Wednesday 15 April 2020

Indigenous Studies is the Most Mind Numbing Course I Ever Took




            On Monday morning after yoga I skipped song practice and got right down to preparing for my exam.
            The exam was available from 9:00 on and I logged on at 9:01. I had been worried about my connectivity for the last two weeks and the wifi did fade out briefly on several occasions but that only delayed the auto save and didn’t close down the exam. If the test had been written in an examination centre it would have been limited to three hours but because it had been forced on line they gave us an extra three hours just in case of connection problems. In some ways it was relaxing to write an exam from home because I could get up to pee without needing an escort and I could drink my coffee while working. In other ways it was tiring and I think the pressure of finishing in three hours would have energized me.
            I finished and submitted the exam at 13:11. I didn't see any error messages and so I assume that my exam was received but the wording on the program registered it as my "first attempt". I guess they expected some people to write the exam twice and pick their favourite.
It was nice to be finished with the most intellectually stifling course I’ve taken in my university career. Now hopefully all I’ll have to do is English until my degree. There has still been no word in response to my request to switch from an English Major to being an English Specialist. I don't think there's even anyone to contact about it right now with the university on lock down.
            I had a slice of ham with mustard and some yogourt for lunch.
            I re-sent an email to Albert Moritz that I’d originally sent in early December. It contained the revised version of my book of poems that I had edited based on his critiques plus a detailed explanation as to what changes I’d made. I assume that the original got accidentally sent to junk mail since I assume he gets hundreds of emails a day as Toronto’s poet laureate. The same thing happened almost a year ago with my previous revision.
            That night I grilled three striploin steaks and had one with a potato and some canned gravy while watching.two episodes of the Sooty Show,
            In the first Sweep’s brother Swoop comes to visit but it turns out that he is an identical twin who sounds exactly the same. That creates enough confusion but then an identical cousin named Swipe and then another named Swop show up. It becomes a major family reunion with several more cousins and the the on;y ones that don’t look exactly like Sweep are his parents.
            In the second story Sweep hasn’t done his homework and since Soo and Sooty won’t let him cheat off theirs he gets cousin Scampy to whiten his face with talcum powder so he can pretend to be sick and miss school. The next day Sweep eats a big breakfast but pretends to be sick again. Everyone waits on him hand and foot. He stirs his cocao with thermometer so he’ll have a high temperature. But when Matthew catches him putting more talc on his face he realizes that Sweep is faking. Later after giving Sweep a lecture Matthew suddenly has red spots all over his arms and chest. Soo says he must go to bed. Matthew confesses to the camera that he drew the spots on to not have to work but suddenly he realizes that he has spots that he hadn’t drawn on. He has the measles and so does everyone else.

No comments:

Post a Comment