Long Time No Siege... (Fav Age of Empires meme)

It has been ages since I blogged.
I used to blog because I love to write about stuff and maybe I also love to have people commenting on my article.
And I blog to increase my proficiency in English... as nobody around me talk the language (they understand, but they don't have the drive).
Sometimes I impose on my students, by talking or asking questions in English, which they rarely reply back in the same language...

Oh well.

The rise of technology makes people lazy (except to those who use the tech for money of course). I have buckets of books that I haven't read, which I religiously bought at the book-fairs.

I used to read 2 thick books a month. Now hardly so!

So ashamed of myself...

Of Terrorism and Network of Spies

If I didn't love myself and parents well, I'd be a phenomenal crime lord.

Yes, I was born evil, and it wasn't my parents fault. Maybe the bad genes of my previous ancestors were finally distilled within me, or the cosmos decided to create an alien in human form for fun. I never said I was good, always tell people to be careful around me.

At least I warned them. It's not like I'd grow claws and rip them apart. I hold grudges... and I always get my dues. Imagine Damien 6.0.

Anyway, talking about Terrrorism... Last week three Malaysian fishermen were abducted by the coast of Sabah by three heavily armed men from the south of the Philippines... The same case happened before, some of our citizens kidnapped by the southern Philippines terrorists for ransom.

For your information, the south of Philippines is a nest of pirates, two bit freedom fighters and kidnappers. And those islands is very near to Sabah, Borneo, the eastern-most state of Malaysia.

A few years ago, several of these armed men infiltrated Sabah, killing locals and policemen in their wake. They wanted Sabah to be theirs, citing of documents and agreements from long past to validate their purpose. And the government mobilize the army and bombed them all to hell (I was surprised that we do have drone-bombs in our arsenal).

Back to the matter at hand, if we pay the ransom (millions of ringgit worth), they may return the hostages... but the vicious cycle will never end. The terrorists will buy more guns and continue rampaging and kidnapping, asking for more money. They say their cause is just, and they are desperate. But whoever knew of a righteous terrorist nowadays...

 People and places are bombed worldwide. Innocents shot by discontent madmen. Suffering, all year round, fun for the whole family! This is the age where terrorists are superstars, the news are almost incomplete without tales of death and carnage.

If it was up to me, I'd invade the south of Philippines and kill every living soul living there. And then withdrew my troop and say "Ooops! Sorry" to the Philippines government. But that may incite a war. See? The circle never ends. But diplomacy is already dead and buried.  

I am not nice, but I hate terrorism. Why? Because it may disturb my peace and sleep. Rather selfish reasons, that.

Anyway, let me tell you about yesterday's case;

A girl tweeted her picture in the afternoon during school. She was careful not to add her teachers or school friends. She thought she was clever... (bringing gadgets, phones to school is an offence)

Her friend outside the school saw the tweet, and promptly alerted a teacher about it. The teacher, who happened to be in the staff room yelled for me, showing me the uploaded tweet with picture, the damning evidence.

I instructed a couple of my prefects to bring this girl to me. It took her a long time to come (students know it is never a good thing when I call them). She was starting to evade when I asked where the handphone was, and I had not the energy to scream her to submission.

I flicked her tweet account using my own phone and showed the tweet to her (the time stamp clearly shows the upload during school hours). "Explain this." She was silent.

"Bring me the phone right now. If you refuse, it's ok. Tomorrow I shall call your parents and we shall have a meeting with the principal and vice principal of student affairs. So what shall it be?"

She relinquished her huge tablet to me immediately from her bag.

Yes, I do a lot of blackmailing. I am a terrorist too. I never said I am nice :)
 

Discipline and A Hair Cut

Being a discipline teacher means you must be extra vigilant and more fierce than the rest of the teachers. Who ever heard of a KIND and LOVING discipline teacher? I strongly believe discipline and academic success go side by side. A trained mind can achieve almost anything it focuses on.

Before this, I taught at a regular secondary school some 20 km away from my house. There, the students came from all walks of life and the near distance of the school to town made many students rowdier than most. It was quite hard to uphold the law when lawlessness was an easier and more fun. 

(Un)fortunately I was born evil. And my deepest desire is always to dominate, to control people, making they obey and accept their station. You can call me ultra bossy. But the thing is... I don't like being the boss, I just like to control people.

And that made me a VERY good discipline teacher. I enjoy the mind games with these convicts, I mean students. I use negative reinforcement strategy to cause fear, and psychology is so much fun! 

Yes, that may sound disturbing for parents. But nobody ever said teaching and working with people is easy. I came from a boarding school with iron rules. I obeyed them and I acknowledged its results. Spare the rod, and we shall expect you to have a spawn of hell soon (in many cases I witnessed). Cancer must be nipped at its bud etc etc.

Anyway, I single-handedly reduced the number of discipline cases by more than half when I was there, even though I was not even a discipline teacher  (the actual discipline teacher was an attention seeking woman who held the position just because of the title).

So here I am now, after more than a year in a better school (the crime rate was so low, I was a bit bored because of no challenge). These photos was taken yesterday during an inspection of the students hair. There were about 20 students with hair a bit longer than the approved length and I snipped their hair with a pair of scissors.

The woman next to me is the school counselor and we do have a lot of talk regarding how to improve the overall discipline of the students.  

If you ask if a bit of hair is enough? You haven't seen what I did to the extremely long ones, I actually shaved parts of their head only! A school is a place to study, if they wanna do high fashion they can join any modelling agency.

p.s. - I was brutal, even to a discipline teacher standard. But many teachers are still surprised that students flocked around me during free time. Maybe the love oozed through? I can only assume they are attracted to the fascination which is me :P

The Bored Teacher Posted Some Pictures...

Did I tell you the monsoon season is here again? This is taken right at my doorstep. The monsoon rain is usually heavy and long lasting. Heck, sometimes it rained the entire day. This may cause floods somewhere, but my housing estate is right on top of a hill.

I love the cold. I love the rain!

(Oh, there was a landslide at the highway to the east, nobody died though)

This is my living room. Initially it was almost bare, only filled with the sofa and dining table set. But as the years gone by, I bought many stuff that I don't usually need, and the house is rather crowded with items. I have an entire room converted to be a store.

Notice the teddy bear. It was given to me.

(This was taken in the afternoon, a week ago)

 Another shot of my living room. See how messy the table is now, complete with a flypaper. (I just hate flies!) The opening to the left lead to the kitchen, and the right to two rooms, including my master bedroom. The door you see is the storeroom I mentioned. My cats are in there too.

(This was taken this very evening).

 One of the restaurants near my house I go to if I am in no mood to cook. Usually if the place is too crowded, I would leave, but I make an exception during the rain. I would order from the least crowded stall, something very easy to prepare, and then enjoy my meal while watching the other patrons waiting (sometimes) for an hour for their food.

Oh, and I never gi out alone dining at restaurants. Usually I am with friends or housemates.

 This is taken earlier this week, during an examination. The boy, which is unfortunately, a student of mine slept after 10 minutes into the exam. My students RARELY show this lack of moral in front of me, knowing how I enjoy to retaliate this. But this boy is something special. The kind who takes warning as suggestion, and a scolding as noises in the wind.

I woke him up and made him to sweep the entire class during the entire examination.

The class was spotless after two hours of solo cleaning :)

 And this was taken scant hours ago. I accompanied a friend who wanted to have his hair cut. This barber shop opens early and closes at 1030 pm. This is a boon for people who are busy working during the day (or too lazy to wake up early in the weekends), like me.

p.s. - I take all photos using my HTC Desire 816. If you find the pictures to be dark and gloomy, now you know my favourite theme :) Bright and sunshine are great to see with and enjoy from the dark side. I like to stay in the shadows (literally. Heck, I even teach in dark, poorly lit classrooms).

The Haze is Finally Gone. Yay! And Brutality Gets You Famous.

 This was the view from my school during the haze. The air was dirty and understandably unhealthy.

People stayed indoors and many events got cancelled for health reasons. 

Respiratory illnesses spiked in the entire region, and there were deaths cases, especially in the country of origin, Indonesia.

Imagine not being able to see 50 metres in front of you! 

 Now this is what I mean when we can see for miles in a clear day. The haze is no more! Thanks to the shifting winds, which blew the haze back to its originator. I just love blue skies!

The monsoon is here, here expecting a lot of wind and rain.

And floods too, yay!

(Both of the pictures were taken at the same time in the morning, before I attend my class)

 This was taken last Friday during a ceremony. The school is on top of a hill, yet we still have two hills which are higher next to the school. I sit at the front, but usually I walk around the students, and buildings, just because I can :)

And this was taken this morning, in a ceremony celebrating the many achievements of the hostel students and wardens. It took a lot of energy to control the boys, especially the older ones who think they know everything. But never mind that, most of them who were against me will be gone next year. And we shall build our empire anew!
I am the most brutal warden of the seven, heck, the scariest teacher in school. Yet, I am abnormally popular amongst students. Fascinating character attracts attention.

We, Teachers are under Attack! (because of the bloody haze!)

This godawful haze, originated from Indonesia has created many problems for the neighbouring countries. The rise in respiratory illnesses spiked this time of the year. A lot of outdoor events, some major and important are also cancelled because of the worsening air quality.

And schools were closed for days too..... People should stay indoors for health reasons.

This created a new problem, for parents at least. When schools are closed, where do you put your children for care? Most parents cannot bring their children to work, and the hyper active ones will bring major headaches without supervision.

So where do the parents go to vent their anger and frustration? The Internet, especially FACEBOOK.
Who they blamed? The TEACHERS for closing schools.

The war between these narrow minded parents and teachers online has gone critically viral these couple of weeks.

I must make this very clear; The decision to close school was made by the Ministry of Education, not us lowly teachers. A directive was issued for the schools to be closed for certain times in certain areas. And the schools were closed not by whim, but to save a great many children from travelling to school in hazardous situation. (So why blame the teachers? We don't create the haze to close schools for pleasure). 

Some of the comments by these frustrated parents are dangerously scathing. Other than blaming the teachers for closing schools, they accused most teachers to be improperly trained  and not really serious about the well being and education of their children.

And some comments are seriously not proper to be typed here.

Teachers retaliated (including yours truly) by pointing how narrow minded these adults were. We teachers ARE NOT glorified nannies, to care for your children while they work.
We educate and improve minds and body. A school is NOT a daycare centre.

(My actual nuclear bomb; If you cannot care for your own children for a couple of days without us, you have no business whatsoever to breed!)

About the level of education of teachers, those of us with high levels would seek these misguided parents in their Facebook domain, challenging them to see whose education is higher. (Mind you, we teachers got so many university grads and even PhDs. ) After heavy fire, many FB accounts of said victimized parents were terminated by the owners.

It maybe petty and bullying. but WAR IS WAR.

There are still a great many parents who thanked us teachers during these hours. A lot of the people understand, and are still happy to send their children to school, trusting us with the education and growth. For this kind of parents, we teachers are very happy to accept the responsibility.

Now picture time; (something to show that a teacher is not only good in class, and I already posted this in my FB account to prove)

This is me calmingly waiting for something....

Here, in a hospital ward, at midnight...... (seriously, after midnight)

For this student of mine, who had his foot stitched because of an accident at the hostel room. 

We are TEACHERS, and We do Serve.

But We are NOT your damn NANNIES!

p.s.
- Facebook can be a very very bad place to be when people with limited intellect decided to share their piece of mind :P

I am a School Warden, and Hear Me Roar

I am just back from looking after some 300+ students in the school hostel. Its only babysitting the students, making sure they do stuff on schedule and hoping nothing bad happens during my time on duty.

What are the bad things that may happen you asked? Children are still children. Accidents during sports. They might fall off the stairs. Brawling rarely happens, but its a possibility. Some students may have high fever in the middle of the night. They might got food poisoning. Unauthorized personals invading the hostels. Or the students decided they wanted to go out of the hostel grounds without permission. The list can be quite long....

There are 7 wardens, all of us are also teachers, three men and four women. Only me and a fellow male teacher live outside the school compound. (I love my house anyway, and do not wish to stay apart long with it). Close proximity to the students will be BAD for a warden's health. There'll be constant knocking on the door, and endless stream of questions from both students and parents during the weekend. From 'when can we go out' to 'can I bring my child out for her grandma's wedding'.

Every wardens has his / her own style. And mine is 'in your face' approach.

If I don't like a student (behavior) I will tell the rest that I hate that particular human being and his associates will also feel the heat. I don't usually sugarcoat my words because I always believe honesty is the best policy.

Some may wonder in shock, WTH are you posing as a teacher then? From my 14 years experience, my observation of human (student) nature is; they will never change in school. A good student may improve, but an average or the bad ones may continue being so for the rest of the year. I am talking in behavioral terms, not academic. A tardy boy will continue being late, and a hardworking girl will continue creating great diagrams in her homework.

So what kind of children do you have?

The best way to change children's mind for the better is by telling them why they must do so, making them UNDERSTAND what will happen if they fail. Yes, talk to them to nail in the facts, properly.

This may prove very hard because usually peer pressure will destroy this holy task of yours.

So I always turns to BLACKMAILING instead. The next best thing.

You don't do what I ask, I will never look at your face again. You will make 5 copy of this correction paper if you fail my test. You will stand the entire hour in my class if you are late. You will acknowledge yourself as an idiot if you fail to answer me, even after I told you to read. You will sit in the middle of the corridor if you fail to hand in your work etc etc.

Harsh. (Not very) brutal. But it works. I don't do much shouting anymore when I found out that the results will be much the same without any screaming. Now I aim for their ego.

Anyway, picture time!

I used my younger prefects to set up the hall for yesterday's ceremony. These students work directly under me and know what will happen if I don't get my way. So everything went fast and smoothly. If I use the average students instead, sharp and abusive words may have to be expressed to have the job done. (They will play... oh how they play....)
Oh and this was about 930 in the evening....

The next day, when all of them are in school prefects uniform. I didn't have to tell them twice (now that's a teacher's wet dream). You girls sweep and you boys pick up the pigeons' feathers (our school is infested with these flying vermin). Observe and Obey, my personal motto.

You just cannot win the war by playing nice. The Dark Side of the Force can have things done too :)

Hazing the Neighbours....

This picture was taken earlier today, at 10.50 am. Nope, it wasn't fog. It's the bloody haze.

My school is on top of a hill, Bukit Merchat (or Mer-chut Hill to you English speaking people). We have a spectacular view of the surrounding, and from over elevation, can see kilometres away. The haze has made this impossible for months now...

Indonesia is on fire.... The country surrounding Malaysia is burning its jungles for new plantations. Smoke and ash are spread throughout South East Asia and the neighbouring countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines are affected. This happens EVERY FREAKING YEAR!

The air was so polluted that some states close schools because of the high API (air pollution index). In the picture, our API is about 128.... Just imagine in south Sumatra, Indonesia, some parts reached 800 - 1000 units.

And yesterday in the news, a minister from Indonesia asked why must they apologize for the haze?

....... some people are born stupid it seems....

In need of inspiration...

Cici from Liquid Mind, Sanguine Soul replied to my comment on her blog thusly;

"Always good to hear from you. How are you doing? Still have same roommate? Still in the same house? How is the job?"

I feel bad about my mood swings to blog. I used to enjoy blogging so much, I'd blog almost everyday a few years ago. Life is not that boring, yet I the fire to tell everyone via long words is almost diminished.

I blame Facebook for this!

I haven't opened my email for quite sometime, mainly because there is nobody (interesting) to correspond with. So when I saw Madam Cici's message.... I say what the heck, let's put this in an entry.

"How are you doing?"

Truthfully, this is the saddest week I had this year. One of my three ferrets died suddenly. Please do not ask why, if it was because of my negligence or was it truly his time. I had him since he was 2 months old in September 2009. Disco (his name, a male sable) was a bit poorly for a young ferret, yet when he had grown, was more active than his normal mate, Kaos (another male sable). I will miss the hyper guy greatly...

This picture is of the two of them in 2009. Disco is on the left, Kaos on the right. They were a few months old then.

"Still have same roommate? Still in the same house?"

:) Yes. I still live with the same housemate, in the same house I bought for my ex-wife a long time ago. He is now working as a registration officer for a local university, a huge leap from his previous post as a front desk officer at a holiday resort.

I do love my house, but I hate to clean the bit of land it has around it. Two night ago, I burned some empty boxes on a spot where the weeds were too high for my liking. I poured on some petrol, light it up with a lighter and whoosh! I burnt a bit of the hair on my leg from that stunt.
Fortunately I didn't burn any hair or eyebrows, ha! (Notice to myself; petrol is not your friend to start a fire).

I might gain a new housemate in 4 months time. But that is a news for the future :) 

"How is the job?"

For those people who is new to me, or simply have forgotten, I am a Science Teacher by trade.
Life is NOT GOOD for teachers this new century it seems.... Every fault that can be found in a students can be blamed at the school or the teachers. 

Your child is stupid. Blame the teachers for not teaching well. Your child is rude. Blame the teachers for not telling them off. Your child is depressed. Blame the teachers for pressuring the students with homework etc. Your child plays a lot. Blame the teachers for not handling the class well enough. Your child is caught for a misconduct. Hell, no, its not my child fault, it is you who didn't monitor your students well. And it goes on and on.

Sometimes I wonder what is the POINT to have parents?

I love my job, yes, teaching. But sometimes I wondered why people do these things they do.

No wonder why they say a teacher's job is next to sainthood (a good teacher anyway).

----------------------------------------------------

I wish you a good afternoon. Now i will continue my day wondering what to do this happy school holiday. (Yes, I am at home, not working, and bored!) Thanks for reading :)

History of Hair

Rock Chef of the Rock Chef's Warren blogged about his hair a couple of hours ago and I decided to blog about mine too. Not the one now, but the one I coloured a long while ago.

Look at the character on the left... This is Iori Yagami of the King of Fighter, an arcade game franchise very popular in the late 90s. He happened to be my muse when I was in secondary school, 16 year old me, who was already seeped in irony, fights and evil. Much like his hero. <--

So during the midyear holidays that year, 1997 I coloured my hair with Clairol's 'Burgundy' hair colour. I did it myself and was rather lacking on the 'never let the dye touch the scalp' direction. I paid for ignoring that direction... but that comes later.

My hair was flaming red in the sun! Back then, in a society of 100% black hair, I stood out like a lighthouse! People pointed and children stared. It was not a natural colour for anyone.

My dad, who was always the silent one, one day remarked that he was now FAMOUS, having a son with bright red hair. Everybody in our small town knew about me he said. My mom, believing it was only teen-angst, left me be.

I returned back to boarding school in anticipation... My school mates were shocked, but never dared to comment (I was brutal back than to criticism). I was only worried about the reaction of the teachers.... as I thought the sun and moon of them, i.e. very highly. If they reacted badly, I would be so downcasted.

The first school assembly with red haired me, I admitted that I was so afraid they would call me up to the front and have a row. But NOTHING towards that happened. The teachers were aware of me (the gossiping escalated a notch at their seats), as I stood right in the front of my class row. The Principal and Vice Principal noticed too.  I had my heart drumming like crazy, but NOTHING happened...


On the third day of school, at last I dared to ask my History teacher (who was quite chummy with us) about the why. He said, yes, the teachers saw me and right after that assembly they went searching inside the school's rule book about hair dyes... and they found there was NO RULE against it. No rule, so I was legally safe. (Synthetic hair dyes were quite new to Malaysia back then). So there will be one in the NEXT YEAR'S rule book.


Sometimes I didn't believe those days happened, but they did. The only boy in school with red hair. Unfortunately I didn't have pictures, (no camera rule) :P But I did look good back then.

Now to the part when I ignored the direction... As I coloured my hair myself, it was a messy and sticky job and I might have used too much colouring too. And my scalp was totally seeped with it... My red hair lasted for almost TWO YEARS because of that one time of colouring. Fortunately I didn't get bald or I'll kill myself for my own stupidity. The reddish tint disappeared by the second year gradually.

Talking about long lasting hair colour...


So that's all folks. Now we can see people with colourful hair walking the streets with no one batting an eyelid. The world has changed.


What colour is your hair today? :)

The School Was Burgled Last Night!! (yet again)

For the 3rd time this year, our school was 'raped' by some irresponsible individuals, which I believed to be some long gone ex-students of ours. I believe this to be so because the thieves knew which rooms to hit for maximum loot - mainly the school office, the staffroom and the coop. Let the pictures do the talking. 

 The door to the office. The aluminium panel pried and the door was open in force.

The steel grill of the office. The padlock was cut with a heavy duty metal cutter. See how enterprising 

our ex students can be?

The desk of a teacher in the staffroom. Those boys really sacked her place to look for spare change.

Desk of another teacher.... Those dastardly ingrates. This teacher was recently posted here a couple of months ago.

The desk next to me, a lady friend lost a laptop computer and some money she was saving for some students. The computer was placed inside a lock drawer under her desk and as you see, it was wide open (drawer now on the floor, far from the desk).

And last but not least, yours truly own desk. Nope, its supposed to look like that - messy. What irked me the most was, the thieves stole my Flash Scrabble set!!! I have cursed violently inside the entire day, hoping their legs to explode and their spawns born unbelievably dense. 

Now you see what a little education can do for some people. Sorry, I am still sulking over my lost toy :(

Long Time No See....

Goodness me. It has been ages since I peeked into my own blog. Some of you might have thought that I died or something.... It's ok, it's my own fault neglecting my online friends.
So life goes on for this averagely-paid civil servant... Only three interesting things happened since my last post;

1.  My Kia was sent to the workshop thrice. Three different cooling tubes leaked and sprayed for three consecutive weeks. I did some minor repairs of my own but they weren't good enough and I was afraid that my car would explode if I didn't send it to the workshop. Strangely, I was not really worried for these series of unfortunate events, and I cannot even explain why I felt so.

2.  After posting my email address at one obscure site, I began to receive a tremendous amount of junk mails and fake proposals from around the planet. I got VERY FEW emails which arrived from people who genuinely seeking friendship. I say, the age of internet KILLED a lot of innocence and well intentions.

3.  I traded two of my handphones (an Acer beTouch and a Nokia C3) for a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro. A cute smartphone, but it can drain a lot of battery before midday! I still have my LG Cookie and it is now used to replace my now not-reliable alarm clock.

And now.... the political fires in school were burning high again and this time I didn't start them. This happened when many teachers realized that they didn't get enough appreciation from the administrators as they thought they should (low marks in performance score). Many teachers were angered and started to question the powers-above and as I expected it to happen, they were not satisfied by the answer.

Dirty politics. When the undeserving got a lot more advantages than honest working dudes....

I Made Her Cry and Am Proud About It.

Once upon a time there was an elder lady in my school who taught Arts and language. She had a very high opinion of herself and was very insensitive to the feelings of other teachers around her.

She refused to see her faults, and thought that everyone else adored her and her antics. Her colleagues, most of them younger, had to endure her - meaning trying not to create friction by ignoring and never talked back in front of her face. She was the Head of the Language Department after all, and the lack of retaliation made her believe that she was invincible.

Last month, she made a huge mistake. She woke up some of the worst traits in me - psywar artist and ruthless avenger. It all started when she hit a fellow teacher, in my name.

It happened like this; She was angry at me and a few teachers for not completing the attendance list for our extra classes. A few teachers were there, in the staffroom, carefully ignoring her rants, and continued their various work at the common table. 

Maybe she got angry being ignored, or maybe she had a momentary lapse of judgment... she picked up a rolled up newspaper and hit a teacher next to her in the face, hard! The teacher was surprised, more than hurt and she cried there and then. As for the vicious offender, she just stood looking and didn't say sorry at all. Yes, that kind of b****.

I was duly noted of the incidence later by a few friends. It angered me so much; partly because she hit a friend while being angry at me but mostly, I hate her inconsiderate gut. I was miserable for 2 months for a couple of years ago because of her and it is high time to pay her back.

So I turned to Facebook for war - the Truth will hurt. I wrote two very scathing status updates for the entire world to see, aiming at her behavior and criticizing her power hungry and in arrogant disposition. I even used some bad language to point the matter, but that's more of a personal view. (the FB status updates were in Malay, and I wouldn't want to ruin your day by translating them). 

As I expected, she saw the Facebook updates (a few remaining minions alerted her) and was raving like crazy because of it. She accused EVERYBODY who commented on my updates as traitors and backstabbers. She cried in her office, cried on many not-really-sympathetic shoulders (who had to endure her) and cried everywhere. She was miserable... and we don't even care. She even met me at last, telling me that she will never forget this as long as she lives. Good, I want it that way.

And last Tuesday, we had a farewell ceremony at school, for this very woman was promoted and will transfer to a new school. During her farewell speech, she RANTED and ACCUSED many people again, for all to hear - teachers and students (who knows nothing of this). The ceremony, her ceremony was greatly marred by her own hands. The star of the show, me, was noticeably absent at the assembly, because I do not wish to see her face and prefer to lounge in the Physics lab instead. While listening, I was laughing hysterically and I guessed correctly that the rest of the teachers had no sympathy at all for her for this extraordinary feat of hers. She did mention my name personally in her speech, for being someone she will never forget  :P

She is no longer in school now. And the school was much quieter, oh and yes, happier! Some students did ask the teachers about what happened during the ceremony, but most teachers preferred not to talk about it. But not me, I tell my students what really happen because they should learn that one day they might meet people like that.

Yes, Facebook can be a weapon too  :)

Hello There People, I am Back!!

It is good to be back and thanks for your kind words in the previous post. :)  I am well, and feel a lot better after spending some quality time with my friends and pets these few days :party  :mj

Me and one of the very few best friends I have. I visit the beach now and then, just because I love a windy place to go people watching :) Don't let the purple shirt misguide you, he is actually a very nice guy. I always persuade him to throw away the offending piece of clothing but he refused - it attracts attention, he says :v

The Stars of the show - my mega ferrets!! Big, cuddly and ferociously searching for affection. Now I am able to bring BOTH ferrets to the beach when I finally got another harness, second hand it was. Kaos and Disco has very different temperament each, but still they attract huge amount of onlookers. If the kiddies got to close, we just let the harness slack so my ferrets can chase them away :P The sight of my ferrets baring their teeth and running towards them always make children run - but for ferrets owners, that is NOT aggressive behavior, the ferrets are actually SMILING and wanna play with you! [sadly, the lack of knowledge builds great walls against understanding]

This is an experimental shot taken with my digital camera. I call this pic 'Turn Left, Turn Right', after a romantic movie with the same tittle. My friend Firdaus has a snapshot camera, and he took some nice Lomography pictures with it. I was a model in some of them :) and gosh, I do LOOK GOOD! ha ha ha! :k I will try to scan some of his pics soon with his permission here.

And this last picture I took at our school's field is for you readers to think about.... Two workers were diligently cutting grass using petrol-consuming machines in the afternoon heat. And they took forever!! [FYI, they finished it in 2 days]. Where I was studying in 1990's, our school got THREE HUGE fields (not counting the netball courts) and only one gardener to do the job. So he rode a motorized lawn mower and finish the job in less than 2 hours! (Really, I was watching him, as I was sitting idly by the fields one afternoon a long long time ago).
The moral of the story; Bad economics at work here. The job can be done faster, cheaper and with fewer manpower with a bit of investment. But why it cannot be done? Because for the sake of HUMANITY. Let's give some luckless people jobs, the poor poor sods.
I call this an IMMENSE waste of time, energy and money. And also an insult to the thinking mind.
Do please tell if you disagree. :angel  

Tales From The School 2

"Where's your da*n assignment?" I was fuming in front of the class. The teacher's table was between us, fortunately, or my claws should have sunk into his chest.


"I left it at home," his voice was so low, reminiscence of the pesky mosquito. The entire class was already quiet with abated breath.


"And why is that? Lie to me and only God can help you as I will make sure your entire future flushed down the drain!" Yes, I CAN do that. Ask your nearest teacher for assistance.


"....."


"Speak louder."


"I was watching football. And I overslept."


...... anger raised like an evil tide inside me. World Cup or not, the class must go on.


"Tell me. Do these football players you reverently watched last night know you live and study here?"


"No."


"Did they tell you to watch them on tv and ask you to forget your assignment?"


"No."


 "Are they here now to help you answer your excuses? Did you get a single cent watching them play at the wee hour of the morning?!" 


"No."


"So you know who is at fault here. Not football. But you. Now go to that corner and complete three times the original amount of assignment I gave you. And I want it finished by tomorrow morning."


I rarely give out assignments, but when I do, it pours!


And YES, I got something against the World Cup. People shouldn't give excuses and accuses the ball. You watch it, then you will pay for it (at work and school). 

Tales From The School 1

I was refilling my Parker fountain pen from an inkwell at the common table in the teachers' lounge this morning during a free period.


"That's a shiny pen. Must be expensive. How much you bought it?" a female teacher who was sitting nearby, watching me asked.


"Somewhere below RM 100." I answered curtly as I didn't like this particular older woman. She's a known backstabber. 


"It's a lot of fuss using fountain pens.Young people these days must go with the times. Even I've never seen teachers my age using fountain pens anymore." See? She's ancient, chatty and patronizing the wrong sort of person (i.e. me).


"I like it."


"Bah, I think you just love showing people your expensive stuff and all. You don't fool me."


I just hate this particular bi***. If we were living in darker times, I'd ask her outside for a duel to the death. She just wont let it rest.


"I like it because it reminds me of my DEAD father. He always used fountain pens. You do have a father, don't you?" I said this coldly while screwing the pen together. She did not deserve a glance from me.


That kept her quiet.


My late father was quite a legend in his own right. He was a great teacher in Economic and Literature, and phenomenal in sports. The principals who ever had him will never be willing to part from his service. He was the only male teacher who coached netball in the entire state. Most elderly teachers know him.
Sometimes it galls me because I am his exact opposite, like all his negative energy was channeled into me...
I teach Science.
I hate all kind of sports.
I am not easily friendly with people like him.
The list can go on.


That genetics for you. Sometimes monsters are born among good people.

The Few Days Before the Hols

Very hectic these few days I just don't believe myself to work SO authentically busy! (Because most of the time, I'd just let everything burn and just slip away to have fun elsewhere). This must be a very bad dream.

Anyway, I finished most of the paperworks (am very good with last minute 'creative' work. Creative meaning, spin finished workloads out of thin air. Fiction, geddit?). Filing is a chore, and I never seem to get a grip on it though it is always in my New Year's resolution. Oh OK, 'Get a grip on the filing system in Year 2010'.

Entertaining the receding number of students is not really difficult as the bad seeds are already gone, celebrating early school holiday. I just let them do whatever they want - play board games, read comics / books, talk etc. I just need to stand, walk and knuckle a few heads if they got rowdy or too noisy.  

Oh, and somebody told everybody that I will become the new Prefect teacher next year. At last, the time of the Sith has come, my apprentice.... Ops, wrong script!!

They will not know what will hit them next year. (Evil grin, pause, and then evil laugh. With 'Imperial March' as the soundtrack).

Shape Your Own Future 'Cause I Don't Even Care

Sometimes, all these years, I encountered a few students I just hate to see in class. These are the students who ALWAYS refuse to do what they are told. Students who dressed not according to school regulation. Students with high opinion of themselves (a.k.a. deluded). And the bane of them all - STUPID AND RUDE. (I can tolerate stupid students, but the combination of these qualities always make my hands itch to rip their hearts out).

So whenever I teach, I will always refuse to have eye contact with these sub-humans. Oh bo hoo hoo, you had a tough life at home and you came from a broken family... But that does not give you the right to make people's life difficult. There is no reason for you to bother other students who are really interested to learn. You ignored every piece of advice and you expect me to respect you?! Which confused universe you came from that provides special help to a thankless piece-of-turd like you?

I am writing this, a voice of a million teachers / educators around the planet who had the pleasure to meet such individuals.

I shall never pray for your success. I don't even want your thanks. I have the other 98-99% students who really need my help. I am human after all.

And for those who think that this is a very unprofessional entry by a teacher, please give me some advice to deal with these unsavory youngsters (who would never listen to you, and also treated you like dirt).

p.s. - very bad day with bad bad bad students. And yes people, I met many teachers in the psychiatric ward when I was posted there in 2000. People can end up mad if the anger was bottled up. Beware my fellow teachers, beware. 

The Future Is In Your Own Hands

Tomorrow is the end of the exam week... and then we have another two weeks before the school holidays (Yippeee!)

I didn't like exams when I was a student. But I NEVER sleep in any like this student of mine did. He started sleeping on the first 25 minutes of the Mathematics paper. 

Do not judge me harshly by saying I was an irresponsible teacher for allowing students to sleep during exam. I DID warn him not to. Twice.

So what if he ignores me (the student is rather impolite and have a high opinion of himself), he is not my son anyway. As a teacher, IT IS my job pointing to the right path. But if some individuals are so keen to destroy their own future, I just let them be.

Youngsters nowadays are so stuck up with themselves. Some think fate will rearrange itself to accommodate them. I'd LOVE to see when that happen...

Life Is A Struggle For Some People

I was compelled to type this post after reading TechnoBabe's recent entry. Something happened this afternoon, and I'd like to share with the few of you.

I have a new Form 4 student who arrived last month from a school further away. He was quiet and I must confess I never spoke a word directly to him (because I always teach in general). Then he began to miss school for many times a week, and as a curious person, I asked about his wellbeing from the classmates.

His friends told me that after school he worked at a local restaurant till very late. As a very liberal person, I just wished him luck quietly and continued teaching the rest of the brood. I thought that maybe some students are just happier working for money than study. It's a common trait.

Yet this afternoon, my colleague who teaches Chemistry informed me about the plight of this particular student of mine during my class at the lab. He told me that this student comes from a very poor family and his father had just recently had one of his feet cut off because of some disease. So the family almost barely make ends meet, thus my student had to work extra hard until late at night to support his family. Life is now a struggle for him.

If the family receive no help, he might drop out of school.

Pity.

This is the thing I always preach to my students. Life is not always sweet and beautiful. When the storm comes and hit you badly, be prepared to crawl on your knees and hands to continue. But believe it or not, when I told his case to my waiting students after the conversation with my colleague, a few students said that their life are GUARANTEED to be well.

And I solemnly cursed them aloud - mostly wishing death and destruction to their family and property. I really did.