Chemical Warfare

Alright this is gonna be a lot:

My Definition

An Open Letter to the Editors of The Oxford English Dictionary.
To Whom It May Concern:

I would like to suggest the addition of a new definition to a word that is in abundant use. The word that I am refering to is:
Idiot
n.
1. A foolish or stupid person.
2. A person of profound mental retardation having a mental age below three years and generally being unable to learn connected speech or guard against common dangers. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive

I believe that in today's society this word has taken on a new meaning:

3. Anyone in front of the subject.

For example:
While driving cars many people will hit their steering wheel and exclaim, "What does this idiot think he's doing? Driving Miss Daisy?"

While at the airport check-in counter: "What is taking this idiot so long? How hard is it to answer five questions about baggage and pick up a ticket?"

In line at McDonald's: "Oh My God! Has this idiot never been to McDonald's before? Why are they taking ten minutes to order McNuggets?"

While talking to someone behind a counter: "What doesn't this idiot understand? I booked the reservation over the phone and this is my confirmation number? What's taking this idiot so long to find my room?"

There are many other everyday examples where this term is used in this fashion. Personally I use it in this manner at least 3-4 times a day.

This definition can be placed under many different entries:
Moron
Jackass
Retard
Little Pissant
Bastard
Shithead
etc.

Cleaning & Killing

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was going to be cleaning up parts of my apartment. It started with organizing my landlord's stuff. She stores things in my apartment and keeps the rent low. I'm not gonna complain about this too loudly.

I shuffled around some of the stuff in the storage room and moved on to my front entryway. The way my apartment is set up is I have my main door wich opens into a closed-in balcony and to enter my apt. there is a sliding door. Since I moved in here three years ago we have left some of my landlord's things there and never really paid attention to them. But, it was time to get the area cleaned out and organized. It was all going smoothly and everything had been moved and stored. There's a place for everything and everything was in its place. Except for one thing. A cockroach. I found it wandering around and grabbed the raid. you may or may not know this but I am terrified of cockroaches. Scared shitless actually. I grabbed my fresh scent Raid and sprayed the little bugger.

Now, I hate raoches more than Bush Jr. hates truth, but what I saw next made me feel a tad remorseful. After spraying the pest, it jiggled around on the ground, flipped over and moved its legs in pain. That's when I heard the sound. A low, hardly noticeable sizzle. It was coming from the roach. Then, upon further inspection, I saw tiny bubbles coming out of the roaches "abdomen." Like I said, I hate roaches, but Christ! It was sick. Absolutely sick.

workworkworkworkwork . . . bah

The new semester has started at Yu Da (pronounced like a drunk man pointing to his best friend and yelling "You Da man"), and it has not been without its ups and downs. And it has been a heck of a lot more downs than ups. I've taught there 3 days a week since September 3rd. There has only been one day where something hasn't gone wrong, or there hasn't been an "issue" of some sort.

Let me list the various issues and complaints:
1. No textbooks were ordered for half my classes.
2. For the classes with texts, no audio CDs or teacher's guides were ordered.
3. None of the students were assigned proper student numbers, so they couldn't be split up properly.
4. My first year students have the lowest level of English that I have seen at the high school level in three years.
5. My second year students are all the bad kids I had last semester. All of the good students were split into the other class.
6. Every time I punish a class or student, I get in trouble from 3-4 different people. They tell me that I cannot discipline my students in the manner that I do. To give you an idea of my "unacceptable" punishments I will tell you two stories.
(A)
I had to send a student to the other teacher's classroom to deliver a message. I asked my class leader to do it and she stood up to leave. The girl sitting beside her stood up to go with her. I said that she couldn't go. She kept walking towards the door. I said "No, no. no. no You can't go." She looked at me and walked out. So, when she returned to my class I asked her to stay outside. I wanted to explain to her that when I say No, it means no. I wasn't going to yell or get too mad, just, explain. As she was standing outside, 2 teachers walked by. After the class 3 people told me that I cannot have a student stand in the hallway.
(B)
I was reviewing conversation questions with a class and to make a long story short, my students kept talking when I was asking them to be quiet. I told them that if they couldn't keep quiet while I, or anyone else, was talking, then I wouldn't teach them. Immediately after that I tried to explain an activity and these two boys (whom I had previously told to be quiet 3 times) started talking and laughing. So, I made everyone sit quietly and wait for the bell. Later that afternoon 4 different people told me that if I have class problems I should just tell their homeroom teacher.

These two incidents make me wonder: If I don't punish my students and just run and tell their homeroom teacher, will I have any respect or authority in the class?

David's on the other hand has been ok. I have a huge break from teahcing there though. My classes ended their term and I don't teach a real class until October 4th. It will be a nice mental break, but financially it is not welcome.

Personal Info
Not to end on a downer, but I have some unfortunate news. On September 7th Louise's father passed away. He will be missed and the family is doing ok. My last memeory of him is a good one, and I am thankful for that. About one week before he came to Louise's mom's restaurant while we were there and put his hand on my shoulder and spoke to me. I didn't understand what he'd said, but Louise later told me he asked me to take care of her and look after her. I will do my best to do as he says at all times.