A Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

It has come to my attention that some of you take issue with me calling my hair, which is a faux-hawk at best, a mohawk. While i did, in fact, call it a mohawk, i do understand the difference between the two. I also, however, understand that many people aren't as invested in the specifics of mohawks and faux-hawks, and many others don't even know what faux-hawks are. As such, i figured it would be acceptable to call it a mohawk for simplicity sake. I was wrong. I apologize to any of you and your respective hairs whom I may have offended. I'll try to be more accurate in the description of my hair styles in the future.

Sincerely,
Ammon Perkes

Seriously though, today has been interesting. I woke up early this morning to the dulcet tones of a jack hammer tearing up the sidewalk outside my window. That went on for about 2 hours, when i actually needed to get up. My clock deceived me, telling me i had already missed the bus, but when i actually left i realized i could have caught it but had now missed it by a few minutes. Not wanting to wait for the next shuttle i jogged to the trax and, realizing that it was already coming, had to race it, running about 200 yards which is probably the best possible thing for my knee right now.

I had my last day of institute today, and then some Linear Algebra review. After that i tried to print out my mission physical papers, but i realized that i couldn't remember my login name, so i had to head back up to the dorms. Luckily my ink didn't run out (it's practically printing on fumes at this point), and i headed over to the student services center for a pre-physical and to schedule a physical. I got on the wrong shuttle and by the time i got back to the stop the right shuttle had gone, so i had to run to catch the trax, again.

The physical itself was easy enough, although it did run late so i didn't get to go to my last physics discussion. Oh well. Here are a few things i learned at the physical:

Chronic itchiness can be a sign of cancer (i actually learned that reading discover while in the waiting room); the Student Center has the best magazines i've ever seen in a waiting room; for some reason a place that caters almost exclusively to college students expects them to not know their letters, and so has the awkward direction E charts for vision checks; you're supposed to wash blood out of pants with cold water and, just prior to learning that, I apparently bleed fairly freely when blood is drawn, all over everything; peeing in a cup is really much more difficult when you really need to go to the bathroom.

After that i caught a shuttle over to the end of my physics discussion to pick up my physics test. I got a 91, it would have been a 98 but i apparently lost all common sense midway through the exam, but a 91 is still great. I have to go back tomorrow morning to have them put in a little TB test thing, and then I go in friday to have my full physical. I actually forgot when my exam is, so the physical will require me to miss the first half hour of my exam, unless someone cancels, but last time i had nearly an hour left of testing, so i'm not overly worried. I accidentally stole a pen from the doctors office. I actually realized this before i left the doctors, but after i had played with it for a while and chewed on it a little bit. I figure after that it would be irresponsible to give it back, especially with all the signs everywhere about not spreading infection. I will admit, i'm sort of grossed out that i put a doctor's office pen in my mouth, but it is a nice pen, and my other one just died, so whatever.

Tomorrow night i have my crazy 25 page paper and presentation due, so i need to finish working on that tonight. I only have to write half of it, and last night i got about 6 pages, so i should be able to finish it up tonight. I think 25 page papers are stupid, especially this one. There are very few things in the world that take 25 pages to state adequately, and this most definitely isn't one of them. What is going to happen is i'll type everything i want to say, and then say it in more complicated ways, and then add quotes from other people to justify the things i've said. I could probably tell you everything you needed to know from this paper in a page and a picture.

Otherwise life goes as normal. I'm pretty happy that it's going to work out to have my papers finished before i leave, since there was some question before. It's unfortunate that it's cutting into my exam time, but with a bit of fortune it will all turn out ok. Tomorrow i'm going to make sure it's ok to miss the beginning of the exam and ask if it's remotely possible for me to stay later to finish it up. I doubt it, and i doubt i'll need to, but it won't hurt to ask.

Update:
The people called and there was a cancellation so now i'm going at 2:30, a solid hour before the exam, which will give me enough time for the physical and just enough time to make it to the exam ontime. Hurrah!