Memorial Day Weekend 2013
This Memorial Day Weekend was the same as it has been the past few years. I would travel up to UC Davis for the 2013 State 4-H Field Day to put on the 2013 California 4-H Photography Competition on Saturday. We then had a fun day on Sunday exploring a small area of the Gold country.
Normally, we (my dad, sister, and I) leave early on Friday morning. That was the original plan, but my sister had a few exams that day for school. Because of that, I did not ditch my classes, and went to class. We had left in the afternoon, at around 2:00 pm. With being so late, I was afraid of running into the crazy holiday weekend traffic. For the most part, we did not run into any traffic except for portions of the Grapevine. The drive was standard. Took us 8 hours. Only thing that got on my nerves was my dad. He kept bringing up that my car is old and it is at its end and it most likely will brake down at any moment. My car still runs well, and having that type of thought when doing a 400 + mile drive is not a good idea. My dad would also drive me crazy about the music volume. All I want is to have the music loud enough to enjoy, and to be able to hear all the lyrics eta. My dad wants the music as just some noise in the background where you can't understand it all. That drove me insane! Lastly, my dad would keep bringing up my driving speed. I cruise at around 75-80 mph (Speed limit on I-5: 70 mph). He was convinced I was sure to get a speeding ticket. Other than that, the drive up went well. We had arrived in Sacramento at 10:00 pm.
The next day, Saturday, was the day of State Field Day. We woke up early, around 5:30 am, and left by 6:30. My ex-girlfriend, Sarah, had joined us, for she helps me with the logistics of the competition. We got over to Hart Hall, where the photography competition is held, and began to set up. I had brought up some photographs with me from different areas in southern California. Since the trip to Davis is so far away, I had decided to be nice to take photographs up. A few photographs, from Imperial County, were covered in a protective plastic cover. While processing the photographs for check-in, we had a debate over if we should remove the plastic. I had asked my dad what he thought since he was one of the judges. He had decided that we would allow the photographs to remain in the plastic covering. Remember this for further on in the blog post. This will become our biggest issue for this year's competition.
The competition ran smoothly this year. We had new judging sheets, everyone has gotten accustom to their roles on the competition, and we were able to open the photo competition for public view at 2:00 pm. In total, we had 135 youth participants with 258 photographs total. As people began flowing into the competition, people would come up to question certain things about the competition. One of the biggest was questions on the matting. I have learned from this competition that youth do not have the proper knowledge for matting their photographs to a photo mat/foam board. We had photographs generally taped to a mat board (which ended up falling off). We had others who had used the matting that is designed to be used in a frame. We had others who got their photographs professionally matted by an external source. We had others, who did a terrible job, and made me wonder why they would attempt to enter a photograph on a extremely poorly cut board, with access white strips on the photograph paper, and spilled coffee stains over everything. This is a major issue that I plan to create resources for the youth to learn how to properly do this in the future. Creating a youtube video would be the best way to do this. I will most likely use my free time this summer to work on the creation of that video. Another issue we had was the fact that we had given way too many gold awards this year. We had new judging sheets, to make things more simple, and the youth get judged in three areas that can give them a 37% towards their overall score if they follow all of the rules. This caused a few amount of photographs who should have received a blue seal got a gold. This will be changed for next year. While Sarah and my sister Ashley were working on the tallying of the judging sheets, I had told them to mark next to their names on the sign in sheets what award seal they received The plan was to keep a record of what awards were given and to who. We had never done that in the past, and we should be doing so. They gave me an attitude, and decided to be rebellious and not listen to my request. At the moment, I am not happy they did not do what I needed them to, and I am considering not inviting them to next year's competition.
The very last, and I am considering the biggest issue, was the complains we had received about the photographs that were in the competition that was covered in plastic. With the complaints, I had realized that we had a rule for the competition that we would NOT accept any photographs that were covered in plastic. This set a few people off, which is completely understandable. At the time, since a judge had decided to allow them to be covered, I through there was no need to think about the rules of the competition. That was my mistake. I had realized this mistake, and I will work to ensure that I wont make the same mistake again in the future. I had received a few complaints on this issue at the event, and the State 4-H Office received a complaint as well. Just because of this complaint, I feel I had failed at being a legit competition, and feel like a not so good administrator. This will change for next year.
Over all, other than the issues mentioned above, the competition was a success. Every year, we have made changes to make the competition even better. The changes made from what we had learned from past competition. 4-H is about learning by doing, and I defiantly are learning a lot from doing this competition each year. Hopefully, in the future years, we will be even more successful, and soon get the best competition there can be.
After the competition, we (my dad, sister, Sarah, and I) joined the Imperial County delegation (as tradition) to have a amazing after dinner. This year, we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Midtown Sacramento. The dinner takes a few hours from waiting, and having a large group, but we all had fun. We sat at two different tables, and we sat with Jeanine and Maryann Smith, who are two amazing friends. Near the end of the night, our crazy tiredness ended up in a paper/sugar packet war between the two tables. We sure did have a mess as we left, but at least it was better then us having a food fight.
The next day, we had a day to hang out. We had decided to go up to see one of the most productive gold mines in California history. The Empire State Mine Historic State Park in Grass Valley. We joined up with Jeanine and Maryann, had breakfast, then all drove together in one car up to the mine. We took a living history tour of the owner's cottage at the mine, which was really cool. We got to learn a great deal about the people who owned the mine, how times were back in the early 1900s, and saw the cottage. Afterwards, we explored the mineyard. Just being in the Sierras was amazing. Right as we stepped out of the car at the mine, our lungs were excited for the crisp fresh air and the scent of the pine trees. I was joyous. I wanted to stay up there and camp for a few days to just be away from it all. After the mine, we went over to downtown Grass Valley, where a street fair was happening. We walked around and looked at the different booths. We stopped off at a local chocolate store called Lazy Dog. I bought a Bailey's Irish Cream Dark Chocolate Ice Cream bar. That was one of the best ice cream bars I had ever had. Of course, they made it there, and I believe it was sugar free. After walking around, we were getting tired, so we decided to get in the car, and adventure back down to Sacramento. We had ended the day with dinner at On the Border Mexican Food, and watched Star Trek: Into Darkness. We said our goodbyes afterwards, and headed off to bed.
On Monday, we woke up, had breakfast at the Black Bear Diner across from our hotel, and headed off on the 7 hour drive home. Took us an hour less than the drive up. Which was strange since we had more stops this time around. My dad was still annoying as he was on the way up, but I was tired, and didn't say much the entire trip. I was just driving and driving and driving. This year's memorial day weekend was a good one. Had some lessons to learn, but over all, things went well. I am glad it is over. Now I just wish I didn't have to return to school to finish up. I wish I was already on summer vacation. Now time to survival finals and to prepare for our trip to New York and Toronto.
Normally, we (my dad, sister, and I) leave early on Friday morning. That was the original plan, but my sister had a few exams that day for school. Because of that, I did not ditch my classes, and went to class. We had left in the afternoon, at around 2:00 pm. With being so late, I was afraid of running into the crazy holiday weekend traffic. For the most part, we did not run into any traffic except for portions of the Grapevine. The drive was standard. Took us 8 hours. Only thing that got on my nerves was my dad. He kept bringing up that my car is old and it is at its end and it most likely will brake down at any moment. My car still runs well, and having that type of thought when doing a 400 + mile drive is not a good idea. My dad would also drive me crazy about the music volume. All I want is to have the music loud enough to enjoy, and to be able to hear all the lyrics eta. My dad wants the music as just some noise in the background where you can't understand it all. That drove me insane! Lastly, my dad would keep bringing up my driving speed. I cruise at around 75-80 mph (Speed limit on I-5: 70 mph). He was convinced I was sure to get a speeding ticket. Other than that, the drive up went well. We had arrived in Sacramento at 10:00 pm.
The next day, Saturday, was the day of State Field Day. We woke up early, around 5:30 am, and left by 6:30. My ex-girlfriend, Sarah, had joined us, for she helps me with the logistics of the competition. We got over to Hart Hall, where the photography competition is held, and began to set up. I had brought up some photographs with me from different areas in southern California. Since the trip to Davis is so far away, I had decided to be nice to take photographs up. A few photographs, from Imperial County, were covered in a protective plastic cover. While processing the photographs for check-in, we had a debate over if we should remove the plastic. I had asked my dad what he thought since he was one of the judges. He had decided that we would allow the photographs to remain in the plastic covering. Remember this for further on in the blog post. This will become our biggest issue for this year's competition.
The competition ran smoothly this year. We had new judging sheets, everyone has gotten accustom to their roles on the competition, and we were able to open the photo competition for public view at 2:00 pm. In total, we had 135 youth participants with 258 photographs total. As people began flowing into the competition, people would come up to question certain things about the competition. One of the biggest was questions on the matting. I have learned from this competition that youth do not have the proper knowledge for matting their photographs to a photo mat/foam board. We had photographs generally taped to a mat board (which ended up falling off). We had others who had used the matting that is designed to be used in a frame. We had others who got their photographs professionally matted by an external source. We had others, who did a terrible job, and made me wonder why they would attempt to enter a photograph on a extremely poorly cut board, with access white strips on the photograph paper, and spilled coffee stains over everything. This is a major issue that I plan to create resources for the youth to learn how to properly do this in the future. Creating a youtube video would be the best way to do this. I will most likely use my free time this summer to work on the creation of that video. Another issue we had was the fact that we had given way too many gold awards this year. We had new judging sheets, to make things more simple, and the youth get judged in three areas that can give them a 37% towards their overall score if they follow all of the rules. This caused a few amount of photographs who should have received a blue seal got a gold. This will be changed for next year. While Sarah and my sister Ashley were working on the tallying of the judging sheets, I had told them to mark next to their names on the sign in sheets what award seal they received The plan was to keep a record of what awards were given and to who. We had never done that in the past, and we should be doing so. They gave me an attitude, and decided to be rebellious and not listen to my request. At the moment, I am not happy they did not do what I needed them to, and I am considering not inviting them to next year's competition.
The very last, and I am considering the biggest issue, was the complains we had received about the photographs that were in the competition that was covered in plastic. With the complaints, I had realized that we had a rule for the competition that we would NOT accept any photographs that were covered in plastic. This set a few people off, which is completely understandable. At the time, since a judge had decided to allow them to be covered, I through there was no need to think about the rules of the competition. That was my mistake. I had realized this mistake, and I will work to ensure that I wont make the same mistake again in the future. I had received a few complaints on this issue at the event, and the State 4-H Office received a complaint as well. Just because of this complaint, I feel I had failed at being a legit competition, and feel like a not so good administrator. This will change for next year.
Over all, other than the issues mentioned above, the competition was a success. Every year, we have made changes to make the competition even better. The changes made from what we had learned from past competition. 4-H is about learning by doing, and I defiantly are learning a lot from doing this competition each year. Hopefully, in the future years, we will be even more successful, and soon get the best competition there can be.
After the competition, we (my dad, sister, Sarah, and I) joined the Imperial County delegation (as tradition) to have a amazing after dinner. This year, we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Midtown Sacramento. The dinner takes a few hours from waiting, and having a large group, but we all had fun. We sat at two different tables, and we sat with Jeanine and Maryann Smith, who are two amazing friends. Near the end of the night, our crazy tiredness ended up in a paper/sugar packet war between the two tables. We sure did have a mess as we left, but at least it was better then us having a food fight.
The next day, we had a day to hang out. We had decided to go up to see one of the most productive gold mines in California history. The Empire State Mine Historic State Park in Grass Valley. We joined up with Jeanine and Maryann, had breakfast, then all drove together in one car up to the mine. We took a living history tour of the owner's cottage at the mine, which was really cool. We got to learn a great deal about the people who owned the mine, how times were back in the early 1900s, and saw the cottage. Afterwards, we explored the mineyard. Just being in the Sierras was amazing. Right as we stepped out of the car at the mine, our lungs were excited for the crisp fresh air and the scent of the pine trees. I was joyous. I wanted to stay up there and camp for a few days to just be away from it all. After the mine, we went over to downtown Grass Valley, where a street fair was happening. We walked around and looked at the different booths. We stopped off at a local chocolate store called Lazy Dog. I bought a Bailey's Irish Cream Dark Chocolate Ice Cream bar. That was one of the best ice cream bars I had ever had. Of course, they made it there, and I believe it was sugar free. After walking around, we were getting tired, so we decided to get in the car, and adventure back down to Sacramento. We had ended the day with dinner at On the Border Mexican Food, and watched Star Trek: Into Darkness. We said our goodbyes afterwards, and headed off to bed.
On Monday, we woke up, had breakfast at the Black Bear Diner across from our hotel, and headed off on the 7 hour drive home. Took us an hour less than the drive up. Which was strange since we had more stops this time around. My dad was still annoying as he was on the way up, but I was tired, and didn't say much the entire trip. I was just driving and driving and driving. This year's memorial day weekend was a good one. Had some lessons to learn, but over all, things went well. I am glad it is over. Now I just wish I didn't have to return to school to finish up. I wish I was already on summer vacation. Now time to survival finals and to prepare for our trip to New York and Toronto.
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