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.

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.

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.

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!

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 :-)

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hey team,

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.