Sweet! Last night, in front of 83,000 people, Australia's national soccer team (dubbed The Socceroos) beat Uruguay to qualify for their first World Cup appearance in 32 years. It came down to a penalty kick shootout, which are VERY nerve-wracking, but for the first time in a very long time, the team I was rooting barracking for actually won a big game.

I watched from a pub with dozen or so of the lads from my soccer team. It was crazy fun; I yelled myself hoarse. Sadly, no one did the "Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oy oy oy!" cheer there, but people on the news were doing it. There were similar celebrations across the whole country, apparently: soccer has arrived.

A while back I mentioned that "shit" or "crap" are used as adjectives here, in place of "shitty" or "crappy". As a good example, today I got emailed this joke at work (as did Marjorie):

A woman goes to the zoo, and is shocked to find that they have only one animal -- a dog.

It was a shitzu.

Last Tuesday was a holiday here in Melbourne; probably the only one in the world based on a horse race. This year, we actually went. We would've witnessed some history, had we been able to see: the horse Makybe Diva won for the third straight year, a new record. Have a look.

Quote of the day:

"In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch-phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country--hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of." -- Mark Twain

Geek alert. Watch this video clip of some white dots moving against a black background. It is extraordinary, but only if you know what you're looking at.

It's a star, whipping around the very center of our galaxy. Notice that you can't see the thing that it's whipping around. That's because it's a black hole, at the very center of our galaxy. This video clip pretty much confirms that there is a black hole at the center, which can be determined not only by the fact that you can't see it, but the speed at which the star whips by it. They estimate its mass to be about two million times that of our sun.

I had always thought that the center of the Milky Way was too dusty to see into; I don't know how they did it (though the answer seems to be "adaptive optics"). Notice the numbers on the top left; they indicate the year that each frame was taken, so you're looking at a ten-year time-lapse. And at this distance, it didn't just happen; you're looking at a star passing by a black hole about 28,000 years ago -- paleolithic times.

Think I'll go get stoned.

There was a classic commercial when I was growing up in the US, for Chevrolet. It was nothing but a theme song and a montage of scenes depicting Americana; the song went "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet", over and over. At the time, it really seemed to sum up America, and was a very popular commercial, if I remember correctly.

I'm currently working on the web site for Holden, Australia's biggest and truest car maker, in spite of their actually being part of GM. And the other night on TV they had a hour long documentary on the history of Holden, which I felt compelled to watch. They showed some early commercials, and one was almost identical to the aforementioned Chevrolet commercial. They had different words, though, to the theme song; this, apparently, was how you summed up Australia at the time: "Football, meat pies, kangaroos, and Holden cars".

So now Time Magazine gives us a list of the All-Time 100 Novels (in the English language). Of them I've read:

Catch-22

The Catcher In The Rye

A Clockwork Orange

Deliverance

The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Gatsby

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

Lord of the Flies

1984

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Slaughterhouse Five

Snow Crash

Their Eyes Were Watching God

To Kill A Mockingbird

Fourteen percent -- that's a lot better than I usually do on these sorts of lists. I also tried to read Neuromancer but couldn't take it. It's a questionable pick anyway.

Teacher's pet? My soccer team's end-of-year banquet was last night, in a natty little upstairs function room in town. Pretty fun. Lots of greasy hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and awards. I took home the coach's player of the year award (for the thirds team) which was a nice surprise.

Read this, then this.

For a while I've been keeping a list of the IMDB's Top 250 movies, and checking them off as I go. Others apparently like to do the same sort of thing, judging from this new web site. A link to the movies I've seen can be found via the new link over on the right side under the kangaroo picture.

What's the highest ranked movie you've never seen?

Three posts about the same book? Sorry, but I just finished that diary, and man, they need to make a movie about it. Since I reported last:

The remaining Jews, the guy included, received orders to appear at SS headquarters in two days times with a packed suitcase, for what everyone knew was a death march. He was one of the ones that had to go help deliver the orders.

The night before they were supposed to appear, Dresden was firebombed.

In the resulting confusion he decided to cut the Jewish star off his jacket and run for it.

He and his wife joined the throngs of refugees fleeing the city.

Through a series of close calls, phony ids, and continual near starvation, they make their way as far as Munich.

They are near Dachau when the Americans arrive, and he witnessed survivors, the walking dead, still in their blue and white striped linen.
It all reads like Hollywood. Perhaps most interesting were his reports of the reactions of the people as the war ended and they came to realize that they had been fed humongous pack of lies. Naturally, those that were clued in knew all along (including all the atrocities); on the other end of the spectrum, there were plenty who kept on believing, but of course denied involvement.

"Mo"vember. A bunch of guys at work are planning on using the month of November to grow mustaches. They're calling it "Mo"vember. There'll be judging at the end of the month; I don't know what the prize is, but I thought about participating. Marjorie thinks it would be hilarious if I did.

I think it would be funny, but I like my jokes to last somewhat less long than a month. I don't see it happening.

More Aussie-isms.

To rock up: to show up, especially at a social event. "You all go on to the pub; I'll rock up in a half hour or so."

To shit: to bother. "That new guy may be smart, but he really shits me."

Ye: you (plural). Actually, I think this is an Irishism. "You can work on this by yourself, or the two of ye can finish it together."

Upon noticing my Irish coworker using this last one, I told her the similar rule used in the Southern US: "y'all" is singular, "all y'all" is plural. She got a big kick out of that.

Sufficient density. It used to be that you could know pretty much everything about computers, but not any more -- not by a long shot. (The same could be said of mathematics, physics, or several other fields.) In the IT business, you really have to pick and choose what you learn. There's always a buzz of new ideas, which is what makes it such a fun field, but which ideas are worthwhile, and which are a waste of time? Some people just seem to try out everything that sounds cool, and revel in that approach, but not me. I have to wait until I hear a thing mentioned in enough places before my interest is piqued.

Which is a long way of explaining that I've set up a list of my favorite links on del.icio.us. I'm a little dubious that a site for publicly listing your favorite links will have the broad social implications that some people are predicting for it. But it's reached sufficient density to at least appear on my radar. And at least I'll get to access my hot links from anywhere. So what, beeg deal.

Snobservation. A sure sign of mediocrity in a restaurant: do they use iceberg lettuce in anything?

I'm With Stupid! I had Marjorie look over one of my chapter submissions for the book I'm contributing to. Among other things, she pointed out that in one place I used the word "stupider" instead of "more stupid".

thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou...

The book I'll be contributing to is called "Mind Performance Hacks: Tips and Tricks for Becoming a Better Thinker". It has chapters on memory, math, creativity, clarity, decision making, info processing, communication, mental fitness, and "metaprogramming". My chapters fall under math and communication, but I'll leave the specifics for a later date. I think it has the potential to do very well; I find this sort of thing discussed a lot out on the web, and an earlier O'Reilly book on a similar subject was quite popular. I've seen the proofs, and there's some choice stuff in there. Due out in January. Exciting!

It's already listed on Amazon, Powell's, and Barnes and Noble (under the wrong title).

Years ago, after picking up Mary Chesnut's Civil War diary on a whim, I resolved to read a lot more historic diaries. It has to be THE best way to learn history; even though it's from a single point of view, you still get all the little details that make it real.

I went on to pick up I Will Bear Witness, the first half (1933-1941) of a diary by a Jewish professor of literature living in World War II Nazi Germany. It's amazing, but I never picked up the second half (To The Bitter End, 1942-1945) because the book company was only selling it in hard cover at the time (dirty trick!).

Just recently I managed to procure a copy of the complete diaries ("The Klemperer Diaries") through our library system. It is just an astounding read. The author was Jewish by heritage only; he was actually a Protestant, and had an Aryan wife (which undoubtedly saved his life). Still, as the war presses on, he is increasingly deprived of everything; his academic title, his home, his typewriter, his savings... I'm up to 1942, and was nearly in tears on the tram today as I read about them putting down their much-loved cat before it could be rounded up according to a new decree. This was followed immediately by the Gestapo's first raid of their house. By Klemperer's account, they got off "easy" -- he was visiting a friend; his wife got slapped and called "a Jew's whore". They of course ransacked the place and stole a number of provisions, there being severe shortages at the time. They also ground up some garlic they found and hid it around the house, just so their home would stink.

He's 60 years old and had angina, but still was ordered to work with a road crew shoveling snow -- and was the youngest on the crew. Hard to believe there are still another three years of this to read about; he is continually so close to death; not just from his physical condition, but from the whims of the Gestapo.

Hunt this one down, and give it a read. Utterly captivating.

Read any good historic diaries?

Marjorie's birthday wrapped up with the chocolate indulgence high tea at the Windsor. With me, it's class all the way, see?

This being Marjorie's birthday weekend, we rented a car and drove up to Daylesford/Hepburn Springs for some west and welaxation. I've recently resolved to try all the various different types of spa and massage treatments that exist, so this time I got coated in mud and cocooned in a blanket, while getting a head massage. Very nice! Marjorie opted to get her feet done.

Along the way we saw our first two wild kangaroos -- alas, roadkill. But while waiting for our spa treatments, we walked a little ways up a nature trail. After spotting some Jacky Winters, a superb fairy-wren, and several crimson rosellas, Marjorie spotted a small kangaroo peering at us from the top of a rise fifty metres away. Our first!