Robot

This post was meant for yesterday, but I was far to tired to type anything that would have made sense.
So we went to the robotics competition bright and early, we set up the table display, which featured brilliant posters, and videos with some fantastic dramatic music thrown in for effect. Then we flipped through the little book to see when we would be going up for each section (you see there are 5 different sections to the competition, robot performance, oral presentation, engineering notebook, table display, and team spirit.)
As it turns out we were first up for oral presentation (the part that I worked on) so the group of us went in and did the best oral presentation known to man. Then two of the judges had questions for us. Russ took the one question and answered it brilliantly, you know your doing good when you impress the engineer. The third judge didn't even have a question, she just said that we managed to answer everything in the presentation. So we left the room all happy. I seriously cannot think of a better group of people for the oral presentation. They have no idea how much I was loving them right then, well I always do, but I particularly thrilled at that moment!
So we proceeded with the rest of the day, I mostly stayed at the table display to answer any questions that the judges had about its layout. I rather enjoyed being surrounded by the videos and photos that I designed, with the specially edited music in the background. So as the day came and went we had a few judges come by and we answered their questions.
Once all of the robot rounds had finished we discovered that we weren't in the semifinals for robot performance (Thanks to some faulty equipment, not the fault of any of our people), so naturally people started to look a bit defeated. But I figured that since Robot Performance is the smallest part points wise in overall we could still win this (The 6 teams going to Alabama are the top 3 for robot performance and top 3 overall.) I figured that we did well on Oral which was worth a good deal of points.
Well after 2 and a half hours of waiting for the judges to calculate points, at this point the play music for people to dance to, which is nice and all but at that point all we really care about is who won.
So after the music had stopped they decided to first announce the awards that don't have point values. We didn't take anything there but it didn't matter to us anyway. Then they announced spirit and sportsmanship, that does hold a point value, we came in 3rd if I'm not mistaken we were thrilled. Next was the Engineering notebook, we didn't place in the top 3, and thus the depression felt by some earlier came back, but then they began to announce the oral presentation awards, which happened to be one that I really cared about.
I was really hopping to place in the top 3 for it. They announced 3rd place, not us, so I figured ok, we got 2nd then, nope not so much, at this point I must be honest there was a shred of doubt in my mind that we may not place at all but then they announced 1st, Northeast high school, I've never been so happy in all of my life! It is always nice to see that something which you have worked countless hours on payed off.
Then came the awards for  Robot Performance (which we knew we weren't placing for see the above problem.) At this point many figured that we wouldn't be going to Alabama this year, but I still held out hope, after all you never know whose going to win overall. Then they announced it "The fourth team going to Alabama is Northeast High School" We were thrilled, we were all jumping up and down and cheering, we took the picture with the trophy and then waited to see who the other two teams would be, we were all hoping it was Baldi since they're brilliant at robotics and quite frankly just some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. And before you knew it, they announced Baldi came in 1st Overall, so naturally we started cheering for them too! So we packed up for the day all happy and cheering all the way back to the bus, but not before I "borrowed" the oral presentation trophy, I wasn't letting that baby go! Needless to say it is sitting on my desk as I write this, but don't worry I will bring it back in on Monday to put in the office =D
After we got back it was still early so the oral presentation team went to celebrate over at Ernie's. I gotta tell you it had to be one of the best days of my life. Now I just have to wait 31 days to be back in Alabama. Well that's all for now. Thanks for reading. Oh and posted below is a picture of the oral presentation trophy, just in case you didn't believe I smuggled it home lol.

The Impossible Planet

School was still pretty empty today between the combination of the SEPTA strike, the supposed uniform "rebels," and the great deal of illness that seems to be spreading like wildfire. Garfield pushed the test back from today to tomorrow, not that I think it will help much, when your out for over a week it can not be expected for people to have somehow absorbed the source material. Oh well there is really nothing that we can do about it I suppose. My job for today called and canceled and I must admit I was quite content that I would be able to get home earlier than usual.
It seems no matter how many times I fix the oral presentation for this robotics competition, There is always something left out. On the bright side the practices are going well, though in pieces. The presenters are great, the only problem is that there is always someone calling people away during the practices.
Hopefully tomorrow will go well, but only time will tell. Till then thanks for reading.

Evolution of BOB

Today began quite dully actually, although there was all of the chaos brought on by the SEPTA strike and the new uniform policy. While chaotic, it did empty out a great deal of the school, which I must admit was quite nice. Nothing really happened in any of my classes. Took a calc test, I'm pretty sure I passed.
Then came after school, we had a gentleman from downtown come to film us for a documentary about robotics, BEST specifically. He filmed me doing the intros to the different parts of the documentary. I'm curious to see how it turns out. He also got some good footage of the team practicing with the robot and practicing for the oral presentation which is finally close enough to done to practice with. Although as of this minute, I've been working on it all night, I only need one more picture to complete the slide show, but I won't be able to get it until Friday.
The playing field still isn't finished but it should be by tomorrow. It is bound to be a long couple of days but with any luck I will survive them. Well goodbye for now, thanks for reading.

The Age of Steel

To say that today proved interesting would not begin to describe today's events. My day began like any other I came in to school exceptionally early had a conversation pertaining to how unfair and awful the uniforms are. Then I got down to my advisory to discover that I would be interviewed today, only no one knew who or why. They were looking for a diversified group of magnet students to interview, the diversified adjective lead to one of the funniest statements of the day. A friend of mine volunteered to go and be interviewed as well only to get the now classic response "That's ok, I already have a white boy," maybe you had to be there but we all got a kick out of it at the time.
Next I received what I think must be one of the greatest letters of recommendation of all time. Never in my life have I read something so touching and for that I will always be grateful to the author. So first period came and went without much eventfulness, second period came with news that we would be having a test on Thursday and Friday (Oh the joy of it all!) Third period I came down to the magnet wing once more to try and figure out more about this interview thing, which I was then told would take place at 11:40 in room 141, sounds fine right?
Next, I go to my fourth period psych class, which is quite possibly one of my favorite classes ever, then it happened, the great blackout of '09, well it wasn't so great really as it caused me to get to the interview later than the scheduled time, but it was ok since no one else could make it either. When I did get to the interview it was more of an oral survey, with very little room for actual input. So I left there and flew through the now shortened 6th, 7th, and 8th periods.
Now here is the interesting part, Monday is normally the day that I would have my computers group meet, and I would show them something new. This was not the case today, due to a certain robotics competition I was forced to cancel my computers meeting. Get this the reason was so that they could use the room and so that they could use me to complete the oral presentation and use the other computer manager to work on the robot. As you can imagine I was pretty pissed off that I had to cancel one of my favorite times of the week just so that I could be used for other tasks that are for a group that I never even technically joined.
So I went a bit insane, partially because I had to cancel my meeting and partially because I had skipped lunch. But I quickly got over it thanks to the support of several very good friends. Even at this moment I am still working on some of the finishing touches for the oral presentation. But I must say that the photos that I took have turned out to be absolutely brilliant and I cannot wait to show them off. Well I suppose that is all for now, I've ranted enough for one night. Till next time...