Surprise Song Sunday: Blame Game - Kanye West feat. John Legend

Let's play the blame game,

I love you, more.

Let's play the blame game,

for sure.

Let's call out names, names,

I hate you, more.

Let's call out names, names,

For sure. 

 Word of the Day: Blame

Suprise Song Sunday: Superstar - Usher

I'm your number one fan,

Give me your autograph,

Sign it right here on my heart.

Some vintage-ish, cheesy, sweet Usher to brighten up your Sunday. Assuming that your Sunday does, in fact, need brightening up. Or that it is possible to brighten up your Sunday at all.  

So, how about that Chelsea, eh? Plucky little Chelsea, with their fifty million pound substitute striker. Plucky little Chelsea, with their squad costing a bazillion pounds over seven years. Plucky little Chelsea, winning the Champions League. 

Seriously, how? How the hell did they win that thing? I mean, we beat these guys 5-3 earlier in the season for crying out loud. And we suck.

The silver lining is, of course, that Spurs lose their Champions League berth. But really, that's clutching at straws/trying really hard to find the silver lining/being a hardline optimist. I would much rather have seen Chelsea lose than Spurs not get their Champions League spot. In case you haven't been told, this makes them the first London club to win the Champions League. 

Oh. My. God. 

Also, there's so much wrong with their team and their captain. Just...everything about them. 

*Vomits*

It has to be said though, that Bayern Munich are absolute bottlers. Of the highest order. They were at home. They were, at least on paper, the superior side. They took 82 minutes to score against a, at the best of times, very mediocre Chelsea side, which, on the day, had an extremely patched-up defence. 

And then went on to concede the equaliser a couple of minutes later. 

And then miss a penalty in extra time. 

And then screw up the shootout. 

Football, I'm getting quite fed up with you and your crazy ways. 

But I'll be back for the Euros. 

Word of the Day: Bottler  

Friday night football talk.

Since when has football talk been exclusively on Friday night?

Never. But since I'm doing it now, it's gonna be on a Friday night.

Anyway.

We got third!

Which, I know, is not a trophy, but considering all our trials and tribulations this season - how badly we started, how we lost a bazillion players during the transfer window, how we went through roughly half the season with 0 fullbacks, how we have one (very, very good) striker - finishing behind only Man U (the greatest team that ever was, and ever will be, ever, or something) and Man City (they have unlimited money) is an amazing achievement. Finishing above Spurs is also pretty good too. Well done the Arsenal.

Now let's get van Persie up on this new contract and stuff.

A word on the last day of the season in general.

It was absolutely nuts. As if anxiously watching us hold on to third place, heart almost literally in my mouth, wasn't bad enough, there was the added bonus of seeing QPR 2-1 up against City upon the conclusion of our game.

Turn around, the commentators are saying that CIty had won the game 3-2.

Just like that, in pretty much two minutes of extra time, they had won the Premier League. Unbelievable.

And, I guess, that's why Aguero gets paid a trillion quid a week.

The whole day was just an amazing advertisement for football.

Champions League final to look forward to this weekend. Here's hoping that Bayern destroy Chelsea. Plucky little Chelsea, with their 50 million quid benched striker. Man, I hate them.

Word of the Day: Arsenal

Surprise Song Sunday: Wonderwall - Oasis

There are many things that I would like to say to you

But I don't know how.

I listen to this song before exams, and it works out okay for me in the vast majority of cases. By extension, it should work for Arsenal tonight. Here's to three points, and third place, and a good end to a season that, at the start, looked like it would finish so, so much worse. 

I read something today that put things in perspective. It went something along the lines of "Four weeks into the season, we'd have been over the moon if someone had told us we'd be in the situation we are now at the end of the season". I agree. 

But I'm still nervous. 

Word of the Day: Nervous

Surely you jest!

What has always amazed me, and continues to amaze me, is how amazed some Australians are at the fact that we pay more for stuff than people overseas. 

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out this article here. 

To summarise, people think that we pay too much for technology in Australia. 

I like cheap stuff too. I mean, I wouldn't complain if things, including technology, were cheaper. That's probably because I don't own a store that sells such things. 

Which is the point exactly.

It costs money to run these stores. If we assume that rent costs are constant between Australia and America, Australia sells far less of pretty much anything than the equivalent American store. Thus, these costs are then covered by selling things for higher prices.

Not exactly a huge leap in logic, but some people seem to struggle with it. 

Economies of scale. Google it. Or something. 

Granted, for things that don't require physical stores, like downloadable software, I think we sometimes do pay too much for. 

However, there is also something called purchasing power parity. A dollar here does not necessarily buy the same amount of stuff as a dollar elsewhere. 

Which is why I find the DVD thing in the article idiotic. Wow, we pay three bucks more for a DVD here than they do in America!

There are a myriad of factors that could cause price discrepancies. Economies of scale, for one. Purchasing power parity, for another. The list goes on. Taxes. Import costs. Domestic demand. Which is why I find it stupid that the article complains about a couple of bucks difference in DVD prices.

I love that this is how I spend my Friday nights. I am beyond help.

Word of the Day: Idiotic

Surprise Song Sunday: If I Had A Gun - Noel Gallagher

Let me fly you to the moon

My eyes have always 

Followed you around the room

'Cause you're the only

God that I will ever need

I'm holding on and waiting for the moment

To find me.

Kind of like Oasis, but different.

Just a few disparate points about Arsenal's loss draw against Norwich last night. 

• Why do we insist on flooding forward when we're 3-2 up in the last ten minutes? Or when we're 1-0 up in the first 60 seconds? Or any time we're in the lead? Is it really that hard to form two banks of four to hold on to the ball for a bit?
• I'd be mad if I were van Persie. You know, I'd be all like, what the hell, how many goals do I need to score so that the lead is big enough for you numpties to hold on to?
• This is the most upsetting result of the season. Actually. For what it means, and for how it came about. 
• Vermalaen is quite mediocre in his defensive positioning. However, the goal leakage is not just his fault. It's substantially the fault of a midfield that seems incredible reluctant to track back, even in situations when the defence is clearly being overrun. It seems like schoolboy football to me. You know, all glory to the goalscorers, who cares about the defenders and all that. 
• This was a mid-table team who, theoretically, had nothing to play for. Playing in our stadium. And they gave us a massive game. What is going on with that?
• Spurs are probably going to get third place now. Oh my. That's the best case scenario. Newcastle might even pip us. 
• I cannot believe all this.

Word of the Day: Gun

Yellow magnet on wheels.

Yesterday, while driving (duh) I learned that it doesn't matter if you pick the lane that's going faster and you're happily zooming away, all it takes is one slow car to foil your incredibly well thought-out plan.

Actually, I don't think I learned it then. But I think I reached peak frustration at the moment. I think it's mostly because I was driving home after finishing uni at 4, and I get irrationally annoyed when I finish uni after 4.

It was also mostly because usually when taxi drivers are driving behind me, they're all over the back of my car, tailgating me, like some kind of yellow magnet on wheels. That's right. You can't get away from them no matter how hard you try. Even if you choose to let them pass.

Kind of like this one:



Not really. Just wanted to take the opportunity to insert a 99% unrelated music video in.

So anyway. That's how they usually are. Magnetic, that is. Not musical.

But this one, the one I was stuck behind yesterday, decided he was going to reverse tailgate me. Or something. Tailgating me from the front.

"Why didn't you overtake him?!" I hear you, not unreasonably, admonish ask.

To that, I would answer: Do you think that I would have remained behind him for ten minutes had an opportunity to not do so arisen?

Thus concludes the latest entry in the Huang Manual of Driving Philosophy.

Word of the Day: Magnet