froogle list gone!

Aaaahh my froogle list disappeared!
DODGY!!

geek gift guide - usb chiller coaster

I took a day off from animating today to chillax and cruise the web. So I did some background research on computer tech and naturally went to my fave hardware review site Tom's Harware. Where I found a series of Christmas Gift Guides for Geeks. And although there were many cool items, this was the coolest by far! (pun intended)

Introducing the CoolIT Systems USB Beverage Chiller!!

Artweaver rawks

Where has Artweaver been all my life?! I've had a monkey with the brushes and was impressed by how different and useful a painting program can be compared to a photo editor. There are lots of shape, fill, cut, transform abilities that seem more intuitive to Photoshop, but the artistic brushes and colour wheel make actually drawing so much easier! So this was the result of a doodle that went so well I thought I should try and colour it too. Not fantastic, but I was being very rough and still learning the tools and brushes so I'm very happy with it!
This was done after a period of concept drawing for an animation I am working on. All I really have is an idea and a deadline at the moment. The Triple J Pixel Freaks competition closes in only a month and I'm going to try if I can see if I can get my idea off the ground. It has to be a 30 second animation which is pretty daunting but I've been looking at a few programs and changed my idea to fit in. AnimeStudio uses a simple skeletal animation system that I think will serve my purposes well enough, however it won't output unless I buy it. The first program I found was Project Dogwaffle, also known as PD Pro. It's free version also has an output phobia. Finally I found MonkeyJam which will output to avi! Also it has the ability to import a soundtrack which is also necessary. Betweeen these 3 programs I could produce an animation in pal standard quality to a soundtrack. However it would have to be frame-by-tedious-frame. This might be achievable if I had a program with an onion-skin animation feature, but that is disabled in Dogwaffle too! It could be done via layers in Photoshop or Artweaver
but I think time constraint is too heavy to attempt that esp. given that I start work in 2 weeks. My current plan is to buy the cheap version of AnimeStudio once I produce enough material that I can be reasonably certain I will succeed in completing my entry.

Asian Cup Predictions

My predictions for the World Cup were spot on. Australia would progress from group stage (have a tought time of it of course) but were unlikely to defeat the winner of the group of death, ultimately Italy.

So I've perused the Asian Cup draw and initially had two thoughts.

1. Craig Foster is a fool if reports are true and he has demanded that Australia win the Cup at the first attempt. There are 2 other significant teams of Australia's caliber - South Korea and Japan. Both teams have qualified for the World Cup on a regular basis, and South Korea has gone a lot further in that competition than Australia. As a supposedly professional commentator, Fozzie sure does love to jump to fanatical conclusions and froth at the lip. Australian expectations have gone through the roof and he is the proof. Another thing to note is that South Korea has not won the Asian Cup in almost 40 years or something! Winning a major tournament will always require an excellent team, excellent preperation and a little bit of luck.
2. Australia has little to no experience in Asian conditions - high temperatures and sweltering humidity. Add to this several emerging regional football powers who have this experience - the likes of Saudi Arabia who has dominated Asian football, Iran, Qatar who won the recent Asian Games football tournament and the host nations, in particular Thailand who won the 4 nation Kings Cup this month. If our preparation is less than ideal any of these types of nations may spring a huge upset.

So, with 2 major opponents who are also seeded I would expect Australia to get to the semi-finals and then it is a toss of a coin if we progress to the finals and maybe win it.

Group A - Australia
However, on closer inspection of the draw I believe Australia has the best draw of any nation. We have a realtively easy group - Oman and Iraq shouldn't pose much trouble although Iraq has knocked us over in the past. That leaves Australia v Thailand in the final group match to probably determine who tops the group, and if Thailand drops a single point before then it is likely that Aus will only need a draw to stay in Thailand.

Group B - Qtr Final Opponents
Then our next opponents would probably be the 2nd placed team in group B. Fortunately group B is the next weakest group! Vietnam or Qatar will likely qualify behind Japan. Vietnam shouldn't be much of an obstacle away from home, and Qatar would be at least as strong as Thailand but still no match for Australia. So long as Japan doesn't slip up Australia won't need to face them until the final. There seems to be a lot of opinion in Australia, not least of which comes from Graham Arnold himself, that Japan are now considered easy beats. Everyone seems to forget we were 10 minutes away from defeat, even if it would be cruel defeat. And that when Japan travelled to Sydney a few years ago, their domestic team completely oblitereated our domestic team. On 'home' turf in a tournament they have won several times and with renewed determination I would expect such a clash to be very, very close. But I seem to be the only one who realises this.

Group C & D - Semi-Final Opponents
The other side of the draw is distinctly stronger and it would be a great effort for either host to escape from their groups. Group C holds China and Iran who can both field strong teams. Group D holds mutltiple champion Saudi Arabia and giants South Korea. In particular these match ups are very even which means I cannot guess at who will take top spot.

However if the matches go according to World Cup success and ranking, then Korea should top it's group, leading to a match up with China or Iran, and then to a semi-final vs Japan! This is the best scenario for Australia where we avoid those two teams and let them knock each other out. That means Australia's opponent would be Iran or Saudi Arabia. Past experience shows that Iran is a never say die team and the match up would be the most competetive of Australias tournament so far and an excellent lead in to the final vs Korea or Japan.

With a draw as kind as this hopefully Australia lives up to it's billing and goes all the way to Jakarta and a hostile Indonesian stadium! :S

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Team Statistical Analysis

Strongest Teams by Asian Cup History

1. Japan - 3 times Champion including previous 2 tournaments.
2. Saudia Arabia -3 times Champion, most recently 1996
3. Iran - 3 times Chamption, most recently in 1976 *note: 2 of these victories were at home
4. South Korea - 2 times Chamption, the first 2 tournaments way back in 1956,60.

Strongest Teams by recent World Cup History

1. South Korea - Semi-Finalists 2002, regular qualifiers
2. Australia - Round of 16 2004
3. Japan - Round of 16 2002, regular qualifiers
4. Saudi Arabia - Round of 16 1994
5. Iran - Qualified 2006
   
6. China - Qualified 2002
   

Strongest Teams by Fifa Ranking

1. Iran (38) *note: Aus is due to meet Iran in Semi-Finals.
   
2. Australia (39)
   
3. Uzbekistan (45) *note: if Uzbek qualifies at China's expense, no difference to analysis
   
4. Japan (47)
5. Korea (51)
   
6. Qatar (58)
   
7. Saudi (64)
   
8. Oman (72)
   
9. Iraq (83)
   
10. China (84)
    
11. UAE (87)
12. Bahrain (97)
    
13. Thailand (137) Host!
    
14. Malaysia (152) Host!
15. Indonesia (153) Host!
16. Vietnam (172) Host!

Strongest Groups by Combined Ranking

1. chi84 malay152 iran38 uzbek45: Total [319] Ave [79.75]
2. aus39 irq83 oman72 thai137: Total [331] Ave [82.75]
3. jap47 qat58 uae87 viet172: Total [364] Ave [91]
4. kor51 sau64 indon153 bahr97: Total [365] Ave [91.25]

Strongest Group by Best 3 Teams Combined Ranking

1. chi84 malay152 iran38 uzbek45 [167]
2. jap47 qat58 uae87 viet172 [192]
3. aus39 irq83 oman72 thai137 [194]
4. kor51 sau64 indon153 bahr97 [212]

Weakest Group by Worst 3 Teams Combined Ranking

1. jap47 qat58 uae87 viet172 [317]
2. kor51 sau64 indon153 bahr97 [314]
3. chi84 malay152 iran38 uzbek45 [281]
4. aus39 irq83 oman72 thai137 [292]

trippin

AFC seems kinda slack if you ask me. There is some information out there but it is difficult to find. Eventually I found the draw.
Aus v Oman - 5.20pm - Sunday 8
Iraq v Aus - 5.20pm - Friday 13
Thai v Aus - 7.35pm - Monday 16
All in the Rajamangala Stadium which holds 60,000. That's good news for ticketing for the group stage, since a lot of Aussies will be heading over.

In fact, given that ticketing for the group stage will be almost guaranteed in that case, it is probably worth punting on getting them and start booking flights and hotels now.

Draft Trip Timetable 1

GROUP STAGE:

• [Friday 6] Early Option: Arrive Bangkok
• [Saturday 7] Attend opening game - Thailand v Iraq (Opening Ceremony?)

or

• [Saturday 7] Arrive Bangkok
• [Sunday 8] Attend Australia Rnd 1
  
• [Monday 9 - Thursday12] Tour 1 (4 days) - Destination Suggestions?
• Could extend to Thursday night, and travel back to bangkok on Friday morning (distance, service dependant) 5pm kickoff
  
• [Friday 13] - Return Bangkok, Attend Australia Rnd 2
• [Saturday 14 - Sunday 15] Tour 2 (2 days) - Destination Suggestions?
• Within Thailand - north, east, south
  
• Could extend to Sunday night, and travel back to bangkok on Monday morning (distance, service dependant) 7pm kickoff
  
• [Monday 16] - Return Bangkok, Attend Australia Rnd 3

This final match vs Thailand will probably determine who tops the group. The winner remains in Thailand for the Quarter Final. 2nd spot flys to Vietnam.

FINALS according to ranking

• [Tuesday 17 -Friday 20] Tour 3 (4 days) - Destination Suggestions?
  
• Australia will only play in Vietnam if it qualifies 2nd. Australia will only play in Malaysia if it tops group and progresses.
  
• [Saturday 21] Bangkok, Attend Australia Quarter Final
  

This will be the last match of the tournament in Thailand.

• [Sunday 22 - Tuesday 24] Tour 4 (3 days) - Destination Suggestions?
• Within Malaysia - Penang, Singapore, etc
  
• [Wednesday 25] Kuala Lumpur, Attend Australia Semi Final
• [Thursday 26 - Saturday 28] Tour 5 (3 days) - Destination Suggestions?
• Within Indonesia
• [Sunday 29] Jakarta, Attend Australia Final
• [Monday 30] Rest day
• [Tuesday 31] Return home