The internet seems to be totally opposed to me purchasing a ukulele. This makes me sad.

This morning I had the strangest dream. It was utterly Sci Fi with strange spacecrafts and weapons, which I could actually “identify”, and then there was a bomb siren/alarm which was going off in the background the entire time. The dream felt like it lasted quite a while before I woke up and realised that the alarm was the door bell. So I staggered out of bed and opened for our cleaning lady, who looked totally furious. Well, it’s her fault, she did turn up an hour earlier than agreed. The dream sort of stuck with me all day though.

I procrastinated. Otherwise, EE would have killed my long ago.

Ok, I’m feeling slightly retarded at the moment, and cannot be bothered with rescaling and all that. >.< One thing WP is bad at, images. Or maybe that’s just me. >.>

Special – What you may never find in your mainstream news sources . . . A Country of 1Billion Impotents? Even Viagra Seems To Have Failed. Will They Die a Shameful Death As Cowards? Every child in India knows that Ajmal Kasab will never be hanged by the Con – gress NCP govt, as for that matter even Afzal Guru will never be. Since 1993 Mumbai serial terrorist attacks till today thousands have been killed, I ask what has the govt done apart from threatening to attack Pakistan and sending them dossier after dossier. Is there something this government is scared of ? I do not understand as to why does the Congress party of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi as well as the NCP party of Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel feel that the Muslims of India will feel bad if the two scums on earth are hanged to death. Infact the regular Muslims of India should in a strong voice demand this govt to hang these two symbols of fanaticism, which has irreparably damaged the name of their religion Islam. Nothing at all has been achieved by the Congress govt to book the terrorists. Right since the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai to the 26/11/2008 Mumbai massacres, this govt has only raved and ranted like a dog that barks but never bites. Just yesterday with anger and hurt simmering inside him the father of Sandeep Unikrishnan said to TOI that “Why are they keeping him alive, he should be hanged on a lamp post” he insists that hanging the Ajmal Kasab is not about revenge but sending a warning to the terrorists. The irony of India is that while the criminals and terrorists get the best of facilities our security forces are treated worst than sheep and goats. Recently it was brought to light by the media that our soldiers who have been assigned to safeguard the Taj Hotel were shockingly sleeping on the roads, even washing their uniforms and clothes on the sidewalk near the gateway of India. This is how this govt treats our soldiers. These very ministers expect our soldiers and police to take the bullets on their chests and get killed so that these ministers can romp about in their helicopters and air-conditioned swanky cars, sleep in their plush flats and bungalows. By all accounts, they are least bothered about the sorry plight of our security forces. I am afraid the day is not far when the armed forces of India would be forced to contemplate, introspect and evaluate the worthiness in sacrificing their lives for a country which is not only ungrateful but also does not value the most supreme sacrifice. The people of this country are very busy playing the stock markets, investing in real estate, discussing the latest model of a four-wheeler or watching one of those reality & dance shows on television. The majority are struggling to make two ends meet to feed, clothe and educate their children and family. The one billion populace of India have just no time to even think about the dangers lurking just round the corner or right in their alley. I suppose that’s the way our Con govt likes it, it serves their purpose. The Con govt has cleverly devised a dual policy to hoodwink the people of this country. On one hand, the home ministry threatens Pakistan with retaliation in the event of another terrorist attack on India; on the other, the foreign ministry seeks a long time friendship with Pakistan. Is it any wonder that the whole wide world is laughing at us, even Nepal does not take us seriously. LETS FACE IT WE ARE A COUNTRY OF MORE THAN ONE BILLION IMPOTENTS AND NOT EVEN A THOUSAND TRUCK LOADS OF VIAGRA WILL HELP US – Till the time we ourselves unite and attempt to protect our family and business. The people of this country have to stop expecting this govt to provide us security and the right to live safely. The need of the hour is that each Indian has to become a Bhagat Singh, a Chandrasekhar Azad, and a Shivaji. There is no point in wailing like a puppy. What will Barrack Hussein Obama or America do for India? Nothing can be more shameful than asking your friend to defend you wife or daughter who is about to be raped by the goons. One has to be man enough to stand up and fight the atrocities yourself. Whoever says that these terrorist attacks are the acts of cowards cannot be more wrong. Let us not be fooled by the politicians and ‘SICKULARISTS’ – THE FACT IS TERRORIST ACTS ARE BRAVE ACTS, GETTING KILLED LIKE SITTING DUCKS IS COWARDLY. I appreciate that people have started to make music videos and write poems on the dark episode of 26/11 but it would have been better if these people could educate the masses about the perils in being passive and how the CON – NCP govt is taking us for a ride on all fronts. However, more dangerous than the terrorists are the ‘SICKULARISTS’ and some of the ‘POLITICIANS IN POWER’ who are said to be indirectly helping the cause of the underworld gangs inimical to India. As long as these threats from some ministers is not eliminated I am afraid the I B, RAW and Police will only be discouraged to do their optimum and may just give up in the days to come, if they have not already. Worst is a former IPS officer SM Mushrif in his book has defamed and falsely leveled accusations against our Research And Analysis wing as also against the Intelligence Bureau blaming them for Karkares death. This author says that the Mumbai massacre is a conspiracy hatched by the RAW and IB. By all accounts this guy seems to be working on the lines of AL Qaeda, ISI and Taliban, just as they had promoted and propagated a theory that 9/11 was an act committed by the CIA and Mossad to defame the Muslims. The fact is that many terrorist Special – What you may never find in your mainstream news sources . . . A Country of 1Billion Impotents? Even Viagra Seems To Have Failed. Will They Die a Shameful Death As Cowards? Every child in India knows that Ajmal Kasab will never be hanged by the Con – gress NCP govt, as for that matter even Afzal Guru will never be. Since 1993 Mumbai serial terrorist attacks till today thousands have been killed, I ask what has the govt done apart from threatening to attack Pakistan and sending them dossier after dossier. Is there something this government is scared of ? I do not understand as to why does the Congress party of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi as well as the NCP party of Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel feel that the Muslims of India will feel bad if the two scums on earth are hanged to death. Infact the regular Muslims of India should in a strong voice demand this govt to hang these two symbols of fanaticism, which has irreparably damaged the name of their religion Islam. Nothing at all has been achieved by the Congress govt to book the terrorists. Right since the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai to the 26/11/2008 Mumbai massacres, this govt has only raved and ranted like a dog that barks but never bites. Just yesterday with anger and hurt simmering inside him the father of Sandeep Unikrishnan said to TOI that “Why are they keeping him alive, he should be hanged on a lamp post” he insists that hanging the Ajmal Kasab is not about revenge but sending a warning to the terrorists. The irony of India is that while the criminals and terrorists get the best of facilities our security forces are treated worst than sheep and goats. Recently it was brought to light by the media that our soldiers who have been assigned to safeguard the Taj Hotel were shockingly sleeping on the roads, even washing their uniforms and clothes on the sidewalk near the gateway of India. This is how this govt treats our soldiers. These very ministers expect our soldiers and police to take the bullets on their chests and get killed so that these ministers can romp about in their helicopters and air-conditioned swanky cars, sleep in their plush flats and bungalows. By all accounts, they are least bothered about the sorry plight of our security forces. I am afraid the day is not far when the armed forces of India would be forced to contemplate, introspect and evaluate the worthiness in sacrificing their lives for a country which is not only ungrateful but also does not value the most supreme sacrifice. The people of this country are very busy playing the stock markets, investing in real estate, discussing the latest model of a four-wheeler or watching one of those reality & dance shows on television. The majority are struggling to make two ends meet to feed, clothe and educate their children and family. The one billion populace of India have just no time to even think about the dangers lurking just round the corner or right in their alley. I suppose that’s the way our Con govt likes it, it serves their purpose. The Con govt has cleverly devised a dual policy to hoodwink the people of this country. On one hand, the home ministry threatens Pakistan with retaliation in the event of another terrorist attack on India; on the other, the foreign ministry seeks a long time friendship with Pakistan. Is it any wonder that the whole wide world is laughing at us, even Nepal does not take us seriously. LETS FACE IT WE ARE A COUNTRY OF MORE THAN ONE BILLION IMPOTENTS AND NOT EVEN A THOUSAND TRUCK LOADS OF VIAGRA WILL HELP US – Till the time we ourselves unite and attempt to protect our family and business. The people of this country have to stop expecting this govt to provide us security and the right to live safely. The need of the hour is that each Indian has to become a Bhagat Singh, a Chandrasekhar Azad, and a Shivaji. There is no point in wailing like a puppy. What will Barrack Hussein Obama or America do for India? Nothing can be more shameful than asking your friend to defend you wife or daughter who is about to be raped by the goons. One has to be man enough to stand up and fight the atrocities yourself. Whoever says that these terrorist attacks are the acts of cowards cannot be more wrong. Let us not be fooled by the politicians and ‘SICKULARISTS’ – THE FACT IS TERRORIST ACTS ARE BRAVE ACTS, GETTING KILLED LIKE SITTING DUCKS IS COWARDLY. I appreciate that people have started to make music videos and write poems on the dark episode of 26/11 but it would have been better if these people could educate the masses about the perils in being passive and how the CON – NCP govt is taking us for a ride on all fronts. However, more dangerous than the terrorists are the ‘SICKULARISTS’ and some of the ‘POLITICIANS IN POWER’ who are said to be indirectly helping the cause of the underworld gangs inimical to India. As long as these threats from some ministers is not eliminated I am afraid the I B, RAW and Police will only be discouraged to do their optimum and may just give up in the days to come, if they have not already. Worst is a former IPS officer SM Mushrif in his book has defamed and falsely leveled accusations against our Research And Analysis wing as also against the Intelligence Bureau blaming them for Karkares death. This author says that the Mumbai massacre is a conspiracy hatched by the RAW and IB. By all accounts this guy seems to be working on the lines of AL Qaeda, ISI and Taliban, just as they had promoted and propagated a theory that 9/11 was an act committed by the CIA and Mossad to defame the Muslims. The fact is that many terrorist attacks have been foiled in the last one year alone because of timely information by the I B and RAW. The enemies of the nation within could turn out to be a huge threat in the coming days. There is a huge question mark on the Maharashtra govt. . . . 1- How and why did Hemant Karkare’s bulletproof jacket go missing? 2- Ajmal Kasab is on record stating that they were 15 of them, who came from Pakistan, so where have the other five disappeared? Are they still in India? If yes who is sheltering them? 3- Sebastian D Souza the photographer who clicked the first pictures of Kasab says, “For one hour there was no sign of the Mumbai police, I hate the picture of Kasab I took as he is a killer. I am angry” The anger against this govt is so much that Karkares widow Kavita and Vijay Salaskars widow Smita went to Delhi to meet the Queen Sonia Maino Gandhi earnestly requesting her to get Ajmal Kasab hanged immediately. And all that Soniaji said was ‘I can relate to your tragedy as even I have gone through it.’ Needless to add both the brave widows must have come back dejected. I guess people know who is running the country by remote. Another slain police officer’s widow Vinita Kamte, wife of slain ACP Ashok Kamte has questioned the Maharashtra state machinery on 26/11 in her book ‘To The Last Bullet’. Clearly, there is something drastically wrong in the Indian political apparatus. The pain of 26/11 is so much that Amitabh Bachchan today recited a poem written by Prasoon Joshi “Is Baar Nahi.” The message is clear that the masses and classes have come together and want to see India stand up like a true red-blooded virile man and crush this terror once and for all in a fight to the finish. Its ‘EITHER US OR THEM’. Shobha De is disgusted that disgraced politicians like RR Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Shivraj Patil are back in responsible jobs. She says ‘There is a conspiracy to suppress the truth. We need to give a deadline to Delhi’. Clearly implicating the dynastic Gandhi family trio. DON’T LIGHT A CANDLE – LIGHT A MATCH STICK AND BURN THE WHOLE CITADEL DOWN. The anniversary of 26/11 saw no Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh or Sharad Pawar at Mumbai to pay homage to the victims of the terrorist massacre. Need I say anything more? It is a shame that the Prime Minister of India is so spineless that he repeatedly pleads with the Pakis to please abhore terrorism and come for friendly talks. In the same breath he proclaims ‘We shall not allow the blood of the Martyrs go waste’. Does anybody in the country believe him? It is said that wisdom dawns in with age. India is more than 63 years old and Manmohan Singh is more than 70 years, when will you grow up Manmohan? Terrorism and violence is in their blood. The problem with India is that we refuse to learn from history. Today we are at war right inside our country, on our streets, inside our offices, restaurants, pubs, malls, gymnasiums. Radical Islam has taken deep roots in the Muslim society, hence today’s terrorists are well educated, English speaking men and women, sometimes even coming from affluent families. They could be wearing branded clothes like Poison jeans, Armani suits and Gucci shoes. That warm and friendly guy seated next to you could be a Daood Gilani alias David Headley, that pleasant voice at the call center could be in reality a Ajmal Kasab but with a Hindu name. The jihadis are in our cities lurking in the shadows, discreetly set up in decent jobs, swanky apartments, only to strike at the right time. Patience, surprise and deceit are just another of their virtues. How do we fight this virus of terrorism and win the war? WHAT IS THE ANTI DOTE TO SNAKE BITE? The doctor to save a life administers a much higher dose of snake venom inside the body of the victim. We have to find and administer an antidote to terror not just to the terrorists. Do kill the terrorists but just killing them will not help. The origin of terror has to be eliminated. What and who will eliminate this terror? Will The Americans do it ? The Indian politicians will never attempt to do it, the police are incapable of it and too corrupt to even think of it, the security agencies are not authorized to. So who will eradicate this disease which has spread all over the country. Give it some time and think about it, the physical and psychological safety of your family depends on it. Alternatively, Should I ask for a strong anti dotes to impotency, as Viagra does not seem to be working on the one billion impotent Indians? JUST GETTING MARRIED, COPULATING WITH YOUR WIFE AND MAKING BABIES DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR MANHOOD, EVEN THE RATS DO THAT. Varon B K Sharma Author of the fiction “Assassination Of George Bush” www.varonbksharma.com ‘Assassination Of George Bush’ was the first book in the world dedicated to the innocent citizens of India, America, Japan, Britain, Israel, Germany, Canada and Australia who were killed in the terrorist attacks on 26/11/2008 in Mumbai, India. A Salute To The Brave Martyrs Sandeep Unikrishnan Gajendra Singh Bhist And Tukaram Omble www.varonbksharma.com have been foiled in the last one year alone because of timely information by the I B and RAW. The enemies of the nation within could turn out to be a huge threat in the coming days. There is a huge question mark on the Maharashtra govt. . . . 1- How and why did Hemant Karkare’s bulletproof jacket go missing? 2- Ajmal Kasab is on record stating that they were 15 of them, who came from Pakistan, so where have the other five disappeared? Are they still in India? If yes who is sheltering them? 3- Sebastian D Souza the photographer who clicked the first pictures of Kasab says, “For one hour there was no sign of the Mumbai police, I hate the picture of Kasab I took as he is a killer. I am angry” The anger against this govt is so much that Karkares widow Kavita and Vijay Salaskars widow Smita went to Delhi to meet the Queen Sonia Maino Gandhi earnestly requesting her to get Ajmal Kasab hanged immediately. And all that Soniaji said was ‘I can relate to your tragedy as even I have gone through it.’ Needless to add both the brave widows must have come back dejected. I guess people know who is running the country by remote. Another slain police officer’s widow Vinita Kamte, wife of slain ACP Ashok Kamte has questioned the Maharashtra state machinery on 26/11 in her book ‘To The Last Bullet’. Clearly, there is something drastically wrong in the Indian political apparatus. The pain of 26/11 is so much that Amitabh Bachchan today recited a poem written by Prasoon Joshi “Is Baar Nahi.” The message is clear that the masses and classes have come together and want to see India stand up like a true red-blooded virile man and crush this terror once and for all in a fight to the finish. Its ‘EITHER US OR THEM’. Shobha De is disgusted that disgraced politicians like RR Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Shivraj Patil are back in responsible jobs. She says ‘There is a conspiracy to suppress the truth. We need to give a deadline to Delhi’. Clearly implicating the dynastic Gandhi family trio. DON’T LIGHT A CANDLE – LIGHT A MATCH STICK AND BURN THE WHOLE CITADEL DOWN. The anniversary of 26/11 saw no Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh or Sharad Pawar at Mumbai to pay homage to the victims of the terrorist massacre. Need I say anything more? It is a shame that the Prime Minister of India is so spineless that he repeatedly pleads with the Pakis to please abhore terrorism and come for friendly talks. In the same breath he proclaims ‘We shall not allow the blood of the Martyrs go waste’. Does anybody in the country believe him? It is said that wisdom dawns in with age. India is more than 63 years old and Manmohan Singh is more than 70 years, when will you grow up Manmohan? Terrorism and violence is in their blood. The problem with India is that we refuse to learn from history. Today we are at war right inside our country, on our streets, inside our offices, restaurants, pubs, malls, gymnasiums. Radical Islam has taken deep roots in the Muslim society, hence today’s terrorists are well educated, English speaking men and women, sometimes even coming from affluent families. They could be wearing branded clothes like Poison jeans, Armani suits and Gucci shoes. That warm and friendly guy seated next to you could be a Daood Gilani alias David Headley, that pleasant voice at the call center could be in reality a Ajmal Kasab but with a Hindu name. The jihadis are in our cities lurking in the shadows, discreetly set up in decent jobs, swanky apartments, only to strike at the right time. Patience, surprise and deceit are just another of their virtues. How do we fight this virus of terrorism and win the war? WHAT IS THE ANTI DOTE TO SNAKE BITE? The doctor to save a life administers a much higher dose of snake venom inside the body of the victim. We have to find and administer an antidote to terror not just to the terrorists. Do kill the terrorists but just killing them will not help. The origin of terror has to be eliminated. What and who will eliminate this terror? Will The Americans do it ? The Indian politicians will never attempt to do it, the police are incapable of it and too corrupt to even think of it, the security agencies are not authorized to. So who will eradicate this disease which has spread all over the country. Give it some time and think about it, the physical and psychological safety of your family depends on it. Alternatively, Should I ask for a strong anti dotes to impotency, as Viagra does not seem to be working on the one billion impotent Indians? JUST GETTING MARRIED, COPULATING WITH YOUR WIFE AND MAKING BABIES DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR MANHOOD, EVEN THE RATS DO THAT. Varon B K Sharma Author of the fiction “Assassination Of George Bush” www.varonbksharma.com ‘Assassination Of George Bush’ was the first book in the world dedicated to the innocent citizens of India, America, Japan, Britain, Israel, Germany, Canada and Australia who were killed in the terrorist attacks on 26/11/2008 in Mumbai, India. A Salute To The Brave Martyrs Sandeep Unikrishnan Gajendra Singh Bhist And Tukaram Omble www.varonbksharma.com

Andy Warhol thing at the SF MoMA!!! While I am in California! My Extended Essay will love this!

http://www.sfmoma.org/events/1507

Today

I skived school to do school work. I slept five hours more than planned, but I did do some school work. I’ve been up for two hours now, and the only procrastination I’ve done so far is to play the guitar. And blog, of course. Three sentences.

OMG reason to be paranoid. My school just phoned me on my mobile and kept ringing for ages. While I was looking up the number, our home phone goes off. >.<

Okay, I need to get my act together, I need to write my personal statement and apply to unis. Two of my close friends have gotten offers now, while I have yet to apply.

Back to EE. I just found the first plan I made, which I wrote in August. Would have been nice to check this one out before now/five days before deadline? No?

I’m tempted:

Never mind. I’m off to bed. Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

And so it starts. Currently we are still in ‘pilot’ phase of the Individual Budget roll-out – the forefront of the personalisation and self-directed support agenda and if that sentence made little sense to you – you can probably count yourself lucky!

Very basically there is an ideologically  welcome move towards more control by users of services around the services they receive which is a very noble and worthy cause. We are trying to work through some of the details and our local authority is trying to put systems together through the pilots that have been running. While I’d like to hide my head in the sand and pretend nothing is changing, not because I don’t think it is a worthy ideal, but rather because of the intense increase in bureaucracy and the time needed to work through the new and somewhat shaky systems being put into place.

I decided that I really needed to be positive and try to actually understand what was to be happening because it isn’t going away  and so, in conjunction with a service user and her daughter (main carer) who want to engage with the process and ‘see how it works’, I am doing what I can to work through the systems as they exist.

The main pilots so far have focussed on younger adults with disabilities, people with learning disabilities and older adults with fairly straightforward care packages.

Although at the time, I explained I felt they needed to tackle some of the more complex examples at the time, mental health services were very much left out of the ‘loop’ of information.

Currently, I have assisted in the completion of the self-assessment questionnaires and have validated them. As the service user in question as fairly advanced Alzheimer’s type dementia, there was a significant input from her family and carers and I assisted considerably myself – so the ‘self-assessment’ idea was somewhat lost through that process but I felt it was important to work through the ‘processes’ with a person who has little capacity to engage actively with the assessments and realistically, it will involve many of the users of our service.

I tackled the RAS (Resource Allocation System) although I’m not entirely confident it is ‘correct’ and so my next task is to take the documents to a meeting to discover what the ‘indicative budget’ is and then, assuming all goes well, to return to patient and carer (I am running two different applications side-by-side – one for service user and a different one for carer in her own right).

I might have messed the entire thing up of course, but as I expected to user and carer themselves, the worst thing that could happen at this point is remaining with the status quo while I spend time working things out. The positive outcome would be more flexibility to choose carers and tasks that are more appropriate to their individual circumstances and to have more input into the support packages that provide the best outcomes.

But.. and this is the big but.. so far, getting as far as we have, namely writing up all the documentation and putting the forms, assessments, resource allocations etc has taken me the good part of a couple of days. That’s not including the three specific visits each of at least an hour to work through the actual assessment forms. Which would be fine and dandy if that linked in with the time taken on other work, emergency assessments, people being discharged from hospital,  rushing to court to get warrants etc.

Suffice to say the team isn’t overly heartened by the lack of support in implementing these new systems – the local authority has put a lot of support into the Community Care teams with additional workers and weekly support groups  but in the bleak and distant mental health teams, we are left increasingly on the periphery and detached further from the general information streams and planning but my thought is that at least by attempting it, we won’t be completely left out and if I make a mess of my attempts, at least I am identifying a genuine training need!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to update the process as I go through it.. .

Mr. Wray, who joined SIS over 8 years ago, dropped a bombshell earlier this academic year when he announced his decision to leave SIS at the end of the year. Although students weren’t informed until September, the school has known for a while and had already begun advertising for a new school principal.
As with most deputy principal and head of section selection, one component of the selection process is student interviews. I’ve been asked to sit on the panel of students. However, it is ultimately a decision that’s going to affect everyone. In an unprecedented move, I’m asking students for their suggestions and opinions on the questions to be posed.

Candidates

Fist, here is an outline of the 4 candidates identified by an unknown, school chosen selection committee as put in the schools newsletter.

1. Alison Hampshire
Alison has been a Vice Principal at South Island School since 2004 and instrumental in many of the innovations in recent years. Prior to this, she was an Assistant Principal in the United Kingdom. As a teacher, Alison has had significant experience of teaching English and Drama in both the UK and in an international school in Malawi. Alison gained experience in leading a unit working with students who have specific learning difficulties. She was awarded her honours degree by Sussex University, United Kingdom and has since gained additional professional qualifications including gaining recognition by the UK government as an Advanced Skills Teacher. Alison focuses her leadership on ensuring that students of all abilities are supported and challenged to achieve in all areas of school life.

2. Ed Lawless
Ed currently works for the IB Asia Pacific Regional office as their Regional Head of Professional Development. He joined the “IBO” in 2005. Prior to that, he served as the Head of Senior School in Queensland, Australia. As a teacher, he is very experienced in teaching English and Theory of Knowledge in the IB Diploma. Ed was awarded his first honours degree by LeMoyne College followed by a Masters Degree from the University of Rochester. Ed sees this as an opportunity to return to the challenge that first attracted him to the profession and one he finds most rewarding – school leadership. In all roles, Ed has managed change, guiding teams through critical review and implementation.

3. Graham Silverthorne
Graham currently works as the Headteacher of Gordano School in the United Kingdom. He joined Gordano in 2003, following 4 years as the Headteacher of a
large school in Cambridge. Graham has been recognized by the National College of School Leadership as a ‘Local Leader in Education’ and acts as a mentor/coach for other headteachers in Bristol. His school has a partnership with a school in Rwanda, a partnership which he sees as a ‘humbling experience’ and a mutual benefit to both schools. He was awarded his degree in History by Cambridge University followed by a Masters Degree. Graham enjoys school leadership, regards schools as a community and adapts a collegiate and inclusive approach to leadership.

4. David Watson
David Watson is currently serving as the interim Principal of an international school in Boston, USA. Prior to this, he spent nine years as the Principal of an international school in Houston, Texas, a large French/English dual language school. He has also worked as a Principal of an international school in Malaysia and taught most of his career in international schools. David has a number of degrees in English Literature (France), French and Politics (Bristol, U.K.) and a Doctorate degree (Croatia). He is also a council member of the Council of International Schools. His leadership is based upon the principles of community, respect and challenge.

Process

Here’s the current schedule and process of selection :

30th Nov- PTA committee and School Council
1st Dec – Meet small group of parents
2nd Dec – Presentation in Hall 5:00 – 7:00

There is no date yet for student interviews which should occur in a similar time frame next week.

Questions

For our student interviews, we are compiling a selection of questions to ask potential candidates. They largely fall into the following categories :

1. General Openers
2. Academic/ Curriculum
3. Relations with Students
4. Student Voice/ School Spirit
5. Technology/ Creativity
6. Closers

Do you have any suggestions for questions to ask? What do you want to know about the candidates?
Tell me in the comments and I’ll try to incorporate them into the interviews.

Yeah – I know I shouldn’t be blogging now, of all times. But this just begs to be watched:

Sure, there’s bias. But there’s also the underlying message that education and the ability to actually think for yourself are both losing value in people’s eyes, even though most people hardly have the capacity to judge whether education has value. (It does, by the way.)

I could go on and on about this (I hear about similar things on a daily basis – it’s unavoidable when you’re in IB), but my brain that’s currently in Maths IA mode has only one thing to say: “Who are these people, and why are they trying so hard to bullshit when they can’t even repeat what’s been stuffed down their throats?”

This blog was never supposed to have anything to do with politics, so there won’t be anymore. Now – back to my IA and strange symbols I’ve never used before.

Just thinking about thinking riles me up these days.

• Maths IA due tomorrow morning
• Chem test on Thursday
• Physics presentation on Thursday
• EE final, final draft due on Friday
• Can die on Saturday

I love my life.

- – -

Maybe the choice of interviewees is intentional, maybe not. And maybe I’m just being typically prejudiced and superficial and elitist. But there are those who defy stereotype anyway. Good or bad – you decide. I don’t have the time to go into detail, but it should be obvious anyway.

ARGH.

It’s politics as usual in New Delhi, and no one seems to care

A year has gone by after the carnage in Mumbai that left over 190 people dead and hundreds injured.  In the immediate aftermath of 26/11, articles were written about the gaping holes in India’s internal security preparedness.

Recommendations put forth to the Indian government are all in public domain –  a tougher anti-terrorism law, a separate ministry for internal security, police reform, increasing NSG headcount and footprint, and enhancing India’s covert ops capability.  The Filter Coffee also presented recommendations in the wake of the 26/11 attacks.

Of the recommendations made, Manmohan Singh’s government chose to make the establishment of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) central to its response to the holes in India’s internal security preparedness.  To be sure, the establishment of the NIA was an important move, because it addressed Centre-State jurisdiction issues that hitherto plagued the CBI.

However, the NIA’s mandate notwithstanding, nothing in public domain indicates any significant activity in the NIA, until 11 months and two weeks after November 26, 2008, when the NIA belatedly sprung into action, based on inputs from the FBI on David Headley and Tahawwur Rana.

In addition, by virtue of design, the NIA mostly addresses post-incident investigation and forensics.  Manmohan Singh’s government articulated little by way of detective and preventive enhancements to India’s internal security preparedness.

The bigger picture that needs to be examined on the first anniversary of 26/11 isn’t necessarily about specific structural and organizational changes, but about the government’s willingness (confidence?) to make public aberrations in its response to the terror attacks and how these can be addressed.

In the year following the World Trade Center attacks in the US, the Bush Administration constituted the 9/11 Commission to examine aspects of US’s response to the attacks as they unfolded, and make recommendations on how the US should proceed, going forward.  The US Department of Homeland Security was born out of these recommendations.

India deserved its 26/11 commission with a limitless mandate to examine our response to the attacks in Mumbai. Key aspects of the events of 26/11 require independent review.

These include incident-specific issues relating to governance and leadership such as  (a) How long it took to notify key stakeholders, such as the Prime Minister, NSA, intelligence services and ministers of Home Affairs and Defense, (b) The time it took for the relevant stakeholders to coordinate and assess the situation, (c) How long it took to authorize deployment of anti-terror units to the scene, and (d) Crisis management — who was coordinating what aspect of India’s responses.

The second aspect of the commission’s review should have entailed structural and organizational changes and enhancements, including those previously discussed.  Sadly, this government does not have the gumption to constitute such a comprehensive review of its responses to the 26/11 attacks.  This isn’t an assailment of the the UPA administration, it is an indictment of India’s petty political environment.

There are critical aspects of the attack that require further analysis — aspects that India is still uncovering, including the roles of Headley and Rana — and questions that no one seems to be able to answer, such as how a bunch of semi-literate people alien to Mumbai, were able to negotiate their way through the city’s conspicuous and inconspicuous landmarks, without local assistance.

This cannot be accomplished by adhocism or through token responses, such as establishing the NIA and deploying the NSG in some cities. One would have thought that the time was ripe for such a bold response, faced as the UPA is, with an ineffectual, embattled Opposition. Sadly, barring a few cosmetic rearrangements, not much has changed in India, and no one, least of all Mumbaikars seem to care.

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I will no longer be working as an assistant examiner for the IBO. The reason has nothing to do with the quality of my work (although they continue to tell me that I grade too easily) or any sort of physical or mental defect or limitation. No, the reason I cannot continue is that I don’t use microsoft windows on my computer.

The IBO is switching to a system called Scoris for marking exam papers. Basically, they are tired of mailing papers all over the world to different examiners. So this company will get them, scan them and then examiners will read and mark them online. The entire system is based upon proprietary software which, of course, only works on other proprietary software such as windows and mac.

Despite all of the advances in Linux over the years and its rapid adoption by governments and school systems all over the world, the IBO has gone the other way and decided to restrict freedom and accessability. I guess they are not as interested in equality of access and lifelong learning as they claim. So I have been forced to make a decision. Will I try and find a way to do the marking on a windows computer, like the one in my office at school or will I walk away from work I have done for the past four years.

I will walk away.

Why? Mostly because this is the IBO’s decision not mine. They have decided to change the system when the previous one was working fine. I suppose I could try to do all of the work in my office, but if I am doing marking while I am at school here when will I do anything else? If they want to utilize a system that limits what users are able to do then they will not have me as a user. It could have been possible to implement a system that was browser based or relied on open standards, but they chose not to.

I am also not going to go back on the decision I made almost three years ago to stop using proprietary software. I have been very happy using Linux over the years and I have tried several different versions. Currently I am running Linux Mint which has been working fine for the last week or so.  After my initial switch there were some nervous weeks when I didn’t know if I would be able to work on the Internet or at school, but eventually I realized that everything still worked. I was free at last.

It is this freedom that now defines my work and my life. The freedom to change my OS whenever I want. I am waiting for December 27th when I can try the next version of Sabily. The freedom to do whatever I want with my software and my data. The freedom from being locked-in to whatever corporate profits and corporate marketing demand. I will never trust a corporation with my information again.

Now this marking isn’t my main job, it is more like a part time gig which comes around once a year. So I can give it up without too much discomfort. But it will cut into my summer budget. I don’t know what I would do if this was my main job or if I was ever faced with that choice. Would I walk away from a school that tried to lock me in to windows? Probably. I would look for another school or educational group based on open standards.

Brazil has always appealed to me or maybe the Philippines.

When feeling confused, don’t think. And so I burned rice and organised a birthday Laser Quest. I have to ring the place and check how many people I can bring, I’d love to have a proper game with people actually getting involved, which basically means I should invite some RoI people. That would certainly help. Hopefully, the upper limit is quite high, so that I can invite people from outside my daily social group as well.  Procrastination is great. I love it.

I realised my Solipsism project, though I’ve just started. I hope for it to get way over the top, but it takes quite a while and effort, so I have to see if I can be bothered and actually have the time. The great thing is that I can work on it while multitasking, which makes it possible for me to watch Big Bang Theory and be almost useful, at the same time.

and then I watched an episode of Big Bang theory and did some homework, and my day’s been spent. Damn. I’m getting up earlier tomorrow, for a silly meeting with the cas coordinator. Not that I’ have any documentation or anything…  I should probably just not blog for the rest of the week, though as I am convinced that would have a deteriorating effect on my sanity I won’t say I will.

And I’d give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be
And I don’t want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it’s over
I just don’t want to miss you tonight

And I don’t want the world to see me
Cause I don’t think that they’d understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

This song makes me sob if I don’t man myself up to listen to it first.

Just flipping through Canadian Living and came through something that made me feel bitter again about my situation: basically, it said that people who sit around their asses all day are less likely to live their lives to the fullest. No brainer there.

30 more days until break. 1 more week of hell, kind of. I don’t want to think about next week.  I don’t want to think about anything for a month actually. This feels like I’m being continually punched in the head and the ovaries. Not to mention how much it sucks to lack sleep all the time.

And all along, I know that the ending is going to be anti-climatic, I won’t recall the past 2 years, and it’ll be like I never lived those 2 years (pretty much true.)

I really would be much much much happier in a different place. I told you to move, and you never listened. I told you so many times. So here, I’ll admit it. I’m miserable. I’m so miserable it’s beyond control because I have no time to resolve it.

OCTV –  2,9
ADTV – 1,5
TBA – 1,1
ITV – 0,3
BDI – 0,1

Considering how I’ve spent these last three months, this weekend has been unusually sociable and not productive at all, so far.

Went out last night, both celebrating my friend getting an interview at Oxford and distracting ourselves from school for a couple of hours. Had a couple of drinks. And then a bit more, and the people there just seemed to get nicer and nicer. We met so many awesome people in just a couple of hours. (One frustrating thing though, was how my friend, the one we we’re celebrating is seriously lacking social skills, even compared to me, and she looked pretty miserable when people we didn’t already know starting joining in. One tends to interact when in this situation, she has yet to realise this.) I met one dude who had worked at Blizzard in France, but spoke even less French than me. I met one guy who was studying Chemistry, simply because his friend had told him that he was good at it. He had no ambitions whatsoever. And he thought I was hopeless, saying that I am going to study art and am actually planning on getting a job doing exactly that. I met another Trotter, who told me loads of juicy gossip about my maths teacher, the dude I’ve always considered senile. I met a guy who went to the same school as I for nine years, just in the year below. We’ve never spoken before. Probably won’t ever again. I met a person with  no ambitions, not plans on studying, no plans whatsoever. I was temped to ask why he was hanging out at the uni campus, but then again, there I was…   I met a girl who was planning on making robots and saving the world, and her friend who didn’t believe that this was going to happen. I met a guy I didn’t talk to all night, yet when he left he hugged me, just me.

It was a good night, it made me feel a lot less stressed.

Then, earlier tonight, I went and watched A Christmas Carol with my slightly socially retarded friend. Do me a favour, don’t watch it. We went, hoping that we’d emerge from the void radiating Christmas Spirit. Our plan failed. Honestly, I do think I would feel more Christmassy sitting down and reading Dickens, without the non-stop Christmas singing and laughing and God-Blessing. And that is strange. As the only emotion I tend to feel when reading Dickens is anger and frustration.

And I honestly would not have minded a bit if Jim Carrey and Christopher Reeves, for instance, swapped places. Honestly, when you manage to be utterly annoying -when taking part in an animation- then you’re skilled. Gawd, I cannot stand that man. Nor can I say that he’s a bad actor. He’s excellent, until he starts doing his twitchy cramp like gestures and annoying sound effects that makes me want to stake him through the heart.

~hours later~I just watched the first four episodes of The Big Bang Theory and I loved it. Bed time now though.

I honestly don’t know why I’m writing a blog post when I have three IB pieces of work to do. Me writing right now – it’s indirectly and also directly connected with my procrastination – of course.

I’m half-sick right now, so I decided that I’d do my EE editing in bed, where at least my legs are warm – it’s been hovering around 13 degrees here for the last few days, you see. With a warm laptop (the overheating hard drive is useful for once),  a thick blanket, and chocolate, I thought I’d get quite a bit done. I sort of did, and sort of didn’t, but that’s not really the point here.

Somehow my ‘workworkwork’ mantra morphed into ‘Ican’tdothis’, so I ended up watching Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong film The Departed is based on. Call me biased, but IA (digression – I can’t look at those letters without thinking of the acronym for ‘internal assessment’ [IB-speak for coursework] – IB truly corrupts everything) is indefinitely the superior movie. The remake can’t match up – maybe in other cases it can, but not here.

I’m not sure if I should recommend Infernal Affairs, though, because sometimes it’s hard to really appreciate a style of film that you’re not used to, and that could potentially ruin it all. And yes – sometimes Hong Kong films are really an acquired taste. But that applies to a lot of other things too. And I’m digressing again.

Watching the film made me really want to write again – and I don’t mean my Extended Essay, which is still unfinished. The deadline’s on Friday, by the way, so you see the dilemma. I know – I gave up NaNo for homework, and that’s the way it should stay. But when inspiration hits (and you can’t tell me you haven’t noticed this – regardless of whether it’s inspiration for writing or something else), you can’t get whatever you want to do off your mind. My mind is going, ‘I want to write I want to write I want to write I have to write’ and I’ve half a mind (pun intended, I guess) to give in.

That’s the real test, I suppose – writing when you have no inspiration, and refraining from writing when the urge hits. That’s life, isn’t it? Doing things you don’t want to do when you have to, and not doing what you want even when it’s the only thing you feel like doing.

I can’t give in now.

Maybe I’m just being emo, and all I ever wanted to do was put work off. The sun is setting- no, it has already set, and it’s time to finish off this essay for good.

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Some IB students having lunch in P6

One of the things I’ve always practiced as a teacher was to treat students as human beings.  I try to remember what it is like to be 15-18 years old and interested in things other than being in class.

As I get closer and closer to my final day in the classroom I find myself thinking back on the last few years and I truly hope I’ve been able to influence them and improve their lives, even if only slightly.  It is this influencing of young lives which has been most rewarding as a teacher.  I try and teach them to be responsible for their actions, to take an interest in their own education, and to become thinkers.  I do not expect them to think like I do, but to think for themselves and to come to logical and rational conclusions based on evidence.

As someone who wants to treat them like human beings, I do not do the “you only have three potty passes per grading period” thing.  If a student needs to go to the restroom I allow them to go.  The only time I clamp down is when I feel a student is taking advantage of this and takes too long to return.

The other thing is the Ipod cell phone thing.  Yes, I’m aware district policy states students are not supposed to have cell phones on their person.  However, I have one, so  why should I expect they don’t?  I just do not want them to use their Ipod or cell phone when we are working.  I allow them to use them in cases when we have finished up early or they have finished an exam.  I have found students are much more likely to not use them in these cases as opposed to the harsh “NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES ALLOWED” attitude some people have.  The reality is, if you treat students like human beings they will respect you and repay you by not misbehaving.

At the end of the day I guess you can say I try and treat my students as I would want to be treated if I were the student.  I can only hope I have had the same effect on their lives which they have had on mine.

I will change this blog’s appearance someday, when I get around to it. White isn’t a nice background colour for reading.

I am so tired. I fell asleep twice whilst doing my Norwegian prep earlier, which I never finished… I’ve never fallen asleep while doing prep before. So now I have to do maths and Norwegian and then go to bed early. And I agreed to go out tomorrow night, which was silly of me.

My brother made me happy food:

(This did result in a delicious pasta carbonara.)

It is all about prioritising. Either, I could be sitting at school writing rubbish, which I know is rubbish, about books that mean nothing to me except for the fact that my exam grade is based on them. Or I could be at home, eating my packed lunch from a plate, mug of something warm to drink next to me, and a long list of things I better get done this afternoon. We’ll see how that goes.

My friend, who’s English and lived in England her entire life just wrote:

deffonate

Please do me a favour and try to deduce what she was trying to say. It hurts my heart.

And as I’m already quoting. Well, I finally received that email from the artist I’m writing my EE on. He is totally epic. I asked him all these silly questions about his darkroom and printing methods. His reply:

I don’t do darkroom. I don’t like it.

This is one awesome guy, and I might have to declare my undying love for him by the end of this. Seriously, I cannot think of much controversial stuff this guy could’ve done that would have caught my (and the examiner’s) attention, but a photographer who dislikes darkrooms and who does not care about what camera he’s using as long as it’s working? Epic.

~Hours and hours later~

Right. So my day. We had a sucky sucky surprise Paper 2 in SOAS, which wasn’t actually a surprise since I’d written it down in my diary, I just managed to ignore it all of yesterday. So that was bad. Very bad. Then we had bio where the teacher, giggling the whole time, displayed a diagram of a penis on the board and told us that we had fifteen minutes to sketch it down while she was in the other room enjoying her coffee.  She was acting more immature than anyone in my class. It was embarrassing to watch her. And then we had to go through the entire menstrual cycle in detail. It made my tummy hurt to think about it all at once. (That was why I refused to dissect last week -Looking at that lung lying on the table, or being inflated, makes my lungs hurt.) So now I can identify numerous hormones running through my body, and more. Yayness.

I’ve considered becoming a vegetarian. Well, pescetarian, at least. It is not because I feel bad for the animals, or the environment (well, I do, but not enough to change my diet for it.) or cannot afford meat. It is simply that I do not enjoy eating meat. I don’t like the taste of it, nor the texture.  I used to love chicken, turkey, duck and pork. Not anymore. Even duck, which was my favourite dish isn’t as tempting. Is it rude to order vegetarian Peking Duck at a restaurant, I wonder? xP After all, it is the Hoisin that I enjoy so much, not the duck.  Well, that was random. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. Just never got around to blogging it. The main reason why I’ve been thinking about it is the Christmas meals. We have roasted pork. Every year. I used to love it, but not so any more. Also, we had elk stew the other day, and I was about to refuse to eat it, as it was making me feel physically sick. I did eat it, but honestly, I’m slightly scarred.

My conclusion, so far, is that I might give vegetarianism a go when I move out. That should be after this summer most hopefully. Then I won’t have to pester my dear mother about my strange eating habits, which would be mean. And until then, I’ll do as I’ve been doing of late. Either force it down or just ignore the meat and eat the veggies.

I did have more to say, as always, but I need to get ready for bed. I’ll come back to this in a bit.

Yay, I’m good, I’m filling out cas forms. They’re tedious asking question including the words: accomplish, successful, difficulties encountered, abilities, attitudes and values developed, benefit, improve and apply to other life situations.