It’s queer how my performance in school keeps vacillating so much. There isn’t a hint of constancy in my scores that would have otherwise enabled someone to put me in a definite category of people. It’s quite funny actually, and I’m sure that anyone who for whatever reason keeps track of my scores is just as incredulous as I am at my rather large range of marks. I have no illusions about myself. I’ve actually got the 217th rank once, and one other time, a rank thereabout. But even so, I’ve got the 42nd rank once, and on yesterday’s test, the 49th. Okay, yesterday’s test was so easy that it would have taken a miracle for me to have got anything less than what I did. Not trying to be boastful or anything; quite on the contrary in fact. I’m trying to undermine my achievement here as a pejorative psychological trick that would prevent me from becoming overconfident about this rather insignificant achievement that would not even qualify for an achievement. As my physics teacher would ordinarily say, these scores don’t really say much about how good a student you really are, though at the same time they do. Strange paradox, I know, and I couldn’t elucidate since I don’t really know what it means myself. What I do know is that my dad’s happy with my scores, and that this equates to a need for me to do just as well in the next test and not let these annoying vicissitudes get in the way. But oh, I forgot, my SAT’s on Saturday, and I’ll need to devote more time to practice than I’m doing now. It isn’t like I can’t afford to do badly here, since I can take the test again, but even still, I need to do well. I’m aiming for at least 2200 to be on the safe side, although I don’t know if that’ll be regarded as anything outstanding by the likes of Stanford and UC Berkeley. Still. I need to score at least 2200.
Just for the record, today I got kicked out of class, and I’m not ashamed to say it. In fact it was rather fun. There were many of us, actually, including V-dude, who’s usually Mr. Goody two-shoes, so that made it more fun than it should have been. It was IPE class, and the teacher dude knows (I’m sure he does) that nobody pays any attention to him at all. Yet for some reason today, instead of unobtrusively going on with a topic that nobody in the class is aware of, he decided to become all self-assertive and made at least half a dozen people solve these inane sums on the board. It was a total in-your-face moment for Mr. Shorty-pants when just about all of them were able to solve the problems without having ever paid attention in class. Moving on to the details, it just so happened that when the IPE class was going on, they had put up the results of the test mentioned in the first paragraph on the bulletin board outside. It was a long way until lunch, so people started using the old “I want to go to the washroom,” excuse to walk out of class by the dozen and satiate themselves by getting a good look at the marks list. I imagine that the guy got a little suspicious when over twenty people had asked him the same thing, because he said “No” flat when I asked him. I should have known. Anyway, a group of us walked out of class defiantly, decimating the teacher’s already miserable reputation for keeping the class under control. It so happened that RK decided to lock us out. But no matter, we went downstairs to the teachers’ floor and had a conversation with our chemistry teacher calculated to kill time. But there was an ulterior motive to our seemingly purposeless visit to the place that students are never supposed to be if they’ve been kicked out of class, and that was something that I had come up with, duh. I decided it would be best to fill the Vice-Principal, our math teacher, with crap about RK so that he would be immune to the horrifying tale of defiance he was going to tell him (as I had come to know he was planning to do) and instead tell him off for doing something as low as locking students outside. Of course, I had to twist the truth a little bit, and told everyone who was willing to hear that RK had in fact inadvertently permitted us to go and check out our scores. Oh, I’m so conniving, aren’t I?
Also, I randomly caught a cold yesterday, and no, the use of the word ‘randomly’ here was not random: there was really nothing I did these past few days that can explain my coming down with this so suddenly. I mean, it’s not as though the weather’s cold, even though it’s nearing winter, (and I know that at this point some people are going to point out the irony of my wearing a jacket to school every single day, but as they know, it’s for reasons that are not related to keeping myself warm), and colds always bode ill for me, since my asthma problems invariably exacerbate. I had one such attack only last month. Jeez. Give me a break. And no, I don’t smoke, drink, do drugs, or anything else that a doctor might connect with recurring illness. And to top it all off, staring at the screen is beginning to give me a headache.
I bought Deception Point last week. I got two different kinds of reviews from two equally reliable sources—one positive, and the other negative. I didn’t know which to believe, so I decided wisely to be neutral. I’ll admit that it was engrossing, and I liked the scientific aspect of it, the plot in general and the twist and the mystery, but still, it’s Dan Brown we’re talking about. He, as one might say, walks with his head in the clouds. Fortunately the protagonist here wasn’t much of a Mary Sue. That’s one thing that made the book bearable. What I didn’t like was the lack of decency. I mean, I know how ubiquitous sexual topics are in the present-day literary world, but that’s no excuse for being so graphic about them when a simple, dispassionate mention of such an act taking place, though undesirable, would suffice. It played a key part in the plot, but I wish it weren’t there at all. I probably sound like a prude, but that’s because I am, despite the general impression of me being perverted. They’re funny in some kinds of jokes, but in a book, not in the slightest. It’s sickening more than anything else. The inevitable conclusion: Dan Brown, like practically every other modern-day author, has failed me.
I’m thinking of starting on the Percy Jackson series. My brother’s obsessed with it, and one of my friends at school recommended it. This whole Greek Gods idea seems pretty cool. Believe it or not, I watched Disney’s Hercules on Sunday and liked it. It was funny, factual enough to be credible, and entertaining all through. I like Hades. He’s cool. I mean, he isn’t like the other Disney villains who have no sense of humor. So yeah, I’m thinking of starting on the Percy Jackson series… just as soon as I find Book 1.
2 comments :
i can't exactly call dan brown a novelistbdespite his works' success, but i suppose da vinci code is worth reading, and angels and demons, too, most probably. perhaps all those trivia and conspiracy theories weren't easy to unearth.
i've read all the percy jackson books. they're pretty okay if you're into greek myth, otherwise the age bracket to which this series cater shall get to ya. the writing and humor are fine, though =)
i guess the sucess went to his head, huh. i liked da vinci code, too. i mean not so much as to actually label it one of my favorite books, but i liked the historical aspect of it. i like history and secret organizations and stuff.
i'm not exactly into greek myth, but that's probably because i haven't had the chance to know much about it. anyway, like i said, i watched and enjoyed hercules, so i'm sure the age bracket, as i think you're trying to say, won't be much of a problem.
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