AFL: It's just a game of sport

It's not the end of the world if Collingwood wins the Grand Final folks, the planet's still spinning last time I checked. I've spent most of the year trying to work out this Collingwood supporter hate, because I don't know any Collingwood supporters like that. In fact, the people I know who are like that are from other clubs. And my mum goes for the pies in an Essendon dominated household, so when I say I sort of go for them, people treat me as if I'm a Nazi sympathiser. It's a fucking game. And I was slightly offended by all the anti-Collingwood groups on facebook, but I'm just over it. I think the main problem I have is that people aren't supporting the Saints, just that they're against Collingwood. IMO, the team that wins the Premiership deserves to, end of story. I just wish there was more goodwill.

All this being said, I think possibly one of the reasons that I sympathise is because I was in the most hated house in both primary and secondary school, through no fault of my own. I was just placed there because my sister was. It's not like she got to choose her house.

The other thing I have a problem with at the moment is professional football players' salaries. Gary Ablett gets something like 1.5 million a year at the Gold Coast. How can people justify spending that much money on an athlete, who most likely makes less of a contribution to society than teachers? I remember there was a teacher's strike and our beloved (cough) ex-PM John Howard said that they needed to be in schools. Then fucking pay them more (yes I'm just angry today), because if they're so valuable, they deserve to be paid more, then they wouldn't have to go on strike. I know this is contentious because we'd have to raise taxes so the government can pay them more. All this being said, I think Chris Judd, who won the Brownlow this year has the right idea about everything:


And that's all for today, otherwise I'll start complaining about things I shouldn't

Books, and mourning the loss of good YAF: because I'm sick of politics at the moment.

I've read 37 books this year, and you can keep track of my progress at listsofbests if you want. I guess the only advantage in doing that is if I've read something you want to read is that you can ask me whether it's worth reading and why. Though the list site is pretty good at that. I don't really have a preference when it comes to genre, although I tend to avoid vampire fiction.

Ever since the Twilight Saga became a hit, vampire books seem to be all over the place, to the extent that they seem to be overtaking the Young Adult section at bookshops. I am an advocate of YAF and even children's fiction, because there are some really good books out there, but it's annoying. I'll be honest, I never finished Twilight - I got to the second book and decided it was crap, not just because Edward wasn't in it (yes at one point I was going all fangirly over him), but because it was just ridiculous. And other people cash in on it, though there is one book that I want to read, The Reformed Vampire Support Group, by Catherine Jinks, because it's a comedy. And I've also heard that Cirque du Freak is a good series.

But it's not the trend of vampire fiction that I mourn most in YAF, it's the idea that in a book where there is a female protagonist, the main outcome of the series that everyone is most concerned with is who she'll end up with. First it was Team Jacob and Team Edward. In Inkdeath, there was a new character introduced so that Meggie would have to make a choice. And of course, in The Hunger Games there was Gale and Peeta. In regards to Mockingjay, it pissed me off that fans were wondering about who Katniss would choose, not necessarily the revolution. Because the biggest decision in every girl's life is who we should marry. I'm probably not making my point very well.

I was actually going to go through the books I've read this year and state my favourite. My favourite was probably Mockingjay, despite the point I made above, because it was about the war, rather than Katniss' love life, and it was intriguing, wonderful and heartbreaking all at the same time. Keys to the Kingdom is something I started and never finished, so I started again and loved it - truly one of the most original fantasy series I've ever read. All the Jasper Fforde on the list is there because I bought Shades of Grey at the beginning of the year and loved it so much that I read all of his other published books. Shades of Grey is the best thing he's written. And Agatha Christie is just amazing, so I keep reading her books.

Finally, any recommendations are welcome :)

MasterChef Drinking Game

I'm sure someone's already come up with this, but last Friday I was sitting at home and watching Master Class with my family (minus my brother who was probably on the computer) and we were laughing about how much butter the judges put in their food, so I decided we should turn it into a drinking game. The scariest part was how enthusiastic my dad was about it; playing drinking games with your parents is weird. It also feels weird when I'm drinking my midori and lemonade and everyone else is drinking wine.

I'm sure someone's already come up with one, and this one could probably do with some fine tuning, but here it is. Basically you drink when:

• Gary or George puts butter in one of their dishes
• Ditto for olive oil or salt (these first two can also be used for contestants)
• Product placement, e.g. cheese is put in a dish and there's a close-up of the "Perfect Italiano" logo
• Any time "dream", "journey", or "competition" is mentioned
• Every time Matt Preston raises his eyebrow
• Every time the judges think that a dish needs more salt
• When Matt wears extra-flamboyant clothes, e.g. pink pants or the shoes with the cowprint pattern

We didn't really come up with that much, as you can see, and it was mostly designed for the Master Class, but if someone can come up with any more, that would be appreciated.

From Tom:

• The use of the words "deep" and "rich" whenever someone uses chocolate
• When all the contestants turn around at exactly the same time in exactly the same way (anything that looks choreographed?)
• Whenever anyone (contestants or judges) uses the word "beautiful" to describe food.
• Whenever a contestant says they won't finish

From Garnham:

• When Aaron says 'awesome'
• Whenever Claire cries - this could actually be when anyone cries
• When George rocks back on his heels or says 'chop chop'
• When Matt throws food over his shoulder or smashes a plate