A confession . . . or two

So, I have something else to blame on a brother . . . a new addiction.

It's one of those stupid Facebook games that I swore off more than a year ago, when I gave up Mafia Wars. But then he invited me to play Battle Pirates, I thought I'd take a quick look and now I just can't wait to expand my island, build more oil platforms, plunder the Draconians and collect my booty. Good lord, that's pathetic. And it's all JackSparrow's fault. That's his pirate name. Mine's CaptainCrunch. 

Pathetic.

So, I was confessing this to my wife this morning . . . excuse me, must go repair my fleet.

So yeah, we were talking about this game and how it was similar to an educational game back in high school in Geography class.

And that reminded me of an amusing little story, involving geography and high school. And I guess I should explain that I went to a Mennonite High School, though I am not Mennonite. That's a story for another time.

But this school had a dress code. Blue corduroy pants and shirts with no letters or numbers. The school had a lot of other silly little codes, but, again, that's a story for another time.

I forget if it was Grade 9 or Grade 10 Geography, but it was exam time. And somehow I got the impression that the dress code was a little relaxed for the exam hall. So, being the wild and crazy guy that I am, I wore my t-shirt with the number 32 on it. Crazy rebellious hellion.

Now, there was a prissy little teacher that had been dubbed "Sister Jim" by the students. Sister Jim didn't like me much. Not sure why. 

But Sister Jim took great pride and pleasure in "catching" me in my flagrant disregard for the rules of good behaviour. I wasn't too difficult to catch. I was just kinda standing there, waiting to go into the exam hall to write my geography final. But you'd think he'd captured Osama Bin Laden. Or, at the time I guess, John Hinckley Jr.

Anyhoo, he told me to stay put and pranced off to conference with another teacher or two . . . just a sec. Gotta go attack a Level 4 Draconian Cargo Ship. Pathetic.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Sister Jim.

So, apparently after the Nuremberg court met to decide my fate, it fell to Sister Jim to deliver the bad news. Which he did with a smug little smile on his face.

And it had been decided I would NOT be allowed to write my exam in the exam hall (gymnasium). Instead, I would have to write it, all alone, in one of the classrooms. I was marched down to an empty classroom, told to sit down, was handed my exam and I was left to write.

Now, I should point out that a major portion of this particular exam involved remembering where a lot of the world's countries were located. I was provided with a blank map showing only the shapes of the countries. I had to fill in the names. It was a part of the exam that I was dreading. I wasn't very good at meaningless memorization.

I looked at the blank sheet, sighed, shook my head and then looked up . . . at the gigantic map of the world, in front of me, on the classroom wall. It had all the names.

I did very well on that part of the exam.

Have a great Monday!