- 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

Now that's just plain krazy, but sweet when it happens.

- when you know what to expect at every comp.

...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.

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.

optimization is to hard in animation really.

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

...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

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

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.

- 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

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

They DO have one...

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

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.

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