ithanos

What a season, so emotional. Almost couldn't believe the 3rd race finish. Pick a team, lay some bets and enjoy the ride, or roll, as it were.

Well done Ireland, outplaying and out-couching the ABs in our own backyard. These loses are like climate change. That hundred year event is now bi-annual! I don't think you've peaked, but you have to be at your best by that semi-final because if results go by the current WR rankings, it'll be France versus Ireland at Stade de France. The other option, if we're considering tournament tactics, is to win your pool (beating South Africa and Scotland) and then likely meeting a New Zealand side you know you've had the measure of recently.

Unprecedented weekend of rugby, with 4 series on the line. If we look at what it takes to go deep in the RWC, you can afford to drop a game in the pool stages and then string together an unbeaten run of 4-5 games, like South Africa showed in 2019. With that in mind, even though the Southern Hemisphere teams have home advantage, I'd give a lot of weight to the momentum the Northern Hemisphere teams are carrying into these deciders. Still, I can't see any clear favourites in any of these games.

Saw the new trailer this morning ahead of Thor: Love and Thunder. Much better than that first teaser. It's piqued my interest. I would probably just go watch this on a giant screen just for the technical aspects and immersion in the world as it is. If there's anything of a compelling story overlaid on that it would be a bonus.

God damn that first episode of the new season had some insane scenes. Imagine being the parent of a child actor in this episode. Child Actor: "Can I watch the whole episode I was in?". Parent: "Ah, hellll no!".

I saw the teaser trailer, when it played before DSitMoM, and like others if seemed inert. If anything, when I read the title, I got an itching to check out Waterworld again. I would still line up to watch it on opening week, heck yeah. Watched the original in 3D and that technical experience has not been surpassed, so I can't wait to see what Cameron has in store for this series. I remember, when Avatar came out, I was talking with my cousin and he said he couldn't get into it after the Na'vi started putting their junk into other creatures' junk and going about their business. I didn't have a reply to that.

Yeah, if they kill off Kai-125 I'd be pissed off. Must say they physically cast the Spartans well (no Tom Cruise/Jack Reacher shenanigans here). Master Chief and Vannak-134 actors are both 6'5", Kai-125 is 6'3" and Riz-028 is 6'1'. Poor Bokeem Woodbine (Soren-066) is a paltry 6' - no wonder he escaped the programme. The Spartan armour, for all of them, looks magnificent by the way.

damn BFC that sucks! Bike can be repaired/replaced but I hope you back gets better soon.

I've negotiated a buy price on a second hand 2016 Brompton for AU$1800(~£1020). Seller's located a couple hours up the coast from Sydney by train so I'll go there next weekend to view it and buy it if all is well. I had considered buying one brand new but that would mean an overnight train down to Melbourne, to the only Brompton store in Australia, and then forking out a minimum AU$2800(£1585). Absolutely. Came across a sale this weekend on bike accessories and one of the first things I bought was a memory seat cover. Pamper your ass!

I mentioned the Brompton because of the cost, as I'm also in the market to buying one second-hand, primarily for commuting & travel but also exercise. That Merida hybrid range looks very serious. When I used to ride to college in my younger years I had a road bike and a mountain-bike to choose from. The mountain bike was a grueling experience, especially when the winds picked up, but I got great exercise out of it. The road bike just seemed to let me glide from A to B and I got to the (fit) stage where I was getting to B without feeling I'd gotten much of a workout.

You got a Brompton?

Throwing this out for anyone who has struggled to set and progress towards a goal. Setting up goals is super easy. Which also makes them super easy to forget, defer and eventually ignore. I've had success with setting up personalised countdowns on timeanddate.com and then saving that url as my browser's home page. I failed on the first goal I set because it was too far out - 180days/ 6months. I kept deferring the actions needed to create the behaviour that would set me towards the goal and eventually the date come and passed and I had barely moved in that direction. But when I set shorter goals (1mth, 2mths) I found that I was able to direct my energies to achieving them much easier. The timeanddate site is simple to setup and personalise. I considered using a similar prompt on my phone's homescreen but since I view the phone often during the day it would be over exposed and I worried I'd become blasé about it. However, on the computer I would only see it maybe once a day when I start the computer and open the browser. This was a goal date I had set at the beginning of this year, for the end of March, as a reminder of striving for better health outcomes. It's almost two weeks past now but I reached that goal successfully. I titled it after the L.P Hartley line. https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20220331T08&p0=240&msg=The+Foreign+Country&ud=1&font=hand This is my next goal date for the end of May. I want to get my bodyweight to under 100kg - 99 kilos and pray be never over this weight for the rest of my life. cue Jay-Z. https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/winter?iso=20220531T00&p0=240&msg=I+got+99+problems%2C+but+a+bitch+ain't+one.+&font=cursive&csz=1 All the best in your endeavours everyone!

I've found that eating a high protein meal within an hour or two after intense training really helps me recover for the next day's activity. I haven't experienced any DOMS since prioritizing protein in that post training meal - and just as important is to sleep well that same night to implement that recovery.

How Would You Like to Pay?

Hope everyone is on track for their goals. Have been training quite religiously these past four months since we came out of restrictions and our gyms reopened. Although I'd piled on the Covid kilos, like so many others, I found that for several weightlifting movements (squat, front squat, snatch, clean, dead-lift), I'm the strongest I've ever been. My stability in movement is also in good order. So, since I'm not getting any younger, the goal for this year - and maybe only this year, is to push the envelope in those lifts as much possible and set strength maximums for my age at 2022. Then, for the rest of my life, to never try to better those weights but aim to hold parity or as close to parity as I get older. If by 2032 I can do the same lifts, pain free, at 75%+ of 2022 weight then I'd consider that a win. 60%+ in 2042 would be fantastic. 50%+ beyond 2042 would be incredible. On the conditioning side, I've been trying to improve my rowing technique on the Concept2 rowing machine by using the force display as a guide. I had no idea how poor my technique had become. During sprints my force plots, from left to right, look like a cliff face with a cliff top sloping gently to the right. The ideal is to cultivate a rowing stroke that plots like a lone mountain with rounded peak. I quickly got into a rhythm of creating silhouettes of an elephant facing left. A bit more effort in technique and I managed a flattened mound. But then frustration creeps in and there pops up a two humped camel plot and then, one time, what looks like the Sydney Opera house. I muse and aim for the classic dick pic but its hard to achieve(no pun intended). This is gong to take some time to master.

Have never followed Sumo as a sport so this really was an excellent summary and also an eye opener. A bloody first bout. Injuries, concussions and oversized wheelchairs. A tragic death (from an injury fortunately not shown). I did not expect how brutal it could be.

Woke up at 5am and watched delayed full streams of this morning's men's internationals. A great way to spend a lazy Sunday morning. Ireland vs NZ. The Irish were amazing. This might be the best performance I've seen from any one team this year. I thought last week that Kieran Crowley had done masterly in getting the Azzurri to completely stifle and confront the NZ forwards for the first 20 minutes until a lack of familiarity in such a position let them hesitate allowing the opposition to finally get into the game. In this game, Ireland's variety in attack was impressive, I didn't think they had that in them to sustain for the majority of the game. Might need to check the record books but I don't think NZ has been made to tackle that much since modern records have been kept. Its a shame Ireland hasn't put in for a RWC hosting bid (could they?), as they're genuinely odds on favorite against any opponent on their home ground. Any consolation for NZ would be that the losses this year answer several questions they would've had about their squad and game plan - and they have a couple years to address before the 2023 RWC. For now they have the tough task of regrouping for a final match against France in Paris. By contrast the England vs Australia game was disappointing. The Australian coaching team seem to have struggled incorporating the new squad members, as experienced as some of them are, into the structures they started seeing fruits of in the second half of the TRC. The Scotland vs SA match I watched last and it was engaging in the first half but the Scots were making too many errors, and SA were looking particularly sharp.

With The Orville season 3 due for release from March 2022, I was wondering if the late Norm Macdonald got to record any lines as Yaphit. If not, then alas we at least have these.

Halftime in the NRL Grand Final, an even arm wrestle with just a penalty in it. Brutal defence from both sides. Penrith have playing on defence these past weeks so I expect them to hold strong. If Cleary's kicking continues I think it will just wear Souths down in the second half, unless Reynolds & Walker can produce more inroads. Also, Benji Marshall is still to come on, it would be a fairy-tale finish to his career (if he is retiring) if he adds some magic touches for the bunnies. Great final. Penrith Panthers getting some relief after year's heartbreak.

NZ actually kicked more than SA in that first half. Intense finish, after SA pegged back the lead, several lead changes by penalties and a drop kick, and then the final leg taken by SA - who in truth were the better team overall on the night. Deserved victory by SA but it was close, again.

Cracking first half between South Africa and New Zealand in the final game of The Rugby Championship 2021. SA came out with clear intent, and although they've continued with their tactic of going to the air they've peppered it delightfully with some excursions out wide. But, as is often the case, NZ only needed a couple chances in opposition territory to spring a dozen points out of sharp play - heading into the half 20:14 up. Earlier Australia had dispatched a spirited Argentina missing several players who made the poor decision to cross over the QLD/NSW border and found they couldn't immediately cross back without an enforced quarantine.

For the cinefiles, or for anyone interested in how things got done. A 20 minute video essay on a 10 second shot used in Brian De Palma's Bonfire of the Vanities. The Most Difficult Shot in Movie History (And Why It Matters) TL:DW The story of how the shot came about is told between timestamps 2:37 - 6:42, it's a great story.

The expected arm wrestle between NZ and SA. Too much pride for SA not to turn up and up their intensity and stick to what has worked for their set up, putting pressure on NZ forcing them to make errors. Edit: this is actually the game I hoped between these two, at least from South Africa. Even with The Rugby Championship now secured by NZ, fans back home, unfortunately, will ravage this performance from their team. Cool thing is, they get to do this again next week. Australia vs Argentina coming right up at the same stadium.

Loving the Reservation Dog series so far. I've watched a bit of patrickisanavajo, before RevDogs came out, when I was getting tired of the same perspective in the old classic Westerns (though who ever gets tired of a good Western?), and wanted to know what indigenous Americans enjoyed in a Western - if they ever do. Turns out most are positive about Last of the Mohicans, Dances with Wolves, Thunderheart, and the like. Even though the leads are white, as long as the representation of indigenous peoples is balanced and fair and uses indigenous actors, then the movie can be enjoyed for what it is - a good watch. There's an unusual fondness for Willow I've found. I've not heard anything about the older Westerns from the Ford/John Wayne era though. Anyway, that was a good clip. Dallas Goldtooth, who plays Spirit in Reservation Dogs, is part of a sketch comedy group the 1491s, "a gaggle of Indians chock full of cynicism and splashed with a good dose of indigenous satire. They coined the term All My Relations, and are still waiting on the royalties. They were at Custer's Last Stand. They mooned Chris Columbus when he landed. They invented bubble gum. the 1491s teach young women to be strong. And teach young men how to seduce these strong women." Here's a couple of entries from their youtube channel that are worth a laugh.