QotW 01-04-04: T-minus 5 days.

[Madison]

So, with less than a week to go before Kickoff 2004, it seems like people are starting to get excited about the season that awaits them.

Question of the Week 01-04-04: What preparations are you and your team making in this final week before kickoff? Are you trying to finish a prototype at the last minute? Cleaning the shop? Sleeping?

I hope everyone enjoys the tranquility of this week before the madness ensues.

[Cory]

We are prototyping at the last minute... except it looks like we wont even finish everything until after the 10th.

Cory

[Ryan Albright]

We been prototyping. Hanging out with my gf alot this week cause i wont see her for like 6. Enjoying sleeping in my bed since most nights be sleeping like at the plant. Trying to study for exams casue we have exams that first week of build grrrr. Informing my parents not to file a missing persons report during build week

[tysonwormus]

Sleeping, Skiing, Relaxing, Reading, but, mostly stalking CD forums and checking my watch to see how many minutes left until kickoff.
Hording pizza coupons isn't unheard of either...

[NateBot16]

Trying to get our closet organized and all the tools sharpened. Also trying to get the team organized and familiar with each other, becasue we all know how much time we spend together. We are also trying to teach the new members the basics.

[Beth Sweet]

Hording pizza coupons isn't unheard of either...

Lucky, our team doesn't get pizza unless the parents bring it...

Our team has been going over all of the safety presentations that GM requires us to watch before we enter the machine shop. We're all really excited about kickoff and ready to get back to work!

[sanddrag]

We are holding a 4 hour meeting tomorrow (Monday) to START learning the new programming, teach tool use and saftey to our new members, maybe build an EDU, sharpen up our Inventor Skills, and talk a little bit about budget and team structure. We've already cleaned up and organized our workspace, it is outstanding. We just have to finish a bit of hardware organiztion and we'll be set!

[Brandon Martus]

I've been trying to get all of the features working that we had working last year. (White Papers, Image Gallery, etc). Unfortunately, due to other, new and broken committments-- I'll be cutting it close. I should have them all back & running by kickoff, though. That is my goal.

[shyra1353]

we have had the BetaBot competition to worry about at teh Canadian kickoff, but as well we are settling on what kind of drive train we should use, finding more sponsors, and i am doing my best to tell my team what the next six weeks hold ( some believe me about not sleeping, others dont ... and since i pull all-nighters regularly due to large amounts of work, i have been warned by my team that they are going to be slipping sleeping pills into my diet coke ... dont think thatll work !! )

[Rickertsen2]

Ordering the supplies we know we will need. And us programmig/controls ppl are workign on a hybrid inertial and encoder autonomous system, with similar functionality to what wildstang did in 03. We have also put together some other misc small stuff liek current sensing etc. Alot of thought has gonw into drivetrain design as well.

[mightywombat]

As much as I/we enjoy each other's company, our team is spending the next few days away from each other. Seeing as how we will spend the next 6 weeks together we figured a few days apart would be beneficial.

Actually, those are my personal feelings. I'm using the next 5 days to build up all the patience that will be needed (and to brush up on my C).

[Wetzel]

We have a meeting Tuesday at 7 for parents, students, enginners, everyone. There will be reitteration of the fact that while they may not see their child for 6 weeks, they will be returned.

I am also pricing team shirt information to present at the meeting Tuesday.

Other then that, we will be meeting on Saturday in the shop to watch the kickoff together.


Wetzel

[VinceT]

I'm recovering from new years (parties at your house are bad ideas, that is, unless it's your house, and not my house. I'm also brushing up on my latest CD rumors and relaxing in the fact that all of the parts that we've ordered are safely in the hands of a team member. Oh, and im practicing not sleeping, which is always a good idea before school starts again.

Thank god for coffee.

[Ian W.]

Kick-what?

Oh, right.

Um, we're not doing much. Mostly avoiding each other, I think.

I figure I'll see enough of my team for the next six weeks, the last thing I need to do now is see them :p.

Seriously though, we've sort of organized ourselves into groups and such in December, and that's about as far as we got. We'll see what happens in a few days, and if we prepared enough, I guess.

Whee...

[JAH]

My team seems to be trying to just get prepared for the upcoming weeks. We're working on a few little things that we'll get finished with, cleaning the shops, and still teaching inventor and 3d studio max to some of the new members. I'm soo excited!! I can't wait for January 10th! :]

[Yan Wang]

I'm trying to get a lot of SAT I studying done, along with my homework and projects.

Public schooling really hinders my FIRST priority and education. :)

[Amanda Morrison]

Our team is just trying to get on a SANE level. We're working on fundraisers, traveling arrangements, and about a million other things.

I'm in a blind panic. Big surprise.

[David Kelly]

Websites, cyberblue234.com, indianafirst.org, other super secret websites, trying to not get fired for being a slacker at work and thinking about FIRST... (I hope Chris Fultz my boss doesnt read this one ;) )

School starts monday and theres so much to do and I dont have time for anything else except for flipping out!! :ahh:

[IronSlayTallica]

Trying to not see eachother, cleaning, organizing, raising money, etc... And collecting Sweet N' Low packets! Muahaha!

[maxgebhardt]

I've been trying to train our new members in the ways of mechanics. its funny to explain pneumatic concepts to freshman, they always get so confused.

[Aignam]

I've been trying to train our new members in the ways of mechanics. its funny to explain pneumatic concepts to freshman, they always get so confused.

Read the 'Best Thread' in my sig...

[maxgebhardt]

Read the 'Best Thread' in my sig...
yeah, I've seen that... trust me their worse, at least you go on the forums...

[Jon K.]

For the past two years RAGE has donated some of our practice/meeting facility to the CT State Police Stuff a Cruiser, which gives children in the CT Childrens Medical Center toys to play with when they are sick or just out of surgery. And we are pannicking becuase we recieved many more toys and are trying to get all of these toys off of our playing field before saturday, so we can start to build our field asap.

[mtaman02]

So, with less than a week to go before Kickoff 2004, it seems like people are starting to get excited about the season that awaits them.

Question of the Week 01-04-04: What preparations are you and your team making in this final week before kickoff? Are you trying to finish a prototype at the last minute? Cleaning the shop? Sleeping?

I hope everyone enjoys the tranquility of this week before the madness ensues.

without giving away the secrets of my old team i definately know there brainstorming as to what kind of robot to build (i.e. robot helps to get points or plays defense) most likely gather materials and definately creating some amazing magic and performing wizadry with in the confines of my old HS ;)

T- 2 days 0 hrs 20min left until first kickoff day

[Mongoose]

We're planning out how we want our drive train to be and teaching our new kids how to do... stuff. Also experimenting with the new controller and language. Unfortunately we didn't have a meeting yesterday because we were snowed out (We're based in WA).

[Case]

We're unfortunetly unprepared. But that's normal for us. We're just kinda sitting around waiting for everything to start, looking halfheartedly for more sponsers. four years and we get less and less each year. Personally, I'm working on schoolwork, getting ahead for finals and trying to figure out what the BOM implys. I'm already getting the lack of sleep working on robot mindset going.