DK

Quote of the day:

“Lawrence North has air conditioning. If it didn’t, more than just balls would be sticky.”

AB

When I was in phoenix a couple of weeks ago, I dropped my PowerBook G4.  There is a cd stuck in the superdrive, and a metal clip blocking it to prevent it from ejecting.  The case was split open and the whole computer is cocked and out of kilter.  I just returned from the Apple Store and they said it will likely cost a lot to repair.  New superdrive, new bottom case, and other crap will cost around $1000 +.  Not worth repairing.  Apple needs to come out with the 17″ MacBook Pro’s so I can get a new one of those.  15″ is not enough.

waaaaahhhhh  

Dr. Woodie Flowers, FIRST National Advisor, asks and provides his view regarding the question, “Why do FIRST folks talk so much about that phrase?”

Obviously it would not make sense to endorse “asinine professionalism” or “gracious incompetence.” It is, however, completely consistent with the FIRST spirit to encourage doing high quality well informed work in a manner that leaves everyone feeling valued. Gracious professionalism seems to be a good descriptor for part of the ethos of FIRST. It is part of what makes FIRST different and wonderful.

Gracious professionalism has purposefully been left somewhat undefined because it can and should mean different things to each of us. We can, however, outline some of its possible meanings. Gracious attitudes and behaviors are win-win. Gracious folks respect others and let that respect show in their action. Professionals possess special knowledge and are trusted by society to use that knowledge responsibly. Thus, gracious professionals make a valued contribution in a manner pleasing to others and to themselves.

In FIRST, one of the most straightforward interpretations of gracious professionalism is that we learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process. We try to avoid leaving anyone feeling like they are losers. No chest thumping barbarian tough talk, but no sticky sweet platitudes either. Knowledge, pride and empathy comfortably blended.

Understanding that gracious professionalism works is not rocket science. It is, however, missing in too many activities. At FIRST it is alive and well. Please help us take care of it.

In the long run, gracious professionalism is part of pursuing a meaningful life. If one becomes a professional, and uses knowledge in a gracious manner, everyone wins. One can add to society and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that you have acted with integrity and sensitivity. That’s good stuff!

10) You drink a case of Mountain Dew everyday to donate the bottles to your team’s fundraising effort
9) You dream of being engaged to a fellow FIRSTer so you can register for gifts at the Innovation FIRST website
8) You own a sign that states, “Will build robots for donuts”
7) You consider initiating a Congressional hearing to clone Woodie Flowers Award winner Paul Copioli for each FIRST team
6) You have drawn up plans for an appropriately scaled tetra that could be placed on one of the great pyramids of Egypt
5) You realize that every movie you’ve watched over the past four years has been animated
4) You seriously question the credibility of any college that doesn’t have a staff of distinguished looking professors with gray ponytails
3) On a recent history test, you state that the Battle of Waterloo took place on March 26, 2005 in Ontario, Canada
2) You have a recurring nightmare that all your qualifying matches are against three team 71’s and every person in the driver station looks just like Bill Beatty
1) Your physics teacher will no longer accept the excuse: “But I was working on Dean’s homework assignment”

Just to update on my good budds, the Ritchie’s. Taylor is still in the hospital with lots of pain and trouble. I have gone up to the hospital every single day, with the exception of when I went to Atlanta for robotics (which was a blast) since the accident. Things aren’t quite as intense or worrysome anymore now that it seems to look like everything is going to be alright. Taylor has her good days and bad days, but she is still far from being able to leave the hospital. I get so so sad sitting there and watching her struggle and scream out in agony about some of the pain. Taylor hasn’t one anything wrong to make her have to go through all this pain and agony. Has God chosen her for a reason? Is this experience meant to be some sort of message for me or somebody else? Taylor doesn’t deserve to go through this and if I had the choice to have myself in her place and go through that insteadof her, I would in a heartbeat. I don’t want to ever see anybody else or my kids to have to go through something like this. It’s just so heartbreaking…

Taylor, you have hundreds of people praying for you every day for you to heal quickly and recover so that you can go back home and back to your normal life. I know that you are going to pull through this and fully heal and become an even stronger person as a result of it. I love you and can’t wait till you recover!

It’s kind of disheartening to constantly listen to the resentment and negative attitudes that continue to plague FIRST and the ChiefDelphi forums. I wonder why I dedicate my life to this program when all these people cry and complain about how something isn’t fair or how everybody is cheating. Am I waisting my time, or is this just another reason to stick it out to do my part to change society and it’s attitudes? I see this whole thing as just another trend that is leading to the dedregation of this wonderful country. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions or to look-out for themselves anymore. They want to place blame on somebody else or want everything provided on a silver platter. Yes, I realize that some people are not as privilaged as myself, but working hard is what got this country to where it is today.

I kind of went very astray from what I was originally posting this for. Below you will see a definition for what we call ‘Gratious Professionalism’ from MIT professor and one of my idols, Woodie Flowers:

Dr. Woodie Flowers, FIRST National Advisor, asks and provides his view regarding the question, “Why do FIRST folks talk so much about that phrase?”

Quoting Dr. Flowers, “Obviously it would not make sense to endorse “asinine professionalism” or “gracious incompetence.” It is, however, completely consistent with the FIRST spirit to encourage doing high quality, well-informed work in a manner that leaves everyone feeling valued. Gracious professionalism seems to be a good descriptor for part of the ethos of FIRST. It is part of what makes FIRST different and wonderful.

“Gracious professionalism has purposefully been left somewhat undefined because it can and should mean different things to each of us. We can, however, outline some of its possible meanings. Gracious attitudes and behaviors are win-win. Gracious folks respect others and let that respect show in their actions. Professionals possess special knowledge and are trusted by society to use that knowledge responsibly. Thus, gracious professionals make a valued contribution in a manner pleasing to others and to themselves.

“In FIRST, one of the most straightforward interpretations of gracious professionalism is that we learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process. We try to avoid leaving anyone feeling like they are losers. No chest thumping barbarian tough talk, but no sticky sweet platitudes either. Knowledge, pride, and empathy comfortably blended.

“Understanding that gracious professionalism works is not rocket science. It is, however, missing in too many activities. At FIRST, it is alive and well. Please help us take care of it.

“In the long run, gracious professionalism is part of pursuing a meaningful life. If one becomes a professional, and uses knowledge in a gracious manner, everyone wins. One can add to society and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that you have acted with integrity and sensitivity. That’s good stuff!”

P.S. This rant is dedicated to my great grandfather who I was hoping to meet in a few months on our family vacation to Hawaii. He died last night, exactly 5 years to the day that his wife had. My grandmaw, mom, and all her siblings will be going to Hawaii tomorrow for all the funeral stuff. :-\

Well, brandon told me about the new wp that was available. I decided to install it cause as you wpers already know, its hot. hot. hot. hot. and easy to install. Delete files already there, upload new ones, then its done! i like to git R dun! i’m going to be playing around with some of these hot themes and templates and hope to eventually customize it to look hot. with my stuff.

This pas weekend was a blast at the Boilermaker Regional in West Lafayette. Team Hammond kicked ass like always, and Cyber Blue had a much better and exciting showing as well. I would say it was our best showing since 2001. I think even a little better than last year’s hot. bot.