Book

Just finished Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. I agree with the author, that this is his best work. I had given up on him after reading Stranger In A Strange Land, which I disliked rather much.

Looks like this book may join the long line of obscure books that get made into movies shortly after I read them. Previous examples include A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander, and one other that escapes me. Hopefully this one won't star Russell Crowe.

Movies

Rented the odd combination of Dodgeball (amusing enough) and The Third Man (very good, but not as good as I was expecting -- Orson Wells and Graham Greene, come on).

Soccer

A good game yesterday. We won our fourth straight. I played agro enough that somebody on our team said "Let's step it up to Mark's level!" at one point. Shortly after, I crept up for a throw in and ended up heading it off the crossbar, which another guy on our team pounced on for our first goal. Same guy got another and that was enough. 2-0. Kept a clean sheet for once.

Injury report: maybe I played a little too hard. Stiff-legged myself at one point, hard, and thought I might have blew out my knee, but it was my ankle that took the brunt. Quite swollen right now. Hopefully it'll be right for next week. Also dinged up my other knee and right elbow.

Movies watched yesterday:

The Aviator, good. The Cup, good. The Kid Stays in the Picture, good.

I sat out the first half of today's match, due to rotation. And so we go down 1-nil. They put me in in the second half, and we come back and win 2-1. I'd like to think it's because of me, but I didn't play all that great. But winning is good. Might even learn the team song at this rate (we only sing it when we win).

Shots on goal: none, but I made a run up at one point and was fouled.

Injuries: went knee-to-knee with a guy, hard enough that he had to sit out for ten minutes. It hurt a bit but I pushed on. It's the same injury that I've done a few dozen times in my life, where if I leave my leg straight for too long it feels like somebody put a strip of tape down it, preventing it from bending.

soccer

Official match report from last Sunday:

Thirds: Rd13-Caulfield Grammer (home)
The intoxicating smell of victory

MPFC 3 vs Caulfield Grammar 1
Scorers: Rob Ledger, OG, Tansel

This was going to be an easy game according to the experts, unfortunately we lost to them in the 1st round of the season.

With a solid defence including a “real” goalie, MPFC set out to achieve an important win. After a shaky start, Rob scored from a wonderful long rang free kick, followed minutes later by crossing in a corner (or was it touched by a defender?): 2 – 0.

Defensively, Brian led the team and no opportunities were given away. Ad stuffed up once, but made a great save to make up. Unfortunately, we lost Yves and Brian due to injuries in the 1st half.

After some positive talking by Simon & Al, we knew how to bring this one home: try to score an early goal in the 2nd half to keep ‘m down. In true MPFC style, this didn’t work out. The ref decided to award Caulfied a penalty after a blatant dive. After 2 attempts, Caulfield scored the “Anschluss”. With Al sweeping, MPFC held on and managed to pounce on an opportune loose ball in the Caulfield box with Tansel punching home a toe poke Ronaldo would have been proud of - the vital 3rd goal. The only problem now was, what were the words to the club song!?!

Was it One? Was it Two? Was it Three? Was it Easy? YEAH!!!!!!

Ad Wolst

soccer

Just finished this week's game. We won (finally), 3-1. I played semi-decently. No shots on goal. I did have a run up that the coach said should have ended in a shot, but I never thought I had a clear chance.

Injuries: none, but I inflicted a few bruises on their striker inadvertantly.

Last week's soccer report:

Thirds: Rd 12 Southport United (away)
Written by Chris Jobling
The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have reigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy.



I missed this game and needed to rely on a phone report. It went something like this.



"Hello"



"Hey, Jobbers, Pearso here"



"Hi Pearso, how was the weekend?"



"Good, really good"



"Yeah, the game was alright"



"It was a really good game to be apart of"



"So it was close?"



"Yeah, they got a few early goals, but after that we held them in the middle"



"Good, we got some control in the centre"



"Nah, the middle part of the game, it was close, high quality"



"Oh, one or two so it settled down and was not a destructive loss"



"No, they kinda scored a few near the end but we played well"



"Did we score?"



Nah"



"Final score?"



Six nil, but it was a good game"



B. O. P. (Best on Phone) - Pearso

Finished "Use of Weapons" by Iain M. Banks. Good actions scenes, but not really as ideas-based as I prefer.

Book spotted on tram: The Holy Bible, by a woman in what looked to be a red and black clown wig. I was also asked, by a very old lady with a flashing LED necklace, if I've ever read "Gone With The Wind". Ah, local colour.