You do the Math!

Where the Buck Stops
Three guys in a hotel call room service and order two large pizzas.
The delivery boy brings them up, with a bill for exactly $30. Each guy gives the boy a $10 note and he leaves. That's fact!
When the boy hands the $30 to the cashier, he is told a mistake was made. The charge was only $25, not $30. The cashier gives the boy five $1 coins and tells him to take it back to the three guys who ordered the pizzas. That's fact!
On the way back to their room, the delivery boy has a thought. These guys did not give him a tip. He figures that since there is no way to split $5 evenly into three, that he will keep $2 for himself and give back $3. OK! So far so good....
The boy knocks on the door and one fellow answers. He explains about the mix-up, and hands the guy $3, and then departs with the $2 tip in his pocket. Now the fun begins!

Remember, $30 - $25 = $5, right? $5 - $3 = $2, right? So whats the problem? All is well, right?

Not quite. Answer this: Each of the three guys originally gave $10 each. They each got back $1 in change. That means they paint $9.00 each, which times three is $27.
The delivery boy kept $2 for a tip. $27 + $2 = $29. Where the heck is the other dollar!?

'Till next time...

Break

These holidays have begun well. I am currently on a real break - no work, no assignments, no worries.
And because of this I have chosen to fill my days with painting. There will be many a drop of paint being applied in the next 2 weeks.
Since that is happening, I am also only attending to my laptop in the evenings (for other reasons too) and so replying to emails and the like will become stagnant.

'Till next time...

Bad Design?

I came across this site today.
BDT: Bad Design Threads

This is my favorite!

About BDT (from their website)
"We’re just a random group of designers that thought it’d be cool to make shirts. Mostly, we make shirts that make fun of bad designs or bad designers. Every once in a while we just make a shirt we think is cool. Hey, it’s our little company, we can do whatever we want."

'Till next time...

Addiction - Part 2

Soul Purpose have written a timely article addressing issues I covered in a prior article (See here)
A taster for you:
"Perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves what are we wasting breath on? What’s stressing us out? What keeps us up at night? Are you obsessing over a potential new boyfriend/girlfriend? Stressing about whether your bank account will stretch to that new Ipod? Feeling weighed down by commitments? Ask yourself whether the things that you use your breath for are things that draw you closer to God, or just leave you breathless."

'Till next time...

No Reason not to try Ubuntu 8.04

Ubuntu 8.04 - Hardy Heron is the latest version of the well acclaimed Ubuntu. With it comes absolutely no excuse why anyone on PC can not give it a try.
In the past, it has been arduous to set up a Linux system, especially for beginners who may not want to give up the safety of Windows by uninstalling it. To over come this, one would therefore have to partition their hard drive, which could potentially leave ones computer in the state of a mere rock.
The Ubuntu 8.04 is a Live CD; meaning one can boot from it and run it if you wanted to give it a go, just like prior versions of Ubuntu. But this one has an extra kick.
Pop the CD into your drive whilst still logged into Windows and it will autorun with a couple of options. One of those options is to Live Boot, the other leaves no excuse for Windows users not to give it a go.
Ubuntu 8.04 can now be installed as a Windows Application. It will run, just like any other Windows application. But it will be an entirely new operating system.
It admits that it wont run as smoothly as it would if it was a native install, but hey! At least its something more permanent than just giving a Live CD a go one afternoon when you haven't got anything better to do.


'Till next time...

Ridding my world of the unwanteds...

If you could take one thing in your life, wrap it up in newspaper, seal it with duct tape and then burn it, what would it be?
We all have things that we've done or that we do that we're not proud of.
Often that thing can be in secret, and is kept there because of the shame that it brings. We don't want people to know about it. We don't want people to find out this thing that may taint the image that we portray to them in every day life.
These things can slowly eat away at you. You feel less of a person because of them. They make you feel utterly guilty and utterly worthless. You have cheated yourself and you are ashamed of it.
But how many of us will continue doing it because its what we do when we feel guilty, shamed, or worthless?
Whether it be that you're a closet smoker, a high/low stakes gambler, trapped in the addiction of s3x (keeping such words from shelving this blog over into the "adult" section), or you have a drinking problem; all of these addictions poison us and bring us down to a lower level than what we aspire to, and what God expects and wants for us.
In Romans 12 vs. 1 it states "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him." - New Living Translation.

Addictions are often physical. But they also affect us mentally and spiritually. Some of you may think I'm on a "holier than thou" banter; I'm not. For the past 3 years I have been struggling with an addiction of my own. I haven't been able to kick it, despite my best efforts. But I am writing here now to encourage you.
If you are struggling to break a habit, whether it be from biting your fingernails to a sturdy relationship with drugs - be encouraged. Help is out there. God wants to help. And with it, close friends, family members, church goers, all want to help if only given the chance.
I can appreciate that the level of shame is great and that humbling yourself before those key people is hard because you care about what they think of you - but speaking from experience, those people wont scoff at you, they wont laugh, and they wont think any less of you.
If you need help, you have to ask for it. People aren't mind readers.

For those of you that know me, I am struggling with my addiction. It is real and it is difficult to deal with. If you feel that you would like to help, please contact me. One way in which you can help me is to pray for me constantly, that I would be able to beat this once and for all.

'Till next time...

Returning with an upset voice

So Queen's Birthday Weekend Camp went splendidly. Despite the cold and raining weather during pack up day on Monday, we had an excellent overall camp, one to be definitely remembered.
But I was left with only half a voice, something which does not work too well when in a class of 24 students. But we will push on.
The TE is going very well and I'm looking forward to teaching more and more. I've begun to realise just how much of a factor confidence can be.
For all of you other's on TE, I wish you the very best of luck to find that confidence within yourself (or scab it off your AT!)

'Till next time...