Logicless Logic

Hyperinactivity.

“Eh... Why isn’t there such a term hyperinactive ah?” That was the start of a profoundly meaningless discussion between my classmate Darren and I. About what exactly? I don’t remember. I don’t usually remember what I say because what I say doesn’t actually go through my brain in the 1st place. So the memory function doesn’t exactly work if what I say just comes out. In any case, this has still got nothing to do with hyperinactivity.

What I understand of the word “Hyperinactive” is that first and foremost, it is the opposite of “Hyperactive”. “Hyperactive”, according to dictionary.com means “unusually or abnormally active”. Which happens with people sometimes. They become the equivalent of a deranged starving great white shark on heroin, on 2 legs. Pretty scary. And this leads to the inability to sit still and listen in class. There is also unusually short attention spans of 0.043242milliseconds before the hyperactive subject searches for something else to grab his/her fleeting attention.

So by turning the word “hyperactive” around, you get the meaning of “hyperinactive” right? WRONG! “Hyperinactive” does not mean “evitcarepyh”. You get the meaning of “hyperinactive” by turning the meaning of “hyperactive” around. So “hyperinactive” is something like “unusually or abnormally inactive”. And it happens with people sometimes as well. In cases of hyperinactivity, people become the equivalent of sloths on sleeping pills lying on a luxurious king sized bed. Thus there is the ability to sit still, long after class has ended. But no ability to listen, unless somehow there is the existence of hypnopedia, where then the hyperinactive person is sure to score full marks for any test. Provided he still moves.

Causes of hyperactivity are sometimes neurologic(meaning to do with the brain) or psycologic(meaning to do with the brain). Not so hyperinactivity. Well known causes of hyperinactivity include boring lectures by boring teachers, assignments etc. Well generally school. Realising that examples are needed to prove my point, I shall give some of them. Also realizing that since Darren has given school based examples, I should too. In fact, I shall just use his examples in my own words and examples. Which means my own examples based on his.

Example 1-Hyperactivity

Imagine a classroom setting. It is a GP double period. And you have an assignment. So being hyperactive, and having an extremely short attention span, once the teacher says “You may begin”, you skim through the questions at breakneck speed, almost breaking your neck in the process. Then after 4 seconds, you decide that it’s too boring and decide to look at what everyone else is doing. 6.43 seconds later, after seeing what the whole class has done, you decide to get back to doing the paper. However, upon seeing your pen in your hand, you decide that it would be fun to pretend to be a drummer and spin your drumsticks at an adoring crowd. You drop your pen on the floor, bend down to pick it up, then realise that an ostrich sticks its butt high up in the air sometimes and pretends that it is a tree. So you do that too. And feel a sharp pain on the top of the tree(your butt). It is the teacher.

So you get back to doing your essay. And you look at your pen and paper and decide that it would be nice to draw a picture of Optimus Prime vs Megatron in the episode of TRANSFORMERS TM you watched yesterday. And while drawing, you decide to carve out a sculpture on your 30cents rubber with a metal ruler. Bell rings. You end up with a beautifully 3cm mini sculpture as well as a picture of Optimus Prime vs Megatron that looked like it was done by the creator of transformers. You also end up handing in a blank sheet of paper that says (your name is Jimmy Tan for example) “Ji” with not so much a drop of pen ink anywhere else on the paper. Your teacher praises you for keeping the paper so fresh and crisp and clean. But you get 0.

Example 2- Hyperinactivity

Same scenario. Except this time, once the teacher says “You may begin” you start. To sleep. Your eyelids suddenly become made of lead, so does your lower lip, as your mouth slowly but surely, opens, revealing the majesty of the leftover vegetable bits on your teeth, and a cascading waterfall of drool beautifully emerges from within the newly opened cavern.

You suddenly see yourself in the sunny beaches of Hawaii, drinking cocktails, frolicking with beautiful women and strumming your ukulele. Suddenly the weather changes. It starts to rain and a streak of lightning flashes across the sky, followed by a deafening clap of thunder. You are drenched in rain. Wait. Rain? Thunder? You lift your head up, finally awake. You are wet alright, drenched. In drool. Thunder? You turn up and see the face of the teacher, hand on the table. Waiting to collect your script. You look at what you have written. “Jac” with an ocean of funny liquid at some spots of the paper. You use that to clean off your drool, write Jackson Lee(That’s your name) on another piece of paper and hand it up. You see a piece of paper similar to yours. Oh it’s Jimmy Tan’s. He has a 3cm mini sculpture. You WERE a sculpture until not long ago. Both of you get 0.

As the examples have probably not given you much insight about hyperinactivity anyway, let’s just say that overall, hyperinactivity is suffered by most of us, though not as serious as in the case of Jackson Lee. How many times do we lose focus in class, falling asleep or busy ourselves doing other things. Amongst other things, I’d like to point out that “hyperinactivity” was the result of ironically, two too overly active imaginations. As such, whatever I did point out above is not theoretically and not scientifically proven. Therefore, please do not take it seriously. If you did, maybe it’s time you see a psychiatrist.

justin.

posted by justin @ 10:53 PM