Robot Season is a difficult thing to understand completely. I am just as much a dork as my husband, if not more so, but even I have problems understanding it completely.
From a purely practical standpoint, his involvement in a Robotics Program makes complete sense. Hubby is a Tech Ed teacher. Getting kids involved in the wonderful world of widgets and gizmos is his job. And a practical application like a Robot has a little bit of a cool factor and brings together a lot of different disciplines. The kids build it with help and then go to competitions as a fun way to see how well they did and get ideas where they could have improved.
Most of the schools around here have a Vex group/club/class. And so his involvement in that one I totally get. It's a 2nd semester project and the competitions are all local and pretty low key. Not a big deal.
But then there's First. This is the one I hate. It's the all absorbing, super expensive one with loads of traveling involved. The level of technology involved is well beyond Vex. As is the involvement, and everything else. They spend all year raising money and planning elaborate drive trains for about 6 weeks of Hell. More if they consistantly win. And they always do.
And now he's got SeaPerch. I don't mind this one toooo much. It's kind of like Vex, only new, has no curriculum built for it yet, and is a bit more specialized. Hubby is helping create the new curriculum for the classroom.
One makes sense. Three is overkill. But then this is the guy who was a bit steamed because he applied for a job at Mythbusters and they wouldn't consider him because we aren't local. I'm glad someone else got it. I don't think I'd ever seem him again, except on TV. Anyway, they seem to like to have people in the special effects genre which isn't what he is. Hubby's the kind of guy who is the cause for engineer jokes.
I'll admit, when I was in a lab I wasn't much better. I've slept in labs, been in all night brainstorms, and so on. I, like him, was the kid who took everything apart in the house to see how things worked--to my parents' chagrin. And I always need a project. That's why buying a fixer-upper for us made enormous sense. Why I know we can have our dream car one day. Why many things are the way they are. And why I expect one day 5 years from now to find random electronics in tiny peices all over the house. It's just the way some people are hard wired.
But I have a project--Sasha, hubby, our dogs, generally keeping things running, going to school and so on. I have too many. But the Hubbs...he only seems fully satisfied when he can have that one special kind of project. I think it's a guy thing. They all appear to obsess over something. For some guys it's sports. For others it's gaming. For men like my husband it's building stuff. My only hope is our boy has the same one. Then we can obsess as a family.
2 comments:
I think robots are pretty cool. But I understand about 3 being overkill and taking over. For my hubby, it is fantasy football. I enjoy football and even fantasy football, but he is obsessed. And now with "keepers" there is trading in the offseason. Which means It. Never. Ends.
Of course, I'm an obsessive reader and (apparently) blogger, and he puts up with that.
You have effectively reinforced my confusion. :-) Robots? Really cool. Spending all year and major bucks? Not cool. But I am one of the cheapest humans on Earth, so that's probably part of the problem.
On the other hand, that's WAY cool that he's so into something that doesn't involve sports. I think I might be willing to trade!
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