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

[Iain McLeod]

....when you look at the quotes at the top of the screen at CD and think,
"I remember that thread"

-I live here.

[shyra1353]

... when you are still wearing the bracelets from last year's competitons that teams handed out ...

[Aignam]

...when JVN and Andy Baker say goodnight to you in a FIRST chatroom, and you sleep better.

[Joe J.]

When your at the Pep-rally at the Detroit Science Center and you reconize Chief Delphi users.

[Kiwi_queen]

~you volunteer at the NJ Regional and get so into it that you end up losing most of your voice the first day, and are pretty much mute for the other two days because you just can't stop putting your all into what you're doing.
..and then you gotta spend the next few days enduring the wrath of a certain robotics members *cough*DJ and Coco*cough* as they call you Kristopher because you sound like a guy.

[Bluesky55J]

... when you push up your saftey glasses but they are not there and you poke yourself hard in the eye.

[Jonathan M.]

...when you've already packed your suitcase and your first regional wasn't for a week. Yes it's still packed, 2 more days to go! I can not wait!

[Pierson]

When you walk into the hotel restaurant first thing Thursday morning and say "That's Andy Baker" and the only reason you know that is because you spend so much time on Chief Delphi!

[Joe J.]

When you write FIRST team names on their corresponding pages in your Spanish workbook.

[danielkitchener]

...You can't get rid of the smell of aluminum and machine oil, no matter how much u wash
...You have multiple soldering iron burns, both on your body and on your clothing
...You've learned more colorful put-downs, insults, and general linguistic devices at the shop in the past 6 weeks than anywhere else in your whole life
...You've read all of this thread, and can still add more
...You know the pinouts for the competition port by memory
...You're sitting here, night before you leave for the regional, reading posts and writing
...You do phone interviews for major scholarships just so you can go up with pit crew
(If anyone sees me at the UCF regionals at 10:15 thursday and my ear isn't glued to a cell phone, hit me across the head, please)

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by danielkitchener

(If anyone sees me at the UCF regionals at 10:15 thursday and my ear isn't glued to a cell phone, hit me across the head, please)

I'll be sure to keep this in mind. j/k


...when you go to a regional and remembered to bring a digital camera and 2 batteries but forgot to charge both em.
...when you look forward to attending the next regional competition b/c you know this time to bring charged batteries and docking station (lol i will bring it to NYC) so that you can take up close pics of the robots while reffing the matches.
...when you start ranking the most posted in threads and you know for a fact that the top two are Word Assoc. and This particular Thread


29 posts left till 1000

[Kiwi_queen]

~when your friend tells you that over his spring break he's actually going on vacation instead of going to the regional that lands on those same days and you can't understand this concept of doing something other than robotics.

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by Kiwi_queen

~when your friend tells you that over his spring break he's actually going on vacation instead of going to the regional that lands on those same days and you can't understand this concept of doing something other than robotics.

Or you wind up using all your vacation and sick time going to competitions!

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by Jay H 237

Or you wind up using all your vacation and sick time going to competitions!

Im guilty of that more then she is hehe Not only do I use Vacation for Competitions but I also Strickly use Vacation for Building Season. I must admit I was very lenient in what days I used this yr compared to last yr.


... when even after the Build Season you still stay up late nites simply b/c your bodies used to the idea of not sleeping regulary (spellings off)

[Joe J.]

When you check Chief Delphi before leaving for your regional.

[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

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by Brm789

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

Darn I got snagged guess I'm gonna have to find potential g/f's elsewhere lol


.....When even as an Alumni member of a team you still get the battery changing job during the regional competitions. ( during my 4 years of battery changing I only had two mis-haps. One in 2001 At Bash at the Beach where I inserted the battery and it somehow pulled the wire going to the speed controller causing only one side to drive and in 2002 @ NYC when I forgot to secure the battery connector and the opposing robot accidentally snagged that same wire and dis-connected the battery )


.....When not only does the 99% things here does not seem strange to you but you can relate to at least 1/2 of the postings here!

.....When you notice 9 more postings to get to 1000 and you start placing bets if the 1000 post will be accomplished thursday night or friday night

[andy]

When people compare your team to American Chopper:

I am Seinor
Kevin is Juinor
James is Vinny
William is the brother....

And people think its funnier to watch us yelling at each other then the actual TV show.

[crazyone]

[quote=DanLevin247

.....When given the name of a team or a team's number, you can tell them the name or number of that team ( ex. "247" would warrant "'da bears" as an answer and "da bears" would warrant "247" as an answer.[/QUOTE]


Don't joke about that, my adviser (Mr. Harding) can do that with just about any team. A skill, few on my team(222) have mastered.
.... when your idea of fun is creating a scoresheet and running scenarios just to see the score for that years challenge

......when your idea of a wieght loss plan is drilling holes

......when can list the wieght of each item on your robot from memory

[Joe J.]

When you walk into the gym storage closet of your old elementary school and the first thing you see is a 30 inch yellow ball (the same brand as the ones shipped in the kit of parts) and you know you have been at robotics too much in the past few months.

When you walking past the buses at your school and see bus number 47 and buss number 71 and you instanly think of Chief Delphi and Team Hammond

[quote=crazyone]

Originally Posted by DanLevin247

.....When given the name of a team or a team's number, you can tell them the name or number of that team ( ex. "247" would warrant "'da bears" as an answer and "da bears" would warrant "247" as an answer.[/QUOTE

Don't joke about that, my adviser (Mr. Harding) can do that with just about any team. A skill, few on my team(222) have mastered.
.... when your idea of fun is creating a scoresheet and running scenarios just to see the score for that years challenge

......when your idea of a wieght loss plan is drilling holes

......when can list the wieght of each item on your robot from memory

You can name a team by it's colors/mascots. (example: Someone goes "You know...the orange team with the tiger.." and your response is "Tigertrons." Or..."The lime green team..." and you go "Oh yeah..MOE 365")

[shyra1353]

.. when youre in india and you are wondering what is going on in the world of FIRST because you havent had access to the internet for a while

.. when HP no longer stands for hewlett packard or harry potter .. but only for human player

.. when you meet a 3-year old cousin of yours for the first time and think "when he is in high school ... hell definitely join a FIRST team" and then you realize that because he lives in india there are no FIRST teams so you start to think about starting some ....

[crazyone]

...on your free time your building mock models of previous years robots.

....you look at the clock and see a team number and not the time.

[mtaman02]

....when you look at a serial number and see 2 team numbers and think that would be a great alliance (e.g 922303)


....when you go to type an option ( 1st , 2nd or 3rd ) you somehow always capatilze the word FIRST, Second, Third rather the First, Second, Third.

[Jonathan M.]

...when you see some one wearing a pink shirt and automaticly you THINK PINK! Lol.

[mtaman02]

...when you decide to paint your hair and dress in pink so you blend in with the florida team.

...when you hit the refresh button on FIRST site to see if any regional updates have been posted (same goes for CD)

...when you go to the regionals wearing all the corresponding shirts concerning the teams and volunteering you'll be representing (as silly / stupid as it may be i shall do this got 4 of em to wear already)

...when you get a shaved hair cut with the FIRST logo faded into the cut

...when your phone gets the faceplate with the FIRST logo on it....

I think in april 2002 I saw maybe 1 - 2 people with the FIRST logo'd faceplates for Nokia phones


...when after reading the local newspaper(s) you log onto CD to read more interesting things that seem more logical and have more common sense.

...when wondering what kind of motor pushes the newspaper through the newspaper making machine.

...when you have read this thread fully more then once in the past hour.

...when your buddy list is divided into groups :family / friends / FIRST / CD and Team # (Insert team numbers here)

...when said buddy list contains more various team members names then your grouped family names

...when you have 2 different AIM accounts one for FIRST / CD and one for personal life yet the FIRST / CD contains more names and you use it more often then the other one

Edit:// To: BRM789 you know all this time I was doing this editing I never once looked up at that. So here it is the 1000'th post. Sheesh a few seconds of happiness for reaching that far lol kinda reminds me of New Years and as soon it changes to 12:01 the fun is over. The next goal for this thread shall be set to 1100, 1250, 1500, 1750. 1900, 2000 I think Erin will make it to those points before I do. hehe

Anyways heres to the 1000th. post. happy 1000th post.

...when celebrating top postings of this thread becomes a monthly event.