AcDec Craziness!

Last Friday and Saturday I went to the CVHS Academic Decathlon invitational. It was pretty much just a practice match, but all of the tests were the hardest level. It made for some fairly interesting tests, especially when it was in a category I have not yet studied for. Those tests ended up being a look-for-the-most-interesting-answer strategy, and the return on it was not as good as the last scrimmage. However, I put some extra time into studying the science section, and it paid off. I got a 620 out of 1000, which resulted in first place for Honors Science. I was pretty excited about the award, and I liked this test more than last time since it dealt with more of the science of the Space Race rather than the history of it. (btw, the overall theme is Russia, hence the Space Race science section) I also liked the interview portion of the competition since I got to geek out after they asked me about what I thought the most important discovery of the Space Race was. I talked about helium-3 on the moon and how utilizing it for full scale fusion would allow us to make the jump to a Type I civilization. Anyway, my school's team did pretty well overall with about 14 or so individual awards and third place as a team overall. We also won the Super Quiz Relay, which results in none other than temporary bragging rights. The relay was pretty awesome too, going into the last round with a tie. The next step in AcDec for me is Regionals. The only problem is that the team can only take three members from each level. That means that I am competing against my five or six of my teammates for one of three slots in the Honors division for Regionals. We are taking mini tests next week to determine who gets the positions, so I have quite a bit of studying to do this week. 

On another academic note, I was accepted to Embry-Riddle today. This is really exciting since this could be a major stepping stone I could use to get into space. I just found out about this today, so I will be getting more information about it in the coming weeks. The VMWare class also starts tomorrow night, so I am pretty excited to start that. I also saw that the teacher I had for the other Linux classes is teaching the Linux classes again, so I am planning on making a surprise appearance before class later this week to say hi and see how things are going. Other than all of this, life has pretty much been focused on school, and I have not had a bunch of time recently to work on my website. I think I may work on it this week during school since I can now easily access the server file browser online. 

I have not heard of a release date for Minecraft 1.5, so I am not sure quite when I will be able to start some sort of Let's Play.

As always,

Happy Adventures!

-Zach

2013 Updates

So... Winter break is now over, and school has started up again. Over break I did not do much other than Minecraft and LEGOs, so I did not get very many productive things done. I did, however, put a bunch of time into website, so I now have a decent Minecraft section. Now, I just need to populate the section with pictures and descriptions. I figured that since it was my last winter break of high school, I would take it easy and not do anything too crazy. Even though it kinda bugs me that I did not get very much done, I do have to say that I really enjoyed this break with the extra time I spent hanging out with my family.

As for my adventures with college, my application to MIT was deferred, I got accepted to ASU, and I have not yet heard back from the other colleges I have applied to. Even though the MIT result was not what I was hoping for, I am excited to have a second shot at admission during the Regular Action round. I am quite excited to see what the final result will be, and I cannot wait until March when I find out. Oh, I almost forgot to talk about the community college. I signed up for a VMware ESXI 5 class, and that starts next week. I am pretty excited about that since it is a continuation of my previous classes and the next step in training for a system administration job.

As for Instructables, I am still planning on making some tutorials soon, but there are some other things that definitely take precedence over them(like the website and school). The same goes for my book. I will continue working on it once I am able to free up some more time in my schedule. I have some pretty neat ideas for it, and as usual, I will keep you updated on it as I go. So far, I have about 11,000 words out of a minimum of 50,000, so I still have a bit of work ahead of me for that.

I am also thinking about starting a Let's Play for Minecraft, and the 1.5 redstone update should be a perfect time to start on it. I do not know how well it will go, but what the heck. It seems like a fun thing to do, so I will at least put a nice attempt into starting that up later on. If you are interested in hearing about when the first video comes out or you have any suggestions for it, shoot me an email at zach.burnham@noendtech.com

There are probably one or two other updates I am forgetting, but alas, I must get to bed now.

As always,
         Happy Adventures!

-Zach