Goal complete!

 And one more makes 28 - nice!

First time ever making a post every day on this blog. A bit annoying that I did resort to making a few "forced" making a post for the sake of making a post posts. I didn't really have anything to say, but I said stuff anyway - not my style.

Happy to have set a goal and completed it, would be happier if I'd actually posted meaningful stuff each time. But at least I have one up for each day of the month.

Am I going to do it again? No, I dont see any advantage in trying to force more posts for the sake of making posts. I will be trying to post more, but mainly when I have something to share.

Dumb idea #2,874

 So in April last year I wrote about running a marathon (42km) on my 42nd birthday. Clearly that didn't happen as I was already over 42 years old when I wrote that.

Today I decided to look up training programs for marathon running. Clearly a lot of the work is the diet - and genetics play a part - but it's certainly achievable. It wouldn't be fun and would require a lot of discipline since I do a lot of other physical training for work anyway - but I was seriously considering giving a marathon a go.

First problem: there are no marathons planned in Darwin. Not on any calendar that I can see at any rate. There are a few running clubs that I've seen (some more organised than others) around the place but none of them have a 42km event listed so far for 2023. If I wanted to do an actual marathon with a group and have participant certificate or something, I'd have to travel interstate.

Potentially, it could be perfect if I had one lined up for when I was going to be in that city / state, but it would highly unlikely I could get that timing to work out. A good one to aim for could be the Perth Running Festival in October. There shouldn't be much on my work calendar then, so I could get over there and give it a go, it's a loop that starts and ends at Optus Stadium in the city and it's a proper organised event with support staff and drink stations (and medics!) Having a quick look at the 2021 results (didn't happen in 2022 - possibly due to covid?) more than half the entrants finished in under 4 hours, with the last recorded finisher at 6 hours, 15 min. Just over 700 recorded entrants.

There are a couple of other marathons in WA prior to October, I don't see any after that one. It would be nice if there was one around late December when I am more likely to be there, but that would land right in the summer heat - not ideal running conditions!

Second problem: shoes. I have a basic set of worn-in shoes I use for training and a nice set of shoes for going out that will eventually be my new training shoes when these wear out but I'd need new shoes. Probably two sets, maybe three. Running a marathon (and the training for it) would put a lot of stress on these old knees and ankles, and a halfway decent set of running shoes are a few hundred. Each.

Third "problem", I'd like something tangible afterwards to show off and remember. Many of the larger marathons include finishing medals as part of the entry fee. From what I've been able to gather, they tend to produce 100 or so medals (more for larger events) as a motivator for the head of the pack to try and get a good time. The ones that tend to be run in Australia (no pun intended) skip that and may give a digital certificate or something with your finishing time. Whee, much excite, so wow. Even if I was in one that did offer the metal discs mounted on a ribbon, it's unlikely I'd finish in the top 100 (and let's be real - probably not in the top 500!)

Other than those three - there's nothing really stopping me from doing something silly like running laps around the block. The last on isn't really a problem because it wouldn't be that expensive to get a little medal made for myself. Quite lame to make myself a medal to award me, but if I ran my own marathon for myself the only thing I'd have to show for it is a screenshot of the time / distance on my running app. Also whee much wow.

So in the end, running "in a marathon" and getting a little trinket to show for it isn't going to happen. Running 42.195km on my own for shits and giggles and then making myself my own participation trophy - entirely possible. But do I want to put in the effort?

Edit: turns out that there is a marathon planned for the NT in 2023. Only problem is that it is over 1,400km away - out near Ayers Rock. And it isn't just the race entry fee: because it's inside the park there it would also require a park entry fee plus accommodation fee in the park. Plus the not-insignificant cost of getting there. Off the top of my head, I'd guess around $1K minimum, assuming I was the only one going. That's off the table.

February goals

New month, new goals. This month the emphasis is going to be on updating this blog and as a side benefit - getting more practice in writing. Albeit not creative writing, though I could do that.

Goal is to make a post on this blog every day in Feb. Note that it isn't "make 28 posts" because then I could make three posts one day then miss a few days.

Ideally they would be halfway decent and not just "here's today's post" lazy ones!

Assuming I succeed, this would be my first time making a post every day of the month. And I've had this blog since 2007, so that's a lot of gaps.

Here we go!

Staying off the phone ... here we go!

 Well, not doing too bad so far - 3rd of Jan and making okay progress.

Today I cut up and sanded some wood for the quotation project, we'll see how that goes. I think the acetone method will give better results but I'm going to start with the mod podge method seeing as I already have that and may as well use it up before buying more supplies.

Also made a couple of apple pies, they'll be good for freezing. Unless they get eaten first!

New Year, New Me

 Or not. Maybe just polish up the old me, make a few improvements here and there.

I'm pretty sure I've posted the old joke here before, where I said years ago that my New Years Resolution was to not make any more New Years Resolutions! So I don't really do them, but I do try and improve myself where I can.

One thing I did notice late last year (actually a few days ago!) was that I am spending way too much time on my phone. Brilliant devices, great that they help us out so much but it's become my default activity. It's depressing seeing how much time I waste staring at that stupid little screen.

So one of my goals this year is to spend less time staring at the phone. Tied to my ongoing goal of trying to do more creative stuff. We've got a stack of great machines like the new Cricut plotting cutter which is fantastic for some craft projects like sandblasting and metal etching. And for Christmas my awesome wife got me a bunch of tools which I can't wait to start using.

And the big goal for the year is to get onto our property - going to be so liberating to be have a workshop or shed that we can use for creative projects!

More PoGo

 Mucking around trying to get more bonuses for my better half. :)

About to head back to the old town, which seems like a good opportunity to A) increase my count of unique pokestops visited (there's a tad few more in that CBD than in our local one!) and B) pick up a mess of interstate low-level mons to do transfers with and add on to that distance transfer medal.

Re-activated an old account, going to be trying to pick up a mess of mons down there while I'm in town, then transfer them to my main when I get back here. Not too sure if it still counts for a third stage transfer, if I was to pass one on to another account, if it'd still count towards the long distance transfer counts or not.

May have to do some experimenting.

In other non-news, this keyboard (or more likely, this keyboard position) is not very comfortable and I'm feeling stress in my wrists just from writing this short entry. If I want to give NaNoWriMo another go this year, I'm definitely going to need to try and improve my ergonomics or I'll stop by the end of the third day.

It's holding

 Rode to work and back today on the fixed flat. I swear it feels like the pressure is lower and gives more rolling resistance, but pressure gauge says it's holding. And I'm sure if it had a leak, I couldn't have done two 16km rides (there and back) without it getting noticeably low.

So I'm going to declare success and say it's holding. In my bag of tricks I'm now carrying a spare tube, so if I do get a flat on the way to / from work I can just swap out the whole tube and worry about repairing the one with the puncture when I'm at home.

In other non-bike news (it seems like all my posts recently have been about the bike) pretty much all my other hobbies are on hold. Not for any particular reason, but it seems like lately I haven't had any motivation to do any of my other creative outlets. It's like all I do when I get home or have some time off is sit and stare at my phone. Very not happy about that, almost getting to the point where I want to install some type of parental control app to reduce the amount of screen time I have. Or at least quantify it so I can have some hard numbers. Though "too much" should be all the data I need.

New "personal best"

Ride in to work today, time was 59 minutes flat. Nice improvement over last weeks 1 hour 7 seconds....

But, today I "cheated" and had my id ready. All my previous rides I'd had it in my bag, as it gave me an excuse to stop and get off the bike, rummage around in my bag and fish it out. Then drink some water as well. To me it felt like I was stopping from 2 up to 5 minutes there - something I didn't need to do on the way out which gave my rides home a few minutes bonus.

This morning I prepped and put my id in my pocket instead, so as I approached I was able to pull it out and was waved through almost without stopping. Assuming that was the only difference between my last ride and this morning, I saved 67 seconds by having it ready. Guess the pause just felt longer when I'd stop to rest.

I think it'll be a while before I beat 59 minutes, but it's good that I'm now under an hour. And already shaved 15 minutes off my first ride!

Wher I Go

 No, that's not a typo in the title - Wher I Go (with only one "e" in where) is a variant on GeoCaching and a new (was new back in 2008) cache type - usually abbreviated as WIG.

The short version of WIG is that Garmin wanted to get some more markets for their GPS units, and a select few models had extra processing power. These were WIG enabled, and they could be used to play WIG "games". However, smart phones took off, the variety and options for apps exploded and Garmin quietly dropped the idea.

WIG is now kind of in limbo, hobbling along and not really getting support from anyone. Groundspeak (the company  that owns geocahing.com) is half-heartedly supporting WIG but it is difficult to create games. Instructions and support are scattered, there's a lot of old or outdated information and a lot of the instructions were in flash videos, which is no longer supported.

Just because I'm a masochist (and I can see a huge amount of potential), I'm going to be trying to build a WIG game or two, depending on how I go. I have a few ideas that I think would be much better cache experience than just a box in the bushes.

So far, I have been struggling to even get a game to play on my phone! Most of the games are location specific, but there are some "play anywhere" games. I've downloaded one, but it isn't playing nice with my phone. There is currently one one WIG in Darwin, and I'll need to try and play that one before I have a go at building one myself.

Goals:

• Complete a play anywhere game.
• Complete the Darwin WIG game.  

Decisions, decisions

Okay, I have a bit of a conundrum. As I've mentioned before, I'm getting into this whole Geocaching craze (okay, that's a slight exaggeration since this hobby / game started twenty years ago and there aren't that many active players at the moment). Part of the appeal for me is a chance to flex my creative muscles and make stuff.

The reason for this is that part of the game is "swag" (Stuff We All Get), which is basically little trinkets that people leave in the caches so that other players can swap around (a bit like "take a penny, leave a penny" setups). The idea is players put in things they think are worth something and other players can swap them out for things they think are of roughly equal value. Of course, not everybody is going to put the same value on something as another person - but we'll ignore human psychology for the moment.

For me, I don't plan on taking any swag, and I don't have the funds to go buying a bunch of stuff to drop off and give away (as much as I would like to).

So I'd prefer to custom make little thingies. At the moment the main thing I'm looking at is "coins". Not money, some custom made little things that I can keep updating and changing the design on (such as putting the current month and year on them so if other people find them, they can see how long it's been in play).

At the moment my main priority is cost. And I'm looking at six different options.

1. I can print out stickers at home and put them onto little plastic tokens or poker chips. I'm pretty much already set up for this and have produced a couple. I need to refine my process, but it's the cheapest option.
2. Etching aluminium stock. This I've mentioned in prior posts, and I'm sort of set up for it. My results so far have been pretty poor, but I think I may have found a solution. I've ordered some dry photosensitive film, so now waiting for that to arrive. It is the cheap Chinese stuff, so not sure how well it'll turn out, I'll have a play with it when it arrives and hopefully get something better than I'm getting now. If it works as intended, I should see some halfway decent results.
3. 3D printing. If I had a 3D printer, this would be the "ideal" solution, because I could just keep updating the design each month, and make relatively intricate models. The downside is that any machine I can realistically afford will not print the level of detail that I want.
4. Epoxy Resin. This would give a great level of details, but the epoxy is pretty danged expensive. I'd need to start with a 3D printed master, but there is a new re-usable resin available. It works by heating and pouring, so that after spending a month making that version of my thingy, the mould can be melted down and re-used. So the set up costs are low, the mould costs are low, but the resin is around $90 for 250mL.
5. Pewter casting. The great thing about pewter casting is that since it is relatively low temperature metal, I can get away with bodging together some rather cheap tools to get up and running. I've already priced up all the things that I'd need, and it totals out between $100 to $150 depending on sales and how patient I am. The down side is that in order to make moulds, I'd also need a 3D master, and the choices for mould materials are either plaster (low detail level) or silicone rubber (moulds are permanent). The cost of the mould making material is about $100 per 1L, and making new moulds each month could get expensive. Also, pewter is available in cheap (50% lead) and not-cheap (lead free). If costs is my main priority (which is is) then lead is the answer, but if I'm going to be making stuff to put out there that can possibly be handled by kids, then it would be irresponsible to use lead, even if I painted it. Lead pewter is about $25/kg plus postage, and lead free is about $60/kg.
6. And finally, aluminium casting. Possibly give the best results, and has the cheapest material costs (we already collect aluminium cans, so it'd be cheaper to let me melt them down rather than collecting the 10c each and then buying raw material). However, the set up costs are quite steep, over $400 at a bare minimum (and cutting a few corners on safety - not a good idea!) Good for low production runs, because if I 3D print my master, I can use it to make a bunch of sand moulds, then do one large pour and do a bunch of coins at once. Fairly low cost per coin and no chemicals in the house like with epoxy resin … but it has that steep initial cost.

So, not quite sure which way to jump. And odds are, whichever technique I try first, I'll need to stick with that system because I won't be able to afford to switch to another. I just need to make sure I focus on my priorities:

• Affordable: my income goes towards the house, there isn't a lot left over for my interests.
• Safe: I can't have my chemicals or flammable materials injuring myself, my family or any animals.
• Adaptability: I'd rather not keep cranking out the same thingy all the time, I want them to be different from month to month.

Having said that, I did send an email of enquiry to a Taiwanese engineering firm to see how much it would cost for them to produce a steel mould for me. If I wanted to do aluminium casting, then I can't make moulds out of silicone rubber or plaster due to the heat, and sand leaves a grainy texture that needs to be machined to make it look good. A steel mould gives brilliant results - if you can afford to get one made!

Also, I want to build gadget caches, but that's a whole Pandora's box I don't want to open just yet...

Ten kay, so close!

Had the chance to do another 10km run today, recorded. Don't always get a chance to have my phone on me when we do these longer runs.

My old personal best was 1 hour and 30 seconds. The long term goal is to crack the one hour mark for 10km but didn't quite make it. Was carrying my camelbak with about 2L of water and drank about half of it, but also had a little Flip 4 bluetooth speaker which added a bit of weight, though not much.

Todays time was 1:01.08 - 38 seconds off from my personal best. Though that time was done in 2018, two years of cream and wear & tear on the knees.

The highlight is that I managed to do it without dropping to a walk. In 2018 I remember I slowed down to a walk a few times, so my running speed must have been higher. Still, not too bad. Finished the run about eight minutes ago and I feel like I could go run some more (I'm not going to).

Jan 2020

First post for the year, and the decade.

Wow, didn't really think I'd be around this long. I remember watching episodes of Beyond 2000 on tv back in the late 80's / early 90's, talking about "the paperless office" and I remember one bit where they were really amazed at comparing a high-end video camera with the studio cameras and how the quality was "nearly the same".

Now almost everyone has a HD video and still camera in their pocket, along with a personal computer and fingertip access to almost the sum total of all human knowledge.

Starting the year (actually, continuing from the end of last year) by working on improving my push-ups. Started doing sets of 5 up to 40 per day at the end of November, today I've done sets of 15 up to 60 and it isn't 10:30am yet. Working towards doing 100 per day before work starts again.

No real progress on the creative front, but I did get reminded of my old Badly Drawn Cinema project. I only made two of those...

Focus Group

After 12 years or so of filling in surveys, answering emails and following dead ends, I finally got to be a part of a focus group. :)

Admittedly, it was about political stuffs, but I got to be a part of it and I got paid! Also admittedly, not that much - but I'm not complaining. Was a bit different, was a bit of fun, was a little boring... but it was something I'd been trying to get into for over a decade.

Scratch that off the bucket list. :D

New swimming PB

I'm not the best when it comes to swimming, in fact I'm usually one of the last ones finished. So I'm not usually a fan of swim sessions.

Today I managed to do twelve laps of the 50m pool (jump in one end, swim in various strokes to the other end, then get out and walk back to the first end).

That's 600m in one session. Whoo!

New PB

On arm curls.

Did a weights session this arvo, got up to curling 15kg on each side. Got 5 reps a side - whee! Not too bad considering that I hadn't done a weights sesh in a while.

Aargh! Re-measure

Dagnabbit! I had a track measured out for 2.4km runs, or at least I thought I did. A while back I measured a route out using Google Maps and it seemed about right. Then I checked it again on GM and it looked like I measured it wrong by about 100m.

Today I measured it using one of those gps-enabled running apps on my phone and it added yet another 100m onto my route!

But the odd thing is that my time was way over what I normally run... does that mean the "official" 2.4km track at work is wrong?

Might need to measure that one with my phone to compare.

Fitter?

Can't track fitness without having some metrics to quantify. The two markers I'll be using (at least to start with) are overall weight and waist size.

Overall weight can be a bit misleading due to factors like hydration level, meals and the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. So I'm mainly just tracking that as an easy marker. Before the holidays, my "official" weight was 83.52kg (I had a medical assessment). The best time to weigh oneself is at the same time each day, and in the morning is probably best, before a meal.

Weight: 86kg
Waist: ??cm

Note to self: get a cloth measuring tape!

Also, just got back from holidays, so my weight is going to have gone up anyway due to holiday calories and lack of proper structured exercise.

Only just got back and it would be easy to just pike out since it is after noon, we've been travelling all day and we're tired... but no time like the present!

Start of 2019

I only managed 41 posts to my blog in 2018. That's well below my peak of 116 in 2015 (but well above my lowest of 4 in 2014!)

Projects for 2019: my Mum gave me a nifty little camcorder for Christmas, so I'm going to be trying my hand at doing a vlog on YouTube because I can. What I won't be doing is advertising it, I doubt anybody will be too interested in my ramblings. I have a plan to build a mini clapper board when we get home in case I need to sync sound and video.

Writing I'm going to be trying to work on. I don't get as much satisfaction out of it as I would have thought, which is probably why I don't do as much (or sit there staring at a blank document when I try).

Drawing I'm going to see how I go; it is one of those things that I like doing sort of, but don't have the passion to do it enough to get better at it. I used to be pretty good when I used to draw all the time as a kid, but lost the skill when I stopped.

I want to get some kind of physical hobby. I like the idea of painting but would much rather do it digitally as there is no "undo" with real paint if I stuff it up, plus I can't afford paints and stuff. I like working with my hands and making stuff, but I don't have the space to set up a workshop (or money to buy tools and materials). I really like remote control and would love to get into remote control cars and tanks and planes and stuff... but don't have the money for it (I'm seeing a trend here). RC cars need repairs and maintenance when they crash, planes need to be pretty much rebuilt or replaced if (when!) they crash, other rc stuff get really expensive the more rare they are. An rc sub would be awesome, but there aren't many places it can be used.

We'll see how I go. I don't do new years resolutions, this post is just me writing down things I'd like to do. But this is going to be a busy year with work, so it will be interesting to see how much (if any) I actually manage to get done.

End of 2018

As the last day of the year passes by, I find myself in a hotel bed, lounging on my phone with my beautiful wife by my side (and the princess demanding attention). This last year has been a good year. Not too much time away from family, (most) bills taken care of and on holiday catching up with friends and family.

Next year is going to be a bit harder. I already know there will be (a lot) more time away with work, cars are coming up due for maintenance and there'll be who knows how many unexpected issues come up.

But overall, I'm putting 2018 in the "good" box. Roll on 2019!

Nano - day twenty seven

Managed to punch out the 50k, whoo!

Feeling pretty good right now. The down side for me is that I didn't actually write a full novel, not the one I started at any rate. I did a rough outline at the end of October, and I got about a third of the way through the story.

But the goal was to crank out 50k words in November, more to get into the habit of writing than to write an award winning novel. Now comes the tricky part - to keep writing stories.

I like doing NaNoWriMo. Pretty sure I won't be able to do it next year due to anticipated work comitments, but we'll see how it goes.