Mad Skills

Tonight at church we had a youth skill show with a variety of different skills being showcased. Three people showcased there flippin' sweet piano skills, by playing compositions from Pirates of the Caribbean, generic haunted houses, and something different. Cinematographic skills were also exhibited in the form of two different films. One was a spoof with Rocky (shirtless) fighting Batman with "Eye of the Tiger" being played in the background (I was Rocky). The other one had something to do with a hero called Action Hero. I'll be sure to post links to them if they end up on YouTube.

There was also a girl who showed her art and drawing skills. Another person decided that the best use of his bass guitar skills would be to do a 9.5 minute solo. A slightly more sane person (read: female) did a solo on a harp for a much shorter duration. One of the less stellar skills showcased was the collecting skills of a Warhammer 40K geek. I bet he has quite a lot of Lord of the Rings figurines too.

On the other hand, one of the better skills showcased there was done by a girl in the form of a modern dance. I, however, transcended all temporal barriers by doing a completely unchoreographed imitation of this dude. By obliterating causality I managed to garner the greatest amount of applause. That took some mad skills.

Note: Talents are for weirdos.

Happy Easter

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I wonder if this is worth more than my previous post.

EDIT: Nope. The previous post is only 578 words. This is about 1006.

Knowledge Bowling

On Friday I was granted the privilege to leave school at lunch time. Why you ask? So I could go to the Knowledge Bowl state finals. Technically speaking, the finals were the next day, but given the fact that the place was about 4 hours away and the meet started at 8 in the morning, going on Friday was the only feasible option.

Granted, we didn't do much on Friday. After eating lunch at Tacos Guyamas (a local Mexican restaurant that serves very large helpings), we left on a 4 hour drive only punctuated by one rest stop. We stayed at a Comfort Inn in Vancouver, and went out to dinner at Red Robin. After eating 80% of the biggest burger I've ever seen, I spent the rest of the night lounging around at the hotel. Most of the lounging consisted of me playing either Final Fantasy or Tetris on the DS I brought whilst peripherally watching some TV.

While I was being driven to the precise location of the finals (Camas, WA) on Saturday, I was hurriedly devouring breakfast from the hotel and had one of my teammates forge my mom's signature on a permission slip that the adult advisors forgot to give us earlier. Ironically, the slip basically said that the people running the bowl could send us back home if we broke the rules.

The high school we were at was very nice. It has nice features such as covered hallways, multiple floors, a credit union, a logical layout, drinking fountains, and non-beat-up desks, all of which the school I go to mysteriously lacks. The only discernible flaw I could see with the school was its mascot: The Papermakers. Even the Borderites are better.

As for the meet itself, it was slightly different than the previous ones. Like usual, it started with an oral round of 50 questions, but that didn't determine what room we went in, because the room placement for the first four oral rounds was predetermined, meaning that we didn't have to spend hours waiting for results. Another difference with the oral rounds was that only the "team captain" could say the answer (or he could say "I defer to..."). After the end of the first 4 oral rounds, the bottom 9 out of 18 teams in each division were eliminated and got to go home early as a prize.

As far as our team's performance at the meet, I'll just say that it was horrible. I think we did pretty well on the written round, but we got more than 10 points in only one of the oral rounds. Most of the questions were quite hard and most of the other teams were very good. After the 4 oral rounds were over, our team was eliminated. However, I think that I have 3 things I can be proud of:

1. Our team made it to the finals.
2. We weren't the worst team there.
3. I managed to answer a question about Euler's identity before anybody else did.

Given the fact that my parents didn't expect me to return so early, they were out of town having fun, which meant that I had to walk home from the bus barn. Fortunately, at about the bottom of the hill my bishop saw me and was willing to drive me home. Coincidently, he has a brother who lives in Camas and he goes down to see him every once in a while. Whodathunk it?

Old School

In ceramics class we learned about the Japanese raku pottery, but that alone wouldn't be noteworthy enough to blog about. It's the way we learned about it that really sealed the deal. It was in the form of a sequential-image stereophonic multimedia event, or in other words, it used that old slide projector/cassette player combination thing that used to be considered hi-tech. I don't know what it's called, but it is so old school. My mind is boggled at the fact that more people seem to be nostalgic of their old Nintendos than the infinitely superior slide projector. The only flaw with the projector is that it's difficult to keep the slides in sync with the sound, but compare that to the hours one wastes blowing their old Nintendo cartridges. The sequential-image stereophonic multimedia player is clearly better by a factor of twelve.

It seems that some of my other teachers heard of the news and decided to jump on the old school bandwagon, but admittedly, their attempts were much less stellar. In math class we learned about linear programming, which over half the class learned the previous year, and in Japanese class the assignment we did was exactly the same as one we did a couple months ago. There was also history class, but that obviously shouldn't count.

Fire in the Hole

Let is be know that I hate hate hate hate hate hate HATE HATE* it when people pull fire alarms just to get out of class. Seriously. It drives me absolutely nuts. I feel like punching holes through doors and kicking desks up into ceilings. It has happened a few times at school during the past couple of weeks, and I feel like I'm being bent past the breaking point.

The strange thing is that it always seems to be during second lunch, indicating that the same person must be responsible for all the incidents. I felt like beating said person to a pulp after he pulled the fire alarm again today, despite the fact that the weird WASL schedule we had changed lunch so it was linked to 2nd period. Fortunately, I don't need to beat said person to a pulp, because the good Lord was kind enough to invent younger brothers that can be easily beaten to a pulp in Smash Bros.

* Note: Video contains a gratuitous amount of hate.

Substandard

Here's a short list of substandard things for the past week (other than my atrociously inconsistent updating schedule):

1. The condition of Danny's forehead on Monday morning after banging his head against the wall the previous night (see the previous post for more details).

2. The difficulty of my High School's pitiful excuse for a senior project.

3. The general behavior of us teenagers at the etiquette dinner we had on Tuesday for mutual.

4. The discipline at the middle school Danny went to before my Mom decided to homeschool him.

5. The amount of attention I paid to the speakers at stake conference (I blame my nephews).

6. The consistency of my family's scripture reading schedule.

7. The amount of time I've spent playing the new Smash Bros game so far.

May All Your Dreams Come True

My younger brother just officially became a teenager today. However, I think he actually became one yesterday. When he learned yesterday that he wouldn't be getting what he really wanted, an external hard drive and/orand a PSP*, he spent a few hours moaning, groaning, crying, and banging his head on the wall. I think he eventually got over it, judging by the fact that I haven't observed any teenager-tude coming from his general direction today.

Apparently his birthday was a life-shatteringly important event, judging by the fact that my sister's family came over to enjoy the festivities. After eating some ice cream and cake, the presents came rolling in. He managed to get the majority of items that he used as filler on his birthday list, but he didn't get his most wanted (read: expensive) items. Instead, he got a new bike and some accessories to go with it, which was probably just as expensive, but definitely more worthwhile.

* When interrogated, he wasn't able to name any games he wanted for the PSP. For all we could have known he could have wanted anything from Mega Man to Barbie's Horse Adventure.

A Full Commitment's What I'm Thinking Of

No, I haven't deserted this blog. I can't can't think of what to write. Even if it appears like there haven't been any posts here for a week, you should just remember that I'm never gonna give this blog up.

On a more serious note, I had tests in College Algebra and Physics yesterday. I thought they were as easy as pie, but I'm sure the rest of the class would disagree. Honestly, I found the 25-minute SAT practice essay I had in English class this week to be harder.