Welcome

WE’RE ALL ALRIGHT

By Shawn Connally

RECENTLY, I HEARD THE SONG “ALRIGHT

GUY” ON MY WAY TO WORK.

I think I’m an alright guy

I just wanna live until I gotta die

I know I ain’t perfect but God knows I try

I think I’m an alright guy

I think I’m alright.

Singer/songwriter Todd Snider goes on to say that

while he might occasionally get drunk and even a lit-

tle rowdy, he doesn’t have a trunk full of dead bodies.

Maybe it was the lack of coffee in my system,

but this struck me as quite a profound statement.

Something patently obvious but culturally ignored.

We’re all pretty OK, us ordinary folk. We’re all

alright. We have jobs, hang out with friends and

family, take up hobbies, and make some mistakes

along the way.

All the while, media and popular culture tend to put us down. TV shows make fun of our mistakes and imperfections, even our passions, however misplaced they may be. There’s always someone on a TV sitcom more than happy to make fun of

the normal guy. And reality shows like American

Idol excel at making fun of people singing their guts

out — the more off-key, the better for ridiculing!

As a society we’re buying into it, putdown by putdown. You’re too short, too fat, too old, too poor, too young, too klutzy, too dumb, too imperfect.

But then I realized, hey, this is where MAKE is different. Perhaps that’s the secret of our success. We give our readers instructions to build things themselves, we celebrate backyard hacks and

garage-grown innovations, and we think everyone

is smart enough to understand what we’re writing

about. We assume the best in people, not the worst.

Mainstream culture tends not only to highlight our shortcomings, but also to celebrate only

celebrities — the biggest, brightest, richest,

wildest, prettiest, most handsome.

On the flipside, MAKE celebrates ordinary, alright folk. We’re talking about homemade BBQ grills

stuffed into newspaper boxes, and espresso machines made from mortar shells (pages 20-21). Perhaps neither is the perfect machine for the job, but they’re imaginative and handmade by ordinary people. And that’s why we like them.

We’re hoping this volume adds to that home-grown community and spirit. I suggest you start out with the uplifting “Fail Early! Fail Often!” (page 34), which explains the merits of failure, why it’s not a dirty word, and how failing is always farther along the road to success than not trying at all.

Our focus is on Home Electronics this issue, with a special section full of great projects and articles, from top Roomba hacks (page 67) to making your house into the ultimate robot (page 72). The Primer on electronic test equipment (page 158) includes a refresher on the basics of voltage, current, and resistance. It’s one article I’ll keep at my home electronics workbench (page 58) for quick reference.

We’ll show you how to literally build your own world with our Biosphere project (page 110), and how to make your own brain machine to see how lights and sounds affect the mind (page 88).

You’ll read in amazement about high-power rocketry amateurs (page 48), self-replicating machines (page 38), and the fiery world of The Crucible (page 42). These are communities working on, failing at, and ultimately succeeding with their dreams.

Even our Reader Input (page 176) assures me that MAKE is focusing on the right sorts of people, and the right sorts of accomplishments. Enjoy 13-year- old Vinnie Brubaker’s personal statement, “How

MAKE Magazine Changed My Life,” and the fantastic artwork and story created by third-graders in Oregon for our MakeShift contest.

If these types of stories, ponderings, and projects inspire you, then my advice is to surround yourself with them. Seek out ordinary people creating extraordinary projects, then revel in appreciating their work, their vision, and of course, their imperfections.

Shawn Connally is managing editor of MAKE.

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