The Balance?

The question is, Can extreames ever be a good thing? Here's what im thinking, its possible for a good thing to be taken to the extreame and for it then to cease to be a good thing, and i think too many times slipping out of the balance and into the extreame on any end is jus way too subtle. but the results aren't, they jus seem to be extreame.

Where does having an opinion cross over to being opinionated?
Where does disagreeing become judgmental?
Where does tolerance cross over to being permissive?
Where does correcting become condemning?
Where does being cautious become overly-cautious?
Where is the balance between licence and legalism?
Where does being open to learn cross over to being a sucker?
Where does being open become being too open?

perhaps with some of these the balance is easier to see than in the other cases. Those are the examples i could think of at the top of my head, but they are obviously more. Im struggling to see how extreames can ever be a good thing, but yet its so easy to slip into extreames without realising it. why is that I wonder, why is the balance not always easy to strike?

Roland Garros 2007

Well, as i said before, I always have to have my own reporting of the Grand slams on my blog....(perhaps this is the section where I test my journalism skills!!) anyway, so Roland Garros got goin 3 weeks ago. The million $$$ question was whether Roger Federer would finally get the one Grand Slam that eluded him or if Rafael Nadal would be the 2nd man in history to win 3 French Open titles in a row.....and according to a poll on the atp tennis website, 57% of people thought that the Roger Federer dream would be the one to come true.

Play started slow as it rained the first 2 days in Paris and then on the first Tuesday, the rain cleared and many matches were played on that day which further went to go down as the worst day in history for american tennis. 13 american men entered in the draw, all played their first round matches that tuesday.....and all lost! (James Blake and Andy Roddick included)

So anyway, to cut a long story short, Both Roger Federer and Nadal were in the finals as expected and the stage was set for a repeat of the 2006 final. Coming into the finals, Nadal started off not playing so great, but he was still winning VERY convincingly in the first week. In the 2nd week he peaked and was jus playing top class tennis, it was sooo good to watch! His 4th round match against Lleyton Hewitt was in my books sheer perfection! Hewitt played an excellent match, but Nadal was still way too good for him! and he won in straight sets 6-3 6-2 7-5, the score did not reflect how well Hewitt played i must say but perhaps reflects jus how good Nadal was!! then his semi-final match against Djokovic was yet another perfect performance. Again, Djokovic played really really welll, but Nadal was jus too good and also won in straight sets! Federer on the other hand, dropped a set en-route to the finals and his semi-final match against Davydenko....not great at all!! Athough in the first week Federer was more solid than Nadal.

then the final....in the first set, both didnt play all that well. Federer had a first serve % of 28% compared to Nadal's 77%. but nadal even with that % was struggling to hold serve! Federer had 10 break points in that set which he failed to convert at all....and thats how Federer lost the first set. second set federer won, then Nadal started playing to his full potential after that and well, it as kinda over for Federer. The verdict was that Nadal would be 3 time champion at Roland Garros, and Roger would have to keep looking for that one slam he is missing!

So this time, credit to Nadal!!, personally i dont think the tennis world gives him enough! first time he ever played Roland garros 3 years ago, he won it and has continued since..he is still yet to lose a match at the french open!! Wimbeldon starts next week....and hope to see Nadal do well at that, i think the moment he wins another grand slam other than roland garross, it may silence the critics...and i think its only a matter of time. any day now!! we'll see

Its been a bit of a while

Well, it has definetly been a while!! I havnt been inspired to visit blogger.com for the last much really....but here I am now, trying to make a come back. Not really sure what to blog about, i have a few things..firstly no grand slam goes by without me having my say and Roland Garros has been done for a week + now, and a lil something for whoever stereotyped black people as "not mixing with water." and perhaps a deep and meaningful something, we'll see how it goes.

Indescribeable

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom {from the song Indescribeable by Chris Tomlin}

Did You raise the sun for me?
Or paint a million stars that I might
Know Your majesty?
Is Your voice upon the wind?
Is everything I've known marked
With my maker's fingerprints?

Can I feel You in the rain?
Abandon all I am to have You
Capture me again
Let the earth resound with praise
Can You hear as all creation lives
To glorify one name? {from the song Always by Hillsong}

Who compares to You?
Who set the stars in their place?
You who calmed the raging seas
That came crashing over me

Who compares to You?
You who bring the morning light
The hope of all the earth
Is rest assured in Your great love {from the song Magnificent by Hillsong}

Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning?
Who told the ocean you can only come this far?
Who showed the moon where to hide 'til evening?
Whose words alone can catch a falling star?

Well I know my Redeemer lives
I know my Redeemer lives
All of creation testify
This life within me cries
I know my Redeemer lives

The very same God that spins things in orbit
He runs to the weary, the worn and the weak
And the same gentle hands that hold me when I'm broken
They conquered death to bring me victory {from the song My Redeemer by Nicole C Mullen}

To be continued....i will elborate in my next post (which could be a while since exams are round the corner!!) exactly what im getting it..meanwhile I leave you to ponder!!

Advice

Im back again for my first April post after a bit of blog neglection!

"Advice is everywhere, most of it for free ut not worth the price." Im realising more and more that as i grow older (oooo) im starting to answer questions as to where i stand on many issues. I think its important to have an opinion, know what you think about things, know what you believe. If you don't can you really then be challenged by an alternative? Or worse, if you don't does that not make you easy dumping ground for anything and everything? - just a thought.....I heard something, i cant remember where but it caught my attention and i havn't forgotten it since, "before you get a second opinion, make sure you have a first opinion." Having an opinion doesn't mean u hold onto it for dear life and don't allow yourself to be challenged on it.

There is so much out there and you can easily get swept into things and just go with the flow without really stopping to think for a moment and just asking "hang on, where am i in all this?" I remember an incident where I was part of a discussion and i said something and when asked about where my opinion came from my response was well X said so (X being a person i shall not disclose!) and right after those words came out my mouth i remember thinking what?? talk about just adopting someone else's view without ever having considered what my view was.

So anyway, this post is on advice and based around the opening quote, i kinda went on a bit of a mini detour but its all related! I find it amazing how so many people seem to think they have the answers, "you usually have a dozen or more unpaid advisors who are more than happy to give you their opinion. But since others are generally engrossed in their own problems and do not know what you should or ought or must do, you invariably get the wrong advice. Most people can't solve their own problems so how can they advise you to do what they havnt accomplished themselves?" That about sums it all up for me really.

I used to really really hate it when people would just take the liberty to tell me what to do with my life, with no idea as to where I was, what i was really all about but still felt the need to impose on me their opinions and their philosophies, and i would think, who do you think you are to tell me what to do? (back then I kinda felt obligated to listen and denied myself the choice to ignore) and thinking of it im jus like well really...if your advice means i end up where u are at or like you, no offense, thanks but no thanks. (Coz the amazing thing is that usually people who actually have it together and would probably qualify to give that advice, don't go round imposing their unasked for advice on other people)

So now that I have that out the way, im not an advice hater....infact, more and more im realising there is wisdom in getting "advice." and why that is on quotation marks is because, im about to define what i mean by that. Many times if you are heavily involved in a situation, you don't see so clearly or you have blinkers on and seeking counsel will help you see things that perhaps you weren't seeing before, its not a do this do that exercise, its more have you considered this or that, if you do this ABC will happen, have you thought about that? so basically gathering information and insight, and once you have all that, you sit down in the midst of everything and make an informed decision. Now thats useful!!

And whose advice you consider is important too...and notice i used the word consider and not take, coz jus coz someone is offering advice, it don't mean you gotta take it. (And with respect to me, by people, im not reffering to God..thats a whole different story)

and this post is not advice to anyone, its just stating where I have come to stand on this issue!!

His word

We all perceive the world and life and situations differently(fact!)"we don't see things as they are, we see things as we are" - through the lens of experience and conditioning. And we act in accordance with what we believe (what we really believe, not what we think we believe). That then follows that if your beliefs are distorted (coz jus because u believe something, it does not necessarily mean that its true), it will affect your actions.....all a bit deep....i do have a point!

So we all look at life through different lenses which reflect the subjective reality of experience and conditioning. The way we see life (our beliefs) is like a map, if the map is wrong, you gonna get lost! This leaves one asking, is there an objective reality? Is there such a thing as an accurate map?

"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes..the ordinances of the lord are sure, and altogether righteous." Psalm 19:7-9

God's word is the source of objective reality. (The way things are). So many times it is described as light. Jesus said of his words that the words i speak to you are foundational words, words to build a life on, and then went on to say, if you work these words into your life you will be like a house built on solid rock basically (Mathew 7:24-25 in the message)

When we align ourselves to the word of God we have an accurate perception which transforms the way we think and act. Jesus died so that we might have life in abundance!! It comes from faith in God (believing and trusting Him), and its a choice that you make. Its not forced, its all about freedom. It doesn't mean that you become subjected to a whole bunch of rules, its a life of freedom but as Paul points out in Romans 6:17 (message) "as you know from your own experience there are some so called acts of freedom that take away freedom." Its fact that choices have consequences. You make a choice and consequences follow. if you touch a hot plate, you gonna get burnt! God's word helps us make choices that lead to life. Its the accurate map!!

The results of living a life according to God's word: wisdom, protection,pro-longed life, prosperity, health, riches, honor, peace, sound judgment, blessing, favour, grounding, joy, security, beauty (inner), power, strength, boldness, hope.....all from the book of proverbs.

Whatever is at the centre of your life will be the source of your security, guidance, wisdom and power. Our security comes from knowing that God and his word never change. our wisdom and guidance come from objective reality (truth).

And, "the resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life, its adventurously expectant..." Romans 8:15(message) The faith life is exciting! Its an adventure, its a life of trust, boldness and courage!

This is the first time ive written such a scripture-filled post. Ive really been getting so much revelation about a life founded on God's word and accurate principles and i felt inspired to write about what I believe and why i believe what I believe.

Ive been reading The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R Covey (again!) I first read the book when i was in first yr..about this time actually, i remember i was reading it on my way home on the plane, and the man who was sitting next to me was also reading the book!! (unreal!) and it gets better..i was watching bridget jones 2 that night and there is a scene in the movie when bridget and her friend are going to thailand and they are sitting next to the drug dealer on the flight who happens to be reading the same book as Bridget's friend!!......no the man didnt turn out to be a drug dealer...lol!! but how funny is that!? anyway, the book is such a good book, hence why im reading it again, and its what actually what got me thinking about objective reality...it wasn't totally from the bright pink (or the blue if you prefer..lol!)

My birthday

I realised the post i wrote on my actual birthday was mixed in with a post about a married couple, totally unconnected! I actually meant to do a longer post, then I got distracted, then i got lazy..lol! Anyway, I celebrated my birthday before my actual birthday because we on easter break since last week and so I wanted to celebrate before everyone went off for easter. So anyway, we went for dinner at Firestone, (really nice restaurant in town) and the food is good as well. It kinda reminds me of the meat and wine co actually. Anyway, it was really great, and we all had such a good time.

Then the day of my actual birthday I didnt actually end up doing anything special per se. What distiguished it as my birthday was all the phone calls, the texts and the wall posts on facebook,
the cards and the presents. That was my day and I am now officially a year older. Im excited about my life, God is teaching me and growing me and taking me to new places...this journey just gets more and more interesting and possibilities seem endless

Precious moments and added years

Its been a bit of a while (well longer than usual for me) since i posted on my blog. I was taking a walk the other day, it was a gorgeous day the sun was shinning!! The exeter campus is so beautiful when the sun is out and the greenery stands out so bright. So ya i was taking a walk, enjoying the day and i walked to the duck ponds and sitting on one of the benches was this old couple, and they looked so much in love it was so cute, and at that point i was like ahh that is so beautiful to watch...i love seeing old couples who have been together for decades and seem more in love than when they first met, its such a great testimony for love and marriage.

Today another year has been added to my life...22 years!!

The Castle in Cardiff

It took me a while to eventually write this post! it ended up coming later rather than soon. Anyway I went to Cardiff the day after I got back from the business challenge. I chose to write a post on the castle because i was jus fascinated by it. Its near to the centre of Cardiff and was home to...i cant remember whom it was home to actually, (someone of royalty i think). Anyway, the owner of the castle was really really rich and he had so many other homes that he only lived in the castle for 6 weeks in the year. This makes it even more fascinating. The way the castle was decorated is amazing, jus sheer perfection....and for 6 weeks in the year!

What really struck me was the attention to detail and the standard of excellence. Each room is decorated with a theme and a theme that represented something about his life and what he valued. The life of this guy is woven into the place and it all tells a story...wow! Anyway, i didnt really have much to say about this, jus had to point out my fascination!

Business challenge (Finale)

Friday was d-day for the finals in London. We travelled down to London on thursday about 4:30pm. We took the train to waterloo and so it was a pretty long journey...jus over 3 and half hours. We got to london and went over to the hotel we were staying at. The Uni covered all the expenses for both the semis and the finals. For the finals, the business school was so impressed with 3 exeter teams in the finals they booked us into a 4* hotel. It was a really nice hotel, the rooms were really nice...however, the service left much to be desired!

After settling in we decided to go for dinner. Our team decided to stay at the hotel and eat there, we were all pretty tired and didnt really wanna walk and look for somewhere else to eat, I had had lectures from 10-4 with one hr break, thursdays are so hectic for me! and then the journey to london was long as well. So anyway, we stayed and the other 2 teams went elsewhere. In the hotel we could either eat in the bar or in the restuarant. the restuarant was a bit expensive and there wasn't much choice either so we went for the bar option. We ordered our food and when a few of us were paying, they messed up the receipts (which we needed to claim back expenses...and as it turned out in the end for a lil more than that)

so anyway, we ordered the food and we waited for an hour before they brought out one of our orders...and the food was cold! 40 minutes later appeared another one of orders, (bacon and cheese burger...with no bacon!) then like 15 minutes later came my order (a mixed grill which was missing the lamb!), and for the last of our orders, another mixed grill, came as another cheese burger!! So obviously we were not happy!! To cut a long story short, we ended up getting a refund for all our food and then it was also a bit of a problem coz we didnt have some of the receipts which they had claimed they would bring to us..but never actually did!!

anyway, way too much drama!! Next morning we were up and went off to the IBM headquaters in south bank...nice nice views of the thames and the london eye from IBM. The day started with a talk from the general manager of IBM, Larry Hirst and then we had a Q+A session with him. (For those who were interested in working for IBM that was their chance to shine, and i have to say, the questions that were thrown around were very impressive, Larry himself was just so impressed!!

then we got started with the whole challenge. Our company this time was a gaming company. In between we had to do several other exercises sometimes in our teams and sometimes all mixed up. All in all we had 5 trading periods and the idea was that the final score would be culmulative profit+ (share price*share capital).

To cut a long story short of how each trading period went, Our team came 2nd overall...we were so close to first it was jus unfortunate really!! We had the highest profit and the second highest share price. the team from sheffield hallam which won had the highest share price and second highest profit. It was sooo close!! we lost by like £200, 000! anyway, it was all good....we got £500 for our trouble..which was 2nd prize, 1st prize was £1000 and third prize was £250. The team from sheffield hallam were great tho, they deserved to win!!

I have to mention tho, at the end of the day, we had to invent a new game and then act out how the game would be played and what it would be all about. In our team, we were all so exhausted by then and couldnt come up with anything decent! One of the guys in my team came up with the idea of doing a spooks game...spooks is apparently this detective series on bbc which only chris has watched..the rest of us have never watched it! so we all like ok fine, chris can write the script..we all jus couldnt be bothered (which is jus really bad i know...we were tired!!) and so chris wrote the script. so im like shouldn't we at least practice it? everyone else objected to that! So im like lets at least learn our lines? and everyone is like we'll just pass the script around!! It came our turn to act out our idea and we did just that.....it was so TERRIBLE! I was just embarressed to be fair....and its all on video!! All the other 7 teams did really well and their acts were really good however...which made us look even worse! The team from sheffield hallam were also voted best act!!

anyway, that was the final...it was really good, i really enjoyed it!! And i realised all in all our school invested about £500 on each person that went to both the semis and the finals, which is quite substantial!! And the uni is so impressed with our team for being the runner's up, we've been getting personalised emails from the chancellor and the vice chacellor and they will be hosting a reception evening for us next term...and we will be making it to the school of business and economics homepage!! (Its really such a big deal to them, its great that they care so much!! well i suppose its good for the uni as well..) Ill be putting up our photo from the semis and the photo from the finals as soon as i scan them...full details of the finals on the business challenge website

Music and lyrics

On tuesday I went to watch music and lyrics. There is a new new cinema here in exeter so we wanted to go check it out and ended up watching music and lyrics. It was ok, I wouldn't say go out of your way to go watch it. The storyline didnt quite flow smoothly for me somehow. It was a good movie just for just though. Hugh Grant as a popstar is jus hilarious...in the movie, Hugh grant is a popstar from an 80's band, the songs the band sings are so cheezy pop types but they are really fun and catchy.. i think i actually enjoyed the musical part of the movie more than the actual storyline. so if you want some cheezy pop and a laid back movie...go watch...so this was a bit of a pointless post actually...oh well, initially it sounded like a good idea!!

Manchester

On saturday morning we set off for manchester. I had just recovered from my cold and almost never went!! Im so glad that i got to go in the end, i had a really good time in manchester. It was my first time in manchester, its 5 hrs away from here and it is the furthest north that i have now officially been! before, i heard that manchester was supposedly a really ugly city and really horrible, but thats definetly not how i experienced it! There are some areas which look really nasty and there are some really dodgy and dangerous areas, but the city is really nice and they are really doing a lot of construction work making it look better and all.

CHINATOWN

PRINTWORKS: AT NIGHT

AROUND MANCHESTER

ARCHITECTURE


The nice thing about manchester is that its big!! and so there is so much variety (compared to small lil exeter!!) and its so much cheaper!! What did we get up to? sight-seeing, eating, shopping....and it was chinese new year and so we went over to china town (see pics!!) and we also went to this museum called the urbis museum which was just a bit strange. they hype it up but to be fair we all found it a bit wierd!!

THE URBIS MUSEUM

and oh, there are trams in manchester!! i didnt know they had trams in england...it reminded me of being in melbourne..lol! Apparently they dont have tram inspectors on the trams either!!!

THE LIBRARY

En espanol, i would say, manchester me gusta mucho!!!

Recovered!

after i got back from portsmouth i caught a cold and a cough and was down all of last week. It was quite bad, I was actually sleeping during the day on some days coz i just felt so terrible and so weak, although i would still go to lectures!! I think im hardcore!!!

Anyway, im all better now and have loads work to do coz i didnt do much last week and i got a test coming up on the 5th for Financial managaement worth 15% and the ibm business challenge finals next week... and have to organise a trip to cardiff for international society for next week end!!

Anyway, i was in manchester over saturday and sunday on a trip and i looooooved it!! thats a post on its own..

University Business Challenge (encore)

About this time last year i was in portsmouth for the semi-finals of the universities business challenge, and came back and wrote a post about my experience here. So this year i did it again, and this time our team made it to the finals!! It was a really long and intense day. we had to travel to portsmouth on tuesday afternoon. we went by train, and it took almost 4 hrs in total, and we had to make 2 changes. We stayed the night in portsmouth and then the day began early wednesday morning. We ended up having 4 trading periods (if you really are interested in what exactly the whole business challenge is about, click on the link, i explained it all last year). so ya 4 trading periods, and after period 3, thats when it becomes clearer to tell who actually has a chance at winning and who doesn't. Before that, the scores don't really say much, its pretty much any one's game.

So at the end of period 3, going into 4, we were coming 2nd and Sheffield Hallam uni was in the lead, but only by a lil bit. So we did the final period then we had to wait for results, it was intense coz we knew we had a big chance at winning but at the same time it could also go pear shaped!! there were 8 teams in total and only the winning team goes through to the finals! They announced the results in reverse order and then when we got to 3 thats when we really started to get nervous, then they called out 2 and it was sheffield, and thats when we realised we had won!!! it was unreal, we didnt actually go there thinking we could win but we did it!!

All in all, there will be 8 teams going to the finals, they have 7 semis all around the country and the winning team in each semi goes to the finals and then out of the teams that come 2nd the one with the most profit goes through to make the 8th team! Our semi was the 6th one, another exeter team had been the day before us, and they won and then another team went the day after us and they also won! so 3/8ths of the finals in london on the 1st of march will be from exeter.....ill let you all know the outcome of that!! meanwhile, check us out on the business challenge website!!