That's me done

Wow, that was a tiring few days but I have now finished my exams. Don't think they went that well but they are only practice for the real thing in June and I think that I have learnt a lot from the last few days.

Anyways, this is just a quick update as I am off out for the night and then will be heading up to Edinburgh tomorrow. After that it will be back to Ireland for a week for some rest and relaxation.

I will be trying to get this blog looking a little nicer and hopefully I will finally crack this whole picture thing thereby sparing you all from having to read my pointless rants.

Talk to everyone soon.

Hamstrings, Rugby and Fire Alarms

Well, I promised more of a personal update, so I will do what I can.

Last week was actually one of the most uneventful in history as I have 7 exams this week and was studying for them most of the time.

Until on Thursday night, I decided to play some football (soccer). There I was frolicking around merrily on the pitch when I stretched out with my right leg to make a tackle. It felt as if I had been shot in the leg, but all that was wrong was that I pulled my hamstring. But boy was it ever sore. That night as I hobbled around I tried to get in touch with any of my physio friends but no luck. The next day was no better and indeed a 1 minute walk took about 10.

Thankfully, by the time Saturday came, I was able to hobble a little better and therefore headed off to Edinburgh to see Ireland play the Scottish rugby team. It was truly a great game and Ireland killed them in the second half after a close first half. As the fifth try was scored, I sang “Ireland’s call” and “The Fields of Athenry” like a true nationalist!!!!

Onto the evening and oh such good times. I am sure I don’t need to tell you what you get whenever you combine 20000 Irishmen with Scots. Craziness would be understating it. There was much rugby played in the street and it is strange how my leg seemed to get better after a few pints of Guinness. Who says it is not medicinal?

Then it was onto the bus ride to my cousins place in Glasgow. I realized just how shallow I am whenever I met a beautiful Scottish girl on the bus but could not get past her Scottish accent!! I know, I know, I am ashamed of myself as well.

When we got to Glasgow, it took us quite a while to actually get a taxi and during that time, I saw one of the worst beatings. A five on one mugging. I decided not to get involved being that I had still limited running ability but the guy thankfully did manage to get away. I was also glad to see that my cousins place was nowhere near that particular area.

I was not pleased to see that he lives in rez. I guess I forgot that he was in first year but this all meant that I got to enjoy another Saturday night/early Sunday morning in the craziness of 1st years again. And of course, that meant only one thing – Fire Alarm. Apparently the first they have had all year. Typical.

Waking up early the next morning, I headed back into Glasgow to see another one of my cousins and the place certainly looked a little nicer in the sunlight. Then it was back home and trying to study on the train.

So here am I now after writing 3 exams today. I am going a little crazy and enjoying the break to type this up. 2 more exams tomorrow and then two more on Thursday. Back to Ireland on Saturday, but before that I am heading back to Edinburgh for Friday night. The only difference this time is that I am going with my good buddy Jeff Berezny. And I thought last weekend was crazy!!!

And the Greatest of these is love

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child;when I became an adult I put an end to Childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see see face to face. Now I only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love". 1st Corinthians 11

Wow, that one really snuck up on me. The most romantic day of the year is upon us.

Actually, for all of you folk that will be out tonight enjoying time with the true love of your life, I can only envy you. Not because I am a bitter single man (although I may well be), but because I have three exams tomorrow, two the day after and two more the day after that. Maybe now you can see why Valentines Day snuck up on me.

I want today to simply mention a few couples who have found love since last Valentines Day. Each of these couples are very special to me and in the spirit of the day, I just want to acknowlege them.

Top of the list of course is of course my sisters engagement to my now good friend Stuart Thompson. These two people really bring out the best in each other as can be seen by spending a few minutes in their presence. Furthermore, Stuart is really good at getting tickets for things, so he is already coming in very useful.

I also had the pleasure of serving as a groomsmen at the wedding confirmation ceremony of Chris and Erika, two friends who have done so much for me in the last few years. It was truly an honour even if meant embracing the Scottish side in wearing a kilt (who am I kidding, I loved it!!). The story of Chris and Erikas wedding is one of the most beautiful I have heard and I cannot do it justice by describing it here. Suffice to say, their day was one that I will never forget.

In addition, I have seen many of my friends find true love. My two housemates Dave and Ty announced their engagements to Lindsay and Danielle respectively while my fellow Liverpool sufferer Jonny J made a better decision than that of his choice of football club when he got engaged to Julie.

Finally, three of my best friends seem to have fallen madly in love and even if I am reading between the lines I would not be surprised to see an engagement follow shortly. At the risk of jynxing it, I will not say who they are but suffice to say that the one thing that they all have in common is roadtrips with me. So if you have ever went on one through England with me, were meant to go on one to Green Bay with me or are planning on going on a road trip with me to see the Red Sox this summer, the chances are that I am referring to you.

Of course there are tonnes more people who I could mention but these folks are the only ones that I could remember for now. I have a fair bit of updating on fun stuff in my own life that has happened in the last week to do but I will leave that for a break later this week.

I can't leave this entry on an overly romantic point as everyone would think something is wrong with me. So I close with a puzzle.

In a round robin tournament, each team plays each other team once and only once. There are 91 games in total. How many teams are there?

The Art of being Wrong

About two weeks ago I was chatting to my good friend Mel. She told me that she really wanted to visit Germany sometime to learn a little more about where her family come from. I asked a little further and she said that they were from the North of Germany near the North Sea. Immediately I was stunned as I was sure that Germany was not surrounded by any water and I was quick to point this out to Mel all the while mocking her geography knowledge. She insisted that she was right and I should have known better than to continue to argue with someone smarter than me.

This past Sunday prior to the start of the Superbowl, one of my buddies Duncan told me how he was convinced that New England would win because Tom Brady had just broken the single season record for touchdowns thrown. Again, I was perturbed as I was sure that it was Payton Manning that had broken the record and once more I wasted no time in letting him know that I was right. And again, he was convinced that he was correct.

As it turns out, I know a lot more about sports than I do geography (big surprise) and I must embarrassingly admit that despite the fact that I am from Europe and Mel from the middle of nowhere in northern Ontario, Germany does indeed border the North Sea. But the single season record is held by Manning.

The reason that I mention both of these stories is that in each one, the parties concerned were absolultely convinced they were right. For that reason, intelligent dialogue was forgotten about and all we did was prclaim our own views without listening to the other. Had I simply asked myself what countries border Germany, my mind would have went something like this, "Ok, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, these are all towards the East/South and Switzerland, France, Begium and Holland are all towards the West of the county.....ok, so what is to the North, well Denmark but wait that is hardly the same size as Germany, there must be some sea there" As simply as that, I could have worked out that I was wrong but oh no, I had to just try to shout out my case because I just knew there was no way that I could be wrong.

Similarly the same sort of thinking could saved some hassle with the whole Manning/Brady debacle.

Now of course these are trivial examples but they did confirm in my mind something that I have always thought to be true. We are more concerned with not being wrong than we are with actually learning what is right.

The ironic thing is that no one would ever be arrogant enough to say that they are perfect but yet no one can ever admit to being wrong. As human beings, we learn certain truths at a early age and are incapable of departing from them. Even when an opportunity presents itself to examine the evidence, we often choose to ignore it - why because our pride can't handle being wrong.

I hate the fact that my intelligence was not sufficient to know the borders of Germany and even worse was that I had to admit that I was wrong. But now, I am actually learnt something and indeed have been inspired to make sure such a moment does not happen again.

So you see, as bad as it was to be proved wrong, it would have been worse to still think today that I was right.

My Superbowl pick

If there is one thing that makes me realize how different life is over in England, it is the NFL. For four straight years I got to enjoy superbowl parties with lots of friends with guaranteed good times and often quite the craziness. The whole weekend was hyped towards the game and each year brought something special culminating last year in me finally regaining the courage to once again play co-ed football at the Rockbowl, (the reason for my apprehension is a whole other post).

This year I will spend my Sunday night pregame (it starts at 11 pm here) having dinner with friends which is nice, but not one of them will be in any way interested in the game. Indeed, I am imagining the looks of bewilderment that I will receive when I have to excuse myself at around 10:30pm. However, the great news is that at last the game is actually on regular tv meaning that I don't have to do my alcoholic impression and hang out in a bar by myself for 4 hours.

Ok, I have rambled long enough. Hey, it is only one game and I have to try and make this blog of a reasonable length.

New England Patriots vs Philadelphia Eagles. Everything in me should want to cheer for the Eagles. They are the underdogs and everyone likes an underdog plus New England is becoming way too dominant. But Philly is still my most hated sports team in American Sports (yes more than the Man United linked Yankees). So I will be cheering undoubtedly for the Sox team. Go Pats!!!

That all being said, I think that the game will be a lot closer than a lot of people think. Philly is a damn good team as much as I hate it and the way their defence shut down Michael Vick and his Falcons makes me think that they can compete with the Pats on both sides of the ball. Plus, despite the fact that Tom Brady has two superbowls already, I would have to give the edge in quarterbacks to the Eagles. McNabb can make something out of nothing in a very annoying manner and regardless of Terrell Owens ability, he is still going to have some great receivers to throw to. Still, I can't help but think that Philly will contrive a way to lose or more likely the Pats will find a way to win. They always do. Their domination of fancied teams Indy and the Steelers suggest that in Philly they have nothing to fear. Plus they have a coach whose playoff record is equal to that of Vince Lombardi. Need I say more.

My prediction: New England 24 Philly 17.

One other thing. I saw on ebay today a guy advertising himself to $20,000. Apparently he is going to streak during the game and was asking for the money so that he could advertise whatever the firm of the buyer. Now granted, there were no bids at the time and being that I am not yet out of law school, I didn't bid but if it happens you heard it here first. Or maybe second if you read ebay. But whatever.

Have a great Superbowl Sunday

Originality

Before I get onto today's rant, I have to mention one an individual without whom I would not have discovered the joys of Skype. So cheers, Andrew PK Jordan, you have brought many hours of joy to another Irishman's life. On with the rant

Sometimes when I am at church I can't help but think "I have heard it all before". To be sure, it is often good to be reminded of things, but when is someone going to have the courage to get up and say something fresh, even controversial

Now don't worry, this isn't going to be a religious rant but rather one that might explain this phenomenon of repetition. For you see, over the last few months I have been amazed by the amount of articles, speakers and what have you that all seem to say the same thing. Be the topic Iraq, the Labour Party Leadership, Terrell Owen's leg or dear old Brad and Jennifer, we seem to live in an age of nothing but spin, where originality has no place.

This all came to a head about a week and a half ago. I like to keep to date with the goings on at my old university and so I often read the online version of its student newspaper. On this one particular day, I read an article regarding the question "How's it going?" and how its day to day use on the street was really starting to upset the writer. Now don't get me wrong, it was a well written article but I couldn't help but think that this topic was something that my housemates and I discussed on several occassions. We all agreed that there was nothing worse than someone asking "how you doing" without particularly caring for the result. Case closed. The article in question was not exactly cutting edge journalism examining fresh ideas but rather something that 4 guys who couldn't even keep a kitchen clean managed to satisfactorily resolve.

My conclusion. We live in a world of spin. Personal agendas are more important than the ultimate goal and therefore we are forced to accept the beliefs of whatever group we find ourselves in. If you don't accept these beliefs you can't get ahead.

My hope. That people can realize this problem and start thinking for themselves. Perhaps liberals can start to question whether or not global trade is a good thing without automatically taking the view that the WTO is evil (NB, only Man United are truly evil). Perhaps conservatives can ask themselves questions regarding border control without immediately presuming that immigrants are a financial drain on the system.

The great irony here is that in writing this piece, I am trying to write something original yet probably doing nothing more than regurgitating ideas that I have subconsciously taken in over the last few months. One thing is for sure and that is that as this point in my life, as much as I want to write something cutting edge, I am far from intelligent enough to create something coherrent, fresh and yet creative.

Somebody may read this and think, "wow, he realizes that he is a victim of his own rant, this is deep" but the chances are that anyone older or even just a little smarter than me will read it and think "I've heard it all before"