2009 Grand Final Week Predictions

One hundred and eighty four games later and only two teams remain. Melbourne is a buzz with Grand Final week and talk back radio and news print is rifle with predictions of who will take out Season 2009’s grand prize.

I have to admit I'm a little surprised by the swing in favouritism for the flag from arguably the best team all year (St Kilda) to arguably the best team in the last three years (Geelong). In a final series that for the first time unfolded by the numbers, with each highest placed team defeating its opposition I’m not ready to rule out the Saints.

Statistically the Saints sport the best defence ever assembled in the history of the game only conceding a measly 1411 points during the season proper. That is a staggering 67 goals less than their grand final opposition. In addition no team has failed to win the premiership after winning the first 19 games of the season.

While statistics are interesting for analysis after the fact they give us little insight into what will actually happen. The real reason I favour the Saints is a combination of the amount of pressure they place on opposition teams collectively in partnership with their twin towers forward line.

Nick Revolt has had a sensational year and more importantly for any remaining naysayers a magical finals series. I still recall back in the early naughts when St Kilda was still rebuilding, a young blonde headed kid popping up to slot seven goal s over a then far superior Essendon outfit. In that particular match it was to no avail as the Dons easily accounted for the Saints but the warning signs that this kid could play where clear.

Premiers: The Saints by 12 points in an epic contest, the Cats to suffer from inaccuracy once again.

Norm Smith: Nick Revolt for a bag of three plus goals and an incredible last half work rate.

Brownlow Medallist: Leigh Montanga for a breakout season.

Brownlow Medallist Smoky: Mitch Clarke for an outstanding season as Brisbane #1 ruck ...

Coffee musings by the number

An acute reader would recall that I recently delved into the world of coffee having avoided it for most of my life. An innocently observed tweet of this brave new world and a friend called me up on my musing and - reading between the lines - threw down the electronic gauntlet.

So without further ado, here are my first official coffee musings:

#101: If it's gone cold but only a mouthful remains, don't do it, it's not worth it, throw it out!

#102: I'm quickly learning that the last cold mouthful of coffee in the morning is a necessary evil.

#103: There is coffee, and there is 'good' coffee

#104: A good Barista and good Coffee makes a nice Cuppa, can't have one without the other.

and as an added bonus ...

#105: Always treat the coffee cup lid with respect, a catastrophic failure is only ever an absent minded sip away.

To the argumentative among us I'm sure you're thinking that #101 and #102 are in direct contradiction. Whilst I concede this point I can only record my journey and I'm confident having shared the culture for as little as a handful of weeks you have to agree. That first cold mouthful seems like the worst decision ever yet come the next time when that last mouthful remains you take the same regrettable mistake ...

fun-ote 03

Marriage means commitment ... but then again so does insanity.

I got this from the an Australian forum, it was the post signature of The_Hawk and made me laugh

The Mac Way

There has been some media buzz in the Operating System space recently with consistent opinions and experiences of Windows 7 and the seventh release of Mac OS X making headlines. Version 10.6 or more commonly Snow Leopard has been seen by many as a service pack to the previous version and Apple have unofficially conceded this with a more than generous $AU39.00 price tag.

I personally got on board the Mac bandwagon in mid to late 2007 and while I technically received a copy of 10.4 (Tiger) with my iMac I took advantage of an upgrade offer on 10.5 (Leopard) and don't consider myself to have ever really used OS X 10.4 (Tiger). Almost two years on I'm very happy with the Mac OS X and recently performed my first clean system update. As a hands on technical type I followed the advice of fellow Apple geeks and instead of performing a simple wizard style clicking exercise I orchestrated a fresh Operating System install.

In a Windows based world the idea of installing the newer version over the older version is almost non existent so the typical upgrade path is to always perform a fresh copy. You typically copy all the files you think you'll need on to a spare HDD or neighbouring networked computer. You then proceed to format the drive and install the new OS. You then hunt down all the drivers you need for your hardware to work with the new OS along with regular software packages and finally copy back all the files from the spare HDD or locally networked computer. It's a long boring process and you are typically still changing default system setting to your own preferences weeks after the upgrade.

The Mac way takes the Windows way places a large piece of "get the hell out of here" down its throat and mercifully detonates it. While the full blown nerd way still comprises of formatting the drive and installing a fresh version of the new Operating System its the availability and simplicity of both third party and integrated tools that make the data migration process faultless. I'll concede that the process I followed was time consuming and tedious but I credit this to a fear of the unknown than to a problem with the process.

Outside of making a Time Machine backup (Apples own data recovery utility) I also made a separate bit for bit copy of my Mac's HDD on a bootable external HDD. Once complete I tested it by independently booting my system from this drive, seeing the exact files, application and preferences in action. Just for fun I even loaded it from my wife's Macbook Pro and it didn't even display a shadow of a complaint despite the underlying hardware and monitor resolution changing. I imagine Windows would have had a brain explosion at that point.

Once I had a working backup of my Mac; along with a secondary backup via Time Machine, I carried out the usual step of formatting and Installing the new OS. Now for the real magic once my install had completed I then used Mac's own Data Migration tool to start copying all the user settings and user data from my backup. In the end my old wall paper and all my system preferences where just as I'd left them. I was given the option to copy over applications but opted out of this preferring to install them fresh.

Brillant …

The Soloist

On my recent trip to Adelaide I was left with the better part of a full day to entertain myself, with limited resources I decided that a trip to the cinema was as good a solution to kill a couple of hours as any.

Besides bumping into Cale Hooker, Tayte Pears and Tom Bellchambers in the Cinema Foyer and yelling out encouragement for the then pending Footy final. I found myself in the next most interesting scheduled session. With little to pick from and having already seen District 9 and expecting to see some of the other candidates with my wife I settled on 'The Soloist'

The irony isn't lost on me that I found myself watching the Soloist alone. For the most part I've no issues with checking out a movie, event or even an interstate football final solo. There is a remarkable amount of freedom when you only has to consider their own whims and fancies and not require a general consensus before deciding on a course of action. Interestingly the movie did touch on some of these emotions which induced a little self reflection

Nevertheless I digress. The Soloist isn't my usual cinematic genre but given my selection criteria my expectations where non existent. Brilliant performances by Iron Man err … Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx made this a very compelling Drama that did captivate me at times. The dramatic undertones and serious characters did feel like attempts at getting nominated for the upcoming cinematic award season. As professional actors its in their best interest to get critical acclaim so it's hard to really fault Downey Jr or Foxx for this.

While I did enjoy the movie you would typically need to be in the mood for the themes this picture exposes the viewer too. Personally I'm probably only open to this heavy a movie half the time unless they can disguise the intellectual context behind thrilling or action packed sequences.

The other true marvel of this film is how Downey Jr can look so good all the time even in a random arrangement of hats ...

District 9

I'm horribly late with my thoughts on District 9 but given I sight a decent smattering of films at the cinema I wanted to pen my thoughts on any flicks I deemed worthwhile.

I should begin with the customary read at your own peril as while I'll make efforts not to provide any spoilers these thoughts are best read once you've seen and formed your own opinions.

It is a rare film these days that manages to not only introduce new IP but also stays under the buzz radar yet seem genuinely well financed. District 9 seems to have all the production values, special effects and attention to detail you would expect in an over hyped summer blockbuster. Yet only receive a week or two of promotion in comparison to what seems like months of over-marketing the large films bombard us with.

I'd actually already made my mind up to see District 9 prior to seeing any direct promotion of the film. I'd heard about it due to its link with Peter Jackson and the now debunked Halo Movie. The story goes that Microsoft had began early production on the Halo movie and while Peter Jackson was producing, Neill Blomkamp was to direct. Due to lack of financing the Halo movie project was canned and Jackson and Blomkamp decided to pursue alternative projects and settled on producing and directing District 9. Interestingly enough Blomkamp had never made a full feature fill but District 9 was both based of his short film 'Alive in Joburg' and some of the assets and early work they'd both started on the Halo movie. So naturally given my enthusiasm for the Halo universe even this loose coupling had be interested.

I found it a marvellous immersive world that mirrored and maybe even openly exaggerated some real world multi cultural challenges. It takes the audience on a pendular journey of prejudice. However I think it would equally entertain a team of football players as it would a room of scholars. It is brilliantly paced and wonderfully acted and a must see for any science fiction action fan.

If you don't mind a little senseless violence it is an excellent thinking mans social commentary and while I won't rate it as this isn't a review I do highly recommend it …

Wolves Premiers 2009

This years AFL advertising campaign was brilliant, dubbed "In a league of its own" and featuring the best players throughout the league running, crashing and bashing their way through a handful of sporting backdrops. It was backed up come finals time with the revised slogan "The hardest, fastest, fiercest finals series ever"

One thing is for sure, the Wolves of 2009 where in a league of their own! A keen observer might have browsed my post in early August about the pending finals series for my beloved fantasy football competitions.

In a marvellous feat or fantasy player management and brilliant tactical mastery I managed to walk away with both Dream team and FootyHero silverware. As a keen spectator of the game and a long term advocate of footy fantasy it was great to take out the top honours against some like minded enthusiasts.

The real challenge now is defending my premierships better than Hawthorns 2008 campaign ...

Virtual Steve goes Live!

Howdy and welcome to the official launch of Virtual Steve. What's so official about it you ask? Well today I actually told friends and family about the blog I've been running for the last six or so weeks.

Put up your feet, let the dog get comfortable at your feet and have a look over my past musing, rants and observations. As my profile states I'm not exactly sure of what I hope to gain from this blog if nothing else it will serve as my own electronic diary. I initially hoped to post to it daily but soon opted for quality over quantity as entries can be quite time consuming to articulate.

I've also integrated a Twitter feed and have been enjoying my foray in to these new communication media. Feel free to leave a comment if anything I say struck a nerve or tickles a fancy and pop by from time to time for my latest grumbles.

May your browser refresh and your mouse point true ...

A short high-pitched sound or whistle

Prior to 2006 the word ‘tweet’ had a very distinct and universal meaning and was about as topical as ‘Yawn’. In a few years what was once used to teach young children animal sounds has exploded into a social networking and micro-blogging service sensation.

If you’ve never turned on a computer before let me explain. Twitter is a web application that attempts to answer the question. “What are you doing?” Basically, it’s the away message feature of Instant message clients all by itself. Each entry has become known by the websphere as a 'tweet'

Twitter is synonymous with Facebook, MySpace and YouTube to name a few. Together they are single handedly (the irony of that expression isn’t lost on me) reengineering the way we communicate with each other, particularly the younger generation.

It is this reason I suspect in the aging geek equivalent of a mid live crisis I’ve joint the party and signed up on twitter. I have a handful of friends already on the service and the twitter site itself is quite polished, extracting possible twitter candidates to follow from my Google email account seamlessly.

It’s amazing how much of a PR tool it has become with companies and celebrities hoping on board to flog their wares under the guises of doing everyone a favor. The scary thing is this fresh medium works as we haven’t been over exposed to its loop holes. Not ever 48 hours old on twitter and I’ve already subscribed to Samsung, Xbox and Essendon FC marketing is some form or another.

Despite all this I’m going to stick with it for the time being, having run this blog for over six weeks now. The time necessary to output a 140 odd character message versus crafting a four to five paragraph blog entry is considerably appealing. I think the two services complement each other and with a little nerd gadgetry I hope to integrate one with the other ...

Franklin, an old fashion hip and shoulder and the armchair bandwagon

In some ways I’m a little dirty on myself for not blogging this entry before the events of the weekend and in some ways I’m glad I can incorporate them into my musings. I decided on this topic after reading a very good article in the Age.

A lot of balding middle age men in prominent media positions are claiming the suspension of Lance Franklin after making high contact against Ben Cousins as the penultimate sign that the bump is dead. They continue to then argue that all the hardness and bravado is being slowing strained from our great game. One club president even had the tenacity to suggest all contact would be removed and the sport would be akin to Basketball.

While I understand some of the comments are made tongue in cheek I don't subscribe to the theory at all. Merely observing the physique of an elite footballer suggests they live, breath and train for one purpose. To run all day and crash into one anther time and time again. The game is hard and 44 spent bodies ache and beg forgiveness after every match.

The fair as day old fashion hip and shoulder will always be part of the big bustling forwards arsenal. It isn't even restricted to forwards with plenty of great key position backman happy to throw around their weight in a contest to allow a quicker player to rebound with the footy safely.

As with any evolution of our game the media and talk back radio with whip the armchair bandwagon into a frenzy. Foaming at the bit for the good old days in order to draw an extra listener or sell another paper. At the end of the day the general public accept the rule and move on as little can be done once the governing body make a decision.

The deliberately rushed behind rule and last years hands in the back where as heatedly debated but haven't destroyed the fabric of the game at all. While the written rushed behind rule is mostly gibberish, the net result on the game has been marvellous. A packed stadium cheering an under siege backline for successfully clearing a hotly contested ball just as loudly as when the star forward slots a long bomb from 50m.

The head has been clearly signalled as sacred and only a fool could argue against that stance. It is still more than legal to land a bump on an opposition player but whilst you can intend to crunch them temporarily you can't knock the sense out of them.

Prior to the Lloyd incident on the weekend I felt that Buddy shouldn't have been suspended and that the rule is too firmly worded. I've since come around to the AFL's thinking that any serious impact to the head when the players soul intention is to crash into an opponent should have some consequence and a weeks suspension seemed fair so had they not fought the charge in my mind justice would have been served. I guess since I felt it was a one week offence that should have been the penalty and a good behaviour early plea would have had him on the paddock on the weekend.

Lloyd also seemed to get slapped with a heavy ruling as re-analysis of the video tends to suggest it wasn't all that premeditated an act and while a penalty for hitting the sacred head is understood a third of the regular season as a penalty is far to zealous.

It will go down in history as one of the more fiery games in the modern area and as a final in all but name I'll never forget the day a new star was born. Welcome Michael Hurley to the Essendon FC

I'm sure he will lay plenty of bumps in his promising career ...