spikeda

Small tidbit from the end of an AP article about Qantas being fined in Canada for price fixing of freight charges:

A spokeswoman for their Competition Bureau (the equivalent of our ACCC), "[Melanie] Aitken said in the news release that competition enforcement is the bureau's top priority."

Perhaps would have sounded better with a direct quote from Ms Aitken via the release - but as written, I think "well, you would certainly HOPE it was their top priority"... after all, that is the main part of their remit!

Barry Hall quits the Sydney Swans, although not football in general. Hall was in the middle of a two-match suspension for a jab on Adelaide's Ben Rutten - incidentally, his 250th premiership match; 162 of those for the Swans.

Far from the heady days of those "Barry Hall Hall" ads selling Australian Football to the Harbour City, the Swans' no.1 has been a bit of an endangered beast. After the loss to the Crows, coach Paul Roos questioned whether he really wanted to keep playing football, having been outed for a total of ten matches by the tribunal since the start of 2008. Hall hasn't ruled out playing on in 2010, and the Western Bulldogs are already highly favoured to pick him up next year if he does (interesting storyline, but can't help it being a tad premature).

(Question: does this mean that any team who picks him up, if any, still has to sit him out for one premiership match next year? Or will the circumstances mean that they can start him from round 1?)

I think that Hall still had some use for the Swans - I reckon more in a half-forward role than up front; a lot of the moments etched in my mind this year were of him playing up the field and laying a good tackle on an unsuspecting player. However, I think Sydney would have eventually been forced to make a stand about his continuing poor disciplinary record, much like what saw now-retired Nick Davis stood down to the Reserves a couple years back.

Whether he'll be missed up forward? From a footy perspective, I'm a bit unsure. Certainly, Hall's departure will be the forward line's loss, no doubt; compounded by Micky O's retirement at the end of this year. But between the number of free kicks typically given away (although not so much of late) and my feelings that the half-forwards tend to see more options to enter the 50m arc without Hall there, I don't know whether it'll be as bad as it seems. Certainly, the Swans have more pressing issues, like their midfield, to attend to. Can't get goals if you're unable or unwilling to get it into your forward 50.

Your unquestionably short fuse at times may have been frustrating to watch, but at the same time, you've contributed a lot since moving up from Melbourne and your time as a Saint. All the best, Baz.

Update 3pm There's a bit of confusion as to whether he's just going to be quitting the Swans, or footy in general. The first reports supported the former, and the Swans' official news report was vague; however a report from Sportal quotes him as walking away from the game, and him thanking Stan Alves (then-St Kilda coach) for his start in the AFL. Hmm... maybe it is it for the big man. A farewell will be organised by the Swans before the Essendon match this Saturday, it looks like.

Yup. For a while there, I weighed more than that bald-headed Simpson dude. Even when adjusted for height - at 6' and roughly 108kg, Homer's BMI of 32 would only be pushing slightly into the official 'obese' range. :P

But enough of yellow cartoon characters.

My mass starts with a '10' again, finally. :D That's at least one three-kilo sack of oranges gone from my peak (remember the old Jenny Craig commercials?), maybe two.

Still a long way to go - I'd love to drop another three of them by year's end, which'd remove the build-up that started since I moved back home - once and for all, I hope.

I always liked that slogan, introduced around the time of the 2000 Olympics. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great era for CityRail, where it was more like "Keep on derailing". o.o Thankfully, since the Waterfall tragedy six years ago, there haven't been too many to speak of.

Anyway. Their new timetable was released yesterday, to be effective from October.

Since his place of employ is a fair way out of the Sydney CBD, this shark has at least three route options to get to work - none of which involve a single, direct train. So it takes me quite a while to work out that I feel decidedly screwed in the mornings - although the afternoons have been improved quite a bit.

There is also the add complication, this time around, of the location of Spikeda "Permanent HQ" - I'll likely be moving barely three months after the new trip times start. Same line, but a few stations further down. This adds about 15 minutes to my trip - plus, not all trains go that far. Seeing the current trip home bores me to death, I wonder whether I'll go so insane that I'll need to get a laptop or something to keep me entertained along the way. Mobile phone won't be enough for that distance.

The main pain for me will be the changes to the East Hills line - which is not really that anymore, now the short-running trains terminate at Revesby. It'll improve reliability, but adds two stops to most of my trips. Bugger. In a couple of years though, there's hope that the extra tracks they're building now will take as much as 5-10 minutes off my trip, particularly if our trains start skipping the airport - probably the most mind-numbing part of the evening commute. That'll be awesome.

I include the local Christian music station (Hope 103.2) in my complete radio-listening breakfast. Not for the messages (I am more-or-less an atheist in belief, but I'm probably more described as "apathetic"), but because that genre's music is very easy on my ears.

One thing about the teachings of Christianity - as they likely are in most religions with a "supreme being" - that I'm reminded of by a lot of the songs is that as God is said supreme being, thus He is "with you" wherever you are, whether you're feeling up or down, and whatnot.

I know to many, this is a very comforting feeling when they have no-one else in this world to turn to, and I understand how important this is to them - I'm not knocking this. But I'm sorry, but if He were a real person, doesn't it sound like the type of person that you'd eventually want to place a restraining order against? o.o

First frosts of the season from what I can recall. First time I remember my car window iced up in the morning, too.

Looks as though winter's well and truly arrived.

I felt so inspired of the photos from Europe (as crappy as they were), that I realised that I still had plenty of photos from my trip to Perth a couple of months back; about 400 of them in fact. First decent set of photos taken with my new camera, too.

If the juice still left in the batteries survive that amount of downloading, I might be able to add them to said screen saver.

Will you guys see them? Probably unlikely, I'd have to look at what facilities abound for that sort of thing - I wouldn't be surprised if I simply posted them to my site rather than use something like PhotoBucket, Flickr or Picasa. I'd more than likely post them under my real name if anything (ooh-er) so I could show parents and relatives too.

Postscripted thought: I said to gargami a few days ago that I wondered how people could need more than, say, a 120-160 GB hard disc without either doing something with video (editing or the like), or doing something illegal - I've never been able to use more than 80 GB without feeling an urge to clean up. With my new camera being a 10-megapixel camera compared to my old one's 4Mpx, my Perth photos took up 2.45 GB of space. Although my combined (eventually) 750 GB HDD space is probably still too much, perhaps I should stand corrected on this one...?

Round 14, SCG, crowd barely half full with 22k.

I shan't be singing the club song today - I suspect we only won because the Kangaroos aren't any better than us. I swear they need to learn to hit their mark - so many kicks were far off the chest, or they were on the chest but were hopelessly butterfingered. Seriously, it would help for them to take a good hard look at the midfield, because there doesn't seem to be much happening between the 50s.

If we play like that next week against Essendon (also here, but on a Saturday afternoon - rare), we're going to be oh-so-creamed. 8D

For a while there, I had turned my screen saver back on, and just watched it showing me photos I'd taken while on my European trip last year, with Sky-FM's New Age stream going on in the background.

Certainly relaxing, just sitting there and watching memories float by.

And poignant, since I'd finally bought a frame for our tour's group photo from Firenze (Florence), Italy - almost a year from the time the photo was taken.

How are your weekends going?

Took a peek at the Air New Zealand videos that everyone's talking about recently, where they've done an ad wearing only body paint. Perhaps more interesting is that they also did a safety demonstration on the theme - entitled the "Bare Essentials of Safety" - which is beginning to screen on the kiwi flagship airline's domestic 737 flights.

The campaign centres around their claim their fares have "nothing to hide" - I presume, a campaign targeted at Qantas' low-cost carrier Jetstar, who replaced their parent over there a few weeks ago. (Jetstar effectively charges for baggage by offering "Light" fares for AU$10/NZ$10 less. Air NZ offers 25kg standard on domestic; Qantas offered similar.) They previously did a bunch of satirical ads re: the extra charges using a fictional "SaverJet" airline [warning: eye-gouging PINK alert!] in the lead-up to Jetstar's domestic entry - an angle which certainly had the ability to backfire if they're not careful.

But about the, ahem, catchy videos from across the ditch - which has made YouTube's top-50 of all-time viewed videos from NZ (and above those of Tourism NZ!). I don't know how their safety demonstrations were like before this new one, but I must say it certainly got my attention. Not because of the naked-sans-paint bodies, but with the fast pace and reasonable amount of wit. Of course, frequent travellers will duly ignore it after a while. But that was the first time I'd experienced the video on Air NZ domestic, I'd certainly take notice the first couple of times. :-)

I'd be lying if I said I didn't experience come-downs in emotion after my interstate trips. Especially those to Adelaide, where I have a couple of my better friends. Even my parents make that comment every once in a while.

So, yeah, just feeling a little strange this morning. Certainly sad-ish; almost tearing up due to lack of sleep. (Last time I take the 6:50pm plane home from ADL...) A little bit disinterested with some of my online things right now - but I'll try not to make any brash decisions on that. I'm certainly not in a rush to blank LJ - that'd probably be the last thing I'd get rid of.

Hoping I don't end up taking this out on my work colleagues. That'd be the worst possible scenario today.

(Added quote marks to title. It's an in-joke of sorts.)

So tonight, star recruit Jim Waley presents Sky News' National News for the first time.

What struck me as odd was the 6pm (AEST) timeslot. With Sky News Australia (SNA) being part-owned by the Seven and Nine networks, the 6pm slot has usually been taboo for SNA. Why? Well, Seven News and Nine News are on at 6pm. Why siphon off viewers, and in turn ratings points?
( Read more... )

AAMI Stadium, round 13. Crowd 38k.

Well, I would say it's close to the point where I'll be finding something else to do in September. There were some good signs early for the Swans, with a three-goal lead by half-time, but as usual they spent one quarter stuck in a heap - six goals to one or two to the Crows' good.
( Read more... )

Michael Jackson reportedly dead from heart attack at age 50, according to reports from celeb goss site TMZ. The claims are that he was pulseless when paramedics arrived, and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving in hospital.

With the news only breaking an hour and a half ago, I wonder whether this is why LiveJournal was temporarily overloaded this morning.

I guess the first thing I thought was: how old was he? At 50, I guess there's an off-chance that a cardiac arrest would happen to anyone that age. Not that you could really tell by the looks of him really.

I'm sure he'll be missed by many. I guess I'll probably remember him for his 80s stuff more than anything. Can't say I was particularly enamoured by his later music, let alone his abject weirdness in more recent years. In a way you could see this as a little sad, having had such a tortured soul in the living years.

If confirmed, I suspect this will also overshadow the other celeb death this morning, that of 62-year-old Farrah Fawcett. Ms Fawcett had apparently been battling rectal cancer for three years, but reports were coming in by last night our time that she had been given the last rites. She reportedly died at about 2:30am Sydney time.

Update 10am Jackson's death now confirmed by a spokesperson for Los Angeles' coroner.

There were also unconfirmed reports that Jeff Goldblum had fallen to his death in New Zealand, which would have fulfilled the "bad things come in threes" story. NZ Police say "There is no such incident and police have no information to provide".

Perhaps the other interesting thing for me - in an environment still awash with "Ute-gate" - happened in Melbourne this morning. The "franchises" for the operation of Melbourne's train and tram services, introduced as part of the Kennett Liberal government's privatisation of said forms of public transport, were up for re-tendering after ten years of operation. The incumbents, Connex and Yarra Trams, were both knocked back as "preferred" tenderers to operate the services for the next 8 to 15 years.

The premier, Labor's John Brumby, announced that trams will go to Keolis-Downer EDI - the former [warning: flash and music alert] majority owned by a private-equity partnership involving the French national railway, the latter well known in Sydney with their train building and maintenance. The winning bid for the trains, the Metro Trains Melbourne consortium, include Hong Kong's MTR, as well as infrastructure-co John Holland and train-builder United Group. The new contracts start in December, allowing for a six-month changeover period.
( Read more... )

Just reading David Pemberthy's 'sidebar' op-ed in yesterday's Daily Telegraph, about the supposed lack of 'true' passion of Swans fans. (Mr Pemberthy used to be editor of the Tele; now heads up News Ltd's grotesque opinionation site The Punch.)

The charge is that we are a city of those who drape themselves in red-and-white... but when put to the crunch in hard times, they shrug their shoulders and say 'aw well, they tried their best, there's always next week/year', instead of, as Mr Pemberthy puts it, '...feeling as if there'd been a death in the family' the next morning, when it sinks in. Like how the Swans will likely miss their finals in eight - likely to be all but confirmed if they go down to the Crows on Saturday, like my head believes - and the only red and white to be seen will also involve St Kilda black.
( Read more... )

Speaking of lotteries, there's been strange scenes in the New South Wales Parliament's Legislative Council the past couple of days.

Last night, there was supposed to be a vote on the privatisation of NSW Lotteries - perhaps in the same fashion that saw the management of Queensland's Golden Casket sold to Tattersall's. The opposition's opposed the vote; they want the Rees Labor government to wait 12 months for an economic recovery to get a better price. After all the other minor parties declared their hand, it was likely to come down to the two votes from the Shooter's Party - who were only willing to give it support if Labor supported their legislation (unlikely).

So the government - represented at this point by one minister, Tony Kelly, in the chamber - obviously didn't have the numbers to get it to pass. So he tried to put a motion to adjourn the Upper House until the next session, due to start on 1 September, to defer the vote on Lotteries. The Council was previously expected to still meet today, and was likely to defeat the attempt to cancel the final day's sitting.

It's what happened next that's astounding the media: after putting the motion to adjourn, Mr Kelly immediately walked out of the chamber, leaving the executive government unrepresented in the Legislative Council. This forced president Peter Primrose to suspend business at 12:37am.

Now, the NSW parliament's procedure states that, having not actually been adjourned, the members are subject to recall via a "long bell". However, that recall is not expected until, well, 1 September. (Something now confirmed by the LC's site.) Opposition and cross-bench members reportedly arrived at the upper house in protest at 11am, only to find the doors locked.

Quite amazing, isn't it? A strange quirk of parliament: since the sitting day is not technically complete, when they return on 1 September, it'll actually still be 24 June. Go figure.

The Labor state government has been accused plenty of times of trying to strangle parliament, mainly through chopping down the number of sitting days. I'm sure they're not the first since the 1820's to do this, but it's believed that this is a rather unique situation.

And this is why they call it a "hung parliament". It's pretty much dead now.

It seems Irish-based Setanta Sports' days are numbered - and indeed, in Great Britain, their number just came up. Setanta's Great Britain arm called in the administrators and went off air, early this morning our time, barely hours after they lost the rights to their already-small slice of English Premier League matches to ESPN (News Corp's Sky Sports own the balance of the rights) - it having been cancelled at the end of 2008/9 following a missed payment to the EPL of £10 million (AU$20.6 million). They had also lost the rights to the Scottish premiership after this year after also missing payments there, reported to be £3 million (AU$6.2 million).

Generally wouldn't be a huge story here - both the Irish [including Northern Ireland] and Australian arms continue to trade, for now, until a buyer is found. The demand for Setanta hasn't been great here either - with Fox Sports holding all the rights to EPL locally, the biggest attraction Setanta has had of late was the rights to UEFA's Euro 2008 championship. (Incidentally, Setanta AU claims that its local rights agreement with the Scottish league is unaffected by the GB arm's loss of rights; same with the North American operation and the EPL.)

However it's caught the NRL in a spot of bother, since Setanta also held the rights to Australian rugby league in the UK - meaning its untimely demise will result in State of Origin II not being shown on British TV. It's unlikely the NRL will get alternative TV coverage in time - it's only eight hours away - suggesting they watch the replay on Bigpond instead.

I suspect it won't end up being as much an uproar as if they'd gone bust with the rights during (association) football season, but still. I can imagine the north of England, along with a lot of the Aussie ex-pats still interested in the New South Wales/Queensland rivalry in the six-tackle game, being more than a little irate about the situation.

Aside from the lotto stories, yesterday the Swans announced that Michael O'Loughlin will be retiring at the end of the season. Barring injuries or suspensions, he'll play his 300th game in Round 19, at the MCG against Richmond, and his 303rd and last against Brisbane at the SCG - assuming a finish out of the finals. His ankle hasn't recovered as well as he'd like it to have been to continue in 2010 (after an operation last off-season), and that ultimately contributed to his decision.

Although I always held an interest in the AFL, I jumped on the Swans bandwagon roughly the time "Magic" started (1995), having being picked up from Centrals in the SANFL. The year 1995 also being when big-boot Tony Lockett was lured from the Saints; the following year Rodney Eade took over the coach's role (he now coaches the Bulldogs) and took them to the Grand Final. For the most part he's been the consummate performer over his 15 seasons, and to see him no longer fill the #19 guernsey next year will be... different. All the best to him in his life after footy; he's certainly done us proud.

Also, I'd love to add the Swans account to my Twitter followings (they've added me, which for what is seemingly spam I don't mind in this case) but the live game score updates would absolutely flood my home page. RSS of their news feed will do for now.

Well, I rolled over my winnings from Saturday into the work syndicate for the $50 million Oz Lotto draw tonight.

The bad news: 374 games and $450 of syndicate, only one lousy division 7 ($12.90). Ah well, can't win 'em all.

The "good" news (I guess): the jackpot didn't go off. D: NSW Lotteries has placed "$60 million" on their site tonight as the jackpot for the 30 June draw. However, with the number of entries pushing Oz close to that amount already (Division One was eventually declared as $59.2 million), the eventual advertised amount won't be announced by Tattersall's - who run Oz Lotto - until a meeting in Melbourne tomorrow. I suspect that $70 million may be closer to the mark. (I guess agents will be promoting the upcoming $10 million Powerball instead until then.)

Expect the rush for THAT to be even larger than this week, where Tatts estimated 1-in-5 adult Victorians held a ticket. And on the quite unlikely chance next week's draw doesn't go off... could we be seeing Australia's first nine-figure lotto jackpot? If it jackpots again, $100 million could be quite possible on 7 July with the demand...

Edit 9am Tuesday: Fairfax press stating a total of $87 million (at $1/game) was splurged - for no div-1 result. Ouch. Jackpot still "to be advised" (including on NSW Lotteries' site now), although Tatts said $60 million was going to be the next step. Those plans are stuffed now. :P

Edit 1pm Tuesday: saw at local newsagency in last hour, and NSW Lotteries site now confirms: $90 million jackpot next week. Holy shit.