October update

Hullo all! I have not, actually, fallen off the face of the earth.

.....I really haven't written about stuff in a LONG time.....pardon me for a minute while I make a quick to-do list with bullet points and sub-headers to sum up what's been going on!
[Facebook statuses below, in the weird font: ]

Hm, physics studied, sinus infection pwned, LEGO Robotics teams organized, calculus understood, pumpkin pie nommed, Team 956 registered for AOR, Nat'l Merit essay written, grant applications being worked on. Not bad.....




1) The patriocentricity debate has not gone away, it has just gone underground for the time being. I have a presentiment that it is going to come back with a vengeance eventually. When it does, it will probably create angst and horror on a level of what-all went on last month.


2) School is going very well.  I am taking physics, tech support, French 3, and AP calculus this semester [after January, I'll add in a pre-calculus/trigonometry class to the mix]. Calculus is going surprisingly well...no dear, I am not a geek....so is physics, actually. This is a really fun surprise, because I have never liked science very much. I guess physics has enough math that I'm happy, hehe.

Bethany just looked up from calc homework and proclaimed in an accusatory tone, 'It's a POLYNOMIAL!'


3) FIRST Robotics still dominates my life. Efforts on that front progress in several areas. I've been working a LOT on grants...writing and phoning big technology corporations and so on, in hopes of getting sponsorship. We need $5000 to participate in FIRST.....so far we have over 2K in school-supplied funding [saved from last year].  Just two days ago the first of the grants came through.  Platt Electrical supply will be funding our team to the tune of $1000. Very enthusing :)   Also, we have got a 25% discount on supplies from 80/20 [aluminum supplier].
That sum of 5K hangs, like the fabled Oliphaunt of old, like a doomsome and mythical phœnix, on the horizon of my every THOUGHT! [In layman's terms, I eat breathe and sleep $5000.]

Recruitment is also going with a swing. So far, we have got 5 girls and 4 boys on the team. This is UNHEARD of, most FRC teams struggle to make 30% girls....THINK OF THE GRANTS!! Think of the under-represented population being outreached to!! Anyways, we've got a really ENTHUSED girl who just joined the team, she could have been hand-picked to be my much-desired successor in Public Relations and organization and so on....YAY FOR AWESOME LEADERSHIP GEEKS!!

Hmm, on a side note, here's a link to that haven of geek-jokes, XKCD.....this comic right here sums up why engineering is cool, y'know? [Actually, that is probably far from the most epic of their webcomics, but I just had to share it...tee hee...because I am in a link-to-websites mood].


I am also [in addition for being to blame for starting 5 other FLL teams] in charge of coaching two FIRST LEGO League robotics teams for kids in 4th-6th grade. There are 15 kids there on a good day.  It is INSANE. Things are starting to go better tho, at our last meeting I successfully taught  them all some programming techniques [which entailed making a projector work, no small feat]. By the end of the meeting both teams had done some programming and had a LEGO robot that drove according to their enthusiastically programmed instructions.
The kids on the teams are AWESOME, they really are. I get all sentimental when I look at this little human geeks and see ....well my Facebook status can speak for me....

me, in chat, about 4th-6th grade kids in my LEGO teams: I look at 'em, and I see ENGINEERS....WORLD CHANGERS..LEADERS....
Michael: Where's the like button on chat?


4) Work has been rather intense....every weekday, right after school, my dad and I go to work until 9 PM, at a local phone bank. The pay is good, and it's only until the election, but whew, I am WHACKED after a long day [often starting at 5:30 AM] of school, robotics and work. It's actually rather cool tho, people always read at work [while waiting for the victim to pick up the phone] and I can often get homework and reading done.

Monday night I had one of the classic semi-yearly all-nighters. [Usually they don't start until build season, or at least NaNoWriMo, but I wanted to get into practice....]  At work that night I realized that I really needed to have this video project by the NEXT DAY's first meeting of our high school robotics team. Whilst at work, I took advantage of the lulls between calls to scratch down ideas [including where to find the desired footage on my various computers and hard drives].
Home and settled by 10 PM and prepared the coffee.....an enthused post on Facebook when I actually managed to find the coffee stash [we thought we didn't have any].  I got a minimal amount of sleep [ <45 minutes] but was nevertheless able to finish the video project. By 6 AM I was out at the bus stop to get to school, fresh as a daisy [sort of]. Fun times :P .....especially since we wound up not actually using the video at all.

5) The usual seasonal festivities are well under way here in the Pacific North-west. The trees are turning, fog is common, and we are inches away from our first frost. [Incidentally, the cosmoses and Mexican sunflowers are blooming at last, no doubt just in time to be nipped by a good freeze!]

Pumpkin pie has figured largely in the events of the past few weeks, as well.


Today we had a pleasant Saturday in and out of the homestead. I awoke at the leisurely hour of 9:30 AM, and we forthwith headed out to the farmers' market. Amidst much mirth, we then proceeded to Rice 'N' Spice to stock up on essentials such as natto [fermented soybeans] and chocolate-hazelnut paste.
Then it was off to the Co-op, where we actually bought some coffee. This is unprecedented, usually we rely for our caffeine upon the little packets of cheap and nasty coffee stashed in hotel rooms for hard-up decaffeinated guests.

After a brief stint doing stuff at home, I left again, this time with my mom, who patiently carted me off to the local shopping mall [in one town], and then off in the other direction into C-town to the library and so on. I spent a happy half-hour running around the library getting books to take off to work this week.

Hopefully I shall post more soon! There have been a lot of interesting and amusing events lately.

robotics fun times

MOAR epic times!  

The good times started rolling Thursday evening when I received a welcome bit of communication from a dear friend  [ :D  ]   This resulted in the effusion of the last post, teehee.  

I was going to ‘go to bed early’ Thursday night, so as to be reasonably sleeped up for Friday morning’s math test.  This didn’t work out so well. In fact it didn’t happen much at all. I was ENTHUSED.  I was working on insane amounts of extra credit for math class....basically writing out notes from the entire chapter.....by the time I got to the last page, I was working on scratch paper from robotics....it was a print-out of the kit of parts checklist. I felt a certain poetic justice. Actually poetic justice has been a motif of the entire past few weeks. Anyways, what could be more appropriate than doing math work on robotics papers? I commented to that effect near the bottom of the page....I think my teacher will understand all too well ;)   I was ALSO listening to The Final Countdown [Europe] and this resulted in a lot of enthusiasm. The Final Countdown is played at robotics competitions...a LOT....

Let us say that I did not get a lot of sleep.

Nevertheless I set my alarm to go off at 6 AM next morning...had to be at school by 7:30-ish to take the test early, because I’d be leaving for a robotics gig at the time my class ordinarily starts. 

The epic day started off when my alarm failed to wake me at 6. A subconscious warning of impending Doom woke me in 20, however. All this getting-up-early business was to allow me to type up and print out a mentor sign-up sheet for the robotics gig...we thought it would be nice to have a sign-up sheet for any victims who might like to support our team, or be a mentor, or that sort of thing. There were also business cards in the offing, which look, I may say, very professional. Yes, well all this goings-on to get the mentor sign-up sheet printed out and I was STILL working on that dratted thing up to the last minute before we left [late]. I was busy having a good breakfast and chatting with a buddy, I had no TIME for such unimportant matters as printing that thing off! I got it made up in my text editing program [Open Office] and then transfered it to the desktop computer via a flashdrive, to print [we have two printers in the house, but only one works at any given time, and right now the working one HAPPENS to be the printer which does not recognize Eddie [laptop]. Eddie sees the printer but the printer thinks if it can’t see, it can’t be seen..... 

So yes. Get the computer fired up, go to print, and the only paper around is BLUE. I race out to the front of the house to get more paper: ‘Oh! Cardstock, that would be nice!’  and take it to the printer. I then had to feed the paper in, in attempts to snooker the printer [‘Out of paper!’]  Printer promptly has a hissy fit: ‘Paper jam. Please remove paper, press Enter, and bug off’. 

Pull the paper out, back to the paper stash to get regular paper and finally print successfully, and race out of the house in the nick of time. 

Math test went well. Promptly at 9, I was down at the robotics lab to catch a ride, as planned, with the CHS robotics team, over to the competition [on Oregon State U campus, cross-town.] They didn’t show. I was worried that maybe I’d missed them, and they’d be fretting over where I was...nipped up to the main entrance, and back down to the lab a few times. I was destitute: no phone, and no laptop with important phone numbers. The main school office proved very helpful however and I was able to get in touch with the important people, and got ride as promised with team.  

Our team, 956, showed up around 11, owing to mandatory school assembly. Opening ceremonies and then we all went off to lunch as provided by the OSU Robotics Club. We all frolicked round in the parking lot, waiting in line for Subway....lots and lots of Subway...

The two teams I have worked with, 956 [‘my’ team] and 997 [team at high school where I take classes] have gotten pretty friendly with each other. This is mostly because of none other than ME. Obviously my chief selling point to convince 997 to take me to Nationals with them was the fact that I’ve been on the Santiam robotics team for years. There was a lot of communication between my dad [teacher/robotics mentor at Santiam 956] and the 997 mentors, also because all 6 of the local robotics teams have mentors on FIRST Force, a fundraising group. 

Both our teams are fairly small and losing a lot of seniors. There has even been talk of our teams combining next year, though of course I hope Santiam can get enough recruits to continue on next year. 

It is really cool to see the sense of community in FIRST. Yesterday our two teams stood around talking, in a big circle...’one big happy family’ as someone put it. 

After lunch we moved on to tours of the OSU engineering buildings. I am becoming very enthused. OSU is one of the top colleges for engineering/technology around. Great school for robotics folks. 

OSU has a lovely campus. Old-growth trees....HUGE trees...lots of them. Old brick and stone buildings...well my town is beautiful in general.  And inside the buildings [I’d never been inside before yesterday] is just as impressive. Then there is the computer lab for students, equipped with Windows, Linux and Macs for engineering students, and Macs for everyone else because of a sponsorship fluke. Big beautiful Mac desktop computers...very new...

The robotics club is a huge part also. One of the students who headed up the event yesterday [a MAMMOTH undertaking] is also on the Mars Rover project, which took first place in the country a few years ago. The Mars Rover project is just that, designing robots to operate on Mars. Cool stuff.  

Aforementioned student is very busy convincing me that I want to take his place in a few years, carry on the torch so to speak. This is HIGHLY convincing, when I hear tales of insane 36-hour days preparing for yesterday’s event....there is just SOMETHING about robotics that ensures that no-one involved gets any sleep. 

But we know that sleep is for the weak  >:D

The competition went VERY well also. Only 8 teams showed for the FRC competition, but there were a lot of FIRST Tech Challenge teams too, it was a busy day. I was behind the camera most of the day and got the usual few hours of assorted robotic footage. Our matches went really well. As usual I vibrated between my two teams, filming one, helping carry stuff in from the car for the other, back and forth, hehe. Coincidentally our teams were assigned spaces in the pit right next to each other...it was great...I walked in with 997, dumped my stuff in 956’s spot, and to and fro, charging batteries and dealing in power strips and totes. The business cards materialized as promised, in 956’s tool chest, and looked very snazzy indeed. 

Oh! At the event last week in The Dalles we had forgotten to bring our beloved sawed-off allen wrench, which was required for getting to inaccessibly little screws. The janitor offered use of some sort of pinchers-thingee....my dad demurred, afraid of injuring it...janitor said there wasn’t much you could do to hurt the shears :P

Well dad and the other student who was with us took hold, one on the shears, the other holding the allen wrench [which should NOT be cuttable]. I mentioned something about ‘SAFETY GLASSES would be a good idea! That thing is going to flip off!’ but they paid no heed [VERY bad example btw, don’t try it at home].  Well Dad bore down on the shears.....and BING. OFF pops the offending part of the allen wrench. It flew twenty feet through the air and hit the wall [I was watching it]. 

Ah where was I. Competition. It was a very cool event. These were some of the top teams in Oregon....regional winning team...regional second-place team..etc. 956 and 997 both did really well. 997 threw a tread [tank drive] halfway through, but it was rather epic....they sent someone back to school for a spare, didn’t even miss a match. 

At the end of qualifying rounds WE, 956 were ranked #2, and 847 was ranked #1  [exactly what our mentor had predicted, come to think of it..]  Team 847 PHRED [Philomath High Robotics Education Department] is rather widely beloved. They have an insane program. Recruit a huge team, but are really helpful to everyone, volunteered to help 997 afford to get to nationals, organize fundraising stuffs, and so on. 847 and their alliance took second place at Regionals in Portland. 

997, on the other hand, was ranked third. 956 was for the first time in the position of choosing our alliance partners. Exciting. A good place to be :)    We, 997, and 847 wound up in a big huddle. We all wanted to be on the same alliance [which would have been absolutely UNBEATABLE] but the way the alliance selection works, that wasn’t possibly. We discussed the ramifications of every choice. 847 wound up choosing another strong team [not local], then we of course picked 997, then we divvied up the remaining two best teams. We went into the finals fairly evenly matched, but figuring 847 would take it. 

We played 3 matches in the finals. First match we were absolutely creamed. One of our alliance partners got flipped over, then 997 discovered that those treads break in pairs. They were out for half the match. 956 was doing well but we obviously couldn’t win against 3.  We called a time-out [6 minutes] to fix the tread. I got some epic footage of members of several teams gathered round 997’s robot, putting a new tread on and frantically putting in screws. 

Worked right up to the time limit. Went back out in the nick of time. We knew this could be the deciding match: if 847 won again, they would win the competition...if we won, we played another match. 956’s mentor got finished getting our robot set up and the announcer said, ‘Team 956 says we’re going to play three matches today.’  Twas epic times. The Final Countdown was, as usual at finals, playing to get us enthused...we were enthused all right. WE WON THE MATCH. 

Went on and played the third match....they trotted out The Final Countdown again....we won. At the end the other alliance only had one robot working which I felt bad about...847 lost communication and one of the other teams got flipped....but we were winning before, while they still had three strong teams active. 

It was a good moment. It was somewhat of a come-from-behind victory, because 847 chose a team that [at least they thought] was better than either 997 or 956. Then we came and took them down. 997 and 956 allied at last.....the Spartans and the Eagles....

[cue epic music] 

Of course it was all the more awesome because 956 was doing the picking this time :)  It gave us another chance to show how well we could do. We could easily have done that well at regionals....the important thing is to feel that you have had your fair chance. We did. We took home a trophy to prove it.   :D 

I came out of there massively enthused, almost as much as Friday [twelve weeks ago in fact....] at regionals, when we’d just played really well all day and unexpectedly got the Xerox Creativity in Design award.   That was easily one of the best days of my life.   After three years in robotics, you don’t really care about anything except giving it your all. Our team was near the top of the stadium, where people don’t usually stand to clap during awards, but I was so enthused I was bounding up out of my seat to clap for each team when they were awarded. 

Then the near-shock when the announcer read out the description of award...then as usual, said a few words about the winning team...this is traditionally a hint about which team it is...we never guessed....then !!!!956!!!!  

and we were running down the dozens and dozens of stairs to go down to the field to receive the award....you get down near the bottom, all the teams are standing, dozens of people giving you high fives....down on the field where the volunteers are lined up to do the same....it is indescribable, knowing that these incredibly awesome people are excited for YOUR team. 

[more on the epic humor of today in a later post, heeh]

Roses

I hadn't been outside in a while....of course I went outside to deal with the critters, but there was always the feeling of fighting against the weather, which has been very very damp....this evening I had to run outside. It's almost June and the wild roses are blooming. The rain stopped for a while, too. 

Funny how everything can change in a minute. It's happened an awful lot in the last few weeks...few months....scratch that, it's been happening my whole life. 

Lately, there've been horrible things that just sprang on me....and good things. The last two have been good things. As hinted at by the title of this post. 

It's almost June. I think of where I was last June, and where I am now, and I wouldn't go back if I could. No regrets, because in this case there is nothing to regret. 

I could write a poem, except that I don't write poetry when I'm happy. 

I can only say: thank you. God has been good.  I have much to be grateful for. The past few months, I've happier than ever before. 

Treasure every moment. 

The roses are blooming. 

Auto-snooker

We are in the midst of a classic example of our family's craziness. You might think that with only three people, things would be pretty calm and so on.....yeah, not so much. 


Yesterday the hilarity was kicked off with style as the following part of chat log shows. 


'Anyways got home [in Caddie, with grannie], had lunch and lay in the sun for a long time, then 'did my math' [snoozed in the sun some more].    Also I've been pretending to be either goth or emo for the last few days [with good reason] but it's not going too well, owing to the fact that 1) math is AWESOME  2) I have some really good music for which you are partly to blame  and 3) gran sent over a batch of what is arguably the best baked custard known to man'



I had to deal with some tech troubleshooting. My dad recently got the job of proprietor of the local FIRST robotics fundraising effort web site....actually a student did, but dad was on a conference call and screen-sharing with the original Overlord the other night. Well the screen sharing showed the username and password required to log in to the database. A screenshot of that didn't show the password well. At ALL. I tried to log in on the laptop but no go, was getting several error messages. I went back to the original password...sure enough there were two errors there, and one in the username. Now all I have to do is get some savvy in SQL...


OH. Schedule for next year is getting firmed up. AP Calc, tech support, advanced computers/Photoshop, and hopefully an Oracle/databases class at another local high school. 


Last night I and a few friends [you know who you are ;) ] had a nice little randomness-fest on Skype and three-way chat on Yahoo Messenger. At one point I was tooling around in YM, messing with the audio-alert settings, and found that you can play any audio file you like instead of the default beep/fwoosh/plink noises. Like personalizing a cell-phone ringtone. Well I got enthused, and set it up so that whenever anybody sent the first instant message YM would autostart this song from my iTunes library. It's a frantically inspiring and dramatic song in the Celtic tradition. Good for getting ENTHUSED to. 


Things were fine and dandy, until in the course of the evening's flitting from Skype to AIM to YM one of my contacts managed to send first IM and BAND! [inside joke] UP starts The Song. Transcript of chat log: 

bethie_forty_twoMEEP i set Yahoo to play The Song when contact sends first Instant message

bethie_forty_twoIT IS PLAYNG

lol

bethie_forty_twoack make it stop

bethie_forty_twomusic

bethie_forty_twoMY MUSIC

bethie_forty_twoack

bethie_forty_twoHELP

bethie_forty_twoit won't stop

bethie_forty_twopanic

bethie_forty_twoi can't change it back well i can but it's

bethie_forty_twostll playing

bethie_forty_twoI MUTE

bethie_forty_twohah

bethie_forty_twoTHWARTED

bethie_forty_twoACK

LOL

PANIC! THWARTED!

bethie_forty_twobut i wants to hear you chuckling 

bethie_forty_twoit's not playing with itunes....

bethie_forty_twoACK

bethie_forty_twoHELLLPPPPPP

I am actually crying I am laughing sooo hard, eeeheehee...

bethie_forty_twoWHERE THE HECK is it coming from

bethie_forty_twonoooooo

 Uh... Close Yahoo and switch to AIM?

bethie_forty_two5/14/10 9:44 PMit's not even the Song, it's Moondance

Anyways, I finally got it to shut off, I still can't figure out what is was playing through. I guess YM has some sort of audio output function that was calling The Song. It was truly hilarious....ANYWAYS....

The next attraction involved replacing the kitchen sink. [This is the selfsame sink that we had endless discussions over a few months back, THE TIME HAS COME.]   Dad and I took out the old one and shuffled it out to the porch. 

Come dawn we were still laboring under the dark cloud of Non_Sink. Not that anybody was actually up by dawn, but I think we all get the point, THERE IS NO BLASTED SINK IN THE KITCHEN.   I got up at 8 and it was off to farmers' market [did you notice my careful use of the Comma there?]  Market was even more of a circus than usual. We made half a dozen trips between the car and the market with produce. Then I remembered that my best friend is havin a grad party/ceremony tomorrow and I wanted to get flowers for her. We got a lovely lot of sweet peas, a few of which are scenting the whole [sink-less] kitchen as we speak. Made another few trips to the car. Then we saw my grandmother's car, and went off in search of her to ensure that she didn't get mowed down by an over-excited shopper intent on strawberries. 

After we and the produce were finally all in the car, we headed off to Rice N Spice to buy our weekly fix of hazelnut/chocolate spread. THEN dad remembered he needed a stand for his keyboard, for tonight's jam session with his band. We first hit one of the three [at least] music stores in town. 'Hitting the music store' involved first trying to find a place to park. Parking in our town on a Saturday is nextdoor to Impossible and involves a lot of slick moves on the steering wheel. We took a shortcut through a parking lot but encountered another car going the other way in the subsequent alleyway. Dad waved at her to go ahead [so we could slip off in the desired direction] but she wouldn't. We then had to back up behind the row of cars ['hiding' so to speak] until said car got out of the way. Off on a lengthy traversal of a back-alleyway. Found a parking spot but the music store was closed...on to the second store in town. Dad parked and went in the back door....this happened to be in the same alley in which we had just minutes before been forced to wait in hiding. I was left in the car, to quake in terror whenever a biggish car looked like it was trying to fit past.   

After a few minutes he came out and told me to open the trunk. When he came out much later with the music stand [a tiny affair] he said it was a RUSE....the open trunk was merely to make it look as though we were engaged in moving some big honking piece of musicality out to the car, and loading 'er up. 

Got out of there and went home after a bit more dithering.   

[NOTE]  Title, 'Auto-snooker', is related to the fact that we are pretty sure we managed to snooker OURSELVES at some point in the proceedings. 

When we got home the sink was still nonexistent. This should possibly not have been a surprise. However I became what we might term cranky as I was trying to unpack and wash vegetables and cook lunch.  Irritation vanished in amusement at how classic it all was...I've set up camp in the laundry room sink but there is not nearly enough room for massive vegetable-preparing. I feel like I just moved into a dorm or something, everything is in an uproar and  there's food sitting on the counter and dishes piling up and clothing on the floor and towels everywhere.....I put a box of strawberries by the laundry room sink so that they're handy to wash, and everybody who comes through there eats a couple. Then there was a cream-spill in our overstuffed refrigerator which had to be mopped up. 

Promptly upon getting home there was a lot of fervent discussion about plans for the day. We had people at all ends of town. I wound up getting to hang out with Eva for a bit after delivering the flowers to her, which was cool. [As a side note, if you have friends who live near you, please make sure you appreciate them. I live a good fifteen minutes away from Eva, and realized I don't have many close friends in town. Like, at all. Value your friends.] 

I offered a little tech support, which involved poking around in the dust back of their PC, tooling around in their antivirus program, and offering up my most glowing advertisement for Macintosh OS. Here is a link to a highly relevant comment about virii [read the mouse-over for the scoop on Macs]. NO VIRII. Life is good. 

Let's see. I downloaded an open source HTML-editing program, Smultron. Love these Cocoa applications, they all have the exact same look and feel. Smultron looks like Bean which looks like iTunes. Unlike programs for PCs which tend to be all over the place. Macs are shiny. Some people disparage them because 'they're JUST shiny'.  How bout a shiny computer and shiny user interface which GIVES SHINY RESULTS?         

Leavin' on a jet plane

Wellwellwell!  Life has been pretty busy, and computer time has been cut :(  but I'm leaving on Wednesday, so thought I'd better post beforehand :D


Date: Sunday April 11 2010
Starting time: 16:20
Mood: patchwork moods lately. Ravening predator, gloom, insane hilarity, regret, I got it all.
Outside my window: cherry blossoms and grey sky
I'm thinking: time is running out   o.O
I'm reading: meh
I'm listening to: Bob Dylan, Not Dark Yet
I'm wearing: green shirt with Scottish thistle :D and plaid wool skirt
Yesterday, I: had a headesk sorta day
I'm excited for: Atlanta
I'm sad because: I want to change the past, but to do that I'd have to go back about 7 years, and then I wouldn't WANT to do anything differently.
I'm hungry for: I just ate.....
The song stuck inside my head is: The Weasel Chase (thanks a LOT, Einar! >.< )
I want: a plane ticket to North Carolina :P
I love: adrenaline, it makes my life just a *little* bit interesting.....
I loathe: um?
This week, my goal is: to NOT DIE



Now that THAT is out of the way!  I leave for Atlanta GA this Wednesday: I have to leave the house by 2 AM    o.<    Flight to Atlanta, we get in late afternoon local time. We come back next Sunday, but won't get home til very early Monday morning. Good times. 


I've been frantically preparing for the trip. Not to mention a lot of miscellaneous robotics stuff. On Wednesday I prepared a promotional video for the next day's presentation to recruit new robotics students. Was up til 1 AM doing that, and doing math homework. Epicness. Such is the life of a robotics junkie. Facebook status:   Late nights, working frantically to perfect something that should have been finished yesterday......this is FIRST~~~ Adrenaline as things are going RIGHT for once....this is FIRST~~~ Putting sleep and the rest of life on hold...this is FIRST~~~ Getting it done.....THIS IS FIRST!!
The robotics advert went well. I also got the camera....likewise ordered and received the infamous Bag of Holding, and it is amazing, it expands to fit seriously ANYTHING. 


There have been occasional moments of insanity when I contemplated moves that would quite possibly lead to me taking over the world. 
Plus the occasional moments when I turn into a ravening Beast of Prey. Good times. 


I'll likely post something whilst in the Great City of Atlanta (ergh).....but til then, cheers all! :)

(warning: amusing, and lengthy)

The past two days have been pretty epic....Thursday we went up to P-town (the Big City). The morning started out with a nice bit of excitement: My mom saw my dad's ghost. The short version of the story is that he was still in bed, whilst my mom is convinced she saw his reflection outside, for quite a while.  O.o

On the spur of the moment we decided to drive to P-town.  I promptly demanded that I be allowed to wash my hair.....this was granted, with the stipulation that I not take very long....I wound up being the first person waiting in the garage, hehe. My hair was still wet....but behold, there on a garage shelf was, of all things, a hair-dryer......doubtless used for blow-drying the windshield prior to application of rain-repellant. Never one to miss an opportunity, I proceeded to blow dry my hair with it.  ^.^

In P-town we went to Ikea (Swedish furniture store) and bought a kitchen sink.....amidst direful warnings that it would mean the disruption of the kitchen for the next few weeks, in the style of the Great Sink Débacle of 2009, which saw the upstairs bath sink (my personal property) in disarray for WEEKS. 

Yesterday was packed with bits of randomness.....first thing in the morning (well, first thing when I got up which was not til 10) I came downstairs and found the kitchen in the predicted state of conniption. The new sink was on the table and there seemed an unwarranted lot of stuff sitting about. Despite this, I baked a chocolate cake, then went into town with my dad to buy cream for the frosting, and pick up the lawn-mower which had been taken in for repairs, and also take some stuff to the recycle.  

My dad was talking about hiring someone to install the sink....or rather to make it level, with boards on the side.....anyways: "Yes, they will prop the low side up with dollar bills, that's how much it'll cost..."

We first stopped at the Co-op, in order to deposit the recycle at the provided bins. Then decided that "Haha well since we're here, we'd better stop in and get some food...." and went and bought a lot of groceries. 

Then it was on to Trader Joe's (upscale grocery, for those deprived souls in the wilderness of whereever-there-are-no-Trader-Joe'ses).  We were just going in, in our identical signature Carlson bouncy walks, and both making amusing comments, when I spotted my grandmother's car parked out front of the store. We went in, found the cream and my grandma....she tends to ply us with food...anyways, we wound up all checking out together and there came the next bit of amusement.....my grandma was plying us with the goat cheese she'd bought, and we were separating out our cream, and the cashier was helping us.....we had four people all gathered round the paper sack full of groceries. My dad was starting to laugh, and I was chuckling (of course), and finally we paid and the cashier thrust another empty bag at us to divvy up the groceries among.  Our Trader Joe's has got a bit of an exit problem....there is a sort of little isle that the entire mass of people exiting the store has got to go through. One incident at the check-out, one dropped cheese, one over-excited grocery bag, and the whole place can pile up. 

Whilst in the store my dad bought a box of so-called "thousand-layer crackers".....little Asian treats that nobody except him likes. The first time he bought them (I quote) "I had to eat the entire box and not like them....then there were two left which somehow hadn't gotten into the recycle, and they were pretty good."   He admits that they have sort of an unpleasant taste: "...sort of like burnt fish...." 

The whole gather-round-the-grocery-bag episode remained in our conversation as we hit the high road again.    I commented that the incident would have been made more epic had there been a couple of high-powered executives attempting to leave the store at the same time, through the afore-mentioned little isle. Yes, I did actually say 'high-powered executives'. ("With their espresso smoothies in hand," my dad chipped in.) "Heading off to their power-lunch....isn't that what those things are called, power lunches?" Dad agreed--"Yes, power lunch....wouldn't it be funny if there was, say, some sort of advertisement....you have a couple of high-powered executives at a power lunch, and (just casually) one of them pulls out a power bar--" (insert hoots of laughter from me) "--and gestures with it--"  "Yes, shows the profits going Up, Up, Up!" (dad cracks up) "And as the shot finishes, the other executive propounds a theory: 'Yes, this is it, let's do this!'....and he takes a bite out of his power bar..." 

On to the next attraction: picking up the lawn mower. This is where we were, to quote my dad, 'snookered'. (A side note: the term had not crossed my path before yesterday, I requested my dad explain it to me, and he made general reference to 'billiards, but I never know whether to call it billiards or pool....you know, where you're supposed to put all the balls into the pocket except for the white one....'  Anyways, as far as I can make out from the authoritative Mirriam-Webster's Online, the word refers to being 'hoodwinked'.  Mmph. 

The way in which we were snookered was not at first apparent, it was left to my dad to relate it to me.....we pulled into the parking lot, and my dad paused to eat a Thousand-layer Cracker of Doom. In this split second of delay, of Hesitation, another car pulled in beside us: a Large Car, one could even say a Too-big Car. (The driver also honked, as if to presage his passage...at another car, I believe. It could not have been us, WE were harmlessly sitting there eating our Thousand-layer Crackers.)

"Oop! Look at that, he's going to get in there before us...."  My dad decided to wait in the car for an opportune moment to go in. I observed that the Too-big Car had a load of brush in the back, piled up. "You see all that brush? All piled up, with a bungee-cord? Well do you think [I was getting silly at this point] that he's going to get a brush-hog or whatever those things are, bring it out here and test it out on the brush? Seems quite reasonable, just like bringing along the camera when you want to see if it fits in the messenger-bag...or wait, I think I'm planning to bring the bag to the camera instead of the camera to the bag..."  "Yes, he'll try it out, won't stop until there's no brush in the bed of the truck, and the parking lot is just covered...but it's a Power-mower" (this, to tie in with the high-powered executives.)

My dad then proceeded to go in and attempt to get our lawn-mower. This is where he was snookered. I was told of this afterwards: I stayed in the car and ventured to eat half of a Thousand-layer Cracker, but did not get very far because of foresaid burnt-fish savor, and nasty after-taste. As I later said, "It doesn't taste too great at first, then about a second into it's not too bad, but then it leaves a nasty taste in your mouth." "Yes, it has a weak finish...." 

Dad came out: "Another cracker..." (I proffer him my half-eaten one)   [Talking about it later: "I had time to come out, have another cracker and file down a hang-nail..."]  

Evidently the first customer was indeed getting some sort of lawn mower.....it developed that he couldn't take it home with him BECAUSE of the brush in the bed of the truck.  Most amusing, really. 

Then the repair-store owner said not to use regular gasoline, the ethanol kills the engine...but recommended a little place down in south-town where we could get pure gasoline. My dad said he hadn't thought it served people, hehe.....you had to have a card. But no..."You can get in without a card if you go in the daytime, not at night...and not on weekends..." 

There had been some talk that we might drive BACK up to P-town yesterday, to buy a cabinet to go with the sink.....also rumors that I might be forced to go along....OH, THE HUMANITY....I really did not want to go, it meant a good 3 hours on the road round trip, and it's hard to listen to music 'cause the car is very noisy, and I can't hear the talk in the front seat very well, and anyway I didn't want to go up there two days in a row. But when the fam. requires that I come along for a Family Outing, well....

I asked my dad to 'lobby on my behalf'. 

We got home (around 2 that afternoon) and found my mom thinking about P-town, and cabinets. I was in the kitchen, drying my hands, and I nipped into the laundry room and asked if I had to go with. "Maybe you'll go, and maybe you won't" was the reply.  O.o   Still clutching the kitchen towel, I hustled through the hallway, out to the garage, gave a squeak of dismay ("Daddy!") as I heard the unmistakeable sound of the lawn-mower firing up on the back lawn. I popped out of the door and waved the towel at him: "Mommy says she wants to go to P-town today and she wants to come cause she wants a cabinet for the laundry room" --gasp-- "and she says maybe I'll come and maybe I won't and I want you to lobby so I don't have to go...and the FROSTING...." I trailed off and cracked up: "I pop out and wave a towel at you....."  (Dad gets signature chuckly look on his face)  We went inside and I started the frosting as per mum's direction, as we wouldn't be leaving for a while. 

"You know, I foresee this frosting taking a long time" --meaningfully-- "This is the sort that takes a few hours of stirring while it cools.....oh and I'm going to make it softer this time...."  Dad: "Mmm! That's even better! How do you do that?"  "Just a higher ratio of cream to chocolate...." 

We wound up not going to P-town thankfully....my dad went off to town to get the gasoline, and I tidied the kitchen, dyed my hair, went shopping and bought t-shirts, and spent the evening chatting with Insane Buddy named Einar :D   I also spent a while trying to type up this blog post but kept getting distracted with email, multiple chats, Skype, facebook, and et cetera. Oh yeah: I henna-ed my hair again last night...came downstairs with my hair wrapped in a plastic sack.....ahh deja vu.  Lol. It's sorta more red, I think I'll redo it....

Did not get more than 6 hours of sleep last night and I am rather whacked today! 

*twitch*

Hah I'm in a really weird mood........be prepared for randomness.  Here are two Facebook statii:


Sunday night:
 Little geek spaz-out: "YAY! Math! I love math! Where's some scratch paper?" Day not going too well, I happened to log into online College Algebra homework and now know what I'm going to do this evening before folk dance.
Oh and the scratch paper was the backs of robotics scouting sheets.......


Next day: 
You know you're a nerd when: you are bored on a Sunday night and get excited when you remember there's some online College Algebra homework that isn't due for a week or two....you proceed to finish it up....and then are disappointed it's all finished. Good grief I have no life.....


Yes, I was in fact rather disappointed that my math was finished.   ^_^ 


Yesterday evening I went out with some friends, for the first time in MONTHS....lotsa fun :)


I have to buy a bag for me trip to Atlanta....here  is the main candidate....you see it has to hold the video camera (HUGE), laptop Eddie, not to mention such little sundries as clothes and food. I refuse to have more than one bag (save the tripod bag) with me. Likewise, suitcases on wheels are out....it has to be carryable.....the strap has to be able to throttle me, inotherwords. The ideal thing is to have the strap of one bag conspiring with the strap of the other bag, effectively choking off one's neck. Good for long treks.   I have been told that the bag must not be allowed to imprint on Eddie (laptop) at a young age. 


Hmm I have just been called a hobbit.....this is awesome.....yes and random! Random, trademarked! 


Saturday we spent quite a few hours pruning blueberry bushes.  Facebook statii tell the story of the week: 
Several observations from the afternoon spent pruning blueberries: 1. Wear a sunhat to avoid burning one's vampirishly-pale skin 2. Techno is the best music to prune to 3. Hunting knives are better than clippers 4. Gotta blister on her little finger :D


quotes from dad: "Was there a pair of pliers in the pantry?" and "I'll glue it on and then you'll have a two-legged cow" me: "is that all?" "Instead of a one-legged cow..." [he was looking for pliers to take the glue lid off to glue the leg on a wooden cow cut-out] 


Top quotes of the past few days: 'Crap....I think I just swallowed glass' and 'Wow...I have just been handed a lime margarita' from two different people whilst chatting with them. Both were superbly random.      Oh and before you get too worried, the lime margarita was non-alcoholic and the glass has been taken care of   O.o


Other stuff: am wading through scholastic requirements for next year......looks like more College Now classes at the local high school are in order. I planned to take Trig at community college in the fall, then Calc, but it looks like it is very hard to get into classes there.....simply no room. I'll probably take the equivalent classes at the high school. 


A side note....the most awesome combination of smells EVER has got to be really high-quality rose-water mixed with woodsmoke........


byebye folks!  Also, how many people actually read this, I wonder?  

New look for bloggie

Yeah, I redid the colours and header and all.....still having issues with me sidebar though......I've deleted the sidebar entirely, as it was just sitting down at the bottom of the page.

Weather is nice and sunny here.....all the pallid Pacific Northwest peopleses are getting their poor widdle vampirey skins burned.....

Spring break is upon us THANK GOODNESS  =D  I'm about ready for it......math test today went quite well.....hmm what else.

Other stuff is going well......anticipation for Championships....all you people on the East Coast should definitely come! Atlanta GA, April 15-17......free to the public :)   There will be robots, there will be over-excited geeky high school students, there will be rock music, there will be dancing to Chicken Dance.....all in the Georgia Dome.....it's gonna be awesome! :)  Still working out details with a couple of friends there......if you're in the area, do stop by! I'll prolly be mighty busy with a big ole video camera, but I'd love to see you if you're an awesome-person and not a creeper :)