BEST

Yesterday I volunteered for BEST at Davison High. I have never done it before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Seeing all the robots that different schools had build and their strategy. No one tried the booster motor, which didn't surprise me. Each school also had a presentation and a booth to do, the booths where interesting too. One school had numerous technical drawings and Ghantt charts which impressed me. I had no clue what a Ghantt chart was in highschool. All the robots did ok in the first 24 seeding rounds. Then they all started breaking things in the semi-finals. Davison's team ended up not doing to well do to a broken robot. We watched them practice Friday night and they were pretty good. Unfortunately, I think Skrubby won't be helping with the one down here (if there is one next year) but instead help with one in Auburn and Montgomery. So I am not sure if I will get to help with one again later or not, will see then I guess.

While there Matt gave a "tour" of Davision while we were walking around. I had never walked around in the school before. I do like how its laid out with the garden/parklike places. Even the second floor had one in it. Those were prob the coolest parts of the school.

I was up at 5am, at Davison by 7am, and done with BEST by 4pm. After not getting Mark or Melissa on the phone I just came home. Missed out on the food and drinks with some of the folks but will get in on that at least on Thurs at PF. All in all I was up for 20.5hrs yesterday. It was fun and I would do it again. Till next blog...

Spring Break Wrap-Up

Tomorrow I have to go back to school, not looking forward to it. I have enjoyed my week off with no SE. When I get back I also have a cryptology exam on Wed so that will be interesting. Over the week I basically worked all week long. No major hours each day. Thursday I went to PF as normal, always good times. Friday Brian and I spent about 7-8hrs putting computers together. My mom's new one went up fine; my new one, not so much.

We forgot to plug in one of the power wires and then had CD probs with XP x64. We did finally get it up and I have been working on it most of the weekend. Unfortunately, several pieces of software I used no longer work on x64. My wireless keyboard and mouse also provide the basic functions. Logitch Custom Service did say they are working on it but who knows. I am thinking about buying a new one but its about $150 so I am not sure. At least not now thats for sure.

That about sums the week up. Did a little homework last night and have more today. Oh well...

Fast Cars and Freedom

Friday was the start of Spring Break, wooo! After work I went over to Kiseas and ordered parts for my computer. The listing follows:

• MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra Athlon 64 Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA
• AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor (Winchester) Socket 939
• Corsair VS1GB400C3 1GB DDR400 PC3200
• NEC ND-3550A 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive
• Western Digital Caviar SE 120GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
• XFX PV-T43G-UDF3 GeForce 6600 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 Video Card w/HDTV-Out & Dual DVI

Of course some other parts like power supply but no need to post it here being that several of the crew use the same one. Will be putting it together and getting my mom's PC up and running when parts come in, hopefully about midweek.

That night, the ACM went bowling. We had a great time. A few games of which I did ok. Nothing great was seen all night by me. I did manage, along with several other people on my lane, were robbed of several strikes/spares. Right down the center of the lane and leave one pin. That part sucked but overall great fun.

Saturday was the DD car show. Jarred and Brian came. There were two '57 Belair's, a '65 Ford Pickup, A '64 1/2 Mustang Fastback, a new '05 Chevy SS/R and my '70 GTO. Small for a start but people are wanting to do it monthly. My car had trouble starting, still have to work on that. Do have a few things to try that should give some light on the problem.

Saw Firewall with Brian last night. Pretty good movie. I am sure we will go see a few more before the weekend. All this new freedom allows me to do things I want and not have to. Though I do have some homework to do over the week.

All in all the weekend was good. Till the next round...

Fun and Games

Well Friday night was Game Night. It was great fun that will have to be done again sometime. I commanded a team on Savage twice. The first we did great, the second- not so much. Then I gave the command to anyone else and tried my hand at some combat. I did ok. Blew a few people up with the catapult. Even destroyed some buildings. I had to leave at about 1is and the rest played UT 2k4 until 4ish. All and all it was a blast and all who missed it missed out on some awesome fun.

Worked on my car some. I have it to where it will crank. I had to put a bunch of new parts into the ignition. Though now I think my carb needs some adjacent too. Have to look into that. Its currently with my cousin to get detailed before the show next Sat.

Another reminder, the DD car show is next Sat from 10-2pm. Don't know what all cars will be there but I can say that a '70 GTO and a '65 Chevy Pickup should be there.

That about covers all the new happenings. Till next time...