[MrBasse]

I don't blame anyone for complaining about this, it is frustrating. I changed my plans today after rushing home in a white out snowstorm yesterday to make it for the opening both times and found both efforts to be for not. Attacking AndyMark for this is unfortunate, as they are doing a great job of handling a very unfortunate situation. But when the man we look to as the face of the company comes out and says it is unacceptable...

I also don't get the whole free parts thing. According to FIRST: "FIRST Choice is a menu of items available to registered 2013 FRC teams, for free, as part of their Kit of Parts." Yes, it costs you nothing. However, FC is a part of the KOP which, unless I'm mistaken, is a part of your very costly registration fee. Coming from a team that has never had the money to pay that registration fee with more that a few hours of comfort in three years, we depend on the parts that are in FIRST Choice. A lot of what we want is what used to be given out every year to everyone. Without those "free" parts, we don't expose our students to pneumatics, perform to our expectations, test new ideas we couldn't otherwise afford, or have these "spare parts" I keep hearing other teams talk about.

That being said, it is out of our hands. I got to avoid what I was going to do today and spent the day with my daughter, so I am happy. If I have to do this during class, I'll adapt and make do. If we miss out on most of what we want/need like last year, we'll adapt and make do. We're still going to build a robot, and we will still have a great time, but we will also probably still remember the time FIRST Choice took a dump. I don't think anyone should be mad, or for that matter I don't think anyone really is mad. However, I think this might be the best place to vent if venting is needed. After all, nobody else in the world is going to understand why this website is so important to those of us on Chief Delphi.