This is a place for team members to post their thoughts and document the team's efforts. But reader beware: some team members have a rather odd sense of humor, so everything should be taken with a grain of salt.
This may be one of these times that doing absolutely nothing was actually bad. For those who are not history buffs, one should now that James Buchanan also did nothing, and as a consequence, allowed the Civil War to occur. While our "do-nothing" behavior did not result in an event as catastrophic as one of the bloodiest wars in American history, it resulted in something only slightly worse: falling behind in Build Season.
From a normal standpoint, six weeks is not a lot of time to do a project. Particularly a project that costs over $5,000. Of course, one could always get into a philosophical debate over the flow of time and how our own lives are insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe, but I won't. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, this 'no' doesn't really matter, either. But I will cease to bore you with this philosophical speech.
Fortunately, this post is not entirely bad news. We have two new members! Hooray! Happy, happy, and... blah. I'm out of ideas. See you next week.
~ Posted by Alex B. on Monday, February 1st, 2010 @ 6:12 pm
The majority of the week was spent prototyping and prototyping and... you guessed it! Prototyping! If memory serves, three or four kicker prototypes were made. Fortunately, one of these prototypes exceeded expectations by performing quite well; it managed to launch a soccer ball the whole length of the field. It was quite an experience, I must say. It was rather akin to the feeling those in the Medieval era must have felt when they saw a trebuchet be brought to bear on their little castle, except without the resulting terror.
On the topic of fields, we have one coming along quite nicely, which is in no small part due to Mr. Carteaux, who singlehandedly cut all of the pieces needed to build it. <Reference that will only be understood by those who've played a Mega Man game.> He's like Cutman, only without the giant scissors and sour demeanor. </Reference.>
While people were designing, prototyping, and building the field, the highlight of my week was the arrival of the mecanum wheels. I'm just going to come out and say it: these things were a pain to assemble. A real pain. And I don't mean the oh-no-I've-got-a-headache-I-need-an-aspirin-pain, I mean the oh-no-I've-accidentally-spilled-gasoline-on-myself-and-then-set-the-gasoline-on-fire pain. Here's an appropriate simile: Mecanum wheels are like booby-trapped treasure chests. You know there's something amazing in it, but when you try to open it (or put it together, as mecanum wheels need to be), you receive an unexpected face-ful of pain and suffering. Of course, all this suffering will be worth it if the wheels work as advertised.
~ Posted by Alex B. on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 @ 9:06 pm
And so ends the first week of Build Season. I must say, we were seemed to be a lot more organized this year than we were last year. Or I may just still be high off of the excitement of Kickoff and be over-exaggerating everything. Or possibly both.
Regardless of my current mental state, the past week has been quite interesting. For starters, Kickoff was, as I said above, amazing. Sure, there may have been the standard speeches, standard-looking game animation... until it is mentioned that robots can actually hang from a tower for bonus points, at which everyone's mouth gaped open in what would have made a perfect Kodak moment.
Second, the team executives decided to have everyone study the manual and understand the game even before design started, which proved to be a good decision on their part. So, unlike previous years of having members spouting out incoherent babble that was completely against the rules, members were spouting out somewhat-coherent babble that might have possibly been in line with the rules. Quite an improvement.
Third, the design process was a lot more streamlined and user-friendly this year. Instead of meeting in one big mass of students, the team broke into smaller groups for discussions. I agreed one hundred percent with this because it allowed people with no public speaking skills who are deathly afraid of breathing around a group greater than five people (i.e. people like myself) to make sure their ideas are heard.
The fourth and final topic I wish to bring up is something that simply cannot be put into words. This topic is something many will probably be unfamiliar with: mecanum wheels. They are so awesome that I can't think of a word to describe them. So instead, I'll use the following: Think of your favorite food. Then, imagine that food ten times tastier. Then, imagine that extraordinarily tasty food manifested in a wheel. Those would be mecanum wheels.
~ Posted by Alex B. on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 @ 8:47 pm
I am feeling something akin to what one must feel upon becoming president: a feeling of anticipation and excitement coupled with a feeling of dread. Why the excitement and anticipation? Both game hints have been released. Even though they don't really tell anyone much, it's still great, because they are game hints and are therefore amazing, so by the Associative Property of Real Life, my day automatically becomes amazing upon seeing these hints.
But why the dread? Two words: button maker. But I'm just letting myself get lost in dreary memories. After all, what are freshmen for?
Are you pumped for kickoff? I certainly am! YEAH! ROBOTS! WOOT!I'M SO PUMPED I MIGHT HAVE AN ANEURYSM! YEEEEEAH!*
*Everything in full caps should be said in the traditional "rabid and angry sports fan" voice. Of course, chest thumps are optional but greatly enhance the effect you'll have on others.
~ Posted by Alex B. on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 @ 6:05 pm
Those of you who read this blog and don't know me personally may rest assured that I am not dead.
This week's meeting was rather short. The only real topic of discussion was an announcement that the team is in desperate need of volunteers to help at the December 19th FLL Qualifier at ORMS. Of course,, there was also the usual nagging for liability waivers to be signed and turned in, because even though this is a nonprofit, volunteer organization, we are also based in America, the land of frivolous lawsuits.
~ Posted by Alex B. on Friday, December 4th, 2009 @ 9:04 am
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