It makes me feel guilty. But it is boring. Takes forever for these kids to set up their robots, which are surprisingly big and delicate at the same time. Something is always wrong with one of the robots and delays happen. And the PA system is bonkers. Which is unusual considering that they have some very seriously A/V looking dudes on their A/V team.
I was impressed that the event even happened. Tremendous effort put on by all the volunteers. Many of which didn’t look like they were the type that put much effort into many things.
Some of the robots sucked and some were pretty good. There was an all girl team, which is fitting this week with the Grace Hopper conference. Actually, there were way more girls there than I would have expected.
Still, it was pretty boring. And I dragged the kid out before it ended, using the ever present excuse of his bedtime. And he was thrilled for having seen the few matches we did see in the 90 minutes we were there (I think it was three. Four tops.)
We did see a robot, at the end, use a strategy he was talking about after the first match. Lots of downtime between matches leaves lots of time to talk strategies. So that was kind of cool – both that he came up with a strategy that was implemented and that it preformed pretty well too.
I want his enthusiasm to rub off on me and lift me out of my jaded funk. We’ll see if it does. Hopefully he doesn’t let me drag him down.