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The Opals have beaten the Russian National Team to win Gold at the FIBA World Championships. Congratualtions ladies!

While the Boomers performance was a bit disappointing at the Men’s FIBA World Championships recently, the women really stepped up big time. Hopefully the WNBL does some positive marketing off the back of this victory to enhance the profile of basketball, particularly women’s basketball, here in Australia.

The Australian National Womens Basketball Team, the Opals, play Russia in the final of the world championships being held in Brazil today. I was surprised that the USA didn’t make it to the gold-medal game, but it highlights the increasing parity in international competition. The USA will now play Brazil in the bronze-medal game.

The Brisbane Bronco’s, the team I follow in the National Rugby League, just handed the Canterbury Bulldogs a resounding defeat. Trailing by 20-6 at halftime, the Bronco’s staged a remarkable comeback to win the game 37-20. A list of the key players features the usual suspects: Darren Lockyer, Tonie Carroll, Justin Hodges, Shane Webcke & Shuan Berrigan. Hell, the whole team played pretty well, especially in the second half.

I’m tipping Melbourne to beat the Dragons tomorrow night. Either way, I hope they bash each other up. Go the Bronco’s!

[The Melbourne Storm has beaten the St. George Dragons, so it’s a Melbourne v Brisbane Final. This is kind of funny, since in the AFL Final there is no Melbourne team competing this year, and in the NRL there will be no Sydney team in the final.]

I’ve just received a phone call from my mother, after being in Korea for a little over a week. She is still coming to grips with such a different culture, but she seems to be making the most of it.
[If any of my brothers and sisters are reading she says to say ‘Hi!’]

d*s has posted about some cool looking latex rugs. Sweet!

I spent the weekend camping at Woodys Head, near Iluka in northern New South Wales. I haven’t been there before, but it is a really beautiful place. We were about 30 metres from the beach, and we had really good weather most of the time.

It was a bucks weekend for two of my friends, Jeremy and Quinten, who are getting married in the coming weeks (to be clear, not to each other).

Lots of eating and drinking, with some guys taking the opportunity to surf or fish, and others (like me) playing a fair bit of Texas Hold ‘Em. Yesterday, some of us went and had lunch at the Pacific Hotel at Yamba, a town south of Iluka, just over the Clarence River. If you’re ever in Yamba, be sure to have a feed at the Pacific Hotel - the food was awesome! Most of the guys ordered the biggest, tastiest burgers I’ve ever seen, and I ordered a Laksa, that had about 20 local mussels, and lots of yummy prawns. I was so impressed.

These are simple pleasures, I suppose, but times like this are the memories I think I’ll really treasure when I’m an old man. And I get home to find out the Brisbane Bronco’s flogged the Newcastle Knights over the weekend in the NRL finals. Sweet!

Back to work tomorrow, but I feel better for the break. Now for a few big weeks ahead with Uni assignments due, moving house and lots to do at work. No rest for the wicked!

Mark Cuban has a great article on why he thinks YouTube is going to be in yesterdays news very soon. I love YouTube, as evidenced by my constant linking to it. So I would love to argue the point with him, but what he is saying seems to make sense.

Hopefully the folks at YouTube can pull a rabbit out of their hat so they can keep providing the service they do currently.

[Update] It looks like Mark Cuban is on to something - Universal Music has their eyes on Myspace and YouTube.

My sister sent me a link to an online lesson to show you how to dance like Napoleon Dynamite. I already own the t-shirt, so this is pretty handy for me. Be warned however, it is in flash and it took about 1-2 minutes to load on my home DSL.

Check this out - it is a really cool thing in my opinion. A guy in the UK is selectively cleaning the grime off urban walls to create his art. It’s like anti-graffiti.

Link via Ben.

Tomorrow is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Heh. Like I needed an excuse.