yes i said yes i will yes

We just got back from the Maker's Faire and it was fucking awesome. The crowd was great for people-watching; equal parts old robotics dudes, middle-class families, Silicon Valley nerds, Bay Area hipsters, and Burning Man types. They had a robotics building (with some amazing found-object sculpture) and a craft building, art cars, wooden bicycles, hybrid plug-in vehicles, driving cupcakes, demonstrations and talks, rocket launches, live Robot Wars, and (my favorite) interactive art. We paid a guy with a manual typewriter whose sign said "Poems About Anything" a couple of bucks to write a poem about the Squid (reproduced at the end of this post). He was so friendly and positive and nice about it; I liked him very much.

Relatedly, at a work event the other night I had the opportunity to see The Way Things Go, a half-hour-long film of an art installation that is part found-object sculpture, part chem lab, part Rube Goldberg machine, and all genius. I am getting the DVD as a gift for half the people I know this year; if you have a chance to check it out, you totally should.

Just this morning I decided that my new sort of mantra about life is going to be "yes I said yes I will yes".* I am ready to be more active, more engaged, more positive. Even if all I end up doing with my new mantra is running outside instead of on the treadmill, or writing more, or taking a class in something, I'm excited about it. It's spring. My garden looks awesome. I have a job. I'm wearing a shirt that has the Sneetches on it. Life is good.

the poem about anything that was about the squid who sat on my shoulders while it was being written

smile and wavemakesbabies
once names get traded and
maybe the parents have to
meet each other via the
smile and wave at the camera
because that's what the world
is but neither of us know whe
are in the movie except for
baby [squid] making his big debut
at seven foot tall future
of cute right now

* I really, really want to get a tattoo of this. However, I require myself to wait several years after the initial idea before getting anything tattooed on my body; this has helped me avoid regret in the past. So, a few Bloomsdays from now, maybe.