Keep Calm and Carry On

Freedom Is In Peril. Defend It With All Your Might

Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory

and

Keep Calm and Carry On

I don't care much for propaganda and the organised public hysteria that is generated to support a war, but the impact of the words, the lettering, the style and layout are what draw my attention. The Keep Calm and Carry On poster, appeared in 1939 and was a series of three propaganda posters by the British Ministry of Information designed to garner support for the war. Click here to view a sample. The posters have now passed on into popular culture and just recently a version of this appeared* on my iPad. As such, the poster is the inspiration for today's post.  

 Tor_Khan تور خان

 Click here to customise your own version of this.

*courtesy of someone very dear

Ode to Serco

Schools, computers and student reporting, ha? A little ditty, I wrote and sent by email to a colleague. I mentioned SERCO, the supposed wonderful school management/student reporting system. All, in good humour, I hope, but summarises how educators under pressure are made to feel now and then.

Ode to Serco

SERCO's sometimes complex, sometimes it's all wrong.

Sometimes it’s just erratic, though I'm often told "Hold On!"

A little error nagged us, so Dave and I one night -

Stayed back a little longer, and we thought that fixed it right -

But the bug came back, the very next day

We thought there was no danger

The bug came back; was here to stay

And came back even stranger

5B and A were fixed, I thought

And 5C in its place

But when I looked at SERCO,

It laughed right back at my face.

"You thought you fixed me, didn't you?"

"You thought you'd make me tame?"

"You thought I'd just run out of tricks"

"But I've a better game."

"Try this - I have some random names"

"Try this, I have a class."

"That doesn't match to what you thought."

"I love a little laugh."

So, when I look to Numeracy, and see a list of names,

That's not to be, supposed to be, it's like a losing game.

So here I am, Dear Mr Jones, back to the square called one.

And whilst I hope, you liked this rhyme, reports are just not fun.

I’m hoping that you’ll tame this beast, that’s making life a pain

And next time when I write you Sir, my will is once again

Restored to where it ought to be, you know just what I mean

It’s hard to smile, be on good show, when deep inside you scream.

100 Silver Coins

Mullah Nasr-ed-Din Hodja set up a stall with a sign above it: 

Two Questions On Any Subject Answered For Only 100 Silver Coins.

A man passing by the stall who was troubled by matters to do with both family and business had two very urgent questions. He stopped, looked at the sign above Nasr-ed-Din and handed over his money, saying:

"A hundred silver coins is rather expensive for two questions, isn't it?"

"Yes," said Nasr-ed-Din, "and the next question, please?"



Read more Nasr-ed-Din stories here.

Aujhourd'hui

Aujhourd'hui

11.1.11

11

=
!

Hey Kitty ...

 

یو لوږی سپی یوه پیشو ګیره کړه او ورته یې وویل چې زه دې اوس خورم۰


پیشو ورته وویل چې پروا نکوم، زه نه ژوندونه لرم، بیرته ژوندئ کیږم۰
 
سپی ورته وویل چې زه یواځې نیم، زما اته نور انډیوالان هم راسره دي۰


ها۰ ها۰ ها۰

Oops! Nine Lives, huh? :)

Tor_Khan تور خان

cartoon inspiration from the work of Greg Williams as featured in blogjamcomic

Dancing Around The World

"14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Thanks to everyone who danced with me." Matt Harding.

I love this. In a world where there is much to lament about, I love the simple hope that this video conveys.

Featuring the vocals of Palbasha Siddique. Lyrics to the track "Praan" adapted from "Stream of Life", from the Gitanjali by Rabrindanath Tagore.

F Word

A quick test of observation. Read this sentence:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.


Count the Fs in this sentence aloud. IMPORTANT: Count them ONLY ONCE. DO NOT go back and count them again.

How many did you find?

The average person finds three of them. If you spotted four, you're above average. If you got five, you are very observant. If you caught six, you are a genius. There is no catch. Many people forget the OFs. The human brain tends to see them as Vs and not Fs.

Hexxagon

Play time!

Hexxagon made by Neave Games

Rotomania

Have Fun
Free Online Flash Games

Notice Something?

1. The mad boxer shot a quick, gloved jab at the jaw of his dizzy opponent.

2. The July sun caused a fragment of black pine wax to ooze on the velvet quilt.

3. A quart jar of oil mixed with zinc oxide makes a very bright paint.

4. Whenever the black fox jumped the squirrel gazed suspiciously.

5. Do you know that Lorenzo called off his trip to visit Mexico City just because they told him the conquistadores were gone?

Chicken and Egg

Killer Chickens

I don't often get near chickens and so don't know much about collecting eggs. Besides I'm not sure I should get that close because I hear that if one coughs or sneezes on you, it means you might need to find a doctor fairly sharpish. I prefer my eggs - albeit free-range - to come carefully picked by some else.

That said, I have a little soft spot for a game that hit the circuit around the mid 80s where dodging chickens and collecting eggs was precisely the objective. Home computers were new and perhaps not understood too well beyond the gaming possibilities. My father, had this opinion that video games were a distraction but somehow I did manage to persuade him that an investment in a computer was like an investment the future. Result? An Acorn Electron, like a reduced version of the popular BBC Microcomputer soon became a popular addition to the family.

The Birds

Anyway, whilst for my father, we needed to be seen to be copying up a Basic program from the manual that came with the computer (darn good training!), my brother and I did eventually stumble upon a whole bunch of games that were popular then - Blagger, Escape from Moonbase Alpha, Killer Gorilla and so on. But my favourite platform game was Chuckie Egg. You got to play a farmer who had to avoid killer ostriches (chickens in some versions?) and a later on a flying phantom duck, whilst running around the screen collecting up eggs. The killer birds sound rather Alfred Hitchcock, but you could bounce all over the screen and jump from the upper platforms. Your farmer character was a pretty resilient little fellow. It's quite simplistic on reflection, but it sits honourably amongst the best of its time. One that brings back many memories ... 

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