Thursday - Moody

I'm in a bit of a sour mood today, so forgive me. For one thing, after being tasked last week with taking over a final year subject formerly taught by a full professor (it's Multimedia Project Management, in case anyone's interested, and which I thought would be kinda cool) I finally managed to catch the man himself to get the course outline and materials to digest before classes resume and the semester opens in three weeks. Unfortunately though, the faculty was burgled a couple of weeks ago, and among the things stolen were some laptops including his, which happens to contain most if not all the of the soft copies of the course materials.

As a small consolation, he DOES have a textbook, which happens to be about two inches thick. Given that this is my first time even teaching this kind of a subject, I'm a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, especially since semester reopens on the 21st of November. He was also kind enough to provide me with his file on the subject, which I straightaway photocopied and took along with the book. The challenge, ladies and gentlemen, is this: I have to read through the book and other references, make sure I understand the gist of it all and then attempt to educate some 80-odd students on the finer points of project management, all with the impending Eid hols around the corner.

This is gonna be a hairy time for the Ox. I'm already teaching Multimedia Audio/Video Tech (which isn't something I worry about too much) next semester, and I hope I can digest enough of the info to be able to passably teach these kids come crunch time. If I don't, the consequences are too ugly to contemplate. We're talking people's futures here.

Ugh. Anyway, in order to release some of that stress, I've resorted to bouts of intense Halo 2 (the French release) which DOES help (by the way, it's so frustrating to not be able to tell any other gamer the plot points without being flamed into oblivion). That and listening to a lot of easy sounding music, and oh, breathing.

That definitely helps. In the meantime, I also try to entertain myself (well, with whatever time there IS left to me) by looking up somewhat interesting bits on the net (whilst trying to sift the way clear of pr0n). One of the more exciting pieces of news comes this way via military.com, which has an article on the new modular Masterkey system, which in effect allows a person to wield a shotgun AND an assault rifle in the same weapon, allowing for effective short- and medium range coverage (Link).

In essence, employing this modular technology allows almost any assault rifle to be converted into a double-death dealing weapon of mass destruction. While the pacifist in me strongly opposes these guns to ever be made available (outside of video games, where even I have fired millions of rounds from the M60, AK47, M16 and my personal favourite, the OICW/GL) some small part of me can't help but be awed at the awesome genius we can attain when devising tools to help destroy our fellow man, or defend ourselves against them. There's even a link to another article about what some people are calling the next revolution in armament, the XM-8.

Gritty stuff. Anyway, the US Election saga is over (for now) and armchair (not to mention computer chair) political analysts and strategists the world over are talking about the ramifications Mr Bush's victory has for the entire world. I say world because no matter how far we think we are from the US of A, every little policy shift, advertising campaign or belch the leader of that particular country makes, we'll all feel it. While it's tempting to argue that we can't really say anything since we don't actually vote the guy into office, since everything he does WILL eventually trickle (or wash) over to us, I say there's no harm in telling the world we're disappointed with the Americans' decision. Take some time and surf around the 'net. You'll see rants, incredibly intelligent commentary, and even a guide for repatriation, all by Americans who realise just how far the man with the title President can reach.

So while what they do eventually is out of our control, at least we've tried. Now all that's left is to see what else is going to happen circa re-election.

Good night, folks. I think I'm-a-gonna kill me some aliens.