Posted by Robby at 12/31/2000 2:08 PM EST
Other on team #108, The SigmaC@Ts, from AIFL and Motorola.
In Reply to: Why not?!
Posted by Jessica Boucher on 12/31/2000 12:17 PM EST:
I’m replying under this column cause, well, I’m an actor too, and I think its cool to see another who COULD have gone that route only but chose this one as well. Kudos to both our offbeat drama-hides, Jessica B^P.
Now, as for the story. Its a long one and your gears may go ‘clak clak’, so don’t plug in that fuse just yet…
The very first time I heard the word ‘Engineer’ was when I was very little. Probably about 6 or 7. Being full of questions, and absolutely in love with (warning: 80’s refs)legos, the Snorks, and red and green goo shooting guns, (not to mention Ghostbusters and TMNT) , I was always asking about making things, so this goes back to the legos. I think from the time I first asked that to the age of 12 I had a back and forth debate with my dad every now and then that went something like this:
‘Hey dad, how do things get made?’
‘Well, engineers come up with ideas then draw out the product then make it.’
‘Really?’
‘Yep’
‘So engineers make chairs?’
‘Yep, and tables too.’
‘What about houses?’
‘Those too. And things inside the houses.’
‘Like TV’s?’
‘Yes.’
‘What about twist-ties?’
‘Those as well.’
‘Even cushie toilet seats?’
‘Yes.’
‘Forks, knives, spoons, syrup bottles, markers, m&m bags, boxes, box tape, mouth tape, duct tape, duck hunt, duck decoys, decoy brothers, brothers, Brother games, video games, slime video games, slime, boogers???’
‘Well, maybe not all that stuff.’
‘Okay.’
And back to being Lionel I went. One more thing in my childhood that gives meaning to why I do what I do with FIRST: Robot movies. I always thought those were cool too. Expecially this one with audiences watching giant robots shoot thier fists at each other and those I asked about engineering too, I just forgot to add it to the list. Doh.
Now, fast forward to swampy Florida (from Neaw Yawk) where we moved to in 1992 and met Andrew. That went along these lines:
‘Hello Andrew’
‘Whoosh’
‘Goodbye Andrew’
My family lucked out and moved to qaint little Coral Springs, where that nasty storm just passed us over. The town just wasnt worth it’s time. But Computers and Acting were worth my time. As I grew older, my dad got me more and more into computers. Not only that, but the acting but bit me in New York after hearing that there were acting schools and that we would look for one in Florida. I won’t go through that conversation. I’ve tortured you with enough of those.
Now, being into both Acting and Computers, this made me an offbeat outcast (like you couldnt tell!). I was always in a dream world, constantly dreaming of things, of ideas, creating products because I wanted to be an engineer on Endor, not some geek on Earth. So when middle school ended, it was only natural that I attended a High School far far away…
Dillard. And y’know what the best part was? It had both my loves - acting and hi-tech.
BORING BEN-STEINISH NARRATOR: Dillard High is a magnet school. It is a school that is attended not only by the native cultures but also by travellers from counties up to an hour’s travel by thier yellow-tinted tansports. These travellers come to study various trades. At this particular, lets say, pool of outcasts, the outsiders could learn how to perform quality dramatic rituals, or learn to use and build tools which help ‘compute’ in forein tounges, known as See, AcheTee Emel, and others. They must choose between these two trades, sometimes the decision making preocess leading to migraines and motion sickness on their yellow vessels. Yet others choose to have a caste placed upon them and allow that to choose for them.
This caste he spake of was derived of my grades from middle school. Considering I daydreamed and wrote ideas down all throughout middleschool, I’m sure you can assume my grades… But what I lacked for in grades, I made up in sheer acting talent. I applied for both the tech and drama program and was accepted into drama. That was not enough for me, what with seeing a robot at the open house. Wait… um… robot… Oh yea!
It was mixed nuts, The first Dillard entry into FIRST in 95. My freshman year I wanted to join, but programming was required so I had to take that before anything else. I had 3 electives my freshman year. Two drama and one tech. Sophomore year I got my hands dirty with SigmaC@T 98, or more true to reality: The animation. I got stuck with that, but I wanted to know more about 3D animation and so I set out to learn it, eventually surpassing the Seniors knowledge about 3DS MAX. More on animation woes in later posts…
At nationals I became our team spirit when the spirit team gave up. I wouldnt. If you saw those blue signs that year about ‘Be FIRST to make the wave’, I was the nut who eventually got other teams to run with the signs and get it going with me. I also met a special someone on the trip who didnt become so until the next year. Ironically she was from a sister team of ours… man, I wonder if she’s readin this…
The following year, I started to do more with the robot, but our animation suffered because of it. I couldnt properly manage the animation team and we did not succeed in creating an animation that year. That sucked. But, I became the first Junior on our team to make it to the Kickoff. And yes, I made it to Deans hours . Not only that, but I was selected as having the greatest team spirit and they used me in a Promo video for Motorla. Not to mention I was the lucky ‘8th man’. Because of the video, they sent me to Chicago, where I met my, uh, special someone, literally, by a draw of the cards.
And my senior year was the second year I got picked to go to the Kickoff (Deans house again, WOO!!!). I successfully created an animation which was noted to be one of the most detailed robots autodesk had seen in an animation during an animation presentation at nationals. I also created one of two winning I-Candy Awards for sharingFIRST, Gael force being the other. I became our driver that year, and got to hang out with my Chica in Chicago some more. And nationals was a week away where I got to see her again (Whoo hoo!!!).
Now, out of High School, I am attending the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale for Industrial Design. If you like more the visual and not so much the mechanical/mathematical part of engineering, you may want to look into that profession. It fits me to a tee. I wanted to get AIFL involved with a team this year, but because of time constraints (A Job, School, And Sleep will do that to ya) I couldnt.
Instead this year I will continue working with team 108, focusing on helping with the animation. But that is not all I will be doing that involves FIRST. I know that there is so much more that can be created with FIRST as a central theme, and it begins up here. Wait. No head to point at. Doh.
I’ll be in here much more often now, so look for my postings of the projects here and at some new websites to come. Til Kickoff, or Nationals, or Regionals, Or wherever you see a short boy in a hawaiian shirt on a unicycle screaming ‘The 80’s ruled!’. Read my lips, no more story.
Wait, one last thing. Just wanna make my amiga in chi-town blush a last time by mentioning that I can’t wait to see her again at Nats and Regionals. Oh, and I have my fingers crossed she’ll pick UM. Pleeeeeeaaaasee… Oh please, oh please, oh please… okay. Stick a fuse in me, Im done.
-Robby
Hope you enjoyed my odd life story. I’d just like to thank all the little people for making it happen, especially my mom and dad, without whom I wouldnt be here tonight. Shoutouts go to Bird, Wolfboy, Shades, Anton, Erin, Dean, Woody, Raul(thanks fer 111, man!), Kate, Colleen, Nate, Pooh Bear, TMNT, Egon and Peter, All-Star, Gobo, Wembly, Boober, Mokey(Eghads, please dont tell me I forgot one of thier names!!!), and Red. Oh, and watch out for that tree…
Why do I do FIRST?? Because there is simply NOTHING else like it on the planet.
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