QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! [08-19-01]

[Ken Leung]

Hi all, after being away from civilization for about 7 days to vacation (well, what it really mean is that I haven¡¦t been online on my computer for 7 days), I¡¦ve finally finish my summer and am ready to get back to school. Come to think of it, summer is pretty much over for a lot of people, and they too, should be getting ready to go back to school¡K So, with that in mind, here is the question of the week¡K

QUESTION 8/19/01: Are you ready to go back to school and/or get started with a new season of FIRST? If so, what have you done in this summer that prepared you for this coming season, and what objectives do you want to start with? If not, what things you wish you could¡¦ve done or are going to do before the summer ends?

Have fun,
-Ken Leung

P.S. I am open to suggestions of any questions you want as the "QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!!"... So e-mail me at ken_leung@hotmail.com and show me what you got...

[Matt Leese]

I think what I did during the summer is going to be a bit representative of everyone: as little FIRST related as possible. And as to how this helps me prepare for the season, I wouldn't be able to survive without it. I truly think I'd go insane without a bit of a break period in between seasons. So I do as little FIRST work as possible and just sit back and relax (er, work full time).

Matt

[Joel J]

No, I am not ready to go back to school but, I am ready for another season of FIRST. In preparation for the new season, I did a quick re-cap of last season: looking at what should remain the same on our team and what should change (pretending that I had the power to do it). After the re-cap (which took about an hour) the only FIRST related things I did were post here and go to the off-season competitions. As Matt L. said, "I truly think I'd go insane without a bit of a break period in between seasons."

Originally posted by Ken Leung
and what objectives do you want to start with?

I am not sure what you mean.

[Pamela]

Did you have to remind me summer is almost over! Geeze, you crazy people, we're not supposed to think of it ending till it does! But anyways, this summer, wow, hmmmm, I have worked with my co-captain on many fundraising ideas, we've designed a presentation for getting a corporate sponsor, and worked feverently to get one, hmmm, I know one company that is really really really cool who knows they want to sponsor us... cough cough, I know you guys read this, I've seen you post before, cough cough...... But yeh, as it looks right now, I'm very glad my team loves first so much because we'll probably be dishing out lotsa money for registration for our fundraising efforts this summer don't quite cut all our expenses. I've done alot of FIRST stuff, but not the fun stuff, I've been doing all the organization for next year to run as smooth as possible. All I gotta say is I can't wait till kickoff! I feel deprived!!!!!!!!

[Clark Gilbert]

This summer i really didnt do much FIRST related stuff...except for go to a cubs game w/ 111 and 71, do a couple robot demos, and 1 meeting about something to do in the fall...

As for my summer its been over for almost a week! i went back to school last wednesday and some even unluckyer people like David went back on Tuesday.

(i'm writing this while im in school..... )

[A. Leese]

I've already had a week and a day (minus the last 40 minutes of this block). I was farely ready for summer to be over. I was bored and wanted to see my friends again. All I did FIRST related was work on my team's site and newsletter and did a quick fundraiser on a Saturday afternoon. Then again, I'm not very involved throughout the school year, so what do you expect? lol

~Angela who promisses she'll be involved for more than the 40 hours she was (total) last year..

[Carolyn Duncan]

I'm ready for the season to start again but I'm not really looking forward to my classes. Over teh summar I posted a lot, obviously and had to find a new team. That was the extent of my FIRST activities. Now I'm working on getting some sponsorship. I'm looking forward to getting started with my new team and having a great year.

[David Kelly]

Clark's right, i've been in school for almost a week now. i'm glad i'm back because, there is only corn in Indiana...lol We did a car wash a few weeks ago at McDonalds. we did ok on a ugly day making $185. Were hoping to make more this weekend with another car wash. We are hoping to atleast get closer to what the girl's volleyball team got, which was almost $400. Courtney, correct me if i'm wrong. i think part of that was because the organization that was holding the car wash...

[Leon Machado IV]

I did as much as I possibly could in the FIRST related field. I went to every possible competition and constantly was chatting about robots to all my friends. I don't even know where all the summer went. I only went to three competitions. If anyone can find my summer, please tell me.

[patrickrd]

I spent more hours staring at a computer screen than sleeping this summer... However, the job was actually pretty cool... I thought I had mastered just about everything about web pages and programming, but I must have learned more in 3 months of working than I had taught myself in the last 3 years. I now feel I'm way ahead of web technology (we're patiently waiting for the browsers to implement all our features) Plus, they're letting me do work away at school on my own hours.

Now that my interest in computer science has been rejuvinated to a certain extent, I once again consider wander into the undecided pool of College students. However, I refuse to be forced to decide between CS and Mechanical Engineering (at least right now).

Although it was nice to get away from College life for a while, I can't wait to go back (leaving on Saturday). Like schoolwork, a full-time job can be tiresome. Plus, they're isn't much to do in a Central Massachusetts Cowtown.

Patrick

[Lora Knepper]

Originally posted by Leon Machado IV
I did as much as I possibly could in the FIRST related field. I went to every possible competition and constantly was chatting about robots to all my friends. I don't even know where all the summer went. I only went to three competitions. If anyone can find my summer, please tell me.

I think my summer followed your's Lee since we were almost always travelling together.

As for me? I've taken some time to make some big decisions about my future and set some events in motion. In between all that there was BattleCry, Mayhem, and Bash. I think FIRST is the only thing that's kept me sane this summer. I've been living from one post season competition to another.

Hopefully this coming season, I'll be helping a new team become established *crosses fingers* and give some more kids the chance we have all had. And really for me, that what FIRST has come down to.

~ lora

It takes me ages to work out a solution to some problems. So I'm working on how to do things better on a couple of fronts. We'll be prototyping a revolutionary transmission this weekend. At least if it works it will be revolutionary.

I've also been working on better ways to move and control arms but no prototyping yet

Finally I've also been practicing teaching 3D sketching to my son (12 years old). The curriculum seemed to work so we want to use it on the whole team this year. The only problem is how to fit it in with all the other stuff the students are doing.

Of course all of this is going on at a much lower level of intensity than during Jan and Feb. I spend more like 2 hrs a week instead of 20.

Thankfully I'm on the Technical crew so I don't have to worry about fund raising. Yet....

ChrisH

[Christina]

I start school on Monday, and no I don't want to go back. I have a lot of work to do with FIRST if Michael and I want to start a team this year. Over the summer, I didn't do too much with FIRST. But once the semester starts, there's going to be so much to do. Since I'm trying to establish a club on campus, I have to do all the paper work for that. Michael and I have to hunt down the associate dean of undergraduate studies to find out how much Stony Brook is going to help us start a team (I had emailed him over the summer). I have a few meetings to go to with SBPLI which is the corporation that sponsored the LI regionals. The president of the corp. keeps tabs on all LI teams. I got his help to help me find a high school that is interested in starting a FIRST team. And of course, finding sponsors will be in there as well. ::sigh:: There's just so much to do. And I also got enlisted in helping build the official LI FIRST webpage. It should be fun, if it all works out, but I have a feeling it's going to be hard and stressful. I hope that answered the question.

~Christina ºoº