You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

Hey everyone, I found this little list while I was digging through some of my old school stuff. Some members of our team made this list up at about 2 or 3 am on the way back from nationals. So please enjoy and feel free to add your own.

10 things that tell you if you've been in FIRST too long (courtesy of 677):

1. You know all the words to the Vengaboys Party Album
2. Red Bull and coffee are food groups
3. You start incorporating you mentors' mannerisms into you own everyday life
4. Your mentors no longer feel bad about calling you names
5. 3 AM becomes an early time to go to bed
6. When "CAR" does not refer to a moving vehicle
7. When one of your team members is considered a possession of VEX
8. When baked goods are the preferred form of currency
9. You spend Easter Sunday inside Home Depot looking for the PERFECT pair of safety glasses
10. You know stories about your mentors' childhoods complete with song and dance

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

11) Half the things (or more) in the You Know You're Addicted to FIRST When... thread apply to you.

12) You don't have a life outside robotics anymore.

13) You start losing track of how old your team really is and which game (or robot) is from which year.

(Uhoh. At least numbers 12 and 13 apply to me... :ahh: )

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

Shouldn't "2. Red Bull and coffee are food groups" be "2. The three sides of the food tetra are Caffinated Drinks, Coffee, and Pizza." ?

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

There are some here: http://www.first-a-holics.com/symptoms.html

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

when you can say back in my day, and state an interesting anecdote about how you used to build the robots.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

And you had to walk uphill both ways, in the snow to get to the shop ;)

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In your bare feet.

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while pulling your donkey towed lathe

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14) Your team has actually been snowed into your shop* trying to finish your robot to meet the ship deadline.

15) You actually understand the true meaning of FIRST, and you're loving it.

16) You now try to get everyone else around you involved in FIRST, until their faces glaze over because you talk to them so much about it.


*This actually did happen to our team a few years ago. There was about 18 or so inches of snow during the day while we were working at the school shop, and when we decided to try to leave, the team could not get the doors to open because too much snow had piled up against them. It was too late at night (about 2 AM) to call someone's family to dig us out, so our team cleared off the work tables and slept there for the night.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

a couple from team 418

when you are outside the shop and notice how contruction equipment works
when pizza folding becomes an issue
when building a paper airplane, you draw it in inventor and put fold lines on it
doesn't all food come with aluminum flakes and sawdust in it?
when you would prefer to be in the shop than at home (even in off-season)

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

You first design your pumpkin (down to the mm) in inventor before even touching or carving it... oh, wait... that's what I spent my day doing....

You look forward to kickoff more then Christmas (or whatever you celebrate)

You have had plans to spray paint a giant FIRST logo on the floor of the quad... never gonna happen, anyway....

You design gearboxes, arms, and other strange FIRST related devices all over napkins at resturaunts, then attempt to explain the diagrams to confused waitpersons.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

eh. i always knew christmas was overrated anyway. now kickoff is the real holiday!

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When you are on Chief Delphi checking out everything and anything.

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You still remember the calibration procedure for a Tekin speed controller...

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

You remember seeing Dave L. in a tie and sport coat but you can't remember where it was.

Ken

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

you remember when there were no segways at the competitions
you remember when none of the robots were more than 2 feet in any dimensions

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...you have more First Robotics shirts than any other form of clothing.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When robotics pictures, documents, and videos take up 1.6 gigabytes of space on your computer.
(I know ive only been in FIRST for two years but thats still something :p )

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When your taking notes in class and you draw a triangle circle and square instead of writing 1^st

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you're hosting a podcast about FIRST...

...and your room is so covered in FIRST paraphernalia that you can't look someone in there and not see FIRST, even squinting....

...when you have at least three generations of the FIRST logo apparent in your room at one time...

...when you regularly wear FIRST/VEX shirts/hats around school/home/work without a care nobody else knows what it means...

...when you can do that for multiple weeks straight...

...when you have a serious argument with your parents why you can't just build a candy dispensing Trick-or-treat Vex bot instead of having to be on candy duty...

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

Hmm Why didn't I think of that yesterday when i still had time to do something about it?

Maybe next year

ChrisH

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

too long............?!
Is it possible?

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you start reading every single form of number that you see around you and trying to figure out what team that number is and what their robot was for the past few seasons!

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

+1


or even better....who remembers robots 36" in diameter :ahh:

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You have enough team buttons you can rebuild your team's entire robotic fleet! :ahh:

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

when your cousins get pissed at you for even mentioning FIRST because they've heard enough already

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you go to amusement parks and evaluate the systmes used on each ride

When you see a number similar to your team number and get excited

When your traveling downtown with another robtics member and you see tetras.....EVERYWHERE

When you have your mentors e-mail, phone number( house and cell) Pager number and office extension memorized
-When you ahve his wifes #'s
-When you have his mother and fathers numbers

When your mentors mother reffers to you as " The Grandchildern"

When you are able to beat the living shoot out of your mentor and he laughs

When your mentor throws things at you in class
-When you throw things back


When you cannot sleep at night because you are worried about what next years game will be

When you dream of next years game and wake up and go draw what your robot should look like.

When you can sit down and figure out what makes you a addicted to first

........Yea we actually sat down with some memebers at lunch and thoguht of some of this........We love FIRST

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you look on your dresser and see an Epcot lanyard with an ASME ID card attached.

When you open the "junk" drawer in the kitchen and several really cool pens, buttons, etc, fall out including a Huskie's dog tag and a Holland Christian tape measure.

Your refrigerator magnets are red, white and blue and only a few of them are flags.

Your computer's FIRST Folder contains sub folders for FLL 2000 and CDI 2000 and it takes more than one CD to give your teams History subteam all your pictures.

And my personal favorite...The son or daughter (or both) who got you into this goofy competition have already graduated college and are working in the real world and you now have someone to watch the dog while you are away at First events.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

i just thought of one
(it isn't really been in FIRST too long, just that you are obsessed)

if you are 16+ years old, and you would rather be one of the drivers for the robot than get a real drivers license :D

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you spend hours viewing pictures of robots, and remember alot of them.

Obsession: When you spend entire class periods wondering about whether this years game will be underwater, handling water, handling batons, or if it will be "Pop the Billfred". :D

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

...when you sit around thinking of ways that show you've been in FIRST too long.

...when you realize that you don't care that you've been in FIRST too long.

...when you learn the html shorcuts for the smileys in delphi.

...when your Delphi signature is longer than your average post.

...when even your dad is saying you're a nerd.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

...when your AP U.S notes are covered with end effector doodles
....when instead of taking away TV or computer as punishment your parents take away robotics meetings
....3/4 of your e-mails are from Mr.Ostrow from 3 in the morning
......you think 6 is early to wake up for a competition
.... you try to work out math problems to get your team number as answer

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

You have been on CD since its creation or remember what it looked like in the good old days.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

If you can remember the days of R-nets getting hot and not transmitting/receiving signal properly.

If you can remember the good ole days of P-Basic.

You know what a floppy was and wish for the return of floppies and a puck.

If you have ever built a FIRST robot that ran on drill battery packs.

If you miss the familiar smell of magic smoke coming from Tekkin Rebel speed controllers.

I can keep going on and on so maybe that's a sign I've been in FIRST too long :cool:

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When your in Trig class and your teacher says somehting about using Pi you dont think of 3.14 you think of the ways and reasons we should change the team name

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

when you can finally convince all your friends to join the team simply because they want to find out what you won't shut up about
:yay: for 2006 season, its going to rock!

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

thats more of a shop rat type deal... trust me i would know i grew up a little brother of a mechanic... ah exauast and radiator fluid in the morning... oh sorry i had a flash back! :cool:

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

you are still wearing a Vex rubber braclet from nationals even though noone knows what it means

When you are sitting at ur desk studying for a chem exam that's in 20 min , and u think, wow i wounder whats been posted on CD today, and u close ur chem book and logon

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you remember when your team used to be 9 kids and now it has 79 kids! (not me but someone else on the team)

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When someone asks for 'old videos' that are less than halfway back into your FIRST time...

Wetzel

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

.....when your robotics room becomes your second home

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

.....when your robotics room becomes your first home

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

....you eat 2 boxes of burritos a week during work weeks

....your spend more time at school than at home

....you still perfect robots from previous years

....you incorparate a tee-shirt cannon to last year's robot using left over pnuematics

....you can't find the room to put the previous robots

....you pillage from several robots

....you spell out the entire acronym for FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) every time because you like how it sounds.

....you warn your teachers that FIRST comes "FIRST" before homework

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

...when you teams fails in 2005 and you rebuild your robot for the hell of it and for 1 off seson event.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

....when you remember the last 8 iterations of this thread. ;)

Matt

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

- When you have an entire drawer devoted to FIRST T-shirts
- When you are moving, and one of your boxes says "FIRST Buttons"
- When the words "tether" and "entanglement" in the same sentence make you cringe
- When you are in a job interview, and the interviewer asks a question and then specifies "give me a non-robotics answer"
- When you hear the song "We like to party" and you think of FIRST, not Six Flags

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

While working around the house you attach things with duct tape, zip ties and velcrow

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

when you walk into a room and see a triangle on the board and immediately thing about some concept that you have been developing and how triangles can now be implemented into it

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

Here are a bunch from the first_robotics LiveJournal community

http://www.livejournal.com/community...ics/63910.html

I started the thread... >.>

And I just came up with another one

When you start fixing things yourself with rivets, zip-ties, and bolts
Including a smashed guitar that was found in your school parking lot before going to a mini-competition *cough*

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

-You personally own almost as many robots as your robotics team
-You tell the incoming freshmen they will be elevated above other freshmen if they join robotics
-You have a breifcase with general electronic peices which you have dedicated to FIRST uses only
-You are the proud owner of over half a dozen computers soon to become robots or robot programming stations

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

1. You spend so much time around your robot and team mentors, that they have adopted you as one of their kids. :)
2. You favorite sport is FIRST Robotics.
3. Your hero is Dean Kamen.
4. When asked, "You ever meet anyone famous?", you immediately think of Dean Kamen.
5. When robotics becomes your life.
6. When your daily routine is: robotics, eat sleep, repeat.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you are a mentor and people who should know better think some of the students on the team are your children

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When a Long night in the shop becomes an early morning, to meet the shipping deadline.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

... when you realize that the students who were freshmen your senior year will graduate in the spring

... when you start talking about why you disliked the 2001 game at a meeting, and realize noone in the room knows what you're talking about

... when you post in a thread like this, and realize you don't know 3/4 of the posters, and they probably don't know who you are, either

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

... when you're explaining something to peers in calculus and go "So, tell me what the bounds of this tetra... er... I mean tetrahedron... are"

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

when you get your friends bands to play for free but charge people to listen just to get enought money to go to regionals

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you have gone to every year of Battlecry that you have been in FIRST.

When you build parts in Inventor in the offseason because you're bored that day.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you carry around a steel rule in you pocket (just in case) and when you pull it out of your pocket and people ask you why you have it you say well i needed it this time didnt i

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When your winter coat still has orange hair spray on it from Great Lakes last year.

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When you get into your car, you check to see if you're on the right channel.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you are afraid of eating your pizza's crust because all the metal shavings are stuck on your hand. (You don't want it on your pizza... bad experience)

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

...when you receive an award from WUSC-FM for "Best 3D Robot"

Or, when your screen saver is made entirely of robots in various locations.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

Its really funny that almost of all these apply to me :D

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

Courtesy of Team 1275, Havergal Robotics:

- You don't understand why your English course code starts with 'ENG'. Doesn't that mean 'Engineering?'

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

You make reference to students and mentors your students are too young to have known and wonder why they have no idea who you're talking about.

I Did it yesterday. :( :o

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

- when your diet consists of metal shavings, copper lube, and microwave tacos

- when you get strangely exctited when 3doors down "Cryptonite" comes on
- when you no longer remember that cryptonite is spelled "Kryptonite"

- when you get extremely excited when you see your team number in a math problem and develop a sudden urge to make 100% sure you get it right
- when you similarly allready know every way to multiply, divide, and square root your team number

-when you get angry at anyone who mentions hydraulics and have the sudden urge to convert them to pnuematics immediately

- when the sight of the FedEx man or the words "ship date" bring a sudden panic attack

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

-When all of your Livejournal/Xanga/Blurty/ect. posts consist of either FIRST related stuff or quizzes and the like.

-When you count down the days until Kickoff.... 30 days...

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

...when half the people posting in the "you know you've been in FIRST too long" thread have been in FIRST half as long as you :p

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When a person posts: and you have been in FIRST twice as long as him.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

It great because 90% of these apply to me, and I have known FIRST existed for no more than a year and a half.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When its 8 pm on a Friday, you're single, and on a FIRST robotics site instead of being out!

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

Or have information/video proof that you likely have been in FIRST too long.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you see the lead singer of a band with your team number on his shirt...and freak out so much your boyfriend (also a FIRSTer) has to try to calm you down in 10 minutes...to not much avail.

=]]]]

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

Or the students ask the teacher...don't you work anymore? :confused: (Complaints from students when I attend regionals and world competition). :D

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

You have accumulated so many tools over the years that you have an almost complete set.....

You hear numbers and associate those numbers with teams, then you immediately think of facts for that team number from over the years.....

You look at every day objects and think to yourself.. pshh if they used team 111's 2002 design...... or pshhh my team could redesign that to be so much better...... ;)

GO 1403!!!

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When you have memorized the geometry of all the robots...

It accually comes in handy..

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When almost every sentence ends with. "Well there was this team at nationals..."

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you spend more time in the technology wing than in a day than most teachers do at school.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When almost anything you see or hear can trigger the conversation, "Remember that time at (a regional/nats)?"

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

You cant remember what it was like before FIRST

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

Maybe that's because FIRST has been around since before you were born... :ahh:

Wetzel

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

As in what your life was like b4 you knew about FIRST, dunno how many 2 year olds there are in FIRST(not counting those who may act like 2 year olds)

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When your biology teacher is giving a lecture about tetrahydrocannabis and the only thing that sticks in your mind is Tetra.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

-When you see your team # role over on your trip odometer and stop to call other team members on your cell--- its true and you know it

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

when you have the words to cotton eye joe memorized and synchronized with dance movement
:yikes:

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

when you have nightmares of the sparky cabinet coming alive and swolowing you, the shop, and worst of all,.... woody flowers

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When you can spell woody, Woodie.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

sorry, i am so ashamed :(

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

--When you are in a completely unrelated discussion and something comes to mind and reminds you of a previous competition and you say something about it, particularly when there is another FIRSTer in the room.
--When you feel the need to apologize for turning the discussion towards FIRST.

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you see someone walking on campus and think "Hey, that guy looks like JVN! Wait, nevermind, he has hair."

Wetzel

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you can make a list long enough to fill six pages and still have more to say....

When in conversation with friends you use robotics termanology....

When your team keeps a list of funny quotes....

When you check the delphi forums and your own teams daily.....

When you read a list like this and sit there smiling knowing that it applies to you...

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

when you can make an analogy to explain anything and relate it back to FIRST

stress
 

When the Christmas shopping season just seems like the calm before the storm.

Re: stress
 

hey u....i agree

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

when you convince your younger sister or brother to join the team their
freshman year.
:ahh:
when talking you go into "in Robotics this would be like this" and all the people around you go please not again.............

lol... :yikes:

Re: stress
 

and when you spend your Holiday break coercing teachers and mentors to let your team into the lab to organize and restock, and machine random parts for practice

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

...when Baker buys your breakfast...

Re: stress
 

-When it's "normal" to see guys from NASA with blue hair...and you do a double-take when you see them in a suit and tie

Re: You know you've been in FIRST too long...
 

When you have spent your Birthday at a design meeting every year since my Freshmen year. Wow 4 years I will have celebrated it with my third family this January 11. (other previous organizations came before :D )

Re: stress
 

I know the feeling...though some of the ties are rather "loud."