Being TGIF brainfried and anxious for Margarita Night at E’s, not to mention a little shook up by this really sad Mazzy Star song I’m listening to, I have decided to do this in point form.

1) Welcome to your local low-SES high school. Behaviour is an issue, to say the least.

2) I can hold my own, mostly because the children are so damn predictable.

3) Learn it one day, teach it the next. And we’re not just talking the chambers of the heart here: we’re talking addition and substitution reactions of alkanes, alkenes, alkynes and benzene with hydrogen, halogens and hydrohalic acids, including the Markownikoff rule for determining the dominant isomer product. I think I deserve to brag about that.

4) It’s interesting to compare the students at my low-SES school to those at the super-exxy private school where I did my last prac. The difference in ability noticeable, especially when it comes to literacy, but still not as great as you might expect. The difference in social skills and task-orientation, on the other hand, is massive. Seriously, alarmingly massive. If I were the sort of person who cared, I would be sad and angry, and I would blame myself. But I’m not that sort of person.

Checking to see if the back of your hair is even. Yesterday I realised that I had major hair evenness issues and had to stand in front of the mirror with my shaver in one hand and another tiny mirror in the other hand. I came close to giving myself an inverse mohawk at one point, but I think I did pretty good.

Speaking of photos, I had to submit one with a job application yesterday. They actually asked for a photo, would you believe? Of course, it was lucky I chose not to send this one:

It’s not just that I have dodgy hair. If you look in the background, you may recognise the picture on my computer. Yes, it’s Chuck Norris standing in front of the American flag with a machine gun in each hand. I know you’re supposed to present a conservative image to prospective employers, but that’s just the wrong kind of conservative.

In case you haven’t seen it, this is the literal video version of Total Eclipse of the Heart. I never realised there were so many dangling balls and twirling ninjas in that video.

So, what went on this week? Well, I had a cold and that sucked, but it’s pretty much gone now. I’m just left with a headache. Which reminds me - for some reason, everywhere I went this week I noticed people coughing. Other students at uni, people on the bus, dudes walking down the street, et cetera. Do you notice these things more when you have a cough yourself, or did everyone in Perth suddenly get sick this week?

Uni is crap. The classes are boring and feel less relevant than ever. Sometimes I can’t even work out what they’re trying to teach us. On the plus side, prac starts in a week and that will be more fun. I also put in a job application yesterday and I’ll surprised if I don’t get an interview out of it - it’s a philosophy teaching job so the PhD should at least get me some serious consideration. Hopefully I can then bluff my way through the bit where I have to convince them I’m a decent teacher. Mind you, I’m not sure I even want the job. I’m going for it because it will pay well and it’s a high-status position, but perhaps I would be better off spending some time relief teaching. I could do some of the other stuff that I’m always too lazy to do, like travel. Besides, it still feels like I haven’t completely left ‘PhD completion mode’ and I’m running short on interests, aspirations, personality traits and so on. I ought to go and find some of those. Is there a store?