So today, I finally went to a competition for web design. We have been preparing for this in class for months now, and finally finished. However... Today was so frustrating...

I had to wake up at 4:00 AM. I get my stuff ready, finish my Powerpoint Presentation, print out some screenshots, and get my portfolio ready. I had to dress in formal attire, and had finally left to get on the bus at 6:00 AM. We take about a 45 minute drive up to Houston, and head to Waltrip High School. Upon arrival, we realized our Flash drive wasn't there, so we couldn't load up the site. Me, and my teamate, Tyler, called up our other teamate who, because of bad grades, was unable to come. He brought up the flash drive, and had to leave, but at least we got the site and Powerpoint.

We were to go up at 11:00 AM, and had nothing to do. We sat around for about 4 hours, when I checked up, and learned we had been bumped forward to 10:40 AM. With no time to prepare, I grabbed a laptop, our notebook, and a projector. We had 15 minutes total, 7 minutes to set up, and 8 minutes to present. After spending 11 minutes on setup, since the projector wasn't working, we ultimately decided not to use it. In the end, we bombed it.

Again, we sit around with nothing to eat the whole day, for several hours. The only reason I'm still awake is because my friend, Joseph, offered me an energy tablet he picked up at Smoothie King. Turns out, it has 83, 333% your daily dose of Vitamin D... Yeeeeaaaaah...

After a few more hours of sitting around, we learn we made it into the Finals. We go up to present at 1:50 PM, but after the projector doesn't work AGAIN, we go with just using the printed out version of the slides in our notebook. Upon finish, we sat around AGAIN, until about 5:00 PM. Then the award ceremony begins. We sit, and slowly wait to watch as the competing classes go up claiming awards for their categories. Finally, our category comes up. 5th place, a second runner up, goes to our competing team for their site: [link]

Finally, at second place, our team gets called up. Apparently we did much better than I originally thought. Our site is viewable here: [link]

Of course, as you can tell, the theme was Washington DC Monuments and Memorials. Not really much to work with, and some of my designs were shot down by my teamates, but it seems close enough to my original ideas, despite the background, and such.

So now, here I am. Awake for almost 22 hours, and still have to remain awake. I finally got to eat upon getting home, at 8:15 PM. Nonetheless, with no food all day, I finally ate my own personal pizza. I'm just glad to be moving on to State championships, for 3 days out of town soon. If I finish there, I can go on to Nationals in Anaheim, California. We get a hotel right in the middle of Disneyland. Hopefully I can get a scholorship if I do so. I hope to go to Fullsail Academy in Florida. Don;t really want to leave Texas, but what else can I do?

Well, wish me luck, everyone!

Also: For a picture of the medal I got, here's a picture I took on my phone: [link]