Don’t expect anything too earth shattering here, but it is an important lesson about the power of simplicity.

I volunteered to coach a Lego Robotics team for Jacob’s school back in September, with Jacob on the team along with 5 other 4th and 5th graders.  The team has been meeting weekly ever since, working on their solution to the Challenge 2005 – Ocean Odyssey.  I took a very hands-off approach with the team, focusing on facilitating their own design and decision-making process by giving them some basic tools.  We started with simple exercises to get familiar with programming and controlling the robot and gradually worked into the mission challenges.  Eventually they settled on four of the missions after prioritizing based on points and complexity.

Last Sunday was the big day – the competition where they joined 23 other teams (elementary and middle school) at Mentor Graphics HQ for the challenge.  While the team had to give a presentation on some challenge we face with our oceans, the focus was definitely on the mission challenges with the robot.  They had three chance to get their best score – each chance is a 2.5 minute trial where they attempt to complete as many missions as possible.

Given that the team only prepared to do 4 of the missions, their maximum possible score was going to be 156.  The highest score for the day was about 310, with most teams scoring 125 or below.  Their first trial saw them getting two of their four missions completed, scoring 89 points.  The second trial was the highlight, with the robot completing all four missions and the only downside being a 2 point penalty for retrieving the robot away from base (this was to rescue it from doing something that would have cost them one of their missions – a great reaction).  Their score was 154.  You should have seen the looks on their faces!

So what did I learn from the team?  They reaffirmed my belief in the power of simplicity, the elegance of design for function without clutter.  Their robot as designed likely could not have solved all of the mission challenges, but for the four they achieved it performed magnificently.  There were no moving parts other than the wheels and they designed their solutions with a high degree of fault tolerance.  They also built in an approach to running the robot that greatly increased the odds of success.  If any of these kids participate next year I think they will likely move to more complex solutions designed to address more of the challenges (hinging arms, retractable hooks, etc.) but I’m thrilled with how they approached the challenge this year.

Just observed this while cleaning out my gmail spam folder.

We are heading down to Autzen Stadium down at the University of Oregon in Eugene to watch Sherwood High School play in the state 3A football championship.  They are undefeated this year and we’ve managed to catch most of their games.

Ever wonder what an income and expense graph looks like for a startup, mono-game company that releases a product at Essen?  Here you go.  Scale removed to protect the innocent, though you could probably apply some basic integral (area) analysis to see if we are profitable.

With Brandon spending the night tonight, I wanted to make sure we sat down to play a boardgame and not let the kids be completely consumed in computer games.  They requested Age of Mythology – a solid choice given that the kids have been playing the computer game lately.  Surprisingly, it has been almost two years since this one hit the table.

Brandon and Matthew played the Norse, Jacob the Greeks, and I played the Egyptians.  As expected, fighting was early and furious, and by getting an early myth creature that was strong against mortals I was able to stave off any attacks and let them beat each other up.  And they did.  Over and over.

We cut the game short by about 3–4 turns.  It was good fun but I was far ahead and the game was dragging on.  I’m not sure this is good with four players – I think we should have played partners instead to balance things out.  There’s also far too much downtime in this when other players are fighting.

(or, how I could have saved a lot of lives had I been commanding the Germans on the east front).

I had planned to do a session report on my game of Eastfront with Mike last week, but he did such a nice job reporting that I’ll just refer you there.  I did snap some photos which I’ll share here, along with a few annotations.

We used Caylus blocks to demark the front line for the Summer ‘42 scenario.  Hah!  So many of you are still waiting to get your hands on this game and here we are already recycling parts for other uses.  Sorry, couldn’t resist.

 I attacked broadly on all fronts, figuring that’s what the Germans should do.  I made a critical mistake however.

The first mistake was moving units outside of the command range resulting in unsupported combat.  I guess I assumed that if they were in command range pre-move that they would be in range for combat, which was a bit idiotic.

The result was some very unsuccessful unsupported combat and, even worse, a hole in my line allowing the Soviets to engage one of my precious HQ and cut off two major groups from supply.  I knew it was game over at this point but we continued to play.  My goal at this point was to explore as many of the mechanics as I could.

We ended up playing three months (out of a six month scenario) in about 4 hours.  By the end we were getting a full month completed in about 45 minutes.  Could probably get it down to 30 with effort and familiarity.

I’d like to play again, soon, while the mechanics and rules are fresh in my head.

I like posting about music I’m listening to because I usually get good pointers to other artists that I’ll enjoy.  So keep the recommendations coming!

An automatic purchase for me recently was Son Volt’s Okemah and the Melody of Riot.  I’ve long been a fan of Uncle Tupelo (going back to my late college years in St. Louis where they were a local band) and while I’ve generally agreed with critics that Wilco was the better of the two bands formed from the Uncle Tupelo bifurcation (Son Volt being the other), I find myself listening to Jay Farrar and Son Volt a lot more than I do Jeff Tweedy and Wilco.  Julie and I caught Son Volt’s live show here in Portland earlier this year and I think she has turned into a genuine fan as well; at least I catch her listening to the CD at home from time to time.  So if you are a fan of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and other singer-songwriters with some country influence, check this one out.

Julie had me pick up a few CDs from Amazon recently, namely Coldplay’s X&Y, Green Day’s American Idiot, and Weezer’s Make Believe.  I also added Beck’s Guero to the order.  So, I expected to like American Idiot and Guero quite a bit, was skeptical about Make Believe, and had no clue what to expect with X&Y.  I rarely listen to music on the radio and Coldplay has never even been on my radar.  I think I remember hearing comparisons to U2 and the Beatles and that they are perhaps the best band so far of the 21st century, which drastically reduced my interest in seeking them out.  I had visions of the Oasis hype back in the mid 90s.  Boy, was I surprised – this album is as good as anything I’ve heard from U2 (and I’m a huge Joshua Tree fan) and now I understand the hype.  They are also very different than just about everything I’ve been listening to for the past few years, which is a pleasant change.  Some times talent does lead to extreme popular success.

My final mention is of Fall Out Boy.  BMG Music recently acquired the music club part of Columbia House, and I had a lingering membership that was transfered over.  Somewhere in the shuffle they think I failed to decline one of the monthly selections (I’m certain I did) and I was going to return it, but instead opened it to give it a listen and rip into iTunes.  I’m glad I did – From Under the Cork Tree is a fine album that I’m enjoying.  This is mild punk rock with some good pop harmonies – reminds me of Green Day and The Clash.

I really enjoy reading The Escapist – very relevant an insightful information on video gaming, often with ties into tabletop gaming.  This month they have a focus on wargames, with the highlight being Les Grognards.  Check it out.