I hate early mornings!

Urgh! I hate mornings generally, but early ones grate me even more. Especially early mornings the morning after a training night. Being at my desk @ 07:45am just seems surreal and so very, very wrong.

Completely knackered and about to pop the lid on a Coke... god bless it!

Weekend of sport and sun.

Surprisingly right now I'm not as tired as I thought I would be. Don't get me wrong I am quite tired but not more so than normal for a Monday.

This weekend saw me participating in a lot of sporting action which required long periods of sun exposure at the hottest times of the day. Not only am I not as tired as expected but I managed, I think, to escape without sunburn. Which, for anyone that knows me, is pretty hard to do. Hell I get sunburnt going out to check the mailbox!

Saturday was hot, ridiculously hot, and was a return to a classic Qld Summer Day. I believe the forecast was for 36 and I fully believe it went there, if not further.

Edit: I wrote the above sentence and then read this quote on a Courier Mail news story:

"Yesterday's conditions were mild compared to Saturday's, when Brisbane's mercury hit 40.2C – the city's hottest day since February 22, 2004."

What a day to have our first Practice Match of the year! Being in the 3rds we hit the field first for the first quarter @ 1pm when the match started, even better timing! We all had sweat dripping off our bodies before we'd even left the sheds. Boy was it hot.

Awesomely I was chosen to start at Centre Half Forward, which of course I was stoked about. Unfortunately with a mix of experience in the line up I played there for the first little bit before a senior player swapped with me so I ended up at Full Forward. The ball didn't head in my direction many times but got out on a lead, and even doubled back once or twice and led again, a few times. Think I managed one touch for the quarter, but with the disclaimer the ball wasn't arriving inside our 50 very frequently.

The ressies came on for the 2nd quarter and I sat on the bench in the shade largely thankful to be out of the sun. Also awesomely I got a call up about halfway through to swap on into the ressies team. Down to Full Forward again unfortunately and apart from getting a nice close up look at a massive collision which left two players on the ground for a long period, not much happened. I think I got even less chances at the pill than in the first quarter. So all in all I didn't get much of a chance to do any impressing and I think that's going to hurt me. Was very frustrated for the rest of the day and still am. I hope I get served up another chance to impress over the next couple of weeks.

To back up the footy match I played the 20/20 Grand Final in our comp yesterday. Again @ 12pm so right in the hot spot of the day. Wasn't quite as hot as the day before, in fact it was noticeably cooler, but it was still quite warm. Losing the toss we were sent in and with our regular opener missing Brad and I strode out to open the batting. Brad lasted a few balls before being dismissed, not sure he was happy about having to open and being proven right that he's not that good at it.

I latched onto a couple of balls in a row for a typical Jorgo start to an innings with consecutive boundaries. Unfortunately I continued the usual trend and got out next ball. In Warehouse that was my trademark, 4-4-out! And I'm unhappy to say that particular trend still surfaces from time to time.

Wickets fell regularly and we were really struggling. I believe at the halfway point of 10 overs were about 5 for 39 and looking in big trouble. Gaz, our regular opener, arrived and came in at the end and blasted a quickfire 24 off 14 to limp our total to 77. It wasn't going to be enough against this outfit (which included Mo) we all thought.

However we blew them away early and after about 5 overs they were 5 for 12. At the halfway point they were a measly 5 for 19 with a run rate of 1.9. Needing about 5.8 runs per over to win from here we thought if we kept it tight we'd be in with a showing.

A couple of partnerships took up and while they weren't scoring well enough the fact we weren't getting them out was beginning to worry us. We did keep it very, very tight and I think largely that's what eventually won us the game.

It came down to the last couple of overs with them needing about 20 off 12. A boundary and a couple of 2s meant I think they headed into the last over and a half needing about 12 off 8 with a sole wicket left. That last little partnership was a good one for them as they'd gotten it down from about 28 to 12 to win.

A couple of dot balls early in the last had us pumped up and sure enough the batsman took off down the pitch charging our bowler who hit the stumps and we'd won it! Defending 77 against a team of that caliber wasn't feasible but we did it! Back to back Premiers in the 20/20 competition for the Footy Boys! Yeeeha!

A few quiet drinks followed as we celebrated our success. I was very, very thirsty post match and two Jim Beam and Cola cans disappeared before I realised what I was doing. But boy did they feel good... what a weekend of sport and sun. Now I need a weekend of rest to catch up on all the stuff I didn't get to do this weekend!

Personal Analysis

Well this week has been a right royal shit. My blood was boiling a number of times and I even had it out with my boss on one issue. I later relented somewhat on my stance but basically it's not been a good week.

One interesting thing that is happening at work is an initiative by my new(ish) manager to work on some of the "team" issues we're having. Basically I don't think, and I think he agrees, we function as a team. We're a bunch of individuals with individual agendas and individual interests. This, more often than not, leads to issues with people protecting their own interests, namely not getting involved in tricky or messy work, to the detriment of someone else. Which builds friction and angst. There is also a deep history of stuff going on in this team.

Soooo one thing he has done is brought in this guy who does this kind of thing from elsewhere in QT and we've all done a few various personality tests. This is, to start with, to help us understand ourselves better and then we can move on to understanding others and their issues, how they react to things, why they react that way etc etc in order to help us work together better.

Sure it all sounds like a wankfest and I largely thought so but I've actually found it deeply fascinating. Reading my profiles according to the different tests I'm largely finding them disturbingly accurate. When I say disturbing I don't mean I am disturbed by the results, I'm reasonably comfortable with acknowledging who I am, but disturbing that it's so accurate.

It also is fascinating in there were a few things that I immediately didn't recognise as "me" but when I thought about it realised it was pretty much straight on. Not a real large eye opener but sitting back and looking at a profile of your personality, how others see you, what your perceived strengths and weaknesses are... well... I found it fascinating. As I believe I've said a few times now :p

Ultimately I'm not going to change my life out of it or try to change who I am but I think it might help adjust a few perceptions I have about myself and at least let me be a bit more aware of my reactions to events/situations and maybe better understand why I react that way.

I'd love to do this kind of thing with my friends etc just to see how they come out... just not sure everyone would be into it... and I appreciate it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Mneh... another Monday...

... and already I'm ticked off, frustrated, bored, apathetic and largely plain disinterested. I think this place must have some sort of soul sucking device attached to the entrances to this building so that when you walk through it gets sucked out of you. I must admit I look forward to going home a lot because I feel like I'm missing out on something by being here... maybe it's just my body telling me my soul is gone...

Given that it's interesting I just before finished my application for the Senior Unix Admin role here that I've discussed previously. I've submitted the application via the web so now it's just wait and see what happens. I would like to think I'm in with a reasonable shot but there are, of course, no guarantees. If any of you apply and get it I'll come by your house with a cricket bat and make you pay :p

In another news I have continued to play with my camera. Not to mention performed a fair bunch of reading. I think I have my head around most of the major concepts now anyway so now it will be trying to apply them while taking shots. As I said to Bee the other day I think there are, at least, 3 major areas to photograpy. Those being

understanding the theory of things like aperture, exposure, shutter speed

knowing how to apply that theory on your own camera

the arty part of knowing how to compose a shot etc etc

The more I play the more I learn. So I'll continue to do so and I might even start a new photo group on my Picasa site for photos that turn out cool while I play.

I was going to take some more sports photo attempts at 20/20 down the club yesterday but it was raining when I arrived so I left the camera in the car. Which I regretted later when walking to the car on the way home I remembered it was in there. Thankfully it wasn't too hot in the car although it was noticeably hotter in the camera bag than it was in the car. Not too bad but it did worry me for a minute. Won't be doing that again... I hope...

In terms of 20/20 we won yesterday which slots us into 2nd or 1st place on the ladder with the Grand Final day next week. I've imposed a complete alcohol ban on my footy boys and will be monitoring that with strict thoroughness. And yes that was massive sarcasm... stopping the footy boys from drinking is like trying to split the atom, you may be able to do it but the results are catastrophic!

In terms of footy the club has our first practice match this Saturday. Against Surfers Paradise, who play a higher division than us normally. It's 6 quarters long (yes I know it can't be quarters if there is 6 of them!) and we'll be fielding a very full complement of players and switch sides around etc. So hopefully will get a run of some description.

Until next time good people!

New Camera

So I bit the bullet and jumped into the big, dark but incredibly alluring SLR pool. I've wanted one for a while as I was getting frustrated with the lack of control over my old Ixus, not to mention it now being very long in the tooth. She's been a very trusty old girl and is still running to this day... but it was time for an upgrade.

I wanna get into a bit more serious photography, and specifically sports photography, so I needed a better camera. I ended up buying the one I've been reading reviews about and drooling over for a while.

I bought the Canon EOS 400D, although I bought the Twin Lens kit. I've been eyeing these off since I saw them prior to Christmas at JB for what I thought was a steal of a price. I ended up talking to Photo Contintental who looked after me and beat that price and also explained a lot of things to me.

I only wanted an entry level SLR to see how it goes and to see if I use it as much as I want to. I'm not talking about giving up my day job or whatever but would like to get into some photography stuff and perhaps even get a small commission here and there to help me purchase new equipment if I need it.

Anyway I still have a lot to learn but I'm starting to piece together all the buzz words like shutter priority, aperture priority, focal length, depth of field etc etc and hopefully I can put it into use and get some good shots happening.

My first real hit out was yesterday when I went to Queensland Raceway for a V8 Supercar Test Day. And no it wasn't a coincidence the camera came into my hands the afternoon before the Test Day *wink*

The best of my shots are here... there are a lot more and lots of them are rubbish.

Would be interested in your thoughts if you have any...

V8 Supercar Test Day 14th Feb 2008

Townsville Trip

So this past weekend we flew to Townsville to help Gavin (Bee's little bro) celebrate his 18th Birthday. He moved to Townsville post High School to work with his Dad and rack up some cash while he decides his future. Overall a pretty fun weekend. Never having been to Townsville properly before (almost certainly drove through once or twice on the drive to Cairns) it was always going to be interesting for me.

Was going to post some stories but got bored with blogging and can't be bothered. Stories to come. A selection of pictures from our trip below.

Gavs Bday Weekend 2008

Stuck at work.

Contrary to my last blog entry time is in fact crawling as I type this. I found out this morning that I am required to do some Solaris patching tonight on a server that has to be done after hours. Great way to start the week.

So now I sit here, mind numbingly bored, waiting for the patching script to finish up. I've already visited all the websites I usually visit (well those that I can get to from work anyway) and now have run out of things to look at.

Sure I could be doing something else work related, or working on my job application, but I just can't be arsed. So time is ticking by... tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock (yes I typed those all manually so it would take longer)... and I'm getting more and more annoyed.

Just wish I had some way of knowing when this will finish. As Evil Willow would say "Bored Now"...

How time flies!!

Can you believe January 2008 is no more already?!?! I know I can't! Am struggling with the concept that 1/12th of 2008 is finished and I'm still not used to writing "/08" on the end of dates when I fill out forms etc.

I feel like I've blinked and an entire month of my life has just past by before I managed to open my eyes again. Where the hell did it go?

I know it's a cliche but I guess it is somewhat true that time flies when you're having fun. Let's face it I had the first half of the month off work as I didn't go back to work until the 14th. And even when I was back I've been training twice a week as well having a few other socialising type days in there.

So I guess I've been having so much fun (minus the mind numbingly painful days at work) that the month has just flown by. Anyone else out there experiencing shock at the fact that February is here already?