Live Life. Life is Short. Life is an Adventure.

Now I’ve mentioned Aussie rules briefly previously, but I recently visited Melbourne Victoria for a number of reasons, and one was to goto the AFL.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is a stadium capable of holding 100,000 fans, and normally over a weekend there are generally 3 games just at the MCG. Combined with the Telstra Dome (previously known as Dockland’s Stadium), you can easily get 5 games in the centre of Melbourne every weekend during the season. For me, just 2 live games are sufficient, Friday night at the MCG, Saturday night at the Dome. I have actually been to a Saturday day game at the MCG, then headed off to a night game at the Dome the same day before.

My first experience at the MCG was actually the first interstate “State of Origin” rugby league game held in 1994. Held for the first time outside of Brisbane and Sydney, I was one of 86,000 fans, either expats wanting to see, or melbournites just keen to see any sport. Since then, I’ve regularly travelled to Melbourne just to goto the MCG for the atmosphere.

So last weekend, it was Richmond verses Melbourne on Friday night, with 60,000 other people including a very good friend that is a Richmond fanatic. So going to the game is good, but when you immerse yourself in the heart of the fans, and when you are with a large group of people, about 15 other Richmond fanatics just of my friend, and thousands more in the Richmond reserved area, well that’s the experience. It was a scrapy game and Richmond lost so that didn’t help with the fans. Saturday was Brisbane Lions (my team) verses North Melbourne, in which Brisbane won by one point (the smallest wining margin), and only took the lead towards the end of the last quarter. Event interstate there were plenty of Brisbane fans around, so you never feel alone.

It’s more then just a game to watch, going to a live game gives you a few of other people, and does give you an escape from the hassles of the world, if only for a few hours, and only if your team wins.

References
MCG - Official Site

Email footer from Java Colleague.

From Star Trek - TNG (Need to find the right series show)

Repository Management

• Start Eclipse
• Window | Open Perspective | CVS Repository Exploring
  • This will add an icon to the quick dock option. See Point 1
  • This should open the CVS Repositories View. See Point 2. If not, you can do Window | Show View | CVS Repositories
• In the CVS Repositories View, Right Click | New | Repository Location
• Enter the following details on the Add CVS Repository window
  • Host: cvs.arabx.com.au
  • Repository Path: /home/repository/cvs
  • User: [username]
  • Password: [password]
  • Connection Type: pserver
  • Finish

Project Management

• Within the CVS Repositories View, you can see the appropiate CVS repositories
• Expand the repository, and then HEAD (Point 1) to get a list of projects within the CVS Repository (Point 2).
• The simpliest way to get a CVS project into Eclipse, is to Right Click on the CVS Project, and select Checkout
• In larger projects, you would always do Right Click, Checkout Out As, this gives you a dialog.
  • At the Check Out At dialog, normally you would select the appropiate project name (Point 1), normally the project plus some indicator of tag version or branch. Click Next (Point 2)
  • Next
  • Now is when you normally select an appropiate branch or version. In this case, you could expand Branches or Versions (Point 1). I’ve simply created some dummy versions (BUILD_100, BUILD_101) (Point 2). Choice One, Click Finish (Point 3)
• Now you should be in the Navigator View, if not, Select Window | Show View | Navigator.
  • Expanding out the project, will notice the following.
  • The Project has a decorator of the Repository (Point 1), and generally the branch details if applicable
  • Individual files all have a Revision Decorator (Point 2)
  • New Files when created have a > indicator (Point 3), and this propogrates to each parent directory and project

NOTE: These CVS repositories are just test areas, they are not used for any production systems.

Reference

More about the book.

To be Australian is to know what to say at international sporting events. The most common chant is:

Even foreigners know this about Australians. I was driving into San Francisco city a few months with three new friends from a recent conference, a Canadian, a German and an Austrian. At some part of the conversation, the Canadian said “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie”, and of course my response had to be “Oi, oi, oi”. At least one of the other guys expected it.

His original comment likened it in computer terms to a reset switch for Australians, and a normal response when hitting the reset button on a computer, is to get the appropiate single beep of acknowledge that the Bios is ok, if you get different beeps, you know something ain’t right with the hardware.

Another common word coined by the Australian Tennis player Lleyton Hewitt, that is now becoming more popular with other tennis players is “ComOn” A shortened version of “Come On”. I remember seeing an interview with another tennis player and originally that player thought that is was a sledging term to the opposition, like he was taunting or baiting them, but it’s a term directed towards himself, to gee himself up, to invoke more self passion, and to acknowledge to the loyal fans that he is pumped up.

References
Wikipedia - Aussie Aussie Aussie
Wikipedia - Lleyton Hewitt

“Welcome to the end of the Internet…
I am not saying the Internet is going to end but simply that this page is the end of the Internet …
unlike the earth the Internet is not round.”

HiTCHO has Spoken!

McGee: Are you wishing you were a computer geek?
Tony: I’d rather be homeless than be you, probie.

– NCIS “Dopplegänger” season 2 episode 12

“Slang” - Lingo, local talk, colourful language.

I won’t delve too much here, there a number of good references at the end, but here is a quick understanding of the basics.

• G’day is hullo, pronounced Gidday which is a shortened form of Good Day, and used mostly in informal situations. More formally we would say Hullo, Good Morning, Good Afternoon, or the likes.
• Goodbye is, um, er, Goodbye. Although some people say Hooroo, pronounced ‘ooroo.
• Bloke is an Aussie male who generally is a hard worker and does the right thing. Eg., “Bill’s a Good Bloke”.
• Mate is Friend, mainly for males. Everyone in Australia is mate, so we would often say “G’day mate” or “Thanks mate”.
• Onya means Well Done, a shortened form of Good On You. The best “Aussieism” in my opinion.

Here are some words you need to know.

Arvo, Bloke, Billy, Boozer, Dag, Drongo, Esky, Mate, Piss, Roo, Sickie, Sheila, Tinny, Ute, Wanker, Wuss, XXXX, Yakka, Yobbo.
Smoko, Lamingtons, Damper, Bangers, Tucker, BYO, Waterhole.

Here are some terms you will hear, and need to understand.

“mad as a cut snake”
“piece of piss”
“get the pink slip”
“not the full Quid”
“six pack short of a carton”
“back of bourke”
“bad case of the trots”
“Darwin stubbie”
“I kid you not”
“Ankle biter”

References
WebSite 1, Website 2, WebSite 3.

To be Australian is to love sport, if you don’t there is something wrong with the wiring. Aussies as passionate about sport, generally considered more so in the southern states. Melbourne would have to be the hub here. Regardless of the sport, people will get behind any event especially when Australians are involved.

Football “footy”

Australians love their “footy”. In Australia there are 4 different types of football.

• Australian Football League (AFL) also known as “aussie rules”. WebSite
• National Rugby League (NRL) also known as “league”. WebSite
• Australian Rugby Union (ARU) also known as “union”. WebSite
• Football Federation Australia (FFA) also known as “soccer”. WebSite

Now it depends where you live to understand what “footy” refers to. In different states “footy” has different meetings. It’s considered uncooth to talk for example about your favourite “footy” team when your in the wrong state. In Brisbane, “footy” is historically considered as “league”.

But both the AFL and the NRL, the two major leagues have made solid inroads into the others territory. 10-15 years ago, “league” was only played in Queensland and New South Wales, while “aussie rules” was just in Victoria. Now it’s national with both having teams in many states. In fact over the last 10 years the Brisbane Lions (AFL) and Brisbane Broncos (NRL) have been the best teams respectively.

AFL highlights this change. Of 16 teams, only 6 are outside of Victoria, the home of AFL. Of late, when the final series starts with the top 8 teams, this can include 4,5 or 6 of the teams outside the traditional home. In the last 10 years, 9 premierships have gone to the “outsiders”.

It’s important you support a team, with no family history or reasons, the home team is generally a good choice.

Other Sports

Not to be let down, there are plenty of other achievements.

Australians are the best cricket team in the world, we are the best rugby league team in the world, the best netball team, previously rugby union world champions and hot to be the best in the world at the next world championships. We have some of the greatest present swimmers in the world, usually only pipped by the US in world championships.

Despite only having a relatively small population, Australia has produced an extraordinary number of champions in a wide variety of sports.

Don Bradman is the “Tiger Woods” or “Micheal Jordan” of cricket. He is by far the world’s greatest ever player, indeed his career average is near twice the amount of the best players of the day.

Rod Laver, the greatest ever tennis player. The only player ever to win 2 Grand Slams in Tennis (1962, 1969). That is the 4 championships of the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. And to be a true grand slam winner, it’s all 4 in one calendar year, not 4 in a row.

Roy Emerson is the most prolific Grand Slam titleholder in the history of tennis. No man even comes close to challenging the famed Australian’s astonishing record. With 28 Grand Slam championship crowns, he is king of the tennis record books.

The “woodies” Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge the most successful team in tennis’ history.

Not to be set aside in Tennis, other great names include Lew Hoad, Rod Laver, Margaret Court, Tony Roach, Evonne Goolagong Cawley , Ken Rosewall, Fred Stolle and Lleyton Hewitt - the youngest ever player to be crowned world number one.

Dawn Fraser the first woman to swim 100 metres in less than one minute; the only athlete in the world to win the same event at three Olympic games in a row.

Shane Gould the only athlete to hold every world freestyle record from 100m to 1500m simultaneously, and the only swimmer ever to win three Olympic Gold Medals in world record time.

Kieren Perkins - dual 1500m Olympic gold medal-winner; world champion; famous for winning the Atlanta Olympics 1500m in what became known as ‘the swim of the century’.

Murray Rose - star of 1956 Melbourne Olympics; the most successful Australian male Olympian to date.

Ian Thorpe was only 14 when he dived into the history books in 1997 as the youngest male swimmer ever to represent Australia. Two years later, at the Pan Pacific Championships in Sydney, Thorpe broke four world records in four days. His list of records is extensive.

Again, the swimmers list continues with names like Susie O’Neill and Grant Hackett.

Sir Jack Brabham, the first driver in history to be knighted for his services to motorsport, remains one of racing’s most popular personalities. The triple world champion is the only Formula One driver to have won a world title in a car of his own construction – the BT19 – which he drove to victory in 1966. The following year the Brabham team won its second successive world championship when New Zealander Denny Hulme drove the BT20 to victory.

In atletics names include John Landy, Ron Clarke, Betty Cuthbert, Cathy Freeman and Marjorie Jackson.

The list of sports continue with world champions, cycling, surfing, boxing.

The Underdog

Australia loves a sporting hero, and none more than an ‘underdog’ who achieves victory. Steven Bradbury, the unlikely gold medallist in speed skating at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002, is such a winner. Bradbury won Australia’s first gold medal in the Winter Games. As a four time Olympian he is celebrated in Australia, as much for his luck in reaching the final in first place, as for his skill as a speed skater.

TV

It’s not sport when there are not 3 different sports on the TV over the weekend at the same time. The problem is sports are generally seasonal, either summer or winter, and there isn’t the population to have the number of teams and players like many sports in Europe and the US.

References
Football in Australia

Beer, we drink it in Australia. Fosters is generally recognised as Australian around the world. I’ve seen it on tap in English Pubs, in the Hong Kong Island Skyline at night, but if you live in Australia you don’t drink Fosters, that’s rotten water. We have many different varieties, but this is a story of Tasmanian Beer.

There has been world wide attention recently about the great escape of Australian Miners trapped underground for a few weeks that survived. (If you have been in a coma, you can read more about it here). So after 2 weeks, the news the following night saw these two guys at the pub enjoying a cold drink. Had you offered them a Tasmanian Cascade beer however you may have been stoned. You see Beaconsfield is to the North, and in the North you drink James Boags Beer. Only in the south do you openly state your passion for Cascade Beer. Now how did this rivalry start, I have no idea, but it’s part of Australian Culture that such passionate sides are taken in so many areas.

Just to make my point, even Wikipedia has an article on Tasmanian Beer.

It’s almost like the recent “State of Origin” Australian Rugby League series between Queensland and New South Wales. This is state verses state, mate verses mate, and even when the final game is played in Melbourne the capital of another state, is still a very passionate event of maroons verses blues. Melbourne has held a few games, I actually travelled there for the first non Queensland/New South Wales game ever in 1994. An amazing event watched at the MCG by 86,000 people. Can’t remember if we won, but it was a great event, it’s the current series you want to remember.

Indeed my neighbour is a NSW Cockroach, and I couldn’t resist the dig of “GO MAROONS” to stir the pot after our series win. On that note, here is another culture point. “Holden” verses “Ford” in the Australian V8 Supercars. This is classic Australian Motorsport. I’m a passionate Holden supporter having owned at differing times 2 new Holdens and a new HSV (a Holden Special Vehicle). That same neighbour, well she is one of those mad Ford people. It’s sad, but part of aussie culture is to look past these shortcomings, sometimes!

So back on track here, there are many cultural differences, indeed there are plenty of future topics here as well. On this point, not only do you need to know your beer, you need to know your geography. On the final note, I lived in Hobart, and I drank Cascade, and it’s better then Boags.

Side Note: This site does not condone the consumption of alcohol (in large quantities). One should always drink responsibility, preferably with a meat pie, a BBQ, a game of footy and good friends. (I miss that).

References
James Boags Web Site
Cascade Web Site
Wikipedia - Boags
Wikipedia - Cascade

Tasmania

Some more about Tasmania, a small island at the southern tip of the country. Very beautiful, I’ve lived there for 1 year, and have travelled the island extensively, probably more then 99% of the local population. Reminds me of a funny story, I’ll tell it later. Of course I’ve only seen a small portion, you see probably 50% is wilderness, and a lot is world heritage listed. I flew into a remote spot in the south west tip once, the only way in. To walk out to the closest civilisation, it’s at least 8 days hike away.

If you love natural beauty then this is one of the world’s paradises I’ve visited. If you love fine dining then the Fish, Seafood, Steak, Cheese and Wine are all world class. It’s a small island and it’s not overcrowded by tourists, you can walk beautiful beaches all alone, it’s just a little cold for swimming.

When I lived there in 1994, I had an apartment at Sandy Bay, right on the beach, it had 180 degree views of the beautiful coastal harbour, I could sit in my bay windows and talk to people walking along the beach. Out one side I had views of Mt Wellington, snow capped in winter.

Tasmania is world famous for things like The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Targa Tasmania Classic Motor Race, Great Seafood, Cheese and Tulips just to name a few different things.

Anyway, time to close with a funny Tasmania story. I had a friend visit, and we drove on Saturday to Stanley in the north to see the tulips. It’s amazing to see hills and hills of just tulips, very beautiful. Anyway, we drove back the same day. On Monday, at work I was asked by a local what I got up to on the weekend, “Well, I went to see the tulips on Saturday”. “What” was the reply, “I thought the tulip festive in Hobart was next weekend”. In response, “Yes it is, we just went to Stanley for the day”. Well it was like a look of shock on his face. You see for a local to drive 2 1/2-3 hours to get to Stanley and back in a day is unheard of, they would need to back for a weeks trip. In Queensland, you can drive 12 hours in a day, and not get 1/3 of the way through the state, so driving long distances is a part of my life.

Some of my Tasmania Photos

Australia is a small island in the south pacific a long way from all the major parts of the world, like North America, South America, Europe and Africe.

It’s important to recognise that Australia is a very large country by land mass, for example it’s the breath and height of the contential USA. Checkout the overlap map below (click on map for larger image).

Australia has 8 major states/territories (still to this day, I don’t know why they aren’t all states, and what exactly is the difference), and while everbody and every book states that Mt. Kosciuszko is our highest mountain it isn’t. The tallest mountain on Australian Sovereign Territory is Mt. Mawson (2,745 metres) on the Big Ben mountain complex on Heard Island. Heard Island is in the Southern Indian Ocean, about 4,000 km south-west of Perth.

Australia has a population of about 20 million, there are cities like Tokyo, Mexico City, Mumbai, San Paulo and New York with that many. China’s land size is comparable to ours but has a population 65 times that of Australia. 20 Million is about what is in the Los Angeles area, and definitely less then just the state of California alone. Over 95% of our population is on the eastern costline between Brisbane and Melbourne, an area much less then the state of California. That certainly leaves a lot of open space for things like: Beaches galore, The Great Simpson Desert, Urulu, Lake Eyre, World Heritage Listed areas like Kakadu National Park, Tasmanian Wilderness, The Great Barrier Reef and Canberra (the nations capital - another long story).

The largest city is Sydney, now around 4 million. I live in Brisbane with nearly 2 million people. Man, that’s a lot, where is that person for me.

Australia is a very young country, just over 200 years of Western inhabitation starting with the British, but inhabited for some 42,000 years by Indigenous Australians. You won’t see any 2000 year old roman ruins around the place, our oldest architecture is 200 years, unless imported.

We have some wonderful wildlife not found anywhere else in the world. We do have things like 8 of the top 10 deadliest snakes in the world, and spiders and if they don’t get you, the sharks, crocodiles, jellyfish, stone fish, sting rays or blue ringed octupus’s will kill you in the water. Our national coat of arms has our two national animals, the Kangaroo and the Emu. I haven’t tried it but you can actually eat Kangaroo.

We speak English (Australian for all those foreigners), drink beer and love our sport. Called the lucky country, with great weather (except in Melbourne), lots of open space and general freedoms. We have one of the world’s highest tax rates, we use the metric system (like practically everwhere else in the world), we drive on the left side of the road at speed limits of 100 km/h (that’s ~ 62 miles per hour for those americians), except in the Northern Territory where there is no limit. That’s cannonball run space but I’ve yet to visit.

We have a Prime Minister, appointed by the party, and who’s party is elected by the people in mandatory elections. But being a monanchy, the Prime Minister can be sacked by the Governor General, the Queen’s representive that is not elected, but appointed. Sounds weird, and in our history a Prime Minister has been sacked by the Governor General.

A quick introduction, it certainly leads to many other topics. Stay tuned.

References

Wikipedia - Australia
Dangerous Animals from Australia
Australia’s Top Ten Dangerous Animals
National Landforms

I’m expanding my Blog categories, this time it’s more personal then professional as I’ve maintained to date. However, part of being a professional is to also be able to express yourself. This is a direct response to a new employee at my last contract, Jorge a new “aussie” from a South Americian paradise. I only had the opportunity to share the Australian Culture briefly before leaving, so this is my attempt at continuing to provide a good “aussie” education.

From the movie “The Core”.