4th Grade Me

AS I was rummaging through my school stuff from forever ago, I found my 4th grade PACE (the gifted and talented program) binder underneath a heap of loose papers and pencils, amongst... other things. My thoughts:

RIGHT off the bat, the front cover of the binder is bent horribly out of shape, and the crease is still there. Scrawled onto the front cover (presumably before it was bent) in my (surprisingly legible) 4th grade handwriting, it says, "P A C E," circled in very faint pencil. Right beneath that, in the dead center of the cover, is a random rectangle (quite exact, I probably traced something when I was bored in class) with curved corners (also presumably drawn/traced before the "bend"). In the top left hand corner is my name, this time in Sharpie... Might I note that the way I wrote my name back then is the same way I wrote my name last year. (-_-) There are some other random pencil markings on the front, but now for the.... WAIT. I just found my name (again) written in barely distinguishable pencil in the top right hand corner. I don't know why I wrote my name there, and then again in the other corner (probably because... no, I don't have a clue), but I did. DEAL WITH IT.

NOW, for the inside of the binder. I am met with a (very Illuminati-esque) drawing/sketch/something-very-ugly on half a sheet of green construction paper. Y'know what, I'll take a picture of it:

YEAH, I'll let you decide for yourself what it is. My interpretation of it is that someone else in the class  taught me how to draw cubes, and I just went crazy with it. I DON'T EVEN KNOW. (-_-)

NEXT up, a worksheet titled Science "Fiction" Can Become Science "Fact" (all in horribly ugly Comic Sans, might I add). 20,000 Leagues, Jules Verne, 1870, yadayadayadaydadaya. The excerpt is about how the captain of the Nautilus got electricity, not unlike how we get it today. Note that basically EVERYTHING is highlighted. NEXT PAGE

THERE'S a page with a black and white image titled "Pranav's Constellation" with a bunch of white stars everywhere, all labeled with something that applied to me (in one way or another):

Family; Mom and Dad; Video Games (the only one that was printed, the rest were pencilled in); Life; Argue in the Supreme Court; Chess; My Dream House; Education. Interesting list, considering that this was 4 years ago. 

OOOOH, AN INTERESTING ONE THIS TIME. "Characteristics of an Effective Leader" is the title of this worksheet, and it lists about 20 characteristics, asking me to rank my top 5 most important characteristics of a leader. Here are all the options: Ambitious, Honest, Broadminded, Imaginative, Caring, Independent, Competent, Inspiring, Courageous, Intelligent, Dependable, Loyal, Determined, Mature, Fair-Minded, Self-Controlled, Forward-Looking, Straightforward, Supportive. Each adjective has a brief list of synonyms to help my 4th-grade self comprehend such big words (not that I needed them, mind you).

My 4th grade list: 1. Ambitious (hardworking, aspiring), 2. Honest (truthful, has integrity, trustworthy, has character), 3. Caring (sensitive, appreciative, concerned, loving), 4. Intelligent (bright, thoughtful, intellectual, reflective, logical), 5. Mature (experienced, wise, has depth). 

My 8th grade list: 1. Competent (capable, productive, effective, efficient, thorough), 2. Broadminded (open-minded, flexible, receptive), 3. Dependable (reliable, conscientious, responsible), 4. Supportive (understanding, helpful), 5. Forward-Looking (visionary, foresighted, concerned about the future, sense of direction). 

I find it interesting how my list changed over time from things concerning how the leader IS to how the leader INTERACTS with others.

NEXT PAGE: Robotic type stuff. There's a calendar with everything we needed to do and when we needed to do it... basic stuff.

ON the following page are "Uses of Robots". I didn't do anything on the front, but on the back is a list of industries in which I was interested in applying robotics to. Medicine, Military, Household, Space (with a star next to it), Mining, Polar, Volcanoes, Search & Rescue, Chemical & Nuclear, Underwater/Oceanic. I remember that I wanted to do space, but my other group members, (we'll call them Anne and Dave) convinced me that military would be better. In hindsight, I think space would've been better because our military project was really lame, compared to MK's space project (which was EPIC, with a GAZILLION TURNS AND MANEUVERS). (-_-) whatever.

NEXT page, more boring planning/rubric type stuff for the robot project.

The following page is a completely highlighted page of AI Information. At the top, I just wrote out the alphabet (a b c d... CUZ WHY NOT?) and then on the back is an interesting diagram that I drew about the relationship between  "nearalogists" (neurologists) and scientists, with a bunch of indecipherable arrows pointing every which way. 

NOW, there is a manilla divider labeled "MM" for who knows what. Inside is a really complicated looking logic puzzle made up of 4x4 squares. Imagine a 3x3 grid, but each square in that 3x3 grid is also a 4x4 grid. Confused yet? Well you will be now... now take away the center, middle-right, and bottom-right square from the 3x3 grid. BOOM. That's what this logic puzzle looks like. It looks really complicated, but somehow I managed to get a 3 on a scale of 4 on the assignment. (-_-) That's technically a 75.

NEXT page... another worksheet, this time where there are a series of numbers and you have to put in an arithmetic sign to make the equation equal to the number at the end. For example, one of the problems is:

6 4 1 2 6 2 = 15

Answer: 6+4-1+2+6-2=15

Basic stuff. 

OK, so this next page is kind of (really) HILARIOUS. I dunno why, but whenever I tried to name something, or give it a tagline, I tried to alliterate it as best I could. This next page is about marketing a product. Firstly, at the top, I had to market a product that I came up with... I came up with...  wait for it.... "THE ROMANIAN RACER". (-_-) There's a really sad drawing of what appears to be a drag racer (I think that's what it's called), and around the car are some phrases: "AWESOME MPG!" and "THE FASTEST CAR AROUND!" On top of this, in the bottom right corner, in a speech bubble (the source of which is off the page) it says, "I WANT THAT CAR!"

NOW onto the good part of this page: the worksheet asks the following: 

"What would be a good 'sales pitch' for each of these products? For each product, tell what quality or benefit you would stress when designing an advertising campaign."

Here's what I came up with (the quality first, then the sales pitch):

Bread: fat free; Light Loaf is Bright!

Two things: 1) if someone is going to eat bread, they're probably not going to care whether it's fat-free or not, because if they DID care about that kind of thing, then they would be health-conscious, and then they most likely would NOT be eating bread. 2) WTF IS LIGHT LOAF?!?!?!

Margarine: non-hydrogenated oils; Better Butter is Better!

Two things: 1) the "good quality" would actually be a good thing if it were in margarine. And 2) About the tagline... actually, the tagline is PURE GOLD. 

Soda Pop: diet; Dashing Drink Makes You Dash!

1) IS IT SODA OR POP? MAKE UP YOUR MIND, WORKSHEET?!?!?!?!

2) Diet soda/pop would actually be a bad thing cuz artificial stuff and other things.

3) With "Dashing Drink" am I saying that the drink is handsome/good looking? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!?!?!?!

Automobile: high MPG; Romanian Racer, it Rocks!

1) I think Greg (one of my friends who's Romanian) was in my PACE class or something, WHY WAS I SO OBSESSED WITH ROMANIA?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!(I'm genuinely concerned at the amount of interrobangs in this post)?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Not that that's a bad thing. (-_-)

2) If I did this kind of thing today, instead of "high MPG", I would probably put "200 MILE RANGE!" because it would probably be an electric car... oh, how times change.

Rock Group: free food; Crazy Rockers, We're Crazy About Music!

1) Wouldn't free food be up to the venue, not the performers? I'm just sayin'.....

2) Free food... I agree with my 4th-grade self... Mmmmmmmm, free food = good.

Banana: doesn't easily get bruised; Fresh Bananas, Perfectly Yellow!

Uhhhhhhhh..... "Perfectly Yellow".... HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!

Sweat Shirt: elastic; Stretchy Sale, the Elastic Shirts' Top Seller!

1) Can sweat shirts even be elastic?

2) WHAT DOES THAT SALES PITCH EVEN MEAN?!?!?!??!?!

Cereal: whole grain; Whole Grain Wonders, Makes You Wonder How We Made It

1) Finally, a legitimate claim, whole grain.

2) "MAKES YOU WONDER HOW WE MADE IT"?!?! WAS MY 4TH GRADE SELF THAT BAD AT MARKETING?!?!?! NOT KNOWING HOW SOMETHING IS MADE IS NEVER A GOOD THING (unless you agree with the saying "Ignorance is bliss," but even then)! THAT SALES PITCH IS JUST CREEPY!

Magazine: recycled paper; Cool Cars, the Best Magazine!

Pranav, just saying that your product is the best isn't marketing... it's false-advertising.

AND that's the end of that... worksheet.

ANOTHER palindrome paper, yadayadaya, another "Fill in the blank with arithmetic operations" worksheet, something about "Houdini's Hidden Letters", another (less complicated) logic puzzle.

OH, here's something interesting... on the worksheet where we had to brainstorm environment for our robot and what its task would be in that environment, half the time I just said, "Gather data." I like the way you think, 4th-grade-Me. I like the way you think.

AND at the very back is a letter to the principal (IN CURSIVE, I MIGHT ADD!) about how we should have electric whiteboards that would save whatever was written on them to the computer, and I quote, "because people have so many brilliant ideas which have to be erased and lost forever." That's not necessarily true though... there's the memory, and if that idea is particularly outstanding, brilliant, and/or creative, then people will remember, and it won't be lost. Also, there are books, movies, blogs, paintings, sketches, and blueprints chock full of ideas that people didn't want to forget. They penned it, or drew it, or put it to memory, and that memory is now preserved indefinitely.

Hopefully like my 4th grade self is...

--PRANAV