Second Qualifier

So this week in robotics wasn't as work intensive as last week because I already qualified. However it was still more than usual because I was signed up for another qualifying tournament. At the event I was a lot more laid back than the last and we didn't even get any awards but its okay we already qualified. The good thing is unlike the last qualifier there were plenty of good robots there that I learned from because I'm gonna start building a completely new robot for the state competition in March. One thing that did annoy me at the competition however were these to teams with the exact same robot. One thing that particularly annoyed me was that one of them got an impossible score in driver control. At least I didn't lose control. Another thing that sucked was that one of the teams that go to the same place as me that didn't qualify at the last tournament also didn't qualify at this one. On the happier side Friday was my birthday so I am now 13. So that was the highlights of my week hope you enjoyed.

The Qualifier

This Saturday was my robotics qualifier and it was stressful but fun. I had barely slept the night before because I had stayed up working on the robot the night before and in the morning I woke up at five and couldn't get back to sleep. On the way there we stopped at Starbucks and I had hot chocolate with a little bit of coffee which was my mistake. We got to the school it was being held at by 8:30 when the practice tables had opened. We signed in and started practicing. The actual competition matches were supposed to start at 10 but they didn't start until at least 10:45. Pretty much since the time we got there till until the matches started I was supper anxious and jumpy because of the coffee. Once the matches did start my team first got paired with a team that didn't even score points so it was only the points we scored that counted. The way the matches work is that teams are paired with each other and for that round they get the collective score. As the matches continued we got to be paired with very good teams from the same place I do robotics and we were doing very well. The only way that we could win was to at the end of the qualifying matches be the team ranked one or two. Near the end of the qualifying matches we got paired with some bad teams but some how we kept second place. In the final match we got paired from a team from the same robotics place and we beat everybody by a land slide. Both of us were moving on to the state competition YEEEAAAHHH. So now I have to start preparing for the state competition which is in March so bye.

Ahhh the competition is in a week

At the beginning of the week not only did I get a new video game but I got a new book that had just came out, Magus Chase and The Sword of Summer. With both of those things taking up a lot of my time I didn't even work on my robot till Thursday. I went to robotics again on Friday and finished up the book which I recommend. On Saturday I was also at robotics but didn't get much done because I was trying to learn something and all the instructors were busy. That really sucked because my competition was in a week and I had to get autonomous (Where you program the robot to run its self and not control it) done by then. On Sunday I was pretty sick of robotics so for most of the day was was doing other things but at the end of the day I went again. Sadly I will probably be programming the robot every day in this upcoming week and will stay probably until 10 on Friday because its the day before the competition.

My crazy week

This week I get to talk about my crazy life. On Thursday I went to robotics practice and about a quarter way through I over heard another team talking about the practice scrimmage (an unofficial practice event held by a few teams to see where their at) on Saturday. I asked them about it and they said it was at five. I had remembered I had it but thought it was in at least a week because October came so fast. So I practiced a little when one of my mentors (mechanical engineers that work at the place I do robotics) noticed that two of the six wheels on the robot where rubbing against plates and was causing a lot of friction so a loss of power and speed. To fix this I had to completely take apart the robot. I got few more practice runs in and it was already eight and the robotics place was closing. Not only that though I had procrastinated on an English essay due at 11:59 at night on Friday that I had planned doing some of on Thursday but I was brain dead and just went to sleep. Friday morning not only did I have to make my lunch get dressed and go to school, I had to do some of the essay too. So I got done about 2/3 of the essay which was harder than usual because I tried to right in a way I wasn't used to. School was normal accept the fact that my English teacher reminded us that the essay due date was extended and that all my worrying and rushing was for nothing. Then when school was over I at least didn't have to finish the essay but I had to go straight to my programming class at the same place as I do robotics that didn't end until 5:30 and I practiced a lot  this time actually with my teammate (which doesn't happen often). until eight again. My brain was dead and I went straight to bed. Saturday I was very negative about the practice scrimmage and I practiced all day until the actual event that started at 5:30. It was only with four other teams one of which were the mentors because we needed at least one more team. At first my team (just me and one teammate) were doing pretty bad and it was like that for all 12 "qualifying" matches. Next came the finals where the top two teams and the bottom two teams were paired up. By some miracle we were 2nd by one point and got to be paired with the best team (which is a good thing because your working together) who was of course the mentors. We easily beat the 3rd and 4th place teams and WON. 

YEEEEAAAAH the end and the real qualifier is in two weeks .