Lord Tas - teach, learn and be smart!

Why I feel this enviousness of my fellow neighbour? Both me and my partner are feeling the pressures of coping with kids (note the plural term). My kids can turn the taps of tears on and off like a valve and they are quite good at that. Walk into Toys R'us and you are done for. You will need to part with some vitamin $$$ before you leave the store. Or else, there will be the endless tales of tears to contend with.

Sigh, but at the end of the day, like now when I am writing this, I feel the sense of happiness and relieve that I have pulled through one more day. Kids are fantastic, but you need the energy. Exercise to keep fit, I keep telling myself, but that is another story.

Wow! What a week. I think the one news that really made it BIG (no pun intended) was the one of an 11 year old American boy killing a whopping 476kg Hog (aka Pig). Just think about the amount of free ham (size of car tyres) and sausages that he would be having for the rest of his life! The news report said that he could get over 300+kg of sausages. Yuk! I would be ozzing ham out of my ears. Well, you can read the original report by following this link... Happy reading and have a nice weekend.

I was never one to shy from controvesy. Well readers, school term started 3 weeks ago and since the whole circus started my "fuse" was shorter than ever. Unlike previous semesters, this semester, I was loaded with 2 subjects and my teaching hours up went considerably, plus the other side effects of having to set papers, manage my R&D unit as well as other admin stuff which is sapping all the energy away. And I had to have the dubious honour of taking a rather rowdy pack of students in their Junior year (2nd year). I started with 100 students in my class and after a few rounds of insults, the crowd thinned out and today, I could count a measly 30 or so in lecture. To me, I was happy. I would rather students come to class with an intent to study and not talk or play PSP2. My insults? Well...you got to try saying it with a straight face. My boss says that I got a sharp tongue, and I think it could have given a katana a run for its value!

To a misbehaving student who had coloured his hair blonde I said;

Me:"Hey! Golden Tamarin. if you want to monkey around, please leave. I can hear the 'keeper calling you for your bananas."

Student:"If I monkey, you zookeeper lah!"

Me:"At least I am human, but you?, a monkey. Now please leave if you don't feel like studying, after all, you do that thing so well (micmiking a monkey scratching)"

To a pair of boys sitting at the backrow talking;

Me:"Hey! You may take leave and go walk in the parks next to school and hold hands till the end of the day. But in class, you should participate in the lesson, not in yourselves".

(draws laughter from the class at them)

Do you feel irritated? Normally, the minority are so inconsiderate and make so much noise that the majority cannot enjoy the priviledge of being in class and interacting in the lessons. One other thing I dislike is lateness. But I will leave that for another post.

Since my last post about the subtle link between Obesity and Obnoxious behaviour, I have been reflecting on the possible link and the post drew 2 comments. Ah yes, you would have noticed that both words start with "O", quite ironic since the letter "O" does look rotound, doesn't it?

In one of the comments, a reader suggested that it had to do with defending the person's own rights and not wanting to be "looked down upon". Which, in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting prompted me to think, that maybe this behaviour is an end result of earlier trauma suffered by that person.

Let me explain this. Virginia Tech shooter, Cho, said that everyone was responsible for the massacre. Did he already give insights into his thoughts? Was he taunted and spat at by the White boys in school? Was he picked on since he was Asian? Did he experience a traumatic experience that would have changed him forever? I would think that there may be a link between bullying in junior and senior school and behaviour in later life. Experts have long agreed that a traumatic experience in our youth, be it a family break-up or horrific accident, a child can be scarred for life.

Coming back to the link between Obesity and Obnoxious behaviour. Thus, I would think that it might be linked to some bad experience in their youths that cause fat people to behave in a obnoxious manner, to show that "you shouldn't mess around with me, cause I am bigger than you, and will beat you into a pulp" front. But deep down inside, I believe that they can be nice persons as they are just insecure, like the many of us, except we don't really show it.

Celebrating being "over-weight", the picture in this post is Bibendum, commonly referred to as "The Michelin Man". But how many of us really bothered to know he has a name?

Thanks for the comments and feedback.