life in general

chickenshit filler

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so mop ended a couple days ago... idk what to say. it was really quite an eye opening experience just being around/playing games/taking classes with people who are all at least as devoted to math as me. if imma  be honest, i don't actually remember any specific aspect of mop too well (though, i do vaguely recall sweeping a mafia game as maf towards the beginning of camp, and also bombing ELMO :/). i only remember the general sentiment of mop being GOOD, and if i really really hope that the usamo is going to be nice to me again next year. 

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after mop i've had a bit of time to reflect on my profile (strengths, weaknesses, general skill level etc) and whether i still plan on shooting for imo (canada) next year

ive come to realize that after ~2 or so years of grinding non-geo subjects, i am still a geo main (evidenced by geometry covering over half of my net point total on mop tests).  

split-subject chart for total points i earned, lol (numbers not there for obvious reasons)

i used to always think that i was so egregiously bad at the other 3 subjects so on the outside, i looked like i was good at geo, but now im starting to think that maybe i AM just good (lol prolly not but please let me have this self esteem boost :D). despite not doing any geo in the past 1-2 years my range has magically risen from like g3-4 to like g7-8, yet my other subjects are still stuck at like isl 3-4 at max despite me continuously grinding combo and alg throughout most of freshman and soph year. 

the thing about being a super clear single-subject main is that it severely fucks your self esteem, since your scores will heavily depend on subject distributions (i.e luck). like when i do badly, i attribute it to "lmfao im just really shit at math" and when i do well, i say "lmfaoooooooo im such a lucky bastard" - all in all, never giving myself the credit i am due. idk, maybe that's why i initially felt like an impostor at mop since i thought my usamo 6 solve was due to luck, and without it, i would not have qualified. 

resolution: some things just dont change

idk, i think 3 weeks of mop has helped me embrace my identity as a geo-main. being good at something is better than being good at nothing 

🤷

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moving on...

yeah i think im going to make a final push for the imo next year. tbh, i actually think i have like a nontrivial chance of making the canada team nxt yr, considering im (probably?) the n+1th person this year and a lot of people on this year's team are graduating (which vacates quite a few spots). 

[quick salt; 

if i hadnt gamethrown 2 points on apmo#1 i probably would have made the team this year >:( ]

disclaimer: of course, this is not to take away from any of the actual team members, since i've already had my fair share of luck on other contests (mainly usamo) lmfao

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ive also been following the euros lately, and i can't say i'm not impressed. france, germany, and portugal have all been knocked out already and i cant really point towards a remaining team and say i'm confident they will win the whole tournament (though i personally believe belgium probably have the slight edge)

germany out does make me sad though because I genuinely think they are a good team to watch and i really like their #7 :(((((((((((((

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recently ive also been playing a fuck ton of pokemon games. over the course of the past two or so weeks i beat pokemon soulsilver and platinum, and im about to wrap up pokemon white. 

final team for platinum:

how it happened:

i managed to kill cynthia's spiritomb with 1 hp on my airworm, then subbed in unwise to take out her ever so feared garchomp with a 1-hit ko (:D, ice quad effective). then subbed in hot monke to kill her roserade, but got 1 hit killed by her milotic. then subbed in luxray to kill milotic, left with like 1/3 hp, then got killed by lucario extremespeed. 

finally sent in jason (who has an absurdly high attack stat) who managed to utterly destroy lucario w/ close combat and her togekiss with stone edge

mvp: jason by far <3, then probably unwise 

final team for soulsilver:

how it happened: basically swept red's ass with yorahoh :D

this is my team for white, and im aboutta go kick N's ass:

darmanitan is actually super stronk (insanely high attack and speed, so hits hard and hits first!) but its basically a glass cannon so if it gets hit even once its like dead. also turns out thunderus is actually shit

(notice how i am careful to not overlevel :P)

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that's it for now, i'll cyall soon! might post a few solutions to problems i did recently <3