I'm still stuck unable to do much exercise due to various ailments. At first it was just the hamstring carried over from last month (almost two months out of action now) but now my left shin pain (going on eight months) has started to return. To add to that my left leg hurts all day from sitting in different chairs at work now. I think my hamstring might be about 75% repaired, but it's taking forever to repair fully.
I had two short running trips during the month, despite being limited physically.
Assisted by a small payout from changing jobs I was able to invest in shares for two more companies, but now I'm definitely out of money. No real change in the share market overall otherwise but at least I have a few dividends coming soon.
It was once again time for the Summer Olympics at an inconvenient time of day (night). I paid $20 for Channel Seven's premium content so I was able to watch replays of all the events, but their website was just horrible - slow and glitched. Given limited time I only watched a few events:
- Athletics - The short distance track events and marathons
- BMX - A fun event but all over in 30 seconds, the final is one race so it's just random luck
- Basketball - Australia were looking great until the semi-final collapse, the USA won but didn't have a great team
- Cycling - I scanned through the road race and time trail since they go for several hours, didn't watch many indoor events
- Swimming - Not many medals for Australia but the events are quick and competitive
In addition to the AFL match in Adelaide I also went to Carlton vs. Melbourne at the MCG. I wanted Melbourne to win actually, so they'd retain a slim chance of making the finals. The opposite happened and Carlton won quite well, then Melbourne lost the following game as well by about 100 points too.
I was a bit preoccupied to address the to do list, which is getting bigger again:
- Bills - Somehow all of my annual bills come in August
- ATO, car registration, MCC, council rates
- Close to $3000 in total!
- I registered for the MCC grand final ballot again, probably another Hawthorn vs. Sydney match
My last day of work was August 10, followed by a trip to Adelaide, and then started work again on August 16.
- Day 1 - Could have been better, I had no access pass and the job requirements weren't clear
- Day 2 - So much disorganised documentation to try and locate and make sense of
- Day 3 - My role was explained a bit better, not a real architect and no development at all - so a double failure
- Week 2 - A small downsizing already, I may have to do production support work now too - probably even worse
I thought I was dead inside while having a reasonable job, but this must be a new low. At this stage I'll doubt I'll stay around for long, but I probably want to see how it goes once I get some real projects to work on.
That's it for another month.
- Books
- The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- A classic old book for something different
- Set in the 1930's great depression, so much despair
- 8 out of 10
- Movies
- Zero Days
- Watched at the MIFF
- A fascinating documentary about cyber warfare
- 8 out of 10
- Music
- None
- TV
- American Crime Story - The People vs. OJ Simpson
- Started slow, but a pretty incredible story
- 7 out of 10
- Guilt
- Just another random UK series about some murder mystery
- Watched a couple of episodes so just wanted to finish it
- 4 out of 10
- Last Chance U
- Great documentary about a lower tier college football league
- 8 out of 10
- Murder In The First
- Another good season
- Not sure why this show doesn't seem to get much publicity
- 7 out of 10
- The Challenge
- Always great
- The new teams are some stupid never trying to get out the veterans
- 9 out of 10
- Video Games
- None