About time

Today, I felt optimistic about things. I felt that tomorrow would bring new joys to savour.

Today, I finally got a cracking new job - and about time too.

How to get that job

Had another interview but again failed to get the job.
I've arranged to meet someone about interview technique and how to present myself properly. If anyone out there can give me a few tips I'd be most grateful.
It's very frustrating. I get lots of interviews, and I know my subject - learning technology and virtual learning environments - but somehow I manage to blow it at the interview. Or, I just happen to up against better people every single time.
If I am up against better people I'd really like to know what experience they've got over and above my own experience then I might be able to do something about it. Then again, if I don't have the relevant knowledge and experience why do I keep getting the interview?
It's all very frustrating.

Interview Blues

Had a job interview today. My sixth interview in three month. I didn't get the job - bummer.

Writing Exercise

The Children’s Holiday

The Duchess of Good Rankin’ was in the kitchen making breakfast for the Duke.
The Duke was in the parlour playing piano to the children on their holiday.His tuneless idling bored his offspring but he continued in a dream
as they yelled, "Cry baby cry," to make the youngest howl.

"The Queen will have your heads in baskets,"
roared the Duchess,
"when she comes for tea today.
Now out with you,
to the forest and hunt the wolf I heard
with hunger on its breath
beneath my window in the night.
Kill it, bring it home
and you can mount it as a prize."

Wavecrest Crafts

My wife is really into crafting. Things like card making and scrap-booking. I think there's a whole sub-culture developing in this country where housewives are obsessed with crafting.

Shopping channels like QVC and Ideal World give significant air time to craft materials, and in Create and Craft there is a dedicated crafting shopping channel.

My wife found this website, Wavecrest Crafts, where they seem to get the latest products and sell them cheaper than anywhere else I can find. If you're into crafting check them out.

So ends this public information broadcast.

Access to Higher Education

The Adult College, Lancaster: Access to Higher Education: "Identifying Routes into University and Making Career Choices"

Who are we kidding? The education system in this country is falling apart. With successive governments' obsession with measuring attainment and teacher accountability your actual education has been lost in the mix. We have produced a whole generation whose only skill is to pass regular tests. That is not education.

I for one realized that the education system failed me and am grateful I had the opportunity to enter an adult education college, like The Adult College, Lancaster, to get myself a proper education and go on to university from there.

To be pragmatic, we only get the education system we are prepared to pay for, but even that great social Darwinist Thomas Huxley, he of "nature red in tooth and claw" fame, and founding member of the London School Board believed that a free and fully comprehensive education system was essential for national security and prosperity.

Huxley died over a hundred years ago, and we're nowhere near getting there yet

Poetry Exercise

Lax in disposing of
my duty and obligation
I arrived late at
the mock Gothic
splendor of St. Alban’s.

I was hurried inside
by my aunt
and knew none of
the faces that turned to look,
each furrowed brow
emoting grief and concern
as I took my place at the front.

I sat and I prayed
to be free of that stifling,
incensed atmosphere
then stood for the priest
as he performed his rituals
and spoke in ignorance
of the dearly departed.

Tea for Two

It’s four o’clock and time for tea:
jelly, trifle and fruitcake
fit for an English Queen
dressed in satin, silk
and shiny black, buckled boots
at an often remembered street party.

I know what I want:
it’s getting better in my mind now
and for once it’s under control.
Got to get up, I’ve got to tidy my room,
get out the cardboard plates,
yellow and purple like polka dots,
and the plastic cups.
Too good for you?

Thoughts

I really must pay more attention to this blog.
Since setting it up in October 2004 I've only posted a few times. Like keeping a diary and despite good intentions, I seem to lack enthusiasm when I have little or nothing to say. I'm not one for spewing nonsense just for the sake of it which means I don't post regularly and when I do have something to say I don't get around to posting anything because I'm not in the habit.
So, a new start.
In my job as an ILT Development Officer I have to look into ways of using technology in education. Blogging could be something we could use as a communication, discussion and tracking tool for use by students and teachers.
However, however much the teacher is enthusiastic about these things, in the pilot schemes we've run so far, the students have been reluctant to use the technology. It is up to teaching professionals to prove to students how beneficial technology can be.