Jump on the Ivory Coast World Cup bandwagon!

Well the way Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) played against Argentina in their first world cup match, its hard not to want to see these guys through the Group of Death. They're a great team, making their world cup debut and they play hard and fast soccer. The first half Ivory Coast were dominating despite what the scores say they held back the Argentinian offence and broke through thir defences on more than several occasions. Côte d'Ivoire's only problem i see is their lack of decent strikers, Drogba is great but they should have got the ball out to him more than they did.

Kalou got a fair few opportunities and didnt use them to his advantage, and like i said should have passed the ball to Drogba on more than one occasion. Another of their problems which i noticed is that once they get to the striking zone they hesitated, holding the ball and it was like they were waiting for the defender to lunge out and get it off them when they could easily have gone for a shot. Happened several times, it could have resulted in an Ivorian win if they had gone for a couple more shots.

Didier Drogba is Côte d'Ivoire's key player

They've got a fair few players in the french league but the ones in the English premiership league like Drogba and i think Toure is in premiership league too and a couple others are the players that hold this team together.

Kolo Touré was wow, great defence, "daddy long legs" is my nick name for him, he's a beast, great defence and speed. Their goalkeeper Jean-Jacques Tizie should have kicked the ball down the field a couple more times rather than to the nearest defender, if they had more strikers it'd solve this problem becuase he would have someone to kick the ball out to. I think they should have one less midfielder and one more striker. Though their midfield is great the Ivorians get a lot of shots at goal and one more striker could help them get a couple more balls in the back of the net.

So yer, congratulations must be given to Côte d'Ivoire for a fantastic game of football (soccer) :p and to Argentina for pouncing on the occasions when the Ivorian defences weren't well held together. I think its save to say that placing a bet on Hernan Crespo to score the first Argentine goal would be a save one because he's quick and a safe striker of the ball and a Drogba first goal for the Ivorians is another safe bet.

Well have fun watching the World Cup people,
<3 Vazza

ps: The Socceroos are gonna beat Japan 2-1...and if they dont, blame it on Viduka :D

Socceroos entering the World Cup!

GO THE SOCCEROOS!!!!
We're gonna kick arse in the World Cup.
I wanna see opponents faces when the Soccer-WHOs beat them down, judo chop style and they'll see what its like to Soccer-lose.

Stuff you Brazil, Aussies win either way. If we lose people will be like "Well they had no chance anyway" and if we win everyones gonna be "Ahhhh Brazil, you !%#$ing suck. Go eat doggy di@#"

waaaah Schwarzer we love you!!!!

Mark Schwarzer ripping out a mad save and getting us to the Cup

oh and Viduka sucks, my grandma plays better soccer than him.
Get the !%$@ off my team ya lil punk ass biotch! Stop eating so much Big Macs, maybe then your foot'd be able to move back 'n forth and you'd get a penalty in for once. I swear i dunno wtf you do in training, the only position you should be playing in the Aussie team Viduka, is bench-warmer cos thats the only thing your fat arse would be good at and im sure some bogan in a local pub could do a better job at that anyway.

<3 to Hazza Kewel, legend
If Australia loses a match its cos Viduka sucks, let it be said now b4 the Cup begins. I said it, thats right, typed right from the fingertips of yours truly!

:))))
Well, till next time
<3 from Vazza down here in the aussie camp

ps: check out this funny as socceroos commercial, gotta love it!
Best commercial ever in my opinion.
The video is at http://video.vividas.com/media/4516_Nike/web/ <--thats the newer one.

There's a version for the pre-Aussie vs Greece one too, that is at http://www.stuffhistory.com.au/what_greece_60.htm

Check this website too while you're at it.
http://www.stuffhistory.com.au/

Dan Brown hurt by Vatican comments

I read on http://newsblog5000.blogspot.com/ , specifically http://newsblog5000.blogspot.com/2005/04/dan-brown-hurt-by-vatican-criticism.html
that bestseller author Dan Brown was hurt emotionally by Vatican comments at him and his book "The Da Vinci Code". I didn't know he was hurt by them but I am sorry for him. I'm quite outraged by the fact that his own publisher is siding with the Vatican and is saying that they should have placed the book in the fiction section. Considering that they are reaping the benefits of the huge sales of the book i believe they should be ashamed of themselves. But we all know why they're doing this don't we? They don't want to be seen in the position of opposing the Vatican in case there is a massive boycot of DoubleDay books so instead of siding with the author who they PUBLISHED, they decide to side with the Vatican. Now please excuse my language when i say, "They're covering their ASSES!!!"

The only thing that's really consoling me is knowing that even if Brown is hurting emotionally, he definitely isn't going to be hurting in terms of sales. No, in fact i would would think that the Vatican has done the completely wrong thing in coming out in public to say that they disapprove of the book. If i hadn't read the book only a month before the Vatican's comments, i sure would have had run out of my house to the Angus and Robinson's store to get one in my hands as soon as i could. Because, anyone who hasn't read the book will be thinking "What is in that book that has enraged the Vatican so?". So in typical fashion, they'll go out to their nearest bookstore and get a copy.

There is one more thing i have to say (though i try to be impartial and not take sides, in a case like this there are only two sides to the story) and that is GO TO YOUR NEAREST BOOKSHOP AND BUY A COPY OF THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown!!!

What's so bad about that?

If you've not seen this article yet, then I think you should.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/04/15/old.tests.website.ap/index.html

It's an article about a University student (Aaron Narva), who sold copies of university exams over the net. Now fine, maybe selling them is wrong but the article also states that he soon stopped selling them and allowed them to be accessed for free to anyone. I believe that Aaron hasn't done anything wrong in allowing people to access his website which CNN says is a "clearinghouse for study materials, offering old tests, quizzes, study guides and student notes". Sure if it was just tests then there may be an issue there but its also study material and his notes. Whats wrong with letting other people see those.

As a uni student myself (and i'm sure other people would feel the same way), i would be very grateful to have access to notes that a previous student is generously posting for other people to view. Sure, there's the issue of copyright and plagiarism where people are copying word for word peoples notes but with current policies implemented in universities right now where student fail their subjects because of plagiarism, i'm sure this would not be too big a problem.

Accessing other student's notes is not a "highway option" or a "lazy man's way out". No, not at all. This is especially true if the content is available to everyone. Other student's notes can ease the pain and stresses of study and allow other students to gain insight into how different students percieve a certain topic. Let me give a classic example which involves the good teacher - bad teacher analogy. Say i'm studying engineering at Yale (trust me, i'm not that smart), and in 2003 the 300-odd students had an excellent teacher who happens to tragically die of a sudden and unexpected heart-attack. Now they get a new teacher in 2004. It so happens that this new teacher teaching the new first years is isn't that good (i'm sure this wouldn't happen at Yale). That year (2004) the majority of the students perform poorly which contradicts the previous year's student's results. Now one of the students in 2003 hears about this travesty and in feeling sorry for the 2005 students, posts up her notes for them to see. Surely there is nothing wrong with that is there? Shes's only helping out her fellow students. Now that analogy may seem a tad far-fetched but i'm sure the point i make has been taken. If it hasn't, let me reiterate.

A student should be allowed to post their student notes and past-year papers for future students to look at at also work through because it allows for struggling students to get a helping hand.

Aaron Narva may have may have gone too far by going through with the act of selling these term-papers and notes, but by publishing them on the net for free for future student's reference he has only helped the learning process of these future student. Aaron should not have had to remove the material from his site.

Gmail

Hi to anyone reading my blog and thanks for reading it.
You know, i have tonnes of gmail account invitations to give away cos it's not lyke im using them. Well last night, i was thinking that if i sold each of my gmail accounts for lyke 5 buck i'd have so much money its not funny. :)

But i think with all these copyright laws and stuff like that that its most probably illegal or something to sell gmail accounts to people. Its was just an idea though. Cos i was dreaming about the PSP and i was wondering how the hell i'd get enough money to buy one and then it struck me.

But nah i'd rather not go to jail for a measly couple of bucks, lol. So until i get a letter from one of the two creators of gmail saying that it is allright to sell my gmail accounts off, the thought is gone from my mind.

Sony PSP

Well I was just on the CNN website and I saw that that Sony PSP is coming out in the US on Thurday(I think they're restocking or something). Though I live in Australia, I have had the honour of playing a PSP thanx to eBay and someone who used it to get the PSP. I'm pretty sure the PSP is only coming out around September in Australia due to the huge amount of demand in Japan and the US. If there is one word to describe the PSP however it would have to be "AWESOME".

I didn't really believe that it had the graphics of a Playstation 2 but damn, are those graphics good!!! And not only that, but it fits snugly in your hand as well. Its not too big and not too small.



http://www.us.playstation.com/Content/Sites/65/Info/

Well this is what i've find out about the PSP.
Accoring to the official US PSP website (http://www.us.playstation.com/Content/Sites/65/Info/)
the PSP has the approximate dimensions of 6.7 in Width
2.9 in Height
and 0.9 in Depth
It weighs around 280 grams.
If you don't know how much this is let me just tell you that it is really light.

The screen is quite big as well.

A lot of people in many forums argue that the PSP's battery life is very low. I think (from my memory) its 4 hours or something. Though that may not seem alot, once connected to the AC adaptor, you can play it for as long as you like. Now im sure your thinking "yeh, but they call it Playstation Portable for a reason". But you know what, i don't care what you think!!! No but in all seriousness even though you may feel 4 hours isn't that much, really it is. 4 hours of anything is lot. Especially 4 hours of playing games continuously.

What i love about the PSP though is that it uses a UMD (Universal Media Disc) that can store up to 1.8 GB of media while only being 60mm (6 cm) in diameter. This allows the PSP to play not only games but movies and music video clips and even sports programs as well. Now how gr8 is that.

http://www.consolenetwork.it/rec_prev/IMGNEWS3/pspE39.JPG


Not only that but the great selection of games will blow you away.Some of the more well known ones are:
Need For Speed Underground Rivals
Ridge Racer
Spider-Man 2
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix
Tiger Woods PGA Tour
and
Wipeout Pure
though there are lots more.

The PSP truly is as someone said "The walkman of the 21st century"!