Hanging In There

 Hi readers,

College is often described as the best time of our lives. It's all partying, drinking, adventuring, and liking. 

But that's simply not the case. Not for me at least. 

Sure I have my friends up here and we do our fair share of activities. This semester alone I've seen the northern lights, went cliff jumping, and went kayaking down the Portage. The list goes on. 

But I often worry that things may have been better if I hadn't come up here. Allow me to explain a few reasons. 

Jobs. They're already hard enough to get. Networking and connecting with employers back home is really tough from up here. I'm basically riding on previous networking connections to find internships. It's not like there aren't great employers here. Hell, that's why a lot of students come here. 

But do these employers match the life I want? I don't think so. I wish senior year Ben put some more thought into that. 

I'm a sophomore. This upcoming summer or the next is stereotypically the summer I'm supposed to be interning. But I'm worried I may not find one. I have Co-Op opportunities it seems, and I actually have an interview for one tomorrow. I may have an internship with another dream company too. I should be scheduling an interview for that one soon!

But if these don't work, I'd feel pressured to take an internship in Michigan. And I really don't think I can spend a summer in MI alone. That's just not what I want. I have too many things I want to return to in PA.

Next reason. Connections. Sure I'm building connections up here, but are they permanent? Just about as permanent as any college connection. You see them maybe once a year. I can count how many people I'd like to continuously see on one hand if I'm being quite honest. But high school? I have a lot of friends that I'd like to keep from there. But it's hard to keep these connections when I'm 1000 miles away. So that's constantly on my mind and I'm constantly trying to reach out to friends back home and stay connected. But harsh responses or the lack of any response whatsoever is really painful. Especially when it's with someone whom you used to be really close with. 

Sure, some connections back home don't seem to be going anywhere. But what about the little ones? The people who may not know how much they mean to me? Those are the people that keep me up at night. 

Moving on, we look at experiences. Allow me to say this: there are some things I look at in other schools and I say, "man, I wish I had that opportunity". 

But then I am reminded of what I have here. I have the wonderful outdoors, snow, and Tech hockey! But don't get me started on our football.

But there are more experiences than just these. What about everything from my high school career? Robotics events? My day trips with the boys? Birthdays? All the other fun stuff I have going on back home. These kinds of events live rent-free in my head. Not these school events.

Now that I ranted a bit about some of the worries and problems I'm currently facing, allow me to make light of my situation. Or at least try to.

I'm in the middle of nowhere. I'm in a water-winter wonderland. I'm trying to embrace that. To make college and my past decisions meaningful. The sense of independence this builds. The beauty and respect for PA that it builds. 

Moving forward, I'm going to try and have a positive mindset.

On the bright side, I've been working out recently. The endorphins and self-improvement that come from working out are truly something special. It keeps me healthy and makes me more self-confident. And that's important during these challenging times. 

Ever since I returned to school, the VFD has presented itself in a new light. After assisting my hometown department, the age of this department shows. But that just makes me want to step up even more. Is this good? Well, it depends on how you look at it. 

Academically, probably not. Mentally, yes. 

Firefighting and a lot of the culture that comes with it help take my mind off of my worries and sadness. I've grown some connections on the VFD and even made some new friends on campus through it. I'm proud to be a part of such an organization. 

Although my classes may be more difficult this year, I don't think it's too much for me. I still think I have a healthy balance. I was able to find time to write this, wasn't I? 

But anyway. I think that's enough for tonight. 

Writing these thoughts down helps.

I sometimes wonder if anyone reads these. But nonetheless, an orchestra can still perform when there is no audience. 

"When the going gets tough,  the tough get going"

- Knute Rockne

Wait, I'm Alive?

Hello readers,

If that's you. For all I know, this may be an entirely new person reading this.

Sometimes I feel like an entirely new person. 

This year, and most of last year, I do not have a lot of time to sit down and write. My mind is often filled with other things, and as much as this helps, time is simply not on my side.

But I will try to write short anecdotes when I can. But no promises.

I do not have time to write one tonight (I have an early Bible study tomorrow morning).

But I will leave you with this.

" Seems like the light at the end of the tunnel maybe you "

- Steven Tyler

Exciting News!

 Hello!

I want to apologize for my delay in posting. I've been very busy with some stuff up here at college. 

I don't have a whole lot of time to talk, but I do want to share some news. Yesterday, during work, I received a phone call alerting me that my brother and I were voted into the local fire department!

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I'm moving towards becoming a volunteer firefighter! I am super excited and am most likely going to get my gear this weekend. I know it's a large time commitment, but I'm willing to cut some things out for a little bit to do what I need to do.

By the way, I work at a fast-food restaurant here at college. It's called the Campus Cafe. Don't pronounce it like Café though. It was spelled incorrectly, so it's pronounced Cafe! Anyway, I am typically on the fryer, and I really like it, to be honest. It's a good rush that's not super overwhelming. And besides, in late January, I'm going to be making $15 an hour! But money is not the only good part. My boss there is super chill, and I have good relations with all the other employees. So there's a short work update.

I am still working on the really long post! I promise!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go to math class and coordinate some rides for this weekend!

As always,

Thanks for reading,

The Questionable Programmer

" Don't stop believin' "

- Steve Perry

College is Fast Approaching!

Hi readers,

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:

1. English Language and Composition: 4
2. Calculus BC: 4,  AB Subscore: 5
3. Physics I: 4
4. Computer Science: 5

I'm very proud of these scores, and they will certainly help me cut off some credits. In fact, with these scores, I'm qualified to start in Calculus III! That would be stupid though, so I'm probably going to start in Calculus II. 

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!

"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something"

- Plato

Graduation is on the Horizon!

 Good day readers,

It has come to my attention that I have not posted in quite some time. Perhaps I was too busy? Who knows?

Anyways, I was reading through a recently discovered blog. I think it's hilarious that I have never found this before given the authors! Check it out if you have some time!

Moving on to what has happened; let's see if I can summarize it in one really long sentence, because why not?

After receiving my recognition, the idea of leaving my schoolmates and teachers behind really hit me, but not like a brick, no; instead, I like to think of it as a really friendly and aggressive slap in the face, making part of me want to sit down and riminess, and another part of me want to run away as fast as I can, and this goes for most of my teenage experience; for example, both robotics and work are incredibly vulnerable to this line of logic; after working countless hours at both robots and work, it dawned on me that a part of me would not miss the grind.

So I hope that disgusting sentence helped you understand where I have been, as well as what I've been thinking recently. In case it didn't however, I will go into more detail. 

So I have totaled close to a thousand dollars in earnings recently, so if that doesn't give you an idea of how much a part-time, weekends-only worker works, I don't know what will. Sure there were a few weekdays here and there, but those were only five hours, which isn't too long compared to the classic 13 hour shift I usually work. Lastly, let me make it explicitly clear that I died after that vaccine! I was up till about five AM with an awful fever and muscle aches. Unfortunately, as you may have guessed, I missed the Food Truck Trek, but I heard good things. It seems in about five years our teams gonna be really big!

Now that work has been explained, let's move onto robotics. I suppose I should start off with senior night?

First off, it was a blast, so thank you everyone that did attend, or at least attempted to!

Next, it is unexpectedly important to say that I did not cry! Unlike a lot of seniors, I did not stop showing up to robotics. I need to attend to teach people, fool around, learn, and grow, in that order! Last night, a student from the class of 2020 created the ultimate drift bot using a Cheap and Dirty Radio Control set from Andy Mark. We have been working on perfecting the drifts for a long time, and I think we got it. The best part is, it can pull +3 people! It also can seat one of them on its chassis!

Now, moving towards a more focused and questionable task, I am almost done with my part of the driver station! I have completely remodeled the way this team programs robots in Python, making the process more user friendly and more modern! Again, very sketchy, very questionable. It is certainly possible that the poor RoboRIO will be trying to do too much at once, but hey, it wouldn't be questionable otherwise! I am really excited to see the final product of the driver station, using my exciting networktable-value publishing system and another student's ingenious web design and backend abilities! Wow, that is going to sound really bad out of context. Here's a graphic for understanding backend:

So apart from an absolutely fantastic senior night, nothing has changed too much there; still questionable! Moving onto the Sunday after senior night, May 16th, 2021!

For those who didn't know, this Sunday was the Drydene 400 at the Monster Mile, or Dover International Speedway! This was my first NASCAR race, and boy oh boy was it a blast! I had the time of my life and definitely learned to appreciate my hearing! From the moment we saw rip-off Chase Elliot to the moment Alex Bowman crossed the finish line, I was in paradise. The race was also very special because it was the first time in Hendrick Motorsports' history in which they earned a 1-2-3-4 finish, meaning that their four drivers conquered the top four positions. What made this even more remarkable was the fact that only two of the drivers had excellent starting positions. While William Byron and Kyle Larson both had optimistic starting positions, the other two were not so lucky. Chase Elliott unfortunately had to start from the rear, and Alex Bowman had a solid start in the middle of the pack. After an exceptionally fast pit stop, Alex Bowman was able to get out of the pits and take the lead, passing who I think was Kyle Larson. 

When I came to the race, I knew I wanted some Chase Elliott gear. I think every Hendrick Motorsports fan has some sort of Chase Elliott gear! But I also wanted some of Jimmie Johnson's which would be harder to find since he was no longer racing in NASCAR (he drives the #48 Carvana in Indy Car, also really cool!).But I did however find a piece to remind me of his Lowe's sponsorship!

Back in 2001, Lowe's partnered with Jimmie Johnson, who was a nobody at the time. Why? Great relations with Hendrick and a promise from the legend Jeff Gordon, former Hendrick Motorsports driver of the #24 car, claiming that Johnson had great potential. 

Some people think Lowe's left because Home Depot, the classic Lowe's rival, bailed in 2014. It is certain that the reason they left had to do with business however; Lowe's loved Jimmie!

Anyways, after I saw Alex Bowman in Jimmie's famous Ally car cross that finish line, I knew that although the drivers have changed, my favorite car has not! I think it's time to say I am a proud Alex Bowman fan after that day; or better yet, a fan of the #48 car!

I also had all of my AP tests over the time I was missing. I absolutely wanted to die on the Calculus BC exam, but the Physics I and the Computer Science A exams went very well! Yesterday, I finished all of my finals, except the second part of my calculus one. Ironically, apart from my computer science and English exam, I did the best on the calculus final! Or so I think!

Now on to a little more discomforting subject. Last Saturday, as much as I hate to say it, my grandmother passed away. She was a legendary cook and a legendary grandma! She always loved given whoopins', and I'm sure those will be carried on by my cousin! I never went to Disney World with my dad's parents, but I do know my cousins did, and boy oh boy did they have a blast! It makes me happy to think that my hardworkin', firefightin', grandpa and his good boy Tawny have been joined by my grandma so they can feast at the big table with the big man!

As an introvert, I find funerals very uncomfortable however, so I am a little concerned about that, but I know it means a lot to my dad and the rest of my family, so I'll tough it out. 

I still remember where I was when I learned that my grandma died; my mom told me that morning that they were expecting it soon, and that was all I could think about on that beautiful, Saturday drive to work. When my brother hauled his lazy butt in later that day, I told him to be cognizant towards the fact that she might pass, and he seemed a little shook, but seemed to manage himself well. Later that afternoon, my brother went on break, and returned to tell me she had passed, apparently she had left us earlier that morning. I still remember sitting in the back room, making about a dozen money bags for my clerks. I was a little shocked because I thought she had a little more time. I guess not. 

But people die, and that's life. I think I've talked about this unfortunate subject a lot at this point, so I'll shut up now. 

All in all, my eventful absence has been filled with ups and downs, but I think I'm going to use the "ups" to look at the good in the bad in the "downs", if you catch my drift. Oh, that also reminds me, I'm now practicing skateboarding at robotics! But that's a story for another day!

Congratulations if you read this far, but like always:

Thanks for reading, 

The Questionable Programmer

"Ups and downs in life are very important to keep us going, because a straight line even in an ECG means we are not alive"

- Ratan Tata

2021 Results Update

 Hi all,

I don't want to waste your time so I suppose I'll jump right in. Although this title is partially clickbait, it is still partially true! We did submit all scores last Thursday, and when we did, we were still in first in our group! This is great news, and I really look forward to seeing if win! Technically, we already unofficially won our division, but I need FIRST to say that for it to be true and exciting!

Our division's scores can be found here if you have not seen them yet. 

I apologize for not updating on Thursday or Friday, but I think this is close enough! 

Thanks for reading,

The Questionable Programmer

2021 At Home Season and Catch Up

Hello readers,

I'd first like to apologize for my disappearance once more; I have been awfully busy with work events as well as robotics of course. 

As most of you know, the FRC 2021 season is a little special, to say the least. Rather than hosting the typical build season with in-person events and a World Championship (which we attended in 2019!), they decided to create three different challenges encompassing both those who have access to their robot, and those who don't. 

For those who are interested in FRC Game Theory and Design, there was a challenge for that. There was also a product design challenge for team's who are more focused on universal and community impact. More information on these two challenges can be found here.

Personally, I took more interest in the third challenge: the at-home challenges. These were challenges that involved the robot and its capabilities, such as cycle speed, accuracy, driver skill, and autonomous potential. 

Long story short, we were randomly assigned a group of 29 teams to compete with, and it seems pretty good. 303, Test Team, was the only team I recognized from the FMA district however; all the others are new to me. 

We generally have really strong scores across the five challenges. Not perfect, but good; in fact, maybe good enough to win our group? Maybe. We are interested to see how other teams do, but so far no team has compared to our scores. Until now. 

FRC Team 3130 of Minnesota is here with some good scores, and it's rather frightening. We are about even, and I have yet to see them post scores to the two shooting challenges. I need to get the autonomous challenge faster to secure a win however. Nevertheless, there are less than three days of competition left. All scores are due on the eighth by 3 PM Eastern. Tomorrow I plan on speeding up that auto, and taking Wednesday if need be. 

Nevertheless, we are going to do the best we can, and if we cannot beat them, too bad so sad. Nothing much we can do about their score. But I remain hopeful. I look forward to updating you all on the eighth. 

Small rant time. Skip if you want. 

So when I first started the season, I was excited to see FRC's unique take on the 2021 game/games. My opinion of the 2021 season gradually declined however. To be honest, I feel as though it is a lot more tedious and frustrating than a normal season. I also really dislike the way FIRST is handling the scoring. For two of the scores, they state that if you over-score yourselves, accidentally or purposefully, they throw your score out. If you underscore it, they do nothing. It's like The Price is Right. Yet unlike The Price is Right, this infuriates me. I think it's stupid that one small mistake or difference in opinion is a throw-away of what could maybe be the best score ever. It's not like teams would argue; they basically have no valid way of arguing since they have no idea who scored their piece. 

Although the Power Port challenge, a challenge which includes 60 seconds of cycling and shooting is exciting, it is, in my opinion, almost ignorant of the robot's skill compared to the skill of the human participants. 

By forcing two people to collect the same three balls from either behind the power port or in front of it (depends on which configuration you used), you are testing the robot's aim, and that's about it. Speed of the robot does not play a huge role, but human speed and hand-eye coordination do. FIRST prides itself on offering activities that give the competitiveness of sports, but also the joys of robot skill and performance and not the physical potential of team members. Speed of the robot is typically regardless because humans will usually take longer than the robot. This challenge also frustrates me because the challenge incorporates little of the robot. For us, it was really only the shooter and the aiming components. We didn't need the intake and the climber, and that goes for most challenges to be honest. It was always these systems. I felt disappointed in the challenges we received. To prevent being overly hypocritical, let me lay down a few suggestions: a speed-climbing challenge, an auto challenge which involved shooting, or a color wheel challenge. 

Although my proposed challenges present a plethora of difficulties, isn't their job to overcome these? I don't think the challenges are that difficult to implement, and I certainly think they provide a better alternative to the 2020 game people were looking forward to playing. Shooting these yellow dodge balls repeatedly is quite boring, and drivetrain skill is certainly nothing new. 

All in all, I feel as though these games are the "tip of the iceberg", and that this season could have been so much more if they put more effort into these at-home challenges. 

However, what's in the past is in the past, and I certainly can not change it. 

End rant. 

In early March, I managed to earn myself a promotion at work. In fact, I am now an assistant supervisor. My tasks are much more different than what they used to be, but they still revolve around the same core concepts: respect, treat guests well, and honor our founder. I look forward to dealing with the Karens and helping out my coworkers across the park! My first day is this Sunday, although it was originally supposed to be the past weekend (one of my close friends and team members got COVID-19 [he will be ok]), so hopefully I can inform you when I also inform you about FRC Team 3130 and our performance. The shift also happens to be a double shift, 0830 - 2100 *excited nerd noises*!

Easter was also yesterday, so it was nice to see most of my family together and healthy too. 

I have a lot of stress on my mind with these challenges, so the sooner its over the better I suppose. Just gotta do my best! 

Again, sorry for my disappearance; just know that I'm still here, and still coding. 

Just kidding! Look here for my most recent work involving Bezier curve generation and following. If you wanna see the inner guts of it, trace it back to the swervedrive.py file in the subsystems folder and locate the methods you are interested in (which is most likely the slope finder of higher degree Bezier curves!) This code certainly lives up to my name of, The Questionable Programmer. 

And with that ladies and gentlemen, I bring this to a close. Thanks for sticking with me once again, and I look forward to writing to you all very soon. 

Sincerely,

The Questionable Programmer

"It always seems impossible until it's done." 

- Nelson Mandela

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Review, College, and Adventure!

 Good afternoon everyone! 

I hope everyone here had a happy holiday, I know I did! 

I would have liked to post much earlier, but a lot had happened recently, so I couldn't find the time. Let's start with Christmas. 

This year was much like any other; we get up, open presents, then go to my grandparents the next day. 

This year, my parents got me new winter boots, which will really come in handy later (I'll explain later in this post)! I also got a new laptop, which is what I am writing this on as of now. It's a really nice Dell Laptop, so Dad, when you read this, thanks again. There is only one issue with it: the OS is Windows 10. While I still despise Windows 10, I really don't like Edge! I need to set Chrome up on this laptop, but I just haven't got around to it. One of the gifts I did not expect was a multimeter! It's a really nice Fluke 117! I try to use it whenever I can, since its nice to practice and experiment with. All in all, the multimeter is most certainly my favorite present. 

So like I said, we went to my grandparents the next day, and it was nice to see everyone. Well, mostly everyone. My one cousin has COVID-19, and therefore could not attend the get-together. That makes him the second one in my family to have become infected by the virus. He seems to just have a cold, and will most likely be just fine thankfully. Anyway, another one of my many cousins, a Lance Corporal in the Marines, was there with his girlfriend, and it was nice to see him too, but that's not why I brought him up. I think it was one of my aunts who offered him the task of opening the wine bottle. Well, I'm not sure if he's never done this before, but it didn't go well. He took the bottle in one hand, and the corkscrew in the other, and really, really pulled on the screw. In fact, he pulled so hard on both components that he dropped the wine bottle. As you would expect, my entire family started screaming at him. His father, grandmother, and brother were the most furious. He kind of just stood there chuckling in shock and surprise. Naturally his brother and I then turned to his girlfriend to rightfully welcome her to the family! 

His brother doesn't serve in the military and instead works for a mortgage company. He's really kind and enjoys writing stories. I don't mean your typical novels; I'm talking really odd, but interesting, science fiction stories and the liking. He does this on the side, and even gets some published! He and I talked for almost the entire time at the family gathering. He typically likes to go on and on about this table top roll playing game called Vampire: The Masquerade. It's like D&D but with vampires. And it's not like I don't enjoy listening to his explanations and stories; in fact, as a fan of D&D, I find this alternative really interesting! 

Now that I have discussed the gathering, I suppose I'll move forward in chronological order. Next up, would be my college decision. Oh, I should mention, I got accepted into Penn State University Park! I finally decided to commit to a college once I found out how competitive Penn State dorms were. I also figured, what's going to change between now and January when I planned on deciding. 

After consideration for many months, I decided on: Michigan Technological University. 

Why? Well, let me start by discussing my insecurities with high school. While progressing through high school, especially in 10th grade, I learned that I was not like everyone else. 

I did not take interest in athletics like most people, nor was I good at them. I got into bad training habits and that really disappointed me. While most of my classmates were focused on their looks, relationships, and athletics, I was focused on my grades and not much else. Throughout this, I kind of blindsided what everyone else thought of me. 

This is how its been for a very long time. Like a very long time. For crying out loud, my best friend was my teacher in 3rd grade. I absolutely hate looking back on this, but I still recall standing next to her for the entire duration of recess for many days. I don't know why I never caught on like most people, but like I said this tunnel vision of mine remained for many years. 

When I reached tenth grade, I realized all of this and rapidly became more and more self-conscious and insecure. I became much more quiet. I considered very few people friends. I looked more and more towards my robotics team for support. 

This is when I learned that a lot of people on the robotics team appreciated and liked me, the old me. The one who naturally fit in, and didn't go into this depressed hiding state. I feel like I can revisit that old me at MTU. 

Now, how does this relate to my college decision? Well, I feel as though Penn State is a larger school and it will therefore be more difficult to find out where I fit in. I also distinctly remember, both my faculty advisor and student contact saying that no one is trying to impress anyone at MTU. There are no cliques, and everyone gets together as one. That unity sounds amazing, and that sounds like the college experience, I not only want, but the one my mental state needs. 

MTU is also an adventure. I have been up there once, and I have never experienced that much snow! I want to travel and see the world, and I figured it would be nice to knock one out in college too! This interest in traveling probably came from my father, and it really grew after we road tripped out West!

The campus is also really beautiful. Here are two screenshots that I just took while writing this actually!

 

Side note, I applied for a private bathroom in the dorm on the right that looks like a right bracket from above (]). It's called Wadsworth Hall. 

Lastly, the education is just as good as Penn State. I get more hands-on experience, which is rare at a school as large as PSU. I also got a scholarship worth $80,000, and I think its nice that they recognized my hard work. 

The only concern I have is with my dad, and the younger me. As a child, I always grew up wanting to go to Penn State Main Campus, and now that I finally can, I don't want to let my younger self down. I don't think I will though. I was naïve and did not look at any other school. I also feel like Penn State has changed ever since they closed Ye Old College Diner! I kind of took this as a sign that this might not be the school for me. Although the campus is beautiful, the community just doesn't suit me. But like I said, I don't want my dad to be disappointed that I'm not going to his Alma Mater. He has said many times that he isn't and I do believe him now, but will it always be that way? I hope so!

So there you have it. That's my college plan. Oh, I majoring in electrical engineering if I haven't mentioned that. 

Now, time to move onto the 29th. On the 29th, we went skiing at Elk Mountain! I was ecstatic because we just bought some gear and everything the night before! I also can say that I went on an intermediate, or a blue (it was labelled as green; I think that was a mistake!). It didn't go very well to say the least! But I conquered the bunny hill with ease, as well as a kind of long and steep hill called the West Slope. I had a lot of fun flying down that hill with my dad. We also brought Noah, who had never really gone skiing before. He focused on the bunny hill while we were there, and resorted to falling as a way of stopping! By the end of the day however, he seemed to have got the basic concepts down pat. Skiing involves a lot of confidence in your speed and ability to stop yourself in my opinion. Here's a photo of me at the top of West!

Yesterday, the 30th, I also managed to finish writing a Reddit reply bot! The bot simply insults people upon command, and you can find the open source code here! I need a server to actually get it working, but right now, it uses another API to generate evil insults and will insult whenever its name is called upon someone in a reply or comment. But like I said, it will only work, when I'm running the program on my computer! Here is the link to the code on my GitHub. I surely think this is living up to my alias!

Today is New Years, and I have my younger cousins coming over soon. They want to celebrate New Years with us they said, and I was really surprised because I don't think they know we don't do anything special!

Anyway, thanks for reading whatever I'm going to call this. This is probably my longest post yet, and am surely exhausted now. I think I spent an hour and a half writing this. But nevertheless, it's nice to vent here sometimes.

Thanks for reading,

The Questionable Programmer

How Many of These Posts Am I Gonna Have to Make?

No, no, I'm not dead; just incredibly busy and a little stressed. I guess it's been over a year since I've last posted. Well...

For starters, I am now a senior in high school, and still take part in my robotics team. We've been doing really well recently, and I am super stoked for 2021, no matter what happens! Final, season gotta go out with a bang. 

As most of my few readers know, 2020 was a bust and it was a rather painful experience for me and some of my teammates. We started the season well; we had the resources we needed and the experience we desired. We went on through the build season, building a competitive robot that certainly had a lot of potential if we made a few tweaks here and there. But then our DE rolled around, and in my opinion, I kinda screwed the pooch. 

Let me start out by saying that the qualifying matches had its ups as well as its downs. Due to this, we did not qualify super well, and in consequence, we were picked by the eighth alliance. Now, do not get me wrong, these two teams were awesome, and we had actually won our most recent offseason event with one of them! But as the eighth alliance, we had to face the number one seeded alliance there first. 

The quarterfinals started off poorly when we lost control of the robot due to an unsecured ethernet cable. We quickly identified the issue, and decided to stop our systems checks, as it seemed to only be hurting us. To the amazement of the entire event, we won the next match against them, becoming the one and only alliance to beat them at that DE. The record was now 1-1. We proceeded into the next match with our heads held high, and excitement burning in our stomach. I was ecstatic, much like the rest of the team, but my celebration only lasted so long. We began scoring early on in the match, and we had a fantastic outlook. I of course did not know this, as I was driving and not focusing on the score. 

And then it happened. I remember it as clear as day. The Infinite Recharge game has a strict climbing rule; the rule states that you may raise your climber up in the end game, and if you raise it any earlier, you will be dealt a penalty of 15 points. 

And of course with me being the stupid klutz that I am, I raised it too early. This certainly wasn't the first time this happened for me, which made this that more depressing. Now here's what makes this the most sad: we would have won that match by one point if I did not commit that violation. One point. Let me be clear: one point. The first alliance versus the eighth alliance. This would have been the upset of the season! Now surely there were other factors at play. For example, our captain, our defense robot, received a 15 point penalty as well due to an illegal hit. But because I am who I am, I naturally placed the blame completely on myself and lost a lot of self-confidence. Still working on it, but I'll talk about that later. 

So that was the DE. Now, I'm sure everyone around the world knows of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the entire season was cancelled to prevent jeopardizing the participants, judges, and spectators. 

However, FIRST Robotics Competition did indeed decide to replay the game in 2021. My senior year. A game that brings back awful memories, and simply a game that I did not enjoy as much as the years before. 

Over the quarantining, I of course had to keep up with school work and maintain my grades. The robotics team decided that it was appropriate to halt meetings for some time, although we did resume eventually. One of the things we must cherish is the ability to actually work on our robot however; many teams could not and still cannot access their robots to due online schooling, or the lack of school-supported extracurriculars. 

We decided to rebuild the robot, almost from scratch. After a long, gruesome couple of weeks, a few students, including myself, finally pulled a design together and began planning and executing. We are still tweaking this robot as of now, and are closely watching FIRST, as they have begun to release expectations for the 2021 season. As of now, they're looking at an online competition that also allows students who may not have access to their robot to compete. It's certainly different and disappointing, as the hotel and overnight experience makes it that much better! My team is still unsure on whether we should participate, as there is currently a $2000 registration fee.

Anyway, I'm sure most readers know this, so let's get back to the questionable programmer here. First off, my future!

As a senior, it is time for me to select my next path and my goals. What have I decided so far? Well.

I have already been accepted into what is currently my number one school, Michigan Tech. I plan on applying to Penn State in the next few days, as I'll receive my most recent SAT scores on Friday. I still have to decide if I want to leave my home state of PA of course. 

I have also chosen what I will be studying in college. I will be majoring in electrical engineering, and minoring in mathematical sciences. Why? For those who do not know, I love math. I love it because it takes away whatever is on my mind and forces it to focus. Basically, it clears my stressful and saddened mind. I don't want to become glorified IT or deal with data manipulation all day long, which is why I do not want to go into computer science. Computer engineering? Looked at it, and frankly, I think I would enjoy more careers in the EE field than the CS field, so I figured, why not go all in?

So that's my future as of now. Still partake on my high school's cross country team and the track and field team. I unfortunately had to stop XC last season due to bacteria and damage to my liver. Lot's of antibiotics and medicines have got me up and going again however. But, because of a multitude of issues including my liver, the pandemic, and a focus on robotics, it pains me to say that I have gotten really out of shape for XC. It is rather disheartening to compete poorly in comparison to your younger self, and this makes my life this much more stressful. That being said, my last meet is tomorrow (yes, it's 11 o'clock, and I'm still up before a meet) so I am happy to get this off my plate. 

I don't know if I ever discussed my current employment. Well, I am currently an assistant supervisor at a local amusement park, and I love it there! The benefits and the pay are great, but the coworkers are even better! The customers however, well, I won't talk about them. 

And lastly, I have my drivers license test this Friday! I am super excited, apart from one concern: parallel parking. I personally feel underprepared, although I have done it before. This has made me very stressful recently, and I wish I could just keep practicing. I'll probably skip robotics tomorrow to practice, but we'll see what happens. 

Why did I come back to write this you may be wondering? This blog offers me a place to "talk" to someone, which is really comforting. At school I am a bit socially-awkward, and don't like talking to people. I typically feel like I'm being judged all the time and that other kids think I'm an annoying dork. So, I try to talk as little as possible, unless I'm in a comfortable environment. Robotics has been becoming more and more dramatic as well, which is very, very frustrating. Personally, I don't believe that the robotics team is the place to discuss relationships or attend for social hour. You wouldn't attend soccer practice just to talk, would you? Actually, I hate soccer; make it football instead. Anyway, the point still stands. This has also made it harder for me to talk to people, as the people here aren't the same people that used to be here one or two years ago. It's odd trying to relate to them especially when your views on things are so different. 

So, to sum that up, I returned to this blog because I wanted to talk to someone about my stresses. I would be shocked if anyone gets this far into this however, or just simply reads any of it!

So, my schedule? Well I'm gonna try to post at least once a week now, because I think I'm finding it rather helpful and relaxing right about now. 

I also plan on posting my journey through college here!

I hope this post doesn't look like a pile of words on a page, and you can instead understand what's happening with me and in me. 

Well. 

Here's hoping to another week! 

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." 

- Albert Einstein