Mechanical engineer, material scientist. Loves to run, play billiards, swim, and be outdoors.
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Saturday, March 06, 2004
Long, tiring weekend. Where should I start? (Warning: longish post ahead...only what I've done recently...I'll try to put some humor into it, but I'm zoned out and ready to render myself unconcious). There are some things I'd like people to read first off, but if I'm to get everything down accurately, I have to do this in chronological order. So I'm hoping everyone will take 15 minutes to read the entire thing.
If anything sounds really weird, I'd like to blame it on my lack of sleep...I had maybe 6-7 hours of sleep covering Thursday-Sunday...and I have about 3 weeks of sleep to catch up on due to schoolwork. I have been SEVERELY lacking in rest. Partly why I was a ball of energy this weekend.
How about finals? Ok, so the cognitive thinking one wasn't so bad. The sufficiency was a pain because I had to invent a new method of stapling to be able to get it all together. Total length? Well, after cutting all the quotes down to size, and changing the footnotes around a bit: 21 pages. Not that much. We'll see how I do.
The thermodynamics final...ugh..."oh, don't worry, it's not going to be bad!".
My cross country coach is my professor for that class, and talked about running. This year's goal: to not suck.
Anyways, left straight from school to Manchester for the Regional there. Ate at the Olive Garden that night. Good food. I'm such a pig. I pretty much had to waddle my way out of the restaurant.
Woke up early the next morning [6:15...AM!]. Well, I didn't exactly get ANY sleep that night, due to someone's continuous snoring [no, it wasn't mine, and it wasn't the little green space alien].
Got to the competition. I'm looking for my team [HYPER], find them, and head down. And I'm hit by a very pleasant surprise. LEXAN!!! To make a long story short, I saw Lexan...haven't seen her in a damn long time. Not since last year. Only one person calls my "Tycho" in person, and she's it. Shot the breeze for a bit, caught up on goings on, you know, that sort of stuff. Very happy to see her again, it caught me completely by surprise. It was a blessing to see one of my residents again (yes, I was a sourpuss and was extremely depressed for a week after Frontiers ended...that just shows just how great the people were that I lived with). I have to tell her a story sometime.
Then I had to go down to the pit, because I promised a young lady on Team 467 that I'd visit her at the competition [she didn't arrive until the next morning, so I was off on a wild goose chase].
You know how I bitched and moaned about how bad Team 69 [HYPER] is this year? Well, very happily, I was forced to eat my words. I've never been more delighted to be proved wrong. Our drive team was absolutely fabulous and professional. And our team was phenomanally charged with energy.
Our standings at the end of the first day of matches: 5-0-1. Had a REALLY REALLY REALLY close call with Aces High, because we fell over, but somehow we won [don't know why Lexan was sort of mad with me over it...wasn't trying to rub it in--I just didn't know, I actually thought they had won...I just saw our robot fall over and smash an important part, and got a little upset over that]. Other than the falling over part, it was one hell of a match.
So it's time for our team dinner [alumni were actually invited this year!]. One catch: the alumni had assumed that we were to be dressed in formal business clothing, rather than team polos and denim dress wear. Promptly kicked out of the dining room for it, and so we scrounged and scrounged for polos and everything. When the dust settled, we were allowed in, polo or no polo, and it was written off as a big misunderstanding. I remembered to wear pants!
The rest of the dinner was full of fun...a slide show of pictures from the Six Weeks of Hell [including a (very bad and ugly) mug shot and several (equally bad and ugly) action sequences of yours truly]. Ate lots of food. And we celebrated a little known fact [one that Mr. Gordon wanted to keep on the down-low]:
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ROB AND JAMIE!!!
Their son, Jake, is 10 months old, and is cute.
After the dinner, Geno, Mike, Will, and I went to Geno's car and picked up the absolute essentials [aka MUST-HAVES!] for that night's entertainment: a play tube [the one's you crawl through], an air compressor, weighted tennis balls [filled with ball bearings], foil valentines [don't ask], and we stole a condom off Collins [for use with the air compressor]. Geno: "It's a new type of sex ring! But if you break this one, you get a baby!". Then we played a simple but vicious gamed called the "Crotch Game". Basically, you pick something up [usually the weighted tennis balls], cry out "CROTCH!" and throw it at someone's nuts.
Right in the middle of Chalupa Wars, just as the evil Imperial Evildoer Pat was about to get nailed over the head with Chalupa by the Unbelievably Innocent and Representative of all that is Good and Right [myself], a young lady from 241 just walked into our room, thinking it was a room belonging to her team...she went nuts apologizing and left, but came back when we were like "No! It's ok, come back! Come back!" Joke around for a bit. Then we ordered pizza, and then headed down to 515 to hang out with the other alums for a while.
Then we decided it would be best if we tried to get to sleep (it was by now 1:30 AM), and so we trudged up 8 flights of steps to get back to Room #908. Talked for a couple hours, and went to sleep at about 4:00 AM. Wake up was at 7:00 AM for showering and breakfast (yes, ladies, guys DO shower...we just naturally smell that way).
Completely blew off Lexan the first time I saw her on Saturday. I was tired, dazed, and really not in the best of moods at that point in time, and wanted to find my team. Blew off a teammate of mine, as well. What's done is done, unfortunately. And then the coffee kicked in, and I was wired...had a tiny breakfast (couldn't eat...sort of nervous all day).
By this point, my voice was gone. But I forced it to work (I was then able to hit notes so high I thought my vocal cords my collapse or something like that). Talking hurt.
The young lady (yes, I do know her name, I just don't have the faintest clue of how to even begin to spell it) that I was looking for from 467 caught up with me and we hung out for quite a bit. She had to go off, though, because she had things to do after her teams match (Match #96). Stopped by and said hello to Lexan, and stuck around for a bit (a long bit, but a bit nonetheless).
We went on to win both matches that day, and so secured ourselves in the #2 seed (#1 seed was 501, the Powerknights, who went 8-0-0).
We were selected by the Powerknights as alliance partners, and we accepted...and Aces High (176) became our alliance partners, as well. Excellent selections by Team 501, in my opinion...all of our robots were top-notch, and we all worked well together as a team.
As a team, we went on to dominate match after match after match in the elimination matches. In the final round, we were up 1-0 in best 2 of 3...and we lost...complete disaster. The defeat wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't turned some people into pessimists about our chances. So we lost one. Big whoop. We've won every other match. And we had another chance to win it, albeit was do-or-die. We also fell over, and smashed something (again). Kudos to the blue alliance for their display of gracious professionalism for calling a time out to give the red alliance (well...us...because our allies robots were quite alright) a chance to repair.
We went on to completely shut the enemy down in the next match, and thereby won the Manchester Regional Championship. Congratulations to team #501, 176, and 69! All I know is this: without our alliance partners, Team HYPER would not have won it. A huge thank you to the Powerknights and Ace's High. And one to the Duct Tape Bandits (467)...they were behind our alliance the entire way, and it was touching that they went crazy cheering for us. Thank you.
While going over to thank the entirety of 467, I saw Ryan, and I was ecstatic to see another resident from Frontiers there. I thought he dropped off the face of the earth, because he never came on AIM anymore. Doesn't look much like he did when I last saw him. He had been looking for me in a Team 190 shirt. Unfortunately neither of us had the time to talk and catch up on life and everything.
Now, I do have one thing on my concience that I do need to come clean on. Sort of embarrassing. Seriously over-flirted with Lexan. Not by just a little bit. By alot. I was way out of line. I look back and feel pretty crappy about it. I'm sorry. It was good to see you, but I didn't mean to have that happen.
Aside from that, the entire weekend was great, and alot of fun. Except for being out of line, and getting hit in the nuts. That hurts. If you don't believe me, you should try it for yourself sometime. Oh, and this entire weekend went by without any incidents involving shaving cream...or duct tape...or toilet papering...
Now, I got back, and Chris calls and convinces me that it would be a good idea to go to his place to watch movies with the gang. Damn...it's been way too long since I've seen those guys. It was an excellent idea. Not only did I get to watch movies, but also got to hang out with the gentlemen (ok, fine, I'm being extremely generous with that term) after not seeing them for a long time.
Cead Mile Failte! Oh wait...that's supposed to go at the beginning. Now I'm just to lazy to cut and paste it. And I hope there isn't a limit as to how big a Blog entry can be. I'll probably come back and edit this one later to get rid of much retardedness.
BUZZ OFF!
If anything sounds really weird, I'd like to blame it on my lack of sleep...I had maybe 6-7 hours of sleep covering Thursday-Sunday...and I have about 3 weeks of sleep to catch up on due to schoolwork. I have been SEVERELY lacking in rest. Partly why I was a ball of energy this weekend.
How about finals? Ok, so the cognitive thinking one wasn't so bad. The sufficiency was a pain because I had to invent a new method of stapling to be able to get it all together. Total length? Well, after cutting all the quotes down to size, and changing the footnotes around a bit: 21 pages. Not that much. We'll see how I do.
The thermodynamics final...ugh..."oh, don't worry, it's not going to be bad!".
My cross country coach is my professor for that class, and talked about running. This year's goal: to not suck.
Anyways, left straight from school to Manchester for the Regional there. Ate at the Olive Garden that night. Good food. I'm such a pig. I pretty much had to waddle my way out of the restaurant.
Woke up early the next morning [6:15...AM!]. Well, I didn't exactly get ANY sleep that night, due to someone's continuous snoring [no, it wasn't mine, and it wasn't the little green space alien].
Got to the competition. I'm looking for my team [HYPER], find them, and head down. And I'm hit by a very pleasant surprise. LEXAN!!! To make a long story short, I saw Lexan...haven't seen her in a damn long time. Not since last year. Only one person calls my "Tycho" in person, and she's it. Shot the breeze for a bit, caught up on goings on, you know, that sort of stuff. Very happy to see her again, it caught me completely by surprise. It was a blessing to see one of my residents again (yes, I was a sourpuss and was extremely depressed for a week after Frontiers ended...that just shows just how great the people were that I lived with). I have to tell her a story sometime.
Then I had to go down to the pit, because I promised a young lady on Team 467 that I'd visit her at the competition [she didn't arrive until the next morning, so I was off on a wild goose chase].
You know how I bitched and moaned about how bad Team 69 [HYPER] is this year? Well, very happily, I was forced to eat my words. I've never been more delighted to be proved wrong. Our drive team was absolutely fabulous and professional. And our team was phenomanally charged with energy.
Our standings at the end of the first day of matches: 5-0-1. Had a REALLY REALLY REALLY close call with Aces High, because we fell over, but somehow we won [don't know why Lexan was sort of mad with me over it...wasn't trying to rub it in--I just didn't know, I actually thought they had won...I just saw our robot fall over and smash an important part, and got a little upset over that]. Other than the falling over part, it was one hell of a match.
So it's time for our team dinner [alumni were actually invited this year!]. One catch: the alumni had assumed that we were to be dressed in formal business clothing, rather than team polos and denim dress wear. Promptly kicked out of the dining room for it, and so we scrounged and scrounged for polos and everything. When the dust settled, we were allowed in, polo or no polo, and it was written off as a big misunderstanding. I remembered to wear pants!
The rest of the dinner was full of fun...a slide show of pictures from the Six Weeks of Hell [including a (very bad and ugly) mug shot and several (equally bad and ugly) action sequences of yours truly]. Ate lots of food. And we celebrated a little known fact [one that Mr. Gordon wanted to keep on the down-low]:
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ROB AND JAMIE!!!
Their son, Jake, is 10 months old, and is cute.
After the dinner, Geno, Mike, Will, and I went to Geno's car and picked up the absolute essentials [aka MUST-HAVES!] for that night's entertainment: a play tube [the one's you crawl through], an air compressor, weighted tennis balls [filled with ball bearings], foil valentines [don't ask], and we stole a condom off Collins [for use with the air compressor]. Geno: "It's a new type of sex ring! But if you break this one, you get a baby!". Then we played a simple but vicious gamed called the "Crotch Game". Basically, you pick something up [usually the weighted tennis balls], cry out "CROTCH!" and throw it at someone's nuts.
Right in the middle of Chalupa Wars, just as the evil Imperial Evildoer Pat was about to get nailed over the head with Chalupa by the Unbelievably Innocent and Representative of all that is Good and Right [myself], a young lady from 241 just walked into our room, thinking it was a room belonging to her team...she went nuts apologizing and left, but came back when we were like "No! It's ok, come back! Come back!" Joke around for a bit. Then we ordered pizza, and then headed down to 515 to hang out with the other alums for a while.
Then we decided it would be best if we tried to get to sleep (it was by now 1:30 AM), and so we trudged up 8 flights of steps to get back to Room #908. Talked for a couple hours, and went to sleep at about 4:00 AM. Wake up was at 7:00 AM for showering and breakfast (yes, ladies, guys DO shower...we just naturally smell that way).
Completely blew off Lexan the first time I saw her on Saturday. I was tired, dazed, and really not in the best of moods at that point in time, and wanted to find my team. Blew off a teammate of mine, as well. What's done is done, unfortunately. And then the coffee kicked in, and I was wired...had a tiny breakfast (couldn't eat...sort of nervous all day).
By this point, my voice was gone. But I forced it to work (I was then able to hit notes so high I thought my vocal cords my collapse or something like that). Talking hurt.
The young lady (yes, I do know her name, I just don't have the faintest clue of how to even begin to spell it) that I was looking for from 467 caught up with me and we hung out for quite a bit. She had to go off, though, because she had things to do after her teams match (Match #96). Stopped by and said hello to Lexan, and stuck around for a bit (a long bit, but a bit nonetheless).
We went on to win both matches that day, and so secured ourselves in the #2 seed (#1 seed was 501, the Powerknights, who went 8-0-0).
We were selected by the Powerknights as alliance partners, and we accepted...and Aces High (176) became our alliance partners, as well. Excellent selections by Team 501, in my opinion...all of our robots were top-notch, and we all worked well together as a team.
As a team, we went on to dominate match after match after match in the elimination matches. In the final round, we were up 1-0 in best 2 of 3...and we lost...complete disaster. The defeat wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't turned some people into pessimists about our chances. So we lost one. Big whoop. We've won every other match. And we had another chance to win it, albeit was do-or-die. We also fell over, and smashed something (again). Kudos to the blue alliance for their display of gracious professionalism for calling a time out to give the red alliance (well...us...because our allies robots were quite alright) a chance to repair.
We went on to completely shut the enemy down in the next match, and thereby won the Manchester Regional Championship. Congratulations to team #501, 176, and 69! All I know is this: without our alliance partners, Team HYPER would not have won it. A huge thank you to the Powerknights and Ace's High. And one to the Duct Tape Bandits (467)...they were behind our alliance the entire way, and it was touching that they went crazy cheering for us. Thank you.
While going over to thank the entirety of 467, I saw Ryan, and I was ecstatic to see another resident from Frontiers there. I thought he dropped off the face of the earth, because he never came on AIM anymore. Doesn't look much like he did when I last saw him. He had been looking for me in a Team 190 shirt. Unfortunately neither of us had the time to talk and catch up on life and everything.
Now, I do have one thing on my concience that I do need to come clean on. Sort of embarrassing. Seriously over-flirted with Lexan. Not by just a little bit. By alot. I was way out of line. I look back and feel pretty crappy about it. I'm sorry. It was good to see you, but I didn't mean to have that happen.
Aside from that, the entire weekend was great, and alot of fun. Except for being out of line, and getting hit in the nuts. That hurts. If you don't believe me, you should try it for yourself sometime. Oh, and this entire weekend went by without any incidents involving shaving cream...or duct tape...or toilet papering...
Now, I got back, and Chris calls and convinces me that it would be a good idea to go to his place to watch movies with the gang. Damn...it's been way too long since I've seen those guys. It was an excellent idea. Not only did I get to watch movies, but also got to hang out with the gentlemen (ok, fine, I'm being extremely generous with that term) after not seeing them for a long time.
Cead Mile Failte! Oh wait...that's supposed to go at the beginning. Now I'm just to lazy to cut and paste it. And I hope there isn't a limit as to how big a Blog entry can be. I'll probably come back and edit this one later to get rid of much retardedness.
BUZZ OFF!
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