group_work epitome of incomprehensibility For my other class presentation, my group was well balanced. I summarized the article, Rosie did the slides, Phil spoke, and before that we all checked up on each other, editing and suggesting. Now it seems there's matchmaking, meretricious_matchmaking, by some malevolent devil: put the old responsible student with the young class-skippy one? and it's a literature course? and the older one already has a master's degree in literature? ...aaaand, somewhat conversely, the supposedly responsible one has brought too much work on herself and is perpetually slow, to boot? and the supposedly lazy one is also working long hours? ...and so it's hard to find a time to practice? and then they misunderstand each other about 9 AM vs. PM? Pah. Is life. Deal with it. You finished your part of the powerpoint, the bigger part. Go to sleepy sleep, like you sang to Shiloh. 230411 ... e_o_i Oh yeah. This past term, working with Julieta for GERM 450 - the course on German women's literature and film. The most stressful moment was before the presentation itself. I'd prepared a bunch of text for the slides, and when Julieta screen-shared her Powerpoint, I was like, "Where...where did all the words go?" She said cheerfully that less was better. I was taken aback. Confused. Angry. ("All my work! Wasted!") I didn't know what to say, so I mumbled something vague and unsure. Otherwise, I'm proud (however pathetically) of how I didn't get angry or whiny, how that interaction was a triumph of self-control. Besides, it turned out she was right. My text *would* have been too much. We *could* use our own notes. We didn't practice much, at 9 PM that night, but we got together in person a few hours before the presentation time and went through it three times. It was a little last-minute for my tastes (I'm one to talk, but yeah) but we did well. So I think there's times where I have to swallow my initial impression (that sounds like a not_quite_truism) and wait. Patience. Geduld. Oh god, though, it's midnight and I told myself I would sleep. I have a whole other presentation for immer_immersion tomorrow. GO. TO. BED. NOW. 230524 what's it to you? who go blather from