When you reconize who's cell phone is ringing (Coach's, Mentor's, Engineer's, or College Student's) by their ring and the time of day...if you can actually determine the time of day...or night...all while you're dozing off under a bin structure:D

When you suggest to your fellow robotix team member
to 'weld' fish liner (nylon string) in physics class
b/c you don't feel like tying a knot
......
and then when you DO weld the nylon sting
w/ a lighter ...
((this idea comes to you when you've haven't slept for 2 days, literally))
and it says! holding 200 g weight!
woooho! just don't tell our teacher we did this:p

-- When you rack up a huge text msg bill on your phone because you've been counting down the hours til regional with your teammates by sending a "T-minus <hours>" message every hour from ship to competiton.

-- You walk in late at night and your parents call the cops cause they dont recognize you

-- When you have the entire kickoff video's audio encoded in mp3 and downloaded to your player.

-- When you listen to the whole thing and can visualize the video as it plays.

-- When you sit in the pit catatonic with a laptop, staring at the screen mumblng "bad auto bad!".

[EDIT]
Oooh some more just came to me

-- When you see a car go flying down his street and you say to yourself "Wow he's got his PWMs at 254!"

-- When you get in your uncle's new car and your first thought is "Where are the joysticks?"

-- When you can sing all of 99 Red Balloons in both English and it's original German (99 Luftballoons).

-- When you can tell your team every score and ranking for the entire regional without looking at the scores once.

-- When you meet Dean and he says "YOU AGAIN?"

-- When your car abttery dies but you quickly jury-rig up the spare robot batteries you happeend to have and are abck o nthe road in five minutes.

-- When you finally find a way to tip the Segway.

-- When you've learned to hate the phrase "We'll fix it in programming"

-- When you bring backpacks full of mountain ew cans and ice packs to every competition.

-- You start telling people "I might have to get medieval on your heinie"

-- When you see signs of insanity as signs of good health.

-- When you can recite the entire robot program from memory.

-- When you do so randomly and frequently.

-- When you try a disguise to ride the Segway again.

-- When that works.

-- When you and friend build an entire sound system in his backpack in twenty minutes, then walk around proclaiming to be the DJ-in-a-bag team

-- When you keep adding things to this list just so that stupid "You've posted to recently" msg has a chance to resolve itself.

-- When you give up and just edit your old post

[/edit]

... When that 1/8" silver of 20x20x extrusion looks so cute, you decide to make a charm out of it for a necklace (it turned out gorgeous, by the way!!)

... When it's your spring break and everyone is talking about going to Mexico, Alaska, Florida, Cancun etc., and you are more excited than them because you're going all the way to Chicago - for a FIRST regional!

- Katie

When you get excited over your calculus teacher mentioning washer during a lesson and you ask, "What kind of washer? Lock washer, Belleville washer, 7/16" washer, 3/8" washer, etc. etc."

When said calculus teacher draws a cylindrical shell, asks what it looks like, and you resond specifically with, "A nylon spacer!"

When he says that he got the same reaction out of his other calculus class with a few robotics girls in it as well.

When you relate the dates that assignments and projects are due to the date of a regional or championship: "My test is two days before SVR."

when, if anyone ever says "stack," you perk up and turn towards it as if they had said your name

when your teammates refer to you as the human reciprocating saw because of your ability to cut anything on the fly without removing it from the robot

...when you're a "Chief Delphi Addict" like me. (Hint: My sweatshirt had that message on the back at the GLR. So if you saw that, you saw me.)

...when one of your team members hands the announcer the sign that says "Dip your bot in the Creek. Go 1037!!!"

...when your team starts the wave, the congo line, etc.

...when you're just having fun.

( So you were there too? Well then, a great big AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! from team 862!)

-When you know that you can tear apart and reassemble a Bosch 3360 1/2 drill motor with your eyes closed.... You know because you tried.

-You know the guts of your robot by touch, including wires, because you've had to make so many repairs, and are tired of taking off the top.

-a Thunderchicken doesn't sound all that wierd to you...

-Your conversations about your weekend involve more numbers than some of your math assignments.

-You can't talk, you have no voice.

- When your thinking of cancelling your prom date because its the same weekend as a robotics competition

- When you cant talk but still cheer for your team and others no matter what

- When 8 foot poles of bamboo don't seem out of the ordinary

- When you can pretend to be your robot

*shuffles forward "POPPED BREAKER" starts turning in a circle "Breaker reset" starts walking up ramp "OH NO" falls on back*

- When you volunteer for inspection and run to your pit whenever your finished with an inspection just to check on progress

- When you dance a jig because everyone else is doing the cha cha slide and you don't like the cha cha slide

- When others cheer for your jig :D

when, over a five day period you spend 80+ hours in a NASA engineer's garage during a snow storm; freezing because the garage isn't heated, using a forge as a space heater and almost dying of carbon monoxide posining. Not only that, but enjoying it the whole time.

...when you're a rookie team trying to win All Star Rookie and everything, including the wiring, is extremely organized, 3 part time engineers, etc. but it ends up you didn't win.

-when you read all of these posts and are still interested in reading more
-when you are already counting down the days till next season

Your an Addict when
 

You know your addict

When blood, sweat, and gears are all you have left
When you answer questions like this all the time.
When rookies try to their hardest and that isn't enough,
When you miss the the thousand screaming fans at a regionals
When you campaign for a varsity letter for robotics.

...when you plan your wedding around robotics season.

...when your search for a honeymoon site starts with the list of FIRST regionals dates and locations.

...when you forego the traditional wedding march for "3, 2, 1, GO...da-da-da-da------da-da."

...when you have a robot roll the white runner down the aisle (in autonomous mode, as soon as your Bride steps on the mat)

...when you say "I graciously accept your choice of me as an alliance partner" instead of "I do"

...when your wife understands all this, and loves you anyway.

when you refresh your profile on chief delphi 60 times a minute to see if there are new posts.


when you bug the ppl you like the least on your robotics team b/c they are the ones who will know if you are going to nationals first