A weekend of losing

I pasionately follow only a few sporting teams. There is North Melbourne (I shall always call them that) in the AFL and West Ham United in English soccer. This weekend has not been a good one for either of them.
I stayed up till after 3am to watch the F.A. Cup final and see the Irons lose a game they should have won. And to lose to Liverpool. Surely they have won enough trophies and don't need another. If that's not all, my car decided to break down on the way home from watching the game. Driving a car that splutters and coughs and can only manage a top speed of 20 km/h up Punt Rd does not win admiration from other drivers. Yet some drivers are so stupid. I pull aside to let them pass yet some decide to follow me as I pull over, and then abuse me for doing so. You can't win.
Then I had to sit through an insipid performance from a so called football side that is supposed to have pride. I don't know which dictionary they use, but thier definition of pride doesn't match any I've seen. What a crap day at the footy.

A couple of things

1) I'm reading a Christopher Brookmyre book at the moment and the following quote struck a chord with me:

"You see, the greatest skill of intelligence is to sit quite and let everyone else talk."

I think I'll have to use that in my classroom.

2) Check out this Japanese magician. His name is Cyril and he does some fantastic tricks. I discovered this on youtube.com (via The Amazing Randi). Heaps of good stuff on this site. Maybe you have been there before and I'm just a bit behind the times.

3) There is no 3).

Quiz time

After reading e's blog, I went searching for a quiz that would suit me.
I found "Am I Angry?".

My result was:
You get bent out of shape pretty easily, but it's usually justified ....... especially when you consider how bad most people suck.

I could agree with that.

Tick, tick, ticking in my head....

45's spinning in my head

"No time, tryin' to get a watch repaired
No time, never got a thing to wear
Hear the ringing of the telephone, oh no
Hear it ringing in my head now"

"I'm here alone on the telephone line
I'm right where you want me to be
And I'll wait alone and never ask why
I'll be where you want me to be"

"In another life
You’re always the hero
In another life
You always win the game
In another life
No one ever cheats you
In another life
You never have to change"

"Sometimes I try to do things and it just doesn't work out the way I wanted to.
I get real frustrated and I try hard to do it and I take my time and it doesn't work out the way I wanted to.
It's like I concentrate real hard and it doesn't work out
Everything I do and everything I try never turns out
It's like I need time to figure these things out"

Now the games are over....

Now that the Commonwealth Games are over, I can rant about the security that was in place. I think that the security was completely useless and that it was only put in place to make the masses feel like something was being done. Here are two ways in which the security system was shown to be faulty.

Case 1
On the night of the opening ceremony, the Australian team was told to meet at the village at 4pm. One of the competitors, a female mountain biker, heard that the team would not be marching into the MCG till 10.30pm that night. Since she wasn't staying at the village, she decide to ride her bike to Vodaphone Arena (where the team would be just before marching in) later that night. The competitor arrived and notice that there was security everywhere, including walk-through metal detectors. As the competitor neared the security entrance, one of the guards noticed that it was an Australian athlete and proceeded to let her in without going through the security procedure. So all you would have to have done to walk into the MCG was wear a Trinity Grammar blazer and rock up to Vodaphone arena. You are an Australian athlete so therefore you must be OK. Enter Vodaphone arena and do your business.

Case 2
I went to a few nights of the athletics at the MCG which was surrounded by fences and checkpoints. You had to pass through the checkpoint which consisted of a walk-through metal detector and security searching your bags. This system was flawed and I'll describe how you could have smuggled in explosives and a detonator.
Step 1: Strap plastic explosives around your waist.
Step 2: Modify your mobile phone so that it contains the detonator. Use a phone that is at least a few years old, like a chunky old nokia.
Step 3: Wear a t-shirt and have your tracksuit top tied around your waist to cover the bulge.
Step 4: As you walk towards the metal detector, place your mobile phone, wallet and keys in the cardboard container provided and hand it to the security guard.
Step 5: The security will ask people to remove their tracksuit top from off their waist and hand it to be check. Little girls standing in front of you will. Just look as if that is going to be a hassle and then they will just ask you if you have anything in the top. Reply you don't.
Step 6: The container that was handed to the guard will be given a cursory look and then passed around (not through) the metal detector.
Step 7: Step through the metal detector. It won't go off since you don't have metal on you.
Step 8: Collect your phone, keys and wallet and move on.
Step 9: Go to a toilet inside the MCG and assemble your device.

This is how I walked in one day (except for steps 1,2 and 9).

Security is only as good as its weakest point. The above two cases show, in my opinion, that the whole exercise was a waste of time.