BEST and the Worst
So, BEST was two weeks ago and it went over quite well. Excluding the delay in weighing the robots, compliance and check-in went just fine. There was 5 of us back there to help out and that was very beneficial. The teams played well and it was an extremely close competition. One team missed out on the finals by .0007 points. That's the closest I have seen scoring in the 3yrs I have been involved.
The environment was set up very nicely as well. They had a lighting company come in to provide lights, projectors, and screens. It looked great and I think made it that much better for the kids. It did make compliance check-in more difficult as they shut off all the main lights at first. But, they fixed the problem by putting us under a spotlight for a while.
After the competition was over cleanup began. It actually was completed quicker than anticipated. The field, lighting stuff, and everything else was up by 9:30ish. The only problem was my injury. For all those that might not know happened I will retell it briefly (feel free to skip the next paragraph if you know the story):
The portable stage breaks down into sections. Each section can then be loaded onto a cart for easier transporting. Once fully loaded a cart weights about 1400 lbs. I had already rolled one said cart back to the loading area and Brian and I were moving the other back there as well. I didn't know we were as far back as we were and my hand stopped the moving cart against the stationary one. Yep, that's right - between two 1400 lbs carts. Brian said he saw it coming but it was to late. He actually said he felt the cart we were pushing bounce back when it hit.
Needless to say that messed all my plans up for that night. I just went home after checking in with one of our nurses on the status of possible broken bones. The following Monday I went to the doctor to get an x-ray. No broken or fractured bones were found nor has it even bruised. It was swollen for a few days and hurt to use it - still hurts a bit with curtain movements. But all and all after a week things were just about back to normal.
Well, that about sums BEST up. Excluding my hand I enjoyed the day and watching the robots. There was some really ingenious designs that caught my eye while there. Till the next time....
The environment was set up very nicely as well. They had a lighting company come in to provide lights, projectors, and screens. It looked great and I think made it that much better for the kids. It did make compliance check-in more difficult as they shut off all the main lights at first. But, they fixed the problem by putting us under a spotlight for a while.
After the competition was over cleanup began. It actually was completed quicker than anticipated. The field, lighting stuff, and everything else was up by 9:30ish. The only problem was my injury. For all those that might not know happened I will retell it briefly (feel free to skip the next paragraph if you know the story):
The portable stage breaks down into sections. Each section can then be loaded onto a cart for easier transporting. Once fully loaded a cart weights about 1400 lbs. I had already rolled one said cart back to the loading area and Brian and I were moving the other back there as well. I didn't know we were as far back as we were and my hand stopped the moving cart against the stationary one. Yep, that's right - between two 1400 lbs carts. Brian said he saw it coming but it was to late. He actually said he felt the cart we were pushing bounce back when it hit.
Needless to say that messed all my plans up for that night. I just went home after checking in with one of our nurses on the status of possible broken bones. The following Monday I went to the doctor to get an x-ray. No broken or fractured bones were found nor has it even bruised. It was swollen for a few days and hurt to use it - still hurts a bit with curtain movements. But all and all after a week things were just about back to normal.
Well, that about sums BEST up. Excluding my hand I enjoyed the day and watching the robots. There was some really ingenious designs that caught my eye while there. Till the next time....
posted by MadDogGTO at 9:44 PM
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