Due to recent events and concerns, Shorewood canceled school today as well as all after-school activities along with the rest of the Shoreline School District after the long lockdown. Therefore, we will not have a meeting today! Therefore, in the future, today we will have done:
Nothing. However, the Prontonians will continue think about ideas and brew coff-- uh, I meant their brains, during this time off of school. Like, brainstorming, right? I should really let that terrible play on words go very soon. Catch y'all on the flip side, Team Pronto! (the flip side, in this case, is tomorrow. Is that how you use that word?) Another day, and the storm still brews. We picked up from where we were yesterday, and discussed ways to improve and expand the details on the ideas we have thought of. Many others also discussed new ideas. All in all, it was a continuation of yesterday. Keep your brain storming, Team Pronto! Our first day back from winter break, and the team continues to work their minds like hamster wheels. Very fast, and with periodic lapses of complete exhaustion and despair. You can really tell the "storm" in brainstorming has yet to pick up. But all in all, it has hit the team's forecast radars and nOW I AM TALKING ABOUT WEATHER AND SHOULD STOP.
Our first point on the agenda was to recap the team on the three main ideas we talked about: forklift, conveyor belt, and "pac-man," a variation of the forklift. We then proceeded with the dreaded manual TESTTTTT. Everyone seemed to pass with flying colors and got to vote on which big idea we were going to go with first, which ultimately was the forklift concept. The builders then split into three groups: two groups which brainstormed ideas on the lifting mechanism, and the last group which brainstormed ideas for the chassis. At the end of the meeting, the ideas were presented, and they included conveyor belt lifts, human player loaded systems, drive trains, robots shaped like oddly shaped pizza slices, and gear and pinyon claws. The members of the team that were not builders continued to prep computers with software and other programming thingamajigs (as you can tell, I am not a programmer), but the majority of the team's brain power went towards brainstorming as well. And just some random comments: oh my god. There are so many people on the team right now that there aren't enough seats in the classroom for everyone! Wwooooweee! Things are finally starting to pick up and I'm glad there are so many Prontonians this year. I love everyone. Everyone loves everyone. We're a happy family. (Is that from Barney? A quick Google search confirms.) Great job on your first after-school build day! THERE'S ONLY 5+ WEEKS LEFT. LONG LIVE PRONTONIA (cue "God Save the Queen") ARE YOU REAAADDDY TOOOO RUUUMMMBBBLLLEE? I mean, RECYCLLLE??! Tomorrow, everything will start to pick up!
For lack of anything better to call it at the moment, the game his year is all manner of interesting. They weren't kidding when they said "change" was coming. No buMPERS? NO OPPOSING TEAM INTERACTION? GAH. However, I have faith that we will do amazing this year, or die trying. (That's how we weed out our weak. Everyone must put the robot above their LIFE.) After the kickoff, we met back up at the auto shop to understand the game and brainstorm! It was amazing. I don't think so many people have ever read the game manual on our team! We even came up with a new initialism. RTFM. Read the (insert word of your choice that starts with f. Like flippin'!) Manual! We also got snacks provided to us by Ms. Fenske and Ms. Ricord. They were super tasty! Thank you so much! Honestly, I kind of feel like my life is falling apart right now. End of our semester is coming up, I'm going to be at school to 6 or 8 everyday, saying farewell to relaxing weekends. It's always so anxiety inducing in the beginning. But time after time, I get to make some of best memories in the autoshop that I'll end up spending more time in than my actual home. And then I can finally feel my life being built again, along with a super cool robot. I mean, robots. C'mon. #omgrobots, right? TEAM PRONTO! LET US RALLY AND RECYCLE! The name of the game is Recycle Rush. Frank wasn't kidding when he said change was coming. Students. Mentors. Volunteers. Parents. Pets. Please read the game manual. At least 20 times.
Today was NOT the day to miss. Actually, no day is a good day to miss. But this one in particular. The team spent a couple hours reading the manual, clarifying some rules, and discussing possible game strategies to score points. The team split into 8 mini groups each led by a mentor. Each group was responsible for drafting up a rough concept design for a robot. We then took a much deserved lunch break. After that, we identified the reoccurring robot concept ideas and archetypes, consolidating all 8 ideas into 3 basic concepts. Each of the mini-team ideas was some variation or combination of the 3 archetypes. IMPORTANT!!! On Monday, we will be finalizing the robot concept. We will also be having a game manual test. If you do not pass the test, you will not be allowed to vote on the final robot concept. SO READ THE MANUAL. Wow. I am so amaze. Much incredible. (And then this is where someone tells me the meme is dead.) But, at any rate, the preseason was so much more successful than I could've imagined. Of my four years on the team, this is absolutely the best we have ever done. Normally, the team wouldn't get to welcome new robots into the family until very far into the build season, or even the very end of it. But this year, we got to welcome Stabby and Twitchy before we even started! Building an entire robot is a great accomplishment and feeling, and I'm so glad the team got to experience that before getting into the build season battle. Comrade, the hype for the build season has officially been hyped up. If we could do this well with just a month or so of building, imagine what we can do with 6 weeks of concentrated, focused energy!!! MAYBE WORLD DOMINATION ISN'T AS FAR-FETCHED AS YOU ALL THINK. I am so pumped you could use me as bicycle tires (but that might not be as enjoyable for me or the biker). We started off the day with the unwrapping of gifts from all the Pronto Pals, which got everyone off to a great mood. Presents included bacon, marbles, hats, and horses! A real, live horse, might I add. It neighs. It must be real. Just because it has a stick as a body doesn't mean it has doesn't have life! After that, Team Brian Dang and Team Crimpinatorz assembled together as the team scrambled to get ready for the competition. We had referees, field resetters, spectators, and even an announcer and DJ (yours truly)! It really felt like a real FRC competition, and I think I had just as much fun being a part of it as events from last year. Probably because I got to commentate really badly into the megaphone. Both teams were very evenly matched. Team Crimpinatorz had speed and agility with Stabby, and their hook of doom that managed to pick up boxes off their ribbons, and in the end, punctured one of the big present boxes on the field. Stabby certainly lives up to the name. Team Brian Dang, on the other hand, had reliability and strength with its claw. Both teams had incredible energy and teamwork. Seeing both teams compete against each other was exhilarating, and it was pretty clear which team won in the end. Team Pronto. Cheesy? YES. But IT IS SO TRUEEE. All the new members enjoyed experiencing driving and working with the robots, and all the returning members watched with awe as we realized just how much we were growing as a team. *tear*. Bravo, Team Pronto, and enjoy your break. You guys deserve it. Captain's Log: Day 14 It's been several days. We're all dying of thirst. We're all dying of a lack of news updates. BUT WAIT, WHAT IS THIS? A NEWS UPDATE. WOW. Heyo, this is not Brian Dang, here to bring you the latest news from a week ago! Much has happened throughout this past week, with one of the most major being that both teams have gotten their robots working! Definitely a great achievement in robotics! Good job to both teams! (y)(y)(y) (LADY LEGS, LADY LEGS, LADY LEGS. He tells me they're actually "thumbs ups.") Shut up, Brian. Anywho, outside the building and the programming and the CADing, yesterday was the Shorewood winter sports assembly, and a promotional video from yours truly was shown for Robotics! Definitely didn't expect it to do as well as it did, so thank you to everybody who was there to watch it! For those who haven't seen it yet, it's now up on YouTube! Also outside the building and the programming and the caddying, yesterday was also the date of Robogram distribution! Three floors, three robots, way more than three buttons... it was a very successful event as robots rolled from room to room delivering messages filled with love and inappropriate images! For those curious, the profits we made were approximately $80, so thank you to everyone who purchased a Robogram, whether it be for a friend, yourself, or Ms. Silver!
Also, don't forget, tomorrow (Saturday) is the date of the competition between Team Crimpinatorz and Team Brian Dang along with the super secret Santa Prontal Pal gift exchange extravaganza! Remember to bring your presents if you're participating! GET PUMPED TEAM PRONTO! HYPE THE HYPE UPaboutthatoneAngelBeats!announcement! Well, I don't have much to say about this day. As we head towards the end of the preseason and towards are mock competition, both Team Brian Dang and Team Crimpinatorz are close to finishing their robots! While the builders brushed up on finishing the arms and hooking up electronics with the electronics team, the programmers had time to work on robot-specific code and test it on the robot. It was a nice day. And oddly, I have nothing sassy to say today. Finish strong, Team Pronto! ( I guess I'm liking the slideshow feature now.)
My colleague told me to "hype the hype up." I wasn't sure if he was referring to anime or Robotics, so here I goooo. So many things happened in this one weekend. Forgive me if I'm being cheesy, but if anything, it helped reaffirm the reasons why I stay in with the robotics team. It makes me teary eyed (excuse me as I go and listen to Coldplay and contemplate my life). Reason #1 - SOOOO much excitement when one of the robots was able to move after the programmers hooked up their code to the robot. It moved! mOVED. IT'S ALIVE. Everyone on the team was so excited that all their hard work and dreams were coming to fruition. It was so surreal to have such a moment so early on in the season. Usually, only such happiness happens near the end of the season, but I guess tis' the season for such things anyway. There's been so much progress in only a couple of weeks, and it's amazing to see everyone working so hard. Reason #2 - On Friday, after the meeting, a group of us went to Highland Terrace's Science Night. All the "whoas" and "wows" from the kids that lined up to catch Chuck's ball was such an incredible experience. I've been so many outreach events like this, but this one made me so giddy! Chuck is always so popularrrrr. Reason #3 - Unusually, I enjoyed cleaning up on Saturday. Kind of therapeutic to pick up the broom and sweep up the autoshop. (Feel free to ignore this, it's really, really irrelevant). Reason #4 - Robograms. We are selling buttons. Buttons are really cool. 'Nuff said. We are actually so, so close to the Kick Off date. It's alarming. But we've made so much progress as a team in just one month that I cannot wait for what we can do for the rest of the year. Keep it cool, Team Pronto! P.S. Thanks, Mr. Bruno, for advising us on Saturday. Your child is cute. On our first day back from Turkey Day Break, we worked with dead cats. It was amazing. I felt like I could hear the world, and even hear God. (I might be important that I explain that a "dead cat" is just a boom mic. I'm not that terrible.) We started filming the Winter Sports Video! Woohoo! Robotics Club is finally, for the first time in forever (or ever), getting featured during the assembly. We all celebrated by having a super-not-awkward-at-all hug. Meanwhile, the Teams are flying off with their progress even though they're not making wings. They're making arms, and they really look like arms! (That's actually pretty amazing. Don't judge.) The robots from each team are looking magnificent, and it makes me oh so delighted that our preseason is so productive. Electronics are actually on the robot at this point, and they were also working on them as well. The programmers were also hard at work, getting a lesson from our very own Professor French. They worked on autonomous code and practiced their coding with CodingBat. Love all the effort, Team Pronto!
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