Last MAO Trip Ever

I feel somewhat obliged to update. I have been back from MAO nationals for a week now. Thank goodness it has not sturck me how much I will miss MAO. I am not sure if it is because some part of me truely will not or if I have just come to terms with the fact that it would have to end some time. Either way I find this to be quite astonishing. Nationals this year was just as much fun as it has been every prior year. Not to mention the added bonus of doing quite well, concidering the lack of studying on my part. Hanging out with Alli, Lauren, Sean, Michael, Patrick,...,Will,Gaku, and those of you that went to Hawaii is something I will always remember. However, if there was anything I could change about nationals it would have to be the fact that my favorite Asians were not there (Kevin, Roland, and Clara). MAO just isnt the same without them. Well its about time I say how I did.
Individual: 12th place
Ciphering: 8th place
Geometry: 15th place
Sequences and Series: 5th place
Hustle: 4th place (if we had gotten 6 more points we would have been 2nd)
Calculus Team: 7th place (even with the poor performances by Ashley and Alli and somewhat Sean)
Well next year I know I am already going to one MAO competition (the Janruary Invitational at Chiles) but I would also like to go with them to nationals, so I can spend time with Ashley before she goes do Duke, get to talk to Lauren in person (if you don't know how comforting this is you should really try it), and Roland befor he takes over MAO or the world...his call.

Work and my final MAO nationals

Well so far work has not been all that I have been expecting. However, I realize that it could be much worse, and on the upside some of the problems are interesting (Just ask and I'll give and example or 2). The only major complaint that I have so far is that our work day has been extended from 3:00 to 4:00.

As for MAO nationals I would like for people to know that I have done nowhere almost as much preperation as I did last year. Don't worry though, all is not lost for I plan to study for the Individual and Ciphering on the plane and during the downtime we will have until I actually have to take those test.

YAY FLORIDA!!! Thank goodness they did not let that class action suite against the tobacco company go completly through. I myself find tobacco completly revolting, but honestly if people don't know by now that it is bad for their health then I guess they deserve to die...or live with the other side effects. Thinking about this has caused my mind to wander to another topic, legalizing marijuana. Sure the people that say it should be legalized and then taxed to high hell have a point. However, it is these people that also say that if it were legal then its use would decrease. Now let us think about that for just a moment...THAT IS THE FUCKING DUMBEST THING I HAVE HEARD IN A LONG TIME. Let us compare this to prohibition. I admit that during this time that there were people that illegally comsumed/produced alcohol. But look at the world today, do you honestly mean to tell me that since alcohol has become legal thats its use by society has decreased...(if you just answered yes you are more wasted that I have thought possible). So just legalizing marijuana will have the same effect. The people that already use it will just continue to and it will also become attractive to those who were affraid to use it befor for the sole reason that it was illegal. Now I don't know about you but when ever I have been around potheads, it has NEVER been a pleasane experience. Not only do they smell but they are just dumber than they were before they got high. O well I guess God needed a way to kill dumbasses, since appearently diseases and natural disasters just don't cut it any more. Also I think that the punishment that the government gives for possiession of a controling substance (for you potheads out there that don't remember what this means: "having weed on or within your reach) or use of such a substance, are way to light. I find it comparable to just giving a person who has confessed to first degree murder a literal slap on the wrist. Well I won't continue because I have divered way to far from the intended topic of this post.

Quote that I find to be quite hilarious: "Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done."
-Andy Rooney