Hey

Seve Ballesteros died the other week. One of my golfing heroes. I had been thinking about him for a month or so before he died. I even linked to a video of him on my Facebook page a few weeks ago. I knew he was poorly, but not that bad. Watching him on those videos, wow. The swing, the passion, the soft hands. Some of the shots he hit were amazing. Has there ever been a more talented golfer? And the celebration on the 18th at St Andrews in 1984 when he holed the birdie putt to seal the win is probably the best celebration in golf. No-one came close to him in the 80's. His Masters performances in that time were amazing. Won it in '80 and '83. '85 - Lost a duel with the great Bernhard Langer. '86 - Had it won! After his second shot on 13 to three foot for eagle, his caddy stupidly offered to shake his hand. And Seve shook it! The Golfing Gods don't like that kind of thing. They gave him that putt, but then he put it in the water on 15 and 16, and Nicklaus shot 30 on the back nine to beat him, Norman, and Kite, in probably the best Masters ever. '87 - he was in the play off along with Norman and Mize, but missed a three footer at 10 and was out, and then on the next hole Mize chipped in to destroy Norman forever. He had the lead in '89 too, but dropped away. Quite a performance. He starred in the British Open too, especially in '88 when he and Nick Price had a shootout. That was an amazing tournament. He was a little before my time, but he definitely set the scene for the European dominance of golf with Lyle, Faldo, Woosnam, Olazabal following him. It's really sad to see him go so early. I've mentioned it before, but there is an interview with him on the eve of last year's British Open when they invited him to a past champions dinner but he couldn't go, so the BBC sent a reporter to his house to interview him. He had that faraway look that Alzheimer's sufferers get, understandably seeing how they had to cut out a lot of his brain out to get rid of the tumour, but otherwise he seemed okay. It's a great interview. Tiger's out injured again, and out of the top 10! Sometime this year we'll get the news that he's hooked on painkillers. I have no doubt about that. He has looked stoned off his nut in some of the interviews I've seen of him.
Swannies beat the Bulldogs in Canberra! Amazing! And a good win against Port, too. Shocking loss to Hawthorn though. Buddy has never really played well against us in the past, but he sure did on Sunday. North this week. Hate 'em.
Can I just say that it is hilarious that someone died planking. And there's another guy in a coma from planking, I hear. He should die of embarrassment.
I'm reading Hyperion again, or at least listening to it. Books have become like movies to me. I no longer feel the compulsion to watch or read something to the end if it doesn't have my full attention. I've got heaps of movies on my computer that I've watched the first hour of but turned off, never to return. Never Let Me Go, sorry, had to let you go. True Grit, nup. Tron, nup. Same with books. Even the latest Iain Banks books have failed to see the end. Is it me? Kind of. But if I'm not compelled to keep watching or reading, whose fault is that? The tragedy would be if I stop starting things. But sometimes I just want to watch or read something I know I will love. So I have gone back to Hyperion, and I will read it until I don't want to anymore. Which will probably mean I'll read the whole series of 4 books again. This book is one of those things that I envy people who haven't experienced it, and I wish I could go back and experience it again for the first time. Seven people on a pilgrimage to meet the Shrike, a mythical killing machine who grants the wishes of one and kills the rest. As they make the journey, they decided to tell each other their story, and the book consists of these stories. The first one is about a priest's journey to find the Bakira, descendants of the crew of a colony ship that is thought to have crashed on the unexplored side of Hyperion hundreds of years ago. A great, nightmarish story.

Round 6 Week 2

I've done all the runs and the resistance workouts, but I can't seem to get up for the Insanity workouts or the Yoga. I haven't done one of them yet. So this round is basically abandoned seeing as though I'm only doing half of it. I'm just wondering what to do. Just start doing them, I guess.
I have to work today, a Saturday, which sucks. Only about a third of my department have bothered to come in, so it's a quiet day. Still got a shit load of work to do. Things haven't calmed down much since the March madness. Just do it, I guess.
I had a good Golden Week. Went to Toyohashi Zoo again, though this time it was packed. Hung out with Will and Jo Jo a lot. Ate a ton of Subway. Did I tell you a Subway had opened up recently in my local shopping center? I thought Subway were gone from this country forever, but they seem to be attempting a resurgence. I hope they do well, though not so well that I have to wait in queues for ages. The way I see it, they are ultimately doomed because children make the majority of food decisions here, and no child will choose to eat a sandwich, especially when there's a KFC or MacDonalds around. Except my child, William. He loves the ham 6-incher (with capsicum!). Superstar. BTW, is broccoli an optional topping anywhere else? It is here. And the other day, I ordered a ham, and the chick misheard me and thought I said Chicken tandoori. WTF?
Me: Ham, please.
Chick: Certainly sir. Chicken Tandoori. What kind of bread?
Me: WTF?
Swans beaten by Carlton in Sydney. Another crappy day weather-wise. What's up with the weather in Sydney? Anyway, Jack holds Judd for the first half, Jack does ankle, Judd dominates for the last half and wins the game for Carlton, and Jack is out for 6 weeks. No good.
Regardless of whether Longmire can coach or not, we missed out on that fresh breeze that a club gets when a new coach takes over, because he's been at the club for six years or so beforehand. I think we needed a new approach after Roos to lift the older players and give the club a different perspective. We are losing games from three or four goals up, which we never used to do. It's a problem. Still, only early. We need a win though. Shame we've got the Bulldogs in Canberra, which we never win.
Congrats to Stevie and Sarah! I hope you had a great day!