It has been a great school year hear at Edison Computech Middle School. I really enjoyed this school. This school isn't for kids who are bullies, kids who don't like to study, or kids that just aren't all that smart. I asked Mrs. Baird at the beginning of the school year how many 7th graders get an 4.0 all year long. Mrs. Baird told that only 10-12 kids get an 4.00 all year long. At first I was very shocked because maintaining an 4.00 isn't all that hard. I have had a 4.00 since 1st grade, and it was very easy. Here at Computech it is not as easy as it sounds. Maintaining a 4.00 means that doing all of your class work and studying for 8 different classes. Kids only have 6 classes at other schools. That makes it a lot easier there than here. I probably get the most homework in my computer class, and this is the class that most other schools don't mandate.
The hardest quarter all year long would have been the 2nd quarter. There were many things due towards the end of the 2nd quarter. It was also the end of the first semester. There were many projects and tests going on at that time which made it difficult to maintain an 4.00. I worked hard, and I was successful. Not once did I give up on my self, and that's how it is today.
Today afterschool I have a robotics pizza party. We are also going to disassemble our robots. We had 2 robots, but we sacrificed our line follower to upgrade swagbot 1.0 to swagbot 2.0. Our battle bot also known as swagbot was slow and had a small back shield. When we sacrificed our line follower to swagbot, our robot's back shield became taller and wider. We also took off our gars on the tires so our robot could be faster. We were decreasing the speed, but increasing the power of the engine. The engine really didn't become more powerful, it just became slower. That is why we took off the gears from swagbot. This was one of the upgrades we made to our robot. I think we could have changed the location of the 3rd engine and made it higher. I guess these are all changes we will make to make our robot the best and so we can get a 1st place medal instead of a 3rd place medal.
I thought that our line follower was going to win, and our battle bot was going to lose. We thought that the battle bot was going to lose because we had only one day of practice. The line follower we tested over and over, and it was successful. When we got to the competition, we saw the other robots. Corbin and I walked around and we were looking at other school's ideas. There was only one battle bot from another school which had a similar design. The other designs were to basic, and there was no way they could possibly win. I hope I am on next year's First Lego League Team.
Today Mr. Armstrong is going to grade most of our websites. I have done all of my jobs, the same can't be said for the rest of my group. One of my group members isn't here all that much over personal reasons. This is also the person in my group who gets the most work done. This leaves me at a disadvantage. Another kid in my group logs off when the five minute bell rings. Therefore, he gets 5 less minutes to work, he also argues a lot, and he does not know what he is doing. I told this very same person to make a thinglink, and he made one; except for the fact that photo he grabbed off the internet didn't have the right license meaning that it was illegal! This person can't do anything right. He needs help finding the animal on our website. He has never looked at the website! The last person in my group is good at what he does except for the fact that he gets very side-tracked and he does not complete all of his work on time. He's a smart kid, he just gets side-tracked. I hope I get a good grade!
As I said in my previous blog, I won my game against Robbie. It was very close and it was almost a stalemate. Robbie made one bad move, and that cost him the game. We were 50-50. That mistake caused it to be 51-49 with me in the lead. This lead became bigger and bigger until I won. Today, Neil and Jacob were supposed to play each other, and Jacob was sick, and they stalemated 3 times, they were both out of town last week, and Jacob was sick today. At first Mr. Brown was going to do a coin toss to see who is the winner from Jacob and Neil's match, but then Mr. Brown said that he was going to advance me and disqualify both Jacob and Neil since they are gone so often or stalemate so often. Yay! That's one more match that I don't have to play.
I am in the final four right now, and I can easily make it to the final 2 very quickly if Jacob and Neil are both disqualified. I hope I don't make the same mistake Robbie made when I play next time.
I remembered to show up for Chess Club! I usually have something to do on Fridays. I thought that last Thursday was Friday, and when I showed up to Mrs. Dineen's room there was no one there. The next day when it actually was Friday I forgot to show up. I have noticed that I remember Chess Club every 3 weeks. I forget Chess Club for 2 weeks, then the next week I remember. This cycle just repeats over and over again. I am happy because today I remembered Chess Club after missing 1 week. I have had a game going with Robbie for about 2-3 months now, and we just finished it today. I won!
Last time we played it seemed that it was going to be a stalemate. Robbie moved his king in the wrong direction, and this helped me get 2 queens in about 5 turns! That is awesome. I'm not saying Robbie isn't a good chess-player, it's just that he made a mistake which cost him the game. This happens to me all the time when I am talking to someone as I play. Some people try to distract me so that I will mess up. This happened to me several times during the Chess-Tournament at Manchester Gate. I didn't win, but I do plan on getting better, and eventually I will become ranked.
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