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20070401 Sunday April 01, 2007

Test Driven Damnation

The long drive down to Visalia didn't quite go as planned. Since my daughter is doing a Shakespeare theater camp this summer, I figured listening to a "Romeo and Juliet" dramatization for three and half hours on the road would provide enriching entertainment. But by the time we got to The Five, I sayeth unto myself, as if Yoda did Shakespeare, "Patience for lengthy dialog in British accents, thou hath not." Eject that CD. We ended up yacking and partaking in Dave Matthews, Green Day and Queen instead.

Besides the California state Odyssey of the Mind competition this weekend, Visalia seemed to be hosting a soccer event and a gathering of evangelical christians. I'm sorry, but really. The latter are very silly people, they take themselves and their world view way too seriously. But I guess if you're convinced you have a divine and ultimate truth, that could happen.

Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem solving competition. It's an exercise in questioning boundaries.

Evangelicals seem to think their prophetic fantasy has to unfold, and I... have some problems with that. Having a grand Test Case scripted in advance for all validation to be held against is a set of boundaries that are probably only best applied to technology development. Test-driven damnation is just too wacky for moi. At least some of the evangelicals have a sense of humor, evidenced by the license plate frames and bumper stickers in a Visalia hotel parking lot:

Maybe those were actually Odyssey families who've tired of their "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter" sloganed regalia. Whatever. Buick, Cadillac, Jaguar: Jahweh or the highway.
Um. Anyway.

On to the outcomes. My daughter's Odyssey team has, for the second year in a row, achieved victory in the state arena and are headed to the World Finals. I understand that the Michigan State campus will be much more of a class act than last year's in Ames, Iowa (there's really not far to go to make that claim).

OK, perhaps I'm not doing too good tonight. Since I've only written a few words but have already managed to offend my Iowan, British and Christian friends, perhaps I should exit my Highway to Hell and call it a night. Forgive me while I grasp at excuses: too much driving and sleep deprivation precipitates rambling snark.

But seriously folks, I'm still blown away by the kids' victory, they're a young team for division II (four 5th graders, 3 in 6th). I was keeping the faith but also expecting to quietly go home and have that be the end of the OM road. However, their long term scores dominated the competition despite a poor showing in spontaneous. East Lansing, here we come!

                   

( Apr 01 2007, 10:06:07 PM PDT ) Permalink


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