June, 2010:

Losing Sleep Over Sport

Technology is a wonderful thing. Instead of waiting days or months to hear results from sporting events on the other side of the globe, we now watch sport live wherever it is being played.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is currently happening in South Africa and so football (soccer) fans all over the world are watching hours and hours of the world game. Many of those watching are on a completely different time zone so they’re watching their televisions through the night and trying to stay awake at work each day. I’m not such a fan so I’m happy to just hear the results the next morning.

For tennis fans, Wimbledon is about to get underway. Again, fans around the world will stay up late to see their heroes battle it out on centre court. I don’t mind watching tennis but I’m not going to lose sleep over it.

At various times of the year there are all kinds of sports that are played on the other side of the world, dictating late nights and sleepy mornings. Cricket, Formula One, Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games and the list goes on.

Now it comes to my weakness. Cycling. The Tour de France starts on Saturday the 3rd of July. I may well be losing vast amounts of sleep over the three weeks of the tour. I won’t watch every moment live but there will be some exciting stages that will keep me glued to the television.

How about you? Are you a sports tragic that watches all kinds of sport, no matter when it’s being played? Do you have a favourite sport that you enjoy watching live, even though it means you’re up in the middle of the night?

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Dreams of India

Jun 16th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

3 comments

Where do your dreams take you?

I was so pleased to be in India last night. I said over and over that it was so good to be back in India. Unfortunately I woke up to realise that it had all been a dream.

I’ve been to India a couple of times and would be back there in a heartbeat for another visit if I could afford the ticket. In my dream I was busy catching up really good friends that I’ve met on my previous visits and seeing some of the sights I love, as well as seeing new parts of India that I haven’t experienced yet.

One of the things I’d love to do in India is visit some communities on the coast. I got to do that in my dream last night. We were driven around a bay where the water of the ocean was washing over the road. We were traveling in a van and the van driver just kept going right on through the swollen waters. I remember thinking that I was perfectly safe because he was an Indian driver who knew the conditions and I could trust him completely to get us to our destination safely. I lifted my small suitcase onto my knees to avoid it getting soaked by the water which was now swirling around my feet.

India is such an amazing country and I’ve only experienced such a small sample of what the country offers. I really was dissapointed when I woke up and realised that I wasn’t actually there.

The most disappointing thing about realising it was a dream was that I hadn’t got around to eating an authentic curry before I woke up.

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Wet Wet Wet

Jun 15th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

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Rain can be a little hard to find here in Perth so I don’t complain too much when we finally get a shower or two. Over the last couple of days we’ve had quite a bucketing.

I was surprised by the number of cyclists out this morning. When the weather turns wet I generally find that there are far fewer people riding to work but I saw quite a number pedalling away today. Which leads me to wonder about the various methods people use to get their cycling gear dry before the return trip.

There’s not too much that’s worse than having to pull on soaking wet cycling clothes at the end of the day.

When I used to work in the city I strung up a clothes line in the air conditioning room. It was a small room with massive air conditioners that serviced the entire building. It was so blowy in there that everything was bone dry in a matter of a few hours. I’ve heard of others using server rooms or anywhere else they can find with a bit of wind and hopefully some warmth.

These days, as you can see in the photo, I have a cheap drying rack with a pedestal fan blasting my stuff dry. Not quite as effective but it does the job.

Maybe I need to find an old clothes dryer for work.

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Ross Clifford Honoured

Jun 14th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

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Ross Clifford Here in Western Australia we need to wait a few more months before we celebrate the Queen’s birthday but most of Australia is celebrating today in typical Aussie style by taking a public holiday.

As part of the celebrations the Queen’s Birthday Honours List has been released, highlighting those who have made a major contribution to our community.

Among those receiving the honour of Member of the Order of Australia is The Reverend Dr Ross Clifford.

Ross is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and Vice President elect of the Baptist World Alliance. Each week we chat on radio about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Ross was awarded his honour for service to the Baptist Union of Australia, to religious education, and to the promotion of interfaith dialogue and Christian media.

He is my regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM but I couldn’t let the opportunity to congratulate him go past so I phoned him today for a quick chat. You can hear our discussion by clicking play on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

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Put some clothes on

Jun 12th, 2010

by Rodney Olsen.

1 comment

Miranda Devine is spot on with her article, Flash of fame spreads sluttiness, in today’s Sydney Morning Herald.

From Britney to Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan, Nikki Webster and Miranda Kerr, Devine is asking why they, and so, so many other young starlets, feel the need to “become vulgarised in the manner of a porn star, with hollowed out face and vacant eyes suggesting a life of degradation, disease and constant joyless sex.”

She cites the growing trend for young women to abandon all modesty to flash their crotches at paparazzi.

Why is our culture so toxic that to be taken seriously as a model or actress or singer or female celebrity of any description you have to strip off, look out of control and trashy, and degrade yourself in a cheaply lit approximation of ’70s cliche porn? The more hardcore and vulgar, the more hip and ironic.

It’s well past time that we started asking the same questions of our ‘celebrities’ and our culture, and that we paid even more attention to the messages that society is force feeding our daughters.

I know that I have more conservative views than many others, but seriously, does anyone really think that the current trend is helpful for anyone?

Can I encourage you to read Miranda Devine’s article. It’s a little raw and to the point, but it would seem that we need a wake up call.

Once you’ve read it, share it with your daughters to let them know that they don’t have to bend to the pressures that they may feel to be as trashy as those they see in the social pages, and unfortunately, those they often see in their own community.

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