teenagers of AC
- Thread starter allaboutfish
- Start date
Lol, regionals arent until march here. But we do have a competition next week and I have to build a whole new robot arm. I hate that they call it robot but then dont allow you to use a micro controller and you have to control it with a controller or something. Lets just say, the judges might smell something a bit bad and see the words "fuel bottle" on our robot. But it is still 100% within the rules and I confirmed that with the regionals judge. Dont worry, we arent actually using an engine or anything like that. I will say, we will have the loudest robot there no doubt. (though the tech is quiet, we dont have the needed space to make it quiet)
Plus I still have to finish the new gravity car (doing that at home tomorrow) and I need to get access to one of the shops so I can make a new ramp that will allow our car to get a higher top speed. So much work to do in a week. I have a feeling it will be the normal at school until at least 8:30-11:59 (its either that or all night. After midnight we cant disarm the alarm to leave, so stupid.) then have to be back by 6am. At least if this one doesnt go well, we will know what to do to improve for regionals.
Im just glad we dont have mission possible this year. It was fun, but the rules were so strict it kind of took a lot of the fun out of it.
I guess I have a funny story about it
So my friend Kishan was working on the one for JV and he came rushing over to the teacher and I (talking about computers).
He says: Mr. Teacher I need a band aid
teacher: what did you do now? (annoyed tone of voice)
student: I stabbed myself
teacher: with what?
Student: a screwdriver
I walk over and pick up the only screwdriver in the area. It is a big ### flat head that isnt sharp at all.
Within about 45sec he had one of these on his hand
http://www.shoplet.com/3m-Duct-Tape-Bandage/MMM52020/spdv
Ah, Science Olympiad regionals were last weekend in my area and I think they were alright. I got 2nd for Bottle Rocket, 3rd for Rocks and Minerals, and 3rd for Water Quality. My school qualified for States, so that is something to look forward too. I am on our JV3 team (we have 4 JV teams) and they usually don't go to state. I am hoping that my results at Regional's will change our coaches minds.
I went to a special classroom where we all wore canvas jackets backwards and the sleeves buckled behind us. They were thoughtful enough to put mattresses on the walls for when we fell asleep standing up. They even had wires in the glass so no one could break in and steal our special coats. I sure miss those days..........
Cool, that is good news on your part. I have bad news on mine, the 2nd robot arm probably wont be done for this competition. Man, by this time last year we had built about 8 full robot ramble bots. (about 3x harder). This year we built 1 arm that should have taken me like 2 days of work (after school 2hrs a day), and I just finished the air system for the next robot arm.
Ahh, I remember going to state last year. It was really fun with my friends and stuff but it was also not so fun. Running around a college that you dont really know where you are going (the full on campus like a couple square miles) in the rain with bronchitis. Not fun. Staying up playing video games and watching the hangover in a hotel room full of friends at no expense to you, fun. Carying the mission possibles (about 25lbs) a mile each without getting them wet in the rain, not fun.
The teachers in charge of the team at my school are a couple. She is the main person and had to go into some building on the campus to check us in or something. Meanwhile one by one we took turns getting off the bus and asking random people where the campus was (when were right in the middle of it). Seeing peoples reactions, fun. The look on the main teachers face when she found out, priceless. The amazing Indian accent my friend has (classic tech support) priceless. Good times.
There is this kid on our team that is a complete (insert word here). He is a freshman and thinks he is the master of everything. about 30sec into using MY dremel, he nearly cut his finger off. We give him all of the hand tools now, no powered ones for him. And he skips days that he should show up (really important ones. Like the friday before competition, most of the team is at school until 6 or later. I am normally there until 8:30pm). He hasnt shown up the past 2 days (important) and I told the main teacher this. She says, "good, its probably for the better" since no one like him or gets along with him. Not even the teachers are able to hold themselves back sometimes with him. So my friends and I came up with, if this kid is in scio next year, scio can say good bye to my friend and I (2 year members, hard workers over 20 metals earned) and 3 more of my friends (first year, but all hard workers and deserve their metals) and they can keep him (1 lazy kid, doesnt deserve his metals. In fact he hasnt gotten a single one yet because of his effort he put in. Plus he skipped the 1 competition where he should have gotten a metal. Instead my other friend got it who filled in for him) And the physics teacher who works with us on the build events and allows us to use his tools and room pretty much refused to work with him after this year. Tomorrow there is a meeting and we cant wait to see what happens to him. After march, I dont have to deal with him at all. YAY (im varsity, he is jv. We only send varsity due to budget and stuff).
Sorry to kind of rant about us not liking one of our members. I know it is a good life lesson and stuff to learn how to deal with people you dont like. But, even the physics teacher who has been teaching almost as long as I have been alive cant deal with im. And he deals with a LOT of crap on a day to day basis from un caring students.
You school won't get rid of him? At most of the schools around my area, if the teachers (and students) don't feel your pulling your weight, you get cut from the team. I loved my State competition. It was convineint because it is close to my house (about 20min) and the weather was great. The only down side was my partner got lost on campus. We managed to scrounge up a small group of "rescuers" to find him before his event started. Probably one of the most stressful things I have done. Most of our team members are either Indian or Chinese, so people imitating their parents accents are the norm.
He will probably get cut from the team on monday. He showed up for the whole team meeting today, and then proceed to go to a different activity thing, and hang out with his imaginary girl friend.
Yep, a lot of our team is made up of asian people and a few indians. And my friend is polish. My mom cant keep their names straight. Kishan, zeeshan, vivik, vytas, and there are a few more that I might be forgetting. It is a cool way to meet new people. I seem to meet a new member of the team at just about every competition. Since I am always down in "physics world" (where we do all of the building stuff) with about 5 other people, I rarely see the team as a whole. They are normally upstairs in a bio room studying for test and stuff. I have gotten to try some pretty interesting food over the past 2 years. With my friends polish sadwiches, to my other friends indian foods. But I normally stick to pizza and mcdonalds.
So we decided to wait for the pneumatic robot until regionals and just take the other points for not having a jv robot. We dont have the pressure releif valve. It isnt required, but I would not go to competion without it. I will play with the stuff all I want at the school without it. But in the off chance something were to go wrong, safely releasing 100psi of air is a big deal. I would rather it be removed safely, than forced through the system into the expensive cylinders, or blowing a hose and stuff.
On the bright side, we have been wanting a curved ramp for gravity car for a while, but didnt quite have the time and materials to build a whole new one. Well, today I figured out how to put half of a white board on our ramp and curv it with a few screws to hold it in place. Then so we dont crack the white board or anything or have it suddenly release on the bus, I can just push down on the board and remove it. It is pretty epic imo that I came up with that in about 2 min vs building a whole new ramp.
