nothing interesting.

hi Kevin,
sorry I wasn't around to keep this thread going last night. We were at a robotics tournament all day with our son and his team. It was pretty cool but boy, I was whipped when I got home. Didn't even turn on the computer, just went right to bed.

So what home work were you doing? I have a Spanish test on Tuesday and a paper due for my Comparative Governments class. Should I ski or study today?

It was for my management class, It was a take home exam. Spent 3 hours on it so I better get an A. Still have to do a paper do on Thursday. Then I begin a new class. I love the accelerated program because I don't have time to get bored with just one class. How did your son's team do?

No birthday today, but I am celebrating the extra day. I see this as one more day of training, before the races come, and I intend to use it. So far I went for a 20k bike in the sub 40 degree weather. I am so glad that it is warming up.

much better than last time. Last time the were 39/40, this time they were about 8th I think. But better than that was the way they came together and made the programs work. These kids had a lot of obstacles to overcome, like the teacher who lost the disk with the program they needed to run the robot! But they did all the programming themselves and the robot did actually acomplish a few tasks.

Five of these boys will be in high school next year so I've got to contact a teacher there about starting a team. I was told there is grant money available and a teacher to head the program if there is enough interest. It takes about 5K to get this robotics team going and then countless hours by the kids. I don't know if you've ever seen this stuff, but it's all Lego's. The kids build a robot out of Lego's, write it's program on a computer, and then beam it to a control pak on the robot. Each year it is a different mission, this year's mission was on Mars. They had to retrieve a lost rover, build living modules, clear solar panels, collect samples, and lots of other similar tasks. It is fascinating to watch these kids all work together to make it happen. Then at the competitions, it's still about cooperation as the teams share their ideas and strategies, and yes, even CD's, lucky for us LOL

Anyhow, there's more than you wanted to know about Lego's Robotics

exactly!  You know if you're at a tri and need a PowerGel/Gu or something the guy next to you will give it to you if he's able to.  Gotta love triathletes, and Robotic kids  LOL

There was a big-wig from Intel there yesterday too.  I have no doubt some of these kids will be working there some day.

That is pretty cool, the life guard at the pool told us that when she was in school they went down to Disney World a couple of times for a robotic competetion.