The Acoustic Session

Listening to: Radio 1

So the conjunctivitis is back with a vengeance and I'm at home again. I've been told to rest my eyes so that rules out most of the stuff I could do at home - catch up on emails, process my photos, prepare for tutorial sessions and so on. Can't even go for a walk 'cos it's snowing again and the pavements are slippery as hell.

So yeah, this is pretty much all I can do. Not a patch on Gehan's videos, but oh well...make do with what you have, eh? I've been wanting to do this for a while and I've got a few options lined up, so we'll see if this becomes a regular feature or not. OK me go get some shut-eye now. Enjoy!

Unity in Diversity

Listening to: 'Suddenly I See' by KT Tunstall [Eye to the Telescope]

Some would say that there's no point in looking back, and that apportioning blame is counter-intuitive to progress. Others would say that retrospect is essential in order to understand the bigger picture. What do I think? I think that retrospect is needed, but not as a means to apportion blame. It should be with a view to learn from our mistakes and avoid them from recurring. If there's anything I'm sure of, it's that history cannot be allowed to repeat itself.

It's been 61 years since the Brits gave up in the Indian Ocean. I remember reading about our quest for independence during O/L History. It didn't strike me at the time, but it is now more than apparent that we were not a 'united', or rather, 'unitary' Ceylon, even then. We learnt about the founding fathers of our nation - Senanayake, Dharmapala, Gunawardena, Arunachalam, Ramanathan, Siddi Lebbe (and others, whose names I forget) - who all campaigned for their own kind. Did we ever try to fight our common enemy together? Not in the books I read. We were too busy ensuring the progress of our own ethnic groups to be concerned that we were falling into the very trap that the Brits themselves had set - 'divide and rule'.

There are more recent examples of this phenomenon in action. It is rumoured that the Prabha-Karuna split was due to differences between Northern and Eastern communities within the LTTE. It could also be said that the reason the LTTE still exists is that the mainstream political parties have been too busy slinging mud at each other to address the situation properly.

So as we commence our 62nd year of self-governance, I have one main wish. That when our soldiers finish doing what they set out to do, we stop thinking as Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Burghers and so on, and start thinking as Sri Lankans. This should not mean a watering-down of our cultural identities or a suppression of our history. We should be proud of our cultural heritage, but not use it as a weapon against our fellow countrymen. The cynics would say that 'unity in diversity' is an unattainable Utopian concept, but the cynics have been wrong before.

Bad day at work (you have been warned)

Listening to: 'False Alarm' by KT Tunstall [Eye to the Telescope]

I hate undergrads. Honestly. They are the most selfish, ungrateful, careless, irresponsible, immature subset of the human species. The only thing that separates them from chavs is that they have some grey matter between their ears...although they do a damn good job of proving otherwise. Let me explain, by telling you about my day.

Those of you who follow Scrumpy's blog will know that it's snowing today. Highest snowfall in the region for 18 years, apparently. Now don't get me wrong, I love snow. It's so white and pretty, it makes me very happy. Until I have to trudge along to work in it, that is. For those of you not familiar with snow, here's a not-so-profound fact - it turns to sludge very soon. Horrible, slippery sludge. I didn't fall today, but I did come close about thrice - twice with my camera in hand (hey, I said snow was pretty, didn't I?) and once (on the way back home) with a heavy bag of grocery shopping. But back to my day...

As part of my plan to fatten my CV up for a career in higher education (and because I needed the money for my camera), I'm doing some undergrad teaching. This involves hanging around the PC suite for two hours at a time, helping the kiddies learn how to use two technical software programmes. There were two sessions today. Both were bad in their own way. During the morning session, there was a nincompoop who kept asking the most idiotic questions on the planet.

Erm how do I do the first bit?
What do I do next?
How do I do that?

WTF...I'm here to help you when you get stuck, not to spoon feed you! You're supposed to pay attention during the lectures, fool. And maybe read the question for a change? Ugh.

So after the first session, I met up with a friend of mine and went to play about in the snow until lunch. I took so many pictures (my camera says I took 93 today)! Cambridge is so pretty. Lunch was good too, with an amazing mushroom soup and chicken kiev. Yum.

And then I left the snow and went back to the department for the 2-4 session, expecting to see 14 undergrads trying to finish up their work quickly and get back to the snow. But how many did I see? 3. Yes, a measly three. The others didn't even bother to show up. Too busy playing in the snow to remember their degrees, obviously. Now you may wonder why I'm complaining, but hear me out. They've been given four sessions for 4 questions. Now what happens when they miss one session? They suddenly have too much to do and not enough time. And then who has to help them finish the work (because this country doesn't seem to like the idea of failing people)? The demonstrators, i.e. my colleagues and I. Ugh. And to make matters worse, one of the three who did bother to show up insisted on listening to his iPod on full volume and partaking in some bid on Ebay while doing his work, and another one insisted on answering her phone every time it rang (which was quite often), even when we were teaching her! Where's the dedication, people? Double ugh.

But it gets worse. After my painful demonstration session, I went back to my office to mark some tutorial papers for tomorrow's tutorial. How many careless mistakes can one person make in one paper?!?!?!?!?! Every single bloody question ended with a "I don't know where I've gone wrong!" instead of an answer. Well why don't you look at your work for a change, you muppet?! AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was a bad undergrad, but surely I wasn't this bad?!

Oh and yes you read right...my career of choice is university education. I actually want to teach these buffoons for a living. What's wrong with me?!?!

Sigh. Rant over. I've had my echinacea and raspberry tea, and eaten an entire packet of Cadburys mini eggs, and am feeling a bit calmer now (and maybe slightly nauseas? Hmm). I shall have a hot bath, have dinner and get into bed. Tomorrow will be better. Won't it?