Media - Blatant Lie & Spin

Friday Evening, on the 8th of December 2006, Melbourne Victory FC played Sydney FC in the 2006/2007 Australian League competition. The game was one of the most important games for both clubs. A win for Melbourne means they were virtually winning the Premiership. A loss for Sydney means, not only were they beaten by their main rival, but also possible drop of their position in the league. The game eventually finished with a 0-0, and the crowds, 50,333 people, were a new milestone for football club competition in Australia, the highest ever in a regular season.

Once the game finished, a group of Melbourne Victory FC fans gathered outside gate 7, taunting a small group of Sydney FC fans. Police ordered both sets of fans to move on peacefully but the two groups failed to obey the police. When situation became a bit heat up, police released pepper spray and arrested 3 Melbourne fans for showing anti social behaviour, failing to move on when ordered by police. So the story started.

The next morning, Channel Nine broadcasted the "riots" after the game in one of their morning news. A bloke was interviewed by the station. The bloke admited that he was one of the "fans" and he talked about the "riots" and describe how he felt "unsafe" while watching soccer. He then displayed a footage of his mobile phone video, showing people who were chanting "Come on Melbourne, Come on Melbourne" as being rioting. Funnily, I was in the game and went home safely without any fear of riot whatsoever and do did 50,000 other people.


The pic above is taken when he was being interviewed. Apparently he is Sean Sowerby. So who is Sean Sowerby?

Sean Sowerby is one of the producers of the 3AW radio station. He was voted the Best Newcomer Off Air in the 2006 Australian Commercial Radio Awards (see page 2 of the link). His programme, "3AWSport" is famous for broadcasting the AFL Games. 3AW is also well-known for "not liking" football (soccer) and they never broadcast any news on the A-League. Eventhough they are based in Melbourne and Melbourne Victory FC has been playing very well this season, they don't think it is worthy of a news for them.

So, let's pause for a moment and think of this situation, a producer of a sport programme in a radio station that never want to touch anything about football (soccer), then suddenly he said he went to the stadium and watched the game, but then he told people "he is one of the fans" and talked about riot in football game and how he felt unsafe, isn't something fishy going on here?

I am pretty sure this was a blatant lie and spin by a major media to undermine the image of football (soccer) in Australia. A lie like this is mostly like not the only case. May be it happens on other issues around us too and we don't realise it at all. Beware!

More coverage of this blatant lie can be found here:
http://rankandvile.dailyflute.com/

Crimes Against Humanity

Mr. Saddam Husein is now dead. He was hanged to death in a secret place, at 2 PM Melbourne time or 3 AM GMT. He was executed as a punishment of his "crimes against humanity". Presumably they are the "crimes" against the "humanity" as defined by people who defeated him.

The winner always re-write the rules and the definition of the words in the rules. "Crimes against humanity" is such a subjective term that people can twist it to their advantage. There is no doubt that Mr. Saddam Husein did use a "hard" approach when dealing with people who did not obey him. Reports and stories told that he governed his people with fear, and he did not hesitate to kill anyone who was not following him. There was only one person who could define rules when he was still the president of Iraq.

However, if Mr. Saddam Husein's order to kill the Iraqis was considered as a crime against humanity, was Mr. George Bush's order to send troops and bombs to Iraq to kill many hundred thousands of Iraqis (and to remove Mr. Saddam Husein and his government) considered as a crime as well? Apparently no, because that was a "help" for the Iraqis, to make their lives better "in the future" although the facts are now many Iraqis have lost their lives, loved ones, and perhaps lost their limbs and permanently disabled by bombs. All these are called "sacrifices", it is needed to build a more democratic and peaceful Iraq.

So what is actually "crimes against humanity"? Which "version of humanity" is it?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Selamat Hari Natal!

It is a grey Christmas here in Melbourne. A change in weather has presented some light rain around Melbourne and other parts of Victoria. The temperature also dropped to around 15 degrees at the moment. It is quite different from the Christmas eve two years ago (2004), when the temperature was quite warm and the sky was clear and blue.

Weather forecast bureau in Melbourne has predicted that some snow will fall in the Alpine region of Victoria. Some places in the area were burning last week due to bush fire. It is a relieve for people who live in the area that rain and snow are coming during this Christmas period. To some areas, it has been a bit too late though.

Laura

"Laura" accidently came up in my Friendster connection list one day and I was like "Gee! She is a beauty! I must ask her to be my friend". I checked her profile, apparently she is still a single, living in Singapore, a DJ, only 19 years old (never mind she is old enough :p).

She said on her profile that she doesn't want to receive any message from a male/boy (oh no!). But of course this will not prevent me from sending her a message anyway. So I did it. I sent her a message asking for her invitation or email. She never reply until now :(

And then today, surprise-surpise, I saw the photograph of "Laura", the very one used in Laura's friendster profile, and it is shocking, this is apparently the photograph of Maria Ozawa aka Miyabi, the Japanese Adult Video Star. Goodness me!!!!

So, "Laura" in my friendster list is not a real Laura. He/She is probably the addoring fans of Maria Ozawa, the Japanese/French/Canadian Adult Movie Star. I am sort of disappointed with this "revealation". It is disappointing because not only the beautiful "Laura" will never be my friend, she is also an Adult Video star. What a pity! Such a waste!

Big Day Out: Melbourne vs Sydney on Friday

The Big Day is tomorrow, no, this is not about the Big Day Out Music Festival, but the football (round ball that is, aka soccer for those who do not know what football is) big match between Melbourne Victory FC and Sydney FC. One of the most important game in the season because a win for Melbourne means they become Minor Premier Elect of the A-League for this season.

Melbourne is now on top of the ladder with 37 points, while Sydney is second with 24 points. With 5 games to go after this week, a loss for Sydney means their maximum points will be 39, 1 point short of Melbourne' point next week (40), therefore it means they will not become Minor Premier.

The game should be a good one, because Sydney cannot afford to lose, while Melbourne want to get the 3 points. It is a final for both teams, especially for Melbourne Victory FC.

Writing and Thinking

"The art of writing clearly is thinking clearly"

It is not about the language, but it is about how ideas are organised and written on a piece of paper. Writing is about expressing thoughts in mind and telling it to others in the form of formal language.

A difficulty in writing means something is not quite right in the thinking. Ideas are not well expressed perhaps due to either lack of understanding of the subject or lack of information. So to write clearly, make sure the subject has been thought carefully with enough information.

Polonium-210

The cause for the death of Mr. Litvinenko, an ex-spy of Russia, is finally found out. He apparently was poisoned by someone using Polonium-210, a radioactive substance that emits alpha particles. The alpha particles are hazardous because they can damage organ and body's tissues. However they cannot pass trough skin therefore it is considered not dangerous for people who were in contact with him. Only high dose of Polonium-210 is dangerous because a very small amount of this radioactive mineral is actually present in the soil.


Mr. Litvinenko said he was killed because he was investigating the death of his close friend, a female Russian journalist, who was killed by the Kremlin government. However, the Kremlin dennied all allegations and they said they do nothing. Another theory mentioned the link to Russian Mafia, former KGB agents who became involved with illegal businesses.

Regardless whoever is responsible for the murder of Mr. Litvinenko, one thing is clear, that is anyone can kill anyone in another country by poisoning in the future. The threat to people in the UK is especially high because it has been proved that the border control is not as tight to filter any poisonuos substances being carried into the UK. This case is particularly important for the Scotland Yard detectives to solve because if this was not solved, many more crimes like this one can happen in the UK in the future, or in fact in any country in the world.

People do not use bomb or guns anymore to kill their enemies, but they use poisons. It makes remember the murder of Munir Lubis, the Indonesian pro-democracy activist. He was killed by Arsenic poison while travelling from Jakarta to Singapore with Garuda Indonesia Airways. Munir's final destination should have been the Netherlands, but he arrived there as a death body. :(

Damn Changi Airport Security

My luggage lock was broken and disposed by Changi airport security. I know it must be them! It must be them because they tightened up the security check last night. Farking unbelievable! Damn this Singaporean airport customs! They checked the hand luggages of all passangers who just arrived at the aiport, as if we were smuggling drugs or something. They must be searching for people to hang again, they have too much spare time and nothing else to do but thinking to put someone to a death sentence.

It was very annoying when I found out the lock of my checked luggage has disappeared when I collected by luggage in Melbourne airport this morning. I saw no sticker/message/note saying the luggage was opened by whom for whatever reason, all I saw was my lock disappered. It is a new lock by the way, and I bought it in Changi Aiport as well during my transit from Melbourne to Jakarta 4 nights ago. I can't believe the new lock that I just used for the first time, which I bought in Singapore, was disposed by the Singaporean government. I felt like this is a conspiracy between the government and the traders to make me spending more money to buy new locks in Singapore in the future so that they can just take it off my luggage again.

I have no idea why they did it to my luggage. It is possible that they thought I have something suspicious in my luggage. I didn't have anything that would be of interest to the farking custom officers apart from a bottle of Gaviscon in my checked luggage. That's it! Damn, damn, damn!!!

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Ubuntu 6.10 Release Candidate

Ubuntu 6.10 Release Candidate is now available for download. Mirros in Australia are available at:
OptusNet: http://mirrors.optus.net/ubuntu/
iiNet: http://ftp.iinet.net.au/pub/ubuntu/
UWA: http://mirrors.uwa.edu.au/ubuntu

SkypeOut

SkypeOut from Melbourne to Aachen in Germany costs about €0.36 for 20 minutes.

Blissful Thinker

First of all, it is Blissful Thinker and not 'blissfull' thinker. Some people, whose English is most likely not their first language, often got it wrong and write it as 'blissfull' instead of 'blissful'. It is understandable because it sounds like a word formed by two other words: bliss and full (therefore it is simply understood as blissfull, which is wrong according the Oxford English Dictionary (http://dictionary.oed.com/).

So what is a 'blissful thinker'? Blissful (of persons), an adjective, by definition is people who are joyous, full of bliss, or happy in the highest order. Thinker, a noun, is a person who is being engaged in thinking or simply one who thinks. A blissful thinker is therefore someone of a happy bunny bunch who thinks of all happy things and make all things look simple and rosy?? Did I get it right?

Ubuntu Releases - Mirrors in Australia

These are Australian mirrors for downloading Ubuntu Releases:

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/ubuntu/releases/
http://mirror.pacific.net.au/linux/ubuntu-releases/
http://mirror.isp.net.au/ftp/pub/ubuntu-releases/
http://mirrors.uwa.edu.au/ubuntu-releases/
http://ubuntu-releases.optus.net/

Summer Flies

Summer flies start to come out this week. I can see more flies flying around today, the hottest day so far in Melbourne. Summer fly "invasion" is "normal" in Victoria, and according to my Victorian friend, it is much worse in the country side. And lots of mosquito there as well!

The flies are quite annoying because they tend to fly around our head, especially eyes, nose and mouth while we are walking on a street. I wonder why they like flying around human head. Is it due to the ultra violete reflection that attracts the flies? Or is it the smell of our hair? Or our nose? Or our mouth (ugh....halitosis can attract summer flies? yukkk...).

Speaking and breathing in open space in Melbourne need to be done carefully during summer because the flies sometime can fly directly to our mouth and nose and try to sneak in. I am sure it is not funny to have flies in our mouth or nose.

Oh My God!

"Oh my God!"

"Did I hear you calling God?"

"I said oh my God, I didn't call the God."

"I thought you do not believe in God, how can you say oh my God? I don't want to judge, but you told me the other day that you shagged your friend's wife, and when I said you committed a sin you said it wasn't because you don't believe in God."

"Well you don't have to believe in God to say oh my God, beside, God doesn't exist anyway."

"But you just said oh my God, which means you acknowledged the existence of God."

"No, I said oh my god, not oh my God."

"Oh okay, so oh my God or oh my god or whatever, actually means nothing to you. Shut the f*ck up and don't even mention God if you don't mean it. Do not pretend you're religious, bastard!"

"Ugh, now you yourself becomes a judge of others and called me bastard, isn't it a sin? I am sure your faith teaches you about patience, kindness and nice words."

"Yes I know it is a sin, but don't forget I believe in God and God will forgive my sin."

"Okay, now you see, this is the reason why I don't believe in God, because those who claim they believe in God actually are sinners. They are not better than me, aren't they?"

"Whatever."

The Victoria Connection

The AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final will be played this afternoon in the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). For the second year in a row, a Grand Final played in the State of Victoria is without a Victorian footie team (they called it football here and they call football 'soccer').

In the Grand Final this year, the Sydney Swans again will play West Coast Eagles, just like they did last year. Therefore for the second year in a row, the AFL fans from Victoria come to the MCG to see two teams who are not from Victoria.

Having no Victorian team in the AFL Grand Final obviously made the marketing department of the AFL adminsitration needed to think how to attract the Victorian to come to the stadion. Last year they tried to connect the Sydney Swans being a team rooted in Victoria therefore the Victorian must support the Swans.

The Swans indeed were originaly established in South Melbourne, as South Melbourne FC (not the soccer Football Club, mind you). Due to lack of interest from the local to their home game, the SMFC decided to move to Sydney and officially became Sydney Swans FC. Pretty much like Wimbledon AFC in England which became Milton Keynes Dons FC recently. Try to ask any Wimbledon AFC fans if they still want to relate themselves to MK Dons FC. There is no way they will.

So this year, the AFL marketing department came out with another bright idea. They publicised the suburbs of birth of many AFL players from the two teams on the newspaer a day before the Grand Final (yesterday). The message is 'Many of the players who will play in the Grand Final today are Victorian after all, so come to watch our fellow Victorian playing'.

I wonder what the marketing department of the AFL will do next year, if, again, Sydney Swans play West Coast Eagles or Port Adelaide in next year's Grand Final.

Ubuntu 6.10 Beta Released

Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) Beta Version has been released by Canonical Ltd. Edgy Eft can be downloaded from the following mirror locations:

United States:
   http://us.releases.ubuntu.com/6.10/

Europe:
   http://nl.releases.ubuntu.com/6.10/                  (Netherlands)
   http://de.releases.ubuntu.com/releases/6.10/         (Germany)
   http://it.releases.ubuntu.com/releases/6.10/         (Italy)

Asia:
   http://tw.releases.ubuntu.com/6.10/

United Kingdom:
   http://releases.ubuntu.com/6.10/

Rest of the World:
   http://releases.ubuntu.com/6.10/

Instructions for upgrade from Ubuntu 6.06 to 6.10 can be read here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdgyUpgrades

Fatal Accident in Victoria

A road accident that occurred yesterday in the country side of Victoria has claimed life of 7 people. The accident happened in a Y-intersection and both vehicles were burnt immediately afterward. One of the vehicles involved in the accident was transporting go-kart and fuel. It is believed the fuel caused the fire.

The Y-intersection where the accident happenned looks like this:

It is believed that Vehicle A, which was carrying 5 passengers, didn't give way to Vehicle B. Although Vehicle A was travelling along a straight road when approaching this Y-Intersection, the marked lane shows that it should have stopped or waited until the Vehicle B had turned right. Vehicle B in this case, was allowed to turn right without even signaling, because despite it was turning right, the lane shows that it was travelling along a straight road. It is a bit confusing and the problem is, the driver of Vehicle A is not a local, but he is from New South Wales.

It is easy to take thing for granted and mistakenly missed the road sign in a new place, especially when travelling very fast along the country side road. Unluckily, this time it ended up with a tragedy.

Jews in Iran

Iran do not like Israel, right? Yes. Mr. Ahmedinejad himself said so.

But apparently about 25,000 of Jews live in Iran at the moment and they don't speak Hebrew that well, but Persian. Read more in the BBC website.

gFTP 2.0.18 in Ubuntu Linux 6.06

Ubuntu Linux version 6.06 comes with gFTP as its default FTP application. I have gFTP version 2.0.18 installed in my Ubuntu laptop. Having FTP application is important to me because I use it quite often for uploading files to my other websites. I have another blog at http://www.yarramall.com, which I installed WordPress into it. The blog is in Indonesian language and is hosted free of charge by Awardspace.

The gFTP 2.0.18 interface is pretty much similar to other FTP application such as WS-FTP. It has a complete set of menu, easy to use and straightforward. This application is also free to use (but donation is very much accepted). I attach a screenshot of gFTP above, taken this morning when I was uploading some WordPress plugins to Yarramall.

File Browser

The File Browser of Ubuntu 6.06 pretty much has a similar function to the Windows Explorer of Windows. Locating file and folder, creating folder, renaming and deleting them is easy and just a matter of clicking left and right button of the mouse and also typing, of course.

Inkscape: SVG Application

This is a snapshot of Inkscape, a Linux-based (and also available in windows) Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) application that was installed into my Compaq Presario 700 running on Ubuntu Linux 6.06.

Inkscape is pretty much like CorelDraw and Adobe Illustrator. It can be used for drawing and editing figures. I haven't really tried using this application yet, but for first impression it seems powerful to me. The application actually run quite fast on my old laptop, perhaps it is because my laptop has quite large memory (384 MB).

Edit: Thanks for the correction Stelt, sometime I think I know what I know apparently I don't really know what I really know :)

The Derby Loss

Shipping out three goals without a reply, in a derby match yesterday, is very hard for any Liverpool to swallow. The image of Andy Johnson showing off his three right fingers and making a zero using his left thumb and second finger is very annoying. It is uncharacteristically Liverpool to concede so many goals.

So, where does the problem lie? Something is clearly not rigth in the defence this season. The defenders were still the same, the right back, the centre backs, with exception the left back. The midfielders are also no different, it is the same players from last season. Momo Sissoko, Steven Gerrard, Luis Garcia and Xabi Alonso. They are four of the first-teamers of the last season. Is this due to a different way of playing the game? Perhaps Rafa Benitez wants the team to do different thing this season? Were the players' mind was not in the game? Lack of idea, creativity, lack of confidence? Was it due to mistakes in defence? Basic mistakes according to Rafa?


Whatever it is, better results are needed very soon, because many important games are coming up thick and fast. Here's hoping for the better.

US Senate - Saddam Had No Links to Al-Qaeda

The US Senate say, "Saddam had no links to Al-Qaeda."

Yeah, we had known that for ages, it's all about oil stupid!

YASOU

Yet Another Screenshot of Ubuntu.

This is the screenshot of during installing an update to the Ubuntu 6.06. Checking update is done daily, and again installing it is as simple as clicking mouse. No need for thinking about where and how to install it. And there my own blog at the background.

Screenshot of Ubuntu 6.06

This is a screenshot of the Add/Remove Applications under the Applications menu in Ubuntu 6.06. This menu is used for downloading and installing any applications we need from the resiporatory. Installing new applications in Ubuntu 6.06 is as easy as clicking the mouse.

Oh and another thing, there are four workspaces, i.e. four screens, on the desktop. If you look at the bottom right corner of the screenshot, you can see 4 rectangulars. At the moment I am using the second workspace, shown by the earth (the browser) icon. By having more than one workspace, it prevents a situation where my small laptop screen is too crowded with many windows.

It's Called Service

A good friend of mine went to the Commonwealth Bank in Monash Univ. Clayton campus this afternoon to close one of his bank accounts. Apparently he has two saving accounts and is not prepared to pay double fees for keeping both accounts alive, so the better idea is to close one of them.

He went to the Customer Service (CS) and told him that he wanted to close one of his saving accounts. My friend said, "I would like to close one of my accounts that has only 10 cents in it."

"Okay!" said the CS, and then after asking birthday, and other security questions, the CS said again, "We will transfer this 10 cents to your other account, however the confirmation of this transfer will be given to you by phone. So in the meantime you may want to do something else if there's nothing else I can do for you."

So my friend and I walked back to our room, but before we arrived at the building, he got a phone call. Apparently from the CS in the Commonwealth Bank and this is what the CS said:

"You'll be very pleased to hear that I have transferred 10 cents into your account."

Let's calculate how much effort spent for transferring the 10 cents:
- a phone call to a mobile costs at least 40 cents
- electricity, computer and man hour

All of these for the sake of service.

Ubuntu Linux

I installed Ubuntu Linux 6.06 into my second hand Compaq Presario 700 this week and the outcome has been very impressive. The laptop has AMD Duron processor, probably 700 MHz speed, 20 GB hard drive, S3 Twister_K graphic card, 384 MB of memory. All devices can work properly, including the network connection and the optical mouse I am using at the moment.

The Ubuntu Linux can be downloaded here: http://www.ubuntulinux.org

It comes with a single CD, which can be used as the Live CD or installation. The impressive thing is, I had installed SuSe 10.1 to the same laptop before, but SuSe 10.1 could not be displayed properly due to some problem with the graphic card. Perhaps a new driver is needed for the S3 Twister_K video card.

Here are two snapshots of this Ubuntu Linux in my laptop:

Green Bean & Yellow Bean

This post isn't actually about the "bean" but the "bin", the green bin and the yellow bin.

It has come to my attention that most of us, who live in the Coane Street in East Oakleigh, frequently put the wrong bin out on Monday evening. This is something we had not done before, but since we're given the large, yellow colour recycle bin, which is the same size as the green colour bin for organic waste, as an exchange for the small, recycle box, people started to get confused.

We are used to lining up the small recycle box along the roadside on Monday evening every week, together with the red colour bin for general waste. The small recycle box can only accommodate few papers/magazines, plastics, and other recycle-able stuffs. Normally at least two people needed to be employed to collect the recycle box, one for driving the truck and another one for actually lifting the box and dump the content of the box to the back of the truck.

Due to its small size, the recycle box must be collected every week, otherwise people would complain to the city council because they ran out of space. So perhaps, in order to save some cost, the city council replaced the recycle box with bigger bin, which means it can store more stuffs, and they made a new schedule for collecting the recycle-able waste, which is once in 2 weeks, such as what they have done with the green waste. And also they don't need two persons anymore to do this collection because the driver can operate the truck to pick up the bin himself. Smart thinking by the council.

But here comes the problem, some people cannot remember exactly which bin they should line up on Monday evening. So sometimes, there are people who put three bins altogether, red, yellow and green, because they don't want to get it wrong so that their waste will not be collected on the next morning.

Food for Brain

Books from Amazon:
http://astore.amazon.com/globalbooksto-20

Oddly Enough from around the World

Nude teens raise eyebrows
Nudity is legal in this town of Vermont, as long as it is not for sexually arousing others. So why were the teens got naked? Apparently nudity is not a big deal if others do much crazier things such as war in the Middle East and Nuclear plant nearby their town.

Robber hid for 20 years a policeman
Not only that, he was also elected as the People's Council and a member of the ruling Communist Party, what an amazing achievement for an ex- robber.

Cautioned by Police for Blessing Himself

A Celtic player, Artur Boruc, was cautioned by Police for "blessing himself" when he played in a football match involving his club and Glasgow Rangers at Ibrox, the home of the Rangers. His action was said as "a breach of peace" and had "provoked alarm and crowd trouble". Meanwhile Peter Kearney, a spokeman of the Catholic Church said that "It's a worrying and alarming development, especially since the sign of the cross is globally accepted as a gesture of religious reverence."

It is unclear what exactly Boruc, the goalkeeper of the Poland national football team, did during the game. It was reported that he was "blessing himself", however there was no more detailed description of his behaviour. The Catholic Church spokeman, however, said that Boruc was doing a sign of the cross. Doing a sign of the cross in a football game is common everywhere, therefore it is a bit ridiculous to accuse a player committing a criminal offence and caution him for doing it.

It is more ridiculous that some people actually complained to the Police and felt offended by this action. And the funnier thing is, the Rangers fans are most likely Protestant, which is actually another form of Christianity. :)

Cyanide & Happiness

Paper vs Rocks


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Gaviscon

GAVISCON is the brand name of a liquid medicine that can be used to help relief from heartburn and acid indigestion which usually accompany gastric problem in stomach. I have been using this medicine for a couple of weeks, since my GP told me that my stomach produces too much acid in the evening when I am about to sleep. The acid makes me having difficulty to breathe from lying position and it also makes me feeling the burning pain of heartburn. The funny thing is, the more I think about the pain, the more I feel it, because apparently the acid production increases when I am more stressful.

The Gaviscon Liquid I am having has peppermint flavour and it tastes like...peppermint, of course. Actually it tastes mixed between peppermint and something else but I can't explain this other taste.

It looks like this medicine is quite good and effective in reducing my pain. I feel better everytime I have it before lying on my bed and it makes me sleep better. This medicine apparently is made in the UK and distributed in Australia by Reckitt Benckiser. The label explains that the liquid does not contain aluminium, sugar or gluten; but it contains sodium (Sodium Alginate, Sodium Bicarbonate and Calcium Carbonate), hydroxybenzoates and saccharin. Now, Calcium Carbonate in geology is comprised by limestones, which means I may be having the syrop phase of "limestone" :).

The Season Finally Starts

Suddenly all come to live, the English Premierleague season is about to start. Some clubs have prepared themselves by recruiting new players. Liverpool FC is amongst them. New players in Liverpool include Craig Bellamy, Jermine Pennant, Mark Gonzales, Gabriel Palleta, and Fabio Aurelio. Two of the new players, Bellamy and Gonzales have made their presence known by scoring in the third round qualifier of the 2006/2007 European Champions League.

Liverpool will play Chelsea this week end in the FA Community Shield to kick start the 2006/2007 season. This match is supposedly an official friendly game, between the FA Cup holder and Barclay Premiership Champions of the previous season. Chelsea was the Premiership champion last season and of course Liverpool was the FA Cup winner.


The Community Shield will be played in the Cardiff Stadium, the capital of Wales.

Posters

One poster done, another one to do before this Thursday morning.

Scream

Post No. 111 of this blog.

I want to SCREEAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

WHOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Hmmm...actually I don't make myself feeling better by screaming here.

But if I really scream loudly at home, all my housemates will be annoyed and my neighbours will, too. So?

This War: When will it end?

Another episode of Israel vs Hezbollah or simply Jews in Israel vs Arabic in Lebanon and Palestine. When will it end? Why do we have to see another war? Why do we have to see more innocent victims? I hate war! Ridiculously stupid acts by both sides.

IT Goddesses

Lack of interest from girl students to study in Information & Tehnology (IT) courses and choose IT industry to develop their career has made some female IT executives in Australia to come up with an idea to do something. They wanted to show that IT industry is actually sexy and attract more female to get into the industry. Working in the IT industry doesn't mean that these females have separated from their "feminin" side and it doesn't mean that they don't have a life either.

It was decided by these female IT executives to produce a calendar featuring themselves in various "movie-esque" position and customs, showing their beauty. The photos in the calendar is a parody of some famous movie and its actos, such as Charlie's Angel and Matrix. They call this calendar as "IT Goddess". It can be ordered from a website here: http://www.itgoddess.info

Now the problem is, some critics do not like this idea and said it was a cheap idea to make money and instead of showing the sexy and beauty of the IT executives, the calender is actually a soft porn. The website actually has got a DOS attack from the US, but fortunately the attack failed. There are also those who support the idea because the money from calendar purchases will be donated to educational institutions to attract more female IT students.


Having seen the snapshots from the IT Goddess website, I must say these women are admirable. Pretty, smart and successful in their career. A great combination.

I am Perfect or am I?

If I am nobody and nobody is perfect, certainly it means I am perfect?

The Wisdom of Mr. President

Mr. Bush was overheard while talking to Mr. Blair in the G8 meeting. Apparently he said Syria is the only one who can tell Hezbollah to stop fighting with Israel. The interesting thing is, he was undiplomatic and using strong language during the personal conversation! :)

Pay as You Go Webhosting

Nearly Free Speech offers pay as you go webhosting with very competitive pricea per MB bandwidth and montly disk space. They also offer domain registration US$7/year for .com, .net and .org TLDs.

Cheap .info Domain - Limited Time

The cheapest .info domain I can found on the web is US$1.99/year offered by Stargate.
This is for new registration, not applicable to renewal and it is offered in limited time. You can register your domain for up to 10 years with the same price.

Bored? Check This...

Some people are so bored that they have time to think of and do the unthinkable to most people, well at least it is unthinkable to me.

Do you still remember Zidane and his headbutting in the World Cup final?

Check this website to see some versions of the videos, and enjoy!

A Letter from A Boy

An 8 year old boy from a farm who was about to start his Grade 3 wrote a letter to God. Here is his letter:

Dear God,

I know You are kind and people told me You always give when they ask in prayer.
Mommy is now very ill and she cannot go to work to earn money. I need some money badly to buy medicine for Mom, some new writing books, a pair of new uniform and for my school-fee. Here are what I need:
- $100 for medicine
- $50 for books
- $50 for uniform
- $50 for school fee

So, in total I need $250.
Please receive my prayer and grant me Your gift. Thank you and I am waiting for Your response.

Andy

Having finished writing his letter, he put it in an envelope and write an address on the front side:

To: God
in Heaven

and his name on the back side:

From: Andy
Horseman Creek

He then brought this sealed envelope to a post office and posted it.

The post man saw his letter and didn't know exactly where to deliver this letter, it was impossible to deliver it to Heaven afterall. So he brought his letter to a police station instead.

The Head of the police station opened the letter, read it and was moved by it. So he decided to
call all his police members and told them to donate some amount of money to the boy. They eventually managed to collect $225.

The Head put all the money to an envelope and wrote a letter to the boy:

Dear Andy,

Here is $225 from me. Your Mom will be okay as long as you become a good boy.

God

The Head then delivered this letter himself to Andy's house.

Andy was very happy to receive a letter from God, and he was even more happy to see $225 in the envelope. "But hey!" he thought, "I asked for $250, why do I get $225 only?"
So he wrote another letter to God and give it to the policeman:

Dear God,

Thank you for sending me the money, but in the future if You want to send me money again, could You please not give it to a Police? They charged me 10% for this delivery.

Andy

The policeman: *&*&&%$%#@@$#@.....

Freedomainsite

I just found a website which offers free domain registration and free website hosting as well. This is website is called Freedomainsite (http://www.freedomainsite.com). The free domain and webhosting can be used for 1 year and if a customer isn't happy at the end of the first year, they can cancel the account.

This is an excellent offer for those who want a website with .com, .net or .org TLD and also free webhosting witout paying for anything. I haven't registered myself, because I have already owned 2 domains hosted free of charge by Awardspace (http://www.awardspace.com) and Freehostia (http://www.freehostia.com) and a blog at Blogspot. I don't have much time to look after more than 3 websites.

Again on Zidane vs Materazzi

Marco Materazzi's agent said the focus should be on Zidane's behaviour instead of the insults his client delivered to Zidane. Well, he has never played football in his life then.

Insulting/provocating a fellow competitor in sport is certainly not on, sport should be done by muscle not mouth. I am not a fans of Zidane nor French national team, but bullying should never be let into the pitch.

Still on Zidane

What the medias and his team mates say about Zidane:

Andrew McKenzie (The BBC): The flawed genius

David Trezequet (French team, and William Gallas, also a member of the French team): Thank you and bravo! He was provoked.

Alain Migliaccio (Zidane's agent): Materazzi said something very serious

The lip reader employed by Daily Mail, UK: It was about his family

What's Going on Zidane?

Zinedine Zidane is a great player. He is skillful, clever and he has strong mentality to lead his team. He is a leader on the football. But what he was thinking about when he headbutt Materazzi, nobody know but himself.

So, why on earth he suddenly was so angry and lost control and forgot who he was and what image he has shown to many football fans in the world by attacking a fellow footballer? I suspect he was insulted by Materazzi, but only Zidane himself knows what the Italian back has said toward him. It is impossible if Zidane did that madness without being provoked.

Although I am not a fans of Zidane, it is sad to see one of the best footballers in the world, who will retire after this World Cup, has to end his career with a red card, without applauses or standing ovation from the fans in the stadium. The 2006 World Cup Final should have been a nice farewell match for him, but it turned out to be different.

It is a pity because one of the great footballer had to get involved with the ugly part of the beautiful game. Football indeed is beautiful, but the will to win makes it ugly.

5 Signs You're Internet Addicted

1. If you read this article, that is the first sign
2. You own a blog
3. You write frequently in your blog
4. You own 10 email addresses
5. You have at least one account in all major messenger such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, Gmail, Skype, and so on

Now, here is an article about 10 signs if you are technology obsessed.

FIFA World Cup Finals

It nearly comes to the end. After nearly a month of playing, it has narrowed down to only 2 teams which will play for the honour of winning the 2006 Football World Cup and another two teams to play for the pride of their respective nations.

Italy will play France to decide the winner of Germany 2006 World Cup, while Germany, the host nation will try to beat Portugal for the third place.

The only game I watched since the quarter final started was the Argentina-Germany one. My interest in this World Cup disappeared once Argentina losing the penalty shoot-outs. This partly due to the fact that I had expected Argentina to go all the way to the final and winning this competition and also partly because Argentina had been playing the best football in the World Cup this year. If they didn't play the best at least they were among 4 of the best and they should have been in the semifinal.

Italy againts Ukraine was an obvious result, Ukraine were very very poor, it amazed me they were through to the last 8 instead of South Korea.

England vs Portugal was, to be polite, boring. England had not been playing well, but their media believe they could win the World Cup. It is not suprising though because the English media is usually self-proclaiming their football team as the best in the world. Furthermore, they have Sven as their manager, who enjoyed his £4 millions/year of salary but did nothing in term of tactical fine-tuning the England national team. As for Portugal, they like to dive, never get anywhere near them or they will fall down and scream like their legs were broken :)

Brazil vs France, well,....it was not a pretty game because the only way to play Brazil is to press them so that they could not move the ball. France somehow managed to get a goal, and Brazil could not score because they didn't get the ball.

For the final with Italy playing againts France, I would expect a 0-0 score after 120 minutes and Italy won on penalties.

Tall Poppy Syndrome - Help Needed!

The "Tall Poppy Syndrome": people tend to cut down/attack/dislike successful person because this person stands out from the average crowds and is easily seen.

In the Japanese culture, this phrase becomes: the nail that sticks out gets hammered.

In the Indonesian culture, this tendency is often described as a person who climbs higher than average will be dragged down by the crowd below.

I wonder how other cultures in the world describe this Tall Poppy Syndrome. Would you kindly share it with me? Comment please...

Big Brother Australia's Debate - Sexual Harassment?

It makes me giggling when I read this article because according to a friend who watched the show, the female actually knew before hand what the male contestants wanted to do to her. She was called by the two male contestants and she knew what was gonna happen, but she still went on to the bed anyway. And then that "waving" happened but the men were blamed. So why on earth the girl went into the bed if she didn't want to see it?? Un-explainable...

FIFA European Cup 2006 - Germany

So, NO South American team in the semifinal of Germany 2006, the 18th FIFA EUROPEAN...opss..sorry, I meant: "world" Cup, after Brazil were beaten by France. Brazil lost to France by a single goal margin. Yep France, which nearly didn't make it to Germany, and needed Zinedine Zidane to cancel his international retirement to guide this team qualifying from Europe.

This is the France team which could only got two draws in the group qualifications game, 0-0 against Switzerland and 1-1 againts South Korea. Yes they did beat Spain by 2 goals margin, but their second goal from a free kick should have never been a free kick in the first place. What a joke! :D

But football is funny, most of the time it is. The only different between winning and losing can be one single mistake, either from a player himself, from a manager or even from a referee. Sometimes it is not even a mistake, it was only pure unlucky or the defeat is due to having no confidence in the penalty shot-outs. The best team is not necessarily the winner, and the losers are actually the better teams. So enjoy the rest of this boring competition.

The World Cup is over...

First, Asian teams lost out in the last 16, then Australia were beaten by Italy by a dubious penalty in the dying seconds of the 90 minutes, and finally Argentina lost to Germany in a penalty shout-out.

There are some reasons why someone is willing to wake up in the earliest hours of a morning and watch a round ball being kicked around by men. For me, the very first attraction of this game is the beauty of close ball control and dribbling technique and the intelligent of the players in working together as a team. It is not all about scoring many goals, because a team can score a lot of goals by sending high ball from defence to a tall player up-front who then knocks it down to his teammate to shoot from distance. This long ball tactic is really boring. Another reason why I want to watch football is, of course, geographical and geopolitical allegiances.

Football is is not only about stopping the ball, kick it again to your teammates and run away from your opponents because this are all very basic skills of playing the game. Football is simple, but not that simple for my personal liking. In my opinion the beauty of this game can only be seen when the players played with silky individual skill, great passing ability and teamwork.

Football is still a team's game, but a team without individual brilliance is really boring. It is probably interesting for some people, especially the fans of a particular team, but not for a neutral. From the teams left in the 2006 FIFA World Cup competition, only Brazil and perhaps Portugal (if they are not diving) are worth watching. Apart from these two teams, they are boring.

And the Oscar, goes to...

Fabio Grosso....

Congratulations!

Stolen Body Parts

Disgusting! Horrible! Barbaric!

Imagine if you died and someone stole your body parts and sold them to a legitimate company which makes money out of your corpse. Some human being are not more valuable than animals. What a mad world!

Drinking & Drunk

So, what's the special about having alcoholic drink and make yourself drunk? Do you think you're a "man" if you drink lots of beer? It is not a rocket science to know that drinking too much alcohol will harm your body and mind, make you look stupid, and you think it's fun?

I can't really understand it when I said I drink only 1/2 pint maximum once in a week and some of my colleagues were like, "What? Come on, you are man!". Well, I don't think I have to drink a lot of beer just to prove I am man enough. Eventhough having alcoholic drinks is not a sin for me, I have been told by our extended big family since I was still a kid that alcoholic drinks are harmful. So we should not be addicted to alcoholic drinks, control ourselves when drinking beer and make life more useful than just being drunk.

The

As someone who has been learning English language since 1985/6, when I was still in the 5th year of my primary education, I still cannot fully figure out when to use and when not to use "the" in my writing. Sometimes I got it right, but in other time it is wrong, in the sense of it is either missing or not necessary. Most of the time when I get it wrong, the "the" is missing from my sentences.

My current supervisor, who reviews my scientific writing, often smiles at me when he is about to give me some feedbacks after reading my manuscript, because I always have a problem with "the". He always tells me that it is understandable if I do not know when to use "the" correctly because English is not my first language, and then sometimes he said, "Well Min, this proves that you're not an Australian" . :p

Make us Dream!

Bring on Brazil!
Come on Socceroos!

A 24-Pass Move

Some say it was a 24-pass move, others say it was 25 passes, and some others say it was 21 passes only. Whatever the number was, that Agenrtina's second goal scored by Esteban Cambiasso against Serbia & Montenegro last night (Melbourne time), in the second game of the first round of FIFA World Cup 2006, was joy to watch.

Perhaps, the Serbian & Montenegrin defenders actually made it all too easy for the Argentine to score, but still the off-the-ball movement, ball control, understanding and unselfishness of the Argentina's players were second to none. A game like this is the reason why people like watching football, and it is also a reason why I expect Argentina to do well, although many have opinions that the Argentine players like to dive.

They have great players and a good team, and when they do actually play their football, it is of a jaw-dropping quality. I hope they always remember to play football throughout this World Cup, and play well.

Worked to Death in China

Worked to Death in China
Engineer's death alarms Chinese white collar workers

Xu Zhiqiang (xuzhiqiang)

Since last week, hundreds of thousands have signed in on China's netizen sites to mourn the death of Hu Xinyu, a 25-year-old engineer whose untimely death was attributable to overtime work and other continuing pressures. At the same time, more and more white-collar workers are taking a second, critical look at the longstanding overtime traditionally demanded of them.

Hu was in hospital at the end of April and died of bacterial encephalitis on May 28. Before being admitted, he had put in overtime almost every day for all of April on an R&D project and often stayed on task till the wee hours.

Hu had been employed by Huawei Technologies, headquartered in Shenzhen, adjacent to Hong Kong, for about a year after graduating from Chengdu, the capital of southwest Sichuan province. To most young graduates, it was a desirable job, because Huawei is China's top telecom company, and its staff salaries are competitive. After being recruited, Hu entered the white-collar ranks.

Hu treasured his job very much and was trained by Huawei to work with dedication. Huawei's corporate culture is the "wolf spirit," created by its founder, Ren Zhengfei, since incorporation in 1988. This culture helped Huawei expand from scratch to a 40,000-employee telecom giant, with last year's sales reaching US$8.2 billion.

An inescapable part of such rapid expansion is the enormous pressure brought to bear on each employee. The "eliminate through selection or contest" system of appraisal is strict. Hu's workday routine was to leave the office at 10 p.m. for a one-hour bus ride to his dormitory, only to get up at 7 a.m. the next day to catch the bus.

Continuing pressure weakened him gradually until he caved in to the strain of overwork on the latest R&D project, making him susceptible to infection, disease, and finally death. It's rumored that, not long ago before Hu's loss, an employee of another prominent IT company in Shenzhen had died from overwork.

"Without life, higher scores and salaries mean nothing."

"I know I should balance my work and life from now on."

"The human body is not a machine. Health is king."

Lots of netizens have been leaving their thoughts.

This time, the context is China's growing white-collar labor force that so hugely reflects Hu's death. Actually, Hu typified this expanding class of labor — well educated, hard working, pursuing a quality lifestyle but without adequate savings or adequate rest to safeguard health.

China's white-collar workers consist mainly of elite migrants from rural poverty to the cities as well as college graduates. It is flourishing as part of China's economic growth spurt, a partial result of privatization, and a major contributor to urbanization. From 1982 to 2003, the rural population decreased from 80 percent to 60 percent of the total, and 250 million people have moved to the cities. In just the last two years, the annual college graduation rate has exceeded 3 million.

In the public eye, compared with miners, who risk their lives working underground, and peasants, white-collar workers are thought of as a favored group, while the truth is more complex. They are burdened with taking care of their parents and children, while soaring housing costs and inflation vex them.

In fact, they are not yet middle class, in the western sense, but middle class wannabes. Last year, China's GDP per capita rose to $1,700, so that "middle class" has to be understood in relative terms.

A venture capitalist once told me that, according to her calculations, there are more than 480 million Chinese with a per-capita GDP exceeding $2,000 and 50 million for whom the figure is at least $7,000, and all of them yearn for a better life and material lifestyle.

To pursue this dream, they see the only way as working harder and longer, no matter what the cost to their mental and physical health. An expert says that overtime and health damage are a common trend in developing countries playing catch-up with the First World.

In any case, Hu's death is ringing alarm bells for the mass of dedicated white-collar workers. Hu was the backbone of his family, and his loss has brought the family much grief after his parents arrived in Shenzhen from their village in Sichuan.

A spokesman of Huawei told media recently that Huawei is now emphasizing two things employees must observe — no permission for overtime in labs, and overtime work must be strictly approved in advance.

2006/06/06 오후 4:25
© 2006 Ohmynews

Never Trust A Tiger

"Never Trust A Tiger", read a title of the TIME Magazine's columns on October 20, 2003 edition.

And then the snippet said, "They are kept as pets by thousands, but as a fresh rash of attacks shows, tigers cannot be tamed."

I thought, "Oh I see! So you guys just found it out now? How surprising! Well, well, well the so called civilised community did not realise how dangerous a tiger is eventhough it looks cute."

My grandfather, my uncles, my aunties, my mom, my dad, even my neighbours all have told me since I was still a kid, that I should never ever have a wild beast (like tiger, lion, snake, bear, crocodile, even Orang Utan) as a pet. PAST EXPERIENCES have shown that A BEAST WILL ALWAYS BE A BEAST AND NEVER WILL BE A PET.

As for Orang Utan, sometime they have sexual desire, and according to some people, there was a case in my hometown where an adult Orang Utan ran after a teen and they reckoned the Orang Utan wanted to rape her (well I have no idea if this story has any truth at all).

The bottomline is, a beast will never be a pet.

History is Againts Australia

Australia vs Japan last night.

I was going for a draw because I didn't want both Japan and Australia to lose but Australia won it after coming from behind. It was a good win for football in Australia though, I am happy for them. Football (Soccer for some people) has always been number 4 or 5 in this country. The number 1 national sport here are cricket or the AFL (Aussie Rules Footie).

History has been made and Australia will play Brazil next. I will definitely go for Australia to win. Too much? Not at all! We support underdogs not a superpower!

Cool website:

http://www.stuffhistory.com.au

Funny!

Answering without Giving Away any Answers

Here is an example of giving a feedback without giving away any answers:

Hi ...,

My apologies for taking so long to respond.

Your interview technique is fine, no problems at all; it is important to
listen to the questions and answer with examples to demonstrate your
experience. All of this you did. As we interviewed over the phone it
is always more challenging to build a rapport with your interviewer, but
I think you also did this successfully.

Once again, graduates with up to three years experience are eligible for
the XXXXXXX Graduate Program, should you wish to reapply next year
please look on www.website.com for more information.

Kind Regards

It means: you actually did alright with the interview but unfortunately you're ranked outside the number of best candidates we needed, so you just missed out fractionally. Try again next year.

Or it can also mean: we actually don't like your voice :)

Football Fever

As a huge fans of football (it is soccer for those of you who do not know what football is...oh and don't forget to do more reading, read newspaper, sport tabloid, sport website or whatever, just make sure you know what football means in the rest of the world), I already feel the excitement created by the coming FIFA World Cup in Germany. It also makes me remember how I started to love playing and watching football, and of course once I used to think that I was Diego Maradona or Ruud Gullit.

I started playing football when I was in the Junior High School in 1987-1990. My eyesight was still good at the time and I didn't use prescription eyeglasses at all. I used to play with my schoolmates in our small sport pitch, and we were all barefeet. Every one of us were a striker, because we never learn the tactic of how to play the game correctly. Basically what we did was to follow where the ball was, just like a lot of ants surrounding a small crystal of sugar.

Once I started wearing eyeglasses in my final year of junior high, my interest in playing football started to disappear, however I still played sometime. Once, I broke my new eyeglasses because of playing football on a wet pitch after raining. The pitch was slippery and I fell down on my bottom. Unluckily, I kept my new eyeglasses in my back pocket. I felt guilty and was too scared to tell my Mum about it, so I didn't say anything at all until the week after. Mum asked me where my new eyeglasses were, so I reluctantly told her that it was broken. Thankfully Mum could accept it and we bought another new eyeglasses later, however I knew she was sad.

The first World Cup I really followed was the one in Italy, in 1990, when Argentina was beaten by Germany in the final. I remember I cried when Andreas Brehme's penalty beat Sergio Goycochea, and since then I really hate West Germany's team (I am sorry to Matthias and Ben my very very nice German friends, what else can I say? Germany play a boring football). Obviously I don't like Brazil either, because they always win. You can imagine how boring it is to be able to predict that Michael Schumacher will be the winner of every Formula 1 races in many years.

So, obviously we all like the underdogs, I meant whoever played Brazil will get my support, but for other games, I am happy to be a neutral, unless that game involves Argentina, because I want them to win. So, when Australia play Brazil next week, I will obviously cheer for Australia, with a Green and Gold Socceroos scarf on my neck. It is a pity Indonesia never qualify for the World Cup.

How to Reject a Job Applicant (2)

Dear .....,

Thank you for your interest in our XXXXXXXXXXXXX Graduate Recruitment Program, Ref No: XXXXXXX. I apologise for the delay in communicating with you.

The relevant Hiring Manager has considered the submissions for the available opportunity and decided on a preferred group of candidates to progress. It is regrettable that not all the talented contenders can move forward, and I am writing to say that we will not be pursuing your application further at this time.

>>means: you 're either not good enough or too good for this program, decide it yourself, the bottomline is you are NOT selected

With your permission, I would like to retain your details on our database and consider you for any other positions that may arise within the XXX XXXXXXXX Group of Companies.

>>means: we don't mind to keep your details, however we cannot guarantee you that the position you are after will come up next month, in 6 months time or in 5 years time. It may never arise at all after all

I take this opportunity to wish you success in achieving your career aspirations and thank you once again for your patience and interest.

>>means: we hope you are lucky enough to get a job, ta ta

Sincerely,

XXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX

PS. This is only a joke, have a good laugh :))

How to Reject a Job Applicant (1)

Dear ...,

As you are aware the XXXXXXX Graduate Program 2006 was very competitive and you are to be commended on your achievements to date.

Unfortunately, you have not been successful in progressing to the next stage of the recruitment process. I would however, like to thank you for the opportunity to meet with you and your efforts at the interview.

>>means: you are actually not good enough to be selected

If you would like some feedback on your application and interview, please do not hesitate to contact me.

>>means: you can send us an email but we are too busy to reply back to you, so actually we don't bother to answer your email

It is expected that XXXXXXX will activate a graduate recruitment program next year and we encourage you to apply.

>>means: we like to look busy every year, it is good for our stats if you apply again, that means our company and program are attractive. but if you can't get a job until next year, it is even easier for us to reject you again

If you prefer that your details not be retained on our records, or if your circumstances change, then please advise us and we will amend our records. We take the confidentiality of your information seriously. To view our policies on the management of your information and privacy, please visit out website www.xxxxxx-xxxxxxx.com

>>means: we don't really care if you're still interested to have your resume with us or not at all, we're happy to delete your account

I wish you all the best with your career in the future.

>>means: we hope you're lucky enough to get a job

Socceroos vs Greece - Coming Up in Melbourne

World class football on show in Melbourne this Thursday, well, at least it is European class anyway. The Socceroos will started their warm up games before the Germany 2006 World Cup by playing an international friendly againts Greece, the most recent European Champion, in Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) . I have got a ticket to watch the game so I am looking forward to Thursday evening. It is a pity Harry Kewell of Liverpool FC will not play because of groin injury.

Excuse Me, This is a Robbery, Please.

An article in The Age today really made me giggling. Apparently, there is a female armed robber who has done her crimes as many as 8 times during the last two weeks in Melbourne's eastern suburbs and every time when she did it, she was polite and apologised to her victims. Although she is polite, she produced a knife during the robberies and demanded the victims to hand her money and other belongings. This girl targeted pedestrians either in the early morning or evening and luckily there have been no injuries to the victims so far.


The way this girl expressed her politeness while she robbed her victims made me remember a joke about some Indonesian. There are certain people in Indonesia who are considered as very very polite. They like to smile to others and are acknowledged as being very patient, able to control their emotion and they don't like to show their anger. They are so polite that when they want to kill someone, they will ask for permission first, by saying the following sentences slowly and with a smile:

Excuse me! Do you mind if I kill you?

or

Excuse me, can I shoot you in your head, please?

Call for Papers - IAGI Conference 2006

This is the Call for Papers file of the Pekanbaru 2006 IAGI Conference. To view a bigger version of this file, click on the image. To save it into your computer, right click and save it as another file name.

Haw Wa Ya?

Whether we realise it or not, our answer to a friend who asks "how you're doing" actually shows our state of mind at that very moment. We can put as smiling face as nice as as we want, but when we say "not too bad" as the answer for "How are you?", it means we actually feel a bit bad, but just not "very bad".

Some people would just say "very good" and "good" with confident when they are happy at the time their friends ask how they are, however others may have similar answer with less confidence like: "Yeaaahhhhh.......(a slow yeah...) I am very well." (an expression of not sure about his/her own words).

One interesting thing is, there are not many people who like to tell that they are in a "bad situation", they will just say "not too bad" as their expression.

A Tragic Story of Coffin Mishandling

A member of Australian army died in Iraq recently, by a single shot wound in his head. According to the Army's initial investigation, it his death was most likely due to an 'accident', his pistol somehow was triggered and shot himself.

This man is from Gippsland, Victoria and he was only in Iraq for a month. He has a young family with two kids, and apparently he really lives to become a member of the army since his young age because he likes hunting deers.

So then his body was sent home to Melbourne and his family went to Melbourne airport to receive his body. And then this tragedy happened! The body in the coffin sent back to Melbourne was not his. This was another man, a completely different man, apparently a Bosnian contractor worker in Iraq. Somehow in Kuwait, someone mishandled or misidentified a different person and sent him back to Australia, covered by Australian flag, as an Australian soldier.

The family of the died soldier understandably went ballistic. How could it happen? His death was due to serving his country in a war, but somehow he could not even be correctly identified and sent back home after giving his precious life. It was such a terrible mistake for the grieving family. This mistake made them asking more questions about what caused the death of the soldier, which is understandable. It was indeed terrible.

Spin Doctors

Having get used to reading lots of news from the English press since a couple of years ago, especially football news, I become aware that some section of the press in this country are the best "spin doctors" in the world. Making headlines to sell papers and printing news for certain hidden agenda are normal practices for them. The most recent example is the Luis Felipe Scolari vs English Media saga.

"Big Phil" - the famous name of Felipe Scolari, Brazilian football coach who now works for Portuguese national team, was chosen by the Football Association of England to take over the England national team from Sven Goran Eriksson, after this coming Germany World Cup. Before the FA talked to Phil, the English Media have been campaigning for an English coach, at least a British coach to follow in Sven's steps. Once the news that Phil was talking seriously to the FA broke out, the FA was criticised left and right, front and back, up and down by the media, former national coach, club owner, former national player and so on - you mention it.

So, it was clear then the English Media, most of them if not all, did not like Big Phil, and later some of their journos started to find out more about this man, by parking outside his house in Portugal. Big Phil was shocked by this media attention and finally he backed off, even before he signed any offer and he quoted media pressures as the reason why he did not want to take the job.

Now, you would think the media realised they have put too much pressures to Big Phil therefore they should apologize to the FA because of their behaviour. No, they won't at all, the blame the FA instead, by accusing the FA was not doing their jobs. Fickle? Indeed! More interestingly, some section of the press mentioned Big Phil got death threat from the Portuguese fans. Blimey!

This is not the first time the English media have tried to make a headline of the FA and its national coach. A newspaper even needed to send one of their journos to act as a fake Sheikh and invited Sven, the current national coach, to Dubai to talk about a lot of confidential things about his future and the England dressing room. They spent hundred thousand of poundsterling to fund this "exclusive interview" without Sven knowing he was being interviewed.

Disclaimer:
The links provided in this article is for information purpose only, they are by no means to suggest the correponding websites/news providers are the actual spin doctors.

Bugatti Veyron

For those who do not know what the fastest and most powerful (and weirdest shape) sport car in this planet is (at the moment), please welcome: BUGATTI VEYRON 16.4

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 has 16 cylinders configured in W-shape, 8-litre engine, with 4 turbo super-chargers, giving a maximum speed of 400 km/h and 1001 horse power (HP) at 6000 RPM. It is a 7-speed transmission, and its acceleration is even faster than McLaren's F1 car, taking only 2.9 s to jet off from rest to 100 km/h, compared with 3.2 s of McLaren's. It is also an all-wheel drive car, because this is necessary to control the car during its top speed.

So how much will this car cost you if you want to buy one? Not much, if you are a billionaire! Only 800,000 poundsterlings. Oh, and this price does not include purchase tax yet. And you may want to buy a car insurance as well, just in case, someone driving a Mercedes Benz hit the back of your car.

To see more pics of Bugatti Veyron, go to Bugatti's website: http://www.bugatti-cars.de

Protest Turn Ugly & Unlucky Chinese

Violent scenes are still going in Honiara, the capital city of Solomon Islands. A protest on the result of the nation's general election turn into violence and riots broke out. Unluckily for the Chinese businessmen, their shops in the Chinatown were torn by looters and burned down. This is like the 1998 riots in Jakarta, Indonesia, where some Indonesian Chinese also had to lose their businesses because of looting, but the real reason which made the riots broke out was actually politics. This is an interesting coincident, because those who see opportunities to get free stuffs from a shop during a riot actually occur in many countries. It is not necessary that those people don't like this particular race or something, but it is purely a matter of taking an opportunity and perhaps feeling different (lower) socially & economically from the others make them think looting the riches is okay.

Good Friday "Superstitious"

The sky is always filled with dark clouds on Good Friday afternoon. It is even raining in some places. I personally have never seen a bright sunny Good Friday afternoon. If you don't believe this, make sure you remember this superstitious on the Good Friday next year and check it yourself.

Moral Dilemma

A woman, let's call her Susan, is a good friend of Jake and Lisa, Jake's partner. Susan knows that another friend's boyfriend, let's call him Bob, is chasing Lisa, and they have an affair. Susan really feels sorry for Jake, because she thinks Jake is very caring and a good father, but she has not told him anything about his cheating partner. What should Susan do in this case? Should she tell Jake about Lisa's affair? Comments are welcome!

Photos from Otway (2)

Two more photos from Otway

Photos from Otway (1)

Some photos from my recent field trip to Otway, in the western region of Victoria.

These two photos were taken at the same location but from a different angle and coverage.

Proven Oil Finder*

One of the biggest achievements of an exploration geologist who works for an oil company is if his/her proposed well strucks oil or gas zones. This achievement may not happen once in a year, perhap even only once in 5 years of your career, because circumstances make your company not able to drill many exploration wells.

Drilling an exploration well is an expensive program, it can cost a company around U$2 million to drill an offshore well in the middle of nowhere ocean, perhaps more if it is remotely located. For some companies, spending US$2 million blindly certainly is not something they want to do. They often want to rank the proposed drilling proposal and compare the possibility of success of one well againts each other and then decide in which basket they want to put their corporate money in.

To get your well proposal considered, firstly you need to convince your direct line manager and then your colleagues from other departments and later on you also have to convince your local president of the company. If you are working for a company which is controlled from abroad (let's say the headquarter is in London, while you are working in Indonesia), then you will have to give the General Manager, Vice President of Global Exploration or whatever they are, the reasons why you want your well proposal approved.

So, the bottom line is, asking for corporate money to drill an oil well is simply not easy, therefore you have to prepare everything correctly and thoroughly to get support. When my ex-colleague told me his well proposal was approved and they were preparing to drill it, I was happy for him. Few days ago, the drilling result was released, here it is:

23 March - Drilling update - Lembu Peteng

Indonesia

Premier is pleased to announce a discovery on Natuna Sea Block A in Indonesia with its operated Lembu-Peteng 1 well.

The well targeted sands in the Arang, Pasir, Intra Barat, and Upper Gabus. Log data indicates the presence of 6 gas zones, and 1 oil zone.

A test has been completed on two of the gas zones, which has yielded 8.5 mmscf/d of gas plus 580 bpd of high quality condensate. A further test of the oil zone will follow shortly.

The Lembu-Peteng discovery lies approximately 14 km to the East of the producing KH field and there are follow-up prospects on the trend.

Premier is the operator of West Natuna Block A with a 28.67% interest, and the other partners in the block are Kufpec (33.33%), Amerada Hess (23%) and Petronas (15%).

A further update will be provided on completion of testing operations.

It has been confirmed that his well has got oil and gas zones, which means he is successful in making a discovery and adding more value to the company's shares. He should be proud of his achievement regardless the size of this discovery. At least, all his thoughts and ideas leading to choosing this location for drilling have been proven correct, whether or not it is economical, it will be somebodyelse' decission. My ex-colleague now can have this "Proven Oil Finder" tag on his shoulder.

* Celebrating the success of Doddy Yuliong BA in making Lembu Peteng-1 Oil & Gas Discovery for Premier Oil Indonesia.

Direct Marketing Trick

The sweepstakes I have entered since last December when I was browsing The Guardian's website has not taken me to anywhere at all. In fact, I still have to go through a lot of "place this sticker here or there to claim your reward and all that" steps.

It started with a small ad I saw on the top right corner of The Guardian website's main page. This ad says: "Enter this sweepstakes and take this luxury car" and it showed a flash of nice car, I think it was BMW. When I saw this ad, I thought, "Wow, enter a sweepstakes and get a car! I want it!!"

I clicked the ad then, and it brought me to a form, which I had to fill in to enter the sweepstakes and, in the same time, subscribe to an internationally recognised monthly magazine. This magazine is, let's called it "RD", the Australian version magazine. I checked the price for 1 year subscription, apparently it costs less than $60/year. So I thought I would give it ago, $60 for a year, I got the magazine sent to me every month, starting January to December 2006, and got a chance to win a car. Hey, who knows if I am lucky!

Fast forward to mid January, I started to receive my magazine, and not only that, but also some other "offers" including computer softwares and books. At first, it was only "normal" offer (in the sense I was sent a catalogue). A couple weeks later, I started to receive some "certificates" asking me to affix stickers to some boxes in order to enter the sweepstakes and I got only 7 days to reply. So I must act quickly. Now, this is the interesting part, some other stickers were actually related to another offer to buy something which accompanied the sweepstakes sticker. If I affix this sticker into its place, it means I say "Yes, I want to accept this offer to buy this book, or CD or cassette or whatever". I found out this trick, so I didn't accept their offer but I did send the certificate with incomplete stickers to enter the sweepstakes.

I got another envelope this month, asking me to put other stickers onto the "certificates of guaranteed payment by the sweepstakes organiser if I am selected as the winner". Apart from this instruction, they also offer a book (it costs less than $60). At first I didn't want to accept this book offer, but if I reply with "NO" envelope, it means I am not eligible to enter the sweepstakes to get the luxury car (I can still enter the sweepstakes to get some cash). So, if I still want to get that car (which is worth $90,000), I will have to reply with a "YES" envelope, which means I have to spend another $60 only for being eligible to enter the sweepstakes (and I get a book as well). I can imagine this book offer is not the last one, which means it will cost more and more in a few months time. The trick of modern direct marketing got me this time.

Free Web Host with MySQL Database

My wish of hosting my own personal website which uses Content Management System (CMS) in a completely free web host finally became reality when I found Awardspace. This free web host gives 300 MB capacity, 5 GB bandwidth per month, 1 MySQL database, 2 domains hosting, 5 subdomains, 5 POP3/IMAP emails and much more. The set-up is instant, in no time at all, and more importantly they don't put a forced ad in our website.

The amount of diskspace and monthly traffic given are enough for those who use this webhost for their personal website, for example a web blog, but probably not for hosting a discussion forum or for those who want to put some files for others to download. Other things which can make certain people do not like it include a restriction on the maximum file size that we can upload to the web host, which is 500 KB only, and the SMTP/IMAP function which they disable so that we can receive emails but not sending. Another problem is, their MySQL database is sometimes down, due to DDOS attack (apparently).

Apart from all those problems, I have been reasonably happy with the web host, considering their system is still "Beta". Hopefully it will be getting better in the future, and the service will be kept free of charge (I wish). I have no hesitation to recommend this web host to you all. Sign up quick!

What's Inside His Mind?

What's actually inside the mind of this young man? He was speeding and then tried to escape from the police who chased him, crashed the first car, then hijacked a jeep, speeding again, run out of petrol, carjacked another van and finally shot dead or killed himself (I think it is more likely he was shot dead either by accident or intentionally by the undercover drug police).

One of the passengers inside the jeep which the young man hijacked said "he was desperate and didn't want to got to jail" but he pushed beyond the boundary so that the authorities had no other option but to shot him. It is so naive to think he could have escaped from the chase, especially when he was driving a car, which is very easy to spot from above by the police helicopter. The outcome might have been different had he been on a motorbike. I have seen how a motorbike rider could escape from a police chase, simply because the rider could get into a narrow passage between buildings (which is enough for a bike path but not a car, but this happened in Indonesia not in Australia though).

The "logical" thinking of people who committs a crime is not sensible. Take an example from the young man in the story above. Had he stopped after he got caught speeding in front of a car rental, he would not have been committing two more crimes (hijacking 2 cars and speeding) and more importantly he'd still be alive now. "Logic" says the punishment for doing 1 crime should be less than it is for 3 crimes. So, the easier option is clear.

Geopolitics of Oil & Gas

The importance of securing petroleum supply for the future is not something we can underestimate. There is certain country which have already prepared themselves to face a possibility of petroleum supply shortage by stockpiling enough crude oil for emergency situation. United States (and its coalition) even invaded Iraq in the name of saving the world for Iraq's oil (it's all about oil mate!). US do need a lot of oil because all their war machines need fuel to run and of course their industries also need oil and gas to keep their economy growing.

Other country, such as China, also try to increase the reserves of their national oil companies by investing overseas. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) once even submitted a bid to take over Unocal for US$18.5 Billions, before the US Senate blocked the deal. The Senate's decission not to approve the deal was not purely related to business but it was more of a political reason due to the fear of "potential threats to US national security". It was alleged that China wanted to dominate oil resources for the benefit of their economy and military (as if United States themselves did not think alike).

Oil and gas business is more than merely an ordinary business. It is related to supplying energy, something we really need to live, for all kind of machines we're using at the moment. Energy will always be in demand, and the trend is ever increasing never decreasing. Apart from its importance for economy, oil is important for national defence, unless a war plane can fly or a tank can run without fuel. Therefore whoever have secured oil and gas reserves for the future will be the one who determine the prices of petroleum, making a lot of money out of it, and obviously have more power politically because they can keep their war machines running. On the other hand, countries who rely too much on fossil fuel but not securing enough hydrocarbon supply for themselves will not be independent.

Using renewable energy becomes very important for many countries in the future, not only because of air pollution and climate change due to fossil fuel but for the sake of saving oil and gas mainly for their own national defence. This may be like a paranoid thought but who knows. The fact is some countries didn't mind to start war for securing oil and gas supply to their home, and they can also force other government to allow their corporation operating in a particular country by some military-related deals.

Image taken from Offshore Technology