How is the mood today – Its friday!

Here are a collection of tweets with the hashtag #friday to capture the mood before the weekend!

If you need motivation today, think of your paycheck. #Friday
— Men’s Humor (@MensHumor) June 29, 2012

If you need motivation today, think of your paycheck. #Friday

If it’s Friday where you live, please share your #fridayreads.

— Bethanne Patrick (@TheBookMaven) April 26, 2013

Another day to be better. So help me God. #Friday

— Michael Mateo (@michaelmateo) April 26, 2013

If it’s Friday where you live, please share your #fridayreads.

— Bethanne Patrick (@TheBookMaven) April 26, 2013

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22 Things Happy People Do Differently

Great ideas on finding happiness!

Corruption in Sports: Is Sport losing its integrity ?

The Olympic motto reads: Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger) and the Olympic creed reads: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

The creed and motto are meant to inspire the athletes to embrace the Olympic spirit and perform to the best of their abilities.

But today, with corruption seeping into the culture of sport, is sport losing its integrity?

In the multi-million dollar world of sports,  political and private parties have a big play.  Deals are signed behind closed doors allowing room for corruption.

The IOC holds a monopoly in Olympics decisions and a lot of palm greasing and power broking go behind decisions to select the city to host the Olympics. This became public when,  Salt Lake City won the rights to host the 2002 Winter games  via a series of bribes to the IOC.  Infighting and corruption are endemic to other sports as well.

The lucrative Indian Premier League and Commonwealth Games exposed corruption in cricket. A series of scandals has tarnished the image of the cash-rich IPL, which boasts a host of celebrity owners including India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, spirits and airline magnate Vijay Mallya and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.  Five uncapped Indian cricketers have been provisionally suspended following allegations of corruption.

Match fixing is now a well-known part of soccer. Players and middle-men  take bribes to fix matches. Club owners  demand high sums of money to transfer high profile players.  Before the start of events like the Commonwealth games, companies  try to rig bids for construction contracts.

Recently, Singapore soccer players were identified to be behind many of the betting scandals that have dented soccer’s reputation.  Money laundering  takes place through sponsorship and advertising arrangements or through television rights, purchase of clubs and players. Complex techniques are used to launder money through football and other sports.

Apart from this, use of performance-enhancing drugs, anabolic steroids and recreational drugs have severely dented the credibility of athletes. With the exposure of Lance Armstrong who has topped the cycling circuit for decades, sport is beginning to lose its essence.

What are your views?

The beauty of metaphors

A metaphor is defined in the dictionary as a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance , in other words an implied comparison.

Some examples of metaphors are:
the apple of my eye
broken heart
rollercoaster of emotions
its raining men etc.

Metaphors allow us to think out of the box and compare one thing to another in a totally different context.  They help us to get a break from structured thinking and think visually or creatively.

In the above examples , ‘apple of my eye’ is used to refer to someone dear or adorable.  Similarly  ‘rollercoaster of emotions’ suggests mood swings like the ups and downs of a rollercoaster ride.

A metaphor allows us to weave our words and use creativity to convey a better understanding.  Instead of saying he is happy , when we say he is feeling above the moon – it signifies a feeling of being elated and excited.  Metaphors create impactful statements which remain in the mind of readers.   They make use of vivid imagery to convey to the reader a picture rather than a bland statement.

Other figures of speech like simile, hyperbole, alliteration etc also help us to add depth to the meaning of our words and create an impact on the reader.