Vintage Hypocrite

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.
James 5:16a

Well… I feel dirty just saying it… I took my laptop to class today.

Despite my outspoken advocacy of Vintage Notes, I broke down and took the mac to campus. Now, before you break out the stones and begin tossing them at me, allow me to give my reasoning:

1. Access to the Greek and Hebrew – I’m currently taking a class on the book of Hebrews and the professor often encourages us to look at the Greek… I haven’t taken Greek yet, so looking at it does nothing for me. However, having the computer there allows me to pull of the original language and look at it and better understand what is going on… well, a little bit at least.
2. I’m a tree hugging hippie – Well, not really… but two of my professors offer their lecture outlines online and I hate wasting the paper to take them to class to write notes on them… especially when I plan on taking them home and entering them into the computer. It just doesn’t make sense.

Now, let me make a couple observations as one who was a pure Vintage Note taker until today.

1. Temptation – I never knew how INCREDIBLY tempting it was to get online, check email, set system preferences, organize my folders, download notes for other classes, set new wallpaper image, etc, while in class. It drive me crazy when I see people doing it, and yet, today I had to concentrate not to do it. It was a challenge to say the least! I think I did a good job for the most part, but I don’t know… it is HARD to not do anything but take notes and use my bible software.
2. Repentance – Paper is better! Seriously, I really do think it is better. I found myself getting a bit lazy when I had the professors notes sitting right in front of me… essentially all the important stuff was already there. So, I just sat and listened (trying not to go online). Conversely, when all I have is my notepad in front of me I am forced to think about what is said and what I need to remember. Also, I really do like being able to write all over the page and draw lines, arrows, circles, and other visual clues to my notes… but that might just be me.

Conclusion – I’ll probably continue to take my computer and use it as a support tool, however, I intend to keep Vintage Notes as my primary approach to note taking.

Whew… I feel better now that I’ve got that off my chest.