Recovery Plan

Things have been surprisingly busy post-MIT. Moving to Corvallis, figuring out OSU stuff, and helping out with FFA contests has taken up a lot of time, and otherwise I'm hanging out with friends, appreciating my time at home without classes.

Oregon State took their sweet time getting back to me, and I finally deduced that I was accepted only a week and a half before the start of spring term. Fortunately I have connections and was able to register for classes before I received the official letter (which showed up at my house last night). And I could not be more excited about classes. They're not anything special, but they're such a departure from what I was taking at MIT. I'm excited for a change of pace and a chance to recover and feel intelligent again. I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy Ornithology, Wine in the Western World, and Tree and Shrub Identification. I'm going to try to take a math class, and maybe an English comp class, but a ton of classes are full so I need to find something I can get into. Regardless, with just those three classes I'm going to have a fun term.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything back on the job front. I've applied, so now I just get to wait... Some friends have given me some good suggestions, though, so I'm going to explore a few different options. Classes start in a mere five days, so I guess I'll see just how busy I get and go from there!

Oregon FFA's state convention was this past weekend at Oregon State. I helped judge Marketing Plans, and helped out a couple of teams. I was definitely reminded of just how much I love FFA, and how important agriculture is to me. It was very strange to be there, though, without the stress of competing, or a million things to do. Also, I wasn't in the blue corduroy jacket. Needless to say, I felt a little out of place. My advisor always hinted to me in high school that she thought I should be an ag teacher, and after this weekend, I'm definitely considering a little bit more seriously. Just another reason it's a good thing that I'm taking time off, I suppose, so I figure that out.

At the end of the day, I still miss MIT (and everyone there) a lot, and I'm not sure how long I'll be back here in Oregon. But being back in Oregon is definitely fun, relaxing, and the perfect way to recover from the stresses of MIT.

Update on Life

So, I realize it's been a while since I've blogged about the amazingness that is MIT... Or anything else going on in my life. Which is kind of pathetic, I will agree. I guess I'll just do a massive update, and have it over with. Sorry if this gets really long and verbose...

Classes
Ehhhhh... Yeah. Classes. Well, they're going all right I suppose. I'm actually understanding calculus right now, and could see myself doing really well on the final. Which is a fabulous feeling. What's not looking good is this next week: two exams, a paper, and a presentation. Obviously, I'm not too worried about the presentation or paper (I'm actually incredibly excited for them), but those two exams are going to kill me. I realize that this probably isn't a bad week in the cases of most MIT students, but oh well. I'm just happy that everything isn't quite as overwhelming as it was earlier in the semester.

National Convention
So, I realized I never blogged about Nationals, other than to say what result we got. I apologize for that. Basically, Nationals was a fun time, though a bit stressful. It was nice/strange to see people from home, and nice/strange to be off campus for a week. By the end of the week, I found myself missing MIT, so that was a good sign. Because pictures are worth a thousand words, I'm going to save some space and just post some pictures from the trip instead.

We found these in Chicago. AMAZING.

Chicago was pretty, but cold.

We visited a grain elevator in Indiana, where they had ridiculous amounts of corn and fertilizer.

They took us up on the catwalk above their fertilizer storage, where they have a conveyor belt set up. The stairs and catwalk itself were rather rickety, and it was a terrifying experience...

The current US Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, spoke at one of the convention sessions. He gave a great speech, which included the line, "I felt the excitement in the halls all night long." The entire crowd exploded with laughter when he said that, and he definitely had to wait a few moments before he could speak again. I love it when politicians provide you with "That's what she said" moments (e.g. Sarah Palin's "Drill baby, drill!" line during the vice-presidential debate).
Our team walked away with this! It's kind of sad it doesn't say that we got third on it...
Our super-happy team in Monument Circle in Indianapolis. We were on our way to get ice cream right after the awards banquet.
So, for some reason, I was the only Ag Communications participant to show up to the final session to be recognized on the national stage (I even changed my flight back to MIT to be able to do so) so I was the only one up there with the national officers. It was totally worth it. Oh, and they messed up the plaque they gave me (it had the name of the girl who was third high individual in Ag Sales... oddly enough, her name is Kelsey as well...) so they're sending me another one...

Movies
I've watched a ridiculous number of movies lately. All on the weekends, but still. A ridiculous number of them.
Including...
Yes, you're reading that correctly. Quantum of Solace... at midnight. Awesome, I know. It was a pretty good movie, and I recommend seeing it for the action (certainly not the plot). That, and James Bond is just plain awesome. I also finally saw The Dark Knight last night, thanks to LSC! I thought the movie was just a lot of hype over the summer, but it lived up to its reputation. It was amazingly good. And I can now see why some people saw it multiple times...

Politics
Gordon Smith lost. The school bond failed. Okay, we're all on the same page now...

Life in General
Overall, things are going quite well. This weekend will be spent doing fun things with friends (and studying for those two tests), and there's a chance I'll be in New York next weekend. Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, which means that my friend Joanna will be coming down from her school in Vermont to visit me! I am ridiculously excited. Anyway. After Thanksgiving will be finals, and then I CAN GO HOME. Fortunately, my finals are on the Tuesday and Wednesday of Finals Week, so I am on the first flight home on Thursday. Thank you Dad for scoring those tickets.

HELP WMBR REACH THEIR FUNDRAISING GOAL!!! (Pledge before next Wednesday! Get awesome premiums! Feel good about yourself! Support independent, non-commercial radio!)

Walking on Air

I am currently in a state of complete shock, so I won't be really verbose with this. In fact, I won't even use many complete sentences.

National FFA Convention
Agricultural Communications CDE 2008

Willamina FFA - 3rd place team
-Alyssa: Gold Individual
-Anna: Gold Individual
-Spencer: Silver Individual
-Katie: Silver Individual

-Kelsey: Gold Individual, 3rd high individual

Yep, I was the third high individual. I was definitely not expecting it, and I started crying in front of a little over 200 people at the awards banquet. I got a scholarship, and will be walking across the National stage during session tomorrow.

Wanna watch? It's going to be on TV!
RFD-TV. 1-5 p.m. (EDT) (Though I'll be on anywhere between 1:15 and 1:45). Channel 231 on Dish Network, 379 on Direct TV, and available on a number of other providers.
While the session is long, I recommend watching some of it, because it's really quite amazing how large the FFA is and just how amazing it all is.


[Sorry for all the misspellings and odd capitalization - I'm a little out of it right now.]

D-Day

Today, it begins.

We start the National FFA Agricultural Communications contest here in Indianapolis, and I am beginning to get a little nervous. I was just reminded that this will be my last-ever FFA contest, so I'm a little sad, but a little excited to make it a good one!

Our room is littered with empty Denny's to-go trays from 2 AM and there are papers and notecards everywhere with random things on them regarding natural disasters and Associated Press editing marks. We've been memorizing our presentation, frantically cutting from our speeches to make time, and plotting to win. This room is a disaster, and we've only been here one night - frenzied last-minute work will do that!

I won't give updates for the next couple of days, mostly because I'll be concentrating on competing. In fact, I really should be working on perfecting my "big hair" right now with a can of hairspray rather than blogging. Results will be announced Friday evening at a dinner, so that's when I will blog next!

I Smell Like A Hog Farm

Hello from America's heartland!

We toured a hog farm and a grain elevator today. It was awesome (my favorite part was the grain elevator) but now I smell like a hog farm. We all smell like a hog farm.

Take 14 people that smell like hogs and put them in a 15-passenger van.

It doesn't exactly smell fantastic.

This trip is going well though! Chicago was amazing, though I had to work on stuff through most of it so I missed the Chicago Board of Trade and the Sears tower. We're back in Indianapolis now, and our competition starts tomorrow! I'm beginning to get a little nervous, but we always pull through in the end so I think we'll be all right and do really well!

Okay, I'm off to go memorize my parts for our presentation! I'll post some pictures later this week, if I have some time (free time? such a strange concept...).

T-minus 15 Hours

In 15 hours I'll be on a plane headed toward Indianapolis!

YEA!

It's going to be amazing! I am really excited for National Convention this year. I think it'll be a good change of pace, and Nationals always gets me really motivated (which I could really use right now).

Okay, I really need to pack.... And I hate packing. :(

OM NOM NOM!

As a society, we devalued farming as an occupation and encouraged the best students to leave the farm for “better” jobs in the city. We emptied America’s rural counties in order to supply workers to urban factories. To put it bluntly, we now need to reverse course. We need more highly skilled small farmers in more places all across America — not as a matter of nostalgia for the agrarian past but as a matter of national security. For nations that lose the ability to substantially feed themselves will find themselves as gravely compromised in their international dealings as nations that depend on foreign sources of oil presently do. But while there are alternatives to oil, there are no alternatives to food.

-Michael Pollan

Okay, I will admit that I should be working on my 18.01 p-sets right now. But I was checking my e-mail and checking the New York Times website and found this amazing article.

I think it's a really long article, but it makes a lot of good points and has a ridiculous amount of information throughout. Pollan makes a really good point about campaign issues and food production - agriculture really is important and really is being ignored by both sides in the campaign for the White House. While Pollan suggests that a lot of new programs be created to modify the United States food production that I think would probably be somewhat ineffective, I feel he has the right idea. He brings up agroterrorism, which is awesome because it's rarely talked about, and I think it's good that someone in the public eye is calling for a reform of the system that would make our food supply more secure. I really like what he says about ag education and those are some of the reasons I'm planning on going into agriculture for a career (even though I'm a student at one of the only land-grant universities without an ag program...). And he is completely correct when he says that our society "devalued farming" and as a whole still believes that one is better off if they can leave the farm - I've run into this mentality so many places and I find it to be really strange. Minimizing the number of people involved in agriculture seems like a bad idea, and it is. That's less people producing food, which is eventually going to mean less food... And that's kind of a problem, right? It's also a problem that most farmers are over the age of 55. So encouraging more people to go into agriculture, especially those that have a good college education and understand the importance of utilizing good science and technology is definitely a good idea that has not received nearly as much attention as it should. This is not to say that it's being completely ignored - we do have the land-grant university system and FFA - but there are certainly schools that lack these programs or are cutting the ones they have because they aren't seen as a priority. FFA programs tend to be the exception, and never the rule except for some areas of rural America. Obviously there are some changes that need to be made.

A quick sidenote: If you're reading this and you happen to live in Oregon and be in FFA, you need to read this article... I definitely did not cover a lot of things he talks about, and there are a lot of really good facts and suggestions that deal with a number of Parli Pro and extemp topics... Hey, you could even use some of this for, oh I don't know, an Ag Issues topic or something... Anyway, there are a lot of good numbers that would sound quite nice thrown out in a debate or speech. Have fun!

Why I Officially Win (Or, some of the positive things in my life right now)

For my Film Experience class, I'm supposed to write several papers about the movies we watch in class to fulfill the HASS-D requirement. My first paper was on the role of accident in Buster Keaton's The General.

This is a story of what NOT to do (and what I'll never ever do again, I promise).

I have a lot on my plate lately, between all my classes and debate and WMBR. The extracurriculars don't take up that much time away from p-sets, but the work consumes every other waking moment (when I'm not obsessively checking my e-mail or Google Reader, of course) of my life. P-sets that require math (which is pretty much all of them) get my attention first, because I know they will take me the longest. Then I work on chemistry, because the math for that mostly just requires a calculator - yea for no derivatives!

HASS-D? What HASS-D? Oh, yeah, HASS-D... That one class that eats up every Tuesday evening with two lectures and a full-length film (sometimes two of them!)... Now, I really like the subject. And I really like the fact that it allows me to write (Too. Many. Numbers.). But I forgot about the essay that was due today until the last minute. I started working on it last night (Mom, Dad, I know you're already freaking out... Just hold your horses and remember how I said I would never ever do this again...) and didn't get much done. Then I woke up late this morning, without much time to work on my paper.

Panic set in, and after the quickest shower of my life (no joke) I was pounding away on my keyboard. I only paused to get juice from our fridge on the opposite side of the room, then I was back to describing what some critics call Keaton's greatest film.

Page totals:
Last night - 1.25 pages
This morning after an hour and a half of work - 5 pages

Oh snap. I powered through nearly four pages of an essay in an hour and a half. At that rate, I would have had my Senior Project paper (all 12 pages of it) done in a day. Truth be told, I had no idea I was capable of that. Another great thing - this isn't my worst writing ever. As in, I'm not ashamed to turn it in like it is.

But I will never ever do that again because now my brain is fried and I need some food.

In other news... I got eight hours of sleep last night! Go me! That's a record, I think, for the past two weeks. Which is terrible. But, I've been doing a bit of it without caffeine, so that's good (This is not to say, however, that I've not had coffee. I completely forgot how relaxing it is to just get a cup of coffee and sit in a comfortable chair for a while, not doing any hardcore work until I did it at Starbucks the other day... I need to do that a little bit more often).

Turns out I got a 65 on my 18.01 (single-variable calculus) test last week... WHICH IS AWESOME. In the real world, this might not be a very good score, but for MIT (and me) that is not bad and I am really really happy about it. And we are now going to completely ignore the train wreck that was my 8.01L (physics) score.

There's a ton of cool stuff going on tonight, however. Dale Chihuly is speaking at MIT tonight at 6:30, and I am unbelievably excited for that. He's an amazing glass-blower and I've seen his work exhibited all over the US, so it'll be really interesting to actually see him speak and give a presentation. Also tonight is the Vice-Presidential debate! I'm not too impressed with either Biden or Palin, so this will be interesting. The Tech had a wonderful take on the upcoming debate (I don't recommend playing this game - alcohol poisoning is bad - but it's at least funny to read).

Also, TWO WEEKS UNTIL NATIONAL CONVENTION. That's right, the annual FFA National Convention in Indianapolis is coming up, and I am missing a whole week of classes to go and compete/kick some serious butt in Ag Communications (a journalism contest). It's going to be amazing!

Random tidbit of information: Buster Keaton's The General was filmed entirely in Oregon. That's right, they've been filming movies in Oregon since at least 1927. In my book, that's awesome (and far more awesome than The Hunted being filmed in Oregon City).

A small piece of advice...

When you're invited to come help build a rock wall...

WEAR GLOVES.

I was a super genius and used my bare hands this afternoon. And now my fingers hurt like none other. Typing is even a painful activity. But, on the plus side, the wall was looking amazing when I left...

Something else that's awesome? I get to be on our FFA chapter's county fair Livestock Judging team this weekend! It looks like it's going to be my last time participating in the contest, which is kind of sad, but I'm looking forward to it. I've never competed at the county level before, so this'll be interesting, but it's going to be fun. And then I can spend time at our small county fair afterward! Yea! Let's just hope it's a cool day, because hot weather, navy blue corduroy coats, and black pants aren't a fun combination. Trust me.

So I Suck At Life.

Wow. Life got insane.

I didn't post for quite a while. Like three weeks. I was really busy with research and putting together my State Officer materials and all that jazz.

Quick updates:

State Officer Candidacy
I got my letter and paperwork all in on time! I was pretty happy with how my letter turned out. I wrote about the time my FFA chapter ended up stranded on a logging road. I'll post the letter on here once they get sent out to everyone in the state, so sometime next week. It's so exciting!

Parli Pro
We are on to State!!! Last night was the Sectional contest, and we won! Biofuel crop production came up, which was awesome and our team had some good debate. Then a ton of FFA topics came up, like National Parli Pro format and delegate voting system. We have a fair amount of work ahead of us though. Our debates weren't fantastic, and we still need research on some topics. Three more weeks to get it done!

Extemp Speaking
I was ridiculously excited for this contest. I competed last night in Extemp at Sectionals. I drew the nanotechnology topic, and I pretty much just talked about food processing the whole time. My actual speech was kind of shaky, but my responses to the judge's questions were pretty good. I ended up taking first, so at the end of March I'll be competing in the Sub-State competition aka the top eight in the state. If I get into the top four of that, I'll be giving a speech on a stage in front of 2000 people. Exciting!!!


So, that's life, for the most part, right now. Trying to keep up with all my homework is killing me. I've always been a pretty good student, but I am going to just scrape by when it comes to graduating. Fun times.