I’m back, or at least I’m back posting… idk it’s confusing and weird. BUUUT It’s December already, idk what’s up with that. This year has flown by. Definitely not a win… but who has some things to celebrate this week?
My win - we put up a tree for the first time a decade. Got a good deal on it too. Still waiting for the topper to come in.
My childhood dream of being a princess came true!
I got to see it all in 3D 
Got some new stickers! Dall-E generated
A whimsical, humorous sticker design in the style of a quirky sci-fi universe. The design features a smiling robot wearing a bowler hat, sitting in a rowboat on a cosmic sea. The sea is depicted with a space theme, including stars and nebulas as water, giving an otherworldly appearance. The robot is playfully rowing with oars. The background includes a starry sky with colorful nebula clouds, but ensures the robot and rowboat are centered with ample space around for sticker margins.
We went and did engagement photos before it got too cold. Our weddings a little under a year out but we got some of the edited pictures back this week. I’m really happy with how they are coming out. I’m not a big fan of getting pictures taken so making a whole event out of I didn’t expect to enjoy it. The photographer is a good friend and I think that made all of the difference.
I’ve joined the Bambu Labs revolution and received my P1S early this week. It’s been a beast and now I just wish they had a large format printer.
We got word that the Legos we shipped to an orphanage in Zimbabwe arrived:
We helped run the annual city-wide FLL scrimmage:
I survived what I call “snowbird Christmas”, which is just Christmas with the family early enough for the grandparents to attend before they take off for warmer land. Everyone came to my house, but they didn’t notice how cool my WS2812 Christmas lights are.
Also, due to the new paw patrol movie, and discussions about wrecking balls, I’ve gotten my 3 year old kids to start singing along to “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus, which cracks me up every time.
Got 102/100 on my chem test! (he could only register it as 100/100 though)
And now, kitbots at the heavyweight scale
Tree is up, after a slight delay to finish the model railroad that runs around its base. (Scenery can be fast, or slow. Depends on how much of a mess you want to make.)
Got through another week at work, making progress on solving issues and building “stuff”.
It’s been a good week so far.
I am officially moved into my new place! Its a bit of a mess with boxes everywhere, but at least its all here! After 9yrs and 1mo at my previous place, its a bit weird to adjust to the different house layout and such.
We went to setup for the FLL tournament at Ferndale, MI, last night (Friday). Up early today to go to the event. Team 1025 is hosting their first competition.
We hosted our annual regal eagle roundtables event and got to meetup with people from a few different teams
One of my teachers got back from maternity leave, so we finally got to meet her for this year. Right before another one is leaving for maternity leave.
Made some progress this week.
Have some scouting stuff in the works for the community to generate picklists from just ranking teams on each qual alliance(XXXX>YYYY>ZZZZ (or across alliances if you really want (AAAA>XXXX) ). I have had the analytical code for a while, but managed to get it into web app form. I will get a formal writeup going and hope to test with some bigger name teams this upcoming season.
The goal is to increase equity around scouting by providing a structured system that doesn’t change from year to year (no need to update) and promotes good scouting culture through discussion on robot capabilities during quals rather than a 3 hour picklists meeting. Advantages to more established teams as well as they get the above and hopefully go into the scouting meeting with a rough ranking. Web app and standalone versions should be available. Free to the community, simple to use.
I got a 94 on an AP calculus test! I’ve been doing significantly better this quarter of the school year, and cannot wait for 2nd semester. I also made it into wind symphony on 1st clarinet (a high level music ensemble you need to audition for)
Yesterday I got to present at team 2869’s mini roundtable conference, which went incredibly well! It was my first time public speaking with a crowd this large and I am very happy with how well I was able to handle it, a lot of people said they really enjoyed it.
Later today I’m going to either order pizza or make wings to watch the big 10 championship game (go blue!)
Update: Even more fun stuff has happened already. The new laptop my team ordered (our backup one is too slow to use for the upcoming season) has arrived! I’m very excited about it!
GO HOME!
jk jk, enjoy the game 
Edit: looked it up and saw it is vs Iowa, Go Blue!
Attended second FTC qualifier of the season. 2nd of our three teams has now qualified for states in two weeks.
GO BLUE!!!
Georgia losing to Alabama was very interesting to see though
I found a very interesting lever nut on our practice bot wiring:
The win here is that the freshmen remembered to put green wire to green wire and yellow wire across from yellow wire instead of just following the lever colors.
…of course probably shouldn’t’ve left it on the robot, but they did most things right .
Hey, the Hawkeyes fell only 13 safeties short of equalizing.
