Friday 31 August 2007

along came a spider

good grief, i'm somewhere between strangely proud and stupdefied...

Wednesday 29 August 2007

sticking together

This one's really just for Dave because he's the only one who'll truly understand... proof, if proof were needed (and we know it's not!) that PVC tape is, in fact, capable of solving all problems...





...at least, until I get some solder. All hail to the tape!

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[edit: PS - For Dave's benefit (see comment) I'll add that I was using tape to hold the wires in place because I had no solder to properly connect them. Kinda thought that was obvious, but maybe not.]

Tuesday 28 August 2007

here we go then



Today was Day Zero: the first day of my life as a teacher, a road map to personal development for the next 40 years of my life. According to the Assistant Head of Education at the University of Ulster, anyway. My personal feelings were a bit less polite. Mind you, a hour and a half queuing for student finance processing aside, the dreaded First Day was relatively painless. Can't say I'm too keen of the idea of working 9 to 5 for the next year and beyond, mind you.

Someday [when I'm Graemebo's campaign manager or something] I'll live in a wonderfully excessive mid-town penthouse, and walk to work in the morning... commuting is out. Mind you, I shouldn't complain: I got up to Coleraine in 40 minutes this morning, compared to one guy who got the bus from Belfast in just under 3 hours... think he's going for the train tomorrow.

UU is a funny joint: it seems to me like a high school or something, all the corridors have that feel. It doesn't help when you're doing ice-breakers in the gym which looks just like a school gym, and they're being led by a teacher who manages to take all the fun out and replace it with health and safety regulations... youth work come back, all is forgiven.

Sunday 26 August 2007

in the interim

Currently in a weird limbo. With uni registration on Tuesday, I've still got my pre-coursework ('a polished piece of work entitled, "A Day That Stays With Me"' - oh my glory) to do, all sorts of bits of paperwork to hoke out (including stuff that hasn't even arrived yet from flaming StudentFinanceNI, everyone's favourite lenders...) and generally life to set in order before it all disappears.

But there is much light in the darkness. Brian the Blue Ford Escort returns to the fold singing like a shiny new kettle, all weird noises gone, and clutch, handbrake and back left wheel bearing all nicely worked over. The scheme in Rathfriland went very well (don't ask me about my feelings towards vestry members and their opinions though, grrrr...) and I even managed to work in some... work, I guess - bit of Powerpoint tutition and a whole lot of free advice about PA systems... I like to talk.

A lot of comment has been passed about this photo which I grabbed whilst taking promotional shots at Camp last week... the product of a lot of patience and tolerance of ants got me within 6 foot of this boyo.

Friday 17 August 2007

clutching at straws

I'm sitting back in my old home, the COISC staring out at the rain outside. I didn't really expect to be here, but half an hour ago my clutch pedal gave way a couple of miles down the road at Forestside shopping centre. So, we pushed the car into a spot, and left it for a few hours. This is annoying for several reasons: (1) my car is buggered; (2) I'm supposed to drive to Rathfriland (near Newry) tomorrow for a summer scheme; (3) my divorced parents are fighting over who gets to come up and tow me home; (4) my car's buggered.

Such is life.

Wednesday 15 August 2007

...those who can't, teach


Right now, I don't think there's anything I want to do less than teach. Which is a problem, as two weeks from today, I start my postgrad teacher training [which, among other things, I slid past 400+ candidates for one of 7 places]. And I'm really not sure today. It's mostly because, having spent the afternoon reading up on some stuff, and preparing for some work I have to do in lieu, I've once again reminded how teacher training and professionals (that aren't actually teachers) seem to have reduced the profession itself to more mind-numbingly boring guidelines and stupendously redonkulous, PC-hugging twaddle. What's worse, the paradoxes are rampant. Every child matters, and I must always be aware of their own personal standing, but this is within a national curriculum ruled by statistics - this year we need more mathematicians, so we're going to push maths in school. We need more kids to stay in school, so we're introducing Lego Studies.

Sometimes I wonder if Steiner might not be a complete nutcase. No scratch that, he was a nutcase. But he had one very good thread of thought in the midst of the madness: maybe a child should be first allowed to find what area they are best in, and then encouraged and trained with particular emphasis on that idea. I'm bastardising a bit for my own usage, but this sounds a much sounder proposal than just pushing kids in the directions we need to fill on the employment maps. Five years ago, everyone needed workers for the tech industry and all our careers talks were from engineers and IT firms. I wonder what it is now. Other western European nations, with their "happier" workforces and lower unemployment, often demonstrate a much freer interpretation of their curriculae.

Times like this I want to get a soap-box and re-enter politics (SRC member definitely counts as a political post). And then we get all the way back around to the first argument from last episode... looks like a revival for the Coalition of Independents, boys...

Monday 13 August 2007

strimming, strimming, in the strimming pool...

strimming is the bane of my existance. every year for the past few summers, i've spent as much of my time as possible avoiding our "spacious" garden. every now and again, I'll give in to the griping and venture out to mow the lawn, maybe edge something vaguely bed-like. but strimming... oh my word. I hate it. I hate it like I hate trying to find a local political group I can actually agree with.

There are two edges to the sword. The first is the hay-fever: mowing's bad enough, but start throwing bits of everything six feet into the air, and my lungs (and eyes and nose) will hate you. And then there's the vibrations: imagine holding a hundred bees or something to understand the buzz.

Now, our garden is relatively tidy, but there are two vast and (recently) unconquered area: the old vegetable patch, and the Lower Orchard. Tackled half the vegetable patch to relative success tonight. But the Orchard's not even worth it. It's so overgrown now that the pond, which is at least 14 ft deep and 40ft across in a rough circle, hacked out of the natural clay, is just about full of the evil gunnera. We have loads of brilliant plum and eating apple trees, all starting to bow under the weight of their crops, but can't get anywhere near them. And I'm supposed to tackle them with a lightweight, plastic-bladed strimmer? No hope. I got about three feet in tonight and fell back in dispair.

Still, it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

Thursday 9 August 2007

Sunday 5 August 2007

coming and going

i like my bed. don't get me wrong, it's not much of a bed. i mean, the mattress is a few years old, and the frame was inherited from my sister's room a while back. it's a bit hard in places, and the room is as damp and mouldy as a blue cheese sandwich. But compared to the various other forms of bed I've been sleeping on in the last few weeks, and that which I'm heading off to again tonight, it's pretty glorious.

I'm back yesterday from a summer scheme in Portstewart (somewhere near the top of "places you would expect to be least in need of evangelism"...) and head off in a couple of hours to Camp Alliance down at Kilbroney. The last couple of years I've been tutoring an activity called Camp Radio, which does what it says on the tin really. Was down in Costa del Rosta (Rostrevor to the rest of us) as the way the sessions are planned out means I have to record a couple myself before I start. Methods have changed a bit since last year. I have to admit, it's a bit of a jump from Cool Edit Pro on a struggling PC to Garageband on the MacBook. I was skeptical of using Garageband at first: I would have preferred something slightly more professional in appearance. But I have to admit, it's pretty genius as is. Though severely limiting in what you can achieve with the waveforms themselves, beyond basic volume and tonal adjustments (stuff like cleanup and noise removal just isn't happening) the interface is still pretty brilliant and so far the stuff sounds light years ahead of last season's whizz, crackle and boom...

Two weeks ago I was up at New Horizon and finally got to plow into Rob Bell's 'Velvet Elvis'. Having never finished anything even vaguely theological before, I read it in a day and half during a hectic week. You must read it. You must. You have to. And so on.

The other key resource I've picked up, or logged on to, is the *Essential website which is also worth trawling through for answers to, literally, most of the big BIG questions...

...that should keep us ticking over for a week!

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