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Exam time

Today was the first day of final exams and the second-to-last day of school. We had spent Monday and Tuesday pretty much preparing for exams and watching movies (Life is Beautiful in AP European History, Forrest Gump in American History).

Today I had my exams for Programming II and AP Euro. Well, for Programming, all we had to do was show the teacher our final project, which wasn’t very hard in itself. I got an A on that and an A in the class. Then we watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

For AP Euro we were to do a presentation about our final paper. We’d had to write about a topic that was contemporary and European. I decided to research religious intolerance in Europe, which is more widespread than I had thought. On Sunday, I got a posterboard and spent a few good hours drawing a map to show which countries had established churches and which had disestablished churches. The next day I had found out that on Sunday, possibly while I was drawing the map, the people of Montenegro voted to secede from Serbia. “That’s why you’ve got to draw the Balkans in pencil,” Brian quipped. Anyway, I had to present my project rather quickly, because some of the first people to present took way too much time. Michelle made a cake for the class. She also made cookies for Mr. Miller, and I have him a thank-you card that Michelle, Megan, Brian, Luke, and I signed.

It’s been quite a ride, and it must have been tough for Mr. Miller to replace Ms. Vazquez in November. Since then, we’ve really grown. I have, I think. It sounds cheesy, but I didn’t want the class to end — we were like a family. Mr. Miller has been a really cool teacher. He’s sometimes gentle, sometimes harsh, and always intelligent and thoughtful. He always knows what to say. He’s loved us and hated us, but in the end, it’s all been to achieve his goal: not only to teach us the history of Europe from 1450 to the present, but to mold us into thinking people. I don’t know what it is, but his influence has a permeating effect. And so AP European History is history. The only thing left is to find out how well I exercised my knowledge on the AP test; I’ll get the results in July. I bet Kelsey $10 that I wouldn’t get a 5 (the top score). I hope I lose.

After school I had to meet with Mr. Gates, my precalculus teacher, for information about taking calculus next year. Apparently, instead of taking AP Calculus AB, I’ll have to take the more advanced AP Calculus BC, which means I’ll need to learn the material of both classes in one year, which means that I’ll have to work in groups with people who have already taken AB, which means that I’ll be treated like an intellectual inferior, which means that I’ll be driven up the wall. Besides, I’m not invincible, people. I can’t do everything. How am I supposed to get a life when I’m taking the equivalent of two calculus classes? Next year is supposed to be the year I get a life. More on that later. If I don’t forget. I’m sure I won’t forget over the summer while I’m doing my calculus homework.

After seeing Mr. Gates, I went to see Miss Turek, my English teacher from last year. I wanted to buy a copy of the school’s literary magazine. It came out a few weeks ago and I had forgotten to buy it even though I submitted some stuff to be in it. Luckily, they only spelled my name wrong once out of three times (Jordan, Jordon, Jordon). I need to change my name to one that people can spell (Jordan). Or maybe I’ll just change the pronunciation so that people will know how to spell it. Jor-don? No, wait, Luke and Brian call me that already, and I don’t like it. To quote Luke: “AAAAAAAAAAAHHH.”

Here are some strange error messages… and they’re not all from Windows!

Here’s a picture of a train station in Chicago. It was created in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop over a period of 11 months. The size of the final file? 1.7 GB.

One year ago: “The funny thing is, I can see myself achieving this goal.”