361 The Much delayed return to blogging

However, be warned, I'm not entirely sure how long this will last.

It has been bought to my attention that I haven't posted pics of my vacation yet. Well, to be honest, I only downloaded them onto my computer 3 days ago, and I have been home for about a month. This is the Kat timetable we keep to here, and to say that it might be a little....lax...would be something of an understatement.

But that's all part of the charm, right? Right?!

It had better be. I know where you all live, remember that.

Anyway, without further ado, I give you....

Pics From Thailand 2008

Yep, yep, guess who this is? For those who haven't had the 'fun' of meeting her, this is Esther. This is in the Hotel restaurant downstairs, on our first day. The unlucky bread she's threatening...well let us just say he didn't last long, and damn did he taste good.
Every meal we were given a bread basket to begin, and we asked to pick our choice of bread. It was kind of nifty.

This was my lunch. Num num, smoked salmon, tuna and roasted pepper on pita. With capers. I luvs my capers....

Our hotel from the sea facing side. The day was, alas, cloudy and overcast. But we didn't really care, reveling in the fact we were on vacation, with no work, for a week or more, and were going to lay on beach for hours and do nothing.

Ah, glorious NOTHING....

And yes, within a few hours, Kat was bored. Well, I should also mention that I had managed to finish reading my book by this stage, and had neglected to bring more than that one. Silly me. However, I had bought my camera, of which I had just worked out how to do black and white photographs on, so I spent a happy few hours playing with that.

Many people have noticed, I tend not to be in these photos, nor that they have people in them. To be honest, I don't like being in them, and would much rather take pictures of things that interest me. So while I will have a few pics of Es running around doing crazy things, most of my pics are of random scenery that caught my eye. (There would be pics of hot guys, however our hotel was sadly lacking in that department. And yes, we we much distraught over that fact too.)

Above is such an example, I was experimenting with the tree, the water and my camera putting things into black and white. While other people see said tree and water, I see this and remember the heat, the humidity, the wind, the coulds and the ants that crawled everywhere on the deckchairs. My photos are as much about triggering my memory of things as they are for showing people what happened.

Blogbox 360

Yeah, couldn't help that. If nothing else, I managed to amuse myself with that, so my sitting down and writing hasn't been a total loss.

Bored at work again, with homework marked already and another hour and a half before my class. And the added insult of the music I want to listen to NOT being on my iPod. I really must get around to putting the rest of my music onto my computer. Then finally get an external drive that might last more than a month. That will be novel.

Managed to survive my birthday again this year, by the simple trick of 'not telling anyone'. As it was, those in the know (3 people) didn't make tooo much of a fuss, so it wasn't all bad. It's just that having a birthday on Sunday, after working all Saturday and Sunday, and then having people bouncy and chirpily saying "All right! Let's go out to celebrate your birthday!" was something akin to..horrific. Especially after having the kids I did that weekend.

But survive I did, and thus moved on we have....just in time to start forgetting how old I am again! Bonus.

Plans are in the works to organise Summer Vacation, and where the trip will be this year...and it's looking like a beach in Thailand again. This time Esther will be there too, so in theory I won't get as bored as I did last time. We shall see, I guess.

And I am loosing the Ant War. I believe it may be time to put more money into my weapons budget this quarter, and upgrade my arsenal. I may have lost the computer desk territory this week, but I have by no means lost the war yet. I will not go down without a fight!

359 The Saga of Fanbox

Yet another example of how my bad memory comes back to bite me in the ass.

Every so often of of my friends signs up for some social networking site, and sends me an invite. 4 years ago was no exception, as an invite to something called "Fanbox" came through from someone (it has now been identified as Sarah), and I signed up. Hell, I even posted a picture on the thing.

Then I forgot it existed, not hard since only three friends were on the darned thing.

Then, while playing WoW last month, a friend asked me what I was doing in my profile picture. What? I asked, baffled? The profile pic on Fanbox he said, and I came to a halt.

I was absolutely SURE I had never heard of Fanbox before, in fact I haven't signed up for anything of the networking kind since Facebook, and even that is on it's way out of my life.

Anyway, curiousity reared it's ugly head, and I went to look.

Low and behold, it was my site. There was some awful picture of me (it had been the best at the time, I now remember THAT, but it was still awful. Some of us just aren't meant to be in front of a camera...), and I was mortified.

I spent the next day at work before classes trying to remember what email I had used for it, and then the password. Me. Remembering something from 4 years ago. When I have enough problems remembering passwords and crap that I regularly USE....

Took me 5 hours, but I got in. It said, strangely enough, that there was no pic. Whaa..? Brushing it off, I shut it down and went home.

Only to find, checking the site again, that it was ANOTHER account I had started (I aparently started 2. Go figure. 1 was not enough for some reason?), and that it had a different email.

I almost screamed in frustration. After all the damned effort it had taken to close down the first account, then there was another one? And it wasn't just me. While working to get into the site, and talking to Kaz, we worked out SHE was still in the system too. She remembered her password and email within 5 mins though, curse people with good memory. A pox on you all!

Another hour of effort, and I managed to close that account down too. But Goddaaaaamn....

Moral of the story is that my memory stinks, I should NOT be allowed to put photos of myself on the net, and that people should NOT SEND ME SOCIAL NETWORK SITE INVITATIONS.

Oh, and Sarah? Dude, you're still signed up on the site. Might want to do something about it...

358 Tuesday.

Yes, another Tuesday rolls around, another day of boredom at work.

And also, this time, a day of .... medicine highs.

I saw this Tuesday in from the beginning, seeing the clock at 12am until 7am when I finally got to sleep. And the reason for this lack of sleep?

No, it wasn't gaming (that only lasted until 3am, so I'm safe there), but because Monday was "a nice day".

Because of the "nice day" I cleaned my room, changed my sheets, did washing, and (this is the cruncher here) opened my windows to air out my room.

Oh, I should have known better, silly, silly me.

By 8pm, I was coughing already - asthma had kicked in for the approaching summer. By the time I finished gaming, I was already having trouble breathing, and I was sitting up straight. Sleeping? Lying down??

Well, let us just say I got to sleep at 7 cos I finally re-arranged my pillows to try and sleep sitting upright. Must have worked, or I was so damned exhausted, cos fall asleep I finally did.

As such, looking and feeling like the walking dead (hence the term ZOMBIE on my msn for a while) I finally bit the bullet and headed to the doctors, something I have been putting off for months. I have known this was building up, that I would have to get another inhaler for summer, but...well..I just didn't expect it to be this soon.

Going to the doctor was an exciting mission all in itself, as per usual on the island in the middle of nowhere that is Kinmen.

My former doctor had closed down a few months back, hence part of my reluctance to go to the doctors. That and this doctors-are-for-wimps! mentality I got from an over-priced medical system in NZ.

Anyway, we (Me and my wheels/flatmate/personal chauffer that is Esther) made it to a doctors clinic, only to find .... they didn't have inhalers. So they directed us to another clinic...but they directed Esther, who doesn't do so flash with directions, real-life and virtual. Que in a phone call back to our school receptionist (Eva, who snubbed us last Sunday at the staff dinner, so we must remember to snub her back), and discovered a new clinic.

This new clinic, while looking nice (wood theme, very..calming), needs to learn a little thing called "customer service", as we were basically ignored until we put ourselves right in the faces of the receptionists. Into the doctors room, to find ... the doctor was somewhat ... intimidated of me, since I was so very obviously not from Taiwan.

Anyway, after "negotiating" with him about the fact I didn't have national health insurance, and no, I didn't care that the price was "high" (still cheap compared to NZ), I ended up with a spiffy new inhaler, medicine for the next three days while I wait for the inhaler to work, and 5 minutes sitting in front of a humidifier, which only seemed to make me cough more. Go figure.

I have to go back in three days to have a check up to see that things are going OK. Three days, cos this time my inhaler is a preventative one, and it contains steroids. No better time than the present to see if I have an allergic reaction to steroids as well as penicillin, right??

As such, I am now on a medicine high, and things are a little .... buzzy. I think I have a headache, but it hasn't quite registered enough for me to take painkillers. I'm ... in the stage of not really caring.

Welcome to my next three days. Makes for ... interesting times, no?

357 Depression and caramel popcorn

This fine afternoons title comes from the roaring snit I was in yesterday after none, and I mean NONE, of my students did their homework. They had an entire week, and they never even attempted what they were asked to finish.

Part of the problem is that this class has become somewhat ... infamous for doing this. The other teacher just laughs it off.

I fume in the darkness, but no more!

They were told, at great volume and in perfect hearing distance of a pile of adults shamelessly listening in, that they were right bloody awful, they were wasting their parents money, and if they fail the listening test next week, I was making them re-do level 10 again, since I was going to refuse to teach them anymore.

Yes, that listening test was part of why I was so angry. They have known, for close to three weeks, that we have had tests coming up ... and none of them studied.

They all failed the test, and I only marked the first of 4 pages.

Furiousangrymadfuriousangrymadfuriousangrymadmadmadmadmadmadmadmaaaaaaad

In other news, I now have caramel popcorn. I have since discovered that this is a wonderful way of making me cheer up.

I also found out, to my amazement, that getting furiously angry to the point of inarticulate rage kills colds. My cold is kind of fading now, must be ... scared of me? Go figure.

The top things I'd do if I was an Evil Overlord:
#4 Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

356 Procrastination of the best kind

Yup yup, this is Procrastination Weekly returning for yet another update.

(I am privately enormously pleased and proud of myself that I remembered how to spell that)

The putting off in question this fine afternoon of work - well, work, basically. I probably do have things I should get ready for my classes today. IN fact, I'm SURE I have things that need to be done, but having just partaken in my new addiction (Wow, I can spell that too, getting good!) of bubble milk tea with pudding (Mmmmmm, pudding....), I must confess I am feeling somewhat ... lax ... in organising things today.

Also the classes are evil today, and looking at what needs to be done is just going to depress me sooner than I need to be, so putting it off is a good thing anyway. If only for my mental health (or what is left of it, anyway, after more than 3 years of teaching)

In private life, I have ... posted things. Yes, for most people this is a minor event, but when one tends to forget things as often as I do, coupled with the all-famous Procrastination, simple things like posting parcels becomes a major event.

People can expect parcels in a week. There are more that need to be done, but I kind of .. forgot to bring them to work. Meh, it's Wednesday today anyway, so I wouldn't have ever gotten a chance to post them anyway, so no big loss.

....I think that's all for today/this week/this month (leaving options open in case I don't post for a while, hahaha)

355 Yes, I still exist

But, having been trying to type essays written by my supposedly top-level students, I'm not sure how long that will be, as I am feeling more and more compelled to just keel over and DIE as I try and transcribe what they wrote.

Try being the operative word there, they TRIED. Not very much either, by the looks of things, and I'm only on the second of 10. You would think that after 5-6 years of English classes they would have grasped basics of English grammar. That they would know how to use a dictionary. That they would be able to, Heaven forbid, ASK FOR HELP.

I can now happily put all your misconceptions to rest. It's official. THEY CAN'T.

Now picture me and Esther trying to explain to the parents that their kids all suck and should really do their homework more than 5 mins before class is due to start.

So yeah, in case you haven't realised yet, I am thus sitting at work right now, and am trying courageously to distract myself from the horror of my children's writing. Hence the blog update after so very, very long. WoW is my Master, and demands all my spare time, but that may (MAY, nothing set in stone here I want to add) change once I hit the highest level, 70, in about three to four days. Then a couple days wandering around, debating trying another character, before deciding I'm bored and heading away from the computer to try another activity.

Like poster making, since I need to design one for Esther now, since last Tuesday and WoW Maintinence Day had me produce a very spiffy poster for my door. How I am going to work out Heaven and Hell as she asked, no idea, but until then I am basking happily in the glow that I pulled off fire and ice for my door successfully.

Wish me luck, I'm about to dive back into the sinking pit of oblivion called idiots-who-forget-basic-grammar again.