Summer '11

So Round 6 Redux died a protracted death. I did about half of the workouts, but it was hard to get out and run in the rain, and I didn't bother with the stretching or yoga, which I probably should be doing more than the resistance workouts. So I started Round 6 Reloaded, which will see me through the Summer. I did a 5 km run on Sunday, and an Arms workout last night. Got a rest day today, then Chest, Shoulders & Back on Wednesday, another run on Thursday, abs workout Friday, and Yoga or stretching on Saturday. And repeat for 12 weeks. Should keep me in pretty good shape.
Other goals I want to achieve, nothing new - Cut down coffee and chocolate to 1 can 1 kitkat a day. Nothing to eat after 7 in the evening, except popcorn with a bit of butter or salt. More reading. More trips to the golf driving range. Less clutter in my life.
I'm reading Pet Sematary by Stephen King. I haven't read any Stephen King books except the first half of Dreamcatcher, which I liked and got the movie out. I like this one too, but I'll gladly put the book down and watch the movie, and then that'll be it. I might try one of his earlier novels next time, see what they're like. I find his work unsatisfying for some reason. Maybe his ideas are better than his writing, I dunno.
Swannies going great. The win against the Lions was a pleasure to watch, not the usual gut-wrenching experience that watching the Swans is. We've got Richmond next. Sweet.

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!

Round 6 - First Week

On Day 1, I did Yoga Meltdown 2 with The Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels. It's interesting doing different kinds of Yoga. I haven't done too many, but Tony's is still the best. This wasn't easy though. There were a couple of moves I couldn't do. And there were a lot of exercises. It was more like a 30-minute warm up for P90X Plyo than the Yoga Tony does. Hayfever hit me hard. Felt really ordinary.
I'm down to one can of coffee a day, and I feel I have achieved something. I've gotten it under control. It seems that the busier I get, the more coffee I drink, and the more agitated I feel.
On Day 2 I ran 8 km. It was pleasant. But that night I had an irregular heart beat. We had just put the kids to bed, and I was about to settle down and watch a bit of Footy Classified, when it happened. I don't know if it was the run, or if it was because Will jumped on my chest five minutes before they started. The first one lasted a couple of minutes, then stopped. Then it happened again for another couple of minutes. It wasn't painful. It feels like my heart skips a beat every few beats or so. I turned the TV off and went to bed, but if it had have happened again I probably would have driven myself to hospital. But it didn't, and it hasn't since, so what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, right?
On Day 3 I did Killer Abs, from the Tony 1 on 1 series. Good stuff.
Day 4 I missed my Insanity workout. Maybe on purpose because I was worried about having an irregular heart beat again. But I missed it.
Day 5: Arms.
Day 6: 10 km run. In the rain. I don't mind running in the rain.
Day 7: Chest and Back. Missed it. I played golf though. Played pretty bad. I played with clubs I haven't used before which seemed to hook everything. And if I hit a bad shot, the next one seemed to be tougher, like a bunker shot to a close pin, or a pitch over a bunker or something. I didn't get away with anything like you do when you are playing well. And I putted like a moron. Highlight? Second shot to a par five, 210-yard water carry, hooked a 4-wood into the front greenside bunker. Not much of a highlight, but not much to choose from.
Cats beat Swans last week. Crappy weather, not a bad game, but hard to tell how we played. Gotta love the Cats' intensity. Chapman was great as usual. Shaw was doing okay this year until he kicked it straight to a guy twenty meters out who kicked it straight back over his head for a goal. I think we were only a goal back with ten minutes to play at that stage. Can't blame him though. We need LRT, Bradshaw (he does still play football, right?) and Kennelly back to be a force this year. We've got the bye this week, so maybe in a couple of weeks we'll see some of them. Next game: Carlton on a Friday night at the SCG! We've got the wood on them at the minute, but it'll be a great game.
I saw Sucker Punch last week. Here it's called Angel Wars. They only have the dubbed version at the cinemas, so I was never quite sure what was going on, but never mind because every scene had young women in underwear. But I have decided that Zack Snyder makes better trailers than he does movies. Maybe he should just make a few trailers every year.

Round 6 Preliminary Thoughts

On Monday I start Round 6. And I'm going to stop putting crap into my body. And by crap,I mean cans of coffee, cakes, doughnuts, and chips.
This round will consist of an eight day cycle, which consists of two 8 km runs, two Insanity workouts, two resistance workouts, a Yoga or Stretch, and a rest day. I hope to lose a couple of kgs, because I am now at 84, the heaviest I have ever been.
I couldn't do the 15 km run, which was disappointing, but oh well. I did 13 km a few weeks ago, which is something I never thought I would do, or even wanted to do. But this time I gave up after 6 kms. My hips had been aching all week, they were aching a little when I was running, and I was scared of what another 9 km was going to do to them. I'm not a young man anymore, and it's becoming clear that my hips are going to be an issue as I get older. They pop a lot when I move my leg outwards as if I'm getting out of a car. After walking a lot, they pop easily and painlessly and it doesn't ache, but when I'm inactive, they pop harder, and it doesn't feel any better. It's not really an issue at the moment. I think the worst thing I can do is stop exercising. But they will always be an issue, and if I need hip transplants when I'm sixty, I'll do it. But in the meantime I'll get some fish oil tablets, multi vitamins, and go easy with the running. I don't think the running is causing the problem. It's probably more the poor posture and hours and hours sitting down in front of a computer at work. My back and shoulders gradually get pulled out of shape which puts pressure on my hip joints. I might get a massage next pay day to sort it out.
The Masters was weird. The guy who won it played awesome. What's him name, Swartzel or something, will join that guy who won the Open and the other guy who won a major last year as someone you'll never hear of again.Jason Day was great, but boy he has to learn to calm down when he's in contention. He was amped. I think Adam Scott was just relieved he didn't choke. Tiger hit the shots, but like just about every Masters since '05, if he had putted well, he would have won it. I thought when he knocked it to six foot on 15 for eagle, I thought 'he's done it. He's going to win.' But he missed. Then missed the putt on sixteen. Then it didn't matter. And I was really pissed off with his interview afterward. The guy asked the perfect question - "Do you think you played well enough to win the Masters?" His answer, "We'll see." The guy tried again, giving Tiger the chance to reflect on his round, how he feels being in contention again, his life, his golf, and all he got was that shit. "We'll see" and "You never know." I'm not sure if it's just a superstar being guarded about what he says, like he's been burned by the press, or maybe he's afraid something will be misconstrued or something. But I'm beginning to think he's incapable of reflection, just an empty man who can only talk in competitive, never-show-weakness terms. His demeanor on the course reminds me so much of Greg Norman in the late 90's. Bored of losing. Going through the motions. Cynical. He'll end up like Norman, too. Unpopular, a businessman, divorcing his wife after a fight and marrying the next woman he lusts after. Excited more by his golf course architecture business and vineyard more than playing competitive golf. Never looking at anyone while on the course. Just looking off into the distance, looking bored, pissed off. You know why people love Phil Mickelson? He seems to actually enjoy playing golf, and he actually seems to appreciate that people come out to watch him play. It's no wonder they hate each other.
Swannies did it again. 3 games, 2 wins and a draw. 3 thrillers. Cats this week. I can't remember the last time we beat the Cats, probably the Prelim when Davis went crazy in the last five minutes in '05, and I doubt we can do it this year, either. But the Swans are an amazing team, and it looks like another year in the finals. We are spoiled as supporters.

Round 5 - Day 85

I only ran 9 km on Sunday. Kind of talked myself out of it, but my legs were really aching after a Legs & Back on the Friday. I'm still confident about being able to do the 15 km on Sunday, but I have to shut the voice up when it gets hard. I've been able to do it every other time, but Sunday I had to agree with it when it said "Ow, my legs hurt. You should stop. 9 km is plenty, etc." Apart from that, I've enjoyed this round a lot. Again, the shorter workouts are great, and I'll continue to do these in the next round. At this stage I use my ipod to listen to the warmup of the workout I'm doing, mainly just for timing's sake, then turn it off and refer to a sheet I made with 12 or 13 exercises on it while I listen to an audiobook or watch something else. It probably still takes 40 minutes to do, but that's because I have a lot of rests. I think that next round I'll completely ditch the videos, make some kind of warm-up routine for myself, and eliminate some of the exercises I think are a waste of time and put in other stuff. I'll also do two short runs of 8 km a week instead of one really long one. I was thinking of just maintaining until P90X 2 comes out, and then do that full-on.
Swannies! I love beating Essendon. I didn't think we would, because they are the glamour side going in, and I didn't think we would win in the third quarter when we are getting rolled after hitting the front for a couple of seconds, but as usual, Jude Bolton inspired the team to victory. What a player. It's only round 2, but there have been heaps of great games already. It was a shame to see the Gold Coast Suns get pumped by so much. Everyone says Gary Ablett is "underdone". Was he injured during pre-season? I hope they win a few games. Richmond haven't won anything yet, but just like every year we all have to agree that they've improved. I don't think so. I picked them for 10th, and that's probably where they are right now. Collingwood are awesome, and I hope they pump the Blues this week. We've got West Coast. Another thriller? Surely not.
I watched "Limitless" on Sunday night. Good movie. Moral of the story: Drugs are great. Coming down sucks, so make sure you don't come down. Actually, I've seen a few good movies the last couple of months. The trick is staying away from movies you know are going to be shit, like the Green Lantern, or a Nicholas Cage movie, anything with Nicole Kidman, anything animated (except a Toy Story movie). With Limitless, it was a bit disappointing to see how quickly the guy ditches making art for making money, like finance is the pinnacle of human endeavours, and writing books is for losers. But then he ditches both for politics. Wow. A movie for our times, for sure.
Well, it's that time of year. The Masters. Again, the question is, just like last year, what will Tiger do? Phil Mickelson won last week, and he is a form player, so he is definitely the favourite. But Tiger? He has played some good tournaments, but also some awful ones. He's come close a couple of times, but lately he has been playing pretty badly. Why he is attempting a swing change during the most turbulent time in his personal life is beyond me. His swing looks terrible these days. Cramped, stiff. He appears to have fallen into the trap of becoming too analytical about his swing. If you are worrying too much about the angle of your left wrist at impact or stuff like that, you just can't get any feel. I read about how in 1983 when Seve was at his peak, he had someone film him hitting the golf ball and measure everything about it - distance between him and the ball, angles, time, feet positions, hand positions, etc. His theory was that if he wasn't playing well, it was because he somehow gotten out of whack, and all he had to do was go back to the data he made when he was playing well and make sure he was doing everything the same. It makes sense, but of course this didn't work. Things change over time. Your body loses flexibility, you lose or gain weight, your back feels lose or stiff. He ditched it after a couple of years and concentrated on doing what felt comfortable or natural, and he had two or three years as the dominant player in the world and won a heap of tournaments. This will happen with Tiger, too, I hope. Golfer's swings tighten up naturally as they get older, but Tiger's swing when he was twenty is so different than it is now it's amazing. He is physically different, too, from all the growth hormones he has taken over the years, probably. He hasn't lost any mass since the downfall. He is still huge. I doubt this is helping him hit good golf shots, either.
Still, it all comes down to putting, so if he can putt well at Augusta, then he can win it. In fact, I will state here that the winner will be the person who putts the best. Not the person person who hits it the furthest or hits the most fairways or greens, or gets up and down the most from bunkers, but the person who misses the fewest short putts. Tiger has putted poorly the last few Masters, and would have won a couple if he had putted well.

Round 5 - Day 81

So there's a home-buyers strike going on in Melbourne. Hey, I've been on a Ferrari-buyers strike for twenty years, and I will not give in! Stupid. But if these stories are making the papers, then the great housing boom in Australia might finally be over. Thank Christ. But I shudder to think what will happen to all those young couples who earn 50K a year who bought or built half million dollar houses. People think if you buy a house, you've sewn up your future. You're set. That might have been true twenty years ago when houses were affordable, but I don't think it's true at the moment. It might be true in another twenty years, but not after a lot of pain. Look what has happened in Ireland, the U.K., Spain, America. People are in all sorts of trouble because they bought an over-valued asset with the assumption that its value will only increase. A house is only worth what people will pay for it, and what people will pay for it is based on how easy credit is to get from the bank. When the banks make it tougher to get money, fewer people have access to money, prices go down. That's what is happening. And when the house across the street won't sell at 50K less than what you paid for yours, you have no equity any more. It's gone. You are paying more than you can afford to keep an asset that is worth much less than what you bought it for, and will be for the next ten years. You can sell it and lose your down-payment, at least, as well as all the money you've spend paying interest on the mortgage, but then you're back to square one looking for a place to live, except this time you have no money. Or you can wait it out, praying you don't get laid off, trying not to hit the wife or kids, trying not to drink too much, not being able to afford a night out at the movies or a holiday to Queensland ever.
As soon as it became speculative, it got dangerous. The smart people bought ten years ago, and sold last year. Or early 2008, if they were geniuses. The smart people have spent the last two years getting ready, getting liquid, getting rid of any asset that they can't sell in five minutes so they are ready when the world falls apart again like it did in 2008. Do you think they are going to let themselves be caught out twice? Not a chance in hell.
Watch for the politicians and bankers to come out of the woodwork this year and position themselves as the mavericks, the ones who warned everybody of the impending doom before it happened. Look out for bankers and politicians warning people about being indulgient or reckless, so when the shit hits the fan, they can say, well, I warned you! Ask them if they supported the doubling of the first home owners grant in 2008 when it was clear the bubble had popped, effectively zombifying the housing boom, damning millions of young people who have since mortgaged their lives away in a propped-up, DOA housing market to a life of slavery. Ask them if they support negative gearing, which inflates rents. Or, more to the point, ask if they have recently sold any their own investment properties. Bet you they have.
Will it be as bad as it is in America? Or Ireland? Or Spain? Probably. Why would it be any different? The Spanish have an expression they use when they talk about their housing boom. Instead of saying "Back in the 2000's,...", or "During the housing boom,...". They say "When we were rich, ..." Is that what it's going to be like in Australia? What effect will there be on the economy, on society, when millions of "working families", to use one of Acting Assistant Regional Manager Kevin Rudd's favourite phrases, are under incredible pressure week after week for years on end, watching their dreams of a secure retirement vanish, with a mortgage they will never pay off, stuck in a house they can't afford but can't sell? Have a look at America. How's it going there? An absolute catastrophe.