Parkrunning

Last weekend I did my 10th recorded Parkrun so thought I'd reflect a little on it. I started a few months ago as I'd been making good progress with bringing my weight down and the strength work I do with a personal trainer, I thought maybe I'd be up to do a park run. The distance was 5km but I figured I regularly do walks of that length and I thought I'd be able to handle it.

I was wrong. On my first attempt I managed to jog about 1.7km before I had to slow down and walk for a while. I did jog some more stretches but I think I walked at least half the 5km. Since then I've been aiming to improve how far I can go without walking, figuring once I can do that I can start to work on improving the overall time. I've done 3 all the way through now, and I feel at this stage barring something external I should be able to continue doing so. 

Some lessons learnt along the way are that I can't do a 5k run after a night shift. My thinking had been along the lines of "I've done exercise after work before, I usually stay up until a few hours after the run is done, and I'll have a nap around 3am just to be safe so I should be right." This was incorrect. I got my worst time ever, the amount of walking increased instead of decreasing, and while I was alert during the run, the commute home I was a zombie staggering through the Valley.

There was also one run where I turned up mainly for spite. During the week I'd been speaking to someone at work and explained due to a combination of traveling away while on holiday and some sickness I'd gone nearly a month between runs 2 and 3, and they made a comment along the lines of "I didn't think it would last," which did indeed get me to the park Saturday morning. I would have gone anyway, but it was an extra bit of motivation. Fortunately, most people have been more positive about it, and there was one week where I encountered my boss's boss at the run (well, during the run I heard someone yell "Hi Kevin" but had no idea who it was, and then later in the week at work they came in and asked if that was me at the Parkrun which solved that mystery as I'd had no idea who it was at the time since they were on the return leg and had passed me before I could even look to see who it had been).

As is usual for myself, I don't really interact with anyone there. I usually get there 10 minutes before the start and there's a run briefing and then the run itself. Afterwards I'm too exhausted to be social, although I usually cool down by taking a walk through the markets and getting some breakfast before heading home, but that's again a solo thing.

I haven't  gotten into the Parkrun tourist thing yet where you go to Parkruns at lots of different locations (someone I used to work with does this). All but one of the Parkruns I've done have been at New Farm Park, the exception was a Christmas day run at Southbank since New Farm Park didn't hold one on Christmas day. So people at work have said they're looking to get started, and if they do I might make a trip to do a run with them, but we'll see if/when that happens.

A History of Me in terms of the Computers I've Owned

It's a minute to midnight and I've marked this as complete on my habit tracking app so I need to write something up, so let's think about what's gone on this week.

I bought a new desktop computer. My old one had a problem with the cooling unit and would be ok when it started up but after a while would get really slow (presumably the CPU was getting too hot) which combined with the constant noise got frustrating. And since it was 7 years old and finding a replacement cooling unit that would fit would be a challenge, I just went ahead and bought a new one. Maybe not the most thrifty option but an easy one. It was nice for a change to just go ahead and buy one, rather than have to plan out the purchase ahead of time and put together money for it. One computer I bought was the only time I used consumer financing for a purchase (which after working for the company I went through in the past, I wasn't too keen on and was surprised with how much they approved me for), one was paid for with a stats scholarship, and the one I've just replaced was bought with some of my redundancy payout. 

In some ways you can mark out periods of my life based on my primary personal computer which go as follows

• Apple IIc (1987 to 1996) - a small compact machine with a whopping 128kB of ram (good for its day) and a 5.25" floppy drive built in, this is what I learned to program on. My family got it before I started school and it was for various purposes until year 10 when it was replaced by
• a Pentium 100 with windows 95 and a 33.6kb modem built in (1996 - 2000). It had 16MB of ram but in a weird set up only 13MB could be used as ram because 3 was dedicated to the onboard graphics. Initially a family computer but I used it the most  and when I moved to Brisbane for uni it came with me and was the first computer I had that could access the internet. During the 2nd year of uni I got a scholarship from the Bureau of Statistics and used that to purchase
• a Pentium III 800 with a 1.6GB hard drive and windows 98SE (2000-2005). This was a big step up and I got a decent amount of use out of this. It is the first machine I used while having broadband, and the first that could burn CDs and then DVDs. It lasted a few years until it was replaced while I was at the Boom with an
• AMD home brew machine (2005 - 2007). While I put it together myself, I cribbed the parts list from a housemate who'd built a similar machine a little while before. I used the case from the previous machine. My only foray into AMD chipsets (not that that makes much of a difference from a user experience). When I moved to Japan this stayed in Australia and in Japan I bought
• a Macbook (2007- 2010). A return to the Apple fold after many year in the realm of Windows, and my only laptop. I bought this while in Japan, and while my intention had been to get a windows laptop, this was just after Windows Vista came out and all the Windows laptops I tried at the shop were really slow and laggy, while the Macbook just worked and was nice and responsive, so I went with it. It was a good device and I did like having a Japanese keyboard even if it did end up being replaced with a regular keyboard several years later back in Australia. This traveled with me in Japan, Korea, while backpacking across Europe and then back home to Australia. Eventually though the fan started to die and it was time to replace it with
• A Mac Mini (2010 - 2017). After enjoying the macbook I wanted to stick with apple, but couldn't afford the more high end devices. Actually, at the time I couldn't really afford anything, and I got a 2 year interest free loan for it from GE Money. When I worked there there were requirements that to get approved for more than $x you needed to show some proof of income (a payslip or two), for $1.6x you needed proof of address (a bill sent to your home address) and for $3x you had to provide both, so I was a little surprised when I got approved for $4.5x without being asked for either, and after resisting the temptation to get something more expensive or buying some fancy extras, the first thing I did when I got home was call to reduce my limit. I used this for 3-4 years before starting to get frustrated with the lack of gaming options on the device and so when I was made redundant I spent part of my payout on
• an Mwave gaming machine (2017-2025). Mwave was the company at the time that provided the gaming PCs for PAXAus, and they offered machines with the config used at PAX for sale so I got one (I'm not sure if it was a PAXAus one they then sold or just built to the same config). I've upgraded it a few times with more ram and more hard drive space, and in the last year I'd started thinking it might be time to upgrade as I was starting to see some games coming up that it couldn't run (Kerbal Space Program 2 which is kind of a good thing given how that's gone, and the upcoming Civilization VII would have challenged it, so when the cooling unit started to die I started looking around and got 
• a gaming PC from Umart.Umart is where I got the parts for the computer I built back in 2004 and I've gotten various parts over the years. Dollar wise it's similar price to the Pention III I got back in 2000 but obviously way better performance.I expect this will last me a while. I've still got to fully set it up as I want to transfer some of the hard drives from the last machine into this one, and there's still a bit of data I need to transfer over as well.

So there's the history of me in terms of my computers. It's one of two main ways I divide phases of my life up, the other being where I've lived, and both show different aspects of my life (I suppose you could include jobs as a third measure, but that starts a lot later in life and I don't think I've ever felt myself as defined by a job as much).

The year that was: 2024

2024 was overall a good year for me. I've made progress on a number of fronts that for a long time had seem kind of stalled and I'm looking to keep that going in the coming year.

Work

Work has been good this year. In May my team leader decided to take an extended period of leave and I stepped up to fill in for him while he's away. This was a bit daunting as I've never really considered myself a leader per se, and my ambitions have always been more along the lines of trusted adviser than top dog. Some aspects of the job have been straight forward such as the admin that comes with the job, but others have been learning experiences. Early in my tenure as lead one of the team members put in their resignation, which meant I had to go through the recruitment process on the hiring side of things. Reading resumes, conducting interviews, assessing people, delivering the bad news to those who weren't successful were all things I hadn't planned on having to do when I stepped up. It was very educational and I I'll be better prepared for future interviews as the applicant in the future from the experience. 

On the primary side of the job, I think I'm mostly going OK. There's been a few learning experiences, and a few situations that would have challenged any of the more experienced leads as well, so while I know I can (and will) do better, I don't think I'm doing too bad, and am still working to do better. 

Currently my higher duties is set to expire in May even though my lead is away until September. That's because that's the longest it can go without being made a secondment which requires an EOI to be put out and interviews done, so when that happens I'll be applying to stay in the role. And who knows if he'll feel like coming back after 18 months away traveling.

Finances

Stepping up to team lead isn't as lucrative as you might think, only 6-7 dollars an hour more, for a fair bit more stress and responsibility. However, moving into the control room 5 years ago still remains the best thing that ever happened to my finances. having finally been made permanent last year I bought a unit and left the renter class for the foreseeable future.While my living expenses have trended up over the years since, I'm still saving a fair chunk of money. I'm well ahead on my mortgage having paid off more than 10% where minimum payments would be only a bit over 2%, and since I have unlimited withdraw if something happens I can still use the extra I've paid. A chunk of that was done by taking money in my savings account and moving it over so I don't expect to be able to pay off as much next year.

The unit is still going good, it's got lots of room, a good location for me, and I'm still working to make it a bit more me rather than a blank canvas. I've started on phase 2 of furnishing, which is replacing some old items that were OK but I want something a bit nicer. The biggest part of this is a fancy dining/gaming table that will replace the plastic trestle table I bought as a desk when I first moved out as a uni student which has been serving faithfully since then. This will cost about $5500 total. The rest is replacing some old book shelves that have too much curvature on the shelves and some chairs to go with the new table.

Health

I've made some good progress this year. In addition to regular PT sessions, I've been seeing a nutritionist about once a month. This combo has seen me lose 24 kilos this year, and my pants size has dropped from 44 to 38 (I've had to buy two new belts this year and spent more on clothes than in some time). I have kind of plateaued at 105kg for the last 2-3 months, but I do want to at least get under 100kg. I've started going to a nearby Parkrun, and intend to keep going as my work schedule allows. I've only once done the 5km without having to walk at least 1km, but I'm improving and with time will get more consistent and can then work on speeding up. I still don't know how people manage times in the 16-20 minute range, but I'll be happy if I can get down to the low 30 minutes (by best time so far is 37:04, but that's an outlier and the rest are 39-42 minutes).

Social

This is probably the one area that I haven't made any progress in. A few random catch ups with friends but not much consistent contact. PAX was a good experience but it does highlight how it's a limited time only event and outside that not much happens. Similarly, Bordercon feels different now that there's fewer people I know going as well and that I'm traveling by myself rather than as a group which was how it was when I started attending. There were a few moments with people that made me feel its still worthwhile going.

One thing that is new in this space is that I started using a dating app. I've not actually gone on any dates, and only had a few matches that resulted in some chats that sort of petered out (once on my part, the rest on theirs), but actually doing this is something new. The fact that I feel like I'm ready is a step forward, and I'll see what the new year brings. 

I've been to a lot more live shows this year of a wider variety of events. TISM was a really good concert, and probably something it would have been good to be more aware of back in the day instead of just enjoying them on JJJ. They Might Be Giants was the other concert I went to that I really enjoyed. Finishing with Istanbul and Dr Worm was a great end to the show. That said both of those I went by myself and was a lone individual in a crowd. I don't mind going to shows alone, but larger events make it clear that I'm an outlier in this regards.

Looking forward

So what do I want to get out of 2025. I hope to spend most if it still acting as the team lead. There's been a few times since starting that I've filled in as a controller and it felt like I was operating on easy mode and I missed the stress/challenge of the new role. I'm not sure how I'll go when the permanent lead comes back, as I wouldn't want to go long term feeling underutilised.

I'll try and be more engaged with other people, but I'm not sure how well I'll go with that. I should try and do more in person board gaming, but my work roster makes it tricky.

Another year has gone without getting around to getting a new passport. Not that I have any plans for international travel, but it would be nice to have one again. I'm going to try and visit Adelaide this year when I take time off in October. I had planned to go this year but cancelled due to not feeling well. Add in the usual trips to Albury, Melbourne, and Innisfail, and I'll still rack up a fair few kilometres.