The Romantic Comedy ... (for men)

As you'll know the World Cup is currently being held in South Africa ...  and one thing I've often thought is that sport could well be described as a romantic (perhaps tragic) comedy for men ...  reading this, it seems I'm not the only...

And, in terms of the on field action ... I couldn't be happier with how the All Whites went, three draws is a respectable performance.  Australia did okay, I think the most dissappointing thing was the way they played during their loss to Germany, it was almost as if they weren't giving it a go.  It doesn't do Auatralia (or England) much credit when they blame the referee for their results. The ref doesn't ruin the game with his decisions, its what makes sport, sport. I'm not so keen on goal-line technology (or video replays) - leave the decisions to those on the field..

As for a winner ..  I'd say now its pretty close between Argentina and Brazil, but we'll see, as it has been a tournament of shocks.

June shorts ...

I've been watching the Football World Cup. Been quite an exciting ride so far with a few of the big names not getting out of the group stages, and New Zealand's performance (two draws, against Slovakia and Italy) has been great. It was funny to find out that if both Italy (v Slovakia), and New Zealand (v Paraguay),  have identical draws (ie 1-1); the team to progress into the second round will be decided by the toss of a coin~! (Not that this will actually happen mind you).

Its been quite an interesting with the media circus around that Australian team; the implosion of both the French and English teams. (I'm thinking the favourites to win would be Brazil, Argentina and maybe the Netherlands). Here's who could qualify for the second round .

I just bought a DVD of U2's concert from Pasadena last year ... I've literally just got to fourth song, but its been quite impressive so far ... the stage is amazing. Tthe new songs have grown on me too. Will write more on this once I've seen the full concert. 

I've also been able to read a couple of Neil Gaiman's books (Stardust and Coraline), both of which I really loved; and I also read Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell) which I found a little tough going in places, but worth it ...  just started The City and The City (by China Melville)

In Brief ...

on the soccer .. so the socceroos went down 4-0 this morning. Sure its a touch dissappointing, yet the Aussies are exactly where we expected them to be. The Germans are not one of the best in the world for no reason, and there performance this morning was awesome. Will be interesting to see how the Kiwi's go.

Via NPR, I've been listening to a few performances from Bonnaroo. So far I've heard Tori Amos and Mumford and Sons, which have both been great. Look forward to seeing what else is there.

Also am interested in reading the new book by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen - Worse than War (on Genocide). (Here's more about the book).

To finish, here's an article on Facebook and its impact on young people.

Christian music on the radio

Was intrigued by the fact that: "forty-eight of the top 50 Christian songs in the last decade were by males, a figure primarily determined by women who listen to Christian radio. Why don't they want to hear their female peers on the air?".

Weekend recap

Been a great weekend, after a wet week we made the most of our Saturday and spent the day in the Blue Mountains. On the agenda was a little walk to the Bridal Veil Falls at Blackheath, and just a little
bit of window-shopping. Today, I went to the special Survive Past Five service at Barneys which aimed to celebrate, raise awareness and pray for mothers and children particularly those around the world whose expectations are vastly different to ours. It was a really challenging morning. Read more about the Millennium Development Goals here; and here.

Since then, I've just been watching the Swan's win against the Bombers (quite an exciting game -19 lead changes), and catching up on a bit of reading. Here's a couple of pieces which have been sitting on my web-browser for a while. In the first of these David Brooks writes about the limit of policy, given cultural differences. The second is about umpires and "errors". I'm all for keeping the human element in sport; and not going down the path of replays for everything. With the World Cup now only 6 days away - here's a piece on the experience many in Australia will have, over the next month or so.

Petro Georgiou's Valedictory speech

I have been impressed with Petro Georgiou, the Liberal member for Kooyong, particularly how the took on the rights of refugees during the final years of Howard's Government. Unfortunately he is not standing this
year, but his final speech is great reading. (Here's how the SMH reported it).

On Coffee

So it seems, my morning coffee may not have the effect I think it does ...