In 2015, I helped HomeBrauHaus build a beer garden and give out free beer.  It was a nice time, but I missed getting involved with a larger project.

I skipped 2014 and regret it.  I helped a bit on the Embrace project and was even invited to help manage it on-playa.  However I couldn't take enough time off to give it proper attention and had other things going on in my life.

2013 was a big year for me.  I helped out a fantastic friend, Jerry Snyder, build a full-size ichthyosaur puppet out of carved laminated plywood.  I rigged up the lights, wired and programmed the lighting console which consisted of a lever and a valve.  The lever was an old pool cue attached to an industrial door closer for a nice smooth action.  When fully pulled, it would contact a switch to trigger 100% white lights and strobes.  I rigged an LED to shine through the valve and a photo sensor on the far side to read how far the valve was closed, which would adjust the colors of the lights.  It ran off an Arduino Micro controller that pumped out a DMX512 signal to 8 bright waterproof lights.  All the sensitive parts were electrically and mechanically isolated. Because of the robustness of the console we were able to let just anyone play with the lights as others could play with the puppet ropes.  It come out fantastically well and was a blast to work on - and a hell of a lot of work.