burning down neverland

one of those spontaneous and weird ideas you think of and you can't believe you end up following through with.

for those of you who don't know, me and matthew chao are taking the same statics class at rutgers on tuesday and thursday, and we have calc class at the same time monday-thursday, so we get a good amount of hanging out and studying done.

this tuesday that just passed, me and mr. matthew went to good ol' SERC to work on statics homework, due that same day. our statics classroom is in 205, except neither me nor matthew like sitting in the desk/chair things that they have in that classroom. they're uncomfortable, have limited desk space, and don't allow interaction with other people. however, the room right next to it, 206, had the glorious long tables with cushy armrest chairs. we were both fans of these comfy chairs and long tables, which encouraged group work. clearly, this was the better option, and we settled down here.

this is matthew chao, electrical engineer OF THE FUTURE! (ha, look at that geeky shirt.)

while working on statics, as seen above, i had an idea. here is the conversation*.

me: hey matthew, i wish we had these tables and chairs in our statics class.
matthew: yeah.
me: the desks we have are so uncomfortable!
matthew: i guess so.
me: you know.. we should move all these tables and chairs over to our statics room!
matthew: yeah.
me: people would be more comfortable, and it encourages group interaction!
matthew: i guess so.
me: wow, do you think we could do it?!
matthew: yeah.
me: haha that'd be crazy, OKAY LET'S DO IT.
matthew: i guess so.

*i don't remember exactly what matthew said, and i don't want to quote him saying something he didn't, so i took the liberty of just making up stuff.

it was one of those things that i said out loud because it popped into my mind, but i didn't think i would actually go through with. never before has someone taken so excitedly to one of these ideas of mine as matthew did that day, which really got me excited for this endeavour. it quickly went from a funny hypothetical situation to seriously considering and planning out how to go about it, and if we would get caught, and such. we began by making time estimates on how long it would take. matthew said ten minutes. i said thirty minutes. oh, we were so wrong.

to start, we stacked the desk-chairs into piles of 4-5, and carried them over together. we decided we would start by moving the desk-chairs in 205 (our statics classroom with the annoying desks) over to 206.

halfway through the moving, we realized that the number of seats in the two classrooms differed quite a bit. 205 had 58 desk-chairs, but 206 only had 39 seats. uh oh. we stood there. we contemplated it. does our statics class have that many people..? we realized it was too late to back out. ONWARDS.

after we moved all 58 chairs over to 206 and left them there in stacks, we began the task of moving the 20ish tables from 206 to 205. one by one. one by one. man, walking backwards is so annoying, especially in sandals, as we both were.

this was around the halfway point, and all this lifting and moving was actually really tiring. we definitely underestimated this whole ordeal. we underestimated the scope of it, the work required, and how unfun it would actually be moving all those darned chairs and desks. regardless, we had to press on.

after all the tables were moved over, we stacked all the chairs from 206 and carried those over to 205 as well.

fast foward a bit. and.. FINALLY. everything was where it was supposed to be, except the desks and chairs were in stacks. it was the final stretch where we unstacked them and put them in rows or behind tables where they belonged.

the whole thing took an hour+, and after it was over, it was such a relief. high fives were exchanged. grins were worn. hug was given. :]

i only took a few pics, because there wasn't much to see. it was just a lot of annoying labor.

but, was it worth it in the end?

mm. yeah.

going to statics class, everyone looked pleasantly surprised and refreshed at the change in seating, although mr. grad student statics teacher dhaval dadia was none too pleased. i think i heard him say "ridiculous!".

i found out we have 37 people in our statics class, and only 39 seats. look how that worked out! definitely the funniest part of that day was when people trickled in late, and each person stood in the middle of the class and had a bewildered look on his/her face when looking around for a seat to sit in. funnnnnny stuff. AND, since one half of the room has seats in rows of 4, we witnessed these two people that arrived early and sat in the MIDDLE two seats, leaving one seat on each side of the pair. WHO DOES THAT?! we called them the awkward sitters. though matthew just likes to use the term "idiots".

i enjoy statics MORE now, and i wish we thought of the idea sooner, but we're only about halfway through the session, so there's still time to enjoy our work. as we were sitting in class, matthew and i both really wanted to tell other people about who moved the desks, but unfortunately, we both didn't know anyone in the class. doh. it's okay. we understand.

and he came over after class.

and we saw transformers 2. :D

[exciting: when i went into clearview cinema 12, they have that little table in the middle of the lobby area that has the popcorn seasoning stuff, and on the table was a full jumbo bucket of popcorn! it must have been a present! i looked around and waited for about a minute to see if it was anyone's or if anyone came to claim it, but no one did, so i took it. i discreetly dumped it all out in a trash can (what do you think i am, gross!?), and got a refill. and we saw transformers.]

what a good day.

[r!r!r]
-when i drive on the highway, my preferred hand positions on the wheel are 3 and 11. i've only formally discovered this recently because of all the driving i had to do for summer classes at rutgers. it just works.
-i went to the hillsong concert in new york in june, and rode the subway for the first time. i think after seeing how gross the standing poles on the subway are, i became more wary of things in public that have been touched by a lot of people and may be really dirty. for example, now whenever i open a door of any kind at school, i try to push/pull on the handle or door only where i think nobody has touched it before.
-when i was younger, i used to hold my nose with my hand and exhale forcefully, to pop my ears if they were ever feeling weird. however, i occasionally did it really forcefully, and at unnecessary times, as well as unnecessarily extended lengths of time. it was probably because i thought it was interesting that the pressure i felt in my head that popped my ears out, i also felt in my tear ducts, as if they were connected somehow (which i now know, are). and thus the story goes.. not too long after, i had a nosebleed. and blood came out of my tear ducts. the end.