amazing sportsmen

they always impress me. imagine how good you must be to win 6 consecutive gold medals in the olympics. apparently, only hungarian aladar gerevich has managed this.

another magnificent sportsman was eddie merckx. 5 tour de france wins and record holder of 36 stage wins, also the only person to have won the points jersey, king of the mountains jersey and overall winner in one year. he was a phenomenal athlete.

the people of britain seem to have a greater appreciation of cycling with bradley wiggins winning the tour de france, although i think mark cavendish will be more well known as time goes by for being possible the greatest ever sprinter.

it was a shame that he didn't get a chance to sprint for gold in the olympics road race although it does seem that no other country wanted to even try against him in a sprint finish so every someone in the breakaway won.

anyways, speaking of hungarians, george mikes said "An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one".
which i think is a good thing!

my job

my job is uninteresting. my boss is interesting.

i've worked for horrible human beings in the past. ones who run in every morning shouting that you won't get paid if you don't do better. (As a form of motivation no less! after the 3rd time you start to ignore everything he says at it's easier that way). so you sit at work dreaming of having an awesome boss.
someone who has common sense. who uses his mind. who tells you things honestly. who tells you to go home at 430 because you aren't gonna be still concentrating at that time. who tells you to work from home when possible. and who encourages you every single step of the way. and that is my boss. a lovely human being and a great manager.

going to work in the past five weeks has not once been a chore. i don't seem to do that much after a hectic first week yet still somehow manage to get everything done on time.

the big problem with work is it takes away much of your day. i'm now having to be more efficient with the rest of my time so that i can actually write a sitcom (haven't done anything on this since i started work!), get better at programming (started doing something every day) and the many other things i want to do.
yesterday i filed a patent with a friend. it's an awesome idea, and he's a patent attorney so hopefully in 12 months that will come to fruition.
haven't had any time for poker sadly. at least now i have some money to deposit should i wish to start up again.
the last thing i have managed to do is start working out every day for the past few months. i managed to put on 3 kilos in a month and only about a kilo since. i have readjusted my rigorous (lol) training program to concentrate more on muscle groups with less time doing cardio (more high intensity cardio to be accurate, such as 10 minute sprint jogging [on a bike, obviously] instead of a 30 minute cycle).

hopefully the next 5 kilos will go on in the nearish future.

thats enough of an update for now. next time we shall discuss my horrible sleeping patterns of needing less sleep at night.

keeping up appearances

i remember learning to play chess
i had a tutor for a few weeks to learn some basics and some strategies. and then read a couple of books. i never learnt any openings or anything remotely advanced. when i was about 7 (?) i went to a club to play against others. i think everyone was beginners. or at least that's how i remember what it was supposed to be.

for my first game i sat down opposite a girl, younger than me and in a wheelchair. i kinda felt a bit sorry for her, and also confused as to whether she knew how to play chess.

4 moves later and i'd learnt a few things:
1) there's an opening called foolsmate where you win in 4 moves
2) when you lose to it you feel like a fool
3) to never, ever, judge someone by their appearance.
4) i was awful at chess

[edit: as you'll see from the comments, it's actually called a scholars mate, so rather than losing as a fool, i lost to a scholar. many thanks to mark for clearing that up]

reading riting and rithmatic

i think schools miss out on focus on talking. it sounds a stupid thing to say since most people talk too much; i just happen to think that most people talk much shit. especially me.

i want to learn to talk properly. and to think properly before i speak. this is what i'm going to focus on for the rest of the week.
thinking before i speak, thinking of the words i say, their consequences (if any! im not that important) and also how i speak and my posture while speaking. i will also make sure to not get angry (anger other than faux anger is never good).

the first thing, will be to remember to do this all day each and every day this week.

this is one reason i've begun to like writing more. there is more time to think before typing. and no one sees how long i've been thinking of the right words to say. and society seems to envy fast thinkers.

i had a funnier blog than this, but that will have to wait...

less blogging...

having a job is a pain. aside from waking up early, it means i have less time for all the good stuff. and there's not even much in the way of comedy for blogs.

i did just watch something on telly about a former world gurning champion, peter jackman. gurning is distorting your face to look mental. slightly offensive in my opinion. anyone who follows ricky gervais on twitter will be familiar with such images. this guy however, took it to another level. he got some teeth removed to be able to pull a better face. that's commitment.

his name was also something that struck me. it's an almost famous name. in my mind, a cross between peter jackson and hugh jackman. coincidentally, i just read about someone complaining on the bbc website about having an unfortunate surname. it was a journalist! that passes off as news? he didn't even have a bad surname. Gopnik. he thinks it's terrible because it means 'drunken lout' in russian. so a very small number of people he meets will laugh and remember him.

to me it just sounds like he's being a bit of a pansy. perhaps he should spare a thought for people called amanda. (and i hope he doesn't name his daughter amanda.) because in russian, manda means cunt.

recommendations

when you finish a job your employer writes you a reference. usually they try to tell the truth. i guess sometimes they don't for whatever reason, such as happiness to get rid of you.

i thought it would be quite good if you could do that for people too. eg

"completely disinterested in anything other than herself. only interested in winning, including every conversation. i didn't even realise that was possible.
looks down upon everyone even though she isn't tall (literally or metaphorically).
avoid."

"mental, but in a magnificent way. sometimes doesn't know whether to laugh or cry so does both at once. intelligent, quick thinker, generous and modest without realising it. tenacious and fun. and incredibly hot. treat badly and i will hunt you down like liam neeson from taken."