nananananananana batman

Saw The Dark Knight over the weekend (its the new Batman flick for those living under a rock). There was so much hype surrounding it that I just had to watch it at some point. So what did I think about the movie? I loved it! I had pretty high expectations for the movie, and I definitely wasn't let down.

It was a very dark movie, which made me question the families who brought their young kids along to the movie. But hey, when their kids can't sleep at night, it ain't my problem. The action sequences were utterly fantastic, but it was way more than just an action flick - the plot was deep and impressive. Too many superhero flicks these days are too focused on scenes full of special effects, and tend to forget all about the storyline. Acting was brilliant. Val Kilmer was always my favourite Batman, but Christian Bale really delivered. As much as I loved Katie Holmes in Batman Begins (admittedly more for looks than acting performance), Maggie Gyllenhaal's on-screen chemistry with Bale as love interest Rachel Dawes was irresistable.

However, as great as all these performances were, all eyes were on Heath Ledger's Joker. There was a lot of talk surrounding his terrifyingly psychotic portrayal of the Joker deserving of an Oscar, which I thought was people talking it up due to his unfortunate passing recently. I was wrong, he was scary. Absolutely frightening. He totally nailed it, and I don't doubt that his preparation for the role - living alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice and psychology, and kept a diary, in which he recorded the Joker's thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance - definitely didn't hurt. Jack Nicholson has nothing on him.

I want to go see it again actually. It really was that good, and you tend to pick up little bits and pieces you missed the first time. If all of my friends don't want to see it again, I'll just go by myself.

weekend in ballina

Ballina, NSW. I spent the weekend there with a bunch of mates. Eight people in their early twenties in a three bedroom cabin for a weekend in what is basically a town for old people... what do they get up to? I don't think there is really anything to do down there. If you asked me what I knew was in Ballina, all could say is that it was the home of a big prawn.


So what did we get up to? Most of the time we just bummed around, but that was the point really - to get away somewhere to relax and pretty much do nothing. Besides lazing around, we watched quite a few dvds, played a game of Monopoly, played some mini golf (there was a course in the holiday park we were staying at), did a couple of walks/jogs, plus Malex and I managed to squeeze in a bit of guitar action. There was also a lot of eating (thankfully a few of the others did a great job with the cooking) and general chit chat. Oh, and we managed to swing by the prawn on the way home.

Not quite a mind blowing, action packed holiday. Not that I'm complaining - nothing beats kicking back and not really doing anything...

the outside world

It was Tuesday morning. My mobile phone couldn't connect to the network. I couldn't make or receive calls. Or text messages. I got to work to find the emails were down. The internet also wasn't working. I felt so isolated from the outside world. For all I knew, alien zombies (yes, that's right, dead aliens that have come back to eat your brains) had spawned from 3G iPhones all over the nation to take over the world. I was freaking out. It made me realise how much I rely on technology - I felt cut off from the rest of the world, unable to call or SMS anyone, or email anyone or check my emails through my computer or mobile phone. For all I knew they were getting their brains eaten by iPhones.

Turns out some backhoe driver cut Optus' main fibre optic cable just before 8am, knocking out landlines, mobiles and internet across Queensland and some of New South Wales (read the full story here). Kinda scary that one fibre optic cable was so critical... A lot of people were complaining about the chaos and frustration caused by the outage, with businesses counting the costs of it. I must admit it was a different story for me - I probably had what was my most productive morning in a while.

Ah well, things were back to normal for me by about 1pm, but I'm still skeptical about those iPhones...

double-booked

I double-booked myself on Saturday night. It's what happens when you book tickets for something in 2007 when you don't yet have your 2008 diary to write it in. Anyway it was a real test of my masculinity - the two overlapping events that I had a ticket to were a ballet, Giselle, performed by the Australian Ballet, and a football (soccer) match, between the QLD Roar and Brazilian team Palmeiras. Both started at 7:30pm and went for about an hour and a half, so it was one or the other.

The Giselle tickets were bought at some stage last year by my ex (with whom I am still good mates), and I had totally forgotten about it. When the Roar tickets went on sale I was definitely keen, and even checked my diary to see if I had anything on that weekend. Nope, nothing.

So which one did I end up going to? The ballet. Why? I had a few reasons.
- It was the first event I committed to. By a long shot.
- It was the more expensive of the two.
- I have the whole upcoming A-League season to watch the Roar boys play.
- It was a trial game meaning that they would try to blood a lot of young talent.
- Giselle by the Australian Ballet isn't something that comes around every day.
- The Roar ticket was really easy to find another home for.
- Although I was told she wouldn't mind if I didn't go, I wasn't going to bail.
- And no, I am not whipped.

So I went to the ballet. And really enjoyed it. I've always had a thing for stuff like ballets, that are more considered to be the kind of thing that girls like. Part of the fun is dressing up a little without being too formal (having said that, there were a lot of men in full suits) - threw on a nice shirt and jeans, and added a new sports jacket I bought that day and a pair of shoes I hadn't yet worn (ouch...). Though it was only the third ballet I'd been to, after Sleeping Beauty and Don Quixote. All performed by the Australian Ballet. I mean, don't get me wrong, the Queensland Ballet are great, but obviously the Australian Ballet is better... Oh well, I've been to a lot more sporting events than ballets, plays and musicals, so I still feel quite masculine. I am man, hear me roar.

Anyway, turns out an Option C for Saturday night popped up as well, which was a 22nd birthday of a girl I had met only once before, starting around the same time. This one was definitely gonna go a lot longer than 90 minutes, so I managed to sqeeze it in afterwards. Figured I may as well make the most of the night.

hey ladies, i can go half the distance...

Yesterday I did it. I ran a half marathon. Only walked a tiny little bit, but I'll get to that when I get to that.

So my preparation was totally messed up. I had a cold for the whole week before the race, was unable to train. Just rest, load up on cold and flu meds and hope that I would be better by race day. Taking twice the dosage apparently wasn't going to help, so I didn't do that.

My feet hadn't quite adapted to my new rigid insoles (they still really hurt during a run), so I went out to the shop on Thursday night to pick up a pair of semi rigid ones. By Friday I was still snotty and sore throated, but I figured it was now or never to go for one final run and at least try the new insoles before the race. Did a short run, about 4km, and I was buggered. Not a good sign. Insoles didn't feel perfect, but they were better. They'll do anyway.

Started the carbo loading on Friday night - lots of pasta. Heaps of sleep too. By the time I woke up on Saturday near lunchtime, it was pouring rain outside. So that arvo I went out to buy a top I could wear under my race singlet to keep me warm if it was still raining.

I couldn't sleep the night before, as you can tell from the previous blog post. One of the trainers warned me of this, which is why I slept so much on Friday night. Problem is, I couldn't really wake up either. Two alarms didn't really do it. I woke up and it was 6am. Race start was at 6:30-6:40ish... dammit! Skipped breakfast, got dressed as fast as I could (I actually considered sleeping in my race gear the night before... shame I didn't), sped there as fast as I could, and as I ran towards the start line the gun went off... double dammit! No time to drop my bag off, I ran back to the car, threw my bag and my jumper and spray pants into the car, knocked back the first of my energy gels and threw a couple more into my pocket for the race, made sure I had the car keys and my iPod, and sprinted to the start.

Found myself at the very back of the pack, and as I passed the start line I heard the commentator announce a last call for any more half marathon runners, 30 seconds to cross the start line if we wanted to get timed. So I was 30 seconds early then... Anyway I was off. At the very back of the pack. With all the walkers from the looks of it.

Armed with my trusty iPod I set off, trying not to go too fast and really slow myself down so that I could keep the heart rate down and be able to jog the whole way. The annoying thing was that I have short legs, and at this slow jog, some people were powerwalking quicker than me. Damn them and their big strides.

Along the way:
- It rained a bit, which was refreshing;
- I tried to make sure my iPod didn't get wet;
- I saw a great sunrise over the broadwater;
- I tried to photograph it but realised my iPod wasn't my phone;
- I applauded people passing me on the way back towards the finish;
- One of the wheelchair guys was in a full gorilla suit;
- I passed one of my old uni lecturers who was on his way back;
- I tried to hi-5 him but reacted a little too late;
- I hi-5ed a little girlholding up a bowl of jellybeans for the runners;
- I overtook a dude four times as big as me (sadly at the 14km mark);
- I jogged pretty much the whole way, except for drink stops;
- Also stopped to go to the bathroom once;
- I hit "the wall" at 19km, where I thought I couldn't run any more;
- I also realised here how much my left knee actually hurt;
- I ran the last kilometre hard;
- I realised how much of a stupid idea that was with 500m to go;
- I ran the rest of the way trying to shift some weight off my left knee;
- The awesome crowd pushed me on the rest of the way;
- I squeezed in under the 3 hour mark
- That was by my time anyway, it was 3:03 from the start gun;
- I must've looked quite distressed, the paramedics approached me;
- I scored "free" water, oranges and bananas;
- I picked up my grey finisher's shirt and medal;
- I went to cheer on my mates doing the 10km;
- Cheered on randoms as well;
- I got some food (was it breakfast or lunch?);
- I went home and showered, played PS2 and slept;
- Maybe it wasn't in that order; and
- I realise that this is a really crap bullet point summary.

Well that's all I can really remember. Today was painful. My legs are incredibly sore, especially the knees... it's ok when I'm not moving, but when I start to move it isn't cool at all. I kinda hobble around the place. Wore my other compression tights to bed and to work, which I think helped a bit. Even my arms were sore afterwards, but I think that was because I had my arms in a bent jogging position for three hours.

Need sleep now. Next race I've got is in September, but its only 10km, which is hardly anything... right? Better get training...

6 hours

Can't sleep. Running a half marathon in less than 6 hours. Panic!!!

why engineering?

I've been really flat out at work lately. This evening, working back late with a cold, trying to get some lintel designs sorted out as quickly as I could, I began to wonder why I was a consulting structural engineer. The pay is hardly great, you don't get any respect from others in the industry... architects want physically impossible designs, huge spans with little or no vertical elements to hold them up, builders want to cut out as much money from the structure as they can so that they can make more, and don't get me started with all the holes the services guys want to punch through the walls and slabs. I suppose the harsh reality of it all is that it's a money driven industry.

Damn you, Lego. I blame you.

Don't know what I'd do if I didn't do engineering though. Any ideas? I think I'd pretty much suck at everything else. Maybe it's time to go into academia and take out my pain and frustration on the students...

[4 sleeps to go until the half marathon. I am starting to freak out.]