Recognyz 05 Youth Awards was the Schiznuts!

Youth Awards went fantastically well! Full turnout, which was better than was expected. The DJ from ZM was fantastic (Stu Tolan is HIGHLY recommended), really upbeat and FUNNY. He even agreed to MC at our event DESPITE the fact that this meant he would have to drive all the way to Auckland after the ceremony for the Radio awards. I also got to use a Ferrari Laptop PC for the first time in my life! Sajjad was sitting next to me & in true Pakistani style confessed that he wanted to steal the mouse.

One thing that did disturb me: a number of Destiny Churchers were at the awards. They were there for good reason. Some members of the Destiny Church were receiving awards for the excellent work they were doing in the community. From the way they were wearing their colours it seemed like their strand of the christian faith was a big part of who they were. So are they evil bigots? Bigots, yes... evil? Like it or not this brand of christianity which bears a clear moral line (without liberal wankery that bends over backwards in order to bend every rule in the bible) appeals to those who face the toughest of moral choices. I think you'd all agree that not lying, not killing, and even not drinking are good things that are to be encouraged. If the church does this and encourages its members to then go further and contribute to the community...isn't this a good thing?

Despite the hastiness of my speech (i.e. it was written at work using the 'ALT+TAB' button..) it went well. More importantly, people laughed at my jokes and not simply at me! Thanks are due to Conan O'Brien who again provided me inspiration with a stunner of a speech he delivered at a Harvard graduation ceremony. I have turned to it before (whenever I'm feeling particularly unfunny) and it never fails to make me laugh. This time around I even spotted a few more jokes!

Oh yeah, before I go: The New Mayor (Michael Redman) is the man! The one good thing about David Braithwaite's mayorship was that it motivated Michael Redman to run for mayor! You should have seen him work the audience. An excellent speaker, young, energetic, & down to earth too.

Preparing for Youth Awards

Am at work today, which means its almost obligatory to write a blog entry! (this is an in-joke attended for those who know me and the place that I work :) ). I'm already feeling the end of the teaching recess.

Woke up at 7:22am and discovered that I was late for something.

I haven't had that feeling all holidays and it's been so good. Needed to get going by 7:30am in order to be at work by 8:00am. I got to work on time but...WOOPS.. forgot my keys. Unfortunately the girl who works with me (Kathryn) doesn't have any keys. Quite a problem considering that my house is 1/2 an hr away and the only other person who had the keys, and a cellphone number we knew, wasn't answering her phone!

Managed to get to work though, and have been busy preparing my speech for Recognyz 05 Youth awards tonight which has been organised by the Hamilton City Youth Council. I'm pretty pleased with my speech but it needs a conclusion.

Realisation:I never could write good endings. Or end things, period.

The Awards ceremony recognises the inspirational work of youth in a number of areas. The mayor is attending and SIFE Waikato has been nominated for the Apprentice Award (innovative and entrepreneurial ideas).

Hmmm...

I never could write good endings.

Can I discipline myself enough to keep a regular blog?: Only time will tell

Okay, so time got the best of me last time, but that doesn't mean it'll get the best of me this time!!

In case you haven't noticed from the dates on these posts. There's a BIIIGG gap between my last post (somewhere in Spain) & this one. Well, what can I say when there's a million other things to do the blog takes zero priority (especially when Sangria is involved!!).

I'll put it down as the number of things I've been involved in since, but I'm sure those of you who have read this blog will realise that 'me being slack' is a slightly more accurate description!:

After coming back to NZ from SIFE World Cup (where we were placed 3rd in our round) I enjoyed a kick ass extra few days in Barc before dashing over to England to catchup with old family friends. Then came back to NZ just in time to receive a University Blue for Debating & Public Speaking.

Probably spent about a week or so re-cooperating before heading off to a Sustainability conference where I stayed at the fahsfhkatnegoric (there is no word good enough in English to describe it!) Heritage Hotel. It has to be the nicest room I've ever stayed in.. yes, even compared to hotels I have lived in during our junkets to Germany, Spain & Malaysia!

However, after two days rest at the heritage blood pressure then rose during exam week... followed by a brief lull before going down to Vic for their BP Tournament.. this was to be the first of many interesting altercations over summer with the British Parliamentary Style of Debating.

Thanks to a last minute save from the Vice Chancellor, James and I were able to represent Waikato University for the FIRST TIME EVER at the second largest intervarsity event in the world: The World Universities Debating Champs in Malaysia. It was held 25th December-5th Jan 2005 and in terms of results we weren't able to bring home any debating bacon but did manage to bring home a lot of bacon of the pirated DVD variety!

From hereon in the story gets boring: Summer School( 2 papers: Corporate Finance & Micreconomics), and 05 A semester (3 econ papers & 2 law papers).

My story also fills up with a whole lot of failures & missed opportunities: despite my best efforts couldn't assemble a team for unigames, failed to make it to the semis of mooting due to a lack of preparation/practice (again!), and had a few horrible essays & assignments I should have prepared more for.

However, the story has picked up recently. I was named Chair of the Youth Council (something I did not try for or even want!) a few weeks ago, there is an ALtech Mediagate MG-25 on its way to my house as we speak (this is an 80GB portable hard drive that plays divx/xvid through a video out AND has a remote!!), I have also been invited to my first radio interview on Martin Gallagher's Saturday Morning show on Community Radio.

Somewhere along the line (and by line I mean September-December 04) I also waived a semi-goodbye to SIFE. I say 'semi' because I seem unable to fully separate myself from it in the same way that Genevieve from 2003 SIFE team was able to separate herself from it. I'm more like Katherine, I find it hard to pull myself away because of the buzz from 03 & 04, and the personal relationships. However, I try not to get too deeply involved in project work and my role is advisory (officially I don't do any project work but sometimes the line between advising & doing the work gets a bit blurry...).

Hmmm.. When writing this 'catchup' entry I thought there wouldn't be much to say.. but looking back through this entry it looks like a lot has happened since Spain. I'm glad. It's good to sometimes sit back and look at exactly how much you've accomplished. Now that I've typed it all out & had an opportunity to review it, suddenly not having updated my blog for the past 6 months doesn't seem that big a crime!