Hi people,

So I was reading my bible-in-a-year verses today when i stumbled upon Luke 10:15 "You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. " Just out of curiosity, how does Greek Mythology tie in with the Christian Bible? I'm also interested in the point of perspective of how this verse reads "will be brought down to Hades." Now for me this sounds like "come on down to our place" or "come on down to the park". It sounds like Luke is speaking from Hades?

Ok so if this sounds like its coming from no where let me explain, I've got a friend who has a theory that Hades as it is reffered to is actually Earth, and we are living here until Jesus comes again. My friend believes that those who are non believers die and stay on earth, but those who were faithful would rise again and join the party in Heaven. Just throwing it out there to see what the general response is... Please post comments and let me know what you think.

Cheers

Shelly

Valentines day was yesterday just in case anyone forgot. Did you all have a good day? did your someone special do something romantic to express their love for you?

I'm a bit concerned about this commercial holiday, and what exactley it represents, i'm in the opinion that its a good and bad idea. The good first:

1. It gives an oppertunity for those who dont do romantic things very often with their special someone, to do something seet.

2. It gives an oppertunity for someone to let their crush know they have a secret admirer.

now the bad:

1. It is afterall a commercial holiday, some people are sucked into buying expensive gifts without taking the time or the effort to really appreciate their special someone.

2. Expectations can be evil, have you ever expected something on valentines day and not gotten it?

Unfortunatley both point number 1 of good and point number 2 of bad happened to me yesterday. Me and my special someone dont often do romantic stuff, so it was a great oppertunity for me to take the time to do something special for my special someone. Unfortunatley my special someone didnt do anything special for me :'( Usually i would have sulked about this for a week before my special someone realised why they were getting the cold shoulder, now its only been 12 hours since valentines day, i'm wanting to give him more of an oppertunity than the 24 hours he had on valentines day to do something romantic.... how long should i wait before i explain to him why i'm a bit miffed? also do you think i'm justified in how i'm feeling at the moment? should i be upset that my expectations on valentines day were not met? Do you think it is reasonable to have expectations on valentines day? or do you think it should be a completley unconditional love thing?

Expectations are a cruel thing....

Hi Everyone!

Sorry its been quite some time since I blogged last, one of my new years resolutions is to post my blogs on a more reguar basis.

So whats been going on with me? well since my last blog i have bought a house (with the help of my lovely caring parents who are AWESOME!) so i moved in on the 10th of december, therefore me and my flatmates got to say farewell to our angry skin head neighbours! woo hoo! then about 5 days later i went up to auckland for two weeks for christmas and general mischief with my family, was lots of fun! Then came back here for a fantastically quiet new years eve ( i went to bed at 12.10 am!) since then i have obtained a new job - which is the main reason you havent seen me at church!

I'm now working weekends at Omega Car rentals in town! i had a choice between working partime (during the week, in the evenings) at telstraclears sales and marketing department..... not so much fun compared to working a dynamic and ever changing work day, at Omega. This time i chose to get off my arse and enjoy moving around whilst at work instead of being stuck behind a desk with your head chained to the phone with the cunning use of a headset. So yeah my work day is currently 50% admin in the office and face to face customer contact, the other 50% is sitting around talking with my weekend supervisor (who is awesome by the way) and cleaning cars (which is remarkable exercise!). Although i'm loving my new job i've definatly learnt why God wants us to have one day of rest during the week to just relax and focus on him. So far i've been doing this relaxing chilling out with God on a friday, but now i'm a wee bit worried about what is going to happen when i start back full time study at university. My life as i know it is going to be extremely full, looking at my timetable for the year i'll be at uni from 9-6 mon- wed, 9-3 thur, and 9-1 on friday.

For the past 5 weeks,i've been at summer school, just doing a chem paper, i have my final exam on tuesday next week, which i'm currently procrastinating studying for.

Right so now that you know that i'm actually still alive and your all caught up on where i have been in the last two - three months, i want to tell you about some more new years resolutions i've made.....

1. Get into tramping

now this new years resolution is a direct consequence of me and my flatmates all sitting around one night after having a BBQ probably on the 2nd or 3rd of January, sipping a glass of wine etc... we have all decided to do this together! so yeah if you have any tips for me let me know coz i'vd never gone tramping before in my life!

2. Get into Uni

Now i know what your asking "Shelly, if you got anymore into uni wouldn't you be living there?!" Yes most probably but i want to get into uni socially! i have to admit that last yea i was a social hermit when it came to joining into anything slightly fun and the possibility of making new friends. i dont know why but i was extremely nervous and shy about this! Anyway i've made a new years resoultion to swallow my nerves and get myself out there into new groups, such a curry soc! and other interesting societys.... it should be interesting, i'll keep you updated on that one!

3. Read the entire bible, cover to cover in one year.

This has been a goal of mine for quite some time but something always interupts, i have an awesome tool to help me tho, i am a subscriber of The Vine, so daily i not only get a devotional reading but it also gives me the verses i need to read each day to accomplish my goal! Isnt the computer a wonderful thing?

Now with this 3 new years resolution i've come across some interesting points that i wanted to put out there and ask the community:

In Genesis chapter 44 i was reading about the life of Joseph and what happened to him, what i want to know is what does the cup made of silver signify? why did he command that it be concealed in his brothers bag? Why did he have to go through so much trouble to decieve his brothers and then confess to them who he was? Why is it that he couldnt just reveal who he was in their first encounter? Admittedly this makes a much better story as there is a lot more emotion involved with the eldest brother not wanting to loose his youngest brother, but the end result is that they are all really happy to have found Joseph again. I'm just trying to imagine how that eldest brother was feeling throughout all that was happening, first of all he made the mistake of letting his brother be sold and lying to his father, then he is plagued the rest of his life with this guilt, and worry of what has truly happened to his youngest brother Joseph. That actually brings another point, none of their lives improved due to their actions of selling their brother and lying to their father, all they did was make their dad completely paranoid and saddend his heart over the loss of his youngest child. So now the eldest brother is feeling really guilty right? they go off to egypt and get food, eveything is going ok, then things get even better coz they get treated with all this nice food... for FREE and are sent back, but if they want to return he has to bring their youngest brother who has now taken the place of Joseph as their fathers favourite, the eldest brother must be feeling really anxious now, his father near DEATH would surely die if anything happens to their youngest brother, and f they want to live they need to get more food from egypt. So they come back for more food after painfully having to convince Dad that they need to take their brother, at this point Dad is so paranoid, last time he sent Joseph out, and now he must have to do the same with his brother? Its obvious that Dad doesnt quite trust his eldest son to look out for his son and protect him against wild beasts or people wanting buy him as a slave. So when the group of brothers leave Egypt for the second time and they get stopped and almost arrested, the eldest brother must be feeling really upset about whats happening. At the moment i'm feeling really sorry for the eldest child, i mean his kids probably wont be allowed to even date until they are like 40 years old now! Anyway like i said even thought it makes a great story, i just want to know why Joseph couldnt just reveal who he was in the first meeting with his brothers?

4. Post Blogs more often.

Angry skin heads!

Well my weekend was .... interesting to say the least! it was pretty quiet which included a bit of study for my upcoming tests for uni and also supermarket shopping with my flatmates! so all in all it was a pretty average weekend.... until last night

One of my flatmates and his girlfriend decided to cook us spaghetti bolognaise so while we were waiting for dinner, a few rounds of be-bes were shot at our target range at the back of our section, our target rage usually consists of a few cardboard boxes stacked against the fence, anywayz i decided to join in on the fun and shoot a few, my gun-happy flat mate who is in the army was showing me how to shoot a gun properly doing the macho thing, anywayz as i was shooting away two guys came round the fence, initially i thought they were friends with my other flat mate who wasnt there at the time but this thought was soon dashed away when one of them came about one inch away from my flatmates face and told him that if one more be be came over the fence he would put someone in hospital ( i think he meant one of us) he also threatened to bring his real gun over and pop a few caps on our asses if we continued. The whole situation FREAKED me out, this guy was very angry. When me and my flat mate discussed it later he informed me that the dude who tried to intermidate him reaked of alcohol, apparently the reason he came over in the first place was because they were having a party for their 1 year old child.

I can understand that the guy who came over wanted us to stop, i mean if we are shooting in the direction of children even if there is a fence blocking the way, i wouldnt feel comfortable either, what i cant understand is why he couldnt talk to us in a reasonable manner, i mean if it was me i would just say " hey do you mind not doing that, we have kids over in that direction and the be-bes are coming over the fence" if he had done that i would have apologised and said no problem - wont happen again. The other thing that puzzels me is that at the time he came over i was the one holding the gun, i was the one making shots at the fence, and yet he got all up in my flatmates face - not mine.

Anywayz so this led to quite a debate when my confrontational loving flatmate came home, he of course didnt care what this guy said to us and was going outside shooting his be-be gun, thankfully he wasnt shooting at the fence that seperates us and our angry neighbours...

I really want to reach out to his guy who threatened us but i fear for my safety, does anyone have any suggestions on how i could mend the bridge as neighbours? I hate to admit it but last night i was afraid of this guy, my flat mates would probably tell me off if i admitted that to them, its amazing just how different the reaction was between me and my male flatties, they were ready to get beat this guy up, while i just wanted to stay clear and avoid any confrontation.

I know i shouldnt let anyone intemidate me, i know i have to stand up for myself, but when someone threatens to put you in hopsital it really changes things, i thought i was so much stronger than this! oh well the valuable lesons we learn....

Hi everyone,
well to tell you the truth i had completely forgotten about my blog, it wasnt until amy mentioned it to me on sunday morning at church, i felt quite embarrased lol i didnt think anyone would be able to find it, but now*ahem* i have nothing to hide!! lol i had at first intentioned my blog to be a place that no one would find me and i could just type out my thoughts, but alas anne found me! lol nah its all good :)
well the last time i blogged it was a general intro to moi, hope you didnt get too bored, i'll try to make my blogs insightfull like so many others... but yeah i'll see how that goes!

Well the last time i blogged alot of things have happened, I'm now an official first year freshie at the university of canterbury doing a bachelor of science majoring in chemistry, i'm also taking antarctica studies and spanish, next semester i'm also picking up astronomy! I was taking astrophysics this semester but after attending three lectures and one afternoon lab working out what projectile angle the sun rotates on in comparison to the earth i decided it probably was a wee bit over my head, so i decided to drop that and take up antarctica studies instead! One of my flatmates expressed how dissapointed he was in me because i had chosen a subject with cute fluffy things on ice over physics in space. (He is one of these fellas who is WAY into his sci fi stuff and thought very highley of me when i was taking astrophysics). But yeah antarctica studies is great! dead easy and there is no end of year exam only 4 tests during the year worth 25% each. When i first enrolled i was thinking i could be a high school chemistry teacher in south america with a hobby for star gazing, but yeah now i can talk spanish to the penguins and teach them about chemistry with a hobby for star gazing!

So yeah a bit of a mix! I'm really enjoying it, but there never seems to be enough hours in a day, i'm finding it a wee bit difficult to fit in extra study time around going to lectures and working. I was actually told off yesterday for attempting to study at my desk at work.... even tho the amount of study i would probably get done is slim to none considering its a noisey call center, apparently i can scan my text books into the computer and study that way, i can study and read off the internet but i'm actually not allowed to read or study a book at my desk.... seems a wee bit odd to me but oh well gotta do what the boss tells me! I guess it is a wee bit unproffessional.... but hey i mean i think professionalism went out the window when i walked in one day with my hair dreaded hehehehehe

So yeah i got dreads, they took from 9 in the morning to 3.30 in the afternoon with two people working on my hair to get them done, it was VERY painfull... i cried! Reasons for getting them - i've alwayz wanted dreads - since i was 16 actually but of course mum wouldnt let me, she wasnt too keen when i told her i was going to get them but i tell ya her expressions of dissapproval had very little effect as she is such a great distance away from me, my dad also wasnt too enthusiastic either but when he visited two weeks ago he actually said that they suited me! So yeah i think that means he is ok with me having the dreads! So yeah, they weren't done out of rebellion, i dont really have anything to rebel against! I figured since i was starting university and working in a call centre i figured that i wouldnt have such an oppertunity again to do something crazy with my hair. I like them :) they are a wee bit weird to sleep on and the wax i use on them gets pretty much everywhere, its a dark brown wax so i cant really wear white tops without staining it, so yeah my already black wardrobe has just gotten a whole lot blacker!

what else is new... ah yes so it turns out that i'm living with three boys.... again! When i first moved down t christchurch i knew one other person who is also from auckland and he got me a room in the place him and his two other friends were living, when i first moved down here i kinda didnt have anywhere else to go so i stuck around with those three boys for a while, after getting sick of the "washing maching" aka the metal box that makes a lot of noise and pretends to wash your clothes when they actually come out alot dirtier than when they went in. And also the bathroom cieling whose mould actually grew down from the cieling on to you... There was a few other things that prompted my move out but i hope you get the general gist from the above two hygiene issues i had, anyway thats when i moved in to hornbrook street and discovered Opawa Baptist so really it was a good thing i moved out, anywayz whilst there i was living with one other lady and two cats in a BEAUTIFUL clean home with no mould and a washing machine AND a dryer. So yeah was very happy there and with the convieneance of rolling out of bed and being at church 5 mins later was a huge plus! But then of course after deciding to go back to uni thought it migh be an idea to kind of move closer and with a fewmore students, but also to make things a wee bit cheaper, thus i moved in with friend of mine called Bryce and who already had a flat set up so it was me, him and this other dude called neil, and then about a month ago we got a third guy in called Patrick. (bryce did try and get a girl in just to keep things even but by then uni had already started and girls being smart and organised they had all sorted out places to live. so we got another guy) so yeah i now find myself in pretty much the same situation as i was in when i first moved to chirstchurch! The difference being that we have a really blinging washing machine which resembles Rd-d2 or whoever that freaky little robot is off starwars, and out bathroom never seems to grow mould! theres some other benefits aswell ..... like our lounge is pretty much a mini movie theatre - Bryce bought a data projector so the back wall IS our tv screen, we have surround sound and a log burner aswell so awesome entertainment and cheap heating! woo hoo! other benefits is that we have converted the dining room into what the boys like to call our "show office" its basically a study area thing is i actually do study in it, i get told off all the time for doing this as it is apparently a "show office" - not actually to be used. Great thing about it is that its right by the kitchen so very easy access to fridge and pantry! :)

So yeah life is going pretty good at the moment, I have a wedding to look foward to ( not my own ) my cousin is getting married! My extended family all live in England, the girl he is marrying is actually from christchurch, so they are all coming on down to christchurch for the wedding! Its to take place in about 2 weeks at the nurses chapel by the hospital - very handy just in case the grandparents have a heartattack when they see the dreads ;) So yeah i get to hang out with my family for a wee while which will be nice.

So who is looking forward to winter? I AM!!!! yeay snow!!!! apparently its supposed to be a really good snow season due to the patterns of good year - bad year - good year - bad year and also because every decade ie 1976, 1986, 1996 have all been tremendous in terms of huge snow dumps so yeay!!! I've already got the season pass sorted out and for my 21st the folks are getting me a snowboard! so yeah i'll see the rest of you snowbunnys up on the mountain! yea-arrr! hehehe

anyway hope you enjoy this long one

catch y'all later

love
Shelly

Hello people!

well i finally took the plunge and have created my own blog! After hearing so much about theses so called blogs from now fellow bloggers at Opawa Batist :)
This i have to say is one of the many activites i get up to while i'm at work, i love my job.... sometimes..... maybe.... lol ok so the only thing i like about my job is that when i'm not on calls i get to do what i want ie purchase good from trade me, search for other jobs on SEEK, check my bank account balance, and generally just surfing the net. Now for those who dont know me very well or dont know what sort of job i have let me enlighten you....
I work full time in a call center for a lovely little company you may know as Meridian Energy, now i know what your thinking " ahhhh so your the fantastic person who gives us high power bills" but I'm not! I am actually employed by the customer service company by the name of Teletech, now Meridian Energy has employed Teletech to look after their customers, thats where i come in :)
So yeah my day is generally filled by sitting at a desk in front of a computer with a headset on waiting for a call to drop in.
Usually i work an 8 hour day taking approximately 50-60 calls a day, lately however i've been doing a bit of over time so sometimes working up to 11hours in one day....
When i first started working here i was thinking about the myth of how woman say up to 30,000 words per day while men only say 10,000 words per day or something. I figured by the time i finished work I would have probably doubled my quota of 30,000 words within that 8 hour period so i would have no words left to say when i got out of the office.
I am ashamed to admit that i have a lot more to say when i leave the office.... now for those who know me well, know that i'm not a very talkative person, so i guess you could say i've been going thru a bit of a change, at this point all i can tell you is that my jaw has been getting a lot of exercise, i've also had to start pronouncing my words like a kiwi would such as "parseword" instead of "password" so i've been losing my weird little accent that so many people mock me for. So if you recognise this change in me that i'm a wee bit more talkative - get over it, i'm a woman. As for the accent- no job and no person is ever going to stop from pronouncing my words CORRECTLY, as they should be pronounced, so every other word like "class" or "grass" or "pass" or "ass" will continue to be spoken as if i was an american, so there :p

Anywayz i thought i'd just share a very momentus occasion with y'all, today for the first time since i started working here i got my first 100% QA result, just to explain that, once a week one of my calls get listened to by a person in our qualitiy assurance team.
Up until now i've been getting nothing higher than 94%, now 96% or higher is what you need to be satisfactory, so everytime i get one of these QA's i get "talked to" by my team leader, who basically just tells me the areas i need to work on to achieve 96% or higher, why i havent been achieving 96% or higher is because i have a very nasty habit of saying "uhmmmm" alot while on the phone to customers - very very unproffessional ya see. Anywayz today i finally did it! One of the hundreads of calls i get in my week was listened to and i did everything perfectley!!! Can you imagine how happy my team leader was? as he was getting just as frustrated as i was that i wasnt achieveing my QA's.
I tell ya, every time i utter out the "uhmm" i kick myself, that is one sound that is very difficult not to make! I say sound coz its not even a word! So heres my challenge to you, try not to say "uhmm"

Anywayz now that i've become completely addicted to blogging, i hope you enjoy reading my long longggg lonnngggg msg's as i have nothing better to do while i'm at work :)

Take care

Shelly