Welcome to Grand Final weekend! This weekend we have a double-header of sporting finals - the Australian Rules final on Saturday followed by the National Rugby League final on the Sunday night. Incredibly, both finals are represented by teams from outside the state hosting the finals, and both host states are expecting an influx of "out of towners" lobbing into town in the low-percentage hope of picking up a late ticket to the game - there are any number of stories of people facing the 40-odd hour bus ride from Perth to Melbourne just to be there on the day.

The AFL originated from the VFL - the Victorian Football League - and this year has finalists from New South Wales (the Sydney Swans) and Western Australia (the West Coast Eagles). Despite this, the final is to be held, as always, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), or "The 'G" as it is known in the Melbourne heartland. Melbourne is still expected to turn out a capacity crowd of close to a hundred thousand for the event, plus the other many thousand who will pack into the nearby pubs to soak in the atmosphere of the day. The game is expected to be an absolute corker as it's a replay of last year's final between the two teams in which the Sydney Swans won by a meagre 4 points - not much when one straight kick will earn you a 6 pointer.

In a parallel, the NRL game originated from the New South Wales version - the NSWRL - and is played at the Olympic Stadium from the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. The two teams fighting it out for this year's title are based in Melbourne (the Melbourne Storm) and Brisbane (the Broncos) - and again, despite the teams being from out of state, another capacity crowd is expected. The Storm have only lost 4 of their 24 games in the regular season, with the Broncos losing 10 of theirs. Both teams, however, have been in spectacular form over the last 5 or 6 weeks and the game is expected to warrant every bit of the yearly Grand Final buildup.

I guess you could say that this weekend is the Australian equivalent of "Super Bowl Sunday" albeit with only a fraction of the worldwide audience, but a big weekend for us downunder. Add to that the fact it's a public holiday in New South Wales on Monday, and we're expecting a beautiful Spring weekend and you couldn't ask for much more if you like your sport.

Personally - I'll be going for Brisbane in the League (I'll always be a Queenslander), and I'll be cheering in the Swans in the AFL (not quite the Brisbane Lions, but next in line for my love when it comes to the AFL).

--- update - Sunday 11am
The AFL game has been decided in a thriller. The West Coast Eagles lost to Sydney last year by 4 points and, after leading by 25 points at halftime, defended well to win this year's title by 1 point 12.13.85 to 12.12.84.

--- update - Monday 10am
The mighty Brisbane Broncos downed the Melbourne Storm to make it 6 wins from 6 grand final appearances in the NRL. The Broncos have farewelled retiring legend Shane Webcke with a 15-8 win in a physical encounter in which he epitomised the workhorse forward of rugby league - no moment more telling than the run to setup the field goal to clinch the win. In the 73rd minute Webcke hit the line, pivoted for another couple of metres, then strained forward to gain another 5 metres with 2 or 3 opponents hanging off him to take the ball into field goal range. Webcke ends a 12 year career with 20 Test appearances, and 21 for Queensland in the State of Origin. It's also another win for supercoach Wayne Bennett who now coached the Broncos for all six wins (he's also the only coach Brisbane has ever had). My highlight of the match is an amazing try in the 62nd minute to Brent Tate after the ball seemed to go through 15 sets of hands on the fifth tackle for a try in the corner.

I just had a comment from Adam Osborne asking about whether Fusion was discussed at the Ed Brill event in my writeup - I started to kick off a response, but once it got to 3 paragraphs, I thought it deemed a top level entry.

I didn't put it in the entry, but yes - there was some talk.. not completely sure of the intention behind it, but there was a "questionaire" that everyone filled out which asked if you would attend a Lotus Fusion-type event.. and whether you'd pay, and how long it should go for etc... It was Lotus-branded so hopefully that shows that it is at least being considered again.

I hope/expect they would get an overwhelming response of "Yes" - I know of a lot of people who wrote on the last set of feedback forms "Bring Back Fusion!" so hopefully that has converted into a 100% success rate requesting a Fusion-like event to be held regularly again in Australia... it's been too long between drinks for something good in the Australian developer market...

One of the things that I desperately hope isn't going to happen is that we get sold on a Fusion-like event, we all toddle along full of expectation and we end up seeing marketing presentations for a couple of days. There are many people that I've met over the last couple of years who are capable (and willing - if you assume conversations held in late night conference-related drinking sessions actually reflect their willingness) to do some good technical presentations then it would be a shame not to see it happen.

I'm not sure of the logistics, but given a few of the slides from Lotusphere, I know of a few business partners and interested parties who would be more than capable of presenting the same content with a little bit of local flavour kicked in the spice things up.

let's wait and see I guess....

The next question is "Where do you want it to be held?" - in your hometown/major city (Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane I would suggest as top runners), or somewhere exotic (hmmm.. does the Qld Coast qualify as "exotic"?)

Well, last night we went to the potential re-launch of the Sydney Lotus User Group (SLUG - *ahem* - a name change is in the works - Lotus Energizers is the current incarnation - not sure if I like the "z" in Energizers but what can you do?)

Anyway, it was a great turnout for the event - approximately 110 people registered, we were warned that the room only held 60, but that wasn't enough to stop people from seeing the great Ed Brill in person - I think we would have hit the hundred mark in attendance (plus a few IBMers).

From the start, let me say that I was impressed with the night, very pleased with the attendance, and very happy that we went along (it was counter-directional to our trip home so we had to leave the city to go to the presentation and then return home via work).

My favourite moment was at the very start when Ed walked down the corridor to the front of the room... the hush that fell over the crowd which, seconds before, was filled with 50 different conversations and mobile phone calls, there was an air of expectation that Ed was about to launch into an Anthony Robbins-like experience which would change the world. Seriously, if Ed had asked everyone to chant "Go you big red fire engine" it would have lifted the roof.

...more »

so... the "other project" that Laurette and I have been working on?... not so much a project as a lifelong commitment... yep, Laurette is pregnant with our first child - a girl due on the 2nd January 2007 - although I reckon it would be much better to have a birthday on the 1st so you can always be guaranteed a big party, and you can host the recovery session without expecting to prepare much more than 2 or 3 beroccas, 2 litres of water and a pair of sunglasses for each guest.

We've been rocking along for the last 5 months - keeping up to date with what's happening with the new arrival and attempting to prepare ourselves for the dramatic change of events that are coming our way (one of our friends has already laughed maniacly at the prospect of paying us back for the noisy gifts that either have no battery, or a long life one, and manages to provide noises and tunes for 24 hours a day - personally I think they're bluffing! [I hope]). We've just started to sort out our home in an attempt to get ready - so far that's amounted to packing up all our books and preparing them for storage. I mean, come on, babies are tiny right, how much stuff can they need?

so - apologies for the lack of posts, lack of updates to dominoblogs.com, lack of the next version of openslice.com (it's in testing now), lack of anything on the 'net lately really... we've kind of been pre-occupied with a little bump that's slowly but surely getting bigger...

it's a sad, sad end to the day here in Australia...

The legendary "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin has been killed by a stingray whilst filming a documentary in Northern Queensland. A man that many of us have come to believe as invincible has finally succumbed to the wildlife he was so passionate about.

Freakishly, there are very few reports of deaths from Stingrays - less than ten (closer to 2 on last reports) - the report is that Steve copped a sting from the tail (possibly around 8 inches long) in his chest - the reports vary from it puncturing a lung, to causing a cardiac arrest due to the toxins and barbs in the the spike.

I've been to Australia Zoo a couple of times, and to see the changes and effort that Steve has put into the zoo gives you some part of an understanding as to the love of animals that this amazing family has fostered in themselves, their friends, and anyone who's life they touch with their experiences. Just recently Steve appeared on tv in an interview after the death of Harriet, a 175 year old tortoise that was used by Darwin in his studies, I remember being shocked at the news, but my eyes welled up when the big man broke down with tears in his eyes when asked whether Harriet would stay in the park in some capacity - being such a part of his life, he was visibly shaken with the prospect of not having her in the park as he went about his work.

Rest well mate, you've touched the lives of many with your passionate love of animals this world has to offer - I'm proud to say that I'm one.