An Aussie geek stuck in Texas

Happy Thanksgiving y’all! Just testing out iBlogger on the iPhone while waiting for the festivities to begin!

Shaving is something I have never enjoyed, no matter what technique I would use with what blade and what shaving cream I would always end up looking like my face had been attacked with the bayonets of a platoon of toy soldiers! For a while I tried an electric shaver of the foil variety but that never gave me a close shave and I eventually ended up leaving the power cord in an Indonesian hotel so it became a paperweight as I wasn’t able to find a replacement cord.

Fast forward to yesterday when I was out and about at shopping with Kimberly when I saw a rotary Norelco shaver on the cheap so my girlfriend being as awesome as she is bought it for me!

So far so good! It doesn’t irritate my skin at all and gives a pretty close shave, although I think I will need to use it for a few weeks to get the best use out of it so my face has a chance to get used to it.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all sorts of different things, one of which is what the future holds for me and where I would like my life to lead. This lead to the development of my new 5 year goal, actually it may actually be the first 5 year goal I have ever set. The goal is:

To be able to do my work while I sit in my porch swing in my house in the mountains.

I say “my porch swing” and “my house” in the goal to emphasize the ownership of my own goal but I actually mean “our porch swing” and “our house” as in Kimberly and I’s.

I’m just tired of working in a cubicle farm and being such a slave to corporations, where your every move is open to scrutiny and where there are so many rules imposed on you. Like why should I feel bad if one of my dogs is sick and I need to take time off work to take them to the vet? I want freedom to use my time as I see fit, which means either working for myself doing freelance work, creating my own startup or working for a company that has similar ideals to my own.

I first started forming this goal while I was displaced in Dallas by Hurricane Ike and was sitting in Kimberly’s mum’s porch swing in her house in Mesquite listening to the soothing sound of the wind chimes while I worked remotely on my laptop. It just felt so right to be swinging gently in the swing as I worked on a document detailing the steps of a production migration for a client so that led me to think why can’t every day be like that?

The “in the mountains” part of the goal comes from a life long dream of mine to live in the mountains as to me that seems like the ideal lifestyle, living in a scenic area surrounded by nature with an abundance of fresh air and being able to see the stars at night!

These days I find myself more & more tired, I just have zero to no energy with it seeming like my only reason to exist is to put in my hours at work and even then often that isn’t enough for the powers that be & I get asked to work even more hours… It didn’t used to be this bad did it? I don’t remember being such a slave to work before and I don’t remember feeling the need for so many happy hours after work either.

So what went wrong? I blame part of it on Houston’s less than favorable climate and it being such an urban area, where in the past I’ve lived in areas much more favorable to recreational activties.

Back in my hometown of Helensburgh, NSW Australia we literally had bushland (forest to my American friends) within a couple of blocks of our house so that was an endless source of recreational activities - hiking, biking & even swimming amongst other things so I was always outside enjoying life.

Then during my stint in Perth, WA Australia there was the beautiful Swan River and lots of surrounding parkland that made it a joy to either cycle or go inline skating. Plus in both areas the climate was much more friendly to outdoor activities, sure it got damn hot during summer at times and the winters were colder for longer but the life sucking humidity wasn’t there, which makes all the difference in the world!

So how to rectify the situation? First step is to eliminate so many happy hours and in that regard I have been doing better lately, we have also been eating at home more often recently with me doing a lot of the cooking, just need to work on making the cooking more healthy in nature. What I haven’t been doing so good on is the exercising, I just can’t seem to find the time or the energy to get to the gym or out on the bike.

I need to come up with some motivational measures to help me get out there again and get back into shape, maybe I should look at joining a mountain bike racing team again? Any other ideas? Maybe even a bootcamp just so I have a reponsibility to be somewhere at a certain time?

For no reason except “just because”, I created this little website to promote Steak Night at Little Woodrows in Midtown. All it does is return NO unless it is Wednesday then it returns YES linked to the specials page for Little Woodrows Midtown, nice & simple!

http://isitsteaknight.com/?

On Sunday the Houston Astros designated Morgan Ensberg for assignment meaning that gave them 10 days to either trade him ,release him or send him down the the minor leagues but they made it clear the latter was not an option. this kind of saddened me as Morgan is a great guy, truly one of the “Good Guys” sure he had been struggling lately but just recently he had found his swing and was hitting pretty well so was showing a lot of promise!

Yesterday some co-workers and I actually saw him at Best Buy, my first thought was just to leave him be and not bother him as I am sure plenty of fans annoy him already but in hindsight I kind of wish I went up to him to let him know the fans still care about The Vital Organ and wish him all the best!

Today just before the trade deadline it was announced he was traded to the San Diego Padres for either an unknown player or cash, at first I thought that was a tough break but then I learned he had a house in San Diego so it sounds like it all worked out for him! So Morgan best of luck with the Padres, hopefully we see you as a regular starter and knocking the stuffing out of the ball! Oh and when the Padres are in town you better do some outfielding in batting practice and say hi to all of us at the 9 Amigo’s Bar in centerfield!

Anyone who has been to an Astros game must have seen the Astros Girls at sometime or another, you know the girls where one of them has AST painted on their stomach and the other has ROS along with a  snarky remark about the away team on their backs? Well if you haven’tthen you need to stop by the 9 Amigo’s bar at the juice box or just keep your eyes on the TV coverage!

Anyway I digress… The whole point of this post is that one of the Astros Girls, Amberlee is embarking upon a modeling career and needs your help! She is currently a candidate for the Girls Riding 2008 Calendar but in order to make the cut she currently needs 87 more posters of herself (of the picture linked in this post) to be sold by April 22nd so you have like 25 days to spend your $9.99 (plus postage) and as an added bonus you will also receive the 2008 calendar so what do you have to lose?

Visit the Girls Riding online store and help out an Astros Girl today! I’m sure you could also persuade Amberlee to personally autograph the poster and/or calendar as well!

I finally got my act together and just purchased my tickets to Opening Day for the Houston Astros v. Pittsburgh Pirates on the 2nd April, which is conveniently just two days after I return to Houston after a 3 month stint back in Perth, Australia!

From what I have read so far about how Spring Training is going it is looking like it could be quite a successful year for the Astros and we may actually get a good level of run support for our pitchers this year unlike last season!

Now all I have to decide is who is going to get my second ticket and join me on opening day at 9 Amigos!

EDIT: As you can see from the comments Kelly is the lucky one that gets to join me!

[tag]Astros[/tag]Next season just isn’t going to be the same without Willy Taveras after the Astros traded him today to the Colorado Rockies as part of a deal that saw Willy T, Taylor Buchholz and Jason Hirsh traded for Jason Jennings and Miguel Ascensio. That trade just doesn’t make sense to me, Hirsh was primed to have a great major league season for the Astros this year after being the 2006 Triple-A Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year this last season, Buchholz admittedly didn’t have a great season but Willy T. was a bit of an icon even beginning to approach the kind of status Biggio holds with the crowds especially those of us that sit in center field. Jason Jennings doesn’t seem to be that much of a catch and is hardly a replacement for Pettitte so I don’t know what the Astros were thinking with that trade!

Thankfully last season I managed to get both Pettitte and Willy T. to throw me balls during batting practice and even managed to get Willy to autograph my jersey for me towards the end of the season! It is sad to see Willy T move to the Rockies, Willy you will be missed by the fans!

[tag]AFL Grand Final[/tag][tag]Houston[/tag]I have had a few people contact me through my blog looking for somewhere to watch the AFL Grand Final here in Houston so I thought I would make a public announcement along with an open invitation for any interested parties to come along to my AFL Grand Final viewing party.

The background is that only one channel over here, Setanta Sports televises the AFL and Setanta Sports is only available on DirecTV, which most bars don’t get as they are all on cable plus any that do have DirecTV usually only have a special package for American Football and can’t add on additional channels. It is also likely the game will go beyond 2:00am and hence be a problem for most bars for us to stay beyond closing. Last year it was shown on Fox Sports so I had arranged for a bar (Little Woodrows Midtown) to stay open but stop serving drinks at 2:00am to allow us to stay until the end but am unable to get them to get Setanta Sports.

So I got one of those nifty ITVN internet TV boxes just to get Setanta Sports and have that hooked up to my moderate size 30incher so am hosting a bit of a viewing party for all interested Aussies and any one else that is curious about Australian Rules Football or people that just want to have fun with a bunch of drunken Aussies. I live in the Museum District so pretty much in central Houston so if you are interested in coming along then please drop me an email via the contact me link over on the right hand sidebar.