kjp

A few things about the water.

Last Monday (RDO) I went down to the coast (Burleigh) and caught a few waves (just swimming). They were decent sized, not too big, not too small. A fair few dumpers - it was barrelling a bit. It was good to get a good swim in - the past couple of times I've gone it's been really flat - "booss". Tomorrow is forecast (by swellnet) to be 3 ft. Fingers crossed it will be a foot or two bigger. I'll probably wear my fins - get a bit more speed up.

On Thursday I was at the pool changing the way I swim (freestyle at least). After reading a few tips earlier in the week, I was rolling my body onto my side (from my hips, but probably not 90 degrees rotation) and consciously breathing out when my face was underwater. This seemed to be very beneficial - I was doing the 25 m laps a lot more easily, and with one or two less breaths...

Rolling enables more air to get in my lungs, I think, as there is more time that my mouth is open above water. Exhaling under water helps as well (it lowers the pressure in my lungs and gives room for the fresh air). The other good thing about rolling (for me at least) is that I can easily breathe on either side. I think that some of my neck muscles on the left are a lot tighter than the right: previously when I was just rotating my head out of the water to get a breath I was always breathing on my left side - couldn't rotate my head enough to the right to get enough. By rolling I'm now getting into a nicer 5 stroke cadence - more balanced then just one side.

Things I need to work on / try:
* not forcing my hands through the water. I can pull my hands through quickly, but it tires me out more. If I want to go for endurance (and increase fitness) as opposed to strength I probably should try this.
* pause slightly (with one hand in front) between strokes ("glide")
* underwater I need to kick slowly (especially with fins on) - with the aim of trying to keep my heart rate down.

OK, the stuff above was written on Friday just gone, now for this weekend:
I again was at Burleigh on Saturday morning (no board, just swimming). Were some decent waves to catch. I had my fins on for the entire time (the first decent swim (not surf) with fins on). It was "cheating", yes I know; but it meant a) that I had a bigger window of opportunity to catch the waves, b) I could catch waves that I'd have trouble getting onto without fins, c) I could get a bit further in front of the white-water. The downside to wearing fins while swimming - pain in bum getting out with in the shallow water (walking backwards).

The day also saw me getting a cut on a toe - weird, considering I had socks / fins on all the time, and there were no cuts in either of them....????... I would have noticed it if I cut it before getting in the water, I think...

Anyhow, I got sucked back and down and then dumped on a particularly big wave that I had just gone under (or so I thought). However, in the washing machine, my left calf got twisted / strained or something - couldn't move it without hurting. Drifted with the waves back to the beach and sat out for 5 mins or so. This has happened once before - getting dumped (on a bodyboard - down Broulee in the holidays). I think that it comes from having (when fins are on) stretched out ("pointy") feet (so calf muscles are retracted / compressed (whatever the correct word is)) most of the time. I generally try not to move my feet much when I have fins on - try and get power from my hips (the exception is when I need quick acceleration). If your foot then suddenly gets (as I think was the case for Saturday) twisted up and out suddenly, then the calf muscle suddenly has to change to an odd position. And strains it, and in this case hurts a bit when I tried to move my leg. And, worse, makes you loose 5 / 10 minutes of good wave catching time... :)

The moral of the story is for me to remember to stretch my calves - particularly if I'm wearing flippers. Either that or "don't get dumped"... Actually, seriously - I probably should have taken a bigger breath and stayed on the bottom for longer. The other thing I need to remember is to stay calm when I'm being pushed under / dumped - all worrying does is stress me out and reduce the amount of air I can use for swimming.

I also got a bit burnt on my face - again. Fantastic. Despite several layers of sunburn cream - applied when I left home; about 1/2 hour before I got in the water (on the road) and 5 mins before I got in the water. I'll be trying a different brand next time, then zinc if that doesn't do the job.

Ohh, useless trivia - the tide prediction tool that I used to use (previously run by Flinders Uni), has been taken over by the BOM (QLD tides).

Tomorrow is the last day of summer, sigh: I like the beach...

Melbourne band Art Of Fighting's gig at the Zoo on Friday night was great... Hadn't heard much of the band before then (just a couple of songs on the radio). Just got Second Storey from the shops. Very cool, excellent music.

Considering I used to know hardly anything about guitar tabs, Guitar tabs and chords is very useful.

Oops. Yesterday I copped my first fine in a while: overdue library book. Thursday was raining, so no swiming, and so forgot to go home via the library (next door to the pool).

I think I'll survive the 25 cents hit...

If you need help with your chords, check the Chord House out.

I've come across the fist issue for my phone (well, the cover really). Reception on Optus where I live is pretty poor (especially back end of the house where the rooms are). In my room I used to always get (on my old phone) reception. With the new phone, and with its cover on there's often no bars (i.e.: for a while tonight when I've been on the computer I've not been connected to the network). Without the cover one I get between 1 - 5 notches on this phone (I stay connected).

This is a bit of a problem. The cover that I'm using is the "clear front with leather back/sides and metallic belt clip type". Presumably the plastic / leather doesn't interfere with the reception... it's the belt clip???. I wonder where the antenna is physically located within the camera housing? Couldn't (easily) find a decent site that said this...

This is another reason why I will get a different cover - the belt clip annoys me and gets in the way; now it dampens the reception as well.

For a little while I've been impressed by lightning photography: some pretty cool images. From several things I've read, it seems that you just need to leave open the shutter (but not too much if it is daylight / dusk), and point the camera in the general area of the storm, and get lucky...

The main problem for me is where I am with respect to the storm. Being within any storm is useless. All you get (if the shutter is open when lightning is around) is the scenery lit up. Really, you want to be ahead of the storm, with a clear view of the oncoming front...

The problem is where you get that. Someplace high: but around Brisbane these are few and far between. Mt Coo-tha lookout has an Easterly perspective. From looking at the weather radar the past few storms we've had - is that they usually approach from the West.

Hmmm....

The beach (Sunshine Coast) was flat as. Sigh. Made the trip a bit boring... Swellnet said 1-1.5' Brownies said (I thought) 1-1.5m. Swellnet was right.

On Wednesday my new mobile phone - a Nokia 3120 - arrived. Compared to other phones on the market, it's basic, but a notch or two up from the basic Nokia phone that every other man or dog seems to have.

For me, the important bits of it are:
* Is more reliable. It only turns off when I press the power button. (!)
* The keypad locks in a programmable number of seconds ("automatic keyguard")
* Is useable in China (would have to be considering both Australia and China are at 900MHz (GSM 900)).
* Is about 3 cm shorter than my previous mobile.
* Has a better battery
* Colour screen is useful. Makes the menus clearer

It doesn't have a camera; doesn't have an FM radio / MP3 player (I figured that I wouldn't use the camera enough to be worth it; I plan to get a dedicated MP3 player later in the year). The data cable to the computer is a fair bit of money extra. I need to find a place where I can get better backgrounds; or buy the PC connector cable?. The backgrounds that are preloaded on it are pretty average.

When I got the phone the right select button was programmed to go to Optus Zoo (not Contacts). Hmmm, I wonder how many people don't change that button back to point to "Contacts"... The right selection button can be programmed to open up the "Go To" menu - which is a list of functions of the phone (this list is configurable, contains things like Contacts, Inbox, General / Silent Mode, Alarm Clock, etc). I'm trying this out, it will probably be a bit easier than going through the menus for the common things. It's got an inbuilt handsfree speaker (i.e.: loudspeaker) - will probably be useful.

Time for some pretty pictures. Firstly, my old phone - Nokia 6210 next to my new phone:

When I put the phone together I was pretty surprised at the battery - so tiny to what I was used to. The old battery is the height and width of the new phone:

I was a bit worried about the separation of the keys (old phone = definite gap between the keys, new phone = keys right next to each other) - i.e.: would I press the 5 accidentally if going for the 6 (say). This isn't the case - no problems in this respect.

I got the phone through my current phone company - Optus - online. The "Direct" / online arm of Optus seems to have lower cost plans than the "Optus World" shops that are in the shopping malls. The deal I got it on is cheap per monthly cost, but quite high call rate (probably the biggest downside to this phone / plan). Higher per month plans have lower call costs.... not really surprising. Anyhow, ordering in the "hot deals of the month" gave me $50 call credit (very useful), and a few extras: case, personal hands free and car charger - although I probably won't ever used the last two. I'll probably get a better cover / case as well - the belt clip annoys me and I won't use it. Buying the phone online has the disadvantage that you can't pick the colour. awww shucks... har har.

Assuming I use up all the call credits (and the $50 credit) and nothing more, I figure that the phone will cost me $59 - not too bad. With Optus, it's only on plans that are $35 / month or more where the phone is free. However, if I have a couple of decent conversations after 8pm (for free) then I'll get that value back... So it seems to be a pretty good deal for me. The only question mark is that I may (at a later date) go to the next plan up: more calls / month and lower call cost.

Overall, I'm very happy with the phone - seems to be everything I want, nothing I don't.

In a later edition I'll put up all the photos of the insides of my old phone when I took it to bits... it was fun...

(Not going out:) Got a busy weekend ahead (the bad kind of busy). I've done hardly any jobs through the week (staying back at work late to sort things out) or last weekend (listening to too much music) - so there's a big pile of things to do. Many emails to send to many bits of Australia and the world.

Having said that, unless the weather is really dodgy, I'll probably go up to the beach tomorrow morning. Haven't been in a while...