Re-Video Games

This continues my previous Video Games review at the end of 2013.

These are the month I played some amount of video games. I thought there might be a pattern since I usually take holidays mid year and spend a while planning for them, but it didn't really seem to be the case.

• September to December 2014
• January 2015
• October to December 2015
• February to May 2016
• July 2016
• April 2017

These months I went on holiday for at least a few days:

• March 2014
• April 2014
• August 2014
• December 2014
• August 2015
• December 2015
• December 2016

Here's the full list:

• 2014
• January
• Grand Theft Auto V (briefly)
• February
• Grand Theft Auto V (briefly)
• Grand Theft Auto IV - The Ballad Of Gay Tony (briefly)
• April
• Grid 2 (briefly)
• June
• Grid 2 (briefly)
• July
• Grid 2 (briefly)
• September
• Saints Row IV
• October
• Saints Row IV
• November
• Saints Row IV
• PlayStation 3: Gran Turismo 6
• December
• PlayStation 3: Gran Turismo 6
• 2015
• January
• PlayStation 3: Gran Turismo 6
• October
• PlayStation 3: Gran Turismo 6
• November
• PlayStation 3: Gran Turismo 6
• December
• PlayStation 3: Gran Turismo 6
• 2016
• Feburary
• Forza Horizon 2
• March
• Forza Horizon 2
• Bioshock Infinite (briefly)
• PlayStation 3: Gran Turismo 5 (briefly)
• April
• Bioshock Infinite (briefly)
• PC: Stardew Valley
• May
• PC: Stardew Valley
• June
• Bioshock Infinite (briefly)
• July
• Final Fantasy XIII-2
• September
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 (briefly)
• October
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 (briefly)
• November
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 (briefly)
• 2017
• April
• PC: River City Ransom Underground

You've Got Sale

Quick trip out east as far as Sale and back over Easter weekend.

All was going well on the roads until near Yarragon, then suddenly we're down to 20 kilometres per hour to get through the town - no idea why they make these highways go through the middle of the town with all of the traffic lights. Things got even worse at the next town Trafalgar, coming to a dead stop about four kilometres out of town.

After getting through both towns it was all good, got to Moe before midday. Before lunch went for a run on the Moe park run course - actually called Newborough. The course wasn't so great as it was just 1.5 kilometre out, then 1 kilometre back the way you came, then do the opposite. So you basically run the same kilometre four times in a row, and there wasn't much to look at.

Had some packed lunch in the car, but there was actually a few places open in the town so got some drinks before leaving. Next stop was Morwell not far away. There wasn't much around, just stopped at the Gippsland Immigration Park for a quick break.

Morwell. Immigants, I knew it was them!

After about an hour of driving stopped again at Traralgon. Had another trip around their park run course which was just 2.5 kilometres out and back on a footpath, not very good. My ankle/foot/heel problem just managed to deal with both sessions.

Finally made it to Sale later in the afternoon, biggest town so far. Did a bit of driving around, came to the historic swing bridge - whatever that means. They had an interesting looking wetlands track but it was a 15 kilometre round trip so couldn't have a go at that.

Sale. Historic Swing Bridge.

Sale. Some lake near the botanic gardens.

Went to the hotel to check-in, nobody at the front desk. Rang the bell and still no answer, so had to call their phone to get someone to show up! No Foxtel either unfortunately, so just had to watch the end of the Good Friday AFL and an A-League game, and went out to get some dinner.

Next morning got up early to drive over to the local park run. Foot was feeling just alright, so I decided to run with the two leaders, got past them after about 3 kilometres and got a first place. The course was easily the best of the three - two lakes and a garden.

Sale parkrun.

Back to the hotel to check out and start heading home again already. Went to Sale farmers market on the way, didn't have anything good, so drove for a couple of hours to Warragul instead which also had a farmers market - chocolate scones! Had a break for lunch before finishing the drive home - beat the Easter Monday traffic by two days.

Warragul. Some park.

2017 Goals

A bit late for goals but I think I made the basic list a few months ago, plus it's a similar format to the 2016 version.

• Blog
• More than last year would be a success !
• Aiming for 50
• Car
• Give it about 50% chance of an upgrade
• Not really important but it's going to start dying one day
• Fitness
• Bike
• Might not be much point before winter now
• The main purpose is some long distance on flat roads similar to weekend running
• Run
• Try to stay injury free, as much as possible...
• Try to get a new record for 5km and 10km
• Getting back to fitness for a half marathon record is probably unlikely
• Not sure if I'll beat my 2015 record (about 250 kilometres per month) since I've missed time already
• Swim
• I would like to reach a point that it's easy to do laps, but it's so cold in winter...
• Triathlon
• Aiming to do one for the 2017-18 season
• Weight
• Getting back to 70 kilograms at last, hopefully before winter (and injuries)
• Food
• Baking
• Should start baking again, all the previous ingredients had expired
• Holiday
• Hopefully find time for a couple of weeks during winter somewhere
• Some short trips for running also including:
• Canberra (done)
• Great Ocean Road
• House
• If only houses were affordable...
• It would be a great goal for the year, but might be a wait and see period at the moment
• Money
• Shares
• Making a profit would be nice
• Get past 250,000 by the end of the year if the share market doesn't collapse
• Super
• Should start contributing a bit extra, since this job only pays the minimum
• Music
• Get to see a few bands at least, depending on tours
• Need to discover some new bands, since most of my favourites seem to be inactive
• Reading
• One a month maybe
• Need to find some new authors too, since I'm running out of good Stephen King options
• Sport
• Not sure what I intended for this category
• Try to get some use out of the MCC membership, although Carlton are no good again
• I don't think holidays will coincide with any sporting events
• Study
• Depends on what is required for work, maybe the Java 8 certification
• Video Games
• Unpack the Xbox One finally...
• Work
• No job change this year hopefully
• Need to build up some annual leave for holidays

2016 Running Review

This is a 2016 running summary, which follows the more successful 2015 running summary.

The totals:

• 926.7 kilometres (3132.14 previously)
• 72 hours (236 previously)

A much lower total due to two injuries and one attack that I suppose counts as an injury too.

The few major races for the year were:

• January - April
• Shin stress injury
• June 19
• Sri Chinmoy Albert Park
• 10km in 40:09 (4:03/km)
• July - September
• Hamstring injury
• August 14
• Adelaide Marathon (new event)
• 10km in 1:12:28 (7:12/km)
• August 28
• Shepparton (new event)
• 10km in 49:20 (4:58/km)
• September 18
• Sri Chinmoy Yarra Boulevard
• 10km in 43:52 (4:23/km)
• October 16
• Melbourne Marathon
• 21.1km in 1:31:02 (4:20/km)
• October 30
• Bendigo Bank Fun Run
• 10km in 40:49 (4:04/km)
• November 20
• City 2 Sea
• 15km in 1:00:14 (4:02/km)
• December
• Other injury

A few more 5km park run courses this year. The best of each course was:

• Cairns
• 20:12 (4:02/km)
• Frog Hollow
• 20:00 (4:00/km)
• Lilydale Lake
• 18:55 (3:48/km)
• Mullum Mullum
• Less than 5 kilometres
• 19:03 (4:03/km)

2016 Review

This is the 2016 summary at last, I'll try not to reference any 2017 events.

• Blog
• Only 29 updates for the year, down again from 62 the previous year
• Having a holiday for two or three weeks would have helped to fill that gap
• I need some topics other than monthly updates and the now occasional baking
• Car
• I used to talk about this always but left it off my 2016 plan
• I would like a car with better acceleration, so far reliability has never been an issue
• I do still update my short list sometimes as prices change
• Fitness
• Certainly not my best year all around
• Bike
• Become a low priority due to injuries
• Running
• I almost made 50 park runs by the end of 2016, including several new courses
• I have a goal to finish top 10 at each event - except Albert Park perhaps
• I mixed up my training with a few new courses for weekend running
• No new personal bests for the year, no surprise there
• I will have a separate post with more running facts for 2016
• Swimming
• A big failure that I hardly did any
• Triathlon
• Obviously not attempted given the above
• Weight
• Not helped by injuries, I seem to be stuck around 75 kilograms forever
• I'm not sure if the gall bladder surgery has caused issues with weight loss or just bad eating
• Holiday
• Probably my biggest disappointment of the year due to two job changes erasing all plans
• The short holidays I did have were:
• Adelaide in August
• Shepparton in August
• Bendigo in November
• Cairns in December
• Money
• House
• I didn't make a plan, but the ever increasing prices are certainly depressing
• I need to think about a plan that includes:
• Location - close to work
• Location - good area for running
• Price!
• Size
• Shares
• I am enjoying investing in the market, despite having mixed success
• I invested a bit more than I intended, about 80% of my available funds
• I haven't been tracking long enough to know the change from year start to end
• Super
• Not an immediate concern, but my total increased by $34,000 or 16.7% to $237,000
• At the moment the supposed goal is anywhere from one to two million!
• Music
• I don't think I even saw one band of the year, since they tour so rarely now
• Reading
• I already compile a list of all the books I finish but don't include the dates
• I finished about 13 from occasional train reading, when not listening to sports podcasts
• Study
• Nothing for the year, seems to be a bit of a trend with these topics
• With new work projects coming up I think I will have new subjects worth studying for now
• TV
• Some of my favourite shows for the year:
• American Crime
• Better Call Saul
• Black Mirror Season 3
• Blindspot
• Making A Murderer
• Murder In The First
• Silicon Valley
• Survivor
• The Real World Road Rules Challenge
• Video Games
• The best games I played during the year:
• PC
• Quake: Episode 5 - Dimension Of The Past
• Stardew Valley
• Xbox 360
• Forza Horizon 2
• Work
• I changed jobs twice in the year, when I'd only changed once in about 13 years before
• I got a good pay increase after all the change, but lost all annual leave entitlements
• The first job was a disaster but the second is much better so far

That's it for the year at last then. Now to do the 2017 goals.

Canberra 2017

March 11
March 12
March 13

Canberra 2017, March 13

Lots of rain overnight but it stopped just in time for the Sri Chinmoy 10km race along Lake Burley Griffin. During warmup I checked out the big hill just before the end of the first kilometre which looked a bit scary. The race start was delayed by 10 minutes so I was starting to cool down already.

Once we started one elite runner took off way ahead of everyone else, except a small kid tried to race him for the first 200 metres before failing. After getting over the first big hill there was many more hills than I expected, so I was pretty much gone by the 5km turnaround. Jason was ahead in 3rd and I was just inside the top 10. My times died badly in the last half, also not helped by running into the wind, a disappointing time of about 40 minutes for 10km.

The race start.

Down the last hill.

We just got back to the hotel for check-out time, then the long drive home to Melbourne. Made it to Gundagai for lunch and refuel about 12:00pm. Another stop for drinks at Wodonga at 3:00pm. I was feeling pretty good most of the way surprisingly but my back really started to tighten up the last few hours, particularly while driving. Possibly eight hours in a car is pushing the limit.

Another stop for fuel just before entering Melbourne. I spilled fuel all down the side of the car trying to get the hose to reach, since the car in front had stopped just past the pumps after refuelling to go back into the store again. Finally back home at last just before 7:00pm.

• 7 out of 10
• Good
• Free admission to places
• Lake and mountain tracks for running
• Not much traffic
• Bad
• Highway navigation
• Nike factory outlet
• Missed Out
• City centre
• Mount Ainslie
• Mount Stromlo
• National Arboretum
• Parliament House

Canberra 2017, March 12

The next morning my legs were still dead after a hard week of run training, and sitting in a car all day can't have helped either.

The first stop for the day was the AIS outside of the city. It would have been much harder to get around if I hadn't just purchased a GPS, as there are a series of highways, bridges, ramps, overpasses etc. to make sense of. We got the ninety minute public tour of the AIS, only there were no other people on the tour, which is always awkward...

Should have taken other photos...

The tour guides were alright, one guy was a runner and the other a swimmer. The tour started in this sports activity and memorabilia room, then walked around to see AIS arena, volleyball, gymnastics, weights, basketball and swimming I think. It was a bit disappointing there weren't any athletes around training in any of these places.

Back into the city for lunch then down to the Royal Australia Mint - since it was free admission like most places in the city. This was just a self guided tour of the factory and had a lot of coins on display. The gift shop had a lot of expensive collector coins for sale, but no good coin-related magnets.

Weird looking bus stops, looks like something from The Flintstones.

They only make coins, and nobody likes having too many coins.

Over to the Old Bus Depot Markets before it closed, navigating the nearly dead empty streets of South Canberra again, maybe due to the long weekend. I got some food from a couple of bakeries but the rest was all crafts and jewellery.

The DFO was not far away from the city but also surrounded by farm land which is a fair representation of ACT. They had a Nike store with many more shoe bargains than the Victoria stores ever have  - literally hundred of 12 and 12.5 but no size 13 anywhere. All I got was a discounted running shirt since I didn't want to come away empty handed.

Another drive across the city to Black Mountain. Given the race the next morning it didn't seem like a good idea to park at the bottom of the Botanical Gardens and hike to the top for a couple of hours. At the peak was the Telstra Tower observation deck - I didn't even get a shareholder discount for entry. The view over Canberra was good because the tower is a little bit outside the city, the strong winds outside were also good on a dry, hot day. The other bonus was finding a magnet on the way out.

The big city.

Canberra 2017, March 11

The mini Canberra trip started with a detour to Craigieburn - spelt about the same if you rearrange the letters. To be more specific, we arrived at Highlands (never heard of it) in time for the 8:00am parkrun. This course was first time I've done three laps, only jogging but finished in the top five.

Back on the road properly by 9:00am headed for Canberra. A quick stop near Euroa and then to Wodonga (not Albury) for lunch - a good time to stop as I was nearly falling asleep at the wheel. It looked like the whole town was being rebuilt as they had frames for large buildings all over the city centre. At at minimum it looked like they were building a KMart and a new Coles and Woolworths to replace the old, outdated ones - still branded as Safeway, shareholders would not be happy. The city centre was pretty good and the highlight was the world's biggest rolling pin on top of the bakery.

Every cafe should have a big thing.

Into NSW at last, had to stop at South Gungagai to avoid running out of fuel, then through to Canberra the rest of the way until about 4:30pm. After finding the hotel at the second attempt, got some dinner at Manuka then drove up to Anzac Parade before it got dark.

Australian War Memorial.

New Parliament House.

Anzac Parade.

Cairns 2016

December 24
December 25
December 26
December 27
December 28
December 29