Steve Mactaggart's Blog

So I’ve failed..  I didn’t post evey day of January, so I could just give up and consider myself beaten.. But no I won’t. Its more like the world has been conspiring against me in not being able to post. 

I could have copped out and said, nothing much happening so not worth boring the world with random dribble, but thats not true, so lets recap. The last post was last Thursday night, so I’ve got nearly a week to catch up on.

Friday 12th – I’m sure it existed

Friday was such a long time ago I can’t remember what I did.  I expect very little, as it was the start of my blogging down time.  If I remember I’ll post an update.

Saturday 13th – Home body

Saturday was basically WOW.  I slept in (as Rach had to work), got up, WOW’d, had lunch, WOW’d, that was the day. Nothing exciting… See why I didn’t post about it.

Sunday 14th – Ten Pin Tupperware

The girls had organised a tupperware party, and so in good guy fashion we decided to vacate the house and leave the plastic container fondelling to the chicks.  We trundlled of to Knox to go tenpinning. 

Kev’s played a bit recently so we all expected to get crushed, and Garth had never played, so it was going to be a mixed bag. As expected Kev crushed us, I got 101, not that great.

We had paid for 2 games, and so took into the second.  Kev choked early, and from nowhere Garth found form.  Kev eventually found his rythmn again but Garth had a handy lead.  It came down to the final frame, and Garth needed 14 or so to win.  9’d then spared and then got 7 with the last ball to win by 3.

Monday 15th – Is you phone engaged?

Big news day… We headed out to Knox for Michelles birthday, and wouldn’t you know it, we also find out that Matt and Michelle are engaged. Big congrats to them both, with a bub on the way it wasn’t going to be long. and after all the effort Matt went to for a special weekend, how could she say no?

Tuesday 16th – Hot in the city.

Hot, Hot, Hot. Thats all I can say. oh also Blackout.  Tuesday was the day Melbourne went into meltdown. I really couldn’t have posted if I wanted as the server was down overnight due to power failures.

Something like 1200 traffic lights were out in Melbourne, as well as trams and trains running on a very restricted timetable meant many hot and bothered travellers had to sit around in a 40C afternoon in Melbourne.

Our office power went out at about 5:45, so I jumped in my air conditioned car and had a normal trip home.

No ride this evening, way too hot and it was Sharkey’s mums birthday anyway.

and the all imporant Wednesday 17th – umm Today?

Garth had the day off, as he and Kim got the keys to their new place in Forest Hill.  They started moving over some of the smaller stuff and just get a feel for the place.  Rach is helping out with their re-location on the weekend, but I’m going to be away (more on that later).

We had Misty’s final puppie shot, (at 12 weeks) and then headed over to have pizza in their new place with no power.  Looks nice, will be better when there is acutally furniture in it.

Also today we confirmed my travel details to London then home via LA.  What didn’t I tell you?  I’m heading out of the country for a week, so now I will really have a real excuse not post. The purpose of the trip is to go to a mobile gaming confernce and so I should have lots to report from my hotel room each night.  Its then back via the US to see a company over there about some work we might do together.

I fly out Friday at about midnight for a wurlwind trip of the globe. More details in tomorrows post.

Night

Posted by at 9:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok so the title is a bit strong, but what a dominant performance by the Aussies over the last couple of months.  Not only have they regained the Ashes, but they have won the series 5–0. England had times where they looked ok, but there was barley a session in all 5 tests where Australia didn’t show some sort of brilliance.

It was great to see the Aussies wrap up the 5th test, but from a competition side I’d love to have seen the poms make a few more runs to allow us to chase a bit more.  I don’t think they were ever going to be able to backup their performance in the first innings, and that wasn’t even that great.  So cheers to Aussie boys, its a sad time in Test Cricket with the retirement of Martyn, Warne, McGrath and Langer, but I know the team is in the good hands of guys like Hussey and Simons.

So what else happened today? Twas a friday so not a heap.  Started working on getting more sports integration with the bookies, which should be good.

Oh yeah, and also watched the Evolution of Dance again, if you havn’t seen it then make sure to check it out. Fun Fun Fun.

Anywho, short one.

Night

Posted by at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I bet you thought I wouldn’t even stick with this month of blogging for 2 days.. But HA, here is the 2nd post, so hold on tight it’s going to be a long month… Now I come to think of it why didn’t I choose February, only 28 posts…

So today… The garthman is taking some time off so we can actually get work done in the office..  Got a bit of coding done, actually got some cool stuff (well cool to me) done.

I’ve just added a JavaScript popup calendar tag to the WAF tags, (not sure what WAF is then you might not want to know), anywho this new tag handles taking any sort of data, a String date, a long value or even a Date itself and renders it to a defined format into a textbox and then (here’s the kicker) renders a link to a JavaScript popup that allows the user to browse dates and select the one they want.. Neat Huh..  Really it is..

So got that tag into most places we use dates in the admin system, works real nice. And due to the fact that it’s backed by a full date formatter I can use any date formats I like, including times.  So the old Date selects can now also be more exact and show the time of the day too..

So enough geeky stuff, not much else, watched some of the 5th test, looks like England are going to actually be competitive this time..  Not sure what the final score was at the end of play as it was a rain delay when I left work but it was pretty even going into the end of the 2nd day.  Tomorrow will be interesting, and then to see if the poms can stand up in their 2nd innings..

Went with Phil Z to play tennis, blowing an absolute gale!  Threw my game right off but was enjoyable, in the 32C temperature.  He took the first set 6–4 then kamesh turned up and we played some American singles which I think I took 6–3, but was really hot and had to head home.

Been home, had dinner… mmmmm spag bol…. and thats about it..

And for those keeping score I didn’t get to WOW last night, but I'm blogging this from my WOW box so there's a chance tonight.  Might even start my new Tauren Mage if I feel lucky.

Night.

Posted by at 8:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Went to the Telstra Dome last night to watch the Victory get up 1-0 over the Glory with a late goal.

I've written a review of the game for Best Bets at
http://www.bestbets.com.au/web/newsframe.cmd?ID=5883

Posted by at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A little bit of video from our soccer game a week or so ago.

Posted by at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today we played the next game in our run of Sunday home games.  This week both Kev and I got into the same team,  but after his effort today he might be up in the 2’s.

I got to open again, this week with Don.  We held out well getting seated, but around the 10th over I went to cut a ball that should have been played straight and it got under the bat and took off stump out.

My wicket brought Kev to the crease, and with Don in good form and Kev being always in good form we were still in a solid position.  But Don only survived another over or two

In all we were bowled out for 263, but the highlight of the day was Kev controlling the batting smashing 155 in his efffort to bat for nearly the entire day.  In the end he skied the ball for a simple catch, but it was a great performance and hopefully a match winning innings.

Congrats Kev and I just hope that one day I might be able to get close to that figure.

Posted by at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today marked my return to outdoor cricket.  It’s been over a year since I last strapped on the pads, as this time last year we were heavy in preparations of the wedding.

Due to all of the work that is being done at Best Bets, I’m working Saturdays for the next few weeks, but conveniently Blackburn South has a team that plays some of the games on Sunday, of which I was lucky enough to be a part of.

Last week on Thursday night I got the call to play this week.  Today’s team plays in C2 (i think) and is our 3rds..  I wasn’t sure what sort of team we had this year, but I was shown that we have a gun team.

We started off solid but lost Merv in about the 4th over for 4, but from there it was runs galore. El Capitan kicked on for 61, then the next 2 smashed out destroying the attack.  Not totally sure of names yet, but Parker was part of it and the other bloke make 70 odd.

A couple of smaller scores in the middle, then in at 7 was me.  Parks was still in and he saw me get up to then through the 50 barrier. On 55 the brain freezed and I swung hard at one that I should have blocked and it went through and was bowled.

We were at the end of the innings, and the couple that followed were out there to make the most of the fast outfield and the tired bowlers.

At the end of the 65 overs we had amassed and HUGE 8/455 with Parks being not out on 174 (ish).

A super day on the ground for us all, and sets us up for a great chance for the win next week.  Just keep the rain away.

Posted by at 7:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight was the Girls netball final, and the team “I think I can” ran out resounding winners. Not sure of the final score, but it was something like 23–14 or something like that.

It was a very different game to their usual style of play.  Not sure if it was nerves, or that the chicks they played against were speeding the game up, but the usual confident game broke down a few times.  That said, they never looked out of control of the game. They got the first 3 or 4 goals before the opposition scored and lead from there.

Having an extra player gave Rach a break in the first half, with the Purcells up front, Priscilla in the centre with the wings being controlled by Katherine and Jacinta.  The usual suspects, Gaynor and Sarah, did their job of being the launching block of all the offensive moves by totally controlling defence.

As usual the umpires were involved in the game too much, they must be aspiring to be AFL umpires or something. They decided it would be a good idea to reset the scoreboard 1 minute into the 2nd quarter, thus losing track of the score and time.  After a brief break the game got back underway with the score on 13–4.

At half time they were in total control, being something like 18–8.

After the half the team shuffled around a bit, Rach got her run as Priscilla sat out, but Gaynor was sent off to get a bandaid and so Priscilla made her return. The 3rd quarter saw the intensity of the oppositions defence lift, and I don’t think Anita touched the ball during that quarter. A goal or 2 to Jacinta steadied the ship but the opposition had fought back to a position of attack.  The total dominance of the team was restricted as the general of the defence was off the field with the blood rule. With her return in the final quarter the team had its balance back and played out the quarter to achieve a great victory.

After being a new team who hadn’t played recently and not performing so well during the pre-season, the team really found its feet as the season progressed as they all worked out how to play together, finishing well on top of the ladder and going through the finals unchallenged to take the top prize.

Well done girls, lets just see where they re-grade you to next season.

Posted by at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, so thats a bit dramatic, but I was a key in our loss.  I’ll start from the start.  Last night I played my first game of soccer with the boys this season, so its been 4–5 weeks since the last run.

I was feeling pretty good, no aches or pains and expected to run out a good game.  The game started at 6:00 and most of us were there by about 5:30.  We had a good run around b4 the game and got nice and warm (a bit much possibly).

I started on the bench for the first half and we looked ok, they had a fillin guy who was waaaay to good, but that was ok as their other players were on a par standard with us.  We played well but had a few goals scored on us (4) in the first half.  I can say that at least 2 were probably my fault.  This is where I get the disaster idea from…

I got caught so many times either standing still and letting them or the ball just sail by me, not chasing or putting any pressure on them.. No real excuse but slack..

So I tried to learn from that and put some effort into tagging/manning up someone at all times in the second half, and I thought my game improved due to that fact..

Also my forward/attacker role is in serious need of work..  How many times did Kev get the ball out of goals to me on my own for me to just miss it and stuff up..

Anywho, we did kick 2 goals to 1 in the second half to give us a 5–3 loss..  Not too bad, but lots of room for improvement.  We’ll see when the next game I play if I listen to my own advice..

Posted by at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Headed out last night to restart our Tuesday night Squash effort..  and an effort it was..  Sharkey and I play Squash on tuesday nights during the darker months, and last night was the opening to the season.

Theres no real competition except between us, and as he has a lot more co-ordination and skill then me there is usually no competition at all..

That said being rusty is a good equaliser as it was pretty close with him winning 3–2 in games.  But am I sore today… yes I am..  Before warming up properly I was wacking the ball hard and felt light I twisted a bit weird. After cooling down I noticed that my upper back was a bit stiff and sore.

Didn’t sleep well on it last night, and its just as bad today.  Hopefully it will fix itself (doubt that) or it will be a trip off to get it put back in place..  It feels like I moved somthing in my back that needs to be put back in place.

We’ll see.

Posted by at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)