addicted to rambling

the wedding gift

2009-05-16T00:22:00.002+10:00

So, I've got a wedding to go to in the afternoon. Sometime beforehand I need to get them a card and gift. Don't get me wrong - It's not like I've only just started to think about this now, I have been brainstorming for a while.

I hate buying presents in general. It was easy to buy your mates a decent present as a young kid - there are a million things a kid wants, and you can guarantee they can't afford to buy them all. Even if you couldn't decide, a $10 or $20 dollar note slipped into the birthday card was always more than enough to please.

Once you grow up, you get to the stage where people get jobs (ie. a decent income) and don't exactly want most of the toys found in the latest Toyworld catalogue. The few things that they really want are usually too expensive for them too afford (and hence is also the case for you too). When you get to this point in life, you have to start being creative to find some kind of gift that has some kind of sentimental value. Or you just go get them a photo frame or jewellery (for a female anyway)...

Anyway, back to my current problem - if I had group of closeish friends who also knew this soon-to-be-wed couple, I'd talk them into throwing a bit of cash in each and getting a group present, which would most probably be selected by the females in this so-called group. Unfortunately this isn't the case, so I'm on my own. I've decided that there's no point buying them some random gift that they'll most probably never use. Pretty sure they've already got a toaster too.

That leaves me with two options:
(a) cash; or
(b) a gift card.

At the moment I'm leaning towards option (b) - purely because that way, I feel as if I've gone to at least some effort. Having said that, I've never been a fan of gift cards - why give someone money that can only be used at a certain store, when you can just give them cash that they can spend anywhere?

After writing that last paragraph, I am now leaning towards (a). Putting cash into an envelope just seems a bit lazy, you know... Not that I'm complaining, I love to take the lazy option, just feels like I haven't put any thought into their special day, that's all.

The problem with both (a) and (b) is that the couple will know exactly how much I'm spending on them, as opposed to a gift of unknown value (assuming you remember to peel the price sticker off before wrapping it). Having said that, they both know that I entered the unemployed ranks recently and aren't the type of people who would judge me on how much I spend on them anyway.

Argh this is too hard, I'm going to bed and will work it out when I wake up. Damn my indecision...

bludging

2009-05-11T23:48:00.002+10:00

Wow. What a shocker - only one post last month. I must really be getting lazy.

You haven't really missed much. Not too much happening these days. Taking life easy. Got bits of tutoring work to do at uni a few times a week, but besides that I'm just chilling out. Quite a bit of assignment marking to do coming up in the next few weeks, but hopefully nothing too stressful.

Using all this spare time to do lots of sleeping in. Started running again. Not often enough, but still a start. Also begun swimming in the uni pool. A lot of other things I want to do (regularly blogging, for example) aren't getting done though, something to do with my laziness I think.

It is kinda like being a uni student again without all the stress. Jealous much? At least you probably have a decent income, but you can't have everything I guess.

loitering in the hallway...

2009-04-20T14:48:00.002+10:00

Sorry about the long time between posts. Life has been flying by and I'm struggling to keep up with it all...

Anyway, as I mentioned in the previous post, I had 4 weeks left of work before I was unemployed. That 4 weeks went way too quickly. Mind you I helped that along by packing my weekends full of activities:

- a trip to Melbourne involving a Rise Against gig, my first AFL match, catching up with old friends and of course, the main attraction which was the Formula One Grand Prix.

- a cultured day spent at QPAC in Brisbane, featuring the Queensland Ballet's performance of A Streetcar Named Desire and Chicago the Musical (both of which I thoroughly enjoyed... surprisingly!)

- an Easter long weekend where I only returned home to sleep and eat before I took off yet again.

Anyway, Friday was my last day at work. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, though it was a small office and a few people were on holidays earlier so a lot of the farewells were spread out over the last week and a half. It was always awkward though, there were a few who I would probably catch up with over lunch or go see a movie with every now and then, but then there were also the ones whose interaction with me would probably only involve occasional glimpses of status updates on Facebook or awkward moments crossing paths at the local shopping centre.

After clearing out the desk and the final farewells, it was off to Skilled Park to watch my beloved Canberra Raiders take on the Gold Coast Titans in the NRL. We lost. Bought yet another camera lens on Saturday (that little piece of retail therapy bringing my lens tally up to 4) before heading up to Suncorp Stadium to watch the Reds in a disappointing performance against the Lions. Went to a late (and packed) screening of Fast and Furious to try to ease the pain of the losses before heading home.

Since then I've kinda slowed down and the truth of it all is starting to sink in. I'm unemployed. I'm putting off organising and commencing the postgraduate research at uni I am planning to do next because I just want time off to do nothing. All I need is some of my friends to lose their jobs too so that I've got people to hang out with during the week other than my mother...

One door has closed, countless others have opened. But for now, I'll just hang around in the hallway for a bit.

another one (me) bites the dust

2009-03-17T23:44:00.004+10:00

I am now a victim of the Global Financial Crisis. Score one more for unemployment. Damn you, Recession.

Actually, I am kinda looking forward to it. One door closes, and another opens.

More to come, but for now this is all I could be stuffed writing. Still gotta rock up at work tomorrow morning.

in search of maccas

2009-03-16T22:19:00.003+10:00

Had a fun adventure with Ray on Friday night. Won't bother retelling the story in detail - as I found out later, it doesn't actually sound as great in story form. It basically involved hanging out at the The Normanby Hotel after the Broncos game at Suncorp Stadium, catching up with mates and running into an old friend of a friend I'd really only met once (and several years ago at that, probably around 2003 - shame my short term memory is nothing like my long term one). From there it was a lot of walking, not being able to get a car out of a carpark due to someone else breaking a garage door, lots of walking, forgetting house keys in said car, more walking, camping out at a couple of different deserted bus stops waiting for late night buses passing by very occasionally at early hours of the morning, amusing conversations with bus drivers and security guards, ignoring the rambling folk in the back seat of the bus...

The whole time we just wanted some Maccas. Many hours (and a drive thru) later, we found ourselves eating said Maccas and watching infomercials at 3:30am. And then I got a phone call at 7am, waking me from my slumber on the floor. Eat your heart out, Harold and Kumar. This was Wahoo and Ray in search of Maccas. Kinda similar, but without the sex, drugs and Neil Patrick Harris... In other words, nowhere near as cool. But still amusing. Well, to me anyway.

3 jerseys, 2 days

2009-03-05T23:03:00.004+10:00

I decided to follow up last weekend's musical weekend with a sporting one. Well, that's how it worked out anyway.

#1 - NRL - Canberra Raiders jersey

Saturday arvo/evening saw me at an NRL trial match - my beloved Raiders were playing the Canterbury Bulldogs at Meakin Park, Logan. So I dusted off the old viking helmet, threw on my jersey and off I went. Atmosphere was really good, as was the turnout. Both teams seemed fairly evenly represented. The ground itself was average, but that was expected given that it isn't really purpose built for big games. I'd seen much worse anyway.

Viking helmet got a lot of attention - two photographers from the local paper approached me over the duration of the night to ask for photos, and little kids kept pointing at me. Well, I hope they were pointing at me because of the helmet anyway. People asked where I got it. They seemed a little disappointed when I answered with "eBay".

The game itself was a bit scrappy, the teams still showing signs of rustiness. We had a great vantage point, standing just off the sideline. I've never been that close to a match before - you could easily hear the players talking amongst each other, and really feel each tackle.

The highlight had to be the crowd invading the field afterwards. Got to say hi to a few of my heroes and pose for some photos. One of those situations that make you realise they're just normal people really - the players were chatting to friends who had come along to watch them.

#2 - Sheffield Shield Cricket - QLD Bulls jersey

Sunday morning it was off to the Gabba to watch the final day of the last home game of the QLD Bulls for the season against NSW. Sheffield Shield doesn't really have large crowds at all, so to increase popularity entry to the final day is free. There were probably only about 70 people there to watch. The final day only lasted about an hour - the Bulls only needed to take 5 more wickets to win, which they did with ease.

The main reason for going (it was my first domestic test match) was that it was Martin Love's final home game before retiring - he is the final remaining member of QLD's famous title win of the 1994-95 season. And what a way to say farewell to the Gabba than with an unbeaten 219 with the bat. Got to meet a few of the players afterwards, including the man himself. It was good to be able to shake his hand and congratulate him on his successful career (oh, and get a photo and an autograph too of course).

#3 - Super 14 Rugby - QLD Reds jersey

After grabbing some lunch, killing some time and a jersey change, it was off to Suncorp Stadium to cheer on the QLD Reds against South African club Central Cheetahs. We sat in the Reds Zone - basically where the fanatics sit - and had pretty good seats up the front and behind the goalposts. There was a fairly decent turnout - generally more people tend to turn up when we play another Aussie team.

We did pretty well and won our first game of the season, which was great. We dominated but blew a lot of chances to really blow them away. Not to mention a couple of dodgy calls going against us - one referee definitely didn't make any friends in the crowd after disallowing a try due to an incident a few minutes beforehand.

Anyway it was great to see one of my old Canberra Raiders favourites Mark McLinden playing for the Reds at fullback, and score the first try of the match. And from the sounds of the cheers from the crowd, I wasn't the only one.

musical weekend

2009-02-24T20:48:00.006+10:00

Ankle status: Sore. Can walk though. Its a bit of a shuffle though.

Didn't stop me having a cracker of a weekend.

Friday night saw me go see Fall Out Boy play at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, who were supported by Hey Monday and the All-American Rejects. You see, I managed to win a double pass to meet them online, including access to an exclusive 'money can't buy' session with the FOB boys before the actual concert, involving a question and answer session. However, the kind folk I won the tickets from sent me two lots of tickets. Hooray for me.

The pre-concert session was good - it felt pretty personal and made the guys seem 'human'. As you could probably imagine, the small crowd was made up mostly of teenage girls asking the kind of questions that they do.

Anyway following that, the concert started. With the tickets being in the front general standing section - the mosh pit - I wasn't allowed to have my crutches with me. I could only just shuffle along, but I decided to go without crutches and just hop on one leg in the mosh pit rather than take up the offer from BEC management for a seat.

It was a good (yet exhausting) night - Hey Monday did a fantastic job first up (and isn't that Cassadee Hope a sight to behold with a voice to suit), and AAR followed that up with an entertaining show of their own, playing a lot of the older stuff that I know. I must say though, I swear their lead singer has gotten a lot more eccentric than I remembered him being.

Not to be outdone, the act of the night was of course Fall Out Boy. Admittedly it wasn't very different to what they did at their last show in the country (some time lateish 2007 from memory), but still very enjoyable and threw in a few songs from their new album without simply flogging it for the whole gig (a pet hate of mine) - there was an even distribution of old stuff, new stuff and everything in between. Highlight had to be the point where most of the lights went off, and the many little LEDs on the guitars being switched on - it looked unreal (my description really doesn't do it any justice...). The gig finished the exact same way as last time - with the song 'Saturday' and crowd fave Pete Wentz taking the mike and climbing into the crowd - except that this time he didn't throw his shirt into the crowd afterwards. So that was a bit predictable, but still good fun. Worth every cent...

I followed that up the next day with the Soundwave festival at the RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. Without going on too much, I saw the following bands play:

Goldfinger (I got there later than I wanted)
Jack's Mannequin
Forever the Sickest Kids
Underoath
Anberlin
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Dillinger Escape Plan
Funeral For A Friend
Bloodhound Gang
Billy Talent
New Found Glory
Alkaline Trio

Given my limited mobility with the crutches and my exhaustion from jumping repetedly on the spot the night before, I had to try to limit my walking between stages.

Negatives from the day: Less Than Jake had flight issues and didn't make it in time to play. Jack's Mannequin (who I had seen before when they supported Fall Out Boy in '07) had issues setting up and there was a ridiculous delay (about 40 minutes maybe?) and didn't start until the time they were scheduled to finish. Shame I didn't know this would happen - Finch were playing at the same time so I had to make a choice, turns out I could've seen both. Also, the setup at Stage 5 where JM played was shocking, it was as if they had a spare stage and nowhere to put it, so just chucked it anywhere.

Positives: I met some of my heroes - Andrew McMahon from Jack's Mannequin, Mike Herrera from MxPx and the boys from New Found Glory. Got to shake hands with them all, say hi and have a quick chat as they signed some of my stuff. Great guys, all of them. Had a decent chat with Mike Herrera (he was the least rushed of the lot) and even bought a record off him, from his very hands into mine (an actual record, not a CD... shame I don't have a record player). Absolute legend.

My pick of the gigs were:
Dillinger Escape Plan, who put on an intense show (lead singer climbing around, guitarist breaking guitar and hurling it into the crowd);
Bloodhound Gang with their ridiculous humour, show that included random acts like juggling, and displays of local knowledge with a Woodridge joke thrown in; and
Billy Talent, who seemed to perfect their setup and just sounded terrific.

Having said that, they were all great. There wasn't really a single bad gig, though I must admit that I preferred seeing Underoath late last year at the Tivoli.

Sunday was spent resting. It was quite the awesome weekend. Unfortunately my right foot was quite swollen, and my left foot was incredibly sore from standing on it so much.

dodgy ankle

2009-02-19T09:29:00.002+10:00

Well, there you have it - my marathon training has been derailed already. Sprained my ankle last night playing touch footy.

I've been keeping an eye on my troublesome right knee lately, making sure I was strapping it before each run. Turns out it wasn't what went first.

Ah well, looks like no running for the next couple of weeks. Off to see the doctor about it very soon, hopefully it isn't too bad...

and the training begins...

2009-02-03T21:35:00.004+10:00

Two Saturdays ago I started a marathon training program. I think I'm crazy. Others agree.

So here's the deal - the plan is to go from my current state of no running whatsoever (unless you count the struggle that is my Wednesday night touch footy games) to running a full marathon early July. Just for the record, that's 22 weeks away.

The odds are against me. I really should have a solid year of running under my belt before I start a program like this. I've got dodgy knees. Hate to be negative (not the mindset I should have if I want to succeed), but I probably won't make it...

...but it is worth a try, couldn't hurt (though actually, it could... a lot...). Might as well aim high. If I really do struggle and get nowhere near where I should be, I can always drop my goals and work towards beating my half marathon PB time (which, quite frankly, shouldn't be very hard at all...).

Knees are already hurting. Struggling with my runs. Gee, the next 22 weeks are going to be fun...

saved!

2009-01-19T22:10:00.003+10:00

I am suddenly in an awesome mood. After hairdrying the crap out of my apparently water damaged Canon 40D (which decided to go for a swim in a creek) and leaving it in a bag full of rice for a week, I just remembered about it and figured it was worth a shot turning it on now to see what happens.

SUCCESS!!!

It turns on. It takes photos. Hell yeah!

I'll probably run into problems down the track, but hopefully when/if that happens I'll be ready to upgrade to the 5D anyway, so it will be a good excuse to do so.

I'm stoked. Feel like going crazy taking photos now. But I won't. I'm way too exhausted after the Big Day Out yesterday. Not to mention the fact that I'm sick...

bush walk disaster :(

2009-01-12T20:19:00.005+10:00

Yesterday morning I had a shocker. I had headed out to Binna Burra (Lamington National Park), where we did the 16.6km Illinbah circuit. It was pretty challenging (according to the visitor's guide it requires a high degree of fitness and experience, which kinda scared me a bit) and we managed to do it in about 5 and a half hours despite getting momentarily lost (the guide recommended we allowed 8 hours).

Anyway it would've been a good (and tiring) day, if it weren't for one little mishap during the trip.

I was crossing one of the many creeks along the way, when, as I jumped between some rocks to avoid getting my feet wet (which I didn't find out until a bit later would've been unavoidable anyway) when I heard a big splash beside me. Wondering how the hell a rock came out of nowhere and landed beside me, I looked down to see, in my horror, a familiar sight - the strap of my camera.

Yes, that's right. My freakin' Canon 40D SLR camera fell into a rocky creek, with water about half a metre or so deep.

Somehow it fell out of my zipped bag. I blame momentum - the (heavyish) camera was in the top of my bag, with the zippers both at the top. Jumping and then coming to an abrupt halt must've pushed the camera up with enough force to pull the zippers apart enough for the darned thing to escape.

Anyway, after overcoming the shock of it all and staring at the camera for a couple of seconds, I fished it out of the creek and got to the other side of the creek. In my stupidity, I turned it on to see if it was still working (a better move would've been to pull out the batteries and try to dry the thing out as much as possible). It did switch on, but did some weird stuff, like randomly taking a flurry of photos and turning on the flash. I quickly turned it off, wrapped it in my jacket and tried to forget about it. At this point, I couldn't help but laugh, it was just one of those things.

The reality soon set in when I got home and hit hard - my camera was ruined. Even if I did manage to "fix" it in the short term, I most probably will stumble across problems somewhere down the track...

So I did my best to dry it out last night (I am sick of the sound of hairdryer), and today I called around to some camera repair places. Unfortunately, they didn't want anything to do with water damage because of the probability of more issues occurring later on. Plus, with the costs involved I was better off getting a new one. One of the frustrating things is that I only got two months use out of it. Wouldn't have been so hard to take if I had gotten several year's usage out of it.

It looks like it is down to me trying to dry it out myself and seeing what happens, otherwise it is $2k down the drain (or down shit creek... c'mon, you gotta turn to humour at times like this). I think I'll give it a week to totally dry out before the battery goes back in and I give it another shot.

Will keep you posted - wish me luck. Looks like I'll need it...

kiva

2009-01-09T16:47:00.002+10:00

Ok, so I've been super lazy lately (Happy New Year by the way folks). However, I did something today that made me feel the need to post about.

I lent US$25 to José Dolores Urtecho, a convenience store owner in Chinandega, Nicaragua. He wants to borrow US$325 in order to buy the necessary products for his store, which he has owned for two years, to improve his and his family's quality of life.

I did it through kiva, a not-for-profit website which allows you to lend to an entrepreneur in the developing world, helping them to lift themselves out of poverty.

Brilliant idea.

Basically you pick an entrepreneur and lend them money, along with other lenders who contribute. They use it and eventually pay you back based on a repayment plan. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need. You could withdraw the money back if you felt the need to, but I don't see the point of that when you can pass it on to the next person.

Anyway just felt like sharing. For anyone interested, check out the website for more info.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

gettin' back into the groove

2008-12-22T11:14:00.002+10:00

Ok, so I've been slack. Got back from NZ about two weeks ago, but have had a lot on in that time and never got around to posting. Promise I'll get back into it. Eventually...

nz

2008-11-20T23:03:00.002+10:00

Off on a road trip to New Zealand, doing both north and south island. Should be fun, will be the first visit to NZ. Will try to keep track of it and do up a bit of a highlights reel when I get back.

Peace out.

box full of fun

2008-11-12T14:05:00.002+10:00

The camera arrived today! Got delivered around 10am to the office, so I've been sitting here trying to resist the urge to pull it out and play with it (minds out of the gutter, people). Did open it up to get the battery and charger out - I want to be able to play with it straight away when I get home and not have to wait for it to charge. Hopefully I find that the Compact Flash card I bought separately arrives today too, which was to be delivered home.

my first digital slr

2008-11-10T22:44:00.002+10:00

I've been pondering this purchase for a looong time (Raffy, you can vouch for this - we were discussing this back in January!) and have finally bitten the bullet and bought it, a month after it's successor went on sale.

Introducing my new toy - the Canon EOS 40D.

Image courtesy of dpreview.com

Not going to bother with the usual technical spiel - admittedly this is partially because I don't really understand most of it yet myself... Anyway the 50D came out last month so I figured that this was as cheap as it would get. Plus I'm heading over to New Zealand very soon, and wanted to be able to capture the beauty of the landscape with more than my point-and-shoot Canon IXUS 800 IS. They were sold out at my local camera store, so I ended up purchasing it online.

Of course, I needed a lens to suit - enter the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 Image Stabilized USM lens.

Image courtesy of dpreview.com

The 18-55mm lens that the standard lens kit comes with just didn't cut it for me, and I reckon the upgrade will be worth it. Also got an 8GB compact flash card and a spare generic battery, with a free bag coming with the camera too (not sure how good it will be though). So I'll need to pick up a tripod, filters, a better bag and maybe another lens before I take off. I'll have to leave the numerous other things I want until afterwards when I can afford it...

Dammit I'm getting all excited about it now... arrive already!

oversleep

2008-11-03T21:47:00.002+10:00

Friday night - halloween party. Dressed as a mummy. Home made outfit, made from several square metres of calico torn into strips, wrapped and tied around me. Slowly started falling apart in the early stages of the night so I kept tying the loose ends together. Ended up having to cut myself out of it at the end of the night.

Go karting on Saturday. Had a great time, though I was comfortably running second when my kart runs out of fuel... Managed to recover to finish 3rd on the podium though, so it wasn't a total disaster.

Anyway, was out lateish on Saturday night, getting home at about 3:30am on Sunday morning. Now, this isn't very late by my standards, but here's the kicker - I didn't wake up until 4:45pm on Sunday afternoon. Now, I am notorious for my sleeping-in but the worst I've done is like 2-3pm. I was seriously freaked out when I finally woke up. Where the hell did Sunday go? Also, usually when I sleep in I struggle to fall asleep the next night. No problems here. Which was a shame, I was trying to stay up for the Formula 1...

indy!

2008-10-27T23:26:00.001+10:00

Went to the Nikon Indy 300 yesterday. I got a bit sunburnt and I think I probably managed to lose some of my hearing too.

I've always been a motorsport fan, especially when it comes to open-wheel racing. However, I've only actually been to the Indy once before yesterday - it is so much easier to follow what is going on when watching the race on TV.

So we rocked up pretty early, paid our $105 each for general admission and pretty much just walked around and explored for the morning. There were stalls set up all over the joint (though it was mostly food and merchandise). Oh and lots of girls and cars. The crowd was just settling in, picking out their spots for the day, some hitting the booze early. I glared in jealousy at the people perched on the balconies of nearby buildings. Either that, or staring into the sun made me squint which looked like a glare.

Anyway race 2 of the V8 Supercars had started, so we stopped to watch them for a bit before moving on to explore the track further whilst still keeping track of what was happening (pun intended) in the race. There was a smattering of other stuff to keep us entertained after that in the lead up to the big race, ranging from Black Hawk helicopters, the Screaming Jets performing and an F1-11 dump and burn (which I must say looks better at night, but still scares the pants off you if you don't expect it).

Soon enough it was time for the big race and we parked ourselves on the fence at the entry to one of the chicanes. There were green and gold shirts, hats and flags aplenty in the crowd, with Team Australia's Queenslander driver Will Power starting from pole position. He was looking very comfortable up front early in the race until he made a costly error, taking him out of the race. However, it wasn't all bad news for us, with Sydney lad Ryan Briscoe leading to the finish to be the first Aussie to win the race.

It was very loud, especially in parts of the track where the cars could really gun it. In some areas of the track I found it almost unbearable and needed to plug my ears with my fingers. By the middle of the third V8 Supercars race we were over it (we were out on Saturday night as well so hardly had any sleep) and decided to head off, beating the rush.

Had a great day (despite the sunnies tan I'm stuck with), though I must admit though it didn't quite beat the last time I went, where I had a reserved seat in the undercover stands (a $400+ pass that I got for free!), conveniently located where most of the crashes occurred that year. The race had everthing that year, including a short burst of hail. I think I set the standard too high...

Anyway the future of the race is apparently in doubt... I sure hope it stays, I know I'll be there next year. Between now and then, I'm hoping to pop down to Melbourne for the Formula 1 in 2009. Currently torn between that and going for the Australian Open tennis again... but leaning towards the vroom vroom.

all hail hail

2008-10-21T19:07:00.003+10:00

I was hungry. Went to the vending machine, got some cup noodles. Filled them up with hot water, and as I was walking away and about to cover them up for the 3 minutes when I noticed that the rain was hard and solid. I was walking through a hailstorm. And so were my noodles. It wasn't big hailstones, just lots of little ones. One actually landed in my cup noodles, splashing almost boiling water onto me.

Stupid hail.

Oh and did I mention I had a pair of expensive headphones on? Luckily they're fine and still work great.

big day out, here i come

2008-10-12T22:55:00.001+10:00

Big Day Out tickets went on sale online at midnight on Thursday, and several hours later at ticket outlets. I was going to stay up late to get 4 tickets like last year, but the internet was too slow (down to dial-up speeds yet again...) so I didn't even bother. Kinda had that whole work thing too so I couldn't really go wait in a queue for a few hours.

Anyway they're sold out of course, but cheers to Malex who kept me in mind when he got his tickets. Of the four tickets I got last year, the other three went to him (sure he's a big fella, but they weren't all to get him in...) so I guess we're pretty much even now.

Casting an eye over this year's lineup, Arctic Monkeys, The Living End (missed two of their gigs this year, so I've gotta make up for that...), The Prodigy (they're back!), Bullet for my Valentine and Cog were a few of the names in particular that jumped out at me. Still quite a while away, but I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway, Japanese Formula One is starting soon. Peace out.

8hr enduro

2008-10-08T10:34:00.001+10:00

5am Sunday morning, and I was out of bed. What the hell? I don't usually see the morning on Sundays, and when I do it's before I go to bed...

I was helping out a couple of mates who were doing a mountain bike 8 hour enduro race. Consider me as part of their "pit crew". The race started at 8:30am and was about an hour and a half drive from my place, longer since I had to pick Paul up (who was also helping out), which was why I had to get up so damn early.

It was held on a private property in what felt like the middle of nowhere. Competitors and their support crews/families and friends were all camped around the place. The purpose-built course was approximately 10km or so per lap, which took the boys about half an hour to lap in the early stages when they were still fresh.

Our job - pretty much top up their bottles and give them food and/or drinks whenever they wanted them. This wasn't much of a task given that they really only came by the spot we were stationed at every half hour or so. We had a gazebo, a camping chair, a hammock (which I fell off twice) and were armed with snacks and drinks to get us through the day. It was NRL Grand Final day, so we also had a radio to listen to the matches (woohoo for the Raiders winning the Under 20's Premiership!).

The race is something you don't really get exposed to until you actually go. The atmosphere was terrific - there were lots of youngsters around, who I think had their own mini races as well as unrelated activities like a jumping castle to keep them occupied. A lot camped at the site the night before too. Everyone was very friendly and easy to talk to, and a lot of people seemed to know each other from previous races.

All this actually makes me consider getting into mountain biking, though I think I'll start with flat smooth surfaces first... Gotta go buy me a bike first though. Might do that either towards the end of the year or early next year - I'd like something I could also use for a triathlon if I manage to get my fitness up in the next few months.

Ps. Post #100. Apparently. Yay for me.

all-ages gigs

2008-10-01T13:40:00.001+10:00

Damn all-ages gigs. Make me feel old. It's not often I feel old either - if anything it has always been quite the opposite.

I was at a gig last night (it was meant to be on Thursday night at the Arena but got moved) to see Underoath play at the Tivoli (probably my favourite venue in Brisbane), and found myself completely surrounded by kids who looked like they were 12. It was an earlyish gig to what I was used to - doors at 6pm, support act at 7pm and main act at 8pm, so it was over by 9:15pm (ie. bed time for the little ones). Nothing alcoholic was served at all either. I think the fact that it is currently school holiday time contributed to that a bit too. It was strange though, not something I was used to. Surely wasn't the kind of thing I got up to when I was in high school anyway - admittedly I was always more interested in attending live sport more than live music when I was growing up.

Must say though, I can't exactly say I'm a huge fan of Underoath - have a couple of their albums and like one of their songs in particular (which happened to be one of their encore songs, so there was a bit of a wait through a lot of unfamiliar songs), but besides that I mainly went because I heard about the gig when tickets went on sale, and one of my mates is a big fan of them (I had bailed on him on a gig last year, to which he ended going to on his own) so I figured I'd go along, and managed to drag another mate along for the ride. Being used to going to gigs where I actually know the songs and the words and can sing (or scream) along at the top of my lungs, I did feel a little out of place when everyone else would be joining in while I'm standing there thinking "I kinda know this song, I recognise it, but there's no way I know the lyrics..."

...but hey, it's not like you need to know the words or the song to bang your head, jump up and down against other sweaty bodies, and pump your fists in the air. Good exercise too.

near-death experience

2008-09-22T22:39:00.003+10:00

I'm happy to be alive.

Ok, so I was driving a colleague home after work this evening. Sitting stationary at a red light, I took a swig from my water bottle to quench my thirst. Second in the queue. The light eventually turns green. Car in front moves off, and I follow.

Another car decides to come flying past from the right, somehow getting between me and the car in front of me. No idea why. Couldn't justify it in any way. It wasn't like he just scraped in when the lights turned red for him, the lights would've been red for a good 5-10 seconds. I managed to slam the brakes. If I hadn't, I think they would've ploughed straight into my driver's side door (ie. me) at whatever ridiculously fast speed they were going at. That would've hurt.

I must say though, I am kinda annoyed I didn't get to beep the horn at them because I had the drink bottle in one hand and the steering wheel in the other. Oh well, just gotta wait for karma to strut its stuff...

attempted robbery

2008-09-17T18:53:00.002+10:00

Filling my car up at the petrol station last night (cheap Tuesday) was a bit more, er, exciting than usual. When I got out of my car and picked up the nozzle, I glanced into the shop to see a bit of action inside, involving two youngish males who appeared to be threatening the two petrol station attendants behind the counter. So I kept filling up, avoiding eye contact while still watching what was going on, and eventually one of the guys decides to get out of there, and drag his mate with him (who didn't seem the slightest bit fazed) when the female attendant picked up the phone and started to dial.

Anyway, it turns out that the two guys were threatening to rob the petrol station. I think they were high on something, they both seemed really twitchy - in fact, when I first saw what was going on it looked like one of the guys was in a rap video by the way he was throwing his arms about... On the way out, they kicked a few things outside before sprinting off across the street.

During the discussion with the attendants, I offered to run them down if I saw then on the way out - it was the least I could do. I have no idea what I would've done if the guys were still in there when I finished pumping, or they actually made progress with their threat... Maybe I should go get some capsicum spray or something.

Nah, too girly. I'll just bring a cricket bat with me wherever I go.

late for work?

2008-09-13T15:56:00.002+10:00

Woke up this morning at about 8:15am and totally freaked out - I'm late for work!!! Scrambling, I leap out of bed, pull apart the curtains and make towards the bedroom door when it hits me - today is Saturday. So it was back into bed until the afternoon.

What puzzles me about this is the fact that if I had woken up at 8:15am on a weekday, I wouldn't panic like that - I would've cursed, and just gotten out of bed as per usual. I wouldn't rush around in a frenzy. Maybe I was just really tired or something.

pretending to run

2008-09-07T21:53:00.001+10:00

Early this morning saw the running of the 2008 Bridge to Brisbane. If you look at the 10km race results when they come out in the paper, you'll find me in there as a finisher. I also have a finisher's shirt (not on me at the moment though). The truth is that I was actually sleeping while everyone was running/walking. Yes, that's right, I'm lazy.

I decided I really didn't feel like waking up early on a Sunday morning to run. I hadn't really gone for a proper run since the Gold Coast Marathon. And the final straw was when I found myself at a party on Saturday night. So, rather than paying to post my timing chip back, I gave it to Paul at the party, who was going to be walking the 10km (I usually carry my timing chips in my pockets when I go out). That way he could return it after the race and it wouldn't cost me. So I should have the exact time as him. Apparently Sara also got my a finisher's shirt, so it's like I was actually there.

Oh well, my $30 got me a finisher's shirt. At least I contributed to charity.

gold coast show

2008-08-28T23:21:00.001+10:00

I have a day off tomorrow - it's a public holiday for the Gold Coast Show. Quite frankly, I don't get it. Don't get me wrong, I love a long weekend and am definitely not complaining about it. I know that it's been going for over a hundred years now and showcases the Gold Coast, but to me it just feels like a cheap ripoff of Brisbane's Ekka. Our show follows the Ekka by a couple of weeks, goes for three days (compared to two weeks) and is smaller, and quite frankly worse. Okay, fair enough, the Gold Coast is smaller than Brisbane, but I don't know...

I guess I just don't see the point of the whole concept. You pay to get in, and then you pay to go on the rides as well as trying to win prizes (damn Carnies...), as well as spending cash on showbags and food. Not the kind of place I'd like to be taking my kids if I had any. I think I went once or twice as a youngster, but I didn't go on any rides - all I wanted to do was get showbags. I think I actually nagged the hell out of Dad one year to go, just because I wanted the Jurassic Park showbag.

I went to the Ekka not too long ago (I think I went in 2000 and again in 2002), and I must admit I had fun. It was expensive though. Didn't really go on many "rides" as such, nor did I go on a showbag shopping spree, but I know that I spent quite a lot of money on trying to win prizes. It was always really crowded and hot, with people everywhere. I don't think I had a mobile phone the first time I went (well the first time I remember going anyway) and got separated from a few of my mates. Not the best way to go through the day, but still managed to enjoy myself.

Anyway all I'm getting at I guess is that I don't think I'll be going to either show anytime in the near future, I'd rather spend my day off at a theme park or something and not need to pay for the rides once I pay to get in... or just chill out at home. The latter is looking very promising right now...

mmm, pseudoephedrine...

2008-08-24T15:39:00.005+10:00

You know it's bad when you're regarded as a "regular" at the local pharmacy...

Been sick over the last week. Hate it. Didn't really get much sleep over the last weekend, which then carried on into the working week. First came a headache and runny nose early in the week. Went to the pharmacy and picked up some sinus meds.

"Hi, we haven't seen you for a while, is your leg better now?"

And this...

"Usually we'd need to see your licence for these, but we know you well enough."

Wait. You do? Apparently so, enough that they don't need to check my credit card signature either.

Anyway they didn't really do much, and I found myself struggling even more. Thursday I didn't even go into work, just spent the day in bed. I slept a good 17 hours, though it was interrupted, waking up every hour or two. It was a cold day but I found myself sweating quite a bit too. Must be because I'm so hot (sorry, had to slip that one in...).

Friday morning saw me back at work, and I went back to the pharmacy and bought some actual cold and flu stuff (stupid night tablets don't work like they used to), as well as some strepsils (apparently these ones also have an anaesthetic to numb the throat). By the afternoon, the boss' wife sent me home because I looked like I was going to pass out. Anyway since then I've pretty much done nothing but sit at home. Which is frustrating. But at least the Olympics was on, so I could watch Channel 7 make a complete mess of their coverage...

the phone

2008-08-11T17:43:00.002+10:00

I mentioned last week that I got a new phone. It arrived at my house at some point on Wednesday morning, and thanks to the power of online tracking of my parcel I decided to go home for lunch to open my new toy.

What did I get?

A Samsung i900 Omnia.

I was too lazy to take a photo of my phone...

So why did I choose this over the HTC Touch Diamond?

- Bigger 3.2-inch, 240 x 400 pixel display (compared to 2.8-inch, 480 x 640 pixels)
- Solid build
- Metallic finish on back (as opposed to the fingerprint magnet and oddly shaped Diamond)
- Longer battery life (almost double)
- Faster CPU performance (Diamond's TouchFLO interface is apparently quite laggy)
- microSD card slot (which the Diamond is lacking)
- 16GB of storage memory (compared to 4GB)
- Much better 5 megapixel camera
- TV-out (missing on Diamond)

I couldn't have everything though...

- Touchwiz UI isn't as good as TouchFLO 3D
- Diamond does look nicer, and is smaller and lighter
- Omnia acks a stylus slot
- Diamond has a dedicated graphics chip with 64MB memory

One of my colleagues ordered a Diamond over the weekend, meaning I can do a side-by-side comparison later this week.

So far I'm loving this little beauty, took it on the boat cruise and took some photos until I decided that dancing/singing is difficult to do while also taking photos. Been transferring contacts over, customising it, adding new apps and stuff like that, which is good fun (though can be a little frustrating at times). Nice to be to do stuff on the internet (Gmail, Facebook, Blogger, IM etc) while on the go. Handy when you need to pick someone up and you have to wait for them in the car.

Took it to the beach on Sunday too, which I was a little worried about but the lack of flipping and sliding parts, not to mention lack of buttons in general, means less places that sand can get into. Having no stylus slot is a little annoying though - I dangle it off my phone, and I hate dangling things on my phones (makes me feel like a teenage schoolgirl...), but I don't see any other way without losing stylus after stylus. Also I didn't bother cleaning the screen before putting my screen protector on, so I have the odd particle stuck under the screen protector, though luckily this is only around near the edges anyway. Ah well, I'll probably order a new protector anyway, not that I really need it.

Handwriting recognition is cool, as is the autorotate feature (using the in-built accelerometer). Not really a fan of Windows Mobile though, it really does require the stylus to get around, as some of the buttons and scroll bars you need to hit are pretty small (and I don't really think that I really have big fingers or anything...). I did, however, install SPB Mobile Shell, which I love - I found it to be a lot more finger/thumb friendly, so I don't need the stylus to navigate around. Still working on getting some GPS software installed with turn-by-turn navigation, but until I get that sorted, Google Maps does a decent enough job. It uses data though, but I called Optus the day after I got my phone and set up a $14.95 a month data plan for 200MB of data. Can also use the internet by connecting to Wi-Fi, but can't get that working yet. In terms of internet browsers, I prefer Opera over IE - both are on the phone.

Sound quality is good enough, not much difference to my iPod Nano once I plug in my own headphones. Comes with Windows Media Player and Samsung's own media player too, but I can't seem to find an equilizer, which sucks. Actually, come to think about it, there are a lot of things I can't find. Sometimes I find something, and then can't find it again later. Guess I have to get used to where everything is with Windows Mobile. Threw on a movie (it comes with DivX installed), and it the screen size is great for widescreen movies (so now I can watch Juno when I get bored at some conference or presentation).

Anyway that's all that comes to mind for now. I'm going home.

boats, karts and beaches

2008-08-10T23:27:00.001+10:00

What a weekend.

Friday evening after work saw me on a boat for a 3 hour party cruise along the Brisbane River, followed by an after party in the city. Theme was National Pride - the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was on the same night. I went as Captain Cook, which was fun. First time I've ever hired a costume, and felt it was worth it. Though it was annoying how many people thought I was a pirate (I mean come on, it's not like I had an eye patch on or anything) or Napoleon Bonaparte (apparently due to my lack of height). I had a great time, and it was good to see everyone going to an effort to dress to the theme. Took a few photos as well using my new phone (which I got on Wednesday and love, but that story will come later... for now I'm still too busy playing with it). Got home at 5:30am.

Saturday was go-karting at Willowbank Raceway. Awesomeness again. It was my first time karting - the last few times my mates went, I was busy for one reason or another. There was a qualifying session, two heats and a final race. I picked kart number 05 (in honour of Brocky), with all karts powered by a 270cc Honda 4 stroke, 14hp engine. I somehow managed to qualify 1st (out of 8 of us) with my first lap, and spent half of qualifying, the heats and the final race with Storm sitting on my arse, giving me the occasional tap to remind me where she was. Not that I needed reminding, I found myself constantly checking over my shoulder and out the corner of my eye to see if she was still there. And that she was. I think my time spent playing racing games has finally paid off... the end result being a cheap trophy and getting to stand on the top podium (which was another first for me, I think). Sweet. Must say, I had luck on my side though. I pushed the kart into a few corners a little too fast once or twice (you can't help it when you've got the pressure on you to try to pick up an extra split second here and there) and almost spun out on a couple of occasions. Had I not qualified ahead of Storm, I doubt I would have kept up with her, let alone gotten past her. Others were getting quicker lap times than me, I was just able to take a decent enough racing line most of the time to stop anyone sneaking by. I've just gotta stop practicing it in my car now...

Today was a beach day. It was a nice warm day for winter, though it was a bit chilly in the shade and in the water. Also spent a lot of time driving people around. By the end of it I was exhausted. I think I broke my own weekend driving record, something like 700kms from Friday evening to Sunday arvo. Don't know why I'm still up actually. Time for bed I reckon...

cargo 200

2008-08-03T11:09:00.004+10:00

Last night I found myself discovering my arty side, and went to see a film as part of the Brisbane International Film Festival. Of the movies that were in a convenient timeslot, I wanted to go see Russian film Cargo 200. This is the summary that drew me into it:

----------
Celebrated Russian filmmaker Alexei Balabanov confronts his nation's Soviet past with this hard-hitting thriller, peppered with dark humour. A police captain is dispatched to investigate a murder and the kidnapping of a politician's daughter in a grim 1980s industrial town. Not for the faint hearted!
----------

It was a bit like a late night SBS on the big screen. The difference was that because the cinema screen was already widescreen, there were no surrounding black horizontal strips available to place the yellow subtitles, which was hence placed on screen. I found this to be a little difficult to read at times.

Anyway, the actual movie itself was very hard hitting. Violent. Disturbing. Shocking. Having said this, an introduction was given before the film outlining the basis of the film, and we were warned. I did know what I was in for though and hence expected it. It seems that Paul didn't... though Simon was unfazed as usual.

The setting - 1984 Soviet Union. It was mostly centred on the industrial town of Leninsk. The backdrop was gloomy, decayed, run down. There was a lot of vodka consumption throughout the film (wouldn't be a Russian film without vodka, would it?). The soundtrack - ironic and amusing. It was a film that kept the audience tense throughout. There were scenes which were horrifying, yet with dark comedic twists. I think the plot, along with many of the scenes, is too disturbing to really go into any detail here. Murders, rapes, dead rotting bodies...

I think that Balabanov did well in conveying his message through his film - it does wake you up to the horrors taking place in the Soviet Union. It was a lot more than a flick full of gory scenes, with themes of religion, love, obsession and power.

We got to cast our vote afterwards, I think the choices were:
- Loved it;
- Liked it;
- Average;
- Didn't like it; and
- Hated it.

Simon and Paul (who was really disturbed by the end of it) both voted 'average', and I voted 'Liked it'. Honestly I can't say that I really liked it as such, but it was a good film. Just not the type of film that most people can really enjoy. I may decide to see it again someday if I get the chance, but not in the near future...

take that, iphone

2008-08-01T22:58:00.001+10:00

iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. It's all you hear these days.

For some reason I don't really like the iPhone. I played around with one earlier this week, and despite being impressed with the screen quality and the ease of navigation (I found the user interface to be very intuitive), I'm not sure what it is about it that turns me off. It could be the;
- lack of MMS
- no bluetooth A2DP
- no bluetooth file transfer
- no radio
- currently no turn-by-turn GPS navigation (that I know of)
- lack of camera flash
- no video recording
- no video calls
- can't copy and paste
- non-removable battery (like my iPod nano, grr...)
- unexpandable memory
- bulkiness
- relatively high cost

Actually, I think it's just because there is so much fuss over it. Don't get me wrong, I reckon that it is a great phone. I just wouldn't buy one. In the above I was just being really nitpicky and trying to prove that it isn't the ultimate bestest ever phone in the whole wide world.

My current phone (Sony Ericsson w880i) has been bugging me lately - sometimes when you tap it a little too hard (and I don't mean hurling it across the room or out a high rise window, but putting it down on the table) it turns itself off, and the same happens sometimes when I put it in my pocket. Also the connector for the charger, handsfree etc is a bit loose, and you have to jiggle it around a bit to get it working - sometimes I plug in the charger and go to bed, and wake up the next morning to find that it hasn't charged at all. I got it for the slimness rather than features, but in the year I have owned it I have found the little features lacking a little frustrating. Halfway through my 2 year plan and I am over it.

So I wanted a new phone. For weeks I obsessed over the HTC Touch Diamond. I liked its compact size, physical design and sharp VGA display. However, key downsides were the 4GB internal storage and lack of microSD slot, low battery capacity. I almost got it though, primarily for its compactness. I spent weeks staring at it online. Even went to the Telstra shop when it was released in the country (exclusively by Telstra... grr) several days ago for a touch (pun intended).

Two nights ago I changed my mind abruptly for whatever reason and picked out a different phone. Today I cracked and just impulsively bought it. Don't know what got into me. I have buyer's remorse. Feel so silly about buying something I didn't really research into. I won't talk about it now or tell you what I chose... you'll have to wait and see. What I can tell you though is that it is not yet released down under (and no date has been set yet either), so I had to get it imported from overseas. Will blog about it when it arrives. Hopefully soon. Very soon.

nananananananana batman

2008-07-27T22:06:00.002+10:00

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

2008-07-22T21:19:00.005+10:00

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

2008-07-17T22:09:00.002+10:00

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

2008-07-13T23:57:00.003+10:00

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...

2008-07-07T21:08:00.007+10:00

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

2008-07-06T00:37:00.001+10:00

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

why engineering?

2008-07-02T22:52:00.004+10:00

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.]

gearing up

2008-06-24T23:04:00.004+10:00

Less than two weeks to go until the half marathon. Damn. I saw a guy running at about 2am whilst driving home early Sunday morning. Now that's commitment, it was freezing too. Made me feel guilty. How is my preparation going?

Amount of training I've done: very very minimal.
The furthest I've ever run without stopping: 5km (though two "brief" pauses to readjust my knee strap).
Length of the half marathon: around about 21.097494km.

I am so screwed. So what if I can't run, at least I've given gearing up for the race some thought. Here are the latest.

Orthotic Insoles:
So I'm a really bad pronator. Like, really bad. I have the flattest feet in the world...

Me: I have the flattest feet in the world.
[Takes foot out of shoe]
Gym Receptionist: Holy crap you do!
Me: Told you so.

Bought these really stiff insoles for some more arch support (my shoes do provide some support, but it just isn't quite enough). Definitely helps with the leg and knee pain, but my feet really hurt after a few hundred metres of running. Apparently you're meant to gradually ease yourself into getting used to them over a month, especially these really stiff ones. Time I just didn't have. Walking is generally ok though, it's the running that isn't cool. Still trying to decide which insoles to wear in the race - what pain do I want to feel, knees or feet?

Skins Long Compression Tights:
These are great. Took them out for a run over the weekend, and definitely helps deal with muscle pain. Give me the support I need without needing my stupid knee brace. Also great to keep you warm in winter, especially early mornings.

The problem - I look like a complete tool wearing them. Of course, I don't feel comfortable wearing just the skins on their own, so I put a pair of running shorts over the top. Not to mention the fact that I'm generally regarded as being a short person, and for this reason the tights are too long for me so the ankles just bunch up. Either that or I bring them down over my foot which is uncomfortable (yes I opted to feel uncomfy to look like slightly less of an idiot). I just look ridiculous with it, especially when I'm walking rather than running. I found that people kept staring at me like I was some kind of weirdo. Well, more than usual anyway. Besides that, I love them, they feel great. Am looking for another pair to get, currently thinking a cheaper brand (Slazenger or something like that) and something shorter, maybe three quarter length if I can find some (I need knee support so the shorts wouldn't really help) - it would be handy to have another pair for recovery after a race, and to have a pair to wear that may possibly look slightly less tacky.

Other:
What else do I need to get? Well the shoes are good, as are my favourite running singlet and shorts (all Asics, probably just coincidence... or not, I don't really know). So I need to find myself some decent comfy socks (a toss up between a rather expensive pair or Thorlos that will last, or something a little cheaper like the CoolMax range in Target), as well as some Endura Energy Gel kinda sachets to bring with me to knock back when I hit "the wall" - I've been told this is around the 14-15km mark. I wonder if it's anything like the wall in Run Fatboy Run... Oh and I better find the arm strap pouch for my iPod or I'll have to carry the damn thing in my pocket. I know it's around here somewhere...

facebookless

2008-06-20T17:18:00.001+10:00

Oh no, Facebook is down. What am I meant to do? Oh, I have an idea. How about I leave work and go home already? No wait, an even better idea. I'll go to the Broncos game tonight. Even better.

the nation's capital

2008-06-17T21:36:00.000+10:00

Back from my weekend in Canberra. The Townsville story didn't reach an end because I ranted on too much and left it too long to recreate the experience in my head to properly retell the amazing encounters and adventures by the time I actually got around to it. So I'm going to try not to make the same mistake again. I'll try to keep it short and sweet this time around. Promise. Well, promise that I'll try anyway.

Three of us flew down to Canberra on Friday night. Flight was a bit delayed. Landed at about midnight. Eb picked us up. It was bloody freezing. Apartment was nice. Very close to the city. Went to sleep.

Woke up Saturday morning. Still cold. Did a run of all the touristy attractions. Breakfast in the Civic Centre. Walked to the Australian War Memorial. Looked around there. Walked to Parliament House from there. Took us about an hour. Very cold. It looked a lot closer on the map than it really was. Did lunch at Parliament House. It was like a cafeteria. Briefly visited Old Parliament House. Paul wanted to see the steps. He's a big fan of Gough. We were behind schedule and I wanted to get the most out of Questacon. Went to Questacon. I love Questacon. Last went there on a school trip in Year 7. Had heaps of fun there. Experienced zero gravity. Bought a Rubik's World. A cross between a globe and a Rubik's Cube. Sara got one too. We got a lot of the same souvenirs. I swear she was copying me. Went to the High Court. Had flashbacks of The Castle. Got a cab back to the apartment. Couldn't be stuffed walking back. It was already dark. And getting colder. Somehow. Went to dinner. Caught a Bus there. Had a Moreton Bay bug and crab lasagne. Picked it because it sounded really strange. Tasted a bit weird. Saw a real estate shopfront that looked like a furniture shop. Met up with Paul's friend. It was freezing. Had a warm milkshake. Yes, that's right. A warm milkshake. Sat outside. Near a heater. Still damn cold. Really cold. Freezing. Walked past a 24 hour Coles. Went to a club where we met up with Eb. A club in Canberra is like a pub in Brisbane. Apparently that club is a hot spot for miliatary folk. Not literally hot. Though the girls dressed like it was. Walked back to the apartment. It was absolutely freezing cold. Watched some crap TV. Went to bed.

Woke up on Sunday. Packed. Went to the National Museum. Cold. Tight schedule so we cabbed it. That place looks trippy. Had another dodgy cafeteria meal for breakfast. Stupid restaurant there was already closed after breakfast at 10:30am. Wasn't open for lunch yet. Looked around there. Picked up a few things here and there on Australian History. Had to leave in a hurry though. Caught a cab up to Black Mountain to check out Telstra Tower. Saw Canberra from up above. Not really that much to see to be honest. Bought a model of the tower to add to my mini city collection. Eb picked us up from there to take us to the game. I was clad in jersey, scarf and viking helmet. Not as cold. In the sun. The Raiders thrashed the Broncos. Sheer awesomeness. It alone was worth the trip down there. Met some of the squad (ie my heroes) afterwards. It was great, got photos with them. Went back to the airport for our flight out. Dinner at the airport. We had a bit of a wait there. Before we knew it it was late on Sunday night. We were back home. Still cold though.

Keeping it short? I tried. Really.

shortest post ever

2008-06-13T19:26:00.001+10:00

Flying out to Canberra.

MIA

2008-06-11T00:55:00.001+10:00

Ok so I've been missing from here lately. A combination of being busy, tired and sick. Still the first two and a little of the third, so I'll leave it at that for now. Hope to get back into it soonish. Apologies to my readers, if you exist...

dr jones

2008-05-28T18:17:00.005+10:00

Saturday night saw me at a housewarming party, which involved me playing Twister for the first time ever - I was one of those kids who always opted to watch instead. Damn was I sore afterwards. One of the girls tipped a bit of drink down the back of my pants while I was trying to balance too.

Sunday was Indiana Jones day as far as I was concerned. Along with James and Darz, we hijacked a room with a big projector, found some confy couchy things and footrests, and went through the Indiana Jones trilogy.

Raiders of the Lost Ark - 115 mins
The first of the series, and I love this movie. Absolute classic, too many memorable moments to mention. Karen Allen is hot.

Temple of Doom - 118 mins
I never really liked the second movie (which is a prequel to Raiders) as much as the others, the theme behind it was a lot darker than the others, and the key female Willy annoys me. I do like Short Round as Indy's sidekick though.

Last Crusade - 127 mins
Sean Connery is great in this one as Indy's father, the chemistry between them entertaining, and Alison Doody is quite aesthetically pleasing as Dr Schneider. Love the intro too, explains a lot.

Following watching the trilogy as well as getting through corn chips, salsa, lollies and soft drink, we went off to buy tickets for the fourth movie at the cheap cinemas. When we got there - sold out. We'd have to wait a a few hours for the next session that wasn't sold out yet. So we decided to go for a walk to the more expensive cinemas, which had an session on soon that hopefully wasn't sold out. By the time we got there and went to get our tickets, we found that it hadn't sold out but we had missed the first 5-10 minutes. So we decided to buy tickets to the next session, go get ourselves some dinner and kill some time before making sure we didn't miss a single minute of the movie.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 124 mins
I liked it. Though not quite as awesome as the first or third. There was a bit over CGI overkill here and there, and it just didn't have that same level of breathtakingness (a bit like the newer Star Wars films). And I didn't see as much of Indy's whip as I had hoped (no, that's not metaphorical for anything...). What I did love was the running gags relating to the past three movies.

Anyway that was my 8 hours of Indiana Jones on Sunday. It was good.

elevator-phobia

2008-05-20T21:43:00.003+10:00

Saturday was interesting. I represented a company that isn't the company I work for in mixed touch at the Corporate Games. I hadn't played touch footy for about a year. Managed to injure my leg again in the second of three matches - I got a little overexcited when I took an intercept and went for a flamboyant swan dive to touch down... We lost the first match but won the other two to come second in our pool - not bad considering we had only just met each other. I still don't know most of their names. Oh, and it bucketed down on us basically when our last match finished - it was like we were in a bloody cyclone.

Anyway, I went to Malex's afterwards to shower and get changed, and then the two of us made our way to Suncorp Stadium to watch the Reds' final match for the season. We parked in Auchenflower and walked to the stadium from there. Along the way we had to cross the train tracks at Milton train station, which involved climbing up to the platform, then climbing up to the concourse and crossing the tracks up there. After climbing the steps up to the platform I decided my leg wasn't in a step-climbing mood so we decided to catch the lift up to the concourse. We got in, pressed the button to go up and waited. And waited.

The light to the button we pressed had gone off. So we tried it again and again, and it wasn't coming back on. We tried other level buttons, and they weren't working either. Neither was the door open button. We were stuck in a lift. The emergency telephone button worked though, and we were told that someone was on their way to let us out.

I think that if I was in the lift alone and it didn't have glass doors I would've panicked. But I didn't. We both saw the humour in it. Paul, who was already at the game and alone since it was the three of us going (front row, too...) kept us up to date over the phone. A few QR workers and a policeman tried helping us out, but to no avail. Amusingly the cop tried to pry the doors open with his bare hands.

Anyway after about 40 minutes the elevator man came along and, with a few minutes of tinkering, saved the day. We said our thanks, relieved to be outside that damn lift, walked the stairs and made our way to the game. We heard that they had discounted merchandise, we both bought Reds jerseys (Paul got one too after hearing how much they were... best jerseys ever by the way, good old cotton jerseys so soft to the touch) and by the time we were done with that it was half time. So we missed half the match. Oh well. The Reds ended up losing the match, but at least we got to farewell the departing and retiring Reds players afterwards.

intermission

2008-05-14T23:10:00.002+10:00

I had the honour of seeing Ross Noble last night. It was three hours of awesomeness. Face was hurting from excessive laughter. Mouth was dry but I couldn't really drink any without the risk of choking and/or spitting all over the rows of people in front of me. I think I wet myself a little bit too. Luckily all eyes were on Ross, so I think I got away with it unnoticed.

It was great value for money too. He went on for about three hours. Actually, Ross reminded me of me a bit. He had this way of jumping from topic to topic like lightning, starting a story and then jumping to something else when he's barely started the last one. He kept forgetting that he had mentioned a story without actually getting through it or onto it. Tangents left, right and center. The difference between us was that he was funny. The show was pretty much based around him picking on audience members, with the tangents leading the way to all kinds of stories and random stuff from there. I reckon that if I went to see him again tonight, most of the show would be different - I highly doubt that he really plans much of it, probably has a few stories/jokes that he'll try to get to at some stage, but it would mostly be his improv genius, supported by a lot of miming and sound effects to help get the message across.

Picked myself up a cool signed poster for $10 - the money going to feed some Africans or something.

townsville (dos)

2008-05-08T23:05:00.000+10:00

Don't ask why I'm counting in Spanish. I wouldn't have the faintest idea as to why the hell I'm doing it. That pretty much goes for most things that I do actually.

Saturday (Day Two):

Geez, as I sit here and think about it, I actually have very vague recollections of what actually happened on Saturday. I woke up. Eventually. I would've easily been the last of the four to wake up. I think the others managed to go for a swim in the pool (which had a damn awesome view... just like our balcony in fact, just not as high, funnily enough) before I even stirred.

Ooh I remember now. After getting harassed (both verbally and physically) by my hungry companions, I managed to get our of bed and get ready, before we headed out to find a quick breakfast and supplies for the rest of the stay. It was another stinker of a day, but luckily this time I had the genius idea of wearing shorts. We bought a lot of crap at the local Bi-Lo, considering it was Saturday and we were leaving on Monday. Not to mention the arguments and indecisions involved with picking stuff. How the hell was I meant to know the difference between fruit juice and fruit drink? Who cares if it's reconstituted or regurgitated or whatever... Glad we all managed to agree on the Raspberry Splits. Mmm.

Back at the apartment it was straight into the pool for me - I hadn't gone for a dip yet, and Paul came along too. Stormy set out to explore the city in the hunt for souvenirs. Who knows what Ray got up to back in the apartment. Following that, I made lunch. Yes, I am awesome. Sure, it was two minute noodles (my specialty dish, and probably the only one not requiring a microwave), but for 15 minutes there, I actually felt like I could cook.

After that it was time to gear up in our supporters gear and it was off to get the bus to Dairy Farmers stadium to go see what we were up there for - the Cowboys vs Storm match. I liked the feel of the stadium, it was as if it hadn't bowed down to the commercialism that other stadiums had gone through. Rather than having a big catering services company, they had like the local Rotary clubs etc doing the catering. They had a carnival thing for the kids in one corner, with rides and stuff. I got fairy floss from there. We were treated with skydivers, fireworks, cheerleaders, as well as a dodgy local cover band. The game itself was pretty good, a close one that went to the visitors. Wasn't the best performance from either team though. Amusing was the cha-ching sounds that came over the speakers everytime Ray Cashmere made a hit-up, as well as playing Big Girls Don't Cry when Billy Slater copped an accidental Thurston finger to the eye.

After the game we caught a cab back to the apartment (it was quicker and easier for the four of us compared to queueing up for the bus), got changed and headed out to check out the Jupiters Casino. It was really close to the apartment, but unless we wanted to swim there we had to walk around to it. Same as any other casino, it managed to keep us occupied until midnight or so. After that, we considered going out into the city to check out the nightlife but we were tired and were planning to be up early on Sunday morning to head to Magnetic Island, so decided to head back to the apartment and chill out. Once again I can't actually remember anything after that. No joke. I think I remember being hungry.

townsville (uno)

2008-05-06T23:50:00.002+10:00

Townsville - it was like stepping into a time warp. And now it's like trying to step back into time into that time warp (erm... does that even make sense) to remember what happened. So I'll split this up into days - trying to remember all four days at once might make me explode.

Friday (Day One):

I was up around 3am-ish, and left home at 4am to make my way to the airport for our 7am flight. It was early, I was cold and tired, and by the time we got to the airport to drop our baggage, the queue was huge. Anyway, the four of us managed to finally get on board after a slight delay, and I managed to sleep through a bulk of the two hour flight, despite a window seat with a nice view. After landing in Townsville, we caught a hybrid cab (Ray really really wanted to ride in the hybrid) to our apartment. Well, as close as he could get to our apartment anyway - there was an Anzac Day march happening along The Strand, complete with road closures. The Strand ran between us and our apartment. So we had to cut through the march... hope that isn't regarded as being disrespectful or anything.

Our room wasn't ready until about 2pm, so we left our bags there and headed out into the heat of the sun (it wasn't humidity, it was just the sun beating down on us, trying to fry us as quickly as possible... and I had jeans on) to explore Townsville.

There really wasn't that much to it. Nothing much was open, being a public holiday and all. I was hot and tired. After walking along a bit of The Strand and finding some brunch, it was into the "city". This coincided with a tirade of whinging and complaining (both shared openly and kept deep down inside) on my behalf.

Flinders Mall was deserted. Most shops were closed. Victoria Bridge was a little pedestrian bridge. Chasing air conditioning, we went to Reef HQ. It was a smaller Underwater World without the travelator. Finally we got the call saying our apartment was ready. On the way back we went to check out the museum, and found that we needed to be local residents to get in for free - otherwise you had to pay some sum of money for admission that wasn't worth it.

First thing we did when we got to the apartment was hit the air con to full blast and bask in the awesomeness of the coolness (both ways). We had a great view from the apartment balcony. After settling in, we decided to venture out again for food. First plan was Woolies - when we got there, that was closed. Duh.

Anyway, following a feed at the one cafe that was open in the mall, we headed up Castle Hill. Ray went ahead because he was so cool (or so he thinks). Stormy and Paul hung back to make sure that I made it up there alive. I really struggled on the walk up, could've been the lack of sleep, but maybe it was just because I'm unfit and I suck. Don't know how I'll manage the half marathon I've got in two months' time...

The view from the top was awesome, and well worth the struggle up there. I had forgotten my camera back at the apartment though. You could see everything. Well, not literally everything. That would be weird. While up there, Stormy spotted what she thought was the Melbourne Storm training on a football field. This may be a good opportunity to add that the primary reason for visiting Townsville that weekend was to watch the NQ Cowboys (Paul's heroes) play the Storm (funnily enough, Storm's object of support). When we went down, we decided to check it out. And she was right. Not to mention excited.

We watched them train from the sidelines (with the sounds of coach Bellamy's foul mouthed commands filling the air), followed by a bit of a meet and greet session. I kept Paul company (who had a Cowboys jersey on) while Storm ran around like a kid in a candy shop, meeting the players, as well as photos and the odd signature.

Next stop was the apartment - we were all tired after the climb and just wanted to sit down and watch the footy on TV, though we had to actually get there first, which involved walking back. When we finally got there, Stormy passed out on the couch while Paul and I ducked back out to find some dinner. After eating and watching the footy, that's all I remember of Friday. So I'll leave it there before I strain my brain a little too much.

don't forget your card, sir...

2008-05-01T23:10:00.003+10:00

Today Rebel Sport had a 25% off sale for RACQ members, which included already discounted stock! I had a few things that I wanted to get, so I went to my closest Rebel store after the gym to pick up some bargains. Now, in order to receive the discount you needed to be an RACQ member and flash your membership card. Guess who didn't check that they had their membership card with them? That's right. Me.

So when I got there it was about 7pm. During the drive there I searched through my wallet to make sure the card was in there (it's one of those cards that I usually always keep with me - kinda needed for when/if my car breaks down...), and it wasn't there. I though that was fair enough, I probably temporarily took it out of my wallet to make it thinner for whatever reason, and the card was probably just in my bag. At this stage I was tempted to pull over to check, but I figured I'm just being a worry wart. So I waited until I got there. And couldn't find it.

I drove home to get it. Searched around the house and it showed up after about 10 minutes, hidden away under a pile on a shelf. Quite glad that I didn't have a car problem and need to call RACQ and found my card missing...

Got back to the store at about 8pm, giving me an hour until the shop closed at 9pm. Freaked out because I thought I had left my wallet at home this time, but it was sitting on the passenger seat. Phew. Anyway I ended up spending $172.85 on a bunch of random stuff. Wanted to get myself a Canberra Raiders jersey, but there was only one there (either they're really popular or they're not... I'm picking the latter) and it wasn't my size. I felt obliged to get something Raiders related, so I got a scarf. Other purchases included a gym bag, long Skins compression tights, a t-shirt and a ball that apparently bounces on water (impulse buy whilst standing in the queue). Went through the checkout with about 7 minutes to spare. No sweat.

[For those wondering, Townsville recap will be up soon... just gotta get around to it.]

back in black

2008-04-29T22:47:00.002+10:00

Well I'm back from Townsville. And I've darkened up a little from too much sun without sunnies or a hat. Proper summary to follow, but for now I need sleep.

leaving on a jet plane

2008-04-24T23:14:00.002+10:00

I'm off to Townsville tomorrow morning (7am flight, eew). People keep asking me why I'd go up there for a holiday, and the answer to that is mainly because I've never been and just want to see what it's like. The receptionist at the gym doesn't seem to be able to understand this... Anyway I'm back in the great south east on Monday night (yes, that's right, a four day weekend suckers). Until then, have a great long weekend folks.

the windscreen, my only weakness... how did you know?

2008-04-23T09:00:00.000+10:00

My car appears to be a magnet for disaster. Ok, disaster is probably too strong a word - I'd be really worried otherwise. Anyway, I was driving on the highway on Saturday morning and found myself boxed in behind a truck (there were cars either side of me so I couldn't just change lanes). Next thing I know I hear the bang of something hitting my car, and after a few seconds of swearing and frantic searching, I found a rock chip in the passenger side of the windscreen. Not good.

Yesterday I took it in to get filled in or whatever they do so that the cracks don't spread - I really didn't feel like replacing the windscreen. They did give me a bit of a scare beforehand though when they had a look at the chip - apparently it was nasty (what do you expect when I was driving at about 115km/h into it, and who knows what speed it was travelling at me at...) and there was a chance that when they used the machine to fix it, the windscreen would crack and they'd need to replace it. $109 and half an hour later it was fixed and all good. Still looks the same to me, but apparently they did some fancy stuff involving injecting the cracks with some resin or something like that. I trust them... I have a lifetime guarantee on it anyway so I'll be back if they didn't do it right.

This car is becoming more expensive than I expected. Oh well.

pilot

2008-04-20T21:56:00.002+10:00

I flew a plane this morning. A Cessna Skyhawk. Don't tell anyone though, I'm pretty sure I wasn't exactly supposed to... It wasn't a lesson, just went along with someone with a pilot's licence who decided to put his fate in my hands once we were in the air. I thought I was just coming along for a ride. I was wrong.

This morning I found myself steering the little aircraft (the first non-commercial aircraft I've ever been in) around Redcliffe Aerodrome towards the runway - after a quick five minute rundown on how it worked, I got told to steer the damn thing. After almost wetting myself when I headed away from the bitumen, I got the hang of it and got us to the runway. Once we took off, I got a quick overview of the countless buttons, switches, levers, dials and displays in front of me and got told what altitude to be at and which direction to go in, and then got told to fly the damn thing. It actually wasn't very hard at all. Wasn't quite like driving a car though, I'll tell you that now.

Heights aren't really my thing, but it was ok because I didn't really get the chance to worry about it, I was too busy trying to make sure that we weren't too high or too low, and heading in the right direction, as well as looking out for other aircraft around and dodging the clouds. I had my camera with me but was also too preoccupied to take many photos. Whenever I did get the chance to gaze out, I found the view to be awesome. It wasn't like when you're on a passenger jet with a window seat and have this little hole to gaze out of. You had this big open view of everything.

After a touch and go at Caboolture (I obviously had nothing to do with that, I handed the controls back over) we flew towards the Glasshouse Mountains and this was when I started to feel a little nauseous. There was a bit of a wind coming in from the south, and that coupled with the bits of turbulence from the wind coming off and around the mountains when we got near them (damn you Reynold's number...). Managed to survive though - I think that by concentrating on keeping the plane heading in the right direction helped me forget about the possibility of being sick. Not to mention making sure I didn't fly into the mountains...

Anyway it was an awesome experience. Not sure if I'm keen to get back into that cramped cockpit and thrown around anytime soon though. I went straight to bed when I got home, had a killer headache. Not having much sleep the night before probably didn't help either. I need to harden up a bit, really don't feel like throwing up everywhere... Though all I had for breakfast was a muesli bar, so it's not like there was much that could've come back up.

first blood

2008-04-15T23:52:00.004+10:00

Well it's finally happened - my new car doesn't look quite so new anymore. Not sure exactly where or when it happened, but there are now some chunks of paint taken off the left rear bumper. All I know is that it was a white car. It could've happened anywhere between my house and somewhere in Brisbane, and any time before Sunday. Actually, now that I think about it, it had to be after Saturday night - I washed my car that night (my first drive-thru car wash), and since there were white paint remnants left on my car, it had to have been after that. Oh well, I guess the first bit of damage to a brand new car is always the worst, because it goes from perfect to not-so-perfect. It had to happen at some stage. Now the floodgates have opened, and any further damage sustained sometime down the track won't feel so bad.

Anyway, can I ask a favour of you? It would be cool if you could just vandalise any white cars you see with battlescars suggesting a collision with a black Liberty. That would be very much appreciated. Actually, that wouldn't really achieve much, would it... Revenge may be sweet, but I guess I'll never know whether one of the many cars I take my frustration out on is actually the perpetrator. Oh well, it's the best I can do.

Maybe I should call in the guys from CSI. They usually shine their different coloured lights on everything, swab stuff, hypothesise about what happened from different viewpoints, pull out some real corny lines here and there, and figure it all out in an hour, including ad breaks.

signed memorabilia

2008-04-08T20:54:00.002+10:00

Signed memorabilia - I'm not really sure what the fuss is all about. Yet I'm addicted.

Today I bought a signed Canberra Raiders jersey.

This can now go with my footy signed by the QLD Reds, footy signed by the Wallabies, tennis ball autographed by Australian Open tennis stars, as well as various signed posters ranging from INXS to the QLD Maroons State of Origin squad. I'm sure there are various others which I have forgotten about and/or lost. That's the problem though, isn't it? I get these things but soon get bored with them (I mean, besides staring at it, what can you do with it, really?) and it's onto the next thing. Its not so bad when you gather the autographs yourself, as is the case with most of them, but when you buy things like the jersey, it becomes an expensive habit...

and i would drive 600 k's

2008-04-06T23:57:00.003+10:00

Well I picked up the car on Friday evening after work. As of this evening, I've done about 600 kilometres of driving, stretching from as south as Northern NSW and as north as Redcliffe. Absolutely love it. The new car smell kinda messes with my head a bit, still getting used to it. I think I've figured out most of the dials and buttons. Well the important ones anyway.

After my last car, its just so good to drive. It packs more oomph, runs so smoothly, and is so comfy. Then there's the cruise control, which I had on my first car but not on the last one. 6 stacker CD means that I don't have to constantly flick between radio stations to find a decent song. I could go on and on, but I won't. What's annoying is how easily it gets dirty, especially when it rains (ie like this whole damn weekend...). Something tells me I should take care of this car better than the last, which I pretty much never washed or cleaned.

Also went to see Millencolin play at the Tivoli last night. That totally went off. Everyone was singing and jumping along. They're the best bunch of Swedes ever. Male ones anyway... Its always nice to see a band that's touring for their new album not just play the songs from that album - they played mostly stuff from their last three albums before the latest one, which was great, as well as a few of the newies (which I didn't know, as I hadn't bought the new album, but still enjoyed despite not being able to sing along) and the odd really old one (Bullion was awesome).

liberty!

2008-04-01T20:12:00.002+10:00

Well it's official - today I popped into the Subaru dealership around the corner from the office and purchased a new car. Basically what I got was:

2008 Subaru Liberty 2.5i
2.5L AWD Sedan
4 Speed Automatic with Sportshift
Colour - Black Pearl
...and lots of other features (I'm not in the mood for listing every one - go to the website if you really want to know)

Anyway after a test drive, I spent a while haggling to get a better deal. I generally dislike car salesmen, but I had Shelley, a 28 year old car saleswoman who was friendly and appeared to be very understanding. Original price was about $38,500, and they valued my car at $3,000 for trade in. That meant that I was to pay about $35,500 in total. Anyway, the end result was that I got an extra $250 for my car as well as about $5,500 off the car. So I need to come up with $29,750. Not bad - I walked in there not wanting to be forking out any more than $30,000.

I didn't end up going for the ex-demo, I went for the brand new option. It should be available to pick up on Friday. It's funny - I'm not really excited about it. I guess it hasn't sunk in yet. Also, I couldn't sleep last night, so maybe I'm just too tired to get excited. I'm sure I'll be excited when I do pick it up - no doubt I'll be doing a lot of driving that evening.

The freaky bit in the day came when one salesman out the back mentioned that I looked familiar, and asked if I'd been on TV before... made me wonder if it was all some kind of April Fool's Day joke.

cars

2008-03-27T20:43:00.004+10:00

Cars. They're funny things, aren't they? I haven't posted for a while - consider it a combination of business and laziness - but at some point in that time I've been thinking of getting a new car. Most people would ask - why? It's a depreciating asset, don't waste your money etc etc. Well, here's my reasoning (however flawed it may be):

I want a new car just for the sake of change;
It doesn't feel right spending $600 to fix my current car when something goes wrong, especially when it's only worth $2-3k;
A new car will be under warranty for a few years, which will provide me with peace of mind;
Unlike my current car, I know I'll actually look after a new car and keep it clean;
I could be cool and have a cool car.

Anyway, last week I finally got around to fixing up the body damage on my car from the accident. $500 got me a decent enough job without having to buy replacement parts. So then came the hard bit - deciding what to get. I wanted a brand new car, so I wouldn't have any worries with it and so that it could last.

I would have loved a Subaru Liberty GT tuned by STI. They only make 300 of them a year. I knew this was beyond my budget without even looking at how much exactly it would cost me.

Dropping down a rung would mean getting a standard Liberty GT. Still pretty nice, but $55k. Still out of reach I think. Also insurance would be a nightmare - turbo and under 25 don't really go together very well in that regard. Fuel wouldn't be too pretty a sight either - my current car is quite fuel efficient.

Lowering my expectations even more got me to the standard Liberty. At $35k plus on roads etc it was reasonably priced. I've managed to track down an ex-demo 2008 Liberty for $35k drive away, and if I can manage to get $3k from my car and get the price down a bit, I should only need to fork out about $30k.

I have enough saved up. The question is whether I blow it on the car, or spend some of it on a deposit for the car and finance the rest. I'd save interest if I bought it with cash, but its my "life" savings, something I'd rather hang onto for a rainy day - you never know when you might get to a stage where you need some cash.

Anyway I'm off to check the car out on Saturday morning, so we'll see what happens. I'll have to see what their finance deals are like and decide from there. The problem is that I don't actually need a new car, but now that I've thought about getting the car I really really want the car. I'm sure you know what its like, the anticipation of getting a new toy. You just want it right now. I'm probably better off waiting until towards the end of the year, when I've saved more up and might be in a better position to buy it.

We shall see. Car salemen can be quite convincing. Bastards.

dial-up

2008-03-18T23:03:00.003+10:00

For the last week or two I've been down to dial-up internet speeds here at home. It sucks. Admittedly until about half a year ago, all I had ever known at home was dial-up. I think I had it for about 6 years. It was dodgy dial-up too. Was slower than your average dial-up, and would disconnect fairly often for no apparent reason. The worst thing was that I was so used to it. When my computer would freeze up for a second I knew that it was disconnected, and just got ready to reconnect. Friends I was chatting to online would figure it out and wait patiently for me to get back online. I wouldn't bother downloading attachments and files over 1 megabyte at home. The connecting tone became just a regular background noise.

Anyway, now that I've had a bit of a taste of awesome super-fast cable internet, it just doesn't feel right, having to wait for pages to load. Especially when the internet at work is now fast too. At least it doesn't disconnect on me every few minutes...

gold coast mayoral candidate guide

2008-03-14T17:20:00.005+10:00

It's that time again - election time. All I hear on the radio is telling who to vote/not vote for. All I see on TV is ads telling you who to vote/not vote for. Signs up everywhere telling you who to vote for. Promises here, there and everywhere. Yet somehow I managed to forget that I have to vote tomorrow. I got a letter a few weeks ago saying what to do, where to do and some piece of paper that I was supposed to bring along with me on the day, but I've lost it. Anyway, lets see who's running for the title of Gold Coast Mayor this year:

Ron Clarke, Independent:
The current Mayor, looking to hang on to his title. Was a champion athlete who broke like 17 world records or something like that. Ads on the radio tell me that he's too old. He's 71. Maybe they have a point.

Tom Tate, Liberals:
Looks and sounds like a loser. Is a civil engineer though, so I guess that's where I can relate to him. I guess he's the Gold Coast version of Brisbane's own Can Do Campbell. Part owner of the Gold Coast Blaze basketball team, which is cool.

Rob Molhoek, Unite GC:
Has an unprenounceable surname, something that his radio ads focus on - apparently spoken by people who have known him for ages, still can't pronounce his last name but he's a good bloke anyway. So what, if you can't pronounce someone's name they're an idiot? Anyway, he's a shareholder and founding director of the Gold Coast Titans NRL team. That's cooler than owning part of the Blaze.

John Bradford, Independent:
Not really sure about this guy, he has a bald head and glasses from the signs I see on the way to work with his face plastered on them. Admittedly I've only ever seen two of these signs, and both are in front of the same house.

Ray Schearer, Independent:
Another no-name. Apparently has a US accent and was a professional dog trainer.

Anyway that's the lineup. Notable missing faces are Warwick Capper (the attention-seeking tool with the short shorts) and Elvis impersonator Dean Vegas (who forgot to put his nomination in on time). Based on all that, I think I can make a better decision on who to vote for.

I'm off to watch the Titans play the season opener against the Cowboys tonight, so I may as well vote for Rob Mohawk. Mullhook. Mowhulk. Whatever. How's that for logic?

return of the fried rice

2008-03-09T20:25:00.003+10:00

Fried rice made me sick today. Knew something was up when it smelled a bit funny. But no, despite the warning signs my stomach was hungry (I hadn't eaten anything all morning and needed some brunch) and I ate it. Anyway, without going into any detail it didn't turn out very well at all...

Reminded me of the time I ate that seafood sub that had been in the bottom of a bag for 12 hours, that was nasty... At least this time I was at home, didn't have an assignment due, or require a needle in my backside.

nick the barber

2008-03-04T22:36:00.003+10:00

Got a haircut today. Usually I go to Bob the Barber, who charges $12. Problem is that its about a 10 minute drive from home and so I really only get the chance to go on Saturday mornings, for which they're open till noon. Saturday mornings aren't really my thing, so it doesn't work to well. Today during my lunch break I decided to go try out Nick the Barber, who charges $13 a cut but is only a couple of blocks away from the office.

This guy was an interesting one. When I got there, there were no other customers and there was this portly European man of about 50, pacing around the little shop on his mobile phone, complaining about something. Anyway, I sit down and a few minutes later he's done and asks what I want. Just as I'm about to start giving him directions, he excuses himself for a second to change the TV channel to the cricket, which was just about to start. Then he starts giving me recommendations on what would look good on me. I just agreed and said whatever.

The cutting begins. He was surprisingly bouncy and energetic and all over the place as he started cutting, as if he was being shot at whilst cutting my hair. To make things worse he kept turning to look at the cricket. Unfortunately I couldn't really see what was happening with the match as the TV was directly to my left. Anyway, he continues snipping away, giving a running commentary on what exactly he was doing to my hair, asking my opinion on it and assuring me by telling me how great it is. All this time, his belly keeps pushing up against me as he tries to get closer to my hair, which was not cool at all. Besides that, he actually did a good job, really took his time and kept giving me hints and tips.

At the end of the day I still have my ears, so it's all good. Better than the $20 rush jobs you get at Red Mo Barber Shack.

Lance Armstrong

2008-02-28T09:20:00.002+10:00

Lance Armstrong speaks to me. Through my iPod.

You see, I got one of those Nike + iPod Sport Kits for my birthday (thanks guys), and have only started using it recently (funnily enough I hadn't gone for a run until recently...). For those not in the loop, it is a sensor that goes under the inner sole of a specially designed Nike shoe (or for me, in a pouch that straps onto the shoelaces of my Asics) and a receiver that plugs into your iPod, and these basically record the time, distance, pace and calories burned in real time as you run. The beauty of it is that you can track those results on an iPod Nano and, after connecting the Nano to a computer, it gets added to your running history on the Nike+ website. Very cool, hopefully will keep me motivated to train properly and run more often.

Anyway, it was really freaky after my second run when, upon completion, the voice of none other than Lance Armstrong came through the iPod. It was something along the lines of "Hi this is Lance Armstrong, congratulations on breaking your personal record in workout time." First thought that came to my head - wow, a guy with one testicle is talking to me...

power outage - take two

2008-02-26T20:05:00.003+10:00

Yesterday morning the power went out at work... again. At 9am on a Monday morning. So we waited. Kept ourselves busy with work that wouldn't require a computer. And waited some more. At about 10am we were told that there were people looking into it and that it should be on in a couple of hours. We waited a little more. It started to get really warm and muggy and I resorted to fanning myself with a sheet of paper. Then we were told that the emergency power was going to be turned off as well (which powered the backup lights and the elevators), and that they'd be working to fix it until about 4pm. Bugger that. I was home by midday, where I have a fan in my room. Oh and electricity.

running (or lack thereof)

2008-02-22T20:02:00.004+10:00

Three weeks ago I started my running training in the lead up to the 10km run I'm doing in July. Time since the last time I went for a run - three weeks. I'm terrible. I've even got a training schedule done up and everything. Early mornings just aren't my thing. But I'll change. I know I will. Sure, I tell myself this same thing every time, but I'm gonna do it. Starting with a run at 6am tomorrow morning. Last two Saturdays I tried waking up at 6am for a run, but the furthest I got was to my bedroom door - all of I sudden I found myself in bed and the morning was gone. I'm not an early morning person...

polls, polls, polls

2008-02-20T13:02:00.004+10:00

Here are the results of a poll of 11,000 people in Britain on the best British albums ever:

BEST BRITISH ALBUMS
1. Oasis, Definitely Maybe
2. Oasis, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
3. Radiohead, OK Computer
4. Beatles, Revolver
5. Stone Roses, Stone Roses
6. Beatles, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
7. Clash, London Calling
8. Keane, Under the Iron Sea
9. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
10. Verve, Urban Hymns

Oasis have the top two spots? I mean, Oasis are great and they're both good albums, I agree they should be in the top 50 maybe, but #1 and #2? Also have to disagree with Keane being in there. The Verve album is another good one that probably doesn't quite deserve to be as high as it is.

What's with the lack of Led Zeppelin? Also think Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon should be up higher, not to mention that The Wall should've made it up there too... Would've loved to see some Muse sneak into the top 10, though maybe that's too "new" for the Brits to handle - Keane's Under The Iron Sea was the only CD in the top 10 from the past decade.

In other poll news, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice has topped the list of the 101 best books ever written according to Aussie readers. Second was JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, followed by Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.

Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Harry Potter series, Bryce Courtenay's The Power of One, Magician by Raymond E Feist and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre rounded out the top 10. This is all fair enough, no complaints from me, a nice diverse selection there.

This next poll is an interesting one - Ralph magazine's sexiest woman award. The winner was Jennifer Hawkins, but its second place that has me puzzled - it was a tie between Rihanna and Julia Gillard. Yes, that's right, Julia Gillard, the deputy PM. I don't get it, I thought she was a man...

Kyle Sandilands picked up the Mark Holden Wanker of the Year Award, with Corey Worthington and Matt Newton coming equal second.

the phantom of the opera

2008-02-15T22:30:00.002+10:00

Last night I went to see The Phantom of the Opera musical. In one word: brilliant. After getting myself in the mood for it in the lead up to the night by watching the movie and repeatedly listening to the original recording at work, I wasn't let down.

I can't really think of anything bad about it. I was in the front row on the first balcony, so had a great seat. It was way better than the movie. So many times I just wanted to sing along but quickly realised that it would be inappropriate.

The special effects were just truly amazing. The things they can achieve with smoke, lights and who knows what else... there were some things that I just couldn't figure out how they did it. The way they made it look like they were floating along on a boat while candles rose up from the "water" below, the realism of the settings (and the way they seamlessly changed the set with the blink of an eye) that made you feel like you were really there, the blasts of fire coming up from the stage, The falling (and rising) chandelier... I loved it all.

Anthony Warlow played the Phantom so well, portrayed the mood swings so well - passionate one moment, insane with rage the next - sent shivers down my spine. You could physically see the rage within him, as well as in his voice. Also, the way they made his character just appear where and when you least expect him, whether it be up high above the stage or out from behind a prop...

Was definitely worth every cent. Would even consider going again. If you haven't been, you should go, an event you just can't miss. Way better than the movie.

Oh and I bought a cool Phantom mug too, its got the mask on it which is black, and when you put hot water in the mug, the mask goes white, and then back to black again when my tea goes cold or when you're finished. Very cool. Also helps me tell if my tea is still warm or not.

more car troubles

2008-02-12T21:30:00.000+10:00

My hot streak of luck continues. This morning I took the car to the mechanic to get the rear brake pads changed (finally, after limping around with minimal brake usage...), and when I got there I needed him to give me a lift to work. So, we were on our way, with Ian driving and me in the passenger seat when, while idling at a traffic light about two-thirds of the way there, the car started to vibrate quite a bit. I mentioned it to Ian, who realised something was wrong and pulled into the left turning lane. As the lights went green and we went to turn left, the car spluttered and the engine died halfway around the turn. So we ended up having to push the car into an empty carpark.

So, Ian turns to me and asks "How far is your office from here?" It was pouring rain, but I had an umbrella, so I decided to take on the half hour journey to work, and let him deal with getting the car towed back to the garage (and getting it fixed of course). I'm kinda glad that it happened with the mechanic in the car with me, saved me the effort of explaining to him what happened.

The walk to work wasn't as bad as I had expected, except that when I got back to the office I found my top half dry and my bottom half soaked. Air conditioning didn't help with that.

Anyway, they needed to keep my car overnight. So right now I am carless. It sucks, gives me an excuse to not go to the gym though. Oh well, hopefully I get it back tomorrow.

where did the power go?

2008-02-11T21:03:00.000+10:00

Power went out in the office this afternoon. It kinda reminded me how much we depend on technology. Computers went off, phones went off, aircon stopped and the lights went off (except for the emergency lights which came on). Those with laptops couldn't really do much as the servers were also down. So what did I do when the power went off? I quickly went off to make a tea while the hot water was still, well, hot. Then I went back to my desk to work on some drawings by hand, old school style, without computers or anything fancy like that...

...except that I was listening to music on my iPod, and contacing people and checking my email on my mobile phone.

The power came back on just as I was leaving.

dragons and roar

2008-02-10T22:53:00.000+10:00

Looks like I have some catching up to do - its been a week between posts. Well, here's the highlights package:

Monday-Wednesday: Can't really remember the first half of the week. Couldn't have been that exciting. All I remember is rain, lots of it, and getting my shoes and socks wet walking through a flooded tunnel on the way to the gym one afternoon.

Thursday: Went to Chinatown after work for a Chinese New Year dinner. It was good, both the food and entertainment. Oh and the company was awesome too of course. The food consisted of an 8 dish Chinese banquet, which was good, some stuff there that I hadn't tried before. They had the dragon dance which actually came into the restaurant and was right beside our table at one stage, that was entertaining with some sweet acrobatics involved, as was the drum beat the dragons danced to. Highlight of the night was actually this Chinese magician dude who came around to the tables to do all sorts of tricks. With some of them it was obvious enough to spot the trick when you looked closely enough (what do you expect from a table full of engineers?), but there were a few which stumped us. The one in particular which had us amazed was one which involved placing two twenty cent coins on top of each other under a glass, swirling the glass around and making one of the coins go through the table. We were convinced he was using trick coins, but after giving him our own coins, he did it again. They say a good magician never performs the same trick twice to a certain audience, but this guy pulled it off.

Friday: Headed up to Brisbane again, this time to watch the QLD Roar play Sydney FC in the second leg of the A-League minor semi final. The trip there was interesting to say the least - I had to walk from Roma Street station to Suncorp Stadium, and was less than a quarter of the way when it started bucketing down rain. When I say bucketing, I mean bucketing. It was almost horizontal at one stage and absolutely stung my face as I tried to walk into it, so I managed to find a little shelter, but by this stage I was absolutely drenched to the bone and all I cared about was the wellbeing of my phone, ipod and digital camera. Anyway, it eventually died down a bit and so I figured that since I was already soaked I may as well go for it. Got there, and my seat was about 5 rows from the front, behind the Sydney bench. The match was delayed by half an hour because of the wet field, but the rain had stopped by the time I got there, and when the action did start it was definitely worth the wait and the sogginess. Roar won 2-0 and I lost my voice by about the 20th minute. Caught the train back home in the cold of the air conditioning, which didn't help when I was wearing a wet shirt...

Saturday: Took advantage of the sunny day and dried out my car, which had a pool of water sitting in the foot well of the back seat - a result of wet weather and the damage I sustained from the accident letting the water in. Absorbent paper towel did the trick, in a move inspired by a Simpsons episode.

Sunday: Went to the beach today, had a great day. Exhausted by the end of it. Got a sunnies tan again... I never learn, do I. I forgot to put sunscreen on my face.

Anyway that's about it, I'm off to bed. Though I don't know if I'll be able to get to sleep very quickly though, had a nanny nap this arvo after getting home from the beach.

chick flicks

2008-02-03T20:43:00.000+10:00

I've got a confession to make - defying the natural trend of the stereotypical male, I have this strange and unexplainable habit of actually enjoying romantic comedies.

You know, the movies with the sappy love story that usually features a man and a woman who are somehow attracted to each other, whether they know it at the time or not, and they don't get together because they don't think they like the other (a variation of this could be not being able to get together for whatever reason), and then after after a series of lightly humorous events that builds up the relationship between the two (which could be a build up of what they believe to be annoyance between the two but is to be later proven to be an increase in attraction), they do finally discover that they love each other and are made for each other, and one either chases the other and goes to extreme lengths to get to them (as they happen to be in a position that makes it difficult to be reached at that point in time) to profess their love for them, or they come together by some amazing concidence and awkwardly share their feelings for each other. Either way they get together and live happily ever after.

Despite this plot predictability, there's just something about chick flicks that I can't resist, and I can't put my finger on it...

sick as a dog

2008-01-31T23:46:00.000+10:00

I've got a cold. It sucks. Probably a result of a lack of sleep, damn you long weekend in Surfers and car accident. Anyway, enough whinging, and onto something which has been bugging me for a while - I never figured out where the expression "as sick as a dog" came from. One explanation I found was that it came from the fact that dogs tend to eat just about anything they find, and hence often get sick. Another reasoning for it, which wasn't quite as simple, is this:

There are several expressions of the form sick as a ..., that date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sick as a dog is actually the oldest of them, recorded from 1705; it is probably no more than an attempt to give force to a strongly worded statement of physical unhappiness. It was attached to a dog, I would guess, because dogs often seem to have been linked to things considered unpleasant or undesirable; down the years they have had an incredibly bad press, linguistically speaking (think of dog tired, dog in the manger, dog’s breakfast, go to the dogs, dog Latin — big dictionaries have long entries about all the ways that dog has been used in a negative sense).

At various times cats, rats and horses have been also dragged in to the expression, though an odd thing is that horses can’t vomit; one nineteenth-century writer did suggest that this version was used “when a person is exceedingly sick without vomiting”. The strangest member of the set was used by Jonathan Swift in 1731: “Poor Miss, she’s sick as a Cushion, she wants nothing but stuffing” (stop laughing at the back).

The modern sick as a parrot recorded from the 1970s — at one time much overused by British sportsmen as the opposite of over the moon — refers to a state of deep mental depression rather than physical illness; this perhaps comes from instances of parrots contracting psittacosis and passing it to their human owners.

I don't know about you, but the first one works for me fine... Hmm don't think I'll be able to do any catching up on sleep tonight, but I should probably at least try to minimise the amount I fall behind by...

bash corey

2008-01-30T19:17:00.000+10:00

About bloody time someone did this, too.

---------------------------
Corey bashed at Kath and Kim shopping mall

Wed 30/01/08
By ACA staff

Teenage celebrity Corey Worthington has been caught on tape being bashed near a Narre Warren shopping mall.

Mobile phone footage, to be shown exclusively on A Current Affair and ninemsn at 6.30pm tonight, shows the 16-year-old in an altercation outside Fountain Gate Shopping Centre on Monday afternoon.

"There was a big group of boys, Corey's friends, and these other boys that hang out at Fountain Gate," a local teen who saw the brawl told ACA.

It is believed Corey and the two groups walked from the shopping centre across the road for the purpose of a fight.

Corey, allegedly one of the instigators of the fight which stems from a similar altercation last Friday, was then bashed by other boys at the scene.

"He knew he was gonna get it, but he just didn't want to be a wuss," a source said.

Fountain Gate Shopping Centre is the mall frequented by the characters in popular television series Kath & Kim.

car accident

2008-01-29T15:41:00.000+10:00

It was on the highway about 10km south of the city, around 10:30pm on Sunday night, and I was on the way home. There was this car on fire stopped on the left shoulder of the highway. Anyway, I was in the middle lane (the highway is three lanes at this stage) and driving by, and there was this car in the left hand lane that was driving really slow (rubbernecking I reckon, curiousity getting the better of them) when suddenly they jumped into my lane in front of me. So, in a bid to get out of their way, I swerved, lost control and ended up doing a 180 degree spin, hitting the steel road barrier in the middle of the highway with the left hand side of my car. The instigator of this unfortunate incident didn't bother stopping, and because I was facing the wrong way, I didn't manage to get a glimpse of the number plate of the car.

It was pretty much just body damage to the front and back of the left of my car, and my wiper fluid had all leaked out, but thankfully that was all - it could have been a lot worse. Anyway, a couple of nice people pulled up to help redirect traffic and stop it momentarily so that I could my car up to the left shoulder. Got out to talk to the others who had stopped to help, and then this guy came running up to us saying that the car was full of fuel and it could explode at any minute and to get out of there now! So we drove down the highway a bit to be further away, and then I talked to two others for a bit who pulled over to help out (one happened to be an RACQ guy, and they were in a tow truck - he was the one who ran over first to see if I was ok and check the car). By this stage my heart was thumping like crazy and the adrenalin was pumping through me, and it got worse when they said that one of their friends was still over there near the flaming car. Thankfully, he eventually walked down and gave us a bit of a rundown on what had happened (emergency services had arrived, and there were four people in the car, with the driver suffering some minor burns). After noting that they were still letting cars past, we decided that there was no way the car would be on the edge of blowing up, and they must have it under control by now. I can't find the story on the news so I guess it didn't blow up in the end. I ended up driving home, so the car was ok. The brake lights stayed on for some reason, even when I turned the engine off and took out the key, so I had to pull out the light globes to stop the battery from running out when I got home. Took it to the mechanic this morning to have a look at it, but it should be ok.

My first car accident, and I'm a bit shaken but not stirred. To be honest, the first emotion I felt was anger at the idiot who cut me off, which got worse when they didn't stop. What an interesting end to the long weekend. Not looking forward to the costs of fixing the car though...

long weekend

2008-01-25T20:07:00.000+10:00

Just a quick post - just because I can. Its been a long week - my first full week back at work, plus recovery from Big Day Out and The Police concert, not to mention all the tennis and cricket action on TV. I see I've been rewarded with a long weekend. I'll be staying at Surfers Paradise this weekend, but will probably be popping home every now and then - after all, I'm not that far away. So you probably won't hear from me until at least Tuesday. Until then - have a good long weekend all. Unless you don't live in Australia. In which case, have a good normal weekend.

the police

2008-01-23T19:51:00.000+10:00

Continuing on with this musical theme, Alex and I decided that after Big Day Out, we still wanted more - so we went to The Police concert last night at Suncorp Stadium. So I headed up there after work, and I must say - I was not disappointed at all. It was the most I'd ever paid for a gig, but it was worth every cent. Since I had to drive up to Brisbane after work, we missed the first support act, but got there during the second support act - Fergie. Now, I don't know about you but this sounded like a really odd choice for a support act for a Police concert, especially considering the average age of the crowd... Anyway, I'm hardly a fan of hers but I must say she tried her heart out - she played rock covers and stuff like that which would be more appealing to that crowd.

Our seats were awesome. We were pretty much at the halfway line of the stadium, had a clear view of the stage and were pretty much in the middle. It was funny though, we had two seats right beside the aisle, and the seat directly opposite to us (about two metres away) cost $100 more. Sucks to be them.

Anyway, The Police totally blew me away. The sound was perfect, the lights and effects were amazing and the camera work on the screens (one on either side and three above the band) was top stuff. They had me singing, tapping, clapping and moving to every song. Not bad for three old guys. Stewart Copeland on the drums was incredible, I don't know how he can still do that. At the end of the set, they went off, came back for the encore and did three songs for the encore, and just when we thought it was over, Andy Summers stayed up there and eventually the other guys came back to do one final song. They've definitely still got it in 'em...

a big day out

2008-01-23T12:46:00.000+10:00

Ok, so I'm falling behind in my blogging a little since I got back. Time for some catching up during my lunch break. Sunday saw me at the Big Day Out, and I had a ball. Well, not literally. Ok, allow me to rephrase that - I had a good time. Better? If not, too bad.

The main reason I decided to fork out the $125 this year was to see Rage Against the Machine now that they were back together and touring again. I didn't actually pay attention to who else was playing until a couple of days beforehand when I printed out the timetable and started choosing bands I wanted to see.

Anyway, got there at 11am and the weather was cloudy and overcast. It rained a bit at around 11:30ish but after that the weather managed to hold up for the rest of the day. For most of the day, I spent it drifting around catching parts of sets, and only hanging around for a whole set whenever there wasn't anything else at the same time that I wanted to check out. Rather than going into detail, the bands I saw over the course of the day were: Operator Please, British India, Anti-Flag, Josh Pyke, Gyroscope, Enter Shikari, Regurgitator, Hilltop Hoods, Grinspoon, Silverchair, Karnivool and Rage Against the Machine.

Positives from the day: I discovered two new bands that I really enjoyed - Enter Shikari and Karnivool. Enter Shikari in particular were awesome, I really don't know how to describe their music, but 'screamo-trance' wouldn't be too far off the mark. The set was just full of energy, and the crowd was just going crazy, with the odd person with a busted nose pushing past you to get out every now and then. Oh and of course the fact that I got to see RATM. Definitely a plus, after all it was the main reason I went. The boys gave it their all, especially Zach. The finish with Killing In The Name Of was incredible, the crowd was really into it.

Negatives from the day: When we got there, we got a little event guide booklet, which had heaps of stuff in there including the timetable and map for the day. Now, the timetable in the booklet slightly differed from the one I printed out earlier, as it showed The Nightwatchman (Tom Morello from RATM doing solo acoustic stuff) being on at 5:30pm whereas the one I printed showed it being on at 4:00pm. Of course I assume that the one in the booklet is correct and the one I printed is wrong (being a few days old). Anyway got to the stage at 5:30 and was disappointed to find that Billy Bragg was on stage - turns out my timetable was right? The other disappointment of the day was the quality of the sound when Rage Against the Machine were playing. Due to my drifting around, the spot I got was a bit far back and to the side of the stage a little bit. When they started, it was as if it was turned down really low. So we moved around a bit so that we were a bit further back but directly in front of the stage. The sound was a bit better, but not good enough - you could still hold a conversation at normal speaking tone. Oh well.

At the end of the day, it was still worth the money for 11 hours of entertainment, but I was only slightly disappointed with the sound level for RATM - they were still great.

Episode VI: Return of the Gold Coast

2008-01-21T22:12:00.000+10:00

Written Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 8:41pm local time

Day 6: Last day in Melbourne, and I woke up to the sound of construction work outside (the hotel I was staying at happened to be under renovation) and found that for some reason the power was out in my room. Had a peek through the blinds and saw that other rooms still had lights on, so I had no idea why the power outage chose me to be its victim. Somehow managed to have a shower and pack all my stuff in the dark, and went to check out and get my $50 deposit back (and boy did I need it). Left my backpack containing my clothes with the hotel as the airport transfer coach was picking me up from around the corner from the hotel at 5pm, and I didn't really feel like lugging it around with me all day. Caught the tram to the tennis, and quickly grabbed a bite before heading to Margaret Court Arena to watch Daniela Hantuchova, who has been elevated to the status of my favourite current female tennis player now that Martina Hingis has retired. Heaps of green and gold in the crowd, as Chris Guccione was playing in the next match, and it was nice to see a Mexican wave - haven't seen one for a while since they banned them at the cricket. Watched the first set before I felt I was going to pass out from the heat - unlike Vodafone Arena (and Rod Laver Arena), there was no roof above MCA and I copped the full force of the sun. I actually have a really bad sunglasses tan now, where my whole face with the exception of the area around my eyes covered by my sunglasses is sunburnt. Anyway, from there I decided a walk in the shade was called for. So I went autograph hunting, and was more successful this time around. Jessica Moore, Patty Schnyder and Paul-Henri Mathieu all had proper autograph sessions, and the queues were in the shade, so that was great. Also managed to get autographs from James Blake and Lleyton Hewitt the old fashioned way - shoving my ball under their noses and hoping for the best (also taking advantage of the fact that I had longer arms than most small children muahaha). However, I missed out on Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova, which was a shame. Waited over an hour in the hot sun for the attempt at Maria, but as usual I got smothered by some crazy fans from behind. Grabbed some food and an ice cream, and by this stage I was feeling extremely fatigued and so, after a final stop at the merch shop and buying a couple more souvenirs, I made my way back to the tram stop. There I met some random Chilean dude who was about to make his way inside, and, knowing that a Chilean player was playing this evening in Vodafone Arena, and considering the fact that I hadn't actually made use of my Vodafone Arena pass for the day, I gave it to him. On Monday some other guy tried giving his ticket to me as he left, but I already had one, so I figured I would be nice and do the same thing. I was disappointed to miss out on some of the matches that afternoon/evening, but I am now even more disappointed that I didn't get to see the whole capsicum spray issue - I would have been to that match if it weren't for my flight. I've always wondered what it was like to cop capsicum spray in the face...

Daniela Hantuchova in action.

Anyway I went back to the hotel, played around on the laptop a bit in the foyer and then caught the minibus from around the corner. After five minutes of looping around it stopped and I found that I was to get off at Southern Cross Station, buy a ticket and get on a bus to take me to the airport. Now, if you remember, Southern Cross Station was a block away from the hotel. I could have walked there in less time. But I guess that other people probably have more luggage than I did (especially the female ones...) and wouldn't want to lug it with them for that one block of walking. Oh well. Anyway, $15 later I was on my way to the airport, during which I fell asleep. Got there, checked in using some computer thing, dropped off my baggage and went to buy two dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough cash and their eftpos machine wasn't working. There was some random ATM not too far away but last time I checked I only had just over $20 in my account and wouldn't be able to afford the transaction fee associated with an ATM not belonging to my bank. So I had to pass on that. Bought two DVDs to watch while waiting for my flight and on the flight itself. Found a seat in front of gate 10 and waited. Finished a book passing the time. The plane we were going to be on was coming in from Hobart but was running late, so that delayed my flight by a bit. I got a window seat though, with a terrific view of the left wing (I love watching the wings on takeoff and landing) so that evened things out a bit - last time I got an aisle seat which just isn't the same. I actually don't remember takeoff at all, as I fell asleep during the bit where the flight attendants told you where the emergency exits were etc. Woke up as we started to descend, so at least I got to watch the plane land. When I got my baggage I went to the minibus waiting outside with a few disgruntled people already on board (I'm guessing they were there earlier and had to wait for the rest of us to get there on our delayed flight). we headed off and it took over an hour until I actually got home - we weaved around to drop people off along the way, and I happened to be the last stop. Got home and, of all things I could have done, turned on the TV and watched the tennis as I had dinner. Went on the net and tried to catch up with the happenings of the last week and then went to bed. Woke up around 1pm today, bummed around at home, unpacked my stuff, went to the gym, and here I am now. I still haven't completely unpacked, and I also need to get ready for my first day back at work tomorrow.

The sweet view from my window seat.

In conclusion, Melbourne was fun. Will do it again sometime, but next time I'd like to explore more of Victoria that isn't the city. Though, in saying that, I wouldn't mind going to the tennis again and getting more signatures on my ball.

Episode V: The Tennis Strikes Back

2008-01-19T22:11:00.000+10:00

Written Monday, 14 January 2008, 9:45pm local time

Day 5: Home from the tennis, and my face is sunburnt with nice pale spots around my eyes from my sunnies. Anyway, let's start from the beginning, shall we? So, I woke up a little later than I wanted to (as per usual) - gates were open on 9:30am and I was hoping to get there earlyto maximise my day, but I left here around 10ish, walked a block to the tram stop, where a free tram was already sitting there waiting for me. Rode it to Melbourne Park, jumped off at the Vodafone Arena stop, managed to stroll up to the entry with the shortest queue, grabbed a quick bite to eat inside and had the seat which was closest to the entry gate, and sat down just as the match was starting. At this stage, I think I was starting to feel like everything was going to go my way. It was an epic 3 hour 10 minute women's singles match, with Jankovic beating Paszek 12-10 in the third and final set. Andy Roddick was the next match, but it looked like it was going to be a bit of a pushover, so I went to explore the rest of the Melbourne Park precinct to see what was happening, and to get some lunch.

Vodafone Arena.

Bought myself one of those jumbo sized tennis balls to get autographed, and then proceeded to attempt to find some cool people to sign it. There were several stars around on the practice courts - the only problem was getting their autographs. Some of the not-as-popular players weren't too much of a hassle, I got Lucie Safarova and Sania Mirza without a problem. However, I made an attempt at getting Rafael Nadal to sign the ball too, but it was impossible to penetrate the crowd - they even chased him all the way back to the players only area. Some people are just crazy, and its times like those you feel a bit sorry for all these big stars. In a two and a half hour period, I stood patiently in one spot on the fence, literally only a metre away from where Juan Carlos Ferrero, Roger Federer and then Andy Roddick were sitting. I could have reached out and touched their hair if I wanted to. But that would've just been way too weird. The problem was that, despite being so close to them, I couldn't manage to get an autograph out of any of them - once they were done with their practice and about to head off, they signed autographs, and at this point people just appeared behind me and would start yelling out and shoving their own things to get signed in the direction of the player. The worst bit was that they usually put their stuff over the top of my ball, and hence mine wouldn't get signed. Now, I don't blame the players here, as much as they love the fans they can't spend every waking hour slowly signing everything that everyone owns. The problem is that unless its a proper signing session, where people wait in a line and its a case of first case first served, its every man (or woman) for themselves and I always come off second best because I don't seem to be aggressive enough - shoving in front of people doesn't quite do it for me. And its not the first time it's happened to me either - I have vivid memories of trying to get autographs from some QLD state of origin players and not getting a single autograph, while another guy I knew from school pushed in and got heaps, even though he got there later than I did. Oh well, at least I caught a tennis ball that Roger Federer touched. That's good enough for me. Oh and Jim Courier walked past and I said hi.

That's how close I got to the Fed Express, he's giving me a dirty look...

Wouldn't be complete without an action shot of Federer.

Anyway, ended up catching the second half of Sharapova's match at Vodafone Arena, and then did some more walking around after that. Ended up watching a match in Margaret Court Arena, and then another match in an adjacent course - which featured Nicole Vaidisova, who I'm a fan of. Saw her lose at the Women's Hardcourts, so it was good to finally see her win. By then it was about 9ish and I was totally exhausted so I came home. My eyes are red, I'm so tired. Was planning on going to the Crown Casino tonight but decided against it, I'm sure its not that exciting.

My seat at Margaret Court Arena.

Nicole Vaidisova is so fast that she goes blurry.

Hmm its actually 1:53am now. Damn. Stupid movie channel. Oh and I heard on the news before, the first day attendance for the Australian Open was 55855, an all time high. I like to think that if it weren't for me, we wouldn't have reached that figure. Anyway, gotta check out by 11am tomorrow, plus would like to squeeze as much tennis in as I can. Better start packing too...

Episode IV: A New Old

2008-01-19T00:06:00.000+10:00

Written Monday, 14 January 2008, 12:03am local time

Day 4: Wasn't that busy of a day today, I was quite tired. Raffy picked me up at around 11am, and we went to go check out his parents' new house - it was in a cool new estate and we went for a walk around the area, which would be ideal for going for a run. Anyway, we hung around there for a bit until we decided we were starving (as per usual I skipped breakfast - I should really get back into the habit of eating in the mornings, it can't be good for me skipping it all the time) and went into the city for lunch, went to a cheap buffet in the city, and cheap is good for me right now. After that I went to Federation Square yet again to hang around there for a bit. They had some Brazilian day thing there, with info stalls everywhere, as well as an awesome Capoeira display (that really cool martial arts dancing stuff that I love, and would love to learn if I was good enough) and some live Brazilian music. It was hot in the sun and I was already tired (I fell asleep in the car both times), and a headache was starting to kick in, so I went home for a lie down (by this stage it was 4pmish), and so I did so. Next thing I know a few hours have passed and I'm running late for dinner with Raffy and Milosh, another guy I went to school with. Had dinner, and then we headed to a bar where Raffy was holding a bit of a farewell gathering (he's flying off overseas tomorrow night). Met some more of his friends there, as well as a couple I had already met previously. There were four of us there that went to the same high school, which was cool, it was almost like a mini reunion. So we just bummed around there until it got late, and I went back to the room, and so here I am. Heading to day 1 of the Australian Open tomorrow, I can't wait.

Episode III: Revenge of the Movie Channel

2008-01-18T22:20:00.000+10:00

Written Sunday, 13 January 2008, 2:43am local time

Day 3: Keeping this short, just got home and need to be up early tomorrow morning. See the effort I go to in a bid to blog while the memories are still fresh in my head. Didn't actually go to sleep until 4am or 5am, EdTV happened to be on TV on the Showtime Greats channel, so I ended up staying up to watch that - it is a great movie. Housekeeper came around at 9am this time, so I got up to let her do her thing. Watched a few episodes of the Simpsons until around 11ish when I figured I should really go do something. I ended up just wandering around the city again - today included seeing the State Library, Parliament House, taking a closer look around Federation Square, and taking the free city tram around a bit (I guess a bit like the free loop bus in Brisbane, but a tram and directed at tourists). After all this I went up Rialto Tower to once again get some more photos of Melbourne from above. My miniature city now consists of three towers. Yay.

The free tram.

A view from Rialto you can't get from Eureka.

Went to Raffy's place for dinner, which was an interesting journey. I caught a train there from Southern Cross Station, which is half a block away from where I'm staying. I had to get change for a $20 note to put into the ticket machine, and then I had to run to find the right platform on time - it was a big train station. Got on the train, which look quite similar to the new QR trains, except for the colour scheme. Did a bit of reading until my eyelids got heavy. All of a sudden I woke up to find that I was two stops past the station I was meant to get off at. So I got off and had to wait for the next train in the other direction. Decided I could do with a stroll to wake me up properly, so I walked the couple of kms to Raffy's house. Had dinner, and then we were off to his mate's place, whose band was doing a bit of a gig at his place. It was a good night, and I really liked it - am now tempted to get back into songwriting, I haven't written a song for several months now. After that we drove to the city and decided to check out the Melbourne city nightlife for an hour or two, before Raffy dropped me back at the hotel. He's coming to pick me up around 9am in the morning and I really need to get some sleep now.

Southern Cross Station.

The train interior, which looks vaguely familiar...

Episode II: Attack of "The Zone"

2008-01-17T21:13:00.000+10:00

Written Saturday, 12 January 2008, 1:05am local time

Day 2: I'm really tired right now and this screen is just making my eyes water, so I'll keep this as short as I can. I managed to sleep in until almost midday today, though I'm quite sure that I still haven't managed to catch back up on enough sleep yet. Housekeeping lady woke me up at around 8:30ish, but when she saw I was still sleeping she told me she'd be back at 12:30. She was back at 11ish and let herself in this time, but I was still asleep. She kept apologising as she closed the door and said that she wouldn't disturb me again. Anyway, I eventually got my butt out of bed and after midday I decided to go for a random stroll in the city. Well, five minutes into it, Raffy called, and he was in the city. So we went to get me some lunch (the advantage of sleeping in was the fact that I avoided the costs associated with buying breakfast) and then we ventured around the city - essentially browsing through the many shops. A little later we went to go have a coffee with Ev, who works at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. So we caught a tram there to go see her. Short trip but it was my first tram experience. Not as exciting as I thought it would be. Still, that's another thing off my to-do list. So we had coffee with Ev, and Raffy had to duck off for work so Ev and I sat around for a little longer until she had to go back.

A tram! Not as exciting as I thought.

I caught a tram back to the city to do more exploring. In a bit to do something that didn't involve window shopping, I decided to go to Federation Square and see what the fuss was all about, as well as to check out the tourist information centre there and get a map of the city. I did just that, and also picked up a few information booklets which would come in handy for me over the next few days. I then sat out on some steps out on the square and just bummed around, as I was kinda tired and just wanted to chill out. Had a chat with one of the random locals, she was sitting on the steps reading Atonement, the movie for which I had seen less than a week ago. A street performer turned up in front of us and so I stayed to watch that, which was amusing. It would be fun to be a street performer, but I guess if you want to be like this guy you'd better be good at acting like a complete fool in front of mass crowds of strangers without getting embarrassed.

The view from Federation Square.

After that I decided to go over to Eureka Tower and visit the skydeck there. Rather than using my new map, I figured I'd just wing it there - I mean, how hard is it to find a building that tall? I actually made it there alright (though I think I kinda took a bit of a long way around to get there), there wasn't too much more to it than crossing the Yarra River. It cost $16.50 to get up there, but it turns out that you need to pay another $12 to use their famous "Zone", a glass cube that projects out three metres from the building - the point being that it has a glass floor so that you can look straight down underneath your feet to what lies 300m below. Plus you couldn't bring your own camera in there with you and would have to pay $15 to get photos that they take. There was a terrace beside it, it didn't have a glass floor or anything but it was fenced so you were exposed to the outside elements (the wind was simply whipping through there, so I had to go out there in short stints to take shots), and I was quite content with being able to take photos from there - the issue with taking photos from inside was the reflection and glare off the glass windows. Anyway, I took heaps of photos, and decided that I would wait until sunset - forgetting how late the sun sets over here. So I ended up hanging around there for four hours, as I figured I may as well wait until sunset, and by then I figured I may as well wait until it was darker and the city was lit up. I could kinda see the A-League match between Melbourne and Wellington going on at Telstra Dome, I could see the big screen but not well enough to see who was winning. The skydeck closed at 10pm, but my camera battery died on me at about 9:30pm, so I left, buying a couple of postcards and a little Eureka Tower figurine (to go with my Q1 one at home) in the gift shop on the way out. Decided to take a bit of a long way back, taking photos on my phone camera, and picked up some dinner on the way home.

Melbourne at sunset.

Melbourne by night.

So now I'm watching some tennis on TV while typing this out. My head is really starting to hurt, I should really head to bed now, its 2:17am... Don't know what I have planned for tomorrow yet. We'll see.

Episode I: The Humid Menace

2008-01-16T21:16:00.000+10:00

Well I'm back. While I was in Melbourne I wrote a post for each day, but since I had no internet access I didn't post them up. But now that I do, I'm gonna start slowly posting them up one day at a time, and by staggering the posts a bit, I don't have to think about anything to blog about for the next few days. Until Sunday night anyway, after I hit the Big Day Out. Well, here we go...

[insert time warp effect here]

Written Friday, 11 January 2008, 2:34am local time

Day 1: Well, here I am in Melbourne. After about 3 hours sleep, the airport transfer bus arrived at my place at about 4:50am - 10 minutes earlier than they were supposed to. In my rush I managed to grab everything and leave without really causing a delay. Got to the airport, checked in, bought something to eat for breakfast (airport food is expensive) and waited a bit for the plane to arrive. I managed to get to the front of the queue and was first to board the plane, which was really cool - I was on a Jetstar flight, and Jetstar happen to be sponsors of the Gold Coast Titans, and the exterior of the plane was decorated accordingly. Managed to fall asleep for about an hour on the plane after a bit of reading.

How cool do the Titans decorations look?

Arrived with no problem, got picked up by Raffy at the airport and we drove through the city and to his place. I freaked out when I saw a tram on the road, sharing it with other cars - I hadn't noticed the tracks and lines above. I always assumed that all trams had their own dedicated sections of road but here they shared the road with the cars. The weather was extremely hot and humid, I think it hit a top of 41 degrees today, everything felt hot and sticky, and it appeared to overwhelm the air conditioning in Raffy's car. Anyway we spent most of the day with him showing me some random places, most places that he actually needed to go to - went to Monash Medical Centre and Monash University (had lunch at the campus cafeteria, and got a photo in front of the Engineering block... as you do), visited a couple of shopping centres (though spent a bit of time looking at digital SLR camera related stuff at Chadstone shopping centre), and pretty much anywhere else we could find air conditioning. In the evening, we went to St Kilda beach to have dinner with one of his friends and ended up bumming around on a jetty at the beach lazing around and chatting away. Saw penguins living around the rocks beside the jetty, which was cool. It was really weird, as it was so late time-wise, yet the sky was still light.

Engineering Building... Do I have issues?

At about 11:30pm we drove into the city, spent a while driving around for a car park, and after finally spotting one not too far away proceeded to check in at the hotel. Location is perfect, very very close to Southern Cross train station and the Crown Casino. The room itself isn't too bad for about $80 a night, it has a queen size and single bed, even though I'm the only one staying here (it was the only one available). TV with a few foxtel channels too. No kitchen though, not that its really a big deal. Ruins my plans to eat a lot of two minute noodles, though I could get the cup variety as there is a kettle. Importantly though, it has air conditioning.

My room - note the two beds.

Budgeting is going good. I can really only afford to spend up to roughly $80 a day, and today cost me less than $35 - all food and drink expenses. Tomorrow should be more than that, as I'll need to pay if I want to go up Eureka and Rialto Towers, which I do.

Anyway that's enough from me for now, I need to get some sleep. The plan for tomorrow is to explore the city. Can't wait.

to melbourne, to melbourne

2008-01-09T20:58:00.000+10:00

I should really be in bed. I'm leaving home at 5am to head to the airport for what will be my first expedition into Victoria. Looking forward to it. I don't really have that much on my to-do list - check out some of the Australian Open tennis action, ride a tram (there's a free one going to the tennis hehe), catch up with Raffy and Ev, view the city from the Eureka Tower Skydeck and the Rialto Towers (even though both were built by Grocon...), and, er, umm... that's all I had planned really. I'm staying in the city, so I suppose there's stuff to do there too. Flying back on Tuesday evening, I have tennis tickets for Monday and Tuesday, so I guess from tomorrow until Monday will be full of surprises as I haven't really put thought into it yet. One thing's for sure - I can't really afford to do much shopping there, which is a shame as I heard that the shopping there was awesome. Lets just say that I thought I was getting paid before the trip, but in reality it is actually happening afterwards.

Hmm, I should really pack my stuff. Damn I need to learn to be organised... Don't know if I'll bother blogging while I'm down there, don't think anyone really reads this anyway. So I may just blog on about it when I get back. I am planning on bringing my laptop with me, but since I don't have wireless internet I may just type stuff up when (or if) I get bored, but not post it until I get back anyway. Have a good 6 days while I'm gone. Melbourne, look out - here I come!

raquets and bats

2008-01-04T21:18:00.000+10:00

Spent all day yesterday at the Mondial Women's Hardcourts tennis tournament today. I'm a long time follower of televised tennis tournaments, but have never been to a match. So I got myself a day/night pass to catch the four singles quarter final matches and two doubles quarter finals matches. The stars on show included Nicole Vaidisova, Dinara Safina, Patty Schnyder and Shahar Peer, though the major drawcard of the tournament was Amelie Mauresmo. The weather was wet and dodgy, but the main court was under cover so play could progress as per usual (unlike Wimbledon, which seems to have rain delays left, right and centre). There was a decent crowd turn out as well (parking was a pain), possibly something to do with the fact that this is the last time that the tournament is to be held at Royal Pines Resort, as of next year it will be merged with the men's equivalent and played in the new State Tennis Centre in Tennyson.

Hmm, so what did I think of my first live tennis experience? Firstly, the crowd was more like that at a ballet or play or something rather than that of the cricket. Play was silent, all you could hear was the sounds of the players, and applause and the odd call from the crowd only ever came after a point was completed. People leaving waited for a break in play, and people coming back waited for a break before returning to their seats. All of the heads in the crowd were in sync, looking left, then right, then left again, following the ball. I took a lot of photos, most of them look the same though as all were taken from the same angle - from my seat. Would have loved to be able to move around and get different angles. Flash photography was not permitted for obvious reasons, as it distracted the players. Not that it was required at all, lighting was great, even in the overcast weather. My spot wasn't that bad, about 8 rows back and about a quarter of the way in, so one player would be straight ahead of me while the other was to my right.

The crowd appeared to mainly consist of people either in the 40-100 or 5-12 age bracket. I think some of the kids, dragged along by their parents, got a bit bored of it all, though they managed to keep quiet. They were provided with a little excitement though, with the winner of each match signing three tennis balls and hitting them up into the stands, one woman in the row in front of me got one. Actually, now that I think about it, a lot of the kids had those big oversized tennis balls, which were covered in autographs. I guess its harder for the players to say no to kids when they ask for a signature.

I had a good time. It was a long day though and I left after the fifth match (the Schnyder vs Mauresmo blockbuster) as it was late and rainy and I was exhausted. Definitely worth the $50 for the day. Got to see some good quality tennis played by some of the stars of the women's game, and I'm really looking forward to the two days of the Australian Open I'll be attending in ten days' time. Also, I've decided that being a ballboy would be fun. I think I'm a bit old for that (ballman just isn't as appealing unfortunately), so I guess when/if I have kids I'll have to live through them and train them up to be ballkids.

Keeping on the topic of sport (its been a while), I just wanted to raise an issue in cricket which got raised again yesterday - if you get out (ie you nick the ball to the keeper) and know you should be out, and the umpire calls not out, do you walk? Andrew Symonds should've been out at 30 and went on to make 162 not out, and Ricky Ponting also went on after edging the ball on 17. Some other cases have involved a catch which isn't really a catch - where the ball has hit the ground just before being caught but being awarded as a dismissal. We've seen Adam Gilchrist walk when he knows he's out and as a result being branded as man with true sportsmanship (but then again there was also the squash ball controversy, but we won't go there...), but the big question is, should you walk?

I'm a fence sitter on this one. In the argument for walking, its an honesty thing - you know you're out fair and square, so if you don't walk or don't tell the umpire that you don't think you caught the ball cleanly you're pretty much being a cheat, right? What kind of example are these top players giving to the younger fans?

On the other hand, in the argument against walking, there are times that you weren't really out and yet the umpire says out. Umpires aren't perfect, we all know that, its part of the game. Part of any game really. Anyway, surely if this luck can work against you, it should be okay for it to work in your favour too and always accept the official's decision as final? I do believe that one time Gilly walked when he actually clearly missed the ball. You get good and bad decisions, and they should even each other out in the long run. And why do it when no one else does it, that makes things a bit unfair, doesn't it?

Third option - bring in some technology to help the umpires make better decisions. Though that's a whole issue of its own. Ahh, controversy is what brings sport to life, brings some real drama into it...

bring on 2008

2008-01-01T21:40:00.000+10:00

Well its now 2008. Yay. Another year gone by, and boy did it fly by quickly. Looking forward to it - so many things on my to-do list for the year. New Year Resolutions are funny things, for me the same ones tend to somehow reappear every year. Usually along the lines of getting fitter, being more organised, and a few other new things to try. If I was a smoker, quitting smoking would be in there somewhere too. Damn now I have to get used to writing the year in the date as 01/01/08 as opposed to 07, I bet that's gonna trip me up at work for the first few months.

New Years Eve was nothing special, the fireworks in Surfers Paradise were cancelled, and the weather was dodgy anyway so I didn't really find the urge to spend it outdoors. So just took part at a small gathering indoors, which I was quite content with. Its been a while since I've had a quietish New Year celebration.

Anyway, that's it from me for now - I only got home not too long ago and am damn exhausted, and staring at this computer screen is hardly helping... Happy New Year guys.

bargain hunting

2007-12-27T20:31:00.000+10:00

Its that time of the year again - everywhere you look there are brain-snapping bargains at bargain basement prices. Prices slashed, slashed, slashed, everywhere you look. For a limited time only of course. Went shopping on Boxing Day to see what I could impulsively snap up for a bargain (last time I did so I ended up with a digital video camera...), and as always the shopping centre was completely packed with people everywhere doing the same as me, though a lot of them probably had targets in mind. I was actually quite disappointed, I didn't get to the shops until after lunchtime and didn't really have much money to spend. So I just bought a couple of little things. Oh well, better off saving my money for Melbourne, apparently the shopping is great there.

I'm lost. I thought today was a Sunday. Every day seems to feel like a weekend now, its hard to keep track of what day it really is. Got the car serviced today, and afterwards in the afternoon I decided to pop into the gym. However, as I went to reverse park when I got there, I found that it was getting really hard to turn the steering wheel, like there was some kind of resistance. Then I noticed a burning smell and steam coming out from under the bonnet. So I managed to park the car, and then got out to find a trail/pool of green coolant fluid from my car. The weird thing about all this was the fact that the temperature gauge was telling me that the car wasn't overheating. Anyway, gave RACQ a call and they wouldn't be able to get someone to me for at least an hour, so I went to the gym. Timed it beautifully, the RACQ guy got there pretty much as I was leaving the gym. Turns out that the problem was the fact that the radiator cap wasn't on properly, so the coolant decided to flow out and spill around near a belt, causing it to slip around and leading to my steering issues. Damn mechanics. It was a relief though to not have to pay lots of money to get the problem fixed. So I went to the CD shop across the road from the gym and bought myself a couple of things. I didn't think they'd still be open by that time, but they were. Confused, I went in and asked them. Turns out they're open late Thursdays. Took me a minute to realise that today is Thursday.

Anyway, that's my story, I'm off to watch the rest of the Foo Fighters Hyde Park DVD.

holiday mode

2007-12-23T15:28:00.000+10:00

Holidays are here. Ohh yeah. As of midday on Friday, I am free of the shackles of work for what will be almost a month. Feels good. Nice to be able to sleep in every day - just the way I like it. I'm sure I'll be able to keep myself busy for that long, there's too many things to do that I wouldn't usually do, or at least do much of, because I wouldn't normally have the time.

Went to see a movie yesterday arvo and it was a bit weird - there was allocated seating. I'd been to that cinema several times but it appears that things have changed since the last time, when we went to buy the tickets we got asked where we wanted to sit - our choices were back, middle or front. Our tickets had seat numbers on them, and as we made our way in we found a seating plan just inside the entrance. First time I'd ever faced something like that in a cinema. I suppose it does help when they're really busy and want to fit people in as well as they can - it seems to be human nature to sit as far away from other people as possible, and there's nothing worse than turning up as a couple and finding only single seats left. Though I don't really see the point for when a movie isn't busy. Oh well, I guess its now just like most sporting events, as well as stuff like performing arts.

I hate waking up in the morning. Luckily I had a couple of the guys meet at my place this morning and received a wake up call beforehand, otherwise I would have never gotten out of bed. Went for the Sunday morning surf (appears to be turning into a bit of a weekly tradition now), the waves were good but the weather wasn't. It was cold and a little choppy with intermittent rain, but the good thing was that there weren't as many people in the water to hit, so that was all good. Ray and I managed to collide though, he came off second best as I had managed to draw some blood (though he didn't notice it until we were back in the carpark). The rain got heavier afterwards, so we ended up back here and played Guitar Hero III.

Anyway I'm sleepy. Possibly time for a quick nap... I love holidays.

guitar hero

2007-12-19T23:24:00.000+10:00

Feeling good. Today I made a bit of profit out of the stockmarket today with Centro Properties bouncing back after the huge fall it took. Decided to celebrate it at lunch by buying myself a Playstation 2. After all, they were just under $150 now, and I figured it would keep me busy over the break. Plus, I could definitely afford it now. The last console I owned was a Super Nintendo, and back then I think my parents got it for me at a cost of over $400 with the Super Mario All Stars game (the original, 2, 3 as well as The Lost Worlds). So I figured it was about time for an upgrade.

Anyway, this shopping trip turned out to cost me a lot more than that. Got to the store, and figured I would pay the extra $49 to get another controller and Need For Speed Carbon. Also, as the guy was going out the back to grab my new toy, I saw Guitar Hero III and asked how much it cost. About $149 he said, but he had a quick look out the back and came back to say that there weren't any left. He then proceeded to go out the back to get my PS2, and came back out saying that there actually was one left - its box happened to be on display. Lady beside me kept telling me that I was a very lucky man, over and over again, though admittedly she appeared to be a bit, um, special... Anyway, turns out that they got six in last night and they were all gone but this one by lunch time today. Lucky me. So that was about $350 gone.

I wanted to be able to play my PS2 on the 22 inch LCD monitor in my room (so that I can rock out at stupid hours of the morning with minimal disturbance to others), and since the monitor only has DVI and VGA inputs I've now also ordered a TV box, which is costing me $132. I needed to go the more expensive one because most of the cheaper models couldn't support the 1650 x 1080 resolution I prefer to use on my screen. I figure that with this box, I'll also be able to watch TV now without switching on my laptop as well, though I'll still use my USB TV Tuner card whenever I want to record something. So there goes more money. Lucky I get paid again on Friday, I only have about $150 left of my credit card limit.

One and a half days to go till holidays...

OCD

2007-12-17T21:49:00.000+10:00

So, I got my new credit card on Friday evening, and so on Saturday I decided I needed to wear it in. So I went shopping. Came home with several random things, including, of course, more DVDs. Its always fun to see how new additions will fit in with the rest of my collection. I happen to be a little bit obsessive compulsive in that I like to have things the right way up, and in order. Don't get the wrong impression here - in no way am I a neat person. I'm way too lazy to have my belongings tidy and organised. You should see my desk at work. I tend to lose my mobile phone in the mass of drawings, folders and random rogue sheets of paper and post-it notes on a daily basis, which is always fun when it starts to ring. Pretty much the same story at home too. However, I like to have my CDs and DVDs organised. Including having all the actual discs orientated correctly in their cases. I don't know why, I just can't help it.

Now, my question to you is this: is it geeky to have my DVDs in alphabetical order of director, as opposed to movie title? By doing that, I can have my DVDs in order, but to the average observer they will appear to be in a totally random order, and hence divert their attention from my obsessive compulsiveness. Or at least make my geekiness harder to pick out...

repeating mistakes

2007-12-15T13:13:00.000+10:00

I recently stumbled upon a poem which I felt I could relate to - its about making mistakes and repeating them several times until you actually learn from them. Though I still need to work on the learning from my mistakes bit...

AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS
by Portia Nelson

I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.

II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place but, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

V
I walk down another street.

parking fines

2007-12-13T22:26:00.000+10:00

I managed to time the freezing of my credit card with the loss of my carpark under our office building (not that I had control over either events). So at the moment I am parking in the council carpark across the road. I used to get monthly parking permits back when I did park there regularly, but it really isn't worth it since I've really only got five and a half days of work left until the break. They sell weekly permits too, but that would mean actually walking the two blocks and buying it. I really could not be bothered. So I'm quite content with paying the $4 until the end of next week. However, these parking voucher machines only take coins and credit card. I used to always pay by credit card because it was so easy and meant that I didn't have to have change on me all the time. However, that isn't an option anymore. Coming up with $4 of shrapnel every morning isn't exactly an easy task either. Alternatively, I can park in the nearby shopping centre, which has a four hours of free parking. Anything after that is expensive. Four hours means that I have to move my car before lunchtime, so that isn't the most feasible option. Option B is to park illegally. This morning, I was running late for a presentation and totally did not realise that I needed to pay for parking until I had parked my car. I only had $2 on me, so that covered me until 1pm. Fine, I thought, I'll just come back on my lunch break and top it up after I get change from the bakery at morning tea.

At lunch, one of the guys was heading out for a walk. I knew there was something I had to do at lunch, but I couldn't figure it out. There wasn't anything that I needed from the shops, nor did I need to pay any bills today. So, I figured that I must have been going insane and proceeded to play solitaire and check up on my stock portfolio. Come 4pm, and I realise what I had forgotten. Oh well, I thought, too late now, plus I had made quite a decent paper profit on the market today, so in my mind that cancels out parking fine. I got to my car at 6pm, and what do you know? No fine. Its not the first time I've gotten away with that too. Makes me wonder...

For those who like their music, and think that they know what most 2007 album covers look like, Triple J have an album cover quiz (credit to Paul for letting me know about this). Basically, you can see a small portion of the cover art of 25 different albums, and you need to name the artist and album names for each one. When you've gotten every single one correct, you go into the draw for every Triple J feature album for 2007. Give it a go, if you get stuck, try looking at the album reviews on the Triple J website. If you still can't get them but want to enter the competition, I'll leave the answers in the comments section. Oh, and if you actually win, do share.

5.5 days of work left for the year...

mission: failed

2007-12-10T21:58:00.000+10:00

Now, to answer the question on everyone's minds - did $9.20 last me for the weekend? My answer - definitely not. The title of this post probably blew the surprise a little tiny bit, not that there would have been much suspense to begin with. The money I had would have lasted if I was to spend the weekend at home watching DVDs. But I didn't do that. Instead I spent most of it away from home, doing stuff that costed money. Though I did try my best at first. I was shopping on Saturday arvo and got hungry and thirsty. It was a very hot day. Sure, there was air con in the shopping centre and air con in my car, but it was a hot walk from the carpark, or so it felt. Anyway, rather than blowing pretty much all of the little cash I had, I decided to shop at Woolies instead. My meal and drink combo of a box of nacho cheese shapes and a bottle of passionfruit-flavoured water cost me $3 in total (both were on special, shapes were very cheap, $3.02 in total so I saved another 2 cents in rounding hehe). So I was down to $6.20, but it could have been worse. However, it went downhill from there. Over the rest of the weekend, I filled up on fuel, bought lots of food and drink, about three meals worth with desserts too (by this point I had borrowed quite a bit of cash and was pretty much buying without a care in the world for how much I was spending... or for my health) as well as other various random purchases and expenses. Moral of the story - stay at home if you only have $9.20, or at least hang around at Woolies. Also, the beach may technically be free to access, but a day at the beach can cost a lot more money than you think, especially if its a hot day - cold drinks and big ice creams suddenly appear to be even more appealing than usual.

Anyway, after the previous post I actually remembered that I had a backup ATM card to access my savings in the case that I lost my wallet and/or my credit card (I only got it because I copped a lecture about it from the lady at the bank about a year ago). So here I was thinking that if my $9.20 experiment failed, I would easily have something to fall back on. Unfortunately, I tried to get money out with it and the ATM wouldn't let me. I couldn't figure it out, but at least it didn't gobble up this card too. Anyway, I found out today that it was because I had never activated this card. Grrr. Oh well, anyway its done, and I have access to my savings account and can pay back my debt. Though after making a phone call today, it sounds like I won't be getting a new credit card for another week and a half. So its back to spending my own money. I'm still trying to get used to saying "savings" and having to punch in my pin and ok, rather than "credit" and signing a receipt. I got it mixed up at lunch today, when I bought Nacho Libre and another copy of Napoleon Dynamite (it has a different cover and more features... damn I'm a sucker for special editions). Oh well, I'll sure I'll get used to it, especially spending at the rate that I do...

credit card woes

2007-12-08T10:46:00.000+10:00

On Thursday, my credit card stopped working. I managed to buy something at around 1pm in the arvo, but when I went to pay for dinner later that night, my credit card was declined. Tried it again, same result. It was no big deal at the time, I had cash on me anyway. Got home, and went onto my online banking website and what was my credit card account seemed to have disappeared. Went to the bank on Friday morning to sort it out, and it turns out that the account had been frozen because of two suspicious transaction attempts of around $84 in a row, which wasn't approved by the bank or something like that. I was quite impressed at how they managed to figure out that it was someone else trying to use my credit card details - apparently they're onto it like a hawk and closely monitor for any suspicious irregularities, and if they spot them they give you a phone call to confirm whether you made those transactions. I hadn't received a phone call at all, though the bank was apparently in contact with me. Anyway, I will need to call the bank on Monday to contest the transactions or something like that, and then by Friday I should have a new credit card with new numbers etc. Though that means that I have to live off actual money, but that's cool, I have enough to get through a week in my savings.

Last night I was down at the local Blockbuster to get some DVDs, but found that I didn't have much on me, so I figured I may as well get some money out from the ATM. Went to withdraw money in the usual fashion, and what do you know - the ATM decides to keep my card, leaving me a receipt with the message "Your financial institution has prohibited transactions on your card. Your card has been retained by this ATM". Ironically, just beneath this it says "THANK YOU FOR BANKING WITH US". You see, I had my savings account linked to my credit card - I used my credit card for both my credit and savings accounts. So, now I only have $9.20 to get me through the week. I mean, sure, I could probably easily go to the bank and get some money out or something like that, but that means effort, even though there is a branch near me open on the weekends. I think its just more fun to see how long this $9.20 will last me. Can't be long, I only have half a tank of fuel left...

In non-banking news, its only two more weeks until I get a nice long break. Ten days of work left for the year. Shame its gonna be a busy two weeks. I'm kinda looking forward to just bumming around and doing nothing for a lot of it. It would really be nice to kick up my feet and do nothing. After all, its what I do best. I am swinging by Melbourne for a week though, everything is booked (done when I still had a credit card of course) and I'm looking forward to the trip, except for the bit involving catching up with Raffy. If you're reading this, I'm kidding dude, please don't drive me out to the middle of nowhere and leave me there to rot and die, work won't be too pleased with you. Besides Melbourne, I don't really have anything else planned for the long break, though there will definitely be a lot of beach visits.

stuck in my head

2007-12-05T22:25:00.000+10:00

You know how the last song you hear gets stuck in your head sometimes? Yeah, well usually I listen to music all the time - at work, at the gym, in the car and at home, so it usually doesn't last long. However, with me going through this phase of listening to podcasts a lot, I tend to get songs from the radio in my head - thankfully this evening its been November Rain by Guns N' Roses, which is fine by me, it just means several hours of continuous air guitaring. What's not cool is when the last song you hear is something like the latest offering from Britney Spears or something (the gym has a very, er, poppy soundtrack most days), and it haunts you continuously afterwards. You try various methods of removal, such as turning the music up really loud in the car and singing along, but it just won't budge. You try a cold shower, banging your head against the wall, playing guitar, doing cartwheels, reading a book, but somehow it still lingers. Then suddenly you see Friends on TV and the theme song replaces Britney. Thankfully. But its starting to get really annoying now. Lets see if posting on my blog helps it, when the rain starts to pour. I'll be there for you, like I've been there before, I'll be there for you, cause you'll be there for me too. Damn. I think I might give the banging of the head against the wall another go.

in the summertime

2007-12-04T19:39:00.000+10:00

Well I appear to be slacking off yet again. Anyway, over the last few days, summer started, I went to the beach, I got sunburnt, I tried a fish taco at Wahoo's Fish Taco (lets just say that I found the rice and black beans a little, er, interesting), I watched the two seasons of Dilbert on DVD, Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol, Murali overtook Shane Warne as the leading wicket-taker of all time in Test cricket, I had to decide what to watch 7pm weeknights (That 70's Show or Friends? I think That 70's show is ahead at the moment, the Friends episodes started from the very first one and are hence very old), I went to the movies and saw Beowulf (featuring a CGIed Angelina Jolie), I struggled to sleep with all the heat, I beat my high score in solitaire again (first time past the 14 thousand mark), and I thought about the possibility of starting some postgraduate research (damn you Malex).

Well that's that I suppose. Wonder what I should do now? See if this Psych show is any good, read the latest Alpha mag, maybe get through another DVD (300 is next on the list), play some guitar, read a book, or even go to sleep? The possibilities are endless...

late night shopping

2007-11-29T22:11:00.000+10:00

What is it about teenage kids thinking that its cool to hang around at shopping centres on Thursday nights? Being late night shopping night, I took the opportunity to swing by my local Westfield shopping centre to see if there were any good DVDs on sale (as you do), and there were teenage kids everywhere. Just hanging around, socialising. None of them looked like they were shopping at all. Just hanging around in large clusters, in the way of everyone, being loud and getting in your way. Being annoying in general. Geez, find something better to do. I mean sure, Thursday night TV is usually pretty average, but can't they find somewhere else to be cool? Its not like there's even cinemas or a Timezone to give them any real reason to be there if they're not shopping. Makes me wonder what I got up to on Thursday nights when I was a schoolkid - probably busy doing a graphics assignment while listening to the radio...

stupid thinking errors

2007-11-28T20:20:00.000+10:00

Just stumbled upon what I thought was an interesting article, take a read of it if you have a chance. It discusses seven common thinking errors - biases which can impair your decision making, problem solving and learning. Handy to be aware of. For anyone looking to waste more time on this, you can find a more extensive list of cognitive biases here.

It looks like its that time of the year again when all the regular TV shows take a break and the stations either put some random (and usually below average) new shows a run and see how popular (or not) they are, or fill a timeslot with an old series that you love (or hate) but haven't seen on commercial television for a long time. Oh well, gives me a good chance to start working my way through these books and DVDs.

guniea pig

2007-11-26T20:10:00.000+10:00

On Thursday I was the guinea pig for a PhD thesis. It wasn't the first time either - back when I finished school, I was involved in some postgrad research and had to answer all these questions about my school experience. Anyway, this time around it was an hour interview about innovation in the workplace or something like that. I scored a nice pen out of it so its all good.

Lately I have been increasing my book or DVD collection (or both) pretty much every time I go shopping. I don't know why, but I just keep accumulating. I can't help it. So now I have all of these movies to watch and books to read. Something to keep me busy during holidays I suppose. Though I have been slowly working my way through the DVDs, last few included Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Hot Fuzz. Now those were two great movies.

I have a few framed pictures etc hanging on the wall in my room, with a few over my bed. Call me paranoid, but I'm kinda scared of them falling down on me while I'm sleeping. That would not be cool at all. It would hurt.