SOC Sunday: Kids at the FIRST Lego League Brooklyn Qualifying Tournament

I had the pleasure of taking event photos for the FIRST Lego League Tournament Brooklyn Qualifier 2012 last Saturday. This is an inter-school competition for the schools in the Borough of Brooklyn. The top 20 teams in this competition move on to the bigger competition where they compete with the top schools from the other boroughs of New York City.

The competition even baffles me because I cannot program a Lego Mindstorm NXT but these 4th graders can! To be surrounded by bright young minds is a humbling experience indeed.

Here are some of the photos from the event:

They program the robots to go though missions on this mat.
See this girl use two laptops to fine tune her robot.

Teamwork
They were asked to line up in alphabetical order of first names, blindfolded.
Observation judges watch each team in action and also interview them
to discuss how they functioned as a team. They identify teams that best
demonstrate enthusiasm, spirit, partnership, respect to their teammates
and others, and gracious professionalism.

Project Presentation
The teams complete a research project related to the topic of the year.
This is followed up by a presentation, and a timed question and answer
period. Teams can use props in their presentation like this muscle suit.

One team even made a website!

Technical Interview
Each team has a timed interview with a team of judges to discuss the
design and operation of their robot. Judges look for teams whose
work stands oud because of innovation and navigational consistency.

This is what they build and program. Lego Mindstorm NXT.

Robotics? Not just for boys. 

Their banners say it all. 

Pep talk to soothe frustrations. Kid in the middle was awesome.

Too short to reach over the table? Resourcefulness at its best.

It's not child's play. Really.

Stress levels run high for these kids.

YAY!

Woohoo!

YEAAAH!

I know it is disheartening to know that some of the teams did not make it to the citywide competition, however all of them walk out of the competition as winners. 

Thumb's up!

More competition photos here:
FIRST Lego League Brooklyn Qualifier 2012
FIRST Lego League Brooklyn Qualifier 2012 - Participant Portraits
FIRST Lego League Brooklyn Qualifier 2012 - Volunteer Portraits


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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only. 
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Cheap Makeup Organizers

After moving to this present apartment, I was happy to have three huge medicine cabinets with "moviestar"  lighting. I know it is a dream come true to most women but the storage is less than 4" deep. I scoured through stores and I couldnt find anything that would fit, or was cheap. So for a while, I my stuff was always in danger of falling into the toilet bowl by sheer force of gravity.

Using my bathroom mirrors make me feel like a moviestar!

This is what some of my makeup looks like inside the medicine cabinets:

The solution came to me when I was cleaning up. My husband loves Crystal Light, and as I was arranging the recyclables, the thought hit me!

So here are the steps:

Buy Crystal Light.

Peel off the entire label

Tada! You have  your translucent container!

Here it is back in my medicine cabinet.

The reason why I have two different heights of containers still baffle me, because the three other containers on the left are also from Crystal Light. I guess they changed their packaging to a taller one. I love the fact that my organizers come "free with purchase" and that even if i put something short in it, like a lipstick, I find it right away.

These containers are practically weightless and they are very thin - they dont take much space and they go straight up and no wasted space at the bottom. 

Decorative Toilet Paper Storage

NYC living means small spaces. We do not have huge pantries, garages (most of us don't even have cars) and we always need to have extra toilet paper in the bathroom.

This really started out because my husband and I would have spats because I always forget to put an extra roll of toilet paper under the sink. I got tired of it so i thought of a solution that DOES NOT COST MONEY. Tada!

You too, can have the same storage! You will never have to worry about running out of toilet paper while doing your business in the bathroom and guests don't need to ask you for a new roll. The best part is, the cost is ZERO DOLLARS. These things are available around your home.

You will need:

Ribbon or String that is available on hand, or something that matches your decor
Skewer, half a chopstick or a pencil - any rigid object that can go through a toilet paper roll and can carry the weight.

Dinner Napkins or Tissue Paper (optional) - The ones that come out of gift wrapping is great! Upcycling is good! The dinner napkins and tissue paper here are excess from our wedding.

First, Secure your skewer/chopstick/pencil at the end of the ribbon with a knot. You may glue it if you wish, but you dont really need to.

The finished product should look like this, without the extra knots if you have one long continuous ribbon. In this case, I used 4 short ribbons so i can have the desired length to hold 6 rolls in one go. Your TP storage, no matter how long or short you want it is now done.

Usage:

Thread the ribbon through the cardboard roll.

Make sure your skewer/chopstick/pencil is in a horizontal position and will keep your TP on the holder. 

Find an empty hook and hang! Voila!

Optional: Wrapping your TP with decorative paper

Lay your toilet paper on the middle of the dinner napkin

Gather both edges to the center and tuck excess into the cardboard tube. Don't worry if it is not covering it all around. Just turn it towards the back. It also allows guests to see what is behind the colorful paper in the bathroom.

Make sure you dont cover the hole completely. You need the holder to go through in it.

If you have a whole piece of Tissue Paper, divide it lengthwise into three.

Hold it in a way that the two edges meet.

Fold it over and tuck into the cardboard tube.

When it is all done, thread your holder through. YAY!

And of course, hang!

 

You have two ways of taking the toilet paper out.

1. Push all of them upward and thread your skewer/chopstick/pencil to take one out.

2. Take the whole thing off the hook and take the topmost roll.

The best part about this is that you can change the decorative paper to match the party you are having, the current season or just your mood. 

Our Handmade Wedding

365 days ago, Dave and I got married at Roosevelt Island Lighthouse Park. I wanted a wedding that was fun, not formal and very reflective of us. I searched everywhere for invitations and I didn’t find what I liked so I ended up MAKING EVERYTHING MYSELF.

Save the date Cards

Wedding invitations
invitation text was inspired by the song "be my guest"
from the animated film Beauty and the Beast

RSVP Cards
Having a reply deadline stopped me from calling the people who
has not sent in their RSVPs.

Table decor and wedding favor

I picked our wedding favors to be useful at the wedding itself. Again, since it has a theme of its own, I had to source the contents and ask my friends and family help assemble the boxes.

Inside the wedding favors
The items inside the boxes helped our guests *survive* our wedding. 
I have packed bibs and wetnaps because 
we served bbq and roast pig at the reception.

I chose origami flowers over fresh flowers because I didn't want to spend money for things that will last me a couple of hours (and I have allergies). On top of that, I didn't have to do special wedding bouquet and corsage preservation. It will be as fresh as the day my husband and father-in-law folded them. YAY!

My wedding bouquet and corsage

Decorating the aisle with a flowers would have proved to be time consuming and I will have to find pedestals for them. Solution: Paper pinwheels on dowels! They spin with the blowing wind! 

Wedding Ceremony
Photo credit: Angie Dykshorn

Paper pinwheel aisle marker
Photo credit: Sara Markel-Gonzalez

Sweetheart table and backdrop
Photo credit: Angie Dykshorn

Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing. I am happy with how everything turned out. And I am happier that our first 365 days together has been a blast! Here's to the years ahead of us! Cheers!

Thank you cards
Top photo credit: Angie Dykshorn
Bottom photo credit: Carol Colby Tanenbaum 

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To everyone who shared this special day with us, Thank you.