The AFL Tanking debacle

It is that time of the season where every man and his dog starts accusing teams of tanking games to get priority draft picks.

What is tanking? Tanking is where a coach pulls their best players from the field (or even the match), match up rookies vs stars and just playing to lose the game so they can get themselves a priority draft pick.

You see, one of the great things about AFL is the draft pick. The teams that finished lowest on the table get the 1st picks, the best teams get the last of the picks. What this does is, makes for a more even competition and each club generally has a success cycle.

What happens at the end of the year, where teams can no longer make the the top 8, some team’s tactics have a very sudden change and most people feel that they are tanking the rest of the season to get that all important pick.

Now if you were a coach and your season was in essence done (cant make top 8 ) would you continue to put players on the field that are carrying niggling injuries? or would you rather rest them, let them heal completely ready for next season and bring in some new faces to get the rookies blooded? If I was a coach, I would.

I just read this “Tanking? Long-term thinking’s ok” and one of they key notes straight away is, if you are in the top 8, guaranteed a finals berth and rested a player, which Geelong has done recently, then that’s ok but if you in the bottom 8, you are tanking.

Last nights AFL Footy Show started talking about the tanking debate and there were calls to changing the draft system to a lottery. Come on, you are kidding right?

As said earlier, one of the great things about our game is the fact that each year, teams are fairly even matched and for the weaker teams, the draft helps them get to be stronger teams.

Oh and just because you have the 1st pick, does not mean you are going to pick the best player. Have a look at Melbourne’s number one pick Jack Watts. Played just 3 games this year and not really making any impact. Compare that to say Brisbane’s Daniel Rich at 7th pick who is probably the favourite for the NAB Rising Star or even North Melbourne’s Jack Ziebell (9th) and Liam Anthony (43rd)

In the end, leave the drafting system alone. If a coach starts to deliberately play to lose, I think the club needs to remove the coach and not put hope on who they will pick up for the next year.

Left 4 Dead 2…a rant

I really enjoyed Left 4 Dead. I like the intensity of the hordes charging, I like the fact their were co-op campaigns in it.
What I didn’t like is that fact their were only 4 campaigns. But we were told that there would be addition content coming.
Then Valve announce Left 4 Dead 2 and I think this clip sums up how I feel just right……

***In no way do I ever or have ever, agreed with anything the real Hitler said or stood for….I just found this clip very funny***

Remake by original author of clip here

Fking Pricks

Fking pricks.
So today, the wife and I go to our new house which is stilling being built. It is close to completion as last I was there it looked like it was just the landscaping to be down. It was exciting times.
Until today
As soon as we drove up to the house, we could see what we really didn’t want to see.
Some fking pricks have broken into the house and started spray painting the walls with fking tags and “I woz ere” throughout the spare room, hallway and living area.
Oh wait there is more.
The little pricks have also poured white paint all over the living room carpet!
Ripped off a fly screen to a window, slashed the sliding screen window and who knows what else.

So yes, today was not a good day. I can you this, they better not ever let me find out who did it or where to find them.

And stop the clock….

And stop the clock….Easter eggs are here.

Well more precisely, I first saw Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns in Woolworths Monday last week…so that would be the 5th of January.
I don’t know why I bother ranting and raving about it, it gets earlier every year….pass me a beer please.
Who buys Easter eggs 4 months before the event? Will Easter have all religious parts removed commercially like Christmas did?
I’m just so sick of the commercialism of Easter and how keen retail store want to get their eggs out first, I can’t even get a good rant going……depressing really……..where’s my beer?
I mean does anyone actually get excited when they see the Easter eggs in January? Everyone I know just goes “Oh good, the eggs are here..whoopdee do”…..Hello? Beer please!
I’m going to go away now…rather deflated at this half arsed rant…but I think you all know what I’m saying…and besides, I have my beer now.

Where have all the carols gone?

*Starting with a side note here: I hate Christmas carols so this may seem strange that I am ranting that they are missing. Also I am not a religious person and don’t have much time for organised religions so again this rant could sound weird*

Its that time of year where all the TV stations start flogging their Christmas ads, having celebrities wish us a safe Christmas, school kids screaming at the cameras about how excited they are.
But have you noticed something?
There are no carols being sung at us by school kids, church choirs or anyone.
What? You haven’t noticed?
Remember, every year you scramble for the remote to turn off the volume during ad brakes to avoid the screaming 10 year olds as they belt out Silent Night.
But what do we have this year?
We have kids shouting down the camera about Santa and presents and buying gifts and eating lollies and so on. But there is no mention of what Christmas is about…..you know…the whole birth of Christ thing.
That’s right, watch your TV and you will find no mention of the religious signifance of Christmas, Jesus or anything

So my question is, why?
Why don’t I hear the strangled voices of teens with breaking voices trying to sing Away in the Manger?
Why am I being rob of complaining about stupid carols being flogged on tv?

I have 2 theories.

A TV stations have become so commercial driven that all they want to portray is “must spend money” and Christmas is just one big Sale catalog. Which as most of us know, that pretty much what Christmas has become to retailers as they put up their Christmas decos in September. But there was always a mention or acknowledgment that it is about celebrating the birth of Christ.
or
B We have become so caught up in political correctness and “mustn’t upset the minority” that TV stations have made a conscious decision that what ever they do, don’t mention Jesus or God or anything that could be portrayed as religious.

Now my thoughts are leaning on the B option. I do think that we have become a culture that if it up sets (or has the potential to) 1 out of 1000 people, we mustn’t do it.
And you know what? That’s just screwed up.
I am so sick and tired of things changing to suit the 1% that would be upset. And every time we do change to keep the peace, all we are doing is breeding fear into everyone else.
Now as I said at the beginning, I hate Christmas and carols and I really couldn’t give the time of day to organised religion but taking away any mention of the religious part of Christmas is just down right idiotic.
As our Regional Manager said to the Counter hand “See that bag of cement? Grab a spoonful and harden the fuck up.”

No R18+ rating for Australia….still

Yep, that’s right. Australia is still in the dark ages when it comes game ratings.

Plans to start public consultation into a possible ratings reform have been put aside after a draft discussion paper was withheld from public release.

The paper, intended as a precursor to a much wider and extensive research initiative, was shelved after Mr Michael Atkinson, Attorney-General of South Australia, withdrew his support for the consultation, effectively ending the debate.

I had such high hopes that this consultation was actually going to happen. This post may not have the same rage as my usual rants but it really is like beating a dead horse. Its the same argument evry fricking time.
When will someone in the government wake the fuck up and realise, games are not just for kids and in fact the main game players are in fact over 18!

Did you know there are at least 4 games that have already been refused classification for Australia.
Dark Sector and Shellshock 2 Blood Trails. Fallout 3 and Silent Hill: Homecoming have been edited and modified to be released in Australia.
And what do you think they will do with the new Resident Evil in 2009?

What pisses me off….supermarkets

So I thought I could just duck in to the local Woolies to grab a couple of items. I did not expect it to be flat chat in there.
Oh well, I’m here now. May as well get what I came for.
Got my items and went to the 16 items or less Express lane as I only had 5 items.

This is where the anger begins.

The lady at the register starts piling on her groceries onto the tiny counter. About half a trolleys worth!
You have got to be kidding me. Can’t this biatch read?
What does the checkout bloke do or say? Nothing, absolutely nothing. So we have to friggin wait while the line next to us flies by.
So that pissed me off so much?
What is the point off having a express lane, with clear instructions on the guidelines of use in plain view, and then let someone who clearly has at least double the 16 limit, through and hold up everyone else!?
Solution Short of kicking the person who count either count or read, in the head. Why don’t the supermarkets start charging people a surcharge fee when it goes over 16 items?
I bet that will make people think twice (and count their items) before they charge in to the express lane and piss everyone off.
Short of that, well I can tell you, don’t try going through a express lane in front of me if you have more than the guideline amount. I can tell you, I am not shy and I will ask you, in a clear audible voice for all the hear, “Can’t you fucking count?”

Oh and to the supermarkets out there, if you have an Express lane – don’t put your slowest friggin checkout chick on it.
FFS I hate idiots.

Prime TV…how fucked are they?

Prime TV Australia….where do I start?
Prime win the rights to the broadcasting of the Olympics. Well done.
But what do you do with it?
You provide the worst coverage EVER of the olympics. You jump from sport to sport every 5 mins, you put 5-8 long adverts through events and you reply the same fricking swim 4-5 times a day!
Starters, if you wanted to watch a certain event, you could not watch Prime because they will not provide a days schedule of events that they will be broadcasting….oh but they do say “coming up next” which actually means in the next 2-3 hours!
If you are watching the basketball or really anything else and there is a swimming match on, well your fucked. Swimming will interupt your viewing. Annoying specially if its just for the bloody medal ceremony.
Apparantly when Prime won the rights to broadcast the Olympics, they really meant they won the right to show swimming, swimming, swimming oh and swimming. Guess what? There is a crap load of other events running and they too have Aussies competeting.
The adverts! Well you could be, as I was, watching the Opals play , think it was Serbia, and the Opals were ahead by 10, suddenly a string of ads were thrown into our face. Finally they finish only to find Serbia was suddenly 7 points in front! WTF!?!?

Now we live in the age of digital TV, bringing us the wonders of HD and extra channels. Prime TV has many channels…STd, HD, View 1, View 2 and View 3. The olympics would be the perfect opportunity to uterlise this wonder of technology. They could have their favourite, the swimming on SD, maybe the equestrian on HD, throw the shooting on View 1, Handball on View 2 and another event (or even regular TV viewing) on View 3.
But no. In their wisdom they have the same thing on all channels. Idiots. This is the one chance you have in 4 years to prove you are the leading sports broadcaster. You are just shit.

And then to top it off!

Last Sunday, the broadcast of the olympics was interrupted to broadcast the contractual viewing of the AFL. I rejoiced! I got to see my AFL for the day. It was a terrible match but that’s not the point.
Now there were some cocknockers out there who were outraged that the olympics were taken off to show the AFL. “How dare you ruin my 14hrs coverage by showing 3hrs of footy!” And they did complain loudly to Prime.
So what did Prime do boys and girls? Did they stick to their AFL broadcast contract?
NO. They have removed the telecast of this Sunday’s AFL match so we can watch more olympics! Ok so you caved to the whingy bitches, weak just weak.
So of course Prime relinquished the match to the other Free-to-Air broadcaster, TEN so we can still see the game, right?
NO. They gave it to Fox so only if you have pay tv or are at the pub, do you get to see the contracted telecast AFL game. That is just fucked.
AND of course it would have been the North Melbourne game.

This has easily been the worst broadcast I have ever seen of an olympic games.
If you want to watch more than just 3 events of the olympics, switch to SBS. There you will actually see that there actually are more than 2 countries competing and surprisingly, not every sport involves a pool!

We didn’t get our choice so we will destroy whole party’s chance.

Yep…how stupid can you get.
Die hard Hillary Clinton supporters are so outraged that she lost being the Democratic Nominee for the US Presidency that they are now going to sabotage Barack Obama’s chance.

A GROUP of disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporters is using the blogosphere to maintain the rage and actively lobby against Barack Obama’s run for the US presidency.

The group, calling itself Party Unity, My Ass (PUMA), emerged in the days before Hillary Clinton’s withdrawal from the Democratic nomination race over the weekend and demands from the party hierarchy for her backers to coalesce behind the Obama camp in the fight against John McCain.

“We will not be bullied, brainwashed, or bossed into falling in line,” the PUMAs say.

Rest here

Can you say – whingy little bitches? They would prefer to take their bat and ball and go home and let the Republican John McCain win than get behind the party they believe in so much.
As if this whole US Election process wasn’t screwed up in the first place (I mean 16 weeks just to campaign for a nominee!) that when a final decision is made (and as far as I know, and care, was a landslide result) now they have infighting.
Yeah, go team. Great way to show the US and the world that you have a unified party that can take on the big issues.

It is not a 5 door hatch!

FFS it is not a five door hatch!

Ok this may seem small to most but come on…

I drive a pug 206, it has 4 doors where people can get into the car and the boot has a hatchdoor.
So that would make it a 4 door and hatch not a friggin 5 door hatch!
My wife drives a 2 door car and its boot has a hatch…
so what does that make it?

If you say its a 3 door hatch, I will hunt you down and slap you silly. By that I mean with a dead fish.

One of my mates has a 4 door, you know, to the front and back seats, and his boot is a standard sort of boot.
Does that mean he has a 5 door boot!

I hate stupid things and I hate stupid people trying to sound smart like saying, oh yes I drive a 5 door hatchback….you know what, you don’t. You drive a 4 door hatch back.

FFS.