AH! Who would’ve thought it lately?! Three days without a post. Alas, I was spending Easter with relo’s up in Tamworth and was unable to get to a computer. I took some happy snaps while I was up there and these will shortly be available at the Photo Hut (I’ve uploaded and published them; it’ll be an hour or two before they’re approved).
Funnily enough, the only time I’m away for a few days is the time that there’s so much to blog about! I’ll also be trying out a headline format! Comment and let me know what you think – here goes…
Footy’s back!
Crank out the Four’n'Twenty and the Coke 600ml Buddy – it’s footy season again. And not just any footy – this is real footy. Being a Melbournian living in Sydney I’ve had more than my fair share of taunts and downright abuse for being an Aussie rules fan. The only explanation for my allegiance to the game is the fact that it’s a dead-set religion down in the city by the bay. I love it. I’ve been away from Melbourne for ten years. Within the first three I started wondering about this barging competition that the New South Welshmen called ‘Rugby League’. I watched it for about a year before I got sick of it, then defected back to the great game that they call Australian Rules.
In the paper on Saturday, sports satirist, colmunist, commentator and journalist extraordinaire Richard Hinds tackled – pardon the pun – one of the most overwhelmingly poignant issues in Australian sport, and one which I alluded to earlier. In 1982, the proud VFL team South Melbourne sailed forth to Botany Bay, to spread the word about this great game they play in the south. The VFL became the AFL. But there was an establishment present in Sydney Town, and they weren’t happy about the newcomers. In fact, their unease was so fierce, that their distress would resonate with their kind for the next quarter of a century, and it continues today. Calls of ‘Gay-F-L’ and ‘Aerial Ping-Pong’ and ‘Teabag-Biff’ and ‘Slappers’ still echo around the lunch tables regardless of my presence or not. I got over the abuse about a month after it started. Plainly and simply – I don’t give a shit. I realise that two games exist, unlike the one-sided establishment. I see the merits in both games, however I pledge my allegiance to just one – and that allegiance is with pride: It’s a matter of honour and heritage with me. I’m a Melbournian and I follow Aussie Rules. And I’m fucking proud of it.
Richard Hinds’ article reawoke a fierce pride in me that I haven’t felt since that first few months of verbal abuse. Back then, that pride was exploited and humiliated. Now it defends and strengthens me. I feel that pride pumping through my veins. The strains of my club’s song echo through my skull.
Highlights from Richard Hinds’ article “An old favourite: aerial ping-pong v biff and barge”
Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, March 26, 2005
[One defence of AFL] is that the average AFL midfielder is moving at high speed in metres of space. NRL forwards often lumber into tackles like tranquilised pachyderms.
Of course rugby league players catch the ball when it is virtually handed to them from a few metres away – at least until they put on a St George Illawarra jersey. And, if they are under a bomb, they know their opponents are only coming from head-on.
Too many [Aussie Rules] teams chip the ball around, refusing to risk losing possession by kicking to a contest. Thus the game’s most spectacular attribute, the soaring pack mark, has become an endangered species.
[Binnsy: One of the issues raised was that of umpires - I hope to comment on this in future posts.]
The vast size of the field, the unpredictability of the movement and the fact that so much action takes place off the ball means it is difficult to capture the action [of Aussie Rules on TV]. Yet, the fact that rugby league is such a good television game has added to its greatest problem – relatively few people bother to turn up to the games. On balance, I think AFL has the advantage here – it rewards the fan who pays at the turnstile.
[The argument that you shouldn't get a point for missing is] difficult to argue with those who think a forward should get a kick in the behind, not a behind for a kick that sails wide of the goal posts. The only answer is that AFL players are often kicking from longer range, tighter angles and under more pressure than league players poking over conversions and penalties. (Though I still wouldn’t mind Hazem El Masri in a forward pocket.)
[AFL is for wimps:] Only true if you are willing to accept that players who stand under high balls knowing that a large, fast-moving opponent could be coming from any direction are wimps. Or if you are one of those who object to the fact that an AFL “melee” is usually about as savage as a slightly terse Mothers’ Club meeting.
Main text written by Richard Hinds of the Sydney Morning Herald. Cuts, edits and comments by Binnsy.
I seek to not criticise (even constructively) Mr Hinds’ article, though I would love to shout my praises of the work to the heavens. However, I thank him for loosing that part of me that – regardless of my passion for my team and the game for the past five or so years – remained dormant. Mr Hinds, thank you, and keep up the good work!
Speaking of my team – the mighty Melbourne Demons – we had our first win on Saturday night, crushing the onslaught of our arch-nemesis, Essendon. The Dees and the Bombers are long-time enemies; some have conjectured that the Melbourne/Essendon rivalry predates the Demons’ hostility with Collingwood by some twenty to thirty years. It’s always good to see the Dons take a hiding, but even more so when it’s by the Demons. And what better way to honour the memory of tsunami victim and old comrade Troy Broadbridge (RIP). On ya fellas… ‘It’s a grand old flag…’
Jesus, Atlantis, and more – the enigma of the unexplained…
Since about my third year of primary school, I’ve had a love for and fascination with the unexplained. I’m a devout X-Files fan, and my library is filled with books about UFOlogy, Egypt and the Loch Ness monster. The reason for my fascination with such phenomena is almost as unexplainable as the phenomena themselves. I am deeply religious, yet somehow I feel an almost religious pull towards these mysteries. Perhaps these earthly mysteries parallel themselves – at least in my mind – with the mysteries of the divine realm. Nevertheless, I love anything that ‘cannot be programmed, categorised or easily referenced.’
There was an article in Saturday’s Good Weekend magazine about Mike Willesee and his quest for proof of the existence of God (I’d link to it if I could – but alas, the Good Weekend web site is non-materialistic!). Willesee has experienced countless phenomena that, regardless of whether they can be explained, would shake one’s moral and spiritual foundations. Seeing a woman bleed from her hands and feet, and sweat blood, would probably send me into a raging madness, spurting prayers and hymns in the hopes of salvation. Why are people so obsessed with finding evidence of God? I myself would love to see substantial proof, but for the moment am more than content with the mystery of faith.
Religion itself is based around exploiting an unexplained phenomena. Two thousand and five years ago, it is an historical fact that there was a man named Jesus wandering around preaching. Christianity seized on the mystery of this man, the enigma that was Jesus Christ, and for over two thousand years millions of people have given up their time, money, even their entire lives, in devotion to our Lord and Saviour. Religion seeks to answer the questions that intelligent life forms will eventually ask: Why are we here? How did we get here? Where do we go after we die? Whether it’s the quest for answers or the fascination with the enigma itself that drives us, religion and spirituality are powerful and wonderful things. Like I said, perhaps those with an interest in the paranormal, like myself, are merely searching for answers and proof within themselves that something wonderful and profound, even unexplainable, actually exists.
I also watched Atlantis and Stargate: Atlantis over the weekend. The myth of Atlantis is amazing. A proud and beautiful race far more advanced than modern civilisation, and their wonderful city, sank beneath the waves thousands of years ago. Who were these people? Were they human? What profound secrets could they divulge to us? Atlantis and Atlanteans are mentioned in The Stargate Conspiracy, a book I’m reading about Egypt. It conjectures that perhaps it was the Atlanteans who came to Egypt and told the people how to build the pyramids. This suggestion is about as feasible as aliens building the pyramids, but it holds a little more integrity than the alien theory. Why? For one, the Atlanteans were a supposedly earth-bound species (although if you watched Stargate lastnight, you’ll believe they live in another galaxy – but even then, it was mentioned that they originated on Earth before running off to explore the universe). Not to worry – another day, another myth…
Einstein & Relativity: 1905-2005
Being a Physics student I am proud to be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of ‘On the electrodynamics of moving bodies’ on June 30 this year. Without a doubt, Einstein is up there with Newton, Brahe and Galvani as one of the most renowned physicists to ever have graced the Earth. In his 1905 thesis, Einstein proposed a radical new way of looking at space and time. He challenged the notion that both space and time were constant, unalterable qualities of the universe. He proposed that if one were to travel at a high speed, and another were to observe the first, that both persons’ notions of space and time would be different. Over the past century, Einstein’s proposals and theories have been tried and tested, and are generally accepted. They have even been built upon, such as in the case of ’string theory’ which popped up in the late 80’s or early 90’s. 100 years gone, so many changes. Makes you wonder where mankind will end up in another 100 years. Who knows, maybe I’ll live to see it.
Well, that’s about it for now. I had other stuff to mention, but I can always do it later. Be sure to check out the photos from the weekend. I hope everyone had an awesome Easter, and all the best for the coming week.
Until next time…
It’s 12:10am on Good Friday. I want to wish everyone a safe, happy and holy Easter break. I ask everyone just once to stop thinking about chocolate, if only for a few minutes, and reflect a while on the real reason we get a couple days off school or work. Whether or not you’re a Christian, it is still a fact that there once lived a man named Jesus, and whatever he did or said he changed the world. I’m about to go off on a religious tangent, so if this isn’t your bag, check back later!
As far as the investigation goes authorities in Allen County have released pictures of the crime scene.