Last build season (which was my first), I found that I couldn’t function unless I came in every day with at least 2 large coffees. Later on, I found that I was doing coffee runs for a bunch of members of my team. As the shadow of Kickoff looms over us, some people will be picking up unique quirks and habits like coffee obsessions or subgroup rituals (our electrical portion of the team listens to What is Love pretty much religiously when we do work) that only come around during build season. Does anyone have any habits that they know they will be returning to as an individual or even a team?
We meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings, so I’ll head over to the build site after work. This necessitates grabbing a quick bite somewhere along the way, which means fast food. I didn’t want to overdose on Big Macs last year so I made it a habit/challenge to buy dinner from a different place each time (and breakfast for Saturdays). I think I’ll be doing that again.
I tend to eat a lot of chips and salsa. I’m currently working on getting our team sponsored by Tostitos.
I have this bad habit of missing something called sleep…have you ever heard of it?
Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches for those that work past midnight…
Several of the younger mentors and I would end up going out to eat after work nights at the shop. Gets to be a little expensive, but it’s a good way to vent/relax and a long work day.
We also have a popcorn machine at our shop that the kids tend to run continuously throughout the season.
My sophomore year on the team, I would have Let it Go from Frozen constantly playing while I was working in the software area.
People tend to either join in immediately or question if the lack of sleep is getting to you.
Sad thing is, this tradition is still following me around.
Dilly Bars from DQ.
Saturday, 0600: Wake up. Ok, make that 0610, wake up. Crap, just woke up again at 0620, going to be late. Man, it’s flippin’ cold outside.
Saturday, 0700: Mentor and Student Lead meeting to assess the week’s progress, plan for the weekend and talk about logistics. Still sleepy. Vice: coffee, dark roast, no cream, sugar or other flavored crap.
Saturday, 0830: Breakfast usually provided by a parent. Shop machine tools are usually humming along. Vice: Bagels, or scrambled egg casserole (usually). More coffee! Will probably start bringing my own steel-cut oat oatmeal from home in 2016 since there’s a microwave nearby.
Saturday, 1100: Hungry again since breakfast was mostly carbs. Stale bagels it is. Vice: MOAR COFFEE!1!! That’ll solve it…
Saturday, 1300: Blood sugar low from all of the thinking about rules, prototypes and strategies. Time for lunch. Usually pizza. Started bringing veggies from home in 2015 - good habit btw. Vice: mellow out with some coca cola or mountain dew.
Saturday, 1600: CAD CAD CAD CAD CAD CAD CAD CAD CAD. Vice: anything with sugar. Just keep the brain happy…
Saturday, 1800: Phew, time to go relax on the couch at home! Just bring the laptop to CAD, check CD, run Excel scenarios, purchase things we forgot to purchase before the end of the day, etc. Wife wants to watch “say yes to the dress” or other such shows. Ok, np. We usually chat during commercials. Vice: Really nice headphones, usually Lindsey Stirling, Trifonic, or other meditative no-word symphonic digital music.
Saturday, 2300: Crap. Can’t get to sleep. Didn’t mean to stay up this late to begin with, and now I wonder if we’ve overlooked something. Are we doing too much? What if we did something crazy, like mandate 30 pounds be saved for X subsystem since it seems more important than we’ve determined - how would that change our vision for the design of subsystem Y? What if Y doesn’t work out, how do we maximize subsystem X for highest probable utility and value? Vice: comfy bed.
There are a few things I get to do each year…
- Forget to sleep;
- Forget to eat or eat wayyyy to much while working;
- Have a car accident around the bagging day (hitting a deer or stuff);
- Complaining about the cold in the workshop;
- Listening to the same 40 song playlist over and over and over again;
- Spending too much time discussing with people from other teams or reading on CD;
- Not doing homeworks.
Thats pretty much all I can think about…
My team listened to the same yodel continuously during ariel assist. I also lose all my money to breakfast at Chick Fil A every season
Dude, are you me?!?! My team meets MWFSS, I go there directly from work, and I too am trying to prevent OD’ing on Mickey D’s. Do you also wear a beard???
We generally don’t start build until 3:30 or so, and our classes end at 2:15 so the group of us that carpools to FRC will stop and get coffee and chill for 45 minuets good way to socialize.
also I have the disturbing habits of finishing homework at 3 am during build season
I always wind up going to the hardware store more and the grocery store less than the other ten months of the year.
I drink black coffee on early robotics days as a metaphorical reminder of the bitter reality I have subscribed to.
I also have a nasty habit of cracking through Rockstar Sugarfree energy drinks during the midday at a rate that no doctor would recommend.
I would say that my number 1 habit is shifting from vocal communication to manual comnmunication as a build season progresses because the part of my brain in charge of completing sentences is stuck putting out fires somewhere else.
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I personally tend to get almost no sleep, get no homework done, and constantly wonder how I’m still a twig after eating at least twice as much as I do during Cross Country and Track season.
Let me rephrase that for you :
I mean I’m pretty sure it only gets bad when you go over a ratio of 1/hr right?
Aldi brand Mt. Dew, Mt. Frost. The worst caffeinated drink out there; with only being roughly $1 for 12 cans, making it very affordable for us poor high school students. This garbage has been holy water for the mechanical and CAD sub teams, as it acts as a wake-me-up and makeshift aluminum cutting juice.
Wikipedia says 2/hr is the limit…