Book of the year

Today in one of my classes I saw someone had what appeared to be the new (2004-2005) yearbook. At lunch I decided to check it out. There indeed was a table with a couple of seniors and a box of yearbooks. I handed them my receipt from when I ordered it toward the beginning of last year, and I got a yearbook.

That's the way it works at my school. Usually yearbooks go to press around January or February so they can be received when school ends in May or June. Our yearbook comes a little late, but it shows spring sports, prom, graduation, and other late-year things that most yearbooks would have to miss.

Most surprisingly, I've heard no announcement that they were being distributed. I guess you just have to see the table there or have someone show you their yearbook as you stare in disbelief.

At the end of my freshman year, they passed out a sort of booklet for people to collect signatures and stuff, in lieu of having a yearbook delivered at the end of the year. So I've tucked that booklet into my freshman yearbook, which I received at the beginning of my sophomore year. But several months ago, at the end of that year, no such booklet was passed out. So for that year I am lacking signatures of anyone.

But I find that I care less and less. I also care less about the yearbook itself. I don't know why. I guess it's just a natural tendency, as you get older, not to give a care about the yearbook.

On the first day of school, my friend Justin, whom I met in Programming class last year, proposed an idea for a computer game: a spoof of The Oregon Trail. Now listen to me, I don't care if it's already been done -- it probably has -- but just imagine the idea. Instead of boring things like diseases, crossing rivers, etc., we want to throw in hazards such as uprisings, ninjas, and just about any other outrageous thing you could think of. I thought of a name: "The Oregano Trail." Our friend Gilbert says he'll help too. It should be a lot of fun to work on.

Believe it or not, The Oregon Trail was a game I actually played back in my day, so I have an appreciation for it. I don't really remember it much, but I did play it, probably when we were on Windows 3.11. As a random aside, some other really old programs I used to use were Dr. Halo 3 (a graphics program), Bannermania (a good use for computer paper), someone's version of Pong, Virtual Pool (3D graphics! My dad still has the CD lying around), Wacky Wheels (a racing game), and something with a beach.

Hear a weird conversation at work? Submit it to Overheard in the Office. Between the time I found this link and the time I'm posting it (which is now), I designed them a logo:

That's my silhouette (well, it's supposed to be a shadow) on the left, and my sister's friend's silhouette on the right. She agreed to pose for the photo on the day we were making butterbeer. The corkboard is in my room. The sheet of paper toward the top was one I happened to have a scan of on the computer. On the left, I hung those blank sheets of paper (the yellow Post-It note is actually just white paper cut into a square) so that the logo would go there. I stole the picture of the water cooler from some site.