Now that I come to think about it, it's not really all that weird
Today has been a weird day. It started off fairly normally with some meeting about my class arranging part of the school's Christmas trade fair followed by Physics first lesson, part one of a double period.
I guess the weirdness started with an animated character in a short DVD bit we were watching looking and sounding surprisingly like Dr Breen from Half Life 2. Well, the faces look similar – the DVD character was wearing some kind of superhero outfit with a large “Q” on it, which I can only presume stands for quantum, the subject of the short.
The second Physics lesson supposedly consisted of research into our course projects but ended up as more of a discussion on how to break through the firewall (we succeeded, by the way) and what was the best way to get TV programs and movies off the internet. Our teacher tends to use BitTorrent, apparently.
I spent a fair chunk of an afternoon study period not playing Street Fighter, which is weird in and of itself. Instead, my friend Sam Stafford (you'll see why we need to use the Stafford in just a second) was giving out some riddles. One in particular had a few people stumped but, between us, myself and Sam Potter (there you go) managed to crack it. Half of the rest of the year stormed in in quick succession demanding the answer and promptly being given it.
All except one, the first person Stafford had given the riddle to. She agonised over it for an hour or so, eventually drawing a small crowd of those who had beaten the answer out of others. She got closer and closer until someone finally just revealed the answer so we could all go to next lesson. There were no survivors.
Give or take a few survivors.
Also, at some point, several people started to play “the game”. This arcane ritual, spawned somewhere in the depths of the internet, cannot be won except in exceptional circumstances. The only way to lose is to think about the game and loss is generally assumed (by our rules, there may be others out there) to occur if you just hear about the game or see it written down somewhere. Thus, we all spent a great deal of time telling each other about it.
We once used about 20 sheets of paper and managed to get one guy coming into the room (it was on a note held to a dartboard with magnetic darts in front of the door) and when he opened his locker immediately afterwards (this was where another 18 sheets were). The final sheet would have been the clincher, but people aren't polite enough to shut the door behind them, so he didn't see it.
It sounds simple and bizarre (and, really, it is) but it can provide distraction for a surprising amount of time.
The final example of weirdness to occur today, that I can be bothered to remember right now, involves some Computing homework. You see, I had been planning on doing said homework tonight. Then I got home and discovered that I didn't have the sheets that I needed. This, I thought, was strange, since I'd already used the same bundle of sheets to do two previous pieces of homework. I applied my impeccable logic skills and determined that I must have lent it to someone.
There are four people in my class, all of whom are absent-minded and lazy enough to be candidates. I pretty much gave up hope, mostly because I couldn't be bothered, and went on with whatever I was doing at the time until Sam Potter got in touch asking for help with one of the questions. I told him that I hadn't got them so he scanned his sheets in and sent them to me.
While he was doing that, Jimerson got in touch with him to ask if he had the sheets, since Jimer evidently didn't. As both Potter and I laughed at this, I joked that he should ask Sam Stafford if he had them. Turns out he didn't.
The final twist in this little tale? The scanned sheets that got distributed around weren't actually Sam Potter's. They were mine – he was the one who had borrowed them for the last piece of homework.
Actually, I lied. The final twist in the tale is that I got sidetracked a little and haven't done that homework yet. Or done any revision for the test we have tomorrow. So I'm going to go do that. Seriously.
I guess the weirdness started with an animated character in a short DVD bit we were watching looking and sounding surprisingly like Dr Breen from Half Life 2. Well, the faces look similar – the DVD character was wearing some kind of superhero outfit with a large “Q” on it, which I can only presume stands for quantum, the subject of the short.
The second Physics lesson supposedly consisted of research into our course projects but ended up as more of a discussion on how to break through the firewall (we succeeded, by the way) and what was the best way to get TV programs and movies off the internet. Our teacher tends to use BitTorrent, apparently.
I spent a fair chunk of an afternoon study period not playing Street Fighter, which is weird in and of itself. Instead, my friend Sam Stafford (you'll see why we need to use the Stafford in just a second) was giving out some riddles. One in particular had a few people stumped but, between us, myself and Sam Potter (there you go) managed to crack it. Half of the rest of the year stormed in in quick succession demanding the answer and promptly being given it.
All except one, the first person Stafford had given the riddle to. She agonised over it for an hour or so, eventually drawing a small crowd of those who had beaten the answer out of others. She got closer and closer until someone finally just revealed the answer so we could all go to next lesson. There were no survivors.
Give or take a few survivors.
Also, at some point, several people started to play “the game”. This arcane ritual, spawned somewhere in the depths of the internet, cannot be won except in exceptional circumstances. The only way to lose is to think about the game and loss is generally assumed (by our rules, there may be others out there) to occur if you just hear about the game or see it written down somewhere. Thus, we all spent a great deal of time telling each other about it.
We once used about 20 sheets of paper and managed to get one guy coming into the room (it was on a note held to a dartboard with magnetic darts in front of the door) and when he opened his locker immediately afterwards (this was where another 18 sheets were). The final sheet would have been the clincher, but people aren't polite enough to shut the door behind them, so he didn't see it.
It sounds simple and bizarre (and, really, it is) but it can provide distraction for a surprising amount of time.
The final example of weirdness to occur today, that I can be bothered to remember right now, involves some Computing homework. You see, I had been planning on doing said homework tonight. Then I got home and discovered that I didn't have the sheets that I needed. This, I thought, was strange, since I'd already used the same bundle of sheets to do two previous pieces of homework. I applied my impeccable logic skills and determined that I must have lent it to someone.
There are four people in my class, all of whom are absent-minded and lazy enough to be candidates. I pretty much gave up hope, mostly because I couldn't be bothered, and went on with whatever I was doing at the time until Sam Potter got in touch asking for help with one of the questions. I told him that I hadn't got them so he scanned his sheets in and sent them to me.
While he was doing that, Jimerson got in touch with him to ask if he had the sheets, since Jimer evidently didn't. As both Potter and I laughed at this, I joked that he should ask Sam Stafford if he had them. Turns out he didn't.
The final twist in this little tale? The scanned sheets that got distributed around weren't actually Sam Potter's. They were mine – he was the one who had borrowed them for the last piece of homework.
Actually, I lied. The final twist in the tale is that I got sidetracked a little and haven't done that homework yet. Or done any revision for the test we have tomorrow. So I'm going to go do that. Seriously.
Labels: alasdair, day in the life, musings, rant, school
posted by Alasdair Corbett at
11:32 PM
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home