Half a year gone

One of the things I have started doing in the last couple of years is making a list of things I want to achieve in the year. In the last few years It has provided me with something to look at and remind myself of the things I want to get done this year and prompt me to achieve them.

I have to now admit that this year I haven't actually paid as much attention to my list and I have just come across it again and been reflecting on what things I have achieved and what I haven't. So hear is a list of some of the things that I have done this year.

• Run a 10k race
• Completed a CELTA course
• Started to Blog regularly
• Been featured in the Lib Dem Voice Golden Dozen (twice) 
• Gone undercover at both a Labour and Conservative event
• Been an Usher for a wedding
• Developed a signature dish to cook (it's chicken and chorizo paella incase you're wondering)
• Joined a Political Party
• Helped out in an election campaign
• Increased the ammount I'm giving to charity

so a few things so far (i'm sure there are some that I have missed of so I will come back and add them) but there are still quite a few I haven't so hopefully this will be even long by the end of the year. 

VAT will be raised

So the VAT rise has gone through and there haven't been any changes made so that it would be more progressive. So what can we do next? Well pressure MP's across all parties to either drop VAT as soon as possible or to make changes so that there are even more progressive exemptions as I mentioned in a previously post. I'll also try and find out which MPs voted for VAT and who against in case any Lib Dems/Tories did rebel, however due to the 75 majority I doubt it.

Although this isn't great news it is worth noting that after Mandelson's revelations that Darling wanted to raise VAT it seams that any party may have lead to a VAT rise.

leaving on a jet plane (non political!)

On Friday night I was out to celebrate the end of my CELTA course (a qualification in teaching english as a second language) with my fellow coursemates up in London. I had a very good time at a bar called Red in Covent garden and enjoyed my first cocktail for a very night out for a very long time.

Whilst we were out there was a slight divided between the two groups of people there: People who were going abroad with their CELTA qualification and those who were staying in england, at least for the mean time, those of us who were leaving and those of us being left behind.

It's strange because in so many ways it's much harder to be left, no one wants to lose good friends even if they will still see them, occasionally. No one wants to be hearing about the new adventure others are taking when they are stuck in the humdrum of their daily life.

But leaving isn't easy either, starting something new, being in a new place, a new job, a new stage in a relationship? For some people this comes much easier than others, they can just leave and start a new adventure focusing on the excitement to come.

I am not one of those people.

For me I usually want to try and plan everything before I make that final step so that there is nothing to worry about...of course there is usually something else to worry about and so it just leads to delay after delay but finally I move forward... eventually.

Welcome to Wilson's Words

Welcome to my new blog, if you are visiting then you may well have been to my old wordpress based blog chrisjw133.wordpress.com

It's probably a good idea to explain why I have shifted over to Blogger especially as most people move the otherway nowerdays. The first aspect was that I wanted to change the name and branding. Whilst having the name Chrisjw133 is a great way to keep remembering my username for certain services (it is my twitter and skype name) it isn't exactly the most catchy or memorable. After considerable thought I settled on Wilsons Words, mainly because it was the best I could come up with that wasn't partisan and didn't type cast what I would blog or write about.

The second was customisation. With Wordpress.com it had some great templates that could have some elements of customisation (usually a header, background and move some widgets around) however it didn't support HTML and CSS editing or being able to embed many different applications (such as using cover live). However Blogger did do this and allows for complete customisation.

Admittedly Self Hosted Wordpress also provides this service and I did consider going across for a very long time but ultimately the factor that decided against this was money. I know it's not a lot but as I may not be in the uk in the near future, as money may be tighter etc I have decided against signing up for another contract at least for the time being. There is still the possibility that I will move back to Wordpress (as it is a very good blogging platform) but for the time being I'm happy with blogger.

The final point is adverts, that's right I have sold out and put some adds on the page in the vauge hope of trying to raise some money for myself. I suspect that I won't raise a lot of money and if people really do find them too intrusive and annoying and tell me so (the email address is on the side) then I will remove them.

Anyway I hope you enjoy my new home here, it feels nice and snug to me! I suspect most of my posts will continue to be political and about christianity but look out for the odd drop of football, writing, filming and music.

God Bless.

Chris

The Theology Of Inspiration

I saw an interesting tweet today from @inspireleaders that got me thinking today. It said "who inspires you the most on twitter and why?". my instant reaction was that no one on twitter really inspires me. Don't get me wrong I really like the people on twitter and I find peoples comments and analysis very interesting and in some cases very funny but I don't really get inspired by them.

There have been moments, some of the stuff from the Salvation Army development fund and there was one which was a quote from Jorge Mortman which said "the opposite of poverty isn't property but is community" that really inspired me but other than that they haven't really started a chain reaction in my thought process that made me go wow, or go out and do something.

I decided to look up the word Inspire as I thought maybe that might help me think about who inspires me and i found something interesting. the word comes from the latin to breath and means to invigorate or to excite.

I am certain that this comes from a theological statement that all inspiration comes from God. When you look at the Bible God's breath is where life comes from to man. The word for spirit in the old testament is also very similar to breath as well and in general there seams to be this connection between God's spirit or breath being something that inspires, causes people to act and even the very source of life itself.

As a Christian I find that pretty exciting.