Eureka!!

I figured out something so freakin' cool today.
I think it may be something I've wanted to do since I saw E.T. and Elliot tweak the Speak and Spell, though I can't say for sure because it sure was buried deep in some latent part of my brain.
I've been spending all these bucks at Radio Shack buying all these parts for my tinkering class, and I've been feeling very non-eco about it, and sure that there must be a better way...
and the gears in my head have also been spinnin' trying to think of ways to set it up so kids can really run with ideas and be creative and explore and not just follow my instructions...
... then right next door to the Radio Shack was a thrift store and I went in for no particular reason... then I started buying all these broken old remote control trucks and cars, just thinking the kids could take them apart and maybe attach some parts of them to the bristlebots we're going to build, just, who knows what the kids will come up with because they're so freakin' smart...
Then I just totally got a bee in my bonnet when I got home and me and Jack started taking one of them apart, experimenting, getting excited, it was one of those things where of course the baby was crying and on my lap and I just desperately did not want to stop (What did Picasso do when his babies were crying and he was possessed with by an idea? oh yeah he had a wife, I think I need to get me one of those...) (thankfully Matt came out to hold her...) and yeah so, we figured out how to make it go and we rebuilt it in a way so it did something, and I'm not saying it's much, but the possibilities are really endless. I can't wait to do this with the kids... they are going to dig it SO much.
So there you go. COOL!

(Oh yeah, and the other part of the equation is realizing that I can harvest parts I need from all sorts of old electronics.... got any you want to give me? Repurposing at it's best!)