Electronics

As Nathan puts it, "Electronics always fail. Don't just take it from me. The guys who go on to become CEOs at Ford and [some other big car company whose name I have already forgotten] all say that they know shit-all about electronics and electronics always fail."

Very encouraging.

He then proceeded to show us a network problem he was having with the black box on the car. We spent a good hour there watching him put things together, and it was pretty fascinating (I never knew about breadboards before but they are the neatest things ever). Then we watched as he ran the program and explained that, once again, it was not working and he was not getting the data he needed.

Not to mention that the team is going on a pre-race event at Lakeside in a week, and he needs to get it working by then so the other teams working on the car can have the data they need.

I have a sort-of-like-SWE group mixer tomorrow evening, and there is the tech fair all day tomorrow, so I might go there on Wednesday night, if I'm not going to other companies' info sessions. I do want to check out the other parts of the car, and maybe do some data analysis, since that is always fun.

The rest of the meeting went by pretty uneventfully. I was hoping to see Peter so I could ask him where we were supposed to be on Wednesday for our English class, since we're starting on our research topics already, but he wasn't there (probably because there wasn't anything very important going on for those who are already on the team). I did see someone else from my English class though (what is with my English class and cars? I now know four people aside from me who is/will be on the team, out of a total of 25).

In other news:

• Today marks the first day I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at a school cafeteria. I had an egg and blt English muffin sandwich and milk for breakfast, smoked salmon and shrimp sushi and peach yogurt for lunch, and pizza and lemonade for dinner (all the fancy stuff ran out by the time I got there). I am still $22 behind my spending schedule for the day. Tomorrow I will be $37 behind. I really, really need to increase my food intake and quality somehow without overeating. Or maybe, as Yuma says, I should exercise more. Maybe I could go up and down the hill every day like I used to?
• I found this really neat math genealogy website, and when I traced my math history professor, it went all the way back to Heisenberg and Gauss and Möbius and Copernicus and lots of other cool mathematicians. Also a really interesting thing was that when I started going really really far back (like 1400s) I would find that a lot people studied under the same people and then taught the same people and other mixed-up things like that. It's less common now because of all the people who are able to study math at a high level, but I suppose back then when learning was still a privileged thing to do, it was more common.
• I have, through some crazy notion, signed up to be part of a debate team in one of my 200-people-large classes. Only 20 people are debating in total. That is crazy, considering I usually never volunteer for anything even when 10 people are called for in a 25 people class. And it's on a topic I never did any research on. But I have lots and lots of time, I suppose. Which reminds me:
• I want to somehow pick up physics again, because I really don't know all that much about it and I believe it is rather necessary to know physics as an engineer. I have been telling myself that I need to get onto that but it's not happening yet, so I think I need to actually assign a fixed schedule, sort of like a class time, so I can get it done. Maybe two hours a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then an extra hour for reviewing calc. I could get that fitted into my calendar easily.

Also. People. Talking. About. Midterms.

Already.

I feel kind of silly because the past few posts have all contained some mentioning of grades, and while I do care I don't want to care too much to the extent that I won't get to do all the cool things I want to do on campus (EWB, FSAE, SWE-like group, youth outreach groups). Maybe all of this can be solved by writing shorter blog posts. These things take quite a bit of time.

Turn On The Sun, Please

[Title concept from Pickles author/artist Brian Crane.]

Mrs. Leon complained today that I always leave before class officially starts, so I promised her I'll stay for third lunch next week (hopefully, but as previously mentioned, I'm not too good with promises). Maybe I will be there in time for sonnet readings. I don't know what else I could do with an extra half-hour of English class, especially since I'm probably not reading the same things (although my class is starting Brave New World, which Mrs. Leon's class has already read).

(Additionally, Clay told me he read nearly 150 pages of BNW in around two hours. Since it's, so far, taken me five days, more or less, I will probably need to dedicate a lot more time to reading. I'm past the first part—if there are any more, I don't know yet—of the everyone-is-talking-at-once pages right now.)

Other things of interest: I went over 10 pages of metabolism bio notes last night at around midnight (so also technically this morning), and have now come up with a really condensed, analogy-ladened version of metabolism, which I will add to the end of this, because I think I want to make more of these to prepare for the midterms (Mme Pottery mentioned midterms today, which set off a wave of panic).

Also, despite the cold, and the wind, and the general misery, there was frisbee today. There is another girl now, and she is pretty good at frisbee too (a great catcher, even in this wind). I ran around too (which almost never happens, mind you), but then my stomach started hurting, so I sat down and borrowed both Yuma's and Cameron's jackets (I wanted to borrow Tobey's too, since he wasn't wearing it at first, but by the time I'd gotten around to being too cold he was cold too and took the jacket) and tried to read more books (especially my LitEx book, which I have barely started).

Then a golden retriever came along and proceeded to sit on me despite my protests. Someone called out, "Be careful, he's a pervert," and with that the dog turned around and tackled me to the ground.

On that note, here is my version of metabolism:

• metabolism = energy vs. matter
• pathways: catapults tear down for boten anna to build up
• enzymes just float around for fun
• laws of thermodynamics: 
• energy is immortal; 
• entropy reproduces like bunnies
• ⌂G (free energy) = ♥
• likes to roll down hills and pull on wheelbarrows full of stuff
• must push it to make it go up hills
• said hill is a step-ladder hill
• In this analogy, "guy" is the substrate:
• guy wants to go over hill
• hill too high, guy too lazy, doesn't happen
• enzyme bulldozes hill, guy goes over
• enzyme only falls in love with one guy & his clones
• enzyme thus only bulldozes hills for guy & his clones
• when going over hill, enzyme and guy link hands
• their hands fit together like gloves
• at the top, enzyme pulls hard in excitement
• guy's arm falls off
• new products = guy + arm!
• then enzyme says, "eww, wtf?"
• enzyme ditches guy for clone #1209841
• other little-known facts of enzyme-drama:
• if guy is too hot/cold or brings H2SO4/HCl/HNO3, he gets slapped, enzyme says, "Get lost," and no hills are bulldozed
• cofactors/coenzymes: the bulldozer (the machine)
• inhibitors: the 3rd wheel
• either steals enzyme away (competitive)
• or kills enzyme and laughs maniacally (noncompetitive)
• allosteric site: door for 3rd wheel, except 3rd wheel is guy's arm
• arm can help or hurt
• too many arms will distract enzyme and result in no more bulldozed hills
• cooperativity: guy1 holds hands = guy2 can hold hands too
• many enzymes + many hills + many bulldozers = metabolic pathway (multi-enzyme complex)
• all these pathways come together to form . . . THE METABOLISM WORLD.
• dun dun dunnn...

This also effectively supports my argument that love/relationships can be a metaphor for anything.

Just Because I Speak French

Doesn't mean I live outside the US.

I know I have said that I will probably be posting again once school starts, but there has been a change of plans because I have more time on my hands and more things are happening lately. This seems paradoxical, I know, but there is no other way to explain it.

Anyway. Lest I forget, the important things.

First, Penn's supplement is finally out. I've been waiting for this since summer vacation started, and for the month of July their website said, "The Penn supplement to the Common Application will be out on July 15th." (Well, more or less those words.) So I checked in late July, and they said it'll be out on August 1st, when the common app comes out. Then, on August 1st, during the common app frenzy, they pushed it back again to mid-August, whenever that is.

Well, mid-August in Penn-world is around August 25th, just so you know.

Then, there is the news that I passed my open-book honors-level-bio exam! I am not sure that the "open book" part still makes it an honors-level exam, but I shall have faith. And did you know our school doesn't have enough AP bio textbooks? I'm not too surprised. There are four classes, after all.

And probably the most exciting of all—Google Voice. I'm still trying to figure out how this works, but it looks really promising (not to mention free calls to Canada). The only thing is, I can't use Gmail in French to call people yet, because it's only out in the US so far, and apparently people in the US only speak English.

That is unfair. I live in the US, and I like my Gmail in French, thank you very much.

Still, you can't beat unlimited free SMS. That's got to have the major mobile carriers mad. And once again, I am falling deeper and deeper into the Google products chain. I use Gmail, Google calendar (although only occasionally), Google reader, iGoogle, Google (the search engine), Google docs, Google maps, Google books, Google trends (this one is really cool), Google translate, Google sites (HUSH portfolio), Chrome, Blogger (hey, this blog!), and now Google voice.

I am not obsessed. Not at all.

In the Never Before Seen, Exclusive Side of Nephria

Namely, my unpublished drafts. Events and such that once upon a time merited some words, but then was either not important enough to be published (because other, more important things came up), or I got sidetracked and therefore did not find the time or effort to finish and publish them. Well, I'm doing a summer cleaning of sorts, in tune with my neighbor cutting down all the trees surrounding his house because one happened to be uprooted in the storm a few days earlier.

Other thing(s) before I begin: I passed my permit test! Well, sort of. I took the vision test first, which was basically me squinting and making up numbers, and the testing official being distracted (and talking to someone else) while saying, "All right, you passed, go on to the written part." Then I stood between two guys also taking the permit test, one of which passed, and one of which failed. After that, the testing official (someone else, I think) told me I had to wait because they were checking whether I was an illegal immigrant and other things like that. I mean, my visa (in my passport) wasn't enough? If I were illegal, how did I ever survive two years here?

Alas, it's protocol.

So I'm waiting to get my permit (hopefully) on Tuesday, the same day my dad leaves for Florida. On our way back from the DMV, my mom told me about the intricacies of turning (she doesn't use the hand method mentioned in the book) and the gas/brake pedal.

Now onto excerpts of my unpublished fun-stuffs.


Jan. 20th: Addicted to Freedom

Exams are finally over! I've been thinking about writing this post (what little time I had not cramming for calc or writing stories about Owen), and finally, it's time!

Alas, freedom is like that thing with feathers that perches in your soul, and comes out every so often, but is soon harnessed back by the chains of reality.

Well, the first part came from a poem by Emily Dickinson describing hope (which was on my English midterms), and I made the second part up.

The actual "exams" part of exams wasn't too bad, I suppose. I talked to Kyle after our stat exam, and he said it was just as he expected.

Even the fact that Mrs. MacDonald wasn't there.

But enough about them!

It's finally time to (besides finishing my EOQR) start on the miserable path of Owen-ness.

I would ask for your opinion, Owen, but considering you probably will never read my blog (or even know that you're Owen on here), I guess I'm on my own.

Jan. 23: Letters to Allie

Forty minutes to midnight.

He sat there, a piece of paper in his hand, musing. It was not in his nature to think—he was more of a do now, think later kind of person, as the twins once noted. The twins were the more contemplative types, thinking over every characteristic of the people they encountered, but he had always loved actions more than thoughts.

Right now, he wondered if it was too late to change his habits. Doing had gotten him nowhere, and now he needed answers.

Time was not waiting for him as it had always done.

He picked up the phone from his desk, stared at the glowing numbers. Who to ask? Who knew what he wanted to know? Who could he trust?

He had made enough enemies, he knew that. He had made enough mistakes. But this was one mistake he could not afford to make, one that could break his spring, crush him until he forgot who he was and why he was.

Thirty-seven minutes to midnight.


Feb. 1: Overdue-Part II

As we eventually all settled back into our rooms, with enormous amounts of junk food, we began to refocus on the problem. Or, at least, we tried to refocus on the problem. The fact that every ten minutes or so, a commercial about Saf-t-Swim, coupled with a matching "jingle" set to the tune of the Barney's theme song, would pop out of nowhere was slightly irritating.

Apparently, I was not the only one.

"If I hear that song one more time," Mogley said, "I will kill someone."

We all stared at Reese (except himself, of course).

"What?" Reese asked. "What did I do?"

"Okay everyone," Ben said. "Let's focus. What do we still need to do?"

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe search up how far our food travels? Ugh, I think I'm starting to get sick from all the cheese I ate."

I had not mentioned this before, but for lunch, I had ordered the all-cheese sandwich, because I was not a fan of turkey and I thought that cheese might have been a nice alternative. Well, the cheese was good. There was just so much of it, all dripping down everywhere. I even splattered some on the ground.

"And the candy," Joss added, motioning to the bag of candy I had in front of me.

"Hey," Reese said. "Let's turn off the lights."

I had no idea where this suggestion came from, or why, but we all agreed to it to some extent. The sun was still out by that time (although it may have been cloudy; I don't remember), so it was fairly bright in the room, especially with the light from the Smartboard. We resumed our old sitting positions, with Mogley and Ben at the desks, Joss and I on the ground, and Reese probably floating around somewhere. None of us really cared where he was, as long as he didn't distract us.

"I'm going to go get some water," Reese suddenly said. "Anyone wants to come?"

"Nope," I said.

"No," Joss said. "But get me a bag of candy while you're there."

"Oh, and get me a tea," Ben said. "What do they have?"

"Peach, lemonade, and berry."

"Okay," Ben said. "Get me a peach tea."

"Get me a berry tea," Mogley said.

"Does anyone else want drinks?" Reese asked, exasperation in his voice. But with him, it could have just been his normal voice.

"Nope," I said.

"Don't forget my tea," Mogley said.

"And don't forget my candy," Joss said.

Reese disappeared into the hallway. After a while, he came back, several food and drink items in hand.

"Here's your candy," Reese said, handing Joss a bag. He placed a can in front of Mogley. "And here's your drink."

"Did you remember my peach tea?" Ben asked.

"Oh, darn," Reese said. "I forgot."

"Cherry?" Joss exclaimed as he examined his candy closer. "Of all the flavors, you had to get cherry?"

"This tastes bad," Mogley said, after having tasted his berry tea.

"Okay, okay," Reese said. "I'll get everyone new drinks. What do you want?"

"Peach tea," Ben said.

"Lemonade," Mogley said.

"Non-cherry flavored candy," Joss said.

"They don't have anything else," Reese said.

"Another peach tea for me as well," I said.

Reese sighed and left the room again. When he was gone, I turned to look at the group.

"Did you guys really want more drinks, or did you just want him gone?"

"A little of both," Mogley said.

Oh, I can feel love in the air already. We waited for Reese to come back, and then settled back into what we were supposed to do. Which included making random outbursts over whose grammar--or lack thereof--was more correct.

Mr. Flatgrass chose this moment to pop into our room.

"Hey guys," he said. "You guys turned off the lights? To conserve energy?"

We laughed and heartily agreed. After he left, Reese said:

"He didn't realize that we had the Smartboard on. This thing uses more energy than all of the lights combined."

"Really?" I asked. Or maybe Mogley asked. I don't remember, but we were probably thinking along the same lines.

"Yeah," Reese said. He turned off the Smartboard, plunging us into darkness. It was really dark by now, which just showed how efficient we were. We all protested for Reese to turn the Smartboard back on, because we couldn't see anything.

In the end, Reese gave in, but not before putting Blackle on the projector-side of his dual screen and depriving us of more light.

We resumed our work, posting all of our sources onto an Etherpad site so Reese could MLA it all. (And I know that MLA is probably not a verb, but it's more fun as one.) We each had our own signature color (mine was purple), and originally, we had each typed our names in the spot where we identify ourselves. But of course, that wasn't going to last.

"Hey Ginny," Joss poked me. "Check out the Etherpad thing."

I turned suspicious and ctrl-tabbed on Joss's (again with the possessives) computer--only because he had Chrome and I had Opera and Opera and Google Docs are not compatible, so we had switched computers--until I reached the Etherpad tab. There, next to the red block, was the name "God."

I immediately remembered the book Tea had talked about, and changed Joss's name to "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret," and mine to "Yes, it's me, God."

"Mogley," I said, spying our next victim. "Can I see your Etherpad thing for a moment?"

Mogley stared at me skeptically. "Why?"

"Just checking something."

Reluctantly, Mogley handed over his computer. I typed in "It's me, Annie. I hate you, Margaret."

"What?" Mogley stared at me weirdly. Lots of staring going on lately, it seemed.

I scuttled back to my computer and started typing in the Etherpad chat window. Joss punctuated every few lines with some random comment, such as SPARTA. Of course. After a while, Mogley caught on to what we were doing as well, and changed his name to "Reese, if you read this, you are going to suffer in seven days."

"You're nice," I said, sarcastically. I really liked the Annie line, so I put it in Reese's namespot instead.

"Whatever," Mogley said. He called out to Reese to check Etherpad, so, of course, Reese joined in on our chat virtually.

Annie (Reese): what Mogley? (Reese had actually used another nickname, but that would probably make Mogley's identity too clear.)

God (apparently me): hey Annie.

Annie: hey God.

God: how's life, Annie?

Annie: it's great, God.

Margaret (Joss): LOL\

Annie: :(|

Margaret: LOLOLOLOLOL

Annie: ....... (and on and on and on, but I don't like the dots so much myself.)

Reese (Mogley): yo cease.

And of course, Reese (the real one) proceeded to spam the chat with lots of dots. I offered up a virtual challenge, saying that I could probably out-spam him. Reese took it on willingly, and we started spamming the entire chat with gibberish letters (me) and lines of dots (Reese).

Suddenly, Reese said, "Who's typing?"

Oh wow. So he didn't know it was me. Joss, Mogley, and I all started laughing (rather suspiciously). Ben just buried his head into his work.

"Come on, it's one of you guys. Who's typing? Joss?"

"It's not me," Joss said.

"So it's Mogley then," Reese concluded.

"Nope," Mogley said. "I think you can tell who I am in the chat."

"Come on, who is it?"

"The one person you're not guessing," Joss said, "is actually the one you're looking for."

Mar. 4: Test Mornings

I am very, very happy I am not a sophomore right now.

There are some things I do not like about junior year (research paper, hello? and in response to my English teacher's reply to Mogley's remark of not being a "published author," I would rather not be known for my research paper, what with its present quality), but let's face it. Standardized tests are miserable. Standardized tests that last for a very, very long period of time (weeks, in fact) is downright dreadful.

Apr. 18: Undoubtedly Bored Again

Was a questionnaire. Probably didn't post it because I had other, more interesting things to talk about later (i.e. Princeton). Will post it later, maybe. Dino's not in this one. Hmm.

May 4: Santiago's Where It's At

Okay, this reminds me, we (me, Gretchen, Tea, maybe others) are right now suspended, perhaps indefinitely, above the Pacific Ocean. Not a good place to be when you're in a plane. So hopefully I'll move us out of here.

But here's the excerpt:

Ever since our trip to Easter Island, we (meaning me, Gretch, and Tea) have been stranded in limbo land because of the late onslaught of tests and such, so we (mostly me) decided that now would be a good time to actually arrive at Santiago and not be indefinitely stranded in mid-air.

Then Gretchen told me that she, too, wishes to be somewhere (mostly Japan) and not stuck in mid-air where weird currents can blow us over to Area 51 where Dino hangs out on spare weekends communicating with the other robots and aliens in a modified Morse code, so I decided that, yes, today would be a good time to arrive at Santiago.

And that's it, I suppose. This is very, very long because of that "Overdue" post that I should have posted earlier (ahem, a few months earlier), but I'd never gotten around to due to HUSH. Otherwise just a few things that I might have missed that I think should be out here and not lost forever.

Also, please, dear neighbor, plant your trees back. I don't want to die of CO2 poisoning.

SUMMER IS HERE

If you didn't catch on to my enthusiasm in my intense usage of caps, let me reiterate that.

SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE! NO MORE JUNIOR YEAR! WE ARE SENIORS!

Today was amazingly awesome even though it was the day I had the most finals for (two, as opposed to, uh, one, or, uh, none). I was freaked out yesterday for physics, because I remembered from the midterms that I barely knew centripetal forces and I definitely bombed the waves/optics/weird-stuff test. Luckily, I did pretty well on modern physics, so it can still save me. Somewhat. But the finals were awesome. They were almost ridiculously easy (don't know for sure, because I don't know what I got, although Möhre asked me if I wanted to go check with him), and way better than the midterms for sure. Health was so-so, but it's health, and it's the last class of—OMG LAST GYM CLASS. Ahem. Yeah. So I didn't really care, and I got an A for the final, so despite my non-participation, I'm hoping for maybe an B+/A-, which will placate my parents as well.

But then, then, school was OVER (see my interspersed caps in testament of my excitement). I walked with Zephy and Vincent and Jennifer home (or sort of home, since we dropped by Vincent's house to play Clue first), and then my mom told me to clean up my room for the guests tomorrow. So I spent two hours cleaning, which was not fun, but the good thing was that I had NO HOMEWORK, so cleaning was okay.

Then I went over to Julie's house for her birthday party, and we had lots of fun, but this requires a very long time to explain, and I am now sort of short on time because I have more cleaning to do. So I will just say that we had lots of fun and rolled around in the grass and talked and ate and lit marshmallows on fire. There will be more coming, but after my permit cramming, so I will stop here.

To sum up my post tonight:

SUMMER IS HERE!

What If?

"I don't read people's messages," Mrs. MacDonald said. "I don't want to read anything that I have to act on."

"Like what?" Trevor asked. "Tell us something you've read."

"Like abuse," Mrs. MacDonald said. "But I haven't read anything yet. I don't go checking other people's phones."

"What if--What if the phone was just sitting there? And there's a message from someone that says 'DEALER' on it?"

"Right. And a real dealer would choose to do that because?"

"You never know," Trevor said. "It could happen."

"And why don't you categorize all of your 'dealer' contacts then? Put them under subheadings: drug dealer--"

"Or, what if," Kyle interrupted. "You saw a text message that said, 'Hey, let's meet up somewhere and dump the body into the ravine?' I bet Micky would do that."

"Yeah," Micky said. "I would."

"What's the probability that Micky will kill someone today?"

"Or better yet," Mrs. MacDonald said. "What's the probability that Micky will kill at least one person today?"

"I don't know," Micky said. "But I think I'm definitely going to kill someone today. Got to keep up my reputation, you know?"

Oh, how lovely stat class is.

I obviously spent most of that class doodling in my notebook, as Trevor and Kyle tag-teamed to ask lots and lots of questions about the upcoming midterms so we wouldn't have to learn anything new. I know it's the day before midterms, but I haven't started studying at all.

Well, okay. That was an exaggeration.

I studied equations for chem, because... we were tested on that today.

I studied... well, more like copied the super long weird planetary circular orbital motion equation for physics, which is my second exam tomorrow (I have gym first, which promises to be an hour long of losing in the pickleball tournament), and so far I still haven't figured out what it is yet. I tried asking Bryant, but he stored it in his fancy TI-89 and it was all weird, so I was left even more confused. His equation just helped me figure out that the one I copied from Tamir was totally wrong.

I tried to describe my source of stress in French, but all I came up with was, "Je suis fatiguée parce que j'ai des éxamens. Pour éliminer le stress, je fais le yoga." (Translation: I am tired because I have exams. To eliminate stress, I do yoga.)

I don't, but yoga's a vocab word. And apparently "ranting in super long posts on meebo" is not.

In fact, I should be studying right now. I should. But the whole exam schedule, with two days of exams and then three days off, is throwing me off quite a bit. I just can't seem to envision that midterms are starting, like, tomorrow.

That means my gym midterms (okay, this makes it sound rather undramatic) start in less than 12 hours from now.

Oh my god.

That means I get all this extra time to do those around-the-school errands I've been putting off every day.

Wow.

I think I'm in a state of denial right now. My brain isn't registering the eminent doom of, say, all of those huge tests that I had just vaguely thought about for the past few days. This is so unreal. This is so... I don't even know how to describe it anymore.

Maybe I should do those math packets on circles to clear my mind.

Je ne sais rien dont j'ai besoin!

Translation (in my own, twisted, probably incorrect way): I don't know anything that I need!

Sums up my should-be-panic right now over my French midterms. "Dont" is one of the few pieces of grammar that I actually know, and I have no idea if I've used it correctly or not. In fact, I've been so caught up in my notecards for the past few days that I've only skimmed over some physics problems, and from that "light" (more like nonexistent) skimming, I've come to realize that I know pitifully few formulas.

I'll have to rely upon my close proximity to the kinematics equations on the wall to save the day, I suppose.

So at lunch, today, I decided to go up to the MLC and actually get something done. (Probably all the work I should be doing right now but I'm not. Oh well.) Argon came with me, since the MLC is apparently his favorite place to "hang out" during his free. (The English/SS one comes right after in the rankings, as I've heard.) We walked down the hallway and turned to go through the door when...

I see Mario. Again.

A clarification here may help. I've been, for the past few months, seeing Mario around almost EVERYWHERE. I go to math class, there he is, taking something out of his locker (which is completely unnecessary, in my opinion, since he doesn't carry around anything anyway). I go down to the library for English, and there he is, slouched in a chair or something. I go to chem, and there he is, walking in the opposite direction as I am.

I leave during French class for the last fifteen minutes to print out a lab in the library (note: at a very different time from the aforementioned English class), and there he is, walking ahead of me to go to... the library.

And I don't even share a single class with him.

That is mildly creepy.

So yesterday, as I saw him again while waiting to go to my stat class, I couldn't resist. I had to ask him.

"What class do you have right now?"

"Statistics," he said. Which totally can't be true, since it was period 7, and that's when I have stat. I think I'd know if he was in my class.

But in my awesomeness of reaction, all I said was, "What?"

"Oh, wait, you mean what I have?"

"Yeah," I said. "It's just I've been seeing you everywhere--" my hand motioning to a general area around me "--and it's kind of creeping me out."

"Well, I have a lot of classes on the third floor, so that's probably why. Like I'm coming from ASR right now."

Okay. Let's rephrase that then for further data gathering.

"But I've also seen you in the library, and in the hallways, and everywhere--"

"Yeah," Mario said. "I'm everywhere. You're not going crazy or anything. I am everywhere."

Omnipresent Mario? I'm not sure if that was meant to be reassuring or not. I'm not quite sure how I reacted to that either. (That attitude also remotely reminds me of Tea's post yesterday.)

Well, anyway, as I saw him again today, in the MLC, I was seriously puzzled. But that confusion was short-lived, as I saw the January stats for math team posted on the bulletin board, with the traditional pink highlighter-ness. I love pink highlighters. Have I mentioned that before?

I adore pink highlighters. They come right after blue and green highlighters, and right before orange highlighters.

But yeah. Anyway.

"Isn't it frustrating," Mario spoke to Argon and me as we ogled at the stats. "That Treeburg beats us as a team, and each of their team members beats us as well?"

Huh. I hadn't noticed that. If you put it that way, I suppose it could get a little frustrating.

I wouldn't know. I don't really care about rankings as much as I should, I suppose. The only reason I was even looking at them (besides the pink highlighter-ness) was because my parents always ask me, "How's your school doing?" and I almost never know the answer to that question.

But, as it worked out, looking at the stats was pointless anyway, because later on in math team, Mr. Booth pulled up the stats on the Smartboard and showed it to us anyway.

Of course, with his usual pep talk of, "You can get first place this year, but only if you really want it. We can steal first place from Treeburg this year. I believe we have a shot. Remember last year, when, this one time, we were more than ten points ahead of Treeburg?"

"When was that?" I whispered to Tea.

"It didn't happen," Tea said.

Oh well. I'm happy with our team just getting at least third place (considering we're second now, it shouldn't be too bad), so we can go on more math "field trips" to meets. Just like sports teams. Except we compete with... pencils instead of balls?

So I went over to the window ledge to get myself a new set of problems, making sure on my way back to take advantage of a seated Dino (whose head was now within my reach) and ruffle his hair.

January is...

According to Daily Writing Tips, the email I subscribe to (along with plenty of other things that I barely read), the month "January" came from the Roman god "Janus," who had two faces and could both see into the past and into the future. Hence, Janus was a god of beginnings, and January is at the beginning of the year.

(Unless you go by other methods of keeping track of dates. Then January as we know it is not a beginning. It's just another ordinary month.

Which also reminds me, I realized some days ago that Chinese New Year is going to be on February 14th this year, which is both Valentine's day and the weekend prior to a week-long break. Yay! Extra time to stay up late and watch the annual program CCTV makes in celebration of the new year.)

I only knew Janus from Trickster Online (a MMO), where a special type of monster (called the Nightmare, I think, although I'm not sure now) dropped Janus masks occasionally. They were quite nightmarish to destroy, and I always needed those masks for luck compounding (the explanation of which will probably take forever, so just think about this as a quest of sorts), so I spent virtual days upon virtual days hunting down Janus masks.

It was not fun, to say the least.

I never did, however, associate it with January, even though I write it down all the time. For someone who considers herself fascinated by history and such, I feel sad that I had not known this earlier. Perhaps, then, whenever I went about hacking at monsters with brass-plated discs, I would be able to relate the experience to... a new vision of looking at this world?

Who knows?

So I told Zephy today about my newfound revelation about January and my realization about the coincidence of the holidays.

"Yeah," Zephy said. "I knew a long time ago."

Oh. Well. There goes my amazing (and probably very, very slow) brain-connector-abilities. Which makes absolutely no sense at all, as I was trying to convey a sense of something like an AI making virtual connections within my brain, but evidently it looks better in my head than it does on paper (or the monitor).

Maybe it's the week-long process of cramming for exams. That has got to be the reason why I'm so slow to react to "reality" right now.

I mean, if that were not the case, then something is seriously wrong with me, right? And since nothing can possibly be wrong with me, I blame the exams.

Yeah.

Besides, I took a review "test" for French vocab yesterday, and I got a 48 out of 106. That's a literal fail.

So I guess reality will have to wait as I attempt to steer my ship out of the rocky waters of midterms. Hope to see you on shore later, whether it's because we've both landed at a port or because we've both crashed onto a deserted island.

And I hope you like coconuts. A lot.

Just in case.