Eastbots rule

Over the weekend the East Chapel Hill High Eastbots went to the Guilford Regional Championship in Gibsonville, where they dominated. They went undefeated, including within rounds (i.e. they won the first two of each of their best of three serieses in the quarters, semis, and finals). Moreover, I can't remember a match which was close. Several times their team scored in triple digits. Even when their robot was disabled for the second half of a quarterfinal after some vicious D by a competitor knocked something loose, they had built up enough of a lead and were complemented by the nimble and hot-shooting bot from 1533 Triple Strange out of Greensboro that the game wasn't even close. Not that it wasn't a moment of nervousness for a lot of us up there in the stands. But our top notch mechanical team sorted it out in the pit area between matches and we were back up and running quickly.

Next up, the state championships at Campbell in a couple of weeks. I do hope we win.

That said, just having a win under his belt provides us with an opportunity to have a talk with Graham. A week and change back when he was processing his rejections from Williams and Swarthmore (which, on top of not getting in Tufts or UVA probably sets the stage for a similar outcome from Yale and Cornell), Graham had displayed an unexpected level of angst and bitterness. He wants recognition from the world for his intellect and it also seems he wants to lord it over some people in his class who he doesn't think are as smart as he is. Probably some payback for people who were mean to him somewhere along the way.

But he may not get it this round, because he took some risks in math earlier in his high school and got a couple of Bs. That's life these days.

It's great for all of us to win sometimes. But we don't need to win all the time or at everything. If you get that mindset, you could end up like Michael Jordan or Coach K. Very impressive figures, no doubt, but each a jerk in his own way. One much worse than the other, for obvious reasons.