I Have Never Been Acquanted with "Free Time"...

... does he live around here?

I guess not. The past few days have been royally hectic for me. Not to suggest anything bad because they were definitely fun. On Wednesday I went out to karaoke for my friends to sing many great classics and to discover "Drops of Jupiter" by Train was not on the song list. But there were lots of things that have happened and after the dismal last few posts, it is time to recapitulate.












The Offspring concert at Hard Rock Cafe was amazing! Eric, Tina, and I arrived at an early 4:50pm while the show was actually at 8. This gave us a great spot in line. We were about 5th? For a sold out show of some 2000+ people, that is amazing. And was was even more amazing were the seats we ended up with... can you say up front and center floor!? I had a great view of the stage and the performers when they came out. It was simply amazing.




I mean, keeping that spot was another story, as there was lots of pushing and shoving. But a little bit of shifting and "counter-measures" and I was able to retain my great spot all the way until the end of The Offspring's performance. Eric and Tina were not as lucky.



But The Offspring hold a dear spot in my heart because they were the first band I really heard. Deprived of CDs and other media, I was not able to get much. But a gift from my father's friend resulted in a collection of music, where I first heard The Offspring's Conspiracy of One CD. It was an honor to finally get to hear them live and almost catch that guitar pick he threw into the crowd.




Dexter Holland is a holy disciple of punk-rock. I am serious, that is how the picture came out.







There was also the odd coincidence of seeing the sound guy on stage who happened to look like my AP Chemistry teacher from Junior year. Did we just crack open another side of Mr. Reed?



I ended the night with my favorite whopper (the angry whopper) and the purchase of two Offspring shirts. One for me, one for my brother.






The second awesome thing was the arrival of parts. My order from China finally came in, and in it came the necessary parts to finally finish Wazio's fairyweight. I'll call it Pookie in spirit of his old fairyweight.

(uh, picture later)

Really, the only part in that box for him was the motor, but it was very important and is the major part I plan around in my fairyweights. Here is a status picture of how it sits. A .1" thick titanium blade about 1.5oz will be spun by that motor at about 11600rpms on a 7.4v Lithium Battery. Drive motors are speed hacked Airtronics servos and the base materials are all garolite composites. Tomorrow I will be wiring up the electronics (Banebots 3-9 escs and Phoenix 10 esc). In either case, I know it will be underweight (weighing only 5.05oz right now) so I can add wheel guards later on.

Other goodies (11.1v 1750mah Lipoly, 30amp Brushless esc, etc.) in the box are for my new beetleweight, Ice pack, when I get to mill the frame.

BARF in the Bay Area

Bay Area Robot Fights (BARF) was today as you may remember from a previous post. In a field of 21 fellow robots, here is how my two bots did:











DDT: 3 wins - 2 losses
The crowd pleaser that never fails to please... okay I will take that back. The first match against "Babe the Blue Bot" was less than ideal because my belt for the weapon derailed like so many times past (I thought I had that fixed!). But the other 4 matches, the bot never failed to bring a smile to the crowd, bouncing off walls and making sparks and parts fly off opponents. "Cause for Concern" was one such opponent who had his 1/2" lexan frame cracked and his bolts sheered. This bouncing was the demise however when a prime hit on "Verbal Irony 4" sent DDT flying into the pit. It was only a matter of time before it happened anyway.





Pacman: 5 wins - 2 losses
We ran round robin for the beetleweights since there were no as many. Surprisingly, this robot had actually captured the crowd's heart although not being a very good spinner (belt problems, hot motors, slipping blades). The crowd, on hearing Pacman's name announced, would chant "Wakka wakka wakka!" because that's the sound Pacman makes, ha ha. I was even surprised to see that people wanted pictures of me and the robot. I will never forget this one young woman (I'm guessing early 20's) came up to me in the pits after a match and excitedly asked for a picture with me and the robot. I said yes because it would make her happy and because I was honored to know someone wanted a picture with me (plus she was, in my opinion, decently attractive XD).


But anyway! Pacman went through opponents by total win or total loss. He ate through some good aluminum pieces of opponents, a few sparks, relatively stable robot. But some really good pushers put him in the pit. Okay, one of those losses probably should not have happened, but it did. When fighting "Push it to the Limit", an impact shook off one of my wheels. But the same impact left him high centered. We freed him but i couldn't move because the loss of one wheel made the robot sit at an odd position so Pacman got pit'd shortly after. Oh well, we had fun anyway.


Overall it was a heck of a fun event. I always feel a bit strange walking into Anime conventions because the people are way too nice and energetic (and costume-y). But I really enjoy this crowd to be honest. They are overly enthusiastic which makes me feel better about the entertainment that I help provide. They really appreciate it unlike some other events.

Now I know I am not too big an anime nut, but I did see some nice costumes that I did not take pictures of. Fran from Final Fantasy (with her bow), a ton of Naruto characters ranging from Naruto himself to Sakura to Atasuki, Wong Tao Yen from Portal, and many more. I really liked the guy who dressed as the Scout from Team Fortress 2. Bonk! XD

Videos to come! I still haven't uploaded them yet. Check my Youtube page for more! And additional pictures here!