Sneaking Pizza in

[KenWittlief]

it could be worse!

they could weigh you when you leave, and if you try to come back in after eating lunch somewhere else "SORRY! no outside food allowed inside you!"

wait, maybe we shouldnt give them ideas :c)

[Alaina]

814 isn't very much of a hungry team...We just usually wait till lunch time or after the day is over to eat...

[Ryan Albright]

i understand why they say no outside food because they want the participating vendors to make money, but i mean my team brings food and go;s outside and eats. But for me a driver i usually never leave the pits i know last year i only made it outside to eat once. O well i guess jsut eat a big breakfast

[KathieK]

We found that rules were being enforced unequally in NJ.

Noisemakers: We left ours at home as we had decided to follow the rules. Imagine our disappointment when several other teams had noisemakers with them on Thursday? On Friday we asked if we could use our party noisemakers (it's our birthday year) and were told that small noisemakers were allowed but that loud ones would not be (Air horns, etc.). There were water bottle drums and air horns being used. By Saturday we had made some empty water bottles into noisemakers and used them.

Food: Prices were awfully high ($4.50 for a pretzel? C'mon!). The venue was VERY hot and dry and most of our team was in need of water. Thursday food was not being allowed. We had two cars with our team and took team members to McDonald's down the street. We made other arrangements for lunches on Friday and Saturday.

FIRST is in a bind because we all understand that they have to abide by the rules of the venue and the prices of the vendors. However, teams are having sponsors cut back on funding at the same time that travel costs are rising. We are holding fundraisers year-round but how many fundraisers can a town support (there are car washes, candy sales, etc. etc. every time you turn around)?

We have a large team and have not moved to the concept of a "travel team" because we want everyone to have the experience of a FIRST competition. But we also went around to our students and made sure they were eating by Saturday because we worried they didn't have enough money with them to be able to buy lunch and dinner!

[Wetzel]

Huzzah for VCU students who were not searched on their way into the Siegel Center!

And for crowded pits, preventing the bossy lady from yelling at us for eating in the pits. We can eat KK fast.

Wetzel

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by KathieK

We found that rules were being enforced unequally in NJ.

Me and 2 other friends missed alliance pickings @ NJ b/c first we had to do some walking b4 finding an actual place for food (thank god for chinese food). After orering the food we started heading back to the arena when security said that we were not allowed in the arena with food. thankfully I had big pockets and was able to suff the little bit of food i ordered in the pockets. Normally I would put food in a bookbag and just carry it in. This time I was fairly stupid in not doing so. I felt bad that I had to leave the 2 people I was with so they can eat peacfully due to the fact that security wouldn't let them in.

Maybe Rich Wong can get ahold of the Coordinators and work somethig out next year b/c It's entirely not fair to have to be forced to buy expensive food at the arena that you can eat by the field and your only other alternative is to walk a pretty far distance to a fast food place order and have to eat it outside with having no tables and small benches. :-( other wise the arena and how they situated the field and pits was cool and neatly spaced. :-)

MRE's are cool just add water and let it cook for maybe 5 minutes or so (no microwave or stove just pure nature doing the cooking) . I like when my uncle brought them up from georgia for me. However in some cases. different MRE's have different outcomes on the body. Some will make you wish you had a bathroom hitched to where your sitting. Others can leave you gassy :-(

[KenWittlief]

if you really get hungry bring some eggs
you can fry them on your drill motors after a match
and if security finds them in your bag, tell them
these aint for eating
they are for throwing!

[ZeoFateX]

lol@eggs

They never checked my backpack or big pockets once while I was going in and out. About chinese food, yeah well... there was nothing around except the pizza place, a dollar store and some rotisserie chicken place (which looked like a bad place so I really wasn't interested in eating there...(food poisoning isn't fun.))

[Pierson]

In Portland, at the end of Thursday (IIRC) they called each team's mentor and student leader onto the field at the end of the day and gave us a stern warning that anyone found bringing food or mass quantities of liquid (anything other than a bottle of water) into the arena would be ejected for the remainder of the day. They stated that they would eject an entire team if need be.

[ZeoFateX]

Honestly, I don't remember them announcing things like that at our regional event. The only thing they announced (or even really enforced) was keep your safety glasses on when in the pit. It's really sad how they want $5000 just to participate and don't supply us with decently priced food. Now that I think about it, it must be the stadiums rule like "If you want to have a competition here, you must use our food." I guess I'd understand it if that were the case.

I spent nearly $60 in three days and I wasn't even buying stuff from the stadium for the most part... If I had bought from the stadium it would have been nearly $200 which is quite a bit for a 15 year old high school student to be carrying around. I guess they think we're rich since $200+ is pocket change for NASA rocket scientists.

[Jillian B.]

Yay for cold weather. Sneaking Wendy's in using jacket sleeves works.

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

if you really get hungry bring some eggs
you can fry them on your drill motors after a match
and if security finds them in your bag, tell them
these aint for eating
they are for throwing!

LOL

In the future it might be wise to put pizzas in the crate with your robot before you ship it and if they see this at a comp and ask just tell them you were planning on adding them to your robot as "nonfunctional decorations" until you realized they were to good to let go to waste.

[shamuwong]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

it could be worse!

they could weigh you when you leave, and if you try to come back in after eating lunch somewhere else "SORRY! no outside food allowed inside you!"

wait, maybe we shouldnt give them ideas :c)

If they say that, then let the food out of your body right there and be on your merry way!

Hmm, should have loaded the crate with water and MREs...

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by shamuwong

Hmm, should have loaded the crate with water and MREs...

I don't know about your team; but we are definately not puting bottles of water in our crate with our robot!!!!

[Mike Heinowski]

Originally Posted by shamuwong

Hmm, should have loaded the crate with water and MREs...

MREs are nasty!!