Wednesday, Jul. 26, 2017 - 23:23

1. My work was poop, but my mate texted and said he's got the sack and feels somewhat horrid because of the way they got rid of him, so there's an extent to which I'm feeling a little more pragmatic in the sense that my work troubles are limited in the amount of stress they cause and the number of hours they do so, and.. um.. I'll probably feel shitty again tomorrow between nine a.m. and six p.m. - but between six p.m. and nine a.m. I'll be fine again.

2. A 49-year-old Russian woman called Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov woke up at her own funeral following a heart attack. Terrified, she screamed, had another attack, and once again died.

3. I managed to convert my ol' iPhone to a iPod touch for use as a music player this evening, which hopefully will be a good'un. I'm still probably going to spend the majority of my commute reading as opposed to listening to tunes, but at times it's not possible to concentrate to read and good to have something to drown out the annoying cunts that somehow co-exist near where I want to live my quiet life.

4. Lake Achen (German: Achensee) is a lake north of Jenbach in Tyrol, Austria. It is the largest lake within the federal state, and has a maximal depth of 133 metres. Together with the Achen Valley it parts the Karwendel mountain range in the west from the Brandenberg Alps in the east. Water quality is near drinking water, with sight up to 10 m below the surface. An alpine lake, water temperature is accordingly low, rarely above 20°C. Its size and wind conditions make it suitable for windsurfing. Eben am Achensee, Achenkirch, and Pertisau are municipalities on the lake.

5. The cricket (Thrid Tets) starts tomorrow, I think. The series poised somewhat interestingly at 1-1. I remember checking my phone whilst at my brother's house a few Christmases ago and England had taken a load of Proteas wickets. Must've been the 2nd Test in Durban when they were all out in their second innings for 133 hence England won by an innings and plenty.

6. I might go and get my hair cut this weekend. That's not very interesting, is it? This evening I drank some diet lemonade. That's not very interesting either.

7. Quadrupole splitting is an example of a hyperfine interaction found in gamma-ray spectroscopy, in the circumstance where nuclei with a non-radially-symmetric shape (that is, with a spin quantum number greater than 1/2) are found immersed in an external electric field gradient. It splits a state into two, producing a doublet in the Mössbauer spectrum, and the separation between the states can be used to measure the sign and strength of this electric field gradient, which is affected by the chemical environment of the nuclei.

8. Very much enjoying 'Schindler's Ark'. On a similar subject, the Polish designer/sculptor Marian Konieczny has died. He created The Monument to the Heroes of Warsaw (aka the Warsaw Nike), a statue in Warsaw that commemorates all those who died in the city from 1939 to 1945, including participants in the defense of Warsaw in September 1939, the participants of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising, and the victims of German terror in the occupied capital.

9. What was I doing twenty years ago today? I've checked my diary, and the answer is 'not much'. I was home from university for the holidays, living cheaply at my folks not going out much, listening to some CDs (Veruca Salt 'Eight Arms to Hold You' a recent purchase), missing my girlfriend and watching a bit of telly. I watched a film I didn't record the title of, which had actor Paul Sorvino (Mira's dad) playing someone who set a gypsy's gaff on fire, or maybe he was the gypsy. It's not important. I watched '9½ Weeks' the day after, which was titillating.

10. Shang-a-Lang was a children's pop music TV series starring the Scottish band, the Bay City Rollers. It was produced in Manchester by Granada Television for the ITV network and ran for one 20-week series in 1975. It featured the band in comedy sketches and performing their songs to a live studio audience made up of their teenage fans. This resulted in chaotic scenes at times as some members of the audience attempted to run onto the studio floor to meet their heroes, resulting in security officers having to forcibly restrain or even eject them from the studio. The show's theme song "Shang-a-Lang", was a hit single for the group, peaking at number 2 in 1974 in the UK.

Austria 3-0 Iceland
It would be a real achievement were Austria to qualify from a group into which they were drawn from the fourth pot. Regardless of this evening's result, they could hold their heads high, but today represented a really good opportunity. France and Austria had identical records going into the evening, so if they both got the same score, yellow cards could split the two of them. It was an even kind of game, both sides a little below the top level teams fluency - sometimes it seemed that clear chances were created so infrequently that nerves led to players snatching at it. A really bad moment led to the opener - a nothing cross was fumbled by Gunnarsdottir in between the sticks under no pressure, and Sarah Zadrazil was a couple of yards away and able to put Austria in the lead. Things got worse for the Icelanders who'd qualified so well for the tournament but not really turned up in Holland, a near-post header from a corner making it two for Zadrazil and two for her team.

In the second half, the fight looked to have gone out of Iceland and additionally Austria became more pragmatic about holding on to what they had. Zadrazil looked keen to complete a hat-trick, she had a couple of efforts from range but didn't massively test the keeper before her manager took her off with twenty remaining. We had a third goal, and a goal to credit and celebrate, a far post volley palmed clear by the keeper falling to Enzinger to turn home after adjusting her feet. Three minutes left and three goals up. I had some yogurt from a little pot, or it might've been fromage frais. The tournament debutants and weakest team in the group top the group. They'll probably play Spain (or Portugal, maybe. Or even Scotland if they can win by two over Spain and if England beat Portugal).

Switzerland 1-1 France
A win by the so far somewhat disappointing Swiss could put France in serious threat of going out the tournament, if Austria picked up a point or more against the Icelanders with nothing but pride to play for. Lots of French changes though, people with stuff to prove, perchance? The game opened wet, France had a couple of decent chances (esp. Lavogez) denied by the facially plastered Swiss keeper. At the other end Bachmann was threatening by running at the defenders, Renard was booked and then slightly harshly after twenty minutes Perocet was red-carded for an obstruction/pull. Crnogocevic with a nice header poorly marked from the resulting free kick gave those in red the lead. The game opened up with France needing to score, chances started to seem to come more often.

France just needed one goal. They were getting irritated (with some justification) with women in scarlet going to ground easily, showing that Switzerland and Germany share borders and some of the nature of Klinsmann et al. Bachmann working hard, but again and again resolute defending (and a lack of support) led to things being snuffed out. Fifteen remained when the Swiss let their lead slip - Thallman just fumbled a free kick she should easily have saved and Abely's shot slipped through her hands like sand. Desperate stuff, she'd played well in the tournament till then. The Swiss then had to find something (and part of me wondered whether I'd prefer France to score again than it finish level, so England would probably avoid Les Bleus?) but looked pretty unlikely even against ten as they had been for most of the game. Bachmann didn't deserve to leave the tournament but her team had offered too little - a final minute free kick was easily saved to sneak France through. They may play England.