9 September, 2008

Tough few weeks with a lot of effort required. On the positive side I have seen another year out and while I’m not quite in my mid-thirties it’s further than I honestly expected to get to so it’s all a bonus. I have stopped watching the 6 o’clock news after it became all about the psuedo-political bollocks we call national management, “sex offenders strike again” reporting and those evil terrorists seem have made a come back. Actually I quite like that – Terrorism, back together, live. They can join the other old fart bands inflicting their crap on a whole new generation. Sorry kids, apparently the World isn’t nice, friendly and here’s some crap music to dance to.

Actually I lied … yes, LIED! I did watch the news tonight .. on TV and everything. I had mute on and punk music playing the background and something interesting struck me. They all have grey hair and the same suit … the SAME suit. It’s really freaking weird. I’ll never know if they all sound the same … mute.

I like the fact we are finally entering a “recession”… yes, a RECESSION (I’m really into gentle allcaps sarcasm tonight…sorry). I’d say what we’re about to enter is a recession in the same way cliff diving is a gentle descent. I wonder when it will upgrade to a “depression” and then to “hang onto your ankles folks and start kissing”.

Term 3 is about to end. What does that mean for me: reports and more delicate manipulation of the school system known as PC School (by the developers) or “that piece of useless arse-wiping shit” by frontline teachers, students who drift off, pretending to care with discipline, “catch-up assessment” where I soften enough to let a student wuss through 3 credits worth of work, a mortgage refinance (oooh yay), the countdown to the holidays, more grey hair, low tolerance for dickheads (myself included .. which just gets weird) and alcohol for breakfast (just kidding … I don’t need THAT Campbell Live interview).

My Computing College at school is a finalist in the NZ Open Source awards again this year. For me that really just means I get out of teaching a couple of classes, get to talk to some crazy OSS folks and have a good night away from Christchurch. I am looking forward to it. I hold no illusions but if I win I will probably explode on the spot.

I can not express how tired I am … if you’ve ever been drunk and wandering around a strange town at 3pm in the morning wearing gumboots and boxer shorts then you’ll get the idea. In some ways I wish that is what had happened. It’d be a lot more interesting than saying “Teacher … ZZZZZZZZ”.  Make no mistake, I love teaching, it’s just our education system that blows the big hairy goat. The number of people who love complexity for complexity’s sake is getting a bit silly. I can’t get money for a trip to Auckland to give a presentation but someone in “management” can get the equivalent amount for an ‘ergonomic assessment’ of office space. That goes into the “you have got to be shitting me” box. On a positive note as all the oldies try to retire we will be left with about 200 teacher nationwide and the system will collapse under the weight. It’ll be great … unless you want kids educated or something and then it might suck a little … shine your shoes guv’?

Time to disconnect.