches of .avi movies -- I'll put them
here
for now, but I'll eventually take them down. [Email me
if they're gone and you want copies...] Also, Steph videoed a lot
of it too.
The running machine was extremely cool, and reminded me of a machine two
friends of mine independently have talked about building -- it's different
from both of their designs, though, of course. It walks kinda like
an ant -- three legs, two on the back and a pivoting one in the front. The
legs were in lock-step, so the whole thing rose up flat as it took a step.
The pressure cannon [or whatever it was called -- shock wave or something]
was also extremely amazing! It's like two pipes end-to-end, or stages
-- the back, narrower part is filled with propane and air, and when it fires,
the shock wave shoots into the front, wider stage. The change in diameter
causes the shockwave to push through the middle, and generate a vortex in
the larger chamber. The vortex shoots out of the cannon with great
force -- I literally had my santa hat blown right off my head!!
When it first went off, everyone jumped. I regretted not bringing more
ear protection than the foam ear plugs they passed out at the gate, but after
a few more "shots", I realized that the resonance was moving throughout my
body and more ear protection wouldn't've made any difference!
The hover craft
, of course, was lovely. It was right next to us, and we had to duck
as they lit the 4 pulse jets. But once it was lit, I got some nice
pictures and movies straight down one of the pulse jet's throats! I
like staring the beast in the eye. :)
They also had an even larger pulse jet. It was strong, and I
have a feeling it will be used for
the fire hurricane
-- I wanna see that!!
Another cool machine would send a huge voltage spike through a whole welding
rod at once -- it would send a bright shower of sparks that shot across the
arena and bounced back. Just lovely. We only have one remote
220 line at the ShipYard at present, and this one got it. :)
The inch worm was menacing looking enough, but at one point caught on fire
and they had to put it out with extinguishers!
There were two flame thrower types of things -- Kimrick [sp?] was firing
the big one. At one point, it spewed it's fuel but it didn't ignite
-- so the whole area was filled with partly burnt diesel. We still
stank of it the next morning. :)
There were other small machines running around, but I wasn't sure what any
of them did, specifically. Just too much going on!
The target of the evening was a giant Toys-R-Us giraffe head. They
utterly demolished it!
The pitching machine
was loaded with short pieces of 2x4s -- about a foot long each. They
flew so fast and furious! Scott brought one home. :)
The SRL part seemed to go on forever, but we watched the tape today and it
was only like 20 minutes!
Sadly, once the show was done, someone fell from where they were watching
from the top of the warehouse. Just an accident, but it was the roof
of a two-story building! She'd tried to step on the plastic roofing
over the back yard area... Jim said she was a long-time SRL member
-- like 10 years -- and the wife of one of the SRL folks as well. Totally
competent. Not sure what happened. Just a real shame -- our first
show, and someone got hurt, and it didn't even have to do with the show itself!
Just frustrating. But it looks like she only broke her leg and maybe
a crushed vertebrae, which is much better than falling on her head or something!!
The marching band came out after that -- and they're totally amazing, as
you might know! The flag women were waving their flags as slutty as
always. :) One even "attacked" Scott Beale of the Squid list, and he
looked totally flustered -- she pushed her hips against him, then got on
the ground and girated her hips and generally embarrassed him utterly.
It was classic!
After that, it just turned into a party -- and lots of fun! We had
an amazing time all told! We even got home by midnight!