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It is as easy to dream a book as it is hard to write one.
-Balzac

On Wednesday night I again experienced poetry for my tastebuds. Dial's kitchen is one of the few remaining places in the world where homecooking is worshipped. The spirit of Slavic love of exotic food from Africa and India is alive and well ;-)

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It was one day in the school year where my youngest girl Gabbie, who unlike Sasha has not dropped out of school yet, could get away with having her thick blond/brown hair sprayed green and gold. The atmosphere at Bondi Hotel was electric for 90 minutes and then the evil filming in penalty area struck! Even Icebergs had melting lava in their eyes ;-( What a NIGHT!

Historic World Cup results:
Australia 0
Italy 1

Final score

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This week has been filled with the letter F. Fabulous football and families. It almost feels again as if I time travelled to good old days of childhood when each day was peppered with family connections. How can one virtual coincidence in life translate into real dinner conversations seasoned with geography of Kenya, spiritual realignments of yoga ... goat, yogurt ;-)

You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family - these days dysfunctional families seem to be more the norm than the exception. Everyone wants a happy family – this story looks at the Family Strengths research project (The Universtity of Newcastle) and the tools they use to guide families to become happier and stronger Happy Families

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Amazing Czechs are out and my new country Australia is in ...

There are seven deadly sins, and within fifteen minutes of the final whistle of the Czech defeat at the hands of Ghana (and a shoddy call in stoppage time of the first half), I had ran the gauntlet through them all. New Blog! World Cup

I’d hate to be in Croatia right now as that loss was just devastating. Mazel tov to the Aussies, who unlike a certain team who shall reamain nameless, just gave it their all. Just a great effort on their part, especially considering they could have just thrown ten in the box and played for the tie. So Mat, Timmy, Robbie, Mal - Bondi Hotel it is on Tuesday morning at 1 am ;-) Live Blog: Australia Vs. Croatia

Ach 'Superman Returns'

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It's very easy to start a blog, but it takes a bit of practice to write an interesting enough blog that readers will want to come back again and again. There are many things bloggers -- both neophytes and veterans -- can do to improve their blog and themselves as writers:
Letters are built like people. Do I look fat in this paragraph? Good fonts come from good families. First Nations Histories: Bad things happen to good characters.

The Blog, The Press, The Media: My Blog, My Rules
When the blogosphere's leading lights gather for a two-day "unconference" on the art and science of blogs, you're sure to get one thing: lots of blog posts about blogging.

In fact, if you didn't make it onto the signup list for one of the freewheeling discussions at the fourth BloggerCon IV, you could watch a webcast or read all about it online, since participants scrambled Friday to post every salient detail as the event unfolded.

• BloggerCon Boosts the Blog Boom [ Bad things happen to good characters. Pop-up window with handy key strokes.; Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About Bicycling Dalmation ]
• · Carrying on their work from last year's groundbreaking invention of the worlds first single molecule car (bet that one's easy to park) chemists at Rice University, in Houston Texas, have now produced the first motorised version of this tiny nanocar Technology is always bringing us the 'next big thing' but will it be good for us? ; State lifts blog ban on one Web site, but publisher of another mulls lawsuit
• · · Everyone thinks they can be a writer; but there's a big difference between a writer and someone who writes. Good writers know how to capture an audience early, engage them throughout the piece, and keep them interested enough that they actually want to stick around until the end. Like music, there's a cadence and rhythm to the written word. This is what separates an aria from a cat choking on a chicken bone. From Slogger to Blogger: Tips for a Better Blog; I've come to realize that my ideals (let's not call them ideals...let's call them ideas, because they're far from ideal) are too radical even for fellow anarcho-capitalists Just a Stupid Personal Blog
• · · · Finding a Blog Worth Reading ; Citizen journalism agency launches blog sales service
• · · · · Schaeffer's Daily Market Blog Features DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, AMR, U.S. Airways, and Apple Computer ; Conservative bloggers seek a place on the political Web
• · · · · · This one is a little different. How We Blog: The Man Blog Bloggers ; Outdoors becomes high-tech with blog

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Possessions are generally diminished by possession.
-Nietzsche

Sometimes blogs are diminished by blog entries ;-)

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On June's birthday Bottochilli of Double (Dragon) Bay was filled with laughter and stories and my email is surprised by courageous story from my long lost newphew Marcel who writes from England, Rugby ...

The world is getting smaller and smaller. Marcel speaks German perfectly and now he is brushing off his English. He certainly writes better English than most teenagers educated in Australia today. One wonders how our children will communicate with the world when the Eastern Europeans and Chinese and Indians are perfecting their English skills ...

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Time for reality Czech in footfall for Antipodean and Bohemian fans both lost last matches by 2: Nil ;-( Not even swims in freezing iceberg and walks in dusty Centennial Parks with Marks and Mals helped to chance the sad destinies ...
Still, just seen the most beautiful football of my life ...Want to be Philip Lahm as he scores this World Cup's first and arguably most beautiful goal? Just choose his point of view, and you're on. Various sites, such as BBC Sport, offer a "virtual replay" service that lets you see all the World Cup goals again. Virtual Replay of Every World Cup Goal

It is June's birthday tomorrow and the celebrations started on Saturday with orchids, rose coloured presents everywhere and warmest wishes from the heartiest family on earth ...

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No doubt there are all kinds of high and low; Cool and Hot; awards, since there seems to be nothing more popular than the handing out of prizes, a phenomenon first remarked by Lewis Carroll:
However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out “The race is over!” and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, “But who has won?”
This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, “EVERYBODY has won, and all must have prizes.”

Sooner or later the temptation to inflate the currency in one way or another becomes irresistible ;-) The cold, hard fact is that there are only two “prizes” worth having, short-term success and long-term acclaim, neither of which can be conveyed by any means other than the uncoerced consensus of the relevant public. Yet as self-evident as that might seem, there is some irresistible impulse built into the human psyche that makes us keep handing out awards anyway. Sixty-five percent of the members of the Jozef Imrich's fan club are women. The JI Journal notes ;-) Booksellers believe Bohemian writer Jozef Imrich may have tapped into the same audience that has devoured memoirs over the past seven months, a genre that in recent years has increasingly included more reality and suspense. They say the 9/11 terrorist attacks, coupled with the war in Iraq, have changed what women are willing to read Women Read Thrillers, Too: Am I kidding myself?

Art of Living & Literature Across Frontiers: Narrative Digest: I won't mind—much—if you rub Cold River in
The Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism at Harvard University runs a wonderful site for writers, the Nieman Narrative Digest.

The site is updated with new features about narrative journalism about every two weeks. Recent pieces include "Stories Are Everywhere" by author Adrian Nicole LeBlanc and "14 Tips for Building Character" by Rick Meyer, a narrative editor at the Los Angeles Times.

• Stories Are Everywhere [Cold River Stories Are Everywhere ; A collection of scores of examples of excellent narrative journalism. Notable Narratives]
• · If you want to create a bestseller in Australia, here is this year's formula: What makes a bestseller? ; I now know that if you describe things as better as they are, you are considered to be romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you are called a realist; and if you describe things exactly as they are, you are called a satirist. - Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant So far as it has merit, a Cold River is a fact, arbitrary and individual
• · · Reviewing 101: John Updike's rules John Updike’s six rules for book reviewing ; Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt Friendly skies
• · · · Art permits you to accept illogical immediacy, and in doing so releases you from chasing after the distant and the ideal. When this occurs, the effect is exalting The Water's Edge ; Cold comfort
• · · · · War cannot be negated. One must live it or die of it. So it is with the absurd: it is a question of breathing with it, of recognizing its lessons and recovering their flesh. In this regard the absurd joy par excellence is creation. 'Art and nothing but art,' said Nietzsche, 'we have art in order not to die of the truth. - Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus Gianna: Blog's not dead, it's only sleeping ; I can see why I am excited: If there is one writer whose name noir aficionados want to shout from the rooftops over and over (and over) again because not enough people have heard of him, dammit, then Daniel Woodrell is probably tops Sarah Weinman does it all for Media Dragon
• · · · · · I'm not sure where the balance tips into martyrdom or a lack of generosity. Use your websites to promote others. Stand by Me: How We Can Help Each Other ; Commiserate RIP, Mystery Circus, a great site that never did seem to find its audience, alas.

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Last night I had the good fortune to exchange sat sree akals and charge royal glasses with Dial and Bawa ;-) In person, we had the benefit of using all our senses and time capsules ... The first time capsules were found in temples in Egypt and Babylon. Those ancient time capsules were filed with small statues and scrolls as was their custom. At Bawa's place the albums and paintings on walls serve as a time capsule of Kenya, India, England - entire Asia. As I tasted Roti, I have been thinking of different smells and how easily I can be transported to a memory by certain smells. The smell of fresh bread baking takes me back to my days as a young boy. That was a wonderful time in my life, as my family made heaps of homemade bread!

Among my concerns is how little I bring to the blogging editorial sensibility. The magazine's market position is everything I am not: light, engaging, easy, original, sophisticated ... Context is crucial in online media, especially in weblogs. You never know where your online audience is coming from, and what background or context they have. More than 75,000 new blogs are launched each day. David Adams finds out who's talking - and who's listening Why bloggers blog: These Media Dragons seriously need a reality check

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Calculating the ROI of blogs – it’s not about the math
Media Dragon fuels Cold River distribution far and wide from Siberia to Kenya to Finland to Newt Ziland

One of the most frequently asked questions I get about blogs is how to justify them on a ROI basis. In many ways, blogs are like PR – you know there is a benefit but it can be tricky to quantify it. Unfortunately, all too many businesses won’t move forward until they “know the ROI of blogs”.

• Forrester analyst Charlene Li $1 million of revenue [An article from Intranets Today (see link below) by Martin White answers the question of ROI in the context of implementing content management, search solutions, etc. for corporate intranets. Opportunity Costs ; Bloggers are mostly saluting entrepreneur billionaire Mark Cuban for backing a new journalism site aimed at exposing securities fraud and corporate malfeasance Mark Cuban: Now that's investing in journalism ]
• · I just know in my case that we deliberately got all of our facts together, and then and only then did we go to the military We didn't rush to publish our Haditha story; From the Right" and "From the Left. David Broder's Friday afternoon chat: Mastio: "What was the last thing he wrote that really mattered?" (IO)
• · · DC report cites "multiple failures" in Rosenbaum case The fatal assault on New York Times reporter David E. Rosenbaum.; Jim Cramer has finally crossed the line from harmless entertainer to public embarrassment. Jim Cramer has become an embarrassment
• · · · William Powers complains that Ann Coulter has gotten endless coverage, "despite the fact that this is exactly the same show we've seen before, an ideological circus act indistinguishable from Michael Moore's and with exactly the same goal: cash. They're Easy: Where's the media outlet that's willling to ignore Coulter? ; I'm kind of obsessed with making advertising on the Internet more like content, JWT buys all the ad space on HuffPost home page for a week
• · · · · Sando: "A blog will expose a poor reporter more quickly" Using blogs to make newspaper reporters more relevant; Former DTH editor is W’s “blind scribe” "One Party Country" by Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger was ranked #513,432 on Amazon.com on Wednesday. After President Bush asked LATer Wallsten about his sunglasses, it moved to the 2,513th position. The book comes out next month. Wallsten's book climbs the charts after W's "shades" remark ; Bush Asks Peter Wallsten About Shades ; "When he got in your face about something, as he often did, his index finger jabbing at you for emphasis, you were on the receiving end of what my colleague Rem Rieder called 'the full Phil.' That was the passion talking, and Phil was passionate about a lot The untimely death of a towering figure
• · · · · · It's pretty hard for me to work up much sympathy for these whining Chandlers, although I certainly will support them for a Pulitzer Prize for Gall In the true spirit of the transparency that we all embrace, it's time for Neil Sedaka to issue a correction. Give Me a Break: It's pretty tacky for the Chandlers to start raising a ruckus ; The Trib's out with its fourth annual "50 Best Magazines" list. The Economist, which gets top ranking, is "in a class by itself as the best English-language newsweekly, with each issue unavoidably reminding readers of the weaknesses of Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report." Vogue Knitting comes in at #50. The Trib says "the instructions are always reliable, and the designs are fabulous 50 BEST MAGAZINES ; AOL turns Netscape.com into a news aggregation site - Media Dragons at Netscape.com will link to news articles, then add original material to stories that are of most interest to the audience. Marrying the great editorial skill of humans and what systems and software ; "Many years ago, before anyone heard the term 'blog,' I came up with the idea of running multiple items in a single column." Not true, says Eric Zorn, who tells the Sun-Times scribe: "Rich, buddy, put away your horn. Let others do the tootin One observation for the price of one

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The Grace Hotel has brought this month the spice of Mauritius to my end of the year taxing luncheon at the Grace Brasseries. Even Senators were satisfied with the venue and the exotic tastes Mauritius Food Festival

Speaking of Spices of Surreal Life of ours ;-) A young woman brings home her fiance to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother tells her father to find out about the young man. The father invites the fiancee to his study for a drink.
'So what are your plans?' the father asks the young man.
'I am a Torah scholar,' he replies.
'A Torah scholar. Hmmm,' the father says. 'Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in, as she's accustomed to?'
'I will study,' the young man replies, 'and God will provide for us.'
'And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?' asks the father.
'I will concentrate on my studies,' the young man replies, 'God will provide for us.'
'And children?' asks the father. 'How will you support children?'
'Don't worry, sir, God will provide,' replies the fiance.
The conversation proceeds like this, and each time the father questions, the young idealist insists that God will provide.
Later, the mother asks, 'How did it go, Honey?'
The father answers, 'He has no job and no plans, but the good news is he thinks I'm God.'

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The Media Dragon blogger roams through films, web and culture, looking for prey ;-)

I think the Internet's been a tremendous tool in terms of breaking down the power structure of information and entertainment, particularly at a time when so much information and entertainment were in the hands of so few people, with multinationals owning everything.
-Dave Foley ( Stand-up comedy and poverty. Those were my two main endeavors. )

For many it's a dreaded time of the footbal era. Remember that inevitable sinking feeling as you go through the little you can blog about? Everyone's worried about whether Kewell will play. I am more worried about the other fans. Beyond our tickets to the Aussie matches, the market for swaps is fierce. First round matches for England are at least $1000 a ticket. At the budget end. ... The 2005 recipient of the FIFA World Player of Year award. Member of Barcelona FC, who won this year's Champions League. Next stop Germany and a possible sixth World Cup title for his national team Brazil. Regarding Ronaldinho

The Blog, The Press, The Media: Rogue Traders: The Time Traveller
When it's three o'clock in New York, it's still 1938 in London. - Bette Midler

Every day, experts bombard us with prognostications on Iraq, bird flu, Bolivian coca, global warming, and the fate of the Euro. Who checks their predictions?

• Are you a 'Dead Ringer'? How Accurate Are Your Pet Pundits? I'm so going to blog this... [Author and journalist Jack Marx rummages around in the world of current and not-so-current affairs, matters of cultural import and issues of no social consequence at all, strange thoughts, fringe theories and utterances commonly left unuttered. This goes all the way to the top; Place shifting in a 'new media landscape' ]
• · A few months ago, I signed up for an account with Text Link Ads. It took about 20 minutes. They sell small text ads on my site, split the revenue with me 50-50, and deposit my earnings directly into my PayPal account. This month I’ll make around $600 from them, possibly more if they sell some new ads during the month. And it’s totally passive. If I never tried this, I’d miss out on this easy extra income How to Make Money From Your Blog; How Selfish Are You?
• · · Create timeless content People still quote Aristotle today because his ideas have timeless value, even though he’s been dead for about 2300 years How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog); Bugs in the anti-virus
• · · · Marketing reporter Julian Lee charts the latest tricks of the advertising trade. Start chanting the Blog mantra

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Like U.S. soccer at the World Cup, Media Dragon has room for growth as it competes with global heavyweights ;-)

Soccer isn't like real life. Anybody who has been watching the World Cup this week understands this. Here at TechEd, multiple TVs have beamed the games to bemused spectators (although most of the serious viewers have foreign accents) all over the convention hall. Not that I've been watching soccer instead of working, of course. I would never do that...ahem. Hey, it's not as though there's been a massive amount of news here this week.

Anyway, in real life, the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world, absolutely dominant economically, militarily and culturally. In real life, we kick...well, you know. But in soccer life, Brazil is the superpower, and countries like the Netherlands and Argentina are powerful forces that strike fear into their opponents. Soccer life is, in many ways, the world turned upside-down, a parallel universe in which the real-world superpower is a scrappy underdog that still gets schooled by smaller nations on the big stage (see Czech Republic 3, U.S. 0 on Monday of this week).
The Unlikely Underdog Is Ready To Strike

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Hey the website Dictionary of Sydney is growing ...
So is the catalyst audience for speeches by characters like Professor Reese who has a knack of expressing his views on Peace with Justice. The Verandah of Martin Place fame attracts all kinds of Maladriannes ...