April 27

JOURNAL TOPIC: How did you use your time off this week to your advantage?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Whatever helps you with the AP exam and demonstrating your mastery of this course's curriculum in general.

HW:
1. Continue your exam study plan and post to your blog about your progress at least once this weekend (extra credit for each additional post).
2. Post 1-3 paragraphs to your blog (title: "A Reflection on Unstructured Learning") in which you explain the theme(s) of the following text.  (We will discuss on Monday.)

From the moment that I decided somewhere deep inside myself that I wanted to try my hand at being a costumed adventurer, to the moment I first stepped out into the night with a mask on my face and the wind on my bare legs, took about three months.  Three months of self-doubt and self-ridicule.  Three months figuring out how the hell I was going to make myself a costume.

The costume was difficult, because I couldn't start designing it until I'd thought of a name.  This stumped me for a couple of weeks, because every name I came up with sounded stupid, and what I really wanted was something with the same sense of drama and excitement as "Hooded Justice."

Eventually, a suitable handle was provided inadvertently by one of the other cops that I worked with down at the station house.  He'd invited me out for a beer after work two or three times only to be turned down because I wanted to spend as much of my evenings working out in the Police Gymnasiums as possible, after which I'd usually go to bed around nine o'clock and sleep through until five the next morning, when I'd get up and put in a couple of hours workout before donning my badge and uniform in readiness for my day job.  After having his offer of beer and relaxation turned down yet again by reason of me wanting to be in bed early, he finally gave up asking and took to calling me "Nite Owl" out of sarcasm until he finally found somebody else to drink with.

"Nite Owl."  I liked it.  Now all I had to come up with was the costume.

-Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, The Watchmen