By the way...

if anyone cares, which i doubt, but anyway, you can have a look at my manifesto, election blog and speeches etc HERE

C

Election Fever

I'm taking advantage of the first 10 minutes i've had free since my last blog....

I don't know how my mum does this every 4 years - actually I do, she's a legend, my mum. but still. They say moving house is the most stressful thing you'll ever do. I'd be willing to wager that the people who say that haven't ever stood in an election. And this one is only a miniscule student election with a voting population of 22000 or so. Kudos to anyone who does this on a larger scale.

Anyway,

I'm actually enjoying this amidst all the pressure and sleep deprivation. I stand a fairly good chance it would seem, but it's still far too close to call, especially between me and one other fella. Annoying thing is, he's a lovely bloke so I can't even hate him. ;-)

Polls open tomorrow - close on wednesday lunchtime, and i should know by about midnight on wednesday. wow. that's not too far off. I think that the result is the only thing im chilled about - God has been awesome (as usual!) comforting me, reminding me that He is in control of my life, and I don't need to fret - win or lose, it's all in His hands.

Which is comforting :-)

anyway, i'm off to church to think about something other than elections for a couple of hours!

C

Been a while...

For those of you who don't go to uni with me, i'm standing for a union sabbatical position in the Union elections in about a fortnight...

I'm going for Vice President Education and Representation (VP Ed for short - thank goodness!), which is more or less the students' representative to the universtiy bigwigs on all matters academic. It's a full time job for a year, starting 1st July. Pretty heavy stuff it would seem. But rewarding to actually see things done which have been frustrating me and my coursemates for the last 3 years!

There are three other guys going for the post, and all four of us seem well qualified and motivated for this job. i don't envy the voters!

anyway, i spend my time roughly divided between fear that i won't get elected and fear that i will! Jokes... actually im really excited about the whole thing - to be honest, even if i don't get it, it'll still be a quality experience running for it. not that i'd tell the voters that - i'm fighting to win!!

Anyway, apologies if my blog is a little thin over the next 2 weeks or so, but i have to be busy thinking of how to sound intelligent enough to run the academic side of the union.

laters!

C

My Post-Exam Missions

they're finally over - horray!

I'm free until monday when semester 2 begins!

part of me doesnt even care if i did well!


ahem. so, with exams out of the way, i can finally start addressing the things that i've been putting off until... well, now.

interesting tangent - i don't know if anyone shares my concern that a double espresso just doesnt cut it anymore? a couple of guys i know run a little mobile coffee cart in southampton, and have introduced me to the wonder that is a Caffe Ristretto. The strength of an espresso, but only half of the water is passed through it. hot dang, i drunk it half an hour ago, and my face has that weird feeling that you get when you're a little tipsy. caffiene jolt-a-licious! maybe ill keep those to no more than one a week - its actually a little worrying how much less than 25ml of liquid has had on me. anyway, back to the missions:

Mission 1: listen to albums properly.

i suffer from a fairly common syndrome that i like to call listen-to-the-well-known-songs-itis. in other words i buy an album for one or two songs, which i already know, and then pretty much only listen to those songs from the album. i have come to realise that im missing out on a shedload of good music here. so the mission will be executed in two parts:

1) when i have more money, buy more less-well-known albums.
2) for the time being, listen to the albums i already own all the way through, at the minimum rate of 1 entire album per day.

im currently listening to Kokopelli by Kosheen - quality noise! definately beats listening to "all in my head" several times, then moving on to the next artist.

Mission 2: more serious this time - get more in-depth with my spiritual disciplines.

for the last month, i've been only reading "Morning and Evening" by Spurgeon, and my personal prayer life has been fairly meagre. i've justified it by the facts that 1) i have been engaging with God to an extent, and 2) that im under so much pressure from work that i cant afford any more time. 1) is a fairly good point, 2) is not. However, neither of them justify not pressing into my relationship with God now i have the time. Objectives:

A) Continue with Spurgeon, first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

B) Engage in an in-depth bible study once a day. going to use "Search the Scriptures". seems good.

C) Spend at least half an hour a day in private, presonal prayer. also, implament structure in these times, using Bill Hybels' suggestions in "Too Busy Not To Pray" as a framework. this includes journaling of thoughts and prayers (seperately)


Mission 3: practice drums more.

speaks for itself i think.

Mission 4: get good enough at gamecube games that i can beat my housemate Andy.

important i feel, as i need some small facet of my male pride in tact for the time being ;-)

wow. that was deep. i guess i better get started on mission 2, since ive already done mission 1 for the day :-)

God Bless,

C