There was one time I got annoyed with the preppy kids in high school being jerks to everyone. So I went to this store at the mall with my older sister and bought a can of "fart spray" (it was basically canned sulfur) and took it to school. I found all their lockers and sprayed them all down with the stuff.
Needless to say I got 7 days of in-school detention but when my mom was called to the school, the principal made me wait in the hallway so she could talk with my mom and I overheard the principal laughing hysterically through the door.
Detention was kind of brutal, but I was determined to accept it and take it on. Ha! The detention lady wasn't ready for my stubbornness. She gave me all of my classwork for all my classes from all my teachers for the next full month. There was one problem though.
They f'd up. They locked a medicated kid with ADHD in a room with books and classwork. I hyperfocused my way through it and got all of the classwork done in like 2 days.
The detention lady was extremely upset by this. Especially because I just calmly approached her unaffected by the entire situation and just asked her for more work. She said that I did it all.
Then she got pissed off and slammed one of those giant pink Websters dictionaries on my desk and gave me a fresh blank spiral notebook and 3 pencils. Next she said, "I want you to write every word and its first definition in this dictionary." And then gave me an evil grin. For like .5 seconds I was shocked but then I realized, this is my chance.
I smiled at her and just asked her, "Am I allowed to get up and sharpen my pencil on my own or do I have to ask your permission every time?" She said that was fine.
3.5 days and 1 extra spiral notebook later, I had done it. My arms were blackened by graphite, but I was completely satisfied because I got to see that shocked look on her face. She was in complete and total despair. She took my spiral notebooks and it was in that moment that I knew what I had to do.
She wouldn't be able to resist it if I asked because she so desperately wanted to discipline me. I smugly asked her as she took the notebooks away, "Aren't you going to check my work?"
Edit:
My memory of 20+ years ago isn't so great. I updated some details to make the story more accurate.
Good / funny story, but there is no way you are copying an entire dictionary (even a small one, but you say "giant" here) once, let alone twice, in 3 days and in only two notebooks. Literally impossible.
I had to copy from a dictionary for in school suspension by writing the word and its first definition. I wrote non stop and wasn’t even close to getting through the dictionary.
OP didn't run out of dictionary, they ran out of notebooks.
It did happen but maybe it was just writing them down once? The details are kind of hazy for me to recall now because it was over 20 years ago.
I definitely remember having multiple spiral notebooks with lined paper and i remember just writing the definitions down for literally hours and days on end. And i know for sure it was a large pink Websters dictionary.
After I asked her that last part, she got super pissed and just made me "sit up straight" and stare at the blank white wall for hours as she combed through the spiral notebooks and the dictionary.
I didn't mind that much though. My hands were really sore after all the writing.
Haha yeah not doubting you did something similar, just that the details are off :)
Maybe i should edit the story?
To me the experience is what matters but the comments section seems to think the exact details are really important so I should probably make it more believable even if I can't remember. Otherwise that will get in the way of people enjoying it
There have been a ton of AI-generated stories recently, so a lot of people are on edge I think.
YOU SHALL REWRITE THE WHOLE STORY SO THAT TINIEST BITS OF INFORMATION SHALL BE DISSECTED TO MY LIKING AND BELIEVABLE!!!~s
The Knights Who Say Ni approve of you.
You seem fun
No u
Get a room, you two!
No u
This Reddit after all. I love the experience you relate, and I don't doubt you had that experience. But wonky details cause the story to sound a bit off; in my opinion, it's better to not include details than to include wrong details.
Look up how many words there are in the language buddy
Believe me. I'm intimately aware of how many words there are. lol
[removed]
I mean still an amazing story, but an entire dictionary twice? The Oxford Advanced Learners dictionary contains 145,000 words. Even at, lets say 75,000 words. 3 days means 25,000 words / day. At 10 hours / day thats 2,500 words an hour, or 42 words a minutes. Doubled that makes 84 words a minute. Most people writing at a good pace do 20-25 wpm.
And that's not even including definitions.
Edit: Your image wasn't showing up at first, but you attached a pic of a dictionary with 65,000+ entries, so basically the same, but 22,000 words a day, 2,200 an hour, or 37 wpm.. for all the words only, not doubled, not counting definitions.
If only they had taken a class on math.
My detention story is much simpler. I was told to copy down all the rules of detention class and turn them into the guy. Then do my class homework. I never wrote them down. My homework was my final exams for several classes. The detention person didn't know that so I just opened my books and aced them all.
I got an answer of maybe 7% given very generous assumptions. Likely closer to 3 %. Would take between 50 and a 100 days to complete.
I think the task was to finish a letter, that would be possible. But not twice.
Where does it say twice?
It said twice before it was edited.
Oh, ok. Thanks!
Love me some math's, the only way to fact check further is find the word count of the supposed dictionary. If it's a small small one possibly maybe.
They attached an image... apparently 65k words.. so basically the same math. Lol.. I feel like an honorary member of r/theydidthemath now.
So you’re in your mid-to-late 30’s now with a username that reads MurderManTX…and can’t write the word fart?
Nah. I posted it in a different place and it blocked the story from being posted because of the word so I just did what anyone who is maliciously complying would do and put an asterisk there.
I'll edit it back in if you're so flatulently inclined.
Edit:
There, I put it back in there for you
No, you didn't.
Just the words, not the definitions
Did we read the same post?
[deleted]
Thats true, but someone with ADHD is still not going to be writing 40~50 wpm ;)
I'm ambidextrous, and I can speed write. They always made us write sentences as punishment. I can write with both hands simultaneously, so I would do two sheets at a time. Always got done super fast. Always made them angry. Lol
I had a classmate who had to write some French vocabulary list 3 times, and he just wrote literally every single word 3 times, like 'le le le lavabo lavabo lavabo' etc etc, and not in nice straight rows but in long meandering lines all over the pages, with decorative highlighter lines here and there to showcase the composition 😂
You may well be able to write simultaneously with both hands, but I doubt your brain can process copying two different sets of information at the same time. Therefore, I am calling bullshit.
Having seen my cousin do just that, its at least possible for him. And a kinda cool party trick.
BUT
he has to be writing the same thing with both hands. If he tries to write two different things, his right hand eventually lags or starts writing the same thing as the left is. So when he does it, he's writing the exact same word and afaik, the exact same letter with both hands.
So He could write "I must not chase the boys" (okay, I've been listening to my high school nostalgia songs again, lol) with both hands, but he could not write that with one hand and say, "I will only speak when I'm spoken to." (the only sentence I ever remember being made to write) with the other.
When I saw him copying sentences that way, he would number the lines beforehand, then write on two notebooks at once while staring kinda vaguely ahead into the desk between the two.
But writing sentences with both hands is processing two sets of the same information. I had a math teacher who could do that on the chalkboard. She could write forwards and backwards with either hand, and write forwards with one hand and backwards with the other simultaneously, as long as both hands were writing the same thing.
We are saying the same thing. It’s impossible for OP to copy out two different sentences, one with each hand, at the same time. They are lying.
zorggalacticus (not OP) said:
Writing sentences means to write a bunch of the same sentence many times; two hands writing the same sentences, not different ones, on two separate pages. I've seen it done.
OP never claimed to write two different things with both hands.
Exactly. Think the opening to the Simpsons when Bart is writing on the chalkboard, except on notebook paper.
Balderdash.
You forgot the definition. Also you only wrote it once. C-.
In the 90s I worked in a game store (board games, D&D, etc.). I could never sell Balderdash. I mean, I'd ring it up if someone wanted to buy it, but I couldn't *sell* it to someone. I'd always tell them, "Instead of spending 30 bucks on this box, go spend 20 on a decent dictionary and the other 10 on some paper and pencils. Then you'll have the game, plus you'll have a dictionary!"
Malarkey
I remember typing my English homework on a manual typewriter (not electric) and the teacher told me it was unacceptable because I had used a computer. I told her that not only was it not from a computer, it didn’t even involve electricity. I used my fingers to generate the kinetic energy needed to print the words onto the paper. Suddenly it was acceptable.
I remember in grade school in the 70s one of my classmates started to get in trouble for doing his homework in pen instead of pencil. He got out of it when he showed the teacher one of those newfangled things called a "mechanical pencil".
Even as far as the mid 90's, there were teachers that took issue with mechanical pencils...
7 days of detention with a month of work from each class?
Also: ADHD and completing homework?
Methylphenidate is a hell-of-a-drug
Most people without ADHD don't really understand the power of hyper focus. I've read a 600+ page book in a single sitting.
In college I stayed up for 3 days straight working on an animation project. Only stopping for food, bathroom breaks, and medication. When I finally finished, it felt like I was waking up from a dream. Everything was hazy and I didn't have any idea what time it was.
Then exhaustion hit me like a truck and I passed out.
I can confirm. Diagnosed with ADD back when it was a thing. When I'm on that stuff, I can grind through anything.
You hadn't, but cool story bro.
Agree. Detention is like an hour after school.
Your experience is not universal.
In-school detention means sitting in a room at the school for the entirety of the school day.
It's not possible to copy dictionary in the timeframe given into three spiral notebooks. The dictionary will have more pages than three spiral notebooks.
Yeah, I'm doubting that. I believe someone could do it (although I'd think it would take more time/paper) but I think the timing is a little tight. Maybe if OP had a few weeks?
I copied a dictionary once but (1) it was one of those pocket ones that's kinda abridged with the most common words and short definitions and (2) it took me a summer and was way more than three spirals worth. I was doing it on loose leaf paper and in the end it was several three ring binders worth. (and there is no guarantee I still had every page either, I was carrying like ten sheets of college rule, my pen, and the dictionary everywhere and would just find a flat surface to write on. Some sheets may have been lost.) I was doing it for several hours at a time at home, and during any time my thoughts snuck up on me in public. (Funny story, my cousin and I were in line somewhere, maybe a check out line? And I was picking my arm. She took my paper out of my purse and put it against her back so I could do some, holding the dictionary in her other hand. She really likes to tell that story in a "Egg was a lunatic as a teen, but a really cute one..." way.)
As for why I did this... I haven't the slightest idea. For some reason every so often I get a hair up my ass and just wanna write. Not like, stories or even essays or something, I want the physical act of writing. These days I usually either write lines about whatever is making me anxious, or poems I find on pinterest. I also need certain pens to do it, it's gotta be either gel ink, a fountain pen, or one of those old school bic clic pens. Anything else will just make me more anxious and wound up.
My therapist told me the medical theories on why I do it (well, why I have the urge. apparently some people have the urge but can resist it) but it boils down to "traumatized/fucked up brain wants what it wants, its only a bad thing if it interferes with day to day life"
It has a name, but I can't remember what the name was.
As a teen I'd do it until my hand and wrist hurt so bad I can barely move my arm.... and then start again when the pain is just low enough for me to be able to do it without crying. (This counts as "interfering with day to day, btw)
These days a few hours at most when the urge is really bad. The good thing about doing it with poems is that at the end of the poem it feels satisfying enough that I can usually stop there.
But its legitimately upsetting to try to resist that urge. And weirdly... I'm kinda feeling it. Anything you think should be put into my copy book?
I think what you're talking about is called Hypergraphia.
I didn't do it for some psychological reason. I did it to prove a point. I'm a stubborn piece of work. There's some real details as to why in a different comment I responded to around here if you want to read it.
Poppycock.
Poppycock:
Definition:
nonsense.
"he said I was talking poppycock"
Makes no sense.
I had a friend on detention permanently. He just stopped going. They couldn't make it worse than permanent detention.
Suspension technically is "worse", but yeah.
In school detention. Fun times. Finish an entire days work in the first 2 hrs.. Finish the week on the first day. Teachers get tired of sending assignments. End up running errands for the Proctor between naps. Wish I would have done that my entire high-school career. Could have graduated in 2 years, easy.
Cringe
my detention expeirience is a slightly duller story- I got 2 days detention (1 hour each) in that time I did all my homework - and actually did well in them
looking back on it, it may have been useful for me to be there more often because I just wasted my time on MSN otherwise.
I remember writing the word “talk” 1,000 times on a single sheet of 8,5x11 paper in very small font with a pencil as an in class detention before getting stand outside classroom door “detentions”
ngl this reads like one of those stories that lives rent-free in someone’s head for decades 😂
the dictionary punishment escalation is wild though. like “oh you finished early? cool, here’s the final boss.” also the pencil sharpening question was such a calm menace move.
detention lady definitely thought she won until that moment. honestly feels less like detention and more like accidentally unlocking a hyperfocus speedrun achievement.
Bollocks.
The smallest reading time for a dictionary I found was Merriam-Webster (15-30 hours). Let's go with 15 hours.
You would need 4 hours detention everyday to read it all. I suppose it's not impossible if you you spent every period in detention. (Even though most detentions last between 30 minutes to an hour).
The problem is... that's just reading. We haven't accounted for writing. Let's say it takes you half a second to write a word. MW has 225000 definitions. Meaning it would take you 31 hours. And this is to just write every word...without writing their definition.
Of course you can't write the words without reading them first. 46 hours total so far. Which makes it need 13 hours of detention to complete it in 3.5 days.
But We still need to write the definitions of each word
This is unrelated but has anyone:'s arms actually gotten black from writing so much with a pencil???? I have literally never seen or experienced that. Not even in any form of media. I could see with feather and ink, as it can get messy. But with a pencil???? Im not saying it's impossible...im just asking if this is something anyone else ever experienced.
Op only had to write the first definition of each word tho, and you can write a word as you read it too, you don't even need to look at the surface you're writing. Also yes I have gotten my hand black from using a pencil tho it wasn't writing, it was drawing and it wasn't my entire arm, just the left side of my hand
It was every single period in school and they required that I arrive an hour early and leave an hour late. The intention was likely that they wanted to prevent me from interacting with the other students. I had 10 hour days with 30 minute lunch breaks.
The most horrifying thing that a person in power or an institutuon has to deal with isn't someone who just breaks the rules. It's someone who breaks them and accepts the consequences of breaking them in favor of a greater cause or purpose.
I already knew i wasn't getting away with it. I wanted everyone to know. The teachers overlooking the bullying, the preppy kids doing the bullying, and all of the kids being bullied.
What does it mean to do the right thing? How does it actually work? How does someone ensure that people act right or do the right thing and stop hurting others?
It's ultimately fear. Fear of the consequences. The only way as an individual to become a part of that structure yourself to change the world is to become something to be feared by the abusers. So when I watch teachers, fellow students, and adults ignore abusive people hurting others even after i tell them repeatedly, I have no choice but to become part of what they fear.
If I can endure the consequences, then that means what I do has meaning, power, and can effect things no matter what people say. This is what that detention lady was up against. She stood no chance against me from the beginning.
So what i am basically saying is that I have a very strong identity and will that directs my actions and my ability to hyperfocus. That coupled with methylphenidate makes my ability to control my own actions and behavior very strong.
I know very well the struggles of what having ADHD is like. I had to internalize and accept what I am to be able to control it.
It took me hundreds of hours of isolation, meditation, and thinking to be able to do it.
My father was an alcoholic so I had no other choice but to become a strong person or the world would eat me alive.
This post i made before can help shed some light on things maybe? https://www.reddit.com/r/askapsychologist/comments/1p9dib0/counseling_therapy_and_psychology_how_much_of_my/
Edit:
Also yes. My arms were blackened because they were constantly resting on the pages of the spiral notebooks I was filling out.
I admit I never got medication for my ADHD so I ended up removing and editing it out that part from my post when I realized, but I think you still saw it haha.
My experience is having to study with videos that I can actually pause because I always get distracted.
My experience is that the only person who can help you is ultimately you because there's no such thing as mind reading technology and every person is different.
I was meditating and I didn't even know that's what I was doing.
I locked myself in a dark closet not because I wanted to do some monk shit, but because my ADHD was too out of control to introspect with all the external stimulation.
Medication can help sure, but it doesn't matter if you can't direct your efforts in a way that you want.
Once i figured out that, controlling my own actions was way easier. It just required less willpower to do things.
I updated my posts with more information if that helps you understand. Have a good one.
Are you still a scribe?
Nope. I use computers for everything now lol
You know, I love this story. I was often punished in elementary school by being forced to write sentences or 500 word 'themes', both usually on the subject of why I needed to keep my desk clean. I once had to copy a whole chapter in the social studies textbook for talking in class; that particular time, it was almost the whole class who ended up having to do that. The topic was rain forests, and man do I now enjoy reading r/FellingGoneWild.
But, let's do the math.
Ok, let's use the original Websters, the 1828 edition with only 75,000 words, and do the math for 3.5 6 hour days; it works out very conveniently to about one word per second if you just copy the word. A later edition Collegiate Websters has many more words, up to about 170,000, and an unabridged Websters can have over 450,000 words. To make the math easy, let's say our Websters has 453,600 words. 3.5 6-hour days is 21 hours; that's 6 words per second (360 words per minute, three times my fastest ever typing speed on a computer keyboard in my twenties at 120 words per minute) to do 453,600 words, just copying the words.
I don't doubt that you copied a whole book of some kind, nor that it had the satisfying ending you write; but I do doubt it was an unabridged Websters.
It was 10 hours a day with a 30 minute lunch break because I had to come in early and leave school 1 hour before/after.
Also I think it was a pink Websters intermediate dictionary with 65000 definitions. There's more information on things if you read through all the comments.
So 35 hours give or take. If it were 63,000 words that's two seconds per word.
Yeah sounds about right.
"More weight!"
Flimshaw! Baldercrap!
You're my new favourite person. (Evil grin)