Oops… I seem to be having some trouble with my WordPress site. They seem to have enabled a security feature that no longer allows me to post from my phone… Hope to be back online soon

nite all, nite sam

-me

Today was a big day for robotics Vermont. We had our Virtual championship today. Usually it’s a big face-to-face event with hundreds or maybe even 1000 people… This year it was all online. We had Field of 2018 ‘s… Of which 18 were from Vermont. I believe that’s the highest we’ve ever had. A particularly proud that 11 of the Vermont teams were the ones we started using the first stem equity grant we received. We nearly doubled the number of teams in Vermont however some of our veteran teams chose not to compete this year. It’s been a very tough year because students have been able to get together to build the robots and have been able to meet in school. Still 18 of those teams manage to build some pretty cool bots and compete.

Today’s event was really nice. We had some excellent judges who talk to everything from first year one person teams to 10 person ten-year teams. And they made each of them feel good for what they had accomplished. Kristin and I were the MC ‘s… Despite some early A/V problems we were able to hold a good event. My friend Kyle Clark gave a great inspiring opening talk.

Then we watched Videos from aboutabout nine teams. We got to watch some first year teams who done a great job… And a veteran 10 year team that is a one time world champion. As a matter of fact they are recorded match for our championship is now the world record high score for the event… That was pretty cool.

My deep thanks go out to my friends Doug, Kristin, Cortney, Kimberly, Iain and all the judges for coming together to make this event work. Also my deep respect to all the teams… Especially the new ones. I think we All learned a lot this year and are well position for a strong showing next year when we (hopefully) can get back together face-to-face

The rest of the day was nice and easy. It’s such a relief having the first event behind us. Diane ‘Kyle and I went for a 7.2 mile hike and then we came back and finished an impossible puzzle.… The highlight of the night was a zoom birthday party for my nephew Jake. It’s great to see everybody. Jake got some Texas clothing and a hat… He looks so great in them

I remember the day jake was born… I was in Shanghai and Merry called and let me hear him cry. I talked about it in this blog post in 2007… If you scroll down you can actually hear my recording from my cell phone of Jake’s first conversation

http://johncohn.org/base/2007/03/14/wednesday-night-the-circle-of-life-welcome-baby-liddicoat/

OK… Time for bed.

nite all, nite sam

-me

In the last many months Diane ‘Kyle and I have been talking about “precision of language”… I think it is one of our reactions to the last four years of incivility in the country… We are always trying to watch our speech for sexism, racism, ages… All these kind of things that we say and take for granted.… For example “you guys” which is something everyone up here says in the Northeast… Including me. I’m constantly reminded that not everyone I’m addressing our “guys”It’s funny because English doesn’t have an official second person informal plural. I grew up in the south where “y’all” is acceptable… In Pittsburgh they say Yunz. . In other languages like Spanish you have Vosotros . In Germany you have Euch or Sie.

It’s funny how many things we say have those elements like “black list”…Or “master bedroom”… Or like my role at work which is “fellow”… Though several (not enough) are women

Anyway I was thinking about that today. I was talking to a professor at Virginia tech who was also a tribal Elder In the first people’s band down there. I was telling her about a project I’m working on that is looking at how to better serve “low resource” languages… That is languages that have very few speakers and little or no written or recorded record.

The professor was wise and very helpful… Near the end of the conversation she had some advice to give me.… In the course of our conve rsation I had used Phrases like that we were trying to “capture languages” And “extract stories”

She gently mentioned to me at the end of that at the moment any native American heard me use language like that the conversation would be over.… She also said most would not even tell me they were offended. She actually gave me a gift by letting me know how my unintended slip had sounded

I think you’re very much for her advice… And I’ve been thinking about it all day sense… How often are we accidentally offending our friends and neighbors

I truly appreciate The gentle correction I received today

Night all, night sam

-me

Busy day at work and at home. We’re preparing for the first check challenge championship the Saturday and all scores were due Today… I spent the day in work meetings alternating talking to robot coaches and teachers. All in all pretty satisfying

Another thing that was satisfying is it was 66° outside today… Actually that’s a summer temperature for us

It felt very good. I took a lot of my work calls outside.

Diane continues to scan those photos… She found this picture that Max took of me in our old kitchen Max was four years old when he took this

Neither of the kitchen nor I look anything like we do now

I’m sending this from the room that used to be that kitchen… Now it’s our mudroom

Standing here is like going back in time

Nite all, nite sam

-me