I eventually hit a wall with both ordinary differential equations and vector calculus[1], which forced me to switch from Physics to CS.

1: And I thought vector calculus was the coolest thing ever; you can use Gauss's theorem to derive Archimedes's Principle from integrating the partial-pressures over an arbitrary shape, which is one of the most elegant things I've ever seen.

Some of it was diagnosed ADHD (I was on Ritalin; I couldn't tell the difference, but my mom said it was huge; on almost every day I forgot to take it she would get a call from the school about my behavior), but much of it is something I still can't explain to this day.

I was a voracious reader, but if the book was assigned for school, I wouldn't read it.

Science was usually my best subject, but my personality clashed with my 5th grade teacher, so I spent one quarter of 5th grade just not doing it at all. As in when it was time for science, I read a book I had brought from home instead of participating. I did absolutely no work. I didn't even turn in the homework and I handed in blank pages for the in-class work. I received a D (the lowest passing grade) for that quarter, which rather confused me.

For 7th grade, I tested into Algebra, but at the time a teacher recommendation was also needed, and my 6th grade teacher declined to do so. I got a D in pre-algebra, with a B+ test-average being pulled down by my homework (or lack of it). I did however teach myself lock raking with a 5-pin lock that was on the file-cabinet in the back of the class.

I had the flu when I took the SATs so got what was (for me) a poor score. My guidance counselor told me that there was no need to retake, as no schools that wanted a higher SAT would take me with my GPA as low as it was.

It took me 11 semesters and two summer sessions to finish college with a 2.2 GPA.

It was trivial to show she had plagiarized every single essay she wrote (just put any unusual sounding sentence in google with double quotes around it), and her English teacher said roughly: "Yeah, lots of kids are doing that these days, nothing we can do about it"

For knocking, a heuristic for how many turns vs. amount of deadwood (which should vary based on the undercut bonus you use) does "okay"; adding a bit of randomness should be done to prevent stronger players from being able to place a lower-bounds on your count may be a good idea.

I didn't want to do that, but not being able to text also amounted to social exclusion, so I got them each a jmp.chat line and they could send and receive texts from the family computer.

Haven't had to do it for my youngest kid yet as the age that her friends are getting cell phones is much older (she's in 7th and less than half of her friends have a phone on them at all times -- though many have a phone to take when they e.g. go on bike rides).

> But any instrument that’s not the piano or guitar can actually make micro-adjustments while playing a song

You can make micro adjustments on a guitar, but only to be sharper[1]

> But for now, one obvious advantage is that this allows us to do “real” glissandos, where the pitch smoothly transitions from one note to another

For a famous example of a "fake" glissando, the opening clarinet solo of Rhapsody in Blue, which, as typically performed, is rather smooth from D5 to C6[2]

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_bending

2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykFWUEHhkMw

I salute you sir. Did you have a better solution for later versions?