Australian Cricket

When I was younger and fitter I used to play cricket, so I’m still quite interested in the game. In fact, I did hope to play some cricket again, but my car accident finished that off.

Being an ‘old’ cricketer I like to watch the cricket and I am dismayed by some of what I see in Australian cricket these days. There is plenty of great cricket and good cricketers in Australia. Michael Clarke is playing the best cricket of his life and then you have David Warner, the new fast bowler Jackson Bird, etc. However, I am dismayed by plenty also.

The ‘rotation’ policy or player management, or whatever they want to call it is simply a disaster that officials don’t get. ‘Fess’ up and admit it was a mistake – please! Australia’s spin stocks are terrible and it is simply frustrating seeing some of the bowlers being consistently picked to bowl spin – I’ve heard some of the commentators saying  ‘he needs to spin the ball.’ Yeah, that’s a no brainer for a ‘spin bowler.’ The number of players being picked without having the opportunity to have a fair go and yet the odd player or two who should have been dropped ages ago have been able to play on and on and on…

The battle of the Australian batsmen with swing bowling is a problem of course, but that is something the batsmen need to learn to cope with and is simply part of the game. Australia has very little in the way of swing bowlers these days (and spin by the way), so I don’t think picking other batsmen will make a great difference. The battle with swing is great to watch, yet the good batsmen will develop the means to stand up and be counted in the face of quality swing bowling.

I’m sure there is plenty of other things to think about, but they appear to be the biggest challenges facing Australian cricket. The Ashes will be very interesting.

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Storybook

Today’s link is to a site for people who are interested in or are actually writing a book or books. Storybook is Open Source software and available for free. From what I’ve seen of the software and a tutorial that I found on using it, Storybook looks to be a very useful piece of software. For a change I have two links – one for the software itself and one for the tutorial I found on it.

For more, visit:
http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla/

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/organize-create-stories-novels-storybook/

 

The Fridge

If you’re interested in setting up a group/community/social network, perhaps you might like to check out ‘The Fridge.’ The Fridge is a place where you can set up a free group/community/social network. There are plenty of places these days for setting up a group and/or a social network. You could of course try Google Groups, Grou.ps and/or Yahoo Groups. If you are happy to pay there are other possibilities including Ning. The Fridge is not a site I had even heard of until a few days ago, but it could be worth a look or worth experimenting with for a while.

A member of a Fridge group gets a personal profile, which has a wall similar to Facebook. You can also post a photo for your profile. It really is a very simple social network providing a very basic service. It really seems to be a way of having very basic communication with other members of the group. You can post a picture with a post. So basically it provides a secure and private place for communicating. I guess email really accomplishes the same thing to some degree.

Have a look at:

http://www.frid.ge

flickchart

If you like watching movies (and there are few people that don’t), perhaps you would be interested in a site that ranks movies that you watch according to ratings that you determine. If you are, perhaps flickchart is a social networking type site that you may like to join. Visit flickchart at:

http://www.flickchart.com/

My profile at flickchart can be found at:

http://www.flickchart.com/particularkev

BirdLife International

This link is to a site that seeks to protect birds in the wild, with their habitats and other associated causes. It is an international partnership of organisations that provides valuable information on the conservation of birds and their habitats. I recommend it to anyone interested in birds and the environment.

http://www.birdlife.org/

A Friend’s Documentary

I have a friend who is interested in film making. The link below will take you to the video of her first documentary entitled ‘On the Banks of the Snowy River.’ It is a hypothetical reflection on what might have been, should the national capital of Australia have been located elsewhere.

www.vimeo.com/10374591