The days we will remember best

Graduation practice was yesterday at 8:00 in the morning, and when the principal said 8:00, he meant it. He was upset to see that hardly anybody was in this community college auditorium at the stroke of 8:00, but most people were there within a little while, including Mike, who gave me, Yamilee, and my sister a ride.

We practiced the processional, the recessional, and all the other -cessionals. The main issue was finding the order in which we would enter and exit the building. The top 10% of the class were seated in the front row, and the rest were behind us in alphabetical order. After that, they went over the procedures like walking across the stage to get the diploma (actually the diploma holder because they won't give you your diploma till you give your gown back). They also made efforts to pronounce everyone's name correctly.

At the end of the practice, they gave out our yearbooks, which I thought was unusual. In years past, they've sent the yearbook to the presses in the summer so that end-of-year events like prom and graduation could be included. The yearbook would then be distributed at the beginning of the next year. I guess they realize that it would be hard for some people to go back to the school to pick up their yearbook if they're far away in college. I guess it doesn't matter that that stuff isn't in the book. The yearbook is bigger than ever this year, and it's in full color for the first time. That almost makes up for the title: "Tornado Nights: The Ballad of the Golden Tornadoes."

After the practice, I had to stay to practice my salutatorian speech. Rebeca, the valedictorian, had told me that she hadn't finished her speech, so she went to the school to meet with an English teacher to help her write it. Meanwhile, back in this college auditorium, the speech teacher revised the class president's speech, removing references to east Asian immigrants and streaking. (I have no idea what the contexts were.) The principal told her that mentioning east Asian immigrants specifically would be pretty divisive for the audience, and he didn't want to bear the brunt of complaints. Later, he told me that my speech was good. When I delivered it to the empty auditorium, I had it down pretty well.

After that, I went to Clamsters for lunch with Nick, Mark, my sister, and some other people. Then we hung out at Mike's to play airsoft with Mike's brothers' guns. After a while, we had to get back home. We had to be back at the auditorium at 5:45 P.M. for graduation, and I did not want to be late.

We got back to the auditorium in time, and while my sister and I went into the back to meet with our classmates, my parents and grandparents (along with some of my sister's friends) took their seats. I assume that we had to be there at 5:45 so that even the people who were late would still be early; after all, the ceremony was supposed to start at 7:00. But it gave me a lot of time to meet with people and say hello. Since everyone was wearing a gold cap and gown, it was a little hard on the eyes.

Then we had to stand outside and line up for the processional. We were lined up there for what seemed like a really long time. At this time I could see that many of the teachers were there. They were wearing robes with their colleges' colors, and the length of their sleeves indicated their degree. As I was standing there, I couldn't remember the last time I had been that nervous. Mr. Oistacher, a teacher I didn't know very well, told me that UF, my future college, was a great school. The small talk comforted me a little.

We went in, and the valedictorian and I took our seats onstage. After the class president spoke and some important guests were introduced, an assistant principal introduced me. She mentioned The World of Stuff (I told you everyone knew about it) and the Beowulf movies. Anyway, I went up and delivered my speech. I didn't do so badly. The lights were really bright, though. Next the valedictorian spoke, and her speech was really good. When it came time for us to get our diplomas, we walked offstage. Some guys from the JROTC assisted the valedictorian and class president down the steps. Then a JROTC girl walked me down. It was kind of unexpected.

Then we went outside so that we could go onstage from the side. Since I was #2 in the class (that's what the salutatorian is), I graduated second. I got to walk across and shake hands with some people I didn't know. And then there was the picture with the principal handing me my diploma case. After that, I went back to my seat in the front and stood until everyone in the row was there. Then we could sit and watch everyone graduate. There were a lot of people I didn't know at all and had never seen in my life, but many of them I did know. Also, my hat was getting wobbly by that time.

Once everyone had walked the stage, the class president asked everyone to turn their tassels from the left to the right, which is apparently a traditional thing. Then, just before we exited, a couple of girls went up and sang the alma mater. Even though this came as a surprise to many people who didn't know we had an alma mater, and even though some of the lyrics were butchered in the program, and even though nobody really knew the tune except the people who were singing, we sang together anyway.

After exiting, I had to say goodbye and congratulations to as many people as I could recognize. I even saw someone I never would have expected to see: Ms. Bruton, whose Business Systems & Technology class I had first block on the first day of freshman year. She left the school a few years ago, which is why it was surprising to see her. I was so surprised that I can't even remember if I saw her first or if she saw me. I was all, "Ms. Bruton??" It's hard to believe that she was there in the beginning and also at the very end.

I handed in my gown and got to receive my actual diploma. Dr. Shipe gave it to me, and he knew who I was even though I've never had his class. I got to talk with some other people after that, including some underclassmen and graduates from last year who were nice enough to come. Then we went home.

Existentialism on prom night

Agh. I've been sick for the past few days. I don't get sick as often as I used to, but when I do, it lasts longer. I wasn't so bad at prom on Friday, but the illness seemed to peak yesterday when I felt like I had a temperature. Today I feel quite a bit better, though still not 100%. It looks like I'll be well in time for graduation, which is Tuesday.

Yes, prom was Friday night. I didn't have a date, but I tried to find one. I really did. Nobody wanted to go to prom, or they were already going with someone else, or they had a boyfriend who they weren't going to prom with. I thought prom was such a big thing. I've heard horror stories of girls' boyfriends not taking them to prom and having the experience (or lack of an experience) scar them for the rest of their lives. But I guess, for the people I asked, it's their loss rather than mine, if it is indeed a loss at all. I was fine with going solo, anyway. It's not like I'm not used to it.

I went over to Ed's place for the limo. He's only a few blocks away, so that was convenient. Besides Ed, Andrew was there with Allison, his date. A bunch of people were taking the pre-prom pictures: Ed's mom, Ed's sister, and Allison's sister. Andrew's mom was videotaping. But we were a sight to see. Well, not me in particular, but Ed and Andrew went all out. Andrew dressed like a Victorian dandy, complete with a bow tie, a top hat, a cane, gloves, and tails. Ed wore a green velvet suit with alligator shoes. Copying Andrew's idea of having a cane, he brought a wooden-type cane with a fake shrunken head on top.

We got into the limo, which was pretty nice. I had never been in a limo before. It was pretty roomy, considering there were only four of us in there and it would have been possible to squeeze in six. There was a bar with bottled water. There were neon lights, and there was an XM satellite radio receiver. We weren't sure what channels were available (my parents have an XM subscription, but I never tune in myself), so we just played whatever stations we could find. At one point, the song "Sharp Dressed Man" came on. It was very suitable for the occasion.

It wasn't long before the limo arrived at the Signature Grand, which apparently is a fancy place with bunch of ballrooms and stuff. We were early, so we hung around a bit and met with some people as they came in. By then I had realized that I hadn't gotten an actual prom ticket, only a receipt. Andrew explained that they had given out the tickets at the senior breakfast the day before. Where was I? I was probably just stuffing my face too much to listen. But luckily, the teacher taking tickets had a list of all of the ticket-purchasers, and I was listed as having bought, but not received, a ticket. So that turned out fine.

After a while, more people began to enter the ballroom, which was pretty fancy. There was even an ice sculpture saying "2007." It was good to see a lot of people I knew. Among them was Tyler, who, a week previously, had given me the scariest car ride of my life. Not surprisingly, he had gotten into an accident on the way to prom. After some mixing and mingling, they started to serve dinner, and everyone was seated. Salad came first, of course, followed by the main course of chicken parmesan (which was introduced with "Also Sprach Zarathustra"). The food was actually good, by the way, and since no one was sitting next to me, I got to have an extra salad. And then, the dancing began.

The music was varied, unlike at homecoming, and the dance floor was much bigger, meaning that I might get sucked into the whole dancing thing eventually. But for a while, I just sat. Tomás, who had sat at my table, was out on the dance floor while his date sat a couple of seats away from me. We were among the few who weren't dancing. Her name was Julia, and she said that she worked with Tomás, so she figured that dancing with him would be kind of awkward. So we chatted it up quite a bit. I enjoyed it.

At one point, Allison told me and Andrew that she had heard in the bathroom that Jannike had been dumped by her date (boyfriend?). Allison suggested catching some rebound action or something like that. I wasn't so sure, but I thought it would be nice to dance with her. I didn't act on it, partly because I didn't know where the bathrooms were, and that's where I would have expected to find her. But later, Jannike was walking by my table and came up to me. She seemed very cheery, like nothing was wrong. She took a picture of me and her, which was nice. Then she went on her way.

Finally, it was time to announce the prom king and queen. Ed and Andrew had both run for prom king, so I figured it would be Ed because he seems to be more popular. As for prom queen, I voted for Kristen N. because she asked me to, but I figured that Michy would win because she's pretty popular and well-liked. After all, it is just one big popularity contest, isn't it? Anyway, the prom king turned out to be this guy named Jordan King. I met him once, last year, and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. The prom queen turned out to be Chandi, whom I've known since freshman year. As is custom, the king and queen shared a slow dance, and then everyone else was allowed to join them.

I longed for the days of junior high when I could slow dance with any girl I chose -- not because I was particularly fetching but because most of the girls weren't tied down with boyfriends at that age. This was, as I saw it, a rare opportunity to dance with a nice girl who now did not have a date and might have gotten lonely. I suavely slunk over to Jannike's table, found myself a seat next to her, and asked her to dance. She agreed, and we went to the dance floor, where we assumed the standard slow-dancing position (girl's arms around guy's neck, guy's arms around girl's waist) and began to dance. We talked, and she explained that she had just gotten dumped. Nearby, Chandi, who was still riding the high of being elected prom queen, shouted, "Grab her ass!" Her boyfriend added, "I would." "I know you would," was the best I could come up with. For what it's worth, I did not engage in any ass-grabbery.

The song ended too soon, and a fast one began. I was caught totally unawares and felt like I had been put on the spot, especially since I never do any dancing other than slow dancing. But I decided to go with it. Since I was feeling pretty good, I decided do do something silly and "warm up" by giving my arms and legs a good stretch. She got a kick out of that. Then I just started moving my body to the music. About a second later, Jannike said she had to leave, so we went our separate ways. I returned to my table, where I talked to Julia some more. She was really nice, and she sat out the songs that she didn't feel were danceable enough. She did dance some of the time, though, because she wasn't at the table the whole time.

During a fast song, Allison came over to my table and pulled me into the action. So I did what any normal person would do: I danced. I didn't know any of the moves, and I was just making them up, which is I guess is sort of what you do. I had never really, truly danced before, and now here I was at prom, dancing and dancing and dancing. Actually, I got tired pretty quickly when I remembered that dancing is kind of like exercise, which is something I never do. After a couple of songs, I had to sit down. But it felt good, and I noticed that after dancing, my cold symptoms momentarily went away. I did return several times for some more dancing with my friends before the night ended. I'm glad I got the resolve to go up and dance -- or, rather, I'm glad my friends made me dance, because it really made prom more enjoyable. Who wants to sit out all the time? Not me.

On the way back from prom, Ed, Andrew, Allison, and I were joined by Tyler's girlfriend, whose mom didn't trust her to ride with Tyler after his accident (or, probably, ever). There were post-prom festivities awaiting us at Ed's, but since I had told my parents I'd be ready to go home at 1:00, I had to skip out on them. I was pretty tired, anyway, and I feared that my coldlike symptoms were getting worse. I went to bed immediately, though reflecting on all of the evening's excitement made it hard to sleep.

Listen to The Most Excruciatingly Painful, Yet Typical, Customer Service Call Ever.

Learn how to say "My hovercraft is full of eels" in over 50 lanugages. Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj!

Breakfast

Yesterday was the senior breakfast. Apparently it's a tradition at many schools for seniors to have a breakfast before graduating? Anyway, it was at 9:00 in the morning, which might sound pretty early but was actually nice, considering that school starts (started) at 7. It was interesting to go back to school because the transition from student to former student felt immediate. The underclassmen remaining in the classrooms now felt not like "us" but like "them."

The breakfast was in the school cafeteria, and a lot of the seniors were there. In fact, maybe even all of them were there. The first thing to do besides catch up with everybody was eat. And that I did. They had your typical breakfast fare: scrambled eggs, pancakes with syrup, fruit, grits (eww), cheese grits (better), bacon, and croissants. I love a good breakfast, so I made sure that I could enjoy it. Everything else would have to wait.

While we were eating, some people hung up a gigantic poster with a picture of a starving African child and a photo of the aftermath of Tuesday's food fight. In bold were the words: "WHEN THERE IS THIS... WHY THIS?" I thought it was funny simply because it was ridiculous (and in questionable taste). I mean, that kind of reaction is exactly the kind of thing you'd see in TV, not real life. I wonder how they printed the poster, anyway. I didn't get a close look, but it seemed very professional.

After eating two plates of food, I got my cap and gown, which they were giving out to everybody. (I got mine from Mrs. Mackey, my English teacher from last semester, who said she saw this site and thought it was good. The word is, as they say, out.) Our caps and gowns were gold, which doesn't look as bad as it sounds. Gold is one of our school colors (along with blue), and it seems classic. I don't know if it is, but it seems that way. (Incidentally, my friends at Cardinal Gibbons High School graduated in their school colors, the boys wearing red and the girls, white.)

Soon it was time to announce the valedictorian and the salutatorian. They started with the salutatorian, as if the valedictorian was going to be a big surprise. The salutatorian, with a GPA of 4.7615, was... Mr. Jordon Kalilich! The cafeteria erupted with applause that wouldn't stop. I stood up because some people were yelling at me to stand up. The cheering continued, and I turned around so everyone could see me. After being on the spot for a few long seconds, I sat down. The valedictorian was, as expected, Rebeca. Her GPA was around 4.8. I think people didn't clap as much?

I really wasn't sure whether I was going to be salutatorian because it seemed like a toss-up between me (the longtime #3) and Amanda (the longtime #2). I passed Amanda in the rankings recently, but I wasn't sure if it would last since Amanda was taking more advanced classes than I was. I guess she doesn't mind because she really didn't want to write a speech. Of the top 5 in the class (the people who were asked to write speeches in case they were valedictorian or salutatorian), I think I was the only one who wanted to write a speech.

And since I was salutatorian, I had some more work to do. After collecting the cords I would be wearing at graduation, I went to the guidance department to submit a form that would be sent to the local newspaper so they could publish my info along with valedictorians and salutatorians from other schools. Then I had to go to Ms. Scott's room; she's the English teacher who writes the introductions for the "val" and "sal" that they read at graduation. After that, I went to Ms. Petonick's room and deliver my speech to her speech class. It was the first time I had read it aloud, and they were impressed.

I was wandering around campus a lot to do that stuff, and it did take a while. While the students were changing classes, I ran into a number of my underclassman friends. Their main question for me was "What are you doing here?" I told them about the senior breakfast. They were generally jealous or sad that I had left. Gabby hugged me for the 5,000th to 5,215th times. Ivan was still frustrated that he had to spend another week in Mr. Marchand's class. Sarlé hugged me so hard that I thought I was going to suffocate. Kenny said that I should hang out with the guys after school; I wish I did.

Tonight is prom. I don't have a date, but that doesn't mean I didn't try to find one. On the contrary, I devoted a couple of weeks to the search. I couldn't actually find any female friend or acquaintance who was single and wanted to go to prom. I even offered to pay for their ticket, but for some people (like me), dances and things are pretty boring. I hope prom will be better. And luckily, I did get a ride in a limo -- Ed's, to be exact. The legendary Ed lives nearby, so once I get ready, I'll be at his place in no time. I think Andrew will be there too, and probably a bunch of other people. And then we'll be off...

Here's a look at some of the factors that cause us to form and change our political opinions.

From Wired: Lamest Technology Mascots Ever.

Last day of high school

Yesterday was the second-to-last day of high school. The seniors get out a week before everyone else, so senior final exams kind interrupt everyone else's classes (or vice versa). Yesterday's schedule was first and second block classes (as usual) and third and fourth block exams.

In third block (physics), Mr. Marchand explained the concept of resistors in series and in parallel. Then he explained how to find the resistance of a circuit with resistors in series and in parallel. For the seniors in the class, the final exam was to get into groups, make circuits, and use those formulas to predict their resistance. Our predictions were right. I think we got an A.

In fourth block (Programming III), we actually had a test, and it had some tricky questions. I think I did okay on it, though. After that, Mr. Mumtaz took a picture of the class for his web site. It's something new he's doing this semester. I guess it's because he loves us so much.

But the highlight of yesterday was what happened at lunch. I was standing outside the cafeteria near my usual eating spot, and all of a sudden, people starting bursting out of the cafeteria while others were running in. It looked almost, but not exactly, like a fight was breaking out somewhere. I went forward to look, and Justin ran past me, shouting, "Food fight!" I had actually heard a while ago that there was going to be a food fight, but I forgot about it. I got closer to the cafeteria, and it was pretty much over by then. You could just see a mess on the floor.

A short while later, people were flocking in droves toward the auditorium. Even though I knew that this hadn't ever happened before, I was certain that it was going to be the principal and/or administrators scolding everyone in "A" lunch for starting this food fight that a few people started. I was right. The auditorium was packed beyond capacity while the principal furiously told us about how there are children starving in Africa who wouldn't throw food, how there was a food fight at our rival school last week that required helicopters and mounted police to put under control, how it had better not be the baseball team responsible for this because of all the coach has done for you guys, how he would start enforcing every rule in the book (no "iPods, ePods, aPods, anyPods"), and how any of the perpetrators of the food fight would be suspended for school from 10 days, which would carry over into next school year because there are fewer than 10 days of school left. He was later heard to say over the PA system that he would find a place other than this school for troublemakers (the implication being prison). Don't get me wrong; the principal is a swell guy as long as you don't throw food in his cafeteria. That's understandable.

Accounts of the fight spread like wildfire. The more-or-less standard version is that members of the baseball team did in fact start the fight, a fact corroborated by eyewitnesses accounts of one member (a senior) being led away in handcuffs. In the fight, which didn't last long, several school administrators allegedly got hit with food, and the walls didn't fare so well either. A juice box grazed Justin's neck. Mark looked like he swam in a buffet, and he may or may not have actively participated in the fight.

After school, Ms. Petonick, the speech teacher, offered a few corrections for my speech which I'll deliver at graduation if I'm valedictorian or salutatorian. She said it was really good. She also said that she had heard about my web site, the one that you are reading right now. I asked what she had heard about it, and from whom. She said that Ms. Castro, an assistant principal, mentioned it. Apparently Ms. Castro was captured by an insightful description of Mr. Bell, the old principal. I don't remember writing that. At all.

And today was the last day of high school. As I walked in for the last time, I could see the me of four years ago entering the old campus for the first day of freshman year. I imagined the old me superimposed over myself, both of us taking that nervous walk together, one for the first time, the other for the last. I met with Megan, TJ, and Luke, as usual. Michelle wasn't there because it was a Jewish holiday. She had a hard time convincing the administration that she had to stay home from school today. She might still be having a hard time. I don't know. Justin's girlfriend Susann passed by and hugged me a few times, and then she hugged Luke. She was crying. We didn't know each other that well, but she was still very distraught.

The bell rang. There were only two classes today for the seniors, and then we would be done high school. First was first block, where we had our first block exam. I was a teacher's aide first block, so I just answered whatever questions they gave me that constituted my exam and an automatic "A." After that, I got kind of bored. Mr. Mumtaz took a picture of his class, which I was also in. Later, I helped him photoshop Kenny's extended middle finger out of the programming competition team photo, which is going to be in the yearbook (which, I think, goes to press in the summer). Now it looks like he's making a fist. No one will be able to tell at that small size and in black-and-white.

Then Mr. Mumtaz gave me his car keys and asked me to get something from his car, as he'd done several times before. It's easy to find because he's got a custom tag: "MUMTAZ." As I was walking out, I passed my sister, who was standing outside her pottery class. Further ahead was the teacher parking lot, which is where the old school buildings used to be. I couldn't help but notice that these cars were parked where I had spent my first day of high school, and now, the old buildings were gone, and here I was on the very last day, on a nice morning, getting something from Mr. Mumtaz's car. I got back to class in time for the morning TV announcements. The principal made another speech about how we shouldn't start food fights.

Then the bell rang, and it was second block -- my last class of high school. Rather than walking hurriedly, I assumed a leisurely pace, knowing that this would be the last time I would walk through the hustle and bustle of the halls. At last, I made it to the classroom: Mr. Gates's class. It was AP Calculus BC, the only class where I actually had an exam that I needed to study for. I entered the room. Emotions were running high. I talked to Luke, who was in my class at the very beginning of the first day of high school. I wouldn't make friends with him for another two years, but there you go.

We had both had Ms. Bruton's Business Systems and Technology Class. It seemed dark outside, and the artificial light in the computer lab was oppressive. The room was cold, or I was just shivering because I was nervous. I saw this kid who later turned out to be Luke and thought, Hey, at least someone's more nervous than me. The teacher introduced herself. We introduced ourselves, and I saw a girl who made me think, Maybe high school won't be so bad after all. Mr. Bell, the former principal, made a welcoming announcement over the PA. That was the first year, the first day, the first class.

Now here we were: the last year, the last day, the last class. I asked Luke if he remembered that fateful first period. He said kind of. Some people said that we seniors would be dismissed at 10:40, before end of the block at 10:50. That's not good news if you're actually taking a test because you have ten fewer minutes. So we went ahead and got started on Mr. Gates's final while the underclassmen in the class did some other work. The test was pretty hard; I knew some of the stuff, but I had to make more guesses than usual. I was going to run out of time, so I made those guesses than I needed to make, and I handed in my test. As 10:40 rolled around, we seniors were standing up. There was no bell to release the seniors, but someone said they heard seniors leaving their classes out in the hallway.

Mr. Gates gave us some parting words and said that he'd be at our graduation. He also gave me and TJ passes to the Guidance office. I wasn't sure what that was about, but we left Mr. Gates's room, and that was the end of high school. We went downstairs. There wasn't a lot of excitement outside, probably because they were trying to prevent another "incident" like yesterday's food fight. Lots of people were just smiling, and that's all I could do myself.

TJ (#4) and I (#2) went to Guidance, where we met with Rebeca (#1) and were given some forms to fill out in case we were valedictorian or salutatorian (which we should find out tomorrow). Two of the forms would be sent to newspapers that publish that sort of thing at the end of every school year. The other was for Ms. Scott, one of the English teachers; you have to describe yourself so she'll know how to introduce you and your speech at graduation.

After that, my sister's friend Lisa picked up me, my sister, and Yamilee, and we went home.

As I have in years past, I'd like to say thank you to my existing friends that I've had throughout this school year: Alberto, Amanda, Andrew, Brian, Dan, Ed, Justin, Kelsey, Kevin, Kristen B., Gabby, Gilbert, Lisa, Luke, Mandi, Mark, Megan, Michelle, Mike, Nacole, Natalie, Nick, Omar, Sean, Sivan, Susann, TJ B., TJ S., Tyler, and Yamilee. I'd also like to thank the people I've gotten to know better over the course of this year: Atar, Baba, Danae, Hillary, Ivan, Jason, Joe, Kenny, Kristen N., Laine, Marcella, Matt, Meghan, Natasha, Sarle, Tanner, and Val.

It's not quite over yet. Tomorrow is the senior breakfast (at -- sigh -- school), Friday is prom, and Tuesday is graduation. In less than a week, all that will have passed, and I'll officially be a high-school graduate.

Awards and fun

Thursday night was the senior class award ceremony. Now, the underclassman awards are great, but the senior awards are considered more important. For one thing, they take place in the evening, while the underclassman awards are during school. That means they're definitely more important. They're also, it turns out, fiendishly long for reasons I'll get into in a moment.

Most of the seniors were there. If you were going to get an award, then you were there. Unless, of course, you were at the football game that was going on at the same time. Apparently there are football games in the spring? The marching band was all there, as were some other people who were apparently more interested in watching the game than picking up an award.

I got into the auditorium, and it seemed like a lot of people were there. Maybe a lot of people weren't there; I didn't really notice. After not long, the show started, and I had a look at the program. The bulk of the award ceremony would be the awarding of scholarships that students had applied for. As I went down the list (and it was a long list), I couldn't help but notice that I hadn't applied for any of these scholarships except one, and I knew that I didn't get the one I applied for. So it seemed that, during most of the ceremony, I would be sitting in my seat and applauding other people for winning scholarships I hadn't heard of or wasn't eligible for in the first place.

(During the ceremony, I found out [thanks to word of mouth and the miracle of text messaging] that there were streakers at the football game. I later found out who they were... or did I? I won't incriminate them here, but once I found out who they were, it was very, very funny.)

The school itself was also going to award several scholarships, all of which were new for this year. They were named after Mr. Laguerre, Mr. Allstaedt, Jonathan Krix, and Chalon Keen, all of whom were students or teachers who had died within the past two years. I didn't hear much about the ones named after the teachers, and for the Krix & Keen scholarship you had to write an essay about you had overcome some terrible hardship. I couldn't think of anything that would gain anyone's sympathy, so I left that on alone.

It came time for this guy from Office Depot to announce the winners of the Allstaedt and Laguerre scholarships, which his company had sponsored. The winners were David Paul and Jordan Ksomethingsomething. In slow motion, my mind was rationalizing. Who, me? How many other Jordons/Jordans were there? I could think of several. Jordan Peters? Jordon Feldman? Jordan King? None of them fit. Jordan Peters isn't even a senior anyway. It had to be me. I stood up, completely surprised. I went up to the stage incredulously. I got the Jeff Laguerre Social Studies Scholarship. It was a check for $800, plus a gift card for Office Depot.

I won a scholarship that I didn't even apply for... and in social studies, no less. I would have expected to get the Allstaedt scholarship, which was for math. Supposedly they had asked the social studies teachers to decide which senior was most worthy of getting the scholarship -- that's what I think I heard, at least. Three of them have taught me, and I didn't seem to stand out particularly in two of their classes, although I did get good grades. Oh well. I'm just glad I got a scholarship, for whatever amount it may be.

The second part of the award ceremony was related to classes rather than scholarships, so this was the time for the best students in each class to be awarded. I got awards for English IV Honors, Physics Honors, Programming (presumably Programming III), Top 10%, Perfect Attendance, and National Merit Semifinalist or whatever that thing was that I heard about a year ago and never heard anything else about again. Luke and I were the only ones to get perfect attendance, which isn't as surprising as it should have been. Most people have been afflicted with "senioritis" at one time or another, after all. When presenting the perfect attendance award, the prinicpal quipped that he'd take Luke and me out to breakfast on Monday. At least, I think he was quipping. It wasn't a very funny joke?

Oh yeah, the whole thing was about two and a half hours long, maybe even longer. I told you it was long. It was because of all of the scholarships.

On Friday night, my friend Andrew had another one of his birthday parties at the local drive-in, like last year and the year before. We met at Panera Bread, and Tyler drove Andrew, Alberto, Justin, and I to the drive-in. I had never ridden with Tyler before, and I'm kind of glad that I probably never will again. We saw Spider-Man 3, which I liked. Not that many people showed up this year, but there was a high fun-to-people ratio. After the movie, Tyler dropped off Alberto and perilously drove us to Denny's, peeling out into the parking lot. He left us after that because he was banned from entering the restaurant. There, Ed (yes, that Ed) joined us, and we calmed our nerves with a little food. Then we counted down the seconds till midnight, which legally marked Andrew's 18th birthday. It was a blast. I'll really miss those guys.

These photos are probably really embarrassing... if you're George W. Bush. They're 15 embarrassing photos of George W. Bush.

From History Magazine, which I've never heard of, here's an article about the evolution of mealtimes.

Tech-no-lo-gy™

From the Possibly-Being-Salutatorian Dept.: I met with the speech teacher on Wednesday, and she explained to me the basics of writing a graduation speech. It's got to run for a few good minutes, during which I should talk about the things that have happened to our class in such a way that everyone in the audience can identify with. Or something like that. I've written a couple of sentences so far, so I'm going to need some more time to refine things. I'm supposed to meet with the teacher again on Monday for her to revise the speech and give me some pointers on public speaking. On Thursday, we find out who the valedictorian and salutatorian will be, and those lucky kids will then deliver their speeches to the speech teacher's class. Till then, I've got some writing to do.

Last week, Mr. Mumtaz told me that he was going to submit his web site as a GLIDES project. GLIDES (Global Learning Initiative through Digital Education for Students) is a program that some of the teachers at school participate in. It's a semester-long project in which a class addresses a central question related to their curriculum by making videos and stuff with Apple® products. So it was kind of a shock that Mr. Mumtaz would decide that his web site that he uses to teach his classes would make a good GLIDES (sponsored by Apple®) project. Most of the students aren't really involved in the creation of the site, although Mr. Mumtaz has asked me to proofread things a few times.

Thursday was GLIDES (sponsored by Apple®) day. In the afternoon, Mr. Mumtaz gathered the students he had chosen to explain the web site and how it involved technology and stuff. Kenny, Gilbert, Kortney, Amanda, and I were each asked to speak for a few minutes about an aspect of the site and how it tied into the classes Mr. Mumtaz taught. Gilbert wrote my speech for me, and he and Kenny decided to ad lib. Eventually, the time for the presentations came, and the auditorium was filled with... mostly students, but also teachers from other schools and maybe the occasional school-board hot-shot. First, someone came up and thanked Apple® for their involvement. Each class had about two people explaining their project briefly in a tightly scripted speech. Yes, tightly scripted and heavily rehearsed. As Mr. Mumtaz would say, we were in Barney Rubble. (Don't know how he picked that one up.)

Anyway, it seemed that we were going to be onstage for much too long explaining this web site that didn't even seem to have the makings of a GLIDES (sponsored by Apple®) project. We spoke pretty nervously onstage, it seemed, but we didn't falter much, even though I took most of what Kenny was going to say in my speech that Gilbert wrote for me. When we had finished talking about the web site to the audience, it was announced that the school was on lockdown due to a chemical spill or something nearby. After a couple of minutes, the lockdown was over, and everyone in the auditorium proceeded to the library, where people's GLIDES (sponsored by Apple®) projects were available for viewing on Apple® Mac®s and Apple® iPod®s. Mr. Mumtaz's table was very small and hidden behind a bookshelf where no one could see. We didn't get many interested parties coming around to see the web site in action. My job was to play the Space Invaders clone I helped make in Programming class and explain to anyone who was interested that there was a tutorial on the web site that was of use to us when making the game (actually, I had written the tutorial that morning).

Thursday night was the senior awards. Stay tuned for the details on how that went.

Isn't it annoying how pictures of fast food never look like the real thing? Here are some comparisons. Fast Food: Ads vs. Reality.

Here are 10 fascinating facts about cigarettes.

But does it run Linux?

Recently my dad got us a new TV for the living room. We'd had our old TV since before I was born (the '80s!), so it was about time to upgrade. I don't watch TV much, but I appreciate this new 50-inch widescreen HDTV quite a bit. The picture quality is pretty good, although when you're watching lo-def channels, the low quality becomes very apparent on the ginormous screen. The only other real gripe I have is how the TV stretches the picture if the signal isn't widescreen. The effect can range from hardly detectable to headache-inducing. I would prefer to watch TV with "barn doors" on either side (like the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen when you watch a widescreen movie on an older TV). Luckily, though, you can toggle between display modes with a button, so that takes care of that.

When my dad was taking the TV out of the box (which is even bigger than the TV itself, if you can believe it), he had lots of manuals and documentation to deal with -- it is a Sony product, after all. What he didn't expect to see was a software license agreement, which he pointed out to me with amusement. After all, it's a sorry state of affairs in the world today when your TV comes with a EULA, right? I took a look and saw some familiar words. It was the GPL, which is not an evil (cumbersome, restrictive) software license at all. A silly thought entered the back of my mind, and I tried to ignore it. Looking further through the documentation, though, I was right: our new TV runs Linux.

What that basically means is that the TV isn't actually a TV at all but actually a computer. Like any computer, it uses an operating system. Rather than Windows, Mac OS, or something that the Sony developers might make from scratch in-house, the TV runs a modified version of Linux, which is the same OS I use on my computer. Sony decided it would be better to use an existing operating system as a base for this model of TV, and, because the GPL allows it, Sony doesn't have to worry about the legal ramifications as long as they distribute their modified code to anyone who wants it. You could try running Windows on a TV, but if you could even figure out how (the Windows source code isn't visible to the public), you'd have to pay licensing fees to Microsoft. (Plus, your TV would probably crash a lot.) Since Linux is free for anyone to use, it tends to be free in price, which is something important for any computer user to consider. So whether I'm kicking back and watching TV or doing whatever it is I do on the computer, I can be assured that Linux and other free software are making it possible, and that's really awesome.

Graduation is only two weeks from today, so I've started to think about what I might say if I were valedictorian or salutatorian and had to give a speech. After all, I am ranked #2 in the class, a position that I'm hoping I can keep. As it turns out, TJ and I got called down to the office today and were told by Ms. Phillips, an assistant principal, that since we were in the top 5 in the class, we would have to prepare a speech in the event that we graduate as "val" or "sal." (They have to look it over and everything, you know, to make sure that you don't say anything dumb at graduation.) I was also told that I would have to meet with Ms. Petonick, the speech teacher, for input on the speech and pointers on public speaking. Fun fun? TJ (#4) didn't seem amused, but I think it would be cool to be salutatorian.

After school today, Amanda (#3) and I found Ms. Petonick to talk to her about the whole thing. She had been expecting us but was busy, so we decided to meet after school tomorrow. She said she'd give us real speeches given by real valedictorians in the past, which should be useful because I can't really think of anything good to say. I had been nervous about having this teacher I'd never met criticize my speaking, but I was relieved because she seemed really nice and she kind of talks funny herself. Ironic? Oh well. Tomorrow should be interesting.

Contronyms, or antagonyms, are words that are their own opposites. For example, a house might weather (withstand) many storms over the years, or storms might weather (wear down) it.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has a standard for everything. ISO 5218 sets standard numerical values to represent human sexes (for example, in national ID numbers). From the article: "The standard explicitly states that no significance is to be placed on the fact that male is encoded as 1 and female as 2."

Up in smoke

Apparently, it's been very dry lately. I haven't really noticed much because it doesn't rain a lot this time of year. Or, rather, this is the time of year when it's starting to rain a lot. Normally. But I guess it's been unusually dry lately, so half of Florida is on fire. Seriously, look at this map.

Each red flame represents a fire. Luckily, there aren't many around here, but that's probably only because there are no forests to burn. But I'll tell you what there has been a lot of: wind. The wind has brought the smoke from all these wildfires down here. It's been smoky outside almost continuously since early this week. It's been hard to go outside sometimes. It's worse in the northern part of the state, where my aunt had to evacuate her house.

The smoke let up during the day on Thursday, which actually turned out to be kind of convenient. This year they started something new at school called the Class Wars. You know how, in the Harry Potter movies, the teacher asks a question and Hermione says the right answer, and the teacher's like, "10 points to Gryffindor"? It's kind of like that, except each class won points throughout the year for doing school-spirit related things like... I don't know what. Going to games, I think. I didn't earn any points for my class. But apparently we seniors got the most points by far throughout the year, so we won a field day.

It was Thursday afternoon and it was on the football field. I had been worried that it would be impossible to breathe, but the smoke cleared up that day, which is either fortunate or unfortunate. There was a bounce house, cotton candy (there was wind, much to the chagrin of the cotton-candy-makers), snow cones, a DJ, musical chairs (yeah), a dunk tank (that didn't work half the time), and "jousting" (actually, sparring with soft helmets and large foamy things on an inflatable ring). The only real excitement I found was catching the stray cotton candy that flew away in the wind, but even that got old after a while. The sun beat down and seemed to slow down time. The crowd, which had been small to begin with, thinned as people simply left school or went back to a class (not necessarily their own).

Eventually, I followed suit and went to Mr. Mumtaz's class, which is where I would have been. Of course, he was having a free day because much of the class was supposed to be at the field day, even though a lot of people (including people who weren't in his class to begin with) came back.

Here's Hamlet for the Shakespeare-impaired.

Apparently, potential bank robbers can be scared away by a smile. It sounds like it would be effective in practice, but it would be hard to train bank tellers to be cheery with a gun pointed in their face.

As seen on TV

Kenny, Tanner, Ivan, and I won second place in the programming competition, and Mr. Mumtaz, our programming teacher, had promised us some recognition on the school's morning TV announcements. I had never been on the show live before, so I thought it would be interesting. Plus, since nobody seemed to know that the programming competition existed, this would be our chance to let them know. But it turned out that we couldn't do it on Monday because there was no show. There was no show because there was AP testing in the library, which is right next to the TV studio.

There was, however, a show on Tuesday, and I was determined to go on, even though it meant I would have to miss part of a senior class meeting. We all brought our trophies and met Mr. Mumtaz at the door outside the TV Production studio. With him was Mr. Gordon, the principal. He congratulated us on our accomplishment, and then we all sneaked onto the set while they were on the air. It's a bit more cramped than I imagined it to be, but this is not CNN. Mr. Gordon told the camera that these fine students had won 2nd place at the programming competition, and then he had Mr. Mumtaz give our names. And that was that.

We slipped back outside the studio, and Mr. Gordon shook our hands once again. He was a intrigued by our unexpected almost-victory because he hadn't known that the competition existed. We told him how we were presented with problems to solve with computer programming. We also explained that we had to work as a team because the four of us could only use one computer. He was impressed. Later that day, in programming class, we had our photos taken for the yearbook -- my senior yearbook. My future kids are going to see that picture one day and find it amusing.

Today my AP Calculus class culminated with the AP Calculus test, which is what I've basically spent all year studying for. But it goes back further than that: I had already known for a long time that I was going to take calculus in high school, and I rose to the challenge of taking two years' worth of high-school calculus in one year. It all led up to this. And you know what? I think I did well. Some parts actually seemed... easy. I feel as though I was very well prepared, and I have Mr. Gates to thank for that. He had us work rigorously so that we would be very familiar the material. Mr. Gates didn't waste a second teaching us and drilling us. And tomorrow, in true Mr. Gates fashion, we're launching into new topics. I can't wait.

Wikipedia actually tells me some interesting facts about the AP Calculus exams. (There are two: the first level is called "Calculus AB," while the second level is "Calculus BC." I'm in a special AB/BC class, so I learned the material from both exams in one year and took the BC exam.) It turns out that the BC exam has the highest average score out of any AP exam (and there are many). Last year, 41.9% of test-takers got a score of 5, which is the highest possible on a scale of 1 to 5. Also, it seems that the AP Calculus exam has the distinction of being the only AP exam to figure centrally into the plot of a film: Stand and Deliver. What makes that more surprising is that I actually saw that movie and didn't know it was about AP Calculus. What makes that less surprising is that I saw the Spanish-dubbed version in Spanish class three years ago. No hablo español.

Anyway, I find out my score in July. Yeah, July. The free-response portion of the exam is graded by hand, so they actually have math teachers look at dozens of these things and grade them according a strict rubric. You can actually find out your score on July 1 if you want to shell out the money to hear it over the phone, but us working folk have to wait a few weeks to get our scores in the mail. I hope I get a 5.

You can save $101 a week by adhering to these 101 Ways to Save One Dollar a Week.

Wikipedia has a list of satellite map images with missing or unclear data which exist mainly because governments have asked satellite map providers like Google Maps to obscure sensitive areas. In the article, you can find out which country has not asked Google Maps to censor anything for fear of drawing attention to sensitive locations.

Heroes

Some schools achieve glory through athletic competitions, others through academic success. Nobody expects a group of nerds to be hailed as heroes at their school. Which is not to say that they can't accomplish some pretty cool things.

I woke up early yesterday for the countywide programming competition. I knew it was far away, so, to be safe, I decided to wake up extra early rather than just early. But, thanks to my deep-seated fear of alarm clocks (or, rather, alarm clock alarms), setting my alarm to wake me up extra early caused me to wake up super-extra early so that I wouldn't have to be jolted awake by the alarm. Trust me: I'd sleep in if I could. My mind decides it would rather not have me scared awake. It is, well, frightening. I was also a little worried that I wouldn't do well at this, my first programming competition. I tried not to think about how my school placed third the last time they were at the event, two years ago. (Last year, the team wimped out at the last minute and decided not to go.)

My dad took me all the way down to Cypress Bay High, where the competition was to take place. I saw that there were tons of cars parked there and wondered how that could be; the programming competition isn't that popular. Then I realized that they were having the SAT there, and things made a lot more sense. There were lots of signs saying where to go if you were taking the SAT, but none mentioned anything else. We asked a guy how to get to the programming competition, and he asked, "What kind of programming?" Another guy said to go to the library, and that looked like it was going to be where it was going to be, but no one was there yet except a few people from the school.

After a while, people started showing up and bringing their computers. I think there were 9 schools in all. Each school's team could have as many as four people, and each team could only use one computer. I had figured that each group would bring a laptop, but some brought desktops, including one with a CRT monitor (the big kind). After a while, our teacher, Mr. Mumtaz, came with his new laptop that we were going to use. Then, the rest of Pompano's team came: Ivan, Kenny, and Tanner (filling in for Gilbert). I gave each of them a "Hello, My Name Is" sticker with the HD-DVD processing key written on it, as per Kenny's previous half-joking suggestion. I figured it would be a morale booster because we knew we didn't have a chance of winning. Most of the other teams seemed to be using the C++ programming language, which would make them very efficient for the kinds of programs that we were expected to write. Mr. Mumtaz promised he'd buy us lunch if we won 1st place, but I knew he would do it no matter what.

As the time to begin drew near, we learned that we would have only two hours to perform a variety of tasks for points. It was basically impossible to do all of them in the allotted time, so we would have to choose which ones to do. We had already decided that Kenny and Tanner would start by collaborating on the 1-point programs, while Ivan and I would write down code or pseudocode for the 2- and 3-point programs so we could type them out on the computer later. We would be supervised by another school's teacher (we got Taravella's) who would judge each program as we finished it, giving us the points if they followed the format and returned the right results. No points were to be deducted for non-working programs, so we could show our judge the same program over and over again until it was creditworthy.

We began. Ivan and I combed through the more difficult ones, all of which seemed to involve math, while Kenny and Tanner started on the simpler ones, the easiest of which was simply to some words on the screen. After a while of writing out code, an hour had passed, and Ivan and I still hadn't used the computer. Eventually, Ivan got to use it, and at that point, none of the rest of us had anything to left to do. All of the programs had been typed out, debugged, and scored; planned out on paper; or pored over intensely and cast aside. I thought it was a good idea to try to relax before it became my turn on the computer. Eventually, it was my turn, so I started with the easiest 3-point program, a quadratic solver. For my next trick, I did a 2-pointer to calculate the cost of tires according to a given formula. We were running down to the wire, and I was hoping that I could simply adapt the tire program to a somewhat more complicated 3-point version given. But the seconds ticked down and I got more nervous with each keystroke. I never thought I'd break a sweat while programming.

And then, time was called. I didn't finish that 3-pointer. We ended with 18 or 19 points, which seemed like too few. There was a brief time during which the judges met to submit the teams' scores. During that time we heard some tales about the other programs. The group next to us had closed their laptop before the end of the competition, which meant to us that they were done; however, we learned that they had apparently given up. On the other side of us, a group using C++ had failed to bring some necessary libraries, so they couldn't do anything and got no points. But certainly, we knew, that of these 8 other teams, there were many who really knew what they were doing much better than we did. I knew my school wouldn't beat the 3rd place we had achieved two years ago, so I figured we would be 4th or 5th at best, if they were even going to give an award for that.

There were awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. They started with 3rd place first. We all knew that if we didn't get 3rd place, we weren't going to do any better than that. South Broward won 3rd place, and you could almost hear the collective internal sighs of our team. That was it for us.

In 2nd place was... Pompano High?! We walked up to get our trophies. I couldn't believe it, and nobody else could either. Second place! How? Why? It didn't matter. We had done it. We didn't think we could, but we did. We were proud of ourselves and amused by our fortune. Mr. Mumtaz was proud too. "I'll buy you lunch anyway," he said. We were so excited that we didn't find out much about the winners. I think the winning school was Cypress Bay, which also hosted the event. Ivan asked what programming language they used, and they said BASIC. Immediately, I thought of

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD"
20 GOTO 10

but I figured there must have been more to it than that. After all, we had also been using a version of BASIC, albeit a highly evolved one (Microsoft's Visual Basic .NET) whose number formatting functions saved us quite a few times when we needed to have numbers returned with specific formatting like comma separators or dollar signs. It also turned out that the winners scored 20 points, so if I had finished the last question, that 3-point program, we would have won. But it didn't bother me, and nobody blamed me for it. Instead, everybody blamed the clock. We had been really pressed for time, and we were glad just to win 2nd place when we would have considered ourselves lucky to get 3rd.

As promised, Mr. Mumtaz took us to Quiznos. Over lunch, he told us to bring our trophies to school on Monday so he could try to get us to appear live on the school's morning TV announcements. I doubt anyone will care, but it's nice to know that I was part of a group that surpassed all expectations and accomplished something.

Later that day I went with my dad and my grandpa to see the Air and Sea Show. It's got military stunt planes and things. I never really go to it because it costs a lot for parking and getting into the beach and buying water when you get thirsty. That's why there's another way: going by boat and watching offshore. It was such a nice afternoon to go boating. I was expecting them to put up the Bimini top, which is why I didn't put on sunscreen, but they never did, so I got a pretty nasty sunburn. I guess I should have said something. Oh well! At least now I know to put on sunscreen. And in a few days, I won't be all red and I'll be able to go outside without my arms hurting. But seriously, it was fun, and I realized that I'm really going to miss the beach when I move away.

Here's an interesting article from Nikon about the third eye.

Godchecker is your handy guide to every god ever worshipped.