I first want to apologize for my disappearance again. I've been very busy at robotics and work, as usual. I promise these aren't empty lies! I truly think my hard work paid off somewhere, but we will get into that later.
First, let's revisit some stuff from other discussions. Two blogs ago, I discussed my grandma's passing, but I did not mention that she suffered from dementia. Dad, if you're reading this, please skip the next few sentences. Anyway, many of you know my brother is a big fan of country music; one of his favorite songs is called "Numbers On The Cars", by Riley Green. On the way home from work, my brother would often play country music, and he would almost always make sure this song was in the queue. The more and more I listen to it, the more and more I realize how perfectly it described my grandma's state. So. Kudos to you Riley Green.
Anyway, great country song, highly recommend.
Moving on, let's discuss the competition: CHSy Champs. Ever since the end of the official 2021 season, my team has been preparing for this offseason. I've been showing up as often as I could, programming autos, practicing, climbing, and addressing issues as they appear. Going into the competition, I felt really confident in the robot, and myself, which was something I hadn't seen in a long time. All in all, despite the fact that the competition was outside of FMA, lacked interesting competition, and we didn't win, I still had a great time. I personally feel like the team had a rocky start, but greatly improved after the second match. Our performance was enough to put us in second and ally ourselves with the first alliance captain, another out-of-state team from Rochester, New York: Team 340. Unfortunately, a combination of disappointing second picks and an unlucky round robin, we went home without a win. I still believe we were the best robot there, and I think the numbers hold to prove it. Here is the Blue Alliance page for the event, as well as the Twitch live stream link. I definitely recommend looking for our close, yet successful, triple climb, as well as our highest scoring match (198)! I can't say I didn't perform without a little help however:
Yes, that's right: the powdered root beer made a return for my last competition! For those who are unfamiliar, my team has been doing a "ritual" where the driver, or drive team, drinks this disgusting powdered root beer purchased from a specific Dollar General in York, PA. Now, my friend told me that this root beer was not from that specific dollar general, which therefore resulted in a lack of additional luck. Perhaps this is why we lost?Work has also been very stressful, as it seems as though I have a bit of a mutiny on my hands at times. All I'm going to say is that employee morale has been quite low, and that put's a lot of stress on me as a leader. We did just have an employee party, so I hope that brightened the general mood. It was my brother's first time on Storm Runner, and it was also one of the last times I'll ever see my one friend Aidan. Aidan and I have been pals since the beginning of high school, and now he's moving to Missouri. I just hope God gives him some sense of direction with his life, because he got potential and drive! So, this next Coke is to you Aidan. Cheers!
I've also been spending a lot of time at my internship, which is currently testing the working, prototyped wind turbine my boss has been developing. I've done a lot of algorithms and generator setup, which has been proving more and more useful as I gain more and more direction in life. Go support them for funding round two!
Now that I've talked about that, let's look forward. My graduation party is on the 7th of August, and I was very hesitant to give out invitations, because these parties stress me out. I get stressed when I feel as though I am being judged, and for some reason I feel almost selfish for hosting a party to celebrate myself. I know when you put it that way it sounds weird, but nevertheless, is that not what's happening?
I also just received my AP test scores back. It seems as though the universe is trying to improve my lack of self-confidence, because apparently, I did incredibly well on my tests. My scores from this year and last year are:
- English Language and Composition: 4
- Calculus BC: 4, AB Subscore: 5
- Physics I: 4
- Computer Science: 5
Moving onto how I feel about college. As college gets closer and closer, and relationships just happened to get more stressful, I began to put two and two together. I'm not great at sensing emotion, making friends, or just expressing myself. Combine this with a faraway college full of people my age, and it gets a little scary. I'm gonna do my best to build self-confidence and become more extroverted at college. I can promise you that.
There. I think I covered about everything. I'll touch in again after my graduation party!
As always, thanks for reading,
The Questionable Programmer
P.S. That questionable invention is still in the works, but substantial progress has been made!
