Excellence Being On time Sacrifice
The difference between been ‘’good’’ and ‘’great’’ can, and has often been put down to excellence. It is the pursuit of excellence that separates those who want & those who desire. I’ve been thinking about this lately. And it occurs to me that there seems to be bit of a tri variable relationship between the said ‘’Excellence’’, ‘’Sacrifice’’ and being ‘’on time’’. What's the point of having anything good in life if it misses the opportune moment or the perfect timing which can galvanize any achievement? In anything in life, an inability to deliver your best when it is required on time would automatically devalue any output no matter how good it really is. The opposite of excellence in many ways is mediocrity. But what I’ve figured is that you can have things on time, NOT make the sacrifices required & deliver a pretty mediocre result. This is quite often the case. I feel there is a strong positive relationship between these three factors. Or else, you can have excellence, NOT make sacrifices and get nothing done on time. Being the best at anything takes sacrifice. It hurts but the rewards are most often bountiful. I guess Excellence is a choice not a gift. You can enjoy the petty little joys of life without really making any significant sacrifices and feel nothing to be proud of someday. But on the contrary the pleasure of the other route can be probably more fulfilling to some at least.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Advanced Nations
''Include those of North America and Western Europe, plus Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.''
Yup, this is what i found in an International Economics glossary whilst doing an assignment. Guess that leaves the rest of us to the stone age! Not even Russia man, since the whole of Eastern Europe has been ignored! By Golly! Just noticed that there's no mention of Asia other than Japan?? Wtf? Malaysia... Singapore.... Hong kong???
Wow Sri Lanka really does not have any hope of becoming an advcanced nation in this guys books....
Yup, this is what i found in an International Economics glossary whilst doing an assignment. Guess that leaves the rest of us to the stone age! Not even Russia man, since the whole of Eastern Europe has been ignored! By Golly! Just noticed that there's no mention of Asia other than Japan?? Wtf? Malaysia... Singapore.... Hong kong???
Wow Sri Lanka really does not have any hope of becoming an advcanced nation in this guys books....
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Education
Here i am just a few days away from finishing my UG. Trying to think straight.Figuring out, what i ought to do next. Trying not to over plan life and take away the fun of the entire process!
But now is a good a time as any to reflect on our beloved education system, what it has done to me and say a few thank yous to the people that probably helped me on this lil hunt for knowledge, intelligence and hopefuly some wisdom.
I was College's version of an online troll. Always getting into trouble, nothing meaningful really. So amongst my proud achievements at college include....
1. Driving Ms jayasinghe into retirement 1 year short of her 25Th year of service, and the thousands of rupees i saved my brethren in the form of ''25 year service donations''A few bloggers in SL could stake a claim to been an important part of this achievement...
2. Taking a piss into Gaya sirs lil pond after School. Oh the sight of those Junior prefects cleaning up the the pond with piss mixed water up to their knees the next morning.
3. Breaking into the Junior Canteen and stealing boxes of Mars Chocs and Bunty toffees.... rofl
Ok, this post is heading in the wrong direction. It was meant to be meaningful.
So here's to...
1. Tarzan, my Sinhalese tuition teacher in Grade 11 who taught me Sinhalese Literature in easy to understand language! His overly horny behaviour in class and openness about it gave him an extra edge in making the class interesting!
2. OC Samarawickrama. Without you Sugar i would have flunked Chemistry in style!
3. Here's to Iruzee... If not for ur bizarre habit of maintaining 3 sets of Chemistry notes i would have had no material to study!
4. To Bora! Cheers... awakening me to the world of Economics!
5. Tharindu, Dude... Individual classes for math and Physics at Just 700 bucks a month for both subjects! that's the best bargain I've ever got... thanks mate!
6. To what's his Name? Tamil Sir who taught me Organic Chem in just 2 weeks! Thanks!
7. Sis. Gratitude.
My conclusion is that Sri Lanka's system of education lacks flair, finesse and creativity! We have an efficient machine churning out Intelligent people, but few thinkers. People with Subject Knowledge, but with no subject passion. People who know History of what happened, who did it... why... the Philosophy behind it but lacking the creative intelligence to add something themselves. Our system is carved out by a desire to be rich and rid of poverty instead of being happy.Hence we are oversupplied with accountants, marketers, Lawyers and doctors but are short of Professionals in so many fields!
We need more assignment based education! make that lil 8 year old guy work his socks off to research stuff, form his own opinion.... teach him that the answers are not all Black and white, but that most things are grey and it's ok to have an answer that is both yes and no and in between.
I think its retarded of our education system when a lil boy is taught Art but there is such a specific way he needs to draw that his marks will be cut off if he does something new.... we are teaching our kids to think like robots. Scared to have an opinion. Worried about if his opinion matched with that in the text book. In Literature our kids are asked to write that the kings were great, would it be so wrong if one perceived that the kings did a shitty job of it? That Dutugemunu was a loser coz he waged war and in the process killed so many? it's just an opinion..... instead of Children forming opinions and thinking about things they are forced to memorize! This is why my greatest achievement was leaving School after my A/Levels... until then i didn't know quite what it was like to have a mind of my own in any topic.....
But now is a good a time as any to reflect on our beloved education system, what it has done to me and say a few thank yous to the people that probably helped me on this lil hunt for knowledge, intelligence and hopefuly some wisdom.
I was College's version of an online troll. Always getting into trouble, nothing meaningful really. So amongst my proud achievements at college include....
1. Driving Ms jayasinghe into retirement 1 year short of her 25Th year of service, and the thousands of rupees i saved my brethren in the form of ''25 year service donations''A few bloggers in SL could stake a claim to been an important part of this achievement...
2. Taking a piss into Gaya sirs lil pond after School. Oh the sight of those Junior prefects cleaning up the the pond with piss mixed water up to their knees the next morning.
3. Breaking into the Junior Canteen and stealing boxes of Mars Chocs and Bunty toffees.... rofl
Ok, this post is heading in the wrong direction. It was meant to be meaningful.
So here's to...
1. Tarzan, my Sinhalese tuition teacher in Grade 11 who taught me Sinhalese Literature in easy to understand language! His overly horny behaviour in class and openness about it gave him an extra edge in making the class interesting!
2. OC Samarawickrama. Without you Sugar i would have flunked Chemistry in style!
3. Here's to Iruzee... If not for ur bizarre habit of maintaining 3 sets of Chemistry notes i would have had no material to study!
4. To Bora! Cheers... awakening me to the world of Economics!
5. Tharindu, Dude... Individual classes for math and Physics at Just 700 bucks a month for both subjects! that's the best bargain I've ever got... thanks mate!
6. To what's his Name? Tamil Sir who taught me Organic Chem in just 2 weeks! Thanks!
7. Sis. Gratitude.
My conclusion is that Sri Lanka's system of education lacks flair, finesse and creativity! We have an efficient machine churning out Intelligent people, but few thinkers. People with Subject Knowledge, but with no subject passion. People who know History of what happened, who did it... why... the Philosophy behind it but lacking the creative intelligence to add something themselves. Our system is carved out by a desire to be rich and rid of poverty instead of being happy.Hence we are oversupplied with accountants, marketers, Lawyers and doctors but are short of Professionals in so many fields!
We need more assignment based education! make that lil 8 year old guy work his socks off to research stuff, form his own opinion.... teach him that the answers are not all Black and white, but that most things are grey and it's ok to have an answer that is both yes and no and in between.
I think its retarded of our education system when a lil boy is taught Art but there is such a specific way he needs to draw that his marks will be cut off if he does something new.... we are teaching our kids to think like robots. Scared to have an opinion. Worried about if his opinion matched with that in the text book. In Literature our kids are asked to write that the kings were great, would it be so wrong if one perceived that the kings did a shitty job of it? That Dutugemunu was a loser coz he waged war and in the process killed so many? it's just an opinion..... instead of Children forming opinions and thinking about things they are forced to memorize! This is why my greatest achievement was leaving School after my A/Levels... until then i didn't know quite what it was like to have a mind of my own in any topic.....
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