I only got two new recipes baked for the whole month, which is a bit disappointing, but I think it's a combination of buying too many snacks and ice cream when doing the grocery shopping, trying to diet and just not having the time or energy after work - maybe the three are related... I did get to try out my new donut pan though, so that was good.
The month in running was a bit off and on - mostly off, due to an accumulation of injuries including hamstring, hip and shin of the left leg. I did just manage to come up in time for the Melbourne Marathon, which went alright, but I just hadn't done the training to last the full distance. I didn't write a separate article for the race, but I did send an email summary which I will reuse instead:
We were close to the front so didn't get held up at the start, beginning with a lap around Federation Square and then heading all the way down St Kilda Road. Jason was just a few seconds until we reached Albert Park, about one-third of the race distance was completed by this point. Going around the lake I managed to catch up, my shin started hurting but then went away again, while my hip had been hurting since the start but I was able to ignore it. At the 10 kilometre timing mat Jason was back ahead by seven seconds, soon after I started to fall further behind as my split times started to go above 4:00/km. By the time we got back onto St Kilda Road at two-thirds race distance the field had really spread out, generally you don't do any more overtaking as everyone is too exhausted to change speed. I started to put together a couple of better kilometres but a blister started to develop under my right big toe at about the 15 kilometre mark, which became more painful than the other injuries. I just managed to hang on until the end, but lost quite a bit of time over the big bridge to get back to the MCG and wasn't able to sprint the last kilometre as I hoped. My final time was 1h 24m 47s for 104th overall.
After the race I needed another week and a half off to recover, then had to get back into rehab mode to start preparing for the shorter 10 kilometre race in Bendigo at the start of November. In addition to booking that race I also booked the accommodation for the Great Ocean Road half marathon. That race isn't until May 2015 but the options are limited and fill quickly, so that's all taken care of now.
I got to use a couple of different technologies at work this month. The first was an API security product which might sound good on a resume but the product is commercial rather than open-source and doesn't seem to be very well known. I've spent hours and hours dealing with raising support calls and product limitations too, which has been quite annoying. The second was the introduction of a message broker into our existing server, which was more of a refresher as I'd used it a few years ago, but it's a useful and more common skill. I also realised that I'm now the only person on the team which any functional product knowledge, but I think this is more of a bad thing than good because it just means I'll have to deal with all of the problems and responsibility, but won't get any more money, recognition or anything like that.
I've started thinking about options for a short Easter holiday of something like ten days, since we get so many public holidays over a two week period. I'm still at the stage of finding out what flights are possible, without being stuck in airports for days, and it is proving a little difficult with a modest budget in mind. Since Easter is of course a popular time to travel I think I need to get it sorted out some time this year at least.
The NBA started again near the end of the month. I only found time to do two fantasy drafts, even though that is the most fun part of the fantasy sports season. I wasn't really happy with either team by the end, but at least it gives me something to look at in the box scores each day, and it's far less frustrating than the random luck association with one game per week in the NFL.
To finish off the month Amir hosted a small birthday party in his honor, any excuse to eat pizza (and cake) is a good idea to me, plus a chance to catch up with people on a regular basis.
So that's it for this month, quite uneventful as I suspected. Here's the usual closing remarks:
- Books
- The Dead Zone by Stephen King
- An interesting idea, the story seemed a little disjointed though
- There were a lot of detours before reaching the main point of the book
- 7 out of 10
- Movies
- The Stand mini-series
- I finally got around to watching parts 2-4
- A very slow grind, but wasn't changed too much from the book
- 6 out of 10
- The Dead Zone
- I found the old 1983 movie, not going to bother to try and get the TV series
- A significant amount of the book was skipped entirely or quickly passed over
- 4 out of 10
- A Walk Among The Tombstones
- Just a typical Liam Neeson movie now, a bit like stereotypical Jason Statham movies
- There wasn't much point to it
- 5 out of 10
- TV
- Broad City
- Quite cool, edgy and different
- A few stories don't work, but others are great
- Lots of nice film locations in New York
- 8 out of 10
- Under The Dome
- Slow, then interesting, then just dragging on to the end with no conclusions
- Now it's going to be stretched to at least a third season
- 4 out of 10
- South Park
- I caught up with the last two seasons
- Almost every episode was a miss, especially the three-parter
- The Wacky Races was a classic though, one of the best ever
- 3 out of 10
- Video Games
- PlayStation 3
- Still nothing yet
- XBox 360
- Saints Row 4
- Basically no storyline, just doing activities over and over again
- The few storyline missions were great though, especially the clones of:
- Metal Gear Solid
- Streets Of Rage
- I'm up to 95% completion, might be able to make it to 100%
- 6 out of 10
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