It was weird driving home from Nakamun without starting to panic about next year's studying. I mean, it wasn't a bad weird feeling and it wasn't a nervous weird feeling... Just plain weird. Weird to know that I'm not gonna be on the benches anymore...
Nakamun was a great meet... It kind of felt like a redemption of something. NEXT 1 finally made it to championships and NEXT 2 did amazingly in the rookie division yet again! There were some really tight quizzes and intense moments between taking my melatonin too early (whoops) and being a grade 12 murder suspect, telling people that I heard screaming in the night. I got a really good question right in a really fast quiz, so I was proud of myself for that.
The funny things that happened: Switching rooms on the second night because Lana and I were staying up for the later curfew, Hannah losing her iPod (which was totally not funny but since we scared the living daylights out of a bunch of people who thought that Hannah's poi were UFO's and got ice cream, it made up for it), and the coaches' quiz. Oooh the coaches' quiz. Jon decided to imitate me during a time out... I'm not sure if I'm really that hyperactive during quizzes or if he was overacting... -shrug-. Both quizzes I coached the coaches and in both quizzes I think we got one right answer (which was beautifully mimed) but their imitations were hilarious!
So, yes, I had a great last meet... Being in grade 12 was fun :oP I didn't even cry when they called everyone up for the grade 12 keychain thingys. I think I was just too pre-occupied with the fact that it was such a fun meet.
And, with that, I think I can honestly say that I've had a good year for the most part, and learned a lot, both this season and during my time as a quizzer. I guess this final blog post is a 'farewell' to both the benches and this blog. In the 4 years that I've quizzed I have learned so much and realized that I am capable of so much more than I realized. I am looking forward to whatever happens next (which hopefully involves coaching) and wish all of you quizzers who haven't graduated good luck for next year! And hey, I'll be starting another blog, 'Beyond the Benches', as soon as I start doing coach-type stuff... Who knows? Maybe I'll even make a page for coaching tips that I gather along the way. I will still be accepting tips from other quizzers to put on the site, and if anyone would like to pick up the flashcards from where I left off, feel free.
Thanks to everyone who's been there for me... My fellow NEXTers for being the biggest bunch of bananas I get to hang out with every week, Troy and Jon for being awesome coaches, Patricia and Lana for being awesome teammates and teaching me how to jump, Mrs. Put for sticking around and all the people who put Quizzing together... These have been an amazing four years that I never want back :o)
So question of the blog, everyone: What has been your favourite book to quiz on? Personally, John was my favourite. My personal stats weren't as great that year as they had been previously but I could play the movie in my head and there is so much great stuff in there :o)
So, for the last time...
Quizzers... UNITE!!!
Maegan
PS... See you in 'Beyond the Benches'!!
Now, you're probably wondering: Why is April awesome? How would you know that April is awesome at this particular moment? You're in different regions!
April commented on my last blog and reminded me indirectly to write a blog about the quiz meet :oP. Thank you April, I needed a break from writing flashcards anyways (I'd just accidentally written 'since' instead of 'sins' and it's, like, 9 at night).
So. The quiz meet. It was awesome. First of all, my team, Evan, Hannah, and I, were a pretty awesome combination. Y'know, Hannah and I dancing around and Evan awkwardly standing there for, like, half of a time-out wondering what we are doing and... why? So that was fun. The Great-West-quizzers-quiz-out-on-three rule was at first depressing, but it made sense, it being the first regional and all, so who am I to argue? And also, we had a mascot. His name is Elephant. He is an elephant. Cause, y'know, an elephant never forgets. And cause elephants are pretty awesome.
We got to the hotel and decided to have pizza (Me, Mrs. Put, Hannah, my mom, and Lana were staying in the same hotel room). Panago wasn't open anymore, so we went with Boston Pizza, who said they wouldn't deliver (even though when my mom and Mrs. Put went to pick up the pizzas, they were delivering for someone else), then told us that they didn't have 2 of the pizzas we ordered, so they gave us perogie pizzas, which we DIDN'T want, so they had to wait even longer.
Meaanwhile, Hannah, Lana, and I are in the hotel randomly dancing, laughing and trying to buy pop from the drink machine in the lobby.
We had pretty crappy prelims :oP It was actually kinda funny when we got to the afternoon, finished our first quiz in last, then won the rest of the quizzes until finals... Like, WHAT just happened??? Oh, wait. Evan started quizzing out (GO EVAN!). Then Hannah happened. She decided that Evan and I werenot sufficiently stressed, so she waited until question 23 in the tie breaker, when Evan and I were quizzed out and couldn't jump, to jump, get it right (in what seemed like slow motion), and win the quiz. Thank you Hannah.
Anyways. We all did pretty well at NEXT. NEXT 1 went to championships (W00t!), my team, NEXT 2, placed 3rd in consolation, and both of our rookies were phenomenal!! Y'all are gonna have to watch out, they are showing NO signs of slowing down!
Elephant didn't jump at all. He was all distracted by his friend the frog stress ball. *shakes head* He needs to focus more, Elephant does.
We finished the meet at Smitty's as a team, and headed home, I'm not sure about anyone else, but I was pumped, no matter how sleep-deprived I was.
The district meet is already on my mind. Well, not 'already', I guess. It's not too far away. Time to start cracking down on my references and doing more flashcards, I guess.
Speaking of flashcards, I really should work on those, shouldn't I?
If there are spelling errors in the cards, now you know why, at least.
Question of the blog (and you thought I forgot): First meet of the year! How'd it go? How are your rookies doing?
Quizzers Unite!!
Maegan
Skip the first paragraph if you're not just bored.
So, guys, I posted this literally minutes after posting the blog about the meet, because it was a draft before and I hadn't finished it when I wanted to post it so if you want to read about how the meet went, read the blog.
Yeah... you have to read to blog to find out how NEXT did. I'm not spoiling ANYTHING for those who actually care.
Too bad everyone who actually cares probably already knows.
BUT the blog post has the STORY... *nobody moves* FINE! Don't read my blog.
Anyways, the purpose of this blog is to let you all know that I think I just found a place where being an obsessive quizzer is a good thing. I was just talking to my friend from dancing (If you're reading this, I hope you don't mind that I'm talking about you on my blog, you know who you are...) about theory and she said something about using flash cards for Highland theory... memorizing definiteions and stuff... and I, myself using flashcard machine for my Highland theory, directed her to the website that I use. Then it kind of clicked in my head... Quizzing... theory... Quizzing... theory... WOAH!!!!! IT WORKS! It is terribly pathetic that it took me THIS LONG to figure it out...
So, I was going over my study methods and I realized just how obsessive they all sound when all you're trying to do is memorize a few, or a few hundred (or so it seems) definitions of movements you can execute no problem. I mean, the flashcards with push-ups... that'd work fine... I think I'm gonna use that one with steps of a dance for my theory since I have to up my pracitce time anyways, but most of them are totally... like, unrelated! No key words, although you oculd try to find words that you constantly forget, so that takes out a chunk of them. No verse numbers, so that takes out high lighting. Trouble spots... those I can maybe use but most of the study methods would SUCK for Highland theory.
The tips, too, I just realized how obsessive I am! "Make sure you eat while you're studying" "If your eyes are closing on their own, take a nap" "Schedule study times with friends!" And the new one I just posted "Make a schedule with when you're going to do each method that you use to study"... WHAT? I laughed SO HARD comparing how much I study Quizzing with how much I study theory... I mean, I don't think I've touched my theory book since last week, and its a MIRACLE if I can keep my hands off of my quizzing work for more than an hour or two.
BUT! As different as the two are, from the work ethic I learned from Quizzing, listening to my body when I'm studying for a long time and learning what works best for me, to working as a team, calming myself down and eating the right 'brain foods'... its all thanks to Quizzing, and without it, I probably would've failed my last few theory exams. Badly. So, Quizzing is pretty cool that way. And many other ways but don't get me started.
Questions: Where do you see skills obtained in Quizzing reflect in real life? (Yes, there IS a world out there for all you study-a-holics) And... was this too much of an essay for you to bother reading this far? *sigh* Oh well.
Quizzers... UNITE!
Maegan
Okay guys. Quiz meet. You knew that this blog was coming. You knew it... its the blog about the quiz meet. And boy, do I have a blog for YOU!
Okay, so, chapter one: Arrive. Talk to friendly people who I like talking to until my parents arrive... my dad actually came for Friday night! Not as freaked out as I was last meet, finally spot my team and stand around talking about how pumped we are and playing cat's cradle (or attempting to, in my case). Sit down in the sanctuary, choose a stress ball for the night, hand out some blueberry-pomegranite gum and sit, talk, and wait for announcements to start with a huge case of the butterflies. We. Were. Ready.
Chapter two: After waiting around, watching quizzes, and running through a few dances in the hallway to get my blood pumping and get excited and stuff, we sit down to quiz. I, of course, MUST have the seat furthest away from the quizmaster or I get a bit freaked out. We did well that quiz... Finishing with 180 points, we did well and my dad was proud.
Chapter three: Fast forward to Saturday morning. My dad unfortunately couldn't be there, but we, NEXT 1, were determined to do well. First quiz of the day was a perfect quiz. Like, it couldn't have gone any better for our team. We all quizzed out with no errors, finishing with a score of 300! This gave us the confidence boost that we so needed for the rest of the day... and believe me... that little boost was all we needed.
Chapter 4: Last preliminary quiz, 170 points. Happy face :o) The rest of my team went to Ikea for lunch, but my mom and I went to Fat Burger, and that was the best veggie burger EVER! Just saying. I got a new fidget toy from Education Station (a didget fidget... look em up. They're fun!) and arrived back to find out that we, NEXT 1, had actually placed 1st in the morning. I did, in that moment, feel unprepared for this, so I went and studied until Alannah and Jessica from Edson 1 came and said hi to me. Then all of the sudden there was, like, a party in room 7. That was fun. At 2:00, though, with dropped jaws and twinkling eyes, we headed to our first quiz of the afternoon. We had a great afternoon after that... We all had those moments where we got questions that we thought otherwwise impossible and were happy to have some very close quizzes with neck-to-neck competition. After a few of these quizzes, we had done what in previous years, and even just moments before, we would've thought impossible. We actually made it to finals!!!!
Chapter 5: After running outside for a little bit to cool down, eating some fruit and freaking out a bit more, it was time. We were called to the sanctuary for announcements. I was dying on the inside. I really was. I just wanted to get this over with... we had already decided as a team that now nothing mattered. Even if we all erred out, it wouldn't matter. So we walked in, jumped fast (but smart), respected eachother's specializations, and started the quiz strong. John got an impossible quote (number wasn't really even close to finished)... We were feeling good, but we didn't really take the quiz seriously until we got third person in. Now the rubber met the road. Question 11. We can actually do this... we can do this because we really actually don't care. We're not freaking out. We're not stressed. I answered the last question. Multiple answer. What came... grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. They said I was right. My face went beet red and I ran back to our seats crying. We did it. We actually did it. We prayed and thanked God for giving us the opportunity and putting us on such a great team together... still couldn't believe it!
Great meet... I placed 10th, Jon placed 8th, Patricia placed 13th... and we're all VERY happy! :oD! Teamwork is a valuable thing!
NEXT 2 did really well too! Shoutout to Lana for placing 14th in Consolation... we're all, at NEXT, doing a lot better than we ever have before. I think I speak for everyone at NEXT when I say that we all did our personal bests. (patricia says that best i
Question: How was YOUR quiz meet?
Quizzers UNITE!!!
Maegan
The title was pretty obvious, huh? But its SO true! Everything else seems so boring... I'd rather be stuck in a quiz with only quotes (My least favorite questions) than to be sitting around at home right now. i was actually typing out all of my flash cards to my iPod when I remembered that I wanted to blog about the quiz meet. Lets start with the story, then the stats, shall we?
Okay, so this quiz meet was probably the first time I've ever called quizzing an emotional challenge. I started off on a bad foot, jumping too fast, WAY too fast, and finished the first quiz with 2 errors and 3 right. I mean, not bad, right? I thought that if I just studied a little bit more, calmed down a bit and took my time jumping, it would all be fine and dandy, right? So we get back to the church from the AMAZING billet's house and I thought we were ready to roll... until the first quiz of the day. Its my instinct to start panicking at the beginning of the quiz, no matter how much I was telling myself to stay calm and breathe... the rest of the morning went kind of well. I still got questions and stuff but I didn't really ever get back into it or used to quizzing again until the last quiz of the day. We placed 4th in the morning, so we got into championships!! *insert happiness here* In our second quiz of the afternoon Patricia saved the quiz and got us into a tie in the last 3 questions like we had 'planned' and quizzed out without error... THAT WAS AMAZING!!! Then I ruined it by getting one of the tie breaker questions wrong... which was kind of depressing... then I got the last one right just for the sake of it all! YAY!
I was really stressed after that, during that quiz my pulse had reached 210/minute and before the next quiz it was 162 so I sat for a bit of the quiz before stealing a question away from the other team even though we would lose anyways but Troy wanted 3rd person in and I was in an evil mood so I did... I tried apologizing cause they needed that question to win but they just kinda glared at me... SERIOUSLY GUYS IM HONESTLY SORRY ABOUT THAT! Troy told me to...
Anyways I got an amazing question in the last quiz of the day... "What is..." then I half got an r... real rood... my flesh is real food... I officially felt amazing! That was after I had gone an entire half hour without studying or talking about quizzing at all, which I was surrprised at...
Anyways, i was shocked to find that I placed 18th... Jon and Patricia placed 16th and 17th (team dynamic much?) and we placed 8th in championships! Hannah on NEXT 2 got 3rd place Rookie in the ENTIRE meet and top rookie in consolation... YAY HANNAH!!!!
Congratulations to all of the other teams and quizzers who did so well this weekend... without the competition quizzing wouldn't be HALF as fun! Now, excuse me while I try to recover from post-quiz meet....
One more thing, guys, my mom made an amazing scrapbooking page from last year's quizzing... so I think that it would only be kind of me to direct you to www.heritagemakers.com/4923 because my mom loved the scrapbook so much she is now running a business with them! I like the program... its cool, easy to use and really fun, so if you order one, order with that link cause then my mom gets paid for it, and all profits are going towards supporting NEXT quizzing :o)
Excuse the advertising... but I really do like the program.
Anyways, good meet... get ready for February!!
Quizzers Unite!
Maegan
Let me explain the title first, kay? Thanks.
I am going through culture shock right now. I mean, come on, in the real world you actually have to get a non-quizzing EDUCATION!!! LOL!
Second, I didn't sleep well last night.
And third, I know this is going to be a looong blog.
So for those of you who haven't been reading my blog since the last quiz meet, I went to Great West last weekend! It was SO MUCH FUN! Lets get stats over with before I start going into all the emotional and psychological and sleep-related blogging, shall we? I placed 21st (YESSS!) with an average of 12.5 and my team placed 5th!!! So, yeah, that was really exciting.
But that wasn't particularily why it was such a fantabulous quiz meet. I mean, partially but you catch my drift. I was on a great team... me, Renae, Sarah, Carrie (if you're reading this and know I spelled it wrong please comment the actual spelling) and Kimmy, and we worked pretty well together. I mean, we all cooperated pretty well together and it was a worthwhile weekend to attend.
It was definitely a learning weekend. I mean, I've NEVER been confident enough to jump WAY too early and just throw out a random answer. Either of them! I've NEVER done ANYTHING to do with strategy... our strategy at NEXT has always been to try to jmp early and get points. I never knew there were certain amounts of types of questions in each quiz, and I never really counted or noticed how many syllables other people were jumping on. AND I have never NOT panicked at a quiz meet. Great West was a GREAT quiz meet for learning how to quiz better, and for making friends with people you absolutely hate quizzing against (cause thery're so good, right? Its not that I HATE anybody, I just hate quizzing on a different team than them.
Oh yeah, one more thing I learned at Great West: At least TRY to sleep if you know you have to wake up the next morning at 7:30. Zzzzzz....
Speaking of sleep (I know, this is getting long) I was planning on listening to the material in my sleep so I was just listening to it and drifting off and my mind started going bonkers... I mean I guess there was this character I unconsciously made up named Bob. And Bob did not know how to read or write. And I thought Bob was so smart for saying all that cool stuff, and was wondering why he was so obsessed with the resurrection of the dead... then every now and then in the hour or so I spent thinking these things I'd realise a) Who's Bob? And b) Thats 1 and 2 Corinthians. Not... uh... Bob.
Okay, I've rambled at you long enough for one night. Gotta get going on the set of flashcards for my iPod... Need those for Nakamun!
OMG Nakamuns in less than 2 weeks!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! *Freak out*
Until probably sometime this week, comment what you've learned from Quizzing this year!
Happy studying!
Maegan
I know I have a lame blog title today.
Now that THAT is over with... I will tell you the reason I interrupted your studying. The quiz meet ended yesterday... I was continually saying: I HAVE TO BLOG ABOUT THIS!!!
Okay, so we left after stopping at a grocery store to get some mangos (brain food) and drove to Red Deer. Studied for a bit, but ended up doing way random stuff... like lip-synching at cars (?). The first thing we did was check in to the hotel, lie around a bit, and me and Patricia threw questions at each other. Then we went to the mall... which was a good thing because I didn't pack a toothbrush, pyjamas, or my stress balls (I had 2). So we went to the mall and I desparately searched for a fidget toy and a cheap toothbrush... and finally as we were looking through Claire's... I FOUND IT! And by 'it' I mean, a totally adorable new stress ball that was pink with green hair! I also got a toothbrush... but who cares about that?
Then we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the cinnamon buns my mom bought us (thank you mom!) and... again... went through a bunch of questions. Finally, it was time. Time to get in the van and freak out speed-studying the entire way to the church. Then we had our first quiz... which was an interesting one... and then our second quiz... which was also... interesting. The second 'I must blog' moment:
Think about this for a second. Your team has erred their way to 0. You have 2 wrong, so 1 more error and you're out. You are terrified out of your bejeebes that you'd be the reason the team would lose and all that stuff that's going through your head when you haven't slept enough and you're almost erred out. Thats what happened. I jumped early on 16th (I think?) question and 10 seconds in found the verse, got it right. Got the question. Started laughing??? LOL! I mean, 2 questions later I erred out... but the team pulled our 0 (before that question) up to 100 before the end of the quiz!!
How did we do the rest of the meet? Well, we all got our usual quiz meet sleep or more (some got 8 hours, some 4... my usual just happens to be 1.5 so thats what I got), our team pulled it together just in time to win WXYZ (thank goodness), and went on to get 12th place in the championships. I'm not sure how the rest of the NEXTer's did, but I came in 11th (I pulled my act together after that err-out and quizzed out 3 times in the afternoon), Jon and I qualified for Great West, and Patricia is a fill-in if anyone can't go... I am 100% going, and I haven't heard if Jon and Patricia have made final decisions yet, or if anyone couldn't make it, but I know they were both ecstatic about getting that far!
Chapters 8-13 for Great West... anyone reading my blog going? Anyone from outside of WCD reading my blog going?
I'm sorry this was so long... I just had so much to write about!!! I am so excited about everything!!
(read to the last paragraph) Wow... was that ever an amazing meet! And not only stats-wise... It was just overall fun and exciting! Our teams... us NEXTicans... we spent a lot of time together, talked about completely unrelated topics, I actually wasn't too uptight (not that I would notice usually) and everybody was WAY positive. We had ups and downs... quizzes ranging from 270 points to 60... and lot of errors, challenges, and quiz-outs... but that just makes quizzing even more exciting!
For this meet our rivals were Southgate 1 and 2... had two quizzes with both of them and a third quiz with team 2... and by the third quiz (the semi-semi finals) we had calmed down and started doing really well... so that quiz was a nail-biter for all 3 teams. One of the fun things is after our first quiz with both Southgate teams, team 2's coach talked to me and Jon and told us that we'd be more competitive if we stopped psyching ourselves out... and we were thinking of that every quiz after that... thus we did well... so if anybody has contact with him... tell him thanks again from NEXT 1!!!
Speaking of thanks... thanks to all the WCD'ers out there who gave us a great meet! There is no way we would've had so much fun without some stiff competition!
As for personal scores... we at NEXT are creeping our way up the stats... I came in 10th and Jon came in 15th... and I bet the rest of us did well, too... and even if we didn't... we had fun!
One more thing... I wish somebody had videotaped this... there was one question in a certain quiz that I jumped on... What importance? and I thought it was what important s... so once I realised that I didn't even bother standing up... I just sat there hanging my head... until I finally got it... It wasn't even a quick 'oh!'... it was a 'what-is-Maegan-thinking' moment... I leaped (leapt?) Out of my seat... quickly DANCED over to the microphone, threw my hands up and practically yelled 'FIRST IMPORTANCE!!!!'... That quizmaster will NEVER forget me!
Hey Everybody!
I just realised how totally wierd the mp3 audio I have is! I don't mean the stuff I recorded, the stuff I got online... theres epic music, the guy is super-dramatic, and they have INSTRUMENTAL BREAKS!!! So funny!
Sorry I haven't been updating the falshcards, I haven't gottne the questions. I'll have it up to the quiz meet by the quiz meet... I promise!
Anybody else realise something funny in their audio, recorded or online?
Maegan
Hi people!
For everybody from Western Canada: Yes, its true. I, Maegan from NEXT 1 am one of the 'Bean People' that did the mewing thing at Nakamun awards. Me and Patricia.
Everybody else: Funny story. At Nakamun during the awards cerimony, (I can't remember what we were up there for, the second place we got in consolation or me Patricia and Jon for Top Rookie, 4th place and 5th place) me and Patricia did this routine thing that we do forevery meet, especially with one certain quizmaster. (WCD people: I don't know his name... grey hair, glasses, room 5 at Nakamun, room 4 in St Albert, quizmaster for consolation finals? Yeah, that guy.) Once I accidentally punched Patricia in the nose... we were in a rush and it was the finals in St Albert... MEW MEW MEW MEW ME... and I accidentally punched her becuase we were trying to link arms. It was bound to happen one time or another, but that quizmaster had been at all but one of our quizzes that day and he was laughing SO HARD his face was red because he'd "seen that thing one too many times" LOL!
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