Advice from philanthropists

Some words of wisdom from the speakers at the Summit on Philanthropy:

  • If you have a vision, things flow along and follow that vision
  • Vision without execution is hallucination
  • A good project needs a strong emotional component
  • Protect your capital and grow your investment wisely over time
  • Philanthropy equals exercise and promotion of values — in other words, what are your passions?
  • Philanthropy is about investment of your time first (volunteer hours) and then your financial resources
  • To live, we must give back to others using our skills and talents in service
  • Philanthropy is a way of life, a way of thinking, not just a series of events — be willing to give the clothes off your back and help individuals become better people
  • Giving starts with us — diverting our daily discretionary funds (e.g., giving up our snacks/Cokes for a week and convincing others to do the same) toward community efforts
  • The way to build a charity is to start one
  • The best philanthropic project starts with your family — talk to your spouse/kids and get them involved; remember that “no” is just as important as “yes”; make sure it fits into your strategic life plans/vision
  • Nonprofit organisations must know the cost of raising funds
  • “Don’t sign up — show up!”
  • You don’t have to be Mother Theresa to have a positive impact on your community
  • Be civically obsessed and keep the spirit of giving alive and well
  • Projects successful because they came out of what the community wanted for itself
  • “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” — African proverb
  • Your mission is to increase giving.  Why?  To strengthen the community.

Guin in the glen by the den

The harvesters sucked up tonne after tonne of Martian soil, dehydrating the clumps and analysing samples for potential mineral processing, storing valuable water for use by the colonists.

Guin hugged Shadowgrass tighter.

She had not known had much missing him had put an ache inside her which had turned her muscles to stone.

“Mom, how did you keep the ISSA Net from knowing your location? It’s virtually impossible!”

Guin looked at her son in wonder and awe.

At little over two years of age, almost three, Shadowgrass was already a man in many ways. He knew so much more than she did, building vast complex networks of memories and calculative intuition circuitry across the solar system, she was surprised when he asked her a question for which he didn’t know the answer or hadn’t developed a strong hypothesis to support or debate what he knew she was about to say.

“You really don’t know?”

He shook his head.

Was it really a black hole she and Lee had passed through?

It WAS something, something that had changed their relationship, enjoining them in ways that physical intimacy could not explain.

Guin sent a thought to Lee that the ISSA Net could not trace. Lee laughed in his thoughts and agreed — the unknown was more fun than the known.

“Well, sweetheart, I don’t have an answer for you.”

“I still want to get revenge on Collapsaricus!”

” I know you do but we don’t know what it was or where it went.”

“But we do! An astronomer is tracking a high-speed change in the flow of dust on another spiral arm of the galaxy. He thinks it might be disturbance caused by Collapsaricus.”

“Let’s not worry about it right now. Instead, why don’t you tell me about your new friend. She seems interesting.”

“She is. I’ve examined my set of thoughts and determined through testable theories that I’m experiencing what you and Dad described as the time you first fell in love with each other.”

“That’s wonderful! Isn’t love grand?”

He nodded his head.

Guin watched the clouds of dust billowing out from behind the harvesters. She wanted to rush back to the lab and catch up on her work but holding Shadowgrass felt so good. She had missed too much of his growing up for her to lose any more precious moments with her son.

She sighed and put her chin on his shoulder.

What if Shadowgrass’ new girlfriend wanted to move back to Earth? Would he go with her? What if they had children? Would Guin want to see them, spend time with them, return to a planet that had nurtured her and encouraged her to explore Mars? What did Lee think? And where was Bai?

Industrial Musicals: While I let Abi torture me with love…

…or did she love me with torture?

Yeah, it’s that recurring theme again — the love of mine for a woman I’d spend more time with if I could afford the torture.

Afford?

Oh, indeed.

Today, I sat through several hours of people up on a dais dazzling me in a daze about their love and passion for philanthropy.

The only factor that kept me awake and alert during their entertainment of financial advisors, their clients and nonprofit organization representatives, other than seeing some familiar faces, was knowing that my reward for creating a derriere falling fast asleep would be getting Abi’s hands, wrists and elbows on me.

And boy, did she ever!

I’ve never been one of those sadomasochists who gets a certain thrill from pain.

Well…I mean, sure, I do get a certain thrill from pain but…is it getting hot in here?

Where was I?

Seriously, with my body supine and then prone, either way, Abi worked her magic on me.

That beautiful woman has a spell on me that I can’t describe.

I’m just glad she’s still in love with her man and I’ve got a steady woman of my own.

Otherwise…growl!

She is the only woman, and I mean the only one, not even my wife, who I would let touch me the way she does, working on knots in my back, neck and chest muscles that almost make this grown man cry.

I still don’t know if I’ve experienced the level of pain I’ve endured under the careful, delicate surgical procedure of Abi’s massage work.

I don’t know if I want to ever again.

Yet, somehow, I go back for more, letting the special love of my life have her way with me.

In those moments, alone on the massage table, my thoughts adrift on puffy clouds in a blue sky, just her and me in her flat, a crime drama on the tellie, her elbowing me while texting with clients for upcoming weekend massages at dance competitions, I ask myself how special is our love.

She doesn’t let me drive my elbows into her back or twist my fingers into her biceps.

She knows I love her even if I hate her when she’s sending me into Dante’s deepest levels of hellish pain.

For her, I would hunt animals, killing for meat bare-handed.

She has opened up my body for new experiences, giving me the happiness and courage I sought to feel confident on the dance floor, adding Jessica to the list of new dance wives.

Jenn, Abi, Jessica…and, of course, my wife…and Kelly…the list of fun dance partners grows.  Is Naomi next?  And, after her, who will look me in the eyes and want to have fun like there never was any fun before?

I was distracted most of the day today from work on the desktop robotic art sculpture that serves as a scale model for a yard art sculpture piece I’ve been slowly working on between daydreaming about the imaginary life this set of states of energy has convinced itself is real.

I returned this evening to program four LEDs and some sensors after working out the design details on dancing mannequins.

Abi, I’ll miss you desperately while you’re physically out of my life for the next two weeks.  You torture me in so many ways I’ve got to add sadomasochist to the list of adjectives in front of my name, or does the acronym S&M get added afterward like “Esq,” “PhD” or “MD”?

Thank goodness, there’s Jenn still teaching dance lessons.  And Naomi.  And maybe even Jessica.

Jenn the mechanical/rocket propulsion engineer inspired me to create a robot.  Abi the creative/artistic dance instructor/massage therapist inspired me to create robotic dancing mannequins.  My wife the rocket test engineer inspired me to create dancing snake charmers.  Naomi the hair stylist inspired me to colour my hair and let loose on the dance floor.  Jessica has inspired me to have chaotic fun while remembering to dance the West Coast Swing style.  And now Kelly has inspired me to see that not only can a person be a fiduciary advisor by day but dance “Sexual Healing” with a financial client at night and say it was good fun!

Thanks to the folks at Baron Bluff for hosting the philanthropy summit today; The Ledges for hosting Fred Lanier of JP Morgan who gave an economic seminar tonight on wealth management; Mandy at Club Rush.

I was happy to see the core group of Rocket Westies work out organizational problems tonight — without you guys, I wouldn’t be here right now.

And Jessica, darling, I’ll miss you, too, while you’re gone.

Now, time for some shuteye — I’m already a day behind on my coding but we’re a day ahead on our dancing mannequin design schedule!

The kind of robots the homebrew roboticists are up against

There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel.  Or is there?  If you want to learn software coding or robot mechanics, going back over previous designs may help you.

Here are some of the products in the market or about to enter the pipeline:

The beginning of oneself as cybernetic organism

First entries in the Make: engineering notebook:

3 November 2013
Robot Hacks Maker Sessions: Cool Projects, Tutorials, Explorations & More, Maker Sessions: November 3-20
Sample materials sent by the Maker Session Team:
Two (2) engineering notebooks
One (1) 9V/650mA "wallwart" power supply
One (1) Make: magazine volume 34
One (1) Make: magazine volume 36
One (1) Make: Arduino Bots and Gadgets book
One (1) Make: Ultimate Microcontroller Pack
One (1) PWM servo shield
Four (4) 9g servos
Four (4) 30 cm servo cables
One (1) Welcome letter from Sherry Huss
IDEAS
  • What separates the physical from the virtual?
  • What cannot be represented with augmented reality?
  • What has already been created via automaton/analog robots?

Happier than a pumpkin that survived Halloween!

Great news!:

Subject: Robot Hacks – your package is on its way to you….

Thanks for signing up as a participating team in the Robot Hacks Maker Session.    We are pleased to inform you that a package of MAKE materials, components and parts has been shipped out to you and if you have not already received it, you should be receiving it any day now.

We kick off this series with a Google + Hangout on Air live from Olin College with Brian David Johnson, and more Maker Masters this Sunday, November 3rd, 2013 (from noon – 3pm ET).   We’ll be discussing his vision of the 21st Century Robot and talking to the makers behind Jimmy the Robot, and more…     We are also encouraging teams to get involved and create their own open source robots – and have set aside kits for teams that would like to get involved.

An overview on Maker Sessions, Robot Hacks can be found here:  http://makezine.com/robot-hacks/

If you would like to check it out online, Sunday, 11/3 from 1pm-2pm ET, please join us here: http://bit.ly/19THpub

And, be sure to sign up to become a part of the Make Robot Hacks community, by signing in here: http://bit.ly/robothacks     This is the perfect forum to ask questions, follow other #RobotHacks makers and post photos of your progress.   We will be hanging out here throughout this program.

The twitter hashtag for this program is #robothacks — share your progress via twitter!

Thanks in advance for being part of this program!   We very much appreciate your support.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

 

Best,

Sherry

@make #robothacks