"Cells"?

So I had a job interview the other day with a Danish company, an interview which was taken by a very amiable Danish lady. I had no trouble understanding her except for one word that seemed to keep cropping up when she introduced the company at the start of the interview. She was talking about the different departments and kept mentioning "cells" which seemed a very strange word to use in that context and made no sense whatsoever. I started to wonder whether they used the term "cells" instead of "departments" but I thought that would have been a little weird.

I didn't really want to highlight this - everything else that she said in her introduction to the company made perfect sense - and I felt sure that if I asked about this I'd only be making an idiot of myself! So I kept quiet and tried to figure out what that word was as she kept on talking and it came up again.

Ultimately I was spared from having to ask what this word was as I finally figured out what she was talking about. Her Danish accent had in fact diguised a word that was very familiar to me ...

Sales!

Superficiality

"Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."

The above is a quote from a book that I'm reading at the moment and it really made me think. Why are people so focused on short-term gains? And that's a criticism that's levelled at myself as much as anyone else. Surely the key things that we do in life should be inspired by something deeper? (although maybe that's assuming that there's some greater purpose to life, which I do believe there is)

This all sounds very serious I know. I'm not dismissing the need to have moments of relaxation and banter and so on - these very much have their place and I know that I'd go insane if I didn't lighten up and have a bit of a joke. But surely there should be something deeper underlying all this?

There are plenty of intelligent people in the world. As a whole, the global population is more educated now than ever before and some of the breakthroughs in technology are astounding. Every day the news contains stories of people that are gifted in every way imaginable. But unless these minds and abilities are used in a way that makes a difference, a real difference, ultimately who cares? And in order to do this I think you need to go deeper, and on a regular basis.

Classic Commentary

From the Rugby World Cup Semi Final, England v France, last Saturday, after 77 minutes:

"Wilkinson seems to be lining up the drop goal.
But now he's going away.
Maybe it's to give the angle? It is!
Wilkinson,
Jonny Wilkinson!
Go on! GO ON!"

Here's to some more of that happening tonight.

Tim Henman: Legend

A little over a fortnight ago, Tim Henman played his final tennis match as part of Britain's Davis Cup victory over Croatia. He'll go down in history as Britain's best tennis player for a long, long time (although surely Andy Murray will soon alter that). Despite this, many people have slated Henman during the latter part of his career (mainly in frustration at the fact that he has failed to win Wimbledon or any other grand slam) and branded him an under-achieving, mediocre player whose career is unworthy of acknowledging or celebrating. I beg to differ.

I disagree with claims that Henman has underachieved. I think he's a brilliant case of someone maximising their potential. Henman is not as tall or strong as many other current men's players, and as a consquence few of his shots are as powerful as most of the other current top players. He was a serve-volleyer in what was increasingly becoming a baseliner's world (or so I'm told - I'm no tennis coach!). His natural game was primarily effective on grass, but he vastly improved his game on other surfaces as his career progressed. He surprised many by reaching the French Open semis in 2004, with one journalist noting that Henman on clay had formerly been "about as good as Bambi on ice". He was generally exemplary in the way that he conducted himself both on and off the court too, as Roger Federer pointed out in his recent tribute to Henman. As a youngster Henman suffered injury problems and, due to his then relatively modest ability level, rumour has it that some people were advising him to give up the game or focus on doubles, but Henman did not. He persevered, as he did time and time again in his career.

It's a sad time: to acknowledge that Henmania is over, that Tiger Tim will grace Wimbledon's centre court no more and that those on Henman Hill will never watch their hero again. In different circumstances Henman may have prospered even more. He was unfortunate to have 2 all-time greats (Pete Sampras and Roger Federer) continually blocking his path to the Wimbledon crown. And on the one ocassion that neither stood in his way, he fell to Ivanisevic in the semi-final in a match I believe he would have won, were it not for an ill-timed rain delay. Had he done so, would he have beaten Pat Rafter in the final? We will never know. I can't deny the fact that it's a disappointment that Tim never won Wimbledon - it is, and I'm sure it is for him too. To place the blame at Henman's door, however, and to imply that he could somehow have achieved more by trying harder couldn't be further from the truth (this was a man who gave his all). He maximised his potential and maybe even surpassed it (if such a thing is possible). All in all, surely his career is one worth celebrating, rather than grumbling about. Although he's not one of the all-time greats of tennis, he was without doubt a very good player. In the words of Jonathan Overend of the BBC: "Tim Henman, failure? Get a life."

(Other articles on Henman that I like:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A26241211
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/tennis/article2517935.ece)

Vacation's Over

October. But the weather has changed so sharply that it almost feels like December. Time to end my blogging draught and write some more I think. 21st May was the last time I posted on here - that's a long time ago - around 130 days ago (not that I counted!). During the summer, it could be said, life took over and writing was put on the back burner, but now I feel the urge to write once more. So this post is just to say "hello, I'm back". And this time I'm going to export my writings to facebook as well (with the loose aims of increasing my readership [from zero this shouldn't be hard!] and generating more discussion, although this may mean that I have to think about what I write more carefully ... hmm). Where to start? Well, I thought I'd start with a couple of sports-related posts. Watch this space ...

Tony Blair

I was glued to the tv and radio when Tony Blair announced the other week that he's to stand down on 27th June.

First, I listened to his farewell speech live on the radio (because, being a job-hunter, I had nothing better to do at that time of day, other than job applications!). Then I listened to the pundits' feedback on the radio, and read about Blair's departure online. That evening I watched every flavour of news on offer: BBC, ITV, Channel 4, probably even Sky. Then I watched 2 or 3 tv programmes reflecting on his departure: Question Time and The Big Talk (I think this was the 2nd programme's title) were a couple of them.

I don't really follow politics all that closely, so why the sudden interest? The last time I was so fascinated by goings-on in parliament was around the time of the last election and Live-8. Why was I so gripped then?

Well, he has been the prime minister of my youth. Tony Blair came to power when I was 12. I had just started secondary school. Before this time I knew little of politics, other than that John Major was boss of the country. I've grown up with Tony Blair in charge, so it's going to be strange without him there.

I think that's why I was so struck by Blair's departure (even though everyone knew it was coming). I wanted to reflect on 10 years of Blair, as seemingly did everyone else. Everyone was queuing up to give "their verdict" on Tony Blair as PM, his achievements and his legacy. As far as I'm aware the front page of The Independent (at the top of this post) summed up how a lot of people (possibly the majority?) feel. I thought that this front page was extremely clever - a really ingenius way of pushing the view that Iraq has overshadowed all of Tony Blair's other achievements - but I'm not sure that I totally agree with it.

What's my verdict on Tony Blair then? I think on the whole he was good for the country. Britain could be in a much worse state than it is at the moment. Things like education, health and the economy are difficult nuts to crack, but I think his government has made progress in all of these areas and managed to focus to a fair extent on issues that were previously neglected, such as the environment and global poverty.

Yes, they could have done much better, but they could also have done much worse. On the whole I think they have done a good number of positive things. A lot of people seem very quick to criticise and to call Tony Blair a disaster. It's very easy to criticise though, and impossible to please everyone.

I don't think Iraq overshadows all of this good work, though it does undoubtedly leave a black mark on Tony Blair's copy book. Whilst I think the war there was wrong, I admire Tony Blair for doing what he thought was right. I think there was a lot of spin surrounding the reason that we went into Iraq (where are the weapons of mass destruction? - it was nothing to do with that - it was more to do with regime change), so I wish Tony Blair had been a lot more up-front about that. He did, however, do what he thought was correct, which was a tough thing to do with 1 million people marching the streets of London against the Iraq war.

Some pundits have been suggesting that Tony Blair's legacy can be summed up in 2 words: David Cameron. It wouldn't surprise me at all if in a couple of years time David Cameron was the new PM. I could be wrong, but I struggle to see people getting on with Gordon Brown as well as with Tony Blair. One thing that Tony Blair had was charisma. He really connected with the people and spoke some carefully chosen words at exciting or traumatic times. For me some of the memories of Tony Blair that stick in my head are: his poignant speech after the death of Princess Diana, his involvement in the Olympic bid and his reassuring speech on the day of 7/7. All moments when he really connected with the people of the UK. And I think now his departure speech on 10th May can be added to that collection. As he said, he did what he "thought was right". He had the content (policies) to go with his charisma, and did a lot of good, although he undoubtedly made mistakes. I don't think he made as many as some people claim though. As I said earlier, you can't please everyone.

Errands

At times job-hunting isn't much fun. My typical day at the moment sees me stuck in the house for the most part (on the web and phoning), with me adding some kind of not-so-important errand to the day to make sure I get out of the house. For example, in my first week of job-hunting since finishing my internship, I did something like the following:

Monday: Went to the post-office
Tuesday: Went to post something through someone's door in the village
Wednesday: Went for a walk
Thursday: Went for a run for an hour or so
Friday: Went shopping to buy a new shirt

I did go to some stuff in the evenings (which meant that I kept up a little bit of 'people contact' - always nice!), so perhaps the above is a little bit misleading. Suffice to say, I didn't get out of the house much during the day though! By the way, I like the word "errand" - I'm not too sure why, but I like the sound of it. Even if "running" them is not always as fun. (Just out of interest, why do we 'run' errands? Can they not be done walking?!)

[Currently listening to: Snow Patrol - Signal Fire;
The Enemy - Away From Here (see music player on rhs)]

Virginia Tech

I found the following (written by a member of a US Christian band, Superchick) to be thought provoking. Worth a read:

"When I was a kid at camp, you had to go with a buddy if you wanted to swim in the lake – and you had to stay with him the entire time you were in the water. If you lost you buddy, you had to tell the lifeguard and he would blow the whistle and everyone would have to stop swimming until your buddy was found. Lakes aren’t pools; you can’t see under the surface. With a hundred kids in the lake, this was a good way to make sure that no one slipped under, unnoticed. The lesson was clear: swimming in the lake could be dangerous, but together, we could watch out for one another. No one would go in alone.

I wish we had a buddy system for life.

We can’t change what happened at Virginia Tech. We can’t change what happened at Columbine. But maybe we can change the lives of the people around us. We shouldn’t need tragedies to remind us that people are sad, broken and aching. The world is our family. If you notice someone alone or hurting or lost, reach out to them. Give of yourself. Heal the wounds inflicted by others. Replace hurt with kindness before hate grows in the empty space where love should be.

Pray that your eyes are opened to those who need your love in their life. We have the power to make huge changes in society with our tiny lives. Make your life about something more than you. All around you, people need you.

Let no one slip under the water, unnoticed.

Peace and brotherlove,
Max
Superchick"

Train Tales

Ok, so a couple of tales about things that have happened to me on trains or at stations recently. All in the last 2 days in fact, to be more specific.

Why is it that so many interesting things happen on trains? One of my current favourite (observational) comedians, Mark Watson, seems to draw a good deal of his material from train journeys that he's been on. I guess it's essentially because if you go on a busy train there's such a broad cross-section of people there that from time to time interesting stuff is bound to happen. And that's despite our English tendencies to be very reserved and negatively polite with strangers.

• So yesterday 2 things happened. Firstly, when I got on my train a family got separated. The kids got on the train, but the doors slammed shut before the mum and her pushchair could join them. Of the 3 kids one of them then proceeded to throw a panic tantrum, jumping up and down and crying and screaming (yes, the little girl) whilst the eldest child calmly reassured her and told her not to panic and that everything would be ok. Sure enough at the next station they got off and London Underground staff took care of the situation.

This reminded me of times that I got split up from my parents when I was little. Alas, being the eldest child, I didn't have an older sibling to reassure me. I seem to remember thinking my world was going to end when I was about 5 and got separated from my parents in Boots or somewhere ... only to find that they were just around the corner anyway. I'm sure if I returned to the same store today I'd find that it's tiny and only has about 3 aisles, but when you're so little the world seems so big and imposing!

• My second story from yesterday involves me in more than an observational capacity. Having not done a sudoku for ages I for some reason quite fancied attempting one yesterday when I got my free newspaper. I struggled a bit near the start, but as time went by and I got a few numbers I got more and more engrossed. Until IT happened.

I looked up from my sudoku just as the tube doors were making that "beep beep beep" noise meaning they were about to shut. To my horror my eyes latched on to the station name through the window. It was my stop. I did a double take. It was definitely my stop. How did we get here so quick?! I flinched as if to make a last-gasp dash for the door but hastily changed my mind. "No," I thought, "you'll only succeed in making yourself look like a moron". My reputation was at stake you see. Not that these people knew me, but nonetheless I was unwilling to swallow my pride and make a dash for the doors when it was so unlikely to be successful.

So instead I tried to stay calm, act as if nothing had happened and hope that the person sitting opposite me hadn't realised 1) how much I'd panicked in that split second and 2) that he was sitting opposite some kind of nutcase who valued getting home as far less significant than completing a simplistic puzzle in a free newspaper. (If I was to guess I think she knew, but being British strangers on a train, of course we didn't talk about it - but it annoys me even now that I think she realised!)

So I went on to the next station before getting a train back to the previous station. The only good thing about this was that it allowed me to complete both the 'easy' and the 'medium' sudokus due to my extended journey. The difficult one awaits me on a day when I'm feeling more daring! Ooh, living dangerously here ... the 'difficult' sudoku .... whatever next?! (and in case it's not obvious that last sentence is meant to be drenched in sarcasm!)

• Now on to today, and I hope I don't disappoint you by telling you that this story is from on a platform rather than on a train! As I was waiting for my train a lady near me was speaking extremely loudly into her mobile phone. And despite her moderately strong accent (though I don't recall the region it was from) it was crystal clear what she was talking about. She was talking to a lady (by the sounds of things, quite conceivably her daughter) and suggesting quite strongly that she gave a second thought to her upcoming marriage. What was said (and bear in mind this is just one end of the conversation) went a little like this:

"You need to think about whether you want to spend the rest of your life with a man who's a control freak ... cos he won't change, he'll carry on controlling for you ... it's not too late to pull out you know ... I mean everything's booked, but I'll pay for it if you cancel ... I just don't want you making a massive mistake."

In particularly the "he'll carry on controlling you" bit went on for quite a while. The lady on the other end of the line clearly didn't agree with this. So it was repeated several times, each way phrased slightly differently, with an increase in volume on each occasion.

So why did I find this worth re-telling? Merely because I found it quite shocking that this lady was talking about this in such a manner in such a public place. Perhaps it would be appropriate for her to raise her concerns about the impending marriage as marriage is a serious commitment and not one that should be taken lightly. I admire her integrity - she's obviously not afraid to make her views known. But to talk about this so vociferously in public?

I half tried not to listen (cos I felt like I was eavesdropping) and half tried to listen (as I was so intrigued!). In the end listening won the day, although I made sure I deliberately looked the other way as I just know that if I looked anywhere near her I'd have ended up staring at her! Anyway, I found that most interesting - the very situation for which the phrase "washing your dirty laundry in public" was invented.

Map of Countries I've Visited

I've just come across the site that let's you make one of these and thought it was pretty cool. Would be interested to see other peoples ...

Oh, and before anyone asks, I have NOT been to Hawaii. Ever. :( It seems it's classed as part of the United States by the website though.

(Below it's cut off the right of the map and I can't be bothered to fix it right now - if you want to see my full map then look on my facebook blog)


visited 15 countries (6%)

create your own visited countries map

[Currently listening to: Relient K - The Best Thing (see music player on rhs)]

Consistently Inconsistent

I seem to very inconsistent in terms of when I blog. I have a little intensive spell for a few days/weeks, then there's a big silence from me for months. I haven't posted here for ages. Hello? Anyone still out there? ;)

Anyone who actually reads this thing must get terribly frustrated by this - oh well, I'll try and have a blogging spell over the next few days.

Then I'll probably decide that blogging isn't the best thing in the world after all and become decidedly apathetic about it for quite some time. Blogging: it ebbs and flows (hope that's a correct use of that expression, cos I've never fully understood what it means!).

The Truth

So I was watching a bit of tv yesterday (the football highlights, what else?) and a trailer for a new BBC programme called "The Verdict" came on (think it started yesterday or today - don't really know). Whilst the trailer itself looked quite good, and I might actually watch the programme if I happen to be free when it's on, although that's unlikely as I don't watch much tv nowadays, there was something else that got to me. The tag-line really bothered me:

"The truth is what you choose to believe"

- which, when you think about it, is absolute nonsense. The truth is not what you choose to believe. Surely whatever you believe there's only one truth. You might believe something to be true, but that doesn't necessarily make it true! I just felt this was typical of the pluralistic society that we're living in nowadays, where someone can say: "well that's fine for you - that's your truth - I'll decide on my own truth thanks". Surely we should be looking at the evidence as closely as possible and trying to make an informed decision as what THE truth is? And this surely applies all the more in a court-room type situation, as I gather "The Verdict" is based around. Whilst its not always possible to prove something is 100% true (especially in court), anything short of a proper effort to get at THE truth is potentially misleading yourself. Anyway, that was just something that annoyed me a good deal.

[Currently listening to: The Fray - How to Save a Life (see music player on rhs)]

Visit Britain ... and ask your ridiculous questions

The other day I read one of the funniest things that I've read in a long time. It was a list of some of the craziest questions asked to VisitBritain (the British tourist board last year) by tourists arriving in Britain in 2006. The list included:

"Are there any lakes in the Lake District?"

"Can you tell me who performs at the circus in Picadilly?"

"What is the entry fee for Brighton?"

"Why did they build Windsor Castle on the flight path of Heathrow?"
(Surely this could only have been asked by an American!)

"What tube line runs to Edinburgh?"

and my personal favourite:
"Is Wales closed during the Winter?"

Hehe. Those made me laugh a lot. Fair play to the people for asking though: if you don't ask, you may never know! They could, however, have engaged their brains a little more before they asked!

5 of each

Some of my current favourite things in the world:
• Revels
• Wikipedia
• Coke Zero
• Musicals
• Razorlight

Some of my current least favourite things in the world:
• People who use "off of" as part of a sentence
• Bad grammar use in general (by native speakers who should know better anyway)
• Having to work weekends
• White Maltesers
• Not having played in a proper football match since mid-November ... in fact, that's probably worst of the lot

Everything seems to come in 5s in my blogging at the moment. I think I should try to break the trend next time around.