Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Ty Tremblay - This Is How I Work

With Chezy Champs just around the corner we thought it fitting to introduce one of the members of the GameSense crew that will be doing commentary at the event. Ty Tremblay has a long history in FRC. Ty's story reads like a promotion for FIRST and introducing students to STEM. Like many people he was introduced to FRC in a "unique" way and was hooked throughout high school. He attended a university that is heavily involved with FRC and mentored team 190 while getting his degrees in Robotics Engineering. He's now an engineer for a robotics company and he returned to mentor his high school team. You can't write an FRC success story better than this. Be sure to read the rest of his article and listen to him and the rest of the GameSense crew this weekend on the Chezy Champs webstream.

[Responses from August 14, 2014] 

Name: Ty Tremblay
CD Username: TyTremblay
Current Gig/Job: Manufacturing Engineer at Symbotic, GameSense Co-Host
Alma Mater/Degree: Worcester Polytechnic Institute – MS in Robotics Engineering
Location: Quincy, Massachusetts
Hobbies: Diving, Reading, Robots






What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story.

While in high school, I was dead set on becoming a professional chef.  I would leave my school early every day to take a bus to the local vocational school.  The vocational school has a restaurant and a full kitchen, and it was there that I was learning how to prepare and cook food.  I loved it and looked forward to cooking class every day.

One day in December, I was running late.  The bus was going to leave me and I was going to miss my favorite part of school.  My path to the bus was a winding one due to the Industrial Arts room (woods, metals, etc.) being in the way.  I took a shortcut through the IA room that day because I knew the teacher well.  What I didn't know was that it would change my entire life’s path.

Mr. Hikel was there with FIRST Robotics Team 319 and their 2003 robot, driving around.  As soon as I opened the door, the driver lost control of the robot and I was directly in its path.  The robot backed me against a wall and nearly hit me before the team could stop it.  “Ty, meet Bob.  Bob, meet Ty,” Hikel said.  I never went to culinary class.

I joined Team 319 that day and it’s been robots ever since.  I found out about WPI through my involvement with FIRST just as they were introducing the first ever Robotics Engineering Bachelor’s Degree.  I applied, got in, got my Bachelor’s Degree, got my Master’s Degree, and now I work at a robotics company on the forefront of the robotics revolution.  Cooking is still a major passion for me, but I’m glad I don’t have to do it for a living.  Robots are much more fun.

What is your day job, and how’d you get there?

I am a Manufacturing Test Engineer at Symbotic, LLC where we make warehouse automation technology.  I love the job because it’s different every day.  One day I’ll be writing software and the next I could be designing complex mechanical systems, or developing a circuit, or even travelling across the country to support a customer.  Robotics is an incredibly multi-disciplined field, and my job lets me take advantage of my multi-disciplined education.  In the past, I’ve worked at iRobot on the PackBot team and at Hologic, a medical devices company.

I also have a night “job” in that I’m a host on the new FRC web show GameSense.  We’re a group of alumni and mentors that get together on Wednesday nights with experts from all over FRC to discuss the game, upcoming and previous weeks’ events, and other FRC topics.  We’ll also be kicking off our live event coverage with GameSense @ Chezy Champs at the end of August!

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?

Despite it being about me, see my inspiration story.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?

You’re really going to make me pick one?  No, I refuse.  I’m going to pick 4 (in order) because they all made everyone in FIRST say the same thing.  One of my dreams in FIRST, and in my engineering career, is to develop robots and mechanisms that make people say one simple phrase.

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

1.     71 (2002) – I’m sure this has been said before, but it deserves to be repeated, and repeated, and repeated.  This robot is the epitome of excellent strategic analysis meeting superior engineering.  Beatty developed a machine that, if it accomplished its match tasks, literally couldn’t lose.  Interesting caveat for that year, however, is that rankings relied heavily on points and 71 didn’t sore many of those.  As a result, 71 was rarely in the top spot despite winning almost every match they played.
2     469 (2010) – The ball returner strategy was attempted by very few teams, but still a few more than 71’s 2002 Beast.  Regardless, no one pulled it off as well as 469 did.  They had to be in a certain spot in order to execute.  “So just prevent them from getting there, right?”  Wrong.  They had a ridiculously strong drive train that you couldn’t push around.  Oh, and they got there in autonomous anyway (even after scoring 2 balls).  “Okay, we’ll just push them out from their spot.”  Wrong again.  They locked in to place so that no one could move them. (Side thought, what would happen if you pitted 71 from 2002 against a locked in 469?).  “Fine, we’ll just block the balls they return.”  Nope.  They can choose which goal to score in.
3.     254 (2014) – This one is a little more subtle because it did almost all of the match tasks in a similar fashion to other robots.  What sets 254 apart, however, is that they did everything much, much faster.  Oh, and a 3 ball auto and almost couldn’t be blocked. 
4.     190 (2004) – The best way to score points is to hang from the bar?  Let’s do that.  Only, let’s do it and then prevent anyone on the other alliance from hanging.  And let’s do it in autonomous.  What’s the second best way to score points?  Oh right, the doubler.  Let’s take that away from them too.  This is the most 190 bot of all 190 bots.

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)

Solidworks, Visual Studio, Google Drive, Gmail, my Nexus 5.  I have all of the same software on all of my computers, and Google Drive to sync everything. 

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)

Two monitors at work, two monitors at home.  I’ve always tried to be neat in that I have a place for everything, but nothing ever seems to get back in its place once I get distracted by something else.


What do you listen to while you work?

My favorite thing to listen to while I really need to crank out the work is Chillstep. 

What’s your schedule like during build season?

I live and host GameSense in southern MA, work in northern MA, and mentor my team in central NH, so my schedule can get pretty hectic.  During build season, I work 9 hour days on Monday through Thursday so I can leave after lunch on Fridays.  This usually puts me at Team 319’s school by the time the team meets on Friday.  I then work with the team through Sunday night, and do the 1.5 hour commute to work from NH on Monday morning. 

Once competition season starts, I’m usually taking vacation time on Thursdays and Fridays so I can go to events with 319 as well as volunteer. For GameSense, we have a tech call with our expert on Tuesday nights to prepare for our show on Wednesday nights.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

No matter how good you are at something, there is always someone better.  Always.  The thing to take away from this is that there is always someone you can learn from and there’s always someone you can strive to be as good as.

To somewhat answer the question, though, I’d say I’m good at looking at a robot and very quickly understanding how it works.

Oh, and I can cook a mean steak. 

What's the best advice you've ever received?

“Want it?  Get it.”

It’s a deceptively simple phrase, but it’s been a driving force for me since I started college.  Very little in life (read, almost nothing) is going to be given to you unless you deserve it.  If you want something, you need to work for it.  Sometimes, that work is as complicated as years of effort to get good grades so you can get into that college you want.  Sometimes, it’s as simple as asking someone for help or advice.  If you want that new car, you save up for it.  If you want a blue banner, you build a team and a robot that can get you one.  You won’t always get what you want, but you’ll have tried, and you’ll have bettered for yourself. 

As surprising as it may seem, the phrase “Fake it ‘till you make it” is actually good advice.  You’d be surprised how far you can get, and how much you can learn, by portraying confidence even if you’re lacking it. 

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Video games, Magic: The Gathering, and TV.  Being a robotics engineer can be stressful work, so anything that helps me shift into another frame of thought, or turn off my brain completely is a welcome distraction.

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see      Art Dutra (148)       answer these same questions.

Anything else you want people to know about you?

If you have any questions or advice, please feel free to email me at ty.tremblay@gmail.com.

"Those without dreams are without ideals.
Those without ideals are without beliefs.
Those without beliefs are without plans.
Those without plans are without actions.
Those without actions are without results.
Those without results are without happiness."

- Unknown

Sunday, August 24, 2014

This Week in FRC Aug 19th - 24th 2014

This was an exciting week in FRC. We had a few big announcements made by FIRST Headquarters and a couple of key part suppliers as well. We'll also take a look at a few teams that have released design details for their robots including 971, 1114, & 254.

Events This Weekend

Red Stick Rumble Aug 30th CD Thread
Chezy Champs Aug 30th & 31st CD Thread
Be sure to tune in to both events. The Blue Alliance will have the webcast links.

New speed controllers released by VEXpro and Cross The Road Electronics


Size Comparison courtesy of VEXpro
The Victor SP and Talon SRX are both smaller, lighter and improved with knowledge from the Jaguar, Victor, and Talon included in their designs. They are both passively cooled and have updated PWM frequencies out to the motor. They also both have integrated wire leads for both motor outputs and power inputs. The PWM cables and pre-installed on the Victor SP and the CAN wires are pre-installed on the Talon SRX. Though both share similar design features they offer up different options in terms of controlling your motors. The Victor SP allows for the standard PWM control that we have been used to with the Victor speed controllers. The Talon SRX allows for CAN control and integrated PID like the Jaguar controllers used to. 

The FRC Blog announced more information about their legality for 2015.
The former 3 models of Speed Controllers will still be legal and still be sold this season but they are all no longer being manufactured so once they sell out they are gone forever.

It's still not official that these new controllers will be legal for 2015 but for the most part everyone believes that they will be.

Designs are being posted

Many of the best teams in FRC have been releasing CAD, code, and/or design notebooks for their past robots this summer.

971 Spartan Robotics
FRC#971 from Mountain View, CA is the latest team to release their past robot designs to the public. Spartan has been producing top tier robots for several years. Their 2014 entry was one of the most advanced robots in recent FRC history. On Wednesday, they posted a new CD thread with links to CAD files and details for all their robots going back to 2007.
FRC#971 Mammoth 2014
Along with the CAD release they also released an awesome design notebook for their 2014 robot Mammoth

Every year Spartan posts one of the most complete photo albums of any team. Here is a link to their 2014 photo album.

Spartan also has a very extensive set of resources on their website that are a must read for FRC teams trying to learn and grow both on and off the field. They have safety manual examples, programming guides, CAD trainings and more.

1114 Simbotics
In June, the Simbots joined the club and released all of their CAD and design information some of their past robots. They have CAD and design details for their 2010 - 2014 robots. Here's the CD thread for the announcement.

FRC#1114 Simbot Evolution
In addition they added their engineering notebooks for Simbot Evolution (2014) and Simbot B.A. Baracus (2013).

All of these are fantastic resources. 

254 Cheesy Poofs
While the Cheesy Poofs haven't posted CAD files for their robots, they do release their build blogs each year. The build logs high quality pictures of their robots and also an in-depth look at the design process they use to get to their designs.


In addition the Cheesy Poofs released their 2014 software for teams to learn from. Each year the FRC#254 has some of the most advanced code in all of FRC and they provide a great example for teams looking to learn more advanced programming concepts. Here is there 2014 code release thread.

FRC Designs
Another great source for FRC robot designs is FRCDesigns.com many teams have posted their CAD models on this website. They already have 13 Aerial Assist  robots including the likes of FRC#67 and FRC#118 two of the best teams in FRC.

2015 Championship Qualification Details Released!

Official Blog Post
CD Thread

It's now official. The FRC Wild Card system has been expanded. Now any team that wins an event that has was already qualified for the FRC Championship or if they also win one of the 3 awards that give a team a spot at Championship will generate a wild card spot for the finalist alliance member at that event. This means if a team wins the event and wins the Chairman's Award at that event, one of the finalist alliance members will be given a Wild Card spot at the World Championship event.

Remember that Wild Card spots first go to the Alliance Captain, then to the 1st team selected, and then the 2nd round selection.

This changes allows for Hall of Fame teams, Original and Sustaining teams, 2014 Championship Engineering Inspiration Award Winner and 2014 Champions that are already qualified for the 2015 Championship to generate Wild Card spots at their first event if they win them.

FRC also announced a new wait list lottery system that will give better odds to teams that haven't been to championship in the longest amount of time. However the process is now random so we should see a nice diverse group of teams attending championship off the wait list. Teams that attended championship in 2014 are ineligible for the wait list.

- Spectrum

"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt." - Henry J. Kaiser

Monday, August 18, 2014

This Week in FRC #1

We're starting a new series today -- "This Week in FRC" --  which will feature the recent happenings inside the FRC community. We'll include new information when it's released from FIRST headquarters and the FRC Blog, we'll highlight the interested threads/photos/whitepapers on Chiefdelphi (CD from here on out), FRC twitter memes and happening, new YouTube videos, and perhaps even a /r/FRC post or two.

Event Postings

Many of the 2015 Regionals have confirmed their dates and venues. The updated list of venues is on the FIRST website is here. Sometimes, the community knows about an event date before it's official, so this year people will be posting such news in this CD thread. Also, to those who don't know, Easter weekend coincides with Week 6 this year; this may play a part in some teams' regional decisions.

For those of us in the Texas area, we know that Dallas is Week 1 & Alamo is Week 3. For the out of state but still close to us events, we know that Bayou is Week 4 and Oklahoma is Week 5. Official announcements for Lone Star, Hub City (Lubbock) and Arkansas should happen in the next few weeks.

Chezy Champs

2014 Chezy Champs Banners
A lot of the hype around the FRC community lately is dealing with the build up to Chezy Champs. The reigning World Champions, FRC#254 The Cheesy Poofs, are hosting their first Off-Season, and its poised to be one of the best events in FRC history. They recently posted the blue banners they will be awarding to the winning alliance. Here's the original thread with all the details about the event. It's going to be August 30th and 31st (Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day Weekend) at Bellarmine College Prep, the home of the Cheezy Poofs. The crew from GameSense will be on site to do live commentary of the entire event. They are completely overhauling all of their technology to make Chezy Champs on heck of an event. They will have new overlays with stats, photos, and more to make this a professional production. We highly recommend you tune at least to catch the elimination rounds on Sunday afternoon. Here is the link to the live stream location on their Twitch Channel

FRC Beta Test Hardware is Out

Courtesy of Team 358

The Beta teams have started receiving their hardware and photos and discussion has started on this thread. Many of the Beta teams have agreed to post their results on this Facebook page, so be sure to check it out and learn more about the future control system of FRC.

Great Speech from a Little League Coach

Here is a great speech from a Little League coach. There will be much better videos of this speech soon but this is the best we have right now. This is a great example of gracious professionalism in use outside of the world of FIRST.

- Spectrum

“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.”
- Will Rogers

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Libby Kamen - This Is How I Work

In this edition of "This Is How I Work" we have one of the most prominent figures in the FIRST community, Libby Kamen. Many of you know Libby for being a member of FIRST's founding family and a regular award presenter at the FIRST Championship. However Libby is far more than just a figurehead within FIRST. She's the founder and an active mentor of FRC 1923, The MidKnight Inventors, as well having been an active college mentor on both Teams 229 and 4124. Within MAR she's known for her commanding presence as a strategist and drive coach. Today Libby shares her experiences with us of growing up in FIRST, founding a rookie team, staying involved while in college, and how to best handle long distance mentoring. Unfortunately she didn't reveal any of her secrets when it comes ruining my Jordans. :)
- Karthik Kanagasabapathy 

[Responses from June 25, 2014] 




Name: Libby Kamen 
CD Username: Libby K
Current Gig/Job: Graduate student: MS Marketing & Technological Innovation at WPI
Alma Mater/Degree: BS Communications & Digital Media, concentration in Engineering Technology from Clarkson University
Current Team(s):
1923: The MidKnight Inventors, from Plainsboro NJ
2006-2009: Team founder, captain, driver, mechanical lead, you name it.
2010-now:  Proud alumni & continuing mentor in robot design, strategy, PR/Communications, and community outreach. Oh, and drive coach too. (Basically, everything but programming. I don’t do the “typey-typey magic” as we call it.)
My semi-official title on the team is “Director of Everything Else”.
Former Team(s): Worked with 229, Division by Zero, during my time at Clarkson, 2010-2013.
Location: I live in Worcester MA, but every weekend during the build season I drive home to Princeton NJ to work with 1923 – and during the weeks of competition I’m usually bouncing around to different events.
Hobbies:
I’m admittedly a pretty avid gamer (MMO’s are my main thing, but I enjoy just about everything- for example, I’m currently obsessed with Hearthstone but I know my dorm-mates from Clarkson have fond memories of destroying me in Halo), but I’m also in the process of returning to figure skating after injuries, I love running, and even though I’ve graduated from every choir/acapella group I’ve been in, I still keep my voice pretty active (my apartment turns into a concert stage sometimes!)

What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story.
Alright, so I guess it’s pretty easy to talk about how I got into FIRST (which helped me find my path) – my uncle founded the program, and my entire family works with FIRST in some way, which means inevitably kid-Libby was going to find her way to events. I loved the robots, even as a little kid – and talking to the teams about how they worked only further sparked my interest in building things.

The time came for me to hit high school, and my district didn’t have a team. So I sat down in my principal’s office and said “Look. We’re GOING to have a FIRST team.” Not a question. Fortunately he gave me free rein to make it happen, and 1923 was born. I was a captain as a freshman, and stayed that way for four years, acting even as administrative lead when we didn’t have a teacher to help us. The team grew from 4 kids to 25+, and I was crazy proud of the program I’d left behind when I went away to college. (Fun fact, the 1923 roster now tops out at 105 students from multiple high schools.) I continued to work with the team from a (really-really-far) distance at Clarkson University.

It wasn’t until I got to Clarkson (and my first few internships) that I realized that while I did love building things and seeing how they worked, I was also really enjoying our interactions with our clients and being able to use my writing and creative skills to help translate what the technical developments meant for our customers. I switched over to the Communications program my sophomore year, and I never looked back. My MechE freshman year helped immensely with my concentration in engineering, and that brought me to the program I’m in now. The goal is to be able to use my STEM background in combination with my marketing-side creativity to help tell the world about technology & science. I’ve still got a year left in my Master’s degree, so this time next year I should be able to talk more about where that takes me.

What is your day job, and how’d you get there?
Right now the answer to that is ‘full-time student with a summer internship’. I’ve had some really lucky opportunities to intern at FIRST and DEKA (Dean’s ‘day job’) in the past, but this summer I’m trying my hand at something I don’t already know, and interning at a company called NetBrain Technologies. They offer software that automates network diagrams and helps network engineers troubleshoot their systems. So far it’s a really interesting challenge since I’m still learning about the technology, but I’m able to put into practice everything I’m learning in my masters program, and I love it so far.

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?
I have about 15 years of conscious memory for robotics stories, but I’ll TL;DR a few of my favorites.

1)    When I was a kid, Sally Ride came to Championship at Epcot. (Yes, even then it was an international event. Stop calling it Nationals!) I was insanely lucky that I got to spend time with her – she was one of my idols beforehand, and getting that special time with her even as a kid was amazing. Now, keep in mind I was a pretty sassy kid (not that anything’s changed). So after a while I drag her by the hand over to my father to introduce them. “Daddy, this is Miss Sally. She’s a doctor and an astronaut. YOU’RE just a Doctor.”

2)    Another really great moment for me was 1923’s first regional win in 2009. I was a senior, a driver, and had spent four years fighting to keep the team alive – being able to get that gold medal was all the thanks I’d needed for my efforts.

3)    More recently, as I’m sure most in the FIRST community know, my father (Dean’s brother) passed away in 2012. For the 2013 season, my team named the robot RoBART – and made a banner and stickers in his memory. I didn’t know about the stickers until their first event, when people sent me photos. At Championships we made another run of them to hand out – and the best moment of the Championship for me was when the kids on my team came up to me and said “Libby, we did it.” Did what? “We put a sticker on every robot at the Championship”.  It’s things like that, that explain just how much I love the FIRST community. We’re one big family – and I know it helped my family get through that year. Thank you, all. It meant so much.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?
I love 1114’s 2008 robot and its 2014 evolution. 254’s robot this year, too. Damn. 1923 has the strategic design stuff down (the what & the why), but when it comes to actually manufacturing things (the how) – we don’t have a machine shop or a machining sponsor. We build in a donated storefront with whatever we can get. So seeing those robots with those kinds of resources that are able to just demolish the game challenge is something our whole team aspires to. We’re a little more on the simple-but-usually-sorta-barely-elegant side.

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)
So I can pretty much guarantee that I’m gonna be the weird one here – I don’t use a whole lot in the way of apps! When it comes to planning out my to-do list, I’m a big fan of physical paper. I live and die by my Filofax. Recurring appointments go in my Google Calendar, but assignments, meetings, calls, you name it – they all go in my planner.

However, for all the distance-mentoring collaboration, we love Google Drive, Hangouts, and Dropbox.

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)
Work: Pretty standard cubicle. Laptop, second monitor, keyboard, mouse, phone. I’m only here for the summer, so I haven’t done anything super fantastic with it. There are post-its EVERYWHERE, and that’s about as decorated as it gets.

Home: Since I’m a graduate student, I spend a lot of time at my laptop writing or working on assignments. While I can do that from anywhere, I really like having a dedicated space in my apartment that’s just for work (and sometimes – okay, often – gaming.) It’s nothing particularly pretty to look at, but my apartment came with this little den/nook thing, so I’ve transformed that into my ‘chill zone’. I put string lights up so there’s some warm light, I keep my desk obnoxiously clear of stuff – laptop, to-do-list post-it, mouse, and whatever book or paper I’m working with. I’m notorious for not being able to work in a cluttered space – to the point where I’d clean my entire house top to bottom in college before I felt like I could get to work. Once my space around me is clear I can buckle down and work on what’s in front of me.

What do you listen to while you work?
At work, I won’t listen to anything, just because my office isn’t really an environment where you can tune everyone out. The marketing team is constantly chitchatting (about work, and about regular-life stuff) so it’s been fun to be a part of that for the summer.  At home, it kind of depends on what I’m working on. For homework, I’ll usually throw on something without words – like a good video game soundtrack, or instrumental cover playlists on YouTube. If I’m just messing around with personal projects or playing video games, anything goes. I’m a big believer in ‘put my entire library on shuffle and see what happens’.

What’s your schedule like during build season?
Ha. This one’s fun. During the week, I’m at school in MA. Going to classes, doing my homework, skating, going to the gym, gaming, whatever. Come Friday, I pack up some clothes & my laptop, and I put the dog in the car and drive about 4 hours home to NJ. Sometimes it’s a short drive, and sometimes there’s a snowpocalypse and traffic and it takes me 6 hours to get home. I get home, leave the dog at my mom’s, and then we both head over to the build site.

Friday we’ll work as late as the students feel up to it, with the college-age mentors keeping the site open. We’ll drive students home, and pick up again Saturday mid-morning. Same deal on Saturdays, where we’re up as late as we can stand it – and then those who can come in on Sunday, do. We close the build site Sunday after dinner and I head back to Massachusetts, leaving behind a pretty comprehensive to-do list for the week. Rinse & repeat until Ship Weekend. (I’ll always call it that.)

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
I once killed a fly with a nerf gun in my college dorm room. So there’s that.

My mom and I are also really good at calling out what the song is within a few notes of it starting. She’s the Human Jukebox, I’m just her apprentice.

I’m not really sure I’m ‘better’ than anyone else at something, other than just being me. That’s probably a really cheesy cop-out, but whatever.

What's the best advice you've ever received?
“You don’t dance unless you hear music, and you don’t pull out your guns unless you need them.”

Obviously not a true statement on dance habits or gun control, but for me it’s a really important reminder to try and act when it’s needed and when it matters, rather than react before something’s even an issue.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
I’m not sure if I really have anything too ‘guilty’ on here- I’m not apologetic about the things I enjoy. I’ve got a crazy travel schedule during the season (and even during the summer/fall), so to me, being able to disconnect even during one weekend is a luxury I often feel guilty about. I’m always checking my phone- I’m an admitted social media addict, especially when it comes to things I love like #omgrobots, so being able to say goodbye to the outside world for a day or two just to have some ‘me’ time feels like I’m stealing away. It’s intensely needed, and it’s awesome.

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see ________ answer these same questions.
FRC’s very own Frank Merrick. He’s so awesome about being open with the FIRST community, and I think it’d be cool to see inside a sliver of his day at HQ.

Anything else you want people to know about you?
I am, and will always be – an open book online. I can be found on
Twitter, Facebook, tumblr, whatever – you name it, and I’m always up for a chat with someone from our awesome community. This crazy little robot family is such a big part of my life, so I’m happy to just strike up a chat with someone new. I don’t bite, I promise!


"You get in life what you have the courage to ask for" - Oprah Winfrey