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Friday, December 31, 2010

2010: a year in review

A while back, I wrote a lengthy, reflective and [I fancy myself] humorous post to be trotted out before New Year's. Tonight though, I am doing absolutely nothing except try to write a rebuttal for the Bayly brothers' blog which I mentioned earlier, while all the time stifling down my fears that I will one day turn coat and become a full-blown patriocentrist like Kamilla




2010 in review


January of last year I had a small part in the local high school's production of Romeo and Juliet, which was all kinds of fun. Performance in February, which coincided nicely with ship deadline for our robot....


January through March I worked with the Santiam robotics team to build a robot for the 2010 FRC game, Breakaway.


In February I joined the College Algebra class at local high school and adored it. The teacher, the infamously amusing math ninja Kimes, produced scads of hilarious quotes and I actually MISS that class.


March saw Team 956 in Memorial Coliseum in Portland at regionals. We had a really fabulous competition: made it into quarterfinals [ranked around 16th out of 62 teams] and received the Xerox Creativity Award. Bethany was epically enthused during the whole proceedings.


In April I went to FIRST International Championships in Atlanta GA, as team videographer for the local team that took first place in Oregon.


Lots of festivities in May, off-season events. Our team was placed first at the local event spearheaded by the OSU Robotics Club.


The summer was less eventful. Trip to California, camping in the mountains, and a summer filmmaking camp conspired to while away the summer. In the grips of an acute case of FIRSTaholism, I started FIRST LEGO League teams willy-nilly throughout the Mid-valley, including five at Santiam.


The first in a long line of chronic crises occurred in summer [documented here]. Much angst ensued, centering around the role of women in Christianity and particularly in regards to the question of college or no-college. The issue is not resolved.


College decisions also came to the forefront. Since summer, I've considered DigiPen Institute of Technology, Olin College of Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, LeTourneau University, and Oregon State. No-one can say I haven't diversified. 


September's highlights of course included the start of school, and a splendiferous 18th birthday on my part. I am taking classes at CHS and Santiam this year and enjoying it no end.


I really buckled down to work on fundraising for our robotics team in October, in between coaching two FLL teams of 4th-6th grade kids [aka 'future engineers']


Nevertheless, the middle of November saw frantic panic on our parts, when the NASA grant which we'd been pinning our hopes on seemed now to be out of reach.  I made dozens of articulate and pleading calls to local corporations and netted us a nice sum. The balance was, in an astonishing [to us] act of generosity, made up by a blogger dedicated to helping the next generation of engineers [or just keeping me from crying, hehe :) ]
The NASA grant amazingly came through after all as well, and our team is fully funded for the 2011 season.


This year I'm also looking forward to [or cringing in terror at] being Team 956's lead programmer.


Classic Epic Times: All-nighters working on robotics stuff, taking first place at Roboshock, masterminding the potted shrubbery during Romeo and Juliet, toting a camera and gear to Atlanta with Team 997, jumping into East Lake in the middle of a thunderstorm, traveling to the Christian Game Developer's Conference, Kimes being an awesome math ninja
First: A in a math class, energy drink, part in a high school play, trip across the country on my own, time meeting an 'online buddy'


Most nostalgic songs: Sandstorm, You've Got the Music in You, But Tonight We Dance, The Final Countdown, The Blood of Cu Chulainn, Hello Monday, Through the Fire and Flames [AKA The Song]
Favorite memory: Nationals, singing We Will Rock You with the gang at regionals, yelling myself hoarse at regionals, fraternizing at regionals, our team winning the Xerox Creativity Award at regionals, okay basically ANYTHING from all three days of regionals, seeing an authentic rendition of Another One Bites the Dust on a lute, pretty much any example of syncro, meeting Mark Leon at Nationals, offering help and enthusiasm to down-on-their-luck robotics teams, coaching my FLL teams


Major Hits: xkcd, chai, lattes, Sherlock Holmes, The Village, Facebook, VLC Media Player, henna, Converse, Apple, Seattle Chocolates, DigiPen Institute of Technology, Market of Choice



Best Books: One Second After, Thr3e, Adam, To Kill a Mockingbird, Travels with Charley, Cold Sassy Tree, Love,Stargirl, Captivating, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [because I forgot it last year], Celebration of Discipline


Best Music: Nightwish, Third Day, techno, anything from regionals, Rise Against, selected AC/dC~Red Hot Chili Peppers~Europe~2 Unlimited~Jimmy Eat World, Halo soundtrack, Nichole Nordeman


Keywords: Kickoff, geek, Breakaway, caffeine, squirrel, patriocentricity, grace, cold, Oregon


Keywords [inside joke edition]: Snrk, Perl, Rabbit, PUDD!!, syncro, whosy-whatsit, HENCE!, BAND!, composed, twitch, Minion, Overlord


Favorite teacher: a two-way tie between Kimes and Mrs Eberle


Best quotes: I need to write a special post with all of the epic quotes but...


Do the Math, Save the World
-Mark Leon


Bethany, you remind me of a rabbit!


Did our Jaguar swallow a chipmunk, or is something else going on?


We'll defenestrate our programmer, and I'll report back our solution if we get anything working.


Muskegs are kinda overbearing like that...


This is not a press conference! 


Hardcore Penguins are VERY applicable...


It's never good when you see your cat get beat up by a bunch of leprechauns



[note that some of these are second- or third-hand from Chief Delphi and elsewhere....]

Most epic IM exchange ever:
[discussion of intimidating refrigerator contents over the centuries]
Einar:
1867- "Hey maw, th' ice box is gettin low again, think mebbe it needs mo ice in it, that coleslaw is startin to look downright PATE-RE-OT-ICK!"
Bethany:
LOLOLOLOLOLOL
oh LOL
Einar:
Here comes th' Pogo referance...
Bethany:
1901: 'Mother dear! Have the maid attend to the icebox, will you? That head of beef is wearing a 'Votes for Women' banner!'
Einar:
1960- "DUUUUUDE......that jello looks just like George Washington, man....."
"Far out...."
Bethany:
1929: 'Mama, can we go through the fridge while the nice photographer lady takes photos of us looking harrowed in the dust? The potato is singing 'Brother, can you spare a dime?''
Bethany:
LOLOLOL
Bethany:
1951: 'Edna, will you just see that the cabbage doesn't vote for Roosevelt? While you're cleaning the floor in heels and pearls...'
Einar:
1985- "YO! Th' meatloaf is rockin out again man!"
"RIGHTEOUS!"

1999- "Dear, I thought we agreed, no more internet access for the cabbage!"

2006- "Wait, is that DYNAMITE next to that camel steak?"
"ALLAH ACKBAR!"

Bethany:
AHAHAHAHHHAHAHHAHHAA
I KNEW ye'd have a doozy for those...
I was going to have a bottle of mayonaise chanting 'Four More Years!' for 2004...

Einar:
2237- "Mom, is this broccoli supposed to have eyes? Couldn't you get any FRESH?"
Bethany:
this WHOLE conversation is one long quote...
Einar:
"That IS fresh dear, right from the superstore!"
"See? I even got the brand marked "Minimal pesticides"!
Bethany:
[psst! thought is was supposed to be VOTING! not growing eyes! ]




Not really going to bother to make any New Year's resolutions this year, I think. Mostly they'd be for stuff I do anyway. Last year I had a bunch of predictions for 2010 and some of them came true, others didn't. [Actually I just hunted out the file and almost NONE of them did, heh.] 


I don't really have a lot to say right now. Happy New Year, let's hope 2011 is better. 



4 comments:

Lady June Whimsy said...

Can I steal your list of review questions of the year? I've been looking for something better than the one I've currently got up.

Also, Nightwish is epic. :)

Bethany said...

I'd love it if you'd steal :) I meant to say that at the beginning, but then I figured no-one would want to anyways, LOL

Yes, they are indeed epic.

Lady June Whimsy said...

Thank you!

Rochelle Blue said...

Hope this year will be the most epic ever for you bethie!

luv roch