US First Robotics Competion 2012

Pretty cool event this year at the US First Robotics Championships.  Got to be a part of the Expedition Team.  Pretty cool.  Get to experience a lot of different events over several days.  Actually got to see part and be part of the competition this year.

First day got to be a pit runner for the FIRST Lego League (FLL).  Mostly involved queuing up teams to go to their practice events.  Involved a lot of running around as one might expect.  Ultimately I helped these kids that worked really hard to get to their rounds while being the awesome leader that I am.

The afternoon involved the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) as a field reseter for the official first day of completion for them.  These are the high school kids with the smaller bots.  Their mission was to "bowl" over crates to release raquet balls and stack the crates back up right side up with at least one ball in them.  There's more to it than that and a lot of was to score lots of points.

Movie: Tales From The Crypt

Just saw the TV edited version of the movie Tales From The Crypt.  It's different from the TV show.  Their is no scary dead dude crypt keeper.  Just a monk like crypt keeper guy.  The story goes something along the lines of people wandering into a crypt and get trapped.

KDHX Membership Drive

The KDHX Spring 2012 Membership drive has completed.  Pretty stellar that the station raised 101% at the time of this writing.  It's pretty neat that I was one of the phone volunteers and helped make that happen.  I helped make part of that goal happen.  Yes, I do have a few bucks in there too.  Keep listening folks.  Lots of great stuff coming up.  Get a sticker from me if you see me on one of the many KDHX events.  Don't guarantee I'll be at all of them but I will make what I can.

I have thrown boomerangs in the station using what I could find in the station.  Not sure if it's a first or anything but I'd probably say it was.  New members are not calling full time, so got to fill the time in interesting ways during the down time.

KDHX Concert Series with Guster

Volunteering at a radio station has it's perks.  Got to usher and see Guster with Golden Bloom as the opening act at the Sheldon Concert Hall over in St. Louis, MO.  It was a good show.  Lots of energy flowing with the band and the crowd.  Great random funny stories.  There was even great art.  Michael Landon holding a squid.     Whoa.  There was even a Demon fire drill where the fellas had to play an instrument they were not familiar with.  It was funny.  You should give these guys a listen sometime.

Three out of four is not bad....

Busy day for March 31, 2012.... Started at 7:15am with a Kiwanis Blood Drive.  Got the room all set up and situated for the drive. Food table was stocked with snacks, food, and coffee.  The problem was that the supply truck for the Red Cross never showed up.  GRRRRR.  Don't know the details of what happened yet but I will let you know when I find out.  Early April Fools Joke?

Next up Toastmasters Division 6 contest.  Got to be the Sergeant at Arms and Ballot counter.  Escorted contestants to the sound proof booth and preparation areas.  Interesting experience for doing both duties for the first time for the Toastmasters at a contest.  The after contest hang out was cool at the IHOP too.  Tasty.

Also helping KDHX with their phone drive to collect funds for the station.  It's a 10 day process biannually.  It's a great station.  Member supported.  They can play pretty much anything, as long as it complies with the rules of broadcasting stuff.  You should give it a listen.  I'd bet there is something there for you, if you give it a sufficiently long listen.

Three out of four events that happened successfully is not bad at all.

Change The World

Changing the world is not as hard as it seems.  It does not matter if you're the small fish in the pond or the top dog.  We can all do things that can have an impact on the world.  It can be the little thing such as picking up a piece of litter.  The little things count even if no one is around to observe it.  You can make a different.

The cool stuff I'm doing, you can do to.  You can have the influence over your world.  You can be the person behind the scenes too.  It does not have to start out as some big thing that you have to organize.  There are organizations out there that are out to improve situations of the community and the world.  The Kiwanis, Rotary, or United Way are all great places to start out volunteering and making a difference.  Alternatively if you feel shy and reluctant to meet up with new strange people you can work on it with the Toastmasters.

Anyway's I'm going to be at the KDHX radio station tonight (7p to 9p) and tomorrow (5pm to 7pm).  Give me a call and support a great radio station.  The number is 314-664-3688.

FIRST Robotics Regional March 2012

This past weekend the FIRST Robotics Regional competition were held this past weekend (March 22 - 24, 2012).  It is a neat event.  This years goal for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is the Rebound Rumble, where teams are tasked with collecting and shooting foam basketballs into basketball hoops.  The first day had more cooperation on some of the bridges.  It got more interesting as the day progressed and bugs got worked out of the robots.  The second day really got good.  Robots were tweaked and got better in time.  Scores evened out between the red and blue teams.  There were many more rounds where there were higher scores of 50+ points for teams.  The final rounds really got good with really good shooting and balancing on bridges.  Teams really got aggressive on defense and attempting to get three bots on the balancing bridges.  Lots of robot tipping as well.

It is a neat even to volunteer for.  Sign up to volunteer for them if you get a chance at www.usfirst.org

Edit (4/15/2012):
Finally got around to emptying the camera.  Photos are below of some of the neat stuff going on.