dream_tutoring e_o_i I'm online with earphones in, listening a pair of twins tell me about the parts of a standardized test they need the most work on. The test's name didn't survive the dream-wake transition. The students' names and ages are similarly unclear: one's male and one's female, but I'm not sure if they're in high school or college. Anyway, the guy has problems with the section about identifying five-sided shapes. I have a book about the test, but I hardly glanced at this part. I put him on hold a second, scan the Wikipedia article. Each shape has a technical name: a "house shape" has one, a "caved-in house shape" another. Being able to identify them quickly is supposed to prove something about mental agility. It probably doesn't, but that's how these sort of tests justify themselves. Besides, I don't know what the generic technical name for a five-sided shape is. Quadrilateral is for four-sided shapes, and pentagon doesn't seem equivalent. Quintuplets? No, that word's for people. These ones are only twins. I unmute myself, ask the girl what she thinks of the Roget or Robert book. The one that's supposed to provide a guide to this test, the one I have on my bookshelf. "It's not the best," she says. But now I'm flipping through it, searching frantically for ideas. What I should have done, I know know, was to prepare beforehand. To make my own sample test. It's not actually that hard of a test, this one - correcting the underlined words in a sentence, identifying shapes - but it takes a long time to make tests. Would I get paid for it? I should. I should be getting paid for the prep work I'm doing right now, even though my students expect me to be talking to them. I'm doing my job. I go outside and sit on the step. It's warm, sunny. Then I glance at my watch, which informs me there are 5-10 minutes before the class is over. Panic strikes. I've wasted so much time. What will I say to them? Claim an internet outage? WAS the internet out? Or did I just lose focus and wander away? What will I tell my boss?? ...It was a relief to wake up and realize, after a second, that the test was imaginary. 220715 ... epitome of incomprehensibility ("Know now," that was supposed to be, but "know know" has a rhythm. Pretend it's deliberate!) The end part is a common nightmare - using "nightmare" loosely: that I'm tutoring and I lose focus completely, drifting off into my thoughts, into another activity. I guess it combines dream logic with my real-life experiences and fears. No, I don't usually lose focus much in classes, but it takes me a long time when I have to file some report or send the student an email with attachments after class. These things typically aren't urgent, no, but why NOT do them fast? Why CAN'T I? Frustration. 220715 what's it to you? who go blather from