Adventures

Robots!

So, you guys know i teach robotics in an after-school program, right? Well, this past weekend was a robotics competition between the six different TechStart classes in the Seattle area. The turnout was great: lots of students and families along with TechStart teachers, TAF (our parent organization) staff, and volunteers.

I teach at two different schools, so i had two teams to coach in the competition (besides having helped set the thing up). One of my teams took third place, which was very cool, and my other team tied for fourth. The enthusiasm and focus shown by these students was incredible; we're talking about kids aged 10-14, who spent a beautiful Saturday morning in a hot gym pitting robots against each other.

The events were: Tug-of-war, BasketBot, Archery, and Drag Racing. Sofia served as the ball girl for BasketBot, an event that required the students to use the robot to shoot a ball into a cardboard box. She did a great job picking up all the stray ping pong balls while staying out of the line of fire. Archery was later called "the surprise excitement" by one of the audience members. It didn't actually involve any arrows, and i had assumed it would be a bit of a bore for the audience.

We had a target on the floor, and the students were told how far the center of the target was from the starting line (they were only told this at the competition, not beforehand). The kids then had to program their robots to go that distance, but there was a twist. The software doesn't have an option for plugging in a distance for a robot to travel; the teams had to use the speed of the robot (which they had worked out in class) and figure out how many seconds or wheel rotations the robot had to run for.

It ended up being pretty suspenseful, and there was a little drama when the robots actually ran. One team ran the wrong program on their robot, so they ended up about five feet from the target, while another team hit it dead on center. My teams unfortunately had some steering issues, and both robots veered away from the target at the last moment.

All in all, it was a great event, and i hope we do it again next year. The winning team got to take a trophy back to their school. I myself built the trophy out of yellow and red Lego bricks (eBay is the place to find specific colors for cheap, by the way), and i think it turned out pretty well:

Technology Access Foundation (TAF) unfortunately had a pretty serious fundraising shortfall this year due to the recession, and a number of administrative staff including my immediate supervisor have been laid off. In addition, one section of TechStart (luckily not the section i teach) is in dire straits and may not return in September. If any of you are looking to donate a little money to keep a well-deserving non-profit above water, please consider our global giving campaign. Thanks:

Updates

Photos from the Great Kilted Run are up on Facebook. If you want me to email them to you, just let me know; we apparently didn't take any pictures of crazy people in kilts, so there's nothing worth sharing here.

Andy and my mother have offered the following quotations from various media sources reviewing inFAMOUS.

From Andy:

Gaming Age

The audio in inFamous is incredible, especially when piped via HDMI to a capable 5.1 receiver. The dynamic and interesting score slowly builds when something noteworthy is about to happen and fades when ambient effects are more important. The positional surround sound effects are nicely done, and as always, very helpful in determining the location of those more sneaky enemies. Since everything is voiced, there's definitely a large amount of narration and voicework throughout the game and the acting is quite good. Cole's gruff voice pretty much fits his character, and his buddy Zeke provides a little comic relief at the right moments when you meet up with him.

forum reader "blue" on teamxbox.com

...And so far, my most favorite part, is the sound design! The crackles of electricity are spot on, and the explosions have a nice "Oomph!" to them. Excellent dynamic soundtrack, the tunes are appropriate for the action unfolding...."
comment #120 "...The little touches are great, like the sound of Cole dragging his hand across brick as he hugs a building's wall, or the varying banter of civilians as you either help, or kill, them....

GameZone reviewer: Mike David

I will tell you that inFAMOUS does possess a mess load of fantastic looking graphics and incredible sound. I will only play this game cranked up on the surround sound because it makes everything seem so much more involved. Great sound effects, great voice acting and it all comes together beautifully.

From Mum:

Reading the local paper today, on the back page of Sidelines under Gaming is an article about your game. It is written by Derrik J. Lang, Associated Press and rates it with 4 stars. It has a large photo of Cole zapping something and the whole article is about playing the game except for the last paragraph which reads:

Sucker Punch Productions started from scratch, creating an epic story that's not at all familiar. Without a back story to debate or previous editions to parallel, everything about "inFamous" feels fresh. From the moment players first hit the start button, there's no reinvention, just imagination.

We did it!

Yesterday was the Great Kilted Run, and we all participated as planned. There were about 20 kids running in the 1k Kids Dash, and Sofia came in third, behind some much taller, longer-legged children. She was almost fourth, but the boy right in front of her fell. Sofia felt so bad for him that she stopped running for a moment.

Andy and i ran and walked the 5k (3.1 miles) course. Andy graciously stayed with me on the first lap of about 2 miles (which i ran part of -- pretty good, given my 'i don't run' credo). He took off on his own, however, for the final mile of the race, and he came in 2 or 3 minutes ahead of me. My time was 38:02, which works out to just under 5 mph; Andy's was just over 5 mph.

It was fun to see so many people running wearing improvised kilts. One guy had actually wrapped a garbage bag around himself, while a group of women wore grass skirts. There were, of course, a few authentic kilts, too. Oh, and the beer garden was open and populated at 9:00am.

Pictures will be coming soon, but i don't have any for you to see yet. I have to say that i don't think i'll do another 5k; once was enough for me to see what it's like. Kind of like skydiving and driving a race car :)

We actually went out!

Yes, Andy and i went out to a cultural event without a child in tow on a Friday night!

We went to see David Sedaris speak at Benaroya Hall, where the Seattle Symphony performs. The theatre seats 2500, and both nights he was there were sold out. Sedaris was on stage for about an hour and a half, and he was hilarious. He even took questions from the audience at the end. Andy and i joked that we should have asked him if he could get Sarah Vowell's autograph for us.

I don't run

I saw my physical therapist on Friday for hopefully the last time. I'm not pain-free yet, but all my vertebrae are where they should be (and my pelvis is now properly aligned!). Any residual pain should dissipate over the next few weeks.

Now, what does that have to do with running? Well, nothing, but i thought you might be interested. What does have to do with running is i have signed the family up for a fun run/walk on May 31. Anyone who has discussed exercise with me knows that i do not run. I will walk fast, but running just isn't in my repertoire. So what gives?

This was a ploy to get Andy off his butt and back into working out, but i ended up having to get involved, too. There is also a kids' run at the same event, so Sofia will be doing that. We're doing the 5K Great Kilted Run (the kids' run is only 1K), and Andy will actually be wearing a kilt. Sofia and i will likely be in plaid skorts, but you never know; i might buy a kilt before then. What's great about this run is there is also a beer garden that opens 30 minutes before the race. Talk about carb loading :)

Since i seem to be endorphin-deficient (i never get that exercise high people talk about), i doubt this will lead to more running. More kilt wearing and beer drinking, maybe.