QotW 08-03-02: Dedication.

FIRST Rumor Mill
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Sorry about yesterday. I was down for the count with a nasty stomach bug or something.

Sitting there in bed, though, I got to thinking about how I really didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything, but that I probably would have sucked it up and left my room if it were for FIRST.

I remember days when I’d skip school because I was sick, but trudge in at the end of the day to be at the FIRST meetings.

Question of the Week 08-03-02: What weird, unusual, out-of-the-way things have you done for FIRST or your team? How far does your dedication really go? :slight_smile:

I think there are probably loads of stories floating around about harrowing circumstances that we would have not found overselves in otherwise. Thanks, FIRST :wink:

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*Originally posted by M. Krass *
**I remember days when I’d skip school because I was sick, but trudge in at the end of the day to be at the FIRST meetings.
**
Yep. Your not alone. I had one or two days like that. In 2002 I stayed awake for 40 hours straight before, during, and after the Chatsworth scrimmage to ensure that our robot would be in fulll working order for ship. I have made buttons at two in the morning. Some friends of mine on our team took the robot to a friends house along with a bunch of tools and worked until 5 in the morning before this years Chatsworth scrimmage at lioke 8 am. This was after coming to school at 8 the previous morning and staying there till 2 am. They then went to set up temporary shop at this other guy’s house.

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Dedication… Yea I had it, through three years of FIRST with 151 I had it. I still have it for FIRST… 24 hours on a bus to IRI. Anyways My sophomore year I started with 151, it was just about the best thing I had ever done. A few things I remember are sitting in the building where we had the field, At midnight watching the bot just slam back and forth while we tried to get are Auto balance mode working.

My Junior year was even Crazier, No all nighters but pretty close, I remember packing up the crate with robot and tools 3 hours before the truck was supposed to pick it up. We had to ship that morning cause of the impending snow storm.

My Senior year was the craziest ever. The night we were supposed to have it done, it was snowing and we were hurrying around to get everything done, and then we heard that school was canceled for the next day, immediately we said were staying the night. and later that night we heard about the Extended Ship date, we were elated. We all went well over 36 hours with at most 3 hours of sleep… broken sleep at that.

I’m hoping for more long, fun nights with 125… heh heh heh

-Aaron

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Um, in my 1st year on team (2nd year of team)… the ThursdayFriday/weekend before shipping went something like this:

skip 6,7,8th period for robotics
work after school till 6
go home, get food
work at Doug’s basement or Cornell till 4am

on sat: go to norwich, get back at 2pm, work till 3am, home, etc.

We did nicely last year and many people put in hours similar to this - not sure about the skipping classes part though :stuck_out_tongue:

This year, Steve and I often worked 2-3 hours extra at either my house or his to finish up drawings/designs/inventory. But hey, I did it this year and last because I know I won’t have time for it this year (junior).

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Animating for 8 + hours on some days… now, you’d think sitting in a chair for that amount of time wouldn’t be so bad … but nooo soon your back starts to ache, you get “antzy” from sitting for so long, and then rendering… ugh don’t even get me started on the amount of time spent on rendering…

Dancing in the stands at Nats :slight_smile: That was fun… but I’d only do it for FIRST :wink: Ohh and scouting @ Arizona was brutal. You had to literally sprint back and forth between the stands and the pits, or else you wouldn’t have any time to discuss strategies. Doing that for 2 days kinda hurt… and of course getting up very early to go to IRI :slight_smile: lol but yeah, I’m sure that sounds like a cakewalk compared to some people’s stories.

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Hmm… my junior and senior years were the craziest.
Junior year - teammates estimated I spent over 400 ‘known’ hours just doing scouting work to prepare myself for the upcoming competition. During build season we would work Mondays and Wednesdays from about 5-10 pm, then Fridays and Saturdays from 9am -10pm. Until the last week - we moved into the shop that Friday and didn’t go home till the following Tuesday night. *The night before Ramp Riot I was performing in a field show, and don’t remember anything after marching on the field. I know somehow I was carried off the field and taken away and I remember fighting against medical recommendation at 2 am to leave to catch the bus going to comp. I made it, just in time - with floor team members holding me upright in the player station all day.
Senior year - insane meeting schedule of Monday thru Thursday from about 5-10pm. All Saturdays except two from around 9-5. The second to last weekend worked all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9-9ish. And the same as the previous year, we came in Friday and work until ship date - however, with the extension we lived there a whole week. (Yeah, in a school wood shop… mmm… the memories… snow…) I too spent MANY days throughout the season at the hospital all day sick out of my mind… and I would be convincing enough to be out for several hours at night time so I could go to the meetings, then return to the hospital before I was dead.

Ohh… the good 'ol days will be missed… errmm… maybe not.:rolleyes:

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*Originally posted by monsieurcoffee *
skip 6,7,8th period for robotics

Ha, i just didnt go to class period during like the last week or so of the build season.

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*Originally posted by sanddrag *
**Yep. Your not alone. I had one or two days like that. In 2002 I stayed awake for 40 hours straight before, during, and after the Chatsworth scrimmage to ensure that our robot would be in fulll working order for ship. **

Been there this year. We got to the auto shop at 8AM the day before the Chatsworth scrimmage. We worked, and I only left for 15 minutes to get a shower 6AM the next morning. I was doing robotics for 33 hours, and did 15 hours the next day. After chatsworth, I got home and slept for 16 hours :D. I think the last 2 weeks I did more work then my mom and dad combined at their jobs.

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dedication?

starting the team back up in 2002 and recruiting a bunch of people cause I was the only one left on the team, and we were about to die out completely due to the fact that our sponsors dropped us.

designing a challenge for the team so that we could give people more experience t building bots.

Bringing the 2000 an 2001 robots hom this summer so that 4 other guys and mself could give up there first 2 weeks of summer so that we could build 2 new robots out of the old ones) that ocld play the 2003 game just so we could help 166 out by participating in their deonstration of what FIRST is.

Realizing that the designs for the 2 above mentioned robots woud work better if they were onthe other bo (basically, switch the wings to the stacker bot, and the stacker mechanism to the wing bot). Then (with 2 others) staying up till 1:30am swtching everything on the 2 robots (except the drive).

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Ever sit outside, jacketless, with the robot, in a snowstorm during a late night programming session for over an hour to “cool the motors off”? By the time I came back in, I swore I could see heat. Ah, the memories.

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Who else Wants to show off their scars?

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Does getting into screaming matches with mostly everyone around, then being best friends two minutes after, then trying to kill them again 5 minute after that show a bit too much work put in on my part? :stuck_out_tongue:

I think that I spent too much time thinking about FIRST last season, because I apparently really pissed off my parents (my brothers I always ■■■■ off ;)), so maybe next year I have to be more, um, friendly, when I come home… :slight_smile:

Or I could just stay at the school for 6 weeks straight, I’ll have a car this year, I’ll be able to drive, I could do it…

The worst stuff I ever did was force my dad to drive me across town, in a Mercury Sable, in that huge snowstorm, so I could go to someone else’s house to work on the robot. Then go to school the next day.

Also, I got really sick the weekend before the Annapolis regional. Probably from lack of sleep, although I don’t remember why. Anyways, we hadn’t built our OI yet, as we were given the extension. So, me and (Super)Dan went to our mentor’s house to build it, in his freezing cold basement. I could barely keep my eyes open and my entire body from shivering like crazy. Eventually, I was told “Ian, go home, and go to sleep, you look like crap.” So, I called my dad, and went home, and slept for the rest of the day, and the next day I was all better, and went back and helped finish the OI :).

Moral of the last story, if you look and feel like crap, screw the team, go home and sleep, IN YOUR OWN BED! and then come back the next day, and actually be able to get stuff done :). Believe me, it works wonders.

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I have a couple quite memorable moments of dedication form my four years on team 93. My first encounter with dedication and commitment came my sophomore year when myself and 2 students and a couple of engineers were at school till 6am ship day morning than back a hour later working straight through till 5pm to get stuff done. What makes that event worth remembering is when my dad walked in around 530am to see how things were going on his way to work :smiley: !! I found that amusing to say the least. The following year again some teammates of mine and myself were at school late. This year, we basically forced a teacher into staying by going back to work shortly after almost everyone had left. Jeff Mathes and I were sitting staring at the bot knowing we needed an excuse to stay, or else there would not be much of a competition for us that year. So we discovered no one had touched a part of the robot that needed to be on it or else we couldn’t’t start our matches. So we dug out the parts and went to work and worked till 530am, then returned at 7am to work till 5pm again. My final memory regarding dedication is when I was on a college visit my senior year. I made the drive from the college to a scrimmage just so I could make sure that the bot ran smoothly and I would not loose my much pined after driving position. Needless to say it was about an one hour drive one way to get to this scrimmage and it was well worth my time. All in all I had fun and actually missed our all nighters once we stopped needing them. I think without the dedication many people put into FIRST, it would not be anything like it is today. Its that commitment to get things done no matter what the odds and challenges are which makes FIRST so much fun and as rewarding as it is.