Hi Shannon,This is an inspiring story indeed. Thanks for sharing it. It makes me think back to when I was 14. I did not know what a Tesla coil was then. For that matter, I did not know what electricity was all about. I just thought of it as some sort of stuff piped into your home. I was a Star Trek fan though. I loved to make cardboard model space ships and hang them in my room. I loved to make cardboard model robots with Christmas tree lights inside them to make it look like they had glowing buttons. I painted my room with florescent paint and had it glow brightly with a black light. I had a huge mural covering my whole wall with a picture of aliens in front of a flying saucer. I had glowing model spaceships and planets that I made hanging from my ceiling. Believe me, if I had known of Tesla coils, I would have wanted one of those too.
I was criticized constantly for having interests that were not feminine. I did not relate well to the girls at my church and school. I was a loner. My most exciting thing in life is going to a Star trek convention when I was 14 dressed as Mr. Spock.
Consider making girls Tesla coil padawans as well. I think it is time in the 21st century that some of the funny ideas of what boys do and what girls do can come to an end. Why not show a girl the Tesla coil art.
I can almost hear Yoda's voice when he said to Luke, "Too old, to old to begin the training." I wish I had met a Tesla coiler when I was 14. Now I am a bit of an old goat who found out about it later in life. I am just finding out some of the mysteries of electricity. I have not yet met face to face Tesla coilers, but all that is about to change in August. I will finally see real coils, not just videos. I can't wait.
Keep up the noble mission, Shannon. -------------------------------------------------- From: "Weinhold Shannon L" <Shannon.L.Weinhold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 2:55 PM To: "Tesla Coil Mailing List" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: RE: [TCML] ***** My real tip for all coilers *****
Great words Miles. I took on mentoring a brilliant young man in the Tesla coiling arts some 3-4 years ago. He was much like you described. Social trouble, bored in school, no real serious goals in his life, lack of focus. Lots of potential, but no direction, and thus, the idle hands/devils playground effect was grabbing hold of him at the young age of 14. But I could see that glimmer in his eye...I could tell he was a willful young man, much as I once was, and I saw an opportunity to shape his destiny and give him something that he could be passionate about. A golden opportunity. It concerned me, having someone so young messing with potentially lethal current...so I instilled safety into his every action, and constantly reminded him of the gruesome painful death or life with a disfiguring disability that would come about if he was not 100% cautious 100% of the time. He listened studiously and I knew he was taking it all to heart. I persuaded him (much to his dismay)to avoid microwave oven transformers. He let me "hold onto them" for him. :) I set him up with a small bug zapper transformer and some caps, a spark gap, a small secondary, and an enclosure and gave him as much wisdom as I could transfer to him and let him go after it. It wasn't long until he had worked his way to a 3" secondary and a bigger nst, and he has evolved much as we have since...slowly and cautiously. He is now a very capable young man with focus and goals and confidence in his abilities. I'd like to think that my influence had a part in that, and I'm happy that I had the opportunity to pass on my knowledge to him. Now his knowledge has surpassed mine in all sorts of areas of expertise..the padiwan has become the master. (don't let it go to your head Mr. Karr...I'll always be wiser) So just to follow up with what you said Miles, do seek out those kids with that look of wonderment in their eyes and reach out to them. You might just get a best friend out of the deal in the end. I did. ;~) Shannon Weinhold
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