Abbot is getting some traction
Tony Abbot is doing much better than I thought he would as opposition leader, and new polling is very favourable for the coalition.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Shopping and Sickness
The girl took me shopping this afternoon at Birkenhead Point. First time I've ever been there - I imagine female readers from around my area will be amazed at that. It's true. We got some good stuff, I think. But this evening I've come down very sick, some sort of virus. Hopefully I'll be right for church tomorrow evening, as I'm playing...
Adventureland
Watched this last night - very good. Loved by the critics, though it bombed a bit at the box office...
Killer Whales hunting Sea Lions
Orcas are in the news for a tragic reason at the moment. But check out this amazing video of them hunting their natural prey...
Friday, February 26, 2010
Great Expectations
Jessica Irvine complains about the quality education she receives. Listen to it's flaws -
I received the best education the English system could offer. But I don't remember engaging deeply with any of it. I could list the tragic flaws that led Hamlet and King Lear to their downfalls. But I don't remember being much moved by their deaths. I could recite the causes of World War II, but I had no insight into how future wars might be avoided.
Gosh, sounds woeful. Perhaps add to your list of complaints the fact that you didn't learn how to cure cancer, or solve global poverty, or...
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Book progress
Now that life has settled down again, I've had time to get involved in my book again. Chapter 11 is well underway, describing Johnson's conflict with Major Grose. I've also started re-drafting chapter 1, filling in some of the references, doing some fact checking, and starting to polish it up. Not quite shining how I'd like at the moment, but we are on the way.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Presumed innocent
So police have a charged a man over the murder of that little girl in Bundaberg. The locals are going crazy, they are ready to kill him. The crime was horrific, but the bloke is entitled to the presumption of innocence. It is possible the police have made a mistake. Even if they haven't, due process must be followed... Lynch mob justice is not something we should encourage...
Got my mobile phone back...
Ended up having to drive out to the "3" service center in Parramatta - only open during business hours. Dropped off the phone, then had to return the next day to pick it up. What a pain. At least they gave me a "loaner" phone. Still, phone seems to be working ok now.
What..?
More cutting edge research from Girlfriend magazine -
"A massive 94 per cent of readers rank being well liked as more important than being popular," Girlfriend's editor Sarah Cornish said.
The difference being..???
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness
Interesting looking paper. Here is the abstract -
By many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women's happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. The paradox of women's declining relative well-being is found across various datasets, measures of subjective well-being, and is pervasive across demographic groups and industrialized countries. Relative declines in female happiness have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which women in the 1970s typically reported higher subjective well-being than did men. These declines have continued and a new gender gap is emerging -- one with higher subjective well-being for men.
No paradox at all, really. Women wanted what men had. Problem is, what men had wasn't all that great either...
UFC 110
Australia's first UFC event was held at the Acer Arena yesterday - UFC 110. I sat and watched all three hours with my youngest son, Harry (who has watched plenty of MMA before). What did I make of the card? I thought it was generally pretty good, and there were some excellent fights. The crowd were enormously enthusiastic, and it seems certain the UFC will be back in Oz.
Anyway, here's my rundown of the fights -
Cro Cop vs Perosh
My son and I have had a few BJJ lessons under Anthony Perosh, and he's a great guy. He was called in at the last minute to replace an injured fighter, so it was a gutsy effort. A few years ago, Cro Cop was considered the most dangerous striker on the planet. Perosh's only hope was to get him to the ground and put on a submission, but he never really got close. Still, he lasted two rounds with an absolute legend of the sport, good effort...
Jardine vs Bader
I like Jardine, as do a lot of people. I like his look, and I like his style - or lack of style. But the guy is seriously inconsistent. Bader didn't look spectacular, but he was good enough to finish Jardine off with a KO when the op presented itself. I doubt Jardine can be considered a serious contender at 205 anymore.
Jo Daddy vs Sotiropoulos
George Sotiropoulos is clearly the best Aussie currently in the UFC, so the crowd were mega-hyped for this fight. Jo Daddy went into the fight as overwhelming favourite, but George absolutely dominated him on the ground and in the stand up. The crowd demonstrated a fairly sophisticated knowledge of the sport, cheering when George passed from half-guard to side-control, and when he achieved mount. Toward the end of the round George gripped Jo Daddy's arm for a kimura, which just looks like a tangle of arms to the uninitiated, but the crowd went uber-berserk. They were singing during the match and chanting, and just having a great time watching the local boy upset a genuine star of the sport. When Sotiropoulos got a well deserved unanimous decision at the end, the roof nearly lifted off the place with the cheering.
Wanderlai Silva vs Bisping
First fight back for Silva since having his nasal surgery. He looked pretty cautious, but finished the fight strongly to squeeze out a decision. His physique looks good at 185, and it might be that he has a few more years left in this sport - he might even be a serious contender for the 185 belt.
Nogueira vs Velasquez
This was the main event of the evening, and it was almost over as soon as it began. Nogueira is a living legend in the sport, but Velasquez stunned everyone by delivering a KO at 2:20 of the first round. His punches were just so crisp and sharp, they made Nogueira look old and tired. Velasquez definitely looks like he is just about ready for a title shot - the MMA world is buzzing at the moment.
All up, a very good card, and the event broke all sorts of records at Acer Arena. Looks like the UFC will be coming back to Oz on an annual basis - perhaps I'll be able to get a ticket next time. Hopefully some of the dinosaurs in the press who are still hating on the sport will have mellowed a bit by then...
Sunday, February 21, 2010
1983 - The Hot Ones
This was the first grown-up album I ever owned. I had it on cassette tape, and played it over and over until the tape busted. Favourite tracks were "White Wedding", "Don't Pay the Ferryman" and "Our House".
My Generation
Was listening to My Generation with Jonathon Coleman on WS-FM. They were doing 1983, which was pretty much the year I became musically aware. Gosh I love all that old retro stuff, whether it's hard or soft, I don't care. I could listen to it for hours...
What Bible character are you?
Someone reminded me that I put this quiz together a few years ago. About 20,000 have done the test since then! Don't take the results too seriously...
Communication Woes
I seem to have sorted out my home phone and internet - all good. But now my mobile phone has inexplicably died, and it is only 8 months old. The customer service from "3" has so far been underwhelming...
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
One Hit Wonders
Very sad to hear that the lead singer of The Knack died last week. For many bass players like myself, "My Sharona" was a favourite song. As a bit of a memorial, I've assembled my top 10 "one hit wonders" -
10. Funkytown (Lipps, Inc)
9. Turning Japanese (The Vapors)
8. Tainted Love (Soft Cell)
7. Come on Eileen (Dexy's Midnight Runners)
6. Mickey (Toni Basil)
5. 99 Luftballons (Nena)
4. Echo Beach (Martha and the Muffins)
3. Take on me (A-Ha)
2. Safety Dance (Men without Hats)
1. My Sharona (The Knack)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Chapter 11
Have commenced writing chapter 11, tentatively titled "Of Buildings and Battles". It tells how Australia's first church building came to be built, all while Johnson was having a terrible feud with the acting Governor, Francis Grose. The words have come easily, and I've written nearly half the chapter without raising a sweat. If only all writing were like this..!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Will Obama go to war?
Secretary of State Clinton just commented that Iran was moving toward a military dictatorship, and that the US would "not stand idly by" and watch Iran aquire a nuclear weapon. Sounds pretty ominous... Makes me wonder if Obama will be willing to go to war with Iran over WMDs. If he does, will he criticised as severely as Bush was over Iraq..?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Australia
Finally watched the Baz Lurman film on the weekend. It was good - much better than I expected. Very entertaining, very good cast...
Chapter 10 complete
As life settles back into normalcy, I've had a bit more time for writing, and I've managed to complete chapter 10 of my bio. It's about Johnson's work as a magistrate, and I believe it is the first systematic study ever done on that subject. Woohoo, I'm an historian. I've also re-worked the first couple of pages of the book, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. Just starting to put some thoughts together for chapter 11...
Back online
And phone is working again too. Telstra have given me quite a runaround the last couple of weeks. Hopefully we are all good now...
Been offline again...
Have had some difficulties with Telstra/BigPond in the move...hopefully all resolved by tonight...
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Conroy asks Google to filter YouTube
See the article here. He uses an interesting argument to justify the request - "Google at the moment filters an enormous amount of material on behalf of the Chinese government". Fantastic - so we are in the same basket as China now on this issue. Grand.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Monday, February 08, 2010
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Core Song Book
At church, we've been thinking about putting together a song book. There's been no decision yet about what songs would go in such a book, but I've put together my own list of songs that I think would make a good "core" selection -
Be Thou My Vision
Blessed Be Your Name
Come Hear the Angels Sing
Come Thou Fount
Consider Christ
God of Wonders
Grace Unmeasured
He is Holy
His Forever
How Can This Be?
How deep is your love
Jesus Thank You
Jesus Your Blood and Righteousness
Kingdom Song
Let Your Kingdom Come
May The Mind of Christ
My Hope is Built on Nothing Less
Never Alone
Put a new song
Rock of ages
See Him Coming
We are his people
We belong to the day
Your Great Name We Praise
The Move
As you know, I moved house last week. After five years in my little house at Annandale, my landlord gave me notice to vacate. Not sure why, though I suspect he wants to sell. I had 60 days notice, but I didn't want to waste anytime. The day after I received notice, I went looking at places. Very little impressed me until I came across this two bedroom, split level apartment in Camperdown. Two weeks later, we moved in.
A number of people offered to help with the move, which was really appreciated. But I decided to just get removalists to do it all. It was expensive, but I figured I'd rather save my back - and my friendships! Those removalists worked hard, let me tell you.
We've been a week in the new place now, and it's looking like a home. There are still a few boxes lying around, but they will slowly be unpacked in the coming weeks. The apartment is nice. Not super big, but a fair size. It has a dishwasher and an internal laundry, which is a step up from my old place! I'm feeling pretty content with it all, and I'm grateful to God for providing somewhere to live so quickly. Thankyou, too, to everyone for their good wishes.
Religion and Football
Quite an interesting article from the Dean. Ok, I know it's not the main point, but it was interesting to see that staff at the mentioned school were arguing against football on the grounds that it was too rough, too violent and led to anti-social behaviour. Similar to the arguments being put against MMA...
Friday, February 05, 2010
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Move
Move has been going well, though still lots to do. I will not have a full internet access for a couple of days. Thanks for your prayers and good wishes.
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