Great to see all the coverage for the upcoming match of the day.

No weight to Gram's jibe

Teams: Ramanauskas dropped

Riewoldt a Brownlow fancy

Warning on Saint's juice diet

Gehrig wanted to quit

Saints hold the Ball

Q & A with Grant Thomas

Geelong shuts the gates

Ling: We're ready for St Kilda test

Gehrig credits ban One change for Saints, Cats Red, White & Black Ball Saints add three to squad for Sunday Saints injury list Hamill fit for Cats clash Match Preview - Geelong v St Kilda Thomas confident on Ball What's in a name? Saints have altitude Thanks Andrew Inspiring the next generation Kick On in the City Hip hip hooray, Hamill returns for Cats clash VFA legend dies at 63 after stroke Cats: beware of Saints

8:28:18 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

12:52:48 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Organization

So I was in Atlanta for MGB and I stayed at the Hyatt Regency. I put in some of my clothes to the laundry service, as one does.

That evening the clothes didn't return. I called for help and the staff said they would follow-up.

I repeated this every evening for 6 days!! They had lost my laundry and had no idea where it went.

In a show of good customer service, the staff asked me to itemise the items and put a value to the lost items. I did my research on the web and created a list - it added up to $500. I double checked everything and then faxed a letter to the hotel.

As I was checking out, the folks at the front desk said they had my letter and would be sending me a cheque for $500 as replacement. Case closed!

Fast forward to the next day.

Moira gets a call from the Hyatt Regency Hotel Atlanta who informed her they have found my clothes and they will be shipping them to me.

Fast forward to the earlier this week.

My clothes arrived in a box from Atlanta. Clean.

Case Closed!!

9:29:13 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random

My network has been growing nicely on Orkut

I am now connected to 957,695 people through 91 friends, with 13 fans

That's sizable increase since my last update in May.

I'm still waiting for the next Orkut newsletter

9:03:24 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Friends • Random

It finally happened. The Saints who have been on the top of the ladder for most of the season have been overtaken bu the Brisbane Lions

Pos.		Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	%	Points
1		Brisbane	17	13	0	4	1957	1428	137	52
2		St.Kilda	17	13	0	4	1914	1431	133	52
3		Port Adelaide	17	13	0	4	1870	1461	128	52
4		Melbourne	17	13	0	4	1793	1445	124	52
5		Geelong	17	11	0	6	1588	1372	115	44
6		Fremantle	17	10	0	7	1545	1421	108	40
7		Kangaroos	17	9	0	8	1723	1521	113	36
8		Sydney	17	9	0	8	1458	1455	100	36
9		Essendon	17	9	0	8	1782	1782	100	36
10		West Coast	17	8	0	9	1538	1677	91	32
11		Carlton	17	7	0	10	1438	1787	80	28
12		Collingwood	17	6	0	11	1426	1575	90	24
13		Adelaide	17	5	0	12	1526	1648	92	20
14		Western Bulldogs	17	4	0	13	1498	1867	80	16
15		Richmond	17	4	0	13	1296	1873	69	16
16		Hawthorn	17	2	0	15	1275	1884	67	8

5:30:50 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

We went to check out the new Krispy Kreme that recently opened near Sydney Airport

While we were there, we HAD to get a few dozen.

5:24:44 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • Random

I took the boys to see I, Robot this afternoon at the local cinema. It was a rainy Saturday in Sydney, perfect movie going weather.

The unanimous conclusion from the gang was that it was an excellent movie, others agree too.

5:12:50 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • My Interests

5:06:32 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

ST KILDA 6.4 9.5 15.6 20.7 (127) defeated ESSENDON 2.1 4.3 9.7 14.8 (92)
Goals: St Kilda: F Gehrig 8 N Riewoldt 7 L Montagna 3 N Dal Santo B Guerra. Essendon: M Lloyd 6 B Haynes 2 D Hille 2 J Johnson N Lovett-Murray J Winderlich A Ramanauskas.
Best: St Kilda: F Gehrig A Jones N Riewoldt L Montagna L Hayes B Voss S Baker. Essendon: D Hille J Johnson M Lloyd D Solomon.
Umpires: M Vozzo B Allen D Woodcock.
Crowd: 50,392 at Telstra Dome.

Eight goals to Fraser Gehrig and seven to Nick Riewoldt provided the twin pillars around which St Kilda constructed its 13th win of the season, against Essendon at Telstra Dome last night.

Leading at every change, the Saints won by 35 points and will retain top spot on the ladder unless the Brisbane Lions or West Coast have a lopsided win in the remainder of the round. [more]

5:04:28 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

Fraser Gehrig has returned to his devastating early season form as he and Nick Riewoldt destroyed Essendon on Friday night to put the Bombers in serious danger of missing the AFL finals for the first time since 1997.

The man known as 'The G-Train' booted eight goals and had a hand in several others as St Kilda thrashed the disappointing Bombers 20.7 (127) to 14.8 (92) at Telstra Dome.

more

7:01:03 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

Tony & Vicki had a little girl on Monday at 2:28pm weighing in at 2.790 kgs (6lbs 9 oz ). Her name is Zoe Katsabaris.  Mum, daughter and Dad are all doing well.

7:01:02 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Friends

I posted earlier that I was in Atlanta at the moment.

Well, there is a suburb called Buckhead - there are lots of clubs, restaurants, stores there too.

I'm going to use that as my insult dejour - HEY YOU A BUCKHEAD!

[listening to: Ain't No Mystery - Smash Mouth ]
12:59:57 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random

St Kilda mauled Richmond by 44 points in Melbourne in their AFL match at Telstra Dome.

The top-placed Saints badly needed the win after losing four of their last five and dominated 16.9 (105) to 9.7 (61).

Halfback Aussie Jones was best afield with 28 possessions and full-forward Nick Riewoldt kicked five goals. [more]

6:26:47 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

ST KILDA mauled Richmond by 44 points in Melbourne today in their AFL match at Telstra Dome. more.....

3:51:05 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

I got to watch a few movies on my little trip.

• Envy
• Starsky & Hutch
• The Whole 10 Yards

They were all entertaining. Good brainless fun.

3:25:57 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Organization • Random

My journey started 4.45am on Monday July 12. A cab came to pick me to take me to Sydney airport for a 7AM flight.

I was travelling to Atlanta for the annual Microsoft Global Briefing.  After 28 elapsed hours, I am now in Atlanta sitting in my hotel room recounting the journey. This is what I looks like

No wonder I am feeling tired now.

When I told my kids I was going to Atlanta, they wanted to know how I was going to breathe underwater. Gotta love those wacky kids!!! They thought I said Atlantis!

10:16:29 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • My Organization

MELBOURNE 4.1 11.3 17.6 23.8 (146) defeated ST KILDA 4.2 8.6 11.8 13.11 (89)
Goals: Melbourne: B Holland 4, D Neitz 3, B Green 3, C Bruce 3, T Johnstone 2, P Vardy 2, R Robertson 2, B McLean, P Read, A Davey, J White.
St Kilda: N Riewoldt 9, A Hamill, A Thompson, R Harvey, S Milne.
Best: Melbourne: C Bruce, B Green, J White, B Holland, T Johnstone, C Heffernan.
St Kilda: N Riewoldt, R Harvey, L Ball, N Dal Santo.
Umpires: M Vozzo, D Margetts, C Rowe.
Crowd: 54,409 at the MCG.

Melbourne created a four-team jam at the top of the AFL ladder when it beat St Kilda by 57 points at the MCG today.  [more..]

[listening to: I'm Looking Through You - The Wallflowers ]
6:10:57 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

Melbourne has stamped itself as Victoria's best premiership hope in 2004 as St Kilda's woes worsened at the MCG on Sunday despite a magnificent individual performance from Nick Riewoldt.

Riewoldt, playing full-forward in the absence of the suspended Fraser Gehrig, booted a career best nine goals but it was not enough to stop the Saints crashing to their fourth loss in five games as Melbourne won 23.8 (146) to 13.11 (89) in front of 54,409 fans.

The Saints, who were three games clear on top of the ladder after winning a club record ten successive games to start the season, now find themselves ahead of Brisbane, Port Adelaide and Melbourne by percentage only and on current form they are the worst of the top four teams. more...

[listening to: Beware the Groove [Score] [Score] - John Debney ]
6:08:27 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

A magnificent individual performance from Nick Riewoldt was not enough to carry the day for the Saints who went down by 57 points to Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday. Riewoldt, playing full-forward in the absence of the suspended Fraser Gehrig, booted a career best nine goals as Melbourne won 23.8 (146) to 13.11 (89) in front of 54,409 fans. [more...]

[listening to: Children of the Revolution - Bono ]
5:49:49 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

Grrrrr.........

"St Kilda suffered its fourth loss in five matches as Melbourne ran out 57-point winners in the AFL round 15 match-up between the two sides at the MCG on Sunday afternoon. The Demons kicked six goals to two in a final quarter charge to seal the win by 23.8 (146) to 13.11 (89). The loss weakened the Saints' hold at the top of the table as Melbourne, Port Adelaide and defending premiers Brisbane moved level with them on 44 points. But the Saints retained a slender grip on the top spot on percentages. The loss came despite the best efforts of Nick Riewoldt, who kicked a massive nine majors for the Saints in a losing cause. Ben Holland had four for the Demons while Cameron Bruce, Brad Green and David Neitz each scored three. Melbourne had booted seven goals to four in the second quarter to open up a 15-point lead at half-time. The Saints next face an away game to Richmond, while Melbourne has the Western Bulldogs at home."

[listening to: This Music - Big Brovaz ]
5:46:31 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Hobbies

This is a cool initiative! I'm listed in here

We just launched the Microsoft Community Blogs Portal, a searchable listing of blogs by Microsoft employees, categorized by product or technology topic. The project also makes it easier for pages across Microsoft.com to publish lists of relevant blogs and posts from those blogs.

This project was intended to answer one of the key pieces of feedback we get from customers about our blogging efforts to date. As people posted in response to Scoble's question about Microsoft blogs, it’s sometimes hard to find blogs about a particular technology or product that we make, even on a site like blogs.msdn.com which only has full time Microsoft employees blogging. Our answer to that is to ask our bloggers to categorize their RSS feeds (and to indicate whether they’re writing for a technical audience or a more general readership). The blog portal then makes those blogs available for consumption.

The project also provides ways for blog content to be automatically incorporated into pages on Microsoft.com. We’ve already been doing this, in a proof of concept way, on MSDN in the developer centers, but the process has been very manual. This should make it much easier for all our site managers to incorporate blogs.

A nice side effect of the project is the ability to search across all of the registered RSS feeds. So if you aren’t able to find something using regular Microsoft.com search but you think one of our bloggers might have written about it, you can search across all the registered posts from the portal.

Oh yeah, about RSS. A second project which launched yesterday, called Smart Components 2.0, also allows these contextually relevant lists of posts and blogs to be re-published via RSS. What’s that mean? In a nutshell, every one of the blog recent posts components contains a white on orange RSS badge linking to an RSS feed that is scoped to the same content set as the component. The one on the blog portal has an RSS feed of the fifty most recent posts from all registered Microsoft blogs. If I’m on the Exchange community site, there will now be an RSS feed that aggregates posts from registered bloggers who write about Exchange. And we aren’t just RSS-enabling blog content. With the new code that we deployed yesterday, all sorts of smart components on our sites, including lists of newsgroup content, upcoming chats and webcasts, knowledge base articles, and security bulletins now emit RSS.

Finally, what we shipped yesterday was a portal and a toolbox for our site managers to incorporate these features into their sites. We’ll point to uses of the new components as they go live and spread Microsoft blogs and RSS across Microsoft.com. We’ll also write specifics about some of the other new features in the Smart Components 2.0 release.

(Bonus: there are some interesting hidden features in the blog portal.)

Related...

[Weblogs @ ASP.NET]

[listening to: Nowhere Man - Paul Westerberg ]
11:02:25 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Organization

Bricey has not slept well for most of his short life. Recently we have been giving him melatonin before he goes to bed. It is available by prescription and made up by a local pharmacy.

It has been amazing. He yawns (he never yawned before) and falls asleep in less than 10 minutes - while I read to him. It is a miracle.

We have seen a noticable change in his behaviour. He can focus on activities such as drawing or coloring in. He has been able to write his name -- a few weeks ago all he could do was a 'B'.

He still wakes during the night, but he is now having a much deeper sleep. Thanks to the magical melatonin!

[listening to: Spanish Eyes - Al Martino ]
7:50:48 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family

I got myself a handy component today for my XDA II

The WiFi SD (SecureDigital) card is the smallest WiFi card in the market.  Isn't that fantastic! Small is good

Amazon has lots of info about this little fellow

I just can't wait to pop it into my XDA II and use it on my travels overseas, as I wont be able to use GPRS.

[listening to: American Pie - Madonna ]
5:56:57 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random

My good buddy, and former Microsoftee, Cameron Reily has become a voracious blogger.

This morning he posted a piece about an innovation conference he wants to run in Melbourne. I think this would be a well attended event. Australia needs this kind of stuff happening. There is a lot of negative feelings around technology innovation at the moment, or it is perceived as too hard, too expensive or just fleeting.

Good luck Cam -- let me know if you need a speaker....

[listening to: Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps (Quizas, Quizas, Quizas) - Doris Day ]
5:17:31 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Friends • My Organization

I took all the boys to see Spider-Man 2 this afternoon.

It's a terrific movie, and we all agree it's better than the first movie (which is also pretty good).  Lots of action, lots of terrific special effects, a good story, and a great bad guy. Plus it is all setup for Spider-Man 3.

The most amazing aspect of the movie was that Brice sat through it all. An amazing effort for a 4 year old.

[listening to: Rubberneckin' - Elvis Presley ]
5:07:54 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • My Interests

I've spent the past few days down the South Coast with my family. It was a short little holiday before I head overseas.

While I was away lots happened in the footy:

• St.Kilda was thrashed by Port
• 3 St.Kilda players were reported AND were all suspended
• More sexual innuendo
• Luke Penny got off

I am sure there are more stories out there.

My biggest annoyance is I only picked 3 winners last week!

[listening to: Holiday - Madonna ]
4:00:33 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • My Hobbies

I hadn't bought any new cds for a while, so I splashed out this week on Amazon.

I got a mix of movies and tv shows on dvd:

• Timeline (I saw this at the movies with Antony)
• Paycheck
• 50 First Dates
• The Thin Blue Line - The Complete Line-Up
• Monk - The Complete First Season
• Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Second Season

The package arrived earlier this week, so we have some movie watching to do over the holidays.

Now, I need to get Antony to update the DVD collection.

[listening to: Caravan - 80 Drums Around the World ]
9:28:01 PM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random

I lamented a few weeks back about my broken glasses. Well joys of joys, my wonderful wife went and collected my repaired glasses last night and I am wearing said glasses again. I'm finally rid of those tragic 90's frames that I have had to wear for the past month.

It's good to see again!

[listening to: Asereje - Sunshine Full Vocal Spanglish - Las Ketchup ]
9:59:35 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Family • Random

Hello FY05.

[listening to: When Doves Cry - Bared Naked Ladies ]
9:02:43 AM    comment []  trackback []  G!   • Random