The Great Big Skills Share Jamboree // 29th June, 2013 // West Bromwich

[David Martin]

TTIUWP

[nikki]

CrinklyLion found us and is still upright; barakta and Kim have done a fun and educational BSL session; and Charlotte's just got the knivery out.

It's all going swimmingly.

*gets back into hammock*

[nikki]

Some photos and commentary going up here:
https://twitter.com/ManyVaried

[Kim]

It all went swimmingly.  Or at least as swimmingly as things can go without anything getting wet.  Which was in itself an achievement, given the amount of indoor cycling.

I can now correctly identify the absence of birds from a field; various people now appreciate whole new linguistic dimensions to beer-spilling; my Macgyver-spec swiss army knife no longer bears the blunt (see what I did there) of two decades of impromptu wire stripping, while Macgyver himself saved the world from sulphuric acid and terible 80s shoes. I smoothed dead vegetables without the aid of abrasives; got improvisational with XLR cables; wished I'd brought an oscilloscope; introduced various people to the Dark Side; successfully picked some locks (one of which was a fiddly bastard); ate the correct number of poppadoms^[1]; received a hands-on practical demonstration of harmonic oscillation from a two-year-old; got oil on my head; somehow managed to acquire a Rasperry Pi and at no point fell out of a hammock.

Really, what's not to like?


_{[1] Too many}

[andrewc]

Sounds fun, congrats to all involved !

[nikki]

It was all rather splendid.

My full set of photos is now online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/manyandvaried/sets/72157634415618466/

Here are a small selection...

The space we were in (click for full size):



...where people who attach things to their belts can meet other people who attach things to their belts

The trice was a big hit:

Recumbent trike. Made. Of. Win.

As were the knives, the spoons, and the locks.


Knife skills


Knife skills


lockpicking

I selflessly looked after small children to allow parents to take part in the shiny stuff,


collaborative hammock skills

so I didn't get photos of everything. CrinklyLion in particular seems to have escaped the lens. Ninja skills?





(It's all about the faces, apparently...)

[Kim]

And the beer.  Faces and beer.

[CrinklyLion]

There's definitely orange hair in a few of them photies, Nikki!

I took very few pics, and one of those was of a bin for Jane.  But I really liked this one


Cracking good fun all round. 

I managed to be epically late and eventually arrived doing a quite convincing impersonation of a giant spiky ball of stress due to some Real World complications.  Since being stressed, tired or mildly hungover are all things that do tend to compound my latent dyspraxia-type tendencies quite badly, I decided discretion was the better part of valour when it came to the Sharp Stabby Stuff and thus avoided unnecessarily bleeding all over the venue - it would have clashed badly with the green, wouldn't it?

Lots of interesting stuff going on, and a great space to invade for the day.  Thanks to all who brought skills, and especially to Nikki both for the h'organisation and the overnight accommodation!

[Kim]

Barakta with sharp objects is always an interesting one.  To the untrained observer, she can look spectacularly awkward (and lack of fingers doesn't exactly help her case), but with the right tools and technique, she can find a way to do most things.  A little bit.

I decided discretion was the better part of valour when it came to the Sharp Stabby Stuff and thus avoided unnecessarily bleeding all over the venue - it would have clashed badly with the green, wouldn't it?

Goes quite well with the pink thobut (DAHIKT).

[Charlotte]

...where people who attach things to their belts can meet other people who attach things to their belts

That really ought to be a specialist dating forum or at the very least, a tumblog of greatness 

[Basil]

I'm really peeved that I missed the Barakta skills and the Charlotte skills, both of which I had been looking forward to.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I'm sad to have missed those, too, and the Basil skills. You were going to teach drinking beer in a chocolate factory, weren't you?

But I have to say that I did have a great day on Saturday anyway.

[vorsprung]

Can anyone demonstrate wheel building?

Yes, I don't see why not.  It's easier to do than demonstrate however.