What the title said. It's at Maplewood library at 7:00. You should all come.
Hmm. Well, yesterday I didn't go to debate since Andy had a cold, and I didn't want to go, so it was cool. But today I went to soccer tryouts with a semicold, and it was not cool. Other than that I've just been keeping busy. PSAT on Wednesday, I'm not very worried after a few practice test, it seems rather easy.
GAME!
So, today was our soccer field evaluations. It was one of the least fun things possibly conceivable due to the hard rain. Oh well.
In cooler news I got a full physics engine working, which means the game is one step nearer to completion. I've posted a screenshot of a demo using the engine.
Well, we ended the soccer season with a bang. 6-0! This makes our final record 8 wins, 2 loses, and 1 tie. Actually, you could just look at our division standings chart. It hasn't been updated for our most recent game yet, but you can see the very close competition up at the top of the chart. Unfortunately we lost our first game of the season, which was a huge set back. We were TNK01 15BC301, btw. Anyways, we did well enough that we get an automatic promotion to C2 next year!
So I'm leaving on my flight tomorrow at 9:15. Yay for getting up at 6:00 just for a flight. I remembered why I like driving to camps, lots more space to store stuff. It sounds like I'll have a good amount of internet access regardless, so depending on how awesome my classmates are I might still be around. What I mean is, if they are awesome I probably won't spend much time on the computer. :P Ooh, and graduation should be awesome cool. I won't to see who wins the nonsensical "OHS Pioneer" award. Bah, where is the "only student involved in math competitions" award? Hopefully that will change with the next year.
Won our game 2-1. It was ridiculous how much the wind effected our game. When we had the wind all the play was on their side of the field. When they had the wind all the play was on our side. However we scored more points with our wind advantage, so it was cool.
Not as major this time...
This was a more minor update.
Anyhow, the soccer game went pretty well. The final score was 7-2. I think I neglected to mention that I got a yellow card two games ago. I got two refs in a row which were ridiculous when it came to slide tackling. Soccer is a contact sport for a reason. <_<
I did it again...
I couldn't help but redecorate. I got new techology (Compiz Fusion) so it's only appropriate that we did something to match.
So I finished about a semesters worth of physics in around a week and a half, which was a lot of work. I still have about half a semesters worth to finish before I leave for Stanford. I haven't got test scores back from my computer final, but I felt pretty good about as I left the testing center. Computer programs shouldn't be written by hand, it sucks. And I took two physics tests, got a 95 on it. In a bit of awesomeness I got an A on my philosophy paper. I was pretty much the only person in the class that didn't full out blast communism, it seems, so I got creativity points or something. So my final grades are: terrible. Actually they were: English B, History B-, Philosophy B+. And I got AP scores back... AP Comp Gov: 3, AP Comp Gov US: 3, APUSH: 4, Calc BC: 4, Physics: 3. Hrum, I'm going to need to retake the Calc BC again for sure... And UMTYMP finally mailed my summer homework.
I also had a spew of soccer games happening and coming up. One game was canceled due to rain, and three tournament games were lost. The scores were 1-6, 1-5, 0-6. Whoopdido, I gotta say, those were good teams. And then a game in about two hours, and another on Wednesday, and another on Friday. My legs make me feel like the Tinman.
Hey everyone, just so it doesn't seem like I'm leaving you all in the dark, I'll update you on what I'm doing before I leave.
These past few days I took my history final, which wasn't the hellstorm I thought it would be. And our scrimmage against the rec team had a score of 9-1. And I finished 1/4 of my computer course in two to three days.
Now I am about to leave for Chicago to visit my friend from OHS (amazing isn't it.) I'll be back on Tuesday night, so it's a decently long stay. And of course, it will be fun, because of my presence. Just kidding.
POTD
I've heard these are good games, I've never played one however.
Well, I give up on trying to write up my ARML experiences. I will tell you that I won an epic game of Mafia, and that our team came first in the midwest, and 8th in the nation. Go us.
Today I took my philosophy final. Our teacher decided to heed some of philosophies he was teaching, or something, because it really wasn't as scary as we had expected. I did have to write two essays, but he gave out a sheet of expected essay questions, so I had outlines ready.
And we won a very very close soccer game against the Plymouth Titans (I thought they were the Plymouth Tidus for a moment, which cracked me up.) The final score was 2-1, and the winning point was scored within a minute of the end. It was a very good game, I thought. I also managed to collect: a sore should (work of an errant elbow), a ripped up knee (probably someone's cleat as I slide tackled), a large bruise on my thigh (I got kicked in the leg as I slide tackled), and a hurt toe (stepped on by a cleat.) Well, no pain no gain, I suppose.
Okay, so I've got about thirty minutes to blog today, and yesterday took me around three hours. So I decided I'll have to continue the ARML story tomorrow or something, and I'll just talk about recent stuff without much detail.
So I got a pet turtle. Obviously a painted turtle, since it's pretty much the only species in Minnesota. I used to have a turtle in Taiwan, I had to leave it when I moved back to the states. Under my friend's watchful eyes my old turtle managed to leap of a six story balcony. Not that I can blame my friend, I frequently found that turtle under my fridge.
Also, I've had an obscenely busy weekend in soccer, in addition to ARML. I played two games with about two hours between them (one of these hours was spent at Greg's graduation party. CONGRATES GREG!.) The result of the two games is that we became the Tonka Splash tournament champions. Then today I had a game against the Plymouth Wings, which were the 2nd team in our league. We are now the 2nd team, because we beat them 1-0. I'll save more detail for later.
PotD
This is a really thought invoking piece, I think.
Boy, I've been reading Strategies of Containment by John Gaddis, and I must say both my eyes and brain have been suffering from the strain. I just don't like comprehending the strategic options of the Cold War. I also finished reading The Dominion of War which was slightly less of an eyesore.
Other than that we had a scrimmage with a rec (recreation) league team. You might think that a traveling team should be able to utterly slaughter a poorly manned youth rec league team, but apparently this is not so. I suppose there are several reasons we only won 4-0. Among these are: a. we were missing lots of people (in fact the game started as 4 vs 7) b. tiny field c. tiny teams d. sore from yesterday e. don't feel like playing soccer yesterday f. generally lazy. We didn't take it very seriously. As a result I played forward for some time, not going to happen in a real game.
Okay, I guess I've run out of junk to talk about.
PotD
Huh, looks sort of like a pumpkin to me.
So soccer was good today. The field was much better than our last field. The rain made things a little slick, but it was okay. Anyways we won 7-0, each goal made by a different person, including one of their players. As you might be able to imagine things were pretty uneventful for the defense. The hi-light (for D) was when I "took one for the team." I did the little dance which indicates that I'm sorry I'll never be able to meet my children... It hurt like bloody hell, but whatever.
And I'm now officially obsessed (it took a long time for me to spell that correctly, so appreciate the fact that it is) with the band Scissors for Lefty.
Songs from their MySpace
Songs from their other MySpace
I guess I would loosely describe them as dance rock, but since they are indy they are quite experimental. I really like their beats, personal preference I suppose. In particular I really really like Softly The Sun Swallows The Sea (it's in the second link); never before has being killed by a great white shark ever sounded so awesome.
Ugh, I have a whole load of busy coming up. So much that I will tell you about it now, so you'll be able to tell the medical examiner my cause of death. Since I was preoccupied with my other studies I ignored physics and programming to some extent, and now it's coming back to bite me in the butt. And I've got the usual philosophy paper, 5-6 pages, however I sort of like this prompt, so hopefully it will be fine. And some little English assignment on global warming (in which I recommend not relying on trees, and actually cutting down some large rain forests.) The thing that concerns me the most is my history assignment. 10-15 pages is not a pretty sight, anywhere. Can anyone say yay for Cold War? No, because it was bleh. I had a B+ on my latest philosophy paper, which is okay since the teacher is a fairly hard grader.
PotD
That's really cool. If I ever end up super rich, I think I'll make one of the rooms of my house like that.
So I had a soccer game. We played Minneapolis Westside, which was a pretty good team. And the field was really small, a major disadvantage to us. And we lost 0-3. But they played really well, so I'm not too upset by the loss.
And then I went to the chapter meeting, which was good fun. The only problem was I was so thirsty that I drank around 3 to 4 cups of pop, leaving me quite bloated. Also, Mafia is better when the average attention span of the players is great than 5 seconds.
Instead of a PotD I'm posting the Star Craft II CGI announcement
About time.
Anyhow, tomorrow we have the chapter meeting at Divani's! Pizza's on the chapter! So you should all go. And I have a soccer game, so I'll be late to that.
But first the always dependable (sometimes dependable) POTD. I think I'm officially changing the capitalization to PotD to make it more correct. After all nobody writes POTC. Well, almost nobody.
POTD
I like this piece, it's got a nice authoritarian feel to it. Sort of like my nationstate. Only so far I've managed to resist the temptation to become a dictatorship, right now I'm just an inoffensive centrist democracy.
So, the soccer game (incidentally my first game, and my team's second), which will obviously be the hi-light of this post was very good. Very good as in we won. The score was 6-0 in fact. The last game was 1-2, so one might ask, what was the difference between the two games? My presence, of course. Just kidding. I think our team played very well actually, and we applied a lot of effort, which is always good. The other team was more than slightly demoralized by our 4-0 lead at the end of the first half, so they didn't put as much effort into the game. I'm really glad we snagged several of the Hopkins players from the Hopkins team, because one of those players scored four goals today. And I got my first few slide tackles in today. It's truly a great feeling :P
POTD
Had my timing been better this would have been shown on Easter, but oh well. I hope you guys had good Mother Days, they certainly deserve the appreciation.
Well today I had the AP Physics B exam, as many of you already know. I did do about as poorly on it as I had expected. After taking so many standardized tests I've gotten a sense of what I'm ready for and what I'm not.
Then I went on to soccer practice. Endurance is clearly an issue for me. Killers (run to the middle of the field, and back, then to the end of the field, and back, rinse and repeat) should not be as hard as they are, but oh well.
Btw, I would recommend reading Reinventing the Bazaar by John McMillan. It's an interesting (and sensible (hard to believe when it's philosophy, I know)) blend of Robert Nozick's libertarianism (minimal governmental intervention in lots of things) and other philosophers that want a more socialist state. Yes, it's true I did recommend a book from my philosophy course, odd as it is. Actually this guy is pretty readable. Unlike a certain John Rawls.
One other thing. I nominate Bingo for world's most terrible game. Who wants to play a game where all you can do is passively read numbers off the charts? There is no way you can actually influence the outcome of the game. And if you had managed in anyway to find a "strategy" to use during a game of Bingo, you would be promptly accused of cheating. I mean, how more boring could it get. You might as well just play a game of flip the coin, or roll the d20. Playing bingo was pretty much the hi-light (other than the good food) of our mother's day celebration. Our game of Apples to Apples Junior was almost as bad, since I could predict my cousins predictable (yes, I do know I'm being redundant) decisions a year before they happened. Apples to Apples is one of those games where the amount of fun is linked directly to who you are playing with, and in this case it wasn't too fun. The silly Junior part also made it impossible to create fun by creating twisted and perverted meanings. So pretty much, it wasn't too fun.
POTD
Hmm, another gross looking demon. :D
So I thought I would be getting my braces off, but appearantly they are going to let it go for a month or two more. :( And I got a 28 on my UMTYMP homework today. Go me. And soccer practice was cancelled, which caused much rejoicing, since I'm sick anyways.
And I'm hooked on Dwarf Fortress.
POTD
This is among the more original concepts I've seen for a fairy.
I've been having some not-so-hot UMTYMP assignments. 22/30, and 24/30. At least this time the graders provided me with comments so I know how to do better in the future. Last time I would get "This problem isn't up to professional problem standards."
I didn't throw up this time at soccer practice, go me. I can honestly say I'm not the worst player on my team at ball handling, finally. This new kid (who I did know earlier from rec league) doesn't seem to know how to trap the ball, which means everytime the ball gets to him BOOOM it's outta there.
And I just took my physics test... fun fun. There were some intresting problems presented actually, but I won't go into the details. And I've got more finals coming up; they will be the death of me.
POTD
Well, so I don't actually have a picture, since the CGsociety is down again. Yes I know, a stunninig show of my resourcefulness.
Anyhow it seems like I've survived the initial flurry of homework assignments, even if it meant doing my UMTYMP in the car. Oh well.
And I did something wrong, or I caught the stomach flu, because I ended up throwing up at my soccer practice. Yes I know, tmi. But whatever.
POTD
Malcolm X, nice hair and glasses. I don't like the fabric that much though.
Just got back from my soccer practice. I'm getting winded really quickly which is annoying, since I haven't been working out very hard. But I also feel that I'm faster, thanks to some extra height. Muhahaha, after some more training I'm going to trip people so hard their legs break.
