October 10, 2005
Vegas synopsis
So the Vegas trip was fun. We left town around three-ish, drove six hours until we decided to eat at a Mimi's Cafe in some random place. Bakersfield maybe. After discussions of juggling, Perplex City, baby oil, and other random crap we arrived in Barstow around eleven at night. Or maybe it was closer to midnight. In any case, we dicked around for a bit until the ass of our caravan made it and went to bed only to wake up not more than four hours later.
We ended up at the DARPA Grand Challenge event a little bit after it started, and spent close to twelve hours there. I could talk about each individual thing that happened, but I've come to the conclusion that most of the world does not share the same sort of enthusiasm for engineering and design that DGC participants and I tend to. All the same, we got to talk to a few of the teams that were participating in the final event as well as those who had failed at the preliminary qualifications that took place prior. They all had a fair amount to say on how they approached the project and what design decisions they made based on their resources. As a student, I'm rarely faced with projects of this scope and so hearing others talk about what they did and why they did it helped me to learn a fair bit on the kinds of thoughts and considerations that should be taken when making decisions.
As for the competition itself, the consensus was that the course itself was sorta, well, easy. It was shorter, flatter, and less obstacled than most had expected. Most competitors had SUVs and at least two teams were sporting Hummers in preparation for an off-roading sort of expedition.
Caltech was eliminated in a funny way at the least. Apparently they went under some power lines which made the car think it was off-track. It then tried to adjust course to correct.
Over some barriers.
Almost right into some media.
So yeah, I thought it was kinda funny anyway.
Another interesting elimination was Team Ensco. About 2/3 of the way done with the track, after getting pretty close to the most difficult part of the competition, they got a flat tire. Pretty much everyone just got really confused when it happened. Apparently after doing all that work, no one bothered to buy run-flats. I can only imagine the irritation.
In the end, Stanford won the match. There was a fair bit of cheering as Stanley (the Stanford team's robot) passed up the previously leading Red Team (Carnegie Mellon). Which reminds me, Red Team actually hired a skywriter, a poor one, to write their team name above the competition. The first time, he wrote it in such a way that anyone looking up would be blinded by the sun while trying to read it. The second time, it took him so long the first letters had pretty much faded when he finished the last few.
Back in Vegas, we checked into the rooms and blah blah blah. Among other things, I played this sword game. It had a large, upright, circular sensor thing you had to keep your sword in. You then used the sword to strike enemies and parry blows on screen. It was fun, but very difficult to control and so I felt kinda helpless while playing it.
Also, we dropped by this place, Gameworks, to see the arcade. After going in and making cursory rounds to see if there were any machines worth playing, I met back up with the group.
"Hey Yann, they have Virtua Cop 3 over there."
"Are you kidding?"
"No,"
"'cause if you're lying to me, I will destroy you. I will absolutely kill you. I will rip your throat out with my bare teeth and shove things into the opening, blah blah blah"
"At this point, I wish I was joking."
I was not lied to, there was indeed a Virtua Cop 3 machine there. It was even turned on. And stuff! So I quickly grabbed one of those shitty card things, put some money on it, and proceeded to play it with Alex.
The stage select screen of the game invites you to pick either the easy, medium, or hard campaign to play. Figuring Alex had never played before, I shot at the easy campaign which was on the left side of the screen. Oddly enough, this had the effect of shooting in the direct center of the screen and selecting the normal campaign.
At that point, I began to sense bad things afoot.
Once in the actual game, it turned out the game was just broken. The guns would shoot nowhere besides the exact middle of the screen, which made it hard to kill the various enemies littered around the field. I almost broke down and wept at that point, but at the very least, there were other games in the arcade that were fun to play.
There was more than one turret type game in the arcade, but the more entertaining one was one where you had to open a door, go into the game, sit down, lock the door and put on a seatbelt before the game would start. Once inside, all you really had was a joystick that aimed and rotated the turret. The nifty thing was that when the turret rotated in the game, the actual turret sorta thing you were sitting on rotated as well. In retrospect, there was actually no reason for the turret to rotate since there was just one screen and that rotated with you, but it's that kind of unnecessary flourish to a game that makes it, fun, or something.
Ghost Squadron was also a fun sort of play. The machine I played it on was kinda crappy though and so pulling the trigger didn't always fire the gun. That made it more difficult than normal to stay alive in the face of enemies who are firing things at me.
We also did wander the strip for some time, checking out the sights, the Bellagio fountains, and the many men standing on the side of the road with stripper/whore cards flicking them to make noises in an attempt to make you interested. Also, walking around with open containers of alcohol was a new sort of experience. For one brief moment, it felt like drinking was not a sin.
Now, on the way back, we went to "John's Incredible Pizza". I wouldn't mention this except that they had some interesting pizza. In particular the pepperoni and peanut butter sticks in my mind (hahaha), as well as the fiesta pizza. The first, while it sounds gross, was quite good. I mean, I might not order an extra large one for me and my friends, but I did not regret picking up a slice or two of it. The fiesta pizza on the other hand, was something I could see myself eating regularly. I love Mexican food, I love pizza, combining the two only brings joy to the world. As one person said, "It's like biting into a bean burrito".
Anyhow, now it's back to another week of school. There are worse things, but I'm pretty sure that there's a circle of hell where the primary punishment is to make the sinners live the life of an engineering student in his senior year.
At the very least, I have a Cake concert to look forward to tonight.
