Thursday, April 03, 2003
Running Class, wasting time |4:34 PM| It's nearly time to go home.
Almost. I wonder if I can write a story that will not run over the time I have left here, but still take the time allotted.
Did I ever tell you, reader, about the nice thing I once did for a very depressed friend of mine? Judging by the lack of the word "Vince" in my archives, apparently not. I should give some background on Vince, as his high school depression was quite spectacular. When my social group first met him, he was face down in the mud outside one of the dorms. Greg, who in the past I have refferred to as "Triple G" asked him what he was doing. The reply came:
"Waiting to die"
Greg, not wanting to interrupt, replied "Oh" and went lunch. When he came back, Vince was still there. When asked if he was still waiting to die, Vince replied in the affirmative.
Vince didn't wear black, or T-shirts of nihilistic bands. He didn't have to. He emitted angst and depression as a byproduct of functioning, like the drone of a bee's wings, or the smog from a smokestack.
Vince was taking the straight line path, from physics lab to mailboxes. I wanted to beat him there, but not be seen. I casually picked up conversation with the physics teacher as I walked towards the door, while Vince was still walking down the hall. When I thought he was out of normal hearing range, (Halfway down the hall) I ran for the door. The above grey path shows my projected course outside, and around the building. Now, not only did I have to beat him to the mailboxes (He had a hell of a headstart) I had to REALLY beat him to location 2, that stairwell. He'd be coming up the stairs, and looking right out the big windows (Marked in yellow) to where I was running. The whole thing was blown if he saw me sprinting by.
I was throwing all my energy into that first sprint, the sprint before those windows. Arms pumping, legs churning, tie flapping in the wind I was creating, I was putting all my track training to use, but wearing dress shoes.
I flew into the admin area with as much subtely as a rhino escaping a plastic wading pool. I realize that I had no idea what Vince's mailbox number was, after a few precious seconds searching the directory, I slammed the note into his mailbox, and took off the way I came. Again, I had to make sure he didn't see me through any of the windows, and get back the lab. Arriving there, I spent a few moments calming my racing heart, and my breathing. Back to studying I went.
Vince walks in, noticably straighter, walks over to me, and neatly fits the note's tear against its remnants in my notebook. Scrawled across it is "Everyone loves you Vince."
Vince: "It first occurred to me that you must have time travelled. Or that you ran really, really fast. Thank you."
He acted a lot more chipper the rest of the day, and he still sometimes brings it up. I feel glad I got that chance.
I finished the diagram at work, and much of the writing, but I still had to finish it up when I got home. Dammit! If I hadn't been doing my job!
Running Class, wasting time |4:34 PM| It's nearly time to go home.
Almost. I wonder if I can write a story that will not run over the time I have left here, but still take the time allotted.
Did I ever tell you, reader, about the nice thing I once did for a very depressed friend of mine? Judging by the lack of the word "Vince" in my archives, apparently not. I should give some background on Vince, as his high school depression was quite spectacular. When my social group first met him, he was face down in the mud outside one of the dorms. Greg, who in the past I have refferred to as "Triple G" asked him what he was doing. The reply came:
"Waiting to die"
Greg, not wanting to interrupt, replied "Oh" and went lunch. When he came back, Vince was still there. When asked if he was still waiting to die, Vince replied in the affirmative.
Vince didn't wear black, or T-shirts of nihilistic bands. He didn't have to. He emitted angst and depression as a byproduct of functioning, like the drone of a bee's wings, or the smog from a smokestack.
Our social group would hang out in the physics lab, usually. To be studying or playing games, what have you. At one point, it is the physics teacher, Vince, and myself, in the lab. Vinces gets up from his work, and says "I'm going to go check my mailbox, and see if anyone loves me." And angst'd his way down the hall. Shoulders hunched, and not picking up his feet, he wasn't going very fast. On a whim, I scribbled out a note on a bit of paper from my notebook, and went to the door of the lab.
Here is the important diagram.
 | Key:
1. The physics lab 2. The stairwell from locker area to admin area 3. Mailboxes. (...be my destination) 4. A guy. To show scale. 5. (Unmarked) that grey line is a the path. |
Vince was taking the straight line path, from physics lab to mailboxes. I wanted to beat him there, but not be seen. I casually picked up conversation with the physics teacher as I walked towards the door, while Vince was still walking down the hall. When I thought he was out of normal hearing range, (Halfway down the hall) I ran for the door. The above grey path shows my projected course outside, and around the building. Now, not only did I have to beat him to the mailboxes (He had a hell of a headstart) I had to REALLY beat him to location 2, that stairwell. He'd be coming up the stairs, and looking right out the big windows (Marked in yellow) to where I was running. The whole thing was blown if he saw me sprinting by.
I was throwing all my energy into that first sprint, the sprint before those windows. Arms pumping, legs churning, tie flapping in the wind I was creating, I was putting all my track training to use, but wearing dress shoes.
I flew into the admin area with as much subtely as a rhino escaping a plastic wading pool. I realize that I had no idea what Vince's mailbox number was, after a few precious seconds searching the directory, I slammed the note into his mailbox, and took off the way I came. Again, I had to make sure he didn't see me through any of the windows, and get back the lab. Arriving there, I spent a few moments calming my racing heart, and my breathing. Back to studying I went.
Vince walks in, noticably straighter, walks over to me, and neatly fits the note's tear against its remnants in my notebook. Scrawled across it is "Everyone loves you Vince."
Vince: "It first occurred to me that you must have time travelled. Or that you ran really, really fast. Thank you."
He acted a lot more chipper the rest of the day, and he still sometimes brings it up. I feel glad I got that chance.
I finished the diagram at work, and much of the writing, but I still had to finish it up when I got home. Dammit! If I hadn't been doing my job!
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We need one created for the years, and then the months. The months are the /////tricky ones, since they need their ID to increase more than the years, but since the functions keep referencing ///// the same name system, we have to be careful not to make the years close up when we click on a month. ///Set some Variables $YearMenuID = 1; /////What ID the preceding year link controls. Needs to be same for all the months under a given year. $MonthMenuID= 1; ////What ID the preceding month link controls. Needs to be the same for all the weeks under a given ////Month but not the same as any year, etc. $LastYearUsed = 0; $LastMonthUsed = 0; echo '
';
//That should close up the previous year.
///Say this is the swap from 2001 to 2002, that should close up the 2001 links.
///Problem is, we also need to close up the final month links too.
/// echo '07/15/2001", "07/29/2001", "08/12/2001", "08/19/2001", "08/26/2001", "09/23/2001", "09/30/2001", "10/07/2001", "10/14/2001", "10/21/2001", "10/28/2001", "11/04/2001", "11/11/2001", "11/18/2001", "11/25/2001", "12/02/2001", "12/09/2001", "12/16/2001", "12/23/2001", "12/30/2001", "01/06/2002", "01/13/2002", "01/20/2002", "01/27/2002", "02/03/2002", "02/10/2002", "02/17/2002", "02/24/2002", "03/03/2002", "03/10/2002", "03/17/2002", "03/24/2002", "03/31/2002", "04/07/2002", "04/14/2002", "04/21/2002", "04/28/2002", "05/05/2002", "05/12/2002", "05/19/2002", "05/26/2002", "06/02/2002", "06/09/2002", "06/16/2002", "06/23/2002", "06/30/2002", "07/07/2002", "07/14/2002", "07/21/2002", "07/28/2002", "08/04/2002", "08/11/2002", "08/18/2002", "08/25/2002", "09/01/2002", "09/08/2002", "09/15/2002", "09/22/2002", "09/29/2002", "10/06/2002", "10/13/2002", "10/20/2002", "10/27/2002", "11/03/2002", "11/10/2002", "11/17/2002", "11/24/2002", "12/01/2002", "01/05/2003", "01/12/2003", "01/19/2003", "01/26/2003", "02/02/2003", "02/09/2003", "02/16/2003", "02/23/2003", "03/02/2003", "03/09/2003", "03/16/2003", "03/23/2003", "03/30/2003", "04/06/2003", "04/13/2003", "04/20/2003", "04/27/2003", "05/04/2003", "05/11/2003", "05/18/2003", "05/25/2003", "06/01/2003", "06/08/2003", "06/15/2003", "06/22/2003", "06/29/2003", "07/06/2003", "07/13/2003", "07/20/2003", "07/27/2003", "08/03/2003", "08/10/2003", "08/24/2003", "09/07/2003", "09/14/2003", "10/12/2003", "10/19/2003", "10/26/2003", "12/07/2003", "12/14/2003", "12/21/2003", "12/28/2003", "01/11/2004", "01/18/2004", "01/25/2004", "02/01/2004", "02/08/2004", "02/15/2004", "02/22/2004", "02/29/2004", "03/07/2004", "03/14/2004", "03/21/2004", "03/28/2004", "04/04/2004", "04/11/2004", "04/18/2004", "04/25/2004", "05/02/2004", "05/09/2004", "05/16/2004", "05/23/2004", "05/30/2004", "06/06/2004", "06/13/2004", "06/20/2004", "06/27/2004", "07/04/2004", "07/11/2004", "07/18/2004", "07/25/2004", "08/01/2004", "08/08/2004", "08/15/2004", "08/22/2004", "08/29/2004", "09/05/2004", "09/19/2004", "09/26/2004", "10/03/2004", "10/10/2004", "10/17/2004", "10/24/2004", "10/31/2004", "11/07/2004", "11/14/2004", "11/21/2004", "11/28/2004", "12/05/2004", "12/12/2004", "01/16/2005", "01/30/2005", "02/20/2005", "02/27/2005", "03/06/2005", "03/13/2005", "03/27/2005", "04/10/2005", "04/17/2005", "04/24/2005", "05/01/2005", "05/08/2005", "05/15/2005", "05/22/2005", "07/03/2005", "07/10/2005", "07/24/2005", "07/31/2005", "09/18/2005", "12/11/2005", "12/18/2005", "12/25/2005", "01/01/2006", "01/08/2006", "02/26/2006", "03/05/2006", "03/12/2006", "03/19/2006", "03/26/2006", "04/02/2006", "04/09/2006", "04/16/2006", "04/23/2006", "05/28/2006", "10/08/2006", "11/05/2006", "11/12/2006", "11/19/2006", "11/26/2006", "12/10/2006", "12/17/2006", "12/24/2006", "12/31/2006", "01/07/2007", "01/14/2007", "01/21/2007", "01/28/2007", "02/04/2007", "02/11/2007", "02/18/2007", "02/25/2007", "03/04/2007", "03/11/2007", "03/18/2007", "03/25/2007", "04/01/2007", "04/08/2007", "04/15/2007", "04/22/2007", "04/29/2007", "05/06/2007", "05/13/2007", "05/20/2007", "06/03/2007", "06/10/2007", "06/17/2007", "06/24/2007", "07/01/2007", "07/08/2007", "07/15/2007", "07/22/2007", "07/29/2007", "08/05/2007", "08/19/2007", "08/26/2007", "09/02/2007", "09/09/2007", "09/16/2007", "09/30/2007", "10/07/2007", "10/14/2007", "10/21/2007", "10/28/2007", "11/25/2007", "12/02/2007", "12/09/2007", "12/16/2007", "01/13/2008", "01/20/2008", "02/10/2008", "02/17/2008", "03/09/2008", "03/30/2008", "05/11/2008", "05/18/2008", "05/25/2008", "06/01/2008", "06/08/2008", "06/15/2008", "06/22/2008", "06/29/2008", "07/06/2008", "07/13/2008", "07/20/2008", "07/27/2008", "08/10/2008", "11/08/2009", ); //Pulls stuff out from the given string (assuming it is the right length) //51 places in should be the year. function ExtractYear($WholeDateString) { ////String extract the first part, up until 60 $StringYear = substr($WholeDateString, 60); ///extract everything before the _ $StringYear = strtok($StringYear, "_"); return $StringYear; } function ExtractMonth($WholeURlMonth) { /////Extract the month $WholeURlMonth = substr($WholeURlMonth, 65); $WholeURlMonth = strtok($WholeURlMonth, "_"); return $WholeURlMonth; } function ExtractWeek($WholeURLWeek) { /////Extract the week, which will be the title of each link $WholeURLWeek = substr($URLWeek, 81); $WholeURLWeek = strtok($URLWeek, "<"); echo $WholeURLWeek; } $MyDateArray = array('01' => 'January', '02' => 'February', '03' => 'March', '04' => 'April', '05' => 'May', '06' => 'June', '07' => 'July', '08' => 'August', '09' => 'September', '10' => 'October', '11' => 'November', '12' => 'December'); ///Extract ///$StringMonth /////We need to know which DIV we're in. We need one created for the years, and then the months. The months are the /////tricky ones, since they need their ID to increase more than the years, but since the functions keep referencing ///// the same name system, we have to be careful not to make the years close up when we click on a month. ///Set some Variables $YearMenuID = 1; /////What ID the preceding year link controls. Needs to be same for all the months under a given year. $MonthMenuID= 1; ////What ID the preceding month link controls. Needs to be the same for all the weeks under a given ////Month but not the same as any year, etc. $LastYearUsed = 0; $LastMonthUsed = 0; echo '
';
/////That should be the "Year" div. All the years should be in this one DIV.
///Start the main loop.
foreach ($myDateArray as $key => $value) {
////Pulling the year/date.
$month = ExtractMonth($value);
$year = ExtractYear($value);
$YearMenuID = $year;
$MonthMenuID = $month;
$PrettyMonth = $MyDateArray[$month];
////Is this a new year?
If ($year != $LastYearUsed)
///Then we need to put the year down. No DIV created quite yet.
{
///First off, we need to close the preceding year's DIV. Twice if it ain't 2001
if ($year != 2001)
{
echo '
';
}
echo '