Life & Times of A Sleeping Dictionary

taken from aashishsood.blogspot.com

I've been trying to find balance in life & work but I seem to lean heavily on working all the time.
You know... I do spend time with myself.
hehehehehe~~~ That just sounds so wrong.
What I mean is I do spend time on myself, ie taking naps, idling, watching movies & playing computer games.
I would add surf the net to the list but there's still no Internet at school. Will have to have a serious talk with my principal about that among other things.

The main cause of this workaholic lifestyle is due to the fact that I live in school, ie in the quarters. When you live there, almost everything you do is related to school. Now, my school is in the middle of the jungle so there is no other option since the nearest town is 1 hour away. Unless, of course, I decide to build myself a nice little shack in the jungle with no electricity or water supply & get haunted by ghosts or raped by some primaeval ape.

With regards to $$$, I still get my housing allowance anyway because the water supply is treated by the school & the treatment is imperfect. Like something you wouldnt do in Russia, I never drink the water in Katibas.
Just like in Kapit & Song, they use a kind of fluorine compound chemical that when ingested causes your brain to disintegrate.
Even trace amounts of this chemical can cause loss of intelligence/memory.

Furthermore, it's not chemists who are administering the chemical into the water but labourers who probably couldnt even pronounce the names of the magical chemicals they pour into the water.
I worked hard for my grey matter & I intend to keep it.
I'll drink bottled mineral water, mind you, & risk overexposure to female hormone imitating leaked plastic compounds.
Yes, I'd rather be gay than stupid.
But I'm not gay as you can read from my previous post. True story.

I wouldn't want to end up like that now, would I?

sigh~~ To think of it, I predict a pretty hectic year for me.
I'm still Chief Warden this year & the hostels will be taking part in Anugerah Seri Asrama Terbilang (ASAT) amongst a plethora of other competitions our small ulu school has been nominated for.
It's ingenious actually, upgrading ulu District Education Offices & having them nominate (ie paksa rela) inadequate schools in their district to go head to head with the best equipped & funded schools (ie elite schools & colleges who steal the best students & funding from 'normal' schools).

The Song District has got only 2 secondary schools: SMK Song & SMK Katibas. So all these thoughtful nominations are split between us & all nominations will return to you next year!
Don't worry, you won't get bored this year because you've got other competitions to work on this year! YAY!
Competitions mainly involve repurposing paper museum archives.

Sometimes in the heat of it all, I forget that there is a 'teach' in teacher.
We do too many meaningless paper-pushing work around the school while the clerks in their air-conditioned offices are busy competing for the high score in Zuma.
Sometimes I ask myself: Does it benefit the students? For whose glory?
I bet you can answer these questions yourself. That is, if those pesky brain eating chemicals dont get to you first.

I know you're asking: What is the world is ASAT?
It's a minor competition organised by a minor department in the state education office but it encompasses the whole school experience for hostel students.
That's a lot of work for a minor competition esp when it comes to maintaining a paper museum about the whole school ie hostel students' academic achievements, hostel facilities, hostel activities & etc.
If you want to make the competition experience meaningful to the students, it involves a HELL lot of work. HELL. Again I say HELL.

Also, a lot of money must be invested by the school into ensuring the hostels are well-equipped with adequate facilities. Notice I mentioned 'well' & 'adequate' instead of 'tip-top'.
That is, if the school administrators are serious about the competition. A BIG IF. Paksa rela remember? Not to mention a probable loss of funds to other equally important parts of the school too. Imagine a small school & you'll get the picture.

Applications from the whole state (ie thick colourful books) will be received, vetted & around 5 schools will be short-listed for inspection by high ranking officers from the state education department before a winner is picked out for the state.
The winner will then represent the state in the national level against the best hostel schools in other states.

Usually, new schools or schools with new hostels will win this competition. Nobody wants a well-worm yet well-maintained 27 YO hostel in the middle of nowhere to be the best in Sarawak now, would they?
Well, you never know. A little smile here & a little wink there & someone might just give us a #1 instead of the #2 that they gave us the last time. They also gave us plenty of comforting words on how agonisingly close it was between the top 2. Please.

There you have it, your weekly dose of my decaying grey matter. =)