Houston Diary

[IMDWalrus]

I’m bored and I’ve still got 20 minutes until curfew with nothing else to do. I’ve decided to post random thoughts about my Houston experience. If I get a chance, I’ll update before the competition is done. If not, I’ll update again on Monday.

If anyone else wants to post their experiences, go ahead. You’ll have at least one person reading them (me). That said, it’s time to go to…

Day One: The Plane

Getting up at three AM isn’t my idea of fun. Remembering that I was about to fly for the first time since I was two years old didn’t help. I showed up at our pickup point at four AM - right on time. The bus was actually there, which was a nice contrast to Grand Rapids (where the bus was an hour late). I was planning on sleeping on the bus ride, but that didn’t work out. Thanks to two of the junior girls on my team, no one was able to sleep, much less hear themselves think. Katie and Nicole, you’re great people. But when it’s four thirty in the morning, try to keep it down. Thanks.

We soon arrived at the airport. I made it through baggage check and the security station okay. I wasn’t stopped, but others on my team were. When one of the boys, Charles, was pulled aside he said (this is an exact quote) “You’re just doing this because I’m black.” Oddly enough, it took him a long time to get through security.

We made our way to our flight’s gate, and we got to see Chief Delphi, much more awake than we were. Our first flight was to New Jersey. Going from Michigan to Houston via New Jersey doesn’t seem very productive, but it ended up working out okay. The first flight was on a small plane - it had room for 50 passengers, and there were only four seats that didn’t belong to 818. The flight was longer tahn I would have liked (two hours), but we didn’t crash and burn, which is always a plus. After a half-hour in one of New Jersey’s airports (I can’t remember its name right now), we boarded our second flight. The flight was four hours long, and it wasn’t too terrible…except for the last half hour. We had some very bad turbulence, which isn’t something that you want to experience on your first flight. The second flight, like the first, landed safely. I’ve decided I don’t like flying, but I’ve still got the flight home to go…

818 is staying in a Holiday Inn Select that’s off of a freeway. The hotel has free internet access, and I plan on making use of it when I get a chance. If this post was long and boring, don’t worry - it will probably get better if I post again. I’ve got to wrap this up - my curfew is in five minutes, and I’ve got to get upstairs before then. Thanks for reading.

[Redhead_Jokes]

*Originally posted by IMDWalrus *
**If this post was long and boring, don’t worry - it will probably get better if I post again. I’ve got to wrap this up - my curfew is in five minutes, and I’ve got to get upstairs before then. Thanks for reading. **

chuckle I’m reading, probably means others are.

[IMDWalrus]

I’ve got more free time today, so it’s time for:

Day Two: Practice is Boring

I managed to make it through the night today. I went from three roommates for West Michigan to one for Houston. Since I don’t have to sleep on the floor this time, I’d say it’s an improvement. After dragging myself out of bed, I went downstairs to get the free breakfast that I was promised. When I got there, I realized that I had been very, very wrong about the number of teams in the hotel. There weren’t two - there were at least seven other teams that I saw getting food. Two, seven…that’s only a small difference, right?

The shuttle to Reliant was better than I thought it would be. The ride was relatively calm, and the chartered bus was comfortable. It’s nice to see that someone cared enough to charter buses for the teams. Walking to the stadium would not have been fun. Come to think of it, it would have taken my team at least an hour and a half to walk to Reliant from our hotel. Thank god for buses.

When we got to Reliant, the first thing that I saw was a massive line. That was when it began to dawn on me just how many people were involved in the Championships. It took about twenty minutes to get into the stadium. The weather was great, though. Waiting outside in sun and 70 degree temperatures is much better than anything that we’d have in Michigan at this time of year.

The practice matches were, for the most part, relatively boring. There were a few interesting matches (shattered light covers, smashed crates, robots attacking their own alliance partner…), but the majority of the matches offset those. Who wants to watch one robot on the field by itself? I saw at least three matches where there was literally one robot on the field. Practice is important…but I don’t have to watch it.

I spent a lot of time wandering around and doing random odd jobs. I did some scouting for 818. I’ve scouted at all three events we’ve been at, and I’ve yet to see anything positive come from my scouting. My teams either lose quickly or end up winning it all without encountering us once. (I had to scout 226 at GLR and 188 at WestMI. In both cases, the team was on the regional’s winning alliance.) I also spent time trading 818 buttons and magnets. It’s a great way to get to talk to people. The biggest part of my day, though, was walking. I must have gone back and forth between the two stadiums at least ten times today. And I get to do it again tomorrow. Joy. (It’s very hard to convey sarcasm through text, isn’t it?)

When we got back to the hotel, I went out to have dinner with some relatives that live in Houston. Because of FIRST, all of the restaurants within a ten mile radius of the area are mobbed. We eventually were able to park at a restaurant called The Houston, and had a great meal. I came back and decided to go to the hotel’s pool. While I was down there, I got to talk to some of 783’s team members. That conversation might have been the funniest thing that I’ve heard in a week. Most of the people that I’ve met through FIRST have been very friendly and are just great people.

I’ve managed to hit my curfew again. If I get a chance, I’ll post again tomorrow. I’ll apologize again for the long and boring post. Good luck to everyone tomorrow.

If you see anyone with an 818 shirt, tell them “Todd’s on Robotics.” They’ll get a huge kick out of it.

[Ryan_Albright]

Hey walrus thanks for keeping us posted at home whats gong on! its awesome durring elminations today just tell us about some of the matches

[Rich_Wong]

*Originally posted by IMDWalrus *
**I’ve got more free time today, so it’s time for:

Day Two: Practice is Boring

If I get a chance, I’ll post again tomorrow. I’ll apologize again for the long and boring post. Good luck to everyone tomorrow.

If you see anyone with an 818 shirt, tell them “Todd’s on Robotics.” They’ll get a huge kick out of it. **

These postings are great.
Please keep writing so we don’t go crazy in NYC.
Thanks.

[IMDWalrus]

More free time today, seeing as I didn’t want to go to Six Flags (more on that later). It’s time for…

Day Three: Eliminated Already?

The day began similar to yesterday - I woke up, got dressed, and went to get food. The shuttle was on time, and we made it to the stadium in one piece. We grabbed seats for our team, and then the fun began.

The opening ceremonies began with a videotaped message from George Bush Sr. The only problem with that was that the audio was coming from the speakers over the Einstein field, and no where else. 818 was in front of the Curie field, and we weren’t able to understand anything that was being said. After the Bush video clip was done, Woody Flowers came out onto the Einstein field. He began to speak, and it became apparent that the speaker issue had been resolved. Woody gave a very nice speech about FIRST and encouraged us to act like gracious professionals. The judges were introduced. Since there were maybe 50 judges, it took a little while. Oddly enough, I didn’t see any judges for the rest of the day, even though I was in both the pit and the stands. The national anthems were next. The Brazillian anthem sounded great, but since I haven’t heard it before, I don’t have any other performances to compare it to. The performance of “O Canada” was great, and the performance of “The Star Spangled Banner,” a trumpet with no vocals, was even better. Then, the matches began.

The matches were interesting, to say the least. 818 didn’t do very well - we had six matches, and won once. Ending the day with a rank that’s somewhere around 60th out of 72 teams isn’t exactly a job well done, but we tried. Teams that I had seen do well before faltered and collapsed today. 188, a team that I have friends on and a team that was on the winning alliance in WestMI, ended up ranked 66th out of the 72 teams in Curie. 71, who was our partner in two matches and made the finals at WestMI, hovered around 30. Most of the teams that I had seen at GLR or WestMI didn’t do very well. That probably says something, but I’m not entirely sure what. Matches were, for the most part, interesting but not overwhelmingly exciting. Robots got flipped and DQed, but it happened less often than it did at WestMI. The crowd, though, was best described as anemic. The MC and announcer tried their best to get some reaction (they sang along to the songs that were played and got some people to dance), but applause was scarce and interest seemed low.

The most interesting part of the day for me was my turn as our mascot. 818’s mascot is the Steel Armadillo, which looks cool but doesn’t look like any living creature known to mankind. The costume was too big for me, but it didn’t matter - I wasn’t able to get anyone else to wear it, and we needed a mascot. I spent about an hour wandering around, watching matches, and handing out pins. It wasn’t too terrible, but I kept on getting comments like “What kind of Pokemon is he supposed to be?” and “Is that a Digimon?” No, it’s not. It might look like it (which isn’t too much of a stretch), but it’s not. The costume is ready to fall apart, so my mascot duty is hopefully over.

I don’t know why, but I didn’t feel like going to Six Flags today. I went in, got food, and left an hour and a half after I arrived without riding any of the rides. I just didn’t want to. The water park wasn’t open, which was somewhat irritating - that was the one part of the park that I wanted to go to the most, and it wasn’t ready yet. It didn’t matter - I had forgotten my bathing suit - but it was still an annoyance.

I wish I could tell you how various teams are doing, but I haven’t seen any matches in Archimedes, Newton, or Galileo, and I haven’t seen enough Curie matches to give a useful opinion.

We did manage to find two great ways to get attention. We ordered beach balls, inflated them, and began throwing them around the stands. The balls spent hours bouncing around, oftentimes off of the heads of unsuspecting innocents (if that happened to you, I apologize on behalf of 818. We didn’t mean to do it.). By the end of the day, our beach balls were everywhere. They were probably one of the most popular giveaways. The other way to get attention? One of the girls on our team dyed her hair blue and wore a skirt made of duct tape. She attracted a lot of attention, needless to say. If I can get any pictures of her (and her permission), I’ll post them here.

That’s today’s entry. I don’t know if I’ll have time tomorrow to post (I plan on bringing my bathing suit and actually using rides in Six Flags tomorrow), but I will if I get a chance. Good luck to everyone - 818 is probably out of the running. We’d still love to get picked, and we’d make a great alliance partner. Since we probably won’t be chosen, we’ll spend tomorrow cheering everyone else on. Again, good luck. Most importantly, though, have fun. You deserve it.

[Caleb_Fulton]

You’d think that if you dye your hair blue and wear a duct tape skirt, you have already given permission for people to take pictures of you to show to others

[J_Flex_188]

dont fret about your robot for now… theres always alliance selections tomorrow… and from what i saw at WestMI, you guys are a most deserving team!

Thanks for letting us know what its like down there… im a rookie on 188 this year, and have heard all sorts of stories about nationals, and have had the opportunity to goto CR and WestMI, but with your reports , i am even looking more forward to going to nationals next year = )

as for 188… we ended up winning our last match, and moving up to 52nd in the rankings, with one qual match left to go tomorrow morning.

“818’s mascot is the Steel Armadillo,”… lol so that is what it is… i was wondering, wandering around the grand center what it was

also. .those beachballs sound like the wooden gliders that one team (forgive me, cant remember) at westmi gave out… hehe… they had to announce everyone to please stop throwing them out onto the field. but i digress…more spirit!

Good Luck to All Teams Tomorrow

[Fiona]

*Originally posted by J Flex 188 *
**also. .those beachballs sound like the wooden gliders that one team (forgive me, cant remember) at westmi gave out… hehe… **

That was probably team 245, Adamsbots. They handed them out at Chicago as well.

[IMDWalrus]

I’ve gotten a good response. Now, I bring you…

Day Three: It Ends

The morning started off badly - I got to wake up at 5 AM Houston time for the GM team picture. I tried to eat, but getting up that early doesn’t leave me feeling very hungry. We got to Reliant at seven, and they tried to get seven or eight GM teams onto a flight of stairs. It didn’t work very well. After about half an hour of waiting, the photographer finally took the picture. Then, they wanted individual team pictures. That would have been okay, but we ended up staring directly into the sun when they took the picture. We probably got a picture of our entire team squinting.

We began the day with only one match left. We ended up paired with the number one seed (might have been 343), and we won. With over 100 qualifying points. We were still ranked lowly, but we felt good. I spent the next hour walking around, trading away 818 magnets for buttons, hackey sacks, frisbees, and whaterver else I was offered. People seemed willing to take the magnets, which was a good thing - we began the year with 6,000 of them and we still had about 2,000 of them left. I took a break to eat. Then, the Curie division alliance selections began.

The top eight teams made their first selections, and I’d have to say that they made wise choices…except for the fact that we weren’t chosen. The number one seed made their second selection - again, not us. The number two seed, 16, got up to make their choice. 16 had chosen team 79 before, and we had no idea who they would choose. By some freakish act of God…they chose us . We had joined the number two seed in the Curie division.

Our first quarterfinal match ended with 16 and 79 winning by over 100 points, getting us a massive QP lead. We lost our second match, but we had enough QPs to advance to the semifinals. Our first match ended badly - 16 and 79 tried, but they weren’t able to win. The second match, 818 and 16, was better to an extent - we tied. Unfortunately, that destroyed any chance of us advancing. Still, I’m proud that we even made it into the semis. We did pretty well for a second year team.

The other quarterfinal matches were interesting. In the second match of QF1, all four robots were disabled. The last minute of the match didn’t have any robot movement. The red alliance (the number one seed) mananged to get both of their robots on top of the ramp before they were disabled, and they were able to advance because of that. There was another quarterfinal (don’t remember what seeds, but 188 was in it) where the red alliance had a stack of six and at least twenty crates in their zone. They would have won…but they were DQed for intentionally flipping a robot.

I wish I could report on the semifinals, but I had to go back to our pit to help pack up the robot. I made it back for the finals, which actually seemed less exciting than the quarterfinals. Then again, we weren’t playing. Congratulations to 111, 65, and 469. Thanks again to 16 and 79 for picking us.

The closing ceremonies were awesome - Woody and Dean both made great speeches, and the tribute to the Colombia astronauts was very nice. The day ended with a shower of confetti and balloons, which was soon followed by an indoors fireworks show. The entire event was awesome, and I know that I’ll have to do it again next year.

I skipped Six Flags again - the rides just don’t appeal to me. I came back to the hotel, and I began writing this.

I might update one last time - we’re going home tomorrow, and we’re going to Johnson Space Center in the morning. Congratulations to everyone - the Championship was great. Thanks for reading.

[J_Flex_188]

Thanks again for the great and prompt : P updating

818 you guys were great in westmi and it looked like you guys were great in houston too.

Thank you so much for posting this and giving the people that couldnt attend an idea of what nationals is like. Hopefully this motivates everyone to work harder next year to earn a place there once again!

That last match QF 3.2… emotions were running high for everyone… just about all the members of 188 who were watching the webcast seemed to have had their feed stop right after it was announced there was a referee meeting in progress… emotions were high enough after it seemed that 781 was literally centimeters away from knocking down that stack of 6. But then came the decision, 0-8 for red. Alas…maybe its because we werent there to cheer on. the feed didnt show the flip too clearly, but we must respect the referee’s decision.
edit - hehe, at least it gave another canadian team the chance to move on!!

i thank IMDWalrus and all teams who were at all regionals and competitions for a great season

rookie on a veteran team - more fun than ever

[IMDWalrus]

I’ve finished covering the Championship, but I’m not done just yet…

Day Five: Back to Michigan

Since we didn’t have to make it to the competition, we got to sleep in. I woke up and began packing. As I packed, I thought about the trip. It had been a lot of fun, even though we didn’t end up winning it all. It was definitely worth it. When I finished packing, I went to get breakfast, which is where I learned that our team’s leader had lied and had told us to get downstairs an hour early. Almost everyone had lost an hour of sleep because of that, and we weren’t too happy. When the bus showed up, we loaded it with our bags and went off to Johnson Space Center.

I actually liked JSC much better than Six Flags. JSC was fun, Six Flags wasn’t - or at least I didn’t have much fun there. I took the tram tour of JSC, which was a lot of fun. We got to see the full-sized mockups of the shuttles and International Space Station components that the astronauts practice in, as well as the no-longer used Saturn V rocket. That was the majority of the tour, but it was still better than most of Six Flag’s rides. I spent the rest of my time wandering around and visiting various exhibits. It was nice to see that there was a small exhibit dedicated to the Columbia and that NASA hadn’t completely glossed it over. (On the other hand, I didn’t see much dedicated to the Challenger.)

After we were done at JSC, we went to the airport and flew home. The flight went smoothly, but we lost one bag (which belonged to a mentor’s four-year-old daughter). We drove back to the drop-off, and I got home at about 1:00 AM this morning. I slept through school this morning, but I had to go back in the afternoon. I guess that I needed to eventually, but I still would have rather been sleeping…

That’s it for this topic. There won’t be any more updates since the Houston trip is unfortunately done. Hope you all had fun in robotics this year - I know I did. Thanks for reading.

[Keith_Chester]

The other quarterfinal matches were interesting. In the second match of QF1, all four robots were disabled. The last minute of the match didn’t have any robot movement. The red alliance (the number one seed) mananged to get both of their robots on top of the ramp before they were disabled, and they were able to advance because of that. There was another quarterfinal (don’t remember what seeds, but 188 was in it) where the red alliance had a stack of six and at least twenty crates in their zone. They would have won…but they were DQed for intentionally flipping a robot.

We weren’t disabled I believe.

I saw you guys move like a banshee out there and was amazed when I first saw your autonmous work. Good job guys- for a second year team you certainly showed off Curie division.

[Kevin_Smith]

*Originally posted by J Flex 188 *
**also. .those beachballs sound like the wooden gliders that one team (forgive me, cant remember) at westmi gave out… hehe… they had to announce everyone to please stop throwing them out onto the field. but i digress…more spirit!
**

That would be us. I’m sure FIRST staff hates us for handing those things out, but hey, now everyone knows who we are.

Nice work down in TX BTW. That shoving match against 781 was the coolest thing ever. Quick and fast strategies may be cool, but you can’t beat raw power and pushing for sheer “hardcore” factor.