Day 15 - CDC recommends all J&J patients get a booster after 2 months

I finished this book today…

11/4/21. Thursday

9:45-10:15 – I’m awake so I go downstairs to say good morning to the dog.  She’s also awake and standing on her hind legs with her paws on the child safety gate, waiting for me. When she’s awake like this, it usually means she pooped in the house and…yes…there is a tiny piece of poop near the front door (sigh).  She jumps on the couch and rolls over so I can rub her tummy – today I only have to rub her tummy once before she is ready to go outside. We report to the backyard and I water two plants while I wait for her to go potty.  Return inside: coffee for me, cheese for her.  I go upstairs. 

10:15-11:15 – Blog post. 

11:15-11:30 – I eat a piece of gluten-free toast with almond butter and raspberry jam. 

11:30-12:45 – I finish Digital Minimalism. This book review will be relatively straightforward.  First of all, I loved the book and I’m a fan of Cal Newport. He’s a kingpin in the “productivity” community and a tenured-track professor…and yet, he’s so young, married, and has kids. Cal writes about the evils of the digital world and how tech tools are designed to foster addiction to the various platforms and social media, as well as generally waste our time. For example, the “like” button on Facebook [uh, sorry, I mean, Meta (insert sarcastic emoji here)] and the constant notifications we receive on our phones provide a shot of dopamine every time we get one and keeps us coming back for more. These are just two areas I’m pointing out – Cal goes into great detail about the addictive properties of these sites, all designed to waste our time and keep us on the platform in order to increase ‘traffic’, which, in turn, increases the amount of money advertisers will pay to feature their commercials/ads on the site. 

Through a series of exercises, Cal asks us to employ mindfulness techniques to determine if social media is really working for us.  Cal reminds us that Meta routinely bills itself as a platform that brings friends and family together, but Cal points out that superficially connecting with 100 or more “friends” on these platforms detracts from fostering more meaningful, in-person, relationships with the 5 to 10 people in your inner circle, who remain a constant in your life. Commonsensically, Cal points out that taking the time to “like” trite comments or pictures that numerous acquaintances, twice-removed, posted on these platforms, takes time away from going out to coffee with a good friend or family member. Meaningful relationships and activities occur in person. 

Although young, Cal never got the memo when it came to social media in general. He never joined Facebook or the “Gram.” He doesn’t believe in apps. He refused to replace his flip phone with an Iphone until his wife, 8 months pregnant, insisted that he possess a working phone so she could reach him when she went into labor.  He rarely responds to email and tells people this. Cal is a marketing nightmare for his publisher…and yet, he’s written several books and they’ve done quite well, not to mention the peer-reviewed articles he is forced to write while working as a professor at his university. 

All of the above is actually me, but it resonates more with people when a Millenial (youth, relatively speaking) rejects the tech world as opposed to a Gen Xer (old). Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel superior over most of society as I continuously remind myself that I didn’t “drink the Kool-aid” when social media platforms first arrived [btw – we’re not allowed to say that phrase anymore; it’s politically incorrect].  

I wasn’t on board with MySpace and I never understood the novelty when Facebook hit;  it seemed like a time suck from the very beginning. I don’t give a s—t about other people’s pictures or videos.  Seriously, do you like watching home videos of other people’s family vacations? And why do I need an Iphone or an Android, when my Verizon Chocolate is perfectly capable of receiving texts and making calls? Why do consumers spend upwards of over a $1000 every year for a phone upgrade? Do the Iphone models really differ that much from one year to the next? It all seems like a marketing ploy to me.

Also, the goals and objectives of almost all of the apps I’ve researched or expressed a fleeting interest in can be achieved by good ol’-fashioned, writing stuff down.  And for that, we have an entire “planning” community who will guide you through the more than 1000 products and You Tube sites currently available for your “planning” pleasure (see The Happy Planner; Erin Condren; or the Hobonichi Planner, to name a few). 

Cal provides a series of ‘hacks’ we can employ to break free from the digital universe, such as a 2-week digital sabbatical, which means nothing to me because I’m not a slave to any of this garbage. HOWEVER, I will say that after reading Digital Minimalism, it was apparent that I spend too much time reading Money Diaries blogs and that this was cutting into more meaningful reading time. If I was between books or had a moment in line at the grocery store, I would open my Ipad and read a Money Diary post. I love this site and I find the posts fascinating…BUT this is superficial reading and taking away from my yearly book total and page count. So, I stopped.  When I have a spare moment, I reach for a book instead.  I also make sure that I’m never between books and currated my next reads, which I have ready to go on my nightstand. Now, I approach Money Diaries more intentionally, typically giving myself an hour or so, on Sundays, to peruse the site and read a post that looks interesting. 

I loved this book and after reading it I felt compelled to order Deep Work, yet another book touted by the “productivity” community, from my local library.  Stay tuned for my upcoming book review of Deep Work. 

1:00-2:10 – Bullet journal 

2:10-3:30 – B. gave me a mozzarella salad when I was at his house a few days ago, so I have that for lunch and listen to The Daily.

3:30-4:30 – Shower. Lotion. I put on jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt that I purchased from Goodwill pre-pandemic. Make-up. 

4:45-5:30 – I check email to see if any of my students are converting to online tonight. One of my students from Specialty Class 1A, upon finally coming to the realization that she will actually get a D in the class, is asking for an Incomplete. Uh…there are only 2 days left before the deadline to drop and I’m supposed to process an Incomplete at the 11th hour? I immediately contact the secretary for my Department and ask her if it is too late for a student to request to convert to an “I” in the class. My Department’s secretary, who may be one of the most competent people I’ve ever encountered even though I’ve never personally met her, pops into the Dean’s office [at 5:00 p.m. – what is the secretary still doing there at this time?] to ask the question and conveys to me that it is, in fact, too late in the semester for a student to request an “I” in lieu of a letter-grade.  

Due to the fact that I’m enroute to my 7:00 class, I won’t receive this definitive information until 8:30 p.m., at which point I email the student, explain that I spoke with the Dean, and she canNOT request an “I” two days before the deadline to drop the class just because she is getting a D. I recommend that she drop the class now, as only a W will be reflected on her transcript as opposed to a D, which is what I’ve been recommending she do for the past 3 weeks. All of this is a complete waste of my time. The next day she withdraws. 

5:30-7:00 – Driving. As usual, traffic is horrible. I eat carrots, hummus, and miniature chocolate-covered graham crackers while enroute. I listen to the Political Gabfest.

7:00-10:00 – When I arrive, there are only FOUR F2F students in the class because the remaining students have converted, on their own accord, to online instruction.  What the f—k am I doing here? What the f—k are these FOUR kids doing here? Seriously, why didn’t they convert to online instruction as well?  There should be a rule that if there are 5 or less students in the F2F section of the Hyflex class, we should convert to Distance Education entirely. In the Before Times, my classes were canceled if there were less than 20 students.

Nobody benefits from driving to a brick-and-mortar class, sitting in that class for 3 hours, and then driving home when they could receive the exact same material in the privacy of their own bedroom. And don’t say they’re benefitting from the “socialization”…these kids are masked, social distancing, and unresponsive for the entire 3 hours they’re here. Tonight’s agenda is a 1.5 hour lecture, followed by a documentary.  Do you know what it’s like lecturing to FOUR people for 90 minutes in a mask?  It’s a joke. 

I grade extra credit essays from my highschoolers while the documentary runs. I also send an email blast to everyone, informing the class that the Final Review is posted and the Final will be administered at our next meeting…in DECEMBER. 

10:00-10:30 – Class dismissed, thank God, and I won’t be returning until December. I send emails to the students who did not sign in on the Discussion Board informing them that they will be marked absent and will receive 0s on tonight’s Video quiz.  Then, I send harsh emails to the students who scored a D/F on the Video quiz. Did you actually watch the video?  I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall. Finally, I take Attendance. 

10:30-11:15 – Driving. I listen to Happier. 

11:15-12:00 – Home. L is also home so we spend time talking about our day. I bring in all of my school bags. 

12:00-2:00 – I update my budget and log my receipts from August through October (I’m a little behind). Then, I update my 2021 Books Read list. I need to step it up on the reading if I’m going to beat last year’s Books Read total. I listen to The Productive Woman. 

2:00-3:00 – I grade a few more extra credit essays, then set up the Discussion Board prompt and course content for my highschoolers tomorrow morning. 

3:00-4:00 – Kitchen duty. I pack  my lunch bag (in preparation for Saturday) and ready my coffee for tomorrow. 

4:00-4:30 – Nighttime routine. Bed.