Blame Ryan Dognaux for this week’s gif - he reminded me of the magic that is The Mitchells vs The Machines.
We’ve been doing this for 4 years but if you’re new here - we use this thread to share things we want to celebrate with our CD community. It can be anything you want to share - new job, awesome vacation, passed a test, managed to wake up on time, heck, just surviving some weeks can be a win.
Win for me - got a long weekend, going to head up to Branson on Monday now that it’s cool enough to not die the moment we go outside. Looking forward to lots of pumpkin themed decorations.
Got a ton of cool additions to the Atari collection. Two consoles including a rare heavy sixer sears edition and a Darth vader. The games will be a nice addition to my collection. I’m so excited to refurbish, repair, and give these consoles a new life!
The idea of Gracious Professionalism isn’t just a win for a single week, it is a win for society and for a lifetime. And there is no better way to commemorate that than with honoring Woodie’s Legacy.
My story about Woodie and his impact on me
I remember being a “newly-minted” FTC kid in 7th grade back in 2019. We were in the shop, a long Saturday of Robot-work, and the Gearheads were at an offseason that Saturday, although a few members were watching the stream from the shop. I remember when the news broke of Woodie’s passing, that it was hard for them to believe that he was gone.
I of course did not yet know who Woodie was, I had only been in the program for ~2 months at that point and hadn’t yet been immersed in the FIRST culture at a competition. However in the years in between then and now, I have come to learn much about Woodie, his ideals, and his legacy.
After his death, Woodie has continued to shape my life in an unknowable number of ways, and there is no amount of thanks that I could give that would ever match what his program has given me.
Now more than ever, it is crucial that we remember Woodie and all that he stood for, as we work to preserve and improve the inspirational nature of FIRST that seems to be continually challenged in heartbreaking ways week after week.
So that is why, although it is not specific to me or anything that recently happened in my life, I decided to dedicate my Weekly Win for 10/11/24 to Dr. Woodie Flowers and all the good that he continues to stand for.
Big Win: Got an appointment to start the process of getting gender affirming care on the 21st!
Other wins: Spent the last weekend with @flamingIce and @bigbossg13 at Bordie in show, the best offseason on the west coast… now time to not see my best friend for two+ months
Also cooked in my dorms kitchen and DID NOT set the fire alarm off. (The fire alarm has gone off due to kitchen related issues twice now)
The spam musbi was good for anyone asking.
My win this week is that I and all my loved ones made it through Hurricane Milton safely. Some are without power, some are dealing with damages, but all people are safe.
If you haven’t yet, please considering donating to relief efforts. West central Florida has been through a LOT (and of course, the Appalachian region is still recovering from Helene). Hurricanes are no joke.
Yeah, it seems like most of the folks I know in Tampa managed to stay safe, lots without power and a lot of things lost, but those can be replaced. I’m thankful for their safety.
Edit: If you know someone who is in Tampa/St Pete area trying to find out something about the hurricane - https://hurricane-guide.com/ is a site a few folks in the Suncoast Dev group put together. They are updating it as they can (though since they are local they may have intermittent internet/power)
Managing pretty well considering I am a week on from some very tough personal stuff. Lots of support from robotics, friends groups, and family. Very grateful.
Just tonight, figured out why one of the FTC team laptops wasn’t booting into Windows (INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE). Turns out the SATA mode got changed from RAID to AHCI, but switching it back seems to have fixed things (now how did it ever get changed?). Thankfully we have three identical laptops so I was able to compare against a working one to see what was different.
I’m headed home tomorrow, and I get to see my parents, grandparents, and friends for the first time in a couple months. I’m also going to see SF Fleet Week on Sunday, seeing the F-22 for the first time (my favorite-looking jet!).
While I didn’t get any great aurora pics (was too late in the day), but I went to a park and sat on a bench for a bit, and got some cool other pictures
Long, long, long week is over.
Had a lot of new and returning kids at tool training meetings.
Kids diagnosed and fixed some odd robot issues.
Tons of people seemed to have gone to our fundraiser night at SOMISOMI.
And I watched a sunset instead of a TV.
I can’t share all the pictures, but my honeymoon was amazing!
Louisville, Kentucky:
Stayed one night at Derby City casino/hotel and then stopped at the Louisville Slugger Museum. They have original tracing lathes (see below) as well as modern CNC machines signed by some of the players whose bats were made on them. The factory tour was really great, as is the history portion of the museum. At the end we got a full size laser engraved “wedding bat” that has our names, wedding date, etc. highly recommended!
What’s a tracing lathe? See that metal plate attached to the acrylic wall? That is the shape of one half of the bats profile. That is loaded into the lathe and it is able to take a raw cylinder (Billet) and turn it into the bat (minus removal of extra stock for clamping). The lathe follows the profile of the metal plate as it travels along at a set speed allowing them to repeat the process over and over well before CNC was possible or feasible.
We stayed in a nice cabin up in the mountains (right on the border of the national park). When I checked our elevation it was somewhere around 2,634ft above sea level, for reference at home near Detroit it’s 584ft. From downtown to our cabin was a 600+ ft elevation change in under 15 minutes. Very hilly but an adventure. The view on the porches (yes it had two different porches with rocking chairs!) was incredible and very relaxing. The cabin was decked out with bear decor. We counted over 200+ bears our last night in. It was very fun.
Lots of tourist traps to see in town and we fell for them all
Hollywood Wax Museum
Titanic Museum
Store with live baby goats
Pirate’s Voyage Dinner & Show (owned by Dolly Parton)
Ripley’s Aquarium
Landshark Bar and Grill
Sky Park, lift and bridge (scary, but not when you trust engineers)
Jason Aldeans Rooftop Bar & Grill
Rainforest Adventure Zoo (I held a very large snake)
Got a picture of large Rockem Sockem Robots at a mini golf place we passed (our team branding)
Helicopter tour of the mountains + Private room with local cider and romantic gift basket
We had a bear outside our cabin
Store with live bears
Cider tasting and buying 7 bottles (the same brand as the one from the helicopter tours, it was so good we needed more)
Dolly Parton’s Stampede Dinner & Show
Dollywood (lots of coasters and fun fall stuff)
Pictures below of some highlights, seriously too many to share them all. By the end we decided we love the mountains so much that we think someday that is where we will retire. So eventually (in like 35-40 years) I hope Tennessee FRC will be ready.
Bonus win. Our last night there we forgot to lock my car and a Bobcat broke in and tried to steal our cider. We had been really good about no food or drink left in the car and locking it up, but that last night we assumed we wouldn’t have an issue, it got in soon as we let our guard down. We have some pictures of the bite marks on the box and a couple small claw/tooth marks on the center console of my car but nothing serious. And another great story to tell. How do we know it was the bobcat? He came back later after I moved the car and was prowling around where the cider was found and where my car was. The cider was intact so kudos to the bottle makers.
We officially rebranded our team this week! It was a long time coming, but this year we finally decided to pull the trigger on our official rebrand. After 17 years as the W.A.R.Lords we are now Overclocked! A lot of work went into this rebrand including logos, new name discussions, promo videos, t-shirt design, and elevator pitches. We are thrilled to debut as Overclocked at Battle at the Border this weekend.
This week was a lot! I got a few wins that were just from the weekend alone.
Bordie Blast happened last weekend and it was awesome! I got to see people such as @bigbossg13 , @rainyskies , and a few others throughout the chaotic event. It felt like I was helping 3 different teams since my team brought two robots and an off-season team (4444 Switchback) needed helped. My team had a good time learning and having fun to the point where our mascot won an award! I even got to meet my boyfriend’s parents and dogs during that weekend.
(No dog tax for now - just know that the dogs are cute and wild)
Bonus win: I got connected to someone who might be able to help me find a job! I have a call set up for next Monday. Another step that’ll hopefully get me in the right direction. This job market is making me go crazy….
Scored my first CB Radio at a community garage sale, a Radio Shack TRC-222. Had to soak and scrub some corroded battery contacts in vinegar, and solder in a new negative lead wire, but after that she fired right back up! Haven’t made any contacts but have done some listening.
Made it through midterms, thankfully none of them were to bad but it’s a weight off my shoulders lol.
Went home Tuesday to see a Falconry demonstration at my little brother’s boy scout meeting and said hi to some of my old coworkers! And of course I got to see my kitties so here’s some supplies for the pet tax
Volunteer shift at the Houston Food Bank withy work folks. Packed 17,000 pounds of senior food boxes.
Ran into THREE robotics kids; FRC from Spectrum, VEX from Energy High School (my place), and a FTC kiddo!
Robots all the way down
