step 4... profit?
Sometime during my early secondary school years we were taken on a field trip by the history department to look at some castle (no idea which one) and given a fact sheet that we had to fill out as we studiously went around the castle (read: ran about like lunatics hopped up on sugar and e-numbers).

in preparation for this fantastical outing we had been told to bring along a clipboard/folder of some description so we had something to lean on whilst we wrote down our answers to the questions on the fact sheet. the only thing remotely similiar to a clipboard that i owned was a rather smart looking presentation binder my dad had given me containing all of the genealogical facts he'd dug up about our family tree over many many years from photos, birth/death certificates and those organisation chart type diagrams all the way through to press clippings from newspaper archives all meticulously catalogued and indexed in a way that only a history buff with way too much free time on his hands could do so. so i thought 'meh this'll do' and took it along.

At some point during the day my history teacher had seen my fancypants binder and duly complimented me upon its smart appearance. 'thats nothing' says I and proceed to show him all the stuff inside (focusing mainly on the famous boxer peddlar palmer who killed a man on a train for refusing to stop singing www.worldboxingfoundation.com/wbf/?page_id=83 a sentiment i often have towards the james blunts who have their ipods up too loud on my train to work of a morning). he seemed really impressed by it all and once i'd finished my tale off i ran to go and cause some more havoc with my peers. the rest of the day was spent dossing about enjoying the sunshine in the field outside the castles walls.

Fast forward a few weeks to the monthly assembly for the whole of our year wherein they announce they're going to be awarding prizes for the best factsheets from the history trip, recognising those students who's efforts went above and beyond what was required of them and showed a real dedication to history and schoolwork in general. yawn goes i and mentally switch off.

but would you believe it they called my name out, which came as a bit of a surprise to me I can tell you... I hadn't even handed my fact-sheet in on the trip (i was a notorious homework dodger). apparently the teacher had assumed I'd dug up all the family tree info myself and had put me in as a special mention and I was given a commendation from the headmaster himself as a result.

still I kept schtum. the prize was a £25 book token and that bought a lot of graphic novels back then.
( HatBeard, Thu 13 Aug 2009, 16:21, 3 replies)

ahhhh... another 'notrorious homework dodger'.
I lost my chemistry exercise book pretty much weekly for nearly two years, its not even a good excuse. Yet Dr P who taught us for the time never did anything worse than roll his eyes and give me a new one.
(Shifty weeeee, Thu 13 Aug 2009, 16:51, closed)

Graphic novels eh...
Is that just kidspeak for "Porn"?
( unsey a frizzy haired fruit since, Fri 14 Aug 2009, 13:56, closed)

Comics.
a.k.a "Sequential Art".
(Scritty Bakerman., Sat 15 Aug 2009, 8:47, closed)