best

Test2

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Worked out how to edit it to put in the missing bits...I love this game.

better

Test2

Map your trip with EveryTrail

but still dead spots...(edit: wow! That was cool! I worked out how to edit the trail, saved and reposted it above just to find out that the new, improved version appeared down here too....yay for Al Gore and his internets!)

Old Toy, new Fun.

Test

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Trail mapping app for iPhone. As you can see, it didn't collect data in a few sections - poor parameter choice on my part, I think, I should be able to work this out. Still fun! ...and may help for the thousand km of August...hint hint...

new toy

Too bad it's (almost) too hot to ride it...

Summer Break, Day 2.

This is my second of many days of summer break. Yesterday, the first, was spent in a dentist's chair for part three of the six-stage process that is getting a root canal done in Japan. After that I paid $900 dollars worth of bills, then hung around at home as the shock of $900 of bills left me feeling decidedly like I couldn't afford to go out (and it was 37 degrees...).

I'm finally going to get into study in earnest, so far I've watched my lectures, a tute and read a lot of forum discussion from other students but I haven't actually done anything. Today that changes!

Anyway, back to the Thousand Kilometers of August thing. See, it's not that much. Actually, it's only 32.26 km/day. Or look at it this way; you could walk from Brisbane to Sydney in a month, so on a bicycle it seems almost trivial. Kinda. Add in the heat and it may be tougher, but I also have the luxury right now of being able to choose the time I ride, so I am pretty sure I can avoid the heat as much as possible.

A few days ago I mentioned it to my bestest friend, and his comment "You should get sponsors for that!" has gotten me thinking...

I'm pretty good at quitting. Adding a reason to not quit this would be really cool, and hey, giving this a purpose could also make it beneficial.

So, dear readers (aka the Silent Masses) I need ideas - SPONSOR ME! a per-kilometer rate, say 1c/km or so on. 2c/km would be better. So would 5.

I would also like ideas for organisations to donate to. I'm naturally inclined to lean towards cancer research/support such as the LIVESTRONG foundation, but I think Lance is doing a pretty good job raising money on his own. There must be others that could use the few bucks I raise more than Livestrong. Ideas please - we've got ten days to decide!

So, please comment on this blog with pledges and recommendations for charities/recipients, or email to chris_j_main AT hotmail DOT com

yoroshiku onegai itashimasu

The Plan.

I have a plan for August.

August sees me being a Big Slacker - no work the whole month. I'll be studying, but I think I need more of a challenge than that, so...

I'm going to ride 1000km. In one month. On my bicycle.

More about this soon.

One to go

and then it's Summer Break.

Summer Break, with Capitals becuase it's L-O-N-G. As in Six Weeks.

Yes.

I've almost made it through to the start of Uni too - in a way the last few weeks have felt like more of a test than the actual study will. At least with the Summer Break I'll have time to get settled into the study routine. After the mess I made of Summer Break Last Year I'm looking forward to having a quiet time around home - which, by the way, looks something like this...apologies to the folks that have been waiting for months to see these pics.




As you can see, it's quite the upgrade over the last place...including that beautiful machine up there in the corner - gonna need it as Rainy Season is officially over and we've got a week of 35 degrees coming up...

bureaucracy...

is starting to drive me nuts...

Uni, which looked so promising a few weeks ago, is already getting under my skin in a huge way.

The wunderrfull, hi-teck kom-pooter system they use is just a more efficient way of shrugging people off and giving them the runaround.

The wunderrfull kom-pooter hi-teck system can't get addresses right, nor does it send an alert or warning when mail is returned undelivered (or is that just the humans on the other side of the system...?)

Pages don't exist, downloads don't work...goes to prove that behind the 21st-century veneer nothing has changed in those places - still ruled by apathy and incompetence.

/rant off.

...aaannnddd here we go!

I started study today. Well, only read and watched the introductions and welcomes from my lecturers, but even that was very exciting.

Also discovered that other people in my 'classes' are just as, if not more, bewildered by all this technology than I am.

It's really happening!