Sikamikanico Blogs

My company is possibly doing a share float in the medium-term. So management is looking at ways to make the company more attractive to investors. This has led to all sorts of wild rumours being spread by employees. But I knew that management knows what it's doing when I heard the latest: banning casual Friday. As a sensible investor, I know I have no faith in a company if I hear the employees wear tan slacks on Fridays. Speaking of work, I'm going to learn hypnosis. Then after a week of absenteeism, I'll arrive at the office at 2:30 on Friday afternoon and ask everyone to join me for a meeting so I can explain why I've been away. When I've got everyone there, I'll hypnotise them all into believing I've been there all week. Then I'll finish with a hypnotic suggestion that after such a tough week of work, we deserve a break. I'll snap everybody out of it, then we can all head to the pub. (Don't borrow this technique - I'm not yet sure what the

So that's it. Australia's World Cup dream has come to an end . It's just as well I didn't post yesterday; I was too upset to make any sense. I'm more sanguine about it all now. But still. It's one thing to know in your head that we exceeded all expectations, got further than expected etc; but when you're 90 seconds away from the quarter finals and suddenly it slips away, it feels a bit different. Apparently many Australians feel the same , including John Howard, who says he's broken hearted. This is a big suprise, as no one thought he had one. Of course, there's always the naysayers, like this guy (I've noticed this trend more and more online lately - people can't seem to just ignore things they don't like or agree with, but have to be aggresively unpleasant about them. For those who say I do the same thing, well usually I'm joking). Anyway, I'm going to turn my slightly-less-devoted attention to the rest of the Cup. Once again (

Well, thank goodness Big Brother - Adults Only has been axed . The kiddies can now grow up in a safer and more wholesome world. For this we can thank those brave visionaries of Federal parliament, Family First's Steve Fielding and the Liberal's Trish Draper, who said Adults Only was rotting children's brains . Of course. Now, I don't watch Adults Only because it's simply not my kind of thing, but I see no reason at all to ban it. The show is intended for adults. For a start, it's on at 9:40pm on a weeknight. If parents can't control what TV shows their kids are watching late on school nights, then they have far bigger problems than their kids seeing a few breasts and some swearing. But even so, the show has been pulled not because of demands from parents, but the demands of these politicians. And I do find the idea of MPs being able to directly decide what we can and can't see on television very worrying. Not to mention, by banning shows like this (an

AAAAAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!! We're in, we're in, we're in, we're in!!! Croatia 2 - Australia 2 Australia through to the Second Round! I set the alarm for 4:55am, five mintues before the match was due to start (I knew if I set it earlier, during the pre-match commentary, I'd be tempted to hit the snooze button and sleep through the whole thing; this way, I had to get up). I dragged my doona into the lounge room in time to see the national anthems, then went into the kitchen to get a cup of tea, with the sound on the TV turned down low so I didn't disturb the neighbours. So I was shocked to return and see that Croatia had scored in the second minute! Some profanity followed. I didn't see that one coming. Nonetheless, early days yet and all that, and Australia had some great shots through the first half, until...38 minutes, and we get the penalty to level the score. Woo-hoo! Fists punched in the air. No screaming though (it seems too weird when you're watchin

Okay, I have a confession to make. This World Cup blog thing isn't really working. For a start, I don't have enough to say, apart from comments like "Did you see that?" whilst watching a match. Really only relevant to Xander, who's the only one there at the time (and he doesn't often seem to care). Also, not that I'm obsessed with the numbers, but my stats are way down lately. So, I'm going back to my "normal" blog mode (a sort of disjointed mush of boring personal stories, misinformed politics, and cynical social comment...come to think of it, why were my stats higher before?) and will just write World Cup stuff as and when I feel like it. Which will definitley be tomorrow... In the meantime, I'm experiencing Personal Crisis #2387: The Ageing! Because I only have two weeks in my mid-twenties left. After that I'll move into the dreaded late twenties territory. This all seems most unfair. No one asked me if I was okay with this, but

Of course, I'm disappointed by the 2-0 loss to Brazil. But we really did have their measure, and the score doesn't truly reflect the play of the game. We didn't exactly have the fairest of runs from the referee, but still, Kewell should have kept his mouth shut . Nonetheless, none of the players picked up anymore yellow cards, so we only need to draw against Croatia to win on Firday (AEST). However, even though I'd arranged to have the day off after every Socceroos game, through circumstances beyond everyone's control I will have to work Friday. As long as they understand when I send out memos that look like this: "3oriq chtuope56yhv806 wetipu sljh386**" because I've fallen asleep face down on the keyboard! Apart from the win over Japan (obviously), my favourite match of the tournament so far was Argentina's 6-0 win over Serbia . Sure, a nail-biting finish can be an exciting game, but for a nuetral fan there's nothing like the beauty of watchin

Another collection of World Cup Humour. Enjoy! Just five more days till Mexico v Portugal . US reflects on its devastating first round loss Amusing banter from the World Cup Blog (pity about all the ads though) A nice little reminder not to cheat at the World Cup. The World Cup has taught Cotard why Australia really is a country (and if you only click on one link from this post, make it this one) So, how do we feel against Brazil on Sunday? Yes, history's not on our side. But stuff history !

It's hardly an original observation that the World Cup (and all other major sporting events) have become grossly over-commercialised. Companies want to get involved in every way possible to promote themselves in a saturated media environment. But it slightly suprises even myself just how far it's going these days. Not just sponsorships - although currently in Australia you can even purchase official Socceroos deodorant in a green and gold can. But every media outlet is getting on board these days - from travel shows and foreign affairs programs with profiles on the countries involved, through to every news outlet carrying special reports - even though if you actually talk to people, alot of them really don't care. And of course, there are lots and lots of World Cup blogs. I'm not saying these people are insincere - and if anyone thinks I'm just riding the Socceroos hype on this blog right now, I have honestly followed football for years, and I can produce witnesses

Well what else is left to say? (Sometimes I really hate not having net access every day. No, wait. I always hate not having net access every day). Until now, I rated the 1999 European Championship final as the most exciting game I've ever seen. But we have a new winner! In fact, it would have to be the most excting game any of us have ever seen. Australia looked nervous at first (well, actually that's being kind. I heard a reporter the next day saying "Australia showed no sign of big match jitters", and I thought "Were we watching the same game? They were like rabbits caught in the headlights". And please put that lame metaphor down to lack of sleep). Then there was that unfair Japanese goal, which I won't even get started on because I'd never finish, except to say that I just felt so sorry for Mark Schwarzer - I can't even imagine how frustrated he must have felt. Then followed a tense, and towards the end rather despairing, 60 minutes of stas

Yep, I'm throwing my not-inconsiderable weight behind any Australian bid to host the World Cup. Apart from all the obvious benefits, it will mean being able to watch the games at a reasonable time! I can't even tell you how tired I am - and it's only just started. I'm not sure if my brain (and liver!) are up to this. The Opening Ceremony was pretty low key. I think that's as it should be. We're there for the game , after all, not to watch school children dressed as native animals run around to the strains of some band who had a top ten hit in 1987. It was moving to see members of previous winning teams walk out; but apart from that, the whole thing was over in about half an hour. There's some photos here if you want them (though if you were keen, I guess you would have seen it already, wouldn't you?) Well, that got us straight onto the football! I have to admit, I've been dozing off during half time during the first match (and generally waking up wi

Yes, your favourite collection of humorous links, with a football theme in honour of the World Cup! Some fun facts about the World Cup The Onion's World Cup Predictions Who says Australians don't take an interest in the world? Well, I'm nothing like the stereotypical woman Classic football "quotes" The NY Times World Cup Fact-o-Rama (I don't get it, but knock yourselves out). And finally: Q: What does a Spanish fan do when his team has won the World Cup? A: He turns off the Playstation. Just (as I write this) 13 hours and 45 minutes to go!

After all this time, it's now less than 36 hours until the start of the World Cup! Always an exciting time, but none more so than now, as Australia are in the finals for the first time since 1974 - long (well, not that long) before I was even born. I can't really say I've been waiting my whole life for this, but I've certainly been waiting since at least last November . So for the next few weeks, I'm - mostly - turning my blog over to the World Cup. However, as I did with the November post, I'm not going to provide match analysis, or team profiles, or anything of that nature; there are literally thousands and thousands of sites which will be far more revealing than my biased and uninformed commentary (I've but a button for the FIFA site on the sidebar for the duration) so I won't add to the fray. As before, this will just be one fan's perspective of the action, far from where it is taking place. And I am ready! I have Les Murray's Official Guid

I've had an interesting lesson in internet (and comedic) misinterpretation over the last few days. It began with my previous post. Perhaps I should have explained that the idea came from a similar post I read on someone else's blog, found at random, some years ago. That person had very different political views to mine, and basically said they hate everything I believe in. Reading it, I thought "That's amusing, I must write a post like that of my own one day." But I didn't include this explanation, believing that to get the full effect, it would be better if I launched straight into the tirade. Then I made my mistake: I published a link to the post, again with no explanation, on a forum I post to semi-regularly. I hoped it would get people talking. Well it did, but not in quite the way I had intended. I was flamed to a toasty crisp. Somehow, and I can't quite believe it, people seemed to think I was writing about them , and were personally offended by what