...Win stuff

OK, so in the Haze-O-Matic 3000 chapter, I showed you in detail one possible way to wrap up a simple fog machine in a completely overwrought mechanism, with the challenge being for you, the reader, to do exactly the same thing in a completely different way. Think of it as a graduation exercise from the Eccentric Genius School of Improvisational Fabrication.

SInce the E.G.S.o.I.F doesn't have grade point averages, or a football team, or a debating clu, or any of the other typical schoolish manifestations of 'competition' . We're gonna have a Makin' Stuff contest instead. Specifically, a 'Makin' a Fog Machine' contest

Let's review the last bit of the H3K chapter to refresh our memories, shall we...

"I know you can do better than this, not in terms of raw fog output (anybody could pick up half a dozen $20 foggers at a big-box outlet, put ’em in a box with a common outlet, and call it the Haze-o-Matic 5000XE), but in terms of . . . er . . . the ambience created by the mechanism when it’s not in operation.

I expect you to experiment. Don’t disappoint me.

I wanna see Goldbergian fog machines of epic complexity. Surreally convoluted mechanisms that spit in the eye of common sense.

Make me proud. There’s a contest involved, with prizes and everything. Send pictures and/or video. If you can get a clear shot through the haze."

Simple enough then, isn't it?

Entries will be accepted until June 24, 2008, and will be judged by myself and a panel of Make Magazine notables.  I'm still haggling like crazy to score a bunch of suitably bad-assed prizes, but the First Prize package will definitely include a one-of-a-kind Eccentric Genius 'Antique from a Parallel Universe' valued at $500  (I know the guy who makes 'em) .

Further deets on prizes and judges will be posted as they happen.

So hit the damned shop and get Makin'...