QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! [12-09-01]

FIRST Rumor Mill
1

Hi all. After a long chat with Anton around 4am, we’ve pretty much agreed to work on the QOTW together, where I will supply the usual serious/informative (and boring too :wink: ) questions, and Anton supply the fun/controversial questions… But since this is the first time we work together, we thought it will be good to continue a discussion Anton already started when he announced his return to FIRST… With that in mind, here is the question of the week…

QUESTION 12/09/01: Looking into the future, what do you think you will be giving up to participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition?

This topic was started in the “10 reasons why FIRST sucks” in General, and we thought it will be nice to let this discussion grow. It¡¦s nice to think about the things you are going to miss out on before you start the season… Makes you appreciate the lost time when it happens…

Have fun,
-Ken Leung, Anton Abaya

P.S. I’ve gotten some great suggestions of questions people want as the “QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!!”… And I feel bad not able to do some of them… So keep e-mailing me at [email protected] and show me more of those excellent suggestions… :wink:

2

Things I’ll be giving up:

  1. My Snowboarding.
  2. My savings account.
  3. My could have been girlfriends.
  4. My school studying time.
  5. My blood.
  6. My healthy eating habits.
  7. My Quake 3 Arena gaming time.
  8. My sleep.
  9. My Sanity.
  10. My life.

So goshdarnit to all you high school children who i’ll be working with, that I have a lot to lose, yet have committed to making this a great friggin seasonfor all of you. Year 3 for ya’ll, year 4 for me.

Should I mention that I’m doing all this because I plan to find a way to steal Deanie’s IT at one of the competition sites where he will surely boast It?

-antonio

3

Things I will (voluntarily)by giving up…

  1. Sleep!
  2. Food - esecially anything healthy
  3. Any chance to have a boyfriend
  4. Sanity
  5. My life
  6. Seeing daylight (get to school at 7 - it’s dark. Leave school at 9 or 10ish - it’s ark. The school has no windows either!)
  7. Shopping (except for at hardware stores! But hey, that’s cool!)
  8. My family (darn)

Things I will be gaining during the build:

  1. Having more fun than during the pre-build
  2. A whole bunch of cool friends… that I constantly get to see
  3. Having fun!
  4. Lots and lots of Dew!
  5. Hyperness… due to all the Dew I’ll be drinking
  6. Better grades (due to those ‘group study sessions’ before dinner)
  7. Having a ton o’ fun!
  8. A cool new robot
  9. Having fun
  10. Knowledge of a lot of new things!
  11. Having fun
  12. Being able to use and apply the knowledge I gained last year
  13. Having more fun than usual
  14. Insanity! (it’s no fun to be sane… right?)

and lastly…

  1. HAVING FUN! :smiley:

Of coure the what I will be gaining definatly outweighs the losses there! :wink: I can’t wait for the build to start!

  • Katie

Edited for spacing!!!

4

I definately have to agree with Katie. All the cool stuff that comes from FIRST revving up again far outweighs that which I will lose due to the time commitment.

But, to answer the question, I will give up:

All those nice family dinners
…will be replaced by pizza, soda, and even a little antiseize as a prank (jk!)

School work
…not that it’s a whole lot now, but once we start up, everything seems to get accomplished in Home Room :wink:

Posting on ChiefDelphi
…will be replaced by avid posting on ChiefDelphi

That stash of safety glasses
…that accidentally keeps getting bigger after the meetings…sorry Mr. Larock…

Other after school activities
…get cut a little short as I cannot be late for MOE :wink:

Sleep
…will be happily replaced with a lot of highly caffeinated beverages…Mountain Dew recently released theirs, it’s pretty good.

My life
…will not be lost, but found…as life is MOE :wink:

5

Well, what will I be giving up…
Well, I just moved to a new area so I don’t really know anyone. I don’t plan on going anywhere for vacation so that won’t matter, I don’t sleep much so that’s nothing new, food… Well, I useually go to Subway for nutritious food or I make my team dinner a couple times a week. Pasta is a great way to go :smiley: Tastes good, is filling, and cheap!
Anton, my bank account will be lookin really shabby too when the build is over. Fewer work hours and increased spending is tough.

6

The 2 main things I will be giving up or sacrificing will be

1. SLEEP
2. MONEY

Brian Savitt

7

Things I’ve already given up: (yes I’m that crazy I have to sacrafice even before build-season)
*My Senior Varsity soccer season… I made the team but the games were on Tuesday nights when my FIRST-Steering Committee meetings are:(
*My monday, tues, and friday nights and one saturday a month, for team things.
*Trying to get a job… yeh thats pretty hard to do when you say, I can only work till January then I need 6 wks off…

Things I will give up:
*Almost every snowboarding opportunity :frowning:
*ODP soccer (Olympic Development Program)
*Winter Track
*Lacrosse
*My non-FIRST friends…
*Any chance of ever gettign a date (not that I had one to begin with :wink: )
*Sleep
*Sanity
*Good ol’ Quality Family Time… darn…
*Any life outside of ~FIRSTland~ at BAE :slight_smile:
*Not drinking caffiene or soda in general… yeh that never lasts during the season, my precious OJ isn’t as easy to come by
*Lookign normal… my hair just randomly begins to change colors during FIRST…

But you know what, oddly i don’t really mind all I’ve given up for my team… their is just something in this program that makes it all worth it, be it the friends you make or the fact you see this big hunk of metal and after 6 wks its a peice of artwork in your eyes, or the excitement of the competition, or the amazing animation you made, its strangely satisfying and keeps you comign back each year, more excited then before!

8

Here is what I give up to do FIRST:

  1. The ability to graduate in May (I’m doing my Master’s degree now and I need two classes to graduate. There is no way that I’ll be able to do two classes, work full time, AND do FIRST. I really don’t know how I do one class.)

  2. About an extra 200 mile per week on my car (and the cost that goes along with that).

  3. Study time (see #1 above).

  4. Sleep - especially the last three weeks before shipping.

  5. Skiing. I used to ski at least twice a month. Since I started FIRST in 1997, I’ve skied 3 times.

  6. Music - I don’t get to play my drums or piano during FIRST since any non-FIRST or non-work time is spent on school.

  7. Time with family and friends. Most of my friends and family live about a 4 hour drive away. I typically don’t get to visit from January until May (any weekends that aren’t directly tied up with FIRST are spent catching up on school work).

  8. Working relationships. No matter how hard you try to avoid it, someone at work always holds the FIRST team against you. For instance, even if you send a message to everyone saying to not schedule a meeting during a regional (and you give the dates), someone ALWAYS schedules an important “mandatory” meeting on one of the days and balmes you for saying you can’t make it.

9

Hmm…what shall I be giving up this FIRST season…

~my sanity
~sleep
~my grades
~my life
~ballroom dance (at least the next competition which is in the middle of january)
~classes
~lots and lots and lots of money
~I’m sure I’ll lose my patience a few times :slight_smile:
~my winter break…sure glad I have the month of January off from school…more time to be at the high school
~seeing my friends that are outside of FIRST or outside of my area (my long distance friends)…I’ll find time, just not as much :slight_smile:

I think that’s about all I can think of for now.

~Christina ºoº

10

Heres what I am giving up:

  1. A varsity spot on the wrestling team…KHS forfeits my weight class every time

  2. My sanity

  3. Working Hours

  4. Sleep

  5. Slacking Time

  6. Time

  7. My weekends

  8. Money

ill probably add to my list once i think of other things

11

When you are with me, I’m free. I’m careless I believe. Above the others will fly. This brings tears to my eyes. My Sacrifice

Just a little excerpt from Creed’s new song. Anyhow, my list

  • Sleep (like I ever get any anyway).
  • Money (well DUH!)
  • My chances of having a girlfriend. (as if my chances weren’t bad enough)
  • Winter/Spring Sports (I used to be a damn good baseball player. Now, the only sporting thing I do is the JV Basketball scorekeeping)
  • Time (Never a temporal distruptor when you need one :wink: )
  • My life (Wait a sec, FIRST is
    life)
  • My weekly card games at the local card shop. (After I win the local Raw Deal title too…)
  • Decent music (Everybody likes rap there)
  • My pyromaniacy (robots and blowing things up don’t mix. Eh)

I’ll add more later.

12

1 Is not Sanity, I lost that a long time ago,

1 is not sleep, I wake up at 4 every morning,

1 is not boyfriends,

1 is not food, I can run 24 hours on a single bottle of water, I usually do

1 is not friends, I’ll be gaining some,

1 is not School studying time, I study at the last minute,

1 is not money, I just bought a brand new laptop that can be used there, and I have no money left

1 is not my life, I never had a life to begin with,

1 Is not music, I can listen to any of my 40 cd’s

1 Is not pyromacy, I can do that when I get home,

1 is not blood, I can always get new blood ^.-.^

1 might be Martial Arts, but we haven’t taken any tuesdays or thursdays after school.

2 is sweat

3 is safety

That’s about it.