Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

Me: "So how the heck are we going to beat the dumper bots?"
A: "Jack knife their trailers so they can't move. Then we lob balls into their trailers."
Me: "You are forgetting two things. One, our shooting program isn't fully functional, and two if we don't move we're dead."
A: "Just believe it will work, and it WILL WORK."

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

Student 1: "What's the speed of light?"
Student 2: "One light year per year."
Student 1: "That was real helpful."

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

Me: 'Is it possible to get a gravitational sensor that has like 24 decimal places of percision?"
???: 'Why 24? and No, becaus A) cash and B) I don't think they make sensors that are legal that are that sensitive"
Me: 'Dang, so we can't detect the gravitational effects of the pocket lint in the crowd on the robot?'
???: 'No, that would be called an amazingness factor'
Me: 'Well.............................. darn'
???: 'Yeah'
Me: 'Wait, what?'
???: 'I'm not sure anymore'
Me: 'Yay overly sensitive sensors!'
*Strange looks*
Me: 'What? I'm a programmer, and I'm in AP Physics...'


Me: 'OMG labview provides code for EVERYTHING. What were we doing in C?'(I mean, they seriously do. They have a PID function built into it of all things)
???: 'Coding more powerful stuff'
(30 minutes later)
???: 'Have you thrown up yet?'
Me: 'No but in about 30 minutes I've completly redid all the code that we did in the past 4 weeks'
???: 'It looks like someone threw up on it. I mean I've thrown up things more organized than that'
Me: 'No, It's an organized mess. Just like my room'

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

after wiring the battery terminals to the switch and breaker board:
me: We have power!
mentor: looking at me with a "wtf" look because his hands and head was inside the robot checking wires.
me: Well, the ability to get power.

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

While working with the Inventor kids today after school.

Me: So you guys have the pictures of the robot right?
Student(just walked in room): If you get me a camera I'll go take pictures for you
:::silence:::
other student in the room(whispering to me): does he know it shipped today?
me: You know the robot shipped right?
:::more silence:::
Student who was going to take pictures walks out of room

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

"Is the robot supposed to be smoking?"

(The answer was no, and after we hit the kill switch, we found that the frame was warm, and our jaguar wires had melted to our camera power wires, and the camera crossover cable was smoking. oops!)

Then there was the talk afterwards-

"If you ever see the robot smoking, even from across the room, you have full permission to turn it off. We will warn everyone if robot is supposed to be smoking."

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

Ok, I have another one I have to share. I'm kinda the rules/research/information person, but I also became known as the bearer of bad news. It started out as

"Mr. R, I have bad news..."

After awhile it became

"Um, Mr. R, I kinda need to show you something..." It was almost guaranteed bad news by now. (by the way, I'm trying hard not to smile/crack up/ act amused. I couldn't help it.)

Eventually it ended up

"Hey, Mr. R, you know how I like giving bad news..." (no longer trying to hide my laughter.)

I should probably mention that this happened like 8 times in one day...

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

person sanding a bar: "does anybody smell that?"
belt sander starts spewing flames, I yank the power cord out of the wall

we had very bad luck with our power tools this year, fortunately nobody was seriously injured

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

Mentor: How much amperage can this driver station provide?
Me: I don't know; let's check...
<holds +5V to one multimeter terminal and ground to another>
Me: I'm getting five amps.
Mentor: Five amps Are you sure that's correct?
Me: Probably, because my fingers are getting hot. I'm letting go now.

Us programmers needed power, but all the outlets were full, so we randomly unplugged something that didn't seem to be in use.

Five minutes later, the head mentor complains:
"Why is that every time I go to use the sander someone has unplugged it?"

Mentor: "Disable the robot, please."
<I reach for the disable swtich, and a 1 inch spark jumps from my finger to the driver station>
Me: "Ow! I'm happy to report that we have effectively grounded the driver station; thanks, guys."

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

Here's the difference between programmers and builders:

Okay, so last year, we're all eager to start the second day of VCU. Upon getting to the pits...

Mechanical Mentor: "Turn on the robot."
<student turns on robot, nothing happens>
Programming Mentor: "Okay, let's check to see what lights we have and try to-"
Student: "The battery's not in."
Programming Mentor: "-troubleshoot the problem..."
<programming mentor facepalms in embarassment while everyone else laughs>

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

People on the team failed so much that we came up with the idea to record the fails in 'fail boxes'. Whenever someone failed: "I think that deserves another fail point."

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

"You don't hit people with nice cameras!"

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

Friend: What is with all this robot stuff you keep talking about? Geez, you've gone psycho the last two months.
Me: And imainge what I'd be like if I had a team to mentor this year

Friend again: So why go all nuts about it?
Me: Have you ever had a moment where you realized to yourself that everything that led up to that moment just made sense?
Friend: Not really, but I know what you mean.
Me: My moment was had when my team won the Team Spirit award in my senior year. It's not one of those big awards that anyone really cares about...but for one moment, I held that trophy and everything just made sense.
Friend: Alright man, whatever you say.
Me: I cried out of joy...
Friend: Will you stop, I get it already!

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

I had some people from the electrical/programmer division help me clean the workshop. Their job was to sort out a pile of screws and nuts. My back was turned and I kept on hearing this:
"aww this screw is soooo cute!"
"awwwwwwww"
"Look at that nut, isn't it cuuute?"
"I just want to hug this screw."

Re: "Quotes" that were said during build season
 

You should know better than to let them touch anything that isn't a computer. And even then you have to watch them closely.