Tales of a Chemistry Teacher

OK, so my last post was a little optimistic.  I shall endeavour to try harder although... not now.

I do note that the last sentence was quite prophetic!

I cannot believe it is nearly 2 months since I last posted... useless.  Sorry all.  I might write a longer entry soon... in another 2 months perhaps!

Edward is grumpy...







... and so am I.

Nightmare observation tomorrow and no photocopier! Ahhhhh!  Must photocopy... must photocopy!

Why must the photocopiers at school be replaced at, perhaps, the busiest time of the year?  IT MAKES NOOOO SENSE!

On a different note, another science job has come up at my old school.... what a dilemma.

Why am I so tired this week?  Yet, unable to sleep :(

This holiday seems to be moving a-pace.  I can't keep up!  Not thinking about work at the moment but I will have to soon.  I have rather a large mountain of tests and coursework to mark... bugger.

Off to Thame today.  S says I need a hair cut, hmm...

Then to Pierre Victoire in Oxford for dinner.  Yum!  I love that restaurant.  Real French fare.  Lovely!

I realise I have not written for a very long time.  I have been thinking about doing this for a while.  I have been poorly again and I have not wanted to do anything - I have become somewhat reclusive.

I joined LoveFilm.  A friend of mine gave me a 3 month free trial - excellent.  So far, I have seen 300 and Transformers.  Both films I thoroughly enjoyed.  The laugh-inducing gore and sex scenes in 300 made me chuckle.  Not often you see a cheesy, not-to-be-taken-too-seriously epic!  For a film which was spawned from the world of comic books and cartoons, Transformers was actually pretty good too.  The storyline, although far-fetched, was well written.

I've been reading Sovereign by C.J. Samson and although I've only read about a fifth of it, it's got me hooked.  It's very well written and the characters are interesting.

I hope this holiday doesn't go too quickly - I need the time to reflect on things and make important decisions.

Well, there you go really.  Not much else to say at the moment.  Enjoy!

OK, so have felt crap again this week.  I'm getting  bit fed up with catching every illness that seems to pass my way.  Totally ruined S's first Mother's Day.  I felt fine in the morning and up to lunchtime.  We had our lovely lunch and then it suddenly hit me.  I spent the rest of the day laid up feeling awful.  I haven't really felt better since.

Having been off work, I have watched a lot of Frasier.  I do love that programme.  So lovably pretentious - if only I had his money!

I don't really have much to say at the moment - I'll try to find something profound to speak about.

I realise it has been a while since my last post.  It has been a bit frantic in the last week and a half.

I don't really have much to say because although I have been busy, it has all been rather mundane and I've not really been out (ahh).

I played World of Warcraft a lot this weekend and got my character up to level 33 - how dull and particularly uninteresting for everyone else!

Well, what a great couple of weeks.  I've really enjoyed the holiday this year.

I went to the cinema with a couple of friends this evening to see I Am Legend.  I have to say that although not entirely satisfied with the premise, I could certainly appreciate it as a good film.  It's not the sort of film I would usually watch as there was a bit too much suspense for me.

There are some spoilers in this paragraph so please be warned!  I want to just outline a couple of problems I have with the film.  I can already hear waltzingmonkey's eyes rolling!  My first problem is with the science.  Now, you know, dear reader, that I am a chemist, not a viral biologist but I cannot believe that the Measles virus can be rewritten as a 'good' virus to kill cancer.  I also struggle with the idea that this virus mutates and either you are immune to it, or it kills you, or you become a 'Darkseeker' (i.e. a vampire).  It will have no effect, or one effect - not a choice of three.

Another aspect of the virus and its spread was the speed with which this happened.  If (as the film states) there are only 12 million immune people on the planet (that's 0.2% - not 1% as the film states) then there would have been 3000 people immune on Manhatten Island (assuming that the 2000 census figure of 1,500,000 people is taken), my question is: where did they all go?  Surely our protagonist would not have been alone for 3 years?  They couldn't all have been eaten?  3000 people?  Really?

And, was there really enough 'cure' in what looked like a 5ml vial of blood?  Surely it would have been used by now, to umm, cure perhaps?

Anyway, they were my main problems with the scientific premise of the film.  I know I should learn to look the other way but I find it difficult to ignore bad science and reasoning.

No doubt this post will be edited as I think of more ways this film annoyed me.  I know I'm being a bit hard on it - I did enjoy it, but realistic?  No.

Also watched the film 'Perfume' on Sky last night - just three words to describe that film: what the f**k??

On a lighter note, I've started reading Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel 'Making Money' and it's rather good.  I've found a lot of his latest work a little dull and I thought the series began to lose its way but he seems to have brought it back on track for this novel.  It was very sad to hear the news that he has early stage Alzheimer's disease - a horrible illness.

I just realised that the last paragraph was supposed to be on a 'lighter note' hmm... that didn't work did it... ahh well.