World Championships

The championship is now over. I’ve no clue who won. As it turned out, the robot performed fairly well compared to some of the teams that got there by winning regionals. However, it was difficult to drive, aim, etc. We also discovered the solution to all our gearing system problems in a Mexican team’s beautiful gearing system, but by that time it was too late to fix our problems.

To be short, we lost because we did. I am not bitter, however. Although all no one besides myself will be returning next year, I now see many ways by which next year’s robot may be perfected. Actually, we have been having overall trouble arranging team meetings for activities other than frenzied building. For this reason, we had not had our end of year party when the Championship appeared more than month after the initial regional.

I am glad that robotics is over for the season, however. The activity loses some charm when people begin to stress. Besides that, it’s springtime and I have a cold. Now that the championship is past, I may safely flaunt it to family members as something other than allergies. I would like to go outside into the pollen and enjoy it. We spent an estimated 42 hours inside in the past week hunched over the robot.

I have discovered that I need to spend more time writing. Some quality is lost. Is it better to be blind of your faults but happy and willing to continue; or to see your faults and to be dissatisfied, wishing to stop?

T-minus 0

Time has slowed down, a good thing too–we had lots to work on. Our robotics competition is on Thursday. Today will be the final leg.

We must practice, practice, and somehow get our average up to 50 points in one minute, forty seconds. That’s a point every two seconds, so we probably won’t get it that high. We need to work on our program especially after we saw that some teams (FTC 3) have eight autonomous  modes according to whom they are playing. We also need to do a general maintenence check. I’m not going to be begging for parts from other teams during the competition. (hopefully) Even if we do have to beg, all the teams there are really nice and will pity the idiot enthusiasts who got to go at last minute.

We will be giving away nifty pens and wearing green. We will also be sneezing over everyone (me at least) because we have allegies. I recommend that you wave to us from across the room. *kidding*

T-minus 2 days

What an odd, strange ride it’s been. Robotics still dominate my days. We must have spent 30 hours on the robot in the last few days. I am beginning to feel like a fool surrounded by geniuses. You can almost hear the brain circuits buzzing; perhaps that’s the humidifier.

It almost seems that for every problem we solve, there’s another problem right around the corner. All of our problems from last week were solved by a brainstorm, but now the five-year-old kits are beginning to break down. We had to sauter a wire tonight just so we could practice. We have been reduced to overnight shipping and begging other teams so we can use a lawful wire at the competition.

Other than that, I have been struck by how similar this is to the small handi-crafts I had been doing, especially sorting screws and inserting things into tight places. I even got out my sewing kit when we were trying to thread the wires back into the connection.
Pray that our team as well as our robot does not break under the strain. God wants us to do this; He’ll get us through it.

Championship

Well, by circumstances almost beyond my comprehension, it appears that team 420, and I with it, are going to  the FIRST nationals! Usually, only teams who won first place or the inspire award get to go. However, so many teams won first place at multiple competitions that they had a drawing for lowly teams like ours to come as filler.

I am somewhat peeved. The drawing took place eight days before they told us, and we now only have a week to get ready. We are coming to try to compete, you know. FIRST also slapped us with a humongous entrance fee in proportion to the notice they gave us.

We found a sponsor, however, so we won’t have to pay the fee. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to go. Now I have an incredible amount of work before me.

• We must stabilize an annoying semi-twisting shaft.
• We must reprogram the thing.
• We must practice driving.
• We must find a way to be sure of the arm’s height.
• We need to finish all the publicity stuff, t-shirts, lists of what to bring and remember, etc.

Despite this all, I’m rather happy to go. Next year the nationals are being moved to California, which is far outside the reach of my casual haunting. I wish to make the most of this last championship. Perhaps we might even win something.

Prettiness

Whee! it’s so pretty here! The trees here are just getting into bloom and it was beginning to get warm before the cold snap and the birds are chipper. Although I feel somewhat guilty about enjoying this because people in my family have major allergies… Then it snowed, and I was wearing shorts. Do people wear shorts anymore? One begins to wonder.

It appears that I shall be haunting my local scout blast. Huzzah! What our crew plans to do might be a little elaborate; it appears to be hit or miss. Maybe we’ll miss and land in the shade.

Oh, yes and Easter week (or the date of Easter last year) is the anniversary of when I began a children’s story for my sister. I am considering the possibility of posting the story in my “Writings” section as a serial in a few months. I need to edit/rewrite it and fix the tone. (You can almost hear me laughing as my characters fall into peril again and again.) In addition to that, because its target is 11-14 year-olds and it is not very skillfully told, most of my readers will probably not have much interest for it.

Camping Stoves

As I adore camping and making stuff, It was only a matter of time before I made a camping stove. (Well, perhaps not, I’m a procrastinator.) After checking around, I put together a hodgepodge of instructions from these sites. (included for reference) wikihow, most useful site, and Zen stoves. Further, I decided to post how I made my still-untested beverage can stove. Here is how (I) made a stove.

Laundry

So, I survived this competition. Unfortunately, Jeremiah wants to go shoot for the Inspire Award in North Carolina. I don’t think he’ll get very far. (Our team, FTC 420, got the Think Award; I’m rather satisfied.) There were some rather cool teams at the competition. I thought it was rather funny when Jeremiah had to go up against his role model team, FTC 3.

The main theme of my month, besides robotics, has been laundry. You could hide a small child in my heap of clothing. (You would be able to tell where a large child was in the heap.) I think my laundry has developed personality. Currently it is malicious, and I cannot find anything I need. Soon it will become affectionate and will cling with warmth that could only come from the fact the heating pipe runs under my closet floor. Eventually it will be jealous and I will begin to repel people.

Until that stage is reached, however, I am alleviated from the chore of putting it away especially because I may not have the space to put it all. Helpful too, it has been raining. Rain? We’ve been having a drought, but I woke last night to find that the rain was literally pounding on my window in sheets. It was kinda cool. Thunderstorms have lost your attention after age nine unless you get a big one. When you do have a big one, your impulse, rather than fear, is Look, there’s a big puddle; let’s jump in it!

Problems with the Robot

Building our robot goes reasonably well, but it is strange how something so calculated and mulled over could be so hard to gauge the success of.

Our robot is basically designed to pick up rings and slide them over a stick. That would not seem so hard. It is. We finally got an arm worked up to skew them and raise them to the level of the stick. Problems remain.

• We have barely enough room to mount the arm and stand a high chance of bending the rod it is mounted on.
• We cannot tell if we will actually be able to pick the rings up. This cannot be accurately tested until we have the arm mounted.
• Somewhat humorous, with all this weight, will we actually be able to move the product of our genius?

Bright spots, however, remain. We have large omni-wheels, making it infinitely easier to move the thing. Soon we will have zip-ties, and world domination will be accomplished. That is, until we test it. Figures they would change to different parts next year.

“Average”

Recently, my life has been looking rather average to me, but only when the expression is pondered over, do you realize how unusual average is.
There is no such thing as average. The expression “average” can refer to an opinion between two extremes, but not necessarily one that exists.
So it is that I find life “interesting.”

My first observation on the zest of life has to do with lunch. The fact that you have similar and ordinary-sounding things for lunch each day does not necessarily make them normal. Wednesday I had a lime-marmalade, onion, and sour cream sandwich.

The second observation has to do with the nature of school. Ordinary assignments can actually completed for fun without getting a horrible result. I like doodling little people with kites on my trigonometry problems.

The third is the long known but not comprehended observation that people do just that. For this reason, I wish that Sunday school curriculum avoided over-used phrases and stories. It is only now that I reread that I realize, “Wow this is a great verse. I’ve known it since I was seven.”

On these same lines runs the principle of outlook. Suddenly, the world can become sunnier, and I realize that I am blessed.

Thoughts

This past week I have been semi-sick and extremely unproductive. I suppose beginning a fitness plan is productive, but the gain was canceled by the time I spent idle and inexplicably sore.

My main concern at present is how I am going to use my still hoarse voice to say any lines during a short Christmas play. If a certain child shows up, I will happily watch someone else of carry an enormous J across the stage. It is not that I mind carrying the letter too much, of course, but I mind people watching me. On the other hand, if I give up that part, I have to be a plant. Yelling answers to the questions asked by the actors might not be so bad.

One thing I have done this week is to read history. Why is it that evil people go at their colleagues’ throats? If they united, then Communism would rule the world! (Another question I have is why would anyone want the responsibility of ruling the earth and the fear of assassination. I seem to have no allies on that one.)

I have also been analyzing other people’s personalities. It’s quite strange how some people mature very quickly, while others seem to have always been mature. Ah! but those are the phlegmatic.