589!!!

Today we started our new semester two website! We worked on making everything more organized and making it easier to find things. Basically, by adding the folder name in front of the file name with a forward slash between them (Example: Pickx/DattoWatto.jpg) the files can be in a folder and not just tossed in with the html. We did that for the rest of the period and it was very uneventful.

Today we did the Triple Beam Balance Wednesday Challenge where we were to figure out how the TBB works and explain it to the class. Saddly, Alvin was in my group, so he slowed down progress like blowing on a wildfire. Everyone else was pretty stable but Alvin got in the way a lot. Kirk was our speaker but, since Conner's explaination was so in-depth, he and his team won. As always, the wednesday challenge form it in the link below.

Today Neato wasn't here so the sub had us watch a video on Mars and trying to look at said planet. Apparently, Neato worked on the project that was the topic of the video, so that is kind of cool. Other than that the day was pretty bland.

Today we talked about the video we watched yesterday. We then worked on our websites for the rest of the period. We aren't going to go live this week, so all we are going to do is write stuff like normal.

Today we made a Sketch-up model of the tote shoot assembled by the field crew. It was a competition judged by Josh K and whoever had the best model, except me, won sugar. I am exempt from the competition for obvious reasons (If for some reason it is not obvious, the pictures below should make everything clear =])

Today we did the tube tossing challenge, the one from last year that had half the class get in a circle and throw tubes to the person to their left, pretty self explanatory. The challenge focuses on teamwork and coordination.

Today we tryed to go live with our sites, but since it is such an indepth process, only a few people did it. I started to get my web site up to date, but I didn't finish it all the way to today. While this was going on, Josh K was running around and looking at everyone's sketch-up model of the tote slide. Greg and Justin tied for first with the best model and I came in zeroith, above everyone, but not participating

Today we got everyone to get their websites online. It wasn't very hard to do, we simply had to delete everything in filezilla and put the new and improved all site up. So all is well in the world of robotics!

Today we made a Sketch-up model of a clock. It didn't matter what clock it was, but Neato's Peacock clock was available to make, which I did. The purpos of this model was to learn the rotate tool and, when the clock was done, we would set our clocks to 5:00. I wanted to use sketchy-physics to make the clock turn on its own, but the physics didn't want to work, so I didn't bother with it. Luckily, I found a photo of a peacock that looked identical to the one on Neato's clock, and after passing it through paint and paint.net, I was able to get it to look like the real thing. (FYI: For the center of the clock that connects to the hands, I eyeballed the measurements.)

Today we finished our sketch-up models of our clocks and we updated our websites. Neato told us that for our sites, we should have the last wednesday challenge that we did and our sketch-up models of our clocks. I was trying to figure our how I had ripped a hole in the space-time continuum. I had some how already known what had happened this week and now I had completely forgot how I knew all of that information, but the explanation was simple. When I had copied the week over an changed the dates, I hadden't deleted the content that was taking up space and I had forgotten about it.

Today we did the 2015 FIRST Handout Wednesday Challenge, the challenge where we got into groups and thought of ideas for this year's handout. The handouts can cost a maximum of $0.50 per and the handout must be entertaining, cool, fun, and pertains to the game itself. I was in a group with Tyler, Nathan, and Kirk and we made a litter shooter. It's basically an aluminum body and lid, a straw, and a piece of surgical tubing to launch the straw. The sugical tubing is run through two holes in the aluminum tube and tied at both ends. All of the prices for all of the materials and the cost per handout is in the photo of our sketch-up model.

Today we didn't talk about the challenge from yesterday, which is odd but its ok and we updated our websites. Other than that, not much occured and the day was calm (Wow this is a short entry).

Not much occured today, but the day was not useless in the slightest, it was useful for updating our sites and having a fun time learning about SMAP, the most recent project by NASA the Neato's wife worked on. The point of it is to monitor the moisture level of the ground so that we can better prepare for droughts and floods. The satailte has a big dish on it that spins and by doing that, it gathers data on a large portion of land, like a magnifying glass on ants kind of thing. It can provide an accurate scan of the entire earth in three days, so thats good. It was scheduled to launch yesterday at 6:22, but it got delayed 24 hours because of bad upper winds and then it got delayed again.

Today we made a Sketch-up model of a skateboard wheel. For this instance, the follow me tool was my best friend, only having to CAD half of a plane and then using that beautiful tool to create the wheel. After that, all I had to do was to smooth the lines and paint the thing. It was a fairly quick CAD to make, but Justin figured out the beautiful tool and showed the class. So all in all, it was a good day. As usuall, I will have some pictures of the wheel down below :)

CAHSEE

CAHSEE

Today we did the E thursday challenge that required groups to design an E on one computer, and then construct someone else's E on another computer. Thankfully, Max from last year created an algorithim that yielded a very accurate score for the teams. It looks like this: X=|^A|+|^B|+|^C|+|^D|+(|^E|*2). ^A is the difference between the length of the upper prong of the E in the CAD compared to the length of the constructed one, ^B is the difference between the length of the middle prong of the E in the CAD compared to the length of the constructed one, ^C is the difference between the length of the lower prong of the E in the CAD compared to the length of the constructed one, ^D is the difference between the height of the E in the CAD compared to the height of the constructed one, and ^E is the difference between the distance between the prongs of the E in the CAD compared to the distance of the constructed one. ^E is doubled because there is two distances on an E, the upper distance and the lower distance. It sounds complicated, because it is, but if there is one thing that I learned from judging this challenge it is that it is EXTREMELY hard to keep organized, but luckily for me, this was the smoothest its ever run, according to Neato. As a judge I will have the final scores and the winners in a pdf below.

Today we atempted to have everyone completely update their websites and get them live for Neato to grade this weekend. AT the beginning of the class, we discussed the thursday challenge from yesterday and me, Gabby, and Adrian showed the final scores and explained the algorithim and the winners. Not to put out Gabby and Adrian or anything, but I did all the measuring and scoring and it was difficult to do, especially when one E is in metric and another has an A dimention of 89 feet. But other than that, the day was long and and very productive. (Now I feel like today's entry is totally overshadowed by yesterday's explanation of the challenge).

Today we made a sketchup model of a piece of aluminum tubing, easy, but then we were to make one of our initials out of the tubing that we may or may not make in the future. I, as always, went beyond what we were supposed to do and I made both of my initials in one structure, a K from one point of view and an S from another. In it's entirety, the amount of aluminum needed to make the structure is 1' 11 1/2", just 1/2 of an inch under 2 feet. It's very simple and looks really cool so I am planning on 3D printing the thing, just for fun.

Today we had a slightly odd wednesday challenge and it was to refine this year's handout design and make it better. The handout that was chosen was Connor and his group's idea which was to make an acrylic cast of a tote and make it so that an LED inside would light up only the 589 on the side, so I can see why they would need our input and refinement on the idea. I was in a group with Justin, Alvin, and Keilah and we (as in everyone but Alvin) decided to focus on the way the light behaved and how we could fix it. The problem was that the

Today we started the week long project of making a cardboard car out of only cardboard, straws, and wood glue. Like last year, we each will make our own car and next Friday, we will race them to see which one can make it all the way down the ramp. The ramp will be the one from the JPL invention challenge, the one that Justin, Nathan, Greg, and the rest of that team made. They are going to modify it so that it is flat and smooth, so the cars can run down it nicely. Other than that, the day was calm and nothing extraordinary occured.

Today we updated our websites for the week to get us all up to date. Today was also the day that we met Jeff The Alligator Lizard who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was big, at least 10 inches long, and my theory is that he has been living here for a long time and after 5th period each day when Neato left and the room was dark, he would come out of his hiding spot and feast on the remains left from lunch that day. He ran back into his hiding spot after being spoted by Nathan and then Tyler, with help from Nick (NOT Alvin), caught his and brought him back outside, safe and sound. The funny thing is that when Nathan spoted Jeff, he didn't over react or go crazy, he simple said, "Uhh... Neato, there is an alligator lizard in the room." in the calmest of tones. But other than that, I showed off my 2 in 1 initial from Tuesday and all was well in the world (P.S: The picture below of me and the bots is from various robotics meetings that I thought I should show, just for kicks.).

Today we made a sketch-up model of the parts of the handout this year. Since I cheated and I already made an exact model of the tote (since I CADed and printed the dang thing), I made a model of the switch. the pins aren't my best work, but the rest of the thing is pretty good. The limitations of sketch-up made the model hard, but scaling the model up, making it, then scaling it back down work well and tricked sketch-up. I also took advantage of the scale tool like I always do, I make only 1/4 of the thing and then I copy it, mirror it using the scale tool, and repeat the process until the object is complete.

Today we started the week long adventure of shipping a Pringles chip throught the mail and having it come back unharmed. After their shipment, the chips will be rated from 100pts to 0pts, 100pts for a perfect chip and 0pts for potato dust. Between the 100pts and 0pts there is 50pts for a cracked, but still in one piece chip, 10pts for a split in half chip and a chip with only little chips along the edges, and 5pts for a chip broken into less than 20 pieces. My group consists of me, Nathan, and Jason and we came up with an idea of taking the chip, packing it LIGHTLY with cotton balls, but just the right amount, and shipping it off in a nice 4 inches wide, 6 inches long, and 3 inches tall box. This idea was actually originally Jason's idea that we modified and improved upon. At the start of the day, my first goal was to make a better pringles chip model and, sadly, I figured out how to make that complex shape really quickly. I first found the dimensions of the chip from a top view, then I made a circle and scaled it to fit that size. I then found the height of the chip's lower arc from a side view, the face that would be in contact with the cotton balls, and made an arc there. I then took the width of the chip, rounded it up to the nearest inch, and made a circle from it, placed it at the start of the arc, and then made it follow the arc with the follow me tool. I then made this section a group and moved it off to the side. I then took that oval I made earlier and I extruded it higher that the total hight of the chip, made that a group, and then repositioned it back on the arced tube thing. I then intersected the two objects, exploded them, deleted the extra lines, and then painted and grouped the left over pringles chip. As I said, not that hard.

Today we continued building our cars for the race that will take place eventually, but not this week. I realized that the car that I made last year that was steerable and always went straight is illegal because it only has 3 wheels and its axles are toothpicks and not straws. So with that in mind I went full bore with my new car and, in the process of building it, the car went from traveling along it's length, to traveling along it's width. Basically, I took a car, took off it's wheels, turned them 90 degrees, and started driving "straight". It's a stupid premise, but I think that it can evolve and not be a sucky thing.

Today we were to update our websites and have them uploaded and ready to go for Neato to grade this weekend. We also had the option to work on our cars once we finished with our sites. I abandoned my current and odd idea before I started updating my site and went for something a little more simple. my new car is going to be one piece of cardboard that is bent in half down the middle and in four areas of the cardboard, the flat part and the corrugated part of the cardboard will be removed, giving the straws a place to rest and to rotate in other that cutting through the cardboard perpendicularly and running the risk of misalignment. With my idea, there is no room for the straw to move around and therefore it will go straight. So even thought it is simpler that what I was working on, it will work better than that strange thing. I didn't finish updating my site, which sucks, and I didn't finish the powerpoint for my group, so I have to do that over the weekend and e-mail the powerpoint to Nathan. I also need to get File-Zilla working on my home computer so that I can update my site at home and not let my grade suffer.

Today we made a sketch-up model of our cardboard cars that we are making for this friday. My design is very simple; one piece of cardboard with four trenches cut in it so that when it is folded in half, the trenches line up and a straw can fit through the gap and turn smoothly. By doing this, it eliminates any possibility of the car turning or veering off to the side because of vertical misalignment. The wheels are just normal wheels cut from a hard drive disc so that they are round. The reason why the wheels aren't very detailed is because I didn't have time to make them detailed and frankly, I didn't want to fight with it to make it work. Also, another reason why I didn't follow through with my triangle idea was because I really didn't feel like going through all of the trouble of CADing it and I KNOW that it would have been a pain to design and that it would have taken me days to finish it. So here is a better and simpler idea that I think will work much better, I just don't know how I am going to keep it folded in half when it is complete in the real world. (F.Y.I. The white faces on the car are intentional because that is how the cardboard I used on my car looks; having only one side of the board be white. DETAILS, DETAILS!)

Today we updated our sites and we continued our cars for friday. Neato told us that our sites came first and that we were to do those first and then if there was time at the end we could work on our cars. I decided that I would work on my group's mailing a Pringles chip wednesday challenge. Since our concept box is 4" wide, 6" long, and 3" tall, I had to make it and not just find a box the right dimensions. When I got a box to make the box, I was thinking of ways to make a box out of one piece of cardboard, and I figured it out just by looking at the box I was going to cut up. The extra flap over to the left of the picture is an overlap to keep the box's shape and to make it stronger. When the box is all folded, it will be very strong and very ridged, but, unfortunately for me, I made my proto-box with no flaps on one side, like if the bottom flaps on the picture were not there. Tomorrow I will make a new box that will have flaps on all sides and hopefully it will be strong enough to make it through the mail.

Today we finished up our Pringles packages and got them ready for shipment. As I said yesterday, the box I made today that will go through the mail had flaps on both sides and, as an experiment, I took an old chip, the type that we got at the beginning of this whole endeavor, and put it in my group's box just like how the real one will be. I held onto the box firmly, to keep it closed, and I shook it, shook it real good, and then I smacked it off the pillar in the center of the room, hard, multiple times, and when we opened the box to check the chip, it was in perfect condition like nothing had ever happened to it. we then calculated the volume of our box and the weight of the box, then we plugged all of those numbers into the formula and got a final score of 14.49, which is good, I guess. I mean, I didn't sit there and calculate the perfect ratio of volume to mass so I have no idea what the best score can be. I guess it all depends on what the scores of the other teams are and how we compare to them. However, except for crushing force, I am fairly certain that whatever happens to our box will not effect the chip inside.

Today we were to get our sites fully up to date so that Neato could grade them for double points this weekend. We also had to finish our cars and their corresponding sketch-up models for tomorrow. And we have to complete our wednesday challenge powerpoint until we show the picture of our ready to be mailed box by tomorrow. So today, we had our hands full. I finished my sketch-up model of my car and I almost finished my real life car, but time ran out and I now have to finish the last wheel tomorrow, which shouldn't be hard. I just need to find a way to keep the cardboard folded in half because at the moment, I don't have any ideas. I may make the cardboard have interlocking teeth like how my previous idea was held together, but that is a question that can be answered tomorrow.

Today we updated our sites and got everything working for this week's grading period. I up loaded my site via Zander's computer, and on my way out, I took a copy of his filezilla and took it to my computer, so mow I have filezilla aswell. I also finished my car and when I rolled it down the ramp, it took off almost imediately. So its good to know that my car rolls straight and fast down the ramp.

Today we made a sketch-up model of the two totes, the full sized one and the tiny one. The point of the model was to work with the scaling tool to make both of the totes, make one, copy it, then scale it to the right size. Yes, I had an advantage by having the source file and all I had to do was scale it, but it was still fun. The scaling ratio was 1 to 16.9375 since I made dimention on the mini tote 1" and that same dimention on the real one was 16 15/16". And don't mind the cinematic photo, I was bored.

Today we did an emergency wednesday challenge where we were to come up with ways of fixing our horrible functioning to non-functioning ratio because out of yesterday's batch of 15, only 4 worked. I was grouped with Nathan, Kirk, and Nick and we decided to go with the idea of putting hot melt glue on the connections of the switch.

Today we did a wednesday challenge again on the handout. I made a group with Tyler, Nathan, and Alvin and for this challenge, we decided that instead of using hot glue on the battery connections, we would use super glue to hold the connections. By the time these two challenges are over I will have made an entire model of the handout, I really need a life. Also, Alvin pushed Tyler a bit too far and he almost threw Alvin's phone. He did take physical action after Alvin dared Tyler to do it. Tyler's punishment for his actions was that he was to sit outside and get told by Neato, "You should have talked to me first." Alvin on the other hand got punished more, something that I was happy to see.

Today we raced our cardboard cars and I was the score keeper. Tyler and Kirk would catch the cars if they fell off the road, and Nathan was the starter. As of right now, Wes is in 1st with an average distance of 177.3 inches, I am in 2nd with an average distance of 165.3 inches, and Leo in second with and average distance of 146 inches. The scores are linked below.

Today we talked about our cars and the events of yesterday, along with the usual friday routine of updating our sites.

Today we either A: Made a sketch-up of the mini hybrid from last year, the little metal and wood ones, or B: Made a sketch-up of the wheels and axles for a longboard that we will be CADing and then making. Only people that are profitiant at sketch-up are making skateboards, which is only a few people. Obviously, I didn't make the model below, I found it thanks to Whes finding it in the 3D Wearhouse. The model was kind of off, so I edited it a bit, added some curves, and changed its colors, producing a very good model that is aesthetically pleasing. I don't know what I want my board to look yet, but I will figure that out later.

Today we did something, I'm sorry I don't remember, we probably did something normal, so here is the story of a turtle: There once was a turtle. The End. Happy times ahead!

Today we did the wednesday challenge from last year where we were to make a cardboard square that is as close to 1' by 1' as possible. The person with the nicest square wins. I pared up with Nathan and we made a square with the square, we didn't win, but we were close to winning. Me and Nathan are slowly becoming good friends and I am slowly making him crazy, just like me. But alas, cardboard squares, yay!

Today we talked about the wednesday challenge from yesterday and Neato showed us how he graded and picked the nicest squares. After that, we did stuff to our site and then the day was over.

Today we it was a minnimum day, but I don't know what we did because I was in long beach fighting for team 589 in the Long beach Regionals!

Today was our first day back after spring break. We talked about what we did and what place we got in the Long Beach Regional and how we got the Judges award. The funny thing was that the day we left was Friday the 13th, and because it was that day, we couldn't get by unscathed. Our bus crashed on our way there, we rear-ended a red truck and we were stuck at the side of the road for 1 whole hour while things got sorted our. Since we were stuck there, the drivers and the Chairmen's award people were stuck there with us. So Mrs. Martos, after many complications, was able to get the drivers and the C-award people to the stadium in Neato's truck so they could make it there in time for our first game and our C-award interview, But the rest of us were stuck there for the rest of the hour. Ian wore the mascote suit and he played the part freekishly well, when he put on the head, he was no longer Ian, he was the robot, and he fit into the suit perfectly. I almost want to rename the suit Springtrap. The stadium was massive and there were a lot a high up and out of the way places that were quite nice for relaxing. All in all, it was a very good regional and I can't wait for Ventura!

Today we did a wednesday challenge pertaining to the skateboards that part of the class will eventually be making. The challenge was to figure out a way to make the most amount of skateboard boards out of a 5' by 5' piece of wood where the boards are 10" by 41". The larger dimension can be modified, but the 10" must stay. The wastage is the left over rectangle area the is not used to be cut out into boards, the corners of the boards, the squared sides, do not count. The team with the least wastage wins. Neato's son is the judge. I was in a group with Connor and Nick and originally, I was going to follow the rules, but then I got creative. I fiddled with the lengths of the boards until I managed to use 100% of the wood to make boards. I figured out that 8 boards could be made, 4 with a length of 50", the other 4 with a length of 40". Because I didn't follow the rules exactly, we didn't win, but Neato's son really liked our solution.

Today we discussed the wednesday challenge from yesterday and we updated our sites a bit. We also did things normal to robotics (wow, this entry really sucks compared to the past two days, sheeesh!)

Today we did something, but I don't know what we did because I was in ventura fighting for team 589 in the Ventura Regional! This time for three days, not two!

Today we talked about the events of Ventura and watched our Chairmen's video by Charlie and Bert Poole's video Launch to Long Beach. Both of the videos are very good and, in my opinion, Charlie's video was much better than 399's video, the people that won the award. Their video was almost identical to ours, which was annoying, but its okay. All in all, Ventura, with all of its ups and down, reaction rashes, Cards Against Humanity games, us beating 330 and coming in 8th, the capture the glowing water bottle game with LC, the Grilled Cheese Truck, and Charlie in a green morph suit carrying the bible and wearing a pillow mushroom hat, it was one of the best times of my life.

Today me and the other people that went to the competition cleaned up the shop for a visitor. We made the shop sparkle and I was in charge of vacuuming and cleaning up the practice field.

Today we did the wednesday challenge from last year where we, with a partner and the rest of the class, work together to build a structure as fast as possible. One person is blind folded and the other tells the blinded person what to do. Each pair has only 30 seconds to do as much as they can and then the next pair goes. Only the unblended person can tell the blinded person what to do. The goal is to have a faster time than period 4. The period with the fastest time wins and gets sugar. I paired with Nathan and, like David from last year, I directed the whole operation and got everyone to work as a team. Gabby was the time keeper and in the end our final time was 37:26.

Today we continued updating our sites and we talked about the the wednesday challenge from yesterday, other that that, it was just another day in the world of robotics.

Today was a minimum day and we updated our sites as much as we could. Sadly, since I have been at Ventura and Long Beach for our robotics competitions, I haven't had time to sit down and update my site, and when I say I haven't had time, I mean that my site is 3 and 1/2 weeks behind! My plan of attack is to do as much as I can in class and then when I get home, I will Update the rest of it as much as I can and as far as I can remember back to. Today is going to be FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN! (not)

Today we were to go and do our designated task that we had been doing. I started my CAD model of my board that I had already thought of but didn't get to finish it. Tomorrow I will finish the model and hopefully print it out as well.

Today we continued our own things things and it took me longer than I had expected to finish the CAD, so I ran out of time and couldn't print my board out. Hopefully I will have time tomorrow to do the wednesday challenge and print my board out, but I'll be hard pressed to do both, one can only hope for the best.

Today we did a wednesday challenge on mentor gift ideas for this year's robotics competition. Their goal was to make a gift that was creative, cool, says 589, be able to make 14, relates to the competition, and is relatively cheap to make. Me, Gaby, Josh K., Daniel, and Adrian were the judges and in the end, we decided that Tyler's idea of the tote flash drive was the best one. The final scores are down below. I also printed out the paper pieces for my skateboard, I printed it in blue because that was what the printer had the most of. I will tape it together tomorrow.

Today I started taping my skateboard together. I only got a few things together before class ended, so I'll have to do it tomorrow. Neato will just have to store my papers somewhere until the time comes in which I need them again.

Today I finished taping my skateboard together and I cut out the cardboard pieces that are to be glued together. In doing this I realized that my board is extremely freakishly big, seeing the full size in real life. On Tuesday I will glue the cardboard pieces together and then I will retrieve it one Wednesday.

Today I glued two out of the four cardboard parts that I need for my proto skateboard. This is because I ran out of time, mostly because the way we are spreading the glue around on the cardboard takes a long time and my board is abnormally big. The real pain was spreading the weight out evenly on the board. I ended up using a cinder block and almost all of the bricks to distribute the weight. Tomorrow I will glue the rest together.

Today we did the long belated Pi Day Wednesday Challenge where I was the judge. We were supposed to do back on 3/14, but at that time we were at the Long Beach Regional (Fun Fact: This passed Pi Day was MEGA Pi Day because of this: 3/14/15, 9:26 AM, 53 seconds, and 58 milliseconds = the first 12 numbers of Pi, 3.14159265358. MIND BLOW.). So we had it today. The point was to calculate Pi using the circumference and diameter of a circular object without using Pi in the calculating. The groups provide the circumference and diameter and then I calculate their number. I will relay the winner on another day.

Today we concluded the Pi day wednesday challenge and Tyler and his group won, so they got pie and ice cream. However, everyone got ice cream and all was dandy, but someone had to serve out that ice cream to everyone, that someone was me. The pay-off for my struggle was that I got a slice of pie like the winners did. In the end, all was right with the world.

Over these three days, I got a lot of work done one my skateboard. On Monday, I went to go and get my board from outside, but the board was glued to the cement because some of the glue oozed out of the layers. Because of this, I had to take a chisel and a brick and go around all the edges and chisel the board from the ground. Since I had to chisel it, the bottom of the board was, let's just say, unhappy with it's treatment, but the area that was inside of the board's perimeter was undamaged, so that was good. On Tuesday, I cut out the perimeter of my board in it's entirety minus the little indents by the wheels. Cutting my board was, interesting because it was so long and wide that it barely fit on the counter where I was working. The physical cutting with the jig saw was fun and I enjoyed the experience, but when I was done cutting for the day, my board looked like a peanut. All that was left to cut was the indents by the wheels. On Thursday, I cut out the indents on my board by cutting a line to the middle of the semicircle through what I was trying to cut out. From there all I had to do was to cut out the quarter circles and the indent was cut out. I surprised myself with how good the cuts ended up looking when finished. When I cut all 4 out, my board was taking it's battle axe-esk shape. Since I had marked the holes on my sketch-up model of my board, all I had to do was line my paper up on the board, tape it down, and drill on the mark. I didn't have to do the complicated way the Neato's son came up with. I drilled my holes, attached the wheels, and rolled it down the hallway next to Neato's room. Th thing that confused me for a while was that when I rolled my board one way, it would go straight, and if I rolled it the other way, it would veer to the right. It ended up just being the warping of the board that messed up the vertical alignment of the wheels. That's pretty much everything that happened this week and down below are some photos from what took place this week.

Today we did the usual do your own thing that you need to do and I worked largely on helping people with their boards and I tried to get my board as flat as I could, but the glue had already dried and stuck it that way. So today was pretty straight forward and it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Today we did the Cardboard Tower Wednesday Challenge where we were to create a cardboard tower made completely out of 1" by 1" squares of cardboard that has the greatest height possible. The goal is to beat period 4 in height, so the challenge starts as a group versus group challenge, and then after each group presents their idea, we all come together and decide on the best idea. There is no adhesives, the squares must be individual, and it must be free standing. The squares can be bent and can interlock with each other. The tower is scored on it's height and it's accuracy to the CAD model. The period with the greatest height and accuracy wins sugar. My group's idea was to take the squares, fold them in half at a 90 degree angle, and slot them together with a larger base. Our tower consists of 20 squares and it has an estimated height of 12 1/4". The idea gathering caused a bit of turmoil because when Neato said that we could disperse and idea gather, basically no one did anything and resorted to "Let's do Greg's, Greg's is the greatest!" when I asked them what they wanted to do. So I went ahead and did mine and left the others who were on Greg's side to their own devices. This would have all been ok if Neato had been in the room during this time, which he wasn't. So I guess we'll see what happens with this tomorrow.

Today we finished the wednesday challenge from yesterday and Neato came to the conclusion that me and my followers doing my idea and Greg and his followers doing his idea was the best path for us to follow. Not because Neato was for Greg's idea, but because he wanted Greg and his followers to learn that cutting out 550 1" by 1" squares and assembling them into a tower in only one hour with only 15 people is a bit ridiculous. In about 20 minutes, all of Greg's team had departed and gave me the squares they had made, but I don't know why. During this time, I was cutting and building my tower with the help of a few friends and I had enough time at the end to adjust the tower to be the exact height of the one in my model. All we have to do is wait for tomorrow and hope for the best.

Today we learned that we won the wednesday challenge by a pretty good amount, 4th period's tower was about half the height of ours. So we all got strawberry ice cream kindly scoped out to us by Justin and we updated our sites like every friday, but I am still behind on my site, so that's a bit annoying.

Today we were, again, to go and do our our designated tasks, but I had a problem, my board is too wide to fit in the 2 jigs that have already been built, so I had to come up with a way to make a jig that could accommodate my board's size, then make a sketch-up model that we can build from. I basically came up with a jig that, instead of using one plank of wood to accommodate the width of the board, I would use two of the same size planks put next to each other and held in place when the clamp is tightened. I finished the model by the end of the period and sent a copy to Neato so that his son can look at it. I will get his feedback tomorrow and implement it into the model.

Today we were, again, to go and do our our designated tasks. Neato told me that he would like the clamps to be 4 by 4's with the nuts and washers counter sunk into the wood so that the jig will be level when the boards are gluing to eliminate warp. While implementing the modifications, I walked by Rhys while he was cutting out his cardboard pieces and I saw that his board was far longer than and a bit wider than mine, so I had to accommodate for him. Josh K., my partner on this project, pitched the idea of bolts instead of threaded rods, nuts, and washers, but I didn't go far into this today because it was nearing the end of the period, but all in all, it was a very productive day. Below is the jig in it's current state.

Today we did a wednesday challenge where we were to make a paper boat out of one piece of graph paper that can hold a weight for 5 minutes. The boat that lasts for 5 minutes and has the greatest weight wins. For my group's boat, I just folded the paper in random ways with something in mind that I wanted it to look like and hoped for the best. In the end, the boat that I folded looked like a little barge and it held a 29 gram weight for 3 minutes and 51 seconds out of the 5 minutes, which isn't bad because we were the second ones to go and the winning team got their idea from ours and made theirs kind of like ours at the last minute. I think that our boat would have stayed up for the whole 5 minutes it the wind hadn't blown and knocked out boat to the side, dipping one of it's corners into the water and sinking our ship. I do praise the winning team because their boat held up a 55.5 gram weight and, according to Neato, was the largest weight ever carried the whole 5 minutes.

Today we did our normal doos and I started working on Josh's blot idea. I had to go onto McMaster Carr to find the bolts that we wanted and made a replica of them in sketch-up. All I could do today is put the bolts, nuts and washers into the model since I had to run around and talk with Neato a lot to confirm the parts. On monday I hope to properly implement the bolt idea on the model and have it ready to be made and parts ordered so that I can make my real board. Below is what the new components (left) look like next to the old ones (right). The models are fairly simple because they don't need to be perfect. Just imagine threads going up the length of the bolt and the rod if you feel so inclined.

Today we just updated our sites and got them up for the weekend like usual. Sadly, I haven't updated my site for a very long time, so long that it seems impossible for me to update it all in one sitting since I have no time tomorrow to update and the agreement I made with my parents was to update my site completely today. If you've been wondering how much I have to update, let me put it this way. On average it takes me 45 minutes to an hour to complete one full week to my liking, so it will take me around 2:30 to 3 hours to update because of block schedule (4 and 1/2 weeks). So it's going to be a fun Friday evening for me.

Today we were to do our usual projects and I realized that if I wanted to get my skateboard done by the end of the year we would have to scrap my modified jig and make something out of the stuff we have. At the rate the jig was progressing, we would have had a finished CAD of the jig and be building it 3 days before the end of the year. This week, me, Keilah, and Leo are doing legos and just today we managed to complete 4 challenges, we turned the 90 degree thing, we got the red key, we opened the door, and we put the red key on the hanger. If this is a foreshadow of what we will do the rest of the week, we are in a very good spot. Anywho, I am starting to understand how the lego robots run and how their code functions, it seemed hard at first, but it ended up being quite simple.

Today we continued our projects and me and the other lego guys in my group continued with that. We accomplished less that yesterday, but we still did ok. We completed a fairly difficult challenge where we had to drive over to a thing, put the slider inside the thing out as far as it can go, and then return to base. It sounds simple, but it really isn't since there was a non-90 degree turn we had to make and the aiming of the arm to pull out the slider. It took a while, but we pulled it off. We also encountered a problem where one time we would run the robot and it would turn the correct amount, but after a little while and a couple runs later without changing the code, the robot would turn far less. We discovered that the source of the problem was that as the robot would drive, the wheels would gather dust and have less traction, but after cleaning the wheels, the bot would turn correctly. Other than that, it was a fun and relaxing day in robotics.

Today we did a wednesday challenge where we had to think of a way to fix the problem of the chlorine and bromine in a reservoir mixing due to sunlight and producing cancer causing bromate. The reservoir is 10 acres in size, serves about 600,000 people, and holds about 60 million gallons of water. Our answer must be relatively inexpensive and creates the best possible outcome. The group with the best idea wins. My group went for the real life solution to the problem where floating black balls or tiles are floated on the top of the water where they can absorb the light and heat from the sun and keep the bromine and chlorine from mixing. A problem for us was that we were very limited on the information that we could get to, we couldn't use our laptops, we could only ask a judge a question for them to google. We didn't get to present our idea today, so tomorrow we will present and hope for the best.

Today we finished up the wednesday challenge from yesterday and we presented our idea to the class. We feel that we did well and that we were in a good spot. The light on the Elmo was too bright, so to fix it, I held up my hand and blocked some of the light for the 3 presentations that were presented today including our own. So my arm got tried, like, really tired. After that we continued our projects as usual, but Mrs.Martos took the lego stuff for a presentation she was doing for the girl scouts, so we couldn't do legos today. So, me and Josk K drilled the holes in the 2-by-4's required for me and Rhys's skateboard jig. All we have to do now is cut the large boards and assemble the thing. I hope that by tomorrow I can have my board gluing and ready to be cut out on monday.

Today we had our usual day of website updating and during lunch I assembled the jig for me and Rhys's board. The problem was that Josh K wasn't here today so there was no-one there to operate the table saw, so I will have to cut out my boards for my board on monday. By the time everything was settle and I knew what I was going to do today, the class was already half way done, so today didn't count as a day for legos, we could just mess around with bot for the rest of the period. All in all, it was a pretty good day even with the minor setbacks.