The Pear Theory

This deserves its own blog post.

So, for the past four years, I've had this suspicion. Every time I'm at a quiz bowl meet or tournament and I eat a pear, I power a Mormon question either during the match (while I'm eating it) or in the next few games.

It happened on Saturday at WKU.

It's legit, I swear. Fo' sho'.

First time is a funny happening (as I happened to be eating the pear while I powered the question), second time a coincidence, third time is just solid proof.

Pears are now my favorite fruit.

Also, my team member at WKU happened to have the last name of Pears. This just really amuses me when put into context with my pear theory.

For Lack of Creativity

I've decided to go with bullet points for this post. Why? Wellllllll, bullet points are incredibly handy when I want to express many things in a single post and lack the motivation/energy/work ethic to compose a paragraph that connects/flows.

• The History Bee and Bowl. It was actually really fun. I went as a one-man team again. This time, I took third in the bee, which is for individual players, and fourth in the bowl, which is for teams. I even got a plaque for making the semifinals. I also qualified for the History Bee/Bowl Nationals which will be held in Washington D.C. They've booked the embassies of Uruguay and Slovenia for some matches as well as rooms in the Smithsonian. Uhhhhh, I want to go. Too bad I don't have money. 
• WKU. I went to their tournament last Saturday and competed. We played GSAC questions written by Maggie Walker and this one moderator kept saying how he thought the questions were written by college students who were trying to show off. Well, Maggie Walker happens to be a high school in Richmond, Virginia. They took first place at HSNCT two? years ago. Bottom line: they're incredibly good at quiz bowl. However, some of the questions, especially the science questions, did make it seem as if they were trying to show off just a little bit. I mean, seriously? Write about scientific laws and terms that people have actually heard of and for the record, there's more to science than physics. But overall I liked the questions and distribution. They were a little bit more difficult, but definitely attainable. I think the difficulty level was just right. This time I did have a team member with me. As a team...well, let's just say we didn't do too well. There was much tougher competition at this tournament with Dunbar and DuPont Manual, both of whom consistently perform well at HSNCT. When you have a two-man team against really good teams, it doesn't fair too well for the two-man team. Tis a truth universally acknowledged. Unless your two man team is Neil Gurram and Curtis. Then you will dominate. Anyway, I took fourth individually and got a medal and a book of my choosing. I've gotten some quiz bowl bling since moving to Tennessee. It's a new experience. The book I got was A Streetcar Named Desire. Ahh, Tennessee Williams love!!! I always wanted a book with a shirtless Marlon Brando on the front?
• I suck at making decisions. I think it's a fear thing, but more analysis on my psyche in that area to come.
• Prom. Prom, prom, prom. I think...I'm going. I told Michelle that if she could procure a guest pass for me, then I would go. My mother and brother are on this campaign to convince me to get a real date, but what if I'm content in just going with friends? I don't think it will take away from the prom experience in any aspect. I don't anticipate it being amazing anyway. Despite the fact that I am not looking forward to spending too much money on a ticket and gas money, I think it would be worth it to see everyone.
• College. I also cannot make a decision about college. Siiiiiiigh. More on this to come, too.

People That Come Into Your Life

This is such an amazing article I stumbled upon. I think it answers some questions I've been having in the last few months. It put things in perspective, too. I would really like to take this philosophy and embed it into my mode of thinking. Completely immersing my outlook with the themes of this article would make life more enjoyable.

I'll make it part of my New Year's goal. Let's give it a shot.

What?

It's March?

So?

It's never too late to establish a New Year's goal.

"One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas, I'll never know."

--Groucho Marx

Yes.

Wilson Island, Australia.
Only 12 people are allowed on this island at the same time.
You stay in permanent tents, much like the middle picture.
It's like...isolation plus the amenities of a five-star hotel.
This is where I want to vacation and/or honeymoon.
I just want to go there.....please?

The Stuff that Dreams are Made of

Sooooooo I went to a quiz bowl tournament yesterday all by myself--a one [wo]man team.
I had no idea what to expect, of myself and the other teams. It's been quite a while since I've played quiz bowl with buzzers in a tournament.....but I think the online quiz bowl and hours of studying have paid off.

I honestly did not expect to go as far as I did. Second place? MVP? Living the dream.

It's sad to think that yesterday was probably my last quiz bowl tournament. I'm reading at three other ones, but this will probably be my last one to actually play in. At least I went out with a bang.

Quiz Bowl: You are the best decision I ever made. Thank you E.L. Konigsberg, Samantha Macy, Peter Jiang, Spencer Kim, God, Gustavus Adolphus, Henrik Ibsen, and Mr.Baker--you've all contributed to the very positive experience I've had with quiz bowl in many, many, many ways.

Let's just say it was the best day of quiz bowl EVER. And I have an awesome mother, too.
I ended up placing second overall in the varsity division and I was the highest individual scorer with an average of 110 points per game in TU. (Yes, I know, it's not that impressive compared to Idrees' 167 ppg last fall at WKU, but still. The second highest scorer was 40 points behind me. There was also no one else on my team to steal any toss-ups.) My best game I answered 15 toss-ups, which still doesn't even meet Idrees' average...grr, but hey, it's a personal best and that's exciting!!!!!!

My favorite toss-up I got: pulley. Mainly because it's a physics question that I actually comprehended and got well before the giveaway. Also because it was against Ezell-Harding. They were the toughest team I faced, and I ended up losing by sixty points, although I was winning after the first five toss-ups!! NONETHELESS they told me that I was the only team to give them any cause for concern. Awwwwwww yeah. I'll take that loss for the sake of hearing them say that and a second place trophy. I even answered nine toss-ups that game. I did pretty well against them, especially considering I expected to get stomped by them and phase out. It was a good game. Ezell-Harding is a great team.

I lost a total of two games yesterday. The one to Ezell-Harding was legit. There were a few buzzer races that I lost out on, like Robert Frost, but oh well. I got Romeo and Prokofiev in two other buzzer races which made up for my loss of Frost. (Winning out in a buzzer race is the best feeling EVER. I'm new to the feeling, but I could definitely get used to it.)
The one to Lincoln County was terrible. I negged it up that game (Is "negged up" even a real phrase??) and lost by thirty points. It was bad...but their team was good. At least I lost to teams that qualified for HSNCT. That fact doesn't make me feel so bad.

I swept this bonus about Lebanon/Hezbollah/Hariri my second match. That was my favorite set of bonuses mainly because I had JUST studied those three things in my notes on the way down to Chattanooga. Plus it's always fun to sweep bonuses. That game was also my highest scored with 360 points.

I answered more science questions than I ever have in my whole life. Phosphate, pulley, ribosomes, current, Van der Waal's equation, efficiency, Lewis, etc. (By the way, I have no idea what the Van der Waal's equation is about.....Also, I really shouldn't have gotten that current TU. I got it at "FTP name this thing that comes in alternating and direct varieties" after a whole bunch of other stuff I didn't listen to. Not all of those science questions were answered after the end of the question though.)

I negged more questions than I ever have in my whole life. And two of them were art. Those were ignominious moments but I shook them off and I'm over it now, because in my humble opinion they were legit [but also dumb on my part]. They mentioned an "S-curved beauty" in the first five words and I buzzed in way too early and said Praxiteles. The answer ended up being Hogarth....yeah.

I got more geography questions than I ever have in my quiz bowl career.

I even got a SPORTS question. The answer was Red Wings. ("This team plays at the Joe Louis arena...") Coming from Michigan came in handy yesterday. I also answered a question about Lake Michigan after they mentioned Traverse City. Yeah!

Basically I was Speter.
Wooooohoooooooooooo!!!!
It was super duper fun.
And it was amazing.
And it was AWESOME.
Thankyouthankyouthankyou.
My one disappointment: no powers. BUT there were also no penalty for negs, which is why I negged so much. I was also disappointed that I could not remember "Gulf Stream" in a Homer bonus. Siiiiiiiiigh.
BUT IT WAS THE BEST EXPERIENCE EVER!!!!
I'm very grateful that I was able to have such an experience.


....Because you all care so much. Let's just say this post is for me to come back and read on crappy days when my self-esteem is not at its highest.

=======

Charlie's Three Rules of QB Competition:
1) Winning beats losing.
2) Losing beats getting stomped.
3) Getting stomped still beats not getting to play.

^^^Fewer words have been spoken that are truer than that.

A Fright

I tried to log into my Google Account yesterday, and they said it was deactivated for some unknown, illegitimate reason. Basically I was heart broken and confused, stumbling in the darkness. No Google Account meant no e-mails (not only do I love e-mail, but I have so many of them and so many contacts and this e-mail address is so important to my communication), no blog, no Google Docs (I don't use Microsoft Word or Open Office--I utilize Google Docs to its fullest).  No blog means no therapy. No Google Docs means no more quiz bowl study materials, no more essays and short stories (yes, I write those on occasion) and homework assignments I've completed but yet to turn in (I've had two outside reading logs for lit done for like...a month and they're not even due for a few more weeks/months).
It was frightening.

(...Have I ever mentioned I'm a big fan of hyperboles?)

But seriously I was freaking out. So glad the issue seems to have been amended.

Yuuuuuuuuup. My life's a party.