Weaverland - sounds like an amusement park

After this past Sunday, we are a quarter way through the quizzing season (yes, already, but with only having matching once a week until the end of March, it goes by fast). We entered the week as numero uno in the top of our league, with 3 perfect quizzers. Would we be able to perform up to what we had done the previous Sunday?

I enjoyed being able to return to my church for this Sunday service. Everyone was excited to wonder how I was doing. I was glad to give the good news. I couldn't stay to the end, I had to get to Spring City. I got there at 12:12, and they were already done. We had to still wait for Tim. Chelsea had to stay home and finish a school project. And it was a movie that watched in class that she missed due to sickness! Like I said, teachers are against quizzing and forming a conspiracy to not allow quizzers to quiz. Don't roll your your eyes at me! In the mean time, I got my secret sponsor gift. It was a fast bowl of soup, an orange candle and an inspirational note. Christine also gave me a gift. I got a cool quizzing buddy. It's an orange block that makes sounds when you hit it against something. It is so awesome. Luckily, Tim did arrive soon. He got a whole 2 liters of Mountain Dew! I reminded Tim that any soda over a liter was communal. He did share. I had a wicked mix of his Mountain Dew and my Monster. I called it "Monster Dew." Mrs. Deitrick threatened to kill me if my head blew off, but it didn't.

Practices could have gone better. For me, I was a little slow, but did eventually quiz out. There were a few error outs, too. Our only rookie at the time was buzzing, but he wasn't getting them right. Christine wasn't answering as much as before, but the ones she got in on, she was great. After I went over with her the section she seemed to be struggling in, she did better. When Chelsea rejoined the scene, she performed the same as usual. I thought practice could have gone better, but I have to remember that instead of 3 weeks to study, this was the beginning to have only a week to get it down. So if you think about that, we're pretty good. We had fun, though. Michael was suppose to read 5 verses, but lost count and read 10. He also insisted that he went to a hemp clothing store. What an odd man.

After dinner, and fully loaded of Monster Dew, we headed off to Weaverland. We arrived a few minutes before the worship. I met up with a few people, and I was fortunate to have some from my church (Frederick) to come. Everyone wanted to see the duct tape crow, duct tape tie, and duct tape sculture which didn't come out the way I was hoping). After the worship, to my surprise, they announced all the perfect quizzers. It must be because they had fifty, most likely a record high. So my name, along with Tim's and Mike's, rang throughout the sanctuary of Weaverland. They announced by church, but I wished they would have done it by team, so that others would realize that a team had 3 perfect quizzers. And poor Michael, still can't pronounce his last name right. It's now Swaiger. Then the matches started. First, I watched Blainsport vs Reading. Tim kept score, but had problems spelling the team names. Reading won. Then I watched Emmanuel, to scout them out. But they were playing my friends Zion 1, so it was all good. I kept score for this one. Zion had two quiz outs, but the errors killed them. Emmanuel came back and helped them win. I'm assuming that's their first win, so congratulations Emmanuel!

Our match was up in the room I was in. I was there, and so was Chelsea, Bryan, Christine, and Mr. and Mrs. Deitrick. Even our fans were there. Where was Tim and Mike? No one knew. Mr. Moss called Tim's cell, and Mr. Schwager called Mike's phone. Surpringly, both had their cell phone off. They eventually came. We prayed with the other team, and we were ready for quizzing. I sat across from Kendall Garber, currently the only perfect quizzer. For the first two question, I buzzed in and answered them right. I was one away from quzzing out! I buzzed in...and errored. As the match went on Mike got 2 and Tim got 2. I quizzed out on question 8. The match continued. Chelsea picked up a bonus, scoring for the second time in her quizzing career. Tim errored at question 13. After question 13, Tim was one away from quizzing out, Mike was one away from quizzing out, and either Christine or Chelsea still needed to get in for team bonus. Question 14 went to Byerland. I knew by that time, we only getting only team bonus or a single quiz out. That also meant we were going to have one less perfect quizzer. On question 15, Tim quizzed out. We won 100 to 65. We got 2 errors in the match, a high so far.

Now I watched a few more matches. Now I watched Reading take on Emmanuel, and they won again. Reading is a team to watch out for. Then I watched Zion 2 take on Rockville...and got beaten badly. Glad they're not on our league. Watched Zion 1 vs. Neffsville. This time, errors helped Zion. Neffsville took an early lead, but they got too many errors, giving lots of bonuses to Zion 1. They did win.

Now I hurried off to our second match, the last match of the night. It was against Emmanuel. The match was not easy flowing like I we'd want it to be. I errored twice, once on a situation question that I got in too early and the other on a question I didn't think through enough. Tim also jumped in on getting two errors. The last 5 questions is when we really took off. Mike made up for not quizzing out by being the first one to quiz out on question 10. Tim quizzed out on question 13 and I followed in on the next question. On the last question, Christine got in for team bonus. We won 135 to 40.

So things changed last night and set some things in motion. After 4 matches, Spring City is 4-0, undefeated. Each match we have scored points in the triple digits. Our opponents have scored at the highest 65 points. Our average has dropped slightly, to 131. Hopefully, we're still on top, although the average is 14 points/match less. Spring City has two perfect quizzers, me and Tim. In 4 matches, both of us have scored a total of 140 points, averaging 35 points/match. There are other points where we are near perfect. 3 of the 4 matches, we had 3 quizzers quiz out. 3 of the 4 matches, we got team bonus. So now we wait and pray. I'll update you what happened after practice or once the standings come out, whichever is the last one. I hope it's the first. I don't want to wait another 5 days!

P.S. I noticed something from my last post. Remember how I mentioned the Spring City vs. Blainsport series? I wanted to know the best way figure out the overall best. I didn't want to go by win-loss, since the teams are totally different every year. So I figured to add up the points scored every year for each team, find the total, and the biggest total is the winner. It's a tie! If you add it up, in the past 3 years, Spring City scored 240 and so did Blainsport!

Question of the post:
What was the temple adorned...

Finally standings!

I waited to post again because I wanted to wait for the standings. I had know idea I would be waiting so long. I was so excited when I finally got it Friday afternoon, I started making these squealing noises in the library! It was great to finally get ahold of them. I was reassured of some things I figured, but at the same time I was suprised. As I believed, we did finish in first place in League A with our 145 average. We didn't, however, finish number 1 of all teams in ACC Quizzing. Paradise 4 in League B got a 155 point average. According to Tim, they scored 170 in one match. That'll do it. But still, 1st place in the league, 2nd place in the whole ACC, that's the highest I have been with a team. 3rd in the ACC is Weaverland 2 in League B. The 4th team in the ACC is the 2nd place in League A, Petra 1, with an average of 135. Yes, Spring City is only ahead by 10 points in the average. Not the lead size I wanted, but it'll do. My placing in the individual stats where was I though it was, perfectly in 1st place. Haven't been there since 2004. Tim and Mike also joined me in there. Why Mike's name is ahead of mine, I'll never know. It goes by alphabetical order by team, than last time. It doesn't make sense. Anyway, it does usually feel proud to be a perfect, but I'm not sure that I am too proud. Maybe it's the fact I've been here before, maybe it the fact I am sharing perfection with fifty other quizzers. It doesn't seem that big. Maybe by next week it will. Christine is in 138th, and Chelsea is in 202.

While I was waiting for the standings, I thought about our wins that we got on Sunday, mainly focusing on the ones that happened against Blainsport. If you knew our history, you'd see why it was so big. For the past 3 years, Spring City had quizzed against Blainsport. This is how's gone down for the past 3 years:

2005: Blainsport 110 vs. Spring City 55

2006: Blainsport 130 vs. Spring City 30

2007: Blainsport 0 vs. Spring City 155

That was a special win. I want to say revenge, but it's not really, because there no feelings. It is just amazing how things can be turned around. Both teams were totally different this present year compared to the past years. And because of this, a 2-year streak was disrupted. For the past 3 matches, the winner has always scored in the triple digits, and therefore allowing the loser no more than 55 points. Every year the the winner's score increases, the loser's score descreases, and that means that socre difference grows as the years past as well. It'll be interesting to see where this match will go next year.

Now we begin looking towards the upcoming Sunday. Spring City, along with half of the ACC, will be at Weaverland Mennonite Church. The other half is at Hopewell Elverson. I would have rather been there, since it is closer, but then again, I haven't done too well while there. Oh well, I'll be there for the fun week. We got another two matches. The first one is the 3rd round against Byerland 2. Then we have the last match of the day when we take on Emmanuel. This is looking good. It seems pretty easy. Petra 1 and Slate Hill 1, the next two highest team in our league have two hard matches, including one of them against each other. I'm hoping we can maintain our average. I'm not sure if 2 teams with triple digits will be able to maintain that, and even if one does, the other one will be far from it. We just have to keep doing that thing we do.

It's a possibility. Practice showed the potential. All 4 of us that got team bonus was able to get one buzz in right every practice match. Even Chelsea was getting in on the action. That's good. I continued my quizouts. That's it. Tim errored out twice. He normally does that in practice, but when real matches come around, he's good. Mike too could go either way. Hopefully we can continue learning and practicing the material. It won't be any good to have an easy schedule if we don't know the answers to the questions. To top it off, it wouldn't hurt to have God's blessing and favor!

Quizzing Question of the Post:

Situation question. Who said this and to whom? "A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then return."

Quizzing Joke:

Back in the days of Jesus, the Jews sentanced death stoning, and the Romans by crufixion.

Q:What other method of execution was used?

A: The words of Jesus, because the people hung on them

(Talk about the power of the Word of God!)

Quizzing at LMH. Must be the season opener.

After a long countdown for roughly 8 months, the day and the hour finally arrived. The quizzing season was ready to begin. I was sooo excited, I could not fall asleep until 2 in the morning! I was pumped and ready. For the opening quizzing season, I decided to dress up. I dressed up all in black, and to top it off, I had a Burger King crown spray painted black, the goth crown I call it. Low rider, the singing dancing hamster, was my quizzing buddy. I decided not to go with an energy drink because I only had 5 and needed to ration.

Since it was the opening of the quiz season, the church got the quiz team up to pray for them and bless them for the whole year. Our biological families and our church family was behind us. And I know on top of that I got supporters from Frederick church and other places. Since it was the 3rd Sunday of the year, it was fellowship meal. The quizzers got together at one table and studied some while eating. We followed with practice at 2 PM. Practice went extremely well. The full team was there and every time 4 quizzers quizzed out. That's for all 4 matches. We knew the material back and forth. We only had half an hour for free time, where Tim, Bryan and Mike played basketball in 25 degree weather. I stayed inside and listened to text on my mp3 player. We had pizza for dinner, and headed off to LMH for quizzing.

We arrived at LMH around 6 PM. The first people I met were Zion, but Zion was inside and and we were outside. I hugged them through the window. Inside I met up with the rest of them, including Deanna, who I found out was quizzing. I don't think she's quizzed since two years ago. Later I found out she was buzzing in, a good start for someone who hasn't quizzed for a while. Saw other people, went in the auditorium, and worshipped. Heard a lot of new songs, but always do in the new year of quizzing. Heard also Merv's joke, and thought is was poorer than usual. Anyway, it wrapped up with Fred making some announcements, and a room changed.

I didn't have a match yet, so I watched one first. I did some scouting by watching Blainsport vs Paradise 3. Blainsport had changed from last year. This year, there was only 4 quizzers, 3 of which were new. It seemed like Paradise 3 was taking off, but Blainsport caught up and match became close. Blainsport was one away from team bonus, but by end could not get it. The score ended in a tie of 75.

Now it was our turn up. We were in classroom 104 with Jaimie Detweiler, arguably the most favorite quizmaster. The opponent was Good Shepherd 2. We prayed together as a whole. Then the quizmatch started. Tim quizzed out by question 3, 2 on buzzes and 1 a bonus. When the first timeout was taken, I said, "I blinked and Tim quizzed out!" The next question was a situation question, and I got it. We next got team bonus. I followed up by quizzing out on question 10. Mike was the last one to quiz out on question 12. With the questions Good Shepherd could get ahold of, someon quizzed out. by the end of the match, we won 135 to 55, just as predicted.

My next match was fourth round, against the team I scouted Blainsport. We took the exact same seating as our last match. Once again, we prayed with Blainsport. The match began in a fast pace as usual. This time I quizzed out before Tim. Mike still quizzed out third. We got team bonus. After we got team bonus, Chelsea buzzed in and got it right! Pretty impressive for a rookie. She also got a bonus, but didn't get it because she said houses instead of homes, which is nasty but true. Christine, after giving the fourth question for team bonus, got a second question right. She was one question away from a quiz out, and she was given the oppurtunity at the last question, but couldn't get it. We shutout Blainsport with a score of 155. That was wow! As we shook hands, I felt weird. I didn't know what to say to them. I almost wanted to apologize.

My day was over, but not the quizzing day. The next match I saw was a Reading match. Reading had already quizzed before, and it wasn't the best performance. This match was different. Reading's final score was 105 points, 3 quizouts. I didn't see anything out of Morgen, a bit disappointing. They did good. I finished the night with watching Hopewell 1 vs. Paradise 3. I must admit, this was more of scouting for a much future week. It was fun to watch anyway. I saw a quizzer from Dennis's Hopewell 4 team in 2005. Vicki scorekept. It was a good match. The only criticism I had was when the quizmaster got off. "In what books is it written, Do not..." when it became key at "books." The night finished off with having snack and socializing. Met up with the rest of the quizzers I knew. Since Mike's, Tim's and Chelsea's parents were all there, they drived their quizzer home, and it was just the three in the van.

Reflections: It was awesome on Sunday night. Bruce has no idea on the action he missed out on. We thought we did good with 135 points, and then we scored 155, then we thought that was very good. Our coaches were very impressed with us. I was impressed with everyone. Christine really came through for us on team bonus. In the two matches she scored 30 points and almost quizzed out. She is the most dependable quizzer for team bonus. She did get two errors, the only two we earned all night, but it's a sign she's trying hard. It's just so ironic because she is the last one on the team I would suspect to do that. Chelsea got 1o points, and on a buzz in, too. Not many rookies can do that. Tim, Mike, and I are all perfect quizzers. I think this is the first time I have ever seen 3 quizzers on the same team perfect. This is most meaningful for Mike, who has totally turned it around compared to the past two years. But don't forget this is extremely meaningful to me too. I haven't been perfect since 2004! We average 145 points/match. That should put us on the top of the league. If it doesn't, I don't know what will. God was awesome to us, and I pray He will keep blessing us in the same way this whole season.

Quizzing question of the post:
What 5 will the Gentiles do to the Son of Man?

Another year begins

Some of you may have looked at the post title and wondered, "Graham, we're 2o days into the New Year of 2007. Where were you?" Did you notice I didn't say anything for New Year's Day. I said previously in my birthday rant that New Year can be objective. It starts whenever the person thinks it does. The Chinese and Jewish have it on a different day. My new year....is the first week of quizzing. So this Saturday is New Year's Eve for me! Party! Well, no, not really, but it will be tomorrow, in a way. All the fun we have, it's like a giant party. Plus, we learn God's Word and fellowship with other Christians. Can't beat that!

The year will start off with the 6 quizzers of Spring City all at the church service. During it, the quizzers will be prayed for and "initiated" (maybe "sent off with a blessing" is a better term) into the quiz team. Then we will take part in enjoying the fellowship meal. Once the church has cleared out, practice will commence as normal. We'll get a period of free time. Most of them will use it to play outside, I'll most likely use the time to study or get caught up with Christine. Dinner follows, then once we clean up, it's off the quiz match!

Our first match opens up at LMH as usual. We'll have 2 matches. One against Good shep 2, the other against Blainsport. yes, we are starting our season playing Blainsport again. It will be a goal to score more than the last time, which was 30 points. It's good we are not the first match. It will allow the rookies to see a match before they dive in. And comparing last year, Good shep 2 will be an easy match to start.

Alright, every year I make goal. Time for this year's goal. For the past two years, I've made a goal that came in parts. This year is a flat straight out goal. I will finish as one of the top 5 quizzers. I know it sounds like a big goal, but not for me. I finished 12th, and the top 5 is a minimum of 7 places away, so it is challenging, but possibly. I was thinking about tagging some parts onto it, but by finishing in top 5, I will either tie or beat the goal. This year changes everything because there is only 17 matches. That means a perfect score is 595 points. Everything readjusts By finishing in the top 5, I need to quiz out a lot. Last year, I got a high of 15 quizouts, and that's 525 points alone. Even if I scored the max points without quizzing out, I get no higher than 565 points. Not good enough. I'll need to get at least 16 quiz outs to get there.

That's my goal, or in keeping with the New Year's spirit, my resolution. I got little margin of error, but I know I can do it. Our team looks very promising this year. 3 quizzers from last year's top 70, each one equally ready to quiz out. A fourth one is dependable on team bonus. Scoring 135 points no longer a wishful daydream, but a possible reality. Every year I say it's gonna be my year, but this year, I'm saying it's OUR year. Go Spring City!!

And I just realized that I started this on Saturday, and ended Sunday. So if the tense change, I apologize, and fix them to your fit.

Countdown to the first quizmatch of 2007:
17 HOURS, 26 MINUTES

Quizzing Question of the post:
What 5 commandments does the rich young ruler know?

Quizzing Joke:
Q: What spiritual landmark was broken for a time?
A: The great chasm between Heaven and hell, becaused it had to be fixed :-)

A Good Experience...with a bad end

The time I spent in Warrenton, Missouri for my senior experience was fun. It was quite the experience. There are about 8 departments in the CEF International Headquarters, I worked in 6 of them. Monday I worked for International Department. There I updated the 2006 missionary and country files and set up new files for 2007. Tuesday I worked in the Fast Tracks Missions by preparing the new offices for the Fast Track to Missions. I took down cabinet doors, painted them and then put them back up. Wednesday I spent the day in the recruitment office. They had very little for me to do, and I could only work 2 hours. This forced me to work in the kitchen Wednesday and Thursday evening. I spent the Thursday morning working in the Mailbox Club, but due to a slow day in the Mailbox Club, I spent the afternoon in the CEF Press Room. I wrapped up on Friday working in the USA Ministries department.

I could on and on talking about what I learned and what I liked. I did do that, my Senior Experience Journal is 7 pages long. I'll try to make it short. I enjoyed working for them because they were so nice. I was told of how much of a blessing I was to be there. I truly feel like I fulfilled a need. Many times I was told that the job was not hard (or sometimes not even boring), but rather time-consuming. Because I was doing, they weren't doing it and they could get to more important things. I learned how to do new things like painting and taking door and putting up door. I got to meet several new people from department heads to Fast Track Students, and hear their thoughts on the program. They were a joy to work with. I enjoyed staying the VIP suite in the educational wing. It was two rooms big with its own private bathroom. It was a sweet suite :-). There was always a kind atmosphere there. Everyone says hi to you, whethere they work there regularly or volunteer for the week.

I always like how I was introduced there. There are so many ways how Cindy could have introduced me. She could have said, "This is Graham, a student for Christopher Dock on his Seniro Experience" or "This is Graham Holcomb. He did CYIA for two years and is interested in CMI." If she really wanted to get on my good side, she could have said "This is Graham Holcomb, quizzer extrodinaire, 12th place quizzer on the Top 50 Quizzers List." Nope, I get introduced as "This is Graham Holcomb, he's a friend of Bill Elgin." It kind of got old after a while, but it did get me far. Aparrently, everyone knows Bill. It did get me far. Paid VIP suite (which no Fast Track student has got into the first year). 3 paid meals for all five days. It was all good. This was a good experience for me. I would gladly do it again.

This would have been the perfect trip, except the ending wasn't so perfect. As I arrived at the airport at 5 PM for my 6:30 flight, it began to rain, freezing rain. Everything seemed to go well. I checked in my luggage, went through security, and sat at my gate, waiting to board. Well, the time came to board, but the gate wasn't opening. There was heavy freezing rain and the plane wasn't allowed to fly until it was light freezing rain. They were going to delay the flight an hour. If it let up during that delay, they would quickly load passengers and luggage, de-ice, and take off quickly. 50 minutes later it did lighten up. It took them 2o minutes do everything, but it wasn't fast enough. So they sat us on the plane to wait until it let up. We sat and sat and sat. The freezing rain came down harder and harder. Little did we know that every 15 minutes roughly 5 flights were being cancelled. 2 1/2 hours later, they decided to cancel our flight, at around 10:30 PM. I'm not sure what upset me more: my flight being cancelled or having to wait so long for my flight being cancelled. They gave me a replacement flight, it wasn't until 3 PM the next day!Because since all the other flights were cancelled, hotel rooms were sold out nearby. I had to spend the whole night in the airport. There was only one food place open that I could eat, something I hadn't done since noon that day. I had to go reclaim by bags. Since I had much valuables, such as my laptop, camera and phone, I was afraid to fall asleep, in fear I wouldn't have it when I woke up. I stayed up the whole night, randomly wandering about the terminal looking for a signal for my laptop's wireless connection (Found one, but it required being charged). Some of the time I spent calling other air liners, seeing if I can find a better, earlier flight. I found out that American Airlines had two earlier flights: 9:05 AM and 12:15 PM. As soon as the ticket agency opened, I presented them my ticket and asked for a single seat on an earlier flight. Sure enough, there was. I felt so relieved. I got through security and waited oh so impatiently to get on the flight. The flight was slightly delayed because it needed to be de-iced and the door wasn't shut all the way. But finally at 10 AM, after 15 long hours in the airport, I finally escaped! I finally arrived in Philadelphia 12:30, 15 hours after I was suppose to. I never want to go through that again. Most boring thing ever. I had to buy a book to keep me entertained. On a good note, I got a lot of quizzing done.

Speaking of which, not being there was torture! I called in the middle of practice cuz I needed questions! I practiced so much during my free evenings I could predict the questions I was going to ask! I looked at situations and numbers. I memorized lists and Acts 2:1-13. I need match practice and practice buzzing more than ever. I missed you guys in practice! Keep practicing!

Countdown to the first quizmatch of 2007:
7 days, 2o hours, 22 minutes

Question of the Post:
List the 5 that no one has left for the sake... ("sake" is key! That means you should know it by now!)

There for the first practice, not there for the second practice

First practice was Thursday at the Deitrick's house. Got to fill out the secret sponser forms and meet the new quizzers. Everyone was there, even Spring City quizzers of the past: Bethany and Brandon. I don't know how to describe it. Weird things happened (well, weirder than normal). Michael was always the first one to quiz out. Talk about miracles! He usually errors out in practice. Don't get me wrong, I did quiz out every time. I know the material well. I just don't jump in fast enough. My buzzer drills have shown it: my buzzer speed needs to be faster. So how do I feel this? Every year I say, this is going to be MY year. Well, for this year...it's going to be OUR year. I can't gurantee anything, but I can easily see us getting team bonus, if we don't, 3 quiz outs wouldn't sound weird either. This team is going to do great. We need to get someone in the swing of being the fourth one for team bounus. I have high anticipations for this team.

I enjoyed being at practice. I got to see my friends that I haven't seen in a long time. We were crazy and had fun. It upset me that I won't be able to attend our next practice. The next practice is during my senior experience. Senior experience is when the seniors get off a week to pursue 30 hours of service or job shadowing over a span of four to five days. I will not be in the area at all between Sunday and Friday. I will be in Warrenton, Missouri. For my senior experience, I am working for Child Evangelism Fellowship, the same ministry I work for in the summer. This time, though, I will be working with the international scale. In Warrenton is the International Headquarters of CEF. I will be an intern, taking part in both job shadowing and service. I will be doing everything from the Mailbox Club to building and perhaps painting. I have been told pack to dress sloppily and semi-professional. It will be interesting. The temperature change I'm not sure I'm ready for. Today, it got up to 75 (I wore shorts)!, but Missouri has been in the high 40s the past few days, and the highest it will get will be 57 on Friday. I'm also not sure about traveling. It's not the fear of flying. I haven't really taken public transportation alone before, and the instructions for meeting someone to get me from St. Louis to Warrenton is unclear. Well, it doesn't matter because anything I allow the Lord to do through me will always have a positive outcome. I fly home Friday evening, so I'll see everyone Saturday...unless you're from Dock....because I'm skipping Senior Retreat, Senior losers!!!

Countdown to the first quizmatch of 2007:
2 weeks, 21 hours, 12 minutes

Quizzing question of the post:
What 4 were the people doing in the days of Noah?