Remember back along, I mentioned about a robot that Matilda was making with her mates, http://livingwithshackledraggers.blogspot.com/2011/06/early-rising-and-robotic-snake.html well finally, here's a little movie that shows the snake and mouse in action a few weeks ago. It's quite a tense moment when the mouse gets away...
The requirement in this category is that the robots perform a 'story' over set period of time. We see the mouse shaking in fear, and the snake looming in for the kill. The mouse is supposed to be frozen in indecision. If any of the team have to step onto the 'dance floor' they lose points. They lose points for things being made by the teacher or by parents, so this is entirely by the kids, even down to the choice of music. (The gunfight from Appalachian Spring)
The team are going on to compete in the nationals in Hobart the weekend of the 24th. Should be interesting to go to Hobart at the least. They've been working on another mouse on the sidelines and a collapsible tree for transportation. We're all very chuffed they've got that opportunity...
Monday 12 September 2011
Sunday 4 September 2011
RIP IT UP!!!!... but make sure you rip neatly along these lines...
There’s something really odd about the Queensland male, especially the young ones. They have a really prominent ‘maleness’ about them, the things that they are expected to be savvy to, and the predictable ways that they will tend to behave, but it’s hollow. On the one hand, they conform to the normal ‘devil may care’ attitude that is characteristic of the young male the world over, and on the other, they have a pathological rule following mentality that has somehow been hardwired into their psyche’s. The result is quite comical sometimes, and I find myself frustrated by young boys in low set gas guzzler saloons with wide wheels, grunty sounding engines and the all important ‘wide’ exhaust add on that renders the end of their exhaust pipes the diameter of an apple, jostling to get in front of you at the lights, and making a big fuss about being ‘first’ only to stop accelerating precisely on the cusp of 60kmph.
Having come from the land of rioting for flat screen TV’s, my own predilection for rebellious behaviour runs deeper than 60 (even now)… not that I’m advocating speeding, but at that age, I was taking some serious risks. My point is that the behaviour is ‘odd’ to me. Either they’re rebels (on a path that is dictated by they’re genes and age) or they’re not, or they’re (apparently) confused. I suppose that in terms of a conforming society, it’s better to have the latter two rather than the former since it’s hard to find anyone that likes having large egos with small pudenda spoiling their enjoyment of a Sunday afternoon stroll through the park, but as a person that hasn’t had a bowel for over 20 years, I feel compelled, and uniquely placed to call this early onset anal retention. This is the time that rules are broken, and they don’t do it.
I saw something go past the other day, think it may have been something in one of Daile’s psychology mags that said that creativity is a result of a rule breaking mentality, and that Chinese authorities have identified limitations to the kind of innovation that China is capable of, based in concerns that most Chinese are ardent rule followers. This makes a lot of sense to me, and I reckon it’s the same here… but we don’t acknowledge it. On the SURFACE of Queensland society, there is a ‘rip it up and sod the consequences’ rhetoric, championed by the media, subscribed to by the masses. Under the surface however, the vast majority are died in the wool conservative rule followers (and by proxy rule enforcers). For the most part I can live with it, but when it all boils down to it, I MISS that about the UK more than I miss anything else. (Folks aside of course!) Whilst the UK is also horrendously constrained by bureaucrats, there are nacelles of creative minds that are everywhere. A book that my Mum and Dad bought me recently, about creativity and the propagation thereof discusses this. For creative minds to reach full potential, they need to be amongst their own kind. It’s a bit of a worry for the girls… who are creative but young enough to have it squashed out.
Having come from the land of rioting for flat screen TV’s, my own predilection for rebellious behaviour runs deeper than 60 (even now)… not that I’m advocating speeding, but at that age, I was taking some serious risks. My point is that the behaviour is ‘odd’ to me. Either they’re rebels (on a path that is dictated by they’re genes and age) or they’re not, or they’re (apparently) confused. I suppose that in terms of a conforming society, it’s better to have the latter two rather than the former since it’s hard to find anyone that likes having large egos with small pudenda spoiling their enjoyment of a Sunday afternoon stroll through the park, but as a person that hasn’t had a bowel for over 20 years, I feel compelled, and uniquely placed to call this early onset anal retention. This is the time that rules are broken, and they don’t do it.
I saw something go past the other day, think it may have been something in one of Daile’s psychology mags that said that creativity is a result of a rule breaking mentality, and that Chinese authorities have identified limitations to the kind of innovation that China is capable of, based in concerns that most Chinese are ardent rule followers. This makes a lot of sense to me, and I reckon it’s the same here… but we don’t acknowledge it. On the SURFACE of Queensland society, there is a ‘rip it up and sod the consequences’ rhetoric, championed by the media, subscribed to by the masses. Under the surface however, the vast majority are died in the wool conservative rule followers (and by proxy rule enforcers). For the most part I can live with it, but when it all boils down to it, I MISS that about the UK more than I miss anything else. (Folks aside of course!) Whilst the UK is also horrendously constrained by bureaucrats, there are nacelles of creative minds that are everywhere. A book that my Mum and Dad bought me recently, about creativity and the propagation thereof discusses this. For creative minds to reach full potential, they need to be amongst their own kind. It’s a bit of a worry for the girls… who are creative but young enough to have it squashed out.
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