The Only True Wisdom Consists of Knowing You Know Nothing

Maybe Socrates was right when he said that. Then again, Socrates didn't just win $100 in free wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. Lee and I did. We tried to get a group of people to go, but no one else was free (or they were sick), so it was just him and me, against all others. At halftime, we were in third place, nicely positioned for a second half run to the top. The first round of the second half almost killed us, though. We aced the last two rounds and were still in third for the final question. The question was - order these countries from most to least in the order of beer consumption per person: Germany, Australia, Ireland, the United States. Take a minute to think about how you would answer. We knew that in order to have any chance of winning, we needed to risk the maximum possible - 20 points. We had 83 points, first was 94, and second was 88. Missing the question meant losing anyway, so we risked 20. Our answer: Ireland (most), Germany, Australia, the United States. The other teams at the top all missed it. There was a tie for third and a tiebreaker round, but we knew we had the answer right and thought the tie was for first, so we were in third. As it turns out, the tie was for third, and we smoked the competition 103 to 81 to 76. [Air guitar.]

Also today, I went to another mock trial meeting. I got to be a little more involved in the planning and shaping today, which I like. I got to object to some questions and argue some technicalities, which I like. Some crazy little Asian girl kept asking me if I liked weird music, which was disturbing. It might have been a little less disturbing if she spoke plain English. This wasn't even stereotypical "l" and "r" stuff, this was bad grammar, thick accent, the works. I'm not trying to be mean; other than the "completely off her rocker" she seemed nice enough and fairly intelligent, for a high school freshman.

I finally bought my copy of Empire by Orson Scott Card. It's a little bit of an odd story, though not compared to his usual writing. From what I've read (the first 5 chapters were posted online at the author's website), there is a movement pitting Red States against Blue in a new Civil War, of sorts. A military man is recruited into some type of group that seems shady. As part of his duties, he thinks up ways terrorists might try to attack, and then how to prevent said attacks. One of his proposals for an attack is actually used, killing the President and most of the Cabinet during a meeting. The Vice President and any absent Cabinet officers are killed individually at the same time. The military man and his aide kill some of the attackers, track down some infomation, and prepare to take on whoever might want to blame them, then the preview ended. It's already good, I have a feeling it's going to get even better. Card is usually pretty good about his sub-plots, and I've glossed over some interesting ones here. If you liked Ender's Game and any of that collection, give this book a try. If you haven't read anything by Card, read Ender's Game and you'll be hooked. Zero gravity laser tag is the coolest thing ever.

"Ender, if you're on one side of the battle, it won't be equal no matter what the conditions are."
- William Bee

More tomorrow.