Breakfast:
Morning:
Morning tea:
Lunch:
Afternoon tea
Pre-dinner snack
Dinner
Bedtime
Today I finally got a new license (its 5 years old). It’ll be nice to pull it out and not have to worry about people questioning me as to whether I’m me. The new one is the bottom one btw 
My only (Chinese) new years resolution is to get a new fucking job. Fuck this place.
So I’ve had my mythtv box running nicely for quite a while now but one annoying thing I couldn’t figure out was how to stop the annoying screen blanking. I’d set various dpms parameters in xorg.conf, turned off the screensaver. But it kept blanking. The most annoying part was that it hadn’t always happened.
Anyhow, I finally found the one command to stop it; xset -dpms.
Hi guys,
I love the fresh produce you guys sell. I reckon its worth the premium that it might cost me elsewhere for your fresh fruit and veg. But could you perhaps get your staff to be a little friendlier or perhaps even smile once in a while? I’m not asking them to act like they’re my BFFs, but you know, just enough to lighten the mood up or something?
KTHXBYE. 
So I was playing around with my conky config and I thought it’d be cool to be able to see my “now playing” song from it. Conky has some built in bits for that kind of thing in mpd but that’s no use to me since I use rhythmbox to listen to my music. A bit of googling around came up with some hits on using dbus-send to find the info [1,2] but the output was a little more raw than I was hoping for. While I was have a brief look through the rhythmbox manpage I noticed down the bottom of the page:
SEE ALSO
rhythmbox-client(1).
Aaah, how handy So issuing a rhythmbox-client --print-playing gives me this (the last line of the screenshot):
rhythmbox-client can also handly play/pause, stop, next, previous, skip, add songs to the queue and other stuff to rhythmbox, all from the command line. In my .conkyrc I put the following line to give the “Now Playing” output:
${color #5b6dad}Now Playing: ${color}${exec /usr/bin/rhythmbox-client --print-playing}
Here’s to 2007. Can’t say it was great year but I guess it wasn’t that bad either (besides Dad getting bowel cancer but he seems to be on the mend, so its all good).
Here’s my current desktop at work. I’m running fluxbox 1.0rc2 (guess I should upgrade it to 1.0 sometime huh?), mrxvt with full transparency with window decorations turned off. All the stats and info on the left is conky. Love it.
I guess one of my goals for the new year is to perhaps blog a bit more (yeah, we all say that don’t we huh?) If you’re curious what’s travelling through my brain, you can always check out my del.icio.us bookmarks.
Rozie, her Dad, brother and I are heading off overseas for a month for a holiday. First stop is Toronto for two weeks (we’re attending a family wedding next Monday). I’ll also be squeezing in a half-marathon on the 14th October. After that, we head to New York for 3 days, then onto San Francisco for 5 days, Hong Kong (with perhaps a day or two in mainland China) then back home again by the 3rd November. We’ll hopefully be posting updates to our blogs and also uploading to flickr as we go along as well.
On Saturday I had a tasty breakfast in Chippendale at Cafe Giuloa’s (they’re website appears to be offline at the time of writing). Three super-thick pancakes with maple syrup and unfortunately not enough cream kept me well sated until later on in the late afternoon. But, I did rather feel like some coffee after walking around the overly muddy Live Green Festival (put on by the City of Sydney Council) on City Road, so we decided to head to Toby’s Estate.
If you’re moderately serious about your coffee in Sydney then you’ve probably already heard all the good things about Toby’s Estate Coffee (if not, then where have you been? 
).So this was the first time I’d managed to get there for a coffee and boy did they deliver. A perfectly brewed, delicious picolo latte. Hmmm. Seeing as their a bit closer than the fab Campos Coffee up in Newtown, I think Campos has a new contender for favourite coffee in town (although I didn’t see any affogato on the menu at Toby’s Estate). Or perhaps there’s just a good excuse to drink more coffee on the weekends…
On Saturday I had a tasty breakfast in Chippendale at Cafe Giuloa’s (their website appears to be offline at the time of writing). Three super-thick pancakes with maple syrup and unfortunately not enough cream kept me well sated until later on in the late afternoon. But, I did rather feel like some coffee after walking around the overly muddy Live Green Festival (put on by the City of Sydney Council) on City Road, so we decided to head to Toby’s Estate.
If you’re moderately serious about your coffee in Sydney then you’ve probably already heard all the good things about Toby’s Estate Coffee (if not, then where have you been? ).So this was the first time I’d managed to get there for a coffee and boy did they deliver. A perfectly brewed, delicious picolo latte. Hmmm. Seeing as they’re a bit closer than the fab Campos Coffee up in Newtown, I think Campos has a new contender for favourite coffee in town (although I didn’t see any affogato on the menu at Toby’s Estate). Or perhaps there’s just a good excuse to drink more coffee on the weekends…
So I had the goal of finishing up the City 2 Surf this year in under 60 minutes. In the lead up to the race (and in fact even before the Bay Run) I’d been experiencing some heal and foot pain, which I saw the physio for. My physio told me to take it easy and also to include some strength exercises (he thinks that my injuries were due to increased mileage and my leg muscles just not being strong enough to keep up with the continual). So the end result was that I just wasn’t able to put in the training that I wanted/required for the City 2 Surf. My legs are feeling much, much better now though with the leg strength training (with the added bonus of the new found leg strength really giving my rock climbing a noticeable boost).
Pre-race jitters didn’t help me much and I couldn’t get to sleep until about 1am or so (after going to bed around 11pm, that totally sucks) and I’m just not really a morning person. Morning runs suck. So I ended up finishing the race in 62:35, which is still 2 minutes 30 seconds faster than last year, but I really had my heart set on a sub-60 minute run. Oh well, something to work towards for next year when my legs are working better and I can put the time and effort into a proper training plan (I never really got into a training plan at all, even though I had one setout for myself). I guess it was kind of cool having my result on the first page of results. I placed around 1268 I think out about 64000.
Rozie’s uploaded a whole bunch of photos over at flickr, so you can laugh at me in my silly running tights.
Also, since I haven’t really got my mileage up, I decided that I’m not going to bother doing the Sydney Running Festival half marathon, since I won’t have the time to put the training in to put in a decent time. But, instead, Rozie and I are going to be in Toronto in October and that does give me enough time to train, so I’m probably going to enter the Toronto Half Marathon instead. I’ll see a bit closer to the date how my form is going before I put my entry form. If I’m feeling a bit sucky in my training, I’ll enter the 10km Oasis Zoo Run instead, which goes around the Toronto Zoo. Sounds like fun!
So running goal number 2 (after the SMH half) has been completed for the year. I did the Bay Run around Iron Cove back in July. Happily, I finished up in a respectable 29:15, very, very happy with that time. It was a rather chilly morning. So chilly in fact that 5kms into the 7kms race my hands were still cold. Afterwards I celebrated with some breakfast at Bills in Surry Hills. Hmmm. If you want to have a sticky-beak, I’ve got some photos from the race day that Rozie took up over at Flickr
Yep, its been a real long between updates. Stuff’s happened I guess. If you read Rozie’s blog, then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what’s been happening. I’ve also been training for my first half-marathon which chews into a lot of my time. Its on in about 3 weeks (20th of May) and I’m pretty pumped. I got my entry number in the post yesterday so I know I’m definitely entered and can pickup my bib and time piece closer to the day.
More updates when I get the time. I’m in the process of moving stuff around from various servers.
So its two more weeks until the SMH Half Marathon and I can say with all honest, thank god! I really enjoy running these days, but I’m really getting sick of all the mileage I’m doing in the lead up the race. I reckon at most, I can enjoy running up to about 15-16kms. Yesterday I ran 19km, which I ran in a cruisy 1hr 35mins (it was an endurance run, not speed), but by the end of the it, not only was I knackered, but I’m was completely over it.
Gladly, for the next two weeks, the training for the race is a tapering down of intensity, so the longest I’ll run is 10km next weekend and for my tempo, it’ll only be a 5km and a 3km run. Phew! My legs should be pretty fresh for the 21kms of the marathon. I’ll be glad once its all over.
So on Sunday I did my first ever half marathon. After putting in satisfying efforts with the Bay Run, City 2 Surf and the Sydney Bridge Run last year, I felt like more of a challenge. So I went for the popular SMH Half Marathon. For those of you who don’t know, a half marathon is 21.1kms (and full one being 42.2kms obviously). The course goes through the CBD, up across past the Art Gallery to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and back again to Hickson Rd, then you do it all over again!
Back two and a half months ago, I started a half marathon training routine from Runners’ World Magazine. It consisted for 3 training runs a week. Intervals, tempo and distance runs. Admittedly I was getting pretty sick of all the training leading up to last week and I just wanted to get the race over and done with. By Saturday night I was pretty excited. Got to bed by about 12 and had really patchy sleep until I woke up at about 5am.
Rozie, being the wonderful wife that she is came down to Hickson Rd for the 7.30am start with me. We ended up catching a taxi down since the buses didn’t start until about 6.45am (that’s when I wanted to get there). On the way down, the taxi driver told her that I was a fantastic husband because I opened the door of the taxi and let her in first. Rozie just laughed and said she was fantastic for getting up so early for me. I guess we’re both fantastic (or something…)
Away, we managed to get down there at about 6.45am or so which gave me plenty of time to warm up, pee, and find a place for the start. Compared to the City 2 Surf and perhaps even the Sydney Running Festival, the crowd seemed a lot more serious. I got the impression that regardless of peoples’ abilities as runners, that they were mostly people who ran pretty regularly, as opposed to the fun runners who might only do it a before a race like this.
Anyway, I digress. The first 5 and 10kms of the race was fantastic for me. I managed to knock over the first 10kms in about 42mins(!). Looking back I probably went a bit hard since the second half (well 11.1kms to be exact) took me about 53 minutes to complete. The main reason for this though is that for about the last 5 to 6kms I had a really painful blister coming through, which really slowed me down. I think if I didn’t have that blister that I could’ve saved myself about 3 minutes in the second half of the race.
My final time ended up 95 mins 58 seconds and placed 771st out of a field of 4639 finishing runners. So I am really happy with the final result, since all my training was aiming for 95 minutes anyhow. Since I got pretty close to the time I was aiming for, even with a blister slowing me down, I reckon I can easily run a half in under 95 minutes and perhaps with some more endurance training get my time closer to 90 minutes.
I’ll probably aim for the Sydney Running Festival half marathon in September.
My running goals for the year are:
So my last fun run of the year is over. On Sunday I completed the 9km Bridge Run. In the lead up to the day, I wasn’t very confident. Two weeks before, I did a long 10km odd run after work which left my knees wrecked, and had to take the rest of the week off to rest.
The week before the race, I ramped things back up again. Did two 5kms runs out at work in Cumberland Forest, with one of them being a personal best for that course of 21:24. Also twice hit the gym to use the bike which really helped with my leg and knee strength. On the Friday evening, I did a nice, quick 7km around Moore Park at about 80% pace which I finished in 31:18, so I was feeling pretty good after that.
Had Saturday off to go to a wedding but I didn’t make it home until about 11:30pm, which I wasn’t too happy about. Then Rozie came home from the wedding at 1:30am, then she was feeling crook at about 3:30am, which I helped her out as much as I could. I woke up at about 5:45am having only had what felt like about 4 hours sleep.
Got myself down to Central Station to catch the train over to Milsons Point, since I had to get my bag onto the trucks before 7am. Got to Milsons Point around 6.45am. After I put my bag on the trucks, I thought sleeping probably wasn’t a good idea for my race performance, so I just sat in the sun until about 7:30am, feeling super-crap. Had bit of a warm up, a quick pee and joined the other runners ready for the race at 8.05am.
Now there’s supposed to be self-seeding, but that didn’t seem to work out too well. Lots of walkers pushing into the front area. A lot like City2Surf (although admittedly not as bad). Megan Gale fired the starting gun, which was a pretty damn good start IMHO!!
So the race went up the road from Milsons Point, up over the Sydney Harbour Bridge (I didn’t really look too hard), along the Cahill Expressway, up Macquarie St, down Gallery Rd to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair and back, back down Macquarie St, then to the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House. *phew*!
For most of the race, I was pulling in 4:20mins/km, which was I really happy with, since up until recently I’ve running at around 4:30mins/km. I still managed to see I swear the same little kid who runs most of the race ahead of me that I saw at the Bay Run and City2Surf.
Right near the end of the race at the roundabout near the Opera House I quickly saw Rozie waiting for me and she gave me a quick cheer which helped me make a final dash for the end.
So I ended up finishing the race in 37:59mins, which was way better than the 39 to 40 minutes time I’d set for myself. And in the field of 7100 odd runners, I finished 186th (that’s not adjusted… I’ll probably rank better once the results are finalised).
So all in all, I was super-stoked with my time and performance. After a creaky start, it really felt good and just rolled nicely along. Next year, I’m planning on perhaps doing a half-marathon or two, and with the time I did on Sunday, I reckon I’ll easily smash that sub-60min goal for the City2Surf to pieces.
So race 2 out of 3 is over for this year, the famous City2Surf. So how did I go? Well, not quite as well as I’d hoped. I finished the race in 65:07, a few minutes of top of the 62 minutes I was hoping for, but still almost 30 seconds quicker than my old time from when I was 16, so I guess that’s nothing to be ashamed of 
Admittedly, I’m a little disappointed, but I understand the time, since I spent so much bloody time during the race trying to duck and weave past much slower runners and walkers. The first 300 metres at the start I had to physically shove my way past some oldies who for some reason decided they should be right at the front of the pack (I was in the HSBC group). A sentiment that I heard from quite a few people over at the Cool Running forums.
Also I felt pretty crap most of Saturday after having a few birthday drinks on Friday night, so that’s a lesson learnt for next year
But my time does qualify me for the faster A1 group next year (runners who completed the race in under 75 minutes), so that does make me happy. I think starting in that pack will have me finishing much closer, if not under 60 minutes. Plenty of time to train until then, so I don’t think its that unreasonable a goal, considering this time last year I had a hard time walking up hills without breaking a sweat. Really dreaming, I’d like to get down to the 55 minute mark, but that’s real dreamtime stuff, which perhaps I can work towards.
So next month I’ll be doing the Sydney Bridge Run which is a 10 kilometre run. If I stay away from alcohol and keep up with the running, I should be able to knock that over in under 45 minutes. Its a flatter run that C2S as well, so I should be able to keep up a faster pace. I’m really psyched for that one!
So on Sunday I entered my first fun run in 13 years. The last one I was in was the City 2 Surf back in 1993. Sunday’s race was the 7 kilometre Bay Run, around Iron Cove, which is surrounded by Leichart, Five Dock and Rozelle amongst other suburbs. I got up nice and early for the race, 6am.. ergh. Rozie even came with me. I was really appreciative of the support since I know how much she loves sleeping in.
After registering, I was given an ankle tag and my racing bib. I spent some time, like others jogging up and down a bit to warm up. About 10 minutes before the race was a “professional” warmup, which involved lots of jogging on the stop and punching the air, kind of what I remember doing at school. It must have been the same for the other runners since half the place was in hysterics.
A few minutes after that, the race was on.
Most people made a pretty mad dash at the start, but I kept it safe and went with a comfortable pace. I found myself overtaking people pretty quickly and getting into a nice groove. After probably the 2nd kilometre, things were pretty static in terms of placing. But by about the fifth, people who’d been infront of me for a while dropped back and I found myself overtaking quite a few people. In the last 750 metres I managed to get past two little pipsqueaks who were probably about 10/11 years old. Little buggers!
So I ended up finishing the 7.05km course in 30:39. That was just under my aim of 31 minutes (although I would’ve been happier with under 30). That’s a goal for next year though. I ended up place 127th out of a field of 770 men and women, 32nd out of 99 in the 16-29 year old males and 111th out of 457 males runners.
Overall I’m pretty stoked with how I went. I’ll definitely be back for it next year and hoping to bust through the 30 minute barrier.
Coming up two weeks time is the City 2 Surf, which I’m hoping to do under 65:30 (my previous time) and after that, the Sydney Bridge run, which is approximately 10 kilometres.
