chess tournament heart attack, 101/1001 update, midterm week, taxes.
Since my week has had a lot of big things happen, I'm gonna break this down into sections. A lot of this stuff is really scrambled up in my brain, and so I gotta keep it straight. Enjoy!
CHESS TOURNAMENT HEART ATTACK
On Saturday and Sunday, I decided to head up to South Portland to play in a couple of chess tournaments. This goes well with items 6 and 7 on my 101/1001 list (I'll talk about that later down the page). The first tournament was a G/75 (each player gets 75 minutes to make their moves) tournament, and I was pumped. I had studied the night before (yes, we study for these tournaments), practiced by playing some at lunch on Friday, and really felt like things were clicking mentally.
I lost my first game. I really felt like I was losing a few moves in, but it turns out that I really blew my winning chances much later in the game. Overall, though, I thought I was still okay to win a few more games and boost my rating.
Then, when the second round began, a very heavyset man began to snore. I barely heard it, and when I realized he was doing it, he had fallen back into his chair and onto the floor. After I whipped away from the table and got my headphones off, I got out my cellphone and dialed 911. The guy wasn't snoring. He was choking, and having a heart attack.
Luckily, there was a doctor in the tournament, so he ordered us to clear the room (his words were more like 'get the hell out of the room, NOW!; we were extremely obedient). Three of us called 911, and South Portland's emergency services were there in a few minutes. It wasn't enough, though. Bob died shortly thereafter. He was 63.
It is obvious to say that this really racked me mentally. I have never witnessed a person dying before, so that was frightening enough. Not only that, but the mere thought that there wasn't much I could do other than dial 911 scared me shitless. What if there ISN'T a medical professional on hand when something like that happens? What then? And, not only that, but this guy was BIG. Not my type of big, but BIG. That was what scared me the most. That's nowhere I want to be in 40 years, or even 30 (I'm 24 now). That's why a couple of my 101/1001 goals are getting huge priority, and one goal is getting replaced.
I didn't do well in that tournament, I am sorry to say. I would have liked to say that I did well, but I most certainly did not. I couldn't concentrate on anything going on in the games, although I did win one. I instead was thinking about myself: my health, my incapacity to do anything about what had just happened, and the fact that I thought for a few seconds that someone had my number: this happened to Shannon's father only last July. I was in no shape to play chess by the end of the day. I was going to take Shannon out to hit the Coat of Arms in Portsmouth, but I couldn't handle that. I just went home and went to bed, and spent the night dreaming about what a heart attack might feel like.
The next morning, after I woke up, I decided that the first thing I needed was a rebound. The tournament for the next day was a 'quick' tournament: G/15 (15 minutes for each player). Now, that might seem like a long time, but for chess, it is RIDICULOUSLY FAST. So, I felt like I had a good advantage going into the tournament, since a lot of my weaknesses as a player melt away when I'm forced to make quick decisions (my biggest weakness is my bad habit of second-guessing decisions I need to make). This tournament was also much more relaxed: fewer people, different format, a little more friendly conversation over the board because we didn't have to write down our moves. In this tournament, I went a perfect 9/9, won my section, and took home $75. Since this was a profit over my two entrance fees, I decided to take Shannon out for sushi in Portsmouth and finally head to the Coat with Shannon, Cassie, and Todd, and celebrate a little.
MIDTERM WEEK
After MLK, our school kicked off finals week. I look forward to this week every year, but loathe it at the same time.
I love it because:
1) The Physics Department does a kick-ass midterm. We have a 40-minute written midterm the class before, and then we have an experience-based midterm that has kids make a self-propelled vehicle out of a few household materials (Dixie cups, balloons, straws, clothespins, etc.). Their objective: their vehicle must drop a practice golfball onto a target. They get two trials, and the total of their written test, two trials (distance traveled times target score), their group participation, and points earned on a theory section on the midterm, make up their score. We get great designs and bad ones, good luck and bad luck, spit flying everywhere (from the balloons), and a two-hour moment when our students are at their best.
2) The finals are graded once they're complete. I just add totals up while the other teachers in the building slave over their exams.
3) I don't have the same rotation. Two classes per day, and a two-hour support block afterward. It's awesome.
I hate it because:
1) The absolutely detestable irresponsibility of our students floats to the forefront of our consciousness as teachers. Kids come in turning in things from October, complain about how they didn't get that quiz last week but have every excuse for why they didn't come in for help (laziness, their managers overwork them, they have to babysit, or whatever bullshit they decide to pull out).
Note that some kids are legitimate cases. I had one girl make up a ton of work because her family situation had completely fallen apart in October and it was hard for her to head into school at that time. Sicknesses, deaths in the family, etc. All of those are completely legit excuses, and I always do all I can for those people. But, the people who can't buckle down and do the work? Dammit, that pisses me off. Just pisses me off.
Now, the root cause of all of this is our FAVORITE piece of legislation EVER: No Child Left Behind. Since that directly ties our school's success (test scores, graduation rates, etc.) to the amount of federal aid (and, in some way, I'm sure, state aid) we get, we are CONSTANTLY under pressure from administrators and our district to give kids all the leeway they need to pass. That's why no truly failing grade existed last year: our principal, so hyped up on getting graduation rates up, wanted to give kids every outlet to pass, and every reason to say that a teacher who didn't allow that to happen was a ruthless, greedy authoritarian who didn't care about kids. It sucked, and, somehow, that experience last year tainted the words 'can I make this up?', mostly because I know exactly what my response has to be 90% of the time.
2) Since I'm a physics teacher, and physics is hard, I hear 'Mr. Dudley' more often than ANY OTHER WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Everyone wants a piece of my time for the stuff that they don't want to think about.
But, thankfully, finals week is over. Everyone passed it, first of all. Secondly, my friend Elizabeth in Waldoboro is also a physics teacher, and she was able to watch a few of the finals via iChat. And, finally, it looked like all of the kids at least found it fun, if not a bit stressful.
TAXES
Once again, we hit financial setback. It is looking more and more like any money we save up, we are just going to cough away. We have received all of our W-2s in the mail, and lo and behold! Initially, it looks like we might actually owe. A lot. Like, on the order of $1000. Shit.
101/1001: UPDATE #1
one -- learn how to read numbers in binary and hexidecimal code fluently
Go figure that this one would fall into my lap. After looking through my documents for the chess clock I got for Christmas, I noticed that they included these weird cards. They are printed to do the following trick: ask a person to think of a number between 1 and 63, and keep it a secret. Then, the person picks out all of the cards that have that number printed on them. After they hand the cards back, the numbers in the corners of all of the cards add up to that person's number.
The numbers in the corners are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32; in other words, the bases of binary code (2^0, 2^1, 2^2, 2^3, 2^4, 2^5). That means that any number printed on the card has a '1' in the digit for that base.
The highest number is 63 on those cards, and it appears on every card. Here it is in binary: 111111. 29? 11101. 4? 100.
On to hexidecimal!
six -- win Maine Chess Player of the Year
seven -- get my USCF rating over 1800
I did work toward this last weekend, as both of the tournaments I went to were Maine Chess Player of the Year events. My quick rating was definitely helped by the Sunday tournament, but my regular rating (i.e. a rating for the long games) took a hit with my 1.5/4 performance on Saturday.
twenty-nine -- learn to crochet
Shannon and I got hooks and yarn last week. I can BARELY do a chain, but it's progress.
fifty-nine -- learn CPR and become certified
I decided that what I saw on Saturday was just incredibly scary. Not only did I feel like I am eventually at risk to have that happen to me in 30+ years, but that I want to be able to do something about it if it happens to someone else. I don't want to be the guy standing around when someone's life's in danger. Fuck that shit. And while I am not a medical professional, CPR certification is something that everyone can do. Aside from that, there are just too many situations around me (in my classroom and out of it) where it might be really helpful. This has replaced my desire to feel like Tiger Woods for one shot.
seventy-seven -- wear a pink shirt on two V-days (0/2)
V-day is February 14th, so it's coming up soon. I have my pink shirt, and I am ready to wear it!
CHESS TOURNAMENT HEART ATTACK
On Saturday and Sunday, I decided to head up to South Portland to play in a couple of chess tournaments. This goes well with items 6 and 7 on my 101/1001 list (I'll talk about that later down the page). The first tournament was a G/75 (each player gets 75 minutes to make their moves) tournament, and I was pumped. I had studied the night before (yes, we study for these tournaments), practiced by playing some at lunch on Friday, and really felt like things were clicking mentally.
I lost my first game. I really felt like I was losing a few moves in, but it turns out that I really blew my winning chances much later in the game. Overall, though, I thought I was still okay to win a few more games and boost my rating.
Then, when the second round began, a very heavyset man began to snore. I barely heard it, and when I realized he was doing it, he had fallen back into his chair and onto the floor. After I whipped away from the table and got my headphones off, I got out my cellphone and dialed 911. The guy wasn't snoring. He was choking, and having a heart attack.
Luckily, there was a doctor in the tournament, so he ordered us to clear the room (his words were more like 'get the hell out of the room, NOW!; we were extremely obedient). Three of us called 911, and South Portland's emergency services were there in a few minutes. It wasn't enough, though. Bob died shortly thereafter. He was 63.
It is obvious to say that this really racked me mentally. I have never witnessed a person dying before, so that was frightening enough. Not only that, but the mere thought that there wasn't much I could do other than dial 911 scared me shitless. What if there ISN'T a medical professional on hand when something like that happens? What then? And, not only that, but this guy was BIG. Not my type of big, but BIG. That was what scared me the most. That's nowhere I want to be in 40 years, or even 30 (I'm 24 now). That's why a couple of my 101/1001 goals are getting huge priority, and one goal is getting replaced.
I didn't do well in that tournament, I am sorry to say. I would have liked to say that I did well, but I most certainly did not. I couldn't concentrate on anything going on in the games, although I did win one. I instead was thinking about myself: my health, my incapacity to do anything about what had just happened, and the fact that I thought for a few seconds that someone had my number: this happened to Shannon's father only last July. I was in no shape to play chess by the end of the day. I was going to take Shannon out to hit the Coat of Arms in Portsmouth, but I couldn't handle that. I just went home and went to bed, and spent the night dreaming about what a heart attack might feel like.
The next morning, after I woke up, I decided that the first thing I needed was a rebound. The tournament for the next day was a 'quick' tournament: G/15 (15 minutes for each player). Now, that might seem like a long time, but for chess, it is RIDICULOUSLY FAST. So, I felt like I had a good advantage going into the tournament, since a lot of my weaknesses as a player melt away when I'm forced to make quick decisions (my biggest weakness is my bad habit of second-guessing decisions I need to make). This tournament was also much more relaxed: fewer people, different format, a little more friendly conversation over the board because we didn't have to write down our moves. In this tournament, I went a perfect 9/9, won my section, and took home $75. Since this was a profit over my two entrance fees, I decided to take Shannon out for sushi in Portsmouth and finally head to the Coat with Shannon, Cassie, and Todd, and celebrate a little.
MIDTERM WEEK
After MLK, our school kicked off finals week. I look forward to this week every year, but loathe it at the same time.
I love it because:
1) The Physics Department does a kick-ass midterm. We have a 40-minute written midterm the class before, and then we have an experience-based midterm that has kids make a self-propelled vehicle out of a few household materials (Dixie cups, balloons, straws, clothespins, etc.). Their objective: their vehicle must drop a practice golfball onto a target. They get two trials, and the total of their written test, two trials (distance traveled times target score), their group participation, and points earned on a theory section on the midterm, make up their score. We get great designs and bad ones, good luck and bad luck, spit flying everywhere (from the balloons), and a two-hour moment when our students are at their best.
2) The finals are graded once they're complete. I just add totals up while the other teachers in the building slave over their exams.
3) I don't have the same rotation. Two classes per day, and a two-hour support block afterward. It's awesome.
I hate it because:
1) The absolutely detestable irresponsibility of our students floats to the forefront of our consciousness as teachers. Kids come in turning in things from October, complain about how they didn't get that quiz last week but have every excuse for why they didn't come in for help (laziness, their managers overwork them, they have to babysit, or whatever bullshit they decide to pull out).
Note that some kids are legitimate cases. I had one girl make up a ton of work because her family situation had completely fallen apart in October and it was hard for her to head into school at that time. Sicknesses, deaths in the family, etc. All of those are completely legit excuses, and I always do all I can for those people. But, the people who can't buckle down and do the work? Dammit, that pisses me off. Just pisses me off.
Now, the root cause of all of this is our FAVORITE piece of legislation EVER: No Child Left Behind. Since that directly ties our school's success (test scores, graduation rates, etc.) to the amount of federal aid (and, in some way, I'm sure, state aid) we get, we are CONSTANTLY under pressure from administrators and our district to give kids all the leeway they need to pass. That's why no truly failing grade existed last year: our principal, so hyped up on getting graduation rates up, wanted to give kids every outlet to pass, and every reason to say that a teacher who didn't allow that to happen was a ruthless, greedy authoritarian who didn't care about kids. It sucked, and, somehow, that experience last year tainted the words 'can I make this up?', mostly because I know exactly what my response has to be 90% of the time.
2) Since I'm a physics teacher, and physics is hard, I hear 'Mr. Dudley' more often than ANY OTHER WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Everyone wants a piece of my time for the stuff that they don't want to think about.
But, thankfully, finals week is over. Everyone passed it, first of all. Secondly, my friend Elizabeth in Waldoboro is also a physics teacher, and she was able to watch a few of the finals via iChat. And, finally, it looked like all of the kids at least found it fun, if not a bit stressful.
TAXES
Once again, we hit financial setback. It is looking more and more like any money we save up, we are just going to cough away. We have received all of our W-2s in the mail, and lo and behold! Initially, it looks like we might actually owe. A lot. Like, on the order of $1000. Shit.
101/1001: UPDATE #1
one -- learn how to read numbers in binary and hexidecimal code fluently
Go figure that this one would fall into my lap. After looking through my documents for the chess clock I got for Christmas, I noticed that they included these weird cards. They are printed to do the following trick: ask a person to think of a number between 1 and 63, and keep it a secret. Then, the person picks out all of the cards that have that number printed on them. After they hand the cards back, the numbers in the corners of all of the cards add up to that person's number.
The numbers in the corners are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32; in other words, the bases of binary code (2^0, 2^1, 2^2, 2^3, 2^4, 2^5). That means that any number printed on the card has a '1' in the digit for that base.
The highest number is 63 on those cards, and it appears on every card. Here it is in binary: 111111. 29? 11101. 4? 100.
On to hexidecimal!
six -- win Maine Chess Player of the Year
seven -- get my USCF rating over 1800
I did work toward this last weekend, as both of the tournaments I went to were Maine Chess Player of the Year events. My quick rating was definitely helped by the Sunday tournament, but my regular rating (i.e. a rating for the long games) took a hit with my 1.5/4 performance on Saturday.
twenty-nine -- learn to crochet
Shannon and I got hooks and yarn last week. I can BARELY do a chain, but it's progress.
fifty-nine -- learn CPR and become certified
I decided that what I saw on Saturday was just incredibly scary. Not only did I feel like I am eventually at risk to have that happen to me in 30+ years, but that I want to be able to do something about it if it happens to someone else. I don't want to be the guy standing around when someone's life's in danger. Fuck that shit. And while I am not a medical professional, CPR certification is something that everyone can do. Aside from that, there are just too many situations around me (in my classroom and out of it) where it might be really helpful. This has replaced my desire to feel like Tiger Woods for one shot.
seventy-seven -- wear a pink shirt on two V-days (0/2)
V-day is February 14th, so it's coming up soon. I have my pink shirt, and I am ready to wear it!