downsizing

[Lindy]

Well, as far as this year is concerned, it seems that our team is about in the same position as it was in the our previous (rookie) year.

That's not saying much. We were quite anemic last year. Actually, compared to some of the luxuries of more established teams, "anemic" is quite an understatement. No engineers, small robotics team, barely adequate funds, and just enough equipment to break through. Our sole programmer is one lanky high school senior -- me. (It is fortunate, I suppose, that I was well versed in computer programming to start with, but it was still quite harrowing.)

We actually did go to the Nationals last year. To this day, it boggles my mind how we managed to do so. Money was like a UFO sighting: No one really saw it, and those that claimed to were probably hallucinating. It was pretty much rectified later, but at a huge personal cost (one which that I am in no position to discern).

So, how is this year any different on than last? I'm honestly not sure. But, it does have an eerie sense of déjà vu. That is both a good and bad thing.



(To ponder: We did manage to scrap about a half-dozen or so hand-me-down PCs from a business. Of course, entailing is the fact that nearly all of them are 486SX-era machines -- a select few are first-generation Pentiums. We spent a while trying to make them work before breaking down and pulling in MS-DOS 6.22 on them. Are we any better off this year in terms of computing power?)