Category Archives: Jon

Enough Is Enough

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I used the authority vested in me to take affirmative action today. I have had some behaviour problems with Class 2 (actually, with the 6 year-olds, Class 1 and Class 3 as well, but this was the first call to action), and little I do seems to help. As a last resort I can shout at them, and it helps for a while, though I need an approach that does not lead me to anger/sadness/despair. So, for the first time in my 5 years as a teacher, I rang a few parents after the lesson concerned, with the individual children present to explain to their parents how they had behaved.

I have avoided this course of action for so long, mostly because I really don’t like to speak in Swedish on the phone (although 99% of the recipients don’t have Swedish as a first language), or maybe it’s the potential of a confrontation I’ve been trying to shirk.

Anyway, today I spoke to three people, explaining the situation, and I seem to have got a good response from them. I sincerely hope this will resolve the situation, or at least be the beginning of it, because I do not intend to take too much more of the disrespect I experience on a daily basis.

This morning I was sitting waiting for my train to come when I experienced the “stone in the stomach” feeling I often have at this particular time. I cannot ever recall any job I’ve had where I have felt so worried about the day to come, and, whilst I have felt it many times this past half a decade, today was the day where I finally said stop. From now on there is to be a new “Jon the Teacher” that simply does not accept the shit I have had to endure. I do not desire to become a martinet, just someone who deserves the respect that is due for such a position, and a human-being.

The Family That Plays Together…

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As I write this, Sweden are bathing in the afterglow of winning the World International Cup, having crushed the Argentinians with a 4-0 victory every Swede should be proud of. And yet I am the only person who knows or cares.

I bought Pro Evolution Soccer 5 at the beginning of this week. It had been on my priority-purchase list for a while, and I managed to find a second-hand copy for 200 crowns (£14.50). Since I’m currently on a week’s holiday, this has meant some quality time in front of the TV.

One of its interesting qualities is a multiplayer co-op mode. This, along with the well-implemented graphics and solid AI, was the main reason for its newfound home. I thought it would be something Jo and I could indulge in, on the cold, dark nights when House, Lost, CSI or Idol aren’t on (meaning, essentially, the weekends), but I was wrong: Jo doesn’t really like football games.

We haven’t been playing together too much recently. LEGO Star Wars was a nice waste of time (though far too short and with a silly fixed camera angle that made for unnecessary guesswork), and before that the distant memory of X-Men 2 still lingers as one of the better co-ops we’ve completed. It is not for wont of trying , though: there just doesn’t seem to be more than a handful of suitable co-ops around, even if one includes the poor-average rated games for consoles.

This is actually an interesting development in my choice of videogames. Before I was was quite happy to ignore the vast majority in favour of those that had been deemed to be brilliant by the cognoscenti. Of all genres, I only “dislike” FPS‘s, so there was still a lot of scope for finding enough games to keep me amused. Nowadays, though, most of my console playing has to be co-op. And the strange thing is, I find a mediocre co-op game to be more enjoyable than a good single-player.

I cannot even imagine a change to this current situation. Whilst portable gaming devices (DS and PSP) offer their form of connectivity, and next-gen consoles are “broadband-ready”, there is no chance that “one console, one TV, two-players” games can ever be better than good. The very medium they work on (one TV screen) limits players freedom: freedom to move and freedom to change angles.

What our gaming experience will be like in 5 or 10 years relies on developers having a major breakthrough in thinking, or simply that we change our method of playing. I’d put money on the latter.

NB: Sweden won on Easy setting.

Friend Stay Un-Reunited

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I almost lapsed into a moment of insanity today when I surfed to Friends United and thought, “It would be fun to find out what some of my old school chums are up to nowadays.”

I found myself on this site partially because Jo is doing something similar with a Swedish version, and partially because I met another Englishman at my school recently, who mentioned he’d joined and, to his surprise, he’d found a couple of his buddies living in Sweden.

What led me to actually consider this course of action I do not know. I’m currently on holiday, which has perhaps given me a false feeling of free-time, enough to waste on thoughts of my childhood; perhaps I’m ultimately lonely, and this is my subconscious screaming out for social contact; perhaps I just like surfing in the quest for knowledge.

I’d probably have gone through with the idea if I’d not needed to register. And for that I am thankful. You see, I really do not care what the people with which I fortuitously spent a few years of my schooling are currently doing. With the exception of two people, I’m in contact with all the other people that I consider to be my friends from that time, and even those people do not get the time they deserve.

I, unlike Jo, really do not require a social life of any magnitude, and find most social activity a waste of time compared to that which I could spend with my family, blogging or playing video-games. So it is with great satisfaction that I crossed down the window that could have been a window to my past in the present.

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We Met Lassie

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In town today we happened upon a CD-singing by 80’s pop-icon, Kim Wilde. Jo was more a fan of her than I, but my curiosity convinced Jo to go and take a look.

Behind the real-life Kim were several glossy posters of her, advertising the newly released CD she was signing. She must have been doing far too many of these signings because the poster-Kim looked to be in a much better physical condition than the real-life one.

Sitting-Kim has put on more than a few kilos, and looked botoxed to boot. She looked reasonably bored, though this may have been the chins and neck-fat talking, but the money queue snaking through the shop for her signature must have alleviated the boredom.

Jo took an obligatory picture of her. The quality is so-so, which, surprisingly, neither detracted nor added to my opinion of her appearance. Still, that’s another celeb crossed off our list.

Showing Freya Yoda

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It’s about time I joined the throngs who, because of lack of content, include a YouTube video on their site. This not only makes me look like I actually have something to offer to the outside world, but gives the impression that I’m hip and know what is hot on the “Internet”.

Anyway, Jo has started work on creating Freya’s Yoda costume for next week’s Halloween party, which takes place at Freya’s nursery school. Freya has been reluctant to try on Jo’s work of art, so we’ve been showing her what/who Yoda is. The best place to do this is YouTube, and I found this little gem that is an Easter Egg on the Revenge Of the Sith DVD.

This is one of the first entries I’ve written that will no doubt be obselete in a few years when:

a) the above video gets deleted because of copyright infringement.

b) YouTube gets closed down due to copyright infringement.

c) Google (who recently acquired YouTube) get bought out by Microsoft, who then make it impossible to embed any video in any non-Microsoft software.

d) Technology advances enough to make the quality of this video look even more laughable than it already is.