FIRST competition
Apr. 3rd, 2008 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silentdescantThis is kind of a catch-up post for the weekend after finals, when I was at the FIRST Regional. And when I say catch-up post, I do mean for me, because I realize not everyone cares about everything that I forget to post about. While I love comments and interacting with you guys and everything, my main goal for this journal is so that I can look back on it in a year or more and say "oh, that's where my head was at." and "oh, I forgot that happened!" So, um. Yeah. ANYWAY, on to the good stuff.
Robot weekend was awesome. Except it was in Tacoma, which wasn't quite so awesome. But anyway.
I was props assistant to this guy, and he was great. Basically, Blair went around on rollerblades with each team's flag before the match, and I'd be the one organizing the flags and giving him the right ones. The whole time, I was thinking of Eddie Izzard's "Do you have a flag?" routine, but I didn't mention it to anyone because a) they would get it, or b) they wouldn't be able to hear me anyway. LOL It was so damn loud in there. There were aluminum bleachers, and this one annoying coach led his team (which was quite large) in STOMPING ON THE BLEACHERS whenever something good happened. And I was stationed right next to the bleachers, right next to that team. GAH. My mom was handing out earplugs to volunteers on the second day, I think.
So, anyway, I was surprised at how many people I knew there. I knew (or at least had met) at least one person from several of the teams, and (I think) all of the powerhouse teams (which are the ones that've been around a while). 492, Titan Robotics from the International School, actually tried to recruit me a few years ago, and 360, Bellarmine Prep, has been like, THE team from Washington since forever. I have a pair of safety goggles from them that say 2π on the side; they're really nice. The kids in the team now are kind of stuck-up and idiotic, but ALL of the alumni are amazingly nice and helpful and, well, kinda genius-level smart. I also knew people from... 1318, Issaquah Robotics Society (IRS). I'd met people from other teams before, and there was a LEGO (FLL) team and a VEX (FRC, but now called FTC) team there to showcase. I also knew pretty much everyone on the board of directors, which was kinda awesome.
This really cute guy from the Air Force came over to talk and to organize getting EVERYONE over to the Air Force Base to see an air show, and he was so nice and young and adorable. So then everyone went to the base and had dinner (hamburgers and hot dogs) and they flew some kind of big, impressively huge plane around, and then they brought out the bomb-squad robots (which they'd briefly shown at the event center), and all the kids flocked down to see that up close. AND THEN, we all went INTO one of those big planes (I dunno what it was, it was just a big plane to me!) for a tour. There was a huge long line to get into the cockpit, so my family and I got in that, and then Kevin Ross, the guy in charge (pretty much) talked to us for a minute, and then left again with his wife to see the plane and everything. So then he left, and when he came back, I was NEXT IN LINE to go up into the cockpit. And he started saying "I have bad news, we have to go now, our time is up here." And then he saw me standing there, and I could just see him thinking "oh crap." 'Cause he knew how long we'd been waiting, and he knew ME, and he kinda stalled for a minute and let me and a few people behind me go up as the last ones up. HA! I love knowing the people in charge.
So yes, that was all fun, and there was a lot of awesome competition stuff that is now kind of a blur to me, but I do remember that pretty much all of the good teams (the ones I liked, the powerhouse teams) made it to the semi-finals, and then, one by one, they dropped off, which was kind of sad. But a lot of the time I didn't know which team to root for during the matches, because I knew people on both sides!
I think team 488 (X-Bot; I know the coach on that one) ended up winning, so that was good. And then the awards ceremony was interesting. Kevin got an award for "Volunteer of the Year", and he's all shy and modest and was kinda emotional about it, and since that was on the first day (they divided up the awards ceremonies to save time at the end), everyone called him Volunteer of the Year for the rest of the competition.
Um, what else? Tiffany was there, she was a safety advisor. My dad was a judge, my mom was the Volunteer Coordinator, I was the flag person... There were several cool guys at the scoretable, but I don't know many of them personally. Nolan was cool, Emerson was cool, the Field Tech Adviser guy (or whatever FTA stands for) was kind of a prick, but that's okay. Oh, the guy I interviewed forever ago with Kevin was a judge, and they even played my interview, which was great. A few people around me watched it, and at the end of it, Kevin put "produced by Jennifer [last name]" and they were like "YOU did that? COOL."
Overall, Tacoma was not the ideal place for us. The field was really cramped and up close to the bleachers, and there just wasn't enough room, and it was SO LOUD, so next year, when it's at Key Arena in Seattle, it'll be much better. BUT I MIGHT NOT BE HERE FOR IT. Which makes me sad. Of course, they're always the Peachtree regional in GA, with Tony and his family, but I won't know anybody but them and some of their various connections....
Oh, but this school person (superintendent, maybe?) came, and she was supposed to stay for about half an hour, and she ended up staying THE WHOLE DAY, it was awesome, and all these big-wigs from Boeing and Microsoft and places like that came and they were all BLOWN AWAY, so hopefully this means that money will come falling from the sky for next year. The Boeing people were like "Why are we not involved in this?!?!?!" As were the Air Force people, actually. And Microsoft is already sponsoring it, but they were impressed too.
I think that's all the major stuff that happened. There weren't any disasters, and all the FIRST people are already talking about how smoothly it went for a first-year regional event. SEATTLE IS JUST THAT AWESOME. :D So, yeah, that's what I did the weekend after finals. FUN. I was SO TIRED afterward, though.
Holy crap, that was a long entry. I'm tired now. >.
Robot weekend was awesome. Except it was in Tacoma, which wasn't quite so awesome. But anyway.
I was props assistant to this guy, and he was great. Basically, Blair went around on rollerblades with each team's flag before the match, and I'd be the one organizing the flags and giving him the right ones. The whole time, I was thinking of Eddie Izzard's "Do you have a flag?" routine, but I didn't mention it to anyone because a) they would get it, or b) they wouldn't be able to hear me anyway. LOL It was so damn loud in there. There were aluminum bleachers, and this one annoying coach led his team (which was quite large) in STOMPING ON THE BLEACHERS whenever something good happened. And I was stationed right next to the bleachers, right next to that team. GAH. My mom was handing out earplugs to volunteers on the second day, I think.
So, anyway, I was surprised at how many people I knew there. I knew (or at least had met) at least one person from several of the teams, and (I think) all of the powerhouse teams (which are the ones that've been around a while). 492, Titan Robotics from the International School, actually tried to recruit me a few years ago, and 360, Bellarmine Prep, has been like, THE team from Washington since forever. I have a pair of safety goggles from them that say 2π on the side; they're really nice. The kids in the team now are kind of stuck-up and idiotic, but ALL of the alumni are amazingly nice and helpful and, well, kinda genius-level smart. I also knew people from... 1318, Issaquah Robotics Society (IRS). I'd met people from other teams before, and there was a LEGO (FLL) team and a VEX (FRC, but now called FTC) team there to showcase. I also knew pretty much everyone on the board of directors, which was kinda awesome.
This really cute guy from the Air Force came over to talk and to organize getting EVERYONE over to the Air Force Base to see an air show, and he was so nice and young and adorable. So then everyone went to the base and had dinner (hamburgers and hot dogs) and they flew some kind of big, impressively huge plane around, and then they brought out the bomb-squad robots (which they'd briefly shown at the event center), and all the kids flocked down to see that up close. AND THEN, we all went INTO one of those big planes (I dunno what it was, it was just a big plane to me!) for a tour. There was a huge long line to get into the cockpit, so my family and I got in that, and then Kevin Ross, the guy in charge (pretty much) talked to us for a minute, and then left again with his wife to see the plane and everything. So then he left, and when he came back, I was NEXT IN LINE to go up into the cockpit. And he started saying "I have bad news, we have to go now, our time is up here." And then he saw me standing there, and I could just see him thinking "oh crap." 'Cause he knew how long we'd been waiting, and he knew ME, and he kinda stalled for a minute and let me and a few people behind me go up as the last ones up. HA! I love knowing the people in charge.
So yes, that was all fun, and there was a lot of awesome competition stuff that is now kind of a blur to me, but I do remember that pretty much all of the good teams (the ones I liked, the powerhouse teams) made it to the semi-finals, and then, one by one, they dropped off, which was kind of sad. But a lot of the time I didn't know which team to root for during the matches, because I knew people on both sides!
I think team 488 (X-Bot; I know the coach on that one) ended up winning, so that was good. And then the awards ceremony was interesting. Kevin got an award for "Volunteer of the Year", and he's all shy and modest and was kinda emotional about it, and since that was on the first day (they divided up the awards ceremonies to save time at the end), everyone called him Volunteer of the Year for the rest of the competition.
Um, what else? Tiffany was there, she was a safety advisor. My dad was a judge, my mom was the Volunteer Coordinator, I was the flag person... There were several cool guys at the scoretable, but I don't know many of them personally. Nolan was cool, Emerson was cool, the Field Tech Adviser guy (or whatever FTA stands for) was kind of a prick, but that's okay. Oh, the guy I interviewed forever ago with Kevin was a judge, and they even played my interview, which was great. A few people around me watched it, and at the end of it, Kevin put "produced by Jennifer [last name]" and they were like "YOU did that? COOL."
Overall, Tacoma was not the ideal place for us. The field was really cramped and up close to the bleachers, and there just wasn't enough room, and it was SO LOUD, so next year, when it's at Key Arena in Seattle, it'll be much better. BUT I MIGHT NOT BE HERE FOR IT. Which makes me sad. Of course, they're always the Peachtree regional in GA, with Tony and his family, but I won't know anybody but them and some of their various connections....
Oh, but this school person (superintendent, maybe?) came, and she was supposed to stay for about half an hour, and she ended up staying THE WHOLE DAY, it was awesome, and all these big-wigs from Boeing and Microsoft and places like that came and they were all BLOWN AWAY, so hopefully this means that money will come falling from the sky for next year. The Boeing people were like "Why are we not involved in this?!?!?!" As were the Air Force people, actually. And Microsoft is already sponsoring it, but they were impressed too.
I think that's all the major stuff that happened. There weren't any disasters, and all the FIRST people are already talking about how smoothly it went for a first-year regional event. SEATTLE IS JUST THAT AWESOME. :D So, yeah, that's what I did the weekend after finals. FUN. I was SO TIRED afterward, though.
Holy crap, that was a long entry. I'm tired now. >.