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Inventions, inventors, tattoos and derby girls.

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Wow, Saturday was great!

I woke early to get to the invention showcase. Since Lillian was spending time with her grandma this weekend, this enabled me to not only ride my bike to PSU and save money on parking but, It also allowed me to be able to stay for the presentations that went throughout the day.
Since I was slightly lost on the PSU campus, this gave me the chance to run into Orland Nutt, he was taking secretly taking pictures of people dressed in crazy outfits. I’m not sure what he was doing on the West side of the river but, it seemed like he had some sort of creative project or something he was working on. After briefly talking with Mr.Nutt, I continued my quest to find the invention showcase.
I found the place and was excited to see half of the large room filled with student inventions and the other half industry types and other inventors from the area. Some kids from one of the schools had built a Stirling engine, they were talking about it on the main stage of the event. That’s pretty cool. Most of the student inventions where really cool and a lot of them fit into the MoHDI idea set.
Some company had brought a 3D printer in to display. That thing is so cool! I would love to get one at some point. I don’t think I’ll be able to afford one any time soon, maybe next year I’ll pick up a couple.
Stephen, who I had met at some of the invention meetings had his PLUS (Power Leveraging Utility System) car on display. I was very excited to see that he had a “Powered by Gasoline” sticker on the car. It’s probably one of the funniest applications I’ve seen of the sticker.

The PLUS car

He was telling me that since he needed to bring two cars to the event he had plugged the car into one of the cities electric car outlets downtown where he could park for hours without having to pay a meter. He was humorously concerned the car might be towed because of the sticker.
Caleb, had his patented, hands free soap dispenser on display. This was really cool, I had heard about his invention before but, seeing it in action was really cool.
I was most excited about seeing a table set up by Areté Design they had about 7 large sketchbooks on display. This was so awesome to see. They have a lot of their conceptual drawings on their site but, nothing is like seeing it in person.
The first of the afternoon workshops included one on patenting your idea and one on Licensing. Since I wanted to see both of them, I sat in the middle between the two. It’s amazing how much more information you can take in while 2 people are presenting to you at the same time.
One thing I want to look into more is about the legal rights if you don’t patent your idea. Basically if I don’t want to pay to patent something and don’t mind putting the idea into the public domain realm I don’t want someone later on to patent the idea and tell me to stop producing what ever it might be that I invented. It sounds like if you present your invention to the public then that idea will not be able to have a patent on it. Like I said, I want to research this some more.
The next session was Charles from Areté Design at the same time that Kedma and Christine from MIPO where presenting on marketing and protecting your idea. I decided that it took too much brain power to sit in on both this time and went to the marketing session. This was a great session! I got a lot from this session. MIPO who put on the event has not been operating long but they are one of Oregon’s greatest resource for inventors. I hope to meet with Christine next week sometime about some of my ongoing projects.
I left the invention showcase fueled with ideas.
It was cold and rainy when I left. My shoes that have large holes in them quickly made my feet cold and wet. Ugh. So on my path home I stopped by the mall to do a little “market research” and see if I could find cheap shoes without holes in them. I was kind of dismayed to see a Reatrix system set up at the mall. If you know me, I’ve been slowly working on my interactive surface idea for some time, so seeing this put a fire under my behind. I left the mall feet still wet, shoes still holey.
I did find the perfect spot to sneak a money target. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for some good spots around town, I have yet to find one and at this spot I would get arrested if I ever attempted to take the money from the target.

I was downtown and walking around…
While walking past “Tiffany’s” (you know like from breakfast at tiffany’s) (like the movie) I saw this cute girl working behind the counter, I was thinking a great pick up line would be to go in there…
When she asks if she can help, I would say.
“I’m looking to buy something for my girlfriend”
Then when she says, “What’s your girlfriend like?”
I would say,
“I’m not sure, I just met her.”
Then I would just look at her hypnotically and hope that she doesn’t call security.

I eventually made my way home and then got a call from Hazel. She was helping me build a prototype for one of my more than hundred dollar ideas, she had it ready for me. Awesome! Thank you Hazel! You rock!

We brainstormed for a while on things. We got to talking about her friend Collin, who was going to rent a room with the bartender, I asked if it was accountant Collin, she said it was the Collin with the tattoo of a blank page of notebook paper on his arm. I don’t think I know that Collin. Since Collins tattoo is such a great idea, we assembled a list of practical tattoos.
Usefull Tattoos

  • Notebook Paper
  • Conversion Chart
  • Your pin#s or SS#
  • Passwords
  • Wristwatch
  • Periodic Table
  • Good excuses for stuff
  • Eloquent things to say
  • Maps
  • your dna code
  • Your information
  • Instruction for Heimlich Maneuver
  • Important Medical Information
  • Foreign phrases
  • Basic grocery list
  • Calendar
  • the solar system
  • game boards, scrabble, monopoly, chess….
  • a detailed color wheel
  • favorite quotes
  • acupuncture points (from Mike Larson)

One of our ideas was so cool, that not only did I not list as it’s a million dollar ideas and more suitable for the HoMDI site but we do plan on developing it more. It might not make the greatest tattoo but, that’s the beauty of brainstorming. Ideas generate more ideas.

Laura showed up from the roller derby bout. I missed the bout but the after party is always fun to go to. There is nothing like seeing lots of roller girls all gathered in one spot. Sorry Tiffany’s girl, I think the roller girls are more my style. We got a ride to the after party.
I was overwhelmed. It was great to see a number of friends and to check out the crowd. The bouts are so cool to watch. I regret not being able to make this one. At least I could make the after party a little.
Imagine being surrounded by hundreds of cute girls wearing sexy derby outfits most drinking and talking like sailors. Most of the girls are tougher and stronger than the men in the room. It’s very intimidating but that’s what the after party is like.
I enjoyed the music and the ambiance for a while then made my way home to saw some logs.

Wow, Saturday was great!

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