This is the Best I've Ever Done

So, for the past few days I've been writing a paper on Ulysses, the James Joyce novel, for an English seminar I'm in. I still need to edit it, and God knows how long that'll take, but the content's done, about 19 pages, 5700 words.

And, after finishing it, I thought to myself: "this is the best thing my brain's ever produced". I'm not saying it's going to change the world, or change Joyce and Shakespeare criticism, or even get an "A" (I've got a long running A- English paper streak I've held since the beginning of high school that I have no intention of ending).

It just feels, to me, like the largest cognitive success I've ever had.

Any of you guys have examples of something like this, where at the end of it you think "this is the best I've ever done in anything like this"?

Sex doesn't count, eheh, sports are probably easier for this too, since you're always trying to beat your old time, and you're testing it frequently. I'm also not asking what the single best thing you've ever done is (I couldn't answer that) - just the best thing within a single group, you pick the boundaries.

jesus christ..a 19 page paper?

Well I won Bronze in Taekwondo nationals a while back.

Nationals? Wow - how long have you been practicing Taekwando?

A 19 page paper on one character and what that character does across three chapters of an 18 chapter book - I don't even talk about the rest of the book, or any other characters, save briefly, and in the context of that one main character.

The moment I slipped the first copy of my freshly-printed 84-page (excluding pictures, introduction and bibliography) undergraduate English thesis on Terry Gilliam into its binding.

Ah, those were the days.

My current Law Journal note might actually surpass that one, since it actually has some practical, real-world applications, but I haven't really reached that point of satisfaction yet. Perhaps over the summer I will.

But yeah, Stone, I know exactly what you're talking about.

(I'm assuming you weren't high when you wrote it.)

Do amphetamines count?

Quote:

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Originally posted by Stone
Do amphetamines count?

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No.

Marijuana is a bit of a disqualifier, since everything you come up with while high tends to feel like the best, most brilliant thing you've ever done...at least while high.

And remember, kids: just say no to drugs.

hahahaha....how i can i resist now! i can be the best !:D j/k...I don't do anything that great:(

Quote:

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Originally posted by sleeveboy
No.

Marijuana is a bit of a disqualifier, since everything you come up with while high tends to feel like the best, most brilliant thing you've ever done...at least while high.

And remember, kids: just say no to drugs.

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Man, one thing I need to know - how were Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis able to write while drunk? Like, Faulkner got pretty damn Faulknerian when he was sauced, but he still produced. Sinclair Lewis sucks, but, he would probably have sucked just as much sober.

I've got a pretty high tolerance, but get a second drink into me and I can hardly put two words together.

I tried doing a book report on Ulysses in the 10th grade for my english class. I didn't go too well, considering I'm an idiot. I dropped the idea pretty quick.

Well, the best that comes to mind is my winning my school spelling bee 4 years straight, and then winning the City-Wide Spelling Bee in 8 grade. In the 6th grade City Spelling Bee, it came down to me and another girl, and per the rules, if you misspell a word, the other person get s chance to spell it, and if correct, gets another one; if correct, you win. She misspelled a word, and I got to spell it. With my luck, it was mustache(or moustache). I spelled it mustache, like I knew at the time, and they said it was wrong. People in the audience knew it was right and could go either way, but we kept going for 2 MORE HOURS and I finally mess up and she wins. The screwy thing about it is that she started to give up, and afterward even conceded that I was better than she was, and that it was plain luck. My teachers, people on the spelling bee committee, and the mayor gave me a special trophy because of the ambiguousness of the rules. And they also made a special rule in situations like that one for future reference. Heh, as a matter of fact, all the city spelling bees were later televised, making me quite popular in school and in the city. Damn, those were the days. Didn't mean to go on for so long.