Pig Plan

Lots of cafes this week. Halloween Cafe, Rainbow cafe. In this college we have lots of Cafes and lots of weeks. Pedagocical exchange week, PBL week, ski week, rainbow week etc. Found myself writing in lots of different colours on the smart board, realised it must be because it's rainbow week. Snowed a bit today, not enough to get the Africans excited, just a few flakes. The first snow is always an exciting moment since lots of students have never seen snow before. I suppose it's the same when students from Norway go to the Indian college and see their first poor person. I can just imagine them running around screaming throwing them from one to another. After a while they probably just get used to it.
Don't normaly remember much of the college meeting to be honest but did remember a couple of things from todays. It's fine to remember 80% of what you do but you have to remember to do it first and anyway once you've done it what's the point of remembering it. My philosophy is if I don't remember it it wasn't worth remembering.
On saturday, after the Asian dinner 70kg of food was thrown away. I knew it, it's the sitting on the floor thing. Your stomach is so squashed up that you can't fit any food in. But 70kg, that's a lot of food, I reckon everyone must have chucked more than I ate. That's it I'm buying a pig. They say that you have to boil waste food before you can feed it to a pig but who's going to know. No one cares what we feed to our dog so why are they so interested in pigs. Maybe we can dress it up like a dog, take it for walks and stuff and just feed it any old thing. They'll never know.

Doing my Duty

Just been to the Asian show, I often wonder what I would have done in a European show if I was a student and had to present something from my culture. Suppose I'd do something funny. Not a Monty Python sketch though. Also had dinner in the cantine, Asian food. Food was good but didn't like sitting on the floor, it makes my bum hurt. I find it difficult to get the food into my mouth without spilling it all over myself. When that happens at the table it just falls back on the plate. Someone spilt a drink on the floor, problem was it wasn't just the floor it was someones seat.
Not much going on this evening, I could go down to the student disco but it's not really my scene. Have to go there later anyway since I'm supposed to be on duty. "On duty" is a strange concept, basically it means you get this embarassingly old mobile that you have to walk around with all weekend (it hasn't even got a camera). You can't go anywhere in case someone rings but no one ever does. I wonder if anyone actualy knows what the number is. I used to like discos, my dad ran a youth club and every saturday night me and my friends would go there, one of them was the DJ and he'd try to play black sabbath, deep purple and led zep all night. Occasionally the skinheads would make him play Desmond Dekker or some other reggae and they'd dance in a line.
Better get down to the village see what's going off. Call in on the disco, they'll probably be playing that Indian (?) tune that seems to be all the rage at the moment, since it Asian day and all. It's not really posible to speak in there so I'll just pop in to prove that I've done my duty.

I was right

Blogamonial

Haven't blogged for ages, was pretty busy at the weekend roasting Lamb fo 42. Made Sushi too but forgot that you're supposed to have soy sauce with it. Guess what, a Japanese lady turned up. Managed to get away with it in a Basil Fawlty sort of way.
Have spent too many hours at the computer and have a got a sore shoulder, not good news the week before going to Font. Looks like moonboard.no is going to be finished, an ex student of mine is opening the biggest climbing complex in Oslo and is going to include a moonboard, hopefully will launch the site when it opens.
Just got an invite to run a workshop in Lyon on the new physics syllabus next march, that should be fun. Got some good feedback on my physics pages, knowing that my work is being appreciated means more then any money I might have made trying to sell it.
The anual trstimonial writing has begun again, problem is I can't stop writing in blog style.

In common with all RCNUWC students John is studying for the IB, that's the exam system we use here. Sort of academics and other stuff made into a package. Not like when I was at school when we just did 3 subjects. Anyway, John is taking four HL and three SL, don't know why he's doing so many HL subjects since three is the norm, must be some kind of masochist or something, if I was him I'd probably stick to three. Suppose it's a good thing really, shows he likes a challenge. Outside the classroom he is actively involved in relaxation activity which is a bit of a strange thing to say, i mean how can you be actively involved in relaxation. So to sum up this student, likes a challenge but knows when to stop.

Shrooms

Found these mushrooms today, they are false chanterelles. First time I found them I didn't know and picked them thinking they were the real thing. Gave some to some friends of Hilaries and we all ate them for breakfast. That week on TV was a programme about mushroom picking;
"And these are false chanterelles not to be confused with the real thing. Although not poisonous they can cause halucinations in some people". Oops
Didn't have halucinations by the way, unless of course my perfectly normal day at work was a hallucination and I was actualy lying on my back next to the breakfast table all day. I guess I'll never know.
By the way you can tell the difference quite easily, the real ones have "gills" that branch the false ones don't, for the record here is the real thing. I wonder if the false ones are illegal? Some magic ones are. I always thought it strange how something can be sitting in a field quite naturally but if you pick it you can end up in prison. What if one stuck to your shoe or something.

Nerd or not

Haven't had much time to write on this blog too busy surfing and then blogging about that see here. Just have to stick this picture here too though


It's not my best wave ever but it is my best picture of me on a wave ever. As they say in the surfing world I was quite stoked. Think I'll get back into surfing for a while. Rowan is into it too so no problem finding someone to surf with.

That's ma boy.

Appart from surfing had a major problem with my computer. Got "virus bust". Took me all night to get rid of it but I think I'm clean now though. Was quite proud of myself.
Once i'd sorted that out I was feeling quite nerdy so started to work on my new physics website. Started this a month or so ago when the intranet was playing up. It's mainly for physics teachers but I'm sure the hints on assessment will make things clearer to students too. It's not finished but I couldn't wait any longer. Chris Hamper's Physics pages

Signature

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We've tripled our bandwidth that's why I'm posting so much.
My phone rang three tiomes in the space of 10minutes in class today. Kept pressing busy but maybe they weren't phoning from a mobile and didn't get the message. Eventualy I rang back. At breakfast Rowan had asked me to sign a form so he could have an injection so I did.

It may not be neat but I think most people that have seen it know it's mine. Anyway it wasn't good enough for the person in question, she said a two year old might have done it. Funny how the bank, mastercard, the british embassy and Ola Hovland all accept this signature but not her. Her argument was that she couldn't be be sure it was me who had signed it, well that's not surprising since she hadn't see it before. Rowan might have forged it, but if I had printed my name he could have forged that too and anyway who in their right mind would forge a signature so that they could get an injection (I said in their right mind). She also said that my children might be adversley affected by it, that made me quite angry, it's my signature and I will do it how I want to do it, surely that must be some sort of human write.

Surfs up

Yippeee. I'm going surfing next week and the surf forecast is fantastic.
Baically it means there will be waves and the wind will be at times off shore.
I still get excited when I know I'm going to be doing something that I love doing. Some people think it's best not to get too excited incase it's not as good as you expect. I believe that you should enjoy the waiting incase it's not as good as you expect. That's why it's good to plan ahead so your life is full of these high points to look forward to, enjoy and then look back on.
After the surfing trip it's bouldering at Fontainbleau during November break. The thing is I actually enjoy the bits inbetween too, although I can't say that I look forward to them in quite the same way.

My favourite Sandwich

I’ve just had my usual lunch of peanut butter, honey and banana on cold wholemeal toast (left over from breakfast). I would add cottage cheese but we haven’t got any. When I eat this it reminds me of climbing, I always ate this when I was into serious training many years ago. It has calories, protein and fibre, I think it’s the perfect lunch. I have had an idea for years of producing a UWC sandwich book. We’ve had recipe books in the past but often the recipes don’t work. The college mag had a recipe recently that should have been called instant fire alarm, sandwiches are much easier to make. The book would be a collection of favourite sandwich toppings with a short paragraph of what the topping means to the writer (like what I just wrote). Maybe a photo to illustrate the contributor in a relevant setting (can’t include one today since I’ve just eaten it). The contributions could be collected online from students past and present. Do other people have a favourite sandwich topping or is it just me?

Microsoft me

no blogging? Difficult to do when no internet. That’s why I’m writing this offline, not that you’d know. Seems quite strange writing in word, it’s like talking to yourself. When writing in Blogger I feel like I’m having a conversation with someone. Word also picks up all my spelling mistakes which I now find quite annoying (not to mention grammar). So this isn’t really me it’s me filtered through word, “microsoft me”. We’ve been having PEW that stands for “Pedagogical exchange week”. Teachers visit other classes. I’ve been to History, Maths HL and Chemistry. I’ve learnt that:

Writing a history essay is like writing a lab report. Description, analysis, conclusion, evaluation. So that’s where I went wrong 35 years ago.

I can understand Maths HL much better now than when I did A’level maths 30 years ago. It would be good for physics students if math’s teachers sometimes used other letters rather than x and y. s and t for example.

Chemists still use the same apparatus that I used 37 years ago. Surely there is a better method than adding liquids drop by drop. Repeated measurement will reduce random errors but not systematic ones. Why not have a thinner spout, pressurize the liquid and add the liquid in a fine spray? Why do chemists measure volume and not mass?