Bricks For Brains Blog

2009-06-04T06:49:00.000-07:00

2009 season?
Hey there LEGO robotics fans. I'm not sure we're going to have a FLL season this year. I've put the word out and have heard nothing from anyone. I'm pretty sure Connor's in, and if I had to guess Dane is in, but I'm not certain about any one else. I've also come up dry on all attempts at recruiting new members. I'm afraid unless something changes I'm going to cancel FLL this year. It's too bad too, the field looks pretty interesting this year. Please contact me or comment on this post.

2008-12-22T08:14:00.000-08:00

CONGRATULATIONS TEAM NXT GENERATION!

I just found out that our friends in Denmark have been notified that they are going to be competing in Atlanta at the FLL World Festival. Nice work NXT Generation!

2008-12-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

I just updated my Brickshelf page with some images from JMMB, plus you can check out some of the other stuff I've built.

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=roguefx

2008-12-14T20:04:00.000-08:00

Holy cow, I won!

I competed yesterday at the Junior Master Model Build-Off at LEGOLAND. Me and 9 other adults squared off at 2:00 PM and had one hour to build something with the theme "space". I had a few ideas before going in but that was the extent of my preparation. After sizing up the available parts (we all started with identical bins and had several other bins to dig through) I had to throw out my first two ideas of a LEM and astronauts and an Apollo rocket. I moved on to do a space station. After building for a while I noticed my scale seemed too small for a space station and it was looking sorta like the Hubble. When a spectator asked if I was building a Hubble I knew it was time to shift gears again. So knowing that our dear Hubble is entering it's golden age I decided to build the next generation space telescope. We all build feverishly for one hour and everyone did an amazing job. When I saw the other models I have to admit my heart sank a little. I didn't think I had any chance. The judges came by and we talked about my creation and then they reset for the awards. After watching the other age catagories it came time for us. We all lined up and got our trophies and certificates. Then they announced the winner and I was totally stunned to hear my name announced. I won!!!

My prize package included 4 one day tickets, 4 resort memberships, 4 LEGO sets, a hat, a shirt, a book, a keychain, a meet and greet with a master model builder and a mosaic of myself. And of course, the trophy :-)

Thanks to my family for cheering me on and to LEGOLAND for sponsoring such a great event. Congrats to all the other builders, you all rocked.

2008-12-11T10:00:00.001-08:00

Season 2009 announced

Hey FLL fans!

FIRST has announced the theme for next year's challenge: Smart Move. It's all about transportation, and sounds like it's going to be very cool.

2008-12-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

I've uploaded pictures from LEGOLAND, click here to see them

2008-12-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

LEGOLAND was a blast!

Well, it all came down to luck this weekend, unfortunately it wasn't the good kind of luck. All missions have something that can go wrong with them, and we seemed to be having that more than we would have liked. I believe our final ranking was 12 out of 56 which is nothing to be ashamed of and we had very high marks on our project. You all did an amazing job on Saturday and I am very proud of you all.

I spoke with Lynn Crockett from LEGOLAND yesterday and she said she heard our name a lot the day before so you all made an impression, that's very good.

I will upload my pictures soon, if anyone else took pictures or video please let me have it so we can share.

I owe a big thank you to those that helped so much. Mickey, you were an awesome coach and a much appreciated companion, thanks. Theresa, you taught the team so much about sea level rise they are all experts now. Dianna, your help on the project was amazing, and thanks for letting us take over the garage and the house. John, Gayle and Dawn, thank you so much for your financial support, it means a lot. To all the parents who shuttled our team to meetings, got them to do their homework, pushed them to help out and schlepped them down to LEGOLAND, thanks.

Unless we attend the LEGOLAND invitational in Jan or Feb our work is now finished. Good job team, see you next season!

2008-12-04T07:21:00.000-08:00

That's what I'm talkin' about!

That was an absolutely amazing meeting last night, you were all on fire! Not only did we successfully combine two missions, we re-thought another and built the attachments and programmed it in one night! I am very proud of you all.

Today's meeting starts early, basically after school for everyone that can make it. I'm afraid you'll be on your own at the table however, neither me or Mickey can be there until after 6. Dianna can help you with the project stuff, but she doesn't know anything about the table.

This is our last meeting tonight, make it count.

2008-11-30T16:49:00.000-08:00

We will have meetings Monday through Thursday this week, from 7-9PM.

2008-11-30T11:10:00.001-08:00

Today's meeting starts at 1:00. Eat some lunch and be ready to boogie. We have a lot to do.

2008-11-29T11:38:00.000-08:00

ONE WEEK LEFT!!!

Let's make the time we have left count. I want all team members working hard and helping their team. We still have a lot to do and very little time left to do it.

In other news team NXT Generation received our care package and posted a note to thier website. check it out here under the news link.

2008-11-25T07:09:00.000-08:00

Care package! We got or care package from our friends in Denmark Team NXT Generation. The whole team (and the coaches) had a fun time going through all the stuff and snacking on gummy everything. Thanks for sharing your culture with us!

2008-11-25T06:59:00.000-08:00

Lights, Camera, Action!

On Sunday we spent some time filming video segments for our project. The team had a good time performing in front of a greenscreen.

2008-11-24T10:19:00.001-08:00

Schedule this week

It's Thanksgiving week, where we give thanks for a little extra time to get our project and programming done :-)

This week we'll have additional meetings for all who can attend. If you can make it, great, if not, we understand and will see you at the next meeting. We have editing to do, we have programming to do, we have some missions to still work out, we have the project to finalize. I know some of you will be traveling and we won't have every member at any of these meeting quite likely. But if you can make it, I'll be around this week. And if you want to come over at a time not specified below, just call and ask, maybe we can work something out.

Tuesday 7:00 - 8:30
Wednesday 7:00 - 9:00
Thursday 5:00 - 7:00 (Turkey day!)
Friday 3:00 - 6:00 (get your shopping done early!)
Saturday 2:00 - 5:00
Sunday TBD

2008-11-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

Pretty productive day team, let's keep up the momentum and good work. We're going to have a special project-only meeting tomorrow (Sunday) from 2-4. We'll have the "production studio" set up with lights, greenscreen and of course a camera. We'll shoot some segments for our video.

2008-11-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

Today's meeting (Saturday) is going to have loose start and stop times. From around 1 to 5, maybe later

2008-11-20T09:09:00.001-08:00

Thanks ACECO!

I would like to give a big shout out to our sponsor ACECO and John Lizarraga. Thank you for supporting our team!

2008-11-19T20:25:00.000-08:00

Team members, visit the member page to see your homework assignments.

2008-11-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

Team,

The Williamson's and Rowes are staying at La Quinta in Carlsbad. This is the link La Quinta Carlsbad

2008-11-18T08:07:00.000-08:00

Tournament shirts are here!

This team will be looking sharp at LEGOLAND in December. Our all new 2007 tournament shirts are in. I will give them out tomorrow at the meeting.

Friends and family members, you can have a shirt too. Just visit the shop! Order soon though, we're running out of time.

2008-11-16T20:22:00.000-08:00

Just about 3 weeks left!

We still have a ton to do and time is running out team. Here's your homework:

Dane - research floating house (what does one need to consider when building a floating house?)

Nick - Provide a graphic depicting how climate change leads to sea level rise.

Austin - map showing seal level rise for Santa Barbara (both 7 and 1 meters).

Rawley - Design the graphics for the news station and desk.

Connor - Harbor text.

Forest - Write a funny commercial.

All team members - give some serious thought to the challenges at the table and the project that we have not solved yet. We all need to work together to get everything done.

We'd also like to send a big shout out to our new FLL friends in South Africa, Kiddiwinks Dream Team! We look forward to sharing our project with you. Team members visit their website at http://dreamteam.poulter.co.za/

2008-11-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

Care package!

We are exchanging packages with our friends in Denmark, FLL Team NXT Generation. We had a fun time tonight shopping at Wal-Mart and picking out "American stuff". The team also took pictures (except Forest, who was absent this meeting) and gave a little information about themselves on the back.

No meeting this Saturday, we have too much going on. We'll meet on Sunday from 2:00-5:00. In the mean time, you all need to work on the project. You can all write something.

2008-11-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

LEGOLAND info

Hey Team, I thought I'd post some info for the upcoming tournament.

The tournament is at LEGOLAND on Dec 6th, I requested the later starting time but until we get our packet we won't know for sure. In the past we've met in the parking lot first thing in the morning to go over last minute details and to practice our project presentation.

We plan to leave Friday as soon as we can get out of here. We haven't booked a hotel yet, but we've stayed at most of the hotels off of Poinsettia and they're all about the same. The Ramada has a good breakfast, the Quality Inn is alright, the La Quinta is decent. There a lot more hotels in the area too, if someone finds a deal at a nice hotel, let everyone know. we weren't impressed with Motel 6 (but it was cheap!)

We plan to stay 2 nights. Your tickets are upgradable for a second day at the park for free. Don't count on seeing much of it on Saturday, the tournament eats up most of the day. We'll be driving back Sunday afternoon.

Thats about it for now. Meeting tomorrow night at 7:00PM

2008-11-09T14:29:00.000-08:00

Less than a month!

I just gave LEGOLAND our final numbers for the tournament. Go to the members page to see your totals.

We need to get busy team, there's a ton of work to do.

Next meeting is Wednesday at 7:00PM

2008-11-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

Good news team. LEGOLAND is offering their second day "Our Gift To You" passes. Simply take your paid ticket to guest services and they will give you a free ticket, good through March 31, 2009. This means everyone going to the December tournament can enjoy a second day at the park for FREE! We were able to take advantage of this before and it was great.

2008-10-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

We're In!!!

I just got confirmation from LEGOLAND that we made the wildcard cut! We'll be competing there in December. Congratulation team, it's going to be an awesome time.

This weekend meeting will be a little earlier than usual, we'll start at 2:00PM. We might actually go longer than usual if everyone is into it.

2008-10-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Great meeting!

We made some great progress on the house challenge, thanks in no small part to some inspiration provided by our new friends in Denmark, NXT Generation. We also made some improvements to existing attachments and made a little progress on the project.

As a reminder team members, this Wednesday's meeting will be all-project, and next weekend's meeting will likely not take place because of the Halloween Bash!

2008-10-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

Due to the number of team members receiving awards this Wednesday night (congratulations!) we will be moving this week's meeting to Thursday, 7:00-8:30

2008-10-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

Good meeting last night team. We made some good progress programming and it was great to see everyone working hard. I've uploaded some pictures of the team working, here's a link to them

I also wanted to share this picture of our team with our friends in Denmark, team NXT Generation. Visit the link above to see our team working and learn our names.

2008-10-09T09:39:00.001-07:00

Uh Oh!
I just found out this morning that in order to compete at LEGOLAND this year we need to compete at a qualifying tournament. The closest QT I can find is in Camarillo on Sunday November 16th from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Since it's so early we have to decide if we're going down Saturday night and staying the night or getting up VERY early on Sunday morning to be there on time (it's about 2 hours south). The deadline for registering is Oct 19 so we have to decide what we are doing very soon. Capacity for the QT is 24-32 teams and about half will move on to Championship tournaments. We'll have to register for LEGOLAND and this QT at the same time. If we do well at the QT then maybe we will get accepted at LEGOLAND. I have sent mail to the organizer to see if there are any slots still available.

There is also a QT at Six Flags Magic Mountain the same day, but the costs will be much higher. this is the website http://www.placeritajhs.org/placeritatech/FLL_Tournament/RoboticsTournament.html We'll have to discuss this.

This means we have about 6 weeks to prepare for our first tournament! We need to get our project in order, we need to start programming, we need to figure out our mission order, we need to build attachments, we need to do a LOT of stuff.

Last night's meeting was a bit of a wash. You all need to get way more motivated if we're ever going to be close to ready. All I can do is guide you, I can't make you want to learn or succeed.

2008-10-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hello Team NXT Generation!

We would like to send a big shout out to our new friends in Denmark, FLL Team NXT Generation! We are sharing information with them on our projects and learning about each other's countries and communities. Visit their website here. http://nxtgeneration.dk (click the red white and blue flag on the lower left to read in English)

2008-10-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

FANTASTIC MEETING!

I can't believe we started this meeting with a partially built chassis and ended with our first programmed challenge! We still have a long way to go but it's so great we're past this first threshold.

Team members, for the project we need you to visit this site and learn about rising sea levels in California. Click this link

As a reminder, the meeting this Saturday will be from 3:00-5:30

2008-09-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

Good meeting team.

We had some great ideas for the project, I like where this is going.

Here's your homework:

1. Name of someone to contact (and their contact info) regarding climate change. For instance fireman, meteorologist, etc.

2. 3-4 questions regarding climate change (i.e. what are you curious about, is there something you don't understand?)

3. Any "new or different" scientific idea to explain climate change. For instance lost socks, bubblegum air, dorito dust.

At the table we need to get our chassis locked and our missions started. The clock is ticking, we need to make some progress.

2008-09-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

Saw this post on Gizmodo, though it interesting and applies to our theme this year.

2008-09-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

I know all of you guys aren't visiting the website regularly. But I want to reward the ones that are. The first person at a meeting to use the code phrase "Red brick plus blue brick equals not enough bricks" will win a LEGO prize.

In other news FLL has posted some Q&A rulings. They have added several notes on the table that will help us and clarifies some setup. Check them out here.

2008-09-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

That's more like it!

Last night's meeting was WAY better. Busy bodies building bots!

As we discussed last night our new weekend meeting time is Saturdays 4:30-7:00.

See you then!

2008-09-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

THANK YOU DAWN!!!

One of our past sponsors, Dawn Williams (aunt of Austin, Morgan and Rawley) has once again made a generous donation to the team. Thank you so very much!

The meeting yesterday was interesting. As an experiment I decided not to give specific directions to any of the team members. The results: almost nothing was accomplished (at least on the surface). Granted we were several team members shy yesterday, so I didn't expect us to make much progress, but still...

Team members, you need to start taking an active role. It's easy enough for me to say "connect this to that" and then "no, make it bigger, like this" but what is really happening then? The results are me building a robot with someone else's hands. I want you to create it. I know it's daunting, I know some of the challenges are mind boggling, but it's supposed to be. Expect it not to work the first time, or the second, or the eighth time. That's part of inventing, that's part of designing. In my tinkering yesterday I went through 4 different chassis configurations, none of which worked very well. That doesn't mean I failed 4 times, I just discovered 4 ways not to build a robot for this challenge (yes, I'm plagiarizing Edison :-)

Some good did come out of the meeting, nick experimented with Technic building, and whether he knew it or not he was learning about the mathematics of LEGO, stored energy, inertia and kinetics. Austin did some experimenting with mounting a ultrasonic sensor, and discovered at least 3 ways not to do it. Connor learned about drag and friction. And of course we spent some time talking about the project and learning about climate changes. So we're accomplishing something, you guys are learning.

I'd also like to say thanks former team member Morgan for hanging out with us yesterday. It was great having you around again, even if only for a visit.

2008-09-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend's meeting will be on Sunday, 2-5.

I ordered a rechargeable battery for the NXT today. They're a bit pricy so I only picked up one and a charger for now. We'll give it a go and see how it works. It will pay for itself in a couple seasons and it allows us to build our robot in such a way that we don't have to worry about removing the NXT. All we need to do is make sure the buttons and display are clear and we can access the charger port.

2008-09-07T23:26:00.000-07:00

Hey Team,

I thought this video was pretty cool, and pretty inspiring.

2008-09-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

Excellent first meeting team!

Well, we certainly have our work cut out for us. Some of these challenges are pretty strait forward, some are absolutely baffling. But they'll all be fun to figure out. Please try to visit this website often for updates and news. And if you aren't on the mailing group already, give me your email and I'll invite you.

Everyone remember your homework, visit your assigned website and report back on Wednesday with your findings. Give some thought to the climate of the central coast, what other problems can we identify?

Also, think about who might make a good addition to the team, we have up to 2 more slots if you know someone interested in science and technology.

Nick and Forrest, welcome to the team.

2008-09-03T07:20:00.001-07:00

Meeting Change

Although the challenge details are being released this Friday, we're going to have our first meeting on Sunday from 2:00-5:00. This day works better for more schedules. That doesn't mean you have to wait to look at the challenge details though. Log in to the FLL site after 9:00AM on Friday and check out what we have in store for us (you can bet I'll be there at 8:59!). I'll make sure the field is fully set up before the meeting. We'll have snacks and drinks.

See you Sunday!

2008-09-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

James Kelly from The NXT Step was kind enough to send me his and Jonathan Daudelin's new book First LEGO League. I know that we get a lot of visitors here and I thought I'd post a mini review.

This book is awesome! I wish that it was available 3 years ago when we formed our team. Even with 2 seasons under my belt I still learned a ton from it and I feel better prepared for the upcoming season. The book covers nearly everything you need to know, from finding members and forming a team to building and programming a robot. It covers all four aspects of FLL with enough detail to be informative, but not so much that it becomes cumbersome. There's even little stories and anecdotes from real teams sprinkled throughout. This book is a wealth of information and is the perfect compliment to the official coach's guide provided by FIRST. It also gives some great insight from a judge's perspective.

If you are an FLL coach, team member, mentor or parent you NEED this book!

2008-08-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

The challenge details will be released next Friday. We'll have our first meeting and brainstorming session that day, Sept 5th. I've added that date to the member calendar. In other news, team mentor Alan introduced me to a potential new member, Nick. Hopefully he wants to join us this year and will be at the meeting.

2008-08-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

Good news!

My wife Dianna has generously donated her old Toshiba laptop for team use. After some clean up and optimization (and a new desktop image of course) I installed the NXT software this morning and tested it. It works great! I still have to test bluetooth with it (need to get the dongle from the Rowes) but I'm pretty sure it will work fine.

We have a small, portable programming station now.

2008-08-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

Build party 2008

I was a great party everyone, thanks for coming! I've uploaded some pictures from yesterday, head on over and check them out.

Build party 2008

Our season is officially underway. We won't know what the challenge or the project is for another month or so, but we have some general ideas of what's ahead. I'd like to welcome our newest member Forest. Unfortunately Austin and Morgan won't be back this year, we're going to miss them.

2008-08-09T00:18:00.000-07:00

Party Time!

We're going to have a season kick-off build party tonight (Saturday)

I know it's a bit last minute but I haven't been quite sure where I'd be working this week and had to play it by ear. Turns out I'll be working at home until the end of the month so let's break out the bricks!

We're getting together 5(ish) at my house. We'll go to at least 7 and have some kind of food and snacks. Everyone is welcome so bring the family. If you want to bring something feel free. Give me a call if you have questions.

I'm also posting news to the member page, do you remember your login and password?

See you tonight!

2008-08-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

Our Field setup kit is here!

The Fed-Ex guy just dropped off the boxes. Take a look at the pictures.

The kit is smaller than last year, more like it was for Nanoquest. The base is in the corner again too. Lots of balls in the kit, along with several minifigs. There's a polar bear in there too :-)

2008-08-02T10:40:00.001-07:00

Fundraising
I wanted to open the discussion of fundraising for the team this year. In the past we haven't been very successful getting any help from local businesses. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on where we could find some sponsorship. Or if we want to do another fundraising activity. All attempts at getting some press in hopes of attracting a sponsor have failed as well. I will contact KCOY again this year, but I don't have very high hopes they will respond.

2008-08-02T09:29:00.001-07:00

Things are ramping up for the 2008-2009 season, Climate Connections! I received an email from LEGO Education that the field kit has shipped. According to the Fed-Ex tracking numbers it should be here Monday!

It's time to call the team back together and see who's in this year. We also need to decide if there's anyone we want to invite to the team. If you know someone who you think would be a valuable asset to the team, let us know.

2008-06-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't win the Lipton contest (bummer)

But...I competed this past weekend at LEGOLAND in the Junior Master Model Builders competition and I won!

I'm posting a link to my new Brickshelf page, you can see my entry there. It's the couple enjoying a picnic.

My Brickshelf page

2008-05-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

Woo Hoo!

I'm a finalist in the Lipton Free Your Y contest on YouTube

Please visit and vote for me! You'll have to cycle through the entries until you see mine.

This is the link to the contest...

Lipton Free Your Y

2008-05-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Team!

We're officially registered for season 2008!

This year we are team 94 (gets smaller every year). I need to hear from everybody if you are participating. I also need to know if you have any friends who are interested in joining the team.

2008-04-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

The team had a great time at RoboChallenge. We saw some great robot designs and were inspired to compete next year. We'll be back with a few of our own robots next time.

2008-04-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

ROBOCHALLENGE!

Here's the plan for this Saturday if you didn't get the message on your answering machines...

We're meeting at my house at 8AM and leaving very shortly after. One parent per child can attend as well. I put all team members on the list as well as siblings so everyone is welcome. My van seats 7 and so far it's just me and Austin in it (Connor has a birthday party to attend)

If we get there by 9 we will get in for free (normally it's $10 for admission to the Strawberry Festival). We enter at gate 7.

wear your Bricks For Brains shirts, we want to look like a team.

2008-04-23T17:44:00.001-07:00

Hey team,

I finally finished my LEGO Falcon. Thought I'd upload a pic.

On another topic we need to finalize plans for the strawberry festival this weekend. I'll figure out what we're doing and give everyone a call.

2008-04-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

Hey team,

This video is amazing. I just had to share it with all of you.

2008-04-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

As usual we had a great time at LEGOLAND. The new Land of Adventure is awesome, we all got to ride Lost Kingdom Adventure twice and loved it. Both boys had a blast (pardon the pun) in the Pharaoh's Revenge as well. Connor also really enjoyed the Cargo Ace plane ride. We also had a great time competing at the Junior Master Model Builder event. This month's theme was "Creator Beach House". Me, Dianna and Austin all entered (Connor was too busy at Build 'N Race). I built a sand pail with a shovel in it, Dianna made a cool little scene with a beach chair and Austin propped a surfboard in his miniature beach house back yard, complete with a BBQ. We still have no idea who won the contest, but it was certainly a good time building.

2008-04-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hey team members! I kn0w it's been rather quiet here but let's change that. Last night I was contacted by Mrs. Baldwin at VMS and she invited me to be a part of the new Mindstorms robotic club there. I know that some of the Bricks For Brains members are already involved and I'm excited to be included.

She also informed me of a coming event at the Strawberry Festival in Santa Maria, the Robochallenge. It looks like it could be a lot of fun. I don't know if we want to compete (may not have enough time to plan or build) but it would be fun to go and meet some more robot and LEGO enthusiasts. The sumo challenge and the tug-o-war look like a lot of fun though. you can check it out here

Me and the family are off the LEGOLAND again tonight! We're going to check out the new Land of Adventure and compete at the Junior Master Model Builder contest.

2007-12-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

greetings from LEGOLAND!

We had a fantastic day. The kids did an amazing job with their project and showing their robot design. The judges were impressed. We had a perfect practice run but luck was not on our side at the competition tables. A combination of challenge model malfunction and robot wonkiness kept us from getting our potential score. But I'm still very proud of my team. Everyone had a good time and took the performance issues in stride. No trophy this year, but we'll be back.

And to cap off a perfect day, Dianna surprised me with my anniversary present, the Millenium Falcon!

Great job team! And thanks to all the parents and mentors for helping make this day happen.

2007-11-30T09:28:00.000-08:00

Game on!

We've spent every night this week preparing, we're ready.

Everyone really pulled it together. Our project is done and we went to the aquatic center yesterday to share what we've learned. We made a few small changes on the table last night and practiced. This morning we're packing up and tonight we'll all be in Carlsbad. LEGOLAND here we come.

Great work team, and best of luck tomorrow!

2007-11-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

CRUNCH TIME!

We're in the last week team, and we've still got a lot to do. Our last meeting saw just a little progress but overall the long weekend was fairly productive. Our pool model is pretty much done, we have all the challenges we plan to attempt worked out, we have almost everything built that needs to be built. We just need to practice, practice, practice. We also need to finish the project.

We're having meetings every night this week, Monday- Thursday (travel day Friday)

I hope to get home earlier than 7:30 every night but work has a way of seeing to it that I can't. Plan to go from 7:30-9:00ish. Get your homework done before you come over team members, FLL should not interfere with your school work.

See you tonight.

2007-11-19T09:41:00.000-08:00

Less than 2 weeks!

We had another great meeting yesterday. We did several timed runs at the table and have shaved precious seconds off our time. We also crossed several things off the list only have a few things left.

Connor's mom Theresa was very helpful yesterday logging time and figuring out points. She also caught a mistake we have in our Wave Turbine mission. WE'VE BEEN DELIVERING TO THE WRONG PLACE!!! While we had our list knocked down to one critical and two minor tasks, we're going to have to re-think our strategy at the next meeting. We need to plan a new mission to get the wave turbine to the North West corner of the field. Dianna and I looked at the truck attachment this morning and it seems with the addition of a retaining arm on the A motor we could deliver the turbine on it and retrieve the truck after. Delivering the car with a simple fast push could be added as well.

Time is a fundamental problem, right now we barely have enough to finish the missions we have, let alone adding more. We need to shave time off of resetting, we need to consider combining more missions, we need to possibly alter the lower attachment area. I hope we can all spend a lot of time this week working on the challenge, I know I will. I've elected to skip the crew screening of The Mist on Wednesday, I think the meeting is more important.

See you all Wednesday, let's plan to go a little later than usual.

2007-11-14T22:26:00.000-08:00

We has another fantastic meeting tonight. Connor and Rawley programmed the corn and uranium mission with little trouble. Austin and Morgan put some time in on the project and Dane and Austin worked on a truck retrieval solution. We just have a few more missions and we'll be set. It's looking like we may have to skip one or two missions because of time. This certainly seems more challenging than last year's table. Not so much from a complexity standpoint, but from a number of missions and combined missions standpoint. We just seem to have way more to do.

2007-11-11T20:20:00.000-08:00

Today's meeting went pretty well. Rawley programmed an awesome solution for the mine cart mission, we made several modifications and worked out the oil platform and also made some progress on the project. Connor also learned some basic programming.

2007-11-09T11:53:00.001-08:00

Meeting tonight!

Did you do your homework?

2007-11-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

Fantastic meeting team!

We are finally making some real progress. We have good attachments for the wave turbine, the oil rig, the corn, the uranium, the satellite, the coal car and the power plant. We have good programs for the satellite and the power plant. Now that we have almost all the attachments, we can get to work on the programs. Great job tonight!

Remember your homework for the project, please do your part.

Also remember that we are adding Friday 7:00 - 8:30 to our regular meetings.

2007-11-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

LESS THAN ONE MONTH!
We have got to get ourselves into gear team, we are running out of time. We'll probably have to got to 3 or 4 meetings a week very soon if we're going to make it.

We also need to get busy on our project, we need to put together our proposals for the Aquatic Center and present them. We need to make our project board and LEGO model of the building (if we can).

Regardless of how we do at the tournament we've already accomplished what we set out to do. We've learned about alternative power sources, we've learned teamwork, we've learned about robotics and technology. We've gotten excited about science and technology. I'm proud of you all and I hope we're all still having fun.

LEGOLAND here we come!

2007-10-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic meeting on Sunday. Despite running late and a member shy (glad you're feeling better Rawley) we made some great progress on the table. We successfully figured out an order for the challenges, organized our attachments (what we have of them) and did some dry runs with the clock running. I think everyone has a much better gauge on what we need to accomplish in just over a month.

We'll do some more timed runs at the table tonight, and hopefully get some more attachments built.

Team members and parents, please check the member page for your totals for LEGOLAND.

2007-10-21T11:04:00.001-07:00

Meeting pushed to 5:00 today, we'll have Pizza.

I'm stuck at work, hopefully finishing this movie today.

2007-10-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

We're going to LEGOLAND!

I just completed our registration with LEGOLAND for the Dec 1st tournament. Team members and parents can check the member blog for totals.

2007-10-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Meeting interupted.

Yesterday's meeting was cut short by a medical emergency. Dianna's dad went to the ER and we had to send everyone home. Sorry for the inconvenience team members.

I had hoped to get everyone's ticket requests for LEGOLAND, we need to take care of that. I'll be calling everyone to get their numbers hopefully today.

I'd also like to thank Dawn Williams for another generous donation to the team. We salute you!

2007-10-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

We're in!!!

Just got the mail from LEGOLAND, we're going to compete there again! I'll give details at the next meeting (tomorrow night).

Congrats team, it's gonna be a blast!

2007-10-09T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hey team!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I'm REALLY busy at work. We deliver this film on the 19th and I hope to join the land of the living soon after. Until then, bear with me.

We're making great progress, at least on the table. The robot is shaping up great and we can hopefully do some navigation tests this Wednesday. I'm still trying to find time to arrange a visit to the aquatic center. Perhaps I'll ask a mentor or parent from the team to arrange this.

2007-10-01T07:51:00.001-07:00

We're registered for the LEGOLAND tournament, now we wait to see if we made the cut.

2007-10-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

2 months left!

I'm registering for the LEGOLAND tournament today, and with this being the 1st of October, we officially have 2 months left!

We still have a LOT to do team, let's get busy.

2007-09-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've updated. I've been really busy and work, then sick, then really busy at work again.

Things are moving right along with the team. We've worked out some pretty sound plans for several of the challenges but there are a few that still remain a mystery. The corn and uranium challenge was being over-thought, that's for sure. Rawley worked out the Dam mission with little trouble, and Morgan has a great solution for the Satellite. We can hopefully do some programming on Sunday for the Solar panel. The project however needs to get going. Like last year we're so excited and focussed on the table that we're ignoring the project, and we can't put it off as long as we did last year.

I also have some bad news, because of her commitments elsewhere Jamie has decided to drop out of FLL. We wish her the best and we'll miss her, and hope she returns next year.

2007-09-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Team,

I ordered a new book that will help us out when it comes to the more complex programming, it's also loaded with ideas for building with NXT. It's from the guys at The NXT Step blog and looks very cool.

I also ordered the 1.1 upgrade for Mindstorms and NXT-G, it should help with lots of bug fixes and better memory management (who can forget our last minute panic attack when we went to load all of our programs last year...OUT OF MEMORY!?!?!)

Thanks again to our sponsors for helping make these purchases possible!

2007-09-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

Two great meetings in a row! We are so far ahead of where we were last year at this time. I think it was at least a month before we had anything resembling a capable robot. This year we're reconfigured it 3 times and all three have been usable. All the team members are getting into it (OK, some with a little more prodding than others) and everyone seems to be having a good time, myself included.

Remember team, this Sunday's meeting is canceled because we are having Connor's birthday party.

I'd also like to send a big shout out to Dawn Williams, our newest sponsor. Dawn is Rawley, Austin and Morgan's aunt. Thank you for your generous donation!

2007-09-07T08:44:00.000-07:00

We had a good presentation for the Lompoc Rotary this morning. We arrived at 6:45 for breakfast and after the Rotary meeting we gave a presentation on FLL and our team. The Rotary members seemed to enjoy it and we had fun showing off our NXT and trophy from last year's tournament. I'd like to say thanks to Austin, Dane and Rawley for getting up so early to share our organization and to John and Eric for helping out.

After the meeting I spoke briefly with the president and he said we may be able to arrange some Rotary sponsorship next year, that would be awesome!

Thanks for having us Lompoc Rotary and thanks to Dick Jones for inviting us.

2007-09-06T10:11:00.001-07:00

Great first meeting team. This year looks to be more challenging than last year but it also looks like it will be a lot of fun. Remember to visit the FLL website and read about the challenge and project so we can discuss it on Sunday.

2007-08-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts of the LEGOLAND trip was hanging out at the clubhouse. In addition to building birthday cakes, we took advantage of the buy one pound get 1/2 pound free Pick-A-Brick. We bought 3 POUNDS of bricks! Connor and Austin had fun picking a random assortment of bricks while I chose to get the bricks I would need to make this, my first mosaic (although it turned out I didn't get quite enough yellow 1 X 1 plates, doh!) We also had the pleasure of meeting and building with a LEGOLAND model designer and master builder, Gary McIntire.

2007-08-27T15:15:00.000-07:00

I love LEGOLAND :-)

Took a break from my hectic delivery schedule on The Mist to take my family to LEGOLAND. We had a great time, the boys picked up their membership cards, we saw the new Vegas in miniland, built birthday cakes for the 20th anniversary of the LEGO club and Connor rode his first rollercoaster, the Coastersaurus!

With luck, we'll be walking through these gates in December to compete in Power Puzzle!

2007-08-19T19:37:00.001-07:00

I've uploaded the model videos on YouTube

2007-08-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

And we're off!

The season kick off and build party was fantastic. All team members we here and we had a great time. We finished ALL the models! This year is definitely going to be a challenge, that's for sure. not only can we not figure out what half the models are for, we don't even know where they go on the table. Many thanks to all the parents who came today and helped out.

Our first official meeting will be Sept 5 for the unveiling of the Power Puzzle challenge. But we may have another informal get-together once we get the garage transformed into FLL central.

Team members log into the member area to check it out. let me know what you think and feel free to make suggestions to make it better.

2007-08-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

Let's get busy!

We're kicking off the season this sunday! From noon to 4 we'll have a pizza and build party. We'll start putting together the challenge models and talk about FLL.. Parents, please join us (at least for a little bit) to learn about what will expected of you and your child this season. If you want to bring something to share feel free.

See you sunday!

2007-08-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

The links button works again, oops :-)

2007-08-02T20:41:00.001-07:00

It's here!

The 2007 challenge kit arrived today, and it looks very cool!

2007-07-30T22:55:00.000-07:00

Got word from LEGO Education that the field setup kit shipped today! Earlier than I expected but no biggie, we'll have to plan a season kick-off/build party soon!

Still waiting to hear from some members, you know who you are.

2007-07-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

Hey FLL fans! It's been a bit quiet around here, but it is the off season after all. No real news to report, I'm busy at work and we just got back from our summer vacation. It's definitely getting close to time to ramp up though. Pretty soon the table will come out, the crates will open up and it's First LEGO League time again!

Team members and potential members, it's time to start thinking about committing to the team. Austin is in, I hear Morgan and Dane are in, I'm pretty sure Rawley is in, but I need to hear from you all. Give me a call, reply to this post just stop by the house and let me know you are ready for some frantic LEGO robotic action.

I'll also give you your username and password to the member's only page.

I'll also be updating the website over the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled for changes.

2007-06-10T16:23:00.000-07:00

The history button now works and I've put together a synopsis of season 2006, NanoQuest. I've also added a sponsors page.

2007-06-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Members chime in!
I'm just curious if any team members of Bricks For Brains are checking the site from time to time. If you are, comment this post (click comment right below this)

I've spoken to a few of you, and new members are inquiring about joining, we should have a great team this year. Morgan has said she's in, Dane's in, Rawley's in, Austin will be in and I've spoken to "little" Austin and he's thinking about it. If you are interested or have any questions comment to this post.

2007-06-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

Whoa, what happened?
As you can see, the site has gone through some changes. It's not at all done yet, in fact only two of the navigation buttons work. Stay tuned for more changes.

2007-05-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

We're back!

I registered for the 2007 season Power Puzzle on Friday. We are team 547. I'm sure most (if not all) members will be returning from last season and I know of at least one addition. We're also planning a JFLL team for some of the little brothers and sisters. If you have any questions get in touch with me. I'm looking forward to another exciting season of LEGO robotics!

2007-02-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

Post season wrap up
Well, with our little party to close this season of FLL I am prepared to call this season over. We had a great little BBQ get-together at the Erland house (thanks for hosting Mimi and Eric!) the kids all got custom embroidered Bricks for Brains jackets and some little LEGO sets.

I want to say thanks to everyone for an excellent season. Eric, you were a great help and assistant coach. Alan, you were an excelent mentor. Dianna, thanks for letting us take over the garage. Austin, you helped write an fantastic project and always kept your team smiling. Dane, you have the mad building skills. Morgan, you were a great help to your team and an excellent operator. Jaime, your project idea was top notch and you were great programmer. Rawley, you have the right stuff, I'm pleased to name you MVP.

Special thanks to our sponsors Larry Perry and Double Density Software, John Lizarraga and Aceco, Hisel Brown, and Mike Fischer. Thank you all for helping our team out.

We'll see you at the next FLL challenge, Power Puzzle!

2006-12-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

Whew! What a weekend :-)
The team is back home again, with quite a story to tell. We arrived at LEGOLAND a total underdog. A first-year team nobody had heard of. We flew in under radar and took 2nd place right under their noses! I'm very proud of my team. I can't go into too much detail but here's the rough account of the day...

We arrived Saturday morning at the park early and took some time to practice the presentation script (Dane, what's your next line?) After entering the park we found our pit attendant and he showed us to our table. We set up base camp and waited for our very short turn at the practice table. After that the kids went before the judges with their robot and presentation. Alan, Eric and I were a bit surprised that we couldn't so much as watch them. After what was apparently a good presentation (it's so hard to get an accurate story out of a 10 year old) we had lunch and saw a bit of the park. Then it was zero hour, time for the mission challenge. After a somewhat disappointing first run we were still in 18th place and really happy about it. Top half was good for us! Then came the second run, and it was picture perfect. We scored 341 points and found ourselves in second place! Not only that but only 5 points behind the leader and well ahead of third place. The third run went alright, but the atom challenge proved difficult. After the last table challenge we loaded all the stuff back in the van and saw some more of the park while we waited for the awards presentation. Not knowing how the scoring was done we went in to the awards ceremony with no expectations at all. We knew we did good at the table, but didn't know how that factored in to the awards. When it got down to just 4 trophies left it wasn't looking too good but then came the award for second place for robot performance and we heard the words “I am told this year’s team is a first year team, first time they’ve done it,(oohs and ahs were heard) so it’s always impressive to see a first year team do so well in performance. And they seem to be doing particularly well considering they have bricks for brains”. We went berserk! They took the stage and accepted their trophy with wide grins. I was smiling the rest of the day, very proud of them. Check out the pictures from the day on the gallery page.

2006-12-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

WE WON!!!
Yes, the small 5 member rookie team from Lompoc took second place for robot performance today at LEGOLAND! I'll post more details and pictures at a later date, but I had to share. I couldn't be more proud, you rock team!!!

2006-11-30T15:01:00.000-08:00

Last meeting tonight! It's been a long journey, but the end is near. Tomorrow we hit the road to LEGOLAND, ready or not. Tonight we will have our last meeting before the tournament. We will practice our research project, practice the table, tweak some programs and put some finishing touches on everything. We have had a great time and on Saturday we find out how we stack up against the rest of the teams out there.

2006-11-27T10:18:00.000-08:00

Less than one week!
We've had a couple really good meetings. On saturday we had some trial runs at the field with a timer and were able to complete most of the tasks we have programmed. Still no program for the probe, but we have something for everything else. We have also worked hard on our project. Yesterday's meeting was a bit of a wash out, with not much to show for it at the end, but there was one significant event. While discussing our project Morgan paused a moment and said "wow, nano technology is going to affect so many aspects of our lives". I knew then that we had accomplished our objective. The kids are learning, they're getting excited about science and technology. And they are having fun (well, most of the time).

We still have a LOT to do this week and we're meeting every night. Come Friday, we have what we have and we're heading to LEGOLAND. Hopefully we'll make some great progress this week. Regardless we'll have a great time and these rookies (yours truly included) are going to see and learn a lot.

2006-11-23T00:14:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
There's light at the end of the tunnel (wait..is that a train?) We've made some significant progress in all areas. Our big to-do list is getting checked off at an alarming rate. We really only one week left for practice, everyone will be on the road next Friday heading for LEGOLAND (so exciting!) Luckily we have a 4 day weekend so we can really make some progress.

Our project is almost ready to go, just need to polish the script and rehearse it, make our presentation board and finish the props. We have most of the table challenges worked out. The fabric and motor challenges are proving tricky just from a reliability standpoint. We could program it very easily if the robot would just go to the same place twice in a row! We haven't even started programming the atom table yet, that one is definately going to seperate the rookies from the pros.

2006-11-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

Time is running out. The team is making some real progress now. Every meeting we are scratching things off our big "to-do" board. We have adopted a single challenge strategy. Our first attempts at multiple challenges per program proved to be frustrating. After we have a solid (mostly) program for all the challenges we may go back and try to combine some.