Friday, March 7, 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
February; All Flowers Out
February, everything is out at once; some roses and geraniums from last year, primrose, snowdrops, crocus, hyacinth, domestic bluebell, narcissus, anemone, periwinkle, the first dandelion and a pioneering nasturtium in leaf.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
The Wonderful Well-Attended Careers Day at R's School
I admit that I did have a glass of organic white Bordeaux (thin, dry) when I was told this tale, this may have influenced my extreme reaction; I laughed so much the muscles of my abdomen went into spasm and I couldn't see for crying.
Yesterday was Careers Day at the school. A school which makes no attempt to get into any kind of relationship with students or their families, demands that parents come in on a Saturday morning and woman/man a stand in order to talk about their career to pupils who couldn't give a damn. Anyway, no-one in France that I know of has actually chosen a 'career' or likes it. Needless to say, the parent-careerers were a bit thin on the ground.
Parent visitors and their offspring were however present in large numbers, why (oh why?). The parents were there because the headmistress, Mrs Scruton, had cunningly combined Careers Day with a Parents Meeting, I believe this is called a motivational technique or manipulation. I use the word 'meeting' loosely. The idea is you turn up and the teachers are behind desks at which there is a long and desultory queue, you join the queue, you reach the teacher, you hope you have not made a mistake and the guy is actually your offspring's teacher, the teacher hastily consults his notes because he has no idea who your offspring is.
As R predicted before the event; 'The teacher has no idea who the hell he is supposed to be talking about, he smiles, and sneakily eyes the list of scores for clues. If you got an average of 10 out of 20 he says 'dreadful, yes, doesn't concentrate, no good' and if you get 19 he says 'very good student'.'
The teacher that JC queued for did exactly as R predicted. JC and this teacher got into a conversation about the dangers of internet gaming. The teacher in question was very understanding about the problem of teenage online gaming addicts. ???? WOT, this does not happen, understanding, what's that?
'Oh yeah, he's really cool, he plays Black Ops 2' says R.
'What was the career day like?' I asked JC.
'There were only 2 stands' said JC 'and one of those was empty'.
'No Dad, one was the supervisor making sure we all turned up, because if not we get detention on Monday, and the other one was the police. The stands were INSIDE the dining room'. (we have to assume JC missed the careers day).
Well at least JC did manage to queue up to see one token teacher, we'll call him Black Ops, the one that gave R the worst marks, JC likes to maximise his efficiency. Then he queued up to see the class teacher who is also the French teacher and nobody likes her including me, see previous blog. She was there with her Essex Face-lift and protruding knees and unenviable dress sense because she is an ex-model married to a fashion stylist. JC and 2 other parents queued patiently and noticed that other people behind them in the queue were getting to see this teacher before them, to they interpolated her against her will and she said 'You can't see me unless you have an appointment'.
'But we didn't know' exclaimed the parents who didn't know. (Don't know how the other parents knew but they always do).
'You should have had a note in the 'carnet' ('communication' exercise book/prison id papers)' came the clipped reply.
'But we didn't - and anyway, the whole point of this is that we come to see the teachers and queue up, if we wanted an appointment, we could have rung up and asked to see you at a time convenient to us both. We are here to see you!
'Tough, that's how it is, I have 3 classes, I can't see everyone'. (my suspicion is that she is bombarded by so many irate parents that the has to manage the crowd as best she can).
JC found this so absurd, he laughed. The French teacher was so unaccustomed to hearing laughter that she also laughed - and went back to her appointments. The 3 parents who did not have appointments did not get to see the teacher, grumbled about it together and agreed that it was not in the spirit of the thing, and went home, duty done. Now the class teacher will probably call R's other parent 'stupid' in front of the class.
R was forced to go to this event by the motivational techniques of: one hour's detention if he didn't go, and having to fill in a questionnaire proving that he had dutifully done the rounds of each stand (if not filled in one further hour's detention). He planned to go, but stay for a maximum of 10 minutes.
'Perhaps it will be interesting?' I piped up 'you might find a career that would suit you'.
'It's not interesting, Mum, nobody wants to go and nobody is interested'
He left at 10am and was back by 10.10am. He had executed his plan with remarkable skill. First he went and got his form signed (detention avoided), then he persuaded the class 'intello' (intellectual) to let him copy his (excruciatingly dull) questionnaire.
'How did you persuade him to do that?' I ask
'I made him an offer he couldn't refuse'
'What?'
'er, I offered him a sweet'.
There was a stand which must have been manned/womanned by a very canny parent, because it featured a bowl of sweets for the visitors, I believe this is called a motivational technique or manipulation. This stand (along with the stand of the computer game programmer) actually had visitors. R has no idea what career the stand was talking about, all he could see was the bowl of sweets. He helped himself to a handful, used one to bribe the class intellectual to give him the answers, went home and ate the rest in front of the telly.
Now the Headmistress Mrs Scruton will be able to write a glowing report of her wonderful well-attended Careers Day, that's the main thing.
Yesterday was Careers Day at the school. A school which makes no attempt to get into any kind of relationship with students or their families, demands that parents come in on a Saturday morning and woman/man a stand in order to talk about their career to pupils who couldn't give a damn. Anyway, no-one in France that I know of has actually chosen a 'career' or likes it. Needless to say, the parent-careerers were a bit thin on the ground.
Parent visitors and their offspring were however present in large numbers, why (oh why?). The parents were there because the headmistress, Mrs Scruton, had cunningly combined Careers Day with a Parents Meeting, I believe this is called a motivational technique or manipulation. I use the word 'meeting' loosely. The idea is you turn up and the teachers are behind desks at which there is a long and desultory queue, you join the queue, you reach the teacher, you hope you have not made a mistake and the guy is actually your offspring's teacher, the teacher hastily consults his notes because he has no idea who your offspring is.
As R predicted before the event; 'The teacher has no idea who the hell he is supposed to be talking about, he smiles, and sneakily eyes the list of scores for clues. If you got an average of 10 out of 20 he says 'dreadful, yes, doesn't concentrate, no good' and if you get 19 he says 'very good student'.'
The teacher that JC queued for did exactly as R predicted. JC and this teacher got into a conversation about the dangers of internet gaming. The teacher in question was very understanding about the problem of teenage online gaming addicts. ???? WOT, this does not happen, understanding, what's that?
'Oh yeah, he's really cool, he plays Black Ops 2' says R.
'What was the career day like?' I asked JC.
'There were only 2 stands' said JC 'and one of those was empty'.
'No Dad, one was the supervisor making sure we all turned up, because if not we get detention on Monday, and the other one was the police. The stands were INSIDE the dining room'. (we have to assume JC missed the careers day).
Well at least JC did manage to queue up to see one token teacher, we'll call him Black Ops, the one that gave R the worst marks, JC likes to maximise his efficiency. Then he queued up to see the class teacher who is also the French teacher and nobody likes her including me, see previous blog. She was there with her Essex Face-lift and protruding knees and unenviable dress sense because she is an ex-model married to a fashion stylist. JC and 2 other parents queued patiently and noticed that other people behind them in the queue were getting to see this teacher before them, to they interpolated her against her will and she said 'You can't see me unless you have an appointment'.
'But we didn't know' exclaimed the parents who didn't know. (Don't know how the other parents knew but they always do).
'You should have had a note in the 'carnet' ('communication' exercise book/prison id papers)' came the clipped reply.
'But we didn't - and anyway, the whole point of this is that we come to see the teachers and queue up, if we wanted an appointment, we could have rung up and asked to see you at a time convenient to us both. We are here to see you!
'Tough, that's how it is, I have 3 classes, I can't see everyone'. (my suspicion is that she is bombarded by so many irate parents that the has to manage the crowd as best she can).
JC found this so absurd, he laughed. The French teacher was so unaccustomed to hearing laughter that she also laughed - and went back to her appointments. The 3 parents who did not have appointments did not get to see the teacher, grumbled about it together and agreed that it was not in the spirit of the thing, and went home, duty done. Now the class teacher will probably call R's other parent 'stupid' in front of the class.
R was forced to go to this event by the motivational techniques of: one hour's detention if he didn't go, and having to fill in a questionnaire proving that he had dutifully done the rounds of each stand (if not filled in one further hour's detention). He planned to go, but stay for a maximum of 10 minutes.
'Perhaps it will be interesting?' I piped up 'you might find a career that would suit you'.
'It's not interesting, Mum, nobody wants to go and nobody is interested'
He left at 10am and was back by 10.10am. He had executed his plan with remarkable skill. First he went and got his form signed (detention avoided), then he persuaded the class 'intello' (intellectual) to let him copy his (excruciatingly dull) questionnaire.
'How did you persuade him to do that?' I ask
'I made him an offer he couldn't refuse'
'What?'
'er, I offered him a sweet'.
There was a stand which must have been manned/womanned by a very canny parent, because it featured a bowl of sweets for the visitors, I believe this is called a motivational technique or manipulation. This stand (along with the stand of the computer game programmer) actually had visitors. R has no idea what career the stand was talking about, all he could see was the bowl of sweets. He helped himself to a handful, used one to bribe the class intellectual to give him the answers, went home and ate the rest in front of the telly.
Now the Headmistress Mrs Scruton will be able to write a glowing report of her wonderful well-attended Careers Day, that's the main thing.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Computers and their games
Oh me oh my computers and their games and temptations, oh sigh - they have taken over the world of my teenagers, and therefore the world of my family, and indeed the whole world, and I've tried, I'm trying, but I can't do a thing about it, for computers have lead my teenagers away from me as surely as the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
It's beyond me this computer gaming, it truly is, it's beyond me over the hills and far away; nothing could be further away from my interest, my inclination and my ability than these ill-drawn and ill-conceived fast-moving ugly-sounding screen representations and their endless battles. But beyond me is exactly where my children are to be found (along with their excitement, enthousiasm, joy, determination, concentration, fun, friendship, achievements and new skills...).
All that I know is what's left behind; irritating clickings and noises, and the absences: of my children in my life, their helping hands around the home, their ideas and projects, the pleasure of their company and the fun they used to have with me.
So today I decided to go after my teenagers and find them where they are, and find out just what the temptation is, and I determined to find the positive. I can't, I just CAN'T play the games, so I decided to do an interview with B instead:
What skills and aptitudes are you developing from computer games?
It's beyond me this computer gaming, it truly is, it's beyond me over the hills and far away; nothing could be further away from my interest, my inclination and my ability than these ill-drawn and ill-conceived fast-moving ugly-sounding screen representations and their endless battles. But beyond me is exactly where my children are to be found (along with their excitement, enthousiasm, joy, determination, concentration, fun, friendship, achievements and new skills...).
All that I know is what's left behind; irritating clickings and noises, and the absences: of my children in my life, their helping hands around the home, their ideas and projects, the pleasure of their company and the fun they used to have with me.
So today I decided to go after my teenagers and find them where they are, and find out just what the temptation is, and I determined to find the positive. I can't, I just CAN'T play the games, so I decided to do an interview with B instead:
What skills and aptitudes are you developing from computer games?
- Ability to take in a 'wide range' view, multi-focus, the 'all at once' that is going on all around - a kind of mental agility of hopping instantaneously from one thing to the other to get the whole picture.
- Think strategically (research the game, observe the game, guess the game, strategy to win)
- Think and act quickly and well (or 'dead', lose)
- Be fully alive and attentive to the task on hand
- anticipate situations (to get help, avoid danger)
- quick and good analysis of situation (to get help, avoid danger, win)
- Team cooperation of thinking, strategies, action (need the other to win, of other fails, all fail)
- Automated hand response rather like playing a musical instrument
- Perseverence, concentration (on the game) (by the way not on much else...mother comment)
- Working with the unknown, in a mad (bad dangerous) world, and carrying on
Why always war, always attack and destroy?
I was trying to see the positive, perhaps this kind of situation brings you alive, makes your fully concentrated and present, to stay alive. B's reply surprised me. "Not always war" he said, and he described a game called Portal.
Playing the Fable
Who are you, where are you, why are you here?
The game designers write a modern fable, a tale for our time. Instead of reading it, or hearing it told, you play it. You are dropped into the fable, you 'wake up' on a hotel bed, you don't know who you are, where you are in time or space, or why you are here.
The game designers write a modern fable, a tale for our time. Instead of reading it, or hearing it told, you play it. You are dropped into the fable, you 'wake up' on a hotel bed, you don't know who you are, where you are in time or space, or why you are here.
and where here do you think you're going...?
What motivates B is the challenge, the intrigue, the discovery, the hunger for knowledge, to know what's at the heart of it - like a mystery story or a detective story. He also appreciates the jokes, the absurd, the comments on the dreadful aspects of our society, the just-like-life mind-twisters; "where do you think you're going? Because I don't think you're going where you think you're going"
What motivates B is the challenge, the intrigue, the discovery, the hunger for knowledge, to know what's at the heart of it - like a mystery story or a detective story. He also appreciates the jokes, the absurd, the comments on the dreadful aspects of our society, the just-like-life mind-twisters; "where do you think you're going? Because I don't think you're going where you think you're going"
In this fable, you gradually discover you are a 'test subject' - at first your only guidance and option is intoned by a robotic (female) voice which gives you instructions. You pass from room to room, in each room is a puzzle to solve before moving to the next, the way into another room is opened by a 'portal gun' which shoots a blue oval portal onto the surface it's pointed at. The player goes into a blue oval, comes out of an orange one into another unknown challenge.
He meets a robot who follows him on a type of monorail. This robot seems to dodge the perfectly controlled mechanical world, he makes cock-ups and does unexpected and unexplained things, such as helping the player, and saying 'if you take me off the monorail I die', and when you take him off, he doesn't die. With the help of this robot, who is called Wheatley, you break out of the test area, and gradually learn (if you play it right) that you were a test subject, controlled by an immense Artificial Intelligence called Glados, who has wiped out her creators with neurotoxins and taken over the lab, where she tests for the sake of testing and for no other reason, because that is her created nature.
You find yourself enslaved in a senseless mechanical world, and you just carry on...and of course eventually you learn your fate, and escape.
The more I heard of the fable, and applied it to our life condition, our modern times, the stage in our human evolution, the more amazed I was...and the more I realised what the generations coming and to come are after. They are training for it mechanically. At some point, they will have to live it.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Teeth
Both JC and I have had wisdom teeth taken out in the same week. Mine suddenly started growing at age nearly 50, WHAT? It was impacted, behind another tooth, and had to go. Then 2 days after my five- stitch operation, JC broke a tooth, made an emergency appointment at the same dentist, and found out that one of his wisdom teeth also needed urgent removal, and he'll have to have the other one out soon - is it something we're doing? Is it wisdom tooth one-upmanship?
JC had to go back to work the next day, luckily for him I was there to make barley porridge in the morning, and millett and lentil pureed soup when he came home at 8.30pm or I'm not sure he would have survived - he's very thin and it makes you tired mending everything afterwards.
JC had to go back to work the next day, luckily for him I was there to make barley porridge in the morning, and millett and lentil pureed soup when he came home at 8.30pm or I'm not sure he would have survived - he's very thin and it makes you tired mending everything afterwards.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Don't work, what DO you do?
Somebody asked me this recently. In the circumstances (intermission of school play) I was somehow unable to reply. So here is the reply I wish I had made.
I DO NOT
Employ a cleaner
A washerman or woman, an ironer
An organic gardener
An educational psychologist
A chauffeur or taxi driver
A therapist
An interior designer and decorator
A personal shopper
Inventive organic cook 4 meals a day for 3 different tastes
A secretary for JC (home or work)
An errand boy or girl
A declutterer
A car maintenance manager
Nutritionist, nurse, rarely a doctor
Support for overworked husband
Marriage guidance counsellor (divorce lawyer)
Someone to bring up and care for our sons
or cats (x2)
I never watch telly or relax with my family in the evening am still working at 10pm, and I wish I had asked this person, how are we supposed to do a good job of the above with both parents working flat out?
I DO NOT
Employ a cleaner
A washerman or woman, an ironer
An organic gardener
An educational psychologist
A chauffeur or taxi driver
A therapist
An interior designer and decorator
A personal shopper
Inventive organic cook 4 meals a day for 3 different tastes
A secretary for JC (home or work)
An errand boy or girl
A declutterer
A car maintenance manager
Nutritionist, nurse, rarely a doctor
Support for overworked husband
Marriage guidance counsellor (divorce lawyer)
Someone to bring up and care for our sons
or cats (x2)
I never watch telly or relax with my family in the evening am still working at 10pm, and I wish I had asked this person, how are we supposed to do a good job of the above with both parents working flat out?
Friday, January 24, 2014
I have mobile phone therefore I am
...and conversely, I do not have mobile phone therefore I'm nobody
I've just spent an hour and a half trying to book an airline ticket online. I have to book it online because if I phone, not only will I pay for the tedious wait and the tedious phone call, but the fares will be higher.
It took an hour and a half partly because of a technical problem on their site, and partly because my card wouldn't work. It doesn't work a lot nowadays, occasionally in a shop, for some online purchases, but it usually works by phone. I've tried everything, talking to the people selling, to my bank, but no-one took any responsibility and nobody had any idea.
Today, my bank suggested the reason might be that I have not registered my mobile phone with them. (despite the fact I don't use one and they never mentioned it). Because, new 'security systems' exist which work as follows; when you try to pay, the system sends you an SMS on your mobile phone, if you don't have a mobile phone, or if it isn't working for some reason or you forgot it or someone stole THEN TOUGH YOU CAN'T PAY. No ticket home. No nothing.
Please, I asked my telephone bank counsellor, could they send it to my email address? My computer is after all much less likely to be stolen - 50 percent of mobile phone owners say their phone was stolen in the last 3 years. The answer NO, the 'can't do anything about it' response, didn't even know who sets up the new security systems, who I can contact, even the banks apparently are helpless against the erosion of privacy, rights and freedom in the name of 'security'.
So as more and more of us are forced and encouraged to buy online, with shop closures, and with the increase in availability uniquely online (especially travel) not to mention better prices the issue is this:
Being forced to buy a mobile phone in order to have the right to buy is a human rights and freedom of choice violation.
Here are some reasons why I choose not to use a mobile phone
I've just spent an hour and a half trying to book an airline ticket online. I have to book it online because if I phone, not only will I pay for the tedious wait and the tedious phone call, but the fares will be higher.
It took an hour and a half partly because of a technical problem on their site, and partly because my card wouldn't work. It doesn't work a lot nowadays, occasionally in a shop, for some online purchases, but it usually works by phone. I've tried everything, talking to the people selling, to my bank, but no-one took any responsibility and nobody had any idea.
Today, my bank suggested the reason might be that I have not registered my mobile phone with them. (despite the fact I don't use one and they never mentioned it). Because, new 'security systems' exist which work as follows; when you try to pay, the system sends you an SMS on your mobile phone, if you don't have a mobile phone, or if it isn't working for some reason or you forgot it or someone stole THEN TOUGH YOU CAN'T PAY. No ticket home. No nothing.
Please, I asked my telephone bank counsellor, could they send it to my email address? My computer is after all much less likely to be stolen - 50 percent of mobile phone owners say their phone was stolen in the last 3 years. The answer NO, the 'can't do anything about it' response, didn't even know who sets up the new security systems, who I can contact, even the banks apparently are helpless against the erosion of privacy, rights and freedom in the name of 'security'.
So as more and more of us are forced and encouraged to buy online, with shop closures, and with the increase in availability uniquely online (especially travel) not to mention better prices the issue is this:
Being forced to buy a mobile phone in order to have the right to buy is a human rights and freedom of choice violation.
Here are some reasons why I choose not to use a mobile phone
- Health issues - electromagnet waves penetrate the body
- Privacy invasion I don't want to be contacted by anyone and everyone, selling me things, finding out where I am, expecting immediate reply, endless messages from the telephone company trying to sell me things I don't want to think about. I might want to keep one just for close family and emergencies - I don't want to accessible to everyone all the time, to be open to cell-phone tracking, the taking and using my data without my permission.
- Security aspect - so easily stolen, so much information on it.
- Financial aspect - it's not cheap and they're always trying to sell you more.
- Over consuming issues; the endless manufacture of machines which break and are dumped and replaced
- Social problems; expecting immediate reply and 24/7 availability, 'music', buzzing outbursts interrupt all conversations, prevent intimacy or any kind of deep meaningful communication, people running around talking apparently at you but into their phone, can't do nothing for one second without fiddling with, never where they are always on the phone, having to hear other people's one-sided personal conversations wherever I go.
- Personal identity issues; the idea that if I don't have a phone and don't have it on, I can't function, I am not complete. I don't want to become dependent on this machine for friends, communication of all kinds, information, avoiding boredom... I am complete without it.
Well, I think that's quite enough reason not to buy into mobile phones.
I searched online to see if anyone else had come up with this issue, but was unable to find a single word, but found plenty of things to do with selling phones. Ideas anyone? Or do I meekly buy a mobile phone and hand over my details to the bank like everyone else?
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