(no subject)
Back from KY. Highlights of the weekend: got first (FIRST, yo!) in skits, which was totally unexpected (at least on my part), and about ninth in the written part (we're not sure exactly what we got because the evaluators messed up the ranking and placed us below people with lower scores than us). The best part (well, okay, next to being skit champions): we kicked Sacred Heart's ass. [insert victory dance, with lots of pointing] Now, don't get me wrong, I like Sacred Heart and all that, as individual people, but we got second to their first at regionals and state and it was just time to set them straight.
It occurs (occur...occurr? hm) to me that probably about 80% of you don't have any idea what I'm talking about. I'll try to explain without getting terribly long-winded about it. First of all, the reason I went to Kentucky was because that was where they were holding the Future Problem Solving International Conference. Future Problem Solving is a sort of academic program thingy, where you get put on a team of four people (there are three age divisions, too- junior, middle and senior) and you're given a certain topic (immigration, nutrition, depletion of oceanic species, etc.) to research. Then you do a "packet", which means you get a 'future scenario' based on this topic (for instance, last year at IC on the topic of immigration they had a future scene about people immigrating to Mars), and you have to find possible problems that could occur in the future scene based on the facts presented. (The maximum amount of problems your team can write is 16.) Then you decide on an "underlying problem", which is supposed to be the biggest problem in the f.s. which, if you solve it, will create the greatest positive effect. Then you write a maximum of 16 solution to that problem, then you make up 5 criteria by which to judge the solutions you've come up with (which is the fastest, which costs the least, etc.), and you rank them. Then you write an "action plan" based on your highest-ranking solution. All this your team has to accomplish within two hours. And each step has its own rules- for instance, each problem has to tell what the problem is, why it's a problem, and how it relates to the future scene. And at competitions, you also have to make up a three (sometimes four)-minute-skit about your action plan, using only specific props (usually things like construction paper, scissors, plastic garbage bags, etc.) And then you perform them, and they get judged. (How well you do in skits has nothing to do with your advancement to state or IC, however). So...yeah. My team, which is a homeschooling team, got second at regionals this year, which meant we got to go on to state, where we also got second, which meant we got to go on to internationals. (They kinda skip nationals for some reason.) IC is awesome- there's people from New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Australia, Russia, Canada, and all over the United States. We have a variety show, and a dance, and all sorts of tourism stuff to do when you're not working.
Man, I suck at not being long-winded.
But anyway. I'm back now, and my cousin Dillon from Ohio is staying with us for three weeks. Dillon is thirteen and awesome. I loves him; I loves him good. I tried to get him to come to camp this year, but he couldn't because his mom couldn't pay for it and also pay for a trip to South Carolina, and he really really really wanted to go to South Carolina. (He was born there.)
I'm tired. Dillon and Rebound (that's his name for today, his own choice) and I went for a walk today and fuddled about in the creek for a bit. (Found some interesting skeletons there; our theories are either farmers are dumping them, raccoons are dragging them, or aliens are unloading them.) It's hot as hell today, and humid. Wish wish wish we had air conditioning. Or lived in Canada. Mmm, Canada... I do love summer in Iowa, though, climatic imperfections notwithstanding. I woke up this morning at eight thirty (defying all previously conceived notions concerning the effects of sleep deprivation) and smelled the sunny air coming in my window and just felt so happy. Which, when you've just woken up, is pretty monumental, at least for me. Now it's getting later and the sky is that sort of glowing silver-blue it gets before a storm, and I can smell the rain about to fall. And soon the fireflies will be out. And the goats will be frolicking. Because the goats are always frolicking. Because they're goats.
Happiness.
It occurs (occur...occurr? hm) to me that probably about 80% of you don't have any idea what I'm talking about. I'll try to explain without getting terribly long-winded about it. First of all, the reason I went to Kentucky was because that was where they were holding the Future Problem Solving International Conference. Future Problem Solving is a sort of academic program thingy, where you get put on a team of four people (there are three age divisions, too- junior, middle and senior) and you're given a certain topic (immigration, nutrition, depletion of oceanic species, etc.) to research. Then you do a "packet", which means you get a 'future scenario' based on this topic (for instance, last year at IC on the topic of immigration they had a future scene about people immigrating to Mars), and you have to find possible problems that could occur in the future scene based on the facts presented. (The maximum amount of problems your team can write is 16.) Then you decide on an "underlying problem", which is supposed to be the biggest problem in the f.s. which, if you solve it, will create the greatest positive effect. Then you write a maximum of 16 solution to that problem, then you make up 5 criteria by which to judge the solutions you've come up with (which is the fastest, which costs the least, etc.), and you rank them. Then you write an "action plan" based on your highest-ranking solution. All this your team has to accomplish within two hours. And each step has its own rules- for instance, each problem has to tell what the problem is, why it's a problem, and how it relates to the future scene. And at competitions, you also have to make up a three (sometimes four)-minute-skit about your action plan, using only specific props (usually things like construction paper, scissors, plastic garbage bags, etc.) And then you perform them, and they get judged. (How well you do in skits has nothing to do with your advancement to state or IC, however). So...yeah. My team, which is a homeschooling team, got second at regionals this year, which meant we got to go on to state, where we also got second, which meant we got to go on to internationals. (They kinda skip nationals for some reason.) IC is awesome- there's people from New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Australia, Russia, Canada, and all over the United States. We have a variety show, and a dance, and all sorts of tourism stuff to do when you're not working.
Man, I suck at not being long-winded.
But anyway. I'm back now, and my cousin Dillon from Ohio is staying with us for three weeks. Dillon is thirteen and awesome. I loves him; I loves him good. I tried to get him to come to camp this year, but he couldn't because his mom couldn't pay for it and also pay for a trip to South Carolina, and he really really really wanted to go to South Carolina. (He was born there.)
I'm tired. Dillon and Rebound (that's his name for today, his own choice) and I went for a walk today and fuddled about in the creek for a bit. (Found some interesting skeletons there; our theories are either farmers are dumping them, raccoons are dragging them, or aliens are unloading them.) It's hot as hell today, and humid. Wish wish wish we had air conditioning. Or lived in Canada. Mmm, Canada... I do love summer in Iowa, though, climatic imperfections notwithstanding. I woke up this morning at eight thirty (defying all previously conceived notions concerning the effects of sleep deprivation) and smelled the sunny air coming in my window and just felt so happy. Which, when you've just woken up, is pretty monumental, at least for me. Now it's getting later and the sky is that sort of glowing silver-blue it gets before a storm, and I can smell the rain about to fall. And soon the fireflies will be out. And the goats will be frolicking. Because the goats are always frolicking. Because they're goats.
Happiness.