6-6:10pm – Check in…. How you’re doing. What’d you do, TODAY??
6:10-6:40pm – Discussion on final prompts.
6:40-7pm – Final thoughts for semester, closing….
7-7:10pm: BREAK
7:10-8pm: ZOOM office hours, jam session on final prompts.
(ZOOM INFO)
Topic: Office hours
Time: May 18, 2020 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84718751800?pwd=aTRVUWRqbEdQTXRQMTkzUE9sR2hvQT09
Meeting ID: 847 1875 1800
Password: 1LswUN
#professormikey 
I think Thompson used his writing as a coping method. It was a way for him to be vulnerable and even praised when he himself is overwhelmed by existential dread and whatever other aspects of life that drove him brilliantly mad.
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Drove him brilliantly mad… Fuck yes.
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I’ve never heard the term “brilliantly mad”, but i like it. I agree he used his writing as a coping mechanism, as i suppose we all do, in our own way.
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For me the prompts are straight forward and I like that part too. Stephanie Neeley
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For my own prompt…. I would provide a question like, “What should a critical read of a text be?” Answer being something to the tone and tune of, “To understand the intentions and beliefs of the author, and what they want me to do after reading their work..”
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The prompt I’ve had the most trouble with so far is #4. Out of all the authors we have had, I would have to say Sedaris. Still trying to dive deeper into why, but I believe him to represent my more inner self that I keep inside. I’m having so much fun with this final which I never expected and I should’ve. This class has taught me so much and I’m so lucky that I enrolled!
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Myself and the colleagues are lucky to have worked with you, Alexander. Cheers…
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I think he write to wrap his mind around life. I think he finds life to be unfathomable yet he is on a continued pursuit to wrap his mind around it… so he writes. In a way he tells the reader that life itself is crazy and we all must cope with that one way or another… but really I think he’s telling this to himself.
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I agree. I think his writing, similar to many authors we’ve read this semester, is purely for himself.
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So agree…. I love that idea, of writing to yourself and forgetting the audience, your own readers who will fucking but your book. That’s wildly intriguing to me…
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Prompt 4 is all about dimension, and exploration… hint, hint…. ❤
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Hey all, been a long day today. Finally had to get bloodwork done so i can start to figure out what might be wrong with my lungs, but just so happens everytime i get pricked by a needle im fully incapacitated for a good while. Aside from lying around in a hospital I’ve spent the day looking at the finals prompt and just trying to relax
Im excited to be able to explore Thompson more with these prompts for the final, although im not too sure at all what i would create as my own prompt to write on. Maybe something on the theme of freedom within fear and loathing.
Honestly i think its pretty impressive that we have all made it through this semester, and i cant even imagine the kind of BS and stress people with a fully stacked schedule had to experience. Hope you all have a wonderful summer at least
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Glad you’re here, and doing better… Enjoy your writing on ALL prompts.
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Hope you feel better soon and the results are good news, Noah!
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As I’m working on my finals I find myself quite happy to have a variety of different things to respond to for this class. I personally like to write about my opinion and more from the heart and I feel like a majority of the prompts will allow me to do that. The idea that we don’t have a page limit rather freaked me out at first because I’m not entirely sure if I’ve ever had that type of freedom with an assignment before. But throughout the duration of this class I have learned that as long as I get a rhythm started with my writing the rest comes naturally. And with that I’m exited to see what my outcome for this final will look like. No trying to stretch an essay longer than feels natural or trying to compress more content onto to few pages.
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Not too little!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, not too much… just write freely and honestly… And with a thorough exploration of your own ideas.
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Prompt 1: Personally I would invite Jenny Lawson to get a cup of coffee because I connected with her writing and sense of humor the most. I also feel like I would have so much to talk to her about, and no matter what we would talk about she’s almost guaranteed to make me uncontrollably cackle. I would probably tell her all about the similarities in both our lives and mental outlooks, and how rough experiences can make better people.
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At the end of this semester, I’m a little sad, in a way I haven’t been my entire teaching life. Wish I could have spent more time with you all, in-person… I feel like you all were deprived and that saddens and infuriates me..
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I couldn’t agree more, Mikey. Although these unfortunate circumstances have been handled pretty well by my professors, I definitely miss the face to face interaction and discussion, especially in an English class. It’s always been my favorite subject due to the conversation so this has been a bummer, but I am thankful for this class!! It’s unlike the typical English class in a refreshing way, and I have genuinely enjoyed all of our novels, as well as our assignments. I like the free form and the creative aspects.
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Cheers.
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I miss having an in-person class. I think that is the best way to learn. Doing everything online has been so different and I feel like I didn’t get as much of an experience of learning especially in my high school classes. I definitely think this as by far my most interactive online class, but I miss going to class and having the in-person conversations because those are what teach more and provide more insight.
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Definitely feels like something will always feel a bit empty/missing whenever I think of this semester, almost like a tape got cutout or someone ripped a memory in half. Nonetheless, these discussions have been fun and I’m glad I’ve had something to do, as well as some good books to read.
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Honestly, not too many questions about the final. Feeling organic, a good conclusion to a production based semester. Will write as much as I need to: a very Mikey-esqe final.
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I appreciate you, my brutha..
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I’m up to #3 and on my way to #4, but that last one… still not one hundred percent what’s an appropriate final prompt yet. I feel like I’ve covered a lot of bases, but I’m thinking something will make itself apparent when I have the rest of the prompts complete.
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For tonight’s final page…. The Now is always a draft, and NOT.. keep the scribble a scribble for more sense and sight.
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I’m excited about writing off of these prompts and I’m still in the process of coming up with my own prompt. I want to come up something that I would enjoy writing about but that also makes me think. Still in the early process of this but some ideas so far are
-picking a passage or story that resonated with me and why?
-Who would you want to be quarantined with?(somewhat similar to the coffee prompt though)
-Anything that I’ve learned from the writers that I’ve applied to my life/writing.
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Like these!!
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I think the prompt that speaks the most with me is the first one. The author that I’d invite to a Coffee would be hunter S Thompson, Ive known a lot of people who I would say remind me of the experiences he’s gone through and would like to expand more.
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The end of this semester does have a bitter taste to it, but i am glad we managed to pull through and made the best out of the situation at hand.
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Hard, but it can still be written…
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This was definitely a strange semester but nevertheless it turned out better than expected with all this going on. I just wished we had more face to face meetings instead of the once a week deal but I suppose with the one meeting we had per week. There was so much that we talked about. The energy and conversations we had were by the best I’ve had in a classroom like that. I’m just glad we were all got through it and thank you Professor Mikey for being flexible with us. Thank you for letting us be us and not someone that other instructors want us to be. I’m glad we all made it through this semester together even though it wasn’t face to face. Enjoyed all those moments together and hope everyone stays safe and healthy! Glad to have been in such an amazing class. Thank You All!!
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Thank YOU!!!!!
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Truly appreciate you as a professor and colleague. Not only did you show me but the whole class that we shouldn’t be defined by restrictions that are implemented onus as students. There’s more to us than what we believe in and you were the little spark that got all of fired up even though there were days where some conversations didn’t go as long as they could’ve. Sad we didn’t have more time together but glad to have had the moments we had as a class! This semester isn’t over yet so I’ll just leave this here. “Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice”-Professor Mikey
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Cheers, Luis..
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This semester has been a good one. Currently looking back on the first essay of the year we wrote: What we want for this semester. One of my favorite lines from that: “I can feel that I’m blessed just knowing that my past self only a couple years ago would be very proud of who I am now.” I feel even more proud now (I’m sorry if I sound cocky, but who doesn’t love personal growth!!). I also wrote that I hope to find joy in every assignment. I feel that this class has made me feel that way. I’ve found some silver lining in each essay or novel we’ve had and it’s truly been so refreshing to take an English class with this structure. I wish the semester didn’t end in this physically-detached way, but I’m glad we’ve been able to stay in contact virtually.
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Overall, this whole semester feels like it got a bit messy and hard to get into the flow of things. I feel like I could have pushed myself more but I must also understand that I was doing my best to take care of myself at the same time. I feel that this class was very interesting and held my attention very well. I also feel like my writing style has loosened up making me feel for free to write with ease and overall improving my productivity. I hope that my next semester at the JC feels a bit less like free fall as thing hopefully start to go back to normal. But in the end I feel like I did the best I could with what this semester has thrown at me and everyone else and I hope that things will only look up from here.
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I’ve been excited about and a bit fixated on prompt # 6. I haven’t come up with a prompt yet but I find myself thinking about it at the most random times. I woke up in the middle of the night last night and the first thing that came to my mind was more ideas for prompts. I want to combine several ideas that are important to me and show how they fit together into one bigger question.
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For prompt #6, I’m still thinking about what question I want to answer, but my rough draft for a question is: What motivates the author to write our their stories?
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7 minutes till the Zoom Office hour…
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I have learned so much in this class this semester. I have loved each of the books that were selected, and have honestly felt a genuine connection to each of them. The authors we read this semester made me realize that there are people who think just like me, and are able to break down the fourth wall (learned that term, 🙂 ) and their stream of consciousness writing has inspired me. I feel that we as a class did such a good job adapting to the circumstances, and although I would have LOVED to have more face-to-face meetings, I am grateful for the times we did. Professor Mikey did a great job adjusting the class format to the blog, and I’m proud of us as a class.
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Thanks for this kindness toward us ALL. 🙂
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I agree, the blog has really grown on me. I’m glad we were still able to continue as a class.
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For tonight’s page….. Appreciate why you are and AREN’T adequately appreciated.
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This is my favorite one so far! Thanks for the reminder
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As the semester comes to a close, I’ve begun to reflect on how each of our novels has exposed me to a new aspect of my personality. While the semester has been unusual, it has made me appreciate all that I have and look to spread kindness in my community.
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Off to the Zoom Room… See y’all there… #professormikey, OUT.
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I really wish we could have fit in more face to face meetings before all of this. I wanted to retake this class after dropping it last spring, and over the fall I only had the option of taking it online, which I didn’t want to do because it just doesn’t have the same effect, so it’s funny that I ended up having to take this class online anyways. Although I do think that this was a lot more lively and interactive than any other online class I’ve taken so thank you everyone for that!!!!
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Closing thoughts on the semester are that obviously things could have gone better but I think that at the end of this semester we should take it as a soft reset button and for the summer class people with the 3 weeks we have we’re gonna have to make the changes necessary to adapt to the new setting and establish some new type of “normal” school routine for ourselves.
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This semester has been very surreal and strange. The covid stress has been really intense and has really harshed my mellow. I’m trying to keep my calm in the face of all this chaos though. I think I lost it for a little bit during the semester but honestly I think journaling is what really pulled me out of the trenches. It has been so unbelievably helpful for getting annoying thoughts out of my head. It’s nice to always have it to turn to when shit hits the fan. The books we have read have been really nice too as they added some humor into my life. If I were given the option of what class to take during a pandemic, it would surely be this one. I’ve enjoyed it immensely and I feel I have grown a great deal with and because of it.
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The journal can so much and in many instances be a gem..
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This year, I’ve been happy to enjoy a great class environment, even though every class after March 15th was virtual. The books we read were so different from 1A, and I loved having a place to discuss the wittiness of each author. Thank you all for tolerating me in class, and Mikey for showing me the potential in narrative. Will miss you guys 😦
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It was a bit of a strange semester. I get the impression that times are strange when you’re living through them, but sooner than later they’ll be history. I was really hoping this semester would at least be more ‘normal’ than the last, losing less time due to unforeseen events. That kind of thing. Still, gotta appreciate what you got, and I’ve noticed that all my professors have really excelled at this whole stay at home thing. I think hopping over here was a great idea, a great platform for discussion. Not to mention, especially in the case of Mike, an enthusiastic and positive attitude coming from the professors, college admin staff, and everyone else stuck in this situation has really made this whole thing a lot better. Thanks again, Mike.
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Appreciated, and I appreciate you.
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This semester has been an interesting one. After having exciting in-class collaboration and dialogue, who would have guessed we would never return from spring break? Our education has been interrupted in the past by fires, floods, and unfortunately we can now add a pandemic to the list. Although I would have enjoyed some more in class meetings there isn’t another class that I would have preferred going into blog mode with. We were allowed to be ourselves the whole way through and that was much appreciated. I hope everyone has a healthy summer and fall. Good luck on those prompts!
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Thanks for the positives here, Jose. Cheers..
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I felt like giving up for the first couple of weeks of online classes. I was sooo close to dropping all my classes because I believed I couldn’t adapt. Well, here I am. I’m usually harder on myself but I keep celebrating each little step forward and have been breaking things down into smaller accomplishments. I learned that I’m capable of much more in life than I initially think when presented with an obstacle. One of the highlights for me in this class was reading Sedaris and writing about his ideas. I found motivation in the reading/writing process and it’s continued throughout the semester.
We all made it this far and that’s pretty darn awesome! Congrats to everyone for sticking with the changes 🙂
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It was as rewarding as it was challenging.
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