All Posts Tagged With: "review"
2007 Report Card
2007 was another big year for me not only in terms of activity, but also in terms of opportunities and personal development.
I have quite a bit to review from 2007, lots of amazing breakthroughs, new beginnings, and connections with some amazing people. I’m not going to discuss these in this particular post, but I will in my next. This post is to give myself grades on goals set.
Here the goals that I had set at the start of 2007, and my review of them now:
Health
Do not eat chips: A+
I went 12 months without eating chip eg. hot chips, potato chips, wedges, gems, hash browns and corn chips etc. There were only couple of occasions where it was a difficult task, basically when I was presented with a meal with them unexpectedly.
Play sport or do an outdoor activity once a week: A-
After 5 years not playing any competitive sport, I returned to my favourite sport in Australian Football. It all started when I got a taste of it playing 9-a-side football on the gold coast. After which time, I had made the decision to then go play with the Griffith Gladiators, who were just up the road and in a lower division. Read some of my posts about Griffith gladiators Australian football club.
See the Dentist: C-
Here is a good example of bad goal setting, where if you’re not specific enough, then you can achieve it but not have it make any affect on your situation. I DID go see the dentist, but I didn’t make it a priority to see him again and get the required treatment. My goal should have been, “See the dentist, get the required treatment AND see him regularly so I can maintain my oral health”.
Only drink alcohol once a week: A-
This one was fairly easy, but I thought this was important to set so that I compliment my endeavours with my health. I even learnt to just enjoy my time regardless of alcohol.
Family
Make an effort to speak to each of my family members once a week: D
I started the year off quite well, but as I took on more responsibilities towards the end of year, my regular contact with my family diminished. This lack of being in the “family circle” of communication almost lead to Christmas being cancelled. I’m not going to reveal the details, but lack of communication and not making family a priority had severe and immediate effects on the family as a whole.
Respond to calls from my family with top priority: B-
As this seems like a “no brainer” or a “why do you even have to set that as a goal” goal, I get overwhelmed sometimes with returning calls as I take on more responsibility elsewhere in my life. Whilst I would consider this a pass, I think I can still improve in this area.
Whilst most of those close to me think that neo gets more attention than they do, there were a few occasions where I would be late home from work at night or in the morning after a night out. This meant that neo would have to wait an hour or two to get fed. Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t like he was starving, BUT it’s a routine that I have set for him and I’m committed to keeping him healthy. I had a bit of scare with neo this year with he got a paralysis tick but it just meant that I appreciated his time and attention more.
Personal
Manage my finances with budget planning and to save for a holiday: E
I really bummed out on this one, with bad money management and budget planning. This is one of my priorities this year.
Always be open to love, if it presents itself, embrace it: C-
I met some amazing people this year, and was lucky enough to spend some quality time with them. Whilst I appreciated and enjoyed my experiences, I know there was something holding me back. I am so grateful for the time, attention and patience I received with the girls I met this year, and even more grateful for the ones who are now close friends.
It’s funny how you can think and talk about getting over someone, but it’s not until you actually do, that you can move on. The new year has already presented me with a way forward and I look forward to overcoming some challenges within the coming months. I have a lot more to say on this matter so sign up and “Keep in the loop” to get access to some of my other confessions about love.
Allow myself to enjoy life, keeping a balance between work time and personal time: C-
I started the year off quite well, but found that it become harder and harder to maintain due as I took on more responsibilities towards the end of the year. I did make sure though that I gave myself sufficient sleep to go into the new day, but underestimated the value of time to “do my own thing”.
Be Responsible and safe: B
Probably too general to have a set goal, however I do believe that, in general, I was fairly responsible and safe. I have some passionate thoughts about being responsible. Check out the section “Committed to life” (Work in progress).
Career
Try and obtain one new client a week: B
As I joined the workforce, this became less important, however I was very pro-active in my networking and connecting with people in 2007.
Leverage on my experience with RSPCA: A
My experience with RSPCA and in particular sparked my interest in Internet Marketing and making it my primary skill function.
Look toward working with MSIT, QUT, NRAand modaitalia for fashion work: A-
The NRA fashion awards are being held in 2008, probably because of media coverage restrictions which meant I didn’t cover it.
Learn to really chase leads – eg. Phone up exisiting clients and get contacts for new ones: B+
Logistically this was not entirely feasible as it required a heck of a lot of time to fulfill. I did however learn some amazing ways to automatically chase leads, and have the leads come to me, pre-qualified and ready to buy.
Be really organised as I would expect from any other business: C
Similar to some of my other goal reviews, I did this really well at the start of the year, but as I took on more responsibility, I diminished significantly. One of the my mentors who really helped with this was Brian Tracy.
Magnolia - Movie Review
Magnolia (1999) - Movie Review
Tagline
Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.
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To summarise, this movie is a deep portrayal of the lives of multiple characters. Somehow they get intertwined, but not made to appear so for the entertainment of a movie.
There are no big twists to make you turn but instead a development of understanding of the lives of these characters being focused on. As the tagline suggests, things happen, and sometimes not for any particular reason but sometimes they do.
Lots of other movies that i’ve seen where there appears to be a build up towards a grand climax, is done to give an ending twist- which then renders the movie viewable only once with the same eyes, if that makes sense. I don’t think the sixth sense can be watched with the same eyes the second time.
In Magnolia we see the development of stories which build toward a grand climax. Magnolia differs from others however as whilst some of the points of interest are predicatable, the suspense is in how we see characters in the movie react to these moments not a revelation in storyline.
The acting and direction is in a perfect blend with the setting and content. We feel the pain, the happiness and the relief of those on screen. Movies where you want to see the reaction of characters to revelation in storyline appear with great emotion and understanding, we never feel left out.
I originally hired this film after hearing about Tom Cruise’s roll as Frank Mackey who is a basically the a “woman tamer” and god amongst men who don’t know how to play the game of getting to bed with women.
Cruise plays a character in only one story of several that this movie tells. His acting and emotion in this film is well deserved of his golden globe award.
Whilst this movie is quite deep in the way things intertwine, try not to think too hard about the background as you will miss the importance of the foreground. One hint, this movie isn’t cut up in different time sections, it is a story of one particular period of time displayed from start to finish.
I’ll try not to spoil this for you, but I do want to say, this 3 hour feature film is definately worth watching, keep a night free to watch it at your own lesuire. Don’t ruin being moved by a brillant film by watching it during conversation or before u go out on a night in the town.
The climax of this movie will display and event that is very out of place and i beleive was put in to make us just realise that some things happen, for no apparent reason- some need to be recognised throughly and some should just be left as a past event.
There is something there for all of us to take away, and for me personally, it has made me realise that saying that you regret something is not a bad thing to say. I’ve always thought regret is a waste as you don’t take decisions made and make something good out of them. But for some things, there is no good that comes out of it and i suppose we need to all acknowledge that these things happen. We can’t do anything more about them now and it’s ok to recognise what we have done wrong in the past regardless of our current situation.
Nobody is perfect and to say we regret decisions made is ok, as long as we recognise bad decisions as bad things and not always as “it was for the best”. It’s not about dwelling about the past, but more about recognition of something that was wrong and giving it the true recognition it deserves- especially if it has affected others you love.
The big quote from this movie is “We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us”
This review has also been submitted to imdb.com

