Justin Foell

There was a period in my life where I didn’t want to go to the state fair. The great Minnesota get together had worn me down. It was around the age of 18-23, when all I could wonder is why would I want to pay for parking, or find parking a mile away, walk forever, and pay a bunch of money to hang out in a crowded place to eat a corn dog?

When my wife and I moved back to Minnesota in 2008, now in our 30s, we visited the fair and I was pleasantly reacquainted. Jessi is pretty adept at couponing, so we sought out to maximize our dollars. Here’s how we do it.

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Tickets & Coupon Book

I don’t count this towards the per-person total because I consider it a sunken cost. Get your tickets before opening day at Cub for $11. If you’ve got a kid that is between 5-12 get them a ticket at Cub too. Unless you’re going on “kids day,” you’ll still pay $12 to get them in.

Get the coupon book for $5. Even if you only use it for drinks (which you should), it will pay for itself.

Always Share

We have one rule about the fair: you always share. It starts with getting there. Always go to the park and ride and take the bus. Never try to drive and find parking. You’ll spend more time and money driving and parking.

Share the food. Sometimes it is hard to share when one person wants something the other doesn’t, but this is rarely the case. There’s so much wonderful stuff to try and you don’t want to overdo it right out the gate. Approach the fair like a tasting.

Example Day

Here’s an example of what you can do using the coupon book. After doing this for over 5 years, these are all great options on a budget. With two people this is $40 total:

Farmer’s Union – Frappe $3.50
French Creperie – Breakfast crepe $6.25 (highly recommended)
Andy’s Grill – Breakfast sandwich $4
Wild Rice Specialities – Wild Rice Cheeseburger $6 (highly recommended)
RC Cola – $1.50
Fresh French Fries – $4
Shaved Ice – $4

Things to bring home:

Mini Cinnamon Rolls – $4
Cinnamon Roasted Almonds – $2.75
Rice Kristie Bar – $4

If possible, we like to take a day off of work, start early and eat breakfast at the fair. The crowds don’t seem so bad if you let it grow throughout the day, rather than showing up when it’s already pandemonium.

Don’t live and die by the coupon book

Obviously, many staples were left off of my example list:

Mini Donuts
Cheese Curds
Pronto Pup / Corn Dog (why not both?)
Corn on the cob
Sweet Martha’s Cookies + all you can drink milk
Ice Cream
Beer / wine

There are coupons for some of these things, but not all. Plus there are always new foods that you may want to try. Plan accordingly on what you want to get. You can’t eat it all – even though you might like to try. Even at $25-30 per person, you can have some classics and try some new things. We treat the coupon book as a baseline and go from there. There are some things we always get from the book, and some things we only do occasionally.

Free things to do

With 2 kids we have to set boundaries to not break the bank. Every kid gets exactly one (1) ride on the giant slide – both at once if possible 🙂 Thankfully there are several great free things to do.

BMX & Skateboard Show – hands-down my favorite show. I love to see what these guys and girls can pull off. It’s astounding what a 12 year old can do on a skateboard.
Animal Shows – dog agility, sheep shearing, equestrian contests, live animal births.
Home Depot build-it workshop (great for kids)
Little Hands Farm (great for kids)
Chainsaw Carvings
Art Galleries – Creative Activities, Fine Art Gallery, Student Art, 4H, Seed Art.
Eco Experience activities
Robot competition
Climb the Fire Tower
Free concerts

Other strange tests

One year Jessi and I did virtual welding. Jessi did a much better job than me. Another year, I took an ADD/ADHD test – do I have it? I’m definitely on the spectrum. Want to ride bikes? I’m thirsty. Do you like marshmallows? I can’t wait for the fair next year!

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I’ve tried adding an upgraded battery to my son’s Scout CX in the past, but it’s designed to only accept the tiny 70mAh batteries it comes with. After upgrading my Inductrix to a larger power connecter, I had two donor batteries to experiment with… So I took my old Inductrix battery lead and made a lead extension.

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I had been eyeing the Inductrix when it was released in 2015. The “ducted fan” design interested me because it was quiet(er), and because I could bump into things indoors with a better survival rate. Continue reading →

Slack and I have a long and torrid history. At 9seeds we were very early adopters. I thought we were joking when we discussed switching from HipChat to Slack, but the next day I logged into HipChat and was wondering where everybody was. Slack from then on would be the de-facto standard, and for a while, slack would be ruining my life.

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Why Slack Sucked Initially

I liked HipChat because I could use my native instant messaging app, Pidgin (similar to Adium), which could handle AIM, IRC, ICQ, plus any XMPP protocol (Google Talk, FB Messenger, HipChat), etc. I had to run Slack in a browser, especially at the beginning because they didn’t have a native Linux client. Chrome made it easier by letting me run it as an app in a dedicated window, but the away detection was terrible. Often I’d get simultaneous notifications on my desktop and my phone because slack thought I was inactive. All it took was to bring the slack window into the foreground and it would reset it’s inactivity timer. I actually opened up a support ticket with them with a JavaScript example of better away detection, but they already had a “native” (electron) client in the works for Linux.

Then Slack Got Worse

Technically, it got better first. Away detection was fixed. We all rejoiced! Everybody seemed to be moving wholesale away from IRC or HipChat or whatever to Slack. No one seemed to notice the ownership of their message history now belonged to someone else. Slack has to make money somehow, so they politely hold any messages prior to 10,000 hostage – waiting for you to unlock them with a paid account:

The way the 10,000 is counted is in the order that they’re logged at Slack by timestamp, no matter if it was in a channel or direct message. So if a channel is particularly chatty, any messages you had directly with John Doe may no longer be visible.

And what about the fact that all conversations are being funneled through and stored at Slack? I joke that the NSA probably has Slack on their payroll or already had an in through the PRISM program. It’s not really a joke though, it’s a legitimate concern. Do you trust Slack to encrypt and store all of those messages safely? It would be way easier for the NSA to do one intercept at Slack rather than Google, Facebook, AOL, ICQ, et. al.

With other messaging services, I at least felt comfortable that they’re likely just relaying them (not storing) and if I wanted an extra level of security, I could go “Off The Record.” Adding an extra layer of end-to-end encryption, you still have some control over your privacy.

And Even Worse

Ultimately the worst part about Slack was how everyone was using it. Constant mobile notifications, messages at odd-hours. It was a non-stop barrage of information that became harder to discern if it was something that warranted attention now, if it could wait until tomorrow, or if it was just for fun. I can honestly say that I quit a job over annoying slack messages. I hope this can serve as an example to anyone thinking about Slacking all the things.

Finally Better

I started a new job at WebDevStudios this year. They use Slack, and they use it well. WDS has “bankers hours” which amounts to everybody being online from 9-5PM Eastern time. After 5PM Eastern, you know what Slack is like? A ghost town. Hallelujah! After 5 everyone switches over to GroupMe to post pictures of their beers and/or tacos. Also, GroupMe conversation is totally optional. Want to participate at all hours of the evening? Go ahead! I keep mine on mute and check in occasionally so I can live my life without interruption.

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I told Jules that once he learned to ride a bike, I’d buy him whatever bike he wanted. A quick conversation with his cousin led him to start looking for bikes made of gold or diamond 🙄 Then at the beginning of April, Jules dedicated himself to learning to balance with no pedals on. He spent about 2 hours on one day, and a couple of hours the next and had balancing down. On the 3rd day, he asked me to put the pedals on and he took off!

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I kept good on my promise, except that it wound up also being his 8th birthday present. We looked at several bike shops and online to see what sort of offerings were out there. Since Jules is 8 years old, I suspect many of the bikes we were looking at were second bikes. As such, many of the 20″ kids bikes have a ridiculous amount of features like suspension that kids don’t need and they make the bike heavier – much heavier!

Since he had been riding for less than a month (we didn’t do any training wheels), I consider this his first bike. We didn’t need any of these extra features – and likely neither does your child. Also, the switch from a coaster brake to hand brakes wouldn’t be an issue as he’d only been on a coaster brake for a few weeks. Some bikes offer both to ease the transition – which might be a consideration if you child has been riding on a coaster brake for a significant amount of time.

My one plea to parents out there is to spend a little extra money on a bike if your child really enjoys riding. It will make their experience (and yours by association) much better. You don’t need to get a $650 internally-geared, belt-drive bike, but instead of spending the normal $80-100 at a big-box store, consider spending around $200 at a bike shop. You’ll get a better product and have a better experience.

We wound up finding the Giant XTC Jr. 20 Lite for $210 at The Hub, my favorite local bike shop.

It was one of the few 20″ kids bikes that offers multiple gears without front suspension.

BTW, I’m annoyed at the fact that kids bikes are measured by wheel size (16″, 20″, 24″) but once you’re on a full size bike it switches to frame size (17″, 19″ – 54cm, 56cm). I don’t think this is going to change anytime soon, just do your homework and be clear with the bike salesperson if you’re specifying frame size or wheel size when shopping 🙂

The gears on the XTC Jr. were a little difficult to change at first. Jules just needed to figure out the best way to grip the handlebar shifter, and buck-up a little bit. The Giant also has a lightweight aluminum frame and a relaxed top tube angle which keeps the stand over height low.

My only complaint is because the top tube is so low, there’s not enough room in the triangle for a normal water bottle cage (nor do they provide mounts to even attempt). Instead the solution was to buy a Topeak handle-bar bottle mount. I raised the stem slightly and attached it there to keep the relatively small handle-bars clutter free.

Jules loves it – it’s his ticket to freedom. He rode to summer school, and we brought it on our trip to Flite Fest. He’s already asking if we can hook up a trailer 😀

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Technology, Bicycling, Hobbies, Kids, Life.

Minnesota State Fair on $20 per person

Tickets & Coupon Book

Always Share

Example Day

Don’t live and die by the coupon book

Free things to do

Other strange tests

Scout CX Battery Mod

Inductrix ➡ Tiny Whoop ➡ Power Whoop

Slack the right way

Why Slack Sucked Initially

Then Slack Got Worse

And Even Worse

Finally Better

Best 20″ Kids Bike