You know you're addicted to FIRST when...

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by 1987

When you check Chief Delphi before leaving for your regional.

That is just a prerequisite for attending competitions IMHO.

[Aignam]

When your grandiose ideas for the expansion and improvement of FIRST cause you to laugh maniacally. Out loud. In Spanish class.

[Alaina]

When you count down the days until SVR, but not the days until you go to Hawaii, which comes before SVR ...

[Heretic121]

when your body is shaking when its still 2 & 1/2 days from the competition.

When you are bowling w/ team members, and you are praying for 2 strikes and a 5 to get your team # for a round (or when you bowl another teams number)

[Mike Heinowski]

Originally Posted by Alaina

When you count down the days until SVR, but not the days until you go to Hawaii, which comes before SVR ...

Wrong one but...

Only 30 days, 15 hours, 58 min, and 22 seconds left until nats!

[mtaman02]

When you go to work which has no relation to FIRST what-so-ever wearing An official FIRST Hat, Tee Shirt, And Sweat Shirt. (I'll post a pic of myself eventually sporting FIRST Merchandise which to my knowledge was made available to the NJ Regionals)

When the Head Regional Volunteers contact you and ask you to pick a job to do at the regional and you can't choose cause you wanna do all of them. (referee etc....)

When you continue to think about if anyone would be addicted to FIRST so much to create this years (or future years games) to be played on your cell phone. (not a bad idea if you don't have a Palm Pilot / Laptop)

Edit:// When you constantly wonder if theres a way for php to be translated to cell phone languages so that you recieve delphi updates on your cell phone. (this goes for PM's to)

Originally Posted by mtaman02

When you continue to think about if anyone would be addicted to FIRST so much to create this years (or future years games) to be played on your cell phone. (not a bad idea if you don't have a Palm Pilot / Laptop)

When you read the above and you go...Oh my god! That'd be sooo cool! And then wonder...hmm...could that be done?

Your parents go away on Vacation to Las Vegas and the only thing you ask them to bring you back is anything in your team's color...

You show up super early to meetings, stay super late at meetings, and when you're not at meetings...you're wondering when the next one is and then you start counting down the hours...

[Ali Ahmed]

-When school time becomes sleep time.
-When you look at a car and think how you can build its drivetrain using Drills and CIMs.
-When you look at anything and think how that can be used on your robot.
-When you think someone should make a FIRST video game so you can a robotics fix during non-FIRST season.
-When you refer to mid-April to Decmber as non-FIRST season.
And last but not least
-When "robotics" becomes an excuse for everything.

[ZZII 527]

...your regional competition in three days is on your mind than tomorrow's admissions letter from MIT. ("Oh you got in...congrats. Now come comment your autonomous code." -Mr. Gandolfo, best mentor ever)

...you have "borrowed" an official FIRST field element.

...(for fellow sparkies) you know the wiring diagram, including wire guages, by heart and can put it together in under an hour.

...you understand the power of zip-ties.

...Radio Shack and Home Depot runs are commonplace.

...99% of the things on this list don't seem strange to you.

[Steve Horn]

...when you give up half of your two week spring break because the first week is the regional your team is attending

[Jonathan M.]

...when a friend comes over so you two can study for a very important spanish test and you suddenly slip into a conversation about the next regional you're going to. The clock rolls by and it's been two hours, he's got to go and you've got very little studying done, BUT you still talk about robotics as he's getting into his Jeep to go home. Lol

[mtaman02]

....When after reading this thread and see just about everything posted that you can think of and yet you still manage to come up with an Addicted to FIRST thought.

....when you purposely take off of work thursday and have friday saturday off automatically just so you can attend and help teams at a local comepetition which is fastly approaching in the closing week(s)

14 more posts to go to get to 1000 lets see if we can get there b4 the beginning of sunday.

remember be creative. j/k

You see an adult mentor outside of your team meetings and it surprises you for atleast a minute or so that they actually have real lives outside of Robotics...(think about the feeling you had when you were small and going to school. If you ever saw a teacher outside of school it was weird cause...didn't they live at school??)

Not sure if this one was said but...

Need safety glasses? No problem! You've suddenly become the proud owner of about a million safety glasses that now cludder your car, room, locker, and even bathroom!

A non-FIRST friend thinks your team mates are cute...you look at her like she's come from the funny farm. I mean...that'd be like dating your brother or something...ew.

However...you have tried to date someone else from another FIRST team atleast once!

[jacob_dilles]

Originally Posted by mtaman02

Edit:// When you constantly wonder if theres a way for php to be translated to cell phone languages so that you recieve delphi updates on your cell phone. (this goes for PM's to)

lol i know this can be done, my cell phone grps browser can read PHP sites, even download small pictures. if you have a browser enabled phone it would be very easy... im gonna try to do that thats an AWSOME idea.

...when you actualy implement a crazy idea like this

[Steve Horn]

...when you spend a whole day making buttons for the competition, go home, and make more buttons the next night with all the remaining artwork you have and asking your team to send you the artwork on e-mail so you can continue