说风就是雨

上个学期我教一门网络编程的课，某天班上的一个学生到我的办公室来，说要征求我对于电子投票的看法。这学生似乎非常关心电子投票中的舞弊问题，不断询问投票软件是否“可能”出现欺诈的成分。不论是从常识或技术层面而言，没有人能排除软件中可能存有漏洞而导致错误，所以“欺诈”是可能的，我这么回答。



第二天，几个“亲学生”的网站就刊登了一篇“专访”——马大讲师反对在校园选举时使用电子投票。



后来，这批反对电子投票的学生打算在一月一日当天举办一场探讨电子投票的论坛，就发来电邮邀请我担任主讲人。由于一月一日当天我要出席一个同事的婚宴，便拒绝了这些学生的邀请。



后来，论坛的海报出来了，我竟然是其中一名主讲人。我发了电邮给相关的学生，要他们改正，然而不见海报上有任何更动。



再后来，又有几则新闻出来了。一则说我尚在考虑要不要成为主讲人，另一则说我“打消”了成为主讲人的念头，其中还有猜测我“改变主意”是因为某方面施压的结果。


政治就是这么一回事，哪怕只是校园政治。

泡沫雪花

城中一家商场为庆祝圣诞而搞的噱头是“下雪”。我们几个大人带着小孩也去凑热闹。雪花飘下时，远看倒相当逼真，当雪花掉在身上，才发现原来是泡沫，而且还带着清洁剂的味道。这个人工雪花的“美”果然像泡沫那么虚幻，很快就戮破了。

无奈

妍妍近来喜欢，不，应该是“坚持”睡在爸爸和妈妈之间，以便她可以“左拥右抱”。

一天晚上，爸爸趁她睡着后，把她抱起来，想把她放到自己的床去睡。她睁开眼睛，迷茫地望着爸爸，好像在问“你要带我去哪里？”

在离开她的床还有两三步的时候，妍妍似乎意识到爸爸的企图，张口哭了起来。

结果，爸爸只好很无奈地投降了。

三代同堂

上个月去参加一个专业认证课程，在一群学员中认出一张似熟悉又有点陌生的脸。忍不住上前问他：“你是Dr. K吗？”对方点头说是。果然是当年念本科时的讲师，算一算，已经10年没见过他了。他说，他常在不同的场合遇见当年的学生，那种感觉很好，只是往往都是学生先认出老师。

第二天早上的茶点时间，一位学员走过来问我：“你是马大的讲师吗？”
“是。”
“你记得你教过我吗？”
“哪一门课呀？”
“Software Architecture。”
“哦！02年的，不太有印象了。当年我没有‘肥佬’你吧？”
“没有，我还考得挺好的。”
“谢天谢地！”

“三代同堂”的故事就这样不经意的发生在这城市的某个角落。

Ridiculous Comments

In each semester, students will do a course and teaching evaluation which allows them to evaluate every course they are taking in that particular semester. The students will have a chance to give feedback on how satisfied they are with the course, the lecturer who conducts the course, teaching and learning facility for the course, and their overall satisfaction. Basically, the students will fill in an online questionnaire for the evaluation. As for most questionnaire surveys, the students can give additional comments.

Very few students provide additional comments. Nevertheless, it is still a good chance for them to express their opinions and for me to know their views better. Normally, those who give comments just put down something very general like "make it easy to us", "OK", "need more examples" , etc. Even though quite "abstract", these comments do give me some hints on how to improve the course content and my teaching style as well as facility provided.

This semester, I was annoyed by two of the comments:

"Lecturer does not give feedback on students performance individually. And also reluctant to discuss students mark saying its confidential."

I have about 180 students in the class and still the student expected me to give feedback on individual performance? The marks are confidential - that is a fact, not an excuse that I made. Anyway, I attribute this problem to the student's ignorance .

The next comment is ridiculous:

"Hi you should do thing like labs and activities not only slides from the internet english should be the media(u)m of com. shame on um"

There was one lab session and a tutorial session every week. I didn't use slides in the class, let alone slides from the internet. English has been used as the medium of instruction since some years ago. What was the student trying to say? This is definitely not ignorance, it is stupidity.

求之三

Java is a case-sensitive programming language, which means it differentiates lower case letters from upper case letters. While marking an exam answer script for a Java-based course some days ago, I came across this statement:

My small letter sometimes look like capital letter. This will not happen if I use computer.

I think my students are getting more creative in avoiding losing marks in their exam nowadays. Apart from writing something on their answer scripts, one student even sent me an e-card with this message:


Dear Lecturer,
I am a student from Faculty of Science Computer & Information Technology.
I would like to thank you for teaching me this semester.
I am so excited because this is my last semester for all subjects!
I am going for interview for software engineer job at the telecom(m)unicat(i)on firm!
Thank you so much for every lesson U hav(e) taught me!
Than(k)s for being the most sporting, dedicated and fun lecturer!
Hope that I will always remember and apply all the lessons from U!
Hope I can score pointer 3.5 above for the last time and impressed the interviewers!
Lastly, All The Best For Us!

A few days later, the student sent me another e-card with similar message. If I could deduct the student's marks for such "harassment", I think I would. However, I couldn't :(

Then I came across another message:

Hopefully I can make it this time.

(signature)

Obviously, this is a repeating student. Luckily, the student did quite well this time.

Nevertheless, as usual, there are some funny messages appear on the answer booklets. For example:

P/S: I am really sorry, I know what to do for each question, but I don't remember the coding.

蛇鼠一窝

我星期二傍晚有教课，偶尔会听到课室天花板上有物体移动的声音，不过一直以来都相安无事。

昨天，那声音又响起，然后就有一团灰褐色的东西从天花板上掉了下来，落在课室前的桌子。一只好大的老鼠出现在那儿，用戒惧的眼神望着我，伺机而动。班上一下子骚动起来，一个学生站起来试图把老鼠赶走；另外两个坐在靠近老鼠落下位置的学生，早已吓得尖声大叫；其他坐在后面的学生也立刻起身，以防老鼠“袭击”他们。然后，其中一个学生发一声喊，冲出课室。老鼠也“咻”地跳下桌子，钻到角落的一堆椅子底下。一场“骚乱”才逐渐平息。

老鼠怎会掉下来呢？原来是冷气机的排气管漏水，为免水积聚在天花板上而把天花板压塌，漏水处的那一片天花板就被移开了。结果天花板没塌下来，倒是老鼠从天花板的那一个洞掉了下来。这阴差阳错的因果关系还真有趣。

好了，题目上的“蛇鼠一窝”又是怎么一回事？

上个星期，我的同事和保安人员就在学院的范围内，抓到一条大蟒蛇。所以你看，这不是蛇鼠一窝之地吗？

如释重负

2009年3月20日，己丑年二月廿三，傍晚7点09分，电话那头宣布了期待已久的答案。回首，走过这段长长征途的脚步虽重，却怎么也不比心里的压力来得重。今天刚好是春分，但愿也是自己一个新季节的开始。

酷·哭

这个小孩，有时很酷……

有时让你想哭……

十天

过去的十天，妈妈不在。除了周日的白天，爸爸得独自照顾妍妍：冲凉、喂奶、喂米糊、换尿布、“如厕”、哄睡觉、陪玩耍。感谢妍妍的配合，让爸爸在疼你之余，也有被你疼爱的感觉。感谢上天的恩赐，让爸爸有妍相伴，在被郁闷的情绪压得就快透不过气时，还有一些慰藉。

将来你长大了，或许不会记得这些片段。爸爸也不知道，能疼你到什么时候，或许到时你还会嫌爸爸烦，一颗心就向着爸爸的假想敌。然而，爸爸珍惜过去与现在和你在一起的每一天。

突然间，一丝伤感在快乐中升起……是爸爸想太多了吗？

Student Protesters

Can you ever imagined this was an email sent to departmental staff and students by the head of a university department? (Some details are hidden so that the department's identity is not unveiled.)

***********************************************************************************
We currently have a group of student protesters occupying Level 5 of (name of a building). They are protesting about our involvement in military research. See (a URL).

I have been advised by security that they are not violent or destructive and we should just let them occupy level 5 and allow them to access toilet facilities on level 4. University security staff will be present at all times. The lift in (name of the building) will be out of use unless needed in an emergency.

If you receive an enquiry from the press about this occupation please refer them to (name of a person), Director of Corporate Communications: (phone number and email address)

Please do not do anything to provoke a hostile reaction.

Thanks,
(HoD)
***********************************************************************************

Well, this happens only in some countries, and definitely, not ours. Isn't this a good example on risk/crisis management?

信任与背叛

背叛信任是残酷的；
信任被背叛是悲痛的。
悲痛会化为冷漠的怀疑；
残酷了却还可以若无其事，那是厚颜，
如果还要恶人先告状，那简直是
无——————————————————————耻

突然想起这首诗

李商隐《锦瑟》

锦瑟无端五十弦，一弦一柱思华年。
庄生晓梦迷蝴蝶，望帝春心托杜鹃。
沧海月明珠有泪，蓝田日暖玉生烟。
此情可待成追忆，只是当时已惘然。