Saturday, 30 May 2009
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I'm Only Telling This to YOU
You know, Mrs. Mok, this is probably the best Featured Question I've seen since the last one I answered, and I forget what that was. But just between you and me - and the nosy readers who don't think should be between just you and me.
What is the latest you have ever stayed up? Why were you up so late?
I do remember that time in my life when I stayed up horrendously late, for a good cause: GRADES.
By nature, I am a serious night owl. College, that nourishing mother responsible for teaching essential life skills - such as time management, prioritizing, and don't eat the same thing everyday for a month - did little for me but take more money from me than I thought I had, and enable me to stay up ridiculously late for no other reason than because I didn't have parents to make me sleep at a decent time, every night. That, and I played a lot of Counterstrike, Quake, and The Sims. But I blame school, nonetheless. This is America, you know; it's always someone else's fault.
The latest I have ever stayed up was all.night.long. Yeah, let the afformentioned nosy readers and Xanga censorship committee assume that this is some PG-13 scandal I'm talking about, but WE know they're wrong. I'm talking about something entirely academic. Law school, in fact, where education meets bad judgment. Just ask a lawyer. On one particular night during my second year in law school, I spent nearly all day writing an appellate brief. Yeah, don't worry about that is. Just think of it as hell-on-paper, with a system of citation that only makes sense to Harvard students and other elites who made the system in the first place. You may scold me for waiting so long to start, but just remember that I was in my early twenties with much less maturity than I have now (so you can imagine how little maturity that must have been). I tried, though; I skipped all of my classes to work on it. A more diligent student would have had plenty of time, even after procrastinating, but not me. I had food to eat; naps to take; Dexter's Laboratory to watch; and blogs to write, since I was new to Xanga, back then.
Sometime around 3am, I was wide-awake, full from eating a box of Ho-Hos (har har) and drinking several twenty ounce bottles of Mountain Dew. I started hate my life. The fake case I had to argue wasn't that good, anyway. I didn't really care about I could find some laws to absolve little Jimmy Suarez from going to jail after skipping school to sell drugs in a jurisdiction that had strict laws against truancy... and selling drugs. Luckily, there's a point during one's hurtling toward exhaustion that genius occurs. And for me, that "genius" was asking myself "What would Denny Crane do?" [William Shatner's character on Boston Legal, of course]. Then I remembered that he had been sufficiently roughed up by the interrogating officers, so maybe his confession could be suppressed, and he'd be free and back on the streets in NO TIME. Just doing my job, you know. I don't remember what I decided, but it was probably semi-underhanded.. It was just a paper, and not my real life.
And then came the bad decision-making (you know, aside from procrastion, Ho-Hos, Mountain Dew, napping, and Cartoon Network). A smart person would have finished the paper and emailed it, and realized s/he would be worthless to the world while being so sleep-deprived. However, I went to classes, anyway, and not the class for which the paper was due. No, I brought my A-game, and went to the other ones, just to go, because I was (not) thinking, much like a drunk guy on his birthday, you know. That, and I wanted to feel like a trooper. Bragging rights are serious business. Not that I was ever a drunk guy making bad decisions on his birthday, of course. But I can imagine. I probably fell asleep a few times in class. I don't remember, but I vaguely remember something about being able to adopt one's spouse for estate planning purposes. Intriguing, no? No, not really. You're right.
So, instead of going out that night, I just slept and missed a few of the season finales I really intended to watch that night. Sweet. Never again, Mrs. Mok. Never, ever again.
TheBigShowAtUD©
I just answered this Featured Question because Mrs. Mok wrote it; you can answer it too, but don't copy mine, or ELSE!
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Comments (75)
i really hate all nighters for papers. so much. i once stayed up all night to work on this stupid wildflower project for biology. turns out, i didn't even need to work so hard because the teacher just gave me full credit because i got sent to a "behavioral treatment facility". what the...? haha, gotta love that teacher, though.
oh, and ho-hos, ftw :D
Sleep?
That's that thing other people do...
@Drakonskyr - I've felt that way many times. Cool pic btw gotta James Darren look goin.
Haha. Oh I've had SO many of those nights. So many. Yet, never really missed a class. And many people told me I WASN'T a procrastinator but... if I wasn't, then why did I have to stay up so late to get stuff finished? Oh yeah... the OTHER P word. Perfectionist. Ha!
Too bad my perfection was often not A worthy. But often was A worthy. You know, depending on the class. And depending on how much I cared.
@Made2sing4Jesus - hey, there's no ignoring me. c'mon, now. i saw that.
I really, really don't miss college. Nor do I envy your going to law school. Better you than me my friend!
School, sick kids, drunken reverie.... been there and done that for lack of sleep. Sorry I was so nosy as to come by and comment. I won't do it again.
I have ended up staying up late a few times because of school, but I was so worked up over the actual paper, I could barely function.
I think those are the only times when I pull all nighters -- writing papers, or just plain procrastinating on an assignment that was given days ago. =/
Denny Crane...James T. Kirk. Yeesh! I just saw the new Star Trek movie, which, of course, had me thinking of Shatner the whole time.
Off-topic, I know. Sorry. Carry on!
Aww. I did that once. Or twice. Maybe more. Except not for law school. It was for... English. Because I was trying to impress my British Lit teacher who wasn't impressed with my facebook-ing habits during her class. Damn my life.
wow... has it relieved you to get that story off your chest?
..... oh. and it's the weekend.. nice picture.
What are these Ho-Ho's you speak of? I'm intrigued. Denny Crane always knows best.
Hey, Dexter's Laboratory was always a priority of mine back in those days.
The only all nighter I pulled was... in 8th grade, lol. We had to create our own interpretation of medieval art. I chose a rose window (I think one that's in Chartres) and used black paper, a whole heap of colored cellophane, plenty of tape and a nifty little exacto knife. I think I still have it saved some where because it literally took me all night. And yes, I got an "A".
OMG The Sims! I haven't played that in forever.
And a lot of the "best" students I know (some of whom are also some of the smartest people I know) are the worst procrastinators. Go figure.
Eh. Who needs sleep, anyway?
All-nighters suck! Especially when you pull two in a row. I haven't done that since undergrad.
P.S. I love the Sims. Do you still play?
Oh man, Smith. You're hardcore. One whole night, eh? I've done that only once this school year... I, being a great procrastinator, left a rather large assignment until last minute. So I stayed up all night doing that. Although I wasn't all that tired, I made the horrible decision to drink a couple large energy drinks in one sitting. Although I was wide awake, the result was my hands shaking uncontrolably. I didn't really think it was that bad, until I tried to eat lunch and I couldn't hold my fork because they were shaking so bad. Yeahhh... bad idea. Especially since I had been off of caffeine for quite some time before that. My caffeine-deprived body couldn't take the large amounts of that crap. Ooopsy.
But, the longest I ever stayed up was 3 days in a row. No caffeine at all that time either, which actually, I think, made it easier.
and to think I was hoping to get a little BigShow Scandal stories... You disappointed me... Just go ahead and give it a Xanga-readers-M, and tell the real stories. Do it...
@Kontzicles - hey, it's still the weekend. i said before the weekend is over. c'mon, now. you're just nervously excited...
I never stay up all night writing papers. All-nighters are reserved for finals only. Cartoon network, huh?
Interesting.... You really stayed up that long?..... That's a long time to stay up...
:) I am not deterred from your horror stories. You wait two years. I will be complaining heavily to you then, but I will still not be deterred. BTW, Boston Legal was on wayyyyy wayyyy wayyy back then? :) Thanks for your advice though, Matthew.