In October I’d like to get back to playing some serious volume as well as work on really improving my game away from the table. I’d like to try and go beyond reviews of my own hands and into studying some other regulars, taking in a bunch of videos and delving into some strategy discussion.

September Results
- 80,000 hands – Failed
- Constant and thorough hand reviews ala August – Achieved
- At least 5 poker free days – Achieved
- Tackle 3 of the most important concepts I want to delve into – Pass Mark

October Goals
- 80,000 hands
- 1 session of sweating a friend per week
- Review top 5 regulars on my list

Gym/fitness
Started out the month really well on the cardio side, but that has kind of slipped away in the later half of the month. The guy I’d been playing squash with went overseas and my girlfriend and I haven’t found the time to go and play badminton. From a weights point of view I’m really happy with my output in September in terms of volume of gym sessions and effort I put in. I’m going to Europe in late November and I know I’m going to eat crap and not exercise as much as I should while I’m over there so I kind of want to be in awesome shape before I get there. Hence, through October and early November I really want to push myself. The weather is starting to get better in Melbourne and I’d love to get out and do more running in the next few weeks.

September Results
- Really push myself each weights session, not just go through the motions – Achieved
- Protein shake after every session – Achieved
- Play either Badminton or Squash at least once a week – Pass Mark
- Attend every pre-season cricket training session – Achieved
- Dedicate more time to health and fitness and less time to poker – Pass Mark

October Goals
- Run 100km
- Get back into Squash
- Set some new PBs with weights
- Attend on cricket training per week

Other
September Results - Learn a song on the Ukulele – Achieved
- Test drive more cars and make a decision on a purchase – Achieved

October Goals
- Learn 4 new Ukulele chords and work on my strumming and chord progression
- Play a ton of Fifa 11

Clip To Inspire
Nick Cave is one our best Aussie musical exports and I’ve been enjoying this song from his side project band Grinderman.

Poker
July was probably one of the worst months I’ve had poker wise, basically got owned shot taking at higher stakes early in the month and then battled running bad, poor concentration, low confidence, crappy software and lack of hand volume later in the month. Feeling much better about things now, learned a lot of lessons out of it all and August is already looking a lot better.

Indoor Cricket
Finals campaign for both Agent Orange sides was woeful/depressing. We just can’t seem to perform when it matters. Someone should sack the captain…

The Ashes
The series has been going pretty terrible for Australia thus far, but at least my prop bets with RaiderDuck have been keeping things interesting. He’s been doing pretty well in the batting department with his team of Watson/Hughes, Ponting and Clarke vs. my Katich, Hussey, North. Thankfully though, Siddle and Hilfy have minimised the damage for me in the last couple of tests with their wickets.

Interesting Clip
This is a few months old, but pretty amazing if you haven’t seen it.

I’ve been critical of Selwood in the past, and probably thought we should de-list him at the end of last year. Under Voss he has grown though, as have other fringe players. His work in the last few weeks has given me new respect for him as did his eyes for the ball in this sick contest (video). Well done to Rance as well, too bad he fractures his cheekbone and he is in my fantasy team

I’ve spent much of the last few Saturday’s touring through potential houses that have been open for inspection. A few of them have had crazy amounts of people going through, which is kind of scary. The upcoming deadline for the government’s double First Homeowner’s Grant is causing a bit of a mad rush I think. At the same time though, one of the places I looked at the first weekend, sold last Saturday for under what they had listed and what other similar properties are listed at. I’ve probably got 2 or 3 on my shortlist at the moment, which are due to go to auction in the next couple of weeks. Time is on my side though; I have no urgent need to move out of home. It’s one of the bigger life decisions I’ll make so I want to get it right.

Last Sunday I trekked down to Geelong with Paul (Cats supporter) to watch the Lions play in what can only be described as atrocious weather. At least the forecast hail never came, but it was cold, windy and wet. My mood wasn’t helped by the abysmal effort the Lions put in. If my hopes for season 2009 weren’t crushed by the home loss to Collingwood, it certainly was down in Geelong. If we don’t beat Essendon at home this weekend then you’d have to say we probably won’t be making an appearance in September for the fifth year in a row.

Indoor cricket has been going very well the last few weeks; we’ve had some very important victories. The highlight was a match two weeks ago in which we got lucky to stay in the game somehow until the last over with scores tied. Brad ran a guy out on the last ball to win us the match; nothing beats the feeling of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Ron Paul discusses the HR1207 bill to audit the US Federal Reserve. Those who are followers of Austrian School economic theory (like me), blame much of the current economic crises on the Fed and fiat currency.

Haven’t blogged in a while, just thought I’d share this song that I can’t get out of my head at the moment. Always been a huge fan of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but this has got to be their best song yet.

A new champion of the libertarian cause has emerged out of the UK in the last few weeks. Daniel Hannen entered the public eye when he unleashed on Gordon Brown in the European parliament in late March. He has since been appearing on US cable networks and other media, getting his ideas out there.

For those of you who don’t know who Rhys Darby is, he is a New Zealand comic who plays band manager Murray Hewitt on the HBO TV show Flight of the Conchords and he was recently in the Jim Carrey movie Yes Man. FOTC is one of my favourite TV shows and without him the show would be nothing, so when I heard he was coming to Melbourne to do stand-up I was keen to go.

The show got underway 15 minutes late and started pretty slowly. Rhys came out in character as a New Zealand Park & Wildlife Ranger. He was then joined by another New Zealand ‘comedian’ who was pretty poor and got heckled a little bit, but I did feel that was a tad harsh. That part lasted about 30 minutes and then there was this ridiculous 20 minute intermission.

It was all worth it in the end though because after the break Rhys came out as himself and did a routine that went for over an hour I’d say. His act has a lot of sound effects and physical comedy, as well as some self-deprecating stories. There were heaps of laughs and I walked away very glad I went to see him. I’ve included a little clip to give you an idea of the stuff he was doing.