My first game of competition AFL

So tonight I rocked up to Yeronga AFC to see if I could get a game of 9 a side AFL... which I did. Funny part was when I was introduced to the captain of the team I would be playing for and he asked me if I had a white shirt. I looked down at what I was wearing (a blue shirt) and said "Nah mate, sorry". How is that funny? Well his facial expression in response was the funny part, he actually managed to look disappointed and mildly annoyed... as if I should have known all along what colour shirt I would have needed :p

Anyway he gave me a spare shirt and I donned it before walking over to the rest of the team on the field. 9 a side is played on what would about half a normal AFL field wide and slightly shorter than an entire field long. When I first got to go on I was presented with a blue armband and was informed I'd be playing forward. Turns out that only the people with the armbands can kick goals, when I found this out I turned to one of the other armband wearing forwards and said "So no pressure huh?" and we had a laugh.

Not long after taking the field the ball was in the midfield heading for our goal. One of our midfielders was about to be tackled and I ran towards him and screamed for the ball. He handballed it off to me and I had my first official possession! Knowing there was a defender hot on my heels and being on the wing about 15m out from goal, I spun and dropped it onto my foot. I watched as it curled and skied towards goal and was certain it was going to go in!

It then began to fall groundwards and while I was still sure it was going to goal it wasn't going to make it on the full. One of our other forwards realising this marked directly in front about 2 metres out and popped it through. He came running over to me after and said "I would have sheperded it in mate but it could have bounced anywhere", this made sense and I wasn't expecting him to do anything less and I told him so.

Unfortunately that was my only possession for the game. I played mostly forward but also got a run in the backline. I found it's very hard to read when, and where, a forward is going to run off you in a proper game. I tried to lay one tackle on the wing and got promptly shrugged off as I went in too soft. I made up for this later in the goal square when I was an armband wearing forward and a defender was trying to clear, I got there a millisecond too late but I brought him to the ground and was pretty happy with how that went.

Playing as a forward again I put some pressure on a defender and smothered a kick when he was attempting to clear the ball into their half of the ground. Throughout the night I made plenty of little leads running off defenders and watched as a few kicks coming towards me were kicked by guys who had too much Weet-Bix for breakfast and sailed over my head forcing me to stop and spin and one or two where if I could jump higher I know I would be a better forward target :)

All in all I had fun. Statistically might not have had that much of an impact, we got flogged by the way, but I hope I made some form of contribution. Got a game with them again next week @ 19:30 and I can't wait!

Weirdness

I'm not comfortable with the colour of the sky today. Ever since I woke up I've been weirded out by what is going on up there. It's very, very overcast today but instead of being dark and gloomy the sky is a dusty orange colour. It's quite bright but it's very unnatural looking.

Sitting here at my desk and looking out the window is doubly weird because I have these fluroscent brilliant white lights over my head, and all over the roof around me, and then you look outside and see a darker, dirty orange colour.

It's very, very weird and it has an air of foreboding about it. Like it's a sign of something to come. I don't know why but it's unnatural and it has unnerved me.

Edit: There is an explanation of it here... thanks for the link Bill!

Ignoramus: The Sequel

So for the second day in a row I have experienced atrocious human behaviour on a train to work. Has the sudden onset of summer heat and humidity caused ppl to snap and revert back to selfish neanderthal behaviour? Here's the scene:

I'm standing up on the train near the doorway (not blocking it :p) and holding on to the handrail there. At Dutton Park on gets a woman with what I originally thought was a young girl. Unfortunately the young girl was blind and had a white cane to assist her mobility. After another glance it seemed she might not have been as young as I originally thought, but it's irrelevant to the story how old she is really... just remember diminutive, young, blind looking female being assisted by older woman.

They shuffle onto the train and stand in the middle of the standing area near the hand rail things from the roof. Those of you who know QR trains will know what I'm talking about, those who don't just use your imagination!

Anyway so after a few stations we arrive at South Brisbane and I'd heard that is where the young woman was getting off. Standing closer to the door to them and trying to be nice I reach out and grab the door handle to open the door for her. As I am doing this other people start arriving near the doorways to get off. The young blind woman takes a step and a half towards the door as the train slows with her cane out in front of her to guide her way. The train stops and the doors release, I'm still reaching across the doorway to turn the handle and allow her out.

Suddenly a young man that was standing just behind and to the right of the blind woman steps forward squeezing between me and her to get off the train when the doors begin to open, in the process completely cutting her off and forcing her older friend to half grab her to stop her from moving forward and running into him. What the hell was he thinking?!? It was obvious to anyone with eyes that I was trying to assist her off the train by opening the door for her but instead of allowing her to get off he pushes in front of her to get off first!!! WTF?!?!?

Other people mill around waiting to get off but she gets off relatively safely. She's then forced to stand at the top of the stairs going down from the platform while everyone else goes first and noone pauses to give her time to get a feel for the stairs and to start moving down. She was still standing there as the train pulled away...

I've had it with people. The next time I see poor behaviour like this I'm going to say something, and put some venom into it. In my defence I wasn't able to on this ocassion because I was so shocked that he did it, it happened so fast and he was off the train before I could say anything.

While we're on the topic of poor behaviour here's another example. Bee's friend lent her an old wheelchair of her Grandmothers to assist her while her leg is broken. We took it shopping @ Coles the other night and the number of times people pushed in front of Bee or cut her off was completely insane. When will people learn some courtesy and manners?!?

Ignoramus!

Firstly stepping outside and walking to the train station from home this morning was like stepping into an oven. The sun was out and blaring down thanks to no cloud cover. By the time I arrived at the train station every shaded part of the platform was taken and I was forced to sit on a bench in direct sunlight. I was frying quickly and was starting to think it was time for someone to turn me when the train arrived.

Then came the second noteworthy part of my morning so far... it was packed!! And I'm talking like Riverfire night packed! I got to be the little sardine wedged up against the door with nothing to hold on to which was fun, not! But then a complete lack of train etiquette made me mad, to the point where I almost said something to this woman.

At South Bank station a few ppl wanted off and a couple of ppl closest to the door, including me, had to step off the train to allow ppl wanting off room to get out as we were blocking the doorway. This was all fine and good and we shuffled back on the train thankfully getting to stand further in and not have to worry about the door closing on us anymore. Then some ppl got on the train who weren't on previously and took up the doorway spots.

The next stop was South Brisbane and the same thing happened, ppl wanted off and ppl were blocking the doorway. This time it wasn't me or the other ppl blocking but the chick that was blocking refused to budge and stood her ground causing massive bottleneck issues as ppl tried to squeeze between me and her on both sides to get out. In the end I, and another of the original nice ppl, stepped off the train again and this chick still stood in the doorway and caused a nuisance.

How can someone be so completely rude?!? Stupid cow. At Roma St, after watching everyone fight to get around her and seeing us forced to get off to allow room, you would have thought that she might change tactics and do the right thing.... WRONG!! With even more ppl wanting off at Roma St she still stood there clutching the rail near the doorway and blocking it while ppl scrambled every which way to get out! Absolutely unbelievable!!

Anyway the walk to work was fun as you can cut the air with a knife today it's that thick and humid... staying inside might be the way to go for the rest of the day.

Footy Training

So Dunc, Ben & I attended our first footy training session tonight. It's only pre-pre season training at the moment but 11 guys still showed up. Funnily enough I think they said 5 or 6 of those were new players to the club.

Anyway we did a 2.5km run which was made up of three laps to the corner and back on the road outside the club. Unfortunately not long after the run started it was obvious to me that I stank and ppl were pulling away leaving me to run solo. Not that I'm whinging or expected anything different but I was mildly surprised at just how quickly it happened. I don't think I've ever run 2.5km in my life so I guess in the end I didn't do too badly. 15 minutes 50 was by far the slowest time but gives me a goal to aim at when it comes to improvement. I think it might help if I didn't have to keep stopping to walk all the time :p

After that we played soccer, which wouldn't have been my choice given my hatred of said sport but that's what the team did so I toed the team line. Thankfully it was on a smaller than standard field because with only 6 on 5 I would have had a hernia on a normal field. Long story short I kicked the winning goal.

Getting no respect from defenders I ran down the wing, got passed the ball, dribbled towards goal, attempted a cross left footed across goal to a free man on the other wing and full on hit a defender in the chest. Thankfully it rebounded in my direction and, according to Ben as it was all instinct for me, I controlled the ball, set the shot and, left footed again, slotted the winner!

Which left me with 1 goal and Ben, the soccer player, with none. Cop it! :p

All in all I feel very good for having gone to training. Sure I was by far the worst runner and my fitness levels are comparatively poor but I went and am not too ashamed of my effort. I turned up and tried, and can only get better... in fact I'm looking forward to seeing improvements in my fitness.

Also looking forward to turning up to 9 a side on Thursday night and catching up with more team members.

Edit: Just realised I didn't include much info on the footy. We're going to play AFL for the Yeronga Football Club next year. So now you know :)

Waiting

Waiting is fun, not. Had a half day today so I could take Bee to the fracture clinic @ the PA for a checkup. All good apparently, bone still in line and not needing any surgery. She got the half cast off and has now got a full cast plaster on her leg, it's blue as you can see!



She says it is more comfy and secure now plus she can't feel pain anymore. Even bumps when in the car don't hurt... it's all good! Anyway after sitting in the Outpatients for about 1 & 1/2 hours it was off to more waiting...

... at CentreLink. Bee is trying to claim something for the fact she can't work anymore and has been told to apply for Youth Allowance as she is a full time student. Anyway after struggling to find the CentreLink office @ Greenslopes, one way streets are massively annoying!!, I sat and waited for over an hour while she discussed the form with a guy there.

All in all an afternoon of waiting... I'm now sitting in a recliner with my feet up and Baby Blue in my lap... lucky notebook! :p

*sigh* Well I was sitting down relaxing... then the phone started ringing... and that's when I remembered I was supposed to take Dunc his ankle brace over before 17:50.. so off I went again!

Special Moment

Substitute fieldsman Ryan Broad, I believe a Qld 2nd XI player, has just taken a catch to dismiss Andrew Strauss in England's second innings. The delight and excitement on his face was awesome to see and made me think how special it would be substitute fielding for Australia in a Test match and making a contribution of any kind... let alone taking a catch!

It was a special moment and the Australian players certainly showed him how much they appreciated it. Lucky bastard!

Happy 50th Post to me...

... Happy 50th Post to me... yes this is my 50th post on my new home here at blogger, not bad for someone that was only going to last a week eh? :p

I was contemplating what to do to celebrate the milestone and thought maybe a look at my blogging highlights would be in order. Unfortunately I then realised there were no highlights, only dribble... so I changed my mind and decided to look back on some of the dribble being written by me since I started...

What kind of history tour wouldn't take in my very first post on blogger? Yes my first colour scheme was very ordinary but in my defence I feel it let me down and looked better when shown as a template example.

Then there was the great beer price saga which I still don't believe and, more worringly, have found more evidence of at other bars around Brisbane.

This was followed by a couple of "unveilings" first that of baby blue and then of my gorgeous nephew Charlie D.

This was all followed by a mammoth amount of motorsport, first with Bathurst, then Dad's V8 Race Experience and followed by a long winded Indy 2006 sum up:

• Part 1
  
• Part 2
  
• Part 3
  
• Part 4
  
• Part 5
  

When beefing up the content and therefore hopefully the enjoyment factor of this blog I introduced Flickr & YouTube content in the sidebar.

To finish recently we've seen South Park charicatures, Bee tripping and breaking her leg and then me and some friends taking our own trip, down memory lane.

Of course this is just a selection of the dribble that has been posted here and it has been interesting, for me at least, at looking back at what has gone on. Most of it I have long since forgotten! Ben said recently once he posts something he forgets what he has written and while I'm not that bad I am surprised how much I posted that I have forgotten about.

Anyway enough nostalgia, hopefully it's been a fun journey for the readers and hopefully it shall continue...

It's finally here...

... the summer test series has begun!! Not just any summer series either, this year it's the Ashes in Australia. After the last Ashes series where England won back the Ashes, and dramatically, for the first time in 16 or 17 years, this years series was always going to be a cracker.

Unfortunately someone forgot to tell Steve Harmison it was a big deal and after months and months of frantic excitement, apprehension and anticipation he loped in to bowl the first ball of the summer to second slip!! Moron! Biggest anticlimax ever, E-V-E-R!!

So far it's been a mundane start from England. I will save some energy trying to describe their efforts so far and quote the commentator from baggygreen's online commentary. After an over not long ago this was written:


Yet another mixed over. England look rusty, wayward, unsure of specific plans to the batsmen and, frankly, not very good. It's going to be a long night...


Sums it up perfectly as far as I, Brett (sitting beside me on my couch) and Bee are concerned...

Let's hope the rest of the days play gets better, I didn't take the day off work to watch bad cricket!!

Come on Aussie, Come On, Come On. Come on Aussie Come On!!

Trip down memory lane.

The flood of text messages and phone calls yesterday from friends and family culminated in a number of visitors last night. Thank you from Bee and myself to everyone who has expressed, no matter how, best wishes for Bee and her leg. I know it certainly cheered her up to have so many ppl make contact to check in on her :)

Visitors started with Ben and Brad before Brad had to leave to play indoor cricket. Duncan & Rhonda also popped by and the five of us (Ben stayed) ordered pizza and chatted some. Baby Blue soon became the centre of attention as Ben, who was using him to blog at the time, showed Drunc (Dunc & Rhonda) the Golf GTI clips on YouTube. (Ed: the second one has been posted as my new Video Clip of the Moment) This suddenly, and surprisingly, turned into us all searching, and finding many hilarious clips we'd seen via email, websites etc including this one that I had never seen before. Thanks to Dunc for the knowledge on this one.



Dunc then mentioned he wanted the Fraggle Rock theme song for his new mobile so he could set it as his ringtone. YouTube then not only became a source of humour but the vehicle by which we all took a trip down memory lane. We watched old intros to so many old shows that took us all back to our childhoods. It is amazing how vivid memories can be once you have a trigger for them.

These ones in particular (some I have searched and found since) jogged my memory. Do they jog (or jar?) yours? :)

Late night trip

Well been home for just a little bit after a late night trip to the hospital (the Princess Alexandra to be exact). Got there around about 23:00 waited around for a bit then one broken fibula, and a fair few hours later, and we're home and ready for bed. No, before you ask, I don't have a broken fibula... Bee does though after falling down our internal stairs.

Disappointingly no x-rays available yet for blogging but I am sure we can get a copy from the Fracture Clinic in a week's time when she goes in for a checkup.

More on this later when I'm less tired. Bee has been up since before 06:00 yesterday morning and is yet to sleep since... so I guess I should stop bitching about being tired.

The perfect over.

It finally happened. After games and games of stick cricket never being able to hit more than 3 sixes in a row, it finally happened... the perfect over. That's right six 6s in a row off the bowling of Roberts, here's proof:



I even hit the first ball of the next for six making it a record, for me, of 7 in a row. Not that any of you care given the lack of response to the Stick Cricket League idea... but I'll persist... until I tire of it and move on.

Edit:

Couple of games later scored my highest score ever... 233... submitted it to the basically non-existant league... cop it Bill :p

Movember

For those of you who are unaware there is a movement in Australia known as Movember. Basically for the month of November men around the country try to grow a mo and in the process raise money for men's health issues such as prostate cancer and male depression.

So right now, throughout the country, men everywhere are involved in growing a mo for this great cause. My boys at the Lions are involved and recent updates on their progress can be found here. Brad, being an accountant @ the Lions, is also involved... last time I saw him he had a bit of bumfluff growing on his lip... not sure how he is going anymore...

Now for those that know me I am very lazy when it comes to regular shaving. Basically I don't do it until it annoys me. Those same ppl know that it takes me a while to grow any facial hair and that if I started cleanly at the start of the month I would have no chance in having anything even closely resembling a decent mo by the end.

Today I was off to hang out with my Dad's family for my Grandma's 80th lunch so I decided it was time to shave. As usual it had been a while... the day before we left for Indy I think. Anyway as I was shaving I wondered what kind of mo I could have after that time... so I shaved everything but my lip. This is the result... cover the eyes of any children nearby or they'll have nightmares for weeks!!



Given that I last shaved almost exactly a month ago I think maybe I underestimated my mo growing potential... maybe next year I will have to get involved in Movember... hmmm now there is a scary thought!!

And yes I tried to look as bogan as possible in this photo in my continued campaign to Bring Bogan Back... something I've only just realised I never got around to blogging about. Oh well, maybe next time.

P.S. New video clip of the moment for you all to enjoy... peace out

To continue the cricket theme...

... here is an amazing cricket story coming out of India.

Can you imagine this? It's absolutely unbelievable!! A 721 run partnership in a mere 40 overs. They both scored 300+ runs in the partnership... without hitting a six once!!

Then they bowl out the opposition for 20 to win by 700 runs? Woah!!

Now to break the cricket theme for those not that into cricket... check out this car that someone had posted about on the Classic Carlectables Forum (no I have no idea why there forums are only accessibly via IP address... that's just the way it is!)



Someone took their love of Marcos, or the Pirtek Falcon, to amazing new levels. Wonder what the Pulsar would look like in Caltex Havoline colours?

Have an awesome weekend all! :))

Oh dear...

... the world continues to sink into madness... this is just ridiculous!

South Park Characters

In response to Cam's Mii character post I've decided to take us on a trip down memory lane. Some people would argue that this has been the case all day today with my blog posts so far, to those people I say... you're right, congratulations!

What am I taking us back to this time? Well to the South Park Studio glory days!! That's right kids, you can star in South Park too along with all your heros! (Ed: We are not condoning the raising of hell spawn that some readers of this blog are guilty of... we are merely making a joke... deal!) It seems they are up to Version 2 of South Park Studio so I guess we'll see just what new tricks are open to us this time around.

To encourage others to go forth and do the same here is how Bee & I think I would be portrayed as a South Park character...



And just to even up the ledger here is how we think Bee would look as a South Park character...



... awwww.... what a cute looking couple... which one do we think puts more effort into their appearance? :p

Big Footy once had a thread where people posted caricatures of AFL players using this tool. It was hilarious. Despite minutes spent searching I am unable to find it right now, but I will... oh yes I will and you people will be the first to know when I do.

While we're on the topic of cricket...

... recently I blogged about StickCricket. A mate of mine from work has set up a league and is looking for people to play. For those who have played StickCricket and enjoyed it here is a chance to submit your scores to our league and try and beat each other. For those who have yet to play StickCricket, just give it a go! It only takes a short time for one game and it is quite challenging.

Comment, email me, whatever and I can send you the league details... come one, come all!!

It's just not cricket!

For those not following the news in the world of International Cricket, earlier this month the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to sack one of their international umpires Darrell Hair. This was a follow on from an incident in England earlier this year when he dared to penalise Pakistan for alleged ball tampering and then, when they refused to take the field after the break (read: chucked a sook), he forfeited the game on their behalf.

Now there has been a lot, and I mean a lot, of negative reaction to the decision some of which can be found here, here and here. But this is all old news... why am I blogging about it now?

Well ever since there have been a couple of embarassing stories released that indicate further that the ICC got it wrong. The first one is here and the latest is here.

I am still personally disgusted at the entire thing and still can't believe that the integrity of cricket, for a long time the very cornerstone of the sport, has been compromised in such a manner. It's appalling and downright wrong!

Summer's first thunderstorm

Today saw us experience what was, hopefully the first of many, summer's first thunderstorm. It was a corker too!! I was sitting at my desk when it hit. You should have been in my office at the time to see the pandemoneum it caused!

Our normally drawn blinds went straight up and people without the privilege of sitting near a window crowded around to see. On top of that, as usual whenever a storm is in the offing, our proxy servers got hammered by people trying to access the Bureau of Meteorology website. This time it got so bad we crashed our ISPs proxy server with requests!! Awesome!!

Back to the storm though and it was kewl. We had a slightly greenish tinge to the sky and we got little hailstones, which caused more chaos as people ran for their cars. The wind was whipping up its own frenzy and for most of the time the rain appeared to be falling horizontally to the ground! At one point we were watching, hey I never said I didn't cram a window like someone who had never seen rain before, and the wind changed direction with it travelling horizontally to the right originally and then, suddenly, horizontally to the left.

As stated in a previous post I love thunderstorms, I was tempted to go out and stand under some cover outside just to get closer to the action, but refrained myself... just. Hopefully this is an indication that our usual Australian summer storm season is well underway and we can expect more to come... god knows we need the rain!!

YouTube

And the hits just keep on coming!! I have been rapidly tiring of the appearance of my blog and wanting to make it a bit more interactive for you readers out there. What started with the Flickr account and new Flickr Badge has continued with a YouTube addition.

Just like the plan with the Flickr Badge I intend this new blog section "Video Clip of the Moment" to contain a small snippet of my latest available video clip provided for your entertainment. Now I don't promise that it will always be a video clip of my own creation but there will be one there to view nonetheless.

Nor do I promise to be out there looking for, or taking, regular vids for you to enjoy hence the "of the Moment" clause... if I had put "of the Week" I'd be putting some pressure on myself and no doubt letting you all down :)

It will be, depending upon the size of the original, somewhat smaller than the real thing so that it fits neatly into my sidebar and doesn't take up too much real estate. Look at it over there, aint it cute?

For the moment I have uploaded a number of Indy vids I took during this year's Indy event and the current clip of the moment is one of my favourites from the weekend. I love that part of the track, you can almost right up to the fence and the cars are so close... and so loud!!

Enjoy the clip and if you want to see the full size version or see more of my vids access my YouTube channel here.

Flickr

I've gone ahead with something I should have done a long time ago and set up a Flickr account. This will allow me a better way of sharing images with you all. You can find my Flickr site here.

I've also added a Flickr Badge to my sidebar on the left in my first, but not last, modification to my blog template. After some finnicking around, I am not a CSS/HTML expert, I got it looking the way I want.

The plan is to use Photo Sets within Flickr and have this Flickr Badge always link off to my current, latest, photo set. If you were to click on it now for example, it will take you through to the photos from my Indy 2006 Photo Set. The badge will show you tiny, tiny thumbnails of the photos within the latest set and randomly enlarge some of the thumbnails too, just to make it look cool and pretty.

So go on, click it and have a flick through a handful of photos I chose. And keep an eye on that badge for newer photo sets into the future...

Can I at least have a scratch?!?

Talk about busy!! The lack of posting may have indicated that I have been busy but I can't believe what has been going on this week!!

Monday started quietly enough with the day evolving into a seemingly mundane Monday. I had already spent some time on that day, and the day before, organising things for this week including; trying to finalise purchasing Ben's birthday presents, juggling with everyone's busy schedules so we could all get together and give them to him and organising my weekly dinner with Mum & Dad due to Mum having other commitments on our normal Wednesday night. Then it came...

... Brett, part time commenter on this blog, announced that Wilson (I'd link to his blog if he ever updated it!!) my old mate who lives in Western Australia was in town and was only available for dinner Tuesday night. So after some reorganisation, for the second time in 12 hours, of dinner with Mum & Dad I was free to have dinner with Wilson but not free on Thursday night anymore.

Monday night itself was a non socialising night spent at home but the rest of the week went like this:

Tuesday night - Aforementioned dinner with Wilson @ The Bull & Cactus, nice long dinner with lots of chats and hints from the staff for us to leave. Didn't get to bed until late.

Wednesday night - Bee's Mum came down during the day and her & Bee did some cooking. We then visited her Aunty @ Sandgate and didn't leave there until 22:57 meaning we didn't get to bed until about midnight.

Thursday night - The reorganised dinner with Mum & Dad. Roseanne, Bee's Mum, was still down so she came with. Didn't leave there, Kingston, until about 22:20 meaning , again, didn't get home and sit down until about 23:00pm and not to bed until much later.

Friday night - Straight from work to the city for drinks with Ben and other associated people. Celebrating Ben's birthday earlier this week, Happy Birthday again Benjamin. Started at the Belgian Beer Cafe, had a nice, but expensive, dinner and more than a few drinks. Then off to the Casino where Brad & I wandered aimlessly trying to figure out if we wanted to gamble or not... eventually headed home and didn't get home until about 00:30... stayed up for a bit as I wasn't completely tired and retired to bed about 01:15.

Saturday morning - up @ 09:30 to be at my Nan's @ 11:00 for a big family do. My cousin Geoff, who lives in beautiful Cairns, has recently become engaged and was bringing his fiance down to meet the fam. Left at about 14:40 and came home to collapse on the couch to watch V8 Supercars Rd 11 @ Symmons Plains, Tasmania and relax.

Tomorrow? Well up @ 06:00 to take Bee to work then about 10:00 should be meeting Brad & Ben for a hit @ Mt Gravatt Driving Range. This is in preparation for my annual work golf day, and no I don't play golf, in a couple of weeks time.

Anyway I apologise for not having new, interesting things up for people to read during the week and promise to make up for it... well maybe except for the interesting part, there's no accounting for taste!!, this week. For now though... can I least have time to scratch myself?!?!

Gaming

I've been sorely missing, effectively since Baby Blue showed up, computer gaming. For those long time readers of my blog you'll have witnessed the desperation behind my Freecell episodes. It wasn't pretty... you'll be happy to know however that I snapped myself out of that rut.

Unfortunately I've become mindlessly addicted to a new form of low powered computer gaming. It has but one name... Stick Cricket. A simple, yet addictive Flash game that I think actually looks pretty flashy and for some reason I find challenging. I look at the High Scores and wonder how they are possible given how much my efforts pale in comparison.



For whatever reason I'm hooked. I know of at least one reader of this blog that also admits to being partial to playing so if you're out there, have a game or two and if you're interested I'd be up for setting up a league where we could challenge each other for the benefit of determining a winner, read: sledge the crap out of each other. It wouldn't have to be on any full time basis or anything... just a little bit of fun every now and then.

Look it up... and let me know... although if this goes anything like the response to my Freecell challenge I won't be expecting much response :p

Solo Shopping

Shopping solo has got to be one of the best ways to achieve a sense of loneliness and isolation known to mankind. It sounds odd given at major shopping centres on a Sunday you are literally surrounded by people, so how can you feel lonely?

I think you feel so lonely because all around you are people shopping together, interacting and socialising, and there you are walking around by yourself with no one to talk to. The single worst part of shopping solo? Sitting in a crowded food court at lunch time at a table by yourself, eating silently and just looking around watching people interact.

As you may have guessed today I went shopping at Indooroopilly while Bee was at work... and felt very, very lonely. Scanning the food court showed only a couple of similarly lonely people, funnily enough all male. You could tell the difference in their behaviour, and mine, when compared with everyone else around. People sharing their tables with friends were taking their time eating, mainly due to having to interrupt eating with talking, but also because sitting around a table eating and chatting with people you know is one of the human races most popular socialising activities.

The solos, well me anyway, simply sat and ate their food as fast as they could so they could vacate the scene and carry on with whatever they were there to do. Eating had become more a step in the process rather than something to savour.

In fact the entire shopping experience for me had become a mission. Get in, find what I wanted and get out. If Bee had been with me we would have strolled through the centre at a leisurely pace, stopping at stores we had no intention of buying anything from and taking as long as we wanted. Today I found myself walking much faster than even my normal walking speed to get to my next destination. Sure I did some very minor window shopping but on the whole I was there to achieve something and that was it.

Funny how the lack of companionship can completely change the nature of an activity. It got me thinking about what other activities we would face completely differently when performed solo? For the moment get your mind out of the gutter and think about how much you take for granted the companionship of a friend or loved one when out and about in your daily life, and just how different it would be if that same companionship wasn't available to you. It'd make for a very dull world...

Indy 2006 - Part 5

When we last saw our heroes they had participated in a formal Hold 'Em tournament followed by a more relaxed shirtless tournament where some fun was had. At this point it was quite late and only the brave dared continue on... the rest headed for pillow based heaven.

The brave four to continue on were Ben, Brad, Benny and myself. At this point we'd each consumed a reasonable amount of alcohol and things started to get silly. So much so that at one point Dunc's Mum Feona poked her head out of the room and asked us politely to supress our enthusiasm a little, which we tried very hard to do.

Basically the rest of the morning resulted in much more poker play, albeit with a large amount of stupid play used. Ben was far and away the worst culprit of all. His streak of luck, which those following our poker group know had stretched on for weeks, showed no sign of stopping. In some absolutely bullshit calls Ben managed to win hands where he was dominated or not even theoretically in the hunt. At one point we were all in hysterics as a result of his luck, it's better than crying about it!, with Ben on the floor on one side of the table and me on the floor on the other side.

Some documented proof of his luck lies in this hand. I forget the exact nature of the play at the time, hey it was a couple of weeks ago now and I was drunk at the time!!, but basically we both ended up all-in. I had pocket rockets, i.e. two Aces, and Ben had 3-7 suited. This is how it turned out:



As you can see after the flop I thought I had it sewn up with K-Q-5 not helping Ben and strengthening my lead. However his luck held up and he got a run on to complete his straight and beat me... unbelievable!!

At one point Ben took a toilet break and we rigged up a hand to get him back. Benny ensured that I would end up with pocket rockets in my hole cards and Ben would end up with pocket kings. That would have been funny enough but to top it off we ensured an Ace and a King would crop up on the flop allowing me to completely dominate Ben's trip Kings with my trip Aces!! You should have seen the carrying on Ben did when that result came out!! Worth all the wait!! Unfortunately it still left him with enough chips to not be eliminated and he went on to win the mini tournament!! Again... UNBELIEVABLE!! We let him stew on the result and I only told him last weekend that it was rigged as he was still whinging about his luck! Bahahaha!!

The night got sillier and sillier and the poker play got worse and worse but we had fun. We ended up going to bed at about 04:30 and woke merely a few hours later to have a big day of racing and other activities... but we didn't go to bed before some funny photos were taken and as promised I'll even up the ledger a little by embarassing others that participated in the foolishness...

First up we have Benny intent upon his poker play but obviously not very happy with the decision he is being forced to make...



... then Brad doing god knows what but I think we're all glad we don't know...



... and this wouldn't be complete without embarassing myself in the process now would it?

Bleh

Ever been so tired you get a headache and can't concentrate? Ever then go to the next level of sleep deprivation where you feel physically sick? That's where I am right now.

I am soooo tired, my head feels like crap, I can't concentrate properly and thinking about food is making me feel queasy. I'm trying to down some toast and hope it stays down. Then I think I'll be off to bed.

I still haven't managed any sort of sleep in or longer than normal sleep on a consistent enough basis to recover from Indy. Mainly due to my woeful week of on call and having Bee's grandparents stay. To top that off the last few nights have been reasonably late ones for one reason or another with me not getting to bed until almost midnight.

I think it is finally catching up with me and my body has had enough. Was going to complete the Indy stories but don't feel up to it. At this rate next year's Indy will be here and I won't have finished talking about last year... but then it'll be like one long Indy carnival... yeeeee hahhhh! Geez just the thought of yelling that made me go wobbly... night...