fire

hmmms, been a while ay...
So much has happened! and the Olympics have finally finished... okay, so not that much has happened in my life, but it has for everyone else in the world..

How good did Australia go?! 4th overall! such a top effort from everybody who participated to make a thoroughly enjoyable Olympics. I am now a huge fan of track cycling! After watching Ryan Bayley go around the track, the Madison race and the excellent Phil Liggett commentating, the excitement of all the events, not just Australians, showed what a great sport cycling is.

This now means that I have no excuse for not doing uni work! Shocking ay, the Olympics pretty much consumed my life for 1.5 weeks, haha. See you in 4 years Beijing (with the coverage filled with wonderful asian cliches no doubt, yipppeeee)

hmmm, anywys, the weekend just gone... I went to Katoomba! For the Credo Eng & IT faculty getaway/retreat/watever you want to call it. and it was very cool.. except for the closure of the great stairway at the 3 sisters... I didn't know it had been closed for some time due to a landslide, shame really, I've never climbed it, would have been awesome.. At the cottage that we stayed at, there was a fireplace... and it was great, cos I love... ahem... tending fires... hehehe... When I ever get a house of my own, I want a fireplace!!.. hehe

I think that will be...umm...#4 on my list of things to get when I'm married and moved out... (I will document all of these things later, I've been talking about them to my family for some time now, hehe)
with #1 being an Espresso coffee machine, 16 bar+, Gaggia preferably... mehehe

I will attempt to keep plugging away at this as often as possible, but it maybe hard in the next few weeks due to big fat assignment, joyjoy!

-d

aussie aussie aussie (baseball)

this is quick, cos I don't have that much time to spend atm on this (thus why I haven't blogged for a few days now)

but how good were the Aussies in the baseball over Japan?! YAY! might even boost interest in the great game back home... well, maybe. hehehe

and like, yay for everything else! hmm, except that rowing incident, just all baad i think...

Lucky the olympics are on now, and not later in the semester... they seem to have taken over my life... heheheh

anyways, gotta go

-d

Fashion Critic

I'm currently in a suit (but no tie). I'm supposed to be semi formal (it was for the dinner). Is this it? I'd like to hear people's definition of what each dress code is (casual, smart casual, semi formal, formal, dag, yuppy, geek, etc)

Executive Duty

I'm writing this as I'm on the train into the city. Going to the UTS activities clubs dinner tonight. Not really excited by it really. Fulfilling EngSoc exec duty. Guess I'll see how it goes.

Missed a jog again today, decided to turn it into a rest day. man l'm lazy. I have about 3 weeks to train, wonder if l'll be strong enough to race decently.

yay for Jodie Henry! and good to see Liesel do good, but it would have been nice to see her happier with the medal, especially since the American girl was favourite and all. Seems to be too much emphasis on the gold all the time ay?

Great effort by the Boomers to really challenge the USA in the basketball! With less turnovers the match would been closer too. You made us all proud guys, well done!

I ordered Wil Wheaton's two books from amazon.com, Just a Geek and Dancing Barefoot. The postage seemed a bit steep, US$17. ah well, altogether still cheaper than Dymocks by $20. That's worth wil wheaton goodness I'd say.

elka

Was able to wake up and resume my jogging career this morning. Very satisfying one too, I think I'm getting more used to it. I plan to run in probably the 10km category at the Harbour Bridge run. The fact a few of my friends are doing it convinced me, fingers crossed that I'll be trained up and ready for it (seeing as I don't have a distance running background, there is a lot of work to do)

Enjoyed watching the Olympics this morning again, after taping it. I wonder why I bother taping it, when there always seems to be the beaming face of Joanna Griggs showing us all highlights of the coverage overnight. Ah well, I get the pseudo-live feeling, wooooo

To the title of this post. I love Elka Graham.
haha, well, not really that extreme, but she is awesome, and she swum so good for her leg of the 4x200m Freestyle Relay, yay! You'll be back better in Beijing :)

Speaking of Olympics, how good was the Aussie baseball team?!?! woohoo! toppling Japan 9-4, it goes some way to erasing some disappointment from Sydney.. still gotta win 2 of 3 matches to make the playoffs though, but its inspired me for the upcoming local season, hehehe

Going to the footy on Saturday night! Essendon play Sydney, and I'm taking a mate who is one of the biggest AFL fans I know, so it'll be awesome. Finals positions on the line and all that, lucky we beat Collingwood last week (yaaay!)

hm, sport filled post that is
guess I'm just not in the mood for work :P

-d

dan has acquired Helmet of HTML Proficiency +2

not really, I just figured out where to stick that links thingo.. and experimented by adding a funny looking <> doobie

I'm such a noob :P

Motion

The stars are alive
They dance to the music
Of the deepest emotion
And all of the world
Is singing in time
As the heavens are caving in
Mysterious ways
Why God gave His life
To put motion inside my soul

- Switchfoot "Love is the movement"

gold....Gold....GOLD!!!

I missed my jog again this morning.. like yesterday...
I gotta get myself motivated again or I'll slip back into my normal habit of not doing anything to get my fitness up, eek!

but why did I miss the jog?!... I slept in... and I slept in waay too much again..
ehehe, I'm an idiot, I wake up feeling that I've wasted the whole day... maybe I'll jog this arvo...

on to the title of this email... good thing I taped the swimming... HOW GOOD WAS IT?!

I'm talking about the 200m freestyle, with Thorpie, Hacky, Hoogy and.. .er.. Phelpy.. in it. Great line up, and even greater result, Thorpie just pwning the others... but I think in 4 years time, Phelps will probably take the thing out..

But for now, gold...Gold...GOLD for Australia!!!!

And Welshy gave it a great crack in the 100m backstroke as well, great stuff to him. And the girls in the 200m Breaststroke, proud of them too, yaay!

Who's noticed the complete lack of spectators at some of these Athens venues though? Disgraceful I say, it was so hard to get into anything here in Sydney, but at Athens (like Roy & HG said) I could drive straight into the venue and park my car wherever I want. Even watch the event from the car! Tragic I say.. Get into the spirit Greek locals! er.. if theres any left in Athens, hehe

on to uni work, does anybody know OmNet++? I'm having trouble just getting it started, I'm trying to do the tutorial, and commands they say to use don't even exist! like "Make" and stuff

hms, guess I'll just have to keep plugging away

-d

twang twang, strum strum

I just found this program to put pics on my blog (I'm so amateur), and I decided to introduce you all to my guitar which I got a few weeks ago! (below)

Its a Chrome Red, 2004 American Standard Fender Telecaster, with a Rosewood fretboard.
And its.. well.. more than seven shades of awesome, ehehe
This pic is a bit dodgy, cause its taken from my phone camera (a SE P900). I might put up a btter quality pic from a digi cam later.

How good is it?! hehe, I love it.. it inspires me to want to achieve greatness in guitar skill... then I wake up from that dream and see the horrible reality :P

anyways, I gotta tape Roy & HG, eek!

-d

My Guitar! 

this html gig is just wayyy too advanced for me

hmms, for a geek I'm pretty try hard, as I've previously said
apparently the tables and stuff are stuffed up on IE browsers...
must be because I added the links on the left....

help! what do I do?!

...

*shout from the back*

yes, I know I should actually learn html properly... and no, my goldfish is not a smelly piece of spoilt sashimi... and I don't even have one for that matter you mis-informed dolt..

yeah, I should learn html.. as well as php, probability, fourier analysis, guitar chord theory... my plate is overflowing all the time, heehee

I should stick to priorities!

which is why I'm going to play a game... :P

-d

How many pain doobiethings are there in your legs?

ow

I am in pain

owowow

I guess its what I get for attempting a disciplined regime of exercise to get fit, my legs are so completely shot its not funny. Stairs are giving me flashbacks at the moment.. hehehe, I hope it gets easier, I think I'll have a break tomorrow, and resume on Monday again. Probably a good idea, with it being my bro's birthday dinner tonight, in case we're out late.. only getting 4-5 hours sleep then trying to jog is a bit silllly..

The Olympics have started! exciting times, the opening ceremony was actually quite cool... well, I only saw from when the athletes came out onwards, but that run through the different hosts over the years was pretty neat.. Looking forward to Roy & HG on tonight, and I plan to tape every episode.. Hopefully it will take my mind off stuff since I'm not in the best of moods of the moment...

anyhow, I have to get ready for the aforementioned bro's dinner... with added all you can eat jap food. aweeesoommeee stuff

-d

to geek/nerd or not to geek/nerd

I just thought I'd share with everybody my geekcode, since it seems to be all the rage (like shoulder pads and vanilla ice... ice ice baby)

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

Version: 3.1

GE/IT d-- s-:- a-- C++(+) U--- P? L+ E? W++ N+ o? K- w(+) 

O---- M V? PS(+)PE- Y+ PGP->++ t+>++@ 5++>+++ X+@ R>++ 

tv+ b+>++ DI++++ D+ G>+++ e h--! r y---

------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Decode

hmm
looking at that, I'm a pretty try hard geek... maybe nerd is a better description?
altho, the fact I play sport might make me a try hard geek anyway... anybody have alternative definitions? I'd like to hear them.

I hope I get dinner working well tonight, creamy tomato and bacon sauce with pasta. We'll just have to see whether my brother survives my continual cooking experiments.. although I think he could survive eating radioactive waste.. he's a bit superhuman when it comes to food

speaking of food, I'm still hungry, booooo
my guitar will provide me with comfort... I will introduce my guitar later, its a bit shy.. don't let its metallic red exterior fool you

I am sooo unfit

I couldn't sleep well last night, which gave me even less sleep than I had hoped for... maybe 3.5ish hours? well, I think that affected me on the jog... not that I'm giving excuses or anything, far from it.. I haven't jogged that much for a while, and I REALLY need to keep doing it. I was quite happy that I could sprint after jogging for a while.. running from home plate to 1st base in around 4-5 seconds. (We were jogging at the park which is also my home field in the baseball season)

will be doing it alll again tomorrow morning, this time with my dad tagging along. I really hope I can outpace him :P

I seem to have lost my phone handsfree... which is entirely annoying, I can't listen to rockin beats on my phone on the train until I find it... not that I take the train much anymore, I only go to uni one day a week, with two other days allocated for work, and another two are days off.
Can everyone say "BLUDGER"? Of course you can, unless you don't speak english.

Well, I decided about mid way through last semester that I needed a break from uni... and being in an engineering degree, a break is considered less than a full load of subjects... thus why I'm only doing two... woohoo!? Only if I get through it with passes, hehehe

many things to do today, prepare for youth group study tonight, practice for youth group music worship, cook an awesome tomato, cream and bacon pasta sauce and jam on the guitar with James: most likely playing Switchfoot stuff, yay

Crucial game tonight for my beloved Essendon (who have had a distinct lack of love since their terrible loss to the old enemy, otherwise known as the Carlton Football Club), playing Collingwood (considered the other old enemy, but all pale in comparison to Port Power). If we lose, we're out of the finals most likely. Carn the Bombers, if you don't win I'll sulk for a week.

(I need to stop explaining things with brackets)

yawn

er, hi...

...now, how did I end up deciding to open up my own blog... (let alone have the time for it)...

an inspiration... strange sort though...

anybody remember Wesley Crusher, from Star Trek the Next Generation? Well I stumbled across his website yesterday (not the Wes's site, the actor's: Wil Wheaton.. I'm sure Wesley wouldn't have the time, creating dilithium replicators and all... er, yes I AM a geek) while I was bludging at uni and saw what is an awesome site.... www.wilwheaton.net

visit it! its cool. I'd like to have his sense of humour.

I find it even stranger the fact I decided to do this now, when I have to be up at 6:30am later on for a jog, to start this blog up...

jogging! I have to get fit for the upcoming baseball season in a month or so, and I decided I really need to learn to run without getting too puffed out... will I succeed? will I rise to new heights of fitness that will open the doors to greater levels of achievement in all areas of my life?

... or will I give up by Monday next week..?

well, I do hope its not the latter, but I've made grand claims about getting fit like that in the past :P

I've made similar claims about getting better at guitar... gettings stronger so I can throw better in baseball... start studying at the START of the uni semester...learn to cook properly....

err

*shrug* I'll get there eventually

now, if I don't sleep soon, I'll fall asleep while jogging, so I think that is what I'll do

And so it begins, a bold new journey into the depths of the unknown, to find new, exciting and ultimately futile ways in which to take up my time... sounds like fun!

Song of the moment: "Learning to Breathe" by Switchfoot. Best Christian rock band around? I'm inclined to think one of the best rock bands around..