Looking Back at the Last 6 Weeks
by Kyle Burnham

     It seems like just a short while ago, and yet such a long time,  since we first met this season, will a whole lot of places to fill from all the seniors who graduated last year. The Lego competitions(those little things kept on falling apart), the drive tests (crash- boom- BASH! just like the Lego's but on a larger scale), the bottle drive(it smelled like booze for weeks!). We started meeting on Wednesdays. And soon after, before we knew it, it was kickoff.

    

         These past six weeks have been one heck of a time. The brainstorming, the cleaning (ah, what fun!...), the food  (thank you to all who donated!). After several weeks of prototyping and strategizing, we finally settled on an idea we liked. The drivable base got finished. Jon went to and came back from Las Vegas, with all our money in one piece. About this same time, we started on the Riot Crews first robotics animation. The media (big hand to Patrick for getting all those newspapers and that radio station to come), the empty bottles of soda (can't believe we drank that much... and is that locked box still in the fridge?), the signs with rules that Parker made (some as a result from all that soda we drank).

          We started building the actual robot, and got deep into the animation. The drive practice (I can still see that bot going down the hall in the school), the rendering time (that took forever), the certifications ( in everything from chop-saw to bathroom cleaning). John Coffee worked steadily on his documentary, even when his written material got spilled on . We finished the animation just in time, and we finished the robot earlier than usual. And yet their are so many other things that happened that I can't even fit in this email. The viewing of the video from last year(Go Riot Crew!), the emails(we had a surprising amount of volunteers for that dirty work this year), the hats(totally awesome!). 

         I know there is a LOT I left out, but it will be in our memories, and besides, I have to leave something for any emails after the competition (and I don't want to be up all night typing).

        For the past few days we have been practicing in the high school cafeteria, as most of you know first hand. Well, one thing I'm glad about is that we wont have to keep moving those rugs around anymore. 

        Well, now's as good a time as any for getting to what happened today. The day started off in an unusual way - the evil overlord of the profiling department bought Chucks soul for a button(you can view the contract if you haven't already). We practiced at the school, of course, and Andy fixed up the programming for Hybrid mode. Tensions ran high, as when you spend everyday for six weeks together, people are bound to get sick of each other. And I quote Jon "You know its bad when Kyle's misbehaving" ( I was only pushing Chuck around a little...).  Jacub made a nice little Cardboard robot (Jacub Jr.). By the way, Happy Birthday Jacub!. We had a nice lunch of, well, chips, and a oriental dinner from Chia Sen.( I learned the hard way not to eat the really spicy peppers)

    Falgor came again today, and we had some more practice time with them. This is the first year another team has come over to practice with us. Together we moved the rugs into the set room off the high school auditorium.

      Right now the school caf. is clean, and the robot is with Steve, to be taken to Fairchild, crated, and shipped. Amazingly everyone left well before midnight, with no last minute tasks to be done.


This years Granite State Regional will be Feb 28 to Mar 1. Come on down to the Verizon Center in Manchester, NH and support The Riot Crew. It promises to be a great time for all!

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