Results

Firstly another Australian Federal Election has come and gone. This time I'm not gnashing my teeth or frustrated with the rest of the country. In fact this time I'm pretty chuffed and feeling pretty excited about the future. It will be interesting to see how things turn out in the Senate polling with more firm figures to come. But the future certainly looks brighter IMO.

In another result my 20/20 cricket team had a very good win yesterday... or did we? With a team of 5 players on the day we managed to scratch out a meagre total of 104. The proper pitch had been ruined by some water damage so they mowed and rolled out a new pitch fresh. The bounce was, well, interesting and I almost lost my head a couple of times. Anyway we snagged a couple of substitute fieldsmen, which still left us a fair few short, and managed to win. Only to be told at the end the other mob had been bitching in Tom's ear when it became obvious they would lose despite outnumbering us 2-1 and we somehow got disqualified. Still not sure how that works and still not happy about it.

All in all an interesting weekend of results. With poker tonight and 7 a side later in the week it'll be interesting to see if interesting results continue for me in the short term future.

7 a side

Have started copping a bit of a spanking in 7 a side lately. Last night in particular wasn't a very enjoyable game. To be honest losing by 5 goals could be worse but it's still a hefty margin.

Got no idea why my team is in Div2 when there is a Div3 available. My boys (Yeronga 3rds) fill out pretty much an entire team in 7 a side and they get to play in Div3. My team that I've organised has a handful of players from Yeronga and the other half of the team are Irish blokes who have never kicked a Sherrin before this comp. And yet we're in Div2! Hmm...

Last night we were basically just outrun by this mob of UQ soccer players. They weren't particulary skillful but they had pace and ran into space well. Despite their kicking styles being all over the place they kept hitting guys on the chest with wobblers or putt it out in front of them and they managed to get there first. They were fit and very much quicker than us.

The week before we got beat by a team composed of mainly Aussie Rules players from Sherwood. Who play in a Division normally higher than Yeronga Seniors!

Basically I think we're a little bit out of our depth. But I guess we have no choice but to struggle through and try to enjoy what we can. Hope future games are better than last night...

It's good to relax.

After weeks and weeks of craziness and fun, which takes up a lot of time, I finally have had the chance to relax a little. This week I've played Poker, had training, played Indoor Cricket, played 7 a side AFL and a 9 hole round of golf. On top of the Footy Trip and a full week before that it was high time to relax.

After an early morning of golf yesterday in the annual work challenge I headed home to lie on the couch all day watching Test Match Cricket and generally relaxing. Today also has seen me planted firmly in front of the TV, with the company of the Cricket and V8 Supercars. Which is just as well as Bee spent all day on Facebook...

Going to be picked up soon by Dunc and Rhonda as we're off for dinner (Indian) with Brad and Lore. Hopefully tomorrow will see some more cricket watching. Bee's Mum is popping over at some point which will be good.

As for being uninteresting Ben... well I'd argue I've been anything but uninteresting lately. And good to see you liked the link, I also thought it was an impressive speech. Will be interesting to see the results next Saturday.

Ouch

Been a while since I played indoor cricket. Got a call up yesterday and, having a free Wednesday for once, popped on over and played a match. Now I have noticed a bit with 20/20 that my hands notice the hardness of the cricket ball a bit more than they used to, but last night was something else.

Sure it has a lot to do with the Centres ridiculous notion of relacquering the ball repeatedly which makes it eventually be a hard as a rock, but I was stunned at how much it was hurting my hands.

Fielding at receiver didn't help either with throws coming in and countless times being required to stop a ball being belted for 7 or for 5. I have little bruises on various parts of my hands from it which makes me feel like a soft c@#k.

Anyway was good to have a run again. Thought I played alright and was a bit impressed at my own pace in my first bowling over. Fielding took a while to get used to again but I was picking up and placing myself into position beautifully, just my hands were letting me down. By the end though I managed to run out a 7 and got a couple of slap ons to the stumps run outs as well.

All in all was a good piece of fun. Now to resist wanting to play indoor cricket more often...

Social Engineering at home.

Being an IT geek I'm well aware of the security implications of Social Engineering. If you're not aware of the term read the previous link, but basically it's all about methods of obtaining information from people via cleverly manipulating known facts about the person convincing them you are someone you're not.

Anyway while it wasn't a case of social engineering in the truest sense I was hit by an interesting social engineering style manipulation last night at home. Shortly after arriving home from work, and while in the middle of furiously getting dressed for training, there came a knock on the front door. Getting up and hopping over while still trying to pull on my sock I see an Indian gentleman with a namebadge, clipboard and a briefcase. Immediately I think "door to door salesman" and mentally prepare to flick him off.

I say "hey mate" and he starts a babble about electricity and gas supplier changes in the Qld market. It's at this point I'm about to cut him off when he says "I'm from insert company name here, I'm in here in response to the letter we sent you". I tell him I didn't receive any letter. He cleverly acts like he is confused and says "Well that's why I'm here" and half moves as if to step inside. I gotta admit he had me for the briefest of seconds. He was so confident and did it so well I almost believed I had messed something up, or that the owner, had sorted something out and I'd missed or forgotten something.

Regardless my preservation techniques kicked in and I moved subtly to stop his almost move inside. He was very good but let himself down by being too confident which immediately convinced me he was just doing a very good job of presenting like he was supposed to be here. He started talking about bill hassles and how "he was here to sort it out".

I told him I was going out and he did the usual "can I come back later?" routine but I told him no. He even managed to look confused and put out as if he was wondering why I wasn't interested in my appointment. Finally he left.

All in all this exchange only lasted like 30 seconds but it was absolutely bizarre. A new technique that immediately made me think of social engineering. Put a bit of info out there and try to bluff your way inside and then obviously do the sell. All in all it was very artfully done but the sheer arrogance of it all eventually tripped enough alarm bells that I didn't fall for it. Not once was there a question raised like "can I interest you in...", or "would you like me to show you...". It was all "I'm here to do this". Nice technique but it makes me wonder how many people will fall for the ploy, I like to think if I almost did then others would too... or maybe he just got me in a weak moment as I was rushing around doing other stuff...

Oh boy!

Yesssssss!!! Yeronga Footy Trip 2007 is done and dusted. But the memories will remain and for those events that we can't recall, damn alcohol, photos and videos will have to suffice. Either that or greatly embellished versions of actual events not to mention the obligatory completely fabricated stories.

What a trip though boys... what a trip. The mighty Devils were certainly On Tour and were certainly very, very loose. You're right Jorgo, you're dead right!!

Boredom.

The last few days sitting here at my desk have been ridiculously painful. Why? Because of out and out boredom. There is only so many times you can check news.com.au for new stories and only so many times you can grab your ruler and whack the guy sitting behind you before you run out of things to do.

Don't get me wrong it's not like I don't have things to do. It's just that every single one of them bores me to sleep just thinking about them. I've been tinkering here and there with bits and pieces of a lot of my different tasks but really can't be arsed spending more than a smallish amount of time on each of them.

It's frustrating and annoying. To top that off I've had some ridiculously late nights lately for a hundred different reasons and most days I struggle to stay awake here. As Benny pointed out to me just the other week it's not so much physical fatigue as mental fatigue. So bored I can't stay awake.

I also had a splitting headache this morning once I left the house that is still there buried beneath the might of my champions Codeine and Ibuprofen.

Got 7 a side tonight which should, hopefully, get me more energetic and interested in life as a whole. And then I just gotta get through tomorrow and I'm off to Surfers for the weekend on the footy trip... if only it didn't seem like that was an eternity away.

Weak as a kitten.

Did a lot of arms and shoulders work during weights tonight. I have felt as weak as a kitten ever since. From sitting down after the session and trying to bring the sports drink bottle from my lap to my mouth through to trying to towel off after showering (there's a mental image for you!) I feel like I don't have the strength in my arms to do things.

Having to drive out and pick Belinda up before was also interesting. Thank god for power steering I say or else I wouldn't have even attempted it. It was still a bit of a struggle doing some of the required turning manoeuvres to get there and back.

Anyway I'm sure I'll be paying for this one tomorrow. Didn't so much after last weeks session... gotta try to get into it more than once a week for any real benefits I think during the off season. But way too much happening at the moment to get me another night free to do it.

Speaking of which the footy trip is this weekend... should be a cracker! Not sure if I'll post anything too detailed about it... what stays on tour...

Sport

I love participating in Sport. I think that is obvious to all who know me at all. So it is with some happiness that I can report a few sports are kicking off now that I will be involved in.

As you all know from my recent post the Footy Club is running it's annual 20/20 Cricket comp. Technically I've already played a game, but that was as a fill in. Either this weekend of next will see the first time my team struts it's stuff on Field #2 down on Cansdale St. Not sure of the draw yet at this stage but I believe my team's first two matches are against my mate's team full of footy boys. One of those matches is to be played on the Sunday we're returning from the Footy Trip which should be quite interesting. I think the bus arrives back at the club on the Sunday morning at about 12noon and our game is at like 3pm. So after an alcohol filled, sleep deprived weekend we have to play cricket in the, hopefully not too hot, Sunday afternoon sun. Could well be a battle of who's team has the least amount of Footy Trippers on it!

The other sporting activity getting under way is the Club's annual 7 a side Aussie Rules comp. For followers of this blog you'll know that this was where I got my first taste of Aussie Rules down at Yeronga FC late last year. You'll also remember I enjoyed it immensely. Am looking forward to it a lot. Although this year I will be captaining and coaching my own team so that might make it a bit more businesslike than fun... still plan on having a ball though! First match is tonight @ 08:30pm! Woo00ttTT! Carn the Jorgonauts!!

All in all pretty stoked about getting involved in some sport. On top of my weights training and some other pre pre-season training hopefully it'll keep me in some form of footy playing fitness and I won't rock up to pre season in January a complete slob.