The Trip
The ride over seemed to last forever. I have never been on a bus or any vehicle for 8 hours straight, but I enjoy long trips so it wasn't that bad. During the trip, I mostly just slept, talked, played guitar, or watched movies that some of the other team members brought. Someone brought Scary Movie 3, but we didn't watch that much of it because the parents thought it wasn't appropriate lol. There was absolutely NO scenery along the way, which made it really boring. But, I managed to sleep most of the way.

8 hours passed, and we were starting to enter Lubbock. The closer we got, we began to see small piles of what looked like snow. More and more of these piles passed by, and we realized that it was snow! For the first time in my life I saw snow! After the short burst of excitement, we finall arrived at the gym where the competition was held. We went there first so that the drivers list could be turned in, the drivers could get their wrist bands, and so we could get a team picture. After hanging there for a while, we went back to the bus and went to Whataburger to eat (we became very familiar with this place because this is where we always went when we were hungry lol). After some of us ate, we went outside and scared Mr. Conner by throwing a huge ball of ice at his window haha, good times. We departed from Whataburger, and went to our hotel, the Holiday Inn. We got off the bus, gathered our bags, and walked in the building.

We waited for Mr. DelaCruz to check in, and then we started searching for our rooms. They assigned every four of us to a room to compensate for budget, but we didn't stay with the groups they assigned us to lol. I stayed with Mike, Jeff, and Richter (who got traded).

I apologize for not posting for awhile, but a lot has been going on since our Trip to Lubbock [I will post more pictures on my site soon, and provide the link to the page]. This is most likely the last post for the 2003-2007 Saint Anthony BEST Club team, and it will be a long one. Where to start...

The Night Before
On Thursday, after school, all of the team members went home (instead of usually meeting in the Hive to practice or add more to the robot) because we decided to meet at Michael's house, and then later on sleep there over night. About 3 of us actually showed up (just about the entire team was supposed to meet there). We mostly just practiced driving the robot in Michael's garage until about 2 in the morning (which had an area cleared for us to practice, and a full-sized pvc gazebo to test our stradegies), and we had to wake up around 5 to get ready for school. For some reason, I manage to wake up really fast, but 2 days later I feel the effects. However, we had PLENTY of time to sleep on the bus lol, but I'll get to that later.

That Morning
We managed to wake up, get ready, and pack the van in our ever-shrinking time budget. It was so cold when we went outside, it was literally FREEZING. We all decided to wear our hoodies under our jackets, which helped a lot. But, my face and hands were starting to feel like they were going to fall off if I spent anymore time outside, I literally couldn't feel anything!

Stephen, Jeff, and I rode with Mike and managed to get to school just in the knick-of-time! (well, about 10 minutes  early lol) Jeff, Mike, and I went inside the main building to meet with friends. A few minutes before we had to go to chapel, I Mike called me and asked if I had one of the other members' permission form. I was stricken with anxiety because I forgot where it was! I told him I would call him back and started thinking of a way to get the other person to go without his form of permission grantance. However, I later remembered that the form was at my house, so I called my parents to find it and bring it to the school. After a few minutes of looking, they finally found it and told me they would give it to the person after Mass. I was overcome with relief; the situation was solved!

At School
All of the team members seemed very anxious about this trip, but first we had to go to chapel and have Mass before we could depart. I was kind-of looking forward to Mass so that I could pray for our safe trip and be recognized, however I didn't go up when the other team members went up (I was just too tired to get up and walk up there; I felt bad because I felt like I wasn't part of the team for that moment). One of the other members made a joke about it afterwards which helped me to feel better.

After Mass, the senior class was dismissed, but all of the BEST club members were asked to stay behind. If I remember correctly, our principal just wished us good luck and congradulated us on our excellence so far. Then, we left and just visited with the other non-BEST club people . Some of us unpacked our stuff while the others just continued to chat and do some last-minute checks.

Arrival of the Bus!
All of the non-going-to-Lubbock students went inside to go to their classes, while all of the BEST team members stayed outside to mingle with each other. The Bus finally arrived, and it was huge! Due to the generosity of the PTC (Thanks again!), we were able to ride in a Charter Bus!!! It was all white, with near-black tinted windows. It went around the circular-path outside the main building, and parked right by the picknick tables. After it arrived, we all got our luggage, and brought it to the side of the bus to load it in. I helped my parents unload their stuff, and then helped them bring it to the bus. Then, I got some people to try to help Mike unload his car. But, we couldn't find him, so we just hung out with the soccer players who missed their ride and were late for the game.

After not doing anything for a while, we finally started loading the bus with out luggage; I brought my bag and my guitar with me for entertainment along the way. I helped my parents load their stuff, and then went inside, along with some other people, to explore the inside and claim my seat (I moved about 3 times before finding one lol). More and more people started coming in and claiming their seats as well; later on the sponsores came inside and sat down, along with all of the parents, in the front of the bus. Pretty soon, everyone was inside and waiting for departure. We saw a few students come out of the main building staring enviously at the bus. Right before we left, our principle came on the bus and made a last speech congradulating us, thanking the PTC for giving us the money for the charter bus, and getting after the people sitting in the back for their unappropriate atttire.

Departure
The Bus finally started moving (I thought we would never leave), and we went around the circle again to travel through the main entrance. As we went traveled around the circle hazard, I started to worry if I forgot to bring something or load something in the bus, but I went through the list of things I packed and I made sure it was all there; if I did forget something, there was nothing I could do at this point so it was pretty much pointless. Somehow, Marcus - a fellow team member who couldn't go because of a soccer game - ended up outside and waved us goodby as we departed (I didn't think he could see us through the near illegaly-tinted windows). After traveling down the main entrance, we turned onto McCullough and began our 8-hour long trip . I didn't think something this big would be able to turn in the limited space, but luckily we had an experienced driver.

Things seem to be going better now. Everyone was just tired on Saturday - half of us only got like 2 hours of sleep and the other half had to take the SAT for 4 hours - but, today, everyone seemed much happier. This morning the entire team was called up in front of the chapel and was recognized for our efforts. Our mentor, Mr. Conner, made a rather long speech  leading up to the conclusion that we won the competition, then everyone starting clapping. It felt good that we finally got recognition. Even though my individual efforts weren't recognized, it really didn't matter, because now we are a team. However I was handed two trophies that we won in front of everyone, but then Joe and the junior Conner decided they wanted to hold them and I was left trophieless.  lol, still it was awesome. I can not wait for our trip to state, we have a very good chance at winning that too in my opinion.

Today we held our first BEST meeting prior to winning the city competition, but it was short-lived because we had to leave early; no one was able to supervise us. As soon as we got to our meeting place (the Hive), we immediatly got to work deciding who was going to go to state, based on contributions to the club, and I started a list on what to work on in our next 6 weeks. These past 6 weeks working on the robot from concept to completition were a lot of fun, and now we have another 6 weeks to relive it and perfect our already awesome robot!

Well that is it for today. There is a ton of content I will be uploading soon from the competition. Thanks to Ricther's dad, we have over 500 pictures! There are also some videos we took that I will post in the videos section. So check back soon to view the new conetent, I will post an update when it is uploaded.

[I highlighted the key points in case you want to skim-read, since this is a huge post]

You read right! We won the competition! Awesome yes, but bitter sweet.

After school on Friday, the team met in the hive for a few hours, and then headed to St. Marys to practice with the robot and set up the display. We practiced until about 8 p.m., and then all of the drivers headed to Mike's house. We each decided to spend the night at his house and practice with the robot, of course in between practice we would play games on my X-Box 360 to work on our hand-eye cordination lol.  All of us stayed up really late, Mike, Stephen, and I stayed up until 4 a.m. Mike's dad woke us up around 6:30 a.m., and I was the first one to get up; I don't know how, but I wasn't as tired as I should have been for only getting about 2 hours of sleep. I started getting ready, waking up alittle more each minute.

 After everyone finally got up, we ate breakfast and rushed to get to St. Marys. We ran inside and got all of the drivers registered just in time. Most of the people were taking the SAT yesterday during competition, so we had a realitively small group attend. However, after the SAT, more and more people arrived. We started out bad, we didn't score any points, but anyone who was driving would have done that I'm sure; we were VERY nervous, even I was nervous and I wasn't even driving! However, we picked up on our second run, averaging about 120 points. On our third run, we got 180 points. On our fourth run, where I drove, we got 210, but the judges said that two were overlapping  ; it always overlapped when I drove, but driving was easy, and I look forward to doing better in state. Our fifth driver was Stephen; we didn't expect much from him because he didn't do well the following night practicing at Michael's house, but we did very well, getting the same amount of points as I did and putting us in third place! We started out at 23 place, then went to fifth, and then went up into third! Mike drove again and we got into 2nd, and the pattern continued. We stayed in 2nd, and made it into Semi-finals. We prayed a lot, mostly Stephen did before we went, which I think helped.

We got into first place, and then advanced into the finals. We were really stressed as we competed in the finals, but we stayed in first through 2 rounds. Then, the final round came, and it was all up to this. Tom was driving, and our fate layed in his hands; I recorded the last three matches, and I will try to upload them later. Tom started off well; Stephen was loading the wet laundry since he was the fastest. We finally made it inside the Gazebo, where we met Stacy's robot. Tensions were very high as we watched our robot struggle with Stacy's bot. It seemed like they didn't want us to score, but we finally got our first load of wet laundry on the line, but then it fell. It looked like Stacy knocked it off intentionally, which was illegal. 30 seconds was left on the clock, and we cheered for Tom to get that final load of laundry, our last hope, on the line. 5 seconds was suddenly displayed, and Tom finally, and luckily, got it on the line. We surpassed Stacy's amount of points, and won the competition! To my surprise, no one in my team seemed happy. I thought to myself: "Did we just win competition? Why are we jejoicing like we did Freshman year?"

We stayed for the awards, where we won two three trophies, 6 $500.00 scholarships for select students, and a $50,000.00 scholarship for anyone who wants to go to St. Marys!  Some people seemed jealous that we won, even when we went up someone behind us shouted "Go Christians!" - with a sarcastic tone. Everyone still seemed unhappy, but I think they were just tired. It seemed like I was the only one who really cared about winning. When we did win about 30 minutes before the award ceremony, I tried to cheer some people up by saying: "Did we just win?!" Then Austin had the nerve to reply replied: "No we should be moarning." I kinda-of knew that we were going to go to state, and I'm not going to say how because no one would believe me, but I was still surprised; that last match really had me guessing too. But, why was my team acting like this? We were much happier when we got 2nd during our Freshman year, but this year we won and acted mopey.

Having my team act depressed really bothered me, but it got worse. EVERYONE congradulated Michael; don't get me wrong I'm glad Mike got the recognition he deserves, but where was the recognition for the drivers, or for the people that went to the meetings each day, stayed each evening until 6:30 p.m., and then helped clean up? Where was the recognition for the people who came up with the designs for the robot? That REALLY bothered me. One of our mentors even came up to mike, congradulated him saying that "I am so happy right now, we have never won before," and then hugged him. Now I was pissed, I contributed A LOT to the club, and not one once of recognition for me. Mike and I have always been the leaders of past events in middle school, but here everyone only noticed Michael's talents. Everyone has always looked down on me for some reason, and yesterday was no exception. I talked to Mike afterwards about it and he said that "without the team we wouldn't have won." I felt alittle bit better after that. Someone thanked Mike again for winning, and Mike replied that it was the team that won it for us. However, Ricther made a stupid comment like: "No Mike, we know it was you that won it for us." But, then, I corrected him and said that it was the team, and then he just blew me off. I later went up near the mentor to see if we would say anything about my contributions, but he just asked me to get a box upstairs for him. Did we really deserve to make state? No. But we did, and I will make sure that people realize that we won as a team, and I will make sure people know what I contributed. If we want to do good at state, we have to be a TEAM.

Edit [1:15 p.m.]: There is an article in the newspaper today called Robotics Masters which talks about BEST. Towards the end it talks alittle bit about our team member Stephen Wilson, how he came up with the idea to pray before matches, and how our school advanced into state. Be sure to read it! Oh and by the way, it's supposed to be clothes not "napkins" in the article.

We attended state as Freshman, and now we will go again as Seniors. Before, I thought that our four year experience with BEST would have ended yesterday. But, now I know that it has only begun.

Finally I have some time to update.
Just recently we finished our prototype, and realized that we spent too much time on it; I though we were ahead of schedule, but it is the complete opposite. However, because of building the prototype, we were able to get some design issues worked out and perfect our confidentail method to lifting the arm. This year is going to be hard, even our robot just barely fits in the 2'x2'x2' box. I have no idea what the other schools have built, so it is going to be interesting come game day. Right now, we are working on fixing all the problems. We will probably just fine tune and practice driving for our last week. I am really hoping that we make state; we did it before as freshman, and we can do it again as seniors.

A few weeks ago, one of the members of our team, who was with the construction group, seriously injured himself with one of the tools. The blade went into his finger and almost tore his fingernail off. But, he is doing better now, and is back to working with the other construction team members. We were suprised because our prime concern is safety; we are taking more care with our actions this time around.

I will most likely update again either before competition, or after, so check back later on.
-Anthony

Every since Tuesday (we had off monday because of Labor Day), my team and I have been meeting after school to work on this year's robot. Right now, we are still designing it; it is going to be very hard this year.  We have many ideas for the arm, chassis etc., but deciding on one idea is a challenge in itself. As expected, many of the underclassmen didn't come to the meetings after school, but we have enough people as it is. As planned, everyone has dispersed into their groups; a lot of people want to be in the design group, but all they do is mess around, so we will have to drop some. Getting people to focus on their work is hard, but hopefully things will turn out better - it is only the first week. We have decided to start building from the group up, literally, and then figure everything else out later. We might make a prototype, out of all our extra wood left over from previous years, then construct the actuall robot later on. Our team is going to meet again today, so we'll see how things turn out.

Yesterday was awesome, we went to the kick-off for BEST and celebrated my Birthday! I posted some new information about this year's game, which can be viewed at the Competition Page. You can read about my b-day on my Myspace Blog.

I am thinking of adding more to the website, such as new videos of the kick-off yesterday; new pages such as an info page that only St. A BEST members can view and post notes, a news page, a gameday page, a sponsor page, etc.; and new services such as current news, more random polls, etc. I will keep you updated of new additions.

Hey everyone, welcome to our new blog! I will most likely not be the only one updating, but I will maintain this service and review all the posts made by other team members. BEST hasn't even started yet, but I thought it would be a good idea to get a head start, and add more and more as we progress throughout the weeks. This year, we are going to have A LOT of newcomers to our team, which is both good and bad; we will have to teach them what BEST is all about. I am really looking forward to this saturday, not just because it's my birthday week, but also because it's the Kick Off! I'm anxious to see what this year's game will turn out to be.

-Anthony