The day has come...

Currently listening to: Panic! at the Disco - A fever you can't sweat out

1. Drove to work in my Audi S4 - Check
2. Wearing a Lacoste Polo shirt - Check
3. Going golfing today while on the clock - Check

It's official: I'm now a corporate yuppie.
All I need now is a coffee from Starbucks and I can begin working my way up the corporate ladder.

FIRST Book

Currently listening to: Coheed & Cambria - Neverender

There's a reporter from CNN that's working on a book about FIRST that will be coming out soon. She's chronicling how FIRST works in regards to the students, mentors, their relationships, and the impact that the program has on individuals. She's talking with several teams and has lately been talking to several of us Gael Force people, namely Meredith and I.

We spoke with her down in Atlanta on several occasions, and then she flew up from Atlanta yesterday and had a 4 hour interview with us. It was pretty cool sitting down with the reporter, Meredith, Jorge, and Gordon to discuss robotics and how it's impacted us individually. It was neat to hear everyone's take on this program that consumes our entire lives, causes tons of stress at times, yet we keep coming back.

I'll keep you posted with the progress of this book as I learn it. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Hot Fuss

Currently listening to: The Killers - On Top

I figured that after all this time, I would get tired of Hot Fuss by The Killers.

That's quite wrong. I still listening to it in heavy rotation with my other favs and it still gets my toe tapping.

Oh Clinton...

Currently listening to: Brand New - The Shower Scene

The meeting location for the Clinton Alcoholics Anonymous is right next to a bar, and across the street there is another bar and a liquor store.

Surprised? I'm not.

24 Hours of Le Mans

Currently watching: The X-Files - Max

The 24 hours of Le Mans in France begins today. Audi is busting out the new R10 with the V12 Diesel TDI engine. Goodluck guys!

Apparently, I'm the man

Currently listening to: Coheed & Cambria - The Suffering

This morning was a funny morning for emails. Here's an abridged version of an email thread that was going around between my friends and I:

Kate: I go both ways :)
Me: That's hott
Bisol: I don't know if she'd go any way with you Timmy...
Kate: For the number of times Timmy saved my ass in ME design classes I would totally make out with him
Bisol: Well, I retract my statement then, I apologize Mr. Baird, hit that!
Dave: You're in buddy, now just get that other girl of yours and you can live the dream

Hahaha. This really cheered me up from my "I fell asleep at 10pm without doing my homework last night and have to do it all during lunch break" depression.

The Waitress and her Phone Number

Currently listening to: Dakota - Perhaps on the Highway

On Saturday I went up to ref Mayhem in Merrimack, a summer off-season FIRST competition in Merrimack, NH. BJ and Erika came with me to volunteer for field reset.

After the competition, a group of us jumped in our cars and headed to AppleBee's for some eats. At my table it's me, Greg, BJ, Ryan, and Erika. When the waitress comes up and asks us for our orders, I initiate some small talk just because I'm friendly. BJ accuses me of sucking up. Sucking up for what, I don't know, but either way, Greg and I called BS on him and explained the concept of "talking nicely to attractive girls", because, someday, he'd hopefully stop being a goober and want to talk to them himself. Upon this, Greg issued a challenge to young BJ (16 years old, btw): get her number by the end of the meal.

Initially he wasn't going to do it, but Erika dropped the Triple Dog Dare, so, he had to. Greg and I begin figuring out how he should approach this. The obvious, most easy way was to simply write his on the back of his check and then inform her that it's there, and hope that she'll call or exchange #'s there on the spot. Greg decides that it would be more cocky (and hilarious) if he instead inquired as to why here # wasn't already there, assuming that she should want to volunteer her # to this kid on principle alone.

30 minutes go by. We finally get our checks after we're done eating. Greg first, me second, and so on until BJ got his last. Greg is nearly crying and I'm holding my hand over my mouth trying to prevent the laughter. Finally she comes to BJ.

Now, BJ did this like a champ. He took the check, paused briefly, looked up at her all calm and collect, and goes "What, no number?"
There was this awkward pause in the air at the table, she began to turn pink, and blurts out "WHAT, MY NUMBER!? HAHAHA!"
She then walks away while we all begin laughing hysterically. It was pretty amazing to see this all go down.

PCL

Currently listening to: The Killers - Andy, You're a Star

So you've probably heard me bitching about my knee lately. Well, atleast if you were my father or old roommates helping me move from my FIFTH STORY APARTMENT building on Sunday. Every step was a wince, whimper, moan, or complaint in general. There were 107 steps up to my old apartment. 107 up, 107 down, repeat. It sucked.

Apparently, when I slipped on ice while hiking Mt. Madison memorial day weekend, I hit my knee pretty hard. It didn't even hurt the first few days and I thought nothing of it. However, it's been hurting like hell for the past week+.

I went to the doctor's office this morning and he checked it out. Apparently I tore my PCL (Posterior Cruciate Ligament). It's the one right behind the ACL and is usually hurt when you hit your knee while bent (which I did). If you want to read about the awesomeness that I'm experiencing, read this page, it's pretty informative.

Speech - After Thoughts

Currently listening to: My Chemical Romance - I'm not okay (I promise)

I posted about the speech that I was to give at the Nypro Annual Awards banquet last Thursday. I was pretty nervous and a little anxious about the whole thing, but all in all, it went rather well.

The banquet lasted from 6-9:30. Drinks/Socializing was from 6-7, dinner from 7-8, and the actual awards began at about 8:45pm. That means that we gave a combined speaking/demonstration for 45 minutes at this event. That's broken down between 3 speakers, Rob doing some MC'ing, and two short videos, along with a quick demo. Everyone seemed very impressed with what we've done.

The speeches were the best part, in my personal opinion. They were broken down into 3 5-year segments of the students, Audrey Lernard representing the first 5-years, me representing the middle, and Kate Murray representing the last 5-years. The crowd seemed moved at how much the program has touched and affected our lives. Audrey and Kate gave great speeches.

My speech amazed me. I'm used to speaking in front of groups of 30 tops for classes during presentations. My usual audience consists of 1-3 professors and a bunch of students. This time, I stared into the faces of 350+ execs and other employees of Nypro. Lots of big wigs who could make or break a promotion. Many people whom I haven't met before. This was me debutante in the company.
Usually I get so nervous that I read straight off of the cards and it sounds too mechanical. I decided to try something different this time. While I had the speech word-for-word in front of me, I quickly realized that it was too long to just read straight if I wanted to pace it properly and not freak out from nervousness (my heart was beating at Ludicrous Speed). I started ad-libbing like crazy, putting in breaks where I needed to, adding little jests here and there and allowing the audience to laugh/clap. It was great. Sorry to sound cocky, but I never speak nicely in front of people, especially a crowd like that. I've gained a new found confidence in my speaking abilities.

It was all topped off when as I was walking out the door and many coworkers were coming up to me and giving me generic congratulatory remarks. While they felt good to hear, they were dry and without feeling, so, they didn't hit me that hard. However, as I'm walking out the door, one of my coworkers walks up to me, shakes my hand, and goes "that was fucking awesome!" To hear this at a company event with everyone in suits/ties, amazed the crap out of me. While it may have been border-line inappropriate, it made me feel pretty good.

You can view the original speech here. Like I said, it's not exactly what I said word for word, but it's the same topics/feelings.

Hilarious

Currently listening to: Coheed & Cambria - Wake Up

Have you ever seen "Garden State"? If so, then you'll probably realize why I thought this was hilarious.

On Saturday I had a pretty busy day. I judged the Mass State Science Fair in the morning at WPI and then hauled out to Clinton once I was done judging my kids. I run up to the town hall and watch the CHS graduation. Took some pictures, shook some hands, gave my presents, and then got back to my dad's house. From there, Stacy, Ian (her bf) and I get in the S4 and begin our journey to our cousin Ali's graduation party in Wilbraham, MA.

So far, this story seems rather bland. Bland be not! I needed gas and it was raining and didn't feel like getting out, so we went to the Getty at the top of the hill. The guy pumps my gas, I hand him my credit card, sign the receipt, and assume that I'm done. Done was far from the truth.

Now, when they pump for you, you assume that the order of operations are:
1. Pull up
2. Request of amount and what octane level
3. Fill up
4. Remove nozzle
5. Pay
6. Drive away

Well, the dude got his order a little mixed up. After I pay and put my card away, I assume that I'm cool to drive off. I pull away and hear a combination of a stretching sound, a rip, a cluck, and some dragging. We all kind of look at eachother in shock and awe trying to realize what just happened. I look in my sideview to find the nozzle still inserted in my car. The dude never took it out afterwards. I had pulled the sucker right out of the gas station and dragged it like 10 feet. Thankfully, it has a quick release for instances such as this and with a little effort, the two of us got it snapped back in, but it was still funny. We laughed our asses off back in the car and I got out of there pretty quickly.

Ah... Sometimes I amuse the hell out of myself.

Ouch

Currently watching: The X-files - Syzygy

Dear Tim,
Congratulations on fucking me up while hiking last weekend when you fell on that ice, and then proceeding to have me hurt beyond belief today while you moved up and down your old apartment's FIVE stories to your new apartment.

Painfully yours,
Your knee

Life is Good

Currently listening to: Coheed & Cambria - The Velourium Camper I: Faint of Hearts

I have a full, ice-cold nalgene bottle of water, an apple turnover from Meadow Brook Orchards, I'm listening to Coheed, and the weekend is only an hour away.

Life is Good.

Speech

Currently listening to: Coheed & Cambria - The Light & The Glass

This is it. The day has come. I have to speak tonight at a very large and rather exclusive Nypro awards banquet tonight. It'll be about 450 people from the company world wide. The only way you get to come is if you've been with the company for 10+ years, or you're speaking.

I've rehearsed the speech several times now. I'm feeling pretty good. It's about 3-5 minutes depending on how fast I read it, and it's about FIRST, so, if I start to stumble or forget what I wanted to say, it's a good chance that I can wing it and it'll still make sense.

I've been wearing a tie now since I got changed this morning. That's like 8 hours thus far of continuous tie wearing. I'm not pleased. Apparently, if I'm going to take over the company someday, I better get used to dressing up like a Tool of the Man.