Archive for April, 2008

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Seeking Morpheus

Friday, April 18th, 2008

I’ve said it before. Sleep deprivation sucks.

It especially sucks when I have to, you know, do stuff. I’m usually fine for most of the day. My body uses its glycogen reserves to keep me alert if not fully cognizant. Then between 5:00 and 7:00 PM I’m a lump. I usually end up lying on the ground in front of the TV watching Family Guy without the common sense to take an actual nap until I realize that it’s 7:00 and I haven’t done my homework. I would get another adrenaline rush and get work done (if not fully cognizant of it) until 11:00 when I realize that I should have gone to bed. Unfortunately, the “Inner Asian” in me insists that I complete all my homework before sleep.

So that’s what happened Monday night. Then Tuesday night. And so on. Til Thursday night when I knew I needed to be on my toes for a Chem test on liquids and solids. Then it happened again. So I (azn)failed a physics quiz and didn’t finish my chem homework during lunch. Considering my C on the electrochemistry test, I don’t think I am within reach of an A anymore.

So I get an envelope through “ClassMail”, the teachers’ aide messaging service. It says I’ve been chosen (along with Meredith) for a leadership recognition award luncheon at Maggiano’s Little Italy on May 2. I was a little excited until I saw that we had to dress “business casual”. *sigh* Tie, slacks, fancy shoes? Sorry. Not for me. Plus I’ll miss a whole day of AP review. And I need to score fours or higher on all of them to receive recognition as… um… to feel… proud of my… accomplishments.

Oh, and according to Anthony Bae, I have “vampire length” canines.

Posted in Day-to-Day | 1 Comment »

Table salt for all

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Too early. That’s what kept people from coming. Of all the team members, Rushil and John Magz weren’t willing to show up at 6:45 AM to get in an ice cream van to Niles North for the Science Olympiad Regionals. The biggie. The Higgs.

Here I am, quietly reading about alternating current and men’s shoe size (not in that order), when all of a sudden a loud voice announces that I am the recipient of a medal. “WHAT THE HELL!?!”, I exclaim. As I awkwardly scramble over a metal handrail to the aisle to accept fifth place for Chemistry Lab, I think to myself, “Does this have anything to do with that teacher I saw Baker dangling over the second floor balcony?”

Minutes later, I’m finishing reading that same Wikipedia article about alternating current when I’m interrupted again. This time, it was second place for Rocks and Minerals. Pretty good for 17 guesses being “halite”. The trick is to pick the mineral sample that is the cheapest and most widely available to science teachers.

As you probably guessed, when the final team trophies were distributed, I was intently reading that same article, hoping for its magic to work again. Alas, no. We were but seventh, when sixth place and down gets to go to state. Oh well. At least most of the team won medals. And I’ve stumbled upon the secret to victory. I only need to print out that Wikipedia article and have every mathlete read it during awards.

The bad news they had for us was that there were no hotel rooms available at state because of that accursed Mathletes. Damn them and their state competition!

Posted in Day-to-Day, Ego | 4 Comments »

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