Doom Day

The rookie team presented Aragog (in all its slightly incomplete glory) to the varsity team today, was evaluated on knowledege of mechanics, electronics, and other important things... and survived!

Additionally, we've started considering which sub-team each individual rookie will be joining. For some of us, the choice was easy -- Henry's been a programmer through and through for a while now, and several of our members like working with their hands over anything else. For others, anything looked good. As the season goes on, though, they'll find a place. We can be sure of it.

Now the question is: what do we do with the two build sessions we have left until kick-off? The most popular option seems to be completing Aragog as a full team, so I suppose that's what will occupy our time next week. Until then, congrats to all around, and here's looking to a bright and gleaming future for the Robolions!

Work Continues

As Doom Day draws ever nearer and Aragog takes shape, it is up to one lone figure to create a script by which our noble team might prove itself worthy to its superiors and thus evade catastrophic destruction. That figure... is me.

Well, in all seriousness, I've started work on the PowerPoint presentation that we rookies will use on "Doom Day" to present Aragog. All of us are required to help present in some way, to show that they actually did something and didn't stand around guzzling our food the whole time. I know none of us have, but we all still have to help present.

The presentation is coming along smoothly, although it's fairly desultory and humorous, in rather the style of my first few sentences. I'm not sure if that'll fly on Doom Day, but it's best to at least get it out of my system before I start writing what we'll seriously use.

Quorra's Camera and Other Progress

We have now mounted a functional camera to Quorra so that we can see what she sees! However, Dan's still working on the programming needed to let us connect with the camera feed without a big ugly wire. More on that when he finishes.

In Rookie news, we mounted the board to the chassis.... but it turned out Marquise wanted a different board cut, and his measurements weren't followed. This, however, is because we experienced a communication error -- this is why we need to consistently leave notes on what we should do at our next build session, and then READ the notes when we come in. But progress is undisturbed; we've successfully mounted Aragog's battery, and we're working on the CRio as I write! So, all's well that ends well.

Moving Right Along

We have now invaded, converted, and established our new room. We just need to move a bunch of cardboard, wood, and other materials in, and then we will have completely moved in! :D

As for Aragog, well, we've got the frame done and we're working on his pincers now. So far, we've decided they'll be 15 inches long and 3 inches wide. Why? Don't ask me, I don't think spatially. There's got to be some sort of reason, though. :P

Work on Aragog

Progress is coming along well. The build team of rookies has just about finished Aragog's frame, despite some issues with the Stupid Corner that wouldn't line up right. Mr. Sarber explained to us two Golden Rules when it comes to solutions in building:

1. If you have to fit something through a hole and it's not quite working, you can always just make the hole bigger.

2. If all else fails, whack it with a hammer.

The second one was sufficient in this case.