Category: the daily column

Apologies to all those people I told I was coming down, and then didn’t do anything to actively go meet – in the end, it was about spending time with the family, who really define where home is. It’s been a fun couple of days, and I’ll be back in Sydney tonight.

My sister, who is in year 12, just got her half year results back – A A+, which means she’s on track to do better than me! Good on her, eh what? :D

Any tips for England, or Europe? I’m on the hunt to get hints from everyone before I leave.

I remember about 6 months ago, I was thinking along the lines of “Wow, what on earth would I do for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year?!” as I entered the workforce. I assumed work would be at the pace of assignments in their later stages, and there’s no way they could keep that pace up, all the time, could they? And yeah, while there were days where things ran together and suddenly the sun was setting outside and I barely realised the time, it wasn’t crunchy, it wasn’t like “whoa where did that hour disappear to?”. But I’d also had the opposite, days where I stared at the screen waiting for it to tick over to the next hour, and it just seemed to not want to.

Naturally, you will assume that I will next say “oh, but not today, etc etc”.

And you’d be oh-so-right.

31 days till London! *starts countdown timer*

Hi all,

Normal service will resume shortly. Last weekend I did not read one blog, email or even think about signing in to MSN. I hooked up the computer to the TV in the lounge and cleared a backlog of movies, anime, TV shows etc that have been waiting to be seen for a while now.

I’d like to give a shout-out to Regan for giving me Densha Otoko. I haven’t laughed that hard in a good while.

The Middle East is sinking into the mire again, and I’ll have further words about that soon. Watching Syriana last night was timely, and I think that movie is probably under-rated for the simple fact that it shows people (Americans) things they really don’t want to see. Recommended for its cynically black heart, a movie that defies plot progression and integration but still manages to deliver its message quite well – in a way, it’s very much like Crash.

Didn’t work on my new design one iota, but totally rejected the design I was coming up with before last week. Back to the drawing board on that one.

5 weeks to go (or thereabouts) before I’m off to London. Ever so slightly buzzed.

Found an ep of Daria hanging around. Want more Daria.

*fades out singing Daria theme song*

It’d be suffice to say it’s over for the Aussies, that the World Cup has reverted to being a foreign oddity, and perhaps we’ll do better next time. Ah well. But no, fair sirs and madams, that is surely incorrect! This is a one-eyed supporter here, doing what one-eyed supporters do best! Blame-shift!

Ah, the Italians. Famed for their defensive play, coming up against the rampaging underdogs of the tournament, the Aussies. Joga Bonito, the beautiful game as the Brazillians call it, was demonstrated in their own way, the Australian Way. And in the end, the better team on the day did not win, because it came down to the running theme of this tournament, the Referee.

The referees haven’t had a good run this year. They’re supposed to be cracking down, but have done it in so many incoherent and eccentric ways that one really has to question what playbook they are following. This World Cup, the “favourites” have had an extremely good run, being favoured by decisions almost 2 to 1. Sure enough, it would be a truism to say that referees decided the game, because referees enforce rules and thus always decide the outcome of the game. But what this one-eyed supporter wants to know is: when will they finally get rid of the blatant diving? There are some players out there that would be freely certified for SCUBA licenses!

And so it was that the Australians’ fate was decided in the very last minute of the match. It was a hard tackle, no doubt, but that’s the way the game goes when the Aussies play. But to see someone so valliantly going out of their way to obey the laws of physics, and then those of the theater (“thou shalt ham it up”) meant that in the end, joga bonito, the way the game should be played, ultimately lost.

Coda of fairness: If the Aussies really were that good, they would have earlier in the match. The Italians had every right to play defensively; it is their style, and there was a very harsh straight red card. But I still wonder how much more exciting, more pleasingly fantastic the game would have been had the referee held on to his whistle and extra time came into effect. To have it wrenched away in the last minute… heart-breaking.

Australia’s politicians are wrapped up at the moment with the idea of a nuclear reactor and expanded uranium mining. I’ve got my own views on it and all, uninformed as they are, but one thing I really don’t get, and it keeps coming up, so I’m asking for your wisdom here. They (media, politicians, etc.) always mention “Well, Oil prices are going up and up… so we should investigate Uranium as an alternative source of energy.”

What?

I think I blink and miss something there, every time. What on earth does oil have to do with uranium?

p.s. if you were wondering where the sunday recipe was… I was too lazy and didn’t cook on Sunday. Next week, promise.

Pushing the Sky does not condone the excessive or otherwise illegal consumption of alcohol (beyond your body’s ability to cope with it) and prefaces the following, uh, “game” with the warning that World Cup match that fulfils many of the conditions of this game could leave your body quite broken, and your head dearly regretting in the morning. You may wish to keep a path to the toilet well clear.

Feel free to replace alcohol with a non-liver-damaging drink of your choice, although if you pick tea you may wish to keep the way to the toilet clear anyway.

The Rules

• A “drink” is at least a mouthful of liquid
• A “sip” must involve liquid passing your lips, not just making a sipping sound. Cheater.
• A “skol” or “scull” or “skull” (you try spelling it) means the whole glass, or however much remains of a glass if you’re less than half way through, in one go.
• Get some mates. Drinking alone is a deep, dark well you do not want to jump in to.
• Rules are enforced by mates. Majority wins.
• Must be watching in a timezone which forces you to be awake at hours of the night no sane person would (i.e. in Australia)

The Details

• At the start of every match, line up the glasses/cups/mugs/schooners/bowls/liquid container of choice. Ensure you have sufficient supply. How much is “sufficient” is left as an exercise for the reader.
• For every goal, scull. If Saudi Arabia (or other lucky-to-be-there team) are playing, you may wish to sip instead. To pace yourself.
• If Saudi Arabia scores a goal, scull twice.
• For every corner, drink.
• For every penalty kick, drink.
• If the penalty kick was awarded because of a theatrical fall worthy of a Tony, drink.
• For every hand ball, drink.
• For every offside, sip.
• For every goal denied because of an offside, drink.
• For every free kick, sip.
• If the free kick was awarded for a fall that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Ben Hur, drink.
• For every yellow card, drink.
• For every red card, scull.
• If the yellow or red card follows a fall that could be considered a strong contender for the Best Actor Oscar, scull twice.
• For every time the ball goes out, sip.
• If it looked like it was truly intentional, drink.
• For every time the ball is passed back to the goalie, sip.
• If a goal is scored because of a bad pass back to the goalie, scull.
• If a goal is scored in injury time, scull.
• If the game goes to penalty shoot outs, drink for every miss. If the shootouts are level at 4-4, scull.
• Every time a commentator mentions a previous World Cup, drink.
• If Australia beats one of the teams ranked higher than them (42), drink.
• If Australia beats one of the teams considered one of the “traditional powers”, scull. A few, maybe.

Any more to add? Suggestions welcome =)

Life’s settled into a kind of regularity these days, which isn’t really conducive to creativity, so I’m just going to run through a little update of what’s happening…

• Just crossed a major milestone at work, with things finally moving in the right direction (from development to test). Within a month or so I’ll actually have some work that people in the real world are using to earn real money. Which is scary in one sense, but gives me this buzz occasionally. Of course, we’re yet to “go live” so it could still end in tears
• Am fiddling around the site a bit, prompted by WordPress 2.0.3 update. Realised I’ve gone at least two months without actually having the fixed list of links for everyone to see, which is bad ‘net citizenery really.
• I’ve put in ZenPhoto for a photos page, which doesn’t have too much at the moment (just the cooking photos) but I think I’ll start putting more on there and moving away from registration-required-to-comment Flickr. Plus I don’t have the restriction of just 3 albums and 200 photos, without paying to go “pro” (which I think is a misnomer anyway). If anyone has any suggestions for photo gallery stuff, let me know.
• Wanting to read more blogs, but have been unable to discover new stuff I actually want to read. If anything, I’ve been unsubscribing from blogs that are feeling like they’re in a rut – e.g., the Dilbert blog started out good, but now it’s just Scott Adams poking fun at people from his intellectual high ground. Any suggestions?
• Watched X-Men 3, and waited for after the credits. Groaned. It felt like it needed so much more depth, and the fact that it was billed as “The Last Stand”, but a hook was left in for later makes it feel… well, sleazy is probably the wrong word, but definitely not a classic in my mind.
• World Cup! The four-yearly sudden interest in soccer (“football”) has invariably risen again. It’s fun organising a tipping competition.
• Looking for something to do this long weekend.

Also, feeling sorry for the people who’ve got to do exams. I feel for you, I really do. Best of luck, guys.

It’s just so… yellow…

Officially a Bachelor of Computer Science Degree holder now, and thus can finally claim the term bachelor in all ernest. Or something to that end. Very exciting day, either way. If anyone ever says “oh there’s no point going to graduate”, tell them… well, tell them they can skip their own if they really want. Don’t skip yours, no matter how bad that gown/hat looks on you! (looked terrible on me, I know that)

Congrats to all my fellow graduating peeps – the quick run down the list gives shoutouts to Brendan, Chris, Li-‘Chingy’-ching, Kevin, Gareth, Fay, Eugene, Happy, and all the rest of them random semi-strangers who look so familiar but through my lack of effort over the years, alas, unnamed.

Update: Photos up on flickr