B. Tracy's Thoughts: February 2008

This past weekend was unique in 2 ways:
1. I did a great service project that raised lots of food for the needy.
2. That event was a part of what may be the nerdiest weekend of my life to date.

Let's start with the fun part: Canstruction.

What's canstruction? Is it some cool thing that cool people do, and am I not cool because I don't know what it is? Should I just pretend to know what it is so I look cool?

Relax, relax. First of all, Canstruction is a worldwide event where teams collect canned goods, and then design & build all sorts of cool structures from them. You can see the national website here.
Second, if it were something that cool people did, then it wouldn't be held at a mall on a Friday night from 9pm to 6am. But I digress.

This year I got to be a part of the event through the Phoenix chapter of the American Society of Engineers, or ASCE, because we're all about efficiency and don't like pronouncing unnecessary syllables. Here's a look at our structure:

As you can see from the figure, it rocks. A picture of our model made the local paper, and a film crew from Unwrapped on the Food Network was there to film us. In case you haven't seen it, it's a pretty fun show about food and it's hosted by the guy from Double Dare.

We all had a great time, and the Phoenix event alone raised over 50,000 cans, which is pretty cool by itself.

As for the rest of the weekend? Board games and the Renaissance Faire. White & Nerdy indeed.

Here's a few other pictures from the event. Enjoy.