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This entire semester has been quite normal for me, school wise. I took, for me, an average schedule full of History and Criminal Justice classes. Nothing really out of the ordinary. But I always seem to have an abnormally high workload due to the electives I have chosen over the years and this semester was no different. I’m not one to take those Intro to Bowling or Beginners Finger Painting classes. Call me crazy, but when I’m forking over $25,000 of my own hard earned cash, I want to get something of substance in return. Therefore, my elective classes have always tended to be a little challenging and stimulating and this semester was no different as I was enrolled in Introductory Latin. However, this semester tended to be a little busier than I would have preferred due to my Senior Thesis class and whatnot, which did not bode well for my Latin class. Every other week it seemed like I was being forced to decide which came first in the studying hierarchy, Latin or any of my other classes. Since I technically didn’t need Latin and all my other classes were required for my major, you can guess which ones received priority.

Some people have asked me how I don’t fret and worry over my grades and it’s quite simple. Beyond studying, there’s nothing I can do. There’s no reason to pretend any test is life and death and if you studied the material, you should feel confident. Even if you feel like you bombed the test as you walked out of the class, why worry? Is ruining your night over worrying about a test you’ve already taken going to help your grade any? I think not. Yet sometimes there are times when I do grow nervous as I’m handed a test and so a few years ago I started doing what I do throughout the rest of my life whenever things get rough. I made myself laugh and forced myself to have fun with the tests. (Just ask Fellner what I did / wrote about during our Psychology AP exam. The story gets even funnier when you learn of the grade I received.) I started writing jokes or drawing funny pictures in the margins and this, therefore, always made the teachers get to know me and remember me a little quicker. They felt more comfortable calling on and joking around with me, often leading me to be mislabeled as a Teacher’s Pet. And Latin was no different.

As the semester grew older, the tests grew harder, and my study time for the class diminished, I found myself knowing fewer and fewer answers. But I hate leaving a question blank. Hate it. Despise it. Refuse to do it. I’ll answer “Um….Penis” before I leave a question blank. And so, whenever a question was given to me in Latin that I had absolutely no idea what the answer was, I would respond with “Dorkus Malorkus,” which is a quote from Simpsons. By quiz 8, my teacher was writing in the margins “what in the heck does this mean?!” and “for the love of God, NOOOOOOOO! THIS ISN’T A REAL LATIN PHRASE!!” I found it hilarious and I knew that she did too, even if she wouldn’t admit it. In fact, even though she felt at ease with me throughout the entire semester, she never once cracked a joke back at me. She always laughed when I or someone else did, but her response to them all were always just a smile and slight shake of the head before moving onto the next problem.

As my class and I were preparing to take the final today, I commissioned a Goob Poll and asked if there was anybody else in the class taking it simply as an elective. Not a one. So, when our teacher walked in the door and asked if there were any questions, I raised my hand. As a smile spread across her face and her eyes rolled, she called on me knowing damn well that I had never asked a serious question throughout the entire semester and that I wasn’t about to start now. I proceeded to lay out what I felt was a strong case for the curving by 50 points for all students who took Latin as an elective. Shouldn’t she help encourage students to take advantage of college and stimulate their minds?! Wouldn’t it be a kind gesture on her part if she could just curve my final average?!

She laughed and nodded as I went on until I finally reached my closing arguments. As I sat there awaiting her response, wondering how she was going to play off my question, she looked me square in the eye and said, “Ryan, you are a true Dorkus Malorkus.”

I don’t think I’ve ever smiled throughout an entire exam like I did today.

Here’s a post, compliments of Stan. The bastard Tooled me.

It’s a little funnier if you read the thread where he got the idea from.

Anyway, I’m in the process of studying for my Latin exam tomorrow. Wish me luck.

I really don’t know anything ready to talk about, but in an effort to show that I am indeed sincere about posting often, I’m forcing myself to sit and write for a timed period, kinda like an in-class essay. Let’s see what this leads to…

Life right now, honestly, is as close to perfect as it’s been in a long time. There is one key component missing that I’ve been reminded of many times over this past week, especially at dinner the other night, but overall things are going great. And it’s not just the big stuff (such as, say, a major thesis!), but it’s as if even the small, insignificant things have been falling my way lately. I guess I’m finally cashing in on some of that good karma I’ve been saving up lately. Hell, even the future looks amazingly bright. I got to see my family and friends over Thanksgiving break and am about to see them all over again later this month. By this time next week, I’ll be finished with school for two months. In a little over three weeks, I’ll be snowmobiling in the mountains around Lake Tahoe and January has nothing in store for me but relaxing and trying to get all my old high school friends together one last time before I…..well, I’m saving that for another post =)

And to top that all off, Shyzer’s daily readership is at an all-time high. Have I mentioned lately how much y’all kick ass? Because you really do.

I’ve been e-mailing a lot of people lately, especially people I haven’t talked to in months or years. Y’know, sort of in an attempt to see where they all ended up and what all they’re doing now. It just kind of came to me after surfing Facebook a few days ago and seeing so many people from my past. (Yes, I joined over a month ago and am totally addicted. My favorite feature? “Poking” all the hot girls I see. =) So I just started e-mailing not only people I saw on there, but other people as well. Old teachers, old professors, old neighbors. I tracked down one of my old professors and waited outside his classroom the other day simply to see how he was doing and let him know how much of an impact he had on me. I’ve already made plans to have lunch or dinner in the near future with a handful of old friends I haven’t seen in years. It didn’t dawn on me until just the other day why I was doing it all. I just want to make sure we all have a proper goodbye. I hate that unresolved feeling I have with some people, that feeling of “do they really how I feel about them?” I just want to make sure that everybody in my past who I’ve drifted away from knows they had an impact on me. And I guess this is just the best time to make sure they know, before they all scatter out even more than they have and before I…well, I promised I’d save that for another post.

Okay, my time is up. So now do you see why it takes me a long time to write posts for Shyzer? When I try to throw something together in an hour or two, this is what I get. When I take a few more hours to polish it and then sleep on it and polish it some more, I actually get something decent. Fellner, you have no idea how much I envy your speed writing abilities.

And with that, I’m off to finish a new subsection for Shyzer. Look for it over there on the left hand side of the site by the end of tonight!