Not Going to Hershey Park

Yay, we're not going to Hershey Park!

Yeah. I know that sounds really, really weird. Hear me out, though.

The Eastern Massachusetts ARML team's usual course of action is to leave for Penn State on Thursday and arrive that evening, spend all of Friday at Hershey Park, and then participate in the contest on Saturday. Maybe that actually sounds like a good schedule to you, but I'd prefer staying at Penn State. It does make sense to have Friday off to relax, but I don't really find amusement parks all that relaxing. What with the rides built to induce vomiting and the ghastly crowds that show up even on rainy days? No, thanks.

What'd be better for relaxing would be staying put at Penn State on Friday. Since we won't have to spend two hours on a bus to get to Hershey Park and another two to get back, we'll have time to hold meetings and practices during the day instead of at 10pm when everybody should be getting ready to sleep so that they'll be ready for the contest. The rest of the time will be free time for us. Since we'll be on campus, we'll have access to our rooms for sleeping and homework. Also on campus will be a guest speaker, a new sculpture to check out, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and friends from other teams. There's plenty of stuff on campus, so why spend the time and money to go to Hershey Park?

Apparently at least one advisor and 25 students also felt that way, because that advisor brought up the issue to the people in charge of the team. Then a vote was held to see whether we would go to Hershey Park. Surprisingly, we had a majority. I wonder if that means we get part of that fee refunded.

In other news, I recently met somebody who said he'd give me his old video card. It's an Nvidia GeForce4, but that's enough for this computer, which (as I didn't find out until a week or so ago) currently relies on onboard video.