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JEFF GOLDBLUM IS WATCHING YOU POOP!
This is one of those occaisional sites what makes you go “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?????”
Please don’t expect to understand it.
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So here we go with what was going to be my daily blog before all this militant slaughter nonsense blew up.
Today was a mammoth teaching mission. It started off with my summer kiddies classes where we drew random monsters, using this funky game I got from Daves ESL Cafe. It’s kind of like consequences but with pictures. They draw a body part at my command eg ‘draw 3 eyes’ and then pass the sheet drawing another part. Carry on until all the students have bizarre creations that they then get to name after the friend who originally put his/her name on the sheet. Absolute hysterics abound as you introduce each moster to the class. Then we play body part snap which all the boys cheated at. A great photocopy and scissor job in one of my favourite ill-gotten teachers books.
For the first time since I started this course we managed a full 90 minutes without whinging for a break. Following the obligatory 30 minutes playing Metal Slug 3 (I hate this game), we got into the arts hour. We had made papier mache masks over the last week or so and so today, we painted the masks with acrylic paint, cut holes for the eyes attatched elastic and generally looked scarey for the obligatory photo session.
Rather the kids did. I was waay more concerned with not messing up my clothes for round 2…the afternoon session at Rajhabat Institute teaching my wife’s class of middle aged highschool teachers on in-service training….eeek!
I got there and was given the typical cheapo mass meal of spicey chicken with basil (and a congealed fried egg…yum). I get to my class, to find that half of the other trainees have deserted their regular class to join mine…result…not enough handouts…doh! I’ve got to say that the 3 hours went REALLY well from my perspective, though I’m sure any negative feedback will arrive tomorrow. The really scarey bit for me was the realisation 2 hours later that I had been unwittingly inspected by the Ministry of Education, but I think it should be ok, even though this woman had a face like a bag full of spanners. We covered a lot of stuff rangingfrom use of modal verbs to make assumptions, comparisons between manners in England and Thailand, and finally gestures and their possible use in the classroom. They turned out to be a nice old bunch and if nothing else flattered mefrom start to finish.
All in all, a tiring but good days teaching.
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Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Pile of Bodies Signals End of Thailand’s Bloody Day
Another article that has just appeared from the Scotsman, which focusses on the incident at the cursed Kreu-Se mosque in Pattani.
The Kreu-Se mosque – which local legend says is cursed – became a virtual slaughterhouse today after 32 separatist militants holed up inside were killed during an eight hour stand-off with police, dying in a hail of tear gas, gunfire, and rocket-propelled grenades.
Meanwhile the London Times wonders whether this is just a continuation of Thaksin’s shoot-to-kill policy that he employed in the recent
“war on drugs”
It’s plausable, that Thaksin wanted to make an example of the same people that earlier this year raided a military base and stole guns, whilst burning down 20 schools as a decoy. Did Thai authorities set this up knowing that they would outgun, and put down once and for all this earlier victory for the rebels?
Another theory I’ve heard is that this was not the work of militant group Jemaah Islamiyah at all, but another local muslim security force disbanded recently. This unit enjoyed many perks of the job, which were consequently denied to them after disbanding.
Other reports on Thai news point to the possibility of Agent Provocateurs within the Thai army who set the whole thing up, promising a repeat of the January gun raid, but designed to lead them straight into a police trap.
I must say that I’ve gone of the Jemaah Islamiyah theory somewhat since the BBC have taken it as gospel. Thaksin’s stance is deeply suspicious, and although I have no patience for these young hooligans, does the ratio of muslim youths killed to policemen killed, not suggest nothing less than a shoot to kill policy?
Whilst I’m here, I’ve got to say I respect Thai news a hell of a lot. Whilst the media is stifled by the self-censorship that Thaksin’s cronies enforce internally, it is not shy of showing the reality of the situation. Dead bodies, mosques caked in blood, and people dying on screen in front of you makes Thai news gruesome but fascinating viewing, and much better than the sterile version the BBC showed.
More as it happens…if it happens.
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Scores killed in Thai gun battles
Pictures from the BBC
Security forces have killed at least 100 suspected Islamic militants in a spate of gun battles in south Thailand.
Shit hit the air conditioning today, as a village on the Southern tip of Songkhla was involved in the violence that erupted in the the ‘usual suspect’ states of Pattani, Yala, and Naratiwat. Upto 30 people were killed in Pattani when police launched RPGs and teargas into a Mosque where youths were hiding after launching attacks on military bases and police stations with guns and machetes.
The police it seemed had bigger guns.
According to my mate down in Pattani, most of the youths involved were local kids as ol’ Toxin Shinawatra suggested, but according to locals, Jemaah Islamiah has been offering these kids money and drugs to kick up trouble. The more Toxin buries its head in the sand about this the worse it is going to become.
This is worrying because for the first time my province has been hit, though the trouble happened in an area right on the edge of Pattani and not in the Buddhist centred part I live in.
Let’s just set this straight though, do you really think that this is what the majority of the Muslim minority want? Of course not. They might have and old grudge against the Thai government, but they don’t want change to occur from this usury of local drug addicts, what the hell are they trying to acheive, and when I say ‘they’ I mean Jemaah Islamiah who are clearly behind this.
I will keep you all posted on this.
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I am absolutely sure this could be useful for something…damned if I know what…let me have a think about this. Meanwhile, to make your maze, you specify the dimensions and colours and length of your maze and the cgi program makes it for you. It’s kind of blank and could use some extra bits which you could use photoshop to insert eg a start and finish label.
Ok here’s an idea that just spung to mind. It’s Friday afternoon, and you want a quick filler. Simply get a suitably sized maze from this site, place letters at various intervals over the maze, making the true path spell out a word or phrase. EG ’shout bananas’, and the first person to get it wins something or other.
See told you I could find something
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London Booted - A tribute to the Clash
Hot on the heels of the years most controversial bootleg album, Dj Danger Mouse’s Grey Album, comes an equally illegal collaborative affair in tribute to classic punk group The Clash’s London Calling album. I’ve only downloaded half so far, but what I’ve heard has been superb ranging from hip hop mashups like the Grey Album, through to eminently danceable breakbeat and drum and bass choonz. Get it while it’s hot (not that this albums ever going to be anything but hot, legally speaking) and if you can please make a donation to the charities it mentions before you download.
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Oh dear, it seems like the Gmail beta testing frenzy has led people to sign up for Blogger accounts just so they can be first with a Gmail. I managed to get an account because I had been blogging on Blogger a full 2 months before Gmail was even announced so I guess that counts as an active account. Looks like Google had their bases covered with this one.
Considering the amount of flak Google is getting over privacy issue from people who have never had the pleasure of using this evolution in webmail, I think that it would be in Google’s best interest to lauch it as widely as possible as quickly as possible.
Once it has a big army of supporters, these self appointed privacy Nazis re going to have a lot tougher time shutting it down.
Geek-fest Slashdot has an interesting discussion on Gmail also.
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Debate has been raging all week on the TIT Discussion forum over at ajarn.com over whether it is acceptable to use a fake degree to obtain a job in Thailand.
A pretty simple question, you might suggest, considering that this was asked in an area of the forum known as “The Teachers Room.”
I was quoted 3500 baht for a fake degree down KSR this morning. This seems a tad expensive for what is basically just a sheet of paper.
Is this the going rate or can I get one cheaper?
Tim
I’ve quite a bit to say about this so click on the link to read more.
(more…)
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Newsgaming.com — September 12th
This simulation is designed to illustrate what happenes when you use strong arm tactics on civillians in order to take out a small amount of so-called terrorists. As you send in missiles and you inevitably kill civillians, you see them mourn their dead and then morph into terrorists. Before very long you see the former minority of terrorists grow into the majority. Done a different way this could be seen as hate gaming but as the blurb says, there is no beginning and no end, you can shoot or not shoot, it’s just to give an example of some aspects of the Israeli/Palestinian paradox. Thoughtprovoking at the very least.
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This puts my feeble rant ‘o’ blog (thanks for the term Parf) into perspective. This man is walking solo across the Arctic Ocean, and somehow manages to blog his daily exploits, mostly about ice. This coming via the almost as intrepid Ben Hammersley (who I swear was in my year at LGS), who just completed the rather maschistic sounding ‘Marathon Des Sables’ in some arid location in Africa or sumfink. The iceman wins in the intrepiness factor because he seems to be khun diaw (alone), as opposed to the long-headed one who at least had 600 other nutters to compare bunyons with.
I should take the piss…I consider a walk up Khao Tang Kuwan, 5 minutes walk away to be the height of adventure…
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