Caltech Robotics Conference

I didn’t want to wait until Midnight to write about this :) I went to the 2nd Annual Caltech Middle School Robotics Conference.

This morning, I woke up in time to run to Trojan Grounds for an Odwalla and some banana chips, and then went to Hedco Neuroscience Building where I was to meet the USC Robotics Club to go to the Caltech Robotics Workshop. While walking across campus, things were different: there were huge, huge crowds of tons of people, everyone wearing USC colors, shirts, jerseys, jackets. It was just crazy. Someone was passing out free DVDs about the rivalry. I got one of the DVDs, As you may know, today was the day of the big USC vs. UCLA football game. It was intense.

Anyway, I got to Hedco, but nobody was there. Eventually, Eddy showed up. Zack and Kevin were late because they had to get stuff ready. We had some problems with getting the code to run on Kevin’s laptop (on Linux), so we were working on that. We never got it to work, though, so no live demos.

At Caltech we didn’t know what to do. We were just lost, because though we printed directions on how to get there, we didn’t print any parking info or info about where the event was being held. So I called my mom, who had me call my dad, and got the directions. It all worked out surprisingly well in the end. We weren’t even that late. Thanks, dad :)

I’ll have to write more about the actual event later. Because I’ve got to go eat dinner soon. Anyway, when it was over, we thought about going to USC. But, considering the terrible traffic and the really hard time we had getting out, we decided to stay at the Caltech campus. The California Insitute of Technology is admittedly a nice place. Still, it’s not so stunning. Which I didn’t expect, but still, it actually makes me happy to be at USC. Because you find a lot of the same thing going on, no matter what college you go to. Interestingly, they were having Jimmy Eat World in concert at Caltech today. and Jimmy Eat World was just here at USC last Thursday.

Anyway, we decided to hang out at Caltech and walk around the campus. The reason I wanted to leave was so that I could see the end of the UCLA game. So we went in search of a TV at Caltech. The first people we asked were fairly supportive and friendly, but the next person we asked was not. We went through the Lloyd Hovse (House). There was a TV common room, but there was a signup sheet on the door. There was one guy in there watching TV by himself, and it was a huge screen TV with lots of couches in a little room, a lot like a mini-theatre. But we gave up on that, and were about to give up altogether, when we decided to go check out the graduate level dormitory, Avery House.

Someone was just leaving the locked gate when we arrived, so Andre caught it in time and we snuck in. I’ve been here before, I think it was when I was visiting Dan Sutoyo who is a friend doing graduate studies there. So we went through the dorms, looking in people’s rooms, reading the stuff on the walls and doors. Then Andre announced he’d found a TV, and we were all excited as we ran upstairs to the second floor. Sure enough, through a kitchen there was a little entertainment room. Complete with couches, huge beanbags, Nintendo GameCube, arcade, soft swords, statue, and DDR. The TV had a crack in the screen, but it still worked fine. We turned to ABC and found the USC vs. UCLA football game, around the beginning of the 4th quarter. Awesome.

The score was already something like 40-6 with UCLA losing badly. We watched all the rest of the game, although UCLA just did worse. They made two more touchdowns, but the final score game to 66-19. USC’s been averaging over 50 points a game. Crazy. Though Texas is higher, I think we’ll beat them at the Rose Bowl :) (gotta be optimistic even though I know absolutely nothing about it). Anyway, when the game was over it was dark so we turned on the lights in that room. Nice lighting. Strangely, nobody came and bugged us while we were there. We were just strangers off the street coming in to use their TV and bean bag couches :)

So I didn’t go to the UCLA game in person (even though at least two people assumed that I did). What actually happened was that I didn’t get tickets. But amazingly, that definitely worked out for the better. In any case, I would think people who actually know me would know better. I’m not a football fan. I’m a computer geek, plain and simple :)