The Big Two-Four

Currently listening to: Dane Cook - Operation

Today's the day folks; Tim Baird has reached 24 years of age.
Between all the soda that I drink, the speeds that I drive at, crazy lack of sleep, and running down mountain trails at full speed while jumping off of rocks/small-cliffs to the dismay of my father, most people would probably expect me to be dead*. Well, I guess I proved you all wrong, suckers.

Speaking of my dad, he gave me a funny card last night with $30 in it. He called me this morning to wish me a happy birthday and told me to go buy myself something nice for lunch with the cash.
Little does he know that about 20 minutes after receiving said funds last night, the money had already purchased me a 1-liter bottle of Bombay Sapphire. :)

*Funny side story. I ran into an old friend from high school the other day during lunch at Subway. The first thing she said was "Tim Baird? Is that you? I didn't know you were still alive!"

Darn Tips!

Currently listening to: Coheed & Cambria - Keeping the Blade

This just in: Aerospace Engineers cannot perform tip calculations at restaurants. So, the next time you are flying in a plane and think "gee, somebody really, really smart must have designed this beautiful and hopefully function piece of machine wonderfulness", think again. A pesky 20% calculation can confuse even the best of them.

Awesome night

Currently listening to: Blink 182 - The Party Song

So last night Gerson and I went to the mall and hung out for a bit. He's back from Stanford and I hadn't seen him in a wicked long time, so, it was cool.
We went to Friday's for supper and we had a pretty cute waitress. I started talking it up being the charming sob that I am. She called me darling. Then she mentioned that she was pregnant. ugh. I pulled the charm e-brake and went back to my cheesy bacon cheeseburger. Not a total loss, the burger was pretty good.

We then went to Borders and I picked up two books that I've wanted to buy for a long time now: I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, by Tucker Max and Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Book, by Robert Hamburger. I started reading Beer In Hell last night. It's incredible the stuff that this guy has done to girls and has no remorse. It's completely unlike me, but I still laughed my ass off with every page read.

We then went and saw "The Inside Man". It was awesome. The movie keeps you guessing and I really liked the twist at the end. I recommend it.

I then started my Gaelic tapes this morning on the ride to Clinton. I'm not going to lie, this is going to be hard. Romance languages were easy to learn because alot of the words were similar in spelling/sound to English. Gaelic on the other hand is not. It was like when I tried to learn Icelandic. Nordic languages are ridiculous. But, I really want to do this, so, wish me luck!

And then I have the Bday tomorrow. The big 24. What does being 24 get you that 23 didn't?
NOTHING.
I'm holding out for next year when I can rent a car. Atleast that's something...

Robot Update

Currently listening to: Dropkick Murphys - Road Of The Righteous

This past thursday we headed down to BU for the Boston Regional. It was held in the Agannis Arena, which is pretty nice for a college arena. I was impressed. Smaller than the Centrum (or the DCU Center, whatever it's currently called), but still good sized.

We won the Woodie Flowers Award on Friday (CONGRATS BRODRICK!) as well as the Kleiner Perkins Entrepeneurship Award. However, we fought all day with out shooters to get them to work. We ended up seeding #17 out of 44 by mid-Saturday and we were picked by the 4th seed. We won the quarterfinals, then won the first match of the semi's, but ended up losing the round. So, we finished about the same that we did in Hartford. Oh well.

However, we have fixed the problem that caused us to lose both regionals and we should be a contender down in Hotlanta.

Car Update

Currently listening to: Rage Against The Machine - Sleep Now In The Fire

A couple of weeks ago I bought a performance intake system for the S4 from Evolution Motorsports and finally installed it on Sunday.
It was a hair more than I had initially intended to spend, but, it came with perfectly designed heatshields and mounting brackets that made the thing fit in very nicely, held firmly, and blocks off most exposure to the side of the engine and the turbos. So, you pay for what you get, I guess.

I noticed an improvement immediately. In the lower gears, the throttle response is much better and the car is now noticeably zippier when accelerating.
I also took the car up the fastest that I've driven it yet: 130mph. It was insane.

Much like a Vacuum....

Currently listening to: Dispatch - Even

... my posting lately has been teh suck.

Granted, I was in Boston without direct internet access for several days, but, seriously, I should post more. My goal for today is to get you up to speed with the competition we just went to, robot status, my car, and any other things going on. Expect to see several posts throughout today. I promise.

ESOP

Currently listening to: Reel Big Fish - Talkin' about a Revolution

I now own a tiny sliver of Nypro. Booyah.

Two Goals of 2006

Currently listening to: Coheed & Cambria - Everything Evil

So I gave myself two long term goals for this year:
1. Learn how to play the guitar
2. Learn Irish Gaelic

I've always wanted to do both, but never really had the time. Well, I still don't have the time to just sit in my room and practice guitar, but, I figured with all the time that I spend in my car, I could atleast begin to learn Gaelic through audio tapes. I've been researching book/tape courses and have finally settled on the system that seems to be the best based on its description and customer reviews. So, I figured now I can read the book at night when I'm not doing homework and can listen to the tapes in my car during the daily commutes.

Finally!

Currently listening to: Dispatch - Time Served

This is awesome.

I can't wait to finally see this film that has teased me for so long.

Pi Day!

Currently listening to: Eisley - I wasn't prepared

Happy Pi Day everyone!

I hope you all remembered to celebrate at 1:59pm today. If not, go get yourself a pie anyways.

UTC Regional Results

Currently listening to: Eisley - Memories

So this past weekend we competed down in Hartford, CT at the FIRST UTC Regional.
We won 9 out of the 10 qualifying rounds and would have been undefeated were it not for a team complaining about losing one of our rounds and we had to replay them. Regardless, we still seeded #1. We picked an awesome alliance, powered our way through the quarter finals (while getting the highest score, 108 pts, for that competition), one the first match in the semis, but then lost when one of the teams broke one of our motors during match 2. We would have been fine normally, but we couldn't fix it in time for the next match and lost again and were eliminated.

However, we did win the Motorola Quality Award (very prestigious design award, so, I was pretty happy) and the Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award.
All in all, a good weekend.

We'll be competiting in a week and a half at BU for the Boston Regional. Should be good.

Haha!

Currently listening to: Hey Mercedes - Our Weekend Starts On Wednesday

You know how I know you're gay? You just took out a restraining order on Paris Hilton.

I'm alive!

Currently listening to: Jimmy Eat World - Hear you me

Based on my posting schedule, you might think that I were dead.
Well, it's false, I am in fact very much alive, just barely awake, that's all. I was in Manchester, NH from Wednesday night to Saturday night for the FIRST BAE Regional. We didn't compete, but I was there volunteering my time and services as a member of the stage crew. It was fun and I felt like I helped. It was ridiculous too, because my good friend Andy Grady won the Woodie Flowers Award and the WPI team won the Chairman's Award. Congrats to both!

I also just completed my midterm for my course. It took me pretty much all of the two weeks to get it done thanks to FIRST stuff mucking up my time schedule, but, we're all set now.

Thankfully, this is only a three-day work week for me again because we'll be competing at the UTC Regional this weekend in Hartford, CT. If you're in the area, come check it out (come saturday, atleast for the good matches where things get broken and dreams are crushed, the first two days are more sissyish).