I've been busy and am currently busy and will be busy for time to come so I'll make a quick mention of things.

First of all, I missed the big game (re:previous blog). We lost 2-0 and our equal points opponent drew their game which means we came in third. After a whole season of being in the top two!

I missed it because of the One-act Play South Island Competition. My team didn't make it to the national final (held locally!) but one of our teams made it. The South Island champ, and deservingly so, was  'Romeo and Juliet' cut to 1 act and they fought with real knives! And they had fake blood!

I'm busy now with my exams just around the corner.

Update ends.

11/8 Saturday

So there are two soccer matches to report. Starting with last week's game, we won 11-0. Our biggest win and the record away win for the season. The record home win is 15-0. And that is not ours to hold.

With so many goals, it is inevitable that it will be wondered if I scored any.goals. The answer is, I didn't. To tell the truth, I'm a defensive minded player. Even when in mid -field, I prefer to hang around outside the opponent's penalty area.

This week's game was supposed to be the last game but the soccer administration got the draw wrong so the big final is to be played next week. Very inconvenient for me as I have be away for a drama competition. And the team's goalkeeper is going along the same trip. Thus our team is in a bad shape to play next week's game. Wish us luck!

As for the game itself, we won 5-1. The last time we played them we won 5-0. We did play worse than previous games, but pulled together in the second half and scored four goals. Once again, no goals to my name.

So that's how the season ends. Unless it rains or something delays the big game, I'll miss it.

28/7 Saturday

As mentioned in my previous blog, I would be missing my soccer game due to a robotics competition. The RoboCup.

Anyway, on a small note, my team lost the game 2-1. Unbelievable, especially since we are technically the better team. Maybe it's because of all those missing players ...... including myself.

Back to the big story, the RoboCup began with an interview with the judges. My team (consisting of 4 students, including myself) was interviewed on the construction and programming aspects of the robots (that's right, three of them - soccer defence, soccer attack (striker to some) and search and rescue) that we entered. We were notified beforehand that we would be given points on this, including teamwork which could be marked down if one person answers all the questions or something similar occurs that indicates that someone is just along for a ride

The interviews went well enough and our first competition was in soccer. We had only two opponents, A and B. A beat B 1-0 because B scored an own goal. Then we played A and, how bad can luck get, we scored an own goal in the first second! That was really, really, very, very bad luck! Or maybe it was something to do with my soccer team ......

Well, we lost 1-0 to A, who on all accounts seemed to be the luckiest team participating. Still, remembering that we had to show good sportsmanship, I lead the "three cheers for (opposing team) and one for the ref". We played B and were 1-0 up by half-time. And we scored a goal from our defender giving the ball a nudge in the right direction. Hah, good on us! However, the referee came and told us that our downwards facing light sensor, used by our striker to determine where on the field it is, was emitting light which was against the rules. So we lost that goal, had to restart the match and were still 1-0 defeated by A (there's still one for the ref). The game proceeded with no goals.

Something worth noting in the soccer game (and a difference between the seniors and juniors) is that there were more tangle-ups in senior soccer rather than junior soccer. The M.C commented that the seniors had something to learn from the juniors. Ha! Watch any soccer matches and you'll notice that seniors are more ready to go for that 10%-success slide tackle and are ready to shoulder (because we use our shoulders to push our way around) any opponent in a corner kick. Seriously, the reason lay in the fact that the juniors made tall-ish, flat robots that push the ball. The seniors, however, built big buff robots to put on the field. Our robots could overturn others (We had support beams at the tipping points so we never fell!) and were likely to get stuck together. This was the result of us building "ball catchers" that could assist in keeping the ball near the robot.

Just to let you know how costly that goal we scored was, we were tied for third with B so A could win the final (1st place versus 2nd place) by default. Yet B still had a score to settle with us for second. So because of that recalled goal, we could not have a shot at 1st place!! ARRGH!!

Still, we played that last game. And we won it 2-0, we did. Oh, yes. The first goal was a result of their striker finding the ball, following its program and running right at the goal, its own goal. So that was the best own goal, I must admit. I congratulated the other team on a successful program. Well, it worked the way it was supposed to, just in the wrong direction. That's why our robot had a light sensor facing downwards, so it would not do that (no one else had a downwards facing light sensor for soccer). The second goal was by our striker getting the best out of a tight and tangled situation, scoring in the dying seconds. Still, I believe that our defender is the robot-of-the-match in all senior soccer matches that we played. It scored the own goal but it defended very well, stopping quite a few attacks. And it defended properly.

As for our serch and rescue, due to the lack of action, will receive a short paragraph. It followed the line, 'rescued' the can and topped the time at 1 min 3 sec. Basicly, it follows a black line on a green background, going through some tight corners. It must pass three checkpoints and rescue the can to get a total of 20 points in 1 min 30 sec or less. Any teams with 20 points will have the winner decided through the fastest time. Speaking of which, a junior team managed under 1 minute overall!

The third and final competition is dance which we did not enter. A robot moves to a tune and a team member or two can dance with it. No interest in it.

We got prizes for winning. A small Lego toy for each winning team (1st and runner-up for each event). A certificate for runner-ups and a cup for the winning team! Yes, I won my first cup! Ha!

The RoboCup was certainly an enjoyable and well used 7 hours. It could have been
shorter but no one's complaining too much. We'll be back next year. This time our luck was not very good (the S&R had best from three runs and one run in particular was terrible, unlike any of our tests). Next year, we'll make it!

First of all, this blog entry is about last Saturday's game (14 July). As for this week's game .... I had to miss it due to a robotics session. Yes, I'm doing Lego Robotics and the competition is next Saturday ..... which means I'm missing the next game too .....

Anyway, about the last game, it was a top of the table clash. We had to travel for almost an hour to the playing ground because this top team is an out of town team. To pile the odds against us even further, they had scored more goals, conceded less goals; we had a very bad defence for the last three games (conceding 10 goals, although officially it is 7 goals because of a misinformed 5-0 win to us instead of 5-3 .....) and we hadn't had training as a team for a month!!

Knowing these facts, the team captain (and later the coach) gave us a pep talk. They did it really well. I was all ready for it ..... I was wanting to get in there and get them beaten! And I was the starting substitute. We managed to get 12 players down to the out-of-town game while our opponent got 14. Obviously this was not good either as our best played games were won with more subs(3-5 subs). Anyway, what could I do but shout some support?

After about 5 minutes of play, they scored a goal. It was terrible. Our left back tackled their winger, the ball rolled free on the ground, one centre back came up to kick and his kick slipped! The ball rolled to an opponent who shot and scored! That was a stupid goal! By all right our defender would have cleared it! Bad luck, time to start turning up the pressure!

I was soon put on the field and before the half-time whistle was blown, we scored. Somehow, I missed seeing the goal. Even after the game I still had no idea how the goal was scored.

In the second half, they got ahead again with another bad goal. From just outside the penalty area, one of their players kicked the ball. It went pass me, missing me by just a couple millimetres. Honest, I felt it actually hit me lightly! It went on and our defender misjudged it, failed to clear it and our keeper's dive came too late. Later, I heard our keeper was about to dive when he suddenly noticed that our defender was there. That may have been why he hesitated.

We kept playing on and suddenly we were the better team. We were keeping the ball in their half, forcing them into conceding throw-ins and corner-kicks. We kept at it and one particular corner-kick was fumbled by their keeper and our striker jumped on the loose ball and back-heeled it into the goal. This time I had a clear view of the ball rolling into the goal. For a moment I was afraid it would get intercepted!

About a minute after the restart, our coach questioned the referee about the remaining time. After a short discussion, the referee blew the end game whistle. We had been playing almost 7 minutes overtime and that's when our equalising goal had come! Ha, we had drawn with the top team, keeping right up by their side in terms of points!

Overall, for two top ranked teams playing against each other, the goals were not masterfully crafted beauties. They were the type one would expect to find from a big lunge from every player on the field for the ball, with the players piling on top of each other and the ball rolling into the goal.

My team had better have won this weeks game. Good luck to them for next week's game!!

As for the robotics, we (a group of 5) set about planning our two robots which we would enter in the robotics soccer competition (2 a side). We had to plan which sensors to use (limit of 4, imposed by the robot 'brain' only having 4 such ports), how to build the robot and how to program it. I was in charge of putting something good together and after some trial and error, discussion and thinking, I managed to have a cool robot to show off. It was impressive enough to warrant the other robot to be built based on the first's design. Of course, I made sure there were some small differences .....

I should have taken my camera but I didn't. So many picture opportunities went by ..... and I probably would have missed some of them due to so much concentration being put on the construction. But you miss 100% of the shots you don't take...... I'll have my camera ready next time!

30/6 Saturday

Second term holidays are now here! That signals that many things need to be done. I doubt I'll make a list as long as my arm (which is as long as most) but there are some things that I have done.

First of all, my team won our last game for the term. It was a hard fight. We had no subs, a real difference from past games. A big disappointment despite the win was that they probably scored the fastest two goals in the whole history of Soccersouth games. We also missed some chances but that was quite like us.

Besides the soccer, there was the One-act Play competition that almost wasn't because the judge had an unconfirmed presence. In my region, only my school had entered teams. Make that five teams. Last night, three teams performed and mine was among them. Mine was about some children with "problems" under observation of the audience. We pulled it off really well despite the ending having some lines skipped (and we had practiced that for some time!). One of the teams' act was about clowns in a clown class and the other was about an abuse person. These scripts were written by the teacher and she addressed teenage issues in the other two acts as well.

Back home, I had to put together a DIY rack. Not much of a problem except that I didn't pay enough attention to the details and screwed up the screwholes and had to unscrew screws in order to fix the problem. And then I found out that I had misaligned some screwholes that weren't vital but that meant I couldn't insert some bars which I just put aside. it is standing. And it will stand for many years to come unless it outlives it's usefulness first.

Right now (at the point of typing) I'm updating my blog and am trying to get my snow day pictures from last week uploaded onto my CBCG site but there's a problem on their side. Going to have to wait....

Today, the first decent snowfall occured in my city!!

I woke up, looked out the window and saw the driveway was covered in a thin layer of snow. I got up and put on another pullover, grabbed my gloves and camera and headed outside to do some picture taking.

It was lovely outside except for the gale force (or so) wind blowing. Being under some 5 layers made it warm enough and I got to work snapping some sights. Unfortunately, the camera is only as good as it's made and cannot compare to the human eye. Or maybe I'm just a bad photographer. Or maybe it's because I'm using one of those common digital cameras for civilians and not the high tech stuff for professionals.

Those pictures will be on my Comic Book Creator Guy (CBCG) site in a day or so. I'm delaying the upload due to the expectation of more snow. Speaking of CBCG, I'm sorry that it's taking such a long time for the semis to be posted. I don't have a scanner of my own and the only one which I could possibly use is not in a convenient place for me to use at all. It's not at a cybercafe.

I had some fun in the snow. Walked all over it. It makes a crunching sound.....must be lower grade snow (not the fluffy stuff some talk about). There was enough for me to make a snowball of sorts (hardly round but really compact and tough) and I threw it at the wall. It stuck to the wall in an interesting way ...... must be the physics of it that I haven't learnt yet.

And now to other details besides the snow....

1) Soccer
Soccer today was cancelled due to the snow fall. Or rather, it was cancelled due to the forecast of the upcoming snowfall. They have to make the cancellation decision on Friday afternoon instead of Saturday morning because of out of town teams. It would be terrible for them to go all the way only to find that there's no game.

As for soccer last week, it was another tough game. We won five-three although the 'official' result turned out to be five-nil. I wonder if the other team will get their goals back?

Anyway, our star striker scored another hat-trick and another striker scored the other two. My team's goals for totals 26 and the star striker contributed 14. This is just 6 games played. It really shows how important he is to the team.

2) New Testament
Before you think I'm going to give a sermon or preach or something like that, I'm not going to.

It starts with the Gideons International sending two people (or priests maybe?) to my school to tell us a bit about themselves. Apparently they have set up this supply of pocketbook sized New Testament to hostels and hospitals because, as they say, people go there to die, by suicide or otherwise (date death?). They claim some lives have been saved because of the free New Testaments available for them to turn to and find help.

After the little talk, they had free New Testaments (in the tiny size) for every student who wanted one. As it is one of the most read books, I decided to take a copy. It has proven to be a most ....... good book to read.

It sure had a day changing the usual schoolday.

3) Course set for engineering
In case I didn't update you, my ambition is to become an engineer. As the Careers room showed an engineering course, I decided to go for it.

The course proved to be useful in it's own ways. First of all, I got to speak with a Lieutenant Commander of Marine Engineering from the navy. He told us two important things to think about when planning for tertiary education. First, get someone else to pay the fees. Second, get paid while on the course.

In The Navy (by Village People), there are two engineering fields. Marine engineering and weapons engineering. Weapons covers defence systems and radars and electronic warfare gadgets. Marine  covers everything else, from engine care to advance maintenance (keeping it floating). Both of these fields require knowledge on mechanical and/or electrical & electronics engineering.

If you decide to join the navy (by influence of the song or otherwise) and become an officer in one of the two options, the navy will provide financial assistance. The catch? You have to serve in the navy. Naturally!

The other interesting occurance was the sight of the one of two laser cutters in New Zealand. It was a carbon dioxide laser. Exciting!

It was Friday morning and I had just arrived in school when it began pouring hard. The weather forecast the previous day had mentioned snow down to sea level for today .....

And did they get that (almost) right! In one suburb (a rather high and hilly one) they closed the school due to about 2 cm thick snow on the ground. However, the snow melted quickly and those students got an extra day weeekend.

While I was waiting for school to start, the rain poured down heavily.....then it turned to sleet, then snow (or so some said), then light rain, then snow/sleet/rain (a mixture of them all or occuring at once) and then it all stopped.

Through out the rest of the school day, the rain came and went. Due to the occasional sunlight, it was not cold enough for snow to fall again.

Well, that fall of snow sure signals for some cold times ahead......

I've had a busy and exciting time for the last three weeks. I'll start from the beginning

1) Cave Story

A freeware computer game on the school system. I got so interested I've downloaded it off the internet to play. It's a game that will get you hooked unless you don't like 2-D games. For more information, go and search for it on the net. You'll be glad you did.

2) 48 hours film fest

A competition in which each team must make a film in 48 hours. Very strict on the time factor.....one team came in late by2 seconds and was rejected. Not my team but unlucky for them. We got the genre of war and put together some impressive shots which created a movie with a plot about everyone but the two kings dying. Not the best of all but very good.

3) Drama

Phew! Two drama competitions going on! One is a local one-act play and the other is preparation to go to either Japan or Russia to compete. Both are taking a lot of energy. Fortunately, I have about enough to go around.

4) Model United nations Assembly (MUNA)

The Honourable Delegate of Pakistan is here.........was here. That's right, I was representing Pakistan in the MUNA. The highlight was the Islamic fanatism certain countries (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and ..... that's it) performed. Pakistan led all other Muslim delegates outside for prayer time and the Chair would not let any of them back in. We got back in but lost our voting rights and our admendments would not be considered.

Saudi Arabia.....they proposed the amendment that anyone wanting to receive aid would have to first convert to Islam. That was shot down. Then they had one of their delegates strap bombs (pork sausages.....how ironic) to himself and declared they would blow up the place unless averyone converted to Islam.

At least some countries were serious in the MUNA. Or the whole purpose would be taken out of it.

5) Soccer in the wind and rain

Due to the ldivision containing 13 teams, the 'FA' (Soccersouth) has a low probability of cancelling games. And there are 3 out of town teams. How would that be to come all the way only to find it's been cancelled?

I decided to cycle all the way to the game and it was raining. I was wearing my gear under track trousers, raincoat, safety goggles and helmet. And the rain was showing no sign of letting up. The goggles helped keep the rain out of my eyes.

We got the first when their kepper fumbled the ball and my friend kicked it in. Then our striker scored and they retaliated with one. Half time 2-1 with us ahead. Second half started with us scoring two quick goals. Then they did the same. after some time we scored another. After more wet rain and playing, the game was over with us winning 5-3. Well done to us.

However, I had to ride all the way back home in the wild wet windy weather. I think I felt how a World War One fighter pilot feels like at a slow speed in bad weather.

12/5/07

Today was the toughest football match played by my team yet. The last two games were against teams that lacked in the midfield but this team was almost equal in terms of skill. It was another school's A-team (1st team) as well.

The game started off well with us pouring in the shots again and again. Two good chances were wasted and at half time we had played better but were still at a draw.
The second half followed the first with each side making decent attempts to score. Twice an opponent got into the box and ran in circles before the ball got cleared. That player could have easily scored and put us behind if he dared. Fortunately, the deciding goal came from one of our own players with ten minutes left.

What is a player to do when he will be missing training and the next two matches? I will be missing training due to extra lessons for a higher level paper and the next two matches because of a movie competition (that will be so much fun) and Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA).

Speaking of which, I had the chance once before to enter MUNA but someone in charge of calling the shots suddenly decided to hand the task to the juniors in the school. At that time I was a senior and so was excluded from MUNA. Now, I hear that seniors ought to be at MUNA instead of juniors......something must be really messed up.

Besides all that I have more activities to juggle than before. As the year goes on more things will pop up. Just have to take things in stride....

Saturday, 5/5/07

I had my second soccer game for the season against a team that had the home game one hour and a half away from my school. My team had to organise private transport (car-pooling) to go. Of course, when a visiting team travels that far, legs are stiff when you get out of the car.

We got off to a wonderful start, taking the lead in the first few minutes. But they levelled soon after. We had more shots at goal and admittedly we couldn't put them away. Two of those shots were mine. One was deflected just outside the goal by a lucky defender and the second was blocked by a defender. By half-time we were up 3-1. In the second half we poured more shots into their goal and were rewarded with 3 more goals to none.

We won and they weren't the best of teams so we still need to be careful. The most amazing topic of discussion for the match is the percentage of shots on goal converted into goals. If anyone took the statistics, we definitely had a lower percentage than them. BUT, we had maybe five or seven or even ten times more shots on goal than them!! AND we really missed at least five good chances.
What we could do with a better percentage with the same or more number of shots....