Build Season is OVER!

FIRST General Forum
1

I begin writing this with three minutes until midnight.

Today marks the end of build season.

Today is the end of late nights, the end of excused chores and late homework. Today is the end of Mountain Dew and Pizza being the staples of life. Today is the end of bad programming and physics jokes, endless That’s-What-She-Said puns, and the joking questioning of everyone’s sexuality. Today is the end of abusing the label maker at three in the morning to put “Gullible” on the ceiling. Today is the end of massive pool noodle fights because the “code is compiling”. Today is the end of “I hope this works” after you have checked it for weeks, to see it finally does. Today is the end of build season.

While this moment is not the end of FIRST Robotics, as the competition is yet to come, it is the end of many pieces that we will miss from our lives. The all-absorbing obsession of robotics is coming to a close. For many it is coming to a final close, as they are seniors and will never have this experience again. It’s sad to think about.

As my team scrambles around at the last minute to pack our crate, bickering like crazy, I finally realize why I am going to miss this so much. Over the past six weeks Roboteknix has built more than a Robot.

We have built a family.

A horribly corrupt, ill-fitting, dysfunctional family that will never cease arguing, but it is a family none the less.

As Thomas has been reminded merely minutes ago, this is not a club. This is far more then any little school extracurricular, this is a FIRST Robotics Team. There is so much more that comes with that package when you sign up. For better or for worse, you are stuck with these guys to live with and problem solve for the next six weeks.

These six weeks have been some of the most productive, most intense, most enjoyable, and yes, probably the most stressful, I can say I have experienced. It was well worth it.

Better still, it’s not over yet.

The competition lays ahead – regionals and championships, prizes to be taken, teams to meat, collaborations to be made, friends to acquire. This is not the most important part, by far, but it’s going to be FUN.

See you there,
Team 2865 Roboteknix,
Claire

2

build season over? I think not as far as i am concerned we have until the Fed-Ex guy comes tommorow (Scratch that Today) haha good luck to all those teams that still need to finish

3

. . . dont tell our “Business Solutions” team this . . they got 3 weeks of hard labor ahead of them ( judging packets, videos, presentations, spirit items, gift bags).

oh and our drive team they have 3 weeks of weekend long quad viewing sessions, “strategery” conference calls, and general pestering the programmers with " hey look at these guys we need to be able to do this automaticly / in autonomous".

that leads us to the programmers who have 3 weeks of blind programing with the suggestions from the drive team, all the fiddling with stuff they think needs to work, not to mention the continuation of the “hey I have a better way of doing XYZ” arguments.

so yeah the build season is “over”. but to borrow a phrase “things have not calmed down, they have infact calmed up”.

4

The robot is gone now we just need to:
create posters
print T-shirts
finalize reservations
make spirit items
fabricate external robot parts
hold fundraisers

Yeah goodbye build season, hello documentation hell

5

oh, but the work is just begining
practice, practice, practice…

6

AHHHHHH, this was a great build season.
Our team also built and secured our family like relationships.
Now time to yell at programmers to get the code working correct and get all the other fun stuff done in preparation for competition season.
And we plan on MEETING other teams and not eating them as implied :wink:
Hope you all had a good build season and “See you at the competitions”

7

Have you been spying on my team? :rolleyes:

8

My pillow thinks I have abandoned it :smiley:

9

We can get a very short moment to breath the fresh, metal shaving filled air.

10

Build season over? What? This is just the beginning… It’s the end of the first quarter…

Keep building and make your robot better and better. Just because it’s Feb. 23 doesn’t mean you have to stop building…

11

Build season isn’t over until Championships, in my view. :wink:

12

IRI.

And even then it is just reclassified as Prototype Build Season.

My Build Season hasn’t ended since 2004.

13

From doing a VEX tournament Saturday, I slept a total of 4 hours until this very moment.
Someone else is signing off our robot today.
Good Night!!

14

Have you been spying on our team?

Are you sure you haven’t been spying on our team?

I knew it! You HAVE been spying on our team! :smiley:

-dave

.

15

It’s snowing in Austin on Ship Day.

I can’t decide to use :eek: or :ahh:.

Good luck, all.

Jane

16

Unfortunately, yes, it is the end of build season. It’s that time when all your hard work comes down to whether your fingers (and toes) are crossed or not, and hope that those few zip-ties and pieces of duct tape hold together long enough to survive a 2 minute, 15 second match where anything can go wrong, and if something does, the diagnostic for damage back in the pit is minor, if any is needed. All those long, tedious days and nights, those few well-hated snow storms that set us back, and a place full of machines, robot parts, a few odds and ends, and a FIRST robotics team make you want to fish that the FedEx guy never comes, and you have a 'bot to cherish.

That doesn’t mean though that this year isn’t over (remember, the crossing your fingers and toes?!). We can’t forget what FIRST is truly about, gracious professionalism. They game us a problem, and as a world-wide community, we gave them close to 2000 solutions, all about to be battered on a 52’ x 28’ (hope those quickly thought dimensions were right) field covered in Wi-Fi, and the cheering of eager teams and spectators, as well as flying soccer balls, and at the end, we all will walk out with one more experience.

So yes, build season is over, it was too long, and too short at the same time. Those last few minutes of machining just to get the 'bot ready for the FedEx guy to take it away will all be shown to see whether it will hold up or not. The recycling bin is filled with empty soda cans, the floor and tables covered in bolts, shavings, and tools, the minds of FIRST students filled with memories that will last a lifetime, and a robot stands ready for the competitions, and I’m pretty sure these are going to be good ones too.

-Tom H

17

I’m freaking excited.
I’m sleeping tonight.
A LOT.
:smiley:

18

i feel lost without build season…like i should be somewhere working on something instead of sitting in my basement on my computer…

19

now the technicalities begin…more meetings to get ready for the regionals

20

It really is a family. A huge, dysfunctional, insane, oftentimes nerdy family with wayyyy too many teenagers put into one room. I’ve found some of my closest friends on the team and we are beginning to wonder what we’re going to do. Sure we’ll have robotics two or three times a week, but I think your first post said it best. But I guess that’s the beauty of robotics.