This weekend in homework

Our top story on this four-day weekend: Part one of science project due Tuesday. That includes five pages of research, a bibliography, a hypothesis, and probably something else. After much stress, I decided to go along with my original idea of expounding on the project I did last year. Although running an electric current through salt water and varying the compositions of the electrodes doesn't sound like a blast, it's good that I have a solid foundation to work on rather than starting a whole new project from scratch. Can I get away with reusing some of my original research? I believe I can. I have three pages of it, and I need a total of five, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem. I just need to figure out a good hypothesis. Which metals will make the best electrodes? I don't know!

For the research part, 5 of my 10-15 sources have to be books, so I went to the library today. I knew that I had used some books for my original research, so I only looked for a few books. As it turned out, a few were all they had. Come on, guys. Chemistry is the "central science," and you only have two books about it? I checked out them both. Then I went home and found out that I had only used one book in my original report, so it was time to hit the other local library. They had a whole three books on chemistry, although one was more about alchemy and the other was a book of simple, simple experiments for kids (think vinegar-and-baking-soda volcanoes). So I checked out the other book.

In order to have five book sources, I needed one more book. It was time to hit the reference section. I managed to find a book with a few pages of information on electrical conductivity and stuff like that, so we managed to run off some copies of those pages. And now here I am. I guess I'll only have to write two pages, but coming up with a suitable hypothesis might be a little more difficult. I don't really know what sorts of metals would carry the electricity better. Maybe they'd all do equally well? No, that sounds unlikely. Oh well. I'll have a few days to figure it out. It is a guess, anyway.

Also this weekend: I have to study for Tuesday's test on the muscular system in Anatomy and Physiology. I need to memorize the names of a bunch of muscles, as well as being able to explain the structure of a muscle, among other things. Also on Tuesday, I have a test on a bunch of stuff in Calculus. Tests are 95% of the grade in that class, and they're pretty tough. I almost had an A in the class until I bombed the last test, giving me a solid B. It's going to be impossible to raise my grade to an A before the end of the quarter, so I just have to work on keeping my B. I think I also have a vocabulary quiz in English on Tuesday, but that's nothing.

Here's a little Ask Jordon to brighten your day.

Luke: How many candles were on Google's 8th birthday cake?

I did notice that the cupcake in Google's logo didn't have eight candles. I think there were five or six.

sean: So what did you think of Jackass Number Two? (Which, awesomely yet strangely enough, has been given two thumbs up by Ebert and Roeper)

The movie was funny, and I'd probably see it again, even though I'll never think about horses the same way. That's really weird that Ebert and Roeper gave it two thumbs up. What made Ebert like it more than the first Jackass, which he panned?

Have a lot of huge pictures from your digital camera that you want to get online? Sometimes the only thing you need to do is resize an image before it's ready to go. ResizR is an online tool that makes that job a little easier.

If you're obsessed with Wikipedia, take the extremely long Are You a Wikipediholic Test. My score is a pithy 297.738126131719, so I have "a well-balanced attitude that may benefit by spending more time on Wikipedia."

One year ago: "Gee, you must be wondering to yourself, I bet Jordon's busy. Wrongo."
Two years ago: "Every week I'm being driven into the ground by work, work, work. It just won't let up."
Three years ago: "Seeing as it's an online petition, it won't count for much, but it makes for a good symbolic gesture."

Whose fault is it anyway?

I put off my application for the University of Florida. I put it off, and I put it off some more. And then, with about a week and a half before the deadline, I was almost done, except that I found out that I needed the school to send my transcript? I had thought that the university would request it themselves, but I guess not. On Monday I filled out a form asking the school to send my transcript, and two days later, I got a hard copy so I could actually see how much credit I was getting for each class I was taking (that was also the last part of the form). Wow! Did you know that I'm getting 1 credit for each class? Apparently they don't discuss how much credit I'm getting for taking AP Calculus AB in one semester and AP Calculus BC in the next. Nobody knows, actually, so we're just going to have to see. I made my best guess and fired off that application (online) on Wednesday. Then I got some stuff together, including a recommendation letter I had hastily gotten from Dr. Singkornrat earlier in the day. She had been short on time, so I advised her on what to put down. Then she signed it so that I'd have a copy to send out that very night.

The Early Decision deadline is Monday, October 2, so I was really worried about the envelope not getting there on time. Yesterday my dad went to the post office and made sure it would get to the university overnight, so they should have it now. Maybe I shouldn't have done the Early Decision thing. It basically requires you to sell your soul to the college; if they accept you, you're contractually bound to go there. The only advantage (?) is that you find out earlier... and you're more likely to get in? Oh well. That's the option I chose, anyway. Everyone else was doing it, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. At least I don't have to worry about being rejected because of a late application.

When I started back at my old job earlier this month, the last thing that went through my mind was how much I should get paid. I never discussed it with anyone, so when I got the application, I was a little startled to see that I could write down how much I wanted to get paid. Because I had made $7 per hour originally, that's what I put down. (Was this a mistake? Hint: Why would be writing about it now?)

I got my first paycheck last week. For working 15 hours, I got a gross pay of $105, which was to be expected. My sister, who started working the same job during the same hours, did not get her paycheck. She hadn't signed an important form, so some dance had to be undertaken with the main office of the company. She got the check today, and it was for $120. She made $8 an hour. I confronted her about it, and she said that she didn't see any part of the application where you could write down how much you wanted to make. Ergo: she left the field blank, and Accounting or whoever gave her $8. I, who have an extra 15 months of experience at the company under my belt, gave myself $7, and some middle-management screwball grinned an evil grin.

Apparently I should ask for more money -- that is, ask for a raise. Here's the funny (or funnier) part: Sophia, the office manager who I've known since I started working there three years ago, is leaving, and so who will I have to plead to to get a raise? I don't know! It'll be somebody I've never met before. Way to make a first impression. Here's this long-haired boy or kid who makes butt at his current job and wants to make twice butt. Would you give him a $1 raise? Why do I have to be the one to suffer for actually reading the application and signing my name where necessary? Why do I have to be the one to suffer for failing to consider important questions and passing off foolish assumptions as answers? Whose fault is it, anyway?

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. It's a sentence, man. But it raises the question: are there really any Buffalo buffalo?

Youth Against Sudoku. I wonder if crossword puzzles were ever met with this kind of resistance.

Science!

Guitar news: A couple of weeks ago, my Epiphone Dot stopped working. It just wouldn't make any sound. So I put it aside for a while as my dad considered our options. We took it to the store where I got it, but they said that they weren't doing repairs until Monday (it was a late Friday afternoon, I think). Finally, my dad decided to check it out himself. He asked for my mini-amp, which I was sure didn't work, and he plugged it in. Behold: sound. He flipped the switch and it worked erratically, so he knew that the problem lay in the switch. After a quick spray, it was all better. Good thing we didn't pay to have that fixed. I've been satisfied with how well the guitar has held up since I bought it about three and a half years ago. It really stands up to a beating.

Everything else news: It's science fair time again! All right! If there's anything I hate more than anything, it's doing science projects. I would love to do something nice and simple like seeing how music affects plants or finding out which laundry detergent works best, but I'll never be allowed to do something so basic. It's a shame, too, because I've only ever done one real science project, and that was last year. I decided to find out about the conductivity of various salt solutions. I had to experiment and everything. In junior high, I could just get away with writing about stuff and pasting it to a board. (Or, in the case of my mold project in seventh grade: leaving bread out in the kitchen, putting it in plastic bags, and stapling them to a board. And writing a paragraph or so.)

Since we're a year older, we're expected to do something better, or so my Anatomy and Physiology teacher says. I really, really, really couldn't think of anything, so I asked the teacher for suggestions. She suggested I expound on the project that I did last year. I figured it was just as good a suggestion as any. But did that project go over well? Not really. The experiment took forever and was a disaster, so I needed the help of my then-teacher, Mrs. Zambrano, big time. She, in turn, needed Mr. Marchand's help for getting some of the instruments that we would need as we performed the corrected experiment in her classroom with lots of nifty scientific gadgets. It was very brief.

My current science teacher, who is like BFFL with Mrs. Zambrano, suggested that I talk to Mrs. Zambrano about it. So one day last week after class, she came in, and I reminded her about what I (or, rather, we) had done. She suggested that I vary the metals of the electrodes used to transmit the current. She said that she had different metals that I could use, so it sounded good to me. Now that I think about it, I guess that means that I can perform the experiment with her help again. I hope I can, anyway. Those gadgets were really neat. There was a thing that you would put the beaker on, and it sort of vibrated, so if you poured salt into the water, it would be mixed in automatically. Other tools were absolutely necessary to the experiment, for example, the device that measured the current. I think the machine I used at home didn't exactly work because we weren't measuring the right thing.

So, I have to have the first part, including five pages of research taken from 10 to 15 sources, done by Tuesday. And I thought the last project was hard...

Check this out. It's the Vinyl Killer, a tiny, tiny record player. It's basically like a toy car with a stylus underneath and an amplifier inside. You just have it drive around the surface of the record (at 33 RPM) and a speaker plays the sound.

It turns out that American theists' conceptions of God differ vastly. Is God involved in people's everyday lives? Does he get upset easily? These factors may even be responsible for their broader worldview, for example, their political leanings, in ways that you might not expect.

One year ago: "On Saturday some guys in a truck came over and brought in a big chair."
Two years ago: "We here in Florida don't have to worry about blizzards, tornadoes, wildfires, or earthquakes."
Three years ago: "Next semester, though, I'm going to get hammered with all the bad classes and weird teachers."

Not very wild

On Wednesday I started coming down with a cold. I figured I could sleep it away, but that didn't work. I woke up at around 1:00 in the morning and had to go and blow my nose a few times. At about 2:00, I put on a heavy comforter and tried to go back to sleep. And hey, then it was time for school! Luckily, as I said, it was a short day, and we got out before noon. Since I was feeling under the weather, I didn't really do anything productive. I took a shower, and later, I did something I haven't done in a really long time: I took a hot bath. I didn't fill the tub up all the way, but it was still kind of nice. But it's scary how much I'm thinking of calculus. While I was filling the irregularly-shaped tub with water, I realized that it would take longer and longer to fill up the tub if it got slightly wider. But that's common sense? Anyway, before going to bed early, I took my temperature and it was normal, but I still felt bad.

I wasn't sure if I would be well enough to go to work today, but I was, and it was worth it, too, as I was reminded. Today I got my first paycheck since getting back to the job. And the great thing is that they've spelled my name right this time. I had to fill out an application again, so this time I made absolutely sure that they would spell my name "Jordon" and not "Jordan." Work was pretty good, and I managed to survive, although I did sneeze a lot. They asked if I wanted to go home early, and I said no. It got better once I turned the air conditioning up. (I used to wonder why turning the air conditioning "up" would make it warmer. I thought "up" and "down" related to intensity rather than temperature. I guess it's more convenient to think of it as climate control.)

Anyway, I worked, and now I'm here. I might go and see Jackass: Number Two with Sean and Mike tonight, but it's not definite. I probably wouldn't go to see it if Sean hadn't invited me, but I'll admit that I do find that kind of stuff funny in a way. And tomorrow, I'll be all better, hopefully. I'm mostly better now, but past experience suggests that my cold will probably linger for another day or two.

Do we have time for a quick Ask Jordon?

Lana: What's you're wildest fantasy?

I'm not really one to fantasize, Lana, but I often dream of falling in love, if it's all the same to you. It's not very wild, but it's a fantasy... one that I really want to see come true.

Here's a spectacular (and huge) photo: it's a ten-hour-and-forty-minute time exposure of the night sky in Namibia. (That's in Africa.) Imagine how dark had to be to get a good exposure for that long. Pretty dark, I'd say.

Only the most abused movie clichés get special names. The Stormtrooper effect is one. Although the protagonist's battle with the antagonist is by far the most difficult, it just so happens that there is no strength in numbers, for the good guy can easily mow down dozens of bad guys as long as they're in a group.

Bah! Bah, bah, college, bah bah

Applying to college is a really laborious task. I don't care what you say. It is. I know I won't think so years from now, but I won't be applying to colleges years from now. I was just taking some time to review the only application I've started working on so far, and I realized that I need to know how much credit each of my current courses affords me. My sister told me I have to get a copy of my transcript from the Guidance department. There's a three-day waiting period.

And you know what? If I didn't have a sibling applying to college at the same time as me, I never would have known that. The thing about applying to colleges is that they make it as hard as possible. Nobody tells you how to do anything, and if you can figure it out, you're probably smart enough to be approved. So I guess I'm not? Anyway, it's really frustrating now that I see I really, really need to get busy with these applications. That's what I get for not knowing anything about applying to colleges? Note to self: the deadline is Monday, October 2! This is really not cool, you guys. The whole rest of my life is at stake due to the things I've done (and not done) over the past few weeks. Don't be like me, kids.

Anyway, it's that time of year again for BAT testing of the freshmen and sophomores. That means that the rest of us get to do nothing while they test. Well, I can't say that we're doing nothing; it's just that we're doing nothing educational. In fact, part of this post is being written on a Mac laptop in class. The desktop is littered with saved files, and the computer's clock is set to Monday, April 19, 1976, but at least it has a working Internet connection, which can't be said of some of the other laptops here at school.

Also: why would anybody tile a photo for use as their desktop wallpaper? They'd have to be thinking, "I really love this picture, so if I see it on my screen nine times, then I'll love it nine times more!" Oh well. That's just a little pet peeve of mine, I guess. It doesn't harm anybody. Another thing that doesn't harm anybody is reading lots and lots of Dinosaur Comics. That's how I spent much of my free time in class.

Yesterday was the first of the two test days, and a lot of juniors and seniors showed up late or didn't go at all. After all, why should they if they're going to be doing nothing for half the day? Today there were even fewer people, and some classes were brought to a standstill. Yes, all of the students still have all of their class periods, but most of them are shorter due to the testing. And you might imagine how the teachers have reacted: mixedly. (Is that a word?) Some don't care if their students skip these rather unimportant days, but others are deeply concerned about losing their teaching time.

But the fun doesn't end there. Tomorrow is a "professional study day" for the teachers. It's something they've just introduced this year. Every once in a while, the teachers will have to attend workshops during their work hours, so they'll let the students out early. To compress our schedule, they planned to have 67-minute class periods (instead of 110 minutes), and they were going to let school out at 11:58. I guess there was some criticism about that, so they changed tomorrow's class periods to 65 minutes, and they're planning on letting us loose at 11:50 instead. Eight more minutes of weekend!

This is really interesting: Pictures That Lie. It's a sort of chronicle of notable photographic forgeries, from 19th-century cut-and-paste jobs to, well, 21st-century cut-and-paste jobs.

In Soviet Russia, city abandons YOU!

One year ago: "There are only four more names left on this year's list of 21 names to be used: Stan, Tammy, Vince, and Wilma."
Two years ago: "I've been told he has quite a sense of humor. He laughs at his own jokes."

Who cares if I can't dance?

Well, it's that time of year again for school traditions like homecoming. And this year, for the first time, I'm actually going. I figured I might as well go because I'll definitely have to go to prom, so I should probably get some dance-going practice under my belt. On Friday I went out to buy a suit. I definitely needed a jacket and pants, but I didn't really think I needed a shirt or a tie. Nonetheless, we got the whole thing anyway. I probably don't have a shirt or tie that's worth wearing, so I might as well get some new ones in case I ever have to dress so formally again.

Homecoming had better be worth it, even though I think it'll just be a frivolous use of my my mom's fifty bucks. I don't plan on taking a date, but I'm expecting to see a few friends there, so that should be nice. I'll have to hang out with them lest I get caught up in whatever goes on at homecoming dances. I believe the dance will be October 7, so I have some time to plan an escape in case of emergency.

It started simply enough. A few weeks ago, a girl named Natasha from Canada posted a comment or two on this site. She also sent in a few questions for Ask Jordon. I checked out her MySpace and added her as a friend, and then she e-mailed me. It's always nice to get an unsolicited request for pen-palship. I've always been the one doing the asking, I think.

So we started exchanging e-mails. This has been going on constantly, and in the process, I've gotten to learn more about her and her life in Canada. She's a really interesting person, and I've found that I can talk to her about pretty much anything. She seems really smart, although she doesn't seem to think so. We've exchanged pictures, and get this: she says I'm cute, apparently in a way that she's never known before. Whoa. Yes, I, unlucky Jordon, am cute. To hear I'm good-looking at all is something that basically never happens, so you can probably imagine how I've been feeling.

And she's good-looking, too. Blonde hair and blue eyes, a curvy body (as she puts it), and a genuine smile. She doesn't look like the popular models or actresses, which is a good thing. Instead, she's cute in that rare, real-life way. I do know that looks aren't everything, though. I also enjoy that she's a good person to talk to, she's funny, and she leads an interesting life. The fact that she seems to like me doesn't harm anything, either. At least, I think she does. I've had a lot of false hopes before, so I'm a little wary.

It's hard to explain how I feel right now. All I can say at this point is that it's a shame that we're so far away -- 3,400 km by road, but only 2,581 km as the crow flies. I want to meet her in person, but it's not likely to happen in the near future. That leads to mixed feelings -- joy and sadness. I'd like not to worry about the distance factor, but it's hard to ignore. At least we have e-mail, instant messaging, and things of that ilk. She's going to download Skype so that we can speak to each other and see each other. I can't wait for what tomorrow brings.

20 Things You Didn't Know About Death. I did know #14, though. Thanks, AP European History!

From Forbes: America's Most (and Least) Efficient Charities. It's a couple of years old, but it should still prove useful if you're wondering where your donations should go.

One year ago: "I met the Improv All-Stars!"
Three years ago: "To my immense suprise, they offered me a part-time job!"

ACTurday?

So today I took the ACT, The Test You Don't Have to Take But Really Ought To™. You didn't think I'd forget, did you? I almost did, but then I remembered what a weekend I was going to have. What a weekend I'm having!

Anyway, yesterday I had to wake up early for work, and today I had to wake up early to take the ACT. Even though I really didn't want to be awake so early, I guess it's good to take both the ACT and the SAT, and I had already done the latter -- two times -- so it was about time for me to take the ACT. After all, if you don't do well on one, you might do better on the other. They're pretty similar, but obviously, there are some differences.

My sister and I, along with our friend Lisa, were taking the test at Monarch High School, a relatively new school (I think?) that some people I know go to. I had never been there, so I didn't really know how far it was from my house, but it's not too far away -- just on the other side of the dump. We waited a little while for the test to start. It was supposed to start at 8:00, but you know how those things are. Eventually there were about a million people waiting outside, and then they opened the doors. Unusually, I wasn't at the very end of the line.

We had some trouble finding the classrooms we were supposed to go to because the people there told us to go to the wrong building. We found them quickly, though. My sister and I went into one and Lisa went into another. We waited for almost an hour for everyone outside to get in -- they have to check your ID to make sure you're who you claim to be. When everyone was there, we took the test.

When I took the SAT, I was relieved by how familiar it looked. It looked just like the PSAT, which I had already taken twice also. So I was kind of worried that I wouldn't be used to the format of the ACT, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's very similar to the SAT in that respect. As for the questions themselves, I think I liked the ACT better. There were no vocabulary questions like these ones that plague the SAT:

...except the ones on the SAT sometimes make sense (but they always love to throw in words that you've never heard of before). Overall, on the ACT, the questions on the reading, English, and math seemed easier. Even so, I'm glad I took the ACT when I did because there were some things on the math part that I wouldn't have known how to answer if I had taken the test at this same time last year.

The most notable difference between the SAT and the ACT is that the latter has a science section. I had heard that it was just to see if you could read charts and graphs, and I guess it was, but it was harder than I thought. I had to guess on a few more than I should have, but that was only because I was running out of time. Notably, the ACT doesn't penalize you for wrong answers, so it's okay to guess.

After all that was the optional writing section that I decided to take. It was exactly like the one on the SAT, except that the prompt had you take a position on a real-life issue; compare that to the SAT's vague essay prompts about character and things like that.

Not long after that, I was home. We got out earlier than I thought we would, considering that we started almost an hour late. So I've been here since then, and hopefully I won't have to take any more SAT- or ACT-type tests again. The scores should come in four to seven weeks.

Leave it to Wikipedia to have a list of famous trees.

Never forget your lock combination again. If I had a lock whose combination I couldn't remember, this would be handy.

One year ago: "So I guess things are back to normal between us."
Three years ago: "Today, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel printed an article featuring me and TWoS."

Der Öpenhaus

Yesterday was the school's annual open house. It's just a way for the teachers to introduce themselves to their new students' parents, so we students don't have to be there. But of course, there will always be some parents who take their kids anyway, and I always end up getting pulled around school.

It was raining, so it was a lot of fun walking to the freezing auditorium to hear the new principal, Mr. Gordon, speak. Except he wasn't there. We were a few minutes late, so we entered in the middle of an assistant principal giving some speech about how great the school was. I found out later that Mr. Gordon's father had suddenly died, so he would be gone for at least a week. That's a pretty good reason not to be at your new school's open house.

I waited for my dad to get there (he had to get off work a little later than he wanted), and then we proceeded on the tour of my classes. Three years ago, the school would allow parents to walk freely in and out of their kids' classrooms and chat with the teachers. Nowadays, it's more formalized. The parents are expected to follow their kids' schedules, going to each classroom, sitting in the students' seats, and listening to a lecture from the teacher until ten minutes pass and the bell rings.

One thing I thought that was interesting was that some teachers tended to go on and on about their classes, and others ran out of things to say in ten minutes. Mr. Gates (calculus) and Mrs. Mackey (English) tend to talk more, so they went on past the bell. Mr. Gates had even written notes for his lecture to the parents, and he gave handouts to them. (O Mr. Gates, I salute you for your professionalism.) I guess teachers have always had their differences and quirks, but I thought it was funny to notice.

Anyway, by tagging along and listening to the lectures, I did learn a bit more about my teachers (like how long they've all been teaching -- sheesh), and I guess that's a good thing. They are people, after all.

Speaking of which: yesterday, someone said to Luke, "Wouldn't it be funny if, all of a sudden in the middle of class, Mr. Gates started doing the robot?" Luke told me and the others this morning, and I couldn't stop laughing at the idea. Mr. Gates, as I've said, is very professional and always keeps a very formal tone. In fact, he so rarely strays from the subject of math that I nearly crack up just listening to him talk about other things. I thought it would be difficult to keep my composure in his class today, but it was actually pretty easy. Paradoxically, it's hard to imagine him doing the robot if he's standing right there.

And now for some practical and impractical applications of Ask Jordon.

KRISTEN: When IS "Y" a Vowel?!!!!!

I think it's pretty much whenever it doesn't come at the beginning of a word. In those cases, it assumes some other vowels' sounds, like in pony, orderly, cyst, and syzygy.

Luke: In the past, you posted a link that claimed everything is four. I disagree. Can you rephrase this to be a question _and_ answer it?

I gave this a little thought, and I'm pretty sure I've come up with the best possible way to rephrase declarative sentences into interrogative ones.

"Do you know that in the past, you posted a link that claimed everything is four, and that I disagree?"

The answer: Yes, I know that I posted a link that claimed everything is four, and yes, I now know (by virtue of having been told by you) that you disagree.

Here's a CGI recreation of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima (YouTube link). The scary part is that that thing was a firecracker by today's standards.

I had heard of rumors about Starbucks's "short" cappuccino, which, according to legend, is smaller than a "tall" (supposedly their smallest size). Nobody I've told has believed me because Starbucks doesn't have a "short" size on the menu board -- they wouldn't want you to buy the cheapest drink, after all. Alas, I was right. This and other forms of product sabotage are apparently a common practice.

One year ago: "Here are some reasons not to write a novel."
Two years ago: "I didn't know they taught calculus in high school, but what do I know?"

9/11 again

I can't believe it's been five years since September 11, 2001. But since it's September 11, 2006, it must be.

I sometimes think about the events that happened on that day, and once again I'm a fuzzy-haired twelve-year-old who's one of the taller kids in the seventh grade at his small Catholic school. But as much as I remember my emotional reactions, it's been sort of difficult to separate them from the facts -- the timeline, if you will, of what actually happened on that day.

Yesterday I uncovered my seventh grade class's schedule. I actually was looking for it, and I knew exactly where to find it: in my old backpack that I used up until the end of seventh grade, with all of my stuff from that year still inside it. It's interesting to see because it sort of offers a clue as to what I actually might have seen and heard as I watched the attacks unfold.

It started like a normal Tuesday. I was an active member of Where's George? back then, and I would browse the site in the morning before school. Over the past few days I had been posting on the site's forums announcing some weird holiday that applied someplace in the world -- you know, like, "Happy Something Day in Somewhereland." That morning, I did a little bit of research and ended up saying, "Happy Jinnah Day in Pakistan!"... not knowing who or what a Jinnah was, of course. It was all in fun.

My memory of the first sign that something was amiss is kind of dim, but it fits with the newly unearthed timeline. I now know that on that day, I had Miss Conover's Literature class from 8:30 to 9:15. It was somewhere during that time -- presumably after 8:46, when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center -- when the history teacher next door, Mrs. Albert, came in and said something to Miss Conover that she didn't want the class to hear. Now knowing that this must have happened within a half an hour of the first attack, I wondered how Mrs. Albert would have known so quickly, especially if she was teaching a class at the time. Then I remembered that she used to play the radio while her students were working. Or I think she did, anyway, if only for her own entertainment. It would make sense that she heard about it on the radio.

From 9:15 to 10:00 was P.E. I don't really remember anything that happened during those 45 minutes, so I can assume that nobody in the class found anything out at that time. The coach might have known, but we students didn't.

From 10:00 to 10:45 was Mrs. Ferruggia's Religion class. That's when a younger student or two came in with the news. If there were two (I don't really remember, but there probably were), then one of them said "Mrs. So-and-So wanted you to know that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center," or something to that effect. I thought it was just a small plane and that it was just a minor accident, but Mrs. Ferruggia got particularly worried. South Florida is the sixth borough, after all, and everyone who isn't from New York at least knows someone who lives there. Mrs. Ferruggia was no exception; she told us that her daughter was in New York or the surrounding area. She got out her cell phone to call her daughter, and the classroom went abuzz with rumors of other attacks. I don't know where they got the idea that the White House and the Capitol were bombed, but I remember hearing that.

Not long after that, my class and the other seventh grade were taken to the library to watch CNN on their relatively big TV. I distinctly remember seeing smoke billowing from the towers (or the remaining tower, I suppose), so we must have been there by 10:28 to see the other building fall. I seem to remember seeing that view of the dust and debris closing in on a street with people running away. It was very stressing, to put it mildly. No one knew what was going to happen next. The lady was going on about the whole thing, and then there was the Pentagon and the other plane that crashed in a field for some reason that we might not yet have known. I kept saying, "We're all going to die." I also remembered that on September 11, 1962, The Beatles recorded their first single, "Love Me Do," the more common version with the session drummer. Your mind tends to go in strange directions when the world suddenly falls apart.

We stayed in the library through the next period (10:45-11:30) which, for my class, was supposed to be Math. Then we went to lunch. My copy of the schedule has a 15-minute gap between that period and lunch for some reason. I'm fairly positive that the period ended at 11:30 and that we went to lunch right then rather than doing nothing for 15 minutes.

After lunch, from 12:20 to 1:05, was Social Studies with Mrs. Albert. I don't remember anything about that period, except that that was probably when she made the remark that September 11, 2001, would be our generation's December 7, 1941, or November 22, 1963. I believe she was the first one to say that. She was right, of course, but anyone could have turned on the TV and come to the same conclusion.

Next, from 1:05 to 1:50, was English with Miss Bryant. I remember that we didn't do any work that day. She had the TV on, and they were talking about President Bush being at an Air Force base in Louisiana. That was when my friend Sean and I began coping the best way we knew how: by drawing. Sean did a drawing of two people standing in front of the Pentagon with a chunk missing from one side. One of the people says, "How many sides does it have now?" As for me, I drew a child at a dinner table saying, "Mommy, daddy, today at school we saw this awesome movie where two planes turned the World Trade Center into dust, and another crashed into the Pentagon, and a wall collapsed and caught fire, and all flights in America were cancelled and the entire world was at a huge standstill!" Then the dad says, "That was no movie, son, that was the TV news." Underneath that, I wrote: "September 11, 2001: A day that will forever live in infamy." I glued my cartoon underneath Sean's, and on that paper he wrote, "Political Cartoons, Bombing of the US by the Middle East, September 11, 2001."

That's all I remember about that day at school. I have a false memory of seeing the attacks unfold in Science class, but that's based on my sister's (or someone else's) personal retelling of the day. Besides, I had Science in the afternoon.

Toward the beginning of 7th grade, my sister and I were going home with my sister's friend Kelli. We would do our homework and then swim in the pool. On that day, the TV was on, and because the attacks had ended, it was time for the talking heads to go on and on with speculation about the causes and far-reaching implications of the disaster. When my mom came to pick us up, I asked her if she had heard, and she said that she had. Everybody had heard.

That evening, the local newspaper sent out an extra section -- you know, as in, "Extra, extra, read all about it." I took a look at it. On the front page, it featured a large photo of the twin towers going up in smoke. My dad saved it, I think, and I haven't seen it since then.

That's the last thing I remember of that horrible day, but it's enough to remember. And the whole thing raises an interesting question: when such a serious event occurs, when and how do you tell the kids? Do you go out and say it? Do you couch it in soft language? Do you let them see the news coverage? A lot of teachers and parents had to make those tough decisions, and it influenced how we kids had our first impression of the attacks. I, personally, am amazed that I got to be a sort of witness to history. After all, some of the other teachers at school didn't turn on their TVs, and the seventh grades were the only classes watching TV in the library. It was a unique experience -- and one that I hope will remain unique forever.

How did you first hear about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001? Where were you and what were you doing? What was your initial reaction? How did you feel after that? Post a comment and let us know.

Here's a photo essay featuring some rare scenes from 9/11.

One year ago: "Instead I was standing against a bookshelf, next to some of my friends, and behind my other classmates, thinking that we were all going to die."
Two years ago: "Apparently you can't have fun on that date any more."
Three years ago: "I'm not usually the type to say stuff like this, but it was something we will never and can never forget."

Do, a deer, a female deer...

Yesterday I auditioned for the school's variety show. (I don't know why they don't call it a talent show. That's what it is.) I was in the variety show two years ago, but luckily, I didn't have to audition then; I was called in as a replacement guitarist a week before the show.

Anyway, a little while ago, I gave Gilbert a recording of a song I wrote, and he liked it a lot, so I asked him if he would play it with me in the variety show. (After all, when people saw me in the variety show two years ago, they kept telling me that I should be in it again.) I also tried to convince Justin to audition, but he wasn't really sure what he could do.

So yesterday, after a pep rally (which, nostalgically, was the first one we've had in the gym since freshman year; even though it dragged on a bit, there were some funny antics that made it interesting. For example, Curtis -- yes, the same Curtis mentioned in a few old posts -- somehow got a hold of a bullhorn and was using it to start chants like "Freshmen go home!" Then he ran to another section of the stands, but it wasn't long before an administrator found him and took a hold of the bullhorn), Gilbert and I headed to the auditorium for the audition (but only after Gilbert, who was leading the way, forgot where the exits in the gym were -- we haven't really been there since freshman year, you have to remember -- and he accidentally led us into the locker room where the cheerleaders were changing. Whoops! But [un]fortunately, we were out of there quickly).

For the fourth and last day of auditions, there were a lot of people there. In fact, Justin showed up and decided to audition to be the MC. But as in any talent show, most of the acts were musical, so I got kind of nervous about not being good enough. Since I had some time to kill before I would have a ride home, I decided to wait until almost the very end to go up and play.

We didn't do the whole song because there was only so much time, but the teacher in charge of the show said that she liked it. But she (and some other teacher who was with her) said that I had some trouble hitting the high notes, which is probably true. They suggested that I either get a voice coach or sing the offending lines a whole octave lower. I wasn't willing to do either of those things, but later it occurred to me that I could probably play the song in a lower key if I had to. Or maybe I just faltered because I was nervous and because I had strained my voice at the pep rally. But whatever the cause and solution, Gilbert and I are in the show.

In other news, today was my first day back at my old job. It was office work as usual, but this time, a number of things were different. The big thing, really, was that my sister was working with me. There were some new faces there, and some old ones were gone. The place had been also been remodeled, or at least rearranged and painted.

The great thing about working there is that the boss is a friend of the family -- that's how I got the job, in fact. We used to be neighbors, so when he read in the local paper that I was doing this blagging thing on the Internets, that's when he talked to me about giving me a job. I would see his daughter, Briana, in the office every once in a while, and my sister and I were pleased to find today that she was still working there. We got to catch up on things. We go way back, after all.

I used to work there for four hours a week, on Fridays only, so I expected that working seven and a half hours a week on Fridays only would be a bigger bore. Not to say that working was boring, but sometimes those four hours would pass like a snail on... well, anywhere a snail might happen to be. So I was surprised when the seven and a half hours passed quickly. I guess it's because I had a lot of work to keep me busy, and probably the novelty of going back to work kept things relatively exciting.

I wonder how much I'm getting paid...

And now for some Ask Jordon that's completely different.

natasha: If you had to choose a quote from each of the Overheard websites, which would be your favorite and why?

The quotations from Overheard in New York, Overheard in the Office, and Overheard at the Beach are all pretty funny, but only one quotation from any of the sites stands out in my mind, and that is this one.

>From Canada :) : How does it feel to live in a place without snow?

As someone who's never seen snow, you might expect my answer to be something along the lines of, "I don't know." But actually, it does feel a little weird to have a green Christmas. I blame the North's influence on American culture, or maybe it's just the fact that it snows nearly everywhere except Florida.

If you must surf the web at work, check out Is It Friday? and, in a similar vein, Is it 5:30?

One year ago: "I've been thinking, as I am apt to do, and I think our language is illogical."
Two years ago: "I received three responses. Not bad, methinks."