Exceptionally Uncaught

On Sunday I did the Canberra Times Fun Run. I'd been wanting to do a proper run for a while, so when some people at work decided to put together a team, I put my hand up.

I'm really bad with stuff like regular exercise. I really need a short term goal to work towards. So something like a 10km run in 5 weeks time was pretty perfect. In the end I didn't do anywhere near enough training for it, but I did get to the gym at least twice a week. I never did manage to do a 10km practice run, so I was pretty uncertain how I'd go on the day.

The run itself was lots of fun. I managed to keep a good pace until about the 5km mark. Then my shoelace came untied and my number fell off (which are both really nice excuses for stopping...). I walked for about 2km, and then ran from the 7km point. The last 3km were fantastic, and I think I ran the last km faster then I've ever run a km before.

My final time was 1:04:59. And I'm keen for more!

Since Mikal left TOWER, the view out my window at work has changed quite a lot. What used to be a small carpark surrounded by grass and trees and next to a big hole in the ground has become a much larger carpark (that fits fewer cars), surrounded by concrete and a nearly finished apartment block. So I figured I'd blog some photos so he could really see the difference.



I've also adopted a few plants when their owners left, so since I had my camera, I figured I'd give a quick update on each of them.

This was Gordon's ficus. It was a little sad about Gordon leaving, and some of its leaves started dying. Then I remember to water it more regularly, and now it's doing very well. It loves it's new position by the window, since it gets direct sun for a few hours every morning.

This is Mikal's tentacle plant. While it's not spreading out across the cube walls any more, it could still reach from one side of the room to the other. Also, if you look closely, one of the leaves has a face drawn on it.

Big Headed Simon had a few very nice plants that I was hoping to score when he left. Unfortunately he took most of them with him, but he did leave me this peace lilly. While it's not flowering at the moment (unlike my other peace lilly), it is throwing out a whole lot of new leaves. It looks a little bit unwell in this photo, but that's only because it hasn't had a drink since Friday.

This is an email to some friends. I decided to re-post here to see if I can get any more advice/reactions/help...

For some reason lately, I've had this really (as in really) strong desire to play something strategic with a collectible bend to it. A collectible card game, Pirates, clix, hell even a minis war game. I find myself going into logical choice and gazing longingly at all those seal packets of mystery. I want the challenge of putting together the right combination, of planning and strategy based on something that's unique to me and competing against someone else's uniqueness.

I keep telling myself that it's a bad idea. There's no one to play against. It's a waste of money. But the other part of me keeps saying "but it's not a waste of money if you're having fun, and you don't have to spend that much, and if someone else want to try it out as well, it would only be about the cost of a night at the movies..."

I'm not sure if the point of this email is so I can hear people say "no, don't do it!" or if it's to see if anyone says "yeah, that could be fun to try...". Maybe I'm hoping for both...

I've cut out step 6, which is "tag 5 people", 'cause I don't like blog-tagging - mostly because no one ever blog-tags me.

1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the test of the next 4 sentences, along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

Correction: Add a break statement at the end of the statements for the first case. Note that this is not necessarily an error if the programmer wants the statement of case 2: to execute every time the case 1: statement executes.
d) Error: improper relational operator used in the while repetition-continuation condition. Correction: Use <= rather than < or change 10 to 11.

2.14 Identify and correct the errors in each of the following (Note: there may be more than one error in each pieces of code):

-- from C++ How To Program, which was slightly closer than my employee guidelines. I'll have to do this again at home.

The Lab by Jack Heath
Discovered: By talking to the author
About It: A fairly typical cypberpunk setting - massive city almost universally controlled by a single corporation, with a genetically enhanced super human as the main character. It was aimed at a much younger reader, but since I've known the author for years, I was really pleased to finally get my hands on a copy.
My Rating: 3/5

Murder Unprompted by Simon Brett
Discovered: In the Crisp Cafe
About It: The lead actor in a West End play is murdered onstage during opening night, and one of the understudies decides to investigate. It was my first BookCrossing book, so I was excited to read it. I was even more surprised by how much I enjoyed the story. A good trashy mystery.
My Rating: 3.5/5

...To say that Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman rocks on toast.