Bumper Foam Productions

Exactly what I do on the robotics team is a fair question, and one I suspect gets asked on occasion.  Sometimes it is just necessary to have an extra adult around to keep an eye on things.  I'm also mostly in charge of the Farm System, as I have a level of comfort with the middle school world view that is either remarkable or worrisome.  Or both.  Other than that, and some janitorial duties, I guess I'm the Department of Odd Ideas.

Here's one.

I found out that a team that had been around for ten years was giving out tiaras to mark the occasion.  Not just for themselves, they were handing out tiaras to other teams in their tenth season.  Like us.  So, anticipating this I had the kids make a Congrats on Ten Years trophy to give in return.  The usual parameters, made of scrap parts from last years robot and mounted on a bit of bumper.  Complete with fabric of course.

Well, problem is...they forgot our tiaras.  

This was of course corrected when we were both at State.  I think they brought us some extra good ones.  So, who wore it best? (By the way, from my long expertise at test taking I can assure you that None of the Above is a valid answer...).

Yes, I am showing mostly the adult coaches hamming it up here.  Some students have the proper sense of fun.  Others tend to take themselves a bit too seriously.  As most of us did back in high school.

Big thanks to Team Ferradermis for the creative gesture.  One of several nice things about the new format this year is that we now compete "in state" and get to know our fellow Cheesehead teams much better.  

Oh, about the title of the post today.

At our last event we were tasked with putting together a "highlights" video on short notice.  It turned out well, thanks to our video editor, a conscripted camera person and the help of various other folks.  On completion I asked if the people who had worked on it wanted to be crediting by name.  They said, nah. So a silly production company name was used instead.

Well at the state event the highlights video was done by a different crew, so we got to do a sort of Promotional Video.  Something to show potential sponsors and so forth.  In typical Bumper Foam Productions fashion it was filmed within a wrench throw of our pit (no actual wrenches thrown) and edited into nice form in 90 minutes.  It's very satisfying to hand off a USB drive and say, "Here, five hours ahead of deadline and we made everyone look good".  At least that's how I see it...

And of course......