fevr

It's the damned World Cup now.

Why is it damned? The matches are a perfect excuse not to prepare for my upcoming mid-year papers, which so happen to begin in slightly more than a week's time. And I'm losing precious sleep over the matches.

That's beside the point. The point is that this World Cup is so predictable, yet unpredicatable at the same time. I know I might not be making much sense, but once again, that's just the way I see it. Who would have thought that England, with all the EPL millionaires would struggle against T & T, with all the lower leagues counterparts of the England team? Who would have thought that Argentina would put six goals past a Serbian side that has been so miserly in qualification? Who would have thought Spain, who previously have struggled to score, would score four and concede zero against Ukraine, consisting of Shevchenko. Granted Sheva is only ONE player, he is still a very good one and surely capable of putting away ANY chance that comes his way.

This World Cup does get boring at times, but I still believe it would get exciting once the knockout stages come around. So far, Germany, Ecuador, England, Argentina have already qualified. Ecuador is the surprise package so far, given that they were thought to be capable of playing well at 2000m above sea level. They won 2-0 against Poland, the former favourites to qualify alongside Germany from Group A, and 3-0 against Costa Rica, a side that scored 2 against the home team in the opening match.
As for the other three nations, what more need I say? They should be there, just based on heritage. But if they can remain in the World Cup competition is another thing. And much of it rests on their young stars. Germany has Lucas Podolski and that midfielder. England has Rooney and Lennon and of course, THEO WALCOTT the boy. Argentina has Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez. Woah!

It's gonna get better.So good that I would not mind failing my mid-years to catch the matches.

respect.

Before this, I always thought that respect had to be earned, and that no one should be given respect unless earned. Now, I know otherwise.

How often is it that a 30+ 40 years old man gives respect to a 18 years old student who has no idea what he is doing? Plus the fact that the man is a busy entrepreneur. I encounterd two such men recently. They listened to my opinions whenever I talked and perhaps tolerated my rudeness and lack of respect for even them. The worst thing is, I didn't even notice this until someone pointed it out to me.

I've learnt that we should give respect to anyone, regardless of status or appearances. One basic way to do that will be to listen, whenever someone is speaking. Let the person complete his/her words without jumping to conclusions, unless you can read that person's mind completely. This is how miscommunications can always occur.

That's not the only thing I've learnt, there's many other things I learnt over the 3 days I spent organising an event. I've learnt how I should always try to get the best from people I'm working with, how not to show my temper when things aren't going the right way, among many many other things.

Organising Faire Marcher, Meridian JC's inaugural games convention, allowed me to learn things I would never have been able to learn in a classroom. It also allowed me to know very interesting people and realise the fun of playing intellectual board games. I also realised that board games don't just mean Monopoly, Risk, Game of Life and Snakes and Ladders. I might just start to play more of such designer games.