RL: the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day, and BSG: The Awesome, Wonderful, Very Good Vid.

[beccatoria]

So, I have been having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. No day when you wake up to discover you have no water because your pipes have frozen is going to be a good day. It is usually only made worse when you get yelled at aggressively by a random person on the street (near as I can tell for...not being Korean or something), made to teach an extra class forty minutes after my finishing time, having to handle children who think it's hilarious to draw in PERMANENT MARKER on the white board, discovering that 60% of the teaching staff of your school are leaving AT THE SAME TIME IN SEVEN WEEKS meaning that the school who are already serially late paying me (and worse about paying the Korean teachers) because rumour has it the bad economy is tanking it, will have to pay out about three times as much as usual in severance pay AND I'll probably get an insane workload all through March if I get paid at ALL, coming home to discover the pipes have frozen AGAIN because if the workman told us to leave a tap running, we didn't understand him and no one at the school thought to relay this piece of common wisdom to us until ten minutes before we left, having the workman show up to fix it AGAIN only to have him stand up in my husband's face, yelling his head off (presumably for being stupid and not leaving the tap on) even when it was obvious that a) Kev had no idea what he was saying, and b) he was scared. As people are wont to be when other people walk into their homes and yell at them in a language they don't understand. Oh, also, all the stress and then craziness at work meant I accidentally went for almost twenty-four hours with having anything to eat or drink. NO WONDER I HAVE A HEADACHE.

On the more positive side, I came home to this:

We Didn't Start the Fire by chaila43

It's an AWESOME vid. Go watch it. (Warning: it has historical spoilers! But only up to 1990.)

It's an epic cycle-of-time, everything-that's-happened-in-the-show vid. To Billy Joel. It's wonderful. I can't really parse why it works so well, but I'll try. The vidder categorises it as "crack (sort of)" which I think is along the lines of what I call "deadly serious crack".

Sometimes ideas are crazy but work if you commit to them. I think the reason this vid works despite a song choice many would assume could only work for comedy (although there are some hilarious moments. Srsly. Laura Roslin is Elvis. WHO KNEW), is that it underscores the absurdity of, well, everything.

And absurdity is just as good for poignancy as humour.

And yes, I do believe that BSG is absurd. In the philosophical sense that they all live in a world where things just happen and therefore things are meaningless. Which might sound entirely contradictory considering my deep affection for the cycle of time, both in the show and this vid, but I don't think it's contradictory at all. What's more meaningless, arbitrary and absurd than being trapped in a giant cycle of events? Just because it's happened before doesn't empower it with a special gravity of meaning. It doesn't mean it'll count for something extra special later.

Oh. Yay! I think I just found my zen if they decide to do anything truly insane or disappointing in the last half of S4! Also. Again, this will help me handle any and everything to do with Bill Adama.

And now I am finished.

Comments

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Leave the highest tap in your place running at minimum dribble.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

::reads to end of paragraph::

Argh! Poor Kev! Poor you!

::lots of warm virtual hugs::

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thank you for both the hugs and the advice! We left a tap on last night and this morning our water supply seems okay.

Here's hoping today goes better. ;)

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Sorry that you had such an awful day! I am glad Chaila's vid was cheery because it is very well-done and funny.

And yay, for BSG zen! And I think nail polish remover gets permanent marker off white boards. I think.

Hope tomorrow is better!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the good thoughts and the advice! Actually my Korean co-teacher disappeared and came back with some mysterious liquid (probably nail varnish remover!) and got it cleaned up.

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry to hear that you had such a terrible day! (it sounds awful, really :( **hugs**).
I'm glad you found that **absolutely awesome** video to cheer your spirit up! Thanks for reccing it! :D

Hee... Your little reflexion about the absurdity of cycle of time -I'm also in love with the concept and I hope that they will deal with it in BSG finale- made me smile... But as you say, being destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over doesn't necessarily imply that your actions are meaningless (I'm in my zen mode, too... We all will find our zen at the end of BSG, I guess xD).

Anyway, I have the feeling that the moral of BSG story will probably be that we can change destiny (free will, yeah). Maybe it is a cliche, but it works for me (I think).
And let's hope that they don't do anything truly disappointing... I'll keep my fingers crossed! ;).

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad I could spread the joy of the vid!

I also think there's strong potential in the message of BSG being about changing the cycle of time this time, although that has its own terrors: what if you change it for the worst? It could be a chance to explore the concept of free will as the frightening thing it is, even though we all also want it? Because there's not "cycle of time" sense of "it's meant to be," to fall back on when stuff gets tough?

[chaila.livejournal.com]

*sneaking onto LJ at work to respond to this because it’s so awesome* I just could not categorize this vid as far as crack goes. It’s crack, deadly serious crack, and then just crack again. Because on the most apparent level it’s just hilariously ridiculous crack, on another level I’m completely serious, but then on yet another level I’m totally aware that vidding these ideas in a serious manner to BILLY JOEL SONG OF FAKE!EPIC EARNEST SELF-ABSORPTION is back to being utterly ridiculous crack (self-aware vid? *is pretentious*). So it’s like my deadly serious crack is subverting the plain crackiness, but the irony of the Billy Joel is subverting the deadly serious crack? And I had no idea where on the crack continuum to place that. Because I TOTALLY MEAN IT and yet it’s still BILLY JOEL. But the real point of this comment is who cares because YES YAY FOR ABSURDITY!!!!!!!! That is the perfect word for this vid, in like every sense of its meaning and I wish I’d thought of it. Like, I love the cycle of time as much as the next person and spend more time than the average bear on the mythology of the show, and of course it matters a great deal while they’re living it. But if they’re just living a Billy Joel song over and over again on a meta-level how is that anything but ironic and utterly absurd? I mean, I do want them to find some meaning and satisfaction, but not necessarily from these Big Grand Roles they're supposed to play in the Big Grand Epic Story. Because like the horror of the farm next to Billy = Buddy Holly, life is random and absurd. Even if it's a foreordained cycle and story, the predestination is ABSURD and NOT where the meaning comes from. Especially if Billy Joel can predict it.

(Also: HEE I GOT A TAG! GO ME!)

Oh and also, thanks for the rec! :D

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

You're welcome for the rec! The rec is totally deserved!

I'm also so glad you like the description of absurdity - I confess when I thought it up I was very pleased with myself because I think it's so apt.

Like, I love the cycle of time as much as the next person and spend more time than the average bear on the mythology of the show, and of course it matters a great deal while they’re living it. But if they’re just living a Billy Joel song over and over again on a meta-level how is that anything but ironic and utterly absurd?

YES YES YES! As usual you put it better than me.

As to the crack-not-crack-crack-again quandry, well, congratulations, you've just discovered why I love this 'genre'. Because, I really think that that just is what serious crack is. Like any genre, it's not entirely uniform. So probably this is more along the spectrum that involves humour than, say, the Hancock/BSG vidlet I just did. But I think that's partly to do with variety in the genre and partly to do with the fact that Hancock/BSG was a crazy idea I wanted to take seriously, and the humour wasn't an integral part of that. For your idea, the absurdity of Billy Joel is part of what you want to take seriously.

So in your case you have an insane and somewhat humorous idea to commit to, not just an insane one? Which adds an extra entertaining level?

Because really that's why it works. If it wasn't for that song, it'd just be another gen vid about Everything Happening Over and Over?

Oh, also:

Even if it's a foreordained cycle and story, the predestination is ABSURD and NOT where the meaning comes from.

I love that line because it sums up what I was trying to say very eloquently.

But then I also have this whole schtick about how if everything we do is pre-determined, actions-wise, all we can do is decide what kind of person we want to be while making those choices. Which is entirely the fault of, of all things, a Star Wars computer game where you constantly have to choose to follow the Light or Dark side, but whatever side you follow, you get the same end level. Which a lot of people thought was lazy, but I thought was genius because it was basically this insanely massive philosophical debate followed by a brawl with the villain. You were always going to fight the crazy woman who wanted to kill the universe, but whether you did so for altruistic reasons or reasons of self-interest: there was your choice?

/random tangents.

The point is: ABSURDITY!

[chaila.livejournal.com]

For your idea, the absurdity of Billy Joel is part of what you want to take seriously.

Yes, completely! (EEE! I am flailing over your vid talk!) The song needs to be impossible to take seriously, all while totally being taken seriously. This sentence makes sense to me. I mean, the humor does kind of obscure the deadly seriousness of the crack--and thus the true absurdity, rather than just the hilarity--for many, but who cares because there is YOU and THIS REC. I don't even know where the idea came from. It wasn't there and then all of a sudden it just was. How absurd of it.

But then I also have this whole schtick about how if everything we do is pre-determined, actions-wise, all we can do is decide what kind of person we want to be while making those choices.

I THINK MAYBE YOU HATE BILL ADAMA BECAUSE YOU ARE BILL ADAMA. I AM JUST SAYING. Except for the mustache. And the selfishness. Okay so maybe not exactly. BUT HE WOULD UNDERSTAND YOUR SOUL.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

This sentence makes sense to me.

AND ME!

I THINK MAYBE YOU HATE BILL ADAMA BECAUSE YOU ARE BILL ADAMA. I AM JUST SAYING. Except for the mustache. And the selfishness. Okay so maybe not exactly. BUT HE WOULD UNDERSTAND YOUR SOUL.

NO. NO YOU KEEP BILL ADAMA AWAY FROM MY SOUL!

He would hear me say that and nod deeply and pretend like he understood what it meant, all the time misunderstanding and thinking it meant something like, "I can ignore my actions as long as I believe, really hard that I'm everyone's Daddy. Because reality ITSELF will conform to my masquerade." He'd like, think I meant that the type of person we are while making those choices can somehow be divorced from the shittiness of the choices. Or something.

...and sadly, in the BSGverse, Bill Adama would probably be right, and I'd be wandering the Galactica hallways preaching some kind of "be honest with yourself and act with love," hippie bullshit.

Or something.

*shakes fist!*

also my vid is going very slowly. I blame the craptacularness of this week for killing my groove.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

Are you saying Bill Adama is not a hippie?

I blame the craptacularness of this week for killing my groove

It DOES sound like you've hard a particularly craptaculous week. OR you could just blame Bill. That's what I usually do. Then I want to hug him and then I have an identity crisis, for which I also blame him, and then we go around again. But since you'll be able to skip the crap, I think you can pretty safely blame him. A focus for your ire! :)

Although OMG I want this vid like bread. For realz. I don't even care that you mean it in a totally different way than I'll probably take it. :D

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

So, you have utterly no idea who I am, but I followed veni_vidi_vids link to your BSG rec and was in for a pleasant surprise. Because O HAI THAR FELLOW TEACHER-IN-KOREA.

I'm sorry to hear about the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day, and yeah, my pipes froze last night, too. It's been a nice change from the swimming pool my bathroom turns into every time I take a shower because the drain won't work. Brett, the other American teacher at my school, hasn't had water in days - he's usually over at my apartment every morning, shaving into my sink. And ohgod, the permanent marker thing is why I refuse to let any of my little monsters touch anything but pencils and dry-erase markers. Because my first week, they drew all over the tables in permanent marker and my director was not a happy camper.

So, thanks for the rec, and I hope today's looking better than yesterday did.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

HELLO!

Nice to know it's not just happening to us, and at least we aren't in a situation as bad as poor Brett! We have the swimming pool bathroom problem too - I think it's because they basically have open drains here so they get clogged with hair and all sorts. We have to dump bleach down the drain like all the damn time to stop the whole place from flooding. :/

Today was better and thanks for the good thoughts, but Tuesday (the day after this day) was pretty awful too. I got told that, the class of first graders I have to entertain for forty minutes with one page, which has, if I'm lucky, 6 lines of dialogue, shouldn't draw as an activity. I'm already not allowed to play games with them. I have no fucking clue what I'm supposed to do with them now. *sigh* /whinging.

The permanent marker thing was actually largely frustrating because it wasn't even my error! Some OTHER teacher left a permanent marker in the room which, to be fair, for some reason looked just like a dry-erase marker. So this kid who I cannot break of the habit of grabbing my dry-erase markers just...grabbed that one instead. I didn't even notice it was in the little groove in front of the white board until it was TOO LATE ZOMG. Srsly, you think that kid'd be too nervous to try it again, but no, she's still sneaking off as soon as my attention is on another kid and trying to draw things on the board.

Anyway, NICE TO MEET YOU FELLOW-TEACHER-IN-KOREA and I hope you enjoy the vid. :)

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

Luckily, Brett's water is back on, and he can go back to shaving in his own bathroom. :P I think you're right about the drains getting clogged - I'll have to pick up some bleach assuming I ever get to E-mart or Dong-A this week (I've been so beyond tired I've just been crashing after teaching).

. . . wait, WHAT? They won't let them draw or play games? That's like, half of the teaching advice I got here - if all else fails, make them draw or write what they're trying to say and use games as a reward. I don't know WHAT I'd do with my kindergardeners without "Simon Says" or "Red Light, Green Light". Whinge all you like, because I'd be doing the same thing - are you supposed to just drill them all the time? They'll never respond to that, not if they're in kindergarden.

Oh boy. I think the marker thing is slightly hilarious because at my school, we've got the dry-erase ones all over the place, and my older kids will draw on the board between periods for me to come in and find. We keep the permanent ones locked up tight precisely for reasons like that - some kid will draw all over things with them.

NICE TO MEET YOU, TOO. :P Where are you teaching, currently? I'm a month into my first job, teaching in a haegwon in Daegu.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

OMG your icon. How true.

Me and my husband are in Incheon, near Seoul. It's our first year doing this too. We've been here for five and a half months, so nearly halfway, assuming we make it that far since I think the economy and a new hagwon that just opened and stole half our students might tank this sucker. *worries*

I am allowed to draw and play games with other classes. Why not this one, I have no idea. I think it's because I have a problem kid in the class who, when he loses, sometimes hits people or screams or, whatever, though I have no idea where this drawing edict came down from. They photocopy work sheets because they can't be arsed to make them proper books, and suddenly it's my job to make sure they don't draw on the backs in the five minutes at the end of class when all we're doing is playing (now apparently illegal) hangman? Like you say, these kids are six and seven years old. *flails*

Basically I do still play some games with them, I just try to keep it on the QT and not play ones where there's a "you suck, you lose, loser!" aspect to it. Like hangman. But really, I have no idea what they expect me to do. I wish there were something basic like a supply of LINED PAPER so I could get them to practice their writing since it's so awful, but even that, is, apparently, too much to ask for. Their lined workbooks are only for the Korean teachers to use. 9_9

I WISH WE HAD AS MANY DRY ERASE MARKERS AS YOU. We have to keep track of our own, and if you lose one, GOOD LUCK ever finding another.

To be honest, I don't like playing Simon Says because I can never think of good things to make them do and it never lasts that long, and Red Light Green Light I haven't even heard of!

But one game that an ex-TEFL teacher told me about that they seem to enjoy is a big version of tic-tac-toe. I use a four-by-five square and every three-in-a-row is worth one point, so when they've filled out the grid, one team wins. They seem to enjoy it and you can let them choose what team they want to be instead of "X" and "O", so you end up with "100 Sharks" team and "$" team and stuff. If you make each student answer a question or spell a word before his/her go it can really eat up time.

Also I find spelling tests are fairly good ways to waste time and not feel I'm failing totally in my educational duties.

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

Avenue Q does NOT lie. The song is my ringtone, too - at least, it was on my phone from home. My ringtone now is this awesome jazz song.

*cheerleads* Halfway done! You have survived for five and a half months! Go you guys!

Augh, I hear you on the economy and tuition-related stuff. My school has thankfully been open for a year and a half (even before I got there) and we're circumventing funding issues by opening more kindergarden classes, so we offer a regular school program and a kindergarden program. This month has been the first of the K classes, which are eaaaaarly in the morning and kicking my butt to teach.

I can see why you might need to tailor your teaching methods to this problem kid, but frankly, we have the same thing in the main kindergarden class. James runs around, kicks, screams, and wrestles the entire time, and really, the best thing we've found is to have Brett, Park or Minh (two of the security guys/drivers) pick him up in a football carry until he's calm, and continue teaching. If I had more of a height advantage, I'd carry him myself. He just seems to react the best to being unequivocally convinced that he's not going to get away with misbehaving.

Ohhh, hangman. God bless hangman - it has already saved a few class periods, and I've just started. I will definitely have to try out the tic-tac-toe variant you mentioned - my gang likes the original version, but it gets old fast.

The dry-erase markers are more prevalent than paper, I swear to god. It's insane. Except half the markers have been used up, so you go to write down vocab and you have to run out and find a new one and hope they don't go bonkers in the room before you get back.

"Simon Says" I usually reserve for my low-level comp kids. I can think of enough things to keep them occupied, and it helps them learn left from right, the names of body parts, etc. "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" (complete with actions, or it's useless) is another favorite of my younger kids. And OMG, "Red Light, Green Light" is so much fun! You can't use it in a class with a ton of kids, because they'll start shoving matches, but basically, whoever is "captain" stands at the front of the room with their back turned. The kids line up, and when the captain says "green light", they're allowed to take one step forward. If the captain says "red light", they can't move. If the captain turns around and catches someone moving on a red light, that person has to go back to the starting line. My first-graders adore it.

Unfortunately, I can't time-waste with spelling tests - we have scheduled ones, and they'll throw a fit if you test them on a day when they aren't supposed to have a test. I usually end up doing pronounciation and vocab, or having them do informal writing practice. "Write me five words that begin with the letter P", or something.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

My school has been open for like a gabillion years (at least six), and it's part of one of the biggest english language school franchises in south korea apparently (though you wouldn't know it from the unprofessional way it's run: I think franchise is the operative word here) so it should have been pretty stable. :/ Which is why I'm kind of worried that they're in trouble.

We already have a fulltime kindergarden program, I teach two classes a day. And yes, we have a kid who wrestles, kicks, screams and broke my glasses so I'm now wearing a spare pair.

The problem I have with these two problem kids (the second kid is actually not still in kindergarten, it's first grade), is that no one backs me up in dealing with them. We don't have burly security guards to carry them, and while I physically DO pick them up and remove them when things get too difficult, all the teachers are in other classes, and if I put him outside, he continually flings himself at the door. If I leave him with the desk teacher, she eventually brings him back in for some reason, and just... Like they say things like, "If he's bad just give him to the desk teacher," but the reality is, it doesn't work and I get looked at like, "Why can't you control him?" even though no one can. Like it takes two of us to manhandle him when he's being really difficult, and it totally disrupts the class, and apparently, "Do not let him be in my class," is not an option.

It's because this place is a business not a school. They hate having to phone the parents and tell them there's an issue with their kid because they're scared the parent will just take the kid out of the school. So they'd rather keep throwing him at me and refusing to help me with him because I'm less likely to walk away and take their money.

The other kid - in the class I can't draw with now - I actually can handle him much better, which is why I'm frustrated. All the times when he's misbehaved REALLY badly, like hitting someone, have been in the breaks between classes when frankly, my chain of custody is over with. I have somewhere else I need to be going to. I agree we need to deal with him somehow, but removing ALL FUN WAYS OF LEARNING for EVERYONE IN THE CLASS because he's a little git is...not helpful. But endemic of the way things get handled here. :/

I think that's my major issue. I'm slowly realising that if I say, "I have a problem with X," what everyone hears is, "I have failed at something because I am stupid, please help me."

Possibly I'm just having a really, really bad few weeks (and I think that really is a lot of it) as is everyone else at the school, but...I also think there's some truth to that.

I DO ACTUALLY KNOW THAT GAME NOW! Only we used to play "light house," and the "captain" stood at the light switch and the students could move when the light was out, but when it was on, they had to freeze. The problem with these games or running games, etc., is that our classrooms are tiny. There's an oval table for the kids and maybe a foot and a half of clear space either side of it before you hit either the wall or bookshelves. It's awful. And the table is so big I can't move it out of the way either.

My kids flipped out a little at first with the spelling tests, but I managed to explain it was "just for practice," and now they're a lot calmer about it. I mean, they don't like it, but they accept it and seem to try. So, I consider that a success. Writing practice, as I said, is difficult without lined paper, but "write me X words," is more workable, I think. I may have to try that.

[cyborganize.livejournal.com]

WAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

I am also cranky. but you totally win. *hugs*

I'm SO NOT READY FOR FRIDAY.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Hooray! I win the miserable day competition! ...Hmm.

*hugs back*

I AM NOT READY FOR FRIDAY EITHER!