DON'T VOTE IF YOU ALREADY HAVE!!!
See Poll-ution
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Polls
I reopened three of the polls. They shall remain opened until arbitrary times during the 23rd hour of the last day of the year.
JEANSPAKCMO
Highlights recently travelled to Kansas City, Missouri for the NSPA/JEA Fall Convention.
I really don't feel like going into a whole spiel about the trip; quite frankly, I'm surprised that I could even drag myself to type this paltry amount of words out.
So, bullets for now, perhaps some explorations later. Perhaps.
- We didn't place for Best in Show, but it doesn't really matter because Highlights is the bloody best it's ever been since I've been going to this school, thanks to the redesign by our EICs.
- I now see why Whamboozal is considered epic, even though its spelling goes against all instincts.
- 2010 roommates > 2009 roommates, for a variety of reasons. Nothing personal.
- Kansas City is a really pretty place, with nice people [here's NOT looking at you, Gates BBQ lady, though]. I liked the structure, with the different districts. I wish we had horse carriages.
- The Best Western exceeded all expectations, but the absence of the fabled Chuck left us all heartbroken.
- HOW MAY I HELP YOU?
- Word of advice: don't order soda pop if you notice there's only one size. Two people will not be able to finish one drink.
- Meat≠happiness
- ^^^ I'm okay with not eating any meat ('cept some chicken)- or barbeque for that matter- for a long, looong, loooooooooong time.
- Wtf is up with all the other high schools giving us snobby looks?
- Word of advice: There is such a thing as too much chili pepper in you Mongolian barbeque. Which, incidentally, was probably the best Mongolian barbeque I've ever had.
- Did you know that you actually spell barbeque 'barbecue.' I googled it to make sure my Dashboard dictionary wasn't lying to me.
- Click click? No.
- Cinnamon rolls? Yes.
- Coffee? Not unless you want to have a weird meltdown just before the afternoon awards show.
- Fran's knows it's food. And hot chocolate.
The competition itself was interesting. There were four categories of competition in one room, so it was quite packed; I competed in Editorial Writing.
Everyone else seemed to possess an air of confidence that was in no way exuded by myself. I have no idea if that sentence was grammatically correct. They were all armed with dictionaries and thesauruses [thesauri?]- even bloody tape recorders.
The panel time and subsequent writing period vanished quickly. Some-in the same competition- finished literally ten minutes after the end of questions. There was still a significant amount left, though, when I finished, ten minutes before the time limit.
I felt extremely drained after finishing. I blanched when I first saw the topic, but I felt a bit better after roughly outlining it.
I still didn't feel completely confident, though. The lead was wonky and I wondered if the concluding paragraph wa
s a bit abrupt. Most of all, I was concerned that I hadn't made a clear proposition.
Anyway, everything worked out. I was one of four to win Superior for the category, and I got lovely feedback from t
he judges-the lead was a bit off, but they liked the conclusion.
I was...shocked. And happy- VERY happy, although I guess it took a while to sink in.
In all, there were five winners from our school.
Now we want to place for Best of Show. Watch out, SM Southnortheastnorthwestwestsouth High.
:o
^^Courtesy of
Check out Danny's website too.
Friday, November 5, 2010
"Happy" Guy Fawkes Day, Pt. II
So my friends, it seems as if we have come full circle.
Normally, people tend to reflect on the past year of their life at holidays that are by consensus viewed as significant, like New Year's or a birthday. I, however, choose Guy Fawkes day.
I shall now attempt to remember my life, month by month, in the past year. I do not care if this is profoundly boring for you.
November: Washington, D.C. At the risk of sounding melodramatic [Me? Melodramatic? haha!], a general loss of trust occurred during this month.
December: Did you know that Egg Nog+Pepsi=golden?
January: All I can remember at this point is that I got full marks on my French final. How sad is that? The memory part, not the grade, mind you.
February: The month sans meat. You can read about it. Somewhere. I'm thinking about repeating this. Albeit, when it's not Chinese New Year, so I don't have to go another year without the Firecracker Chicken of Panda Express. Priorities, man.
March: I cannot recall anything specific, but that was the era of "In the Spirit of Full Disclosure," hyperlinked for your convenience.
April: The Friday of empty classes, due to Coachella and Portland JEA. Euro review sessions.
May: AP test! And then God knows what. I discovered "Pan's Labyrinth" was actually brilliant, "The Graduate" ensured that Simon and Garfunkel trotted around my head the whole day, and most appropriately for this date and post, I finally got to see the entirety of "V for Vendetta."
June: A pretty good month. World cup! World cup! World cup! The last week was intensely stressful and very, very bittersweet. Closed out this month in Bombay.
July:Calcutta. In all sincerity, I've realized that a post on my time in Calcutta is ridiculously long overdue. This is one aspect of myself that irritates me to no end.
August: Calcutta, Dehra Dun, Delhi. Family reunions, full houses,c cold coffee, short tempers, psychopathic dogs, there's-never-such-a-thing-as-too-much-Chinese-food, and nail polish.
September: At this point, I hadn't talked to anyone my age, forget people in LA, in two months. I remember brimming with excitement to go to school and get my schedule, which actually ended up being the most glorious 1-6 schedule imaginable. School has a different vibe this year, methinks. But I think it's for the better. I have classes with people I haven't had classes with in years, whilst I have no classes with people who have been in at least one since fifth grade.
October: The busiest month of the year.
November: It's five days old. As for expectations, I can't sense anything about Kansas City next week, which is making me really impatient.
Looking back, I'm disappointed. I turned 16 one month and a day ago. It all happened so fast. There were things, some superficial, some...not, that I wanted to accomplish before I hit that mark. I need to get cracking. I turn 17 in 11 months [holy shit], and as everyone knows that means I can do magic outside of school and am therefore a legal adult.
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