In case you didn’t know, I went to St. Louis for the FIRST world championships. It was great. Unfortunately I left before everything finished because my flight left before everything ended.

Last night, I upgraded my Debian VM to Squeeze, and set up Google Authenticator on it. The Makefile is kinda terrible, but it works as of now. I just scanned the barcode that loaded the secret key into the authenticator app on my phone, and now I can authenticate with time-based one-time passwords. I got it to compile on Mac OS X (some things are hacked up), but I don’t think it exactly works. I’ll have to dig in further to figure it out though.

Google Authenticator works rather well, although one thing I want is a timeout indicator so I know when my password is going to expire, so I don’t get half-way through typing it and it times out.

That is all.

So, when I turned off my Xbox 360, then turned it back off, it said that I had none of the Orange Box achievements I had collected. Such BS.

However, I had fun playing Half-Life 2 again, as well as Portal. I started Half-Life 2: Episode One, and got out of the Citadel, but stopped to play some Halo: Reach with my friend Brant, and later, Lane joined us, while we were attempting to complete a weekly challenge.

So this weekend was turbo fun, and now people can be less mad about me not writing a blog post. Great job.

So have fun, and stay alive until Mid-Winter Break..

The “Build Season,” when we construct the actual robot, has started. Four teams have been assigned components to complete, with one team integrating the components together, as well as building the basic chassis. Many teams are already jumping onto completing their tasks, and are making good progress to completing our robot.

Something this will accomplish that is very critical is being able to build two robots, and have LOTS of driver practice. Driver practice is critical for success, and the last year, we got next to ZERO driver practice in.

Of course, I can’t reveal details, as it’s top secret, and if other teams were to get in on it, I’d be in real bad trouble, but I can tell you that this reorganization of the club will certainly make our robot a serious contender in the competition.

This isn’t going to be the last time I post about our club, but it’s the first this year.

My school district has cancelled school for today, and many students believe that we will not have school tomorrow either, as many of the roads are covered in thick ice, and since the temperatures are remaining low, standing water from melted ice is just gonna freeze back up.

On a slightly related note, I have finished watching all of Stargate SG-1. This puts me at having watched over 81% of all Stargate (if movies are counted as two episodes)

I will be completely caught up by the time Stargate Universe Season 2.5 comes around, so then I will just wait like everyone else for new episodes.

This year, we brought all three of our remaining robots, Catalyst, Bearenstein, and Odyssey.

Unfortunately, during the parade, due to the fact that Odyssey uses four CIMs to drive itself, we did not complete the parade route with a running robot, as we used our two batteries we had along with us.

However, after the parade, we did see many people visit our booth, and we were able to demonstrate the robot there. We allowed anyone who wished to drive Odyssey. They were allowed to drive around our booth, as well as over the “bump” that I’ve described.

Also, this year introduces a new parade meme. During our club’s first year, there was rain at the Maple Valley Days parade, so we were unable to run that year’s robot, Epic. Instead, one member, I believe Andrew Kerr, dressed up in a cardboard robot suit. By the end of the parade, the suit was falling apart and an 8 year old kid shouted “That’s not a robot!” This year, another kid was heard saying “Why are they carrying a triangle?” in reference to the bump, which is definitely NOT a triangle. It is a trapezoidal prism.

Unfortunately, half way through Sunday, our left side bogey wheels were unable to articulate, and they have yet to be repaired.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see our booth, we’ll be back next year!

Today, at my school, and thousands of other schools around the nation, students participated in a Day of Silence. It is a silent protest to bring to light “anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools.”However, silence is an ineffective tool against discrimination.

If you’re going to speak out about an issue, is being quiet a way of speaking out about it, or is speaking out about it a way of speaking out about it. Sure, the students are staging a protest, and that protest is silent. Why is it silent?

Think about a time when you were super angry at someone or something. Some people will go up in fire about it, while others silently slunk down in the corner avoiding contact with the known world. I find that when you are silent, not many people will support you. Conversely, when you speak out about the issue, you’ll get more supporters. It’s a matter of active versus passive.

Likewise, the Day of Silence protest is silent because people are passively protesting, not a good idea (as we saw in the above analogy) for gathering support for a cause. Silent protests are usually not heard either. Here’s some food for thought: you’re in a grocery store and there’s two vendors who are selling equally delicious appetizers. One vendor doesn’t say anything, and the other says “come try this.” Who are you going to go to? Of course. The point is, in today’s world, if you’re totally silent, no one’s going to hear you, whether or not it’s a protest or your shyness.

Being quiet is not the way to protest. People don’t see you’re protesting. On the other hand, speaking out about the issue helps a lot more. All the protests I’ve heard of are outspoken mass gatherings. I have not heard of one single protest except for this one which was totally silent. These protests do nothing. Sure, being silent may help to show your compassion for a friend who has been discriminated, but speaking out shows your compassion and it helps bring about change.

The Day of Silence needs to not be silent. Everybody knows that silence doesn’t speak louder than words, unless it’s a massive day of silence instead of just two people. People who don’t speak out are viewed as cowardly and weak, and that could cause more people to discriminate others based on race or sexual orientation. The issue of discrimination needs to be spoken about, not diminished by a day of silence.

This year, at the Seattle Regional, we were the 2nd seeded team. Yes, 2nd out of 64 teams. We also had the most Coopertition ™ Points, and therefore got the Coopertition ™ Award. We also won the Industrial Design Award, sponsored by General Motors.

Unfortunately, we were knocked out in the semi-finals again by the eventual winners of the event, Team XBOT, Hotwire, and SOTA Bots, so congratulations! We also did not win the Chairman’s Award, however Skunkworks did, so congratulations to them. So we again don’t get to go to “Altana.”

In related news, Kevin Ross and Deb Mumm-Hill announced that the state government DOUBLED the FRC grant money, so that more FRC teams can be started. This lead to the announcement of a possible second regional in the Seattle area, which we hope will be timed so that our team can attend it as well as the current Seattle regional and the Portland regional.

So far, we’ve been running the mill with just spraying with WD-40 as a coolant, but once we get actual coolant running across the tool, we can cut even faster than with just WD-40.

The hard part of making a drain to recycle the coolant is mostly complete, Mr. Prelesnik, a fabrication mentor put in a drain hole, through the shower vinyl that covers the table the mill rests on.

Unfortunately, we cut a lubricating tube because our Z-limit switch didn’t function. Thankfully, that part is easily replaceable.

The mill is actually a manual -> CNC conversion done by IH CNC. Kudos to them as they gave us help over the phone, even at 21:00 their time zone.

I’ll eventually post pictures.

We are working on making improvements to our robot, that hopefully will give us a better performance on the field.

At the beginning of the elimination tournament, our first match we touched the opposing alliance’s tower during the finale, and judges are deciding h0ow to handle that situation during the elimination, they are claiming our entire alliance got disqualified, after they had said our robot just got a red card, which meant only our robot could not complete next match.

I’m slightly confused by the situation, but I am very pleased that we made it into the elimination tournament.

Also to facilitate more ranting, one of the mentors decided he has so much knowledge and that he needs to take over the club’s website. Thing is, he ain’t smart, at all. He doesn’t know about the PulseAudio exploit and went and used Fedora 8, a vulnerable version, in a world facing environment. The opposite of a good idea.

So now I’m debating whether I should just quit the club because I can’t get those two problem people out of my way from participating the way I want to.

We got a loaner trailer for our stuff, while our own trailer is finished being made and decorated. We were packing it last night, and we must finish that today.

I’ll post from Portland.

I just need two more teachers to sign my permission form, then I am leaving on Wednesday, after school.

I’m driving down with other robotics club students, and we’ll make the drive fun.

There will be more when I get down there.

EDIT: All my teachers have signed my permission form, so I’m good to go!

The Build Season started on January 9th, with the season kickoff. On that day, FIRST announces the game robots are to play in competition that season. After the announcement of the game, our club went back to our school to think of strategies to play the game this year. We get 6 weeks to design and build the robot from scratch.

Our team has a fairly long way to go, and only 8 days to get there. I’m feeling that we’re going to finish just barely ahead of time, and we’ll do very well at competitions.

How are you celebrating your Winter break?

Class curves are intended to raise students’ grades above the fail line. Many students see this as a way of slacking off. We’re not talking about just one student slacking off, we’re talking about hundreds of students failing the class and hoping for a bailout from students. Class curves inspire students to slack off, not do better in school. Here’s why:

The moment that students hear that the class has a curve, many of them are inspired to slack off. They know that, even if they do bad, their grades will automatically improve by a few percent and not look as bad. Everyone starts failing, and then the teacher doesn’t want students to fail, so a curve is introduced to bump up everyone’s grades.

I like to compare this with lowering the standard. Allowing students with a D average to pass. Admitting students with a 2.0 GPA to get in college. We’re lowering the standard by arbitrarily raising everyone’s grades. Get rid of this!

First it was a test, and now our entire class is in the library.

At the beginning I thought this was going to be fun. But no… The only time we stepped out of the library was to get lunch.

Anyways, I’m about to fall asleep and I can’t wait to get out.

Thank you Akismet.

The CDC says that the number of flu cases at this time of year matches the number of flu cases that we usually have near the peak time of year.

Even though people are taking dire precautions such as washing your hands and staying home, the flu continues to spread, probably because one student gets sick while at school, even though they don’t know it. Their latent germs get over the staircase railings, and once these germs become active, anyone who has touched that railing is infected. The spread is exponential, and young people are at more of a risk because they have not been exposed to such strains before.

My advise: wash your hands as frequently as possible. I’m not even joking. And carry around a few plastic bags in case you have to touch anything that’s swine flu infested.

Enjoy.

The source of the delay in state was a teacher strike, which our own G. Liu discussed in a post right here.

The pure source of the teacher strike, the absolute root of the issues G. Liu stated as the source of the strike is money. The Kent School District’s lack of it. Kent lacks money to pay for building refurbishments that add classrooms, to pay for new teachers, and other issues.

The other problem is that Kent has way too much property covered by them. This specific point means that their schools are packed. There’s also 4 grades packed into the high schools, and 6 packed into elementary schools. Tahoma’s scheme of K-5 in Elementary, 6 and 7 in Middle, 8 and 9 in Junior High, and 10-12 in Senior High works very well. It provides a gradual approach to High School for students and gives a more gentle narrowing of schools. Tahoma has 4 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, one junior high and one senior high (as well as a “High School Alternative”). Kent has 28 elementary schools, 6 middle schools and 5 high schools.

Kent School District is about to be the next GM, going through an awkward “restructuring” to solve their problem. (GM still makes lousy cars though.)

Hopefully though Kent can survive at least until December without further strikes.

The reason the teachers went on strike in the first place was because issues such as classroom head count was unregulated and time spent with students was very small. In terms of these two parameters, Kent School District is not up to par, and the teachers wanted the School District to be. Thus, the teachers were really striking for the benefit of students, since less classmates equals more productivity and more time with the teacher means more learning.

August 31st, the first “day” of school, came around, and still no agreement between the teachers and the District. Finally, our superintendent, Edward Lee Vargas filed a complaint to Judge Andrea Darvas. On Thursday, she ruled that the strike was illegal, ordered the teachers to return to classrooms on Tuesday, and students to go back on Wednesday. But yesterday (Monday), teachers voted 71% to defy the judge’s order. I was absolutely ticked off.

Some parents and students actually supported the striking teachers. I stand fast in opposing this strike though. First of all, school has been delayed because of this stalemate between the two sides. Secondly, the School District has already offered the teachers a multitude of proposals that the teachers might as well accept, but no. The teachers are so stubborn, even in this recession, that they will by no means compromise. Horrible attitude, teachers. Such proposals they got were assistance for large class sizes and more pay. An alternative is better than nothing, so why not just accept and end this stagnant strike? Lastly, Judge Darvas already ordered the teachers back to class, and defying a judge’s order can result in jail time or fines. I would not risk this to continue on strike, and I don’t get why the hell the teachers are.

I’m absolutely pissed. This strike has made life boring, and there’s no end in sight. Some of my classmates say school will likely start in October, and Darren asked me what I would say if this case was taken to the Supreme Court? First of all, I’d laugh, and secondly, I’d already be attending a different school.

Done with teachers.
Done with homework.
Done with math, english, social studies, and all those subjects.
Done.

No more stress.
No more lack of sleep.
No more cramming.
No more nonsense.

No more angering the librarians by playing games on the computer that you’re not supposed to.

No more.
Done.

Rattlesnake Ledge

Here are some pretty tall trees:

My school year sucked. This year, was my first year being homeschooled. Apart from being homeschooled, I realized how much I hate my mother. So, I go to my grandparents house everyday, and do schoolwork.

So, I’m looking forward to summer. Looking at how the weather is now, I’m not too certain I’ll end up enjoying it though.

It was a year full of memories for me. When I started school back in September, I had to switch classes because “they” screwed up my schedule. After I switched classes, I discovered that I had a test on a book. While everyone got two weeks to read the book, I got three days, and yet, my teacher expected me to pass the test like everyone else. I didn’t pass the test and that ruined my grade for the rest of the year.

The first semester of school went on without much more happening. Tests, projects, quizzes, waking up too early, sleeping too late every single day. This was the case until December, when school was happily interrupted by storm after storm of snow, much more than we’ve gotten for the past twelve years. Some days we had late starts, and some days, school was canceled. Kids enjoyed the days they had off from school, but snow plow drivers and those who still had to go to work did not.

The second semester came quickly, and I tried some new things. I played a piano accompaniment for the orchestra and for several people at their recital. I went to our school’s restaurant and tried some great food there. I conducted the orchestra and went to a college to perform there. It seemed like I had finally found the zest of high school, even though I wasn’t in athletics or too many school activities.

And finally, after a few more concerts, contests, and competitions, it is almost time to say goodbye. Today, our principal recognized our seniors for their excellent work and their legacy at our school in a special assembly. They will graduate next Saturday and move on. For me, that’s still a while away, but a time will come, and when it does, I will look back at my twelve wonderful years and wonder: “What will be in store for me for the next twelve years?”

Where I live, Renton, we do not get so much so; not the most snow, nor the least. But this year seemed different.

We have had storm system after storm system move in on us. Wednesday experienced two inches of snow, nothing compared to what would happen next. On Friday, after the Wednesday snows had melted, we got a four-inch covering of snow, along with three millimeters of ice on top (yes, I measured that). This added ice made the snow exceptionally crunchy, like walking on potato chips.

Come Saturday, we had blizzard-like conditions. Around 7pm, strong winds started to blow all the snow off the rooftops. This snow accumulated wherever it could, including on our front porch. In fact, the snow drift was about two inches. This blizzard continued for a while.

In the end, Renton saw about twelve inches of snow. The ice left over from the previous storm was still there and as crunchy as could be. I built this huge bowl of snow, but I didn’t know what to do with it. Our neighbor built an igloo that was quite nice. That bowl of snow in my backyard was intended to be an igloo, but I didn’t know how to build one.

UPDATES

(Dec. 26, 2008 @ 3:08p): Meteorolgists were right in their predictions of another storm around Wednesday. The storm was not as severe as before, but we got quite some snow that I did not measure. This snow dragged on until Christmas Day Thursday, when it snowed all day and night. And, for the first time, our car got stuck in the snow. Luckily, we were able to get out.

No one plowed our neighborhood that day, so when we got back, it was all h*** broke loose. It got worse, though. Around 9pm, there was a sudden power outage. I don’t know what caused it, but I took some pictures of our neighborhood, which I will upload later. Lucky for us that the power came back around 10pm.

As I write this from a library in Bellevue, it is snowing, but not for much longer. This snow will turn into rain, and melt away what it brought. You’ll either be happy to be out of the deep freeze, or sad as the snowmen in your neighbor’s front yard melts away.

(December 29, 2008 @ 7:51p): More snow for this region is predicted any where from Monday to Wednesday*. It’s Monday, and for the past three days, all I’ve seen is rain, rain, and more rain. This rain has melted away 80-90% of our snow. It has also been very windy today.

Just a few days ago, something unfortunate happened in our neighborhood. Supposedly, two people were walking on one of the storm drainage lakes in our community. One of them fell through the ice. I’d infer that the other called 911. My dad witnessed some of the event, saying that there were four ambulances and several police cars. No one was aloud to watch, but my dad did see a gaping hole in the ice where the person fell through. The rescuers through a life ring into the frigid water in hopes of saving the victim, but that didn’t work. Police eventually had to don special wet suits to dive in the water as a last ditch effort for rescue. This story hasn’t appeared on the news yet, though.

(Jan 10, 2009 @ 8:0_p): We got an unexpected two inches of snow the day before school, so it was two hours late. Other than that, the snow has disappeared, but much of the sand on the streets remains. In fact, I was riding my bicycle and fell due to the sand.

The snowfall has been replaced by rainfall here, and hasn’t caused any problems for Renton. Elsewhere, it’s a different story. Floods closed all of the mountain passes and some major highways, which made Western Washington an island.

*Correction: The predicted storms are supposed to bring with them high winds and rain.

A view from my house in Renton, WA

Peace out,

Deathgleaner

On Tuesday, I won a pie eating contest supported by the ASB. The pie was lemon (bleh!), but I still won! Hopefully I can get a video up (if people who videoed me in the contest cooperate) so until then, just believe me. Oh and I was still hungry.

On Thursday at dinner, I shoveled ~ 3 plates of pasta into my stomach. After that, I was still hungry. Take that! I did feel my stomach stretch out to make room for the food.

So anywho, it has been an exciting eating week.

Notebook Software is software that enables you to use a board, called a Smart Board, to click on objects on your screen. The Smart Board also allows you to use digital pens to draw in programs like Smart Notebook and right on the screen. It’s sort of like a touch pad.

I was trying Notebook Software 10 out today. Here is a short summary of how much it sucks:

• In 1st period French class, I saw the transparency layer of the new Notebook Software. It was frickin crap bloated like hell. The frame looks heavy, and it’s VERY hard to use
• At lunch in the library, I was testing out Smart Notebook. I drew a freeform shape and tried to fill it with color. But guess what? The damn software wouldn’t let me fill it in.
• The splash screen for Notebook Software reflects on how bloated the software is. Sure, looks modern but is nothing but a load of bull.

After that experience, I wish that my school hadn’t updated to the new and crappier software. It’s so freaking bad, it makes MS Office seem good.

Like heavenly good.

Peace out,

Deathgleaner

PS: All school related posts will be filed under the tag “Kentridge” from now on as well as any other applicable tags.

Apparently, this one kid by the name of Eric put about twenty hot tamales into a full can of soda. Then, another guy, Ethan, took a sip of it and he could barely stand the spiciness. Then, another kid by the name of Tyrone took the can of soda and chugged it down like he hadn’t drunk in four days. His reaction wasn’t that bad, considering that Ethan had a flush-red face after just sipping a little bit.

I am Deathgleaner, and will report any future things that happen at my school.

Peace out,

Deathgleaner

Game show host: “What is the capital of France?”

Contestant: “F”

After all, F is the only capital letter in France.

I will try to keep updated on anything that happens around my high school.