Hmm... as you can see I haven't updated this in 56 weeks. I'm not sure if I really need an online blog anymore. I did, say, 2 years ago in a bid to vent my worries and frustrations, but now I'm not so sure.

I'll give it a go though.

- Lose 20 kgs (No, I gained 20kg.)
- Save $5000 (Yes, although it's going towards a new car.)
- Get a double-double in basketball. (No, although I should aim for 10 points in a game for now.)
- Find my own place to live. (Not in this day and age.)
- Find a Žydrūnas Ilgauskas top. (Found some, but way too expensive.)
- Gain my full teaching registration. (Sheesh. I got a new job and now have to start again.)
- Get a ninja tattoo. (Hmm, I should have done that this holidays.)

I have just had the most wonderful weekend. Interestingly, I've had a string of them in recent months, which puts a smile on my face.

I spent nearly 3 hours at Gloria Jeans on Saturday chatting away with friends, catching up on the weekly goss and news. I really enjoy doing this. It's become my weekly ritual. Afterwards, I relaxed at home, plodding around on facebook (Mob Wars is my new app), watching TV and playing on the xbox. I capped off the night listening to "I'm sorry I'll read that again" with Joffa until midnight.

Sunday, I woke up, tinkered on Mob Wars again, before finishing my application to Berwick SC. After a few hours of solid work, I had the whole afternoon to do whatever I wanted. I washed clothes, packed dishwashers, mob war, watched TV, jumped on the xbox, mob war, bit of mob war, and watched a DVD. Even now, at 10:20, I'm not actually tired, which is unusual since I'm normally in bed by now on any other day of the week, but due to my ineffable weekend, I'm on a high of achievement, I guess.

Last night, we won 41-39. I went 0-4 from the stripe, which sucks, because I'm usually 9-10 during practice, which basically mean the pressure of the game got to me. I can only keep practicing.

I really like it. Very similar to my old one, but with a different slant on the darkness.

SONICS: We're 2-1, in our new home of F2, and look like staying in the division. We beat our arch nemisis, Lazy, 49-38 last Monday, with yours truly getting 2 blocks in sucession, six rebounds and an assist. Still no points, but am working on that aspect. The possibility of a double-double this year is achievable, but I will have to start to prove myself as an offensive threat.

So, I was doing some maths last night, while I was checking out Zen Habits and began thinking about how much weight I have to lose to be considered "healthy" as per my BMI. So, I took a rough estimate of my weight, being somewhere around 150 kilograms and subtracted my goal of 85 kilograms, leaving me with 65 kilograms to lose. That roughly equates to about 40% of my body weight, hence the title of this blog. That's a lot.

I also had the idea that Channel 7 should do a weight-loss show with the Gladiators as the instructors. I'd audition for that show. I even had an idea for the title of the show: "Get fit or die trying" but I fear 50 Cent may sue for copyright infringement.

Anyhow, back to me again. I think I'll start by doing some walking around the block or something. Additionally, Im planning on waking up earlier that what I would on a work day. I'd love to wake up at 5:00 am, but I can't see the use, seeing that I leave for work at 8:00 am, and thus would have 3 hours to myself, but I think I'd get bored pretty quickly. In fact, today I had all day to myself, and I was bored before midday. Therefore, I think I will try and wake up at 6:00 am, and see how that goes.

Anyhow, enough rambling.

As per usual, I forget to update this page, lie I forget to rotate my fantasy basketball team; luckily I don't miss out on over 120 points if I don't update my livejournal.

Firstly, the first BATS show for 2008 is been and gone, and all I can say is that I am relieved. I'm glad my show did not suck, and that the majority of it went without an issue. Mind you, I did leave a few things to the last minutes, and if it wasn't for my firends, I would have never gotten everything done. Lesson learnt for Dimboola, my other show for 2008. Funny thing, I was the only director out of the four who was nervous - or at least owned up to being nervous - and thus I felt a wee bit weird. I think it might be my nature that makes me a nervous director, because I'm always wanting other peoples input on the show. I guess with experience I'll grow out of this.

Secondly, the football season has begun once more, and sadly Melbourne has lost by an average of 99.5 points in their two games. They now sit at the bottom of the ladder with a percentage of 33. Although they improved their losing margin from Round 1 to round 2 by 8.9%, meaning that my round 12 they should win a game, and hopefully finish the season with a record of 11-11, which'd mean they could still make the finals.

Lastly, term 2 starts next week, meaning there's 13 weeks until the end of term. Not that I'm counting down or anything.

In Basketball news, tomorrow is do or die. We lost our semi final 43-46, to the second placed Lazy, which now means we must win the preliminary final in order to play in the following weeks grand final. Fingers crossed.

So, here's some really cool sites that I have been visiting a few times a week:

XKCD, a series of nerd comics. I laughed my ass off at just the randomness of site.

LifeHack.org, a blog about how to organize your work and at home life. The guy is pretty tuned into things, I guess.

Zen Habits, which is much like LifeHack, but more about the personal aspects of ones life than work. I like this as much as LifeHack, because they look at things differently.

Freshome.com, is a site of tips, gadgets and inspiration for the home. I like looking at this just for the weird designs.

So, I feel that I'm settling into BSC rather well. It's been just over 3 weeks now, and everything seems to be heading in the right direction. I have a pretty good home group, plus the classes I have a tollerable at the very least; I even look forward to year 10 English classes. It's Week 5 for Term 1 this week, which means no meetings and more fun for the staff; I think it also means more trips to Margos, but I'll need clarrification on this matter.

Asides from work, the Sonics are going well, having made their fourth finals campain in a row, this time finishing 1st with a record of 12-1 which is something we would have never dreamed off two years ago at Knox. Sadly, our gun forward is inelligible to play in the finals due to not playing enough qualifying games, so we'll be one short for the next three weeks. Hopefully, we can bring home the big silverware for him.

So, things are moving along nicely. Asides from the new job, I received most of my payout form Worawa. So, for the first time in my life, I have a bank account that is over $6000. It's amazing. Sadly, a sixth of this is already spent, with some speeding fines eating into the funds. Additionally, I owe some money for footy membership, car maintenance and my trip to China, so again there will be some money going outwards, and it'll be somewhere in the $3600 mark. Not bad, I guess.

Tomorrow I am protesting with the AEU about Pay rises. I'll probably need one after all these payments ;)

So, I now have a new job, at Berwick Secondary College, and it's awesome. Everyone is super helpful and the school has everything that I need.

My birthday was awesome. I got a Wilt Chamberlain jersey, a JB Hifi voucher, along with one from EzyDVD, a Robot Chicken DVD, some much-needed shirts for work, and tickets to Iron Maiden. We went to Sara's in Timbara for a dinner, and I had Duck L'Orange, which was OK; I wish they had the veal shanks like last year.

It's 12:18 am right now, and I can't sleep because it's still hot. It's stupidly humid, balmy, muggy... whatever you want to call it. I've tried sleeping, but no luck, obviously.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
- Michael Jordan

From http://boldwords.blogspot.com/.

So, yesterday was my first day of not being allowed to drive. I amazingly didn't go stir-crazy like previous occasions, but of course the pinch will come once I have to go back to work (if at all).

January is more than half way thorugh and I don't belive I have made an entry since a series of resolutions in the early hours of 2008. Since then I've been somewhat busy, per se, with a spot of camping and relaxing to keep myself amused.

From the 4th of this month, we went to a small coastal town called Princetown, which oddly enough I have never visited, even though I lived only 180-odd kilometers from the town. Anyhow, it was very relaxing, sitting with the cool ocean breeze trying its best to nullify the scorching summer sun. In the 6 days I was down, we went to Port Campbell and Timboon; again, two town which are only two hours away form my home town, that I have never been to.

I swam in the rivers, bough local cheese, drank local whiskey, ate ice cream for breakfast on most days, and played cards. Yet, by the 10th, I was ready to come home, having lost the novelty of sleeping in a tent and having to walk five minutes to have a shower or go to the toilet.

But, I look forward to next year.

In technology strategy, the Second Half of the Chessboard is a phrase, coined by Ray Kurzweil, in reference to the point where an exponentially growing factor begins to have a significant economic impact on an organization's overall business strategy.

The term is derived from the fable of an ancient Indian mathematician who according to the fable invented the game of chess. The emperor of India is so pleased with the game that he tells the mathematician he may have anything in his kingdom he wishes. The mathematician replies that he only asks for a meek amount of rice placed on the squares of his chessboard: one grain of rice on the first square, two for the second, four for the third et cetera. Each successive square would have grains of rice double the number of the prior square until all 64 squares of the chessboard have had their said amounts.

It turns out that while the amount of rice on the first half of the chessboard is very large but economically viable for the emperor of India to provide, the amount on the second half is so vastly larger that it would be impossible for any emperor, perhaps even the entire world, to provide it.

Specifically, the total number of grains of rice on the first half of the chessboard is 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 + 256 + 512 + 1024 ... + 2,147,483,648, for a total of exactly 232 − 1 = 4,294,967,295 grains of rice, or about 100,000 kg of rice, with the mass of one grain of rice being roughly 25 mg. This total amount is about 1/1,200th of total rice production in India per annum (in 2005).

The total number of grains of rice on the second half of the chessboard is 232 + 233 + 234 ... + 263, for a total of 264 − 232 grains of rice. On the 64th square of the chessboard alone there would be exactly 263 = 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 grains of rice, or more than a billion times as much on the entire first half of the chessboard.

In total, on the entire chessboard there would be exactly 264 − 1 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice.

OK, so I'm home alone, being 1:18 am, and I'm sipping on some Blackberry and Orange tea, contemplation my plans for 2008. Off the top of my head, I can list a few resolutions:

- Lose 20 kgs
- Save $5000
- Get a double-double in basketball.
- Find my own place to live
- Find a Žydrūnas Ilgauskas top.
- Gain my full teaching registration.
- Get a ninja tattoo

Not bad for 1:24, I guess...