Austin R.I.P.'s Background
     
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About Austin R.I.P.

  
This is a good place to put pictures, thumbnails, drawings, clip art, etc...
I am a math genius (or more precisely I was one), having skipped a grade in public school. When I moved back to Hamiton (the big city) from Manitoulin Island {the largest freshwater island in the world! cheap pop!!, which is just a bunch of scattered small towns, all but 2 having populations less than 1000} I had to take a stanardized aptitude test for grade 9, and it was discovered I was at university level for everything except a few English categories (the crap about why writers did this, Shakespeare, etc. (in my mind, something is good or not good, I think if Shakespeare ever came back to life, he would scold a lot of people,) which I was grade 11 to 13 in.

So I was put in the gifted math class in the second semester, but not the science class (which I also qualified for) because I already took advanced science class the first semester. Go Figure. 10 other students were in the class (all a year older than me since I had skipped a grade) and only 10 other students from Hamilton (with a pop of about 350,000) qualified to be in the class. I came away with the highest grade from that math class. Oh, and if you are familiar with the old sit-com, "Head of the Class," I can honestly say I was the 'cool' kid, as one classmate was the obvious prep and the other guys looked like your typical nerds. Also the 'prep' and I were the athletes of the guys in class as well.


Some background: I was going to be in the math and science gifted classes for the rest of my high school years. My music instrumental teacher never lets grade 9 students learn the drums, and he was going to let me be the drummer (the class only allows for one) my next year.
I was finally starting to come out of my girl shyness phase.

Yes, I was all set for grade ten, going to be in the gifted math and science classes (and get the highest grade in the math class and one of the top 3 for the science class), going to learn to play the drums, the last couple of weeks in grade 9, scored some possible dates with 3 babes during the summer/after the summer break.

I decided to go stay with my mom on Manitoulin Island, and my little brother stayed with my dad. At the beginning of August, my adult cousin (who was taking care of my father's house on the island) came and got me, telling me that I had to go with him to help move everything back home to the island. ARGGHHH!! My father did a lot of mean/cruel things to me, but this was the worst...my guaranteed academic scholarship to McMaster or Waterloo were shot to hell. Oh and my little brother had had a growth spurt...now I was the 'little' brother.

So when I started grade 10 (I am happy that I did move back as I have met some good friends I wouldn't have otherwise) I figured I could salvage the disruption in my academic life. I told the guidance counsellor that I was gifted in math and science. He told me the school didn't have one. I also told him I didn't take French in grade 9 (we had to have 1 French credit then) and thought I could handle advanced French. My French class brutalized me, and I discovered halfway through the semester that the counsellor had enrolled me in the only gifted class the school had, the rest of the class had been in the gifted French class since grade 1. I thought something was whacked when on the first day the teacher started spewing French like she was an android.

I thought I could salvage the situation. My guidance teacher told me I would not get into any university without the English OAC (grade 13 credit). I so found English boring (except for creative writing). So the one year I took the English OAC also happened to be the semester I had to go to B.C. with my father and cousin. (My cousin was the driver and I had to go to help take care of my father, he had been a parapeligic since I was 3 and couldn't get in and out of bed by then) I went so my little brother wouldn't screw up his education (not that he would ever acknowledge that, ah, brotherly love). Long story short: I was going to get the assignments off my English teacher so I could do them for the planned 2 weeks I would be gone, she wasn't there because of a seminar she had to travel to, the subsitute teacher had no idea. The two weeks turned into 3 and half weeks. (at least my cousin had found the 2nd book in Tad William's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy for me by chance....I was looking for that book for 2 years!!) When I got back the class had done a project which she said I couldn't do, and which I would need for the credit.

So, not getting my English OAC, I never even tried applying to university. I applied to the 3 closest colleges to the island so I could go home every month to help take care of my father.

I enrolled in Computer Programming....there was no programming the first semester, we learned DOS in second semester and I was part of the gineau pig class for virtual basic (I have to find my old text, that is a computer language that is fun, which is rare), also we had a computer hardware class in the second semester (which should have been more correctly named computer history, as we only actually looked at computer hardware for 1 day out of the whole semester).

I got bored, let my marks slide. The college put me into General Arts and Science. First day they tell us that we have to pick between 17 and 25 credits. I figured I would take like 20, so I have a bit of extra time to work on homework and projects. GAS second semester came, they said the same thing, I took the same amount of credits again. 3rd semester came, they said the same thing. I took the same amount. Fourth, and what should have been my final semester, they told us the same thing AND also told us that we needed 100 credits to get our diploma (man, did I learn a life lesson, never expect that someone will tell you all the details, ask for yourself). CRAP!! Oh well, I was never in any rush, so I would have to take another year. Also that year I went across campus to the university campus (both the college and university were in the same building) and discovered that I could have gotten into an university right from high school for a math major even without having a English OAC. (Boy, did I ever want to hurt my high school guidance counsellor that day)

Well, I start my 3rd year of a 2 year program, finish the first semester. Only something like 6 credits away from my diploma. During the year I let a matter of the heart screw me up some and I almost had my dad choke to death when I was feeding him a few days before Christmas (we discovered a few days later that his MS had started to affect his throat as well, a few weeks later he had to get a feed tube put into his stomach)....now compile that with this: I was running a Vampire LARP with two other people (a boyfriend/girlfriend duo)...I was running late so when I got to their place, she was leaving to go shopping. Fine, so me and Mike worked on the LARP while Shelley went shopping. Well, unbeknownst to me, Mike has epilepsy, and a bad case of it. So we were talking and when he first went into a seizure, I thought he was intentionally making the face he was making. I soon realized that something was not right, phoned the ambulance. When they got there they discovered his medicine bottle (which was empty, it turns out Mike had to get more than the standard # of pills ,due to his rather big frame.) So it looked liked Mike ran out of pills, so from the time the paramedics discovered the empty pill bottle to when Shelley got to the hospital, I thought I was going to have to be the one to tell Shelley that Mike had died (and over the phone to boot). Put that, my father almost dying on me (oh, I forgot to mention, my father was looking at me as if I was the one responsible for him choking to death....not a good relationship), a mishap of the heart (my body can take a lot of damage, but I'm susceptible to some unwise decisions when my heart gets hurt)....then I went to babysit for another friend...his fiance said some things she shouldn't have, at least not with the state I was in....but then her and my friend might not have realized how much the whole having a friend almost die was affecting me. Long story short: My intent was good, but my action was not and our friendship was ended. Also later in the semester I had to withdraw from college, as my father was close to his deathbed. Of all the things in my life, the two things I regret most, is 1) not telling my one friend I couldn't babysit that day and just going home to sleep and 2) letting my friendship with Mike and Shelley slowly fade away as they are reminders of that too painful day.

So I transferred to Mohawk College in Hamilton, as the previous city I was in was not productive for my mental health. I applied and got accepted for the second year of the general arts & science program. To my chagrin, I discovered upon getting there that most of my credits from my previous college were not part of the first year at Mohawk.

The next year I decided to take Recreation and Leisure Services. I switched over after the first year to Travel and Tourism...I finally found the field I want. I do plan on taking the math courses from McMaster in the future as part-time so I can get my math degree....not that I plan on using it...I just want it :)

So the reason I say I was a math genius, is because I have forgotten most of the advanced math I have learned. But I do know personally now, that someone can in fact forget more about a subject than someone else knows :)

Once during my high school physics class, the teacher brought out a Van deGraft machine (I think that's what it's called...the static electricity machine that makes your hair stand on end). One of the girls in class volunteered first...but it wasn't doing the best job, must have been the product she had in her hair, oh well, no guys were complaning as she was one of the hottest girls in the school. The class needed another volunteer, and everyone told me to get up there (I have fine hair and it was LONG back then). Okay, so I get up and stand on the machine, my hair was long enough that I could see it in my peripheral vision. Then the teacher (best teacher I ever had!!) told me to step down. Knowing that as soon as I step down I would complete the electric circuit and get a shock, I decided to ground myself through my teacher's shoulder :), well I am taller than my teacher as it is, and I did not realize that the 'charge' could travel through air I inadvertently discharged the electicity to my teacher's face. He yelled and jumped away (from the shock, not pain) The class said the discharge was 10 cm long. The next class our teacher had checked with a fellow science teacher, and he informed us that each 1 cm of spark represents 12,000 volts...and he also informed us that it is the wattage, not the voltage that can kill you. That means I put 120,000 volts of electricity right to my teacher's face!!! Move over, Electro, there's a new kid in town :)

Austin R.I.P.