Name the Laptop
Today was the sixth to last day of school.
Yesterday was senior ditch day, and, of course, being a nerd, I was there for a few reasons, among which:
- I find the concept unappealing, because it's a waste of time considering that we have no more homework and are about to leave school.
- You have nothing to show for it when you're done.
- I wanted to try out for class speaker, and they wouldn't let you if you weren't at school.
Anyway, it was fun because, being one of the only seniors there, I didn't do anything. Mr. Bodel ended his year-long attendance record, but, in true Bodel form, refused to cancel class. We had coach Mac, so I took a nap.
We saw presentations in English, Emily and Alex both did work that was way too good for the assignment. Emily read a piece that I particularly enjoyed about the simple pleasures she enjoys, and I would like to post it if she'll let me.
In English with Swanson, which remains my favorite class, we did all of nothing, and watched my graduation video. I sent my beta copy of the DVD to Anna so it would get there for her birthday (happy birthday), and forgot that I had done that, so I had to make a run for the AV room, where I played it on a Hi-8 Camera off of the source tape. It was fun watching it with a class so close to the Nerd Herd, and the laughs were bigger throughout.
In Gym, my class, Lifetime Sports with Roy, which is 99% Spazzes, Clutzes, and Fat Kids, challenged Mr. Reilly's Boys' Team Sports class, which is the class for people who enjoy Gym, to a game of softball. A word about Roy and Reilly. Mr. Roy is just a cool older guy, with a great sense of humor, who doesn't take his job or himself too seriously. Mr. Reilly rules over his class with an iron fist, forbidding profanity, yelling angrily at his students, and demanding that people take P.E. as seriously as he does. You can imagine how the game went. First off, Reilly let our entire class bat, and then ended his own team's batting at three strikes. Our first time through, we go four runs, one of which was actually mine. I am proud to report that I punished that softball, hitting it far and left into the outfield. But then they scored on their first two hitters, and it became clear that we were about to embarrass ourselves. So Mr. Roy started mocking them.From the fence, we heard Roy's triumphant cry: "REILLY'S KIDS ARE USING STEROIDS!!" and then, "HEY, ALEX! YOU MIGHT WANT TO WASH YOUR HANDS. I THINK YOU'VE GOT SOME SORT OF BUTTER ON THEM!"
Jeanne and I were among the only kids in International Relations, so we both took off. I microwaved some leftover Chinese food for lunch, found a quiet corner of the A.V. room, and listened to Jeanne's speech, which was very good. She said that she thought I would be a fun person to shadow for a day, and I was reminded of what a crap rule that 30 mile thing is.
Next was lunch, time for me to avoid doing anything again. I checked the FedEx package tracking website for the location of my new laptop. It was in California.
Science with Mr. J was a joke... I was the only senior there, so it was me and the three juniors who take that class. Zach was also at school for class speaker, and happened to be in the computer lab where Mr. J brought us to work, so we hung out for a period and wrote our speeches. He directed me to The Best Graduation Speech Ever, which is mandatory reading, online, at http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html.
Ninth Urban History with Loris followed basically the same storyline as fifth with her... five kids showed up, we all left after a few minutes. After school, I tried out for speaker, and then drove home and took a nap for a few hours, because I was still tired from prom. This week is a West Wing marathon on Bravo, so I watched that for a few hours, stared at the shipping info on FedEx which still told me that my laptop was in California, had a fun conversation with Meg about a paper she was writing (which is better than she thinks), and went to sleep for the night.
Early to school on Tuesday, where seniors straggled in after their wasted day of ditching.
The day was mostly uneventful, I rushed to edit my Urban History project, and in my haste to get that done, I forgot that we were starting our Model United Nations Simulation on a hypothetical India/Pakistan flare up, and that I was expected to be wearing a suit. I called home on the Media Center phone, and my Dad reluctantly agreed to bring me a suit and shirt from home, but he forgot one minor detail: To bring me the right suit. As a result, I wound up wearing my 14 year old brother's barmitzvah suit to the M.U.N. simulation. The National Security Adviser to the President of the United States has never looked more ridiculous, with ankles sticking out of pants and shirt sleeves sticking out my jacket. I may not have been as evil as Condi Rice, but I was certainly not dressed as well.
Around 1:00, I checked the shipping information again, and found that my laptop had made the long jump across the continent from Los Angeles to Northbrook, where it was "On truck, awaiting delivery." I liked the way that was phrased because it made it seem like the computer was waiting for me, and not the other way around.
The rest of the day was uneventful, except for when I called home at about 3:00 to check on my laptop, and my Dad told me that it had gotten there moments before. Now this was something.
As it turned out, I had no ride home, so I wound up taking a ride with Mrs. Papich to her place, and then Terri picked us up on her way to take Mrs. Papich and my Mom to Wicked, a musical downtown. The minute we pulled into my driveway, I ran inside, tore open the box, and pulled the laptop out of it's box. This was no easy task, as the laptop weighs in at about 7 pounds, with duel Pentium-4 desktop processors, a 7200rpm 80gig hard drive, a Radeon 9700 desktop card, 1 gig of RAM, and a 17-inch LCD.
Upon removing the laptop from it's packaging, I hit the power button, and found, to my surprise, the battery fully charged. It took about 30 seconds to boot up, and immediately upon asking my name, informed me that it had located the WiFi network in my house, and asked me if I wanted to connect. I spent the next few hours transferring my important files to my laptop, and left around 7:00 to film the Girls' Soccer game at Wolters Field. I took the laptop, went up to the top level of the press box, and watched Firefly in the corner of the screen while I started this blog. Then it was off to Meg's for the next few hours. I showed her my laptop, and then her cat Abe crawled into my backpack, and that was the end of that activity.
On the way home, I got stuck in front of a train, so I took out the laptop and continued writing this entry. So far, in the (roughly) 24 hours I have had this computer, I've written in from the following places:
- My Kitchen
- Wolter's Field Press Box
- My Math Class
- Joels' Van
Now, only one thing remains: what to name the laptop. Tar Gibbons appeals to me... bonus points if you catch the reference, but I also like Mersault. Anyone have a preference?