About two weeks ago, I ventured out into Phoenix again to take some more ham radio tests, this time dragging one of my friends along. I spent the first half of Fall Break cramming for the General and Extra class tests, and the cramming paid off. The General Class test was not super difficult, and I only missed about 5 questions. The Extra Class test was a different story. Instead of 35 multiple-choice questions, there were 50, but you could miss a few more than on the Technician and General Class tests. I thought that the Extra Class test was the most difficult out of the three, but I suppose that is only natural, being that the test covers electronics, propagation, and general radio practices in far more depth than the other two tests. Anyway, the worst part about taking the test was waiting while the test was being graded. Fortunately, I was able to pass, and my new license showed up in the mail today. Now I can carry around a license that says "Amateur Extra" on it. :D
I still don't have a station set up, but I will be ready for one when I have the opportunity to acquire the radio equipment. As I mentioned earlier, I talked my friend into taking the Technician test the same night, and he was also able to pass the test. Afterwards, I gave him study books, so the next time there is a test, he may be able to get an Extra Class license.
On a similar, adventurous note, the results from the state art fair came out over Fall Break. This was the second time I entered the fair, but this time, I had four entries. I had a bead dragonfly, a wire flower, a trash-to-art butterfly from keyboard parts, and a crayon painting. The flower placed second in the 3D wire category, and both the dragonfly and the butterfly placed third in their respective categories. Unfortunately, my favorite out of the four, the crayon painting, did not place. Once I get the stuff back from the fair, I will post some pictures on my website of the pieces and their ribbons.
Along with those two adventures, I am gearing up for another project that is quite a bit larger. Over the course of November, I plan on participating in NaNoWriMo. It will be quite a challenge to write a 50k word novel in a month on top of school and everything else, but I think it will be an interesting challenge. I have wanted to write something for quite a while now, and I will take this competition as an opportunity to push myself to new extremes in order to complete it on time. As of this post, I am thinking that I will write something that has steampunk influences, sci-fi influences, or even both. I have not yet figured out what exactly the storyline and the characters will be like, but I suppose figuring that out as I go is part of the adventure in this competition.
Here is a link to the NaNoWriMo website:
NaNoWriMo
As for interesting senior adventures, I was in charge of the decorations for the homecoming last Saturday, and there is an Instructable in the making. I will also be the DJ for the Jr. High dance on Friday, which will pretty much include monitoring the electronics and making sure that things are going smoothly with the songs. I have not done this sort of thing before, but I am up for the new adventure. I will also lobby for being in charge of decorations for the winter informal dance because I want to do a sort of tron theme. More information will come on that later, along with a link to the Instructable of the other dance once I am finished with it.
-Zach
