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.

Round 5 Day 76

What a great game between Melbourne and Sydney yesterday. A draw! We probably should have won it in the third quarter, but then Melbourne probably should have won it in the last, so a draw was a pretty good result for us. Melbourne look good this year, especially up forward. Their back line was pretty vulnerable all day. We played well too. Sydney are usually shocking starters to the season. And a great game to watch, too. I heard that the Geelong St Kidla game was an abomination. Glad I missed that one. I saw what Fevola did, jumping onto that guy's back. I'm enjoying watching his life fall apart, too be honest.
The Masters starts in a couple of weeks. Please be exciting. Golf is in all sorts of trouble. I'm not sure that having Tiger back at No. 1 would solve the problem, either, except that there would be some awesome golf in there somewhere. My tip for the Masters (going 2 for 2 because I tipped Phil last year) - Rory Sabatini, the firebrand South African.
I ran 13 km yesterday, and boy, are my legs tired. It takes ages to run that far. I'm two weeks away from my goal of 15 km, and after that I have finished round 5. Next round I might do a few shorter runs of maybe 6 kms every week instead of the really long run once a week. 3 runs, 3 resistance, and a stretch or yoga. I have to try and get more sleep, too. The coffee and kitkats are under control.
It was Jo Jo's second birthday on Saturday. One of Junko's friends came over with her boy who is the same age as Jo Jo, and we had a cake. Jo Jo's a good boy. Funny. Happy birthday, Jo Jo!

Round 5 - Day 69

You'll be glad to know that, after 2 years of whining, I've cut down on the coffees and kitkats. Instead of 4 cans a day, I'm on 1. Instead of 5 kitkats a day, I'm on 1. It's only early days, but I feel good, much more relaxed than usual. I bought a flask to bring milk to work, so I'm having my milk cocoa and my milk tea, but no sugar.
Footy starts in a few days. Good to get into the rhythm of all the panel shows and stuff. For me, it's Footy Classified and On The Couch on Tuesday, AFL 360 on Thursday, Footy Show on Friday, then the game on Sunday afternoon if I'm lucky, usually Monday. It's all I watch for six months. My favourite is Footy Classified, and I usually skip over On The Couch until the interview, Footy Show is good for a laugh. AFL 360 is the new one in my rotation. I don't mind it. It's probably positioned as a less combative version of Footy Classified. I don't know how they are going to differentiate themselves from it though. Regardless, they all talk about the same topics, so after I watch one, the others get a bit repetitive. It just so happens that Footy Classified is the first one I watch. If I had to dump one it would be On The Couch. Mike Sheahan shits me. But I'll watch it for Paul Roos, if what I hear is right and he's on the couch instead of Hird this year.
Predictions? Essendon - finals. Saints finished - nightmare year for them, dream is over. Maybe miss the finals. Richmond - 10th. Sydney, will get beaten by Collingwood in the Prelim, who will go on to win the flag over Fremantle. Brownlow - Adam Goodes for number 3. Off-field, one player will be done for performance enhancing drugs. 1 rape, 2 bashings, 3 DUIs. Fevola will be arrested for attempted murder.
A couple of things recently have got me thinking. One is a video I saw on Liveleak. Apparently there was some kind of viral outbreak among pigs in South Korea, and they had to put a lot of them down. Kill them. So this video is of a massive ditch in the ground, probably the size of an Olympic swimming pool, and about 4 or 5 meters deep. so what they did is herd hundreds if not thousands of live pigs into the ditch, over one of the edges, and just filled up the ditch with these pigs. You should have heard the screaming. Imagine killing the children of a thousand women in front of them, and you might get a sound like that. Inside the ditch (it was nighttime, and the whole area was lit up so they could do the work) was writhing, screaming pink mess. Then I'm assuming they just buried them all alive.
Another thing is a book I got from a friend here at work. "Meat" it's called. It's kind of a horror/sci-fi story about one group of people who treat another group just like we treat cattle. I'm really enjoying it.
Lately I have come to see vegetarianism as probably the most radical political act a person can do without breaking the law these days. Eating meat supports so many terrible things, all in the name of efficiency and profit, always at the expense of the animals and the poor. You see something like the video of the pigs and wonder, what right does anyone have to treat another living being like that? Their lives are less than worthless. Here it is if you really want to see it.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=086_1300057764
I gets you wondering about your own culpability.

Earthquake! Day 62

So I'll give a rundown of my experience with the earthquake.
Friday afternoon, the boss is away, not much work to do. Everytime I look at the clock, it's 2:23, or 2:37. But it's Friday afternoon, and I'm thinking of stuff to do on weekend.
Then I start to feel a little dizzy. I think it was about 2:45. It's like feeling lightheaded. I've been here long enough to know that I'm okay and it's probably an earthquake. We get an earthquake probably once a month, usually really minor ones. Part of life. A few times a year you get one that gives the building a jolt, and the blinds start swaying, and everyone gets a little excited, but they are rare.
So I look around and a couple of people are looking around too, so I know it's an earthquake for sure. "Jishin!" I hear people saying.
This is when they usually stop, but this one just kept going. Then a hard jolt, and that's when I started thinking about the three floors above me. The building is really rocking, and the blinds are smacking against the window, and some of the office ladies are, not screaming, but exclaiming. Then everything calmed down a little, and I guess our building kept swaying for a while after the earthquake stopped, because it took ages to stop feeling dizzy.
My initial though when it finished was that a lot of people had just probably died somewhere. I didn't think about tsunamis or anything. I mailed Junko, who was driving at the time and didn't notice it. I updated my Facebook page. I went outside to check that my motorbike hadn't toppled over (it hadn't). Then I had a coffee with a friend, then went back to my desk and back to work. Of course everyone was buzzing, and a couple of co-workers asked me if I was here for the Hanshin earthquake in '95 (I wasn't). They said that was stronger. My dad mailed me, and my sister called at 5:10 and asked me if I was okay, and said that there was a tsunami and it was wiping out villages in Sendai. That's north of Tokyo, and I'm in Nagoya which is hundreds of kms to the south. Then I went home and turned on the news, and saw what everyone else was seeing.
Everything's as it usually is here where I live, except the TV is all about the earthquake, every channel. A chain text mail is doing the rounds telling everyone to use less power, but I don't think it's official. I haven't seen any damage at all around where I live. Shops open, no one panic buying water or food or anything, although my friend said he went to a hardware store on Sunday and all the bottled water was sold out. The roads were a little quite this morning (Monday) because Toyota and a lot of other companies around here have closed factories due to an uncertain power supply, but that's the only real difference I can see. On TV it looks crazy, and it's weird to think it's happening in the same country I live in.
The nuclear reactors are the big news now. I don't think it's anything sinister by the Japanese authorities, it's just that people here have a hard time recognizing a problem until it reaches the level of catastrophe. Having lived here so long, you see it over and over again. I'm not sure why they do it. Maybe it's a fear of admitting defeat. So when they say that yes, some radioactive gas has escaped, but don't worry about it, IT'S NOT A PROBLEM, that's when people get scared and start running. People don't know this about the Japanese, but they are terribly reckless. They think about things long and hard, but then often make the same decision as an impulsive idiot would have made. It's weird.
They say that another big earthquake is coming, because things have shifted around so much that it is highly unstable. We'll see. Who can predict these things? I feel bad for all the people in Sendai. A whole village just wiped away. Amazing. And I hope that if the reactors do blow up, the wind is blowing away from me. Or if not, I hope that I mutate into some kind of super being.