⇒ Lone Wolf/Federer loses match

(break: w9d2-->days on break: 65)

I was alerted to a book sale today. And when they say sale, they meant it. Lone Wolf and Cub for 5 bucks a pop! I couldn't believe it. I picked up 12 volumes (13-22, 25, & 26) which were in very good condition. There were 2 more volumes there that I didn't have but the condition wasn't worth getting. I know it's gonna bug me down the line. Now in order to complete my entire collection of Lone Wolf, I just need vols. 12, 23, 27 & 28. It's taken me almost 5 years to collect 24 of 28 volumes. Sometimes I was broke, most other times I was preoccupied but I never lost interest.

After that, I dunno, I might start up a Lady Snowblood(partially inspired Kill Bill and spawned a movie or two), Path of the Assassin(about the legendary Hattori Hanzo) or Samurai Executioner(the sort of prequel to Lone Wolf) set. Something by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima--I'll sample 1 volume of each and see which one is worth adding, like what I did with Lone Wolf. Or I might look into Crying Freeman. The movie kicked ass (mostly due to Mark Dacascos) so the comic should be promising. It's also by Koike and Kojima. Midnight Eye Goku is also worth a look, thanks to the hellacool anime. I wonder if there's some anime floating around of Miyamoto Musashi, preferably by Goseki and Kojima. Or even Onimusha. Yeah, that would be awesome.

Here's Musashi killing a whale that dare cross his path!

I also picked up a book called Moving Pixels today. Normally it goes for $60 but I got it for $10. The dust jacket was a little worse for wear but nevertheless still a great get.

Had Subway for lunch. Footlong Roasted chicken on Parmesan Oregano. All salads except carrot, cucumber & spicy pepper. Cheddar cheese. Toasted. Ranch dressing was a bit on the thin and bland side. No salt and pepper. Got the meal (cookie and drink too). Anzac cookie. Large Coke. Also, I like my subs slightly crunchier and cheese a little more melted/burnt, so leave it in the grill longer! I ate too much. Felt so bloated and immobile after chowing down. I should have gone with the swiss cheese and maybe honey mustard.

The Kooyong classic final on today. Roger Federer lost (wtf?!?). Roddick downed him 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. I'm shocked, I can't remember (if ever) Federer has lost by such a margin. But 2 things about this final:
1. you only need two sets to win, so if Federer played for another 2 sets, who knows, Roddick may have gone down.
2. it's considered the preliminary event to the Australian Open. According to experts, most tennis players don't take it seriously/play with full ability. Whatever.

I will be tuning in to the Australian Open telecast. Every year at this time I used to watch it during breaks at my graveyard shift. Two memorable moments: when Roddick and El-Aynaoui played a 5 setter finishing with a record breaking tie-breaker for 5 hours; and Federer dispatched by a peak performance Safin is the semi-final (which we all knew was the true final). Good times.

listening to: Queen, Ennio Morricone's Lolita soundtrack (1997)--it's amazing, it gives me shivers, David Bowie, T-Pain, Three-6 mafia.

watching: Croupier (interesting-->I swear Clive Owen would've made an unbelievable Bond, but Daniel Craig is frickin' awesome too, I'm just referring to his amazing physical and characteristic resemblance to the description of JB), Pet Sematary (sh!t, what a waste of time, I wasn't scared at all and the movie had almost nothing to do with the title).


we are the champions, my friends,
and we'll keep on fighting, til the end...
we are the champions, we are the champions,
no time for losers, cause we are the champions...of the world!

♥♣♦♠

⇒ gym n swim

(break: w9d1-->days on break: 64)

went gymmin and swimmin today. I went in the late arvo because it was way too hot before that. Probably in the high 30s today. Didn't get up to much else for the same reason.

I was gonna go easy today but instead pushed my limits and made some progress on upper body work. I focus on doing more reps these days. Did the vert. chest press, back thingy, shoulder thingy and chest-butterfly thingy. I swear the weights have been mislabeled or I've gotten considerably weaker in the time I didn't go gymmin last semester. I used to be able to chest press 100+ kg (225lbs) and now I find 70lbs challenging.

On the cardio side, I rode the shit out of the exercise bike today, level 9. Made 12.1km in 20'. I guess that's pretty good. I feel pretty good about it. I did the exercise bike to change up my cardio work (from the treadmill) and thus I wasn't going to do any treadmill work but I ended up doing 20' on that as well. Mostly walking though. Made about 2.2km in 20'.

As usual, I cooled off with a swim after that (not really swimming, just being a jackass in the water).

I'll try do something moderately interesting/exciting tomorrow.

♥♣♦♠

⇒ warm!

(break: w8d7-->days on break: 63)

the weather is finally resembling summer daze of old. today it was roughly 30 Celsius. Tomorrow it's predicted to hit 38 C. nice.

went to Westfield Bondi Junction today. Still very classy. You get those really hoity-toity joints that are staffed by ppl that know you can't afford their wares. Still the place itself is very pretty. Everything still feels new, the wood still has its original coat of polish, the paint colors are still rich and generally everything (especially the washrooms) are very well maintained. The carpark is a bit of a mess though, it's quite labyrinthine. They should take a queue from Broady and make the flow simpler.

The main thing about Westfield Bondi Junction I really like is that there exists a glossy finish on pretty much every surface (I kid you not). I just makes the environment exude a really classy, sleek sheen. Also, the interior space is
1. well lit. Good combo of bright interior lighting and natural lighting.
2. well ventilated
3. very clean. Adds to the glossy finish
4. well spaced out. Not too far in between stuff and not too jam packed together either.

there isn't really a smell in the air aside from the occasional waft of hair product from the styling joints inside. It would be nice to have a cinnamon or ice-cream cone/waffle-y smell like the type given off by new zealand natural ice-cream (?). BTW, they have two foodcourts and a Baskin 31 Robbins. It's probably the second of only 2 in Sydney (though the first one looks so rundown I wouldn't go there to sh!t).

Also went to gym today. Working off that Double delish. Improved my treadmill time. Did 5.0km in 45'35". Not bad. I can do better though. My personal best is about 3.2km in 20' so that should work out to be 5.0 in under 35'. I'm working on it. Gave my arms a bit of a work out today too. Then went for a swim to cool off. All in all more active than most daze. I'll probably go gymmin/swimmin tomorrow too.

Now for some wiki entries: scenthound | Welsh Corgi | Chinchilla | List of Dog breeds | Basset hound. Possibly my favorite dog breed. I know I have a Pomeranian and he has grown on me but that was not by my choosing. | Daniel Daly | Starship Troopers imdb entry | Klendathu | Basil Poledouris. RIP. He will be sorely missed. Check out Robocop and Conan soundtracks, I consider those to be the finest of his distinct works |

Futuristic sex robotz. These guys did a track called Back to the Future I love it. They're offering it to download free. You can get the rest of the album there too, tho I've yet to check it out.

Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?!?/Kerls, wollt ihr denn ewig leben?!?
-Daniel Daly/Friedrich der Große

♥♣♦♠

⇒ iPhone/Double Delish

(break: w8d6-->days on break: 62)
[Apple iPhone thoughts]

Apple unleashes the long anticipated and much speculated iPhone. Looks hellacool. PDA-ish but hellacool. Multi-input touchscreen and sensors! The next revision or the one after it will probably end up being my next phone on the strength of it being 1. an Apple and 2. a phone/mp3 hybrid from the get-go. Bundle that with higly-probable PowerBook compatibility and it's place in my pocket is almost assured.

Critique: The camera-just get the megapixel-age upwards (waaaayyyyyyyyyy upwards) of 3.0 chums, I've been playing with true 2 Mpixel for over a year on my SonyEricsson. The size-shave down the size! It's quite long (11cm long is not going to be comfy in my pocket) Get it to iPod Nano/Mini proportions. The weight-closer to 100g pls. Battery-life--Sony managed to keep me coming back for years for many reasons but one thing they did better than most was battery life. Find a way to push it to the limit. It must scrape triple digits. I know we're getting a widescreen video-wireless internet-Apple branded-mp3 playing goodness but in the cutthroat world of mobile phones, you have to go three better than everyone else, especially if you've not yet established yourself in this particular market. Still I am interested. Memory size seems adequate (4 or 8GB), wireless G and Bluetooth 2.0 supported--that's good. Sleek design, smooth finish, widescreen video, wireless internet, good screen and Apple functionality. Mmm-iPhone (drool). Many unveiling pics here.

But many unanswered questions remain:
Will a headphone jack be standard on the device? (oh please God, make it so! SonyEricsson jacked me out of another $60 to buy the handsfree which allows for the standard headphone jack). Don't make the same mistake, you are the company that churns out iPods, after all. Current signs point to yes (yessssssss!)
What video formats are supported?
What video formats will it be able to record in, if at all?
Is it a slider? What does it slide out to reveal? The keypad is touch.
How fast is the touch keypad? Many of us get up to some crazy speeds when texting/dialing.
Is it flash-based memory?
How does it know what was an 'unintentional touch'?
What kind of JAVASCRIPT/coding language support will it have?
What web browser will it use? Modified safari? Opera mini?
What about Macromedia Flash support? .

More questions remain, but now is not the right time. Currently, I'm not tempted to get it immediately. It's nice but I've had most of those luxuries for over a year now on my SonyEricsson and for much much cheaper. The screen's pretty good but hasn't this been far surpassed? BTW, the mp3 playing functionality coupled with wireless internet seems like a slight in Micr$h!t's direction (read: Zune). I guess business is business. Stevo:"Rub him out".

one more pic 'cause it's so purdy. One last fleeting though: Apple are probably gonna overhaul their iPods again to make them (particularly iPod video) seem less competitive with themselves.
[/Apple iPhone thoughts]

kidrobot. A sort of homebrew modeling supplier. You buy the parts and put it together. Creative! | Here's an example of a kidrobot project, it's from Gears of War | wiki entry on Lithopedion. This is a fossilized embryo which does not leave the mother's body for some number of years. Just read the entry |
One last thing before I star my food story. I recently upped to Mozilla Firefox 2.0 and noticed it's stolen copied incorporated many of Opera's winning ways, such as session recovery after crash and tabbed browsing memory. It's yet to get a crazy good download manager and notes tab though.

Funny story, I went for walk around the city, and it was quite warm today, so I planned for a bit of gym and swim in the late arvo. Contrary to my plans, I gave in to Hungry Jack's and ended up too satisfied for anything else, I ended up sleeping through the afternoon. That's why I didn't go gymming or anything. Or watch tennis. Or Seinfeld. You get the idea. In my Double delish frenzy I was too whacked out on tomato relish and two grilled beef patties that I neglected to maintain my most sacred temple.

I tried to resist Hungry Jack's temptation. How foolish. I should have known that low low price couple with a value meal with unlimited refills for only $2 more would've corrupted me and made me miss a gym appointment. As my philosophy on temptation goes: the beast way to beat it is to give in. And now the details of the burger; Hungry Jack's Double Delish. My god it was good. I feel ashamed that it was so good. Maybe it was that level of goodness because of the guilt I associated with it. Maybe it was the tomato relish. But I do know that next time I chow down on the limited edition burger (and I WILL chow down again--it's one of the few that can make me miss a Whopper appointment, also see my previously aforementioned philosophy of temptation) I will try to enjoy it more, like a cow slow-digesting its share of prime cut green. And the burger itself is only $2.95. I must learn a method of snap-freezing and preserving it for future enjoyment. Greedy corporate types will surely try to keep us apart once they learn of our forbidden union. Damn those bastards. Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in.

⇒ Shizukana Hibi no Kaidan Wo

(break: w8d5-->days on break: 61)
went to gym today. not too bad, just for a quick session. did 10' on exercise bike and a bit of a swim. managed about 6km in 10' on the bike.

I haven't been upto much else, i dunno, nothing feels fresh or exciting. And fighting off fast-food cravings is driving me nuts. Hungry Jacks just put out a new burger for just $2.95 which I'm damn tempted to stuff my face with. And then wash it down with litres of Cola. Damn you all to hell! I can't stay mad at you...

♥♣♦♠

⇒ nothing

(break: w8d4-->days on break: 60)

didn't get up to anything these last few daze. Fell asleep really early (8 or 9ish) because the tv and net were in use by other ppl.

Have been avoiding gym/exercise because my knee felt sore from the last time I went and it scared me that I might have damaged it again.

♥♣♦♠