boo sleep
 

i want to know how are you able to stay awake during build season?
(ie caffine, sugar, random joke sessions,etc.)
my team lives off of mountain dew

Re: boo sleep
 

I am not sure. Yestrday I spent 6 hours at the mill, went to watch the superbowl, and then did homework till 3.
I think it is becuase of the nightmares I have that tell us that we are behind on our schedule... lol

Re: boo sleep
 

Last year and this year, a large part of our awareness is due to caffine and sugar, but along with that there are some groups that like to have some fun every once in a while that you would call "random joke sessions" and that is what keeps me and my friends up.

One thing that we did last year was that the weekend before ship, some of us students and some of the mentors shotgunned Mountain Dew and were pretty much just joking around and relaxing for a while due to the long hours and work we put into the bot. It was kind of a celebration if you would call it that.

Although work is very important for robotics, I am a strong believer that "All work and no play makes everyone crazy."

Pavan.

Re: boo sleep
 

true but unfortunately there are people on my team who abuse that philosophy

Re: boo sleep
 

Last year, one of my friends and I created a new sleeping schedule. During our physics class (2nd period) both of us were falling asleep like crazy, and we came up with the idea of going to bed immediately after getting home. I would get home at 8, sleep until 4, do homework, then get ready for school. Not only did it solve our physics problem, but we became a lot more productive during the last couple weeks of the build season. So far I haven't needed to do that this season, but I'm prepared.

If that's not an option, elements energy drink can do wonders, just be prepared to crash the next day.

Re: boo sleep
 

not quite sure how our team stays awake through build season....we just do.

Re: boo sleep
 

how much dew is too much

Re: boo sleep
 

my team stays awake by running at intervals to get the blood pumping. Pepsi and pizza helps too. joking constantly keeps us laughing and alert. You never know when the joke's going to be on you.

Re: boo sleep
 

For all the energy drink junkies out there, look up XS. It's healthy, and gives you a more well rounded boost, with less of a crash. Does wonders for me. For example, a monster will give my body a 2 hour high, with a 1 hour crash. XS gives me a 5 hour, slightly less kick, but has no crash. Look it up.

I also get lots (8 hours! woo!) of sleep.

Re: boo sleep
 

Let me be old-fashioned and confess that I have never had an energy drink and I have never had Dew. Save the "You haven't lived lecture" ;) I've heard them all.

I recommend a 20 minute to 30 minute nap. No more, no less. Any more than an hour of sleep tells your body that it's bedtime - waking up is consequentially rougher. A short nap (cat style) is more of a quick energy boost - usually enough to carry you through the rest of the evening, and has no crash.

Re: boo sleep
 

What is this SLEEP of which you speak? I am unaware of such a thing....

Re: boo sleep
 

Well, Clinton... mormannoob, I am still up trying to discover the secret of closed system pneumatics around midnight, and we stopped working at school around 8:30 tonight.

Although I don't hardly sleep, it is always fun building the giant mountain dew pyramid on the desk right behind our programmers after drinking the contents. The first person to knock it over has to pick them all up.

And pizza helps, while the play philosophy is badly abused in our team... we are however very energenic, and always remember, an apple wakes you up better than caffine, but only in the morning.

See you in 9 hours.

Re: boo sleep
 

Sleep did not come in the KOP so it is illegal to use it :D
Anyone caught sleeping will be severely beaten about the head and shoulder with poof balls :ahh:

Re: boo sleep
 

A light heart will carry you through dark times.
Dreams of grandeur and laughter keep us awake.
Arguements about the fundementals of Eastern religions and how Farscape is better than Stargate Atlantis keeps our blood rushing.

Plus, most of us are used to running late nights. Everyone on the team from my high school sleeps at 2:00 am at any given weekday. Compared to some of the other things I've done in the past, working on the robot is relaxing!

Energy drinks are no good. Plus, most of the team built up an immunity to sugar and caffiene. It'd take 10 liters of Pepsi for us to feel anything at this point.

Re: boo sleep
 

Coffee... thick and black. If its been on the heat pad for a few hours the better.
I never wash out my coffee cup either...when you take a sip it should curl your toes and make your hair stand up.

A good trick for teams in the frozen north... take a break and run outside for a few minutes. Also keep them heat in the shop low.

And remember... Sleep for wimps!
Good Luck!

Re: boo sleep
 

You had better have taken Stargate's side! STARGATE IS BEYOND DOUBT THE BEST SCI-FI SHOW CURRENTLY AIRING!!! IMO.

On topic, I've never drunk dew or energy drinks of any kind, just the fun of robotics keeps me awake. :)

Re: boo sleep
 

At the beginning of the season, I sleep just as I have; my work isn't strenuous yet. The proportion of sleep to wake gets less and less as the season goes on, as I realize once again that I will probably have problems finishing...and I code more and more. And then, once my team rolls the practice 'bot over to me, any chance of me sleeping is all over. In a flurry of wiring, coding, and debugging strange autonomous twitches, I entirely forget to sleep. Hey, that's what 7th week is for...;)

But seriously, I don't use energy drinks or caffeine--I have a heart condition that requires I don't use any sort of stimulant. So, I am a strange programmer--I have consumed no Dew, yet I continue to post here on.....ZZZZZZZZ :D

JBot

Re: boo sleep
 

side thread: which flavor of dew gives you more of a kick

Re: boo sleep
 

I drink Vault Zero. No sugar, but what a kick :ahh:

Re: boo sleep
 

How can you stand that? I cannot drink diet sodas as aspartame and sucrolose make me sick(literally I get ill right afterward)

My team usually is accustomed to no sleep due to the normal workload at our school, for us its like going to bed at 3 instead of 2. When we absolutely need it, we have some pepsi or mountain dew but it isnt a usual thing, and because of that if we need lots of energy, a few mountain dews and we're good.

And of course theres a starbucks 2 blocks away

Re: boo sleep
 

There was a reason man created Dunkin' Donuts charge cards.

And no, it wasn't the "Dozen Donuts Box Deal."

"Welcome to Dunkin' Donuts. Our coffee comes in three sizes: Wee, not so Wee, and FRIGGIN' HUGE!"

Bingo.

The Sleep Thread
 

now that we are in he home stretch how many people have lost there minds do to lack of sleep (i.e. random laughing fits,stupid jokes are funny,blah blah blah)

Re: LACK OF SLEEP
 

sounds like my daily routine in Calculus, Physics and Robotics every day....especially the stupid jokes are funny part, the stupid jokes are the funniest thing when you are tired

Re: boo sleep
 

The robot's problems are enough to keep me up at night. You know, the occasional mechanical emergencies that must be solved immediately.

Re: boo sleep
 

Sleep is for the weak, and for the tired I guess heh.

I think I got 1 night last week with more than 4 hours of sleep. I had one span where I got somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 hours in a 48 hour period hehe.

Its an interesting thing working out of your house.. You stay late to help out those who work well at night not shutting down until 3 am, then you have to get up early for those who work well in the morning for those who show up at 9am.

Ahh well, Se La FIRST.

Re: boo sleep
 

I'm assuming you have a ceramic mug - really good coffee should eat through metal - which is why you never add any cream or sugar. You lose too many spoons that way.

Re: boo sleep
 

How do I stay awake? I don't--I make it a point to get seven or eight hours of sleep. Yes, that's per night.

Of course, even that isn't cutting it lately with my workload. The last time I was this tired was during my world tour back in October. (You laugh, but try traveling 7,679 miles and doing three off-season events in three straight weekends--with classes during the week--and you'll agree pretty fast.) My solution right now is cutting back where I can, minty gum (peppermint-vanilla Trident Splash, in my case), a combination of Diet Pepsi and Fresca (ideally peach, but original's good too), and just plain willpower.

Re: The Sleep Thread
 

how we stay awake? thats a good question...probably knowing that if we go to sleep, everyone will pull out their hidden cameras and take pictures of everyone.

Re: LACK OF SLEEP
 

I'm always tired in biology, and my teacher is always telling stupid jokes I don't find funny.

Re: The Sleep Thread
 

a mixture of vault, redbull, rockstar

Re: The Sleep Thread
 

hardcore steroids,



but to answer the question for real...we COULDN'T stay up. One night I asked a team member to hold the chassis up while i put the tensioners on. 15 min later i found him holding the thing with his head and slowly dozing off. Latest we stayed is 3 am so far

Re: The Sleep Thread
 

Someonegh thinks we should name the robot off consisantly, I laughed for an hour, I lost my mind

Re: The Sleep Thread
 

I know the feeling. The last night before we shipped our crate we stayed up till 4:30 am (We had school the next day!) At random interval someone would just bust out laughing for no reason and it spread and everyone was laughing. So at like 2am while our programmer was figuring out bugs some of us had nothing to do so we made a movie. It was the dumbest thing that I have ever made and for some reason we couldn't stop laughing. It was terrible... In a good way.

Re: boo sleep
 

One of our first year sponsors was Gatorade and they donated about 10 boxes, 12 tubs in each box, 8 litres of mix in each tub. Basically we just drink that all build season.

Re: The Sleep Thread
 

I honestly don't know. Will power I suppose. I try to stay away from caffeine, I tend to be destructive with a little in my system.