On Anger and Injustice

When is the last time you got really mad? If you had asked me a few days ago, I don't think I could've come up with an answer. I tend to think of myself as a pretty evenly keeled person who doesn't tend to get angry about too many things.

Well, that changed a few days ago, and I'm gonna tell you why. I took a world geography test online where you have to identify countries on a map and got a 69. That, however, is not what made me so mad (although it may have been a little embarrassing for Mr. Lundy - my 8th grade Civics teacher who had us learn the name and every capital of every country in the world). See, after scoring the 69, I retook the test, and retook it, and retook it. I had to score 100. It was my personal quest. After a few rounds, I finally figured about which one is Guinea and which one is Guinea-Bissau. I even learned all the names of the ex-Soviet republics.

Well, finally, after several (probably over 50) attempts, everything fell into place. I had a few easy countries (like Australia, Japan and Germany), a few from Central and South America (my specialty) and some tough ones that I happened to figure out from my previous attempts (like Gambia, Azerbaijan and the Gabonese Republic). By the end of the game, I was 20/20 with no mistakes (where you click on the wrong country but then find the right one before time runs out), and was fully expecting to receive my first 100.

Instead, I got a frickin' 97, and I don't even know why. I can't believe how angry it made me. I felt like throwing my computer, but luckily I remembered that I'm too poor to buy another computer and that I need my computer to read the news during my Professional Responsibility class.

I'm not sure if the fact that this dumb game made me so angry is a good thing or a bad thing. On the good side, it shows that I value education and geography. On the other hand, however, if a map game can make me mad, I wonder what would happen if Hershey's stopped making chocolate syrup or something like that. Good thing we don't keep Amanda's shotgun here in the apartment.

I guess, all in all, it just shows that I have a good heart and cannot stand injustice. I answered all the questions right, but received an imperfect score!!! Like Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his letter from the Birmingham Jail, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere."

Why don't you take the map quiz? See if you can beat a 69 on your first try. Then try to get a 100. If you get them all right and don't get the 100, let me know. We can plan a protest march together.

HERE is a link to the game.

I have also included this picture of my 97, although it doesn't prove that I got everything right.


Update: I answered all the questions right again (that means no wrong guesses before you find the right country) and got a 98. ARGH!!! I guess part of the score is based on time. I'm officially tempted to break out the mouse and plug it into the laptop for a faster clicking potential.

Update 2: Certain achievements are so significant that they cause all of mankind to stop and take notice. Think of Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic, Yeager breaking the sound barrier or Armstrong walking on the Moon. Well, today, March 20, 2007, at 7:56pm, during a guest lecture by Alan Ryan from Oxford University in my Comparative Constitutionalism class, another monumental barrier has fallen.

I, Benjamin Mudrick, got a 100 on the World Map Quiz. I'm not exactly sure why I got a 100 this time when I failed before (despite getting all of the answers right with no mistakes). I guess that it came down to the time it took to complete all of the answers. I did take the additional step of moving my cursor to the center of the screen after every turn, just to cut down on time a little. I guess that's what made the difference. Like Alma once said, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass."

Here's the proof: