World Cup fever...!

My past week has been in a state of semi-consciousness due to lack of sleep. The reason? Well, that event that occurs once every 4 years where 2 teams representing a country each try to kick a ball between two opposing posts joined by a crossbar. Don't get it? It's the FIFA World Cup 2006!

I'm a football freak. People accuse me of switching loyalties in the team I support too often. But how can I help it? I don't support a team just because it's "my team". I support teams that have great players who make the game beautiful. When it comes to the World Cup, the team I support regardless of how well they do is Brazil (slight contradication to what I just said). The samba boys. 5 time World Cup champions. Producer of legends like Pele, Jairzinho, Garrincha, Socrates, Carlos Alberto, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and now; Robinho. It's not just the names. It's the way the whole team plays. Flair that can't be replicated by other teams.

Up till now, I've watched 25 and missed only 4 matches. What a run! I started it by watching all the matches for four days in a row. You can imagine how I felt and how I feel even now. Exhausted but excited. Another match is starting in a while. Togo vs. Switzerland.

The thing with the World Cup is that teams that don't look good on paper tend to produce the most exciting matches. Ivory Coast showed us that a debutant can rock great teams like Argentina. Ghana produced a dazzling 2-0 win over the 2nd ranked team in the world; the Czech Republic. On the other hand, teams such as England and France have displayed boring football.

Australia managed to qualify for this World Cup. This is only their second World Cup and came after 32 years. It's a good thing here. At least the sport will get better recognition in this country that is crazy on Australian Rules, cricket, tennis and swimming. The problem is, it's getting into their heads a little too much. There were crazy celebrations after their win over Japan that I couldn't get to sleep because of the noise. It made them a little overconfident you must say. Especially when their pundits start expecting them to beat Brazil. Boy were they brought back down to earth. Still, it's good that we get full coverage of all the matches here.

I'll probably make a few more posts on this World Cup as we go on. As for now, the match is about to start. Let's hope we don't get a neutral result...

It's only words...?

It's been a while since I had some thoughts to share. Got one today. It's got to do with those things we call promises.

What are promises? An indication of commitment? Why do we make them? Why do we break them? Promises are a way of letting someone know that we are commited to what we pledge. But when is it a promise? Is it different to say "Alright, I'll meet you at 1pm tomorrow" as opposed to "I promise to meet you at 1pm tomorrow"? Clearly, a promise doesn't have to be formalised by indicating that it really is a promise. Rather, one enters into a promise by committing oneself to an agreement. Probably promise isn't the best word to use. Nevertheless, it is simple and everyone understands it.

So what's the deal with promises? Well, too many people break them. Too many people take them for granted. It's easy to make promises or commitments you can't keep. The difficult thing in many cases is keeping the promises. Why then do people make promises they can't or don't intend to keep? Probably a decline in social integrity in general. The thing that frustrates me the most is people who have the audacity to make claims like "rules are meant to be broken" or "you can't keep all your promises". If that was the case, why make rules or promises at all? Many people disregard the whole principle of making a promise. This is why in modern society, the honour system rarely works.

It's not about not wanting to disappoint someone. For example, if someone asked you to come for a gathering and you said yes even though you don't want to go just so the person doesn't feel disappointed. Then you do a no-show. Is that going to make the person feel better in any way? On the contrary, the person would be expecting you and would feel let-down that you did not show up. On the other hand, if you said no from the beginning then the person would not have any expectations of you aside from an initial feeling of disappointment.

They may only be words. But the words carry meaning. They carry a commitment. Promises shouldn't be promises of convenience. Rather, they should be promises of genuine intent. If not, don't make the promise at all. It saves everyone the frustration and disappointment.

A popular way of breaking a promise (or FFK as Chinese call it) is by giving an excuse and saying sorry. Sorry. The word most taken for granted. It's easy to just call a person an hour before an appointment and say "Sorry but I can't make it". This ignores the fact that the person who was stood up would have been expecting and preparing for the appointment and may have gone out of his/her way to keep it. Sorry isn't a cure. It means nothing without sincerity. I'm not saying that sorry is a useless word. It is in fact one of the most powerful words. However, it is used so often in the most trivial circumstances that it is now difficult to appreciate a genuine expression of sorrow.

The point is, promises should be taken seriously. Breaking a promise may be easy enough to do, but it won't be so for the person on the other end. Sometimes, we make promises we don't like. Regardless, a promise is a promise. It should be kept even if we don't like it. We should do our best to keep each promise we make. If circumstances work against us and we genuinely can't keep to a promise, then the best solution would be to let the person know as soon as possible and arrange for a replacement for that promise. Not all promises can be replaced. The important thing is that we try.

None of us can keep all our promises. I have to shamefully admit that I myself have broken a few. Nevertheless, I ensure to the best of my ability that I keep all my promises regardless of how difficult they may be. If someone expects something of me, it is only proper that I live up to their expectations. I only wished everyone else valued their promises more than people in general do.

YES...

As always, work keeps me preoccupied resulting in my blog being pushed aside. We've been having our referendum this week. We needed to have it to approve changes to our Constitution. It wasn't easy getting the changes finalised. But we got there eventually and now the students have to ratify the changes. 501 votes was the minimum for the referendum to be quorate and a majority of "YES" votes needed to approve the changes.

My target was to surpass the 501 mark by the end of Tuesday. We basically breezed through it. With one day of campaigning left we are close to, if not above, 1000 votes. Better than I expected. Now let's just hope that the majority voted "YES". Shouldn't be too difficult seeing that most of the voters were sent in by our campaigners and there were no people campaigning for a "NO" vote.

I spent the previous week travelling across all the campuses (including our rural campus in Whyalla) to conduct an information session on VSU and the referendum. Interesting little town, Whyalla. 45 minute flight from Adelaide. A small community where everyone knows everyone else. It must be tough knowing that anything you do may be talked about by others. Kind of like "Neighbours" in real life. It was good though. I've now visited all the UniSA campuses.

I spent this week travelling around as well to help with the campaign in each campus. Many will disagree with me but the vote tally so far reflects a peak voter turnout on the days I campaigned in a particular campus. Either I was a great campaigner or everyone only does work when I'm around. More likely the latter though I am a pretty good bullsh*t artist if I must say so myself.

Came across a major dilemma the day before. I was browsing through clothes at the Myer Stocktake Sale and found a nice green jacket. Then I found an even nicer bright blue one. It was blue with a yellow/gold stripe on the sleeves and some green as well. It was 30% off and ended up costing about $56. I was really in two minds as to whether it was worth the money or not. After sleeping on it overnight and getting two opinions I decided to buy it. Hope I don't regret the splurge!

The 2006 World Cup is just hours away. I bought myself a magazine. I should get more but haven't found any real good ones. It's once every 4 years and worth the wait. I'm going to try to watch all the matches if I can. No doubt I will miss a few. We'll see how it goes.

Not really into thinking at the moment. Will post when something tingles my brain. Until then...