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| There's no turning back, so I might as well give it everything I've got even if I might not feel confident in my skills. Screenshot from "When you Carry your Teammates..." by Nathan Doan Comedy |
*This title was inspired by Navy SEAL training where they have "Hell Week": a brutal 5 1/2-day series of physical training where the trainees only get less than 4 hours of sleep...within the whole week.
What I'm going to explain here is...admittedly not as bad as the actual Hell Week.
There's a TON to explain here, so instead of posting on Facebook like I do with my smaller announcements, I'll do it here.
TL;DR summary: I've been sick since the New Year so I didn't record any videos and I took a week-long leave from English teaching. I'm making up for the time I lost on leave, especially since this is exam month at my university. As such, I won't record any videos or write any blog posts until January 23.
Sickness
What are your symptoms?
On January 1, 2022, at about 5:00 AM while my younger brother stayed up in the morning to watch Netflix (I think), he snorted VERY loudly. I was unable to sleep so I kept gaming as copium until maybe 6:00 AM.
On the car ride going home at 12:00 PM, I took a nap. When I opened my eyes in-between to check where we are, my throat suddenly felt VERY sore like food was stuck deep inside.
On the morning of January 2, 2022, it happened. My younger brother and I had a dry cough.
How do you feel now?
I drank a lot of hot tea with lemon starting on January 2 so, on January 3, I started spitting phlegm.
On January 6, the soreness was gone and my phlegm became very loose.
However, I realized I was still sick when I got more tired than usual after walking our horse dog.
I was unable to resist the urge to cough while teaching; I wanted to slightly get back to work to test if my throat can handle a few hours of talking. Thankfully, I think it wasn't too distracting; I lost more energy from my students (about the same as usual) than my sickness.
English Teaching
I normally work 2 hours a day, but from January 7 to January 10 (with a break on January 8), I'm temporarily stepping it up to 7 hours. I think my throat can take it.
I admit that when I know work I don't like is approaching, I feel sleepier than usual. Thankfully, I'm able to act like Bennett while keeping my voice down to conserve energy.
Rant Against my Professor
Lazy Strategy
I admit that I don't share my blog posts on social media a lot, especially when I feel they're low-effort, but I actually have a strategy for not sharing this one.
I share a lot of controversial and offensive opinions on my blog, some of which can cost me my grades or my English teaching job. However, I am mandated to use social media at school and work, so I'm nervous about faculty or my superiors performing random security checks on me.
Although I have my blog link on my social media accounts, from my experience poking around Facebook Dating, many Filipinos have a ningas-kugon attitude with YouTube channels; they post a whole bunch of videos on their first few days or weeks before they completely go dark but continue to be active on Facebook. They are also primarily about cooking, fashion, gaming, or life/travel vlogs which, I think, are not worth watching for those who aren't persistent investigators. I primarily write about gaming; explicitly political posts are buried in-between. In short: "Meh. It's just another pointless blog link." Heck, they may not even notice it because it's just text neatly separated from the main content: my social media posts.
By not sharing this blog post, I can say directly offensive things here with impunity.
Sayu's Laziness and Stealth + Kujou Sara's Militaristic Attitude + Fischl's Vocabulary
I want to add "inconsistent". Who's an inconsistent Genshin Impact character personality-wise? Kaeya? Sangonomiya Kokomi? Tartaglia? Xingqiu? Yae Miko? I don't know.
I don't know if I'm not allowed to share this information because it's "private" or "copyrighted", but whatever, I'm sharing it anyway 'cause I don't like you, Professor.
Early on in the course, the professor noticed that the current participants were...more passive than usual compared to back then where students were a lot more willing to participate. I commented (mainly for bragging rights) in my usual long explanation style similar to what I do here in my blog where I talked about social media and gaming addiction, as well as the general dislike of school-related activities and platforms. And...I admitted I was one of those gaming addicts.
The reply I got was..."Hope this course pushes you out of your comfort zones." Honestly, I expected a comment about how good or bad my theory was...
I deleted that comment a few days later to stay out of the radar, if you know what I mean. I mean, I forget some of my old students a few weeks or months later, after all.
A similarly detailed comment, this time about mental health during the pandemic, was made...and that one actually got a reply of something around the lines of "Fascinating. Thank you for being honest."
Like most courses, this one had a detailed schedule of activities, including the types, grade worth, start times, and deadlines. However, this time, the professor ran into glitches while setting up the course, which was supposedly something that hasn't happened in many years, so the schedule was remade...but with major changes.
Only the types of activities and the grades they're worth remain. Their start times and deadlines were removed. Sure enough, the start times and deadlines from the old schedule didn't match. Heck, Module 6 was given to us first BEFORE Module 5.
To top it all off, here's a paraphrase of the final exam notice:
"I will give instructions for the final exam on December 30, 2021. You have until January 4, 2022 to comment below if you will take the exam. It will commence on January 17, 2022."
I checked every reasonable place I could possibly find the final exam instructions: in the course's website and in all 4 of my e-mail addresses: an old main account, two school accounts because they said so, and one new main account which I use for my YouTube channel. I associated the old main account with school and the other two are obviously associated by default, while my Facebook account is associated with my new main account. Nope, not even something that remotely resembles such instructions, even in folders where they wouldn't make sense like Spam, Social, and Promotions in case Google is being an idiot.
On top of that, clearly, that professor remembers the January 4 deadline so she turned off commenting for that post on time.
Why are you not reminding the professor of this?
Again, I'm staying under the radar.
Edit, January 8, 2022, 2:39 PM: Another student followed up on the final exam 7 hours ago. Our professor has seen the post (we can see who has seen a post in a Facebook group)...but there's no reply yet. You stealthy piece of 九条早柚 (Kujou Sayu).
Edit, January 8, 2022, 10:59 PM: Nope, no reply yet. Not even in all 4 of my e-mail addresses.
Edit, January 9, 2022, 4:49 PM: Nope, radio silence. Let's see what happens on Tuesday morning... Maybe she's just taking a weekend break. I say "Tuesday morning" because I feel like it will be guaranteed at that time; I know she mainly announces things in the evening but I'm making my mind play around the possibility of being an unpredictable part-timer (like me) or an extremely busy full-timer.
Edit, January 11, 2022, 2:45 PM: The instructions were finally uploaded on the Facebook group at 2:34 PM. It starts and ends on January 19. I'm honestly surprised I was half-right on the "Tuesday morning" mark.
No apology, though.
But at least we were given tips.
Oh, yes, in addition to the standard Albedo talk of most professors, this one talks like FREAKIN' FISCHL. She says "Hear ye!" sometimes instead of "Announcement." when making a formal announcement. (At least Mark Manson is Sophisticated as Hell so he's easier to read even when he's being nerdy.)
Here's something from one of her modules that I'm not gonna bother paraphrasing:
"The hallowed hallways of high culture are a profound contrast with the noisy, raucous delights of the streets and the malls. Auditoriums and museums are sites that enjoin its audiences with the rarefied experiences afforded from high art, a term that emerged in the late nineteenth century in Europe and subsumes under its category what is also known as the belles artes, theatre, opera, all creative expressions that associate itself with the notion of class, taste and distinction, and thus enjoyed only by a small segment of society. Meanwhile, in sharp contradistinction, is the notion of popular art, used interchangeably with mass art, which is enjoyed by the great majority and easily accessible through the channels that emerged from the Industrial Revolution, such as the mass media."
And she tells us to practice academic writing...while having inconsistent grammar:
"students of (course name censored to dodge the law), please read and mind these guidelines. ours is not a writing class but you will have to express your thoughts through writing. so it is an important skill for you. strive for clarity. marshall your ideas clearly. use a dictionary. think of structure. don't be tempted to pick up jargon here and there just because you think you can wangle it. just be true to yourself."
But...but you use capitalization properly in your other formal social media posts! What the heck? Putting that aside, take a close look at the bold text. "Marshall" is a proper noun while "marshal" can be either a noun or a verb. And there's a freakin' double space when the rest of this has single spaces.
Edit: While confirming the names of the people taking the final exam, she misspelled my name as "Paul Julian Baloran". I know "Juliann" is a rare spelling that is mostly used for girls but come on, I'm literally registered in the university with that spelling and no one questions it. (At least she didn't misspell my e-mail address: lunatictactician@gmail.com. One wrong, extra, or missing letter can completely prevent me from taking the exam.)
Anyway, I have a future plan to edit parts of this rant into a more formal and less angry critique once I receive my final grade. That way, if I do get punished, at least it'll just affect me, not the other students in my class who might also receive stricter treatment as a result of my..."misconduct" or whatever legalese or military word you use to prevent future incidents.
Anyway, the bottom line of this rant is I'm bracing myself for my professor opening the final exam out of nowhere. That's why I'm teaching English for 7 hours a day for 3 days instead of, say, 4 hours for 6 days.
Okay, not gonna lie, I wanted to swear here, but I should keep telling myself to limit swearing. That way, it's much more effective when I actually do.
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