SA 2020, December 31

I was a bit worried about a very sore hamstring from yesterday's driving, so did a slightly shorter 11 kilometre run in the morning. I went from the hotel up to Blue Lake and around, but didn't realise it was going to be quite so steep during the lake loop, not really what I was hoping for.

Got packed up and departed the hotel for a quick tour around Mt Gambier before heading on to the next destination. Started with the Umpherston Sinkhole which is a big hole in the ground, lots of plants at the bottom and hanging off the walls - not something you see every day.

Umpherston Sinkhole

A short drive up the hill to Blue Lake for a better view, it has quite an impressive bright blue colour, not sure if there is a story behind it. Another drive across to Valley Lake which is more of a blue-green color. There was a small enclosed conservation area that was claiming to have lots of animals to see, all I got was one kangaroo. I hadn't noticed before how loud they smash into the ground when they hop away.

The Blue Lake

Above the lake is a trail up to the Centenary Tower, it's just a small tower building and it wasn't open, so it's just a viewpoint above the town. That was it for Mt Gambier as I had a lot of driving to do again today, and everyday - I wasn't too excited about the amount of driving involved in my plan, but there was a bit of a reason for it, and I wanted to split up the driving as evenly as possible. 

Valley Lake

Time to settle in for a long drive to Kingston SE, a couple of hours and a good spot for a lunch break. Nothing much memorable along the way, a couple of cars driving ridiculously slow like 20+ kilometres under the speed limit. Another dingo encounter, this one didn't even react to the car coming, but it was far enough away to not be a problem.

The strangely named Kingston SE is a standard small beach town, I wasted a bit too much time driving around looking for somewhere to get lunch, then found a good bakery right across the road from The Big Lobster, so I should have just started there. Somehow I forgot to check if there was any magnets for sale at The Big Lobster place before leaving.

The Big Lobster

Back in the car for afternoon driving, getting really warm after being parked in the sun for a while. This time I was a bit more sensible with not driving too long, and had another break in Meningie and then finishing the day in Murray Bridge, after a minor detour past The Big Olive in Tailem Bend.

The Big Olive, should it be The Big Olives ?

The injuries from yesterday all seemed ok, instead a new pain under my left knee which is a common issue, probably from sitting with my leg extended all day. Pretty tired again, but had enough energy to walk up to the top of the main street to find a Mexican restaurant and a supermarket. Back to the hotel again for another BBL match on TV, not sure if any of these games were memorable but it's something to watch at least.

I thought Murray Bridge would be a unlikely place for fireworks, but I heard some going off during the evening, although couldn't see anything from the hotel windows.

SA 2020, December 30

I waited until the last minute due to possible travel restrictions, before eventually deciding on a quick four day trip to the eastern region of South Australia. Leaving after lunch at about 1pm, I was expecting to arrive in Mt Gambier somewhere around 6pm, then I remembered the 30 minutes due to the time zone differences which was a nice bonus.

After the usual slow traffic getting across the city it was good driving the rest of the way to Ballarat. The main traffic signs suggested going through Ballarat to reach Hamilton, while the GPS was saying to go all the way to Ararat first. This GPS often gives weird suggestions which are quite different to common sense and Google Maps, but I decided to go with it.

Just before getting to Ararat I was about to reach a convoy stuck behind a truck carrying a boat, so that was a good time to stop for a break, fuel, and pineapple donut. My lower back was feeling quite sore, but legs weren't so bad thanks to cruise control.

The route from Ararat to Hamilton was quite deserted, just a few cars coming the other way. I should have stopped for another break in Hamilton but decided to go a bit further. The GPS again appeared to give some alternative route through Dartmoor, I was hanging out for a good rest stop that never came. Had my first encounter with a dingo (maybe) that just froze in the middle of the road, lucky no traffic so I was able to quickly drive around it.

Finally got to stop about 25 kilometres before Mt Gambier, feeling really beat up from close to 3 hours of driving. Found the hotel, then got the news I'd missed while driving all afternoon that Victoria's 60+ days with no coronavirus was over. The opposite situation would have been much worse, if some cases had appeared in SA and there was a risk of being stuck or having to do some period of isolation.

I went out for a quick walk around the town centre, past the small Cave Garden sinkhole, and got some food for dinner. Then back to the hotel to watch some BBL and rest for another big day tomorrow.

Cave Garden

November Review

The November review a bit late.

This might be the last lockdown notes:

• First week reaching zero, everyone off to the beach !
• No masks and no fines, not very fair for anyone fined in the past
• The new medical term is people 'shedding' the virus
• Or a clever way to keep our streak of zero days going
• The latest estimate for a vaccine available in Australia is March
• Spent six months in lockdown then a vaccine shows up sooner than expected
• The 'experts' are back to making up random reasons for restrictions
• Victoria mask changes depend on what happens in NSW and New Zealand
• Which is strange because neither of those places have mask rules
• The new favourite headlines:
• The first fortnight without a case since March
• The longest streak without a case since X
• I think we get it by now
• Meanwhile Europe and USA are hitting new records each day
• They have no plan besides getting a vaccine to end the carnage
• A fresh outbreak in SA
• Most states quickly shut their borders again
• Victoria was the last to react - and we still haven't been allowed in SA yet
• The latest incremental change to rules
• Only exemption for masks is if you're outside and not in a 'crowd'
• Continue to justify a rule that no other state has now, or has ever heard
• But 25% office workers are expected to return to work regardless
• 25% seems pointless, just makes meeting more difficult to 100% online
• Great timing for summer - travel in the heat *and* wear a mask all day
• Every day hear about the poor city cafes
• Borders gradually opening to Victoria again, at long last
• Stamp duty cuts to help real estate
• House prices have barely decreased
• The one industry that doesn't need help

Back to the usual.

Still no running events on the calendar, but I was able to buy some old race photos during a sale - City 2 Sea 2014 and Townsville 2018 to remember the good times...

I just managed to record a new PB for 10km, 37:34 is slightly ahead of two 'official' race times, one was definitely short at 9.84 kilometres and I was slowing down at the end. The only other exciting thing is getting close to retiring a few more pairs of old shoes to exchange for some new ones, just a few more weeks to go. I ordered one new pair of Nike React Infinity Run which are claimed to 'help reduce injury'.

City 2 Sea 2014

The sharemarket had the best month since 1988. I made a whole $2000 due to A2 Milk dropping and Afterpay keeps bouncing up and down...

The NBA draft and offseason transactions are underway, before the restart in late December. It seems like a lot more change occurred than usual, but the number of terrible new contracts remained. There's probably no sign of a Seattle team coming back for the moment, not sure if I can support Kevin Durant with Brooklyn. And despite a bad start Manchester United aren't too far behind the top of the Premier League table for now. With a game in hand they might be back to their 'usual' fifth place.

There's nothing much to report in the to do list at the moment:

• Holiday
• Is it safe to book a short holiday yet ?
• Is everything booked out already ?

Been as busy as ever at work but might have an easier period for a couple of weeks up to Christmas. It was looking like a lot of weekend work was going to be required, but ended up only being one day so far.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• Survivor South Africa season 6
• Only half way through, better than Australia and NZ
• The Purge season 2
• The first season was alright, this one was a disappointment
• 3 out of 10
• The Stranger
• Quibi series - 13 short episode about the length of a movie
• The story was just ridiculous
• 2 out of 10
• Wireless
• Quibi series again
• A college kid trapped in his car in an ice storm
• To pass the time they show his phone activity - face time, social media, etc.
• The problem was the guy was just non-stop messing around on his phone
• What a surprise when his phone battery runs out at the worst time
• 4 out of 10
• Video Games
•  Xbox One
• Fallout 4
• Finished off the main storyline with different endings
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• The horse is just so slow travelling across the map

October Review

This is the October review, I've lost track of what lockdown stage we're at now.

These are some lockdown notes:

• Getting the average close to 10, but not much further
• Chadstone outbreak quickly accelerated up to 40 cases
• Government ready to make compromises after 3 weeks being stuck around 10 cases
• Starting to rethink the targets of consistent weeks of zero cases
• Finally started moving back towards zero again soon after starting to think it would never happen
• NZ tourists allowed to come to NSW
• Somehow that entitled them to go to Melbourne and Perth also - even though they couldn't travel directly
• Some shops started opening while restrictions are still in force as a protest
• Surprising amount of customers showed up to support them
• Announced the restrictions were coming forward a week, then missed the target by a lot
• 25km travel limit and hairdressers opening was the only real change
• Meanwhile all other changes actually got delayed an extra week, such as retail opening
• Most people didn't seem to realise this was worse than the original plan
• Two days later and again promising to bring forward the next changes due in two weeks
• There always seems to be 30,000 Australians 'stranded' overseas even though 5000 arrive each week
• Now a school outbreak after the previous outbreak was winding down
• Constantly changing and breaking plans
• Made promises of 'significant' changes all week up to Friday
• Saturday said not to expect too many changes
• Sunday no changes
• Monday changes are back on again
• Under 5 cases per day but lots of panic from the new outbreak reaching 40 cases
• Even though previously we were told that 5 might be the 'new zero'
• Food and retail open
• People got a bit too excited for the first day, everyone out and nobody seems to be at work
• Latest media headlines
• Has X changed forever ?
• Office work
• Shopping
• All of Europe and USA numbers just keep getting worse
• Trying to avoid second lockdowns but waiting too long to act

Back to the usual.

Got some good running in, could be the last few weeks before it gets too warm during the day. Had a promising 8 kilometres at 3:47/km, started to think about going for a good 10 kilometres time in a training session. A couple of weeks later did 9.5 kilometres better than ever, but had nothing left at the end and didn't realise I was going so well. Followed that up with a full 10 kilometres on a warmer day that was only just as good as the previous session with 500 metres of slower jogging included.

Finally finished off my Nike Structure 21 at 950 kilometres, probably could have kept going to 1000. Somehow still have many pairs in progress, for at least another month or two. Found a good price for some new Pegasus 37 so purchased them anyway, and a few pairs of running socks.

Also had my first two weeks running over 100 kilometres.

Seems like I say the same thing about shares, each month - a bit up and a bit down. Had two bad weeks leading into the USA elections, just after I reached a new record high of 9K.

A bit of sports wrapping up this month. The AFL grand final in Queensland but with two Victoria teams - I couldn't really pick a favourite so was happy for Richmond to win. On the other hand, anyone expect the LA Lakers winning the NBA playoffs would have been good, particularly disappointing when Miami Heat had two injuries during the first game of the finals.

The English Premier League is still going on despite country-wide lockdowns on the way there. Manchester United are still hopeless and can't get out of the bottom half.

Just a few small things in the to do list this month:

• Shopping 
• See running section
• Tax Return
• Paid over $1000 during the year - still need to pay another $500
• TV
• Got a Sony Bravia 43 and a separate stand
• The stand for the TV itself wasn't quite as wide as I thought, but still just too wide

Back to design tasks at work, a bit worried about upcoming workload due to a few people leaving the project or the company entirely.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None - can't even keep up with a few podcasts
• TV
• Ted Lasso
• Some players were basic stereotypes in the beginning, but improved as it went
• 9 out of 10
• The Purge season 1
• Took a while to get moving and have a theme for the season, but better than expected
• 7 out of 10 
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Fallout 4
• Didn't really like the storyline and the available choices
• Spent way too much time levelling up like Zelda
• It's deceiving with hundreds of levels you will never reach
• 7 out of 10

September Review

This is the September review, live from lockdown v4.2 - the stages are counting up now.

The lockdown diary:

• The first days under 100
• Estimated we're going to be trapped inside the state until Christmas
• Some more excellent new phrases
• Deadliest day yet
• Open up
• Stubborn case numbers
• The lowest day since X
• The X hasn't been this low since Y
• The lockdown was extended by 2 weeks
• But really it's 6 weeks because the first change is so insignificant
• Still trapped inside 5km radius - even 7.5km would have been something
• Extended to 2 hours of exercise at least
• The new plan has incredibly strict requirements to reduce restrictions
• Some NSW wouldn't meet today but have nowhere near the same rules
• 5 cases per day will be a long way off
• Regional Victoria is moving forwards now, that's one more place we can't go
• People getting too excited once the average reached 50
• The next step provides nothing and still have to wait over a week for the checkpoint
• Daily reports continue to provide almost no information about active and new cases compared to NSW
• Easily under the 30-50 target
• Why not just call it 50
• Everyone interviewed for the hotel inquiry could not remember anything
• Got stuck in the 40s for a while, but finally started back down towards 10 a day
• Government continue to deny any:
• Areas for improvement
• Past problems

Back to the usual.

Another pretty good month of running, although lots of small injuries kept popping up. A couple of good training sessions running just under 3:50/km for 8-9 kilometres, but would like to start progressing that to under 3:45/km some time. Had a good 5 x 1 kilometre session on the bike path, even though it's not an ideal place for sessions and not completely flat.

Hit a few new record weeks - 94km, 94km, 95km - but don't want to risk an injury to try and break 100km too soon. I hoped to transition into some new shoes during the month, but my old Nike Structure 21 have managed to last through to 900 kilometres. I have several pairs that are around 500 kilometres, so hopefully in another couple of months I'll be able to start on 3-4 new pairs, I'm not sure if the difference will be that noticeable.

A bad month in shares with hardly any recovery days, lost something like 10% in a week, then A2 Milk crashed 15% by itself.

Some more activity in sports again.

• AFL
• Carlton miss the finals again - no surprises
• MCG misses out on the grand final - also not a big surprise but disappointing
• Lots of low scoring games still at the end of season - even considering the shorter quarters
• EPL
• Somehow they are back even with the virus increasing in England, hope it can continue
• Manchester United came into the season with a bad start, and minimal player transfers
• NBA
• Disappointing finals series so far except for Boston vs. Toronto perhaps
• Haven't had much opportunity to watch while working because been too busy
• NFL
• Struggle to keep up with the highlights, don't finish watching until late in the week

The to do list is still quiet:

• Laptop
• Haven't concluded on a laptop to replace the outdated tablet yet
• TV
• Found some suitable 43 inch televisions that would be suitable size
• The main problem is the standard legs are wide with every product
• I'll need to buy a separate stand to attach instead

Slightly less busy at work for a change, after getting through a lot of overdue development work on the weekends. Back to doing designs again.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• All Or Nothing - Tottenham
• Great presentation and lots of access to the players and staff
• 10 out of 10
• Hard Knocks
• Probably the worst season
• Ruined by all the focus on the virus and no preseason games
• 4 out of 10
• Last Chance U season 5
• Not as good as previous seasons, the team didn't do so well either
• 6 out of 10
• Manifest season 2
• Doesn't seem to be going anywhere now
• 6 out of 10
• Sick Of It season 2
• It was alright but only six episodes
• 6 out of 10
• The Last Man On Earth season 3-4
• Not as good as the first two seasons
• 5 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Fallout 4
• Good fun wandering around and shooting things
• The variation of enemies becomes quite limited though
• It also takes too long to increase levels, and there's too many level upgrades

August Review

This is the August review, live from lockdown v4.

Starting with the lockdown diary:

• Stage 4 restrictions
• Almost everything shut down
• Only one hour of exercise a day within 5 kilometres radius
• Could have done this earlier instead of spending so many weeks at stage 3
• Great commentary from the 'experts'
• 'We've seen stage 4 restrictions work across the world'
• It was supposed to take 4 weeks to see the impact of masks, but we went to stage 4 anyway
• 8 July - stage 3
• 22 July - stage 3 with masks
• 2 August - stage 4
• 8 August - still no improvement from any previous changes
• Any comment from the 'experts' becomes headline news
• This was my favourite
• We went from 20 to 200 cases in a random 16 day sample
• So we would definitely have gone to 2,000 and 20,000 every 16 days afterwards !
• The headlines to follow are like - 20,000 cases avoided !!
• This was another great example of pure guesswork with no explanation
• 700 could have been 8000 without stage 3
• The hotel quarantine inquiry has shown the absolute worst of politicians
• Avoid giving any direct answers
• Contradictions
• Each departments claims to have a limited role and responsibility, but no expertise
• After one week of stage 4 and everyone already wants to plan stage 3 and 2 for September
• After two weeks of stage 4 and still 300 per day
• Every commentator remains 'cautiously optimistic'
• Continued talk about various border lock downs
• No interest whatsoever since we can't travel more than 5 kilometres
• No states ever publish criteria of when a lock down would be added or removed
• A bonus - one hour of high winds caused:
• Power outage
• Water supply impacted - panic buying bottled water instead
• Nearly down to 100 at last
• Great new phrases
• 'COVID-normal' - whatever that means
• 'The strategy is working'

Back to the usual slightly more positive news.

An hour of running has been just enough to suit my usual schedule, although not being able to do a weekend long run. A couple of weeks without a session over 20 kilometres was a good break, but six weeks is probably too much. Running closer to 13 kilometres each day instead of 10 or 11.

Had a random sore hamstring and shin pain, but both resolved within about a week each. I reached my goal of retiring some more shoes:

• Nike Pegasus 34 - 800km very worn
• Nike Structure 21 - 800km but might keep for another 50-100 kilometres
• Nike Zoom Vomero 11 - 1000km still not too bad

I've ordered some Nike shorts and t-shirt but definitely no more shoes. At a maximum of 400 kilometres per month it takes a long time when rotating 3-4 pairs of shoes for different functions.

A good month overall for shares, even though I've recorded a loss of like $75,000 while doing my tax return - hopefully a lot of that was reinvested during the market recovery. I'm still carrying two years of losses into future years as I have not sold much for profit.

A bit more to look forward to in sports, the AFL is getting close to the finals although the quality of games is still below average. The NBA is quickly into the playoffs also, but the round one matches have been largely predictable, the Houston vs. Oklahoma City might be the best series, even though individual games have not always been close.

The to do list is quiet again:

• Tax Return
• Even that wasn't a highlight as I have to pay another $500
• The strange part was it showed an outstanding tax return from 2002-03 to complete
• It's the first time I've seen that, and I don't think I started work until after June 2003
• If I don't click on it, maybe it will go away next year

I think my time doing a bit more development work will be over for a while as I have to focus on some other design work. It might be a good thing as I've been doing a lot of extra work on 'weekends'.

That's it for this month:

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• Manifest season 1
• The idea was alright, but feels like there won't be a plan for season 2
• 7 out of 10
• Middleditch + Schwartz
• A few live comedy improvisation shows
• 7 out of 10
• The Last Man On Earth season 1-2
• Sometimes I love it, other times not so much
• The lead character is great most of the time
• 6 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Zelda - Breath Of The Wild
• Should have done more upgrading items earlier in the game
• So much wasted time just walking around finding shrines
• 5 out of 10
• Xbox One
• Fallout 4
• Haven't played much yet
• More walking around, but combat is much more fun

July Review

This is the July review, seems like it took forever, must be that 31st day.

Starting off with lockdown news since there's no sign of that ending soon.

• Seems a bit like everyone vs. Victoria in the state news conferences
• Over 100 cases in a day was a surprise, but shortly followed by nearly breaking 200
• Government response - 6 more weeks of lockdown
• Nearly 300 in a day
• Had to go to the city one day, back to being totally empty - pretty sad
• Government says all cases might be linked to the first hotel outbreak
• Simultaneously don't want to going into details of hotel outbreaks due to the inquiry
• Global cases surpass 13.1 million was one news report - a nice round figure
• Broke 400 in a day
• Government response - mandatory face masks but no stage 4 restrictions
• Suddenly masks are really great after being dismissed until now
• 3 days warning about face masks, panic buying begins
• I ordered some other face coverings online, some arrived in time
• Nearly 500 cases in a day
• No drop in numbers after 2 weeks of lockdown
• The experts are good at claiming to be experts after the fact
• We said it was going to be worse before it got better
• We knew it wasn't like the first wave
• Too many people with an opinion, lots calling for complete shutdown
• Large fluctuation in numbers, down to 300 cases then 700 cases
• Most numbers from aged care facilities or meat processing plants
• Lack of detailed data otherwise
• Claims of major delays with contact tracing despite have 2000 staff
• The blame keeps shifting:
• Family groups
• People going to work
• Young people
• People constantly breaking the rules
• Having parties
• Travelling long distances

Back to the usual, starting with running, the only thing left to do - at least a face mask is not mandatory as it's almost impossible to breathe. Been dealing with sore left hip and knee all month, it's improved a little but still not cleared up.

The only goal with running right now seems to be getting to retire some old shoes so I can start on some new ones. It's a very slow process when I run 3000-4000 kilometres a year and some shoes last 1000 kilometres, and it's hard to decide when a shoe is worn out. I've reached the end of a pair of Lunar Glide 8 at 815 km and Structure 18 at 950 km. Three more pairs are in their last 100 kilometres, so maybe after that, near the end of August I'll be down to only three pairs of half-worn shoes !

Other than that, I managed one good 22 kilometre long run and a couple of training sessions went alright.

The sharemarket hasn't been going anywhere for the last couple of months now. I managed to get 40% from a capital raise, and another which was limited to $500.

The AFL has all moved interstate now, although we never got to be in attendance when they were in Melbourne anyway. The premier league had a good finish for the final European positions and relegation, which is usually more interesting than first place. Only six weeks off and they'll be preparing to start the next season in mid September.

The to do list won't be busy for a while:

• Computer clean-out
• Found some old floppy disks going back to Windows 3.11
• New laptop and TV
• Haven't decided yet

Still working remotely five days a week. Since there's nothing else happening I end up spending more time in the evening and sometimes on the weekend too.

That's it for this month:

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Palm Springs
• The 'Groundhog Day' story has been a few times before, but some good comedy
• 7 out of 10
• The Hunt
• 2 out of 10
• The Rental
• Entertaining light horror
• 6 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• 4th And Forever - Muck City
• Another good documentary about an American football team - high school this time
• 7 out of 10
• Mindhunter season 2
• A good show but just too slow, didn't really build to anything
• 6 out of 10
• Solar Opposites
• A few good episodes but some were a miss
• The same voice actor as Rick from Rick and Morty is the best part
• 5 out of 10
• Space Force
• I don't really know what to make of it, it's a bit more drama than comedy
• 5 out of 10
• The Titan Games season 2
• A much better format than the first season, but events still finish too quick
• 7 out of 10
• Twilight Zone
• The same theme again - a few stories were great, others were just bad
• 4 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Zelda - Breath Of The Wild
• Just walking around finding all the shrines
• Hadn't done an armor upgrading, would have helped a bit

June Review

It's the June review aka lockdown version 4, which is becoming more like lockdown version 1.

• USA protests and riots became a second issue to deal with
• Australia immediately copied the USA of course, although protesting on a range of issues
• Climate
• Historical figures
• Police
• Racism
• Refugees
• You can't prevent people from protesting, but the timing was extremely poor
• Every state still applying different rules this month, not much national commentary
• Only small numbers hanging around in Victoria, but not quite reaching zero
• Then sudden increases each day in Victoria only
• Had to stop easing some restrictions
• Panic shopping version 2 was short lived
• Some sports resumed, but no movies or TV shows in the pipeline
• The 'second wave' is the new favourite term
• Cluster
• Flattening the curve
• Herd immunity
• Super spreader
• The daily reported numbers are either not explained well or not revisited
• From known clusters
• From routine testing
• Still under investigation - usually never heard from again
• Comments from the public - I'm doing the right thing, but nobody else is
• People are too close
• The shopping centres are too busy
• Victoria the only state with problems, becoming closed off from the rest of Australia
• Some unlucky suburbs back to the original lockdown rules

My good luck with running may have come to an end, I battled through some blistering on both big toes for a few weeks, then just while that was clearing up I encountered a really sore left hip, which has extended into knee and lower leg pain.

In between those problems I managed some of my best training sessions, and a longest daily run of 25 kilometres. I just fell short of another record month, but still haven't managed to retire any shoes although I purchased a few new pairs:

• Pegasus 2 Turbo for $180 - third pair
• Pegasus 36 for $100
• Odyssey React Flyknit 2 for $45 - cheap!

In more sad running news, other than having no races, parkrun have cancelled their double event on new years day so now it's just a single event like a usual weekend. Next year it will be on a Friday though, so it's almost like a double run - if we are back by then...

Had a good month in shares overall, finally reached a new high, then dropped again but seems to be stable for the moment despite all the surrounding bad news. I tried to get some news shares in DDR and UMG capital raising, but only got 50% and 75% of what I wanted. In other finance related news I thought I should make a couple of charity donations before the end of the financial year - impossible to choose what is the best or most needy cause.

Not of a lot of excitement in sports at the moment, the AFL is back but very low scoring, although there is a bit more uncertainty in the results for now. The EPL is just beginning so more on that next month, but at least Manchester United are one of the teams that have started well.

There's nothing in the to do list:

• Computer clean out
• New wifi adapter has been more stable, no difference in speed due to capped NBN 50 deal
• Still have endless amount of junk - cables, DVDs, hard drives
• Furniture
• Could do with a new bedroom TV
• Sony 40in from 2008 is 'popping' a bit more while cooling down
• Still works well otherwise, just doesn't get some new TV channel frequencies
• Only have room for a 43in upgrade probably
• Could do with a new computer desk too

Finally my new gaming chair arrived to use for work from home. I think it's more comfortable after some angle adjustments, but it is a bit narrow - it rises up on the sides, which I hope hasn't been contributing to my left hip problems as I sometimes lean against the side.

That's it for this month:

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• 13 Reasons Why season 4
• Such bad stories
• 3 out of 10
• Cobra Kai season 2
• Much better than expected for a YouTube series
• 7 out of 10
• Lunatics
• Great except for one or two characters
• 6 out of 10
• Manhunt season 2
• A good start with Atlanta bombing, but not very interesting afterwards
• 4 out of 10
• Quiz
• Just three episodes
• 4 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
• Only played an hour, decided to play Zelda instead
• Zelda - Breath Of The Wild
• Seems like an Elder Scrolls game so far
• Too much walking around

May Review

This is the May review with lockdown version 3.

• Victoria the last to reduce any restrictions
• Victoria also often has the most new cases each day now
• More of the same news every day being either:
• It's the worst {something} since {sometime}
• What will be the impact after lockdown
• What will we do differently after lockdown
• Many of the new cases being reported are (still) returning travelers
• Changes later this month were just slight adjustments to the previous number limits
• Every economic plan by the government involves helping the construction industry
• Most places can be open with some limits now, or coming soon in June
• No signs of a good plan to get the majority of office workers back soon
• I'm happy to wait until the end of winter

Back to the usual topics now, starting with running. I had my best month overall with 390 kilometres and longest run at 24+ kilometres, actually my three longest months ever are all this year now. Just doing one training session a week at the moment to reduce injury and general soreness, just started getting some blistering and rubbing on my right foot in the last week.

Being at home means I'm working through a different batch of shoes, except they are all getting close to retirement now and I don't think the Nike stores are open yet !

• Nike Lunar Eclipse 3 - 675km - at work
• Nike Lunar Glide 8 - 790km - about to retire
• Nike Pegasus 34 - 690km - ok
• Nike Structure 18 - 875km - still ok
• Nike Structure 21 - 640km - still ok but maybe not for long runs
• Nike Vomero 11 - 875km - still ok 

I only started tracking shoe distance more recently so I don't have a lot of history, but it seems like the more stable shoes will last 800+ and the lighter racing shoes are more in the 600+ range.

A good month for shares despite all the predictions of the economic trouble ahead. It's helped that Afterpay has been flying, something like 400% from their recent lows. I invested a little in a couple of capital raising which should bring a good profit from the first day, and a few other small investments with some money I had sitting on the sidelines. Surprisingly by the end of the month I'm only down about 2% from my record high in February.

Nothing happening in sports but it looks like most competitions will plan to start in June or July, I'm not sure why the NBA seems to be so much slower than everyone else.

The to do list is still a bit empty:

• Blog photos finally all migrated
• Computer cleanup
• Still have lots old boxes, cables, DVDs, hard drives, manuals
• Going to take a long time to sort through what to keep - not much
• Found a few old photos from high school and LAN on a backup CD
• Online shopping did a bit more than usual
• Amazon - drinks and running clothes
• Computer shop - Gaming chair and wifi adapter
• Ikea - bedding stuff
• Running Warehouse - energy bars and running clothes

The work from home situation is about the same. For me the only reason to not enjoy going to work is the terrible public transport. After waiting six weeks my gaming chair got cancelled, so I had to go back and order another one, hopefully arrives in a couple of weeks this time. With all the panic 'home office' buying I could still barely find a USB wifi adapter anywhere too. Being at home there is the opportunity to work a bit easier, but I seem to working more hours than usual most of the time.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Bad Education
• 7 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• Formula 1 Drive To Survive season 2
• Similar to the previous year
• Skipped a lot of the races, which I never watched
• Don't like a lot of the people involved
• 6 out of 10
• Homeland season 8
• The end was disappointing
• 5 out of 10
• How To Get Away With Murder
• A bad final season, the story was a mess
• 4 out of 10
• The Last Dance
• Good footage
• Didn't like all of the flashbacks
• 8 out of 10
• Survivor season 40
• The fire tokens and second island were pointless
• Occasionally good but more frustrating, expected better from returning winners
• 4 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Some power moon challenges just made too difficult for casual players
• 7 out of 10
• Zelda - Link's Awakening
• A bit easy and limited depth, just got stuck a couple of times in a dungeon
• 5 out of 10

2020 Goals

This is long overdue but I drafted them out probably in early February. A lot of these will be impossible now, which would not have been imaginable at the time.

• Blog
• 50 posts - try to add a few more photos
• Car
• Retire the old Mitsubishi Lancer
• Fitness
• Bike
• A small number of bike rides would be a starting point
• Run
• 5km - 18:00
• 10km - 37:30 is about a PB time
• 21km - two races and a PB
• Total Distance - 2500-3000 kilometres
• Parkrun - 10 new events
• Races
• 5 new events
• 1 international events - either NZ or Singapore
• 2 interstate events - already missed two Hobart options
• Weight
• 70kg
• Food
• Healthy options besides fruit
• Holiday
• One short interstate or international holiday
• One longer international holiday
• Probably South East Asia like Cambodia, Vietnam etc.
• House
• Hopefully, at least have decided on an area and made some progress
• Money
• Shares
• Depends on house - don't want to cash in everything for a deposit
• 10% given strong performance last year
• Super
• 10% including contributions
• New contributions will have less impact as (when) the total increases
• Music
• 5 is best case scenario - one planned so far
• Reading
• 5 books
• Sport
• AFL
• Cricket world cup - maybe
• NBL finals - if Sydney qualifies
• Study
• 1 exam perhaps, depending on work projects
• To Do List
• No major goals besides this list
• Video Games
• Install Nintendo Switch
• 5 games finished
• Work
• Promotion hopefully

April Review

This is the April review with another lockdown intro.

• No major changes this month
• Just normal routine now and not much difference between the week and weekend
• Number of daily infections dropping but still a few every day
• Far too many experts giving daily updates
• State premier
• State health minister
• State medical officer
• State deputy medical officer
• Repeat the above for every state and federal government
• Also daily AFL hub proposal news since there's no actual sport to report on
• Sometimes slow internet but it's a miracle the NBN hasn't died completely
• Seems like increasingly more cars and traffic on the road

Managed to get through a full month of running while battling a bit of knee soreness, going past 50 consecutive days - easily my longest streak. The major tracks and trails still have cyclists and walkers everywhere, but on a cold or rainy day they nearly all disappear at least. Have only been doing one workout session each the week, the best was 8 kilometres at 3:46/km with a warm up and cool down.

No biking, going to remove from the monthly list for a while.

On average shares have recovered about 50% of losses, thanks to one good week with close to 10% gains. The only bad thing was the drop was so severe and so quick I had to make adjustments to my investment loan - they really should have a bit more leniency in these situations, instead I was getting updates even before the close of business the same day.

Nothing at all happening in sports.

Up to the to do list already:

• Blog 2020 goals done - most are already unachievable
• Blog photos all migrated except for bakery
• Car transfer finally done - old custom plates reserved and 12 month service

Hasn't been too much change at work. Had to order a new gaming chair but of course they are all sold out, been waiting weeks now. I don't really enjoy working from home all the time, but one thing I don't miss is the train travel. I had to go into the city one day to clean out my old locker, was more people in the city than I was expecting.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• The Way Back
• The basketball was alright, but story was a little lacking
• 5 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• Better Call Saul season 5
• Some slow episodes
• Good but a bit too much focus on the cartels
• 7 out of 10
• Curb season 10
• Didn't like the stories as much this season
• 6 out of 10
• Mr Robot season 4
• The ending was just a waste of time
• 2 out of 10
• Sunderland Till I Die season 2
• Barely any match coverage in the early episodes, didn't even show the final scores
• Improved towards the end of the season, but had no conclusion
• 7 out of 10
• Survivor AU season 7
• The episodes were way too long, tribal councils in particular
• The strategy of contestants is generally poor
• 4 out of 10
• Survivor season 40 - in progress
• Seems a bit rushed, needed longer episodes - the opposite of Survivor Australia
• 8 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Golf Story
• Bought from eshop for $10
• New Super Mario U Deluxe - Luigi U
• Shorter levels that Mario U
• Was easier to get most of the big coins
• 8 out of 10
• Super Mario Odyssey
• The main gain was a bit disappointing as it feels like a lot of mini games
• Lots more to do after the game is finished, but need a guide to find everything
• 7 out of 10
• Pro Controller
• Took a day to get used to, but is much better

March Review

Looking back I'm not sure if I was expecting March to be an improvement, but conditions and restrictions just got progressively worse. I should have kept a running commentary of my thoughts about the coronavirus escalation, but didn't think of it at the time, so instead I just have backdated some thoughts, beginning from later in the month.

• The general view was that it wasn't a big deal, and would run it's course soon enough
• Financial experts in particular were declaring that this wasn't another GFC
• That was soon followed by the panic supermarket buying, which was greedy and stupid, but mostly harmless
• Train occupancy travelling to work was a little thinner, but no obvious differences
• Many small changes from state and federal governments, didn't seem very proactive, and often contradictory and unclear
• Started working from home on Wednesday the 18th, as most other people had started doing the same
• Felt like people were starting to make a small effort to keep a bit of distance in public
• The rules had been mostly related to air travel, but were now focusing on keeping the community separated
• Sadly people were ignoring most of the rules, and tougher restrictions had to be introduced
• Daily news reporting the latest infection numbers, always escalating the predicted long term impacts on the economy and employment
• Multiple weeks of terrible 10% losses on the supermarket, not just the industries most impacted
• Too much TV coverage repeating the same facts for hours - not sure who wants to watch that every day
• Thinking about my own situation:
• Employment - lucky to be on a project that should run until early next year
• Finances - got smashed on the sharemarket, but many other people will be in much worse situations, should recover eventually
• Health - still allowed to be outside for exercise to stay fit
• Incredible increase in people outside on running paths and trails:
• Bike riders
• Dog walkers
• Elderly walkers
• Family bike riders
• The majority of people outside for exercise make little or no attempt to maintain a safe distance
• Incredible fluctuations in the sharemarket, lots of companies moving 20-30% on a daily basis
• Stage 3 introduced, the main change was no more than two people outside together excluding households
• Huge payment scheme for all unemployed, some necessary moves but a worry how it will repaid
• Settled into a bit of a holding pattern since stage 3, shopping safety continues to be a focus
• As the pool of infected people increases people starting to be more cautious

Now for the normal monthly content.

Had my last running race for a while at the beginning of the month, the River Run Geelong 10km. It was a good event along the bike paths on both sides of the Barwon River in South Geelong, but a bit challenging with several short, steep uphill sections and some narrow bridge crossings. I don't understand why I seem to begin to struggle after 5km of a 10km race while running much slower than a 5km best effort, but I battled on this time and had a good finish. My time of 37:40 was probably about equal to second best.

The next week all the big events started being cancelled or postponed, but parkrun managed to last a couple of weeks longer. I just missed out on an 18:00 at Birdsland parkrun which was a surprise. Otherwise I've been running almost every day, but have a bit of a worry with some regular left knee soreness for about a week now. This is the same area of the knee I've always had trouble with, but has been generally pain free for the last couple of years.

No biking.

Not much more to say about shares than I covered in the introduction. Three bad weeks saw a drop of close to 40%, but there's been two weeks of 5% improvement each since. I sold a few shares along the way during the drop, which has generally proven to be a good decision so far, but I am happy to sit and hold the rest rather than try to time when to jump back in. My investment loan is looking a bit sick now, I think it was a worthwhile experiment though as this was a very unpredictable and fast impacting event to have happened.

Similarly all sports events have been cancelled. The Sydney Kings finished in first place, but managed to lose the NBL finals 2-1 in a best of a five, with the final two games being cancelled. I was even considering going to one of the Sydney games, but it became obvious that wasn't going to happen and they ended up playing without a crowd.

The to do list will probably be limited for a while now:

• Blog
• 2020 goals still not done - I will keep the original list despite the dramatic changes
• 90% complete with migrating photos
• Car
• Cost was too much to fix the car, so sadly had to retire it
• Keeping the custom plates on hold, and got some money back from insurance and registration

Hasn't been much change in work other than the shift to working from home completely. Has been a bit stressful trying to keep progress on many small tasks.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None - won't be many new movies for a while with all cinemas closed
• Music
• None - won't be any tours for a while
• TV
• All Or Nothing season 5 - Philadelphia Eagles
• A good documentary following the team for the 2019 season
• 8 out of 10
• Lincoln Rhyme - Hunt For The Bone Collector
• A reasonable good adaptation of the book / movie
• 6 out of 10
• Stranger Things season 3
• Had some good moments, but a bit similar to previous seasons
• 7 out of 10
• The Simpsons season 30
• Like most seasons the quality varies a lot between episodes
• The second half of the season was really good though
• 7 out of 10
• Video Games
• Nintendo Switch
• Got the Switch connected
• New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe
• The basic game was a bit short
• The star levels were incredibly painful to complete
• 7 out of 10
• Xbox One
• Forza Horizon 3
• Good to be finished at last
• 5 out of 10

February Review

A review ahead of schedule, can't remember when that happened last. I'll be happy to see the start of a new month - coronavirus updates every day, losing money on the share market every day, injuries still haven't cleared up, old car broke down, frustrating project at work. Most of that great news and more will be covered in this review, but looking at the list, nearly all of that will also continue into March at least - won't be having a fresh start then...

I managed a relatively successful month of running despite my hamstring injury still hanging around. I think after the next race this weekend I need to try another break or only running slowly since it's been over three months now.

Three new parkruns at Berwick Waters, Grand Ridge and Warringal Parklands. The Grand Ridge Rail Trail was the best course and also the hardest, a close second was Berwick Waters only because it was an incredibly humid day. To finish off the month I also reached my 200th event. I still have one spot left on my parkrun bingo challenge, another two times I finished on 59 seconds instead of 58 thanks to some idiot getting in the way at the finish line as I was slowing down to cross the line.

Grand Ridge Rail Trail.

One race for the month at Warburton for the 10km. It's quite a challenging course with a few hills, one large one in particular, but I finished with a better time than last year and didn't feel as bad as usual at the finish. The official time was under 38 minutes but the course seems to measure quite a long way under 10 kilometres every year.

Warburton - starting on long wet grass isn't ideal.

I've managed to work up to 20 kilometres on weekend long runs, but don't want to commit to any longer events up to half marathon distance until I can get my leg fixed and back into proper training.

No biking.

The less said about shares the better. I sold a couple of under-performing investments a few weeks ago but still have a lot of junk to dispose of. The latest reporting period didn't produce many winners, every company seems to have missed targets and blamed bushfires and the virus, in addition to the entire market dropping more than 10% in a week.

The superbowl was held in early February, I think it's the only game I watched in full for the season. I would have preferred San Francisco to win although didn't really like either team. Next we have NBL finals coming up, hopefully Sydney Kings can make it.

The to do list is pretty weak this month:

• 2020 goals
• I wrote the rough outline, just haven't posted them
• Blog photos
• About 80% migrated, then no more broken images
• Car problems
• An unexpected task, should be resolving it soon one way or another

At work I'm still doing a lot of less technical design work, which isn't as bad as I would have guessed, it's just incredibly frustrating due to poor planning, lack of information and lack of co-operation.

That's it for this month, hopefully the next one is a bit better.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None - I think I watched a couple but forgot to take note
• Music
• The New Pornographers
• Another great session from the band including Neko Case
• I didn't know some of the new songs but there wasn't that many played
• Never been to Melbourne Recital Centre before - not a bad venue
• 9 out of 10
• TV
• I think I finished more shows too but forgot to take note - and regulars like Criminal Minds
• Jack Ryan season 2
• The story was a bit scattered, not as good as the first season
• 6 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Forza Horizon 3
• One more event to do and will be finished at last

January Review

One month down already. In order we had: extreme heat, bush fires, smoke, rain carrying dust, a bit of everything. Maybe we'll be back to normal next time.

I haven't made much progress with running due to more setbacks in the upper leg region - glute, hamstring or both. Basically I've been taking the weekdays off to be good enough for a parkrun and other weekend running, on repeat each week. Traveled to Newborough and Churchill for the new years day double, finding out again it's really hard to try and run two times under 20 minutes with an hour break in between. There was a lot of cancellations due to air quality for a couple of weeks afterwards, the worst was the first weekend of January, I was at Darebin and it was really noticeable at the city end of the course.

Newborough parkrun.

Other highlights included running a 18:20 at Birdsland, my best time for the year so far, a week of volunteering, and getting the second last spot in my parkrun bingo list - finishing times ending with each of 0-59 seconds.

I also was fortunate enough to run well in the Rosebud Australia Day Fun Run, I wasn't sure about both fitness over 10 kilometres and the risk of hamstring injury getting worse, but I got through with a good time of about 38 minutes, and only a little more sore than usual. It's a bit hard to say for sure since each event distance is not exactly 10 kilometres, but it's probably my 3rd or 4th best time ever.

That's enough running, and no biking again this month !

Haven't been saving a lot of money for shares investments lately, I tried to apply for $5000 of Afterpay shares as an existing shareholder, but it was oversubscribed so I only got like $1000 and eventually refunded the rest. Also in the process of selling a few more terrible performing shares for even more losses.

The Australian Open tennis is just about to finish, it's a week later than usual now. I only made a few bets this year since the promotion for hitting aces was reduced to only a few games each day. Still I've made about $65 so far by turning some of the bonus bets into winning bets, with a few remaining. The NFL playoffs are also finished besides the Super Bowl, not many teams I like this year after New England and Seattle both lost, I've still only been watching the 10 minute games highlights during the playoff rounds.

Making a good start to the year with the to do list, makes sense with a bit of time off work.

• 2019 review is done, but not the 2020 goals - not expecting much
• Blog photos have been about 50% migrated off the old host, wrote a script to make it quicker
• Running plans
• Got a couple of months of parkrun planned out for new events and new event numbers
• Got a very rough plan of other races for the year, depends on injury and holiday opportunities
• Windows 10 upgrade finally done !
• Much easier than I expected, had planned for worse case scenario of a fresh install
• Probably 2 hours for the upgrade and 1-2 hours to customise
• Installed some new tools related to work like Docker Desktop and WSL

Had a boring month at work. I'm not a huge fan of design and documentation, but the lack of information has made it much slower and difficult than it should be.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Countdown
• Like a really bad version of Final Destination
• 1 out of 10
• Knives Out
• Surprisingly better than expected, and improved towards the end
• 8 out of 10
• Music
• Got a ticket for The New Pornographers in February
• TV
• Barry
• Feels a bit like a copy of Dexter, but otherwise very good
• Has two actresses from The Good Place also
• 7 out of 10
• Fear The Walking Dead season 5
• Really enjoyed it until the final few episodes
• 7 out of 10
• Mr Mercedes season 3
• The second book, made more sense as the third TV series
• A bit unrelated to the other two books, so not as good
• 6 out of 10
• The Walking Dead season 10 - first half
• They just spend too much time with each rival community
• 5 out of 10
• Utopia season 4
• Another great season
• 9 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Forza Horizon 3
• Dragging towards the end, hopefully finished soon
• It would be interesting to see if I rate the same game different each month
• 5 out of 10

2019 Review

A bit overdue for the yearly, although it's not much more than a summary of each monthly.

These were some of the traceable 2019 goals I put down, before I come up with similar ones for 2020...

• Blog (50%)
• 26 out of 50
• Had no holidays so just consists of monthly reports and a bit of running
• Car (100%)
• Finally decided to go with a Mitsubishi Lancer 2017
• Good enough for the amount of driving I do, and more comfortable than the old one
• Fitness
• Bike (0%)
• None
• Run (75%)
• I've put more details in the 2019 running review
• 5km was right on my target time of 18:00
• 10km was also close to my target time of 37:30
• 21km improved PB by 30 seconds, hoped to get a little closer to 1 hour 20 minutes
• Only did one half marathon instead of two
• Total distance just missed due to injuries to finish the year
• 13 of 10 new parkrun events
• 0 of 1 international events
• 0 of 2 interstate events due to last minute Gold Coast injuries
• Weight (10%)
• Still stuck around 75 kg instead of 70 kg
• Food (0%)
• Haven't changed much to help with fitness and weight
• Holiday (25%)
• 0 of 1 international holidays
• 2 small interstate holidays
• Brisbane 3 days and Gold Coast 2 days barely counts
• House (0%)
• None
• Money (100%)
• Shares
• Hard to calculate exactly due to extra investments
• Close enough to 50% recovery from late 2019, optimistic aim was 25%
• Investment loan also recovered to about 10% profit
• Super
• Hard to calculate also due to contributions
• Possibly up 20% which was the goal, a third of that is probably new contributions
• Extra 3% contributions
• Music (20%)
• 1 of 5 events
• September - Apocalyptica at Hamer Hall
• Reading (0%)
• None
• Sport (75%)
• No goals really
• March - NBL finals
• August - Australia vs USA basketball
• September - AFL grand final
• Study (0%)
• 0 of 2 exams
• To Do List (50%)
• Just wanted to get all of the larger 2018 and 2019 tasks done
• Most of these have been listed already
• Yes
• New car
• New Garmin watch
• Super contribution
• No
• Holidays
• House
• Video Games (50%)
• Opened Xbox One at last
• Haven't opened Nintendo Switch yet, can only do one at a time anyway
• Did not quite finish five games:
• Xbox 360
• GRID 2
• Final Fantasy XIII - Lightning Returns
• Xbox One
• Forza Horizon 4
• Forza Horizon 3 almost
• Work (25%)
• Had a good variety of projects is a small success
• No promotion this year and project positions haven't been ideal

And similar to the monthly reports I'll end with a few favourites for the year:

• Movies
• Parasite
• Us
• TV
• Atlanta
• Rosehaven
• The Amazing Race
• The Challenge
• Video Games
• None were a standout - too much achievement grinding

December Review

This is the December review, the entire year review will be some time later.

A second bad month of running with a persistent hamstring injury, I managed to get through the month, but without any training sessions, and it has been quite uncomfortable most of the time. I wasn't ready for the Cherry Lake race either, so this was the only month this year without a race.

I struggled through a few Birdsland parkruns with times around 18:30 or slower. I had planned a bit more parkrun travelling over the break, but due to injuries and also the weather conditions from bush fires I only ended up going to You Yangs on Christmas day, it was an early start but a fun course with a couple of hills.

No biking.

I've had some shares sold for once, but only due to some companies being acquired. The takeovers worked out quite well with a 25% and 100% profit for the two, which helped end the year a bit better. I put the money into some new companies and also added a bit to my investment loan.

Nothing much new in sports, I only watched the Vic Bowl gridiron on a stream as the same team has been winning easily the last three years. I also watched the Steigen 1 athletics competition on a stream which was a really good and different format for short distance running with teams.

The to do list didn't get much attention despite the time off work:

• Blog photos
• I'm slowly migrating my photos off an old hosting service, nearly 50% done
• New Year planning
• As noted above, I was originally planning a short trip to Canberra but cancelled
• The decision was good as the parkruns were cancelled too
• Windows 10 upgrade
• Decided to wait for the moment, not so important after getting a new work laptop

Had a bit of a slow finish to the year at work, hopefully gets going again in the new year with some meaningful activities.

That's it for this month and year.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Parasite
• Great Korean movie, something a bit different
• 9 out of 10
• Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise Of Skywalker
• Just so similar to every other story
• 5 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• Ballers season 5
• Such bad stories and useless characters always have success
• 2 out of 10
• Black Mirror 5.03
• Better than the previous two, a bit more technology focused
• 7 out of 10
• Brockmire season 1
• Annoying voice and character ruined the concept, couldn't watch season 2
• 3 out of 10
• Silicon Valley season 6
• The seasons were too short, but stories still seemed a bit recycled
• 6 out of 10
• Survivor season 39
• Such incredibly bad handling of a contestant claims of sexual harassment
• 5 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Forza Horizon 3
• Just missing some of the good improvements in Horizon 4
• Forza Horizon 4
• Finally finished all the single player achievements