The running report for this month is easy, there was none. I still haven't got past my leg injury and there's no end in sight. I visited a sports doctor twice, with x-rays and a bone scan in between, and the end result was just some early signs of a stress reaction and some inflammation. On that basis I'd hate to actually have a real stress fracture, because this has been the worst. It was suggested that I use crutches for two weeks, which I put off for a while before eventually trying - after a few day so far I just have pain in every other part of my body and no improvements yet. It was also suggested to have ANOTHER six weeks off running after that, which is starting to get ridiculous.
In addition to no running I also stopped using the elliptical and exercise bike machines in the hope it would speed up the recovery. Instead it seems like everything continues to get worse, for a while my knee was aching every day without having done anything, and my gluteal pain is as bad as ever, probably from sitting down even more than usual and doing less stretching and strengthening. The only exercise I have been able to do is swimming, probably about twice a week on average. After a slow start I have "sort of" figured out how to swim properly and breathe out underwater, by discovering that breathing out through the nose works much better - at least for me. I've hit a point where I'm good enough to be in the medium lane but don't seem to be improving, and I still have to concentrate on the breathing more than I'd like. As I've previously said though, I think I am reasonably well placed to attempt a short triathlon some time in the future now.
I finally got back to baking, but only with one recipe and it was neither a great challenge or great success, so there's room for improvement there.
I completed my December holiday report which was the beginning of my physical downfall, it was a good break but I regret going given the trouble I've had to deal with since.
The share market dipped again day after day to start the month, before stabilising a little by the end. I'm thinking about another purchase now, since I have a bit of money saved and the dividend period is coming up.
The NFL playoffs have been running through the month. Due to some work from home and public holidays I have been able to watch quite a few games, from which there has been a few classic matches but several have been very one-sided too. I didn't expect the Patriots to make or win the super bowl this year, but I was really annoyed they had to go and lose to Peyton Manning.
I had $50 sitting in my sports betting account so I decided to have a go at some NBA games for a bit of fun. I picked quite conservatively in the beginning, but had managed to build up to $75 on small $2 single and combo bets. My favourite bet was the half-time and full-time double, but they mysteriously took that option away. About half way through the Australian Open tennis I discovered they had a promotion where you get $1 for every ace if you bet $20 on a player to win, so I bet most of the favourites the rest of the way, or hedged both ways in the later rounds, and managed to make about $150 just from aces, plus a little bit more from the standard winnings.
My to do list is still pretty empty at the moment, but I did manage to get a few blog items completed:
This leg injury has been a real distraction from doing much, but next month will be a priority for holiday planning, particularly if I take a short break in March or April.
At work we were wrapping up a long running project from the previous year, which was a bit more relaxing at least. I should have a bit of free time to work on some projects that I've never gotten around to, and to get everything tidied up. Since we don't have confirmed projects though, and with a new management team, it is a bit of a concern where we are headed and a lot of people seem to have quite a pessimistic outlook at the moment.
That's it for this month.
- Books
- Blaze by Stephen King
- Pretty compact idea but well presented with a lot of back story
- 7 out of 10
- Movies
- San Andreas
- Pointless disaster movie with The Rock
- 4 out of 10
- The Program
- Based on a book about Lance Armstrong
- The actor playing him wasn't the best
- The script was pretty good, but very quickly wrapped everything up at the end
- 7 out of 10
- True Story
- Felt like it was building up to a clever twist, then nothing
- 5 out of 10
- Music
- None
- TV
- Making A Murderer
- Crazy but true story about a murder trial
- So many weird and almost unbelievable events
- Amazing he got convicted with some much questionable evidence
- 9 out of 10
- Silicon Valley
- Just making everything go wrong in the second season
- Some episodes too ridiculous
- Still fun otherwise
- 7 out of 10
- Skins Season 6
- Way too slow
- Not many interesting characters or stories, killed off maybe the best one
- 3 out of 10
- The Real World Season 30
- A big upgrade from watching Skins
- Didn't really the 'skeletons' idea this season either
- A couple of idiots in the house, most were alright though
- 8 out of 10
- Video Games
- Other
- Got two controllers with USB extension cables for playing emulator games
- Retro
- NES
- Battletoads & Double Dragon (co-op)
- You have to restart the whole level when either person runs out of lives
- Gave up on level 3
- 3 out of 10
- Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers (co-op)
- Died heaps at the start, before working out how to play
- A little repetitive due to limited attacks and enemies
- Ended the game with like 15 lives each
- 6 out of 10
- Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (co-op)
- Similar to the first game, controls felt smoother
- A bit shorter and easier
- 5 out of 10
- Double Dragon 2 (co-op)
- Pretty easy to beat
- A few nearly impossible parts where you need to jump over disappearing platforms
- Loading save state repeatedly was necessary
- 7 out of 10
- Double Dragon 3 (co-op)
- Almost impossible, no continues
- Got to level 3 the first time and didn't bother trying again
- 1 out of 10
- Mega Man 4
- Fairly difficult, probably because I didn't use most of the special powers
- 6 out of 10
- Mega Man 5
- A bit easier than Mega Man 4
- My controller isn't the best, makes it hard to jump and shoot at the same time
- 7 out of 10
- Mega Man 6
- Kept picking the bosses in the wrong order
- Levels and bosses were good, not too hard
- 7 out of 10
- TMNT 3 (co-op)
- Nearly made it to the end, but ran out of continues
- 4 out of 10