Geeky High School Photo Meme

[drscott]

OK, since dakoopst opened Pandora's box and I already have my memento file opened, here's my [painfully geeky] contribution. The photo was taken for a student newspaper story about my unprecedented run of perfect math test scores; 3/4 of the way through the year, I had never missed a point in the Algebra II (UICSM - advanced) class. Embarrassing interview with my teacher, Merlin Baker (whose name seems to have given him a head start in geekness), citations of how rare my intellect is, glowing praise from this and that quarter. They did not mention that I had yet to get laid. :-)

This story was a real jinx. Only a few weeks later, I bobbled a matrix multiplication. How ignominious.

Re the photo itself, I took the photographer to the lab box [tiny office between classrooms where the chemicals and apparatus were stored; my little clique were lab assistants for credit] and put together a few pieces of equipment which did nothing, then pretended to adjust something [nothing to adjust, you'll note] while he took the picture. Note my pride and joy, the HP 45 calculator ($400 pre-inflation) -- my crush object and friend Tim had gotten an HP 35 for his birthday, so I one-upped him. My program buffer was bigger!