SolidRock@BatuPejal: Must See

Monday, May 24, 2010

Last Man Standing

A man with a dream will never be denied...I love this true story about the first Australian to win a gold medal at a Winter Olympics. His feat in winning the gold medal in the 1,000m short-track speed skating final at the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics was undoubtedly the most bizarre. His four rivals all collided, tumbled and sprawled around the ice, leaving him to skate alone past the finish line.

This sensational scene marked the end of a career which had embraced four Olympics, an earlier bronze medal, much sacrifice, and some horrific injuries. In a crash in Montreal a rival’s skates sliced through his right thigh, requiring 111 stitches and 18 months’ recovery time. In 2000, in Sydney, he crashed into a barrier during training and broke his neck; he was told he would never skate again.

After winning his gold medal, Bradbury struggled with conflicting emotions. He finally, sensibly, came to see it as a reward for 12 long years of toil. His story epitomises faith, courage, passion, persistence, determination, and hope...it was his destiny. Luck played a part in Steven's success but his gold medal win was not as fortuitous as many believe. His quote at the end says it all.

"I'm not taking the gold for the 90 seconds, but for the years leading up to that 90 seconds".

...the harder you work the luckier you'll get. Now I know why I've been "unlucky" all these years. Maybe I've not work hard enough...(sigh)

Working hard, feeling lucky

Friday, May 21, 2010

Monkey Thieves

Caught this series on TV last week. This series have it all, power-play, charisma, leadership, mischief, friendship, camaraderie and survival. The funny thing is the major players are "monkeys". The similarities are uncanny......

Monkey Thieves is an action-packed series on National Geographic Channel dramatising the ultimate urban monkeys. It tells the story of the Galta gang, a sixty-strong troop of rhesus macaques who live in a beautiful Hindu Temple on the outskirts of Jaipur, in northwestern India. They enjoy a highly privileged status – revered by the local people as descendents of Hanuman, the monkey God. The series joins this charismatic troop of monkeys, lead by alpha male Tarak and alpha female Rani as they find their peaceful temple lifestyle interrupted by an ever-worsening drought. Shortage of food forces the monkeys to venture deep into the Pink City where they are forced to steal to survive. They get up to plenty of mischief, encounter other hostile monkey troops and must try to steer clear of the dreaded ‘monkey-catcher’.

This situation is exacerbated by the fact that the Galta Gang has been so successful that their numbers have burgeoned to over one hundred individuals. When this happens, macaque troops undergo a process called fission: the group splits into two. This is because the territory can no longer support such a massive troop.

The matrilineal lines are sustained in the top half mother troop, but in the splinter group we see a big change in structure as previously middle-rankers like Bippin, Yash and Tito are suddenly accelerated to the heady heights of leadership potential. Follow the Jaipur monkeys as the groups are forced to divide, friendships challenged and the hard times felt by all in Monkey Thieves.

...from 1 monkey to another

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Facing your Giants

So often it happens that we live our lives in chains and we never even know we have the key.

- Eagles, "Already Gone"

I love this. A great inspirational video clip from the movie "Facing the Giants" about a losing coach with an underdog football team facing their giants of fear and failure on and off the field to surprising results.

Most of the time you don't really know your physical and mental potential. You look through your looking glass and process information based on your own experience, paradigms and perceptions...not knowing that you are actually your own limitation, the one stopping you is YOU.....