Rain of Fire

Like I said XD I made no promises on the extent of my usefulness to Bottom Quarks.

It was a long car ride to Stanford, first off. I was going to try to take a quick nap, but loud discussion in the car (which I often failed to resist participating in) plus an unusual amount of excitement jitters kept me fairly awake the entire time.

I was in a different car from the rest of my team, so it wasn’t until we all finally met up at our table that I realized Yue wasn’t there. I just heard from the others that for some reason she couldn’t come today.

I answered more questions than I thought I would, since I expected to be sitting aside the whole time. My brain imploded when I realized I knew the answers. Then again, they were the sort of questions I just happened to know. I just happened to know what animal is the “unicorn of the sea,” because I happened to research unicorns for my iSearch, and I happened to remember 7th grade science well enough to recall the main attribute that determines a protozoan’s classification. I also remembered from last year the decomposition reaction for hydrogen peroxide. Proud of that one.

That’s about it. There were questions we should have gotten but made errors on, a question we missed because we copied it down wrong while it was being read out, stupid mistakes and many “I can’t believe I forgot about that”s.

Ecstasy over triumphs, disappointment over mistakes. Surprises and predictable outcomes. I didn’t really know what to expect for us. After the third round, I almost wanted to cry, having felt completely useless where I should have been some help. 22 teams went home without the prospect of a finals round to look forward to, but on the car ride back home, everyone…seemed alright. That’s what Wondercup is. Only 2 teams every year will progress to finals round. Only 5 go home with prizes to show. The rest of us move on and hope for a next year.

A dramatic tie for second place (not us). Dionisis from MSJ and Beat Piedmont from AHS had to go all the way back to the qualifying round for a tie breaker. Dionisis scored one point higher in the qualifying round, with one debatable but judge-accepted answer on one of the questions, so they moved up into second place for the finals round.

First place? Top Quarks! Go go Cougars!! Finals round on Saturday, at Stanford! AHS vs MSJ!

We also got free shirts.

This wasn’t my year, but I have a team to cheer for on Saturday, and some experience to take home with me. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone the whole day fidgeting with excitement, looking forward to something new and exciting. Overall, a wonderful day.

However I, for one, am not satisfied with having placed in the bottom 3 of the 24 teams present at semifinals round ;) So I will plan on coming back next year for another free t-shirt, and hopefully a top-five prize.

Posted by Alina at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Trying a new method of taking the photographs to compensate for insufficient lighting, now heavily dependent on image editing. Eck. These pictures turned out alright though.

Purple cranes with gold-colored leaf decorations sitting on hand-shaped wire hearts, with lavender paper stars hanging from gold chain on gold fishhook earrings.

I found the cube I lost earlier when I was making these.

Six-piece cubes made from orange, green, and purple leaf-patterned paper, with round gold beads and purple bicone beads. Silver fishhook earrings.

Posted by Alina at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So we have 7 teams from AHS that qualified for round 2 :/ ours included. Not sure how that’s going to work out.

As far as I know, only one team beat us in the qualifying round…Mission San Jose. It’s on, guys. (I speak for our top qualifying team. Not making any promises on the extent of my usefulness to Team 5.)

Posted by Alina at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was freaking out because I couldn’t find my history paper. I KNEW I picked up a copy, but I couldn’t find it in my backpack, and I couldn’t get a copy from anyone. Eventually I decided to try calling Meng-Ying…

…except the number I had saved as her cell was actually Mr. G’s cell. Mr. G was my iTA teacher during this last summer. Interesting way to get back in touch.

Just finished making one very late post on the TVA site. I gave a really short half-baked lecture on the last day of ATDP about useful sites for school, except I never posted lecture notes anywhere.

I eventually found my history paper stuck to the back of my English reading packet.

Posted by Alina at 8:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have a winner for most the unfunny thing so far this school year. I am not amused. I am PISSED.

It was a bad and asshole-ish prank to begin with. I can’t believe you.

Don’t expect me to laugh. I’m not going to. Not this time.

Posted by Alina at 1:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The bag comes with a huge bottle of antiseptic.

Also went to Anna’s Jazz Island to listen to my piano teacher’s group play. They were great, and I also had the best pomegranate Italian soda ever.

Posted by Alina at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most of the political discussion that’s been going on inside class lately has been very pro-Obama. I don’t know why my classmates support Obama - not to say that there isn’t a reason to go for the Democratic ticket - but sometimes I really wonder if they themselves know why. We live in an area of hardcore democratic. So how many of us are really following this Presidential race, rather than regurgitating the opinions of people around us?

I myself can’t say I’ve been an avid follower of politics. While people around me can say that their political affiliation is with the Democrats, I would have to say that I am neutral. Pro-Obama I may be, but all I see or know about the political parties is what I hear, from teachers or classmates, or from watching them speak on TV or on videos online…

People seemed to have a lot to say about McCain and Palin. From the standpoint of an unaffiliated high-schooler, I was impressed and influenced by candidates from both parties. I certainly couldn’t tell if any false information was being presented.

I admit that I recoil a little bit at Palin’s more hardcore conservative policies (feel bad for the wolves too). That’s about all I can legitimately hold against the Republican ticket.

Posted by Alina at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)