F.I.R.S.T.

Remember that show Robot Wars? For years they televised what they refered to as "The Sport of Roboteering". That might be a bit of a stretch on the definition of the word sport, but I get what they mean.

My cousin has been on one of these teams for several years but I never totally got it. Well this weekend they had a Regional Competition in sunny Philadelphia and I was able to watch the whole thing via live stream online. It was simultaneously on of the coolest and easily one of the dorkiest things I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy (and I have done some dorky shit in my life.)

It was basically a glorified game of foosball where each team partner up with two other teams and got their robots to shoot goals, block the nets and hang on a pole for a bonus! I didn't totally get it and at times I wasn't even sure which team I was supposed to be cheering for but trust me it was impressive.

But as much as I respected the genius it took for these kids to build and operate these robots, I still couldn't ignore the fact that, for the most part, they were super nerds. I mean with team names like "Positrinic Panthers" and some thing about Vicotious Vulcans or Killer Klingons or some crap, I can't pretend like they were cool. Luckily my cousin team name is "The Brigaid" - perfectly respectable and not at all nerdy. Good job Tony.  To make it worse at one point the whole crowd did a geek-tastic rendition of the Cha Cha Slide. I was dying inside. But as much as these kids surely get made fun of, you can't deny that they are all headed for good places in their future. Indeed "The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth."