Y-generation

Posted on 27th Nov 2007 by essiep

9°C, grey, still.

Inset: Staff training session included an exercise in answering the question ” what are the main differences between contemporary teenagers and those of the 1980s & 90s? Primarily, it was an exercise in generating ideas collectively and with relatively little input from the leading teacher. This list contains some of the thoughts we agreed on;

Modern teenagers:

No politics, no idealism
they don’t exercise,
they are contained, driven everywhere, kept indoors; are “cocooned”
They are computer literate
They are measured constantly; SATS, targets, exams, body weight, health tests, ‘friends’ and ‘likes’ and so on
They are well fed
they are wealthy
they are afraid of risk
they are afraid of “getting things wrong”
they are image conscious
they are argumentative
they are shameless consumers
they are physically unhealthy
they are not ethical consumers

Muhammad

Posted on 26th Nov 2007 by essiep

9°C, dull all over. Sunset about ½ way through the afternoon.

Brain police: BBC story: my question is- why didn’t the thought police arrest the children? "Twenty out of the 23 children chose Muhammad as their favourite name." for teddy-bear…after voting.
Does it remind you of the Stoning scene in "Life of Brian"? Actually, the teddy-bear started all of this, so I hope IT gets the stoning!
Here’s another one, this time in the UK- Science A-level. What a bigoted world we live in!

Orange skimmed rooftops

Posted on 16th Nov 2007 by essiep

6°C, cold, still and misty. C=4×21 miles

This week has been good for cycling, despite very cold air, -3°C some mornings. Both mornings and evenings (which now happen in Mid-afternoon) have seen colourful sunset/rises. Routine makes it feel like "Groundhog Day". I see the same pedestrians in the mornings, crossing at the same places, the same cars overtake and the same sun sets.
See the picture of orange sunlight skimming horizontally across rooftops and trees.

Apetite: insatiable this week. Someone suggested that it is the cold that has boosted my hunger, which is an interesting thought.
I had 513 emails tonight, all claiming returned emails, so some spammer has been using my address as return addy.
Staffroom: we debated a Virus’s right to life status. No we aren’t virus antiabortionists, I wasn’t sure if they were alive in the first place. They’re not.

The kids did charity things.

Fungi are not plants!

Posted on 11th Oct 2007 by essiep

16°C, still, with some cloud.

Fungus: is not a plant, I stand corrected, but I’m left wondering what the term for a single fungus "entity " is. anyway, I suppose it’s inevitable that in a place with hundreds of people passing each day, that someone has destroyed this fungus’ mushrooms. All it would have taken is a quick kick, and then a spectacular explosion of white fleshy hyphae would be seen.There have been seen other mushrooms not far from this on the edge of the tarmac car-park, I thought it would be produced by the same plant. I have been corrected on that misconception. It’s not a plant, fungus don’t belong to the plant kingdom, they have their own kingdom (as I’ve said).

Storytime

Posted on 13th Sep 2007 by essiep

21°C, 50% cloud.

Commuting: on the ride to work today I stopped next to a van at the lights. In the cab were two macho lorry drivers types , big muscly arms, tattoos and shaven heads- the whole deal. They had a loud stereo playing as we waited for the green light. But it wasn’t music they were blaring out- they were listening to one of those Harry Potter audio books.
It’s good to get stereotypes overturned now and again.

New term, new year.

Posted on 4th Sep 2007 by essiep

21°C, clear and crisp. c=20miles

Commuting on the racing bike which is far from ideal. It’s going to take ages to get that winter bike repaired. Frankly I’m in a dilemma in looking for the best way to do it.
Work: new term has started, sleep habits have gone all awry.

Make a girl-noise here

Posted on 17th Jul 2007 by essiep

22°C, showers, some electrical bumps & flashes.

Fight: In the staffroom we heard a loud girl-noise at lunchtime yesterday. It lasted longer than the girl-noises we often hear, so had a look out the window. Much to our amazement was the sight of a girl-fight. The girls in the fight, as well as those spectating were all contributing to that girl-noise so that it sounded like a large flock of seagulls. Apparently, lots of kids have been squabbling recently, which if it gets out of hand, turns into that distinctive girl-noise. It seems more likely to escalate in this humid, thundery weater.

In other circumstances, there are other less gull-like girl-noises, like the ones that they make in normal social interactions. This appears to include a group of friends all shouting at each other as a "normal" part of conversation. They all do it simultaniously, no talk-listen cycle, taking it in turns, it’s all at once and loud as a shout. They are all keen to express themselves, but no listening goes on, just a very loud cacophony of girl-noise.

Their throats must be sore by the time they get home. I wonder if they have tinnitus too.

that took the fun out of it

Posted on 5th Jul 2007 by essiep

15°C, rain.

Riding home: the rain was heavy before I set off, no sign of it easing so the journey had to be made. It was fine, all that thick surface water, running rivers down the roads and so on. then as luck would have it, the back tyre went down near home. I bet that was from riding on a cycle track for the last bit. It’s now about 3 ghours later and the rain has only just stopped. I was quite enjoying it until that point.

What a summer.

Samosely

Posted on 4th Jul 2007 by essiep

18°C, heavy rain showers, otherwise dry.

That was it, June is officially the wettest since detailed records began in 1914. That’s not to say that 1914 was wetter, so a re-phrase is in order.

Roll on summer holidays, tiredness is all pervasive, deep to the core and unshakable. I blame work, accumilated lack of sleep- it adds up eventually.

Go on, rain again- I dare you!

Projectors

Posted on 29th Jun 2007 by essiep

18°C, some sun, few showers.

Interactive whiteboards: new scare, see here. It almost reads like exposure to radiation.

On a work related theme, we’re getting the new version of M$ Office. In the last 5 years or so, M$ have released "new versions" which have been substantially the same, with things moved from one menu to another, some file incompatibility added in and little else worth mentioning. Any other software developer would meerly release a point five update, like Office 2000.5. At some point they added in jelly-bean buttons then we all switched them off when we noticed the progammes run faster without.

This time, upgrade is worthy of comment because they actually have changed the suite. Export to pdf is there (they are catching up with Open Office), file formats have changed and there are some useful fix utilities for damaged or bloated files. The interface is the most noticable change, some fill freak when they see it. All they have done is move menu items onto tabs of buttons at a cost to screen space. Theway things operate is always the important thing, the one that lasts after novelty has gone- and these really are better in the ones I tried in the staffroom yesterday.

The only thing they have missed off that OpenOffice have, is they forgot to make the software cost free.

Micycle

Mike thinks b/hikes

Category Archives: Work