So my father and I are distinctly two different styles of engineers.  This was made clear when we were building the frame for my skateboard segway.  This XKCD strip outlines partly why this may come up:

So my dad is mechanical and I'm a computer engineer.  I was heavily afraid of not getting the frame done in time while he was afraid I wouldn't get the software written in time.  I'm freaking out since I don't think the hardware will be done and he is freaking out cause he is under the impression my lazy ass (partly true) hasn't really touched the software aspect of it.  I got Xbox achievement points to win!

But in reality, I have parts done.  I've done majority of the gyro code, mentally though through how to handle the main application and did tons of research on getting self balancing algorithms.  Hopefully a decent chunk of this will be done in this week / next week while I'm on an airplane.

From a outsider's perspective, I think most software development scares people since it is in tons of little blocks that magically come all together at the end.  I get one block done, do another, and another then all the while no work appears to be done since there isn't the appearance of progress.  No UI being constantly shifted and updated.  Nothing visible.  A mechanical engineer always has something growing and physical.  At the end of the day, they can put it on someone's desk and say "see what I did".

I still got 6 2 months until Maker Faire 2008, right?  don't worry, it is already done.