[Marc P.]

I worked the blue autoloader at UTC with Justin, and same as him, I kept my conscious thought on the station itself, as long as there was a robot on the blue side of the field. It's true that it is the best seat in the house as far as viewing the action goes. There were times where I'd have to jump back for fear of getting impaled or smacked in the head by a robot arm. But, it is easy to loose track of where you are, especially if you don't get as much sleep as usual. Standing that close to the action, it's very easy to just stare at the robots and watch the magic.

There were times when I had to wait a few seconds before putting a new tetra on the loader, because the robots didn't back away. It's important to keep in mind field attendants can't reload the tetras until the robot has backed and cleared away from the loading zone. This is for the safety of the attendant, and to prevent the attendants from helping the robots by effectively dropping the tetra into the robot's arms. All in all though, it was a great experience, and I'll be doing it again at the NYC regional next week.