Half A Cup

About time

2006-12-04T14:04:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

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

Writing Exercise

2006-03-22T09:17:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-22T06:53:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-20T03:39:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-20T03:17:00.000-08:00

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

2005-07-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Writing Exercise

2005-01-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Which is like ...
My key, as I haul it out of my pocket, sways from side to side like a pendulum mesmerising me
Which is like the swing I used to have in my back garden, its weather beaten seat attached to the frame by slender chains
Which is like the chain around my grand-dad's garden shed locked with a chunky padlock to keep me out
Which is like the padlock I used to lock my special box to keep my brother from prying at my special things
Which is like the wooden box Mr. Jones made the mannequin sit on in the art room so that we could draw a figure
Which is like the mannequin in the shop window before it was dressed that I used to snigger at
Which is like the blessed and the damned in the Last judgment with wispy cotton shrouds painted over their genitals so that worshippers would not be distracted by the wanton display of flesh
Which is like ...

Rant: George W. Bush

2004-11-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

How depressing. How can anyone take George W. Bush seriously? The man is a no-brain, right-wing religious fundamentalist – and yes, in my opinion these things go together.
And yet he gets more that 50% of the vote as an endorsement of his first term - incredible.
If the idiot Bush is a no-brain, right-wing religious fundamentalist, what does that make the people that voted for him? Who is worse?
It is said that a people get the politicians they deserve. The trouble is America is so big and powerful that the rest of the world gets lumbered with him as well. Thanks USA.
The USA is in many ways a county to be admired. Unfortunately, the people of that USA voted for Kerry. My sympathy goes out to them.
With Bush in the White House, the USA and the world is a more depressing place.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | 'I thought the world of him'

2004-10-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | 'I thought the world of him'

John Peel died today. I've been listening to the radio where people are emailing in about the influence he had on their musical life. Damn it, it was more than just music, he was a living example of how to live your own life, not to be afraid to stand up a say, "I like this and I don't care if I'm the only one."

I listened to his Radio 1 show countless times, but one moment stands out. I was in art college and came home late at night. I was worn out and exhausted, I put the radio on to listen to his show to hear him playing Rollercoaster by Spacemen Three. I lay back on my bed, let the sound float over me and the world then seemed a better place.

Thank you John Peel.

Writing Exercise

2004-10-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

On the front at Ilfracombe
I play a jaunty tune
The notes rise and rise from my harmonica
Until my face turns purple and black.
I dance and swiftly play the fool
To make the children laugh
So their mothers will put a few bob
In my new straw boater hat.

Writing Exercise

2004-10-02T01:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when I'm lying awake in bed at night and can hear the distant sound of cars passing-by, I'm reminded of certain times and places.
Growing up, I never lived on a main road, so staying in places where I could hear traffic at night was a novelty.
The first time my mother was ill my brother and I stayed with my aunt Bernadette who lived on the busy main road between Cardiff and Newport. There was a constant sound of cars speeding past, day and night. It was distracting and annoying, keeping me awake at night forcing me to dwell on the very thoughts I was sent there to get away from.
The traffic noise was constant and I never got used to it, never fully blocked it out from my consciousness. Night time was always the worst. Lying in bed listening to car after car speeding past while I lay on the floor in my make-shift sleeping-bag bed.

Writing Exercise

2004-09-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

It was a back-boiler, part of the gas fire in the kitchen and the pilot light usually went out over night.
This was when I was fourteen and we still lived in Marion St. I would have to get up at six o'clock in the morning to start the boiler so we could have hot water to wash ourselves and to clean the dishes that had been left in the sink the night before.
I had to re-light the boiler by pressing the gas control button on top, next to the main control for the fire, get down on all fours and poke a burning rolled up bit of newspaper through a tiny hole underneath until the pilot lit. Then, hoping the little flame stayed on, keep the gas control button pressed for thirty seconds before turning it on to full power. There would then be a moment where I wouldn't know if the procedure was a success or failure, after which there would either be the reassuring sound of the gas igniting, or nothing and I would have to start the whole procedure again.

Introduction

2004-09-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Where to start? Well, I want to do this because I want to get into the habit of writing everyday. You see, I'm doing a creative writing course and if I'm going to get anywhere with it I'm going to have to write regularly. I'm very bad at disciplining myself to do things, so if I go to all the trouble of setting up this blog then I might actually post something on it every day, well not every day but maybe at least once a week.
If anyone actually checks in on this blog they will hopefully see fragments of my writing as well as episodes of my rants about injustice: in the world generally and against me in particular and anything that takes my fancy at the time.
So stick around and don't be afraid to send me your comments about anything on the blog – I'm not at all precious about what I write, I just want to get better at it.
(Why "Half A Cup"? Well, is it half full or half empty?)