Feinting

This is sometimes what I think my job is about. Feinting my emotions. I can't be the teacher that swears, the teacher them seems to get annoyed, the teacher who thinks that swear words and toilet jokes are all the rave.

I have to not laugh at things I find funny because it was rude or dangerous or stupid.

Sometimes though I just want to feint a sneak attack.

1d4+7+2d8

Ready or not, here I come!

Children are so funny, it is amazing how much they think they know and an instant just freeze up when asked a simple question. Words like naive and ignorance are not part of their vocabulary and even if they were would not associate those words to themselves. However, that is a little unfair as how often do people put negative connotations to themselves?

What I find amusing is how kids try to lie or hide things from you and think they do such a great job of it. Suddenly putting things behind their back when I come around the corner. Say thing is happening when 2 seconds ago I heard shouting and running.

Not here to say if I think kids are stupid, they are very intelligent in their own way, however, they would be a lot smarter if they could see their own fallibility and when they grow up we wouldn't have a society of people in denial.

How to save a dollar

So I went to my local cafe today to get a vanilla milkshake for $4. I figured that since it was only 4pm I could park outside without paying the parking meter, get my shake and go. So I go inside, order my shake, go back outside and you know what? There is a parking warden like 3 cars away from me.

I had to run to my car, move my car down and onto the other side of the road. Run back up to the cafe to get my shake, run back to my car before the parking warden got to it.

Moral of the story: This is how you save a dollar while creating infinite stress and work off the calories you gain from drinking a vanilla shake.

You Can't be Serious!

There are campaigns in New Zealand for Push play. Push play is a national campaign to get New Zealand families and their children to exercise more everyday. The program is in schools and is looking to be quite successful.

Now these types of campaigns will be the antithesis to games/toy campaigns which require indoor play. Usually I am fine with toys and games, children need multiple types of stimulation to further growth and this includes computer games and the like.

But this new sensation (which I only heard of 5 minutes before writing this post) is disguising me.
It is called the iTeddy. I thought it was a new Apple Inc product but I was sadly mistaken.

It is a teddy with a built in dvd/games/tv/music player so now the children won't have to bother their parents anymore! Every neglectful parents dream toy! No wonder it will be a hot sell.

iTeddy

Takes so freakin long to learn

Patience. Why does it take so long to learn. Because I am impatient?
How can you learn patience when you are an impatient person?

Am I not suppose to know all the answers in the world because I am a teacher?

Teaching kids takes a lot of patience especially when you have to discipline the children. You have to give them time out's, taking away play time, taking away enjoyable activities. It is hard going, to see them in distress but you know you are trying to make life easier for you and the other children, but also for the children at hand as well. Their better behaviour will learn to better learning for themselves.

I'm not sure if writing this out helps to reinforce my own learning, but it is really helpful to get it off my chest! Imagine when I have my own children!

Tag Your It!!!

Thanks Eric

First, the random rules
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1) I have read 20 books this year, to know what they are, scroll down to the next post =)

2) I started working for real this year! At Makara Model School in Wellington. I have 8 kids 96 boys and 2 girls.) in my class because it is a rural school with the school pop at a huge count of 24!

3) I have moved houses twice this year, that's doubling the amount of times I have moved in my entire life. Now you math whizzes out there calculate how many times I've moved houses in my life time.

4) I'm really anti-stoopid

5) My favourite band is the Smashing Pumpkins. I saw them live this year which was a dream come true. Even though they are my favourite band, I just don't listen to them all the time. I don't have much of their merchandise (3 t-shirts), and I only own about 70% of their albums. However, I always fall back on them, and old favourites become new favourites all over again.

6) I am a book whore, I have so many books waiting on my bookshelf to be read and yet I neglect them and keep on buying new or 2nd hand books. I think I have a problem but no one seems to care..."what books did you buy?" they say, "where did you get them?" they ask. No sympathy for the afflicted.

So after my ramblings I get to tag 6 people!
Cleo
Megan
Medora
Jay
Maria
Jen

List of Books I've bedded with this year

I was thinking that this year I have read a lot of books. Even though the year has not ended I feel I have read the most books of any year. I felt like I should start recording books I have read.

My List of Whoring (In no order).

Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Fall of Kings by David Gemmell
Legend by David Gemmell
King Beyond the Gate by David Gemmell
Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
Dune by Frank Herbert
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Only you can save mankind by Terry Pratchett
The Darkness that comes Before by Scott Bakker
The Warrior-Prophet by Scott Bakker
The Thousandfold Though by Scott Bakker
Tuf's Voyaging by George R.R. Martin
Songs the Dead Men Sing by George R.R. Martin
The Hedge Knight (from Legends I) by George R.R. Martin
The Sworn Sword (from Legends II) by George R.R. Martin
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Shadow of a Torturer by Gene Wolfe
Devices and Desires by KJ Parker

Non-Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Dexter - Darkly Dreaming by Jeff Lindsay
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

So on average about 2 books a month. There are at least 2 more books I need to read this year.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Red Seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

From then on it's all gravy.

Foolishness

Is it more foolish to not know what is wrong and and continuing on?
Or is it more foolish to know what is wrong and do nothing about it?
Is it too foolish to know what is wrong but not have the bravery to right it?
Is it foolish to take advice from a fool?
Or is it foolish to even contemplate listening to a fool?
Even a fool would have some expertise....at least in foolishness no?

It could be anything

I got the fever about two days ago. It also came with bonus stomach cramps and a sore lower back, so I went to the doctors yesterday. I had to go to the city because there were no doctors near my area (Thorndon). I went to the first doctors and they said they were all booked out and that the earliest they could see me was next week, but try the one down the road. So I go to the one down the road and they say the same thing to me. I asked them if there was any place near by that would take in walk in's. The secretary talked to the doctor and she agreed to see me.

Now before this point I'm wondering to myself, 90% of people go to the doctors because they have just gotten sick. How do you book out the doctor for 3 days? Are these people psychic and know they are going to get sick a few days in advance?

I walk into the doctors office and she asks me random questions, gets me to take a urine sample, gives my tummy a bit of a feel, feels my glands, checks my temperature. "It could be anything, there are many things going about these days" said the doctor. I successfully prevent myself from rolling my eyes. She tells me to go take a blood test, gives me a prescription for some drugs and send me on my way.

So earlier in the post when I said I had the fever, I was lying...it could be anything ("rolls eyes").

2nd Life

Been at my job for 1 week now. I am enjoying it quite a lot and do think I have made the right choice when it comes to professions.

However I do see a lot of ignorance and stubbornness that really irks me.

Anyways, more later

p.s. I think I will be back on this blog.

Ramsay the never

I don't know why, but I love cooking. The prep work, the cooking and the eating. I don't always make great cook and I never cook anything complicated. Simple and tasty. When I am cooking, I would say that I am sort of in a trance, just moving and doing and enjoying the food change in front of my eyes. I'm not exactly sure when I first got into cooking, it can't have been more than 2 years ago, I have an inkling that it was when I first made Spaghetti Bolognese.

Anyways, I had my 2nd go (in about 2 years) at cooking Chicken Pasta in a creamy white wine sauce. The first time I made an absolute muck of it and therefore hadn't tried again. This time it would out quite well except when I simmered the sauce at too high a temperature and the fat separated!

I like sharing recipes so here it is.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
300g Boneless chicken
5-6 Cloves of Garlic
2 Tsp Olive Oil
250ml of Cream
180ml of White wine (any will do)
8g of Plain Flour
1 tsp of Salt
2 tsp of oregano (dried, if you use fresh then as much as you like!)

Prep work:
1) Cut chicken into small pieces
2) dice the garlic
3) whip the cream until it is thick

Cook work:
1) throw in whatever pasta you like to eat with it into a pot (add some olive oil and pinch of salt to water) until al dente
2) heat the oil, throw in garlic, just when it starts to brown throw in the chicken. Cook until the chicken has a nice brown colour (you don't have to move it too much)
3) put the cream/wine/salt/flour/oregano into the pan and simmer at a low heat.
4) once the sauce has be reduced to about 2/5 of the original content, then you are done (or until your desired thickness but thick and gooey is best).
5) drain pasta, add with chicken and your done!

Optional:
6) At the end of part 2, throw in some sliced mushrooms or diced courgettes!

Enjoy

Speaking of ch-ch-change

To get more readers to my blog I have to go out and find other like minded people. People who not necessarily share my views but are willing to put themselves out there. It is very easy to be bold on the internet, people type whatever rubbish they feel like. The one's I am after are ones that also put in intelligent thought behind the words.

Sometimes I'm a bit of a hypocrite. I write for myself mostly but I do want others to read and comment on it as well.

There is a website that I visit like 7 times a day. Fantasybookspot.com and recently they have been trying to urge some members into moving their blogs to FBS's blog. I am thinking about this quite a bit. Would it be a hindrance to the people who read my blog now or have me in their blogroll?

Yet the more I think about it, I keep telling myself why am I so sentimental about this website?

Get what we've always got

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
Dont want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I cant trace time
- David Bowie

Change is simple yet so very hard. To make our diet better we can simply give up drinking fizzy drinks (simple yeah?). But most of us like drinking fizzy drinks and it is EVERYWHERE! The fact that a bottle of water costs more than twice the size in fizzy drink is ridiculous.

The thing that makes change hard is that it changes what is comfortable for us. We have done things so habitually that we don't think anything of it. Those people who are fat didn't wake up fat but gained 1 pound a week or two. Those that have had a much better income than 5 years ago, most likely had worked hard for 5 years and getting small constant pay rises rather than a quick job change.

However, there are many things that we do benefit from changing our routines. We get new insights from working at the different place. We stop eating dairy and found out just how much of it is in packaged food goods. We walk to work and save $3 a day, $15 a week or a whooping $720 a year.

Change is normally good, we can learn a lot from it. Don't try and ignore it or be afraid of it. If you want your life to be better than you have to change or stick to what you have always gotten.



This guy will bring huge changes. Not just because he could be the new president but because (and I don't like focusing on this, but too many Americans can't stop focusing on it) he might be the first ever black president.

Hopefully any changes that happen to the good old US of A is for the better.

Buying Anonymity

So I sat down on a long brown couch which looked very inviting and sunk deeply into it. I felt around with my hand, pushing the cushion here and there then poking at the couch cushion next to me. Feeling dissatisfied I got up and looked for another seat. I was looking for the green one-seater couch I had sat in before, and it wasn't long before I saw them. It wasn't in the most appetizing of spots but I was willing to tolerate it because of the comfortableness that the green couch offered. I opened up 'Last argument of Kings' (to the chapter I was at) and began to read, immersed in the world of Joe Abercrombie. Not before long my latte in a cup arrives to interrupt the dealings of Logan and his ponderings. I added two sugars, stirred, took a sip, and just stared out the window looking at nothing in particular. I looked back towards my book and thought "this is the life, if only I could have more moments like this."

Now it wasn't so much as being able to sit in a cafe, drink coffee and read my current book that made me all sentimental. What it doesn't tell you was that it was my day off work. I didn't have to think about anything else. There was nothing to worry about at home, there was no obligations at that particular point and time except for me to read my book and do whatever I felt like doing at that time. Sometimes it's about watching a movie with my girl, sometimes it's going out and having lunch with a good mate.

Perhaps that is why I would like to be rich (don't confuse this with being famous), it would create more days/chances I would have less obligations and therefore have more days where I feel sentimental.
I also want to have children, but that would create more obligations, conflicting with my need for sentimental days! Or is it that by having children I would create more sentimental days, but instead of having a read and a coffee, it would be my child running towards me when I come home from work and yelling "DADDY!"

Diagnosing Adulthood

The Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (as known as the DSM) is a book that helps diagnose mental illness' such as autism, schizophrenia etc...

The DSM helps mostly doctors to diagnose patients, but sometimes their diagnoses can be the different between the sane and the mentally disabled.

On Wikipedia is says:
The DSM-IV-TR states that, because it is produced for mental health specialists, its use by people without clinical training can lead to inappropriate application of its contents. Appropriate use of the diagnostic criteria is said to require extensive clinical training, and its contents “cannot simply be applied in a cookbook fashion” *** DSM-IV-TR = 4th edition text revised version.

This helps to prevent common people like you and me looking through the book, ticking off the requirements and think we or someone we know have some mental illness. However, I am thinking of a different thing for this blog. I have always wanted to know when do people become adults. I have a small criteria list and although it is not extensive, I think it is quite a good reflection.

You must meet this first requirement because under the law you will still be a child.
* Am over the age of 18

You must meet at least 1 of these critera
* Have bought a house before
* Lived away from home
* Have children

You must meet at least 1 of these criteria
* Have had a long term relationship
* Have a driver's license with no restrictions
* Have had sex before
* Have stopped maturing physically

Three or more of the following, each present for a significant portion of time during a one-month period
* Can be objective even when involving oneself
* Independent, the ability to self rely.
* Moral understandings between right and wrong
* Ability to make decisions that you don't like
* Ability to say sorry, not necessarily because you mean it, but because it is the right thing to do
* Have an altruistic nature

-----

I will soon move out of the house soon, which will promote me from child to adult according to my guide. Hopefully I don't suck at it too much.

Tomodachi, Amico, Mate

I just watched on Boston Legal, Denny Crane turned down a potential wife because he was not willing to move to another state, because that would have meant leaving Alan. His love for a woman was not greater than his love for his friend, a man.

I've always viewed friendship as such a sacred bond. I treat my friends like family, sometimes perhaps even better than family. It could be because I am an only child, it could be because my family are quite different from me, they are immigrants (now citizens) living in New Zealand, whereas I am a citizen born in New Zealand.

There are many people out there that have many friends. I am not one of those people. I have few friends, but those few friends are very dear to me.

To my friends out there (you know who you are and that includes you sweetie!), I love you all very much.

Stupidity is a state, not an event.

/start rant

Fact 1: I am getting older
Fact 2: I like to think that I am getting wiser
Fact 3: I like to think that I am getting more patient

Why is it that I act like some young impatient idiot when it comes to stupid people. I am so positive that it is the thing I hate most in the world. Stupid people drive me crazy, I don't know why they are stupid...but they just are.

I always question why people are stupid. Are they like that cause they were born dumb (I don't believe this). Was it because the education system failed them? (possibly). Was it because their parents failed them? (probably). Is it because they don't know they are stupid and/or they do not actively go out to improve themselves. (definitely maybe).

To recap, I really despise stupid people. I don't want to talk to them, I don't want to work with them, I almost don't have the patience to help them improve themselves. Not saying I'm the smartest guy in the world and you should all worship my awesomeness but I'm just using a highlighter pen to highlight the important parts. (although I do do stupid things...but that doesn't make me stupid..hence the title...hint..hint.)

/end rant



Light comic relief.

If you're flawless, then you'll win my love

Appearances are everything. Girls take 2 hours before they get out of the house putting on make-up, trying different clothes, trying on shoes...the shoes don't match the clothes so they have to change clothes again. Sometimes the clothes then don't match the make-up so something has to change.

Men these days are becoming more like women, we try to take care of our skin, we use pimple remover, face cleanser, and decide whether 3, 4 or 5 blades will give us a closer cleaner shave. We even allow ourselves to wear pink dress shirts.

We do this to find the perfect job, perfect partner, perfect life. But is perfect really perfect? When is perfect...not perfect?

We always talk about the perfect partner, those that know why we are sad, what they need to do to perk us up. They know our favourite foods and the little things that make us happy. But do you really want someone that knows what you are thinking all the time, someone who finishes our sentences and knows what we are going to do before we do? Wouldn't that get annoying?

The word perfect is actually a contradictory statement in itself, as there can be no such thing. Again going with the partner theory, the is no "perfect" person, they will undoubtedly have some quirks or annoyances that you don't like, that perhaps they will never change. Then you argue that that is what makes them them; that they are perfect just the way they are. So to be perfect is to be imperfect.

Just like beauty, perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Or am I making up bullshit because perfection doesn't exist.

Secretly a woman

I think I am a compulsive buyer when it comes to books.
I try to read as much as I can, but what I do read is not nearly enough as I want to.
I find I am easily distracted and tend not to read when I get the chance.
Which makes compulsive buying of books so much the worser, because the "books I have bought but yet to read" pile is getting larger and larger.
At times like these I am glad I only mostly read fantasy.
Books I have bought in the last 2 weeks...

This is my Boomstick

When kids decide what they want; whether it be food, play or any other activity, sometimes it can take a very long time. I put it down to, children do not have a deep understanding of the activities that they do. They cannot fully appreciate one activity over the other and therefore take a long time to make a decision.

You ask a child, what's your favourite toy at home and most of the time they will not be able to answer you. You will have to ask them to tell you about ONE of their favourite toys.

When adults do this, does this mean they don't have a deep understanding? If they don't, then is it presumable that they are ignorant? or could it be that they have dull senses (the 5 senses). Sometimes when you ask someone, what their favourite music is, and they will answer...'oh i like all kinds of music' or 'as long as it sounds good, I don't mind'. I find it difficult to not have a favourite music artist or favourite movie/cuisine. And because I can decide my favourite's, I can also decide on what I don't like and thus being labeled as 'picky'.

Am I really picky? or do I need to open my senses to like a wider spectrum of things.

Jack of all trades, master of none? and is it really ofttimes better than master of one?