Heck of a weekend
Aug. 3rd, 2009 01:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikNot sure even where to start.
First off, the party was a total blast. At one point we counted around 65 people there at the same time. Given the arrival/departure traffic through the day, we're pretty sure that we had just barely over 100 people through the shop before the party started winding down. It turned into, as SuperJayhawk put it, a "two meal affair". All the burgers got used up at lunch and all the steak for dinner. I don't think anybody left hungry, which is how it should be. In all it lasted a full 15 hours, from 10am to 1am.
The coolest part? Even though that big, the entire party was laid back, relaxed and fun. No drama, nothing broken, nothing stolen. People were all just plain nice, which is such a wonderful thing. Everybody seemed to have plenty of room with enough places to sit. There was just enough variety-of-area that they didn't get too bored. The lasered tags were a hit as were the little tech demos Revar was giving throughout the day. On top of it all, people kicked in to the donation jar enough to keep the ice restocked and the grills flaming on into the night. I'm humbled by how nice everybody was and how well things went as a result. You guys are all the best party guests ever.
The nicest part about holding this at the shop is how easy it was to clean up. With the help of a few folks at the end of the party we had it all rolled up and managed in no time at all. It was like a normal day at the shop... not a mega-party with a triple-digit number of guests. Heck, we went back there today to roll up our sleeves and do a Proper Cleaning only to find out there really wasn't much of anything that needed it. Instead we kicked back and hung out with a few friends while working on powder coating and costuming projects.
Super-sized shoutouts to SuperJayhawk & Dusty for all the prep and cooking, Croc for the music, Cooner for the arts, JayGryph for the stereo gear, Reveille for giving bike-tech demos, Revar for all the CNC demos, Peganthyrus for the Nuka-Cola goodness and everybody who brought things to share. Drew's apple-bread was an especially popular hit, as were Nightwind & Reba's cookies and many other treats that many others brought.
Speaking of Nuka-Cola, it seems our goofy little vending machine had an online party of its own while we were busy grilling in the real world. We had no idea it would go viral, but somewhere around midday it did. Its story spiraled from Stumbleupon to Reddit, from Reddit to Kotaku, from Kotaku to Digg (whose exposure crashed Kotaku!), to a bunch of Fallout3 forums in Russia and Poland. Other sites picked up the story on the 3rd or 4th tier and ran with it. During the party and the day after we got >160,000 hits on the image page, >660 Diggs, >630 Reddit-marks, the 3rd space on Google for "nuka cola machine" and a bunch of other pingbacks. Holy Nuclear Soda, Batman!
Thank you, everybody, for coming by and hanging out. You've made this weekend totally awesome. Anybody else think we should do this again some time? :)
(and yes, comments/criticisms are totally welcome and highly appreciated. Just comment here or email me direct at tugrik@gmail.com if you'd prefer.)
First off, the party was a total blast. At one point we counted around 65 people there at the same time. Given the arrival/departure traffic through the day, we're pretty sure that we had just barely over 100 people through the shop before the party started winding down. It turned into, as SuperJayhawk put it, a "two meal affair". All the burgers got used up at lunch and all the steak for dinner. I don't think anybody left hungry, which is how it should be. In all it lasted a full 15 hours, from 10am to 1am.
The coolest part? Even though that big, the entire party was laid back, relaxed and fun. No drama, nothing broken, nothing stolen. People were all just plain nice, which is such a wonderful thing. Everybody seemed to have plenty of room with enough places to sit. There was just enough variety-of-area that they didn't get too bored. The lasered tags were a hit as were the little tech demos Revar was giving throughout the day. On top of it all, people kicked in to the donation jar enough to keep the ice restocked and the grills flaming on into the night. I'm humbled by how nice everybody was and how well things went as a result. You guys are all the best party guests ever.
The nicest part about holding this at the shop is how easy it was to clean up. With the help of a few folks at the end of the party we had it all rolled up and managed in no time at all. It was like a normal day at the shop... not a mega-party with a triple-digit number of guests. Heck, we went back there today to roll up our sleeves and do a Proper Cleaning only to find out there really wasn't much of anything that needed it. Instead we kicked back and hung out with a few friends while working on powder coating and costuming projects.
Super-sized shoutouts to SuperJayhawk & Dusty for all the prep and cooking, Croc for the music, Cooner for the arts, JayGryph for the stereo gear, Reveille for giving bike-tech demos, Revar for all the CNC demos, Peganthyrus for the Nuka-Cola goodness and everybody who brought things to share. Drew's apple-bread was an especially popular hit, as were Nightwind & Reba's cookies and many other treats that many others brought.
Speaking of Nuka-Cola, it seems our goofy little vending machine had an online party of its own while we were busy grilling in the real world. We had no idea it would go viral, but somewhere around midday it did. Its story spiraled from Stumbleupon to Reddit, from Reddit to Kotaku, from Kotaku to Digg (whose exposure crashed Kotaku!), to a bunch of Fallout3 forums in Russia and Poland. Other sites picked up the story on the 3rd or 4th tier and ran with it. During the party and the day after we got >160,000 hits on the image page, >660 Diggs, >630 Reddit-marks, the 3rd space on Google for "nuka cola machine" and a bunch of other pingbacks. Holy Nuclear Soda, Batman!
Thank you, everybody, for coming by and hanging out. You've made this weekend totally awesome. Anybody else think we should do this again some time? :)
(and yes, comments/criticisms are totally welcome and highly appreciated. Just comment here or email me direct at tugrik@gmail.com if you'd prefer.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 09:03 am (UTC)I'll have to beg Revar to show me the raver toy as soon as I get off these meds that, I just found out, make me light sensitive. That explains a lot. :D
You all were wonderful hosts, and I hated having to go because there were so many interesting people to visit. Thank you for having the party.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 11:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 06:17 pm (UTC)I think you meant 10am to 1am (1000-0100). 10am to 1pm is just 3 hours. (1000-1300)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 08:07 pm (UTC)Was good to meet new people and everything. You're all pretty darn awesome. :D
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 10:09 pm (UTC)While most of my projects involve fabric right now, it's great to have some 'space' to do it all in. After the fabric project list has been depleted to a manageable level, I'll start dipping my beak into something more metallic.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-04 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-04 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-05 01:49 am (UTC)Thanks for the birthday card.