Student "edition" found at {thoughts dot com slash typed no space out no space loud slash blog}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

We were supposed to stay here in the retreat house until lunch time of today. But apparently, the mission office got an email, which was forwarded to me also last Monday, that there will be an operations council later, at around 9am. So that's another reason now that I'm not going to be able to attend the supposed all day seminar about revising the syllabi.

@@ That paragraph earlier was written before we left the retreat house to go back to school. Now it's the end of the day and I have yet to finish this post, although in fairness I have a lot more material now.

@@ The extended operations council meeting lived up to it's name, extending until 2pm when it was supposed to have been only until 12 noon or 1pm at the latest. But there were a lot of concerns from the various offices that had to be addressed, and there were no shortcuts about them.

I only had two items on my update, not having been told that I had to prepare a report. But if in the last meeting of theirs that I attended I was asked for a report, I guess it's not just a year end thing but is a staple in all meetings.

My first concern was about placing a no parking sign at the smoking area, since the physical facilities office already brought up about there being 10 days until the speed limit signs for around the campus arrive.

The second was about the first activity of the students that I will have to disapprove, one not showcasing their achievements but only how much money daddy has that junior can spend on pimping his ride.

It excludes a big part of the student population, and at the same time doesn't target any of the ideal graduate attributes.

I brought it up at the meeting because I said that I anticipated that the students would go over my head and talk to the dean or the president about it. So I had to secure their blessing - somewhat - first.

@@ The new principal brought a lot to the table, which interestingly enough were mostly old concerns.

The only new topic he had was the need for advanced preparations for the Little Olympiad to be held in October.

There would be at least five provincial schools participating that have to be housed for four to five days.

There's even a proposal that all participants stay overnight in the school for one night, which means that more classrooms would have to be converted to dorms for that time, which thankfully they anticipated with our kids having no classes, which was why they started classes early.

@@ The physical facilities head also talked about a directive from the commission on higher education saying the school doesn't have to close down if there is a swine flu case confirmed (a rumor that had to be squelched after the announcement of continuance of classes was doubted), but in the procedure listed it says after the school doctor had met with the patient, then it could be decided to close the school.

I think it's just a case of unfortunate wording though, and it makes sense to me that it's up to the school discretion to close or not.

@@ One last announcement: I'm typing this up in a new computer that was brought to my office in school.

Session 2685 is wary of how much I can actually write about the upper echelon workings of the school. Class dismissed.