{"id":5957,"date":"2023-11-27T20:56:01","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T19:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=5957"},"modified":"2023-11-27T20:56:01","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T19:56:01","slug":"notes-on-a-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=5957","title":{"rendered":"Notes on a Class"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

About three Tuesdays ago, I was in my office getting ready for my classes the following day when an extraordinary thing happened \u2013 I couldn\u2019t remember anything. Oh, I knew my name and I knew where I was and after a quick look at my driver\u2019s license and a couple coolly-worded questions to my colleague, those things were confirmed. I mean I couldn\u2019t remember anything about the last class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I looked through the coursebook for a reminder, but everything came up blank. A mild panic ensued, until I realized I was looking at the wrong book and, probably more problematic, was trying to plan the wrong class. This brought its own level of terror, but I quelled that by finding someone else to blame. The matter was all but closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then my stupid brain started thinking, which never anywhere good. Brain said I should probably remember something that happened six days earlier. Brain also said I could probably do some things to remember things better, further explaining that I could probably locate some of these techniques on the \u2018internet\u2019 a thing I mostly used for work, for cat memes, and to find out who won the Eagles game. On the way home, I punished brain for its insolence with several blasts of 80 proof liquids (that\u2019ll show em!). The problem is, brain doesn\u2019t get quieter until like glass four of those liquids. From glass one to three, brain is loosened up and makes observations, some of which aren\u2019t even ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the evening, I had decided to make notes throughout each class to show that I was being present. These notes might be extemporaneous of language and involve the mood, the feel, tensions, a thing or activity which had gone particular poorly or particularly well (usually the latter). And it would all be in the hopes that I could look back the following week and be transported to not only the structure of the lesson, but also the lesson itself as it occurred with a whole bunch of people. (It should be noted that brain also came up with the idea to build a boat from all of my furniture and live on the Vltava \u2018in peace\u2019. But that was after five glasses of said liquid.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, for three weeks I did just that. In each class, I\u2019d make a note when class started and a note about how I felt and anything extraordinary that happened (nothing, so I had to make something up). Then, several times throughout class, like some learned (hard -ed) teacher, I\u2019d step off to my notebook and jot a note. It all went more or less swimmingly, until I read those notes last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Tuesday, planning a class, I found that I needed a nudge to help remind me about the last class. Perhaps, I thought, I can not only get information, but help carry over some of the juice which had propelled the last class forward. I swung back through my notes with the cockiness of the well-prepared. I was gifted for my efforts. As long as \u2018gift\u2019 means shows that I am a lunatic who should no longer be allowed in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday: 10:30\u201312:00            14.11.23<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Class Notes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10:30 \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Class has started. Where is everyone?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10:38 \u2013 six people come in late. Six! This is the future of society!? These are the people who will be taking care of me in my old age?! Well, hopefully when I need my diaper changed, they won\u2019t be eight minutes late!!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10:51 \u2013 How could they have misunderstood those directions? They were to read a sentence and fill the blank with the correct verb. We did an example. This is intentional. That\u2019s what they were doing in those eight minutes before they came in \u2013 chatting about ways to mess with me. Argh.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:03 \u2013 Do lawyers have a better life than this? Is it too late to go to law school?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:09 \u2013 Man, this pen sucks. N ed a n w pen. Lo k at t is cr p, this pen can b rely get through a senten e without b ea ing. A g ! I b t lawy rs get be ter p ns.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:21 \u2013 Oh, glory be! I found a better pen in my bag. Joy Joy Joy. Why does everyone hate November? I like November. It\u2019s close to Christmas, which means two weeks of eating what I want. Also, food.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:23 \u2013 Oh my God. I think someone farted.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:23:08 \u2013 Yeah, it was me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:26 \u2013 24 minutes left! Just 24 minutes left!!! Happy days are coming in 24 minutes!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:41 \u2013 I\u2019m hungry. I think I only brought a grapefruit and oatmeal. I hate morning me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:42 \u2013 Maybe I\u2019ll get a kebab. IN 8 MINUTES!!!! Wait, I think someone just asked a question.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:43 \u2013 Nah, they got it sorted out amongst themselves.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:48 \u2013 The world seems bet er a ain\u2026wa t a sec nd, ba ! Th s pen s cks to !  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11:50 \u2013 class is over! Complete mindfulness attained. I\u2019m es ent ally Bud ha.  <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About three Tuesdays ago, I was in my office getting ready for my classes the following day when an extraordinary thing happened \u2013 I couldn\u2019t remember anything. Oh, I knew my name and I knew where I was and after a quick look at my driver\u2019s license and a couple coolly-worded questions to my colleague, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/damiengaleone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/116017476_376904213275098_6910204624256013252_n.jpg?fit=720%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-1y5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5958,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957\/revisions\/5958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}