The Mr C retreats to his cocoon to reappear months later as... Mr C

Where has he been? Months have gone by and this blog has remained mute.

I wish I could say that there has simply been nothing to write about - but truth be told quite a lot has happened personally, locally and internationally since I last put finger to keyboard. The world has been awash with educational, environmental, and ego-centrical happenings. Teachers have been suspended for slipping some of their own rather personal video footage into class presentations, teachers in Ireland have been faced with rather stiff pay cuts to help bail out the rest of society, politicians have been wallowing in mires of expense account funded self pity, some have managed to take their minds of it for a little trip to Copenhagen to discuss how we're all doomed. A lot has happened - and I have remained silent.

Well, no more.

I have returned to add a few more pennyworths. Obviously the two people who read my blog have long since lost interest and have moved on to reading worries of a haberdasher .com or something of a similar elk and I will have to try and appeal to a whole new set of readers.

Maybe I should take this opportunity to change the focus of this blog. I could write about anything I wanted. What would appeal to the masses? Maybe I could write about reality TV - I could dedicate this blog to the X-factor... except it has come to a conclusion and I am proud to say that I didn't watch a minute of the coverage - why bother when the papers tell you all the best bits anyway.

I could write about gardening. Except for the fact that my greatest achievements in that field have been to kill off practically invincible plants. When plants and shrubs picture me they see me in a hooded cloak carrying a scythe.

No - I will do what i do best and write about what I should write about. Why change the habit of a lifetime? (or at least the three or four years I've been blogging anyway.) If anyone has contact details for my readers could you give them both a call and let them know I've updated.

Thanks.

300 and it I feel every one of them

My three hundredth post. And is it just me or is it getting harder to wrote these things? I really struggle to think of anything to say these days. On top of that it feels to me as if there just isn’t enough time in the day to do anything much? Is that just me too or is someone sneaking a few minutes out of each 24 hours?

So please forgive me if this 300th post is also one of the shortest – I just have nothing to say.

then they came for me; and there was no one left to tweet

I have to thank Mike & Alex for drawing my attention to this article on the BBC website. I hadn't heard about it before and, once you've taken a scan through it you'll understand why I found it a bit unnerving.

To paraphrase viciously, a young teacher in Scotland is being investigated because it was discovered that she had been updating her twitter page with messages, some of which referred to her classes and pupils.

The secondary teacher in Argyll and Bute is understood to have posted up to 38 updates a day on the Twitter site. One said: "Had S3 period 6 for last two years...don't know who least wants to do anything, them or me."

'The fool!' I thought when first I read about her. 'Every teacher knows that you can't publish information about pupils without explicit parental permission. She must be stupid to do that.' Except as I read through some examples of what she had actually written it began to dawn on me that she wasn't actually posting anything more revealing than I have here.

"The thought of having some of my S4 beyond exam time doesn't bear thinking about - for them as well as me I suspect."

In fact I imagine I have occasionally been a lot less anonymous in my musings than she has. She doesn't mention pupils by name, her comments seem fairly generalised and focus more on her than on the pupils she is teaching. So what is her crime? It gets worse for her:

Argyll and Bute Council policy states that teachers may access professional blogs which have educational value but are not allowed to have their own blog. However, the teacher in question has a blog on which she said she had been too busy using Twitter to update it recently.

For those who, like me, have remained immune to the lure of the tweet let me explain. Twitter is just a way to deliver mundane details of your life to many friends at once. Through Twitter you can develop followers who regularly check up on your feed. It's basically a way to make your stalkers feel more involved. I care nothing for Twitter. But blogging...

"Teachers are not allowed to have their own blogs." Um.

So, unlike the teacher in question - I don't tweet (or whatever it is) - I don't really see the appeal. But like the teacher in question, I do have a blog. Like the teacher in question, I occasionally mention anecdotes from my life as a teacher online. Like the teacher in question, I have been known to express dissatisfaction in life. Up to this point I have never been told that I was not allowed to do so. It seems if I were working in Argyll and Bute I would be breaching official guidelines.

And quite honestly that is ridiculous.

Now clearly I haven't read everything that this teacher posted. I'll be first in line to point and make disapproving facial expressions at her if she has been commenting on identifiable pupils. I will shake my head slowly if it turns out she has been bringing her school and its good name into disrepute. But if it's simply the case that she has been uploading her thoughts and feelings in a pointless, if slightly narcissistic webby kind of a way then what is she doing that it so different from all the twitter users in other professions? Exactly how has what she was doing impacted on the educational wellbeing of pupils in the Argyll area? How was it having any impact on anything until someone thought it necessary to bring it to the attention of the press? Absolutely ridiculous.

But it has had an impact on me. And that might be a good thing. It's been a wake up call about the comments I make. I need to take a lot more care when talking about school. I need to put more effort into making my comments more general and less personalised. I need to increase anonymity on many levels.
This annoys me.
When you work in education you soon find that your life revolves around a constrictive regime. You become bound up in targets and paperwork to the point that sometimes you need to poke a hole through which to breathe. We spend so long living by someone's rules that the idea of finding a place of our own where we can express our own expressions, where we can breathe in air that hasn't been passed through a committee process and risk assessment survey first.

Am I worried about what is happening to that teacher in Argyll? Yes. I really am. I would hate to think that other education authorities would feel the need to follow suit. If the situation arose where I was told that I shouldn't keep a blog then TOASNT would be gone quicker than... well, quicker than it went when I accidentally hit the delete button last year. How I hope it doesn't come to that. But from now on, in any effort to avoid names I will no longer mention Dave - he will now be 'the Welsh Castle Sketcher', Mike and Alex will become 'London's Bushmills Residents', Kylie - you are now 'the Sporadic Antipodean', Karen 'Florida's vg Bridget Jones', and Brazen Teacher (as if that isn't anonymous enough) will henceforth become 'Another Teacher at risk of being put under investigation because it seems we can't be trusted to update blogs without passing out sensitive information and ruining the lives of all those around us.'

Council officials were investigating whether she had put sensitive information on public display and whether it was during work hours.

"Council policy states that teachers may access professional blogs which have educational value but are not allowed to have their own blog." Wouldn't you love to live in a place where public workers aren't allowed to express personal opinion? You now have the choice of China or Argyll it seems.

the beginning, revisited

It will mean very little to you I'm sure but it's finally done. Six months ago I accidentally hit delete and lost this blog.

So what, you may say. Well, you're actually right. In the grand scheme of things it's hardly life changing. All around us wars are being fought or are on the verge of being fought; countries are in recession; people are losing their jobs - and I'm worried that I lost two years of trivial, introspective monologue.

But it really annoyed me. Sure life would have gone on. Some may even suggest that the enforced clean slate could be seen in a positive light. Just yesterday I was having a conversation with someone about how I prefer to create new stories rather than revelling in the nostalgia that keeping a blog or a journal allows.

I believe that - but I was still a little annoyed that it had gone. And so I was relieved that I found a way of rebuilding it. In much the same way as a historian records every stone in a building before removing them one by one, transporting them, and rebuilding again in a new location - actually not really like that at all but we'll go with the allusion anyway, it sounds grand - I replaced each entry.

And now it is done. I uploaded entry #1 just a couple of minutes ago. They are there, where they are meant to be. Not that I intend to sit and read them again anyway - but it's nice knowing they're there.

things you should know about me

For the most part people who stumble upon this blog don’t really know me that well – so I thought I’d put together a quick cheat sheet of things you really should know.

1. I am not a special needs teacher. At least not at the moment. When I set out to begin this blog a couple of years ago I was working within the special education department of a mainstream state school. When I tried to think of a title it sort of made sense as my job had been gradually taking over my life. Now I’m not working there any more but I am too lazy to change the name of the blog.
What I’ve come to realise is that the title is a little misleading in at least one other way. Basically because I call my blog the Thoughts of a Special Needs Teacher people assume it will be all about special needs education or education in general. It’s not. Education slips in because I’m a teacher (sometimes) and the state of the state of the education system matters to me. It’s on my mind if you like. It’s on my mind therefore I vent.
The current disastrous state of Newcastle United Football Club also occupies a sizeable chunk of my mind so you’ll find they appear on occasion. My family are rarely far from my mind but since my sister started reading this occasionally I have to be careful what I say about them.
No, this blog is mainly just a means of clearing my head. When I was a school kid I used to record the detritus clogging my mental pores in the form of notes and doodles on my file paper. I’d write them down and then I’d crumple the paper up and throw it in the trash – now I publish them on the web.

2. I really am as bumbling as I make myself out to be here. I am in no way adapting real life to make it appear worse than it is as some sort of attempt to appear blind-puppy-style endearing. I do not relate my experiences either to endear nor to elicit pity. I do it because sometimes I can’t believe how incredibly stupid I’ve been and need to tell people about it. The pity thing is an added bonus.
When I appear naïve it is because I was naïve. When I appear clumsy it is because I was clumsy. I am but a camera (Evelyn Waugh would be proud) capturing events as they happened for you’re amusement. A camera in the old sense, before photoshop was invented obviously. Rest assured, if ever I do something suave, sophisticated or generally smooth you will read all about it.

"I'll expect you'll be becoming a schoolmaster, sir. That's what most of the gentlemen does, sir, that gets sent down for indecent behaviour."
Evelyn Waugh - Decline and Fall (1928)

3. I have several guilty secrets. Don’t tell anyone but occasionally I watch rubbish television. In fact sometimes I enjoy it more than the good stuff. Currently I am addicted to the Big Bang Theory. I love everything about it from the Bare Naked Ladies theme to the lame stairwell conversations to the cringe-worthy stereotyping. The girl who plays Penny (Kaley Cuoco I think – I hope that’s spelt right) bears an incredible resemblance to a girl who helps me out sometimes when I’m filming weddings. Similar in appearance and personality. She has the same sunny disposition, the same assumed ditziness, the same patient but frustrated look when dealing with someone who’s overly complicated ramblings and general bumbling make no sense to her whatsoever.
Sometimes when I watch it I find myself diagnosing various syndromes in the characters – I’m not sure that’s healthy. I think it maybe suggests I miss the Learning Support Unit.
Anyway, I’m not going to attempt to argue the merits of the show – it’s frivolous, occasionally sketchily written, stereotype affirming, generalises wildly on a regular basis – and I can’t get enough of it.

4. I hate/detest/abhor/loathe those emails that ask you to take “10 minutes” out of your time to answer “a few” (dozen) questions about yourself. Can someone tell me what the point is? Are you really going to try and persuade me that you can get to know someone better through these things? Really? How does it benefit anyone to know what colour my toothbrush is, or when I last cried, or what music is on my ipod/ cd player / 8 track? It doesn’t I tell you! Well, I suppose they can now choose between buying me a gift of a CD, a toothbrush or some tissues.
Not only are they a waste of time but they revel in that fact. I saw one recently which asked the victim to record the time they started the questionnaire and the time they finished. It then asked them what else they could have spent that time doing. Cruel.
Worse still, they have pervaded the blogosphere. They take the form of an award that you pass on to blogs you admire. Once “tagged” you answer a few questions about yourself in your blog and pass it on, pyramid scheme style, to seven other victims. “Award or virus?” I hear you ask. “Or is he maybe just a little bitter that he’s never been tagged?” No! I’m not! Although you would have imagined that someone out there would have me somewhere in their top seven blogs.
These are not to be confused with the profiles to be found in some blogs. These are a different beast entirely. They tend to be relevant and specific to that blog. They don’t require you to pass anything on to anywhere. They are generally humorous and interesting as opposed to inane and irrelevant.
So, no tagging. Agreed?

And that will do for now. I think you know all you need to about me. And all without the use of a single questionnaire. Although if it is bothering you – I prefer cold vacations to hot ones, I have two pets, I wanted to be a train driver / pig farmer / psychologist when I was growing up, I’ve never been toilet papering, I have blue eyes, I prefer croutons to bacon bits and my toothbrush is purple.

terrible twos

It was two years ago that I first set this up.

I wanted to think about all the things that have changed in those two years – but I really struggled. The war in Iraq still rages, Labour are still in power here, the US President is still a Republican, I still job-hop to Olympic standards, China is still an evil dictatorship who won’t add job-hopping to the Olympics, I am still saving for that deposit on a home I will never be able to afford, I still spend more on coffee than most people spend… well, on deposits for their homes. No, the last two years haven’t been the most monumental – well, as far as my life goes anyway.

I know there are people out there who have had life changing events in the past twenty-four months. I have friends who got married, friends who lost loved ones, friends who got new careers, friends who bought homes, friends who sold homes and bought boats, heck I have a brother who is now a father and can you get more life changing than that? But for me, looking at it as I do from the bottom of my coffee mug, life goes on as was.

The next two years will undoubtedly change that. I would be very surprised if I am writing an entry with a similar theme in 2010. If I do you have my permission to stop reading the new entries and just re-read some of the old ones from 2006 instead.

The End?

... or just another beginning.

I'm sorry folks. I did something incredibly stupid. I was doing a redesign for an ex pupil of mine - check it out over at The Thoughts of a Student with Aspergers Syndrome - and I created a temporary blog in my account on which to test it. The thing is after I'd finished with it I hit delete... on the wrong blog.

ToaSNT died.

Apparently there is no way to recover blog entries that are deleted by mistake. That seems like something Blogger should look into - you know, giving a few hours of grace time just incase someone, suffering from tequila or stupidity, deletes three years worth of blog.

Anyway, I'm lacking motivation to write anything right now - but looks like it's back to sqare 1. And, looking on the bright side, at least I can revisit some of the topics I've already blogged on - who's going to know?

let us live our lives!

I’m angry – really angry. I’ve tried looking at it for every point of view, tried to work out their thought process, but I give up. The powers that be in terms of IT provision in Northern Ireland Education have decided that Blogger is too much of a risk to young minds and blocked it from the C2K network. This means that anyone trying to access a Blogger or Blogspot blog from any school in Northern Ireland will be shown a blocked access page instead.

I am appalled. As an English teacher I teach the variety and uses of blogs, I encouraged pupils to express themselves using blogs, I used blogs to look at the concept of writing for a specific audience. Now I am completely unable to look up any of my trusted sites.

It’s not just blogging that is suffering from C2k blocking. When I was a learning support teacher I regularly used word games from the East of the Web website. These were incredibly useful and fun ways to improve all kinds of literacy skills. Within six months of discovering them I lost them again – apparently in their clampdown on gaming sites East of the Web got the chop again. Surely even the IT geeks in Belfast running our network can distinguish between educational games and games where little cartoon tanks firing atom bombs at each other – maybe then they can explain why my pupils can play the later but not the former.

From a personal point of view it’s a pain in the arse as well. For the better part of two years I’ve been adding posts to ToaSNT during my lunches and free periods. Now that’s impossible – well almost.

In their efforts to avoid our impressionable young folks seeing anything with bad language, sex or violence C2K have blocked even the tamest of sites. By blocking hardcore porn the pupils moved to softcore, by blocking that the pupils moved onto ‘mild references to’, when all of that got blocked pupils moved into chat rooms. But, as we all know, chat rooms are evil and eventually got blocked. The pupils then moved into social interaction sites. Then Bebo and Myspace made headline news and Youtube became the home of happy slapping – so they got banned. This meant that anything that allowed pupils to upload photos, share ideas or actually express an opinion (horror!) had to be blocked and so we get to wave goodbye to blogs – well almost.

You see, here’s the thing. With everything of interest blocked the pupils had to get inventive. Every week they discover a new proxy site and, before it gets blocked, use it to check out their bebo pages and prank youtubes. Of course the proxies aren’t exactly discerning types and so we see the return of hardcore porn and sickening violence.

Ironic, eh?

So C2K please, for the sake of my sanity and a sex ed teacher’s ability to research lesson plans, get off your power filled, litigation fearing censor fest and give us a system that lets us teach… and maybe write the odd blog entry during our frees.

where have all the blogs gone?

I've been feeling a bit bad lately. I've been letting this blog slide in an alarming way. It's not really a sudden thing - I've been slowing up for a while now. I remember when I started I wrote the first 100 posts by the end of November (a little under 4 months after starting) It was another 11 months before I reached 200.

I did feel bad - that is until I noticed that I'm not the only one. Practically everyone I read appears to be taking a break. Some for a week or so, some for months - even Dave hasn't added anything for ten days (of course in that instance it may be because he has better things to be doing right now)

Where are you all and why have you stopped? Has the blogging bubble burst in your life? Have you run out of things to write about? I sometimes feel a bit like that. Recently I have been putting all of my creative juices into writing a play for my year nines to peform and thinking of witty comments to put at the end of my marking. What's your excuse?

200 not out

Post number 200 - and I can't think of anything to say. Typical!

Happy Birthday

Some 365 odd days ago I sat down to write my first ever blog entry. It feels like a lot more. I have to admit that I only did it so a friend would stop pressuring me – It’s good to have friends who not only suggest new experiences for you but actually force you into them. I fully expected to write three or four entries, get bored and stop. That’s how things usually work with me; I have a short attention span. For years I kept diaries and journals – I still have them. In some cases I actuall made it as far as February, in others there’s a six month break before a couple more pages are added. That’s me – the king of good intentions.

But here I am after a year.

I realise that I haven’t written everyday – I know that, in some cases, I went weeks without adding anything; but I have written 174 entries, almost 64,000 words, of sometimes asinine, sometimes juvenile, sometimes irrelevant, sometimes completely misguided comment and opinion; that for me is an achievement. Consider my other current writing projects: A screenplay of which I am ridiculously proud; I completed scene 6 this week, I started it in 2003. Then there are the many lyrics I’ve written waiting for music and the music I’ve written waiting for lyrics. And there’s my novel, I just about have the title sorted. Oh, and my autobiography which I began when I was in 2S at Dalriada School (aged 12) – I have the first chapter sorted.

You get the idea.

This blog has amused me, I have enjoyed writing it – the biggest surprise to me is that there are people out there who read it. I know the vast majority of my readers stumble upon it during some random internet search (The search phrase that has brought the most visitors from google is “foot vasectomy” – there are people out there who want information about vasectomising their feet and they find my site! I can understand about all the men searching for revealing pictures of Sammy Winward and Kate Silverton – I even understand about the ones looking to join the Free Presbyterian Church, but foot vasectomies? As for the people who found me by typing it “Macosquin UDA” and “qualifications to become an astronaut” – they must have been severely disappointed. My personal favourite is whoever it was who came to this blog by asking “Where do I buy stab proof hoodies in Dublin?” if anyone sees them let them know I have a contact who’ll do them a good deal.) but I’d like to thank you all for dropping by.

This year has been an eventful one for me and the world. I’ve met a lot of awesome people, had some awful times, seen some amazing sights, given up all hope of ever owning a house, moved out of a job. One of my favourite moments of the year is actually related to this blog. It was when the Guardian quoted my comments on the death of Steve Irwin. Now I know a lot of you will be underawed by that but the idea that thousands of people could possibly have read something that I wrote - even if it was only two sentences - made me feel quite special. Will I still be writing this in a years time? I have no idea. Where will I be in a years time? Will I have the perfect job? I have no idea. All I can say is (DV) I will be talking about my 345th irrelevant post and my 128,000th asinine word.

blogging in action

somebody wrote a blog about me writing a blog about meeting them.

more influencial than the national press

He did it again! All Dave has to do is mention my name in his blog and my hit count instantly trebles, making him officially more influential (in terms of effect on my readership) than the Guardian. This is, he tells me, what blogging is all about; writing your opinions, reading other people's opinions and directing people to other people's opinions. At its most basic I suppose it's like road signs pointing to a beauty spot where you may also find a sign post directing you somewhere else you might like to visit. A sort of 'customers who were interested in this also bought...' for cognitive musings.

Luckily for Dave he has a bit of a talent for the whole writing thing. For me it is a hobby. I write all the time but I couldn't do it to order. One week I'll churn out three short stories and then I'll be devoid of creative juices for several months. In this blog I try to come up with something fairly regularly. I was talking to a friend after church one day and happened to mention I wrote a blog. "I know," he replied "I've read it. Its a load of drivel."

A load of drivel.

That hit me hard I have to tell you. I mean, on the quiet, I have to agree with him. In my eagerness to produce something regularly I quite happily compromise quality for quantity; but I'm ok with that - that's why I write here - its (partially) anonymous writing. I can type complete drivel safe in the knowledge that my pupils aren't going 'Mr C's letting himself down with that piece of trash.' I get to write and write and write to my heart's content. If I come up with something good and people seem to like it then I take the credit - and my pupils think I'm a talented writer with an imagination to die for. It means that about twice a year I get to see the respect they have when they read something they actually think is good. Trust me, even my friend at church isn't as difficult to please as a bunch of turned-off-to-reading sixteen year olds. When I see them getting into a short story that I wrote it is the most amazing feeling.

But try as I might I can't do that to order. I have so much respect for journos and especially columnists. It never ceases to amaze me how someone can write on a daily basis and still maintain the quality levels. I wish I was them but as I'm not I'll content myself with writing drivel for whoever happens to stumble across this blog.

Blogger Philosophy 102

No matter what, I believe that in our quest to exploit the "We" in Web, we must not sacrifice the "I" in Internet.

Huh?

what's he doing to me?!?!

I encouraged a young kid from school to start writing a blog today - he often has long periods of free time and seems to have little to fill it. I think it'd be good for him to have an outlet for his feelings. He suffers from Aspergers and I thought it might be interesting for people to hear how he perceives the world. The thing is I think he's trying to get me fired:

well like it says i have had 4 posts today and i am neraly
home thenk god this will probably be my last post today well i have had a hard
day

hehehehe

i wish free most of the day and sitting in the forementioned teachers classroom relaxing but if the head of special needs knew she would kill me well have to do a bit of work for once

Write a blog – tell a history

Historians have decided that the academics of the future would probably be very interested to read about what we’re all doing in our lives, what we ate for breakfast this morning and what our journey to work was like. Me, I’m not so sure that they will be but I’m up for most things.

A quick visit to the history matters website will allow you to be involved in the ‘biggest blog in history’, an opportunity ‘for you to join in a mass blog for the national record.’ Well if they want to read it I’m more than happy to write it.

Go on, you could be famous in 3121. Future generations may marvel at what you got up to on the 17th October 2006.

welcome to the english language

Well done to whoever it was who first coined the termed ‘Blog.’ At long last it has finally been added to the latest edition of the Chambers Dictionary. It’s been included along with other new entries such as Happy-slapping, Asbo and Sex-up. You must be so proud.

bloggers beware

Who’d have thought it would be a conservative supporter who would find himself in hot water over freedom of speech issues. More than hot water in fact. Inigo Wilson has been suspended from his job over comments he made in a Conservative party supporting blog.

Looking at some of the things he wrote made me wince despite the obvious tongue-in-cheek tone of the entry. One man’s sense of humour is another man’s fatwa. His comments were unwise at best, deeply offensive at worst. Still, it’s a free country and we have a right to our opinion. Not quite. As complaints rolled in his employers (ironically communication company Orange) changed their stance from “Though we respect the right of our employees to do so, Orange does not in any way hold or express opinions on such matters, therefore the article you referenced does not in any way represent the views of our organisation.” to “Sorry Inigo, we’re scared of bad publicity so we’re going to have to make it look like we take action over things like these – you’re suspended” – those may not have been their actual words.

Again I distance myself from the crass comments Wilson made in his post but I have to admit it worries me that people would go so far as to contact his employers to complain about what he wrote on a non-company website. He, presumably, has support from the fellow members of his online community – and I would think that when the storm blows over he will be reinstated (after a suitable in-house investigation of course) with little more than a rap on the knuckles. I don’t worry about Mr Wilson in the slightest – he may even look back on his moment of infamy with fondness in years to come – I worry about me.

Promise me, dear readers, if we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended, that you have but slumber’d here while these visions did appear or at least keep your revenge to writing scathing replies and maybe bitching about me in your own blogs – don’t look up the department of education phone number. So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, and SNT shall restore amends.

what just happened?

There I was, just casually checking my stats and I find that instead of my usual 4 daily visitors I have more than 10. What's that all about? Then I check DPW's blog only to find that he has given me yet another massive plug. In fact, 2 more plugs.So that's how it is then. You're here because he sent you did he? Well you can tell him I don't need charity. Me and my 4 readers are very happy. Still, if he wants to plug me again, say every two weeks or so, I can't be too bitter. I'm a very gracious blogger.

blogging for the masses

It seems to me that this time I missed the boat - and yet here I am making a mad, dash, swim for it as it sails, already overcrowded, into the distance. Usually I'm one of the first when it comes to new fads. When it came to text messaging I was doing that long before it became main stream; I remember the first series of Friends and The West Wing; I was one of the first people in my village to install a dual layer DVD burner in my computer (I think I may still be the only person in my village to have installed a (now not working) dual layer DVD burner), I rated Owen Hargreaves as a footballer before the world cup, I had a space on myspace before it was hijacked by wannabe rock idols; admittedly I don't think I actually ever used it for what it was meant to be used for - I think I just had it...

And yet this, on the 2nd Aug 2006, is my first ever blog entry. I remember years ago (before the four year old up the street was even born - now he's a seasoned blogging pro) thinking of creating a blog. The nerdy computer magazine I read at the time was hailing weblogging as the next big thing; I think I'am a fairly decent writer, I'm into computer stuff, I've written articles for web sites, I've even designed websites... yup... I'll create a blog. I didn't.

And so here I am in 2006 when the mouse that ran across my bed a few days ago (at the time I thought he was trying to escape the cat but I'm actually inclined to believe he was going home to fill in his web journal) made me consider my own mortality (he could have been rabid! I'm sure I saw mouse saliva frothing from his jaws) and I have taken the plunge into the sewage infected docks to chase good ship blogger. Will I catch her? Will anyone get sick of this ridiculous metaphor? Will anyone read the drivellings of a overweight special needs teacher? We'll find out some other time; I'm going for pizza.