... you're sitting at a laptop plugged into a hotel "Business Center" (direct quote) making flyers to hand out to other team's as a selling thingie. Actually, the flyers are beging printed out now on the hotel's printer (meaning free ink and paper) :). So, because I'm bored, i decided to steel the internet connection that went to the destop here and am on cd half asleap dictating evenything i'm saying to another team member who's making spelling corrections with whiteout on some of the version 1 flyers.

this has been wayyyyyy too much to say, and i really don't care any more, but it's funny to me so...

GO FIRST & Team 201 & Exhaustedness!!!!

ps: I'm not lying :cool:

...your up at 2:00am in the morning working on a autonomous program the day before your first Regional competition, with a total of 4 hours of sleep from the night before.

...you dream about driving your teams robot through a field of stacked boxes!

You know you're addicted to FIRST when it's 2AM week and a half from Nats, and you're profiling bots!

Yeah! Caffeine Rocks! WOO HOO! (fallsoff chair spasming)

Dah, been profiling and watching silicon valley live webcast for past 10 hours....

Doesn't it just bother you? It drives me nuts how many times I have to explain it.

...when you're bored and you decide to build gearboxes and transmissions out of technic. :D

When you take a year off between high school and college so you can still work with the team (also so you can go to Olin)

granted this isnt me, it is someone on my team

agreed

try 24/7 on ChiefDelphi!!!!!

True... As soon as I started going on delphi I couldn't stop...

...you want Mark Leon's autograph.

When you spend hours upon hours looking to hitch a ride to Nats because your team can't afford to go. (Still haven't found one)

When you spend 5 hours of the night perfecting the newest logo for your team because last years was so terrible ("RoboDawgs - 845 'We Byte'" We Byte? What's wrong witht his picture?). And Then when they don't use the revised logo on the web page you get mad and find the time to slip it in with out anyone noticing. <_< >_>

When you almost burst into tears because you finish the animation right after its due date.

When you realize that you would rather be at a FIRST competition then at your own home with your family.

When you have watched every single webcast that has been shown- for your own gratification.

When you can't stand the fact that you have to wait an entire year to start building again.

For the only ones that can truely say they are addicts, because they keep doing it after HS...

You have an AIM away message specifically saved for each phase of the 6 week deadline.

You are on a first name basis with one of your professors because she is also the advisor for the college students on the robotics team.

You go to spring break, and go to a robotics competition with your old team

You plan to fly back to your college early during winter break so you can help out in the strategy phase of the competition.

Even though your future college fights to remain the only #1 seed in the NCAA men's bracket you refresh the CD site as you watch looking for news about nationals.

When you're in a hotel room the night before the Saturday competition day with a group of eight talking about robotics for 5 hours straight until 3 in the morning. We were seriously having a "girl talk" about robotics... lol.

When frustration kicks in due to the robot, you chew on a zip tie.

When other teams come by the pit to ask about the robot, you don't notice that you have said zip tie in your mouth.

When members of your team pester the DJ into playing the Chicken Dance at competition.

When you hear the chicken dance, you automatically know your team is out there on the field and run off to join them.

When you say that you're going to sleep in the car on the way home from a competition because you're tired and yet you stay awake talking about robotics with the other people in your car.

When your choice of college all depends on whether or not your receive one of the scholarships offered through FIRST.

When graduating becomes really hard because you might be going out of state and will be away from your team.

When you say "Oh well, I'll be joining another team though." and yet think that it's not going to be the same on another team.

Strange ... about the same time (2/14) we started coming up with our own list entitled "You know you're a FIRST student when:"

I don't recall all of them, most of which involved sleep (or lack thereof), but some of the more memorable ones were:

- The bags under your eyes are packed for Houston
- You got three hours of sleep ... this week
- You ask for a stripper and no one thinks twice
- "Male" and "Female" refer to electrical connections
- You come home early and your wife calls the cops
- You've broken lexan
- You would have nightmares about competition, ... if you ever slept!
- You cut EVERYthing (paper, sandwiches, etc.) with a bandsaw



HEY 811 -- WHAT ELSE AM I MISSING?

... When, on the way home from a competition, you hear four boys yelling, "No, I want to program!!!! It's my turn!" while fighting over a laptop. (I'm not joking!)

... When you tell your parents, "I was talking to ____ from _____ online today -" and they cut you off by saying, "What team are they on?"

... When you plan your family's summer vacations around which FIRSTer from different states you are going to get to see! :)

- Katie