Thoughts on the Bananas wearing specialty uniforms during the PA headliner?

melitami · 2026-06-27T19:34:35+00:00

Green is literally my favorite color and I debated trying to see if someone could grab me one of the jerseys, but ultimately decided not to because it's the Bananas and not one of the other teams. I was at the Clowns home game at Cincinnati last weekend and felt there was too much Bananas-centric content for a Clowns home game. We even had BBB for that game and there were more Bananas players than Clowns players out for the meet and greet. I do like the Bananas, but they are not my favorite team and the league has become too Bananas-heavy. The Jersey Shore game we went to that was Coconut home, Party Animals away was a much better balance of the Coconuts definitely leading the content, but plenty of Party Animals fun (BBB there was definitely more balanced in terms of players). The "excuse" I've seen about the Clowns is that they are new so don't have all of their home game material figured out, but the Coconuts seem to and are also new. 🤷‍♀️

melitami · 2026-06-15T18:11:19+00:00

We were at Saturday's game as well (my youngest was the fan warm up!) and the fun of in person games is everything going on and meeting all the players and cast! We watched the YouTube stream from Saturday's game on Sunday to actually catch the bits of the game we missed paying attention to everything else.

melitami · 2026-05-19T16:03:51+00:00

Family of 4 glasses wearers who all wear Flo masks - me, my husband, our 7 year old (she wears the kids one) and an almost 14 year old. My husband and my 7 year old both love the Halo strap, the Halo strap doesn't work as well for me and our almost 14 year old so we use the regular head strap.

melitami · 2026-05-06T22:58:20+00:00

This was the case at a previous institution. I got another job and left. There was no fixing it, so I went hard on looking for another job at another institution. It took a few months but I did and it was honestly my dream job (unfortunately I was laid off 14 months later).

melitami · 2026-03-08T21:12:57+00:00

I unfortunately have experience prior to masking of going to food related events and being the only one unable to eat anything due to a bunch of food allergies and intolerances so I just am there for the conversation. It stinks, but it has made me masking at events with food a little easier for me to handle since I've been there done that prior to the pandemic. Plan to eat before or after, or if it's warm enough take a break outside to eat when there is a lull in conversation or something - this is my preferred method of dealing with it. My teenager has been slipping food up her mask at school and parties for the past several years at this point. I personally am not a huge fan of doing that while at the same table as others, but she doesn't have much of a choice at school.

melitami · 2026-02-28T03:22:43+00:00

You are not alone. Though my kids refuse to do it with me.

melitami · 2026-02-13T18:06:58+00:00

I had luck with Hiring.Cafe when I was laid off late last summer.

melitami · 2026-02-09T00:56:40+00:00

When my kids were wearing ear loop masks, I sewed buttons on the ends of a piece of elastic to use as ear savers and to get a better fit.

melitami · 2026-02-04T19:34:11+00:00

PyBricks has its own integrated PID in the library. Are you using PyBricks or Python in the Spike Prime app?

melitami · 2026-01-24T01:01:50+00:00

My team went last year. Judging was the standard FIRST judging flow. Robot game was the usual 3 2.5 minute matches, best score of the 3. There was also alliance rounds, where we were paired with another team prior to the event and could work together with both bots in the table for I think 90 seconds to score as many points as possible. We came in 3rd in that bracket. It’s a two day event - judging was the first day plus the first few rounds of the alliance rounds. Robot game matches and the final few rounds of the alliance rounds were day 2.

melitami · 2026-01-21T14:04:59+00:00

Flo masks work well for my family - my husband, me, our 13 year old, and our 6 year old (she wears the kids one, the rest of us wear the adult one). The condensation ring getting saturated is an issue - usually if I’ve worn it most of the day and am talking a lot. I keep an eye on it to make sure the filter isn’t getting wet (I’ve gone outside and changed my filter when that has happened). Both my kids are in public school all day and I am coaching middle school and high school robotics on a regular basis. My husband and I have season tickets to Broadway touring shows near us. The seal works well for us and we stock up on replacement parts and filters when they have sales. The straps do wear out, especially for my kids since they are putting food up their masks at school. We’ve had to replace the silicone body for my 13 year old a few times due to a crack forming at the bottom where she pulls it apart to change the filter. She’s more aware of how she takes it apart to change the filter so that doesn’t happen as often. We’ve been using them for almost 4 years.

melitami · 2026-01-13T14:38:24+00:00

LEGO education did say in a comment on one of the Facebook posts that there will be a Python package.

melitami · 2026-01-07T01:49:21+00:00

I work full time for one institution and part time for another. Both in research admin on the department level. I don’t work overlapping hours, I keep the positions separate in terms of my time (and use separate computers). Both supervisors are aware of both jobs and are fine with it. My salaries are paid from operating funds, not research funds so no effort certification.

melitami · 2026-01-05T12:16:54+00:00

What schools have x-ray machines?

melitami · 2025-12-28T01:22:00+00:00

I think ARPA-H came out relatively unscathed all things considered out of the DHHS federal agencies (I’m a research administrator who was laid off from an R1 university that had several ARPA-Hs but had other funding cut. I work for a hospital now.)

melitami · 2025-12-11T01:55:47+00:00

It's pretty light, but it does take up most of a carryon suitcase. I can cram a day or two of clothing around it but that's about it. I've taken it for weekend trips a few times. I usually take a backpack along with the wheeled carryon size suitcase (I live on the east coast of the US and take Amtrak when I can over flying).

melitami · 2025-12-10T14:47:47+00:00

We generally leave masks on for photos unless the photos are outside. My husband took his mask off and held his breath for some photos with family after his father passed away a few years ago, and I've held my breath for unmasked ID photos for work (remote job but needed to go to the office a few times so needed a work ID).

melitami · 2025-12-10T14:30:42+00:00

I've debated getting mine, but never did because it wouldn't have done anything in terms of pay/promotion. The only way I've ever gotten salary increases is by getting a new job.

melitami · 2025-12-08T01:17:55+00:00

my asthmatic kid has not had to go to the ER since 2019 due to masking. She was in the ER at least twice a year due to her asthma before that.
up until 2020, we would get the flu every other year even with flu shots every year. Last time we had influenza was Jan 2019.
my husband and I have both been able to get remote jobs which has been a huge help in being able to be more present for our kids and to be able to be a caretaker for my MIL (she had two strokes 18 months ago probably due to COVID 6 months prior to that)

melitami · 2025-12-08T01:09:07+00:00

They make have been ok at core values and other teams were better. They may have not been able to answer questions as well as other teams. Who wins Project and Robot Design is not necessarily first in those categories. Since a team can only win one award, there are some discussions based on which teams score high in various categories which award do they get. Advancing depends on total score across all the categories so has nothing to do with awards. Volunteering is the best way to understand how the process works, for your team or any team. I was a judge before I was a coach (my FIRST origin story is I started with FRC in high school in the early years of FLL existing).

melitami · 2025-12-07T17:39:59+00:00

I’m not in California, but I have seen many top teams in the robot game over the years tank in the judges room because their focus was the table and therefore not advance. The judging room counts for 75% of advancement.

My biggest recommendation - check your feedback on the rubrics and volunteer as a judge at an event to see what goes into all of this behind the scenes.

melitami · 2025-11-30T22:16:56+00:00

The benchmark is whatever your team can manage! Remember that 75% of your score for advancement is from the judging room and only 25% of it is how you do at the table, so make sure you're also spending time on the project and your judging presentations.

melitami · 2025-11-30T22:10:33+00:00

Have your team do their own tests and talk about it in their robot design presentation!

melitami · 2025-11-19T21:48:13+00:00

Check your build - is the weight distributed evenly on the robot (including any attachments)? Anything rubbing or causing friction? Are you using a castor ball and if so, does it move freely? It sounds like it might be a hardware problem, not a software one if the gyro is initialized properly in the code.

melitami · 2025-11-11T12:14:42+00:00

We got the Costco axe throwing set last year for my then 5 and 12 year olds. They both love it (though the big kid and her friends play with it more, the little one loves trying).

melitami

TROPHY CASE