Things I Have Seen That I Must Comment On

First of all, let's put this in context. I was at a huge mall yesterday--completely against my will--and there were things that I saw there that were truly, truly idiotic, and others that I just can't help myself to comment on.

1) Happy Merry Peace Love--the last time I checked, "happy" and "merry" mean the same thing, not to mention the fact that this makes no sense whatsoever.
2)  Escalators--thanks, my Science Olympiad Nationals team of 09-10 for making it so that I can never look at mall escalators the same way ever again.
3) People with a serious superiority complex--Did you really have to be that mean to a tiny little girl of seven, lady?
4) Going-Away Sales--Nice incentive. The only problem is, everyone else is doing this too.
5) People in Lab Coats While Working--You're not scientists. Stop trying to act like them. It's embarrassing.
6) Skeleton Models In A Facial Products Shop--Get real. Seriously? I don't even...
7) Giant Red Tomatoes In A Display Window--Don't even ask about this one. Other than the obvious WTF?!, this display strikes up fond memories. Kind of.
8) Fancy Clothes You'll Never Wear--It always surprises me how much people will pay for something they will probably never use.
9) "But Mommy, everyone in my class has one!"--What lengths humans will go to in order to "fit in". Quite incredible, really.
10) "Preserved Vegetable Filaments!"--this one needs no explanation.

Well, folks, that's all for now. My (terrible) sense of humor has made a rare appearance. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Skiing!!!

  So, for the past couple of days, I've been skiing. How was it? Well...first, we got lost around the place, and then...I learned from the Snow School. And I learned really, really fast. Before we left, I had skied down the ski slope number one (aka the smallest actual slope, aka Bunny Slope) several times and I managed to NOT FALL most of the time. It was amazing, in a sense of the word.I was also the first to get on that slope. Everyone else was either still in Snow School or they were just too plain scared to go. It was exhilarating--or so I thought so at the time.
    The next day, we decided that my sister was ready to ski on the "big hill" as we called it at the time (aka Bunny Slope), so I got elected to take her down (because the rest of my family was nowhere near ready). So I watched over her until after lunch, at which point I went to the second slope (aka Life Slope), which was much steeper and more dangerous (well, kind of). For me, because I had practiced turning so much on Bunny Slope, it wasn't very difficult. So I got bored really fast, and then went on the highest one--I called it Death Hill. It scared me at first. It seriously did. Until I realized how exhilarating it really was and how awesome it was. After that...well, suffice it to say that I just did not want to stop.
    In short, it was awesome, and I loved every minute of it.

Band

I had a band concert today. Despite the fact that I don't like band all that much, I had a great time. I like letting people know that I'm not a terrible flute player, even if my main instrument is violin.

Apart from that, my Mission Possible (MP) partner (Science Olympiad event) was also in band, and therefore was there, which was awesome. Another one of my good friends, who I hadn't seen in a long time, was also there. The two of them combined...let's just say my MP partner is insane, funny, scared of me,and absolutely brilliant (even if he doesn't show it most of the time) while my other friend is insane, wild, and loud. It was very fun...I have to say, this puts a new spin on band concerts.

Competition! (Day 2)

As I said yesterday, today was day two of our Robotics competition, and it was the day. This was the day when the architectural engineering students came out and did their thing; this was when the media we got press and media coverage; this was when Student Council came out to cheer us on; this was when the teams gave their all out best. Of course, as yesterday, there were high points and low points, good things and bad things.

Since apparently I’m some special deity-like person (can you sense the sarcasm there?), I got to wake up at 6 am and get to the competition at 7:30, while the rest of the team got there at 8:30.  I ran around the campus (yes, the competition is held at a university) until about 8, trying to find a printer to print off some utter “bull crap” (as my teammates called it) about our team t-shirt. We finally did, and then we went back. I went down to the pit area, which is where the teams fix and are required to put their robots, and went around and did some—ah—interrogating of the higher scoring teams. They told us pretty much their whole strategy and how they came up with the design, and everything. Absolutely everything. But it was awesome, and their dragon design on their wheels was awesome too.

Since only a certain number of people (five people max per team) are allowed down in the pit at one time, I had to go trade out with another one of my teammates, which resulted in me sitting in the stands for about an hour. Did I mention this was in a basketball arena? Yeah. Well, our team was one of the first eight competing, and so, I had to watch our team from the stands, which I absolutely HATED doing, because I couldn’t see ANY of the strategy involved.

After a while (aka 14 rounds later), one of my teammates swapped out with me, and I went down to perfect our strategy. You know the drill, which teammate was going to take out what based on their skill and their competition, yadda yadda, et cetera, et cetera. We sat around for a while, waiting, just waiting for our team’s turn to compete. When it finally did…it was disastrous. Absolutely disastrous. One of our “good” drivers (yes, you have to remotely drive the robot) only scored a couple of points (and by a couple, I mean 120, which really isn’t a lot). Then another one of our “good” drivers didn’t score at all. And then… it was Yay Cop. Our best driver. And he, too, only got 120 points.

Then I drove. Best. Driving. Ever. Three flies. Opened the cabinet door. And then…EXTRA TIME. Oh my God. I had EXTRA TIME. That…is…unimaginable for our team. Yeah, the others kinda failed. But it’s all right. We’re proud of ourselves. My video was good. Our t-shirt design wasn’t terrible. It was a great day.

We ended up getting twenty something, I’m not sure, out of about fifty teams. But since this is our first year, hey, I’m proud. And of course, Ory (I am forced to do this) was a big help. Thank you, Ory. (Yes, I remembered your name. If you remember me, I'm the Asian girl with the puffy hair in the dark blue shirt who you talked to somewhat. The one that bothered you about that Lindsay Lan School.)

Competition! (Day 1)

So, as I am part of our school's Robotics team, I also go to a lot of competitions for it. Today was day one of our biggest, most important competition, and it was...amazing. Just...amazing.

First of all, there was, of course, the competition itself. Of course, there was tons of stress, comparison, and robot fixing. That's part of competition; that's part of the reason I love it. I even love the hyperventilation of my team, especially the more...ah...competitive ones. I loved the whole driving and my team changing strategies to match things they found out last minute. I loved the whole stereotypical competition thing.

I also loved meeting people and comparing and talking about robots. We learned so much from simply looking at their designs. And then the teams that showed us EXACTLY how their robots worked? Oh man, I learned more from that than a week of just plain practice. I loved talking to some people from other schools and seeing what they were like, and the people that found us repeatedly, the people that I think that really are all good and nice...it was simply amazing. One of them in particular, a boy with the initials GO (no, I will not post his real name here), stuck out to me. He was a good, dedicated member of his team, and he found our team and was really nice. Of course, my teammates, being the people that they are, decided to say that we were flirting, but that's okay, since we weren't.

Another thing was how incredibly close the people on the team had grown, and our victories. We were more like a family that had together created something wonderful than just another team, just another competition. We have grown closer than I ever imagined possible just based on an educational competition of a few months. My video that I made for the Robotics competition, which I didn't think was all that good, made top six, and tomorrow, they will vote on it to see who the victor of the video competition is. And one of my teammates, who doesn't give out praise very often, told me that it was awesome. I am really proud of myself for that.

Of course, there were a few downsides, but that was part of the experience. Someone switched out our charger, and that was a bit of an issue. Of course, another downer was that we were in fifteenth place by the end of today, but we have sworn to bring it up tomorrow, since there are 75 more seeding rounds to go, and then semifinals, and then finals...

Let us see how it shall turn out tomorrow.