"Quotes" that were said during build season

[Zerony31]

"Don't hit your computer, it only makes it worse. I should know this is my third computer."

[Sam390250]

"In PID, Integrals are like diamonds. They are forever!"

[reach22]

me: let me drive

programmer: no I'm testing something

programmer: huh? why is it doing this

robot: shoots across the room hitting a table and almost makes a computer fall off of it

team coach: glares at programmer

programmer: lagg!

everyone: rolling on the floor laughing

[RyanN]

Teacher: "How many Jaguars do we need on the robot?"

Student: "4."

Me: I think for a second, but only recall 3 needed Jaguars. "Where are you getting 4 from?"

Student: "Two for the base, and one for the arm."

Teacher and I: :confused: "Umm... that's only 3."

Student: "No it's not, I said two for the base and one for the arm."

Teacher and I: *Laughs*

[Trent B]

Something along the lines of:

A: If it succeeds we post the video to youtube, if it fails we delete it
B: Censorship used for embellishment?

[thagamizer]

One of the girls was looking for some way to attach boards.
"Why don't we have any nuts?!"
"This is an all girls team, dearie."

[demosthenes2k8]

*thud*
Student: "It sounds like they're beating each other"
Mentor: "If they were beating each other would I be sitting here letting it happen?"
Several students: "Probably, yeah."
Mentor: "Good point."

Student: "Mark, I need you to tell me how to read this specs sheet."
Mark (same mentor as above): "Top to bottom, left to right."
Student: "No, I mean I need help understanding the encoders"
Mark: "They go around and around."

Student: "OK, who wants [0,10) oz of Throwback?"

Student: "Do you KNOW what sparkling vampires are?"
Mentor: "No, but it sounds fun!"
*later*
Mentor: "Oh, is it like Twilight?"

[live4321]

Student:Hey what do you think about that girl?
G33k:I'd hack that.

[Trent B]

To me: "Should we make that a tapped hole"

Me: "Yeah, we should tap that"

*funny look from person passing by*

I told people "You need to tap that" multiple times today. Nobody caught on...

[LovablePsycho]

Here are some quotes that I heard today:

"I'm a game piece! I'm a game piece!"-Matt, running around with a game piece around his neck

"I could use this, y'know...if it wasn't broken."-Me

Jared: "I don't think those will fit in the elevator"
Me: "You can fit anything in an elevator if you try hard enough!"

Dominic: "We seem to be getting somewhere"
Mr.Leech: "Excellent!"

"And I'll tell you this and more...right after lunch."-Jared

"Muffins are made of bran!"-unknown student

[LovablePsycho]

Mentor to Will: "You've never read Dilbert?"
Jared: "You live under a rock!"

[Trent B]

"If you are going to make the motor illegal you may as well make it super illegal" - Talking about the burnt out Tetrix motor that we were opening up with tin snips to snip off the retaining tabs.

[BJT]

OK, that arm is too fast, and that light is too low.

[theschell]

Kill the robot before you hit the table.

[USSMISSOURI]

heres one we had happen while we were drilling through some plexi near the motors: *drill goes through plexi, almost hits the motor* Opps......that was close. quote from Marie, my fellow mechanical engineer.

[DinerKid]

When joking around about slogans for our team...

"Team 1768, We CAD chain one link at a time."

We just switched CAD programs before the season so there was a point when one of our CAD guys just started assembling individual links.

When talking about the 3/8 nuts that came in the KOP...

"Hey, do you have my golden nuts"

~DK

[Astarties]

Head advisor for team: "Excuse me!" (jokingly indignant)
Me: "There is no excuse for you"

Head advisor: "Do you want it centered on the front side of the L-channel or the back?"
Me: "Back"
HA: "Why?"
Me: "That's where the party's at"

Head Advisor: "That doesn't quite line up, we might have to drill that out a bit"
Me: "Don't worry about it"
HA: "I don't like it, we need to fix it"
Me: "I said don't worry about it"

[davidthefat]

Someone: *something* "is not working, can you check your code?"
Me: "Its the hardware, it's always the hardware, never my code."


Me: "Don't worry about it"

[Dumper FTW 435]

"The robot is horribly overweight. We need to delete some code"

Me to team member named Charlie: You're job is to make sure i don't mess up.
5 minutes later I try to tap a hole that I forgot to drill all the way through
Me: CHARLIE!!!! WHAT DID YOU DO?


our engineering lead: Think not what a robot can do for you, but what you can do to get the sucker done. Now.

Mentor: What if we tried a turret idea?
Everyone in our workshop: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
(We've had a lot of bad experiences with turret designs)



Rookie: What if we pulled up the tubes with suction?
Engineering lead: hahahaha. That would never work.
5 minutes later...
Mentor: We should do suction!!!!

(Our current design is to use suction. The rookie will never let us forget that it was his idea)

[andreboos]

"The robot is horribly overweight. We need to delete some code"

On our team, 1's weigh more than 0's, regardless of the size of the code.

[FRC4ME]

On our team, 1's weigh more than 0's, regardless of the size of the code.

You know, back in the days of IFI we filled up the temporary storage areas a few times. I don't remember the specifics, but the solution was to randomly refactor the code and try again. If you split up a single calculation into multiple steps that still achieved the same result, it would somehow "fit" better.

[basicxman]

<listening to deadmau5's Sofi Needs a Ladder>
"Why is sour patch kids a bad taste in your mouth? Sour patch kids are a GREAT taste in your mouth." - Jason



"I don't hear smoke" - me :/

[linuxboy]

Build Lead to Me: "These brackets are a little too far apart. You need to fix that in code."

For a second I thought he was serious I then explained that code can't fix that.

And I can't believe I forgot:
Me to mentor: "I know those aren't cut all the way but I guarantee that those wires are not touching" *turns on battery, sees spark and hears snap* "abouuuuuuuut that, I didn't think they were touching". the second thing was said after yanking the breaker out of where those wires were connected on the PDB

[Phyrxes]

From last night:

Student #1: We need to drill the holes in electronics tray (at the bottom of the robot) to mount the line following sensors.
Student #2: So we are going to pick the whole robot up and put it in the drill press?
Student #1: *Laughs*
Mentor: *Shakes Head*

[216Robochick288]

[I urgently run up to our coach Mr. Hepfer]
Me: MR HEPFER! MR HEPFER!
Mr. Hepfer: What is it Abby?
Me: WE ARE OUT OF TRANSFORMER AND HELLO KITTY BANDAIDS!!! WE NEED MORE!!:ahh:
[Mr. Hepfer sighs and students around laugh]:D

Student screaming across room: I CANT FIND MY NUTS!

[demosthenes2k8]

9:27 PM - Bot190 {166}: its basically down to tuning the PID loops
9:27 PM - Bot190 {166}: which is a major problem
9:27 PM - [8Db] Demosthenes {166}: ouch
9:27 PM - [8Db] Demosthenes {166}: good thing I took autonomous
9:27 PM - [8Db] Demosthenes {166}: wait...
9:27 PM - [8Db] Demosthenes {166}: FFF-

[Kyoshirin]

C: Who puts a lock nut on backwards!?

Over the course of a week->
Me: You realize to make that work, it'll have to flip out, right?
R: Yeah.
(Two days later there is a triple jointed hinge mechanism)
C: Wait, how are we going to mount our electrical board? there's no place for it.
Me: We can put it upside down under this main support, the have it flip out on a hinge.
C: That sounds like a good idea. Lets do it.

C: Hey, this board is resting on the frame. Is that good?
Me: No. you should make a support for it. How about one that flips out when you unlatch the board?
C: Fine. What should I use?
Me: (hands him large gate hinge) Here, take this.
C: *Sigh*

G: How are we going to keep the battery in the holder?
Me: With a hinge, of course! And I'll lock it with another hinge! On second thought, let's make our entire robot out of hinges! The we can just unfold it completely and fix everything! It's Brilliant! *laughs insanely*

[demosthenes2k8]

Kyoshirin, it sounds like you entire robot design hinges on one central concept...

[$~-M.E.C-~$]

-You may have not done much today, but you can tomarrow. Unless its time to ship!

[$~-M.E.C-~$]

Everytime at the end of meetings the president or one of the metors will say, " you don't have to go home, but ya can't stay here!"

[The Zevling]

"Stupid Lollipop"
- said while trying to find a place for our camera where it won't be blocked by our claw mechanism*, which is a large circle on a stick. Hence "lollipop". The group working on the lollipop is, of course, refered to (at least by me, anyway) as the lollipop guild.

"Excuse me, I want to stick my head in the robot"
- me trying to get a cameras-eye view from a potiential camera spot.

*our claw mechanism grabs outward, so before it was the lollipop, it was called the Walc. It is actually in the code as the Walc, so it's official.

[Radical Pi]

"Look, if the Mythbusters have taught us anything, it's that an explosion is the best possible outcome."

Me: "Umm, guys, it looks like the software needs at least 40 pounds on the robot"
Mentors: "WHAT?"
Me: "Yeah, look at it! #if, #define, #ifndef, #endif, #s all over the place!"

And my current autonomous code:

void Autonomous()
{
// Declare victory
bool victory = true;
}

Ironically, I get a compiler warning about an unused variable when I compile that :(

[Astarties]

The robot's not wrong, your drawing is wrong. - Said multiple times by the building group to the kid who drew the robot in autocad.

[WhiteShadow1474]

Me: It's so secure you can stand on it!
Advisor: You don't want to stand on that...

[J.Warsoff]

"Guys, why are there cyanide pills on my cupcake?" -Me

[Dumper FTW 435]

Today I asked one of our rookies to find out how to code springs just to mess with them :P


I also quizzed one of the rookies on the tools we used. She got bonus points when she referred to the hammer as an "attitude adjuster" ::ouch::

[Trent B]

One of our Rookie Students, who has been extremely helpful this year, working on a minibot deployment method

Him: Is there anyway I can tighten this (talking about a piece of 8020 with an end fastener over another piece of 8020 with an end fastener)
Me: Yes, provided you can make two pieces of matter occupy the same space simultaneously

[Andrew Schreiber]

"Excuse me, I need to go tell our students to try to be a little quieter, I figured a cinder block wall would keep most of their noise out... guess I was wrong." - Me while talking with a potential future employer who I had been trying to reach for 2 weeks.

On the upside, the person was amused by it. Unrelated to that I now have to set up a day to interview with them :)

TL;DR - when a mentor is on the phone is NOT a good time to play a team game of "whack each other with the pool noodles" in the room next to it. (Use the hall for that)

[FRC4ME]

Me: "Umm, guys, it looks like the software needs at least 40 pounds on the robot"
Mentors: "WHAT?"
Me: "Yeah, look at it! #if, #define, #ifndef, #endif, #s all over the place!"


Of all the "code has mass" jokes in this thread, this one is definitely the best. :)

While staring at an impressive custom circuit on a 4" x 6" PCB that another group built:
Student 1: "Wow, there are three 10A fuses, two 555 timers, a block of NAND gates, a quartz crystal, a PIC, some power MOSFETS, a wireless USB interface...what could this possibly do?"
Student 2: "Well, it could be a light."

(It was actually a motor controller.)

[Nadav Zingerman]

Programming to Mechanical: "The code has been ready for days, where's the robot?!"

Three days later:

Mechanical: "Okay, download the code."
Programming: "It's not ready yet.":p

[donnie99]

figure this one out, it was right next to the compressor, Close the dump valve DB! to the judges, dumb bell, try to figure the last part out

[Bjenks548]

"Tomorrow, just to spite you, I am going to leave a single chip on the field. You'll know it was me because it will be at the cross section of the center gray line, and the caution line."

[Chubbymax]

(this was pertaining to a non-functioning Jaguar.)
Lead Coder : " It is definitely the wiring"
Me: "No way all signals are good"
Coder: "Alright lets test it"
(Throw on a New Jag)
Me: " IT WORKS!!!!"

(I break into what I would call an excited prospector jig.)

[MagiChau]

Freshman: "I guarentee we will be driving the robot in 15 minutes."

Takes us like 2 hours to fix the cables connecting the jaguars for the CAN.

[Zuelu562]

Freshman: "I guarantee we will be driving the robot in 15 minutes."

guarantees don't mean anything when you're dealing with FRC good sir ;)

[Kyoshirin]

(Programmer/Electrical guy to be labelled as P)

P: Oh, yeah. I also need to fix a short. When the wires jiggle it makes these cool blue sparks! Hoho! They were teal that time!

P: Great. Now the laptop isn't even registering that the cRio exists. Oh, wait a second. *Holds up other-disconnected-end of tether*

P: Ugh! I downloaded the program AGAIN, but the number of errors DOUBLED! Whoops. I forgot to clear the log from last time. Nevermind, false alarm.

-needless to say, our base hasn't moved via controller yet. :(

[Radical Pi]

Mentor to me: We've dumped the idea of using a potentiometer on the ladder (our tube manipulator), as it was going to be too complex to implement. Instead, we'll be using a hybrid rotary encoder/potentiometer, along with a limit switch to define a home position.

Person 1: Is it just me or does the ladder look like a duck?
Me: Yeah, it kinda does
Person 2: Then let's name the robot "Quack Attack!"
Person 1: But what about the minibot? It needs a name too!
Me: How about "The Duckling"
Person 1: Quack Attack and The Duckling! Just like Batman and Robin!
*laughter around the room*

Another name that has been floating around for our robot is "Duck Norris"

Another suggestion for our robot's name has been "Ian", as that's the first name of our staff advisor and our head programmer. In the words of our head of electronics:
"Ian, go fix Ian. Ian broke it again."

[J93Wagner]

"Hey! Now we have a new way to change the lights!" - A fellow mechanical student who was commenting on how high our robot could reach.

And on a similar note:

Me -*raises lifter mechanism too high and knocks down a ceiling tile* "Huh. I guess we have another causality."

[BJC]

"Just stop looking for it and go make another one. Then you'll find it right after the other one's made" - About 10 people were looking for a special bracket for 40 minutes after it dissappeared. The day after (we had already made a new one) a Freshmen walks up to me. "Is this important? I found it on the table." *Facepalm*

"Ok, we are never working in the shop again." - Our sub team usually works outside of the shop next to the road. (Yes, there are roads inside Chrysler)

A: "Ok, we'll probably have the final claw for you by Saturday."
B: "Really!?"
A: "Well.. maybe the end of Saturday."

[apalrd]

...Our sub team usually works outside of the shop next to the road....

You are totally in the road.


I guess I can't say a whole lot, since I am always driving up and down the road tuning software.

[Joe Schornak]

"If the elevator takes your arm off, I'll pick it up and beat you with it!"
"And I'll be laughing so hard while I'm beaten to death!"

[WizenedEE]

Programming team motto: If it doesn't work, use a bigger hammer.

[The Zevling]

Programming team motto: If it doesn't work, use a bigger hammer.
Wait, programming?


When preparing to update our version of WPILib:
"Are we sure we want to do this? Last year it broke our code."
"Don't worry, it will be fine"
*the new WPILib breaks our code*

[Andrew Schreiber]

Programming team motto: If it doesn't work, use a bigger hammer.

This is my motto when writing code too but my hammer is metaphorical... (it is bad ugly code that runs inefficiently but it runs)

[kmcclary]

One of our students asked:
... "Gee... I wonder if we could power the MiniBot with Mentos and Coke?"

<head plant>

- Keith

[demosthenes2k8]

I'm playing with a new joystick, several people randomly come and stand around the table Software's "working" (waiting) at. I pick it up and "shoot" the first two, then turn to the third one, pause, and turn away.
Third one: "Wow, you just went, 'He makes all my sensors'."

Overheard (I have a headphone in): "CAN over PWM. It's a new protocol."

[Christopher149]

Me - Without the 2cans, the jaguars will die!
Student1 - Stop global warming, save the 2cans!
(2can == toucan)

[Intel i7]

"if you cant find jumpers, look in the thermostat!"

[RoseJ]

Coach: "Oh so sexy, oh so sexy." (While taking pictures of the robot~)

Coach: "You can't leave!"
Student: "You just said that you don't need nobody!" (Puts on coat to leave at the end of the meeting.)

[Brandon_L]

*puts wire strippers at the top of the minibot pole*
Nick: Look a stripper pole!

[gyroscopeRaptor]

Forrest: "Duh-nuh-nuh-nuh!" while holding up a bumper, like in Legend of Zelda

Garret: (hands me an aluminum bar and a hammer) "Make me a dagger!"
Me: "Make a sword, you'll get more XP and GP"

Also, this comic is an omen: http://www.dilbert.com/2011-02-11/

[Karibou]

Garret: (hands me an aluminum bar and a hammer) "Make me a dagger!"
Me: "Make a sword, you'll get more XP and GP"



We had someone try to make a knife last year. Our belt sander was broken for a while after. I wouldn't suggest it :P

[Command67]

You can't program physics into LabView. It doesn't work that way.

[dmitch]

Coach: Why is it going so fast?
Me: It's overspeed, it gives a digital value of 2.

AND

Freshman: "Let's Name The Minibot Pole Dancer!!! *smacked by junior

[S.P.A.M.er 17]

Brian- "Hold on Ralph, as soon as I'm done duck taping my feet I'm going to kill you."

Me- "No you guys can not name the bot after my mom!!!!:mad: "

[MAldridge]

Me: "stand by to engage autonomous sequence four"
Mentor: "okay Captain Picard, we're standing by!"

Me to the team as I was about to call about a have dozen automated sequences at once. I didn't think about the Trekedness of the comment at the time, I just wanted everyone out of the way!

[hcps-maxwelltd]

another programer and i were talking to another person on the team about what happens when you plug a batery conector with it hooked up to nothing and the wires showing into a batery, you end up with "Spark spark, Sizzle Sizzle, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM::safety::

[Zuelu562]

"Spark spark, Sizzle Sizzle, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM::safety::

as apposed to "Oink, Oink, Boom?"

[Bot190]

Pokey: "I might look like a 1 on the outside, but I'm really a 0 inside"

[Alex Redman]

Me-"Plug all the joysticks into the 4-way USB Hub."

Zack-"Hehe 4- way"

[Zack771]

Mentor (about the robot arm) : "That's dope!"

Alex: *face-palm* "you did not just say that"

[Lokhagos]

"They've caught the plague"
and
"I'm a real boy now!":rolleyes:

[kgzak]

student brings in our testing box (box where we have cRIO, motor controllers, etc. in)
student: I feel like I am carrying a bomb.
Opens box.
mentor (never saw the inside of the box): Even now that you opened it, it still looks like a bomb.
me: Try going through an airport with that.

[Leeebowitz]

Freshman: "Let's Name The Minibot Pole Dancer!!! *smacked by junior

Our team had the same idea, except it was our head mentor who came up with it. :p

[Dumper FTW 435]

Freshman: "Man that minibot is fast!"
Coder: "That's because we replaced the battery acid with Power Thirst"

[viperred396]

Freshman: "Let's Name The Minibot Pole Dancer!!! *smacked by junior

We were thinking either Brandi or Misty

and.. "Quick Hold my nuts!"

[Chaoskitty]

Programming team motto: If it doesn't work, use a bigger hammer.

another one is "What Would Dave Do"

[MisterL]

Student: Lets name our stripper Maria!
Another Student: But isn't that the name of our bimbo?
Me: It's called a Bimba
Both Students: Can't Maria be a stripper and a bimbo?
Me: Bimba.

[Kilo Foxtrot 7]

Mr. Young: What time is it?
Jessie: 4:22.
Me: It was 4:22 15 Minutes ago!?!?!
Jessie: Wait that clock is broken.
Mr. Young: Well what time is it?
Me: 4:22.

Careful that swiss cheese will cut you!

[Karibou]

Sign in the shop: "DO NOT FEED THE ROBOT"

"What are you doing?"
"The alan wrench broke off and now it's stuck in the bolt"
"HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?"

In my four years, I have never seen anyone break an alan wrench. I'm still confused.

[548swimmer]

What are you guys doing? Back to work!

We are working!

There are four of you standing around nothing...

We're... Uh... Helping program... Yeah! Cause, ya know, it takes four students one of whom is a programmer to program a robot.

[G33K]

Jake: "Why is there an octagonal hole in this tubing?"
Connor: "...to fit the hex shaft...?


oh."

[EricH]

What are you guys doing? Back to work!

We are working!

There are four of you standing around nothing...

We're... Uh... Helping program... Yeah! Cause, ya know, it takes four students one of whom is a programmer to program a robot.
They might have gotten away with it if someone had said, "Compiling! (http://xkcd.com/303/)".

[Zuelu562]

They might have gotten away with it if someone had said, "Compiling! (http://xkcd.com/303/)".

The mentor who is "overseeing" programming doesn't even know what compiling really means so he'll actually not see that it's actually important. Crazy part is: HE'S SUPPOSED TO KNOW IT!

[thatoneguy23]

"That was way to easy.....something has got to be wrong....."

[plnyyanks]

They might have gotten away with it if someone had said, "Compiling! (http://xkcd.com/303/)".

our tried and true excuse for slacking off...

[Rinkat]

Me: "Avery, carry the punishment box!" (Said at a fundraiser where we sold delicious foodstuff. Avery, one of our members, decided to slack off, come in late, and be unable to sell a danish. We filled a box with heavy things like huge Gatorade bottles, and the punishment box was born!)
Allan/Valence "AGH, what the heck is this FROSTING?!?" (Cupcakes of death. 'Nuff said.)
Miguel: "You should know about Africa, you like tigers!"
Me: ".....grrr." (Tigers DO NOT LIVE IN AFRICA. Just sayin'.)

[rcmolloy]

Dustin Benedict: I'm Black, We got this.

[RC3]

"we need to make an autonomouse to run the autonomous!":D

[James114]

"Sean it says do not microwave on the on the container"
"Ya but it doesn't say that in the title"

The Nutella container looked like fireworks ::rtm::

[ThirteenOfTwo]

"This won't fire. You've got two air pipes going to a single-acting piston. All the air goes out the one that's not connected."

"Well, let's put a closed safety valve on one and try it."

Later...

"This still doesn't work. Your system will never retract; I'm not firing the pneumatics right now but the pistons are stuck in the out position. The force of the internal springs can't overcome the force of the air."

"Can't you retract a single-acting pneumatic piston by dumping all of the air that's forcing the piston into the out position?"

"...so remind me where we're dumping the air now. Is it into the piston, or is it into the closed safety valve?"



"Hey, look! Instead of completely redesigning and starting from scratch, you took my very simple advice and applied it to make the system incrementally better, and now it works! Who would have thought?"

[2bkrul]

Me: Whats that smell?
Dave: Something is burning
Me: Hm..... *rushes to turn off the bot*
Dave: Try it again
Me: *turns it on* woah...the wiring on the Jag is reversed
Jim: And there goes the Jag...

After that, we had problems for the rest of the day with the cRio and the DLink

[Zuelu562]

Dave: "The McDonalds guy was happy when I told him we wanted 20 double cheeseburgers and 20 small fries for teenagers."

He brought McDonalds. It's brought the entire student body at the meeting together more than once ;)

Some random student: "Did you go through the drive through?"
That student got dirty looks.

[Leeebowitz]

Every year, someone wants to learn about pneumatics, and every year that someone gets the same response:

"Pneumatics are very simple; they suck and they blow."

While we were trying to get our minibot working:

Me: We need Xinyu's cookies.
Head Mentor: What?
M: I said we need Xinyu's cookies.
HM: Oh, sorry. I thought you said we should $@#$@#$@#$@# on its face.
*Everyone burst out laughing*
HM: My question was going to be, where is its face?

We were laughing for a good five minutes afterwards.

Then, later on in the same meeting:
HM: I need to step out for a second. Keep your pants on, Leibo.

[Jimmy the Kidd]

We were ramping motor speed.
"Uh, Ryan, why does the code make 0^3 equal 1?"
"Uh-oh, I broke math."

[2403_Andrew]

*while looking at some students working in the storage cage*

Me: Do you guys know where the padlock for this door is? (there's only one door in or out)
Taylor: Yeah, I think it's over there.
Terry: Wait, what?

[MisterL]

Teacher: This place is a mess!
Us: But its an organized mess!
Teacher: Yeah, organized like a tornado!

[MishraArtificer]

Some random student: "Did you go through the drive through?"
That student got dirty looks.Add one more dirty look from a former McDonald's employee.

"COMPILE, D*** IT!"

Our programmer that year was not having a good day...

[toastnbacon]

Probably shouldn't say this but: "Use this, It's less safe."

[Trent B]

"I think the most ridiculous part of this sign in sheet is the fact it says END=12:15AM at the top."

[demosthenes2k8]

Mentor: "I've heard when you sprinkle a zero with foo-foo dust, it works as a denominator"

I'm never talking about math/magical sparkle dust this early in the morning again.

A coder is making a random program with 6-7 nested do{}while loops:
Coder: "We need to go deeper."

[Phyrxes]

Students working on chain run: "We didn't screw up, its just chains hate us!"

[JaneYoung]

A friend of a student on the team sees a candid team photo of us in our new team shirts and comments, " So dorky. So vivid."

[MAldridge]

STOP!!! We can't afford any more ceiling tiles!!!

We have a collection of tiles that have been speared by our forklift as it goes up higher than the drop ceiling.

[J93Wagner]

"It feels like an alien ray gun!" - Lead Mechanical Student

"In autonomous mode, Jonathan (That's me folks!) goes straight for the ice cream (It was delicious too!)." - Mr. Kloes, our Business Mentor

And I have a feeling I'm missing another quote from today...

Maybe I'll remember it later and put it in as an edit.

[The Zevling]

*refering to a oscilloscope*
Mentor: I'm not sure it works
Me: If it doesn't work, we have another.

No, I have no idea why we have two (or even one) oscilloscope.

[KleinKid]

Me - "Would it be overzealous of us to name our robot Watson?"
Rest of the team after staring at each other thinking about it - "Probably."


Student - "Stop moving the robot my wiring is to fragile for the robot to move"


"Picking up that chair with the robot wasn't such a good idea." (The aluminum rod we were using to support our arm nearly gave out)

Team captain - "Our funding is over 9000!!!!"

[nikeairmancurry]

STOP!!! We can't afford any more ceiling tiles!!!

We have a collection of tiles that have been speared by our forklift as it goes up higher than the drop ceiling.

We've learned to just move them before hand...lol

[h1n1is4pigs]

today our winch broke on us during testing and caused our lift to drop like a guillotine, we have now decided to refer to our robot as robotspierre after maximillian robespierre

[orisenak]

We said we should post this online...
this is our minibot, it goes up with deployment in less then 3 seconds!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVMd8sCR7gA

-Team 1056 (aka 2024)

[MisterL]

Me: How about we move our heads out of the way before the robot decapitates us all with its arm?
Everybody else get in way of robot arm
Everybody: Like this?

[demosthenes2k8]

Ben: "Matt, can you look at my code to see if it's wrong?"
Me (joking): "Of course it's wrong, you wrote it."
Pokey: "OHHHHHHHH."
Me (looking over): "Actually, should both of those be 'true'?"
Ben: "$@#$@#$@#$@#."

[216Robochick288]

"So Abby, robotics 1-10, when do you want to go?"
"1:05."
"1:05?"
"Mr.Hepfer said we couldnt be there all 10 hours."

heeheehee

[kmcclary]

"Robot Diet" - Getting your robot back down to 120 lbs during Week Six of the build... -kmcclary

Student: "Hey, making weight is easy... if we just Swiss Cheese the Accumulator, we lose 120 Pounds of pressure right away!!"

(The Student immediately gets hit with a shower of Pool Noodle scraps...)

- Keith

[Mageofdancingdr]

Our programming/OI Mentor:

"This team is going to innovate if I have to drag them into the future kicking and screaming!"

[Holly Ann]

"Where is your end button!"

[216Robochick288]

[talking about holes drilled in frame for robot-squareness and support, drilled in precisely the right spot]
"We have transgressed from perfect into effing perfect."

[later, someone else VERY frustrated]
"SUCK MY BARSTOCK!!!"

[MBunzel]

J:"wait, how is our robot 107lbs? our other one is 113lbs! how is this possible??"
Me:"its simple, we used magnets!"
J: "how does that work?"
*i do my best troll face impression*
J: "well played, well played indeed"

[Grim Tuesday]

J:"wait, how is our robot 107lbs? our other one is 113lbs! how is this possible??"
Me:"its simple, we used magnets!"
J: "how does that work?"
*i do my best troll face impression*
J: "well played, well played indeed"

But...But.. how do the magnets work?

[Bluedog24]

Our bot was overweight when we weighed it (because we forgot to take out the battery) and someone said "We should shave the nuts!".

Others:
"In theory the code should work."
"When button 1 is pressed start givingBirth."
"Our robot must be a seahorse, it's a he and it gives birth."
"My nuts dropped, can you grab them for me?"

More if I can remember them.

[demosthenes2k8]

"This fork's going to give us some trouble."
"Does that mean you're forked?"
"Fork you too."
"In honor of [mentor], we're naming this variable 'forked'."
"Is it spelled F-O-U-R-K-E-D? ... Oh god, it is now. I can tell by the look on his face."
(for the next 10 mins)
"I just misspelled fourked."

[buck]

"The robots Turned On".
"Your all perverted"
"To the wall!"
"Lock him in the cage!"

[OJ_Helms]

[While making holes into fabric]
"Come on!! you need to push harder!! I can see it coming through!!" [Me -> girl on our team]

[Frenchie461]

That seems to be.....Slightly perfect

[buck]

"9ers be trippin ballz"

[riyadh]

"good god! (when shown the 18 oz 2 foot ball peen hammer)
THAT IS A GOD $@#$@#$@#$@# HAMMER!

[MrEldritch]

Andy, Prime Electronics Wizard: "Burning Jags and Victors smell different. You just fried a Victor."

(pause)

"...It's probably bad that I know that."

-------

Me: (referring to the leadscrews we were using for our arm) "It's a long, stiff rod that screws things. You know what I mean."

[klmx30302]

2 from today.

1.
our electrical lead has been wiring for the last 2-3 hours
Student: this pwm cable came out.
Mentor: now is not a good time.
Electrical lead: Tomorrow you will be hung from the highest peg!!!, we get bonus points for that.
laughter followed for the next 5 minutes

2.
we place our robot on the scale after finally wiring everything up
Mentor: 121.6
students: wait, that cant be right!!!?!!!
Me: Um, we didn't put the lexan cover on yet.
students: uh oh.
*place lexan cover on robot*
Mentor: 123.2
students: OH NO WE'RE 3.2 POUNDS OVER WEIGHT!!!

I'm glad our first event is bag and tag, or this late night would be even later...

[0zymandias]

"Accidental engineering" popped up a few times.
Also, from a conversation about some random dangerous thing which I do not recall
Team member: "Ooh, can I do that too"
Alumn/Mentor: "No, it's stupid and dangerous"
Team Member: "Then why can you?"
Alumn/Mentor: "Because I'm a mentor!"

[Dragon Princess]

GO GO GADGET MINIBOT!
Me after we go our mini bot to work.

[demosthenes2k8]

(Me explaining our arm to a student's sister)
"So we have an arm, and the pot on it tells how high we are..."
(People working on the robot start laughing)
"...and then we know how high we want to be..."
(They're dying from laughter)
"...and if we're not high enough we go higher."
(I have to leave the room, we're all laughing too much.)

(We're debating plugging things in that are out of reach)
"Let's move this closer"
"NO! WE CAN'T DO THAT! MOVE IT BACK!"

[riyadh]

"i think we are slowly learning how to un-robot."
you mean unlearning robotics?
"No. robot is now a verb."
coversation between me and a mentor

[Dragon Princess]

(Me explaining our arm to a student's sister)
"So we have an arm, and the pot on it tells how high we are..."
(People working on the robot start laughing)
"...and then we know how high we want to be..."
(They're dying from laughter)
"...and if we're not high enough we go higher."
(I have to leave the room, we're all laughing too much.)

ah aren't potentiometers fun? Our principal walked in just as a pot went up in smoke and I yelled that I was smoking some pot. It took some explaining lol.

[riyadh]

"no bring dat kine pilau stuff in hea!"
we scream this at every possible opportunity

[KleinKid]

We just got our robot working Sunday and hadn't had time to even attempt to clean up our wires. When we went to the practice meet that day one of the mentors from a veteran team came over and had a stern talking to us about our wiring methods that lasted over 45 minutes.

Now every time we do something messy on our electronics board we say "The wire nazi is going to come for you if you don't fix that"


"Why is the floor covered in used zip ties after every meeting"

"We should have a scavenger hunt on our robot. We fill out a sheet and make people find where we used conspicuous materials like plywood, duct tape and Velcro."

"I have an awesome idea for our crate to make it stick out. We should cover it in like 10 rolls of duct tape."

"Lets name it TIMMY"

"Ugh why do we have to put a wireless router on the 12 volt converter? I mean our jury rigged stuff only has a small chance of catching on fire."

"First needs to come with a warning 'Extreme robots may cause headaches'."

So many more . . .

[El Geffe]

Every time a member asks our mentor, George, where something is, its magically always "behind you."

When I was welding our frame together;

me: "Hey! my leg is really hot" (continues welding)
Someone grabs my leg, then I hear stomping (continues welding)
I finish welding and look down at a smoldering "fireproof blanket."

me: "Was I on fire!?"
Roberto: "Sure you were. We only let you burn for about 10 seconds.":yikes:

[Andrew Schreiber]

"Stupid college getting in the way of my education!" - Me every time one of my professors emails me at a meeting. Our students are quite amused.

Explanation: I feel that learning to work with people and communicate problems effectively is at least as important as the stuff I am doing in my classes.

[Zuelu562]

"Anyone know the actors name who does the 'I pick things up and put them down' commercial? We're going to name our robot after him."

(I was thinking Jorgen Von Crab, mixing two of my favorite annoying characters from my favorite cartoons when I was like 7)

"What's that sound?!"
"That's the sound of complacent teenagers."

Dinner tonight. Silence over the ENTIRE table at the meeting.

[karra3204]

All from today:

Mentor to me: So, last night I was having nightmares that we made it to the championship again...

*While I'm controlling the robot arm with an XBOX controller*
Teammate: So how does this all work?
Me: Pretty good.
Teammate: I meant like what does each button do...
Me: LOL. To Chief Delphi!

*Me talking about a washer while trying to put it on a screw*
Me: Ugh, this washer is all bent out of shape.
Mentor: So just tell it to relax.

*Mentor explaining how to move the arm to pick up the tubes from the floor*
Mentor: Left control up..right control down. Left trigger...right trigger. No, again left contol up....... ugh, I feel like I'm captain of a ship or something.

[demosthenes2k8]

"I can't even post this to Chief Delphi!" -Me, after a mentor makes an amazing inappropriate joke

(After me and another programmer have been working on code integration for the last three days)
Mentor: "Go relax. Do anything BUT program. Play a video game. Just don't touch robot code."
(Later, we're discussing a Minecraft world seed)
Same mentor: "YOU BETTER NOT BE PROGRAMMING!"

[2403_Andrew]

Jag-wiring (pronounced jaguaring)

I also invented the "death stare" for the group. If someone starts to tick me off (and they know who they are) then they get the stare.

[TheDark]

Recently on my team, one of the electical people said:
Electrical student: "I need a stripper."
Mechanical student: "You can't get those at robotics."
Electrical student: "Look, I got two! One for each hand!" (As he recieved the wire strippers)

We all cracked up about this one, including one of our mentors becoming completely red-faced.

[dignacio]

"Okay, 'nom,' then 'un-nom.'"
--The robotic arm team, referring to the mechanical 'claw' (gripper) on the robot.

"We're going to put this on YouTube!"
--Jeff (team leader), who always jinxes demonstrations whenever he says this. :)

"Go get me a wire stretcher!"
"What's a wire stretcher?"
--The minibot team, playing a practical joke on newbies.

"Back then, we didn't have those fancy color light sensors, we just had black and white ones!"
--Matt (minibot team), role-playing as an old-timey folk.

[mcf747]

Our head build mentor (and head of hooliganism) giving our programmer a hard time:


Mentor: Hey Kern(programmer)!
Kern: Ya?
Mentor: How are we supposed to turn left with theses line sensors if they are "right sights"
Kern: You cant you can only go left (holding back laughter)

At this point we all just start cracking up......

[mcf747]

Running programming tests on our arm.....

We run the arm all the way to the max "up" position and the programmer realizes he forgot to load the second part of the code that allows it to go down.

A new mentor that joined the team 3 days ago yelled from across the room "Hey guys if you cant get that thing down within 4 hours you better call a doctor"

I am not not sure what was funnier the joke or the fact that out of about 30 kids in the build room only 2 of us got it......

[Brian Ha]

So this one was over a period of time when we went to dinner and one of our guys was txting us. We had said that we got some strippers and hookers. We have a cage in our school which is where we put all of our robotics stuff. He told us to put the strippers and hookers inside the cage for him tmr. Our friend replied okay but your getting seconds. The next day he came in asking, so where are my strippers and hookers, we proceed to pull out strippers and the hook side of velcro. The look on his face and the laugh that went around were pretty funny.

[Karibou]

"I need the adjustable hammer"
"You mean that wren-"
"No, it's a hammer"

Student 1: "We really should label all of these"
Student 2: "Forget it, we don't have time"
Mentor (a minute later): "Shouldn't you be labeling those?"

Student holding wires together to be soldered: "Hold on I have to sneez- AH CHOO"
Student soldering: "OUCH @$%#&*(^#" (the wires moving caused solder to drip onto some exposed part of his body)

"Can I wipe my blood on the robot?" *holds up bleeding finger*
"Of course you can!"

There was also five or ten minutes when the answer to every question was "We can fix it in the code"

[TNT280Staff]

I think my favorite this year was. . .

"it has to work it worked in cardboard"

this comes from a few years ago when one of our engineers was quoted "it worked in CAD" after the design drawn in CAD ended in failure as a completed part, so this year two protypes were made by students in cardboard and both ended in great success.

[hcps-ruwedt]

Quit hitting me with lexan, I'm NOT a pinata.

[kylelanman]

While troubleshooting autonomous mode.

Me (Programming Mentor): "Wait what state are we in?"

Student (Driver): "Illinois"

[PayneTrain]

I was vacuuming metal bits off of the robot. When I got to the electronics board, a mentor said, "Stop! You're sucking out all of the electrons!"

[PAR_WIG1350]

"Who is Ben T. and why does this belong to him?" -Team member looking at a tetrix axle wrapped in blue painters tape at one end which has the word "BENT" written on it to inform people tat it is, in fact bent. The scary part is, I'm not sure whether or not he was kidding.

[548swimmer]

Me: Is that safe?
Mentor: Yes. Wait. Define safe.
Me: Should I do it?
Mentor: No. It's not safe for you to do, but I can do it safely.

[Kyoshirin]

[RS means random student(s)]

RS: "Whats a pillow block?"
Me: "The thing in the pillow block drawer"
RS: "Where are the Allen wrenches?"
Me: "Allen Wrench Drawer"
RS: "Where does this thing go?" (It's a center punch)
Me: " Punch Drawer"
RS: "I need to mark something. Where's the sharpie?"
Me: "Sharpie draw-, wait. Sorry. The robotics cabinet, third shelf"

C: "EVERYTHING has a drawer, except for the sharpies because they are myhtical creatures that like to roam free in their domain."

[OverdriveAdge]

Some of Overdrive's favorites (from our FRC days):


"But if you put it away I won't be able to find it!"


-talking about a pair of wire strippers-
James: There, now you have an awesome pair of strippers. Wait...


-After the girls ran into the basement to initiate a very one-sided pillow fight against the guys at 5 am during a sleepover at our Head Coach's house. The other guys see James pulling a table over his sleeping bag and ask him what he's doing-

James: I'm making an anti-girl device
other guys: James, you are an anti-girl device!


or the classic:

-Our engineering mentor, Mr. Wittel-
*crossing arms and sitting down*
"Ahhh. I love work. I could watch it all day."

[Newo95]

Mentor:I have a disease with no cure.
Student: What's that?
Mentor:It's called optic rectumitus.
Student: What does that mean?
Mentor: It means I have a crappy outlook on life.
Student:OH.:eek:

[Kyoshirin]

Mentor to student about a precise freehand sketch: "Let's see, you did this thing right, and you did this part right, so why couldn't you do this part right!?"

[jcoinster]

"Our minibot can haul a rubber chicken all the way up the pole and not fall back down, most of the time that is..." -Describing our bot to a team at the Suffield Shakedown

"Note: That pole is strictly for the minibot"

[pwnageNick]

"You know you're a robotics kid when you sit on Chief Delphi and hit refresh over and over again waiting for new pictures and videos of other teams"

[Andrew Lawrence]

"WHERE THE HE11 ARE MY STRIPPERS???" (Wire strippers)

[Andrew Lawrence]

"You know you're a robotics kid when you sit on Chief Delphi and hit refresh over and over again waiting for new pictures and videos of other teams"

Story of my life!!! LOL

[kmcclary]

"Anyone know the actors name who does the 'I pick things up and put them down' [Planet Fitness] commercial? We're going to name our robot after him." I can't find a definitive answer, but a lot on the net believe it is body builder Silvio Kersten, aka "Chris Wide" (who actually trains at Gold's Hollywood, not Planet Fitness...)

I'm not totally convinced it is him, though...

But I love the quote. I'll try to remember to use it when we're allowed to take the bot out for practice on competition week... :D
Thanks!

- Keith

[Zuelu562]

"Why do programmers seem to always be procrastinators?" Me to Matt from Chop Shop

[142165]

kevin: still no robot comms...
caleb: ohh would you like me to turn the robot on?

[demosthenes2k8]

kevin: still no robot comms...
caleb: ohh would you like me to turn the robot on?

Sounds like my team.
"WHY CAN'T I CONNECT?"
"Let me check...you know it's off, right?"

Pokey: "Can we use the oven? Like, is there anything you don't want us to do?"
Mentor: "Well, you've been working with the chop saw. But...I've seen people burn themselves on the soldering irons."
Pokey: "HEY!"

[wazcodez]

Principle : "What's name of the robot ?"
Megh (Me) : "Johnson, and it's 9 ft. long."

everyone laughing, (got it ?)

[Zuelu562]

Saturday Morning, BAE/GSR: Signs stood up welcoming Dr. Flowers read "Morning Woody". :rolleyes:

[demosthenes2k8]

Brian giving a speech at GSR: "Yeah, there are a lot of other important things, like Minecraft and diamond pickaxes..."

[KleinKid]

Student asks teacher - "Whats wrong with this school laptop i can't find any of my files."

Teacher - "For Some reason it fried last week and we had to reset it."

Student - " . . . ."

Team Captain starts hitting his head against wall

Student - "We officially just lost all of our robot code. I mean all of it no one bothered to make a backup."


Sufficient to say i was rather frustrated today. Lesson learned BACK UP YOUR CODE on more than one machine.

[ATannahill]

Student asks teacher - "Whats wrong with this school laptop i can't find any of my files."

Teacher - "For Some reason it fried last week and we had to reset it."

Student - " . . . ."

Team Captain starts hitting his head against wall

Student - "We officially just lost all of our robot code. I mean all of it no one bothered to make a backup."


Sufficient to say i was rather frustrated today. Lesson learned BACK UP YOUR CODE on more than one machine.

Revision control? (https://github.com/)

[TJ92]

I've got a great dialog sequence from the final day of build:

*Final build day, school locks up at 9:30, it's 8:30. Just me(Trevor), my Co-Captain(Garrett), and one mentor(Mr. Ketron) are left in the building. We thought we were all wrapped up and were ready to do some autonomous testing. The bot goes crazy and our the shoulder on our scoring mechanism has been stripped. Some of it is ad-lib, but the point still comes across. *

Trevor: (Looking at bot) Well at least I was able to drive it a little.

Mr. Ketron: (Trying to figure out how we set up the components of the shoulder 3 weeks earlier) How were we able to get this chain on here so tightly the first time? Garrett come over here and see if your hands can fit in here.

Garrett: (Staring at his netbook trying to figure out what went wrong in his code) I'm coming, one second, I can't figure out what went wrong. Trevor this logic makes sense right? *phone rings* Hello. Hey, Trevor, Mr. Ketron, the school paper just called and they want a quote about the Finger Lakes Regional.

Trevor: Yea, I've got one, we're S.O.L..

Garrett and Mr. Ketron: *laughter*

[demosthenes2k8]

Revision control? (https://github.com/)

Simpler version control? (http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.org/)

[Kyoshirin]

*our CAD-er (R) is drawing up our robot post-build*

R: This just isn't working. All the twisting we have must put an insane amount of strain on the robot. I'm suprised it hasn't broken yet.

Me: Oh, yes! we base all of our robots on the counterforce principal. We put our robot under a huge amount of stress to keep it in shape so that we can put loads on it that a normal robot would be incapable of handling. Like our arm. All the stress is in the other direction so that it acts as counter stress and evens itself out.



Me: Why is that gap there? It's not like that on our robot. Can't you just loft that shape along a line?

R: Yeah, I tried that. It said "Object cannot exist along this path"

[JaneYoung]

"I can't draw..." as one of my favorite students (they are all my favorites) took the white board marker away from me and proceeded to finish the rough sketch I was making of the robot - the one I had asked her to draw in the first place. :)

[Kyoshirin]

*Post-build CADing, episode two*
R: What size is the electrical board, in length?
Me: 28"
R:would you bet your life on that?
Me: Give or take a foot.

Later
R: 36 sounds like a number we may have used.

R: I've run out of dimensions of things on our robot.
Me: I can come up with some dimensions if you want.
R: That's what I'm afraid of.

C: Why are those piecves 3-3/4" apart? They are exactly 4" apart on the robot!
R: I used a laser measuring-thingy. it's 3-3/4
Me: Wait, C, was it 4" when you build it or when you last measured it?

[anthonyttu]

"in theory this will work"

[The Zevling]

"It makes sense that the triangles keep popping. Afterall, delta is the symbol for change..."

[Bjenks548]

I've spend too long with my drivers (I'm the coach).
"Om nom nom the square by the tower!"

Talking with our pit and alliance members,
Pit "the arm might work this match"
partner one "Our arm is not going to work this match"
partner two "I don't think our arm is going to work right now"

Before our fist ellim match
"Remember its triangle, circle, square."
"WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT, ITS SQUARE CIRCLE TRIANGLE"

[J93Wagner]

Me: B! We've gutted the robot!
B: That robot wasn't gutted, it was murdered!
Me: :eek:

[demosthenes2k8]

"Reverse Chopshop Maneuver" == backwards logo...

[hawtgeek44]

Me: ZACH, STOP MOLESTING SAM AND GET TO WORK ON THE SCOUTING CODE!

Explaining the roles of different subgroups to family: Management organizes stuff, electrical wires stuff, multimedia takes pictures of stuff, programmers write stuff, and mechanical screws stuff.

And of course...
Programming Mentor: Where is the entire electrical subgroup?
Programmers: Break dancing in the cafeteria with Will(the electrical mentor).

The potentiometer started smoking one practice. The next day:
Electrical Lead: It had to be you guys!
Programming Lead: I didn't write SET FIRE into the code!

There are alot more too...

[2403_Andrew]

"Reverse Chopshop Maneuver" == backwards logo...

We actually did that. And we were the only team scoring that match on our alliance.

6 (RCsM -1 penalty) to 85 (logo w/ Ubertube, some other stuff, both minibots -1 penalty) :eek:

[jhusser]

I'd hack that. -our programmer
If it doesn't fit try other hole. ( he ment port.) -programmer again
Its not ghetto rigged, its strategically placed. -me
This looks kind of sketchy.-me again

[kws4000]

"It takes longer to get com than it takes to debug, build, and deploy (WindRiver on a super-laptop)"

this being said when the previous year we used LabView on the Classmate:o

[kmcclary]

Last night we decided to wire up yet ANOTHER speed controller device to the bot, as an Upgrade, so I said:

"OK, haul out the 12 gauge..." (wire, of course)

A student calmly looked at me, smiled, and replied:
"Gee, they don't allow us to bring them to school anymore..."

... Which of course made we start to wonder about what this rural school USED to be like... ;)

- Keith

[demosthenes2k8]

(People across the room are discussing fundraisers)
"...and one Sonic toothbrush"
Me (being a smartass): "Does that go really fast?"
Mentor: "Yeah."
Me: "How many hedgehogs were harmed in its creation?"
Mentor: "One. And one enchilada."
Me: "...echidna?"
Mentor: "Can you tell I haven't eaten?"

[Mr. Pockets]

"That's how it always works. Strategy requests a circular peg, design CADs it as a square, and build makes it triangular :P"

"DADDY NEEDS AN AXLE!"

[fortinj1354]

"Why does the build site smell like a bonfire?"

"I don't think that's supposed to bend that way..."

"The minibot works grea... oh. That can't be good."

EVERYONE RUN!
Why?
Someone let the programmers touch the hardware!

[AlexH]

"Sleep is for the weak!"

[kmcclary]

The Dremel Song...

Of course, in our shop the ubiquitous Dremel (R) Tool is used ALL of the time, to cut and shape things. (It's many a team's first "power tool"...)

The other day while using the tool, out of boredom I started singing "Dremel, Dremel, Dremel, <whistling rest>", to the old Hanukkah tune "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel". (No, I'm not Jewish, just musical, and it seemed to fit.)

There were a few chuckles. Then suddenly IT STUCK. Everyone started singing/humming "Dremel, Dremel, Dremel, la-la la-la la-la" all around the shop whenever the tool fired up. (Oh oh...)

Since we obviously now needed some more words to it, I recently added:
... "Dremel Dremel Dremel, we use it every day...
... Dremel Dremel Dremel, it cuts the stuff away..."

Now that we have words for it, it REALLY sticks in the head. As soon as the tool starts up, someone invariably starts singing or humming it and then cries out "Oh NO!... It's stuck in my head again and I can't get it out!" <lol>

Whenever this happens we now have to quickly sing something else or put on some music, to "break the spell".

I debated on whether or not to post this, but it's too funny not to share. (... Now it can be stuck in your heads, too... ;) )

- Keith

[klmx30302]

last night:

*software and cad student working on fixing our minibot*

Mentor: What has this world come to! Software and CAD people with screwdrivers doing mech stuff!!

[viperred396]

Freshman- "Whats that" points a drill press
Mentor- "Oh thats a vertical lathe"

[Robert Cawthon]

"Why does the build site smell like a bonfire?"



Ours smelled like a bonfire because our work shop (graciously loaned to us by a parent) was heated with a wood stove.

[kws4000]

"Sleep is for the weak!"

"Running great on less than 5 hours of sleep every night!"

"Well this thing send signals to the big grey brick which then tells the thingys to move the thingamajiggers, while these things stop them from destroying the robot, which the programmers could totally do on their own!"

[purpleandplasma]

don't worry, it's not the space shuttle!!!!!

[purpleandplasma]

I've spend too long with my drivers (I'm the coach).
"Om nom nom the square by the tower!"

Talking with our pit and alliance members,
Pit "the arm might work this match"
partner one "Our arm is not going to work this match"
partner two "I don't think our arm is going to work right now"

Before our fist ellim match
"Remember its triangle, circle, square."
"WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT, ITS SQUARE CIRCLE TRIANGLE"
we actually scored a backwards logo our 3rd match... little to say the head mentor was furious, and we were heart broken

[purpleandplasma]

We've learned to just move them before hand...lol
we knocked out a few tiles at the arizona regional... sorry hamilton high!

[Brianna]

*H was singing in the shop*
J: What was that noise?
me: That was rude.Did you just call her singing a noise?
J: I honestly thought it was a machine.

(We were wearing team shirts after first day of comps)
Waiter @ hotel restaurant: I should call you guys the crimson bane.
*after he walks away*
Teacher - These shirts are not crimson, they are the most blood red you can get.

"U mad?" - lead programmer
"SIGH" - lead programmer

[demosthenes2k8]

(At the New Hampshire Science Olympiad event today, Merrimack has three teams in the Sumo Bots event, and all of them have 166 members)
Member of another team: "Whoa. It's 151 versus 166! Just like GSR!"
Judge: "Yep, field problems and everything!"
Needless to say, I was wicked excited.

[The Zevling]

The game announcer: "Because the match had to be shut down due to the mishap, the match will be restarted."

the "mishap" was team 702 catching on fire, and needing to be put out with a fire extinguisher.

[Wheelie-Bean]

".... there is a definite correlation between stress and fun. When there is stress, it's just... fun! I haven't figured out how that works yet."--- not during build season. During regionals.

"WHERE'S THE WAGO/ALLEN WRENCH SET/etc.?????"

"Is there any food?"

"GUYS! GET BACK TO WORK!"

[Nelson]

Other team at scrimmage


"Come smell the robot"


Reason: the distinct smell of ozone. later the magic smoke smell came and we discovered, rather unhappily, our robot was the one making weird smells.

[Karibou]

(At the New Hampshire Science Olympiad event today, Merrimack has three teams in the Sumo Bots event, and all of them have 166 members)
Member of another team: "Whoa. It's 151 versus 166! Just like GSR!"
Judge: "Yep, field problems and everything!"
Needless to say, I was wicked excited.
Man, I'm jealous. I was going to do Sumo Bots, but when it got changed to a trial event, our coach told us to drop it and concentrate on the other building events :rolleyes: who ended up winning?

[jtl3692]

"The penguins are going to the beach!" Beach Bots selecting Cyber Penguins as their alliance partner.

[The Zevling]

"The penguins are going to the beach!" Beach Bots selecting Cyber Penguins as their alliance partner.

I'm pretty sure they picked D'Penguineers. But yeah, that was a fun line.

[EricH]

"Team XXXX happily accepts!"

L.A. selections, numerous times. Much better than "graciously accepts".

[Bmcdonnell]

In Mecanum Drive, the wheels fight each other... kind of like having a humidifier and a dehumidifier in the same room.

[davidthefat]

"Team XXXX happily accepts!"

L.A. selections, numerous times. Much better than "graciously accepts".

Has any team ever rejected in the history of FRC?

[Frenchie461]

Well, It's definitely ghetto rigged now. What could go wrong.

[EricH]

Has any team ever rejected in the history of FRC?
Yep, there've been quite a few declines. As a matter of fact, a smart #1 seed can break up lower-ranked potential powerhouse alliances by getting them to decline. There've also been conflicting commitments causing declines, as well as wanting to form your own alliance.

[demosthenes2k8]

Man, I'm jealous. I was going to do Sumo Bots, but when it got changed to a trial event, our coach told us to drop it and concentrate on the other building events :rolleyes: who ended up winning?

Well...Merrimack got first, second, AND third for Sumo Bots, and first and second overall. But it was an epic event! It helps that five of the six of us do FIRST, and used FIRST experience and mentors to help. (As well as know which motors would be the best for our needs.)

[The Zevling]

Has any team ever rejected in the history of FRC?

Actually, teams in the top 8 decline all the time. Every once in a while there'll be a team that gets rejected down the line, until they reach the teams that have to accept to be on an alliance. Those usually accept, unless their robot isn't working.

[216Robochick288]

As our wonderful team traveled from Michigan to Waterloo, Canada, we were unsure what we would face. Well we found a few differences...

Mentor driving- "Guys! What does a flashing green arrow mean?!?!?"
Student complaining while wearing shorts- "Dear Canada, Why do you insist upon being so cold? Michigan was at 50 degrees [F] before we left! With love, the States."

"I'm in a car that's not my own, with kids that aren't my own, in a country that's not my own... In the middle of a blizzard.... What am I doing?" - Mentor driving

A game of I-spy gone wrong
"I spy something.... Red!"
"Its the Canadian flag..."
"YEAH! I spy something.... Red!"
"Its the leaf!"
"Yeah! I spy...."
-grumbling, not looking up- "Its the leaf!"
"Wow! Youre good at this!"

[9 hours straight in a car will do this to you]


-On the way over the border, we were playing bomberman on our DS's-
"Do you think the guards will mind us talking about blowing stuff up...? because we are in the middle of a game..."


-at the mid competition party-
"...and to think, all of these Canadians are now my friends because of a game of ninja!"

Me, Right after the end of the awards - "So we are coming back next year, right Mr. Hepfer?"

"I wanna grow up to be a Canadian. Canadians are amazing. Forget engineering!"

[Bethie42]

A member of our drive team, talking about trying to get onto the field during semi-finals [our driver is about 5'2 and tiny, and the mascots were apparently pressed pretty close]

'I'm trying to get onto the field, and there's a dancing skunk in the way! I understand they're enthused, but really?'

Me and our programming mentor, in disbelief that our hacked-out autonomous code was working reliably, high-fived each other at about ten-minute intervals most of Friday:
'High five! And again! And once more!'

Telling a rookie team about how strong Fischer-Price motors are compared to Denso window motors: 'We put a Fischer-Price motor on our elevator, and we promptly broke a belt! Which maybe speaks more of the strength of our belts than it does about the motor...'

[LonelyBot2345]

My team had a little accident with our battery and it started to leak..(No harm done)

Driver securing the battery: OMG someone spilled juice on the robot ughh...

Mentor: Juice what are you talking about...

Driver wipes some off and shows mentor and rubs glove against wall and fingers are exposed for like 2 mins we found it funny then panicked

[Karibou]

Has any team ever rejected in the history of FRC?
There was a team at the West MI district (I believe that it was 2153, but I don't know for sure) that was pulled into the top 8 (from the top teams continually picking from each other). When it was their turn to pick, their representative politely informed the crowd that they would be withdrawing from the competition
because they had to make the long drive back up to the UP. Their student left the field to a tremendous round of applause.

[theprgramerdude]

Did we just build the kit of parts chassis in one day?

Yeah.

Why didn't we do this earlier? (said sometime during week 3-4)

[Tommy F.]

This happened once when I was asked to drill something.
"You did that wrong."
Me: "Oh. Where's Ctrl+Z?"
That's what happens when you let a programmer do something mechanical.

[548swimmer]

Electrical: I need some dikes!
Me: I have a pair in my back pocket.
Electrical: *reaches in pocket*
Mentor: Why are your hands in his pants?
Me: I have dikes in my pants and he's getting them out...

[Zuelu562]

Me: "If FIRST is life, then why isn't it called 42nd?" Referring to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Many groans. Many MANY groans.

[Christopher149]

There was a team at the West MI district (I believe that it was 2153, but I don't know for sure) that was pulled into the top 8 (from the top teams continually picking from each other). When it was their turn to pick, their representative politely informed the crowd that they would be withdrawing from the competition
because they had to make the long drive back up to the UP. Their student left the field to a tremendous round of applause.

I think you're right with the team number. I also just want to say that we (team 857) had a slightly longer drive than 2153 but accepted as captain #7. This was also our first year as alliance captain.:D

[Marc S.]

Has any team ever rejected in the history of FRC?

973 sparked a line of rejects in San Diego. We were the 6th seed when I believe the 3rd seed team tried to pick us, but we weren't happy with their proformance and rejected. Their next pick also rejected, so they finaly picked a "non-top-8" team.
The 4th seed then tried to pick us, but after being reminded that we were uneligable to be picked they picked the 8th seed, which rejected. :o
After that picking was Smooth as only one team was in a position to reject and they didn't get picked. First time I ever saw or heard of something like this. Interesting turn of events.

Lol... post 2973

[riyadh]

i remember that. possibly the most cringeworthy moment of the regional. besides that girl getting all jacked up in the pits

[LightWaves1636]

sigh, so many times from our mechanical sub-team:

"that's what she said"

[JLenhart]

*Well, it sounds like a software problem.*
*Well, it sounds like a hardware problem.*
*Like a boss.*

[El Geffe]

Mentor - "Is that lexan or acrylic"
Student - "I think it's lexan" *Bends piece just cut* Snap! *Shards fly everywhere* "Opps, I ment acrylic."

[basicxman]

Mentor: "I created perpetual motion!" <he was kinda serious for a few moments>

[Fuego247]

Me: OWW!!!
E: The heat gun is not an arm rest. Especially when it is on.

[Grim Tuesday]

i remember that. possibly the most cringeworthy moment of the regional. besides that girl getting all jacked up in the pits

Wait what? Do tell.

[J93Wagner]

Forgot about this one until today.

"We're doing FIRST." - Some mentor as I can't remember exactly who said it (Terry Sherman?)

For an explanation, that phrase is used to describe the act of completing, living up to, or acting out FIRST's core ideals like gracious professionalism for example.

[demosthenes2k8]

Mentor: "GUYS! I have to act responsible and tell you to knock it off. On the record, you guys need to stop."
Me: "But off the record..."
Mentor: "I find it hilarious."

Mentor: "Sometimes life takes you by surprise at three in the morning."
Me: "O...kay?"
Mentor: "And decides to throw up on the lobby carpet."
Me: "I don't like this analogy anymore."
Mentor: "Well, someone came in late last night with someone who had clearly been having a good time."
Me: "Eew."
Mentor: "Poor Matt, the first time he gets an analogy and it ends up being the actual story."

Student: "So, Matt, Dean's List Winner and good role model for all FIRST students, why are you teaching M how to count cards?"

Mentor: "Shush! Jerry's talking! That doesn't EVER happen."

[Zuelu562]

Me: "Engineering is a constant battle between what you want to do and how physics loves to massacre your design."

[demosthenes2k8]

(Sorry about posting again so quickly...)

Student: (Note that his family owns a relatively well-known chicken farm) "How'd they make a thousand cupcakes in two hours? It takes me five hours to make one batch!"
Mentor: "That's because you have to wait for the chicken to lay the eggs!"

[Warlord]

Programmer: Yeah, there definitely has to be a bug or two in this code.
Me: Are you kidding? This has way more than one or two errors!
Programmer: Yeah, this is actually pretty bad.
Me: I know! Forget bugs, there's a TARANTULA in our code!

-----

One mentor, talking to another mentor: What are you doing mounting it like that?! Come on, you're going to make us look like amateurs! Amateurs!

[Morality]

Mentor 1-"why is it not working?" (referring to a tetrix motor)
Mentor 2-"Because there is a 3in shaft in there!"

Random Student (from across the shop)- "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!"

(when building the prototype arm, and forgetting to attach the motor)

Student- "I was born to be stupid..."

[Barngirl425]

You have sprockets in your pocket a drill in your purse and a table saw in your car I would not want to mug you

One person on our team asking another out
"Oh I have been really stressed recently do you know how I could relax?"
girl:" Well I'd say stab people but you already fence."
"I was thinking more along the lines of dinner and a movie. You obviously dont understand how a guys mind works"

Another kid making fun of it a few days later " After a long day of fighting off people with my sword I like to relax with a candle lit dinner and a movie."



Nate: "Your my worst friend!"
Bret: "That still puts me top three"
*Note this got our headmaster and dean to laugh*


"Well what else do you expect from a Nateway" (Our gateway turned into a Nateway)

"Safety Captain save us!!!!!!" (Teacher)

"I give you my best goat for the car" : Kostas

[kendra21093]

Matt: I can fix anything! (object breaks in his hands) YOU BROKE IT!!!!!
"That is prioity number a!"
"make it work" -Matt
IT'S A WATER GAME!!!!!!
‎"Apparently our robot can fly o.O"

[Lledargo]

Our team had a 2 bumper assemblies for this year, one for each color, but they go on in one piece. I had just finished making the first bumper assembly and, while standing inside of the bumpers(wearing them), went to a mentor to make sure it was to their liking. After she approved I looked at her and said "So these bumpers don't make me look fat, do they?"

she started laughing hard enough that she had to leave room.

[stundt1]

"Its not a good idea to microwave grapging calculators"
My favorite is " The robot is smoking is that a good thing?"

[ghandler94]

Washington DC Pit Admin: "Team #### is looking for a robot. Team #### lost their glass slipper, if you've found it, please return it to Pit Admin before midnight........"

...oh lunch break

[Kyoshirin]

C: Safety glasses are hard hats for engineers!

Mentor: What happened to you? You're all covered in mud!
Me: Yeah, I got in a fight with centripetal force. And lost.
(There was a merry-go-round outside the loading dock at states. Had some fun with members from Frog Force and Virus)

[bam-bam]

Washington DC Pit Admin: "Team #### is looking for a robot. Team #### lost their glass slipper, if you've found it, please return it to Pit Admin before midnight........"

...oh lunch break

You do know that this is illegal by the rule book, right?

[EricH]

You do know that this is illegal by the rule book, right?
It is also a frequently-ignored part of the rule book. If Pit Admin wants to not make that announcement, they can choose to say that no, I can't do that, I have to keep the microphone for official announcements.

Most Pit Admin people, however, figure that both they and the teams need something to break up the "Teams X, Y, Z, report to queuing immediately... Team A needs tool B... No running in the pits" announcements, and ignore the rule if there's open time on the mic.

[Lledargo]

If it is all in good fun, what is the problem. It is not like a Pit admin would choose to make a joke over making a real announcement, so why not give the people working in the pits a bit of humor when they can?

[ATannahill]

If it is all in good fun, what is the problem. It is not like a Pit admin would choose to make a joke over making a real announcement, so why not give the people working in the pits a bit of humor when they can?
I can see the fun in it, but it could get out of hand. If I got the announcer to say "703 is looking for a left handed screwdriver", would you be having fun?

What about the people that spend ten minutes trying to find an adjustable metric wrench to lend a team? Are they having fun?

What about the people in a pinch trying to get to the field in time but pause to hear an announcement?

[PayneTrain]

I can see the fun in it, but it could get out of hand. If I got the announcer to say "703 is looking for a left handed screwdriver", would you be having fun?

What about the people that spend ten minutes trying to find an adjustable metric wrench to lend a team? Are they having fun?

What about the people in a pinch trying to get to the field in time but pause to hear an announcement?

I would go find their pit and shake their hands and have some friendly dialog. The pits can have some flared tempers and human congestion; it's good to know we're at the competition to have more fun than anyone else will that weekend.

---

"Jack, why did you run over the minibot?"
"I didn't mean to!"
"You did three times until it got stuck in the drive train."
"Oh. Well, that's why we made three."

[flippy147852]

At Chipotle

"Wow, this burrito weighs more than the minibot!"

[Zuelu562]

At BAE/GSR (It happened while I was in the queuing line): "Ladies and Gentlemen in the pits: We have had our first request for a flux capacitor!"

[kmcclary]

A couple for the Safety Inspectors...

Newbie: "Why are our shirts Blood Red?"
Older Student: "Well, they were all White at the start of the Build..."

Older Student: "We chose Blood Red shirts this year so the FIRST Safety Inspectors at events won't notice when we bleed on them in the pits while trying to fix the robot."

- Keith

[Radical Pi]

Announcer at boston: "It appears that team 639 has been unable to decide which side to cheer for"

and later: "Will team 639 ever leave the cheering area?"