Letter to a much younger me.

Lately I've been think about things I have learned. Not like learned in school but life things, things I wish I'd known when I was younger. So I decided I'd write myself a letter.

Dear Younger Sam,
Don't worry everything will be cool. Listen to more music, and remember just cause you don't like a band doesn't mean no one else should.
Play Canoe Polo as soon as you can. It's epic and you don't want to only play it for school in your last year!
Remember your friends, remember and the lyrics "Your best friend is not your girlfriend."
Don't waste so much money on junk food. Watch out for girls, the can rock your world to ruin. Look out for one called Tash.
Ignore your dad's teasing it is possibly, healthy even to have girls that are friends.
Study more, be a girly swat, more badges will look nice on your blazer.
Don't give up on soccer, after all your friends leave Halswell you should have tried Rolleston.
Get your licence earlier it will give you so much more freedom and free time. You wouldn't have had to waste so much time on the bus getting across town.
Trial for every team you would like to get into even if its a long shot its worth the experience! Do the subjects at school you enjoy not just the ones your good at. Remember accounting is boring, do bio instead.
Don't bother doing archery, you'll hate it.
Statistics is not maths don't bother doing it, do calculus if you can.
Don't pass up any opportunities for adventure. Remember it is better to regret doing something than not doing it. (Within reason).
Video games are not a productive pass time, try to do something else.
Start learning drums sooner rather than later so that you have some kind of mastery when you get to an age where you care about that sort of thing.
Read instructions for tests and assignments, so you don't miss out on merit credits that would get you an endorsement!!!
Have fun you Muppet and don't be such a patsy!

Yours Sincerely
Older and hopefully some what more enlightened Sam.

I wonder if that note would have changed anything? Even if I wouldn't have understood any of it straight away.

Theme Thursday - Equal

Well my week has been fulled with economics. It used to be my favourite subject. I Loved how an understanding of it gave insight into everyday things. It used to excite me, I'd tell people about the wisdom I'd just found or the links in everything. Cause when you boil everything down in a pot, almost everything is economics. Which can be summed up in the simple sentence "Economics is the study of people and how they use there limited resources to fulfill there unlimited needs and wants". That can be even further simplified into the sentence people respond to incentives.
Supply and Demand. The point at which people agree to purchase so much of a good or service and other people agree to produce that amount. When the supply is equal to the demand. The incentives could be the need to eat, money, clothing, anything. The point is in any given market there is equilibrium. The point at which everyone is happy! We have allocative efficiency as everyones surplus' are maximised.
This is a perfect market right? If only everything was this simple.
Its not, one person consuming one good might cause someone else pain. Think a drunk driver hitting another car. You now have an example of a negative externality of consumption for alcohol. Now an economist would tell you that any such good although it has negatives also has its positives and so a corrective tax should be placed not a total ban of the good.And we will have allocative efficiency again! Consumption of the good will fall until it equals the desired social quantity! The tax revenue can be used to fix the problem, reduce the number of drunk drivers.
If you understand that you could almost get 5 NCEA credits in NZ!

I hope nobodies been bored to death. I was working on an assignment pretty much all week and that's been the crux of it. Sigh, the boredom of assignments. -.-

A Wise Word

I'm not sure where the advice is from. I think I first heard it in the sunscreen song. "Each day do one thing that scares you." Looking back over my weekend one that all though I felt sick and incredibly tired has felt like it was a rewarding one.
On Friday I meet new people something that scared me. Surprise surprise It wasn't half as scary as I thought it'd be! And now I have some new acquaintances.
On Saturday I went on a road trip with Rich, Linz, Rod, and Alice. (Youth Pastor, Youth leader, Pastor, and Youth group Kid/Pastors daughter). To Greymouth. Which was a bit scary especially with Richards Driving! I also messaged someone from Friday on facebook. Which was a very interesting experience, its interesting to see how many times you can re-write a 20 word message before you send it! Then I replied to a text I had no idea I would've got although it was nice and stayed up texting well into the night and until my birthday! Which was Sunday.
On Sunday It was my birthday, I played drums in church, not even my own church. Something that had been terrifying me all week! And you know what? It wasn't that bad. I think I might put myself back on the roster at my own church and start practising the drums again!
Now its Monday, I texted someone to ask them something when I half expected them to turn around and murder me, they didn't but It wasn't a massive request in the text so who knows! Maybe when they see me they will?
Tomorrow's Tuesday and I intend to continue this new trend! Hopefully it'll help to make each day an adventure! :P

Theme Thursday - Brush

So recently I watched the Phantom Mini series and I watched Kick Ass today. Last week I saw Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Awesome movie by the way. So I've kinda been thinking about the themes in these shows. Oh my past english teachers would be proud, the obvious one is Superhero, and because in all these the main character goes from a somewhat average person into someone amazing. The Phantom turns from a law student, into a highly trained vigilante agent with a hi-tech bullet proof suit. Suggesting that to be "Super" we need to have funds, and training. In Kick Dave Lizewski goes from being an average high-school student with nothing special about him to a wetsuit dressed idiot who willingly gets his ass kicked several times. Scott Pilgrim fights the battles first as he doesn't know whats going on and is attacked. Then later he fights for Ramona, while finally he fights for self-respect. Which ultimately ends up being his most powerful weapon. Why am I talking about superhero's for theme Thursday you must be wondering, I'm a teenage boy superhero's are awesome! That and I think this weeks theme seems to fit superheros. The one thing that all three before mentioned hero's had was that they were able to brush off attacks, emotions, pain, and get on with what was needed to be done. Get the bad guys, apologise to the girls they've hurt (Scott Pilgrim) so that they can finally get piece forgive him and work as a team to defeat the villain, rescue an injured Hit Girl from a sword wielding Red Mist.

Hero's are everywhere though, think about the guy that plays sport and for some reason always gets majorly taken out, and when you see them go down you always cringe, you can feel the pain of there tumble from across the field. Only moments later though they are jumping up and playing again, saving a goal, making an amazing tackle. Brushing off there pain. You even wonder if they were hurt by the fall until you see them moments later after the ball is away from them and they shake there ankle or clutch there side before the look to the side line for a substitution. That to me is an act of heroism.

Get used to your own Company.

A while ago I wrote a blog, about a quote I heard from a famous doctor. I said how it was sad that such a quote was said. The quote went something like "Get used to your own company, your going to spend alot of time with yourself." although don't quote me on that. At the time I thought it was one of the most depressing statements I'd ever heard. I couldn't believe that the doctor that wrote it also wrote one of my favourite childhood books about breakfast foods and eating on the move.Dr Seuss I though how could you have let me down like that?
Well over the last however long since that post I've been alone alot. I've been thinking about that statement. Not directly but under different headings. Like what should I do then? Why did I do that? My favourite is WTF did you say that you must've looked like a retard. All this has been while I've been alone which is a fair bit. My house is a little in the wop wops, so I have a minimum of half an hour driving a day where I'm alone, most days I have something else on so the driving times even longer. Or sitting in my room with my music going, pretending/avoiding doing homework and wasting my life away. I even started another campaign on Rome Total War. I only seem to do that when I'm really bored. It's depressing because you can never actually conquer everything, not with out more patience than I can muster. However back to the point.
You need to get used to your own company, I seem to have a mixed relationship with myself. You know how theres those things you like about yourself or the few things that boost your confidence, then theres things you don't like or sensitive about. One of those things was last week in the library a girl told me her friend liked me. I was shocked at the time, and because they were yr 7 it weirded me out a bit. However it was nice to be thought of even if that one girl was trying to embarrass her friend that I was good looking enough? to make the 12yr old blush.
As I said earlier the reflections on actions like why I did that, why'd you say that? Or you could do that. Are these the normal conversations one has in there head when there alone? Do people even have conversations in there head? cause then that'd imply two parties? Am I nuts? Or am i just getting used to my own company and forming my own quirky type relationship with me?
Ultimately am I used to being by myself? That's probably the worst thing for me about driving, all that freedom to go where I want. You just have to drive there, and theres no one to go with but me myself an I. Sometimes I cant stand me, or I, definitely not myself he's a bit of a douche.

Phillip

Today I woke up and felt ill. Managed to convince my mum I was sick which meant breakfast in bed which was a nice treat. Well less like breakfast more like a snack. I'm not sure a cupcake, some panadol a Milo and a glass of water constitute a breakfast. Anyway having a sick day made me think hm... I could learn all about my chemistry today. Then hopefully I could understand Acid & Bases and Organic. Of course being a lazy teenager I went and caught up on T.V. I watched True Blood, Survivors, NCIS and two episodes of the Mentalist. Good show that last one.

Anyhow I'm avoiding what this post is really supposed to be about. I got an email from my football coach, with "Phillip" in the subject line. My first thought was perhaps someone pressed the wrong button and had emailed me there selection for player player. When I opened it I read some shocking news. My Coach was emailing us to inform us that Phil a member of our team and his son had died last night at about 8.45 in a car crash.
Phil was only a little bit older than me. He was a nice guy. He offered to give me Woodstock when I told him I was going to a party one week. He was the guy in the team that always asked everyone what plans they had for the weekend. He was the guy that first talked to me when I joined the team at the beginning of the season. He was friendly with everyone. I guess now he's gone. We weren't close or anything. He's someone I've seen almost every week all winter. He's was the guy that would sub off and let me get more match time. Partly cause he was knackered, partly so he could hold his girlfriends hand.
To be honest its more odd than anything. Odds not the right word. I guess I'm still shocked. Someone I saw on Tuesday at practice who I was quite proud of myself for skinning (Zooming past him in a game with the ball and leaving him in the dust), Isn't going to be at our last game of the season.

Our game tomorrow has been postponed. Our coach contacted the competition organisers.

Theme Thursday - Palm

Palm.

To have something in the palm of your hand means you have complete control over it. Seems like an Idealic statement. How can you have true control over anything? At school at the moment we're learning about Private and Mixed goods. The difference being that mixed goods have an externality an unexpected event cause by the consumption of the mixed good. Life is a mixed good. Everything we do effects everything else. Have you seen the movie the Butterfly Effect? Its where the main character can focus his energy and go back to a moment in his life where he "blacked out" and relive these moments and change the events that happened. In each situation he changes he ends up in a new situation. New friends, the girl he likes is with someone else, or with him. He's friends with the massive goth kid or they've never even met.
Perhaps the externalities we cause arent as massive, changing what we do at one paticular moment shouldn't change the outcomes now should they?
It does make you think though, what if at that moment? What if I had been smarter? Better? Braver? The regrets of the things you should've, could've done.
For me the moment I always think about is when I was in my 3rd year at school. Room 11. My teacher Mrs Lawn came up to me at lunch and asked me if I wanted to be in the play for end of year assembly. After a brief thought I declined. My then bestfriend was asked and he did the part. You could maybe say I palmed the part off to him. :P (Extra points for getting another phrase related to palms right?). He's now a bit of a drama buff, a musician, happy to get infront of a crowd and address them. I'm not saying this one experience made him what he is today. It certainly helped. What if I rather than declining Mrs Lawn had been brave enough to say yes? What if I'd had that part. How would it have changed me? Would I be braver? Less shy? Would that experience at such a young stage of life turned me into an ultimately more extroverted person?
I don't know if it would. I do know that if I knew what I knew know about life and experiences I have had. I would have said yes. If I had a time machine I would tell little 9yr old me to do it. Be brave do the play.
Perhaps then it would mean that I had more control over life in the palm of my hand? Simply because it would change the space of my mind. Of course dwelling on the past living with regrets is stupid. "If we hold on to the past then we cannot fully embrace the present" Is a phrase I recently heard. Its so simple yet so amazingly true. The same could be said about worrying about the future. Or holding on to the what ifs. I think of all the times I have spent hours dreaming of what could have happened. The what ifs. I've wasted so much time on the what ifs. Its a bad habit I'm working on breaking. Need to start on the what do I do RIGHT NOW. Then rather than sitting staring at space perhaps I should be studying, or atleast doing the homework I never do. Who knows!

Ok this post seems a bit of a shambles now. . . Nevermind! Happy Theme thursday!

Theme Thursday - Brown

Everything going on seems to be the colour of mud. . .

Recently at my house there has been a bit of rain. Meaning some areas of my nice green lawn that are frequently trodden on mainly by my dog Max. Have turned to a gross muddy mess. What Max doesn't seem to understand yet even after 8 years, that if you have muddy shoes you take them off. If your shoes are part of your body then your screwed. You can't get inside, and that you get in more trouble for jumping up on the windows with muddy paws. Why are animals so stupid? Often we take pity on him, especially if mum's out and less him in with a minimal foot wipe. Other times if mum is there then we have to put him in the garage for half and hour to let him dry off. Theirs not a lot for a dog to do in the garage. Poor Dog.

Apologies for the rather under thought out theme Thursday. Usually I take a lot of time to think about it but been busy this week with assignments, going to the Pixies, and group practises for a house singing competition at school. (I'm dancing going to be fail. . . )

P.S. I uploaded a video of Canoe Polo to my blog if your interested it's the post below this one!

Canoe Polo

I'm number 5 in the Blue team. This is only the first half, we won in the end 4-3. Our first win against a full team!