Chapter 358: I Need a New Educational Process

Tuesday, June 5, 2007 (Continued)

While I was getting very celebratory with Carol, Julia said, "Oh! We'd better be quick. You've got a lot of schoolwork to do, Mark."

#19: <Hehe. This is going to be fun.>

I pressed the button that activated the Faraday cage. When it was closed, I answered, "First, if something's worth celebrating, it's worth doing thoroughly. Especially about something as highly erotic as your wonderful acting abilities. Second, I'm about 30% through the schoolwork. At the current rate, I'll finish it about 3pm."

"Huh?"

"What didn't you understand?"

"Everything. How can you be 30% through? And 'at the current rate' is zero. Unless you think that what we're doing now is part of the school curriculum? Haha."

"Don't I wish! Although then I might choose to fail the exam so I could repeat the year. But to explain what I mean by 'current rate' - and I'm surprised you couldn't work this out for yourself, Julia. Maybe I should give you some Math tutoring. I got the notes about two and a quarter hours ago and as I said, I'm about 30% through them, so my current rate is 30% divided by 2.25, which I make about 13.5% per hour. I've got 70% left to go. 70% divided by 13.5% is just over 5 hours, so I'll finish about 3pm, like I said. Would it be easier for you if I got a calculator?"

Julia and Carol could easily tell from my tone of voice that I was teasing them. Carol wisely leaving Julia to keep picking away at it, as Carol knew Julia wouldn't be able to resist doing.

Julia asked, "I don't need a calculator to help me with the numbers. What I need to know is why there are numbers in the first place. Are you capable of studying while we're talking now?"

"Aww! You spoiled my fun. I thought it'd take you two or three more guesses to work that out. I've been studying since about two minutes after I walked out of the room with the notes to 'Put them away.' They're in my downstairs study and I've been working on them every second for the last two and quarter hours." [In case you need reminding, we called my secret study the "downstairs study", and my non-secret study the "upstairs study", just to avoid saying "secret" out loud. We don't want anyone to think we have secrets, because their next step might be to try to investigate them. Not even Paul knew I had a secret study built into the kids' panic room because the door into that room was fitted with a lock that only I could open using NP from the inside.]

"You can study AND talk?"

"Even better than that: I can study and have sex!"

"Not until you've explained yourself you can't! All the time we were having breakfast, talking, even when you were manipulating them with your wonderful sob story, you were studying at the same time?"

"Yep. It's been almost a year and half since I did any serious studying. That came to an end when the DHS kidnapped me. In the year Ron was living with you, he never did anything more than casual reading, so I never got around to specifically pointing out that I could do what I'm doing now. You had the pieces: You knew I could lie in bed and study remotely using a sight blob. You also knew I could use sight blobs while I did other things during the day. You just didn't put the two halves together, and I never had a reason to show you before. This is the first time I've been in a hurry to study something, so I'm using every trick in the book, except there isn't a book telling me about my skills, unfortunately."

"But studying is HARD. You have to think about it. During breakfast, you didn't seem to be thinking about anything else. You seemed to be paying attention to us, were relaxed, talked a lot."

"Sure. You know I can think of more than one thing at a time. I've been splitting my attention today. Part of it was on the breakfast conversation and now you, and most of it is downstairs studying the school subjects through a sight blob, and using NP to turn the pages."

"You're actually turning pages now, while we're talking?"

"There are currently thirty one piles downstairs, the textbooks and chunks of the class notes. With that many piles there are almost always some pages being turned, and often three or four at the same time."

"This I gotta see! Coming, Carol?"

"Too right! I gotta see it too. It sounds amazing."

I pouted, "So I'll just stay here and have sex with myself then?"

"Haha. We won't be long. When we come back we'll be so impressed we'll make it up to you. You'll lift us up the way back as usual?" Julia meant up the slide on the way back. When we have drills, I usually boost everyone back up afterward as it's a lot easier than climbing up manually.

"Sure. Looking up at your naked asses like that will be the most sex I've had today."

"Not in five minutes it won't be."

On the way to the chute, Julia suddenly exclaimed, "Oh my God! You could study for 22 hours per day! 36 screens for 22 hours per day. How much is that?"

"It'd be better to call it 30 screens for 20 hours, so 600 hours worth per day."

"What does that mean? I know it's awesome, but can you put it in a way I can relate to?"

"Sure. Let's say you do 6 hours of reading a day, which is definitely at the top end. It'd take you 100 days to read what I can read in one day. So a whole school year's worth of reading for you, I can do in two days. Those numbers may not be very accurate because it's only going to take me about 7.5 hours to read all the class material that I've got. There are no Math or Physics notes or textbooks, but I've got two sets of notes for most of the subjects, so it probably works out about the same. So 7.5 hours - a third of a day - for me to read a year's worth of schoolwork."

"Wow! What about college degrees? You were doing three in one year before. How many now?"

"Ignoring the time to do exams, lab work, assignments or anything else - just doing reading - then 4.5 times as many screens and 3 times as many hours, so 13.5 times more. I thought of it as 12 times as many, because I'm not able to utilize all 36 screens yet. Call it 36 degrees per year."

"God! Does OSU even have that many degrees?"

"It does, but I'm not doing my reading by degrees anyway, just by what courses interest me. OSU has a huge number of courses. If I stay within four hundred feet of my downstairs study - remember range limits me - then I could read the online lecture notes for about forty five courses per week. I've been averaging about twenty per week for the last three weeks, three-quarters of which I do in the six hours while everyone else is asleep. Three weeks ago is when I finished all the undergraduate Math, Physics and Business courses, and started just browsing around out of interest."

"THIRTY SIX DEGREES PER YEAR! That's INCREDIBLE! That's the most amazing thing you've ever done."

"I haven't DONE it Julia. And it can't be done. Forty five courses per week is 135 hours of exams per week, or 20 hours per day. When would I have time for sex?"

Carol giggled, but the sex reference went right over Julia's head.

Bizarrely, the twenty hours of exams per day wasn't nearly as much of a problem as it seems. I could sit in my living room and do twenty hours of exams per day using one or two minds, while the other minds were simultaneously studying the courses that would be examined the next week. Not that it matters much, but it would be "next week" because while it used to take 2 weeks/course/screen when I studied for 6 hours per night, at 22 hours of study per day, it'd take about 4 days/course/screen.

Accessing my computer system while doing exams theoretically meant that I could cheat by looking up the lecture notes for the course the current exam was for, but I'd have it committed to virtually perfect memory anyway so there'd be no point. Provided I could do the exams within four hundred feet of my study, exams weren't the factor that limited how many degrees I could do a year. The limiting factor was things I had to move away from the house for, like lab work, research (Google doesn't provide all the answers. Some of my Business courses required the student to go to companies and interview their management, for example), projects (also sometimes within companies), and most importantly, having a life. Avoiding freaking out the entire world was a consideration too.

"We've GOT to tell Dad and Mom. They're gonna wet themselves! COME ONNN!" The last was uttered IMPATIENTLY because Julia had rushed back to the bed and was now dragging on my hand to get me moving.

I rolled my eyes at Carol, then said, "Give me time to get some shorts on. Unlike you, I'm not comfortable running around the property naked." Julia looked down and discovered she was naked. She looked puzzled, as if she had no idea how that'd happened.

The three of us started throwing on our clothes, Julia clearly unhappy with the unexpected delay. Carol, seeing my horny and disappointed - and possibly somewhat annoyed - expression, told me, "You make her very happy." That did cheer me up. Even more so, when Carol added, "She's SO going to jump your bones when she calms down enough."

#13: <That's true, although whoever heard of having to calm down to have sex?>

#22: <Anyone who has ever seen Julia when she's worked up.>

#12: <It looks like the parents are going to learn even more about sight blobs. They've probably got a pretty good idea by now anyway.>

Julia grabbed me by the hand again, and started dragging me out of the room. I used NP to flick the Faraday cage off, otherwise Julia would've gotten very pissed off at the door for it being locked. She dragged me up the tunnel - for someone with such short legs she can move amazingly quickly - and into the Adults' House, where she started yelling, "MOM! DAD! Where are you?"

There was no answer, so she started dragging me through the house, repeating her yells, accompanied by Carol's chuckles from behind me.

We have an extensive intercom system that is perfectly suited for asking someone where they are (provided they're in just about any room in either house, the Office, the Staff Quarters, the Gate Guardhouse, Mailroom, Nursery (plants, not babies), near the two pools, and a few other locations). Her parents were almost certainly inside because no one wanted to go outside in case there was another sniper, but Julia preferred to yell.

I took the risk of shutting my eyes for a quick sight blob search while we were walking down the hallway. I told her, "They're in their study." I hadn't seen either of my parents, and I didn't bother looking for them, as Julia wasn't in the mood to wait.

Julia moved determinedly in that direction, yelling, "MOM! DAD!" a couple more times. Apparently just to let them know we were coming so Julia could start talking the moment she was inside their doorway, without wasting valuable time. Julia dragged me into their room, Prof and Vanessa already swiveled around to look at us. Something must have alerted them. "GUESS WHAT MARK'S DOING?", demanded Julia.

I used NP to activate the Faraday cage for this room. The sounds of the metal shutters sliding into place and the door locking shut, plus the room suddenly getting darker, gave Prof and Vanessa a good clue at the type of conversation we were going to have. Prof took a stab at it, "Being led around the house by a very noisy, overly excited young woman?"

"No, that's not it! He's STUDYING!"

"That's nice, dear," said Vanessa, deliberately playing with fire.

"He's studying NOW!" Prof and Vanessa suddenly looked interested. Before they could speak, Julia continued, "That's not all. Wait until you hear how MUCH he's studying!"

"Why don't you..."

"FORTY FIVE DEGREES PER YEAR! That's how much! Isn't he incredible?"

#13: <We told her 36 degrees per year. The 45 was for courses per week. The difference is academic though.>

Prof and Vanessa were very interested, but they hadn't been told nearly enough to understand what Julia was raving about. Julia was too excited to be rational or explain well - or to have sex, unfortunately - so I took over. I explained, "Over the last year or so, some of my abilities have improved in ways which combine to produce some educational benefits. A particular young woman just learned about them, and she finds them very exciting..."

I was going far too slowly for Julia. She interrupted to declare, "FORTY FIVE DEGREES PER YEAR! That's how many Mark can do. Not COURSES, but DEGREES! How many courses can you do a week Mark?"

"Forty five."

"Huh? Forty five courses AND degrees. That can't be right..."

"Let me explain it, before you burst something important." To Prof and Vanessa I said, "Remember when I showed you my new computer set up, we discussed my capability. There are roughly 4 times as many screens, so rather than 3 degrees per year, I can do 12, which works out to be about 15 courses per week. That's just the time to read the online lectures, ignoring the time required for exams, lab work, projects, etc..."

Julia was shifting on her feet impatiently, and was about to interrupt, but Prof headed Julia's interruption off at the pass, "Let Mark explain it, Julia. It's his ability."

Vanessa added, "It'll be good practice for your self-control."

"But he's going so SLOW!" complained Julia.

"Is there a hurry?" asked Vanessa.

"YES! He's INCREDIBLE! Wait till you hear about him studying ALL THE TIME! Tell them Mark! Hurry up!" Julia started shaking my arm, to hurry me up.

#14: <I'm almost tempted to ask if anyone wants a cup of coffee first, but that might be too suicidal.>

I said, "As I was saying, I could read the online lectures for 12 degrees per year, which is the equivalent of 15 courses per week..."

"ARGH!" expressed Julia, with considerable intensity.

Prof warned, "Julia! Enough is enough. Let Mark tell it his way."

"Argh."

"It's quite simple," I enjoyed saying that, remembering all the times Julia had used that phrase to inflict the impenetrable mysteries of female thinking on me.

"It's not SIMPLE, it's INCREDIBLE! Mark's future is going to be the most mind-blowing..."

I was tempted to use NP to pick her up by her ankles, especially because she'd been in too much of a hurry to bother putting her panties on, but I didn't want to upset her. Instead I bent down to muffle her mouth with a kiss, picking her up and holding her against my chest. I pulled back from the kiss to say, "This really will go faster if you let me explain it. You're slightly too excited to explain it coherently yourself."

"Hurry up! You could've explained all of it by now."

Holding her close, so I could seal her mouth again if necessary, I resumed, "The 15 courses per week rate was assuming my usual six or seven hours per night of studying while everyone else is asleep. The last time I did that much was a year and a half ago, before Homeland Security kidnapped me. Since then, Ron had no need to study, often no decent computer system to study on, didn't want the Government to spy on it, etc."

Julia started opening her mouth to speak, so I kissed her again, giving her a warning squeeze.

Vanessa said, "We'll make you wait outside if you can't control yourself, Julia. You've got less patience than Donna sometimes."

I removed my mouth, letting Julia complain, "He's going so SLOW!"

"So we can understand," approved Vanessa.

Prof added, "Please go even slower, Mark, because Julia needs practice at controlling herself."

Julia subsided, knowing she was going to lose this one. Her excitement had receded too, which hopefully meant that I would be getting some sex soon, that being another reason not to tease her too much now.

I resumed, "Regardless of my not studying, some of my abilities improved. As you saw, there are 36 screens now. My ability to see with my eyes shut has also improved in two important respects: I don't need to shut my real eyes to use my mental eyes, and I can move my mental eyes around quite easily. You know what light blobs are. Now I have what I call 'Sight Blobs'. They're my mental eyes. Actually a mental eye, singular, as its vision isn't stereoscopic." My irrelevancy caused Julia to shift in my arms, but she chose not to speak. It must've hurt her, because she was still very excited.

^-- "Light blobs and sight blobs are actually the same thing. One radiates light, the other receives it. I can make them do both at the same time if I want, which is what I do when I'm reading something in the dark, but normally I set sight blobs so they don't radiate any light, which makes them invisible. Light passes straight through them because non-radiating light blobs are totally transparent. I've got no idea how something which is totally transparent can see light. That's a puzzle for any physicist, but they certainly work fine. I can move them anywhere within five hundred feet of me, although the vision quality degrades beyond about 430 feet. Any walls in the way don't matter, not even solid rock.

^-- "You know from my being able to study on multiple computer screens that I can have multiple conscious streams of thought, so I can pay attention to multiple things at one time. What Julia is so excited about is that I've currently got all my borrowed schoolwork laid out on the floor of my downstairs study, I've got a sight blob there, and I'm currently talking to you AND studying at the same time. Provided I stay within about 450 feet of my downstairs study - which I'm just on the edge of now - I can study 22.5 hours a day. That's triple my previous 6 or 7 overnight hours. 15 courses per week increases to 45; and the reading for 12 degrees per year increases to 36."

"He's INCREDIBLE!" Julia declared, in case anyone was in any doubt. No one appeared to be though.

Prof asked, "You're studying right this second, while you're talking to us?"

"Yep. Because I can do about 30-odd conscious things at the same time, I've got one stream of thought focused on this conversation, and the rest studying. So talking to you is reducing my maximum study rate about 3%. During my overnight sessions, I use all my consciousness to study, which maximizes my rate. During the day, I've not bothered studying much. Since we moved into this place in mid-April, I've been averaging about 15 courses per week from the overnight sessions, plus about 5 per week from my studying at other times. I don't divide the courses up by time of day - I just work my way through them until they're done - but that gives you the idea of my daytime effort. I've kept the daytime studying low key mainly because the Government is paying too much attention to us. Also because there's no need for me to go as fast as possible because I'm going to run out of interesting OSU courses before long, and because I generally prefer to pay attention to whatever is going on around me."

Prof said, "I know the answer to this, but I have to hear you say it again. You can study 30-odd computer screens continuously, almost 24-hours a day, as well as talk with us and behave normally around the house, and you understand and can remember EVERYTHING you've read?"

"Yep. Not that it makes any significant difference, but it takes less attention to talk with you than it does to study, so this is fractionally easier for me than my overnight study sessions."

Julia added, "We spent two hours talking to the gang over breakfast. Mark was the center of attention and did most of the talking...

#14: <Except for the hour that almost everyone forgot I existed because they were talking about clothes shopping in Italy. I bet Julia honestly thinks we were the center of attention for all of the breakfast.>

#22: <Yeah. Her compulsion certainly distorts her view of reality.>

#12: <That pretty much defines what it means to be female.>

" ... including a WONDERFUL and very smart manipulation I'll tell you about later. No one had any idea that he was reading through all the schoolwork at the same time. He'd done a third of it even before they'd left. It's the most amazing thing I've ever heard of, and Mark's amazed me so many times before. It's going to allow him to achieve an incredible amount during his life."