On the last day of #PhillyBrickFestLive I was able to take my Samsung Gear 360 on a walk around the show floor. I wanted to make a full VR video that you could watch on your VR headset and see what I see as I see it and talk about it. The problem is, the Samsung Gear 360 only records in 11:28 chunks. I don’t have any software that can take 3 separate files and make them into one 360 video. What I tried to do was put those parts together myself and then make a video. The result is the video below which is pretty cool but not VR. The VR ones are below.
Day two of Philly BrickFest was crazy busy and went by so quickly. Brian and I got there early and set up the tables. He has three MOCs with him including the Sea Cow from The LEGO movie which he made into a restaurant. We featured it in the show in the episode – Lego City Update #12 – Brick Island City – Modulars and Mocs. He also brought the Police Station that he made and modified which was featured in Lego Police Station MOC – Behind the MOC. The last couple items were the 50’s Dinner that was featured in the episode: Lego City Update #4 – Brick Island City – Modulars and Mocs and a working Pokéball that Steve made that was featured in the episode: Pokémon Go Custom LEGO Pokéball. We spent the day talking to people about the Built from Bricks show and explaining what Brian did to make those MOCs.
For the bulk of the day I built two LEGO Star Wars First Order Transporter sets #75103. Brian and I won the sets last night at the bowling event. They were half built so I tore them all down and started over. I organized all the pieces in two separate parts of the table and then I took my Samsung Gear 360 and set up a Timelapse of my side by side simultaneous build of the sets. I put it into today’s video but sped it up even more. I forgot to attach a battery to charge it up but it and so it died with me only have a very few bricks left to go on each set. I then let the camera charge for a bit and I finished up.
In between that I went and picked up lunch at Jersey Mike’s. My sandwich was great and so was Brian’s… at first. He ended up not feeling well so I took over the table and talking to all the last minute people about the MOCs and the show. Our table was cool because we were doing things and interacting with the kids and parents. We also had Brian’s Surface Pro playing the show on a loop through some decent speakers so people could check out the show, too. We ran out of cards so I picked up a poster board, cheap frame and some Command Strips. I am really happy with my really quick and dirty sign and stand. It was very inexpensive, too. Next time we bring a real sign.
The rest of the day was for the exhibitors and people who had those badges. I had an all access badge so I had part of a table as well as access to all the fun after hours activities. One of those activities was a Brick Pong where we played Beer Pong for LEGO bricks. Brian and I won the first round and because of that we won a LEGO Jr. set and were up for playing the winner of the next round for a huge set. We did not end up winning that one, which stunk because that was a huge set with nearly 800 pieces and would have been fun to build. However, we had fun playing and won some individual bricks for our collections. We turned in after that.Tomorrow is going to be a busy and long one.
Brian (From Built From Bricks) and I drove down to Oaks, PA for Philly BrickFest LIVE. We took the Kia Sorento down for the trip. DriveShop and Kia provided us with the car for a week. It was a great ride down. so nice to be talking with Brian all through the ride. It made the trip go by so quickly.
When we arrived we went right to the Oaks EXPO Center. We unloaded Brian’s MOCs and claimed our space. then we walked around and met a bunch of people. I went to a special class for animating LEGO bricks. I learned some fun stuff from David from Brick 101. I made a great Stop Motion video using Stop Motion Studio. It was so much fun and I learned some great techniques. Then I made this movie called Dagnabit!
We hopped out and got some Chinese food which we brought back to eat while participating in the charity auction.
We attended an auction and I bid on some Avengers sets and got them for $25, which was a good deal. I donated a LEGO Dinosaur set that went for $81! I can’t believe how much that set went for, I only got it for free because of a mistake and tried to send it back. I had it for over 2 years now. Glad I could help raise some money for the Charity auction.
Later that night we went to a bowling activity and it was so much fun. We bowled with teams of 5 and as each person bowled their frame they had to go back to a table and build part of a LEGO set as a race. My team did not win but I did win the set in a raffle. Brian did, too!
Our last day at the Pollard Brook Resort and we started with a lazy morning where Allison, the kids to some extent, and I, finished the Marvel themed Funko Pop figures puzzle. That was a tricky one with many similar pieces that could have fit int he same places plus the layering of the figures into the image made it even more challenging. Our April vacations are pretty laid back and making a puzzle has become a yearly tradition. Last year was Marvel themed comic book covers and this time was the Marvel Funkos. We finished the puzzle before we went out for a late breakfast over to Peg’s in Woodstock.
Peg’s is a nice place but they only take cash so make sure that you have some before you go in or be prepared to use the ATM and get a fee charged. The food was good, the portions were adequate. I had stuffed french toast and it was really good. The bacon was also really good. Andrew and Eva worked on T-shirt designs for a Life is Good Contest.
After our meal we walked up the street a bit and checked out Fadden’s General store where we had to get some of their pure maple syrup. We had a little bit at breakfast and needed to get some for our pancakes and waffles at home. Then we checked out a couple other stores before heading back to the room. We stopped and picked up the bath fizzies that the kids made yesterday. Andrew’s were solidly packed little bath fizzies but Eva’s fell apart when we took them out of the molds. Not enough water. She was disappointed and I helped reassure her that it was okay and that we could always make them at home sometime. I think she was unhappy that hers fell apart but Andrew’s looked really good, but I helped Andrew so he had an advantage. We’ll know more for next time how to make them better.
Then it was back to the room to pack to go home and I had to complete a blog post for an assignment while the kids played and watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Then we drove to our friend’s house so that the kids could visit and Allison could visit. They moved a few years ago and we try and see them whenever we
Our third day on vacation and we are enjoying our time at Pollard Brook. Today we spent some time in the room and then the pool and later an adventure out for dinner. We started off the day with a very special activity. Back in 1999 LEGO started producing Star Wars sets. At the time I was working as a Residence Hall Director at Saint Anselm College. I also had a full time job. I had no girlfriend and no extra expenses. I had some disposable income and I went LEGO crazy. I also bought a lot of comics and Transformers. I bought the LEGO Star Wars sets with the specific intention that when the children, that I hoped I would someday have, were old enough to enjoy Star Wars that we would build these sets together. Andrew and Eva are both fans of Star Wars and are both old enough to build LEGO sets so it was finally time.
I packed the Star Wars LEGO set 7140 – X-Wing Fighter to be the very first one that we would make together. I also downloaded Star Wars: A New Hope onto my phone and was able to play it through the Chromecast on the TV, not without a lot of finagling, this thing does not seem to work right every time, nor does it work the same way every time. We watched Star Wars while building the X-Wing Fighter and had a great time doing it. We organize all the bricks by color and then take turns, by page to build the sets.
Eva did some more Stop Motion Animation and had me upload her three movies to YouTube. You can find her 1st Try (with my help), 2nd Try (all Eva) and 3rd Try (All Eva) on YouTube. She is very proud of them and each video represents a couple of hours work using Modibot and Stopmotion Explosion.
We had a simple lunch in the room and then went over to the pool. The kids love hitting the pool. We also used the Jacuzzi and it turned much colder today than yesterday, so that may not have been the best move. Then it was time for cleaning up.
We opted for an early dinner over at The Woodstock Inn and Brewery. There we shared an Onion Blossom. Allison tried a sampler flight of beers and you have to watch the video just to hear Andrew tell her to “chug, chug, chug!” Neither of us knows where that came from. Allison and I shared a Fisherman’s Platter. Eva had chicken wings and Andrew had a huge hot dog and mac and cheese.
Ten we headed back to the Pollard Brook Resort where there was an activity happening. The kids made some bath fizzies. Eva made some peppermint ones and Andrew some sage ones. I stepped in to help him out because he wasn’t quite getting the concept of how to mix up the bath fizzies. Things were flying out of his bowl.
We went back to the room and the kids played while I got ready for a Twitter Party. I try not to have to do too much work while on vacation but occasionally I am working on things so it cannot be helped. It was only a short party so it did not interfere with spending time with everyone.
We took it easy today. We hung out at the room in the morning and did a few things. The kids worked on puppet show video that we made for Netflix. They had fun making the sock puppets a while back and then putting together the show. They had written some things down but when it came time to actually do the show they improvised their show. The improvisation ended up dragging a bit so I clipped a lot of the video down to something that I hope is more watchable. They tried. You can watch the video on my YouTube Channel.
Later in the morning we decided to give Escape the Room from ThinkFun a try. I received this game back in July at Blogger Bash and never got a chance to try it out before today. It was a fun game and had a great time working together to get out of the room. We ended up solving the game in one hour and 8 minutes. That was really quick in my opinion. I may be biased and the game is for ages 10 and up. We completed it with two under 10 and both contributed a lot to the overall completion of the game.
We then had some lunch and got ready to go out on an adventure. We drove up the Kancamagus to the Champney Falls Trail parking area. We were going to walk out to Champney Falls but there was too much snow and we couldn’t find the actual trail. We did walk along the water for a while until everyone got too tired of stepping through the snow. Andrew was having a great time and he’s fearless so he kept going on ahead. I would have been right with him but wanted to make sure that Allison and Eva got where they were going, too.
On the way back to the room we stopped a few places to take photos. The kids enjoyed taking great hero poses with great backdrops of Loon Mountain.
At the resort it was time for the ice cream social. We each had an ice cream sundae. We were near the tail end of the people who participated and they were still going strong even after serving 50 people. They had all kinds of toppings, too. It was well done.
Back at the room Eva and I started working on some stop motion animation using the Stopmotion Explosion program and our Modibots. I helped her get started and then after dinner Eva continued on her own as we watched The Jungle Book on Netflix. I finally worked out something with the Google Chromecast by making my phone a hotspot and using the other phone to cast the show through Netflix. It worked out way better. Eva was so proud of herself for making a 21 second stop motion movie. She worked really hard on it. I put that into today’s video, too.
Today we drove to New Hampshire. We have a Kia Sorento to drive for the week. DriveShop and Kia provided us with the car and opinions are our own. We’re staying at a timeshare for a few days and are going to explore the area. There are some really beautiful places to see.
On our way up we stopped at Double Midnight Comics. That is a comic book shop that is owned by a couple of friends from college. The kids loved the store and enjoyed getting a few things. Eva got a DC Superhero Girls book and Andrew a Trolls comic. I got a copy of Transformers #78 from the original Marvel run. I’m still missing some of them but am closer to completing the whole run.
We continued on to Lincoln, NH and there we had lunch at a Mexican place called El Charro. There were some excellent dishes there. We got stuffed silly.
It was still a bit early to go to our timeshare so we drove around a bit and saw more of the town and the surrounding scenery. We went up to the Flume and then further up to Franconia Notch, we turned back close to Cannon Mountain. We still had some time but went to Pollard Brook early and our room was ready. The kids were so thrilled to see it. They loved that there was a room for them and also a Jacuzzi tub in our room. What they wanted most of all was to go to the pool so we got changed and hit the pool for an hour. We got back tot eh room and from there I went to get some things at the supermarket. I also picked up a pizza and salad for dinner and we had a nice meal. After dinner the kids played with some LEGO sets that they had gotten for Easter while I tried to get Google Chromecast to work. This is certainly not an exact science at this point. I’m not sure if it has something to do with the network of the timeshare or what but one phone didn’t work for it and the other did. I’m going to have to play with it some more because I brought it so that we can do some movie watching at night. Allison and I watched Doctor Strange but the sound was all kaflooey that it made it not as enjoyable.
I was awoken to a message that the second leg of my trip home had been cancelled. I then took a look at the weather. Apparently, even more snow is going to be dumped all over my home. This is causing flights to be cancelled over and over. so I hopped on to see if I could switch the flight. I did and then that one had cancelled the second leg again. So this time I just called and was waiting on the queue. However, I didn’t have to wait on the phone. I could hang up and my spot in line would be saved till they were ready to call me back. Derek offered to have me fly through Dallas and stay with him until I could get a flight out. I wasn’t able to do that so I was booked back on my original first leg of the flight with a later flight out in the morning. We’ll see if I get there as expected.
The folks from Dad 2.0 organized a couple of excursions for people who were staying on Sunday and I really should have gone. I wanted to go and take some photos but couldn’t get myself motivated enough to go. I don’t know if it was post conference blahs or the nerves about not being able to be home when Allison is sick and has been cooped up in the house since Wednesday. Whatever it was I hung out in my room till almost 2pm doing blog posts and such. When I finally got out of my room there were a few people returning from the trips. I worked out a ride share to the airport with Michael. Then I took a walk to look for something to eat. I walked back to the mall where we watched The LEGO Batman Movie. While I was there I had a super small cup of ice cream for $4. Then I went into the LEGO store. While I was there I had time to kill so I started making a cup full of LEGO bricks. I took a whole hour at it and got a ton of pieces. I don’t know exactly how many I got but we’ll see when we do the next One Cup challenge for Built from Bricks.
Then I walked back and hung out, had crazy good nachos with short rib meat and blue cheese. They were potato chips and totally fresh. I split those with Doug, the organizer of Dad 2.0. It was Doug, Michael and I sitting by a firepit and enjoying good conversation. Then Michael and I headed to the airport. I’m there now and awaiting my first leg of my trip home. There is no one here in the airport, too. It is crazy.
I’m leaving Dad 2.0 Summit tomorrow. I had a different experience this year than the last. Last year I was a freshman making his way through the crowded halls of the upperclassmen, the veterans, those Dads that had many years of Dad 2.0 under their belts. I met many people and became friends with a few whom I would keep in contact with over the course of the next year. Some have become very close. I don’t have that closeness or ties to many other dads back home. Virtually none. I’m not much for the online groups and that is partly why I shied away from the conference to begin with. The other part was the M3 conference and the bad taste that left in my mouth. I had to give Dads conferences some time. Then the time slipped away. So, I am glad that I finally got it in gear last year and went.
I had applied for and won a Miller Grant. I had never met Oren Miller. From all I heard and saw at the conference in Washington he was Dad 2.0’s favorite son lost too soon. I felt myself feeling a little less for never having known him. Mind you, no one made me feel that way. I just felt that way, like I had missed someone quite special and I would never go to Dad 2.0 through that lens and experience.
But my trip last year was good and this year was really good. I got a roommate again, my friend Derek Wilmot. He and I had a great time together over the course of the Summit. It is always good to connect with a friend at these conferences and having a roommate was something that I balked against many times over but the past two times has been great, last year with Dave Taylor and this year with Derek.
Throughout the day yesterday I had many great experiences. I won a Nest Learning Thermostat from Rheem, and a $50 gift card from Russell Athletics, and yesterday Rheem gave me a $25 gift card to Home Depot. Facebook Live gave me a Mophie battery backup for doing a Facebook Live Session. Derek and I did one that was a lot of fun. You can see it here.
During my Second Day at Dad 2.0 2017 I spent a lot of time talking. I started off with some breakfast and then headed to the opening keynote. After that I was walking around the marketplace and was asked if I wanted to take a test drive in a Kia Niro. The car was loaded up with cameras of all sorts plus a cameraman in the front passenger seat and an interviewer in the back seat. She asked me questions as I drove around La Jolla a bit. I enjoyed driving the car and had a fun time with the question and answer. I do love what Kia brings to the conference each year and doing the drive was so much fun.
I then went through the marketplace for a while and talked with a bunch of the sponsors. I was interviewed by Hero Clean, a new cleaning product service for men. They have a really nice product and message. I enjoyed talking with them and had a fun time doing the interview.
Much of the afternoon was a whirlwind. I went from sponsor to sponsor, session to session. At 3:00 I went to the Dove Men +Care Suite and got a haircut and goatee trim. The goatee trim was minimal but the haircut was as close to shaved as I could get it without actually shaving my head. One day I will go all the way, but not today.
After that I was interviewed by Josh Temple of HGTV, who was at the Rheem booth. It was a fun interview and I’ll have that to post soon.
In the later afternoon I talked to a few of the other dads who produce videos. We’re part of a Facebook group and I wanted to do a quick spotlight with them, just a small thing. You can find all of them in the video below. There are links out to all their channels.
Tonight was a special trip, thanks to General Mills Cereals, to Ballast Point Brewing company. We had an excellent dinner and then a tour of the brewery. They have some major brewing facilities. I did have their lager and enjoyed it very much. Desserts were Cereal Inspired desserts including a Cheerios and Trix Marshmallow bar and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Chocolate Truffles. Both were very good. Look for me to do more about General Mills closer to #NationalCerealDay, March 7th.
