You know you're addicted to FIRST when...

[Vincent Chan]

Bored, tired, and waiting for food, so I thought I'd start up this list.

...you skip school to spend eight hours working on your bot.
...you have dreams about robotics.
...you talk about FIRST all day in an attempt to recruit people.
...you no longer have friends outside of your FIRST team.

[PureMachine4]

I have to agree with you there. I too have been talking alot of robotics hoping to recruite freinds to join and i think it's working.

















Fix it before it breaks, so you don't have to fix it when it breaks

[narenr]

....your robot is your valentine.

....your coach/teacher has to get you an extension on a class project so you can work on the robot.

[Koko Ed]

Your wife refers to FIRST as your "Second wife" :rolleyes:

[Melissa Nute]

When your b/f looks at your hands and nails and says "Been at the shop again?"

[FAKrogoth]

. . . Your study hall teacher says every day, "Why don't you just transfer over there?"

. . . A discussion with a team engineer involves you saying, "Look, I built the $@#$@#$@#$@# thing, and I know it does this . . "

[Trashed20]

...every sentance ends with "your mother", "in bed", or "and then you die twice"
...you find the word toaster funnier than usual
...Will cries for the robot
...run out of freshman to file things
...wheels aren't round anymore
...when you order 4 big mothers a day (pizza)
...when subway hates you
...it works


yeah, fun stuff :)

[Joe Matt]

-You talk in criptic language to people.
-If they say BattleBots after Robotics Competition, they arn't your friend anymore.
-You dream of Segway
-Food becomes day old pizza left in the work area (no, I DON'T do that, that's just, not right....)
-You start to become insane by jumping into walls... durring school.... infront of girls.... Senior girls....
-You must check the storage lane in Target every day.
-You start to not shave and obsess over The Simpsons episodes and how they arn't how they used to be.
-Murder is the treatment for being a Mole to another team
-Brandon Martus becomes your arch nemissis
-You wonder if something can be completed quicker using a robot
-You have two friends: Robotics and Normal
-You start to come up with sayings such as "DON'T LICK THE BATTERY!!!"
-You'll kill for a Segway
-You see red, white, and blue shapes in your dreams
-You wake up to Smooth Criminal
-You know what Pubarso stands for
-Sleep is what you get durring English class
-You can't wait till the TNT James Bond marathon.
-Feb 18th is Armadgedon

[DanLevin247]

....You spend at least 4 hours a day on Chief Delphi's forums


....You fail countless test because you were too busy building a robot to study


.....When given the name of a team or a team's number, you can tell them the name or number of that team ( ex. "247" would warrant "'da bears" as an answer and "da bears" would warrant "247" as an answer.

[Specialagentjim]

...when you go from junior member to custom title in a 6 week period
...when your main requirment for getting an iPod from school is so you can transfer a gig of targas back and forth
...when you have a Delphi group on your buddy list
...When half of your daily classes (2 of the 4) are "Do your FIRST work..when your animation's submitted with that, we'll get to doing regular class work"


More to come!

[Jeff_Rice]

When you seriously consider taking the robot to Prom

When you begin to wonder if you are a robot

When you form mental algorithms to do stuff while you think about robots

When life becomes First with irrelevant stuff in between.

When you convince your mother to feed the pit crew and programmers

When you drive 45 miles away to work on the robot.

When you place willingness to participate in FIRST as one of your top criteria for a g/f

When you can reason out why the robot does what it does.

[Ken Loyd]

Originally posted by Koko Ed
Your wife refers to FIRST as your "Second wife" :rolleyes:

My wife has a team shirt with "FIRST Widow" where here name should be.

Ken Loyd
Team 64 :cool:

[Matt Attallah]

Originally posted by Trashed20
...every sentance ends with "your mother", "in bed", or "and then you die twice"

LOL!!!

-When you leave knowing you made a difference in a child's life.
-When you can't wait for march to roll around
-When you change a life of a child
-When you yell at people that say battle bots are cool
-when your girl/boy friend says you wanna marry FIRST
-when you want to do nothing but long trigonometry to find out the exact angle for a drive train part
-when you wanna see Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers at your pit!!!!

[AJ Quick]

Originally posted by Trashed20
...every sentance ends with "your mother", "in bed", or "and then you die twice"

Seriously.. they do.

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by Matt Attallah
LOL!!!

-When you leave knowing you made a difference in a child's life.
-When you can't wait for march to roll around
-When you change a life of a child
-When you yell at people that say battle bots are cool
-when your girl/boy friend says you wanna marry FIRST
-when you want to do nothing but long trigonometry to find out the exact angle for a drive train part
-when you wanna see Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers at your pit!!!!
good reasons...good reasons. but what about these:

- when matt drives, and they know to move out of the way (just playin)
- people yell your names from the stands (actually, it's kinda...wait, really scary then)
- you treat people like robots by putting an ateanna on their head, and try to move them with a joystick

[illumanat'i]

- when a librarian comes to you with tech questions

- when one of your sponsors buys a seguaway and brings it to your school (that was MAD fun, i mean, $@#$@#$@#$@#!)

- when the school forbids you from skipping classes because teachers start to complain

- when your parents begin to understand what your talking about

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by illumanat'i
- when your parents begin to understand what your talking about
Now that's just plain krazy, but sweet when it happens.

- when you know what to expect at every comp.

[DanLevin247]

...when FIRST is the major reason why you want to become an engineer

...When you've had strep throat for a week and a half, but haven't had time to go to the doctors to get some medicine, because you've been to busy with robotics.

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by illumanat'i

- when one of your sponsors buys a seguaway and brings it to your school (that was MAD fun, i mean, $@#$@#$@#$@#!)

- when the school forbids you from skipping classes because teachers start to complain

- when your parents begin to understand what your talking about

Point a.) Our SCHOOL is attempting to buy two segways!
Point b.) Yeah... I've had teachers ban me from gettting pulled out..and others that just said before I asked that I could go.
Point c.) Parents understanding...yeah...that means that you've been working at home too much..like me..


- also, you know you've been in FIRST too long when your main focus on building a new computer is to cut down render time for teh animation comepetition.

[Raven_Writer]

optimization is to hard in animation really.

- when they all know the songs from the pits, when the songs aren't played anywhere else

[Vincent Chan]

...your hands perpetually smell like metal.
...you can tell the size of a bit/nut/bolt/screw (and the threading on metric nuts/bolts/screws) just from glancing at it.
...you consider how awesome it would be for your team to do something out of Monster Garage.
...you're seen carrying power tools around school.

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by Vincent Chan
...your hands perpetually smell like metal.
...you can tell the size of a bit/nut/bolt/screw (and the threading on metric nuts/bolts/screws) just from glancing at it.
...you consider how awesome it would be for your team to do something out of Monster Garage.
...you're seen carrying power tools around school.
gotta love knowledge.

- the fact that you can tell anyone what first is really about

[Jferrante]

ok. i'm really scared because i can relate to about 90% of those.
- parents understanding <-- never gonna happen
- 45 miles to go work on the bot <-- i would but the shops alot closer than that


- Miss 3 days of school with 103+ fever, yet only half of one robotics meeting.

- Have holes and saw marks in your furniture for lack of a better workplace.

- give yourself a nosebleed due to programming for to long at one time (yes i did this my rookie year)

- Write the majority of your college/scholarship essays about your experience in FIRST (i did this... and it worked. :))

-First thing you do when waking up is to check for any new information on chiefdelphi or FIRST's websight

[Jeff_Rice]

When you hit refresh every two seconds to read a new quote at the top of CD

When you consider implementing a mood matrix into the robot just because it would be cool

When you realize how absolutely cool it is for a girl to be in FIRST

When you tell FIRSTers thousands of miles away about your troubles

When you develop an intensive craving for caffeine at anytime while programming

When you gain a level of experience similar to your mentors

When you plot to implement a lego first team with a grant from your team (which does not exist yet-see sig)

What's really great is when your bot works and you have that crazy feeling like your heart is in a bubble-bath of child-hood wonder, like you looked up at the sky and reached up and grabbed a falling star.
Wow. I'm not an expert writer but I think I got the point across there.

[OneAngryDaisy]

- When you make a stupid health project out of twenty of last year's CD's

(Anyone else have this problem? You go to a competition, come home, and your pockets are overflowing with CD's you never passed out)

-When you haven't said Hi to your little brother for a month because you're in the shop until after his bedtime

[Perseus]

Originally posted by Jeff_Rice
When you hit refresh every two seconds to read a new quote at the top of CD

So I am not the only one!! they should make a list of them, make it easier

[Vincent Chan]

Originally posted by Perseus
So I am not the only one!! they should make a list of them, make it easier

They DO have one...

[Perseus]

and that would be where?

-when u plan to spend ur entire 4 day weekend(9am-11pm) building ur robot

-when u spend 30 minutes on the phone with McMaster only to find out they dont accept Discover, and then accidently hanging up

-when u know scoring and rules for the past 3 robotics competitions but cant remember what u learned last week in any of ur classes

[Vincent Chan]

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/spotlightlist.php?s=

under extras in the top right corner.

...when you get log more build hours than sleep hours on some (all?) nights.

[wwrye]

-When you make a trip a day to the electronics store

[sean_killey]

-Your conversation with your parents for the day is:
Mom: "Where are you going?"
Sean: "Robotics"
Mom: "See you tomorrow"

-When you get home at 1 in the morning... only to say "I dont have time for homework now"

-Havnt talked to your sister in 3 days

-Invent seanny dont :p

-Your conversations are filled with "I'll [insert verb] you!"

[rbayer]

...you know the correct size tap and clearance hole drill bits for any size screw.
...you no longer need Band-Aids because the machine oil permanantly embedded in your hand clots cuts for you.
...you can recite the densities of every material used on your robot.
...you don't need a manual to know what wire gauges are required for the various motors.
...you can accurately guess the size of something down to 1/16".
...your hand feels akward without a drill in it.
...your computer's desktop is filled with all the drawings for your robot.
...you always carry a pad of graph paper with you in case you get an idea for the robot.
...your average response time to an email about programming is less than 30 minutes.
...you spend 200+ hours writing software tools for robotics in the off-season.
...you have an RC, an OI, and a box of old motors in your room for testing stuff.

[hacksaw692]

When you are named after a tool.

When people outside of FIRST address you by said tool-name.

When said tool name goes into senior quote/sig.

When you make a quiz to pick the field coach and human player without looking once at the manual.

When you are disappointed at said quiz because the quiz taker got less than 95% right.

When people claim that FIRST is your passion.

When you force your closest friends to join the team.

When you doodle design sketches in class.

When you the manual becomes your bible.

When you get nervous and figity because you are away from the robot.

When you get excited whenever your english teacher (or some other teacher) even remotely mentions something about robotics.

When you force every conversation you have with other people outside of FIRST towards robotics.

When all you have to talk about with your dad anymore is the robot.

When you have an urge to bring the robot home because you haven't yet finished a certain component but it's time to call it a night.

[sevisehda]

...machining oil and aluminum chips become pizza toppings.

[Lord Nerdlinger]

when the people at the local hardware store know you by name and welcome you back everday.

[T967]

When you don't care that, "hey my hands are covered in oil and aluminum, maybe I shouldn't eat that slice of pizza."

When you realize that the First updates will never e n d and your response to one is yelling and moaning. (13 updates! come on give us a break!!!! Please!):ahh:

You can get cut by cardboard but not extremely hot, and sharp, flying aluminum shards.

When you get tired of the 200 track mp3 cd.

You no longer have a full name, just a NEW, one sylable, type name.

[Francis-134]

-when you are seen mumbling incoherently about the robot while you draw a design on an etch-a-shetch

-when you become a member of RA (Robotics anonymous)

[FAKrogoth]

. . . you consistently find aluminum shavings in your shower drain

. . . you compare drilling scars with your friends

[Specialagentjim]

- When you can relate ANYTHING back to robotics
ex. Our technology program just moved into a new building at our school. The floor was supposed to be all tile, but our robotics room has a special 8 foot by 8 foot (I think 8 foot..) square carpeted area for the robot. While sitting in english you suddenly have the urge to design a tether arm to extend out from the wall to come out over the robot, allowing for tethered robot control and power from an AC transformer so you don't have to change batteries while testing, and dropping down a flashlight to look inside the crevices of the bot, all without tangling up the robot by using a tension holding reel mechanism desgined by you and the lead programmer for the team...

- When your current choice of music was inspired from robotics 4 years ago (In 7th grade, I was introduced to techno through robotics competitions and animations...now techno makes up most of my playlists :D )

[RobDeCotiis]

...when you tape a whiteboard w/ marker above your bed so you can write down your idea when you get one in the middle of the night

...when your teachers start asking you why you're not skipping class to work on the robot..

...when you spend time thinking up reasons you're addicted to FIRST...

...when you build the bot AND animate(i did that last year and the year before).. get home at 10 after building, and stay up until the next day animating... repeat daily.

[EddieMcD]

You know your addicted to FIRST when:

10) You still participate in the FLL.
9) The workshop is your "home away from home".
8) Chief Delphi is your "home away from the workshop".
7) Tigerbolt is your "home away from Chief Delphi".
6) You despise Battlebots/Robot Wars, etc, and Viacom for featuring a Battlebot-like event in one of it's Nickelodeon cartoons.
5) You always use the phrase "inhales audibly".
4) You realize that set-screws really do suck (yes, I mean suck)
3) "Gracious Professionalism" is your motto.
2) You belong to the Holy Order of FIRSTism.
1) You grow your hair long and wear a pin vest to every FIRST event you attend (uh, not that I know anyone like that).

This has been an official "Eddie's Top 10 List". The top 10 list is an official property of and sponsered by The Holy order of FIRSTism, and my not be copied, reproduced, or retransmitted in way without the expressed written consent of The Holy Order of FIRSTism.

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by EddieMcD

1) You grow your hair long and wear a pin vest to every FIRST event you attend (uh, not that I know anyone like that).


HAHAH! LOL! :D Or you can dress in all denim and talk with a slow New England accent about helping the world too.

[Brian48216]

When you girlfriend complains about you spending more time on the robot.

When you daydream about how to make the animation perfect

When you'd walk in a blizzard up to the local electronics store for parts.

When that calc midterm takes a backseat to testing autonomous mode.

When you teacher pushes back all the tests, quizzes, and assignments for the robot.

When the teacher stops teaching so the class can work on the robot.

When you actually get over 10 girls involved in the project

When you dream of it.

When school security no longer finds it odd that teenagers are lugging in a large objects in the rain with a coat on top and many many wire protruding from it.

When you can tell where a pneumatics leak is occuring from across the room just by hearing it.

When you spend 6+hours desiging logos for the team.

When you start making physics puns outside of physics class.

When people get tired of calling you a nerd because of robotics.

When you close that crate and a piece of your soul goes with it.

Good luck to all teams. It's really been a pleasure.

[George]

When its all over, and you can't wait for it to START again!

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!

Geo.

[Kyle]

when you can maneuver Delphi fourms with out looking at the screen until you are where you want to be

[Raven_Writer]

When 30-year engineers come to you asking for help

[Katie Reynolds]

... The night janitors at your school know you by name.

... You're dating a guy that you met at a FIRST competition.

... The only friends you have are on your team.

... You have a special FIRST account at all the local hardware stores.

.... You can explain to your classmates what the difference between Lexan and Plexiglas is.

... Your parents don't question where you've been, when you leave at 7:00 am and come home at 1:00 am.

- Katie

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by Katie Reynolds
... The night janitors at your school know you by name.

They know my name (grin)

... You wake up every morning to find in your inbox that you have 200 "[thread name here] has had a reply"

... You check your mail every second so that you won't miss your next chance to get a post in.

[Anarkissed]

Originally posted by Trashed20
...every sentance ends with "your mother", "in bed", or "and then you die twice"
...you find the word toaster funnier than usual
...Will cries for the robot
...run out of freshman to file things
...wheels aren't round anymore
...when you order 4 big mothers a day (pizza)
...when subway hates you
...it works


yeah, fun stuff :)


I did shed at least 1 tear when our part went bad... stupid mill... never build mounts for the window motors and have a big mill mess them up! gahhhhhh at least there done now... thankfully.... hopefully nothing happens to them now. *knocks on wood*

another thing is when you take a day off robotics because youve gone to every single meeting since jan. and your dead... you spend your day looking at robotics websites and posting on yours... and e-mailing your mentor with ideas on things. *sigh* I'm a FIRST addict. after the competitions when we have some time off I think us FIRST addicts should get FA chips... FIRST-Anon
=)
:yikes:

[Joe Matt]

-You listen to Classical music to calm you down, even though you hate it
-You substatute neutral for 127 on your written essays
-You kill your sister because she didn't tell you that the neightbours borought their work Segway home to ride.
-You want to put fiberoptics on your bot.
-You loose all grip on reality and your world becomes Cell shaded.

[Raven_Writer]

what's a Segway?

... when you know what Segway is
... when you know how "schwing" got started (not even Matt knows, that's bad, since he's the creator of the word)

[Adrienne E.]

When you walk into your dorm room and see 2 batteries, a charger, and a whole set of Pneumatics

When half your FIRST team has Mono, but you see them just as much as the people who don't

When in the last week you have slept more in the machine shop then in your bed

When your sparkies get angry at you for not waking them up to finish programming

When you get yelled at by the dean of engineering because you were testing on the new carpet

When exit numbers and mile markers on the thruway bring team names to mind

You spend your classes seeing who can name the most teams.............and between 2 people you can get over 150

When you make a list of reasons why you are addicated to FIRST on a 6 hour car ride home

[Adam Y.]

You know you have been in robotics for too long..
When you start thinking there are 564 days in year....(My friend asked that in physics class)
When you know what your adviser thinks about in the shower(robotics)....
When your adviser asks if the gearboxes that came in the kit come apart 100 times...
When you drop the gearbox and it comes apart 100 times....
When you forget which way to turn a bolt and two other people are helping you.....
When you did not realize that C shaped aluminum and U shaped aluminum are the same thing......
When you have spent at least 200 dollars on books on robotics....
When you get catalogs bigger than any textbook in existence....
When you bring home the catalogs....
When your one friend that is not in robotics picks up your says,"Remind me to never pick up anything off your desk again."
When your grandma starts reading your brand new robotics book and says,"achooo achoo achoo."
When it is easier to take attendance by counting the days you missed....
When you dream about robotics...
when you pretend you are a robot...
When an engineer tells you never to hit the robot with a hammer unless you ask him first....
Hear is some funny ones:
When you start pointing out sterlite containers to your friends....
When the person that owns the sterlite container gives out the make and model number and then proceeds to ask,"Are you in robotics".....
When the principal knows you by your first name.....
When you realize that there are some things best unanswered like ^....
When your adviser has a tendancy to make sound effects when he starts describing what the robot will do.....
When you just realized that your post is not even related to the topic akkk......

[hcperdan]

When the only times you communicate with your husband are:
a) during dinner in the shop before you start work on the robot each night,
and
b) through notes left by the coffepot in the morning.

[Specialagentjim]

Mostly related to animation people....


- When you can run through your entire animation conceptual idea using soley your arm and making whooshing noises

[Scooter]

- You're state of mind is "there has to be a harder way to do this"
- You earn the nickname "Scooter" because you love Segways so much
- You stay up at night just to write P-Basic code
- You pray to the robot gods "just to make that !@#$%^&*() [insert troublesome part/code here] work

Bill B.

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by Scooter

- You stay up at night just to write P-Basic code
- You pray to the robot gods "just to make that !@#$%^&*() [insert troublesome part/code here] work

I've done both. It was fun!

-.- You have nothing else better to do, so you do the 2 above, and plus scream at your bot for being a bot

[Adam Y.]

You pray to the robot gods "just to make that !@#$%^&*() [insert troublesome part/code here] work
Well forget about the code just pray to the robot gods that the whole robot works.:D

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by wysiswyg
Well forget about the code just pray to the robot gods that the whole robot works.:D
lol, true.

-.- You do robotics instead of a history project.

[JudyVandy]

When a group discussion turns into robot trivia.....
And you realize you know most of the answers!

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by Scooter
- You earn the nickname "Scooter" because you love Segways so much
Bill B.

I'm Joseph, wanna be my friend. :) (BTW www.segwaychat.com)

-You wonder how specificly a Segway works.
-You wonder why they act up on moving things
-Your teacher head has 5 names you can call him (and one he dosn't like....)
-You'd rather play with the bot's programing than play Metroid Prime
-When asked how to reduce the weight of the robot, you respond "Anti-matter".
-Gerbal's CAN'T run your robot
-Gerbal's CAN run your car
-You want a Segway more than a car
-Car rimes with smar
-You listen to Blue Man Group just to stay awake doing homework (specificly, Opening Mandelbrot)

[Raven_Writer]

-.- When you sit at the dinner table, having a conversation about your day, then you say "So how was your FIRST day at school?"

[Ryan Foley]

- when you have 3 FIRST binders: the rule book/ manual, one for all the innovation first stuff you can get your hands on, and another with all the team stuff in it

- when you find that you spend most of your free time and class time drawing and designing robots

- when you are desperate to get your own Isaac 32 system

- you are willing to/ considering spending money most people would use to buy a car, to buy parts for your own robot

- when people ask you if you are going to the semi/ prom with the team robot

- when you talk to your mentors/ advisors more thn some of your friends

(edit, 2-15-03, 10:35PM)

-when you hear a number, you immediately attempt to recall the correspondin FIRST team name, school, and curent robot design

- you are the captain, only programmer, and the person who knows the electronics/ control system better than the rest of the tea (including the mentors/ advisors)

-checking mail becomes checking mail AND checking chief delphi

#1 reason for me:
- when your team is inactive for 2 years and you STILL spend most of your freetime doing stuff for the team, or FIRST related

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by Foley350
- when you find that you spend most of your free time and class time drawing and designing robots

- when you talk to your mentors/ advisors more thn some of your friends
Done both (acutally, 2 of our engineers recieve more mail from me, than I get from all the spam I recieve [which is bad]).

- when you figure out how to program the perfect bot.

[Vincent Chan]

--you make up pickup lines that only work with a robot. (e.g.: "Would you like to connect serial cables?" "I can program your drivetrain and pump your pistons.")

--you change movie quotes to incorporate electronics parts.

[Raven_Writer]

Those are pretty funny really.

-.- Your pickup lines mainly deal with wires, metal/steel, and ramps

[Matt Krass]

-- You made it this far in to the list

-- You can recite the whole thing without thining about it

[Daniel Brim]

...When You Come home on Valentines day and your candy heart has been eaten.

[DanLevin247]

..."checking your mail real quick" has turned into countless hours of sitting on CD


...you begin to think in |IF| |THEN| format

[skrussel]

..... you KNOW it's Valentine's Day, but you just can't leave to get something for your husband, because the robot is not done yet.

[WakeZero]

You know you are addicted to FIRST when you honestly think that telling your girlfriend you were late to dinner because you had to test out the drive system is a good excuse :D

[Vincent Chan]

I think the beauty of these is we've experienced them all...

Here's a few I left out while we were building (someone needed the computer to go through the shipping/drayage rules...):

--teenage females become dubbed 'the distraction' and are asked to leave the build area.

--zip ties are to FIRST as duct tape is to the universe.

--the soldering iron becomes known as the 'cauterizing iron.'

--you don't have time for food.

--the first thing that pops into your head when you hear 'build' is 'robotics.'

--you can't help but make a joke every time someone talks about 'nuts.'

--half the time your commands incorporate pauses in the wrong place so that what you're saying can be interpreted as something rather sexual.

[Curtis Williams]

...when your shopping list is: mountain dew, steel cable, pizza, bolts, mountain dew, pizza, #6 ring terminals, pizza, bolts

...when you coordinate distractions for school security so you can go to the hardware store while skipping class

...when you figure out how to bypass the school security system so you can continue working beyond closing time

...when you figure out how to hotwire the machine shop master power because the mentor forgot the key

...when discussing with your mentor about how to obtain a part, you say "give me an hour - no questions asked"

...when you are lost and confused when the build period is over

...when you figure out how to gain control of every computer at school so you can render animations faster

...when people ask you about what the robot does, you just hand them a video and continue working

...when you figure out that the robot could wrap the entire school in toilet paper in less than 8 minutes

...when you and your teammates start placing bets before the robot is weighed

...when you realize that you used over 500 zip ties this season

...when you answer every question with: "DUCT TAPE!"

...when you have to play music while sleeping so you dont dream about robotics

...when you figure out how to access the PA system from any school telephone: "Teachers please release the following students to the machine shop...."

..when you planned out this season on the drive home from nats last year

[Jeff_Rice]

When you begin loathing anyone who so much as mentions battlebots

[seisenberg]

-You can EASILY identify the type of a material, its size, quality, and the process by which it was formed, simply by looking at the shavings near a drill press, on your work table, the smell near a grinder/sander, etc.
-You've stopped complaining about the lack of tools/parts, and the selection of tools/parts in your school's shop, because you are contributing to the problem by breaking them.
-You find herding your FIRST Lego League team balanced by the fun and rewarding aspects of playing with Legos and getting recognized for it.
-You're no longer embarrased by your FLL teams
-You've even considered applying to an engineering school.
-You analyze, criticize, and discuss Dean Kamen's "inspirational" speeches.
-You realize how stupid you sound while discussing the combinations of stackings of rubber storage tubs with "other" people.
-You don't mind the quotes at the top of the forum, but hate the mindless gushy ones by your teammate, and are embarrassed to know him.
-Even though you yell at others for being so ignorant as to think that "next year's game" (insert any year) might be in water, you secrectly pray for FIRST submarine warfare.

[LBK Rules]

Originally posted by seisenberg
-You're no longer embarrased by your FLL teams

Why would anyone be embarrassed by FLL in the first place? :]

[Scooter]

Joseph, drop me a line on AIM....BBBix. Here are a couple more:

- You wake up sewaty because you had a nightmare of your robot not being shipped on time
- Your parents are so fed up with you spending all of your time on this BBS that when questioned, you seriously consider telling them that it was porn

Bill B.

[Alexander McGee]

-When you lose part of your thumb on the robot, laugh, and then take a nick out of the robot because it's fair
-When you leave school early, speed to GM, and get there 4 hours too early, just to see what needs to be done
-When your varsity jacket has ROBOTICS embroidered on it!
-When homework becomes more and more of an annoiance
-When you wake up at 4:30 excited to go work on the robot, leave at lunch time for school, and leave after school, and leave robotics at 10:30, on a half day of school
-When your had problems because your last girlfriend was on a rival team.
-When you wake up excited about a new idea for another autonomous program
-When your wiling to kill someone for your sponsor

[Ameya]

...when you stay at the work site all night despite a blizzard dumping 12-20 inches (not sure yet) of snow.

OR, if you're like me,

...when, despite your parents requiring you to stay at home because of the snow, you work hard at programming the robot by connecting to the computers using MS NetMeeting, use remote program sharing to actually use the PBASIC editor, and have them send you MPEGs of the results.

[Anarkissed]

*sigh* you wake up in the morning and find bits of aluminum shavings and scrapings of steel blue layout fluid in your bed... actually this morning i woke up to discover a 5m nut stuck to my arm...

and you feel like crying when everything [expletive censored] up!

[Hermione692]

...when you start making bracelets and rings out of colorful zipties, while adding in the pnuemonics tubing and knuts and washers to make it prettier :)
Hermione

[Vincent Chan]

... you've actually taken the time to read all the posts up to this point.

... you've taken a nap on the floor in the work area.

... you've made a desktop background for your computer out of pics of your bot.

[Anarkissed]

Originally posted by Hermione692
...when you start making bracelets and rings out of colorful zipties, while adding in the pnuemonics tubing and knuts and washers to make it prettier :)
Hermione

i made bracelets out of ziff ties and the tread from the skyway wheels

[pauluffel]

when you have started a first team

[Wayne C.]

- instead of dieting you drill lightening holes

- the word "Woody" makes you smile but for other reasons

- a keyway means more than 2 ounces

[bigqueue]

The bags under your eyes are packed for Houston!

(I took that from a team member)

[mav]

When you know the history of every robot your team has made but not what you learned in history class 5 minutes ago

[Elyse Holguin]

Originally posted by JosephM

-If they say BattleBots after Robotics Competition, they arn't your friend anymore.
-Murder is the treatment for being a Mole to another team.
-You have two friends: Robotics and Normal
-You see red, white, and blue shapes in your dreams
-Sleep is what you get during English class
-Feb 18th is Armadgedon

(feb. 20 now)

-your team goes insane after seeing the starter pants at walmart with 71 on the side and you decide to make that the new team uniform.
-after your rookie year, you don't make much contact with friends outside of robotics.
-you seriously consider bringing someone from robotics you to your prom.
-you choose being on robotics over a highly selective spot on your school's varsity dance team. (although i was regretting it during football season because of the lack of CDI.)
-you're already packing for the regionals and shopping for warm houston-friendly clothes.

[DaBruteForceGuy]

.......When you take a girl on a date only to wind up browsing the isles with her in PEP-BOYS!!!:rolleyes:

[Madison]

Originally posted by DaBruteForceGuy
.......When you take a girl on a date only to wind up browsing the isles with her in PEP-BOYS!!!:rolleyes:

*cough*instead of coming to a meeting*cough*

[sprchal]

When the best quote you could think of was the most common phrase at your meetings.. *looks down*

Yep....

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by sprchal
When the best quote you could think of was the most common phrase at your meetings.. *looks down*

Yep....
I think at least me (and maybe Matt) fits in this one.

-.- When the only people you know are your robot and your busted wall.

[DaBruteForceGuy]

Originally posted by M. Krass
*cough*instead of coming to a meeting*cough*
......When your at robotics so much that when you actually take a day off, Everybody Knows!!! :(

[Raven_Writer]

-.- when you can make a song about first, and remember it by heart.

[DaBruteForceGuy]

............When you reach the maximum amount of characters when writing a post for this thread:D

[Specialagentjim]

When you can carry on an entire conversation in the chit chat forum for a page about getting lei'd....


lol...go look for youself, do a search.


Also, you know your addicted to FIRST when...

-10 people from Chiefdelphi are now in your buddy list for aim
-You've posted over 200 times on Chiefdelphi
-your parents call you, figuring your out somewhere, only to have you inform them "nope, I'm still at motorola"
-You are kicked out of motorola for being there too late (this is a 24-hour facility might I add....)

[Raven_Writer]

-.- When you get dreams of cheif delphi people and FIRST people haunting you.

[PureMachine4]

Here's a couple for ya.


...When you end up sleeping at the school cuz you want to get up early and work on it.

...When you put a car alarm on it so no one can steal it.

...When you tuck the robot into bed and read it a story at night.

[Jferrante]

- when you have so many ways to know your addicted you make multiple posts
-when you get excited about school being cancelled because it means you can work on the robot all day
- when you wake up at noon and are at the meeting within 20 minutes, in spite of a blizzard
- when your entire day consists of wake up, go to robotics, go home, sleep

[Sean_330]

You know you are adicted for FIRST when.

1. You hear techno and the first thing that comes to mind is the team social.

2. You are working as an EMT student and you identify call locations on the log to be turned in to your teacher by writing the closest team's number. (I ran calls in the cities teams 207, 259, 410, 606, 687, and 1135 are located in and confused the heck out of my teacher by my ID system)

3. You dont think duct tape fixes everything. You KNOW it does.

4. You pass up an oppertinuty to see your favorite band in concert to drive 350 miles and referee an unofficial comp in the off season, then decide you had WAY more fun at the scrimmage than you could have ever had at a dumb concert.

[Kris Verdeyen]

...when you ask for the time, and when someone responds, you ask, "AM or PM?"

[rust710]

Originally posted by verdeyw
...when you ask for the time, and when someone responds, you ask, "AM or PM?"

So true. Losing time at Robotics is not hard at all.

Also Asking where is my stripper and no one thinks of the one not for wire.

[Scooter]

- When you start your local chapter of FIRSTaholics Anonymous

"Hi, my name is Bill and I am addicted to FIRST"

Bill B.

[Ashley Weed]

- When you anticipate the last Thursday prior to ship date, because you know it is 'move in time' at the wood shop, and you are going to get to be next to the robot (awake and asleep) until the ship time. :)

- While on this long weekend, one of your non-Robotics friends actually visits you, brings you junk-food and caffeine, because she hasn't seen you since the beginning of January.

[Katie Reynolds]

... When between Lego League, IRI, your team and other teams, you own enough FIRST shirts to wear one per day for a month straight without repeating!

- Katie

[Tyler Olds]

When you say that your going home and you head to FIRST

[JVN]

After an allnighter, you still manage to drag yourself to your "intro to engineering design" class, but find yourself reading chief delphi...

Bagh... who needs IED anyway... I have FIRST! :rolleyes:

[rust710]

When you have a class with nothing to do and you say you will do your homework but go to ChiefDelphi instead.

[Firewolf]

when you read all of this, and can still think of more

[Da SPAMinatress]

when the majority of your college essays and scholarship applications are all about FIRST

not to mention your laws of life essay written in entirety on robotics.... and your last line reading "FIRST: not just robotics, but a way of life. And I have chosen it as MY way of life"

[Amanda Aldridge]

- the day after ship finds you and all of your closest friends in withdrawal
- all of your stories start with "This one time, at robotics..."
- you have tried to explain who Dean Kamen is, and what robotics is to the waitress at Hooters -- and every other restaurant you've ever been to
- you not only know what a Segway is, but have plastered your walls with pictures of it.
- you know what North Dumpling Island is
- it is perfectly acceptable to tie your long, curly, unruly, easily tangled hair back with a zip tie

[Meyer_Shuky]

When you see 191st street and remember 5 seconds in delta_t:ahh:

[George]

When your 1st question on 2-21 is
"I wonderer what next years game is??"

[Tyler 178]

-You work 9 hours on your robot on valentines day.
-You have to check the delphi forums every day otherwise you go crazy.
-You work 32 hours on your robot in 4 days.
-You realize that you don't know what your going to do until April.
-You dream about robots.
-You've explained the FIRST competition so many times to your friends that your tempted to just make a pamphlet to give them.
-You see any kind of "battle bot competition on tv", and you cringe when the robot gets dropped in a pit or otherwise destroyed
-You been asked it FIRST is like battlebots so many times that you've lost count
-You begin to think about next years FIRST competition before this year's is even over

[Vincent Chan]

Originally posted by Tyler 178
[B-You work 32 hours on your robot in 4 days.
[/B]

I beat you! 42 hours in 4 days! (Friday through Monday)

[Dave_222]

~ When you sit and read 8 pages of you know you're addicted to first when....
~ When you can relate to 90% of the aforementioned thread
~ When you purposely break thing just so you have something to machine.
~ when you respond to you know you're addicted to first when.

[f22flyboy]

- when the robot goes crazy in autonomous mode, runs over a freshman (anybody less than a senior), and you yell at them for almost hurting the bot as they scramble to get out from underneath.

- When you use old robots as weapons

- If you find the words "charfe", "toonces", or "workish" funny

- ^ If you think other people understand your inside jokes

[BingoTheClowno]

---When you wonder what it would be like to have a van door motor attached to your ears so you could finally wiggle the little suckers...
---When you can't wait to go to Texas (:-P)
---When you actually get offended that other people have seen your team's animation before you (and they're not even on the team!!!!)

[Elyse Holguin]

...you cut dinner short on valentines to go to FIRST.
...you cry when you find out your regionals don't have socials because you'll miss up on time to hang out with your friends from other teams.
...you remember being more excited the days before and especially the day of kickoff this year than any other day.
...no matter how tired or upset you are, even if you had such a bad day you're crying, you can come to robotics and everything is better within about 20 minutes, and you're probably hyper as heck.
... the only real reason your team is able to function is because of the high amount of mountain dew in your bloodstream.

[Greg]

- When you fall asleep programming, and when you wake up you find the robot running in circles in auton_mode dragging the laptop by the serial cable (this Saturday night).

- When you yell at a Victor 884 that won't recalibrate.

- When your VP yells at you every day for skipping classes, and you still do it every day.

- When you begin to walk around the classroom in "auton_mode".

- When the only websites in IE History are usfirst, CD, firstcanadianredional.org, and sinclairsprockets.com

- When you havent played Counter-Strike for 2 months

[Joe Matt]

-When you eagarly anticipate the time your coatch goes insane because it's funny.
-There's two parts to your life: robotics & homework.
-It's the day after the kick-off and you're already thinking about next year's play.
-You have nightmares of Dave Lavery describing how bins can't go under the bar.
-You scream at your computer, "HA! Take that Technocats!"
-Other people understand your gibberish.

[fox46]

-You can no longer distinguish between night and day,
-All your clothes are either stained with grease or burnt because you just couldn't wait for the part to cool before trying to carry it to the work area
-Day one classes consist of: spare (robot time), skip math (robot time), lunch (robot time), skip chemistry (robot time), Fluid power (robot time), after school meeting (robot time)
-You have nothing better to do than see if your bot can pull a car or two
-Teachers think that you are on drugs because you are always dazed from breathing welding fumes.
-Your average has dropped 10% since january
-You are afraid to go home because the robot will get angry and try to bite (pinch, gouge, cut, lacerate, incinerate) you.
-Styx is now your favourite band
-You have developed the condition know as Black Thumb, no matter how hard you try, you can't scrub the grease off your hands.
-You are now the robot, and it (the robot) controls your life

[Sean_330]

You are on a first name basis with Home Depot and OSH.

You never want to hear the sentence "I watch Battlebots" again when explaning what FIRST is.

All the local police officers know about FIRST after they thought the lights on in your building at 3AM was slightly suspicious and in the process of checking the place out got a 10 minute lecture on what FIRST is.

You dont update your lj more than once every week during build season and when you do, its only about FIRST.

[Firewolf]

Originally posted by Tyler 178
-You work 9 hours on your robot on valentines day.


you make your robot your valentine; buy it some candy
then notice it can't eat it; eat it your self; feel bad; and
get it a card promising to 'make it up to it'

...er.. i mean, i've never done that...:yikes:

[Team238-aholic]

-you know your addicted when....you read this whole thread and have done every single one of these things...lol

[Matthew936]

When there is a fancy party with great food and you only go to it for 5 minutes to get more caffine and get back to work on your robot.

You haven't even been to one of your classes this semester

You not only read all the posts here but are annoyed with how many times reading all the posts has shown up.

You know how to fix parts better than the engineers.

You spend more time working on the robot than at home or in school, and still work a part time job.

When you feel very refreshed when you actually get more than 5 hours of sleep.

[Marc P.]

When you average 3 hours of sleep per night for 6 weeks straight...

When you take previous years robots to school and see what you can make them do... (on one occasion, using the control system and optical sensors, i created a refrigerator alarm, once the fridge was opened, a motor drove it closed again, unless the proper sequence of buttons was pressed on a control pad off to the side. on another occasion, i created a remote controled tripod camera, capable of driving itself, panning, tilting, and zooming.)

When you hug your robot on a regular basis.

When you inhale enough aluminum to increase your body mass by a pound.

[gilachick]

When you come home at one and think it's ok
When you live breathe and eat FIRST
When you haven't cleaned you're apartment in a week because you have been builidng
When you dream about FIRST
When it's allover and you can't remember what it was that you did with your time before FIRST
When you go to college and and can still say that you are on a robotics team

[Ricky Q.]

You know the alarm code for your school
You tear apart your school library, set up the ramp, and then tear it down and set it back up
You have a stack of pre-signed passes out of class
You know the local paper reporters by name
You can cite specific rules, and can find anything in the FIRST manual in a minute
When people on your team are dissapointed/worried that you don't know something about FIRST when they ask you
When your family minivan is known as the "official robot transport vehicle"
When you decide, instead of looking for a janitor with keys, to take the school tunnel storage doors off their hinges
When you average over 4 late nite Taco Bell runs a week

[Azash]

- You are still on the team even though you are in University
- You leave a calculus midterm early so you can catch the train to get back to the shop to do work
- You get kicked out of the university microcomputer lab for working on bot code
- You get kicked out of a pratical lab class for working on bot code during it
- You speak in P-basic
- The bot puts a foot hole in the wall and you are more worried about the bot than the wall.
- The bot runs over your foot in autonomous mode during testing, and you are more worried about the bot than your foot
- You work for a week straight before the kickoff so you dont have as much work to do for 6 weeks.
- You are the donation from your company.
- You are encouraging someone to drive down from Toronto to Houstan on a home-made cross between a moped and motorcycle with several two-fours of Canadian beer, and covered in First team stickers. (GO HICKSON!)
- You take a trip through the Universities wind tunnel to make it to the train station on time.
- You try to sneak past your significant other to work on the bot. (She found me in the train station on the wayto the shop from school)
- You start to shake when someone says "The fridge is out of colas"
- More of your notes for the last term have been written by someone else than you.
- The only thing that is keeping you awake is caffiene and sugar and force of will to finish the bot.
- You come up with more ideas for Seanny Dont.
- You think being shipped with your robot is a viable way of getting to the competition if you cant afford airfare. (Our crate can fit 10 people without cramming, we have proof)
- Your bot has speed holes, a speed dent, and speed grease.

Azash
"Call me Zashy and you die."

[scuba_sm]

-Time is no longer measured in seconds, minutes, and hours, but rather how many bottles of Mountain Dew are required to keep you up that long

-If you expierence withdrawl symptoms when away from machine oil for more than 3 hours.

- Your parents just hand you the keys and the cell phone when you walk in the door...

-The security guards consider your bot as top secret as anything else in there

-The security guards recognize all the team members, and know the rules to the game

-You find away to apply everything you're learning to robotics (Newton's Law of Cooling anyone? Hmm, those motors get toasty...)

-people stop asking you where you've been... they already know.

-You pray for a snow day, not because you want to stay home, but because you want to work on the bot.

-You think your bot has a personality

-You think that your programmer could probably put one in.

[Skabana159]

-You say "disunkill that robot" and everyone understands.
-If they don't, you merely specify "hardware," "software," or "physical," and then they do.
-You are suprised about whether you see the sun or the moon when you walk outside.
-You wake up and realize that you have been writing code in your sleep.
-You are pissed off that Rob Bayer is in High School.

[Rich Wong]

...when you sneaked out of the house and helped
transport robots, tool boxes, ramps and platforms
around the city in the middle of the night.



:D

[Lina168]

--when your parents invite you home for dinner every night and you politely decline... every night

[Scooter]

- You have not seen your house in the daylight since the beginnig of the semester (yes, I have done this one)
- Sleep is a luxury item, caffiene is a necissety
- You find out from experience that the body can go indefinately without sleep, it is the mind that needs it. They only last 72 hours
- You refer to the manual as the 'bible'
- The folks at the burger joint know the team so well that you just need to tell them "I want the usual"
- When your team resorts to having races to see who can take apart and re-assemble the entire drive system to keep from going insane
- You stay up at night coming up with new and better algorithms for the autonomous mode
- You know the folks at Home Depot on a first name basis
- You would kinn for a chance to meet the Dean man

More to come, I'm sure....Happy ship day eve :)

Bill B.

[Jay5780]

You've graduated from high school and aren't on a team, but you still follow the season.


:rolleyes:

[Vincent Chan]

Originally posted by Sean_330
You dont update your lj more than once every week during build season and when you do, its only about FIRST.

I love LJ.... though I don't get a chance to use it much.

--You come up with a creative scheme for your crate.
--You can no longer speak english because your brain's been fried from lack of speak. (One of my buddies said "I am stopping of the desk from moving.")
--You refuse to talk to the kids who joined the team but didn't do any work.
--You know that you're going to be one of the kids in the control station.
--You built the robot, but don't really care to drive it. (Hey, it's cuz I never got to PRACTICE with it until the night before ship.)
--You come home at midnight on a school night after FIRST and still manage to find the time to post on CD before going to shower and then bed.
--You've eaten more than half your meals for the past week at the work area.
--Those girls you've dubbed distractions have been around enough to befriend you.
--You can manage to build a robot and know most of the rules by heart, yet you can't understand drayage/shipping rules. (I.e., what to put on the crate.)
--Your teachers tell you they saw you working in the parking lot over the weekend.
--You pretend to be relieved that the bot's being shipped off, but realize that withdrawal is already setting in.

I really need sleep now.

<edit>Should have been *lack of sleep.* See what I mean? </edit>

[Clanat]

When you sleep through your first two classes because of staying up too late.
When you kiss the robot goodbye.
When you start kicking people to get them out of the way.
When the robot runs into you multiple times in two days (it hurts a lot)
When you spend the night on the couch in the Robotics room.
When you decide it would be easier to stay up than to try to sleep and wake up again.

[Elyse Holguin]

Originally posted by Scooter
- When you start your local chapter of FIRSTaholics Anonymous

..you know you're going to need a twelve step program to become unaddicted to FIRST, and even then you'll probably go into remission a couple of times.
..you make signs promoting your team's activities and fundraisers in both English and Spanish to impact more people in your community. (we did this today)
..you ask your friend "what is that?!?" while driving home because you hadn't seen the moon so big in so long. (and as it wasn't early it was probably a freak event.)

happy ship day everyone!

[Chubtoad]

When you haven't gone to bed yet because you have to finish the wiring and hook up the pneumatics and make the robot lose 14 pounds before noon today but if someone said they'd do it for you and you could take a nap, you'd never let them because you love doing it!!!! I like caffeine a lot. :ahh:

[RogerR]

...while dozing in your english class you have a nightmare about splines

[IBApril180]

.....You feel bad for last year's robot because the new one is getting all the attention.


-April

[Katie Reynolds]

... You skip all of your classes on the ship day to finalize the stuff that didn't get done last night.

... The most excited you've ever been about getting new clothes was when your new robotics appearal came in.

... You see someone has the ohm sign as their avatar, and do a double take because you thought you saw a retaining ring/C-ring!

... You fall asleep at your computer while waiting for the "You know you're addicted to FIRST when ..." there on Chief Delphi to load. :yikes:

- Katie

[scuba_sm]

-You read this thread several times, and still have more things to add

-Your debate teacher tells you to dress up, so you wear your team shirt

-All your fashion discussions are either about team shirts, or saftey glasses.

-All of your buddies on your AIM buddy list say "Working on Robot", including yours

-You actually stay up late enough to see engineers start imitating muppets

-You start imitating muppets too...

-You reply to this post just to keep from thinking that the robot is really gone:(

[Vincent Chan]

--To avoid withdrawal, you search and find a new robotics project to start on, no matter how large or small. (Ours is rather small... we have a sumobot to mess with until competition.)

--You go over in your head what needs to be done and/or bought before regionals.

--You often wonder how the robot's doing.

--You can think of something to add, at least once a day.
(x2 if you're a rookie this year.)

[Specialagentjim]

...as you crate up the robot, you start spouting off the list of things left to do now to keep yourself from freaking out that you have nothing to do but maybe like school work (Luckily I've got an animation to start on for next year and an OI to design...)

[Ben Mitchell]

I do strategy for my team.

For MONTHS after every regional, I see team numbers: prices, etc.

I could then remember the number, and recall the team's statistics: from what their fuctions where, to how they operated on the field.


Now THAT is scary.:p

[rust710]

Originally posted by Ben Mitchell
I do strategy for my team.

For MONTHS after every regional, I see team numbers: prices, etc.

I could then remember the number, and recall the team's statistics: from what their fuctions where, to how they operated on the field.


Now THAT is scary.:p

I will probably see all that stuff for several more years/decades to come. It has been a year and I still remember vividly everything at all competition I went to.

[Jim Giacchi]

... When you walking down the hallway in school and as you pass the numbered classrooms you think of the teams that correspond.

[Tyler Stevens]

-- When your parents grounded you 2 weeks ago and you havn't seen them since then (gone to school to work on the robot before they wake up and get home after they go to sleep)
-- When you get withdrawl after not working on the robot for 12 hours
-- for thinking sleep is a luxury

[ebmonon36]

-you stay up late because it feels wierd to go to bed early
-you go to a presentation on the F-35 and all you talk about is the robot
-the robot is the most expensive thing you've ever driven
eric

[Daniel Brim]

...When Your band director welds your instrument to fix it and you have a strange urge to file it.

...When you try to drill holes in yourself to lose weight

[DanLevin247]

...you don't think a robot is done till it's full of holes
...you have been know to occasionally outburst and say "I'm a robot!" in the Ralph Wiggum voice
...You know why allowing a 200 pound teammate to dance a jig on a crate is a BAD thing

[Pierson]

When you are on a first name basis with everyone in the accouting office because you have talked to them more often than you have talked with your teachers.

[maclaren]

-If at 10:30 pm you finally have the robot packed up then go to Shari's to celebrate and you chug a jumbo milkshake and your friend tries to eat a whole lemon marang pie and only eats half and doesn't touch the marange.
-If the day after a major work day half the team sleeps and the other half works.
-If every finger on both your hands have been either gashed, smashed, burned or, blister due in some way to the robot.
-If you deburr your finger instead of your work piece(I slipped)
-If every minute you have off during school is spent in the shop on the robot.
-If you you have welded, made, fixed, or designed every part on the entire robot at least twice.
-If you have one person designated to search through the phone book calling every single restaurant and asking for donations of food each and every day.
-If you had to fix and or setup a milling machine, lathe, drill press, and welder so that you can make your robot.
-If you sit down and measure every part of the robot with a scale that is accurate to the 100th of an inch and obsess be cause two parts that are supposed to match are off by 5 100ths.
-If after the robot is shipped your mentor and you can't decide whether to make a cart, ommniwheels, a shift on the fly transmission, or a Continuously variable transmission.

Oh wait I think these things sound familiar...

Nahh!

Good luck to everyone at their regionals!!

[HolyMasamune]

if you program until ur fingers are too numb to type any more code :)

[tatsak42]

Originally posted by maclaren

-If every finger on both your hands have been either gashed, smashed, burned or, blister due in some way to the robot.
-If you deburr your finger instead of your work piece(I slipped)
-If every minute you have off during school is spent in the shop on the robot.
-If you had to fix and or setup a milling machine, lathe, drill press, and welder so that you can make your robot.

I know what those are like... especially deburring. Too many times. And it doesnt' stop bleeding if you're operating a lathe or a mill and you keep reopening it when you turn the things to make the stuff move..
And i can't weld, but I did the other stuff... :D

-- When you say I'm going to school see you tomorrow, and your parents understand what you're talking about.
-- When you mourn the death of the 2002 robot, when it has been sacrificed for bracket things. And there's actuallya paper that says "RIP......."
-- When you stay up till 3 in the morning because "that's what's normal."
-- You go into robotics re....sion (it's not regression or recession... I'm too stupid to think of the word... they use it when talking abotu drugs too) after robotics ends.
-- When you really start unintentionally start speaking Yoda-speak, because good syntaxically correct sentences form, you cannot

[rust710]

Originally posted by tatsak42
-- You go into robotics re....sion (it's not regression or recession... I'm too stupid to think of the word... they use it when talking abotu drugs too) after robotics ends.

I think the word you are looking for is remission.

[Stu Bloom]

... when your wife and kids won't say "Robotics" but only refer to it as "the R word". :ahh:

[Shana]

-You shout "ctrl-z ...ctrl-z" when you broke something(in the real world)

-You get in heated debates with people who believe the segway isnt a good idea.

-You almost cry @ invitationals because people aren't being nice to the robots

-Your previous mentors tell you that there proud of you for starting a team and it means the world to you

-The Mail Boxes Etc. guy knows all about FIRST and the animation and how imp. the package is to you

[Ashley Weed]

... when you begin to have a tear come to year eye as the robot is loaded into the crate, because you won't see him for over 40 days.
... when your American Government teacher lectures the class for being non-coherant, then speaks to you afterwards in hopes that you won't take offense, because he knows you haven't slept in a bed for 7 nights.
... when you enter a silent mode of depression, because you won't see your teammates for almost 45 hours.
... when you only have 2 friends outside of Robotics, and when you walk into the Band Room, they yell at everyone to leave the practice room so you can take a nap.


..... older... but good..... when your teammates discuss you on the way home from a competition.... and they have debates over wether or not you are really human.

[Marc P.]

...when you think in PBasic variables, using PWM outputs for limb motion, switches and sensor values for senses, and if-then statements for judgement.


...when before you open your eyes in the morning you're on ChiefDelphi oggling other team's robot pictures.


... when you feel guilty/pained when you have to drill holes in the robot to reduce weight- then make it up to him by polishing and buffing by hand.


... when you know every team's number, but can't remember your phone number.


... when you can't sleep at night because over the course of 6 weeks, you forgot what sleep was- and find yourself gazing at your shrine to FIRST which occupies an entire wall of your room.

[Vincent Chan]

Originally posted by weedie
... when you enter a silent mode of depression, because you won't see your teammates for almost 45 hours.
... when you only have 2 friends outside of Robotics, and when you walk into the Band Room, they yell at everyone to leave the practice room so you can take a nap.

So is everyone in FIRST in band? I feel left out. (Ah, that might be solved next year...)

I start to feel lonely when I don't see my robotics buds for twelve (waking) hours.

--everyone who attends on your team knows the Rocky Horror soundtrack because you've played it for three days straight-- even the kids who have never seen the movie.

--your mailbox is full of "Reply to post..." emails from the CD forums.

[Rio]

...When you get home day after shipping at three after school and freak out because you forgot to go to robotics.:eek:

[Anne George]

......When at a party while playing trivial pursuit you get the card with Dean Kamen as the answer and you srceam out THATS MY GOD!!!!! and you dont get funny looks except for by your teammates cause you just gave away the answer
......you choose to have a party for your FIRST team over the rest of your friends(boyfriend included)
......you choose to go to FIRST instead of a Party cause its almost shipping and your just positive something will break that night
......the first thing you learn about your new b/f is that he used to do FIRST and you then yell at him for not still doing it
......your buddy list not only has your FIRST team on it but it has the surrounding towns FIRST teams on it, and most of the counselers from FIRST camp on it too...and your still waiting for s/n's from campers that you had (like libby kamen) over the summer
......you got a new s/n just so you would have FIRST in your s/n
......you wonder what you missed when your robot is packed up and shipped by 12 instead of 7 like your used too
:)

[EStokely]

...when you realize that you can't explain to non team members what the feeling is like to crate a robot.(not a typo, I meant crate not create)

...when you laugh outloud at your desk reading this thread

...your dog growls at you when you come in at 2 am. And even after sniffing your hand isn't quite sure

...over 75% of the phone numbers on your cell phone are your team or someone elses team

...You realize that Dean IS changing society with FIRST and you love the fact that you are helping

[Katy]

…when you have three robots you assembled in the background and you can not figure out how to run a microwave
…your teachers no longer talk to you in front of the class because they are afraid you will embarrass yourself by talking about “that loser robotics thing” again
…you half expect food to appear on the table in the corner at regular intervals by itself even at home
…you tell time only by knowing the following hours: 9AM 12PM 5PM 10PM and 2AM and only because that is when you are hungry every day
…when you know the staff of at least three fast food places by name and face
…when you figure out if Home Depot has an item faster than the staff person who you asked
…when you think it is perfectly rational for your team to lock you in the crate so you can get the measurements perfectly on the inside braces of the door
…when you can tell types of motors by sound
…when you can tell if something isn’t pure Al by weight


also you know you have been on team 360 too long when

…you are afraid of
1. Mike on caffeine
2. Saint Christopher
3. The lady at Home Depot who mixes paint
4. Anybody who works at Lowes

…you know how to say the following things correctly
1. My spoon is too big (repeat)
2. I am a banana
3. DOYOUUUU!!! YOYOOOUUUU!!!!!
4. Tuesday is coming, did you bring your jacket?
5. I live in a giant bucket
6. Sprockets!
7. Can we use mirrors?
8. Silly smee burning people is wrong
9. TOUCH MY MONKEY
10. I am feeling fat and sassy
11. Do you want to see a movie?
12. Life is good

…you know what the following things/people are
1. A small screwdriver
2. Illhar
3. the magic white smoke
4. Chuckles
5. the autonomous dance
6. a tappa tappa
7. Rejected
8. the special chain company
9. dance of joy
10. the “dog monkey”
11. sanity buddy (bunny)
12. What we don’t tell Paul about

[jzampier]

when you think twice before replying to an Andy Baker post on CD with a correction/suggestion....

[Alfred Thompson]

You're in Reno NV on business. There is a casino and a bunch of places to eat and you are sitting in a free internet area reading Chief Delphi and going to miss breakfast because of it. And you don't care.

[AlbertW]

when you respond to EVERYTHING with

"I'll _____ your _____ yesterday!"

:D

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2002/20020222l.gif

[Sean_330]

When you refer to anything hard as "Crunch Time"

When you have enough team and crew shirts to last a lifetime without wearing any of them twice.

[Duke 13370]

- you know all off the spotlight quotes on this site without looking at the list
- Robotics withdrawl symptoms are so bad, the patch just isn't enough

[Amanda Aldridge]

--you can talk to a bunch of 8 year olds and their parents (i.e., the kids probably can't multiply!!) and make them explain why you are knocking bins down, why you want them stacked up, and why you want some bins on the other side too. and they actually understand. sort of.
--teachers at school know that for six weeks out of the year you will do nothing even remotely resembling homework, and still give you As. Even though this is your first time in their class...they just heard it through the grapevine. (omg, who's old enough to remember that song??)
--every person that walks into the office that you work at when you're not at FIRST walks out with a deeper knowledge of robots and dean kamen.
--your coworkers at aforementioned office are shocked -- and reward you -- when the phrase "it's not battlebots!! " does not come out of your mouth at least 3 times a day.
--best non-FIRST friend dis-owns you...again, and you don't care, because you have the robot.
--you hug your robot, and nobody laughs at you.
--you tell your friends that someone tried to run you over with the robot, and everyone asks is the robot is okay.

[Pierson]

Originally posted by angel55
--you can talk to a bunch of 8 year olds and their parents (i.e., the kids probably can't multiply!!) and make them explain why you are knocking bins down, why you want them stacked up, and why you want some bins on the other side too. and they actually understand. sort of.

How true this is...
When teachers ask how was your weekend? and you respond by explaining the whole game to them and pulling drawings, sketches, and pictures from your ____ (fill in the blank: pockets, binder, backpack... etc or all of the above.)

And if they still understand, explain to them last years game and what your robot did.

[Dick Linn]

- when you drive around town day and night in the snow the last 5 days and nights before ship day with a bright blue 6 foot tall crate and all the tools in the back of the pickup, ferrying people around and looking for places to work because the school workshop is closed...and your boss asks "What's that in the truck, a porta-potty?"

-when you are still posting on this site after a week like that.

-when your older son goes to college after two years on the team but you also have an 8th-grader who has 4 more years left on the team...:ahh:

[Simeon]

when you realize the price for real film instead of using your digi cam for robotics pictures would have totalled double the price for your digi cam

when you're the guy uploading robotics photos and can't see the end of the list of the photos being uploaded...

when you realize you have over 800 photos for robotics within 2 months

http://gallery.litespeed.ca/album07

when someone tells you that you look sleepy...
and you reply " Sleep? what's that?"

when you can tell the exact size of a bolt by just smelling it.

when someone calls you a "nut", u wonder what they mean by calling you that.

when things don't fit, the hammer is your best friend

when you can't feel the angle bracket (or nuts,bolts, screws, etc.) you've been sitting on for the last 10 hrs.

realize that the cup of water you have been drinking has a shade of yellow... and then shrug and continue drinking

when you become pleasantly amused when someone says "po tae to"

when you realize your socks are coloured silver from the aluminum shavings

when you start naming the hacksaw

when your backpack for school contains nothing but tools.

when your teacher asks for the answer of a calculus question and you tell him how his desk is missing a bolt.

when the pizza store/donut store no longer charges you tax.

[Lauren Hafford]

...When you write a tribute to last year's robot after you had to cannibalize it for L-brackets.
...When you cry every time you read the tribute.

...When you have a very confused look on you face when someone in math class says, "3/10ths" as an answer, and say out loud, "don't you mean 300 thou???"
...when you think that an oily, ragged, smelly drop cloth is a suitable blanket while briefly napping during an all-nighter when the batteries are charging

...when you burst into the school lunch room screaming "SHE DRIVES!! SHE DRIVES!!! AND SHE IS SOOOOO SEXY!!!" three hours before ship and nobody at your school is surprised.


lauren

[Elyse Holguin]

Originally posted by Simeon

when someone tells you that you look sleepy...
and you reply " Sleep? what's that?"

i hear that!

more:
..when your eye starts twitching involuntarily the saturday after ship from withdrawl

..not only do you hug your robot, you drive the robot around to hug other people with it so that they may feel the love (2001 bot).

..when your addiction rubs off to the 8th graders at your joint middle/high school and they all begin following the game and anticipate being freshmen.

..when one of those eight graders comes to meetings so often you clock him in.

you know you've been on 71 for too long when...

..you start saying chicawgo
..you giggle when you watch mr. bill late night on comedy central
..you know what will happen to you if you touch/ talk/ bother Elyse (me) before she's had her coffee in the mornings
..you giggle when you see a clothespin
..you have a newfound love for the walmart men's department

[Stephanie]

...you take apart your mom's brand new toaster, the day after build, and when it doesn't work again, hit it with a hammer, and use duct tape to fix it

...when your team says, randomly "duct tape, zip ties, and industrial strength velcro!"

...when you go to physics class, and half of the females there understand when you make a karate-chop motion with your arm, while making pneumatics noises, because they are on the team too

...when you look at a team mate who has just announced that they are dating a non-firster and start to explain to them "nonono you don't get it. they'll be lonely during the build. you have to end it now, and find someone who will understand..."

...when you would never even remotely consider dating a non-firster

...when you have to say goodbye to your boyfriend during march and april because he is working as a crew member at at least two other regionals

...when epoxy has become the inhalant of choice on the team, and results in conversations involving much giggling and sexual inuendos

...when wetzel calls on jon's cell to tell him our team mate is in the chat room, while we are at home watching 101 dalmations with my little sister...

[Specialagentjim]

...when you start saying, without even realizing it (and having to have other people point it out) "Zip tape and Duct ties"

[Raven_Writer]

Originally posted by Specialagentjim
...when you start saying, without even realizing it (and having to have other people point it out) "Zip tape and Duct ties"
That would be so cool!

-.- When you say the above 10x really fast, and people still know what you're saying

[chellyzee93]

-You have dreams about finishing parts, and then get mad when you wake up and they aren't done
-you and your friend spend your class talking about first stuff (redesignign, strategy, management) during a lecture
-your history notes are full of robot designs

[Vincent Chan]

--even after your bot is finished, you still look for things you could put on the robot during the 12-hour pre-competition build.

--you proudly proclaim to your friends "robotics=life."

--your dad tries to get you look at the drivetrain on a battlebot and you refuse to watch.

--you don't want to miss school because it's important for you to be at every build session.

[Amanda Aldridge]

Originally posted by Stephanie

...when epoxy has become the inhalant of choice on the team, and results in conversations involving much giggling and sexual inuendos


oh yeah....uh, wait, yeah, we never did this :rolleyes: :D

Originally posted by goosefrom71


you know you've been on 71 for too long when...

..you start saying chicawgo
..you giggle when you watch mr. bill late night on comedy central
..you know what will happen to you if you touch/ talk/ bother Elyse (me) before she's had her coffee in the mornings
..you giggle when you see a clothespin
..you have a newfound love for the walmart men's department


...you've heard bill beatty sing!

[Elyse Holguin]

..you start epoxying stuff to the ceiling wondering how long before the engineers see it.
..you show up at robotics but not school
..you are the science olympiad captain and absolutely HAVE to be at state, but still figure out a way to get from your regional to the state competition (it's gonna be one LOOOOONG 5 hour drive from evanston to bloomington, indiana.)
.. you begin to have crushes on guys just from reading what they post on chief delphi.
..you schedule everything around FIRST
..you begin to have crushes on the past drivers... wait, did i say begin? i meant you continue your obsession.
..you have broken parts off last year's robot on your wall.

[Gadget470]

Originally posted by goosefrom71

..you show up at robotics but not school

..you have broken parts off last year's robot on your wall.

I can attest to both of these. Monday, 9am I was out in Ypsi because they had the day off for presidents day. My school didn't though :ahh:
Well, we had a nice blizzard that night so I stayed at a teamates house. (I have a 45 min drive home when the weather is good). So I wasn't at school tuesday either.

Monday & Tuesday
School: 0 Hours
Robotics: 23 Hours

[Kyle]

when both of your computers at home break and you cant get online from school but you still find a way to post on delphi

[Erin Rapacki]

-When your studying for a test and suddenly 'team building' exercises pop into your head
-Your entire life is a recruitment effort
-When you spend the two days off from school because of the huge blizzard working on the robot instead of playing in the snow (actually I played in the snow from 10pm to 3am so I wouldn't miss anything... college students took over the streets of Boston!)

[Firewolf]

when you watch a movie in physics and say
'that is the COOLEST thing EVER' and mean it
b/c it reminds you of one of the games

[Janna Hutz]

*when your engineers give you the access code to the building-wide PA system and you start singing and giggling on it...because it's late enough that only robotics people will hear

*when you start comparing scratches

*when you get unreasonably ecstatic because the kids you mentor are happy because they just got dean to sign their shirts

*when you haven't spoken to your roommate in days because you haven't both been conscious and in the room at the same time

*when you have a category of mp3s called "robotics music"

*when you assign much added significance to programming terms

[Kevin A]

My teacher doesnt let me miss class!!!!!
What can i do to break him in?

[Mark Pierce]

Originally posted by Ken Loyd
My wife has a team shirt with "FIRST Widow" where here name should be.


When I found out my brother accepted my challenge and started helping team 1164 in New Mexico, my first words to my wife were:

"Should we get a sympathy card for Pam? She's now a FIRST widow."

I really appreciate all of the sacrifices our families make to allow us to pursue this passion. It does get out of hand sometimes but I think FIRST is much more productive than so many other addictive passions.

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally posted by Janna Hutz
when you start comparing scratches Hahaha, we've done that before!

Student A: "Aww, look at this scratch!"

Student B: "Man, this one is bigger. I got this one from the gearbox last year. You know, before we filed the edges down?"

Student C: "You think that's bad? Here's my scar from when I put a screwdriver through my hand right before one of our matches - and I drove in that match too!"

Student D: "Ok, well here's where I almost cut my thumb off on the lathe."

Student A: "Oh, I remember that - was that the time you put electrical tape and paper towels around the cut and kept working?"

Student D: "One of the times, yeah."

All true stories!! :yikes:

- Katie

[jmort03]

when u learned that some computers dont show team updates all the time...

when u drive to school for 45mins each way to go to that school because u moved to a new school district that didnt have FIRST.

when its the end of feb and ur still tired

when ur falling 1/2 of ur class's because u quit doing hw beacuse of lack of sleep.

when u can tell someone that on valentines day u worked on a robot until 4am.

when u volunteer at a lego league event and they tell u to dress in character, u dress in all denim

when u take ur robot to a middle school and break a shelf but are more worried about the robot

when u take the robot to a convention and talk about it as almost human.

:ahh:

[SiliconKnight]

For teams using aluminum extrusions, such as 80/20:

* When you find drop-in T-Nuts at the bottom of your washing machine...

* ... and you know exactly where off the robot those drop in T-nuts came from...

-=- Terence

[Scott Shaw 237]

When you want to tap the holes on everything you touch just so the screw goes in easier.

[Jeff_Rice]

When you try to make a quilt for a school project and end up thinking up ways to integrate the footpedal from the sewing machine into the robot controls.

OT

When I was sewing that quilt the quilt dragged the tablecloth up with it, and I sewed the tablecloth to the quilt. Shouldn't have been thinking of the robot.

[Jeff Waegelin]

...when you are at school 24 hours out of 48 in a weekend

[Katy]

when you have slept over wherever you work on the robot

[Ashley Weed]

Originally posted by Katy
when you have slept over wherever you work on the robot


haha... have that beat!.....
.... .... when you look forward to 'move in day' everyear. - the day when certain 'freaks' literally move into the shop for the last week of build season.

[Vincent Chan]

You've programmed your cell phone's welcome message to say:
"FIRST is life!
<insert team name here>"

My dad called me crazy when he saw it. :-)

Now if only I could find a FIRST operator logo...

[rust710]

When this tread hit 200 posts and you have read every one of them and you enjoy rereading them.

[Brm789]

When suddenly you are quite color cordinated and you don't know why. Wait, yes I do...everything I now own is MOEgreen and you like it that way.

When your team gets together outside of meetings and wear their safety goggles to whereever it is you are going. Sometimes saying this: "We build robots"

You use above line "We build Robots" as a pickup line.

That line actually works because you've said it to someone from First *never seen this happen*

You have a nightmare about Moe Sticks attacking you and then make more of them because you find it thrilling.

[Raul]

When you get a vanity license plate with you team or robot name on it or some other FIRST reference.

[Solace]

When you realize just how empty your life is without FIRST, and so you endlessly surf ChiefDelphi in search of a quick fix.

[yangotang]

when your name's yangotang

[srjjs]

Originally posted by yangotang
when your name's yangotang
No, your name was Yangotang before you got involved with FIRST.
When you learn PBasic in 10 minutes because the team's programmer didn't show up to a meeting.

[Amanda Aldridge]

...when your best friend has kicked you for clapping together your souvenir moe-sticks one too many times.
...when you base your college career, and thus your future, on FIRST (i.e. my biggest criterion for choosing a college was either having a FIRST team or having lots of alumni willing to help start a team -- go Purdue, WBI!!).
...when your fondest wish for the future is to marry another first-er and make little first-ers(kidding).
...when you think of things like the above statement.
...when you make decisions like what color safety glasses you want.

[Katy]

when WPI sends you a letter because of your standardized test scores asking about college and your first reaction is "190? What do they want?"

[Team238-aholic]

When you get a vanity license plate with you team or robot name on it or some other FIRST reference.

someone at my school has that....they are from NH and it says:
FRSTRLZ or something like that....and they have a bumper sticker that says, my other car is a FIRST robot....still trying to figure out who this kid is...I NEED TO MEET HIM OR HER...


hahaha i just thought of a great one:

-when you have a midterm on the day of the regionals, and you want to go home to watch them, so you email your professor at the beginning of the semester and say your in a wedding and ask if you can take the midterm at another time....and the teacher believes you!!!


hahahahaha!

[Katie Reynolds]

I know last year, at Nationals, 422 handed out bumper stickers that said, "I drive my other car with joysticks." Mine's hanging on my corkboard at home! :)

- Katie

[MisterX]

Originally posted by angel55

...when you make decisions like what color safety glasses you want.


Dude wait, to you see my safety glasses! They look exactly like sunglasses witha flair of nerd!!!! I still got my photo from Bash@the Beach in them with my baggy pants and backwards hat (VT BABY!!!) thugging it as HP ( I had been the back up backup previously but the normal HP and backup were in Florida!)

[Elyse Holguin]

Originally posted by angel55

...when your best friend has kicked you for clapping together your souvenir moe-sticks one too many times.

heck yeah I did! if I had to hear that moe jingle one more time.... (no offense to moe, but after too long outside of competition.... i get angry :D)

Originally posted by angel55

...when your fondest wish for the future is to marry another first-er and make little first-ers(kidding).

...when you make decisions like what color safety glasses you want.

yes. elyse, jr. will love FIRST. :) hehe

also..

..when you go to menards in search of nice safety glasses that will look good with all of you fave team shirts. (luckily, my team and wo-bots are primarily red and white)
..after a competition, you have about all of the other teams buttons or other giveaways from that competition

[tatsak42]

…you know how to say the following things correctly
1. My spoon is too big (repeat)
2. I am a banana

The sad thing... it's so true...
The sadder thing is... I said "my backpack is too heavy" and a friend and i both thought of that, and then of coruse i had to say it.

- when your history teacher comes over 30 minutes into class and says "it's okay, go to sleep" and you sleep for the next hour of class. And you're not in trouble.
- when you ask your teacher for an extension, but the teacher beats you to the reason (obviously, robotics).
- when you know that you can go in the LSC, up the stairs, across the skyway, down teh stairs, across a hall, down stairs and down another hall just to get back in the room cuz you got locked out of the building without a cell phone
- when you can talk in if, then statements.
- you do homework in if, then statements
- you try to rewrite a scene from othello using programming language, but your teacher won't let you (it was a "creative assignemtn, i see nothing wrong with it")
- when you begin saying "whoa, your shirts are the same color of color!" and it's what you meant to say. and then you realize that you're stupid...
- when you are officially not allowed to touch layout dye, because you made 10 of the 12 plates on teh drive gearboxes red. and not for layouting. all red.
- when you've gotten so used to going to bed at 2:30 or later that even after 2 weeks of normality, you still cant' go to bed before 1. (which is why i'm still up).
- youve gotten used to going without breakfast, without lunch (fell asleep during "lunch"), without very much dinner ("what? you ate the pizza and you didnt' tell the machinists?" -- luckily didnt' happen that often). and 2 weeks later, you still don't eat. which is really bad for me, combined with lack of sleep... w00t!

i gotta get back to my essay, *grin*

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by goosefrom71

..when you go to menards in search of nice safety glasses that will look good with all of you fave team shirts. (luckily, my team and wo-bots are primarily red and white)


lol, our team's engineers got our safety glasses on their own without us. Just like true dillard style (our school) our glasses are tinted. They're great for outdoors...but..not so great for the machine shop.. :p

[Aaron Lussier]

-When you look at what number you winamp play list is on and know the team number off the top of you head, and then you start to associate that song with the team.

[Amanda Aldridge]

Originally posted by tatsak42
- when you've gotten so used to going to bed at 2:30 or later that even after 2 weeks of normality, you still cant' go to bed before 1. (which is why i'm still up).
- youve gotten used to going without breakfast, without lunch (fell asleep during "lunch"), without very much dinner ("what? you ate the pizza and you didnt' tell the machinists?" -- luckily didnt' happen that often). and 2 weeks later, you still don't eat. which is really bad for me, combined with lack of sleep... w00t!



lol, sad but true...

...when you paint signs with leftover Kilz and Blue paint from painting last year's goals.
...when you find yourself at the bread shop (go Great Harvest Bread!!! Best bread ever!!! And they're giving us money!!)for almost an hour because you are telling the girl at the counter all about FIRST, and Dean, and your team, and fundraising, and your team members....(you get the idea!)

[Hailfire]

...when you spend at least 3 hours a day on something related to FIRST.

[Stephanie]

when you are tempted to cry cause you can't watch the webcasts (our LAN is GRRRRR!) and your friend (who is not in robotics) says "uhm.. you're not missing anything":(

when, while writing your physics term paper, you send an email every few minutes asking "please tell me what's going on!"

when you're writing your term paper you find the CD board irresistable because you know it will have smth exciting about the regionals

you stay up til 1 am scouting and typing the robot inventory when you should be working on your term paper

...heh, maybe i should go write that term paper, eh? ;)

[Pierson]

Originally posted by Hailfire
...when you spend at least 3 hours a day on something related to FIRST.

During fundraising and organization time, I spend twice that each day. During build season, ditto, before the regionals, ditto, after the competition, ditto... I guess I am a little addicted :D

[Specialagentjim]

When you boarded a bus with your teammates this morning at 7:15 am and got home at 6 pm

(Our team went and volunteered at Habitat for Humanity, went back to motorola, had lunch, and (some of us) stayed to watch the cleveland regional via NASA satalite video feed.

[Arrowsmith]

- All of your nightmares involve transmission problems
- You wonder how they built the pyramids without 80/20, zip ties and duct tape
- All of your clothes are in your team colors
- You can't see your walls because they're covered in team buttons.
- You won't buy furniture that isn't "some assembly required"
- You've taken apart everything in your room at least once.
- You tried to build a flux capacitor
- You wonder if NASA has dilithium yet.
- You think your home should have a machine shop.
- If Mountain Dew has made your blood green.
- The only number a woman has given you was a team number
- You think the inventor of duct tape should be a saint.

A wise man once said to me: Do you know why everyone wants to give you their two cents? Because noone likes carrying around a lot of pennies.

[rbayer]

...when you needed a project since the robot is gone so you dragged all your furniture out of your room and spent all night repainting.
...when you needed another project now that your room is repainted so you offered to repaint a 900 sq ft room just for kicks.

[Rev. Lovejoy]

....You're SURE everything done on battlebots could have been done by your team ten times better

....A Honda Civic is nothing compared to your souped up Segway

....There are no room numbers in your school, you call them by their FIRST name

....You try to get as many exhibition as possible so you can go to less school

....You don't answer the phone because you might lose the train of thought on your CD post

....When you say "Do you want to the movies" and your friend responds accordingly, and then you both start screaming at eachother.

[Christina47]

good question.....

when you're bored and you want to go to school just to see your team mates and build a robot.....:D

[AlbertW]

when your mcdonalds meal costs 5.72, and you find exactly 72 cents in change, hand the guy at the window 10.72, realize that's your team number, and confuse the hell out of the mcdonalds guy. :D

[Team238-aholic]

^ hahahaha...thats a great one!

[Melissa H.]

-When you're willing to do anything just to get to the robot...including driving 2 hours everyday to where your robot is being held during build:D
-Whenever it's 10:37 AM or PM and I realize that's my team number...everyone has to tell me to shut up because apparently, I keep saying "1037! 1037! Look that's my team number." Okay...I'll shut up now....;)

[Hailfire]

...when you're eagerly waiting for your first regional competition to come by counting down how many days are left.

...when you're frustrated on a program you are trying to create and can't find out why something went wrong.

[Clark Gilbert]

Not sure if this had been said, and I know I mentioned it last year. "You know you're addicted to FIRST when... you go to a fast food resturaunt and match your order number to a FIRST team."

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally posted by Aonic
when your mcdonalds meal costs 5.72, and you find exactly 72 cents in change, hand the guy at the window 10.72, realize that's your team number, and confuse the hell out of the mcdonalds guy. :D Similar to that:

When, at work, you count out people's change and can relate that to a FIRST team number ...

Also, when you get so bored, you start to write these numbers down! ;)

- Katie

Ok, so I was bored at work on Saturday ...

[Eric G]

...when you notice that the highest room number in your hotel is your team number. (happened)
...when you celebrate the date that most resembles your team number. (happened)
...when you know to what exponent 7 has to be raised to equate to your team number. (7^3)
...when you know your team number in binary and hex.
...when most of your conversations (or posts) revolve around your team number.

[Joe Matt]

-You go to PE and when the jocks yell at you for not making the serve in vollyball, you think they are perfect canadates for FIRST.
-Your teachers come to the competitions to see why you have been missing so much school, and they say it's their proudest moment to be part of the staff of that school
-You connect to other FIRST students faster than regular ones.

[SkitzoSmurf]

when you treat customers at your job wikked nice when their oder comes to your team number, or their change.
When you *yoink* things because they have ur team number on them . . .

[Jeff Waegelin]

When you walk through the school parking lot, and recognize parking pass numbers as FIRST team numbers.

[Specialagentjim]

Originally posted by SkitzoSmurf
when you treat customers at your job wikked nice when their oder comes to your team number, or their change.
When you *yoink* things because they have ur team number on them . . .

Quite frankly, you know your addicted to FIRST when you *yoink* things period.

[iheartlinux]

-when you download the music you heard at competition
-when you try and make words out of team nmbers on telephone keypads

hahah and plus all the other 16 pages you guys wrote

[Lee]

When you spend hours looking for nuances of the number 343.

[Firewolf]

When you write a song regarding:
FIRST
ROBOTIX
YOUR TEAM
TEAM MEMBERS
OTHER TEAMS

((i'm sorry, i don't know y that's all in caps. it was ment to be only FIRST))

[Joe3]

when you carry a full set allen wrenches with you at all time because you never know when you'll end up at robotics.

[Josh Hambright]

Originally posted by SkitzoSmurf
when you treat customers at your job wikked nice when their oder comes to your team number, or their change.
When you *yoink* things because they have ur team number on them . . .

I used to know the exact order at taco bell that equaled 4.61 with tax..but not i am boycotting taco bell so it doesn't matter...

You know your addicted when you notice your PO box at work is the same as your team #

[Firewolf]

when you're taking notes for an english research paper,
you don't italicize you act put the html form of [ i ] and [ / i ]
instead

when you sit and make up stories (novel like)
about FIRST and robotix in class
with your friends who aren't even
in you robotix team
....
I will get it published!
:D

[Alaina]

- When you wear your safety glasses to school
- When you start dancing at regionals when there's no music playing
- When you talk about it so often your parents and smaller siblings actually start to get it...
- When you start an arguement that's simply repeating what the other person says. ( You're stupid. You're stupid!)

[Vincent Chan]

Originally posted by Joe3
when you carry a full set allen wrenches with you at all time because you never know when you'll end up at robotics.

One of my friends carries around a set of bent needle nose pliers around in his backpack all day. His excuse: "You never know when ya need em." And, remarkably enough, he isn't even in robotics.

[Hailfire]

...when in every one of your classes you notice that you do something related to robotics.
...when you post messages on Chief Delphi every day :D

[jzampier]

when your leatherman becomes more of an important accessory than shoes... and you worry about flying to nationals b/c you will have to pack and check the various hardware you are accustomed to carrying around with you. :(

[ryanspensley]

I've been having dreams about robots alot lately. I am the driver for team #171 and the night before the last day of competition in St. Louis, I had a dream the we made it to the finals, but we got beat for the second year in a row by the Baxter Bomb Squad (#16). But my dream was wrong, we made it to the finals and won the St. Louis Regional. We never played Baxter at all.
And my parents informed me this morning that I was sleep walking last night. They say that I walked into their room at 3:00AM and kept crying, "My robot won't go up the ramp." HaHaHaHaHaHa, I think its really funny. Its taken over my life.
Everyday since I've gotten back from St. Louis, my Algebra 2 class has done nothing but talk about the competition and the highest score possible. I'm OBSESSED!:D

[Team238-aholic]

-when your whole entire family does FIRST....lol
(mom, dad, siblings, and yourself....thats love right there...family bonding)

[Hailfire]

...when you're in a computer class with nothing to do except to post messages on Chief Delphi.

[chellyzee93]

Your pencil holder on your desk next to your monitor is your first weld :) above your monitor is your first oil painting ( of nats at epcot), to the side of your monitor hangs your medal, and finally on your montior stands your robot proud, wings spread- posing for it's next painting ;)