The stupid Noodles...
 

Why the heck do they require to have the dang pool noodles for bumpers at this time of year!? no one has them in!! I finally had to call the director of comm. ed. swimming lessions and get some there!!!


Is it just us or did others have a problem finding these dang pool toys when there is still snow on the ground?!

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

A lot of people do have problems. There are online sites to buy them--a search here on CD may reveal where people get theirs.

Of course, the southern/western teams have no problem...:D

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We've never had problems :D. I think we also ordered like a 5 year supply of noodles for bumpers or for cheering devices.

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We get awfully weird looks up in MN's below-zero weather when we ask stores if they have pool noodles.

Thankfully we found someone who had some to give to us.

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

HAH you had the same problem... and now with the snow that is falling right now.... People are more than likely still thinking "what the heck was that girl going to use pool noodles for?!"

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

If they every ask you that, then say, its for making a robot! Then they will really look at you like you are crazy. :D

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

I walked into ace hardware w/o knowing i had my safty googles on my head... I looked really out of place trying to find the right screws... ahhh that was a fun day... but then i told them i was building a robot and i got a discount! ^_^

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We just assume we'll need them, and buy in summer

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we are a rookie team... *shrugs* We didnt know

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

This is a learning curve for your team. Enjoy the experience - this is the only rookie year 2511 will ever have. Congrats on the discount for the purchase at Ace, that's awesome!
Jane

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We got ours at the dollar store, but we do live in California...

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We have them at a variety of stores here in Arizona in January.

Our local Ace Hardware gave the team $250 of merchandise! Thanks Ace

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We seem to always have some around from last year... or parents are willing to give up there noodles and just buy new ones in the summer when stores stock them again...

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

This is obviously too late to matter by now, but we were able to find some at valley pool and spa... I think that's where we got them. Or you can just buy them online.

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We bought some for real cheap back in October or around then.

Planning ahead is important for us northern teams.

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

coming from lunch after working on the robot, and still unknowingly wearing my safety glassses to my 4th hour always gets some weird looks, and half the time no one ever tell me im weraing them, i guess i just wear them so much i forget they're there. i guess thats a good thing, lol :D :D :D

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

You know, us folks from the real world sometimes have a project that needs to be completed, and we're missing one item or material that seems to be made of Unobtainium. Nobody local has it, so what to do?

Pool noodles are a way of teaching kids how to find something that doesn't want to be found. When your job (or more) depends on it, having learned how to do this in High School might just be a good thing.

FIRST is far more devious than you give it credit for. The guys who think this stuff up are not your run-of-the-mill geniuses, they are the really, really brilliant ones. Dave. Woodie. Dean. Even Amanda. Think about what these folks have done, it is literally awesome.

So, go find me a Sonic burger in NY City....

Don

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We stock up in the summer

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

being in california it wasn't exactly a problem
though the pool noodles were great for solving the problem of boredom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvZhThV69hw

:p ;) :)

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We lucked out and had bought about 15 noodles over the summer at, of all places, the dollar store (we live on the beach, so we always have a full stock). We just whipped some out of basement storage and were ready to go. You can bet that we'll be buying more at the dollar store this summer!:yikes:

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

Absolutely no problems buying them in the South Hemisphere ;)

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Yeah, you northern US folk think its hard in the winter... up here in Canada they stop selling them in September, October at the latest... They're next to impossible to find.

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

well im gonna be honest with you mcmaster doesnt have them........ but wallmart Does stock them year round at least they do here in the southeast

btw does anyone else have chunks missing in thier noodles from playing luke skywalker

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

Purchase them from Leslie's pool supply - 1.99 each, free shipping.

I learned my lesson this year- many stores had them in stock, but 2 weeks ago a local robotics team went around and bought all the stores out. The one store knew it was for robotics and had heard the team saying they had already cleaned out the other stores....

We borrowed 8 from another team and will return 8 when we get our shipment in. Lesson learned: Buy in the summer.....

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

why would a team do that? not very GP.....

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They obviously didn't do it to sabotage the other teams. Most likely the stores only had a few noodles each, and it takes somewhere between 6-10 noodles per robot. If they built a practice robot, they probably needed around 20 noodles.

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

We have them down here in florida.lol.

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Why would teams buy out the entire stock of Poof balls in New Hampshire and Massachusetts? :yikes:

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lol we have like a hundred of them, all preordered for the next bunch of seasons.

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

Ya know, that post sums up exactly one of my greater annoyances with the FIRST program of keeping everything under wraps. How much fuel, energy, and time was wasted there. Assume an engineer billing within a company is 150$ an hour. The exercise is left to the reader.

Give me an OPTION to pre-buy game pieces. We had ruptured our ball before anyone even knew where to order replacements. Poofs had to be tracked down- bad for the environment. Etc etc. Pool noodles- yes, I knew about them but not knowing they were going to be required effectively made me not order them.

It's times like this that I wish there was an option for a super secret committee vote that would call me at 3am in the morning and say "Jason- you have the option of committing an additional 85$ towards the KOP to pre-purchase field equipment. Do you accept this offer?".

Re: The stupid Noodles...
 

That's a very good point and as i read this thread i was thinking pool noodles (if required) should be in the KOP, Although I'm curious where the idea came from "let's make all teams use silly pool noodles on their robots" I guess they're cheaper than fancy foams though.