Saturday, March 25, 2017

A New Obsession

As I may have mentioned, I maintain the policy of not having any, and I mean any games on any of my devices. Mainly because I know that once I've downloaded a game, I've already passed the point of no return. As in, once-I-download-it-that-is-all-I'm-ever-going-to-do. Quite frankly, I already have too many things available to distract me from any homework that I should be doing, including eating (my personal favorite), sleeping (only naps though), lounging (now that's what I'm talking about), and of course, the infamous YouTube.

As you may have guessed, YouTube is the greatest distraction of all. The main reason YouTube is such a struggle is because whenever a teacher of links a video related to a homework assignment that opens in YouTube... Well, that's just asking for it because once YouTube has been opened, it certainly isn't closing. And the worst (or best, depends on how you look at it) part of YouTube is the fact that once you've watched a few videos related to a certain topic, more and more videos related to the same topic appear on the side panels and the second the video is finished.

Essentially, I could waste several hours mindlessly entertaining myself with videos.

Now, dealing with YouTube is one thing, dealing with a game on a device is a completely different situation. And although I have thus far maintained a strict policy of not having any games on my devices, I decided today was the day for a petty indulgence. So, with reluctance but also relief, I download the absolute best game ever,
                              Image result for word streak with friends,

a glorious game that is arguably educational. I mean, the basic premise is that you make words. And words are educational right?

In a single day, I've become so engrossed in this game (which I wanted to prevent all along), to the extent that I've been screenshotting ghe "highlights" of my endeavors as if this is a sport. So now I clearly see the point that parents and teachers share regarding games: they're distracting. And I testify that yes, in fact they are. Here's the evidence to prove it:
2.7 Hours! Or, when converted into minutes: a lot. And when also converted into time wasted: a lot. Worth it though. (Not really I'm just trying to convince myself that it was.)

 And here comes the "highlight" reel we've all been waiting for. (And by all I mean no one). 
My first ever Tournament victory:
                                               
And that's about it. Sorry to bore you. That's all for now. (Look, I was desperate for posting content and this is the best I've got so that's how it's going to be unfortunately.)

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

D's All Around

What a nightmare. I had an AP Chemistry test  - yes, I know, it all comes back to this class - a few days ago, and let me tell you, equlibrium or whatever it was on is my weakness. A perfect analogy for the struggle I had with the concepts of this previous chapter is accurately summed up in the SAT style analogy:

Complete the comparison
Heel is to Achilles as Equilibrium is to ________.

(A) Me, but maybe someone else
(B) My teacher
(C) (I thought) everyone else in my class - at least before I found out what everyone actually got
(D) Really just me

Answer: If you guessed D, you're right! D is the correct answer because after I discovered how everyone else performed on that nightmare, I soon realized that it wasn't a problem with the material or anything else, the problem was me. And my utter lack of understanding.


Whaddya know? Well that's mildly amusing. (Because the answer to the question was the letter "D" and I got a "D" on my test. Get it? Get it?)

I thought I had it together for that test, but apparently I didn't. As you can see:
a D and a D-, glorious. Probably the worst test I've had in years. My grade only dropped THREE percent, not a big deal. No sweat.

Who am I kidding? Yes big deal! And yes? sweat! The next test though, I'll be getting one hundred percent. You keep waiting for it. It's coming. I might be horrible at equilibrium, but I think that the analogy above is slightly inaccurate because it's not just equilibrium that's my weakness, it's the entirety of chemistry. (Now prepare for some serious digression) Unfortunately, because this is an AP class, there's an AP test. And because there's an AP test, in order to receive credit I'm required to take it.

And yeah sure, you don't have to do well. I mean, it won't affect my grade (well it certainly can't get any lower at this point), but it still would be nice to earn a 5 on the AP exam. To "help" us all do well on the AP test, my teacher has decided to give the AP Chemistry final before the AP exam. And I agree that that does make some sense. What doesn't make sense is the fact that the final is the day that we got back from Spring Break.

Not the end of the week we got back.
Not the second day back so we have a day to review.
No, but the day we get back from break. And it's a Monday.

So all that means is that although I may be on break from physically being in school, in the end, school is all that I really have during spring break. And the break is about ten days, plenty of time to leisurely but effectively study the material before the final and the AP test. Wrong. The AP Chemistry book was written by a group of people who had nothing better to do and decided to compile every specific granule of information humanly possible and stashed into a massive volume with three or four point font. And sure, the book's "only" a thousand pages long. But considering I only have about ten days of break and that I'm most likely NOT going to be effectively studying everyday, it's safe to say that I'll be burning through that book the night before the final.
 Well, if that's not something to look forward to I don't know what is.