pushing the sky

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.