On a technological note, I will order another Radeon HD4850 and 2xKingston DDR2 800Mhz 2GB Ram and take them home on the plane. This will give my computer a boost to it’s life span, and gives me redundancy if one of the graphics cards dies. My Flickr pro account expired, and I’m back to the limit of 100MB / month. I’ve got a huge backlog of stuff to upload, so this is a bit of a stumbling block for me. Zooomr has now become my default backup solution for photos. With regards to website hosting, I’ll be switching from Rimu-hosting to Media temple in the coming new year, as I’ll have the time and money to support the inevitable problems that will entail.

• Hello and welcome to Twitter @elemarlop #

Please give details of a time when you have had to motivate yourself to achieve a personal goal.

What were you working to achieve?

Spending 4 years as a technical student and worker in London, I became less considerate about my fitness and health and according to my body mass index I was 15 Kgs overweight. I made a decision to correct the situation in both my body and attitude and wanted to work hard to achieve this change through exercise and dieting.

After university it was my plan to visit my girlfriend in China as we had previously only known each other on the internet. We decided that while I was in China, I should become a foreign oral English teacher as it suited the purpose of having enough free time and flexibility to make regular use of the gym. This goal had to operate in conjunction with contending with a new cultural and language environment, different food, an unfamiliar type of work and new circumstances in the relationship with my girlfriend.

How did you motivate yourself?

I dreamt about being thinner and not being so embarrassed when seeing pictures of myself. I chose equipment at the gym, such as the treadmills, that encouraged me to complete the allotted time and level of difficulty. A big influence for me to keep going was the idea of being responsible to my family and girlfriend and not wanting to disappoint them. I thought about how good it would be to be healthy, and having a good level of fitness and stamina.

I was greatly supported by my girlfriend to keep with the regiment of 6 gym visits per week. My days of rest became a source of inspiration for me to keep going as I began to value my time much more and using it more wisely. I also began to enjoy eating more and valuing the times when I ate my favourite foods.

What was the outcome?

The outcome was that I lost 15 kilos in 12 weeks, and going to the gym has become a regular part of my life. I am far more careful when I consider what I’m eating, and I have on the whole stopped drinking beer. Health is something that needs to be carefully considered and if there are any problems, it’s easier to be corrected sooner rather than later.

The most important thing that I’ve learnt is about how much can be achieved if you set your heart and mind on something, the difficulties can be overcome, even when emotionally it seems impossible. The support of a stable relationship and a loving family is also a powerful force, and if it is focused correctly, it can be very beneficial in one’s own life.

Please give details of a time when you have had to motivate yourself to achieve a personal goal.

What were you working to achieve?

While working as a foreign oral English teacher in China, I used my free time to work on some technical projects. One of the goals I have had for a while has been to set up a personal website at a domain name related to my own name and to host personalised domain email.

One of the major hurdles was overcoming the problems associated with living and working as an English teacher in China. I was away from a technical work environment and without the support of many similarly minded friends.

The level of internet connectivity available to me was also a problem as China employs various internet censorship technologies not least of which is the “Great Firewall of China”. There was also the problem of time management between handling my job, keeping fit and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

How did you motivate yourself?

I focused on my need to keep active in my major field of study and the potential benefits to increased knowledge and skill in the area of web technology. I felt that if I wanted to do well with technology in the future, I had to make time for it in my daily life.

I met and discussed problems with others in Dalian, both foreigners and local Chinese people. This allowed me to be not only inspired by them but also to achieve something valuable. A stable relationship was useful for supporting my out of work goals as time was a precious commodity.

I particularly relished and gained much satisfaction from solving problems particular to living here, as this was a time-limited situation, and I probably wouldn’t see similar ones when I return home. It provided me with a great opportunity to learn.

What was the outcome?

The task in itself is fundamentally quite simple as there are a number of automated – integrated systems available, but my aim wasn’t just implementation, but understanding how it all works, deciding my needs and finding the right solution. At first I attained a core understanding by setting up a WAMP environment (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP). As my understanding developed, the system that I decided was the best fit was a Linux based VPS (Virtualised Private Server) located in America.

My general knowledge of the web has really grown in different areas such as domains and DNS, and server maintenance, support and backup. I learnt much about pursuing personal goals in less than propitious circumstances, and prioritising various aspects of life that support my future aspirations.

Answer Offcuts

I’ve learnt about domains, DNS, Apache virtual hosts, Apache re-write rules, email hosting and routing, SSH, ftp, server authentication and access control, server maintenance (i.e. backups, package and system updates, firewall rules and monitoring logs), MySQL backups, and proxy servers.

1. Should you pursue a master’s degree in a domestic or a foreign university?
2. Should college students own a credit card?
3. Should young people use the Internet for romance?
4. Should college students’ daily schedule be regulated?
5. Does environmental protection conflict with technological advancement?
6. Should famous Chinese universities have more rights in admitting students through high school presidents?
7. Is it wrong for the media to keep watching star athletes?
8. Should college students devote all their time and energy to academic life?
9. Should college students have a part time job?
10. Does using the internet make people ignore their real lives?
11. Is it good for primary and secondary school students to consider their deaths?
12. Does parental support while job seeking suppress student independence?
13. Should foreign educated Chinese nationals be paid more than domestically educated ones?
14. Should cell phones be banned on campus?
15. Should exams be replaced by other forms of assessment?

Blog Link http://alastairclark.com/2009/11/lesson-11-documentary-old-age/

For the lesson on Tuesday the 1st of December please can you print and complete the first page Meaning Match Exercise of this linked pdf.

• Lesson Resources: Questions, MP3, Reading Exercise Link, Answers (After the lesson),

Lesson Links

• Third Agers: Part 1 Website
• Documentary: Archive Podcast RSS, Website, Podcast Directory

Further Study

• Antonia Senior: Google Search, Journalisted Profile
• Guardian Article “The Third Agers”
• Telegraph Article about Who Pays?
• Wikipedia Article about UK Pension Provision

Please give details of a time when you have had to adapt to a significant change. The example you use can be personal, or can relate to academic or work situations.

Please detail the situation.

My current living and work situation in China required a big change from my previous circumstances as an engineering student and then IT support staff in London. In pursuit of a life together with my Chinese internet girlfriend of 4 years, I felt that some experience of living in China was needed. In order to achieve that aim, I saved up some money, and trained to become a “Teaching English as a Foreign Language” (TEFL) teacher before I left.

Going into a new environment such as doing a TEFL course, travelling to China, or taking a personal relationship to a new level leads one to unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable situations. I consider myself a technology guy, so for me particular areas of challenge were adapting to teaching as a job and dealing with the cultural differences of living in China.

How you worked to adapt to the change?

Examples of my own adaption include taking and acting on very direct feedback in observed lessons on the TEFL teacher training. Overcoming nervousness and successfully persevering to perform better day-to-day and week-to-week in a work environment where my qualifications, inclinations and natural skills fall short.

Living in China provides a constant opportunity for seeing cultural differences and adaption for me has become a necessity of daily living. I have been learning some Mandarin and trying to observe what the social norms are so that I can avoid situations where I put myself at risk or offend others.

Of particular benefit for me to overcome my misconceptions was performing regular post-mortems on my life and what I’ve seen, trying to understand why something is the way it is. I would then blog about it so that my family and friends could have some feeling about my life in China.

What the outcome of the situation was?

The outcome was that I have gained confidence and some skill in weaker aspects of my character, such as public speaking and language learning. I have also learned much about Chinese culture, the attitudes of people living in China, and some problems that foreign companies and workers face coming to China.

Without going to China, and facing the issues of daily living and working, I doubt I would have had such an opportunity for character growth. Learning to accept such large changes, where I was seriously out of my comfort zone, is something that I will value for a long time.

Please give details of a time when you have had to deal with a challenging group situation.

What was the issue?

In the third year of my university degree, the 40 students on my course were assigned a 4 week full-time project with a loose specification to design and implement a multi-agent trading game. The year split into 5 groups of 8 students. 4 groups were designing competing agents within a system that the fifth group implemented. In my particular group I was one of the two leaders, and had to decide and assign work between myself and 3 other students.

The issue was that one of these three students refused to regularly attend daily work sessions, and when he did attend his lack of understanding of the task assigned meant that his progress was slow. He didn’t put in the ground work to try to understand, nor did he have the confidence to admit to others that he had problems. This also meant that there was pressure to complete tasks.

What action did you take personally to resolve the problem?

As subgroup leader I spoke to him regularly about what his tasks were, and what he needed to do to achieve them. I provided him with support and encouragement. I told him that I had concerns that he wasn’t doing enough, and he could come to me with any problems. I did my best to support him, but there is only so much that can be done especially when he didn’t pick up phone calls.

Very quickly it became obvious not to expect results from this team member so I reassigned his tasks which were core to the project. I gave him aspects of the project that were group aims but not core functionality, parts of the user interface. This gave him the opportunity at getting good marks for his participation in the project if he was able to recover and work hard to get it done.

What was the outcome?

I was successful in the fact that as sub-group leader, the group achieved its core aims and implementation while also going out of my way to support and give the student in question a good opportunity to show his hard work and skill to get good marks. But it is a hard thing to learn when it comes down to people and their own future that due diligence doesn’t equate to success.

The student in question didn’t get good peer reviews, and the group project report clearly indicated each individual’s contributions to the design and implementation. The group itself attained good marks, with all other individuals also getting good marks.

• Telegraph's view on the recent Google Chrome OS announcement. Quite interesting overview. http://ow.ly/DZAQ #
• New UK policies regarding copyright infringing torrent users on UK ISPs http://ow.ly/DZRU #

Birthday Celebrations by clarkalastair on Zooomr

Went out for hotpot as a second birthday celebration a week after the event. Had cold, so couldn’t drink as much as I’d perhaps otherwise. We ate a lot and the Bill came to be 33 kuai a head, even with all the beer that others drank. Very cheap compared with the western restaurant scene in Dalian. People in the photo from back left to right, front left to right are: Roxanna, Bret, Myself (Alastair), John, Miao, Isabel, Paul and Patrick.

First post with Zooomr hosted image. Hope it performs well, as it’s becoming my default image host now.