Last passenger on the bus.

I am the last passenger on the bus. I sit in the back seat in the right corner of the bus. Behind the driver. It is a Toyota 16 seater minibus. In Hong Kong there are tons of these racing across the whole territory taking people from place to place.

It is my chosen transport when I leave work to go home and sit here, writing on my iPad for this blog.

The bus is number 807 B and is on route from HOng along University station to Mak Pin roundabout in Sai Kung country park. That is in fact just one stop from our village. One stop and about 200 meters. Well, stop is not the right definition. Minibuses doesn't really have any stops as such, they stop everywhere a passenger wants to get on or get off.

I hope to get on this mini bus from Wu Kai Sha train station which is at the end of the Ma On Shan train line. The bus should depart from there every 15 minutes, so there I stand waiting and waiting. Sometimes 30 minutes. And no bus.

I am bored. And then I think and get ideas. Often I don't because I just want to get home and try to listen and hope to hear the characteristic low humming of one of the mini busses approaching. Is it the right one going the right way.

All of this will require a little more explanation.

There is two kinds of 807 minibuses and both operating from Hong Kong university station. One is my one, the 807 B, and then there is the other one, which is the 807 K. Like I said, my one - 807 B - Goes to and from my village. The other one - 807 K - from a much bigger village closer to what is the beginning of the “big town area” around the settlements from MA On Shan and down to Sha Tin.

Che Ha village, I think it this bigger village is called. Anyway. This bus is much more frequent than my one because there are much more people going there, but because of so many people living there and wanting to get there from the train at University station, they also take the 807 B bus, because it also passes that bigger village. If then the bus is full and nobody wants to get of at the station where I am waiting and needing a lift, the bus will surpass that stop as no seats are available and nobody wants to get of. Therefor, why should the driver then go in there?

For me, of corse, this is mega annoying. I could go all the way home with that bus, but many of the people sitting in it and filling it up, will only go maybe 3 or 4 stops further than this station, and then the bus will be empty all the way through the curves and the forest to my village and the roundabout at Mak Pin. But I am not in it. I. Fact no one is.

That is why I am sitting there now, all alone on the bus. Tonight I was lucky and some people wanted to get of at the train station where I wait for that bus, and then it had room for me. 3 stops later everybody else has got off, and there I sit, in the furthest back corner of the bus and the driver will take me very quick home to my village.  

Can you "hack" everything?

Normally we see hackers as unwanted individuals, and maybe rightly so.

But not so much more. The word hacking or to hack something has got a complete new meaning. Today we gladly talk about hacking our life's or "life hacks for kids" or hacking this piece of furniture and change this and that.

Hacking has become a trend washed ashore by the tsunami caused by the maker movement.

And mainly I see that as a good thing. Creativity and a value for manual skills have found its way back into our education and then hopeful later in to all areas of our society.

But, can you hack everything? Well, if you hack it then I guess you can. Or you can because you hack the language and hack just becomes another word for imitating, copying with modifications or simply inspiration.

This photo for instance. I say that I've hacked that.

 

My profession is maybe also a kind of hack as I have a title that sounds like this “Instructional Technology Coach”. This wasn't on any job description just 7 or 8 years back. And funny enough, maybe that isn't even my job any more or my title as now I am doing more coaching about "making" or even then "hacking", as that is a lot what I do, teaching students to look closer at the things in this world and see their parts.

Back to this photo then. The original I saw on huge billboards at Hong Kong international airport. They were advertising for the luxury bag brand "Coach". I really liked the design and as the hacker I am, I saw the opportunity to hack this and use it a bit ironic for myself and my colleagues and simple "hack" this design and use it for our website or our name cards.

An excerpt of my one hundred and one ideas...

Number 27:

Create a platform for student news agencies.

So why this idea?

I want to create authentic and engaging learning for students when they make "mock" news programs.

Example: our I&S department have a unit every year where the year 8's are creating this sort of news program. All sound and good and 21st century like. They have to have a local start, a regional story and a story with some international content.

Here comes the problems. The local story can be fine and they can make all shooting themselves and use (what they have of) media literacy to create that. The regional and the international stories is again something else entirely. Here they scan the big news agencies and tend to download some footage from YouTube to get footage and content. Yes they write the story and the narration, but is that engaging for them and is it authentic learning?

Nada. There's no agency and no empowerment and nothing that comes from the students own sphere and is still some adult things brought upon them.

They should be empowered to find their own stories about things they can relate to and are engaging for them and they should be encouraged to contact other students in countries and cities where some "breaking news” take place

And the one million dollar question?

How are they going to do that?

Well, like in the real world the news stations are relying on a bunch of different news agencies and bureaus that can provide them with footage and information from the burning points around the world. They pay for that and they pay to be able to use the footage and the stories provided by those agencies. (One of the perhaps most known is Reuters bureau).

 

However, this is not the only way. All news stations and agencies also participate in networks and are helping each other with footage and stories, so for example if something are happening in Argentina, not all TV stations has the founding to send a team there, so they collaborate with a local station and they provide the footage and background news.

We are now in 2016, we are 16 years into the 21st century and many - if not most- schools in the world can connect and collaborate via the world wide Internet. Many and again if not the most of schools have access to digital video and audio equipment and hopeful all -or at least many should have touched the skills called the 21st century skills whereas media literacy is one of them. This should mean that they in fact could provide footage and background information on news and stories in their town, region and country.

So basically the idea is that schools could start to play “news agencies” for each other and share footage for each other to use in "mock" news programs.

Say that our students in Hong Kong are creating a “mock” news program and they find that something they find interesting and feel like exploring are happening somewhere in India, they can then connect to students there and get background information and even interview and the students in India could provide relevant and authentic footage and share that using either google drive or some other cloud based sharing platform.

With this, you will empower young people and engage them in a real authentic learning experience because they are adopting real life workflows and communicating with real people who are like them about stories and themes that really interests them.

So the conclusion of idea no 27:

I am going to initiate our very own little RDC News Agency, Hong Kong and offer other schools in our network news stories and footage about news and stories from Hong Kong and maybe southern China.

Art- Photo -work & collage.

 

Artwork in progress.

Because I have decided that no one is ever looking at this site, I might as well post some of my so called artwork in progress.

 

Don't know yet what to call this so called "Sin Titulo" artwork.  

If you put a word after another word, it is called writing.

A long while ago I challenged my self to post one post of writing a day on this blog.

Now it is time to reflect.

I did keep it up for some time. Then came a long an nice summer holiday and I lost it.

Such holiday could have been the time and the quiet comfort to nurture such ambitions. New horizons every day. New inspiration, time and discipline, and purpose.

Purpose. Is the thing. Purpose!

What is the purpose of writing?

Well, to entertain, or?

What about educate?

No matter what, writing needs an audience and I don't think I have one.

So what is the purpose?

Is it just for my self and for my self esteem that I can say that I am disciplined enough to write 5000 characters every day to post to a blog that no one reads, or is it because I think I develop and become a better writer.

Maybe it is both.

But how do u know if I become a better writer when I don't get any feedback?

Maybe I should start to promote my blog with all this writing?

Do I dare. Have I got the - excuse my pardon- bullocks to do that?

Or I should change the subjects of my writing. Now I write obscure nothingness - a nice word I learned four years ago when I visited LA for the first time ever and there visited a museum of contemporary art. I liked it, however, someone had written in a review somewhere something like the gallery was “filled with a load of nothingnes”- a post it here on this blog that no one knows about or have completely forgotten because I stopped using it many many years ago.

At the beginning it was set up for a mediocre however charismatic amateur football team from Dresden Neustadt in Germany. Now I have hacked it for my exoteric writing project, and maybe I have done it because it is a safe place that none of my colleagues knows anything about and can't find because the title isn't in English.

Should anyone find it, it will be a coincident. And whoever should stumble upon it and read it, they won't know me and because they don't know me they might read it, but not care to give feedback.

Should I then change my subjects to something professional and then promote my writing via Twitter and that way maybe be able to guide a couple readers to my writing?

But what if they discover all this crap and then can't take that serious that I want them to take serious?

Ok, then I delete all of this stuff and start all over with new content.

What a shame that will be. Or?  

Italian gesture and digital addiction.

If I were an Italian man, I would probably do the “what the fuck are you trying to do to me” gesture and face right now.

The reason: well, now for instance, I am writing this in a wee book by hand, using a pen like in the good olden days and that is fine. Even that I am in a group and we we are sitting in a restaurant resting our stomachs after having lunch, however, I am completely in my own thoughts writing this. I am not communicating or even really listening to anyone in the group as I am scribbling away with my pen in my little book.

It is fine though, it seems. No one -not even my tai tai- is mentioning anything about me being rude, not even blaming me for being antisocial or being a participant in the group discussions or being entertaining.

Now, if I took out my phone and started to write my stuff digitally or do some picture editing, I would be accused of being an addict to digital technology and be out of balance with my digital - non digital life and be pinpointed as being antisocial.

So if you can imagine me doing that Italian gesture, then here it comes.  

Sham Sui Po district in Hong Kong

 

How on earth....?

Have spend the last couple of hours reading some new research about MakersEd that I need to read for a Harvard Course I am taking.

And I can't remember a single thing. Well, I can remember some bits and pieces, mostly because I highlighted those bits, copied them and made some kind of connection with that content. But that's it. I can't really tell what I've been reading.

I remember this phenomenon from back in time when I was studying at university. Non fictional academically text just pass through my brain. It's like my brain cannot take any of it serious and therefore nothing get stuck. It is like it can net engage with those BIG words and complicated sentences. Maybe that is why I too make so complicated sentences.

What am I supposed to do with this or what can I do?

I want to do this course and the subject is very interesting and extremely important to me and to all learners around the world. How am I to do a good job with this course if I cannot remember shit I read about it?

Are there any kind of reading exercises or clever strategies for a person like me. It is like my mind just explodes into a huge mind map and a single word I pick up suddenly leads me to be thinking about everything else than the text.

Then I stop and try to concentrate. Then I go back a few sentences and start all over in the hope that I will recognise a little bit of what I've read. But nothing.

It is scary. Anyone out there with the same feeling or anyone who could give me a suggestion what I could do about it?

Is it my mindset maybe? Can it be that I have a fixed mindset that dictates me that I cannot complete this course as I cannot read those bloody texts?

Maybe that's it? How on earth am I then going to get through a course like that and much worse, how am I going to be able to function as a coach for MakersEd when I can't formulate one single clever sentence about it or link back to some of the research that's done into it?

So, clever people ou there, what can I do about that?  

Did I save Ricky the Cat?

 

There is more than 50 something different kinds of snakes living in the wild here in Hong Kong and because it is so densely populated, many of these snakes cross path with humans and the pets of humans, every single day.

One of the most common snakes is the Bamboo Pit Viper. It is also one of the most venomous.

And I think we've got one in our village, hiding during the day and hunting in the night. 

So that should be fine, in the night we all sleep and it can have its peace.

Yes, all we humans sleep, but what about our village cat Ricky, he doesn't sleep and worst of all, he is kind of fearless -or is he just simply stupid.

Here is the story of that night I think I might have saved his life.

It was a Friday evening and we had been out being a wee bit social with some colleagues. As we came home and entered our village close to midnight, Ricky the village cat was there on one of the path's running through our part of the village.

Normally he would meow as loudly and as judgemental as he possible can. Something that sounds like: " Aha, there you are. Where have you been so long? My tummy is screaming for food as I haven't had any since I hysterically meowed at you this morning and frenetically meowed at the lady next door at lunch and then again as I saw her at teatime?"

But that night he didn't. 

He was not on the path we normally take to our house. He was at one a bit lover down than ours. At a certain point when we enter the village the path decides into two and one goes our way and the other down some stairs and along a stone wall to a row of houses lower down. He was just there, down the stairs and he was focuses on something on the stone wall. Not only focuses. He was like hypnotised. Like Bagheera, the black panther, from the jungle book when he meets Kaa.

He was just starring at something at the wall with huge pitch black eyes.

"I think there is a snake there and he is fixated on it. I'm afraid it is going to bite him".

And then we both saw it on the wall, hidden between the vegetation we could make outs its green body and head. The head of it was already raised and its mouth open and it was just waiting for him to come too close. He kept a distance to it. 

I moved down the stairs and got closer and could now see the snake clearly. And it wasn't happy. 

That night I was wearing long trousers and desert boots, so first I tried to see if I could scare that stupid cat away by stamping hard in the ground, but no such luck.

He was in the zone and got closer. In that moment the snake shot out at him the first time, as a kind of warning. He retreated a bit and I saw my chance to gentle kick him backwards with my boot, move after and grab him with both hands and hold him as tight as I could to my chest and jump up the stairs out of the reach of that snake. 

That moved confused and surprised a bit and and he kept still in my tight grip. The snake was swinging back and forth on the wall, then released it self from the wall and plummeted to the ground to move as fast as possible the couple of meters on the path and down into the safety of a drain, and then it was gone.

Realising that, the cat started to wrickle himself free and got out his razor sharp claws and made me feel that he wouldn't take this anymore, he wanted to get out of my arms and down and after that snake and I had to let him go. 

But the snake was gone and he was alive. 

Have been thinking of that snake ever since, and if there is some days where I do not see our village cat, I just hope that he hasn't found it again and tried his luck. 

But most of all I hope the snake has moved away and found somewhere else to live than so close to humans, because I am sure if they find it, they will not think that has the right to be there and will kill it. That I just want to avoid. 

So please mr or Mrs bamboo pit viper (or what ever you are), for your own sake, please move away from areas dominated by the human race.

And the Ricky the cat. Please leave snakes alone.

Lost in instant gratification

"Redrum, redrum, redrum.

No joy makes Jake a dull boy.

That was some of the most memorable words from Stephen Kings famous novel "The Shinning".

A young writer and his family drives all the way up to a mountain hotel to act like caretakers for a winter when the hotel is closed down.

He thinks and hopes to use the isolation for a breakthrough in his writing and his wife and young son just wants time to relax and bond.

Great expectations.

And - as we know- everything went completely bonkers.

In Sofia Coppola's film "Lost in Translation" it is a young girl who is isolated in a hotel room in Tokyo, and from there her life takes another direction than the one she and her self-important high society photographer husband could expect by their interim meeting with the Japanese metropole.

We have a long weekend -Friday, Saturday and Sunday- and are going to stay at a hotel. We are not going anywhere far and not anything fancy or exotic, really, and yet it could be. 

That's not the point, the point is that I'm mostly going to be in this hotel all on my own during the day, because my tai tai has admitted herself to a PYP course of some sort, and this has led to a three night stay at some hotel in Aberdeen. 

Not the Scottish Aberdeen 10000 miles away. No, this Aberdeen is the one just here around the next many many corners, on the south side of Hong Kong island. There I am going to fart off the rent for all three days and nights, and maybe do some writing and doodling and other things to do when nothing else is demanded. Watch football on the tellie, films, read books and wonder around.

So, that's basically it. Let us see if I'm going to do what I want the most or just do what I want now? As in "procrastination", and let us see if I am going bonkers like the good ol' Jack did it in the Shinning?