Apr 15

Arcades! Arcades! Arcades!

Hey All,

This weekend is Star Wars Celebrations!  While I’m not able to go, for the past week I’ve been helping Free Play Florida finish their 10 foot Star Wars arcade cabinet for the convention.  This thing is awesome!  And MASSIVE!

This machine will be at Free Play Florida and Orlando Maker Faire this year 😀

SwitchCade

The Nintendo Switch has come out, and I have put a ton of hours into The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild already.  This is one of my favorite consoles so far.  The eShop already has Neo Geo games and a new Street Fighter game is coming out ( Ultra Street Fighter II ) so of course I had to make a Nintendo Switch Arcade Machine 😀  The files to make your own are on Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2235516/#files 

Have a great weekend all!

-Shea

Nov 12

How to run for Florida Office

Hey All,

This year I ran for Florida House of Representatives District 49 (Orlando).  I lost, but I got 31% of the vote and I only spent $3000.  My opponent got 69% of the vote and spent $100,000.

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I’ve been asked about this on Reddit, so I’m going to make a detailed post about how to run for Florida House of Representatives.  This is for state level offices (Florida House of Representatives and Senate).  The local offices (soil and water, county commission, property appraiser, sheriff, supervisor of elections, etc) use different forms and have different reporting systems, as does the Federal level.

That being said, don’t let this stop you from running.  I didn’t know what I needed to do, all I knew was to go the Florida Division of Elections site, and I started reading.  Here is the breakdown:

Candidate Documents

All Florida candidates documents are public record.  You can see every document and correspondence  between the State and the Candidate at http://dos.elections.myflorida.com/candidates/CanList.asp.

Mine is here: http://dos.elections.myflorida.com/campaign-docs/?account=65743

The first form is the DS-DE 84 – Statement of Candidate.  This form just states your name and what you are running for.  The second form, DS-DE 9, is your campaign treasurer form.  This can be yourself.  You can also fill out this form multiple times with other people as your deputy treasurers.  This form must be done before opening up a bank account!  Once the state receives these forms, you will get an acknowledgment packet in the mail.  You can now open a bank account and start taking contributions and making expenditures.

This packet will also include  your candidate ID, and password for the electronic filing system.  You will regularly need to login and enter in your contributions and expenses.  You can see mine here: http://dos.elections.myflorida.com/candidates/CanDetail.asp?account=65743 (click on Campaign Finance Activity)

Qualifying

You are now running.  Now what?  Now you have to qualify to be on the ballot.  The rules were laid out here: http://dos.dos.myflorida.com/media/696370/qualifying-memorandum-state-representative-state-senate-2016.pdf

There are two methods to qualify: Pay the qualifying fee, which was a little over $1000  (It is a percentage of the yearly salary of the seat you are running for), OR qualify via the petition method, which means getting people to sign a petition to have you on the ballot.  This form is DS-DE 104.

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For my district, this was 976 signatures.  I filed about a month before qualifying documents were due.  I did not get 976 signatures.  I had to pay the qualifying fee.  I found out later that my opponent had turned in his candidate documents almost a year before I had, and had been working on these petition signatures for a long time.  The earlier you start the better.  He was able to qualify with the petition method.

As a side note, these signatures are given to your local elections supervisor, and get verified.  You have to pay ~10cents per signature, and they will be thrown out if they aren’t a registered voter in your district.

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Financial Disclosure Form

During the week of the qualifying period (the period where you can turn in your petition signatures), you will also have to file your Financial Disclosure Form 2015 CE Form 6.  This form is hard to fill out, but not impossible.  You basically have to fill out what you make at your job, how much you have in your bank accounts, what debt you have, and what assets you have.

Party Oath

The last form you have to file is the Party (or lack of Party) oath:
Party Affiliation Candidates: (Form DS-DE 24)
No Party Affiliation Candidates: (Form DS-DE 24B)
Write-In Candidates: (Form DS-DE 24A)

You are on the ballot!

You are now running.  If you are running on a party, you may have to go through a primary.  As an NPA (No Party Affiliation) I was on the November ballot.

Now what?

Now you get to run.  You will need to setup a website, a donation system, start doing outreach, setup your Facebook and twitter pages, etc etc etc.

Any donation over $100 has to have the persons occupation and employer.  Donations are limited to $1000 per person.

Software is available to help with this.  I built my own open source software: https://github.com/SheaSilverman .  ActBlue is only for democrats.  NationBuilder is available but charges per month.

You will get LOTS of questionnaires in the mail and through email.  Mostly to see if they want to endorse you.

Hob Nobs

Be prepared to spend money on tables at Hob Nobs.  These were fun, tiring, and introduced me to a lot of people in the community and to the other candidates.  At every Hob Nob they held a straw poll, which allowed you to vote and they would release the results at the end of the night.  That really helped with gauging my polling with various groups.

Each Hob Nob was hosted by different groups like schools, chambers of commerce, and professions.  They are worth every penny.

Advertising

I didn’t have much money, but I spent $200 on 100 yard signs.  Get the biggest you can afford.  They will be stolen.  Factor that in.

I also spent about $150 on Facebook ads.  Totally worth it!  This got me in front of about 5000 – 10000 people.  You can super target your district.  My opponent spent $100 a week on Facebook ads.  I should have spent more.

Media

Send out press releases about every event to local media.  You will start to make friends with the local press.  I had 2 journalists at each of my events doing coverage.  Make yourself available to them and treat them well.

All Forms: http://dos.dos.myflorida.com/elections/forms-publications/forms/

This is all I can think of at the moment.  There was so much more.  Please feel free to ask / comment / email me anymore questions you have!

Oct 17

Awesome news and MakerFaire Orlando 2016 coming up

Hey All,

I have extremely awesome and happy news to report!  K is pregnant!!!!  We are having a baby!

In other news, MAKERFAIRE ORLANDO 2016 is this weekend at the Central Florida Fairgrounds!!!!

Come see me, FamiLAB, and hundreds of other exhibits showcasing the biggest show and tell on Earth!

Jacob and I have recently finished revision 3 of PiPlay Advance, and it’s looking awesome!

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We are currently testing out a variety of buttons, but it’s coming together really nicely!

And finally, the Elections are coming up soon, and my race for Florida House District 49 is heating up.  I’m very excited to see what happens in the next few weeks.  That being said, I have the most amazing supporters out there!

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Have a great week all!

-Shea

P.S.: In sadder news, at 91, my Grandmother Bernice passed away peacefully two weeks ago.  I was very hesitant about posting this, because it makes it feel so real now.  She lived an amazing life, and got to hear that she was going to be a great grandmother.  I miss her, and I love her, and it sucked that Hurricane Matthew hit the same week as the funeral, so everything had to be rushed.

Thank you all for being there for me.

Sep 11

Updates Updates Updates

Hey All,

Sorry for the long delay in updates.  Been extremely busy with the campaign and some personal projects.  I needed the break but I’m back.

Good News

The Florida primaries are over, and it is only myself and a Democrat in the race for Florida House District 49.  I am currently polling in the high 30s, which is pretty damn good considering I’m an Independent with about $1000 left running against a politician who has raised over $100,000.

Does money help?  Of course, but the more I talk to people and tell them my platform, and more importantly, what type of person I am, the more support I am getting.  I am so thankful for the wonderful support my friends and family are showing me during this campaign.  It’s been amazing so far.  Can’t wait until the November election 😀

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The PiPlay Advance board is coming together!  We have another iteration we are getting ready to test!  More news on that soon 😀e6e6230260da234de488a393ef5bd7cb_preview_featured

I’ve been playing a TON of Overwatch lately, and in a few of the maps, you can run around some arcade machines.  They look like traditional Japanese Candy Cabs, and I love them.  I really want to make my own real version sometime, BUT, I was able to do the next best thing.  A modder released the model files for the arcade into Source Film Maker, and I was able to export them OBJs, convert them to STLs, and then clean them up in Tinkercad, so I could 3D print them.

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Sad News

In sad news, last month my Grandfather passed away.  I want to thank the other campaigns for offering their condolences and being decent about the whole thing.  It took a toll on my family of course.  Right after he passed, my Grandmother went into the hospital (for what looks like a heart attack), but she is doing better.  It was just a heck of a month.

Today is also 9/11, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention anything about it.  I remember 15 years ago, a senior in high school, watching the events unfold on TV in a class room.  The administrators were going room by room turning off TVs and telling the teachers to go back to their lessons.  I’m glad my teacher turned it back on when they left.

At 17, all I could think about was how my cousins lived in NYC at the time, and hoping they were OK, but not really worried, because they were also kids, what would they be doing close to the towers?  I remember a lot of confusion and worry about what was next.  I remember a lot of ignorant and hateful comments being spoken in the following weeks, and a lot of misinformation from my fellow classmates.  I was just numb.

15 years later, the big thing I take from 9/11 is that we should never respond to these tragic events with reactionary legislation.  The PATRIOT Act is probably one of the worst bills that was pushed through during that time.  In hindsight we see that, but we can’t forget the lesson in case of future events.

Thank you.

-Shea

Jun 27

Qualified!

Hey All!

I am very proud to announce that I qualified for the Florida House of Representatives District 49 race.  My name will be on the ballot this election!

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This is exciting, and will be an extremely tough race.  I am running as a No Party Affiliated candidate.  I believe in:

  • Equal Rights
  • Let Teachers Be Teachers
  • Single Payer Healthcare – Medicare Expansion
  • Paid Sick, Paternity, & Maternity Leave
  • Expanding Mental Health Care
  • Online Education
  • Lowering Textbook Prices
  • Lowering Student Loans
  • Better Internet Options
  • Open source and Open Standards for Government Documents
  • Bodycams for our Police Officers
  • Abolishing Private Prisons
  • Turning Prisons into Places of Rehab
  • Net Neutrality
  • Marijuana Reform

If you believe in that as well,  I would love your help.

-Shea