New Quizzing Year’s Resolution

The year 2005 has come and gone. Now 2006 is upon us. If you don’t remember about last year, and past holidays too, I’m not a real big fan of New Year’s Eve and Day. I do stay up until midnight, but that is about it. The real excitement for me will come January 16, New Quizzing Year’s Eve. I will be so syked for quizzing to begin! Usually when a New Year comes around, people make “resolutions” that will improve the person. Don’t worry, I’m not going to rant about it. I actually think it’s a good idea. Since I concentrate on quizzing new year more than January 1 New Year, I do something differently. Instead of making a New Year’s Resolution, I make a New Quizzing Year Goal (I prefer the term Goal over Resolution). Here is my goal:

• Be on the Top 50 Quizzers List every week (especially the final list)
  
• Be a perfect quizzer for at least the first three weeks
  
• Achieve at least 13 quizouts (or ever more)

Be on the Top 50 Quizzers List every week (especially on the final list)
This goal I have been trying since my second year of quizzing, since I’ve been making goals for quizzing. I wanted to do something like this my second year. I wanted to finish on the Top 50 Quizzers List. But I failed greatly (I finished 195th). I was extremely disappointed, but by then end of the year I came to reality that I wasn’t a Moss and couldn’t do that well my second year. So the third year I didn’t try, and I was on the Top 50 Quizzers List for the first 5 weeks. So with my fourth year in quizzing, I just wanted to attempt to keep that 5 weeks, or do better with 6 weeks. I did for 7 inconsecutive weeks. If I didn’t have the stupid double material week because of the stupid snow, I would have completed this goal. But at the end of the third week, I ended up 55th.  I just missed it. Both times, I got on the Top 50 Quizzers List without trying. I don’t mean to brag, but from this I thing everyone can learn that if you trying even the slighest to complete a goal, you are already trying to hard. Don’t try and you’ll achieve it almost right away.

This goal I want to complete the most. I just missed it last year, by one bad week. The way I see it, this goal will be a slight step up from last year since it only requires one more week from last year. It doesn’t matter where I end up on the List, anywhere is good. Once I do this, I will finally be satisfied and not be so concentrated on this goal. I’m hoping this is the year will be the year. I just pray that this year will be no snow weeks  to throw me off.

Be a perfect quizzer for the first three weeks
Ah, another goal I wasn’t trying to achieve but did. In 2004 (my third year), I had two matches every week for my first two weeks. I quizzed out my first four matches. That every match my first two weeks. With that, after two weeks, I finished a perfect quizzer. Unfortuneatly, at my next quiz match,  I could not quiz out, ending that. Ever since, I have been trying to beat that. Last year it ended on my FIRST MATCH of the FIRST WEEK of quizzing when I couldn’t quiz out, but got 20 points. This year, I’ll take another try at it. I am hoping the the first three weeks of matches will be my easier matches just so it is easier to complete this goal. If I can do this, this will also be three weeks on the Top 50 Quizzers List, and this alone may ride me a few more weeks on it as well.

Achieve at least 13 quizouts (or even more)
In 2004, my third years of quizzing, I was amazed at my 7 quizouts. When I saw this, I vowed to get more quizouts the next year. The next year, I got 12 quizouts, 5 more than the last year. Once again, I want to quiz more. Not five more, that would be 17 quizouts, something I don’t think I can achieve now. I am just aiming for at least one more, 13 quiz outs this year. Achieving my last goal of a perfect quizzer for three weeks would help me greatly in this. If 2 of the 3 weeks have two matches and the other one of the 3 has three matches, and I become a perfect quizzer, I will then have 7 quizouts, and be halfway towards my goal.

Now that I have told everyone, I expect everyone to check up on me. Don’t worry, I will make sure you are all aware of my progress. I will try my best as usual. I’m going to follow the quizzing’s famous two-thirds rule. In quizzing, if you give two-thirds of an answer in thirty seconds (unless specified to give a full answer), then it is considered correct. If I complete two of the three goals above, then this quiz year would have been a success. For team goals, I really don’t like making goals. While I have a partial control in our team’s fate, I do not have total control of it. If something were to go wrong, I could be blamed, just as much as anyone else, for our downfall. That is why I try not to have huge expectations for our team. But I do hope. Since our team only has 5 members, 2 of which are beginners, it isn’t looking too good for a high finish in the regular season. But if we can teach them stratergy for getting team bonus, then we will be set for the tournaments! I hope that we can get a second consecutive ACC Tournament win. For the first one we were underdogs and won by God’s grace (literally). I pray that God will give us his favor to do that again. It would be awesome. And maybe, just maybe, if God is willing to stretch his favor, maybe we could win the Invitational in Ohio! I pray for God’s blessing on my individual and team performance.

I wanted to write this tomorrow on New Year’s Day, but I couldn’t becuz all day I will be gone at the Eagles game.  I am on the Eagles sideline at the 25 yard line, 35 rows back. Maybe you’ll see me there

OFFICIAL Countdown to the first quizmatch of 2006:
22 days, 19 hours, 37 minutes

Santamas: A Fake Christmas

Yes, it is that time of year again. Time for my annual Christmas rant. So if you like Christmas now as it is, close your eyes, hit the backspace (on internet explorer, hitting backspace is the same was hitting the back button) and turn away from this entry). But if you are looking for a new perspective, try thinking about this.

Growing up as a child, Christmas for the most part becomes a “gimme” time. All we think about this time is getting presents. We make sure all our friends, family, relatives and Santa know what we want for Christmas. When Christmas comes, we can hardly wait to open our presents, even to the point we get up extra early to do so. We are happy when we get what we want, and dissapointed in what we don’t get. After Christmas, it comes a competiton among friends who got the most presents, who got the costliest presents and who got what they really wanted (vs. getting stuff they didn’t ask for).

When we get to be adolesents, we usually earn our own money. So now we can usually buy the small things we want. The only thing we usually have the gimmes for is the expensive stuff that we cannot afford, and most likely neither do our parents. Another part of being a adolescent is having friendships closer than when you were a kid. Friends mean a lot for you and you want to show that you love and care about them. Now the competion of getting has switched to giving. We want to take our money and buy our friends the best and most expensive gift we can afford. While unmentioned, it becomes a competition between gift exchangers. You want to give a gift that is bigger and costlier than your friends’, and if you friends cost more and is bigger, you feel bad. Feeling is a big piece in this game of gift giving. You only feel good about gift giving if your friends really likes the gift. If they quickly disregard it, you feel bad and don’t like it.

Where do we get both of these ideas? The media, of course. Those commericials may seem boring, but they get to us. They tell us we must have something, almost to the point we need it. “If you have this product, you’ll be happy” is the basic message they try to give us. The same applies for giving. A JC Penny commericial says it itself, “Better gifts get better reactions.” They show commericials of people getting gifts, and the receiver is happy. They basically tell us that if we buy good (and usually expensive) gifts, we can make someone happy, which will make YOU happy. It’s like we can buy our feelings!!

Whichever way we look at Christmas, either the “gimee way” or the “give you way”, both end up tacking back to us. We either want literal, materialistic possessions, OR we want a feeling of gratitude, thankfulness, pride, happiness, or friendship back in return of giving an item. And sometimes, when we give, we do expect the receiver to give something back. With that in mind, we only give to friends who will know is getting you something for Christmas. Isn’t that horrible?! This can get so bad, even to the point that Christmas becomes a second Valentine’s Day!!! We give gifts to the person we have a crush on, or our boyfriend/girlfriend and we make sure it is the best one we have given. It’s like our love can be displayed through physical gifts!!
The worse I have seen this been displayed is through a HORRIBLE tradition Christopher Dock Mennonite High School has. Every year you can go and buy candy canes for your friends (esp. boyfriends and girlfriends). These candy canes come with a note, which you personalize for your friends. During first period, they are handed out IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Can you already see what is wrong with this picture?! Yes, it is guanteed than everyone gets at least one candy cane, but there is no control over the amount of candy canes one can get. There is no limit. Myself, I get one candy cane every year, sponsered by the Senate (Senate gives candy canes to those who do not receive a candy cane from anyone else). I have been cursed the past 3 years by being seated next to a girl (not the same girl, always a different one) who get over a dozen! Can you see the wrong feelings that these unchristian customs give on a Christian holiday?! Instead of getting a feeling of love and joy (the third and fourth weeks of advent), we get a feeling of being disliked and unloved. It makes us depressed. This is wrong. I refuse to take part in this nonsense. When in Senate, I tried to get rid of it, but the others fought back hard and were victorius (even though teachers complimented me for the idea). I protested it this morning. I broke the candy cane, ripped up the tag, and threw it away. I want no part it this craziness.

Doesn’t it open your eyes? Can’t you all of a sudden see why the Grinch wanted to steal Christmas, why Charlie Brown gets depressed every Chrtistmas, and every time Ebenezer Scrooge says “Bah Humbug” every time he hears about Christmas?! They have never felt the love return to them on Christmas!!

You could say, “Giving gifts on Christmas is a Christian idea. The 3 Magi gave gifts to baby Jesus. And the real St. Nicholas, a catholic saint, gave toys to the children.” Yes, both are facts. But when either of them gave, were they expecting something back? Were the magi expecting Jesus, or his parents, to get them something in return? No. And while St. Nicholas gave toys to children, he gave them to POOR AND ORPHAN CHILDREN. This chidren could not afford to give back to St. Nick, even if they wanted to. In both cases, even though it might have given them a good feeling, both the wise men and St. Nick gave because they knew it was the right thing to do.

We really need to bring Christ back into the picture of Christmas. You’re probably thinking, “Oh no, not another Jesus is the Reason for the Season speech.” I think you guys have all heard this speeches, but have never listened to them. Last Sunday I did a skit for church. I played a man in the middle a fork in the road. One split in the road led to Christmas Bethlehem, while the other one led to Christmas Hollyday. The other character in the play, another girl from the youth girl (who I have a likin’ for) was looking for Christmas, but didn’t know which one to go to. The minute the scripture was read that said Bethlehem, she assumed that Christmas was in Bethlehem and started to head there. But when I asked her what was in her satchel (she laughed every time the word satchel was said), she had only items for a commericial Christmas, “a passport to Christmas Hollyday.” Every time we we are told, “Jesus is the reason for the season” we think, “yeah, yeah, Santa is not the reason for Christmas, Jesus is, whatever.” We hear it, but we don’t put it to practice. We want to have Jesus number 1 in Christmas, but we still want to hold fast to our secular Christmas. We want to get stuff, and give stuff in return, so we get that warm, fuzzy feeling.

If you want to keep the Christmas way of giving, give in a different way, give like Jesus. Jesus performed many miracle in his earthly life, mainly healings. Every time he did, he never wanted anything back, no gifts. Everyone in the Bible seems to have this idea as well. Remember Naaman and Elisha (especially you quizzers of 2005)? Naaman wanted to thank Elisha by giving him a gift, but Elisha refused because he knew God didn’t want anything in return. And when Gehazi went back to get this gift, God punished him for doing so! When you give don’t expect anything back, not even the approval of the receiver. Giving a gift shouldn’t make you a closer, better friend, and not giving a gift should not make you a bad friend. If this is true, I would seriously doubt your friendship. The best way to make sure you do this is give to someone you really don’t know. This way you really don’t expect to get anything in return. You can do this through many charities. This is another good way because these children are in a greater need of things. Such charites are the Salvation army, Angel Tree, Toys for Tots (the one I chose), and many others. Just like THE REAL St. Nick, you would be giving to those who are less fortuneate the normal, and not get anything back. That is the way Jesus would do it, and by doing this, it would bring back the true meaning of Christmas back. Because on that day, by being born, gave the give of his perfect life, so later on he could be the sacrifice for the sins of the world

Santamas: A Fake Christmas

Yes, it is that time of year again. Time for my annual Christmas rant. So if you like Christmas now as it is, close your eyes, hit the backspace (on internet explorer, hitting backspace is the same was hitting the back button) and turn away from this entry). But if you are looking for a new perspective, try thinking about this.

Growing up as a child, Christmas for the most part becomes a “gimme” time. All we think about this time is getting presents. We make sure all our friends, family, relatives and Santa know what we want for Christmas. When Christmas comes, we can hardly wait to open our presents, even to the point we get up extra early to do so. We are happy when we get what we want, and dissapointed in what we don’t get. After Christmas, it comes a competiton among friends who got the most presents, who got the costliest presents and who got what they really wanted (vs. getting stuff they didn’t ask for).

When we get to be adolesents, we usually earn our own money. So now we can usually buy the small things we want. The only thing we usually have the gimmes for is the expensive stuff that we cannot afford, and most likely neither do our parents. Another part of being a adolescent is having friendships closer than when you were a kid. Friends mean a lot for you and you want to show that you love and care about them. Now the competion of getting has switched to giving. We want to take our money and buy our friends the best and most expensive gift we can afford. While unmentioned, it becomes a competition between gift exchangers. You want to give a gift that is bigger and costlier than your friends’, and if you friends cost more and is bigger, you feel bad. Feeling is a big piece in this game of gift giving. You only feel good about gift giving if your friends really likes the gift. If they quickly disregard it, you feel bad and don’t like it.

Where do we get both of these ideas? The media, of course. Those commericials may seem boring, but they get to us. They tell us we must have something, almost to the point we need it. “If you have this product, you’ll be happy” is the basic message they try to give us. The same applies for giving. A JC Penny commericial says it itself, “Better gifts get better reactions.” They show commericials of people getting gifts, and the receiver is happy. They basically tell us that if we buy good (and usually expensive) gifts, we can make someone happy, which will make YOU happy. It’s like we can buy our feelings!!

Whichever way we look at Christmas, either the “gimee way” or the “give you way”, both end up tacking back to us. We either want literal, materialistic possessions, OR we want a feeling of gratitude, thankfulness, pride, happiness, or friendship back in return of giving an item. And sometimes, when we give, we do expect the receiver to give something back. With that in mind, we only give to friends who will know is getting you something for Christmas. Isn’t that horrible?! This can get so bad, even to the point that Christmas becomes a second Valentine’s Day!!! We give gifts to the person we have a crush on, or our boyfriend/girlfriend and we make sure it is the best one we have given. It’s like our love can be displayed through physical gifts!!

The worse I have seen this been displayed is through a HORRIBLE tradition Christopher Dock Mennonite High School has. Every year you can go and buy candy canes for your friends (esp. boyfriends and girlfriends). These candy canes come with a note, which you personalize for your friends. During first period, they are handed out IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Can you already see what is wrong with this picture?! Yes, it is guanteed than everyone gets at least one candy cane, but there is no control over the amount of candy canes one can get. There is no limit. Myself, I get one candy cane every year, sponsered by the Senate (Senate gives candy canes to those who do not receive a candy cane from anyone else). I have been cursed the past 3 years by being seated next to a girl (not the same girl, always a different one) who get over a dozen! Can  you see the wrong feelings that these unchristian customs give on a Christian holiday?! Instead of getting a feeling of love and joy (the third and fourth weeks of advent), we get a feeling of being disliked and unloved. It makes us depressed. This is wrong. I refuse to take part in this nonsense. When in Senate, I tried to get rid of it, but the others fought back hard and were victorius (even though teachers complimented me for the idea). I protested it this morning. I broke the candy cane, ripped up the tag, and threw it away. I want no part it this craziness.

Doesn’t it open your eyes? Can’t you all of a sudden see why the Grinch wanted to steal Christmas, why Charlie Brown gets depressed every Chrtistmas, and every time Ebenezer Scrooge says “Bah Humbug” every time he hears about Christmas?! They have never felt the love return to them on Christmas!!

You could say, “Giving gifts on Christmas is a Christian idea. The 3 Magi gave gifts to baby Jesus. And the real St. Nicholas, a catholic saint, gave toys to the children.” Yes, both are facts. But when either of them gave, were they expecting something back? Were the magi expecting Jesus, or his parents, to get them something in return? No. And while St. Nicholas gave toys to children, he gave them to POOR AND ORPHAN CHILDREN. This chidren could not afford to give back to St. Nick, even if they wanted to. In both cases, even though it might have given them a good feeling, both the wise men and St. Nick gave because they knew it was the right thing to do.

We really need to bring Christ back into the picture of Christmas. You’re probably thinking, “Oh no, not another Jesus is the Reason for the Season speech.” I think you guys have all heard this speeches, but have never listened to them. Last Sunday I did a skit for church. I played a man in the middle a fork in the road. One split in the road led to Christmas Bethlehem, while the other one led to Christmas Hollyday. The other character in the play, another girl from the youth girl (who I have a likin’ for) was looking for Christmas, but didn’t know which one to go to. The minute the scripture was read that said Bethlehem, she assumed that Christmas was in Bethlehem and started to head there. But when I asked her what was in her satchel (she laughed every time the word satchel was said), she had only items for a commericial Christmas, “a passport to Christmas Hollyday.” Every time we we are told, “Jesus is the reason for the season” we think, “yeah, yeah, Santa is not the reason for Christmas, Jesus is, whatever.” We hear it, but we don’t put it to practice. We want to have Jesus number 1 in Christmas, but we still want to hold fast to our secular Christmas. We want to get stuff, and give stuff in return, so we get that warm, fuzzy feeling.

If you want to keep the Christmas way of giving, give in a different way, give like Jesus. Jesus performed many miracle in his earthly life, mainly healings. Every time he did, he never wanted anything back, no gifts. Everyone in the Bible seems to have this idea as well. Remember Naaman and Elisha (especially you quizzers of 2005)? Naaman wanted to thank Elisha by giving him a gift, but Elisha refused because he knew God didn’t want anything in return. And when Gehazi went back to get this gift, God punished him for doing so! When you give don’t expect anything back, not even the approval of the receiver. Giving a gift shouldn’t make you a closer, better friend, and not giving a gift should not make you a bad friend. If this is true, I would seriously doubt your friendship. The best way to make sure you do this is give to someone you really don’t know. This way you really don’t expect to get anything in return. You can do this through many charities. This is another good way because these children are in a greater need of things. Such charites are the Salvation army, Angel Tree, Toys for Tots (the one I chose), and many others. Just like THE REAL St. Nick, you would be giving to those who are less fortuneate the normal, and not get anything back. That is the way Jesus would do it, and by doing this, it would bring back the true meaning of Christmas back. Because on that day, by being born, gave the give of his perfect life, so later on he could be the sacrifice for the sins of the world.

The 4th Matrix!!!!

This is just for your entertainment. We have to do this collage in Photography class. We must take a picture of ourselves and put it someone where we wouldn’t normally be. This is my collage:

This is just for your entertainment. We have to do this collage in Photography class. We must take a picture of ourselves and put it someone where we wouldn’t normally be. This is my collage:

(Unofficial) Countdown until the first quizmatch of 2006:
1 month.

Wow, I can’t believe it, only one month (exactly) until quizzing begins. It seems like just yesterday that the invitational finished……okay, who I am trying to fool. It seems like it is taking forever for quizzing to arrive! I can’t wait. But it still seems just like the invitational recently happened. Why? The wonderful memories of quizzing 2005 are still fresh in my memory. I will now take this time to reminise. There are 5 statements that simply describe the highlights of my 2005 quizzing year with Spring City. Don’t worry, I take time to explain them (with pictures!).

FRED USES MY QUESTIONS!!!!!
I BEAT JOSH MOSS!!!!!
I’M ON THE TOP 50 QUIZZERS LIST!!!!!
WE’RE THE ACC TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS!!!!!
CHRISTINE ROCKED OUR QUIZ TEAM!!!!!

Fred uses my questions! It was the fifth week of the quizzing seaon. We were at Hopewell Elverson. My match was the third match. With no good second match to go to, I waited in the empty room that my next match was in. Fred was the quizmaster there. I started to talk to him. He said he was dissapointed that my website was no longer there. I said that I, of course, ended the Ark quizzing website when Ark ended. He said [something like]: “That’s a shame. I always went there to get your questions. I used them in practice.” I was so honored. I always worry about my questions. I always think some are contestable. But they were really good enough that Fred would use my questions. I still did write questions, even without the website, so I sent them to Fred via e-mail attachement. So to this day I e-mail Fred questions, along with my teammates.

I beat Josh Moss! An odd task, but one I am proud of. This was personal. After the 2004 Ark incident (I rather not go into details), the true quizzers who decided to keep quizzing were scattered among 4 different teams. I had some hard feelings around most of the Ark quizzers. This feeling drove me to a strong want to show them all up. I wanted to do that by either beating them head on, or finishing with a higher score at the end of the year. My chance came at week 4 of quizzing. We played Zion, Josh’s team. I had quizzed out before Josh we were on the same team, but this team we were on opposite teams. This made it totally different. I was determined to quiz out before him. When Zion arrived at LMH, they were goofing off, singing a llama song. The drive was even stronger. I confronted him before the match. “Hey Josh,” I said. “Why don’t we make this match a bit more exciting.” “What do you have in mind?” he said. “I sit across from you. You get my bonuses, I get yours.” “Sure,” he said. “I’ll be sitting in seat 3.” The match was on. I sat in seat 3, Josh was on seat 3. The match commensed. Josh got two errors. I picked up one of the bonuses. I got another 2 answers on buzzes. I quizzed out on question 14. Josh was unable to get a single question. On top of that, we got team bonus and beat Zion 120-20. I was so glad. I completed part of my goal. I had defeat Josh head on, individual and team. When the year ended, I finished 23rd with 510 points. Josh finished 44th with 485 points. Once again, I was ahead of Josh. I had taken down Josh, just like I always wanted. I exceeded the one who I always saw as a great. I now felt great. And the hard feelings- gone. At the end of the year, I signed his quizbook, congratulating him for a good quizzing career. Quizzing lost another good quizzer.

I’m on the Top 50 Quizzers List! A hard goal I wanted to complete for a long time. I was dissappointed when I didn’t complete this my second year. I was far from it. So for my third year, I did not aim for it. Suprisingly, I took off the beginning my third year and was on it for the first five weeks of quizzing. I finished in 78th, not far from the Top 50 Quizzers List, but I wasn’t disappointed because I wasn’t aiming for it. The next year, I aimed to be on the Top 50 Quizzers List for one more week, 6 weeks. I did, plus more. I finally reached that one more week on Week 7. I was on it every day except Week 2/3 combination (ugh), when I finished 55th. With only one week to go, I thought “I think I can make it.” And I did. I quizzed out my last two matches. When I went to receive my award, I think (and my coaches could verify this) I was the most estatic quizzer ever when receiving the Top 50 Quizzer Award. I went up wildly cheering and hooting. I tried to hug Fred! I was happy of my achievement. It took long, hard work to get there.

We’re the ACC Tournamet Champions! This is too long to explain. If the want the whole story go to my Blogspot Webpage with the article title “Tales of a 6th Place Nobody” (you can click the article title, it’s a link to the article). I’ll briefly describe it. Let’s just say we didn’t deserve it. We got it only by the grace of God. I’m not sure why he chose us, but I think I may have an idea why he personally chose me. I think maybe one of the reasons that he chose me was that I wasn’t trying. I was happy with whatever I got. 6 regular matches was good enough for me. God choose us, by his miraculous power, to go on to the playoffs. I was grateful to get to the playoffs tried to achieve getting to the semifinals, just to get a small trophy. We won the quaterfinals and went to the semifinals. Before the semifinal matches began, I said to my teammates, “OK, we won a trophey, but if we win this match, we can win a BIG trophey! We could, but I was happy with a “small” trophey. However, we came through and won the semifinal. We were going to the finals. Before the finals began, I told my team, “All right, we won a big trophey, but if we win this match, we can win a BIGGER trophey!!” I was satisfied was our “big trophey,” but God thought I deserved better and gave the win for Spring City. We were a sixth place team, and no one thought Spring City could make it up there, even the Spring City quizzers (especially me). But I believe the Lord thought that we deserved it and God gave it to us. This, to me, was the final sign that I was meant to be on the Spring City quiz team.

Christine rocked our team! With all due respect to her, Christine is like a quiet fart – silent but deadly. Christine only scored 30 points in the regular season, and about the same during both tournaments. But she always came in when we needed her the most. She gave us team bonus we were in need, and we suceeded. All thanks to Christine. She saved us twice during the ACC Tournament, once giving us team bonus and other time getting the bonus so we could win by those 10 points. Both times I wasn’t expecting it, but she came through and delivered. It was awesome! I’m glad she chose to quiz once more for Spring City.

Man, that was a great year. There are many other memories, but these 4 were the most dominant. This had to be my favorite year of quizzing (so far, at least). With great memories of this, I hope the next 31 days passes by fast so we can begin making new quizzing memories.

(Unofficial) Countdown until the first quizmatch of 2006:
1 month.

Wow, I can’t believe it, only one month (exactly) until quizzing begins. It seems like just yesterday that the invitational finished……okay, who I am trying to fool. It seems like it is taking forever for quizzing to arrive! I can’t wait. But it still seems just like the invitational recently happened. Why? The wonderful memories of quizzing 2005 are still fresh in my memory. I will now take this time to reminise. There are 5 statements that simply describe the highlights of my 2005 quizzing year with Spring City. Don’t worry, I take time to explain them (with pictures!).

FRED USES MY QUESTIONS!!!!!
I BEAT JOSH MOSS!!!!!
I’M ON THE TOP 50 QUIZZERS LIST!!!!!
WE’RE THE ACC TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS!!!!!
CHRISTINE ROCKED OUR QUIZ TEAM!!!!!

Fred uses my questions! It was the fifth week of the quizzing seaon. We were at Hopewell Elverson. My match was the third match. With no good second match to go to, I waited in the empty room that my next match was in. Fred was the quizmaster there. I started to talk to him. He said he was dissapointed that my website was no longer there. I said that I, of course, ended the Ark quizzing website when Ark ended. He said [something like]: “That’s a shame. I always went there to get your questions. I used them in practice.” I was so honored. I always worry about my questions. I always think some are contestable. But they were really good enough that Fred would use my questions. I still did write questions, even without the website, so I sent them to Fred via e-mail attachement. So to this day I e-mail Fred questions, along with my teammates.

I beat Josh Moss! An odd task, but one I am proud of. This was personal. After the 2004 Ark incident (I rather not go into details), the true quizzers who decided to keep quizzing were scattered among 4 different teams. I had some hard feelings around most of the Ark quizzers. This feeling drove me to a strong want to show them all up. I wanted to do that by either beating them head on, or finishing with a higher score at the end of the year. My chance came at week 4 of quizzing. We played Zion, Josh’s team. I had quizzed out before Josh we were on the same team, but this team we were on opposite teams. This made it totally different. I was determined to quiz out before him. When Zion arrived at LMH, they were goofing off, singing a llama song. The drive was even stronger. I confronted him before the match. “Hey Josh,” I said. “Why don’t we make this match a bit more exciting.” “What do you have in mind?” he said. “I sit across from you. You get my bonuses, I get yours.” “Sure,” he said. “I’ll be sitting in seat 3.” The match was on. I sat in seat 3, Josh was on seat 3. The match commensed. Josh got two errors. I picked up one of the bonuses. I got another 2 answers on buzzes. I quizzed out on question 14. Josh was unable to get a single question. On top of that, we got team bonus and beat Zion 120-20. I was so glad. I completed part of my goal. I had defeat Josh head on, individual and team. When the year ended, I finished 23rd with 510 points. Josh finished 44th with 485 points. Once again, I was ahead of Josh. I had taken down Josh, just like I always wanted. I exceeded the one who I always saw as a great. I now felt great. And the hard feelings- gone. At the end of the year, I signed his quizbook, congratulating him for a good quizzing career. Quizzing lost another good quizzer.

I’m on the Top 50 Quizzers List! A hard goal I wanted to complete for a long time. I was dissappointed when I didn’t complete this my second year. I was far from it. So for my third year, I did not aim for it. Suprisingly, I took off the beginning my third year and was on it for the first five weeks of quizzing. I finished in 78th, not far from the Top 50 Quizzers List, but I wasn’t disappointed because I wasn’t aiming for it. The next year, I aimed to be on the Top 50 Quizzers List for one more week, 6 weeks. I did, plus more. I finally reached that one more week on Week 7. I was on it every day except Week 2/3 combination (ugh), when I finished 55th. With only one week to go, I thought “I think I can make it.” And I did. I quizzed out my last two matches. When I went to receive my award, I think (and my coaches could verify this) I was the most estatic quizzer ever when receiving the Top 50 Quizzer Award. I went up wildly cheering and hooting. I tried to hug Fred! I was happy of my achievement. It took long, hard work to get there.

We’re the ACC Tournamet Champions! This is too long to explain. If the want the whole story go to my Blogspot Webpage with the article title “Tales of a 6th Place Nobody” (you can click the article title, it’s a link to the article). I’ll briefly describe it. Let’s just say we didn’t deserve it. We got it only by the grace of God. I’m not sure why he chose us, but I think I may have an idea why he personally chose me. I think maybe one of the reasons that he chose me was that I wasn’t trying. I was happy with whatever I got. 6 regular matches was good enough for me. God choose us, by his miraculous power, to go on to the playoffs. I was grateful to get to the playoffs tried to achieve getting to the semifinals, just to get a small trophy. We won the quaterfinals and went to the semifinals. Before the semifinal matches began, I said to my teammates, “OK, we won a trophey, but if we win this match, we can win a BIG trophey! We could, but I was happy with a “small” trophey. However, we came through and won the semifinal. We were going to the finals. Before the finals began, I told my team, “All right, we won a big trophey, but if we win this match, we can win a BIGGER trophey!!” I was satisfied was our “big trophey,” but God thought I deserved better and gave the win for Spring City. We were a sixth place team, and no one thought Spring City could make it up there, even the Spring City quizzers (especially me). But I believe the Lord thought that we deserved it and God gave it to us. This, to me, was the final sign that I was meant to be on the Spring City quiz team.

Christine rocked our team! With all due respect to her, Christine is like a quiet fart – silent but deadly. Christine only scored 30 points in the regular season, and about the same during both tournaments. But she always came in when we needed her the most. She gave us team bonus we were in need, and we suceeded. All thanks to Christine. She saved us twice during the ACC Tournament, once giving us team bonus and other time getting the bonus so we could win by those 10 points. Both times I wasn’t expecting it, but she came through and delivered. It was awesome! I’m glad she chose to quiz once more for Spring City.

Man, that was a great year. There are many other memories, but these 4 were the most dominant. This had to be my favorite year of quizzing (so far, at least). With great memories of this, I hope the next 31 days passes by fast so we can begin making new quizzing memories.

NYLC Episode 13: Dance-off

On Saturday night, we had our dinner dance, pretty much marking the end of the conference. The dinner was tasted good and was very fancily decorated. A lot of us took some last minute photos of the group. When it came time for the dance, I didn’t dance. The “dancing” they were doing looked a lot more like “grinding.” It was just people rubbing their bodies against each other. It didn’t feel right for me so I didn’t dance. When people asked me why, I explained as a Mennonite Christian, I don’t believe in dancing like this. Since what I said at the first amendment debate and by not dancing, people wanted to know more about the Mennonite faith. It was my chance to be a witness there to the unsaved. A lot of people who were already Christian complimented me for my strong faith.

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Thus, with this episode, ends my many adventures of the National Young Leaders Confrence. All in all, the confrence was fun. I got to participate in fun simulations that triggered the mind to think extra hard and put me in the position. Being in the NYLC let me do things you usually can’t do in Washington, D.C. like go to the House of Representatives floor, the Senate balcony or meet your congress people. I learned a lot and I believe this trip was very educational. Doing all the hard work there was worth falling behind in class by skipping three days. I also believe that I have done enough in Washington, D.C. that I should have the right to skip the Social Issues trip in fourth quarter because most of it will be a repeat for me. I’m hoping to go to the sequel of the NYLC, the GYLC (same thing except Global), but I may not have the financial support to do so. From now on, I’ll continue with my normal life.

NYLC Episode 12: Debating and defending

On Friday we went to the Marriot Metra Center Ballroom. There we were led in the topic of if the first amendment applied to high schools. This was divided into sub-topics such as the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, freedom of publishing school newspapers and yearbooks, dress code and uniforms, and speaking out your opinions in the classroom setting. It all came down to asking, “Does the first amendment apply to high scholars just as much as adults?” Every one of the students got a chance to defend their opinions. Mr. Andrew Nothstine moderated this time. I got the chance to defend my position on the topic of the Pledge of Allegiance. I said I do not recite it because our nation isn’t under God, not everyone believes in the same God. The other reason I said I do recite it is because of the first line “I pledge allegiance to the flag and the United States of America.” I explained how “pledging allegiance” meant promising full loyalty. As I Mennonite Christian, I would refuse swearing an oath promising full loyalty to my country because I would first give it God. By saying that I riled up the crowd (in a good way). In short seeing all this gave me a broader perspective of people’s views. I learned while I may not agree with them, I at least could respect them for their beliefs.

One of the scholars mentioned that he personally believes he doesn’t owe anything to the armed forces like everyone says he does. This was sort of off topic, so it ended after him. But when we got back on the busses, a lot of people expressed on how upset they were with him because of how much the soldiers had been fighting for the right cause. I wasn’t really defending him, but I mentioned how I was against the war due to my Mennonite beliefs on being peaceful and against war and violence. People started asking me questions like, “What if people were attacking you or taking away your land?” I answered the as a Christian, I believed that Jesus called us to love our enemies, and to take up our cross and follow him. I was able to fully defend my faith. People were amazed on how I would be anti-war and anti-violent. I felt like God gave me the perfect time to witness to others.

NYLC Episode 11: Being on the Senate Balcony

Another great thing of being with the NYLC is the oppurtunity to be in places where normal people can’t go. One of these places is the Senate Balcony. Senator Santorum gave everyone from Pennsylvania passes to sit in the senate balcony when senate was working and observe them in their workplace. It was interesting seeing senators walk around, sorting out their papers, presenting their opinions, and giving their vote. Both Pennsylvania senators were present at the time. I noticed some other familiar sounding senator names, like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Joe Liberman and John McCain. The bill had something to do with giving financial aid. Santorum didn’t like it and voted against it. I had to leave early, so I didn’t see what the final results were. It wasn’t as cool as sitting on the floor of the House of Representatives, but it was pretty awesome. Did you know both the Senate and House of Representative balconies are only three rows back? It looks so much bigger on TV! Here’s another interesting fact: in the House of Representatives, there is a picture of Moses and the phrase “In God We Trust” written in the front. Yet there are 10 roman numerals carved in the Supreme, which they will not admit mean the Ten Commandments. Odd how separation of church and state only appears in some places…