Flat Earther – 30th September 2024

Living in a flat world
Able to see from here to there
To smell, touch and taste
Ride on clouds to share

Deconstructed culture
The world still goes around
Instant communication
A lightning strike profound

Automatic information
The hive mind buzzes
Armchair philosophers
Full of fight and fusses

Inspired by a Philosophy Now article about the Crisis of Culture and the thought that the internet has created a flat world


Today I’m feeling:

Pretty good again, waking up a little before my alarm and energised enough to exercise and do some dead hangs.

Very relaxed at school as many teachers are not teaching and many students are just catching up on work that they were too lazy to do during the semester. I happily let my grade 12 students do that whilst dropping by to David’s class and helping with my old grade 9 students, whom I still enjoy talking with (especially since no longer teaching them!).

Helping them in class was a bit of a reminder of how poor their English skills are. I really hope most of them don’t go into the English Program next year!

It also inspired me to do the same little piece of work to my grade 8s and see if they were any better and in general, I would say that about half of them were!

Health:

Physical: 7
Mental: 7

Today I’m grateful for:

Couple Cups coffee for keeping me going this morning and also having a good seat and table for me to read and write at for an hour or so.

The best thing about today was:

As ever at this time of year, the relaxed atmosphere of the students (and teachers) and the general good feeling around school, in much contrast to last week.

This morning, Rista wanted to tell me all about her boyfriend and Pleng was shyly hiding her haircut, which she has cut into a boyish style but I think looks really nice. Rista tried to drag me off to her class by escorting me arm in arm but I ducked away for coffee first.

In my last class, Nomsen gave me a playful hug and said that I was the best teacher (possibly because I ran out of time to ask her any of the questions that other students had to answer!).

Ozone and Ploy played and joked with me as they waited for their class and I threatened to pick them up and throw them over the edge of the building. They also told me that they wished that I was still teaching them.

I encouraged Mee, Gam, Pat and Palmy with their speaking and they all did better than they expected and I guided Nam to find the correct answers in a test that they were doing.

As usual, I played with Apple and Baipad in the morning, trying to steal their phones off them and so it went around for most of the day.

Something I learned today?

We had a visitor whilst we were out and Amy found him when she got back from the city.

Review your acts, Good and bad.

I’ve done this a couple of times recently. There is a mangy-looking dog that often sits at the traffic lights on the bypass and if the light is red and he’s around, I’ll throw him a dog snack that I usually keep in the car for Tokyo.

I took this picture because this is how I found the ‘bad girls’ in the middle of their class today. Some of my favourite students to play with, but happy not to be their teacher anymore!

Hold Music – 8th September 2023

We apologise for the extended delay
We’ll be with you as soon as we can
Soon is not soon enough I say
An hour to wait today was not my plan


Today I’m feeling:

About 80% this morning. I slept ok but could have gone for longer. I exercised well enough but can feel the tiredness through my body. I think I will sleep well again tonight.

(Later) Stressed for most of the day (see below)

Today I’m grateful for:

Hans, the guy I spoke to from the Westpac Fraud Department. He was efficient and helpful and dealt with my issue easily. What issue? (see below)

The best thing about today was:

Getting lots of things done whilst on hold on the phone waiting for Westpac to deal with my problem. What problem? (see below)

What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?

I actually woke up before my alarm today as my phone had buzzed which means Amy had sent me a message. Everything else is set to Do Not Disturb until 8 a.m. 

The message she sent was asking if I had used our bank account for anything recently, which I hadn’t. It seems someone had gotten hold of my card information and used it a couple of times before the bank, Westpac, automatically blocked it. As we have a joint account, Amy got a message saying both our cards have been suspended. 

I got to school thinking more about my classes and after the first one was done went to House for coffee in preparation for calling the bank. My first try was 30 minutes of waiting without success and I asked Amy to try, knowing it was unlikely she would be able to do anything as it was my card that had been used. She waited for an hour and a half to find that out too, calling me to tell me to try again. With less than two hours until my next class, after about 40 minutes of waiting I spoke to someone in India who verified that I was who I said I was and then told me to wait whilst they put me through to the fraud department and do it was I was waiting and watch time tick away for my class to start. After about 45 more minutes, Hans answered and within about a minute, opened a case and told me the money should get returned in a couple of weeks.

I dashed back to school only five minutes late in the end and had to deal with hot sweaty impatient teenagers, one of whom got emotional and started crying. Several students skipped out too and I told their homeroom teacher that I’d marked them absent in the system. 

I tried to destress myself by talking with students who were hanging out around school and the park but I have really only just managed to unwind in the late evening.

Something I learned today?

One of my new students, Jin, will change schools next semester purely because there will be no van to pick her up next semester. Kids are at the mercy of the weird system that is in place here, and at the mercy of their own economic situations.

I also found out that Namthip and Dena skipped a class yesterday and were given a final warning that they would be kicked out if they did it again. I was a bit surprised to hear that it was them, to be honest, and then to realise that Dena had skipped out of my class just then too!

What song always puts me in a good mood?

An interesting question. I don’t often listen to music to put myself in a good mood and the music that makes me happy is not really that uplifting. Having said that I have about 100 songs I can play rhythm guitar along with these days and I always enjoy the Volcano Suns songs the most and save them til last. Impossible to pick just one though.

I took these pictures (Namkhing sneakily taking one when I wasn’t looking) because despite the stressful day some of us were having there was still a lot of fun and laughter.
Top to bottom, left to right; Namkhing, Pleng, Aoey, Pang, Khaofang and Husna (who had suddenly come to life after complaining of feeling sick when there was work to be done).
Why all girls? All the boys just sit and stare at their phones all day and barely interact with each other, let alone with me.