Entries for February, 2005

To clear things up a bit, I'll explain in detail what El Camino's loss to Taft High School means.

There were only four schools in the whole nation with a team total of over 48,000 points out of a possible 60,000. All four were from California. [does that say something about our kickass state, or what?] The winner of the state competition from the four schools [Moorpark, Taft, Edison, and El Camino] are the favorites to win nationals.

For the LAUSD Regional Competition, Taft defeated us by 400 points, the equivalent of about 20 test questions. to put that into perspective, the 9 members of a team answer a rough estimate of 4,500 questions total in one competition.

During the individual medaling ceremony, we thought that we were going to be blown out of the water by Taft. They were sending up gold medalist after gold medalist while El Camino sent up many more silvers than gold. But it turns out that all those gold medals for Taft were won by two or three superstars on the team. That means that the team average would be a lot lower than ECR's because sending up two silvers adds up to more points than a single gold.

Also, ECR didn't send up any individual medalists for Super Quiz and Economics, and one bronze for Music. So we felt like we would lose ground on Taft by at least a thousand points and maybe even slip to 3rd or 4th place. However, our silver, bronze, and honorable mentions were so close to the high scorers on the other teams that we closed a large gap without realizing it. There are many more factors to the loss, but right now our team is feeling very confident that we can make up points in every subject.

Personally, I performed very well. Overall, I earned 3 gold medals, 4 silver medals, 1 bronze medal, and 3 honorable mentions. I placed as a silver medalist for the second-highest Varsity score in the city, along with Kevin as Overall Silver Honors All-city and Micah as Overall Bronze Varsity All-city.

All in all, we were very happy with our score and the way the competition turned out. We expect to overtake Taft by the state competition [in about three weeks], so our main worries are Moorpark and Edison.

El Camino's fourth national title is ours.

Written by jihwan at 12:43 AM.

8 x 0 = 0

Notice how all my entries are focused on Deca these days?

After our work day [9 to 5, anyone?], Ben, Kevin, Lindsey, and I decided to meet up at the Commons to do some more studying and relax. We analyzed the scores for regionals, poked some fun at the Scholastics for losing out to the Varsities, had some dinner, and walked around, enjoying the lazy night life of Calabasas, the aristocratic watering hole of the valley.

There was a live band playing that night, so we meandered around to jazzy, psuedo-sophisticated background music. We studied some art pieces, pointing out to each other the intricacies of the artworks, trying to regurgitate how much we'd learned. The year-round Christmas light decorations lit up the whole place with this warm glow that reminded me of [yay for original thought] Christmas. It was, to say the least, purty.

We had some ice cream and sprawled around one of the many tall heat lamps that were scattered about, talking about things ranging from abortion to religion to childhood memories. The water of the artificial stream burbled down the artificial gorge, only to be rerouted to the top again, destined to loop the same path of life over and over. All the while, four teenagers were genuinely having a great, relaxing time probing ever deeper into each others' intellectual views and personal values.

The artificial chime of bells rang out from the speakers hidden inside the artificial steeple, solemnly announcing 11 o'clock.

We each started home, tucking those five hours into a cozy cache of our memories to later dig up and smile at.

Written by jihwan at 11:57 PM.

13 x 0 = 0

Writing.

It's a completely different kind of communication. You have no gestures to impart your meaning, no facial expressions to subtly hint at your emotions, no voice inflections to let the listener know what you want to say. All you have are the twenty-six letters of the alphabet and the limits of your ability to piece string words together in order to get your feelings across.

And still, writing seems to be the one form of communication that moves people, touches hearts, and changes societies. Why? What's so great about the art of writing that stirs something different within people? I know many people have never thought of writing as much more than a skill for everyday use - not any different from driving or writing out checks. Why is that? Why are so many people unable to see the beauty of writing?

The feeling of using that precise word imbued with the exact connotation of your emotions, the way the phrase "fiery tempest" creates an intense burst of gorgeous images in your mind, or how the right arrangement of letters can connect you so deeply to people you've never met or known - they all add to the majestic power of writing.

Even now, as I sit here getting all sappy and sentimental over this concept, I'm amazed at the utter simplicity and infinite intricacy of language and the words that represent it.

I wonder how many lives I've touched, how many minds I've stimulated, how many people have been given a new outlook on writing through my own writing.

I don't expect to change the world.

It's just that it would be great if I make one person think for one minute about one thing that I write.








That's all. Have a good night.

Written by jihwan at 12:02 AM.

14 x 0 = 0

fly to great heights.

Written by jihwan at 11:30 PM.

22 x 0 = 0