Tuesday 26 June 2007

What is the Kabbalah?

So you may be wondering what the Kabbalah actually is. After reading my first post on the Kabbalah it leaves much to be explained.

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The Kabbalah is also known as the "tree of life" and is originally a Jewish mystery tradition with which Kabbalists aim to gain commune with God. It holds a principle of self development and growth, with which anyone could work. The Kabbalah has been around for many centuries some believing that it dates to the time of Adam in the Garden of Eden. Study of the Kabbalah has had a turbulent time during its existence, including a ban on studying it during the 15-16th century.

You may be wondering how something so old and abstract as the Kabbalah can have any meaning for today? In a world of atheism and disbelief in spiritualism what use is there for a system of belief which is supposed to allow you to commune with God? Listen to your soul, what do you hear? NOTHING? That's what the Kabbalah is for, to bring you to a point where you can understand what it is you want to do with your life. It is a process of self fulfillment in which you learn more about yourself then you ever thought there was to know.

In an age of science where everything that once excited and amazed mankind can be explained there is a great need for something which gives a different view on life. The Kabbalah gives that different view, so journey with me in the Kabbalah and learn to understand life in a different way.


sources: http://www.magickaschool.com/
Hopking C.J.M.,
The Practical Kabbalah Guidebook, Godsfield Press, 2001.
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah

Saturday 23 June 2007

Film Review: Shrek the Third

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This is the third and apparently final installment of the Shrek films. Built up beyond belief on the back of the previous two. If it was going to live up to the Shrek name it had to be good. A tough task by all accounts.

The cast of Shrek returned to tell us the next part of the Shrek and Fiona story. Characters that made a welcome return included, the Gingerbread Man, the three blind mice, Prince Charming and many more. Plus it introduced Art voiced by none other than Justin Timberlake (put the torches and pitchforks down please).

So how does this one shape up? Can this final installment be everything that we hoped it would? Well to tell you the truth I was disappointed, not surprisingly, but I was. The story was good, but I can see children getting bored easily as there was no where near as much "action" as there was in the other two. This film had a moral and important message, however I don't really think that this was the sphere to tell it.

Musically the first two were fantastic, the music within them was used to perfection. This installment was not up to standard. In the first two the music was so memorable, but this didn't seem to have anywhere near the caliber of the other two.

Overall as a children's film it fulfilled its role to a good degree. As a family film it was OK but it was trying to hard to have "adult" parts within it. As the final installment, it completes the story quite well. If you enjoyed the other ones then I suggest you watch it for completeness but I give you this warning IT IS NOT AS GOOD AS THE FIRST TWO!!

I'd give it a 7/10

Saturday 9 June 2007

Work Related Stress (again)

By the end of the evening this is what I wanted to do to my work computer. Not because of the computer but because of the people ringing me through it!
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It was one of those up/down days where good and bad things happened in tandem. I received some really good news from my Team Leader, my customer service score was 100%. However after receiving that news I went on to have some really nasty, awkward calls. People don't seem to realise that if the system says no then nothing can be done for them. No matter how many times I try to explain that to people they have this belief that the Team Leaders can work miracles.

What makes people think that "managers" are all powerful? They seem to believe that by asking a manager to do something suddenly the answer changes. MOST of the time it DOESN'T.

So although I had some really good calls, as you do in a 6 hour day, some of the calls were of the above type. Including the last call of the evening....

I finish work at 10pm so when a call comes through at 9:50pm you get a satisfied feeling knowing that you could make the call last 10 min then you can go home. All well and good unless that call is the worst one you had all day. At 9:55pm I was asked by the customer to get my "manager" who, in their mind, would be able to change the computer system. NOT likely. So one of the TL came over to talk to her and after another 15mins she is still unhappy. luckily the phone dies and the TL decides not to call her back. So I get to leave for my bus at 10:15... not good when that is the time the bus is due.

Missed the bus had another half hour wait for the next one. Great!! What a day!!!!!

Friday 1 June 2007

Blue Moon

As you may well know it was a full moon the other day (31/05/2007) and to top it off it was a Blue Moon. Now full moons affect me most of the time anyway but blue moons the worst. I am always a bit cranky when the moon is full and especially if it is the second one of the month. Worst bit is that the blue moon has also fallen in the month of my birth. Not good!!

So, that set the day up really. I woke up feeling really bad, having not slept well. Other than that the morning was really quite good. Went out for lunch with a friend, and didn't get served until 2:15 (so I was really hungry). BUT again not too bad. Then things start to go down hill. Firstly it starts to rain so I get soaked. Then I went to work.........

What a night! Starts off with some simple calls which I can cope with. Then I get a transfer from another department for a problem that is their's to solve. While trying to explain that to them they decide to just transfer the customer through anyway. At which point, while trying not to lose my temper, I explain that I need to pass them back to that department because it is not my call. STRESS NUMBER 1

The evening continues fairly well until my last call of the night. This customer decides that everything that has gone wrong is my fault and that I am only not helping him because I don't want to. It was like trying to explain to a brick wall why it needed a hole cutting into it for a door. Nothing I said was going through to him. He kept saying something when I had just explained really clearly that it couldn't happen. He wasn't happy, and then started asking to talk to my team leader... who had gone home incidentally... so I looked around and saw that all of the team leaders were busy. Nothing I could do I explained, but no.... he decided that he would "hold for as long as it took" (this is at 9:45, 15min before we were due to go home). Luckily one of the team leaders became free and was able to sort something out for him. STRESS NUMBER 2

So, that was that, except that I was then due to go out that night. After all the stresses of the day I felt awful. I decided not to go out but to go home and get some sleep. Not that I was tired by the time I made it home. STRESS NUMBER 3

So thats the stress that a blue moon puts me under.