Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Calculus & Cranes

‘ It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.’’
- Albert Einstein.

Today's apt Quote of the Day. Well to be honest, I'm sure any quote of the day would somehow feel apt, it's just that my mind is always churning away and it could snag in any and every stray topic that's out there and make it feel like that's exactly what I've been thinking. Which reminds me of the so-called accuracy of the daily horoscope in the newspaper, how often we'd read what's written for us and nod to ourselves, so true, so true.

But I digress. The QOTD feels apt enough because it is personally true. If I am presented with a problem I chew away at it like a rabid squirrel, until I've burrowed down to the solution. Well...considering that rabid squirrels are more or less not really right in their minds, never mind rabid anything, perhaps that analogy was a bit off. But you know what I mean.

Take for example, one of the reasons why this quote in particular had me smiling to myself. Yesterday I suddenly felt like making a paper crane. You know the thing; the origami birds. Don't ask my why I felt like making a paper crane, because I honestly could not tell you, nevertheless I felt like making a paper crane. 

So I got myself a scrap sheet of paper, and started. Making paper cranes is something I've been able to do almost asleep, having learnt it when I was in elementary school (when I was elected to teach the younger 'uns, mind you). But for some reason, I got stuck at a specific fold. I could not remember how to make a paper crane. 

Now, most people, normal people, we might say, would in all probability, just give it up as a job gone bad. I mean, yeah it's not a big deal, just a scrap of paper and a bunch of folding, then what? Ya toss da ol' bardie in da bin yeah. And that's that. No that's not that, I have to figure it out.

That's how I am. I worry away at the problem, and I aim to get to the solution. So I googled the darn instructions after messing about with the little scrap of paper, stubbornly refusing to give up. In the process I apparently was ignoring my best friend who was talking to me while I was wrestling with my paper. After I got the bird made (which I will have you know took just a few minutes), he'd laughed at my 'focus'. (Not laughing in a bad way, I know I know. Calm yourself.)

But yeah. That's the way I roll. I was remembering Calculus in high school and being able to work at the problems until I was literally able to solve them asleep. And the reason I say literally, is because I really did. The final exam was first thing in the morning, and I had not slept one wink, because if I do remember right, I had another exam later that day, so yeah, you know how that is. 

Anyways, that morning I went into the room (and let me tell you how accurate my memory is, if I were back in that building I could lead you right to the exact room the exam was in), and I sat at my desk. I somehow forgot to bring a pencil, and the pencil that was lent to me had a broken nub. In any case, I just wrote the exam in pen. Now, the important bit to remember is that I fell asleep during the exam. Might have been a problem except that as I told you, I was able to solve the problems in my sleep.  So that was fine then. I got myself a perfect paper (Lying no, but boasting, yes.)


It does not look like a scorpion.