Logga in   
Swedish

school

31 August 2010

#244 Bring a lunch box

Bringing your own food also invites creative solutions.

Bringing your own food also invites creative solutions.

To this day I still have major problems with eating crumbed fish. I blame the lunch ladies I had in high school. It is their fault that I can’t look at a fish stick without feeling my gag reflex starting to bounce in my throat. I can’t even think of a bread crumbed cod without recoiling into the fetal position.

Even though they were disgustingly cooked and served without passion, neither I nor my classmates ever thought of taking our own food to school. Every now and then I spent my allowance on pizza or buns from the supermarket. Instead I should have had lunch boxes and brought food from home. I should have taken a piece of yesterday's dinner, or even put myself to work and cooked a good omelet or a stew.

But you learn from your mistakes. I would never eat crumbed fish in a school today no matter where I am. I always have a lunchbox with me in case it happens.

Required time: 
1 day or less
Cost: 
Less than €10
Cons: 
The staff in the dining room can take it personally when you set the table with candles, fancy cutlery and your own food.
Pros: 
You won’t have to eat disgusting food.
Taggar: seven things you can do at your school, school, pasta, lunch box, gag reflex, breaded fish, 365 things
11 August 2010

#224 Revive the slide projector

Pecha Kucha is only one use for a slide projector. Image: Pecha Kucha GBG

Pecha Kucha is only one use for a slide projector. Image: Pecha Kucha GBG

The concept is simple: a slide projector, 20 photos and 20 seconds for each image. The person talking chooses the pictures and what he or she wants to say.

This is what happens when Pecha Kucha, a worldwide network of creative people, invite people to one of their gigs. Designers, architects, journalists and artists have visited their meetings and spoken about themselves or their projects. Pecha Kucha doesn’t just sound cool, it also means something: It’s Japanese for the sound of conversation.

But Pecha Kucha isn’t the only way to use a slide projector.

You can take it out around town, projecting your pictures on any wall, then it becomes a form of sweet art. You can arrange a trip down memory lane on a white wall in the kitchen. You can terrorize your colleagues or classmates with a big graph of sales, homework or just generally unnecessary facts. You can alter an entire image by letting your hands shade out some sections.

The best thing about a slide projector is that it’s easy to repair mistakes: Click, and everything is gone and isn’t anymore. You put a new slide into the slot and that reality will be quite different.

Required time: 
1 day or less.
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
It's quite expensive to develop photographs into slides. Be selective.
Pros: 
You can change the city with light and simple means. You get to hear from a lot of interesting people in a short time.
Taggar: sweet nature, slide projector, school, Pecha Kucha, interesting people, city information, 365 things you can do
1 April 2010

#90 Never take your hat off for anyone.

The next worst thing I know is when someone tells me what to do. The worst thing I know is when someone tells me what to do in an unpleasant way. I have therefore difficulty dealing with police officers, janitors, teachers, security guards, parents and bosses. I am therefore very pleased not being in school, not doing illegal things, not going out clubbing very often, not being five years old and not having a boss.

When I was a school in Nyköping with my band the other week the principal came up to me in the cafeteria. He didn’t say please, thank you or anything like how fun that you’ve come to play at my school. He pointed with his whole hand at me and said:

- Take off your hat.

What followed can be read on the blog at navid.gp.se and is a long history. But I can reveal that it ended with me not taking off my hat, and also calling him "a big asshole", walking out of there with my tray, and sitting down in the teachers' lounge instead. It was a much more pleasant atmosphere and there were no adult males around that felt a need to pee on the walls to mark their territory.

So.
Never take your hat off.
For anyone.

Required time: 
One second to say no.
Cost: 
Perhaps a public scolding. Perhaps detention or being thrown out.
Cons: 
This person may become aggressive and totally red in the face. It can be an annoying atmosphere that follows you the rest of the day. You may be in a bad mood from the fight.
Pros: 
You learn to stand up for yourself, to not take any crap, to not do things because others say so. Stronger backbone. Better sleep.
Taggar: obstinate, hat, school, principal