Hey gang! You may have noticed less posts and articles from me in the last couple of weeks. I am about to 100% go on a “MAKEcation” — this is a term I thought up for folks who want to take a “vacation,” but instead of going to a tropical island, you build projects you always wanted to but never had time for. At the end of the MAKEcation (or during) you share what you made with others.

So for the most part most of you won’t see me until Maker Faire (May 30th & 31st). Since we started MAKE about 5 years ago, I’ve only taken off one week, and that was the first and only time I went to Burning Man to ride that steam engine in the desert. I’ve stored up a few hundred projects over these years, and I can’t wait to do them!

If you’re wondering what I am working on, well, stay tuned and keep watching the web! For now there were 2 projects I wanted to get out the door in the last couple of weeks and both happened!

Tweet-a-watt – I’ve had a “Kill-a-watt” for about 5 years, and I liked the idea but thought it was odd that it couldn’t publish its information in some way (serial), so once the Xbee hit the scene I knew eventually this would make a good hardware mashup. We released this a couple weeks ago and it really took off!

Next up, “Learning Electronics” merit badges – I don’t think the Boy Scouts would have wanted me when I was a kid spending a lot of time alone hacking up things, so for a few years I’ve wanted to design “Learning Electronics” merit badges for everyone — girls, boys, adults, anyone who wants a small way of remembering (and collecting) a skill they’ve mastered. The first is “Soldering” — more to come soon!