My 15 minutes of Fame
I made my Personal Beer Robot as personal therapy to my soul-crushing days working at Deloitte as a government contractor — easily one of the worst jobs I have ever had. I cooked kettle corn in a welder’s mask over a hot-air balloon flame at fairs when I was 16 and even that was better. My robot ended up getting way more press than I ever imagined. It even ended up in Popular Science, which was a dream come true.
I gave my manager about six weeks' notice to take one day of PTO to do the Popular Science photo shoot. He denied my PTO. I told him I was absolutely not missing it and that he could fire me. He didn't. I wonder if he is still there attempting to crush the dreams of young people.
I ended up having to mail it to London and then ended up being on a reality show, which ruined reality TV for me — not that ruining reality TV was hard to do. Fast forward, Best Buy ended up asking me and my mom to be on their Christmas Campaign. It ended up playing before the Skyfall James Bond movie so seeing myself twenty feet tall was incredibly weird and cool. It also ended up playing during a commercial break of American Idol, which pretty much paid for my honeymoon.
The moral of this story is probably just to make stuff that you think is cool for no other reason than that. Then post it online because who knows who will agree with you. The moral is not to hate your job so much that you make a robot that fires negative coping mechanisms at 45 mph.
Do not try to make one of these things. I am so lucky that I am not dead.