November Review

The November review, we skipped spring this year and moved on to summer.

The miscellaneous commentary.

• The covid numbers are back up again for another 'wave'
• Floods are back again for another 'wave'
• Still cold and wet in late November, can't be usual to still be under 15 degrees
• Another election over and we'll get a break for a few years
• Surprising that Labor actually increased their advantage after the covid drama

I was really sick at the beginning of the month, didn't return a positive result for covid but certainly felt terrible whatever it was, serious breathing difficulties and regular coughing on the worst days. It took a good two weeks to recover from that, then got back to running normal again. Just a standard month of parkruns before and after that sickness, but managed four weekends of 18:20 or lower so that was encouraging. Only one race coming up in early December and then nothing else on the calendar as summer has very limited events.

A second month of 5% improvement in shares, although still significantly down from the beginning of the year. In summary 5% of not much is still not much. I am slowly selling down my investment loan as the interest rate is now a bit too high for it to be worthwhile given the poor returns.

A break in domestic soccer while the World Cup group stages have been completed. One of the biggest surprises of the first round was the Australian team that barely qualified for the tournament has gone on to win two games and made it into the final sixteen. The time zone hasn't been the best, but the 9pm and 6am games have been acceptable. Going into the next round it seems like we will only have 2am or 6am games so that will be more difficult to watch. The 25 minute mini-matches from SBS have been good to catch up while trying to avoid spoilers in the morning.

A very empty to do list:

• Christmas and New Year
• Only travel plans right now would be for parkruns
• Still a lot of locations have not indicated if they have events for the holidays
• Holiday
• A bit of indecision and not wanting to travel the same time as everyone else
• In summary no interstate travel planned but should be possible January - April next year

Finally completed the first stage of a work project. The next isn't due until around May, so would have a gap for holidays in between possibly. My leave balance will still be around 10 weeks even after the enforced 2.5 weeks of leave coming up.

That's it for this month, only one more to go.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Glass Onion
• An actual movie at a cinema, although also released on Netflix
• Not as good as the previous Knives Out movie, too much boring dialogue
• 5 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• The Traitors
• Started well but really disappointing when they just added more traitors
• Hopefully the UK version starting soon will be better
• 4 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Rage 2
• Too many repetitive side tasks
• The main story seemed very short and wasn't interesting
• The achievements weren't very good either
• 5 out of 10

October Review

The October review, winter still not over.

Some miscellaneous topics:

• Cyber 'hack' FOMO
• Optus were the test case, others tried to sneak in under the radar
• It doesn't help when you discount the severity or wait months to announce it
• Security intrusions are always possible, but the amount of data extracted was quite remarkable
• Hospital FOMO
• Labor and Liberal both announce billions to build or upgrade every possible hospital
• Why are we so far behind ?
• Where are the extra staff coming from ?
• How many years until the projects start construction ?
• Victoria floods
• After many NSW and Queensland flood events it was our turn
• Most were regional and near major rivers, but even some metropolitan areas were impacted
• Government vs. insurance companies support is debatable

Feels like such a long time ago when I was running the Melbourne Marathon at the start of the month. I definitely ran my best half marathon, but due to a long course was only able to take 14 seconds of my previous best at Gold Coast six months ago. Hope to rebuild and target another race in the 77-78 minute range next year.

Also set a new five kilometre parkrun record at Lilydale with 17:49, definitely noticed the difference going into the weekend without having run a hard session on the Wednesday or Thursday - not intentional. Finished off the month with a low 18 minute effort at Parkville while in the beginning stages of getting sick.

I don't have many parkrun goals at the moment, been feeling a bit too tired to travel long distances on Saturday morning for new events - close to 1.5 hours is the minimum now. Just crossing of a few new event numbers and waiting for the Christmas and New Year schedule to start being announced, it takes forever to come through completely.

A remarkable 5% improvement in shares for the month, just waiting for another one of those single day 3% drops coming up because of some inflation event in the USA.

Another NRL grand final for Parramatta and another loss, they haven't won since 1986. Business as usual for the Premier League until the World Cup break in late November. I don't expect the broadcast times will be very favourable - assuming most are played at night in Qatar due to the heat.

Another month of inactivity for the to do list:

• Christmas and New Year
• No holiday planned yet
• No parkrun travel planned yet
• Covid Vaccination #4
• Multiple days of sore arm and a headache
• Then got sick straight after

Finally getting to the last weeks for project launch at work, and the worst time to get sick. Thursday has been a bit more busy in the city but Friday seemed to be even more empty than usual.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Music
• None
• Movies
• None
• TV
• Welcome To Wrexham
• Good behind the scenes access, wasn't a USA beginner's guide to soccer
• 8 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Max Payne 3 (Xbox 360)
• Enjoyed most of the dialog
• However sometimes too long and couldn't be skipped on replay
• Finished off all the major achievements
• Got stuck with two levels left of New York Minute - ridiculous difficulty
• 6 out of 10
• Rage (Xbox 360)
• Good FTP from Id Software - not as good as Quake though
• Good level design as expected
• Finished off all the major achievements
• 7 out of 10
• Purchased
• Rage 2
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - because it was $5

September Review

The September review, is winter weather over yet.

Some miscellaneous commentary.

• Immigration increased to record highs
• A bit controversial given public concerns like housing affordability and cost of living (going up) vs. wage growth (going nowhere)
• A bit questionable that this came in so soon after the election, but never mentioned during
• Queen funeral
• A sad event for sure, but so glad the TV coverage is over
• Crossing live for updates on how long the queue is and how fast it's moving
• Immediately followed by another colonisation and republic debate, with no time to spare
• Sydney Marathon candidate as a world major marathon
• Separating this from the running section below since it's not about me
• The live stream for this years event mentioned the candidacy every five minutes
• There was no mention of the course being absolute garbage, the end in particular
• I'd be happy if Sydney got a good event that I could participate in, but the route needs major changes

In running just recorded a new 5km PB at parkrun with a 17:57 at Dandenong, running with some proper modern training shoes (but not race shoes) definitely helps. Doing half marathon training in heavy Nike Structure was not a good idea however, had shin pain for days afterwards. That was the only fast parkrun for the month as I dedicated a few weekends to half marathon training, the rest done in New Balance Fuel Cell TC was a significantly better choice.

Back to attending local parkruns again for a while, the current focus is on filling in some of the gaps in event numbers under 100 not attended just for something to do.

Another parkrun in the rain

Going to be a bit bored of talking about how bad shares are doing. Maybe just a summary of the month instead and this one was a real disaster, down 14% in five weeks. As interest rates keep going up and shares keep going down, there's now no benefit to have an investment loan. Every time houses become slightly more affordable it coincides with just losing over 25% of my savings.

A bit happening in sports with the AFL finals and grand final. A Geelong win was better than the alternative in Sydney, however another Melbourne based team and a close match would have been preferable. I didn't win the ballot this year, but wasn't too interested once the two teams were known. We also had the annual Brownlow medal watch event, and surprise win for Carlton with Patrick Cripps in the last round.

Also back into another season of the NFL. I don't really have much interest in any specific team for now since Brady left the Patriots and Wilson left the Seahawks. Having 16 match highlights to watch is good but can be a bit time consuming.

On the to do list this month:

• Holiday
• Losing motivation to spend money on holidays when I lose so much money every month
• Need to make a decision soon
• Tax Return
• Got a few hundred dollars back this year
• Better than owing like $50,000 last year

Slowing heading towards a production release at work that hopefully goes smoothly, not sure how I feel about staying on until the middle of next year.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None - got an increasing number of albums to listen to
• TV
• Cobra Kai season 5
• Not going anywhere
• 5 out of 10
• The Outsider
• A bit slow but better than some other Steven King shows recently
• 6 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Max Payne 3 (Xbox 360 compatibility mode)
• Enjoyed the dialogue but the plot wasn't great
• The gameplay is very repetitive, shoot thousands of enemies from cover or with slow motion (bullet time)
• 6 out of 10
• Saints Row
• Main missions were a bit poor, but lots of other activities to spend time on
• Finished all of the achievements except one that requires multiplayer
• 7 out of 10

August Review

 The August review, another birthday over.

Nothing for the miscellaneous section this month.

So straight onto running, registered for races in the Athletics Victoria XCR winter season at Albert Park 10km and Ballarat 15km. Both were good events with lots of much better runners than myself, I was a bit outside top 200 (36 minutes) and top 100 (55 minutes) for the two, but easily improved PB for each. Instead of doing the next XCR half marathon I registered for the Melbourne Marathon half in early October.

Also two new parkruns at Warrandyte and Phillip Island before finishing my consecutive tourism streak at 52 events. Having not purchased any shoes in a while I got some New Balance RC Elite 2 at 40% off for racing and Nike Tempo Next% at the factory outlet for training.

A horror month of shares after one quiet month, losing like 10% in a week. Just investing the ASX 200 would have returned about 4% per year over the past five, sometimes I don't know why I bother. I've started selling down my investment loan as it's not as worthwhile now that interest rates continue to increase.

The Commonwealth Games finished early in the month, disappointing TV coverage due to the time difference, the only highlight was being able to watch the Australian gold medal in the men's 1500 metres athletics live on a Saturday night. The AFL regular season finished also, without going to one game. It was no surprise to see Carlton just miss the finals in the last week. I'm not sure how many finals I will attend as I don't have too much interest in some of the teams.

Nothing happening on the to do list:

• End Of Year plans
• Domestic travel is quite expensive - if you don't have baggage or flight cancellation problems
• Perhaps a short local or interstate trip to line up with double parkrun weekends - if they have them

Enjoyment at work is declining due to having to support some terrible vendor software with event worse support, probably increases the likelihood of looking for a change next year.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• The Black Phone
• Made the most of the limited characters and locations
• 7 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• All Or Nothing Arsenal
• The All Or Nothing shows are always good, but ruined by way too much Arteta
• 6 out of 10
• Atlanta Season 3
• The non-Atlanta character episodes were better, the rest weren't very good
• 4 out of 10
• Video Games
• Forza 7
• Finished everything except for a couple of achievements
• Forza 6
• Just filling in time finishing the main game while waiting for Saints Row
• Saints Row
• Only started late in the month
• Good so far, but quite similar to previous ones

July Review

Into the second half of the year already.

Don't have many notes for the miscellaneous section.

• Floods in NSW again
• Hospital staff and surgery issues again - workforce always on forced virus leave
• Extreme cold in the middle of winter - makes sense
• It wasn't a good time for central heating to break down
• Recommendations rather than rules to work for home again

A busy month of running. Set a new PB and achieved a long term goal of running a half marathon under 80 minutes during the Gold Coast trip which was a surprise. I don't know where to go from here though, 75 minutes is a long way off. Also visited a couple of new parkruns, 250th at Kirkdale Reserve and out to Peppertree in Bacchus Marsh - a bit of a strange place. The tourism streak is still going at 50 events, but with only one event left in metropolitan Melbourne I'm not sure if I'll try and reach 55.

A second race to finish the month with a 10km at Run Melbourne and another surprisingly good time given a few hills and running on wet sand for a few sections with no grip. I came in at 36:30 but I seem to have set a crazy goal of 36 minutes for this year. There's not many 15km events on the calendar, so I may not be able to achieve all three long distance PB's in the same year, likewise the 5km is just an unofficial parkrun distance and I have many results right around 18 minutes.

A little bit to celebrate in the world of shares, one or two good weeks without a major reversal. My annual super report didn't look good though, decreasing for the past twelve months even with all the extra contributions.

Went to the MCG for the first time this year for the preseason match between Crystal Palace and Manchester United. The quality was good, but unfortunately both teams were missing players and made a lot of substitutions in the second half. That's the only option for now until the distant possibility of another trip to England.

Had the World Athletics Championships running through July and the Commonwealth Games are now in progress. The athletic championship event times were slightly better, with some finals in the late morning, but often conflicting with work during the week. The Commonwealth Games are nearly useless though as most heats are on in the evening but all the finals aren't until around 3am. The only exception was some good coverage of the men's and women's marathon.

From the to do list:

• Gold Coast report
• Running plans - more like shelving interstate running plans

My current work project has yet another timeline set towards the end of the year. With the train lines completely down for two weeks I had a good excuse to work from home full time again, but I probably prefer at least one day in the office for something different.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None - due to Yeah Yeah Yeahs being cancelled !
• TV
• The Old Man season 1
• Enjoyed the first few episodes a lot but then slowed down a bit
• Good cast, now have to wait for a second season
• 7 out of 10
• The Terminal List
• Finally a show with a single season and an ending
• Not the best story but good to see Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) again
• 6 out of 10
• The Walking Dead season 11 - first half
• Started to lose interest in The Walking Dead and the fragmented storylines
• Came together a bit leading into the midseason break
• 5 out of 10
• Tokyo Vice season 1
• The show itself was ok, but enjoyed the Tokyo scene much more
• Expected some conclusions, but just leads into a second season also
• 8 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Forza Horizon 5
• Done at last
• Forza Motorsport 7
• Finishing the rest of the championships
• A bit repetitive with the courses, the car variety is alright
• Saints Row
• Ordered for late August

Gold Coast 2022

July 01

July 02

July 03

July 04

June Review

 Another quick monthly update before a Gold Coast report in a few days.

Starting with the miscellaneous intro.

• Gas prices increasing dramatically - even though we are a major world exporter
• Recommendations to change gas appliances to electricity
• So why manufacture them in the first place
• Similar to building all these new houses without solar in the past decade
• Conveniently a risk of electricity outages soon followed
• Every industry is having staff shortages due to 'covid and the flu' - air travel, education, hospitality

A bit less running to report this month due to training for the Gold Coast half marathon. Two new parkrun events at Werribee Mansion around 18:30 and Lewis Park Reserve around 19:00, although was hoping to be able to jog that one into first place. Also had a couple of volunteer roles - tried taking photos will handing out finish tokens but wasn't very practical.

A second 10km race for the year at Sri Chinmoy Albert Park, not really sure what the problem was but started out slow and only managed a 37:30 finish despite a better second lap, got second place for age group. Had the same knee issue during the race I've been encountering in half marathon training sessions going back into last month.

Sri Chinmoy Albert Park 10km lots of medals

Two more horror weeks in shares before maybe finding a bottom, hardly something to celebrate by this point.

Good to see the Golden State Warriors with the NBA finals again this year. They were my 'second team' in the 1990's after the Supersonics but I didn't care too much about them again until Durant came back (and when they beat Dallas in 2007 in the 1st vs 8th match). When the alternative was the Boston Celtics it wasn't a hard choice. There's a bit of a dry spell in sports coming up now, but hopefully get some good coverage of the athletics world championships followed by the Commonwealth Games at the end of July.

Nothing much to report from the to do list except for finishing the planning for the Gold Coast weekend.

Nothing much to report from work also, just a minor pay rise this year, would need to get a promotion to see a major change, which could be two years away.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None - something next month at least
• TV
• Better Call Saul - season 6 part 1
• Don't always enjoy how slow some episodes are
• The cartel half of the story has been going for too long
• 8 out of 10
• From - season 1
• A good idea but not sure how long it can go on for
• From some of the Lost creators, feels like it will go down the same path
• 6 out of 10
• The Wilds - season 2
• The switching between two stories wasn't as good
• Finished the season with an opening for a third season
• 6 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Forza Horizon 5
• Switched from Forza 7 to horizon instead
• Lots of activities but the standard races can be a bit similar
• Finished all the primary tasks - not going to attempt every accolade
• 7 out of 10

Gold Coast 2022, July 04

The last day was just the trip home, so not much happening.

Had a longer 10km race this morning at 7:15am, again very uninspiring due to running on a footpath. Got back and ready to leave by 9:15am, this time the bus was much quicker so got to the airport by 10:00am.

While standing in a massive line for security saw the flight delay had increased from 20 to 40 minutes. At a normal airport this wouldn't be too bad, but there's literally nowhere to sit at the airport. It's more like a large food court with tables, that also happens to have planes departing.

Once the plane arrived had no other issues all the way home, just got extremely squashed from a passenger in the next seat.

Gold Coast 2022, July 03

Got up at 5am again to get the tram up to watch the start of the marathon and the 10km race. The conditions were definitely better than the events for the previous day.

I tried taking some photos from the start of the marathon, but from the side they usually were a bit blurry. Soon after the 10km race started, they went in one direction and then came back again after 3 kilometres, so had a good idea who was leading the men's and women's race by then.

The 10km race at 3km.

Once all the 10km leaders went past I walked over to the finish line to watch them come through, lots of people coming in under 35 minutes and with much better running action than I have, very depressing.

Next I went back again to the main street to wait a while for the marathon leaders coming through at the 31 kilometre mark, looking a bit worse off than when they started. Had two Japanese runners in the lead for the men's and a USA woman in the middle of a pace group.

The men's marathon winner

I went back to the hotel instead of waiting for the race to finish, and watched the live stream from the start. It was very disappointing to have no coverage of the 10km race, which has a lot more action than the marathon.

I got out for a short 6 kilometre run at Broadbeach before lunch, a poor route because after 1-2 kilometres in either direction the track ends and you have to run on a narrow footpath the rest of the way. It should be a path the whole way along the beach. My legs were feeling quite sore but nothing too serious.

There wasn't too much I was interested in doing around Surfers Paradise while still resting, I went back to Pacific Fair for lunch instead. I might have gone to Harbour Town but it's a long way to travel and the main attraction (Nike store) was temporarily closed.

Got back to the hotel later in the afternoon, watched some AFL (always on the 7mate secondary channel in low definition) before getting dinner and then packing up for the morning.

Gold Coast 2022, July 02

Probably woke up about once an hour so didn't need an alarm clock, but didn't feel too tired once 4:00am finally arrived.

Tried something a bit different and just had some Gatorade and lollies before the race, usually have some breakfast biscuits or muesli bars but found they don't always sit well afterwards.

It had been raining all night and conditions still didn't look good from the window. I walked down to the tram station in a singlet at around 4:45am, it was freezing cold so I was relieved the tram (or light rail) came along soon after. The tram took 30 minutes to get to Southport but was full after about three stops - the exact reason why I booked a hotel at Broadbeach this year. I'm still not sure how those people actually make it to the race on time.

Got to the event start at about 5:30am which was good timing, there was a bit of room for a warmup but I also didn't want to miss getting a spot near the start of the race, so only did 1.5 kilometres. I was lining up where the fence was supposed to be opened up for Group A to enter, then people just broke open the fence further ahead on their own.

I still got to about the third row behind the elites and preferred runners - need to be at least 1 hour 17 minutes to make the second of those groups, which is a bit exclusive. Soon we were off but I was stuck behind people all over the course running slower than four minutes per kilometres. Since it was so dark it was a bit more difficult to navigate through, so I just waited until the gaps appeared after a couple of minutes.

For the first few kilometres my hamstrings in particular were feeling a bit sore, possibly suggesting I hadn't had enough rest before the race, which was a worry with so far to go. That problem went away then I started to have my knee problem which had been happening for the last two months during any fast runs. Somehow that came and went quickly and I was able to run through the first half with most splits around 3:45 to 3:50 per kilometre.

The best part of the race is probably seeing all the elite men and women coming back the other way at the turn around point, by this stage they were at least one kilometre ahead, if not more.

I skipped the early drink stations but then decided to get some in the second half, around about the time I started to have my first challenges at the 13 kilometre mark. I was starting to find the same speed harder to maintain but was able to fight through it and stay under 3:50 per kilometre.

Only at about 18 kilometres I really started hurting again, and just had to try and make it through one kilometre at a time. Somehow again I managed to maintain the same speed, each kilometre trying to calculate if I was under 1 hour 20 minutes pace - which is my long term goal, but I didn't expect to reach it today. The Garmin watch was about 100 metres ahead of the course markers which also made things a bit uncertain.

After I got to 20 kilometres I was confident I could make the finish and also get under my target time - even the gun time. I crossed the finish line with 1:19:37 on the clock, but official time was 1:92:28.

Picked up the finished medal and a free Asics t-shirt at the finish line, and some brand of electrolyte drink. I didn't hang around too long and then got back on the tram to the hotel.

I was considering doing a short run when I got back but my left achilles was feeling a bit sore and tight so skipped that - apparently it can be a small side effect of these high stack 'super shoes' which I don't wear often.

Back to Pacific Fair before lunch to the Doughnut Boss shop for some great donuts, and got some different varieties of flavoured milk drinks - not that much different to Melbourne. Dropped that stuff off at the hotel and then back on the tram to Surfers Paradise to walk around for a bit and get some lunch. Bumped into Trent near the Cavill Avenue sign while he was preparing for the marathon the next day.

The usual Surfers Paradise sign.

Two remaining donuts - custard beats jam any day.

Picked up a gingerbread Mountain Dew on the way, which was really disappointing, far too much cinnamon taste. Finished the day a bit early since my legs were complaining from doing too much walking after the race - a good lesson for next time.

Staying hydrated.

Watched the live stream replay of the half marathon while eating dinner, the coverage was good, not sure if I was on the other side of the road when they were filming the leaders on the men's and women's race, but at the finish they were on a commercial break when I would have been crossing the line.

Gold Coast 2022, July 01

Started the trip to Gold Coast on Friday morning, travelling the day before the race.

• 7:15 train to city
• 7:50 bus to airport - hardly any traffic
• 8:20 airport

Decided to go with a carry-on backpack so I didn't have to deal with luggage. Just had enough room for clothes and a pair of shoes for the race, had to wear a pair of shoes to be used for walking and jogging.

Saw all the Collingwood AFL players going to Gold Coast as well, but departing an hour earlier.

Got to Gold Coast airport around 12:30pm but missed the first bus to Broadbeach South because there was too many people, got the second one but took forever, nearly 2:00pm before getting off the bus.

Walked over to Pacific Fair to find some lunch, massive lines everywhere, even at the supermarket.  Had to walk all the way to the other end and back, but finally got some food and then across the road to the hotel to check-in.

Had to go up to the expo in the convention centre at Broadbeach North to get the race number for tomorrow. Just got handed a race number and some strange clips I'd never used before, usually you get safety pins. Did a quick tour of the expo but didn't find anything to buy, no new flavours of Clif bars.

Stopped at another supermarket on the way back to the hotel, got some regular safety pins and more Gatorade.

I decided to got for a short run in the rain during the afternoon - mostly to keep the running streak going and to check for any minor injuries - only went 2.5 kilometres but my feet were already soaked from all the puddles.

Had an early dinner - bread rolls, energy bars and sports drink - and watched a bit of the AFL, but was pretty tired to set the alarm for 4:15am and missed out on seeing Carlton lose like usual.

May Review

 A quick May review.

Starting with the miscellaneous.

• Interest rates went up for the first time in about 10 years
• Instant panic in the media that people can't afford a 0.25% increase
• NZ have already had multiple increases prior to any change here
• The election is finally over
• A relentless six week media campaign
• An overdue change of leadership
• 50% majority seems unlikely in future elections

A standard month of running again with no races for another month. Just four parkruns including an 18:00 and two new events at Toolern Creek in Melton, and Williamstown. I had two sharp stabbing pains at the top of my right calf during a training run that felt like being stabbed with something, but managed to get through it without any injury developing.

Now to try and focus a bit more on half marathon training and get to the Gold Coast race without an injury. I've been having some weird running mechanic issues when trying to speed up during training sessions that I don't understand, it feels like the left and right leg don't want to go at the same speed.

Another horror months in shares, highlights including 10% down in a week and 5% down in a day. It has a bit of a short to medium term impact on things like holidays and house plans.

Something good in the world of sports, the Sydney Kings won the NBL championship for the first time in about 20 years. It would be great if the Golden State Warriors can do the same in the NBA but it's not off to a good start. The NBA finals schedule doesn't work out well with my current work schedule so I won't be able to watch all of the games.

The to do list.

• Blog
• Finally done with the 2021 review and 2022 goals
• Nothing too specific in these, just general objectives and not very personal
• Running
• Decided not to do Brisbane
• Next interstate options could be Adelaide in September and Canberra in November

The work project has been delayed again, could even go into next year. As mentioned in my 2022 goals, I think 2023 will be the year to evaluate future career options.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None 
• TV
• Better Call Saul season 6 - first half
• Another good season but some episodes were too slow
• 7 out of 10
• From season 1
• Feels like it will be cancelled before reaching a conclusion
• Started good but doesn't have as much depth as a comparable show like Lost
• 6 out of 10
• The Wilds season 2
• Didn't really add much compared to the first season
• 5 out of 10
• Video Games
• NES
• Zelda Reloaded Randomizer
• A good quality randomizer which changes the map too
• One play through got stuck because I couldn't get the ladder
• 6 out of 10
• Xbox One
• Call Of Duty - Modern Warfare
• Finally done with this game after so many 100 GB updates
• 3 out of 10
• Forza 7
• Just playing through some of the remaining championships

2022 Goals

Not sure if there's much point to start goals in June, but keeping with tradition.

A lot of these are adjusted or copied from 2021 which were usually 0% or 100% complete.

• Blog
• 25 posts
• Fitness
• Bike
• 10 bike rides again
• Run
• 5km - under 17:45
• 10km - under 36:00
• 21km - under 1:20:00
• Total Distance - over 5000km
• Parkrun - 15 new events
• Races
• 3 new events
• 1 interstate event
• Weight
• 70kg
• Holiday
• 1 interstate
• House
• To be determined
• Money
• Shares
• 10% from the end of 2021
• Super
• Linear increase
• Music
• 2 events
• Reading
• 5 books
• Sport
• AFL - maybe a few games
• Study
• 1 certification
• Video Games
• 5 games completed
• Work
• Finish project
• Same job - to review in 2023

2021 Review

The review of the amazing 2021, just in time for winter.

These were the optimistic goals for 2021 heading into a second year of lockdown.

• Blog (75%)
• 25 posts - had 18 which is basically just the monthly
• Fitness
• Bike (0%)
• 10 bike rides - zero!
• Run (100%)
• 5km under 18:00 - right around 18 minutes
• 10km under 37:00 - about 36:45
• 21km under 1:22:00 - about 1:20:45 was the biggest surprise
• 4000km total distance - 5125km and all 365 days
• 15 new parkrun events - 9 events, got distracted by a PB streak
• Races (0%)
• 5 new events - only 4 for the year, and none were new
• 3 interstate events - no surprise with zero
• Weight (0%)
• 70kg - still stuck around 73kg
• Holiday (0%)
• Interstate - even that didn't happen with lockdowns and other restrictions
• House (0%)
• Buy - with prices going up 20% this continues to be unlikely
• Money
• Shares (100%)
• 10% from the end of 2020 - about right only due to good timing
• Super (100%)
• Linear - also did well only due to good timing to finish the year
• Music (0%)
• 2 events - 0 and almost no tours happened
• Reading (0%)
• 5 - 0 books, need to see if my electronic reader still works
• Sport (0%)
• AFL - most matches and the grand final were played interstate
• NBL - similar to AFL
• Study (0%)
• 1 exam - 0 that apply to work at the moment
• To Do List (0%)
• Had no other major goals and none really came up
• Video Games (100%)
• 5 games completed - 9 xbox and 1 switch, had a bit of extra time without daily travel
• Work (0%)
• Finish project - not even close, could go until 2023

Some favourites for the year:

• Movies
• 
  
• TV
• Mare of Easttown
• Rosehaven season 5
• Squid Game
• The Challenge / The Challenge All Stars
• The White Lotus
• Video Games
• Call Of Duty - some were ok, played too many
• Diablo 3

April Review

 It's the April update, now six months of winter on the way.

Starting with a new miscellaneous section for other events of the moment.

• Two months of federal election news - it doesn't get much worse
• The campaign process is just as bad as usual
• Avoid risk
• Criticise opponents whenever possible
• Don't commit to any beneficial long term change
• Spend billions on marginal seats
• Statements and facts rarely checked or questioned

Another month with no running events and not much coming up either. I was going to do the Run The Rock 13.5 kilometres race but with bad weather the night before I ended up missing out. I completed my parkrun PB streak at 25 events after going to Lancefield and Newport Lakes. For a while longer I'm doing the tourism streak (different event each week) which is a bit over 40.

I finally got a sub 18 minute parkrun at Dorset Recreation Reserve, but the timekeeper missed a few seconds. However there's a very slow turnaround, so maybe it evens out. Another new event at Frankston Nature Reserve which was a fun trail course with a few challenging small hills.

Nothing good to say about the sharemarket, I think I'm running at a loss for my super after 10 months of the financial year, and that includes contributions.

Some sport seasons finishing up.

• March Madness - at last Kansas won again, but I didn't get to watch any games
• Gridiron Victoria - went to the final at Croydon but it wasn't even close
• NBA - starting the playoffs but Brooklyn are already out
• Soccer - just Liverpool and Manchester City every week

Not a lot to report on the to do list.

• Blog
• Still haven't done the 2021 or 2022 updates (again)
• Running
• Brisbane a small chance for June
• Adelaide perhaps in September

Still the same at work, and the project is another few months behind schedule, might never finish.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• F1 Drive To Survive season 4
• Good for someone who doesn't bother to watch F1 anymore
• However I got sick of hearing about non-sports people obsessed with the show
• 8 out of 10
• Space Force season 2
• Only seven episodes, didn't really go anywhere
• 5 out of 10
• Super Pumped The Battle For Uber
• Better than The Dropout, definitely better than We Crashed
• Good actors and good story
• 8 out of 10
• The Dropout
• The real-life story is a disaster but the show was done well
• Exciting to see Sayid from Lost again
• 7 out of 10
• We Crashed
• The third of the 'scammer' shows
• Good actors but disliked the characters (and accents) and the story
• Seemed to focus much less on the bad aspects
• 4 out of 10
• Video Games
• NES
• Zelda Randomizer Reloaded
• A good randomizer because the overworld and dungeons get changed too
• Sadly one of my games I couldn't get to the level with the ladder and whistle !
• 7 out of 10
• Xbox One
• None

March Review

It's the March update.

The daily news has now turned to the Russian-Ukraine war and all of a sudden the cost of living has become a big issue, neither of which I have much interest in providing commentary on. If something more interesting comes up I might include that in the intro, instead of just having the same sections each month, but nothing for now.

So back to the usual topics then and starting with running. Finally had my first race for the year, back at the River Run Geelong which was also the last race before covid paused everything in March 2020. The conditions weren't the best with a fairly strong wind, and I didn't feel like I was coming in very fresh, but I had a good finish and ended around 37 minutes for 10km - probably my third best time just behind two Sandy Point races last year. The only other highlights were continuing the parkrun PB streak for a few more weeks - at difficult courses Highlands, Mullum Mullum and Brimbank. The Mullum Mullum event was the hardest as I was competing against a time on the old course which was about 150 metres shorter, and just barely scraped in by 3 seconds.

After another sharemarket crash due to the war (and fuel prices) we're about back to normal again. Just shows that usually there is no reason to panic and sell. I won't be buying anything for a while until I recover some savings after paying off the last of my massive tax bill.

I missed most of March Madness by not even realising it had started, but probably wouldn't have been able to watch much during work anyway. This year Kansas haven't gone out in the early rounds and are through to the final four. The AFL has begun as well, I haven't read how much impact there has been on crowds due to covid reluctance but I imagine it is still present. I haven't found a good Carlton match to attend yet, but hoping this is finally the year they are competitive most weekends. The schedule only goes up until May at the moment, and they play against interstate teams in 5 of the next 7 games.

Only a few things on the to do list:

• Blog
• Still haven't done the 2021 or 2022 updates
• Gold Coast
• Booked hotel for the (half) marathon race in July
• Money
• March seems to be bankrupt month - car service, health insurance, tax bills
• Running
• Booked Run The Rock for the end of April
• Haven't decided on doing a 10km or 21km race afterwards in Brisbane early June

We're back at work for two days a week for now, which is better than three days at least. After two years it seems a bit pointless for many reasons - going to meeting rooms without computers, lunch running takes more time, no privacy for conversations, office noise, random interruptions, travel cost and time, uncomfortable chair and desk.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Candyman
• Can't remember the original but this one was horrible
• 2 out of 10
• Free Guy
• The storyline for the bad guy was also horrible
• Somehow an idiot rips off the code from some talented AI developers
• 6 out of 10
• Jackass Forever
• Disappointing compared to the show and previous movies
• Only a few highlights
• 4 out of 10
• Music
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs ticket at Melbourne Park MCA in July
• TV
• La Brea
• Like a very poor man's Lost - they even make a joke about it in an early episode
• Always an annoying hero family and hero dad in particular
• Confusing time travel loop
• 10 episodes in the first season - not sure how much longer it will last
• 5 out of 10
• Show Me The Money
• Only 3 episodes
• Following AFL player agents - marginally better than real estate agents
• Not much was happening during the AFL trade week when it was recorded
• 5 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Call Of Duty - Modern Warfare
• Had to download more large updates - but hasn't crashed again
• Struggle to keep playing due to a boring story

February Review

Running late for February.

It might be safe to say this is the last covid / lockdown / lockout update.

• Quarantine camp due by the end of the month !
• Hospital cases under 500 - but still major restrictions
• QR codes still not removed completely
• Masks also not removed completely - but in most places
• The hospitality and retail works still suffer
• Other events to take over the daily news
• Russia Ukraine war
• Queensland and NSW floods

Another month of running over, no races for the year so far. Just another four parkruns with new PB times, but I'll be happy when I get to retire this streak after about five more events - the travel combined with running low 18 minutes each week is a bit much. I had a couple of close calls with the You Yangs hills and a very strong wind at Berwick Waters but just survived.

Just more bad news in the sharemarket with the Russia situation, once again lost months or years of progress - depending how far back you want to go in the charts. Take the high point from 2007 and the market has improved 5% in 15 years. The USA top 500 is nearly triple over the same time...

I didn't get to watch much of the superbowl due to work distractions, but it wasn't one of the better games. Not a lot else happening except for some Winter Olympics - if you can work out when the events are going to be on TV. The prime time session always seemed to be hours of repeating what had already happened during the day - particularly if an Australian was involved - not great coverage. Some of the biathlon events were good.

Made little progress on the to do list.

• Gold Coast flight booked - almost out of money so haven't booked a hotel yet
• Running Review done - but not the other 2021 and 2022 updates

Back to the normal routine at work - only a few more weeks to enjoy working from home. Splitting time between two projects basically means trying do 50% more work, as the main project requires just as much attention as usual.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Death On The Nile
• Too long and not that interesting
• 5 out of 10
• Scream
• Pointless
• 3 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• The After Party
• Actually a better murder mystery than Death On The Nile
• 8 out of 10
• The Tourist
• Good for a TV show filmed in Australia
• Hard to like the main character - and many secondary ones
• 5 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Call Of Duty - Modern Warfare
• Another 80 GB update - but it still works afterwards
• Haven't got back into playing

2021 Running Review

Another year with not much going on in running. The working from home routine made training a little better, but also quite repetitive, particularly during the times of 5km and 10km travel limits.

A new record for total distance as well as running once every day of the year, I didn't expect to beat last year's totals and probably won't beat this year for sure now.

• 5128.36 kilometres
• 4366.96 kilometres in 2021
• 392 hours
• 333 hours in 2021

The major events only ran at the beginning and end of the year.

• Sandy Point 10km
• 37:05 PB
• Run The Rock 13.5km
• 53:06
• Sandy Point 10km again
• 36:45 PB
• Melbourne Marathon half
• 1:20:48 PB

The Melbourne Marathon was a good result - just missed a long term goal of 1 hour 20 minutes, but ahead of my 1:22:00 goal and previous best of 1:22:49 in 2019.

I didn't get close to 250 parkruns due to health restrictions for public events, only 24 for the year up to 226 in total. This was also the year when Christmas and New Year's Day were on Saturday, so no bonus events.

I started the year with a 'tourism streak' of going to a different event each week, beginning in South Australia, then combined that with a 'PB streak' for any local events without a low 18 minute time already recorded. By the end of the year this was becoming a bit more effort than reward - the PB part in particular - but should be wrapped up early in 2022 so I can go back to attending some events launched in the past year.

• 24 events
• 52 in 2019
• 9 new events
• 13 in 2019
• 18:01 Diamond Creek - short course
• 18:03 Dandenong
• 18:07 Aurora

The new parkrun events were:

• January
• Victor Harbor, SA
• Naracoorte Lake, SA
• Dandenong
• February
• Aurora
• March
• Altona Beach
• Point Cook
• Cascades On Clyde Wetlands
• April
• Campaspe
• Sunbury

The goals for 2021 and new goals for 2022 are:

• 2021
• 5km 18:00 - just missed
• 10km 37:00 to 37:30 - beat twice
• 21km PB - beat
• 4000+ kilometres - beat with 5000+ kilometres
• 2022
• 5km 18:00 - again
• 10km 36:30
• 21km 1:20:00
• 4500 to 5000 kilometres - not important
• Parkrun
• 10 new events
• Finish PB streak with 20 to 25
• Finish tourism streak with 40 to 50
• Races
• 2 new events - not many options
• 2 interstate events - Gold Coast half marathon
• 0 international events - probably

January Review

Time to kick off another year.

The lockdown / lockout notes might be due for retirement finally.

• Debate over free rapid test kits
• Unlimited money for expensive PCR tests but not for rapid tests apparently
• Every state predicting when their peak will occur
• We're almost at the peak
• We believe we've reached the peak
• More hospital capacity problems
• 750 people from a population of 6.5 million seems to be our limit
• Daily numbers starting to go down, however with significantly lower tests
• A few cases in WA but no major outbreak yet

A standard start to running for another year, a bit of a battle with general leg soreness but good enough for one training session and a parkrun each week. Added another five different events with PB to the collection - Hastings Foreshore (new year's day), Maribyrnong, Pakenham, Westerfolds, Mernda. The best times were either Pakenham 18:03 with a slightly short course or Westerfolds 18:21 with one big hill.

Got another two pairs of shoes for the collection - Nike ZoomX Invincible Run and Nike Pegasus 38 - many others are due for retirement soon so finally get to wear something new.

The shares were on a good run so the inevitable crash came in the middle of the month - losing about 15% in two weeks.

A good mixture of sports still going through summer:

• Australian Open tennis
• Went to the day session on centre court for Australia Day
• Probably haven't been for about 25 years
• The middle women's match Swiatek vs. Kanepi dragged on too long
• Wearing a mask all day in the heat wasn't the best
• Ash Barty winning the women's single was the highlight
• BBL
• The season started well but ended with another Sydney Sixers vs. Perth final
• NFL playoffs
• A classic divisional round with 3 game winning field goals and an overtime
• A very average conference round to follow
• I'll probably be hoping for a Cincinnati Bengals win in the superbowl

The to do list is still a bit empty, in part due to forgetfulness.

• Holiday
• Booking for Gold Coast in July for half marathon
• International still seems unlikely
• Running calendar
• Nothing coming up in January or February
• Geelong 10km in March
• Haven't decided on April, May, or June yet
• Two events I already paid for last year
• Gold Coast half marathon in early July
• Run Melbourne 10km in late July
• Yearly review / preview
• Forgot to make a start - not much to be excited about

Back to the usual at work, got enough to keep busy and still working from home.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies 
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• Dexter New Blood
• I didn't like all the characters, but a better conclusion this time
• 6 out of 10
• The Walking Dead World Beyond - Season 2
• Such an uneventful show that was planned ahead to be two seasons
• Wasted the first season travelling across country to a HQ
• Wasted the second season trying to leave the HQ
• 2 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Metroid Dread
• Tried to enjoy it but had a few frustrations
• Too much forced travel back and forth between sections
• Some annoying boss fights - all the same perfect counter attacking required
• 7 out of 10
• Xbox One
• Call Of Duty - Modern Warfare
• Just resumed since the latest upgrades finally made the game playable

December Review

 It's the end of the year, tough to pick a favourite - 2020 or 2021 ?

The lockdown / lockout notes.

• More interstate restrictions coming through because of omicron
• Every premier just wants to 'keep their state safe'
• Omicron spreading to most states
• Planned change to mask rules not coming for at least another month
• NSW numbers increasing quickly to new daily records
• Most other states with cases increasing too, probably not getting back to zero this time
• QLD
• SA
• Politicians want to reduce the booster time without much medical evidence being presented
• 4 months
• 3 months soon after
• Overloaded testing sites as cases increase
• A plan to transition to rapid tests instead of going to testing sites
• However there's no supply of rapid tests
• Just changing the queue location to pharmacies
• No more PCR tests or isolation required for most situations
• Still QR codes in supermarkets and similar locations for some reason
• NSW over 20,000 cases
• QLD and SA into the thousands also
• The experts still say we need to learn more about omicron

Had a good finish to the running year with a PB at the Melbourne half marathon. I took about two minutes off my 2019 time, but still need another 50 seconds to get under the 80 minute mark. Still a better result than I expected due to some mixed training sessions, foot blisters, and not having any days off before the race - sore legs in the final few days.

Otherwise it's just been the usual weekend parkruns, although been feeling a bit less motivated to attend this month. I'm still going with the tourism and PB streaks - Berwick Springs, Lalor, and Albert Park on Christmas day.

Had a good finish to the year in shares - expect for the big tax bill I'm still paying off. I probably finished similar to where I was already in January, but that was only due to a temporary spike which reversed soon after.

The major sports are still surviving, only with a lot of postponed games or unavailable players - applies to the BBL, EPL, NBA, and NFL. It looks like both Melbourne teams aren't any good in the BBL again this year.

Nothing happening on the to do list still, but might get to plan some running for the upcoming year. Holidays still don't look promising.

Currently in the middle of about three weeks off work which is a good break, wasn't too much happening towards the end of the year - but lots of meetings. I completed the daily Advent Of Code challenge this year which was a fun activity most of the time, except for the few painfully difficult tasks.

That's it for this month and year, the yearly posts might be along soon.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• I Know What You Did Last Summer
• Such a confusing and disappointing series
• 3 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Call Of Duty - Black Ops Cold War
• Purchased
• Call Of Duty - Modern Warfare
• Installed - the worst installation process ever
• Received another 40 GB online update and now get errors at the main menu
• Forza 7
• Resumed playing until Modern Warfare is fixed - if it ever is
• Too many repetitive 6 race championships, not enough variety
• Xbox 360
• Call Of Duty - World At War
• The most ridiculously difficult and unfair experience playing veteran
• I finally reached the end after avoiding millions of random grenades from nowhere