State Olympiad

If you have read my previous posts you would know something about science olympiad. At least a little bit. Admit it.
Recently my team and I went to our state competition with 15 other teams coming. We were a strong team. The only teams  that were truly a threat to us were the 'magnet' schools. They only allow hand picked students to be on the team. Those were the teams that beat us and placed 2nd and 1st place. Our team placed 3rd in state. Everyone who placed in their individual events received a medal along with the partner we went into it with.
I went into four different events. Crave the Wave, Green Generation, Meteorology, and Dynamic Planet. I have been into all of these events before except for Crave the Wave which wasn't in any Invitationals.
I place 3rd in Crave the Wave with a kid named Gabe.
I place 1st in Dynamic Planet with Peihan.

I was a really great weekend all in all. I met some great new people and spent it with some amazing friends.

Book Review: A Snicker of Magic

1.            In the beginning of A Snicker of Magic we start learning the Pickle Family’s past. Why are they constantly on the move and why they don’t have a place to call home? The Pickles are heading to a place in the southern US called Midnight Gulch; a place that once had so much magic people came from miles and miles just to witness the magic. Felicity, her mother, and sister are set to live with their aunt until they move to the next town. On her first day of school she learns the story of all the magic that once possessed Midnight Gulch and why it disappeared. Some say there’s not an ounce of Magic left, it all left when one of the Magic Brothers left the town after their fatal duel. Others say there’s a little bit of magic left waiting for the right person to come along and set it free from the curse of the Magic Brothers. Can Felicity be that person to set it free?

        Later on in the book Felicity meets Jonah, a kid in a wheelchair always looking to do good for other people. When he meets Felicity he immediately knows why Felicity is so special. He says he can sense that Felicity will be the one to set the magic free. To do so she needs to put her talent to use. You see Felicity can see words and collects them occasionally writing poems, she needs to read them to the school and set the magic free. Jonah signs her up for the annual talent show, there’s just one problem, Felicity is afraid of public speaking. On the day of the Talent Show Felicity forgets her poems at home and must go on as she is the first act. She just starts talking when she walks up onto the stage. The words that come out of her mouth are the stories of the magic of Midnight Gulch. After she finishes the magic is released and everyone’s shadow start to dance around and are set free. This is where all the magic had been hiding.

               After this puzzling event the book wraps up quickly. Felicity’s mom has disappeared and no one can find her. The mayor of town had asked her to repaint the town’s mural before they left. Felicity’s mother had once been an avid painter but when their father left them she gave up painting. Because of this event the Pickles stay for one last week. On the day of the unveiling of the mural everyone who calls Midnight Gulch home was on the wall, including the Pickles. The Pickle family had finally found a place they could call home.

publications? publications.

Starting this year I joined journalism, we call it publications, at our school. Our team, consisting of 11 members including me, works on our school newspaper and the yearbook. This class is taught by our librarian who I also have first hour as a Library Aide. The class is a enjoyable learning experience with some great people and friends alike. At the beginning of the year we applied for editor positions, newspaper editor, yearbook editor, and head photographer. I applied for newspaper design editor. This position mainly dealt with the layout of the paper, it also crosses over with the copy editor, I help with spelling and grammar corrections. Needless to say I got the position.

Our newspaper is called the Gusher and it comes out every nine weeks. We try to allow the boys to do a sports article, we do some short quizzes, and we do some student and faculty interviews. This plus much more usually makes a amazing newspaper. I've done a article about some riddles that my father really likes. He works at my school along with my mom. My other article were some pictures of school teacher when they were in middle school. The column I will be doing for the upcoming newspaper is about what it takes our school to run. Next year I am going to try for Magazine at our high school. We have three magazines at the school and one is about creative writing which is my all time favorite.

Yearbook pages are divided up evenly amongst all out members. The editors decide who gets what and Mrs. Winward finalizes them. Each of the members also gets on page they requested, I requested the English page which became the English and Language arts page because most of the teachers taught both subjects. I worked on both pages with a girl named RJ. My other pages were football, 7th grade collage page, 8th grade dances, and the club page with Margaret. Clubs mentioned on the page are Battle of the Books, Science Olympiad, and Math Counts. Two of which I am in. We turned in the whole book to Jostens, our yearbook company, on February 13th. We are so proud and now we can relax and focus on newspaper.
I love Publications !!

our mission

Tuesday February 3rd, 2015: Five days before our next Science Olympiad invitational. As soon was we disperse to do our own little thing Mrs. Herron, our teacher, calls me over and asks if i would step in for Samantha who cannot make it to the competition on Saturday. She explained to me that we were not expected to know anything just to complete our Mission (I was going in with my friend named Izzy). Our Mission was simply to tell Sam exactly what was on the test so she could be prepared. I took this very seriously. I was very relieved to find out that this specific competition was not during my main event, Green Generation.

Wednesday February 4th, 2015: Freak out and start stressing about Meteorology because I don't want to be last place and fail our team. Go on the official website and jot down as many notes as I can while continuing to stress out.

Thursday February 5th, 2015: Still stress about Meteorology even though I have plenty of notes. I go to the evening meeting and Mrs. Herron tells me I will be a dead body in the Solar System with Izzy. Start freaking out about Solar System and take as many possible notes that will fit on 2 pieces of paper while listening to Ed Sheeran to calm my nerves.

Friday February 6th, 2015: Start worrying not about Solar System or Meteorology but about Green Generation because I forgot to type them up. It's also the day before competition and I have to get up a 4 to get to the bus on time. Get my laundry started, type up notes, print our on sucky printer, take shower, dry hair, straighten hair, talk to Izzy about tomorrow, get in bed 3 hours after I told myself I would.

Saturday February 7th, 2015: Wake up at 3:30 and remember I have failed to pack a lunch charge the batteries for the school camera and put my laundry in the drying. I jump up and stumble through the darkness to the washer and shove all my clothes into the dryer. Find all the food and quickly assemble a make-do lunch. Find batteries and put them on charger and hope for the best. About an hour later my clothes are done and I shove them on. My dad runs out to get breakfast while I find all my notes and shove them into my backpack along with my brush, hair ties, charger, headphones, pillow, and blanket, and throw myself out the door. We arrive at 4:55 and charge onto the bus and start the 3 hour drive to Norman. Fall asleep listening to Isaac sing Mary had a Little Lamb and Izzy yelling at him to shut up. Get woken up half way there at the bathroom break where I proceed to fall back asleep once the bus is quiet. Wake up when we arrive in Norman and find our home base. Finally I can relax. Like that could ever happen. We HAVE to get there late and me and Izzy's first competition is in 10 min and we still have to find the room where it's held. The day kinda blurs after that here's how the competitions go.

Meteorology: Find out our notes are over the wrong stuff and not detailed enough. Have failed to find our how we placed yet due to the fact we had to leave early and could not stay for awards assembly.

Solar System: Start the test and find out all the questions are pulled directly from the official Science Olympiad website which I use avidly. Feel accomplish coming out of the room except for the fact we didn't know the answers to the short answer section.

Green Generation: This event was combined with the high schoolers so me and Anna took a high school level test and placed 7th out of 15 schools.

I by the time we get on the bus and not feeling up to anything except maybe a nap, 5 mins onto the road I'm asleep for the third time that day. I later get woken up by Brayden saying that its time for dinner. Order a smoothie and chicken McNuggets from McDonalds. Eat them slowly and and almost fall asleep. Get on the bus and actually fall asleep. Wake up when the bus jerks to a stop after a car pulls out in front of it. Am to scared to fall asleep again. Help unload am picked up and dropped off by my dad at my house while he goes to sisters basketball game. Proceed to take selfies until sun goes down and then start to edit one and post on Instagram. Fall asleep watching Criminal Minds. Wake up  at 10 in the morning after a full 10 hours of sleep. This is the part where I am supposed to say that my week wasn't all bad considering what went down but I was taught to never lie. It was fun to go on the trip but so tiring I think I need another nap.

Update!!: Today we have the results of our competitions. In Solar System me and Izzy placed 4th our of 12 competitors. This was HUGE news for us! We were only given 2 days notice that we would e in the competition. We we ecstatic! Just imagine our excitement when we found out we placed 3rd in Meteorology!! We were only supposed to be in the competition to help out Sam! But we placed! Sam, our meteorology EXPERT didn't even place last time! I felt way to accomplished today.