T'was the night before Ship date
 

Twas the night before ship date. the hustle and bustle of team 66 was stirring all through GM, they had created a winning robot. On the last walk through the plant they all shouted MERRY SHIP DATE AND TO ALL GOOD LUCK. LOL i was bored i know it's corny but any ways good luck to all and may you all get to bed At a decent time tonight.god bless.

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Sorry everyone... I read the title to this thread, and couldn't help it-


Twas the night before ship date, and all through the shop,
everyone was working, trying to beat out the clock.
the drill bits and taps placed on the shelf with care,
In hopes that the electronics team soon would be there.

The programmers fell sleep, reading Chiefdelphi threads,
while vision tetras and autonomous code danced in their heads.
Heads on their keyboards, dreaming of how to cap,
They'd just figured out how high they can stack.

When out from the practice field came such a noise,
They awoke, looked around and said "what's going on guys?"
Off to the player stations they flew like a flash,
"Looks like the robot's software just had a crash."

The "Code error" light gave off a red glow,
while a smoke plume curled up from a fisher price below.
When much to surprised eyes should appear,
but the ghost of Dave Lavery, with the toys of an engineer!

With CMU cam and calipers firmly in hand,
We knew in a moment it was really the Mars Man.
More rapid than a free speed CIM his tools all came,
And he whistled and called them all out by name:

Now bridgeport! now wire strippers! now random drill press!
On grinder! on lathe! on welder and band saw!
To the top of the arm! To the top with the sawsall,
Now chop away! chop away! chop away all!

As aluminum shavings flying off the mill,
when they met with a problem, they'd break out the drill.
So up to the tetra grabber with design changes they flew,
With Inventor printouts, and Lavery too!

And then with a spark, they made the decision,
They'd have to rebuild the entire transmission.
The fisher prices ended up being useless,
With them in the drive, they kept blowing fuses.

There still was the drive system that came in the kit,
And it could be assembled in just a little bit.
A bundle of CIMs were flung on the table,
They just hoped their chasis was stable.

The chain, how it twinkled, the sprockets so sturdy,
As the gears came together, they began to not worry.
The dual CIMs all locked right into place,
And as time rolled on, their hearts began to race.

The ring lugs were screwed on the Victors so tight,
and the pneumatic fittings didn't even put up a fight.
The breaker was switched on, and the fans started to spin,
And alas! No smoke! There's a good chance they can win!

The robot was tall, and had a high CG,
Who ever said these six weeks would be easy!
With a wink of an eye, and some much longer chain,
The arm's motor was on the drive train's plane.

Dave spoke not a word, and he started to work,
And tensioned the chains, with a quick little jerk.
When he was done, out came some Krispy Kremes,
and I knew at that point, it was all just a dream.

As I awoke, I heard a loud bang,
And Dave drove away like a synapse in my brain.
But I heard him yell out, and it gave me a fright,
"Happy Ship Day to All, You'll Sleep Well Tonight!!

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. hahaha

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

'Twas the night before ship date and team 38 clearly had nothing to keep them busy.

hehe great idea Travis and awesome poetry Marc!

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

wow, that is a beautiful piece of poetry

haha, I love it :]

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

lol, that's awesome! :)

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Nice poem. Saved me the trouble of composing one.

We crated our robot Saturday after the practice tournament. Sunday-Tuesday were supposed to be for fixing the problems we discovered Saturday, but the thing worked, so we just voted on a name and boxed it up. We need to do some decorating in Portland, but unless it breaks in shipping it should be good to go. (The programmers still don't have the autonomous code done, but they are testing with last year's 'bot.)

My warmest wishes to those pulling an all-nighter tonight. Enjoy your Godfather's Pizza, Krispy Kremes, Nacho Doritos and Mountain Dew.

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

twas the night before ship date....what!!!!!!!!! today is night before ship date!!! I thought it was next week, well, g2g work on the robot now.

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

wow the poem brought a tear to my eye

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Busy programming right now, all four of us. Yay for all-nighters. Gotta get back to work now. :p

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Go ahead, by all means. :) That was pure genius.

Whee. Stayed up late to do some last-minute tweaking without coffee to aid the task of remaining awake. By the time we'd finished for the evening there were only 4 students and 2 mentors left who hadn't yet run off home.

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

twas the night before ship date, and no one had booked the crate pickup...
twas the day of the ship date, and the pickup is booked by phone 7:30 in the morning for "sometime before 5pm"

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

...and some of us who left slightly earlier ended up stranded in the City due to the last bus not turning up :o

Been a fun 6 weeks, now how much did it all cost... ::Goes off to nag the team AGAIN!::

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

yay for staying at school till 2am blasting Queen on my laptop! w00t

R0b07!c5 is 1337

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Wow- that was lovely. Obviously you had a bit of time in your hands after the bustle of ship date and all. I'm still trying to get used to coming directly home after school every so often and eating with real silverware off of plates that one doesn't typically throw away. Pretty weird................

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

'twas the morn' OF THE SHIP date an all throught the shop, every creature was hurring, 'tho most looked ready to drop.

man. we finished at about 6am the morning of the ship date (only 4 of us lasted that long) and then had a nice hour long sleep (6:30-7:30) on campus before school started. pity us. :) (it came out real nice tho!) :D

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

With 4 days till Christmas, I thought it'd be fun to bring this old thread back up.

T'was the night before kickoff, and all across the web, mice were scurrying, clicking on CD and usfirst. The hint threads were ablaze, as we all waited with egger delight for build season to begin, and Dave laughed at us with a picture of a banana and a Muhahahahahaha:D

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

‘Twas the night before Kick Off and all through CD
The teams are a’puzzlin’ and Dave’s filled with glee.
The students are waiting for Kick Off’s reveal
In hopes that the 2008 game's a thrill.

The team members scratch their heads with the clues,
As visions of sensors and cameras start yet anew.
And grandmothers smile at the teams with delight
As knowledge and kindness are shared through the night.

And out of the KoP box may come news:
The dlavery offer of pun-ridden clues
Was indeed helpful for all who partook
Though he laughed and he giggled and his belly, it shook.

The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow
Is helping the northern teams wait with a glow
As hot cocoa and marshmallows diversify systems of
Thought – well yes and no.

The drivers are chomping to start world wide
In the quest for the robots that will bring home the prize.
When what to their wondering eyes should appear
The clues - they are good ones, the answers not near.

Now mentors! Now students! Now sponsors and all!
On teamwork! On FIRSTers! Let’s all have a ball!
To the Kick Off we go, to the game challenge, haste!
Not a moment to dally, not a moment to waste!

Not as leaves that before the hurricane fly,
When teams meet with challenge, they continue to strive.
No problem too large or too small overlooked
The teams are quite ready to build by the book.

They'll follow the rules, to the manual they'll go
When questions are asked and they just don’t know.
The FIRST Q&A is another great source
After teams have researched and studied, of course.

Our eyes, how they’ll twinkle and sparkle before
The six weeks’ build has them begging to snore.
Well, the nose snores that's true - but the eyes, they must close
In order to sleep or to rest or repose.

No grumbling, arguing, fighting allowed –
Remember that Gramma, we must make her proud.
Our mentors are waiting, our students are, too –
This Kick Off will rock, I can feel it, can’t you?

The punster, the jokester, the right jolly elf –
Is happy and waiting for Kick Off, himself.
The new animation is coming along
That is - if nothing, no nothing, goes awfully wrong.

Our hats off to FIRST and thanks, GDC!
For making the season just what it should be:
A season to recognize science, math, and more
Technology, education, and robots that score!

It’s time to anticipate what this all means
The magic and drama the challenge will bring.
Wishing all a good build and experience that’s great
Here’s to all of our teams and to FIRST 2008!

Borrowed from and with a nod to - 'Twas The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clark Moore

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Now if this doesn't put you in the holiday spirit you truly are a SCROOGE!!!

Just wonderful, Jane! :)

Re: T'was the night before Kick-Off
 

Thanks Jane! You really made my day! That is absolutely hilarious!

Happy Holidays to all!

Re: T'was the night before Kick-Off
 

Jane, you have WAY too much time on your hands! Anyway, I enjoyed it.

Happy Holidays (including Game Hint Season)

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

wow...... that was crazy!!!!!!!!!!! :eek: :ahh: :ahh: :D :D

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

I'm being asked how long the poem took to draft (I still consider this a draft).

For me to write takes very little time. I printed off the original poem, 'Twas The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clark Moore (1779 - 1863), and then I looked at the different stanzas. Sometimes I used a similar beginning line, borrowing from the poet.

Writing can be very difficult for some and easy for others. I understand that, math and math-related topics are very hard for me. I am fascinated by and understand basic principles but things like symbolic logic pass beyond my comprehension.

So, I can understand people who find writing a chore or hard to do.

What's hard for me is the tweaking. I never stop tweaking anything I write, that is why at some point in the post cycle, it is a good thing that the typical poster cannot edit anymore. If I could, I would still be editing posts from 2 years ago. :)

This poem was about 15 minutes worth of write, the tweaking - on-going until I can't edit anymore.
Thanks for asking.
Jane

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Case and point. How many times have you edited this post? :rolleyes:

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Jane, I would like to say, you are AMAZING.

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

You've shown us again that inspiration comes in many delicious flavors - Thanks Jane!

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

I would like to say to all team members of all teams and their family's happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah's, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year. (if I left any out please let me know and I apologize)

Happy Holidays to all :D

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

The poem was brilliant! I love it. =]

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Jane, you obviously are gifted with words. How are you with song lyrics? I say we nominate Jane to write the words to the next official FIRST theme song. Those FIRST 2 songs we were all asked to vote on back in 2006 were, well, sort of lame. I don’t think I have ever heard them since.

Re: T'was the night before Ship date
 

Here are more poets.

George1902:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=23491

Dr. Bot:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=32100

This one is from Adam, FRC 177:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9705

These guys know a little bit about song writing. :)
http://www.deansimmonsandthekamens.com/
Andy Baker could hook us up with them regarding lyrics.

MissInformation is a skilled wordsmith.
Travis Hoffman can write.
Jaine Perotti is gifted in writing.
There are others as well.

My thoughts regarding the anthem for FIRST:
I'm not so sure we need words for an anthem. A beautiful orchestral or instrumental piece could evoke emotions and a great sense of strength and pride.

Words should mean something and come from the history of FIRST, in my opinion. (I don't know how the other anthem choices were written or their background at all.)

We have people well versed in our history:
Karthik Kanagasabapathy
Andy Grady
Jessica Boucher
Paul Copioli
Sean Lavery
Others

If I were to write lyrics for a song, I would want to talk with these people and listen to their thoughts of FIRST. What FIRST is, what it means, where it has been, where it is going. That would give me a sense of the words, the feeling, the strength, and the passion of FIRST. I think if an anthem is or were to be pursued, it should be pursued in that manner, using knowledge from deep within.

Thank you for the suggestion, Chuck. A FIRST anthem may be something in line with what the President's Circle is interested in. It seems to fit in with what they are doing.

It would be nice to hear the FIRST anthem and get goosebumps, looking at all the competitors in the stands - teams - FIRST.