Category Archives: General

Earth Hour

General

On March 31 2007, Sydney turned off their lights for 60 minutes in a movement called Earth Hour. The Earth Hour event was to raise awareness of the impact that coal fired power is having on the environment and in 2008, its spread and is now a global event.

Last night, Claire and I turned off all of the lights and fired up some candles. Princess wasn’t sure what was going on and the new fang dangled glowing things needed investigating. After a little bit of up close sniffing, she realised that they weren’t all that fun and felt obligated to have a cat nap after all the excitement.

To pass the time, it seemed like a good opportunity to bust out a board game; so we played Backgammon by candlelight for an hour. Pretty even actually, I got some lucky roles in the first game and Claire got a couple good ones in the second – it was a draw after the hour finished.

Straying The Path Of Righteousness

General, Life, Sport

It has finally happened, I didn’t think it would – I have been faithful for such a long time but it felt so right.

A week or two ago while at the gym, I was reminded ever so gently that my shoes needed replacing again. I’ve been using Asics sport shoes for a very long time, if I were to take a guess I would say since about 1995. During that time, I’ve been through a pair about once per year or just over. In most cases, the reason for upgrading was that the fabric in the heal of the shoes was wearing through, which is to be expected with a lot of use. I don’t recall ever wearing a sole out or having a blow out, even though the lateral movement from tennis isn’t what an average running shoe is designed to cater for. Despite literally daily use and a solid serving of abuse, they kept on keeping on.

I ventured into an Athletes Foot and stood in my socks on the pressure device and was quite shocked to see that I have even distribution of weight down both legs; apparently not normal at all. My arch is pretty standard, not too low and not super high which gives me a good selection of shoes to choose from. The bloke brought out a pair of Asics, New Balance and Brooks.

I tried them all on, the Asics were very familiar of course and felt really good. The New Balance were a little too narrow and I seemed to get quite a lot of roll in when I stepped, not enough support in the right spot for my size/weight I suppose. At this point, the Asics felt soo much better than the New Balance that I figured I’d end up with yet another pair of Asics; that was completely shot down after stepping into the latest release Brooks running shoe. To my complete surprise, the Brooks shoe was more comfortable in the sole and the width and length of the shoe was even better than the Asics but the clincher for me was the stability it provided when I walked in them – they virtually removed any roll in which I have (not a lot) but that small improvement makes my foot feel so much more stable in the shoe.

In the last two or three weeks since having the new Brooks running shoes, I’ve been giving them a bit of a workout at the gym. I can now quite comfortably jog for 20 minutes without feeling any soreness in my shins and I’m increasing that each week. I would love to keep the jogging up at the gym over the next couple of months and compete (read:finish without being near death) the 10km run for the Gold Coast Marathon in July this year.

In the meantime though, I’m enjoying straying the path of righteousness!

27th Birthday

General, Life

Another year has lapsed and another birthday with it! A quick synopsis of the day in question:

  • Slept in and then Claire and I puddled our way down to McDonalds for breakfast.
  • Fluffed about in the middle of the day and had to head over to the shops for a few incidentals
  • Mid afternoon, Andrew, Michael, Lucy, Emily, Anita and Oliver arrived
  • We all headed to Hogs Breath on the spit for dinner at about 6pm and Brendan & Lin met us there and we consumed plenty of fine steak
  • After dinner, we returned home to eat some birthday cake and have a few drinks

A nice relaxing day and I was even lucky enough to receive some great bootie as well:

  • Bourne Ultimatum DVD
  • The Orange Box, a collection of expansions for Half Life 2
  • A ticket to go zorbing
  • A specially brewed bottle of WK-40 tailored to kill wasps after my recent encounters
  • The Dangerous Book For Boys
  • A nice blue polo shirt
  • Movie tickets
  • Lindt chocolates

Thank you to everyone who could make it up to the coast and for the phone calls and SMS’s I received. Now I just have another three hundred and sixty something days to wait for it to happen again!

Cardinal Sins Of Merging Traffic

General

The Australian road rules state that when a lane ends and the traffic must merge, that the traffic in the continuing lane must yield for the merging traffic.

Despite the road rule being quite clear, it amazes me how often you see people in the continuing lane not giving way to the merging traffic. This relatively small disregard for the road rules typically results in the merging traffic slowing down dramatically or coming to a complete stop. Once that happens, it then takes even more effort for the merging traffic to actually merge as they then have to accelerate – which depending on the speed of the continuing traffic can be quite difficult.

What frustrates me even more though, is when drivers know that they are required to merge and choose to leave it to the last minute. Their impatience makes the situation worst, as you’re now in a position where you have people needing to merge and people not yielding.

If drivers know that they are required to merge, the traffic would flow far more smoothly if they merged early – before the traffic compresses. As soon as the traffic compresses, it then becomes harder to merge as their typically isn’t enough space often enough between all of the vehicles. When the continuing lane must slow down for the merging traffic, it exasperates the problem and you’re witnessing the beginnings of painful drive to work.

Moto of the story, when driving – if you’re required to merge; merge as early as you can. If you have merging traffic around you – allow them space to merge comfortably so they don’t need to slow down. The world, or at the very least commuting, will be a happier experience for your consideration on the matter.