Changing Fads

Remember in the past how we used to purchase countless 'Country rubbers'...
or those little erasers with the country's flag plastered over the front, and then
compete in trying to push your eraser on top of your opponent's eraser to win?
If you were playing 'real', the loser's eraser would be yours. And at the end of
the day, you still could use your eraser for the function it was created for.

But after a brief period of about a decade, this humble game has evolved in the
greatest way that I could never have envisioned, playing 'Country rubber' those
years ago.

Let me guide you through the evolution process the eraser has undergone...

Here's a genuine specimen I seized from an inattentive pupil...

Looks like an ordinary, harmless 'country eraser' at face value eh...

But...never judge a book by its cover...


Tadah...a frankenstein's eraser from Spain...courtesy of primary school students.

What it actually is, if you don't get it, are staples driven into the eraser.
In the center are 2 staples bent in two to form a 'V' shape and stuck
perpendicularly into the eraser.
Why? You'll find out soon enough.


A good, 3-D peek at the 'project'

Look...there are even staples at the sides of the eraser.


And.......
Spinning in action...this is what the kids meant for it to do...

The V-shaped staples are meant to be the axis of this spinning thing...probably
something inspired by those Beyblade nonsense probably...
The staples inserted around the axis are meant to prevent the eraser from stopping
prematurely due to friction between the eraser and the table by preventing the eraser
from coming into contact with the table. Genius eh? If only they directed that creativity
into more productive means...


Watch it in turbo action.


They spin the erasers, hoping they collide, and the one whose eraser ceases to
rotate first is the loser. The engineering is impeccable...when the erasers spin, it
does so on the spot and doesn't move around and eventually fall off the table.

There you are. The transition from simply pushing the eraser to land atop another
eraser...to spinning erasers.
And to top it off, they can't use their erasers when they need them thanks to the
array of staples in the way, and end up having to beg and borrow erasers to
do corrections. -_-'


*********************************************

My observation was disasterous...I was told that if they had scored me I would have
failed terribly. Reason?

#1. Projector wasn't plugged in. Spent the better part of 20 minutes figuring out why
it wouldn't switch on....

#2. The video clip I planned to show them from L'Arc~en~Ciel's 'finale' didn't show up
on the screen...even though though the rest of the Windows Media Player appeared...
In the end, had to have them come forward to watch it on my tiny laptop screen.

#3. Lesson bloopers...like letting pupils leave for toilet breaks as and when they like,
picking a passage they considered too abstract for the students...etc.

*moanzz*


HHAAHAHHAHAHA!! Hippo juz called me to tell me that the small gas has gotten his
just desserts! HAHA! But all the no-evidence stuff was being covered up. Shit. Even so,
3 years of no bonus and 3 days of no pay gives some of the shit he used to dish on me
back to him WHERE IT BELONGS! Hah!
I'm going to celebrate it with everyone tomorrow!!!

Would you believe I taught mandarin yesterday? haha...pri 1...
*Riding hard, fast, AND taking a few corners...