So 2011 is almost at a close...
In 1977, I was a book nerd who signed up for the Scholastic Book thing... many of you remember it back in US grammar school. There was an onionskin paper catalog that had mostly reprints of popular kids books, with some posters, calendars, and sometimes toys tossed in. My mother made sure I got a lot of books, and I was the ONLY kid I knew who always had an order of more than 5 items per delivery. This was awesome, personally, but it gained me a lot of beatings because I was a "BOOK WORM." One year, it got so bad, my teacher gave me the order after school because she understood how hard it was.
NERD!
Anyway, in one of these packets I got a free "1977 Fact-a-day" calendars. It was a large unfolding poster that had a fact a day for each square. One of the things that this poster had was a goofy, "This calendar can be reused in 1983!" As a joke, they had a space where you could cross out "1977" and put in 1983, using some futuristic font.
I was such a nerd, I mathematically figured out that I could also use the calendar again in 1994, 2005, and 2011. I remember how proud I was at this discovery that calendars repeated. I showed this to my teacher and she said, "so what?" I was crushed. I won't name her name, because otherwise she was okay, but 1977 was the year I found out doing math for no reason was pointless. Thank goodness I was too stupid to remember this lesson. Also, in the back of my head, 1983, 1994, 2005, and 2011 were magically connected in some way. So this year ends an era started by some strange calendar I got as a kid. I guess I could also connect 2022, 2033, 2039, 2050 and so on, but enough is enough.
In 1977, the year 2011 seemed impossibly far away to be almost magical. "Man, I'll turn 43! I'll be older than my dad!" I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the future would be like. We'd have a base on the moon, that much I was certain of, because I mistakenly assumed we knew the value of establishing colonies in space and didn't know how the economy was militarily-driven. Cars would probably fly, because I knew nothing about stupid drivers and traffic mishaps. Part of me wishes I could go back in time and ask myself, "So... what will people eat? How will children's TV be different?" I would say nothing but my calendar math was remotely accurate in predicting anything.
What I didn't know was how my life would change in that year. I was diagnosed as dyslexic and some bozo test said I had an incredibly high IQ. My mother's drinking also increased. This would cause my father to "get involved" in my schoolwork, and my grades plummeted. My childhood ended in 1977, which started a spiral into depression, and started patterns that affected me in 1983, 1994, 2005, and even residuals linger in 2011.
Well, it's time to end all that. I am going into 2012 with a positive spring in my step.
NERD!
Anyway, in one of these packets I got a free "1977 Fact-a-day" calendars. It was a large unfolding poster that had a fact a day for each square. One of the things that this poster had was a goofy, "This calendar can be reused in 1983!" As a joke, they had a space where you could cross out "1977" and put in 1983, using some futuristic font.
I was such a nerd, I mathematically figured out that I could also use the calendar again in 1994, 2005, and 2011. I remember how proud I was at this discovery that calendars repeated. I showed this to my teacher and she said, "so what?" I was crushed. I won't name her name, because otherwise she was okay, but 1977 was the year I found out doing math for no reason was pointless. Thank goodness I was too stupid to remember this lesson. Also, in the back of my head, 1983, 1994, 2005, and 2011 were magically connected in some way. So this year ends an era started by some strange calendar I got as a kid. I guess I could also connect 2022, 2033, 2039, 2050 and so on, but enough is enough.
In 1977, the year 2011 seemed impossibly far away to be almost magical. "Man, I'll turn 43! I'll be older than my dad!" I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the future would be like. We'd have a base on the moon, that much I was certain of, because I mistakenly assumed we knew the value of establishing colonies in space and didn't know how the economy was militarily-driven. Cars would probably fly, because I knew nothing about stupid drivers and traffic mishaps. Part of me wishes I could go back in time and ask myself, "So... what will people eat? How will children's TV be different?" I would say nothing but my calendar math was remotely accurate in predicting anything.
What I didn't know was how my life would change in that year. I was diagnosed as dyslexic and some bozo test said I had an incredibly high IQ. My mother's drinking also increased. This would cause my father to "get involved" in my schoolwork, and my grades plummeted. My childhood ended in 1977, which started a spiral into depression, and started patterns that affected me in 1983, 1994, 2005, and even residuals linger in 2011.
Well, it's time to end all that. I am going into 2012 with a positive spring in my step.