ROBOTICS TRIP.
I started writing this like a week ago but then Peter Pan made me mad busy so without further ado here is the mandatory robotics trip long entry:
So this weekend was the robotics trip and it was SO MUCH FUN OMG AMAZING YAY.
OK so Thursday we had ANOTHER bomb threat and so we were all freaking out wondering if we'd be able to still have the robotics trip and how that would go, but luckily we were allowed back in after a few hours so we were able to leave on time.
Then came the 10 hour bus ride. It was actually surprisingly manageable. We just watched movies the whole time until it got really late and then some people went to sleep and some just chilled and talked. We got to the hotel at about 1AM and then Devi and I chilled and watched tv for a little and then went to sleep. And we each got our own bed which was nice :)
When we got there, it was snowing. Remember that.
Friday we got up and went to the competition and oh my god the internet connection there was so slow. I worked on trying to get the program that would program Josh's robot to work, which was hard because I had to download stuff and the downloads took like an hour. I played a lot of solitaire. Later that day was the robohockey tournament. We sucked a lot, and something happened to our robots that made them unable to compete the second time we were up. Then we went to Cici's for dinner which is an amazing place even though the pizza isn't that great. But it's about $7 for all you can eat salad, pizza, pasta, garlic bread (which is amazing), soda, brownies, and absolutely delicious cinnamon rolls. And they have a little arcade built in where I won about a thousand of those little bouncy balls. Oh, and the snow kept piling up and up and it was snowing quite a bit. Then when we got back we went to Meijer, aka the German wal-mart except its so awesome because it just has everything you could possibly imagine. Like a $20 parakeet. We had to walk through the snow to get there, though, which was cold. And I didn't have my boots with me either because I didn't want to wear them to the competition and I didn't want to have to bring an extra pair of shoes.
So then we get back to the hotel and find some guys from our team in the hot tub. Then, they all get out of the hot tub, run outside (where it is snowing), run back inside and get back in the water. Devi and I were like wooooow stupidity to the max. Then came time to paint people's nails to match the team t-shirts which were black with red and silver writing. I brought the nail polish and so I was painting everyone's nails. Somehow we had managed to get Keith to agree to get his left hand painted along with his toes. Well, when you have about 5 girls and one hopeless freshman in a room with nail polish and makeup, somehow you end up giving him a full makeover. Needless to say, he was not very pleased. Most of the other guys were happy to have their nails done, though. It was pretty funny. Then we played some rock band and then I went to help Josh out some more with his robot. We finally got the code to go onto the robot, but the board kept overheating. There was no way to use less batteries though, so we just kept trying, until smoke started to rise from the board. That was when we were like "oookay obviously this robot is not going to compete tomorrow."
So then on Saturday we wake up and realize that there is about a foot and a half of snow outside. It turned out to be a level 3 snow emergency, which means that only emergency vehicles are allowed on the roads. That meant that our bus drivers did not want to take us to the competition. So we were sitting in the hotel freaking out because Saturday was the main day of the competition and we wanted to go, and we were also supposed to leave that night right after the competition but we couldn't so we had to stay another night. Eventually we somehow got in contact with one of the guys from the competition and he came by in his truck to take us in groups of 5 to the competition, which meant not everybody could go because it took so long to get there and back in the blizzard, and we didn't want to make a thousand trips home later. Since I'm President of the club AND a senior AND Head Coder, I pretty much was guaranteed a spot there, so I went on the second shift because the 1st was reserved for team captains that were competing that day. So I pretty much just ran back and forth with the maze people trying to get their robot to work for most of the time. They got it to go perfectly through the maze and were just optimizing their code. When they went to compete though, they had some incredibly unlucky things happen. They get 3 tries. The first, the robot for some reason didn't work and was just spinning around. Then the same thing happened the second try. Before the third, they asked the judge if they could have a practice round, and he said that was fine and so they did it and it went perfectly through the maze. Then they went for their third trial and just as it started to go, a battery fell out so the robot didn't have enough power to move. It sucked so much.
The next robot to compete was Top of the Hill, which is a robot that has to navigate around a dirt pit and pick up ping pong balls. Devi claimed it worked perfectly and was totally awesome so we all went to check it out. So she goes and the robot starts to move and then stops. And it just would not move. The wheels were spinning but it couldn't get anywhere. So then a nice judge decided to help Devi out with the robot and make some modifications. The second time she went (which actually came after the sumo competition but for organizational matters I'll talk about it now), the robot did move around the ring and it managed to pick up one ping pong ball, but then it ended up on rocks somehow and it got stuck in them. So that was the end of that robot.
Our last hope was Sumo, which at one point was working but then had stopped working, so all it would do was spin. They almost forfieted but then decided hey why not enter. So it went up against its first opponent. Our sumo bot just spun around while the other one somehow managed to drive itself right out of the ring. The next one we were up against absolutely creamed us and almost killed Paul because it moved so fast. The next time, we managed to go up against our first opponent again. This time, the other team's robot started to drive out of the ring, but then sensed the white line and moved back in. Then it sensed some skid marks, went back, sensed the white line, and then came back in. But this time it didn't sense the skid marks so it just kept going and backed itself right out of the ring again. While all this is happening, our robot is spinning. The next robot we were against also spun, so for two 3-minute rounds, the robots just kept spinning around eachother and nobody went out of the ring. Then the next round, we went up against some college team that actually knew what they were doing and had a robot that did what it was supposed to. So they obviously won, which meant we were out. However, the guy somehow told us that we managed to come in third place for the whole tournament. And since the team that beat us was a college team, we won 2nd place for all high schools! So naturally we were SO EXCITED because it was SO EXCITING.
Now, obviously there is another part to the story of the robotics trip because I'm Dana and I go on boy watch because that is just what I do. So here comes the story from that perspective. At the competition, we were all lined up in tables where we would work on the robots. Our table was next to this table of kids from Virginia. On Friday I noticed that one of the kids at the table was pretty cute. I didn't really say anything to him (but I did ask him if I could borrow a serial cable because ours didn't work). I kept seeing him around and stuff. And so then it turned out, these Virginia kids were staying in the same hotel with us, so I was like okay cool yay. On Saturday when we got snowed in, the Virginia kids were still able to go to the competition but as I said before, we had to go in spurts. So when I got there I saw the kid and we talked a little about how some of our team was finally there and stuff. I kept seeing him around and we'd smile and wave and stuff, and then later we talked about the robots and stuff (just a disclaimer before I continue: yes, this is a boring story. no, nothing happened. this is partially for my purposes so I can look at this later and see what a loser I was in high school, and also partially so I can feel good about the fact that I managed to talk to a guy I didn't know and become friendly with him because in the past I've always found cute boys places but never gotten the courage to actually talk to them; normally I just... look.)
So after the competition ended I went back to the table where we were all chilling and the boy was at his table so I was talking to him, and then I met some of the other guys on their team, so we were all talking. Then their coach had to talk to them so I got out my 5x5 and started solving it. Then seriously. Best moment ever. Pretty much their entire team was completely in awe of me solving this cube. They were completely in disbelief. I had like 20 guys surrounding me watching me do this. It was so awesome. So of course I solved it and they were all super impressed.
Then the awards ceremony happened which was when we found out we actually came in 2nd for sumo. Except some of our team had already left by then because we had to go back to the hotel a few at a time, too. I ended up in the last group going back. When we got there, the Virginia kids were already eating dinner so I chilled with them a little (especially the cute one. by the way his name was Matt.) Then some kids went back to play Guitar Hero and Devi really wanted me to play so I went but I got bored so I went back to the kitchen area thing and hung out with a smaller group of Virginia kids (including Matt, duh.) Then they decided they wanted to play super smash brothers and so I was like okay why not so I went back and played with them for a little but I sucked so I got bored and I left. And that was the last time I saw the cute boy. Here's what I learned: No matter how much a nerdy boy may gawk over you, if there are video games around, you do not exist to them. But there's one last nice part to this story. So later, I was having some soup and Devi was keeping me company and there were these 2 other guys from Virginia sitting there, so we all introduced ourselves. But one of them said to the other, "Oh, that's Dana. That's Matt's girl." I was like WHAT. And then I tried to get them to tell me what they said (even though I heard it the first time) but they wouldn't say anything. That was satisfaction enough for me, though.
So then we stayed over an extra night and left bright and early the next morning (except it wasn't really bright because the sun hadn't risen yet.) 12 hours later, we arrived home. And here I am. Yay!
So this weekend was the robotics trip and it was SO MUCH FUN OMG AMAZING YAY.
OK so Thursday we had ANOTHER bomb threat and so we were all freaking out wondering if we'd be able to still have the robotics trip and how that would go, but luckily we were allowed back in after a few hours so we were able to leave on time.
Then came the 10 hour bus ride. It was actually surprisingly manageable. We just watched movies the whole time until it got really late and then some people went to sleep and some just chilled and talked. We got to the hotel at about 1AM and then Devi and I chilled and watched tv for a little and then went to sleep. And we each got our own bed which was nice :)
When we got there, it was snowing. Remember that.
Friday we got up and went to the competition and oh my god the internet connection there was so slow. I worked on trying to get the program that would program Josh's robot to work, which was hard because I had to download stuff and the downloads took like an hour. I played a lot of solitaire. Later that day was the robohockey tournament. We sucked a lot, and something happened to our robots that made them unable to compete the second time we were up. Then we went to Cici's for dinner which is an amazing place even though the pizza isn't that great. But it's about $7 for all you can eat salad, pizza, pasta, garlic bread (which is amazing), soda, brownies, and absolutely delicious cinnamon rolls. And they have a little arcade built in where I won about a thousand of those little bouncy balls. Oh, and the snow kept piling up and up and it was snowing quite a bit. Then when we got back we went to Meijer, aka the German wal-mart except its so awesome because it just has everything you could possibly imagine. Like a $20 parakeet. We had to walk through the snow to get there, though, which was cold. And I didn't have my boots with me either because I didn't want to wear them to the competition and I didn't want to have to bring an extra pair of shoes.
So then we get back to the hotel and find some guys from our team in the hot tub. Then, they all get out of the hot tub, run outside (where it is snowing), run back inside and get back in the water. Devi and I were like wooooow stupidity to the max. Then came time to paint people's nails to match the team t-shirts which were black with red and silver writing. I brought the nail polish and so I was painting everyone's nails. Somehow we had managed to get Keith to agree to get his left hand painted along with his toes. Well, when you have about 5 girls and one hopeless freshman in a room with nail polish and makeup, somehow you end up giving him a full makeover. Needless to say, he was not very pleased. Most of the other guys were happy to have their nails done, though. It was pretty funny. Then we played some rock band and then I went to help Josh out some more with his robot. We finally got the code to go onto the robot, but the board kept overheating. There was no way to use less batteries though, so we just kept trying, until smoke started to rise from the board. That was when we were like "oookay obviously this robot is not going to compete tomorrow."
So then on Saturday we wake up and realize that there is about a foot and a half of snow outside. It turned out to be a level 3 snow emergency, which means that only emergency vehicles are allowed on the roads. That meant that our bus drivers did not want to take us to the competition. So we were sitting in the hotel freaking out because Saturday was the main day of the competition and we wanted to go, and we were also supposed to leave that night right after the competition but we couldn't so we had to stay another night. Eventually we somehow got in contact with one of the guys from the competition and he came by in his truck to take us in groups of 5 to the competition, which meant not everybody could go because it took so long to get there and back in the blizzard, and we didn't want to make a thousand trips home later. Since I'm President of the club AND a senior AND Head Coder, I pretty much was guaranteed a spot there, so I went on the second shift because the 1st was reserved for team captains that were competing that day. So I pretty much just ran back and forth with the maze people trying to get their robot to work for most of the time. They got it to go perfectly through the maze and were just optimizing their code. When they went to compete though, they had some incredibly unlucky things happen. They get 3 tries. The first, the robot for some reason didn't work and was just spinning around. Then the same thing happened the second try. Before the third, they asked the judge if they could have a practice round, and he said that was fine and so they did it and it went perfectly through the maze. Then they went for their third trial and just as it started to go, a battery fell out so the robot didn't have enough power to move. It sucked so much.
The next robot to compete was Top of the Hill, which is a robot that has to navigate around a dirt pit and pick up ping pong balls. Devi claimed it worked perfectly and was totally awesome so we all went to check it out. So she goes and the robot starts to move and then stops. And it just would not move. The wheels were spinning but it couldn't get anywhere. So then a nice judge decided to help Devi out with the robot and make some modifications. The second time she went (which actually came after the sumo competition but for organizational matters I'll talk about it now), the robot did move around the ring and it managed to pick up one ping pong ball, but then it ended up on rocks somehow and it got stuck in them. So that was the end of that robot.
Our last hope was Sumo, which at one point was working but then had stopped working, so all it would do was spin. They almost forfieted but then decided hey why not enter. So it went up against its first opponent. Our sumo bot just spun around while the other one somehow managed to drive itself right out of the ring. The next one we were up against absolutely creamed us and almost killed Paul because it moved so fast. The next time, we managed to go up against our first opponent again. This time, the other team's robot started to drive out of the ring, but then sensed the white line and moved back in. Then it sensed some skid marks, went back, sensed the white line, and then came back in. But this time it didn't sense the skid marks so it just kept going and backed itself right out of the ring again. While all this is happening, our robot is spinning. The next robot we were against also spun, so for two 3-minute rounds, the robots just kept spinning around eachother and nobody went out of the ring. Then the next round, we went up against some college team that actually knew what they were doing and had a robot that did what it was supposed to. So they obviously won, which meant we were out. However, the guy somehow told us that we managed to come in third place for the whole tournament. And since the team that beat us was a college team, we won 2nd place for all high schools! So naturally we were SO EXCITED because it was SO EXCITING.
Now, obviously there is another part to the story of the robotics trip because I'm Dana and I go on boy watch because that is just what I do. So here comes the story from that perspective. At the competition, we were all lined up in tables where we would work on the robots. Our table was next to this table of kids from Virginia. On Friday I noticed that one of the kids at the table was pretty cute. I didn't really say anything to him (but I did ask him if I could borrow a serial cable because ours didn't work). I kept seeing him around and stuff. And so then it turned out, these Virginia kids were staying in the same hotel with us, so I was like okay cool yay. On Saturday when we got snowed in, the Virginia kids were still able to go to the competition but as I said before, we had to go in spurts. So when I got there I saw the kid and we talked a little about how some of our team was finally there and stuff. I kept seeing him around and we'd smile and wave and stuff, and then later we talked about the robots and stuff (just a disclaimer before I continue: yes, this is a boring story. no, nothing happened. this is partially for my purposes so I can look at this later and see what a loser I was in high school, and also partially so I can feel good about the fact that I managed to talk to a guy I didn't know and become friendly with him because in the past I've always found cute boys places but never gotten the courage to actually talk to them; normally I just... look.)
So after the competition ended I went back to the table where we were all chilling and the boy was at his table so I was talking to him, and then I met some of the other guys on their team, so we were all talking. Then their coach had to talk to them so I got out my 5x5 and started solving it. Then seriously. Best moment ever. Pretty much their entire team was completely in awe of me solving this cube. They were completely in disbelief. I had like 20 guys surrounding me watching me do this. It was so awesome. So of course I solved it and they were all super impressed.
Then the awards ceremony happened which was when we found out we actually came in 2nd for sumo. Except some of our team had already left by then because we had to go back to the hotel a few at a time, too. I ended up in the last group going back. When we got there, the Virginia kids were already eating dinner so I chilled with them a little (especially the cute one. by the way his name was Matt.) Then some kids went back to play Guitar Hero and Devi really wanted me to play so I went but I got bored so I went back to the kitchen area thing and hung out with a smaller group of Virginia kids (including Matt, duh.) Then they decided they wanted to play super smash brothers and so I was like okay why not so I went back and played with them for a little but I sucked so I got bored and I left. And that was the last time I saw the cute boy. Here's what I learned: No matter how much a nerdy boy may gawk over you, if there are video games around, you do not exist to them. But there's one last nice part to this story. So later, I was having some soup and Devi was keeping me company and there were these 2 other guys from Virginia sitting there, so we all introduced ourselves. But one of them said to the other, "Oh, that's Dana. That's Matt's girl." I was like WHAT. And then I tried to get them to tell me what they said (even though I heard it the first time) but they wouldn't say anything. That was satisfaction enough for me, though.
So then we stayed over an extra night and left bright and early the next morning (except it wasn't really bright because the sun hadn't risen yet.) 12 hours later, we arrived home. And here I am. Yay!