a bit about me

my e-mail address is lincolnmah@yahoo.com
feel free to e-mail me.

Grown Ups

Went to an advanced screening of the new Adam Sandler movie, Grown Ups. It was really good. Lots of gags and generally Adam and his buddies having a bit of fun. You could tell that they were having a lot of fun and as a result during the movie the audience has fun as well.
Before the movie, the audience was asked to hand in their mobile handsets to security in order to prevent piracy. Have done this before in the past, but this time, I really felt naked without my SuperPhone. Suppose it shows the difference it has made to my life. I really do check it when there is nothing to do.
Tonight is do or die for a few teams as they play possibility their final match of the World Cup. For some teams, such as Australia, a win doesn't necessarily mean they progress to the next round. Should be an interesting night.

US Property Market and Swype

Went to a seminar presented by Justin Beeton of JB Global. Justin is a pretty good speaker and he presents his material well. This time he was roadshowing his new investment vehicle, which invests in a listed property trust that tracks the US property market. Based on Warren Buffet's predictions that US property is about to see a revival, JB Global created this product with minimal risk to the investor. It does require about 15% upfront fee. Overall, a good product if you want to park some money for three years.
Today, Swype made their beta available to the general public. It's a fantastic virtual keyboard for mobile devices and I've been waiting a while for it to be available. Much faster than tapping, Swype requires the user to slide their finger over the keys. Takes a little getting used to, but the speed difference makes it worth it.

The All Whites

Last night I stayed up to watch the New Zealand soccer team snatch a draw against Slovakia. Not much of a match, but for the Kiwi's to steal a draw in injury time is amazing. Yes, Slovakia isn't the powerhouse that Germany is, but at the end of the day, New Zealand has a draw and Australia has started with a loss.
The other night when I watch the England v. USA game I went to McDonald's at half time. For some reason my 24 hour McDs was closed. Went to another one and was told that the breakfast menu started at 5am, so I had to order McD's breakfast when I wanted a Big Mac. Hash Browns are good, but I prefer French Fries.

Olympic Park

Went to another quality training session on Tuesday night. It was at Olympic Park. Haven't had a session out there for ages. The session involved 1200m, 1000m, 800m, 600m, 400m each with 90 seconds recovery. My times were quite horrible 5:00, 3:57, 3:09, 2:09, 1:17. The aim of the session was to get faster as the distances became smaller and I did manage to do that.

Prince of Persia

Saw Prince of Persia on Monday night. Fantastic film. Lots of fun. Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton were very good. Many people were surprised when it had a bigger opening weekend than Sex and the City 2. It is very much a Disney movie and obviously has a much broader audience than Sex and the City.

The A-Team and Team USA

Finally went to see The A-Team on Sunday night. It was really good. Essentially another reboot of the franchise and it was really good in telling how the A-Team came to be. A non-stop action packed popcorn movie. Directed by Joe Carnahan, who previously directed Narc. Also starred Sharlto Copley, who was the star of surprise hit, District 9. It was pretty funny as sometimes Sharlto would slip into his South African accent, but you're not sure if it's part of the script or not because he is playing crazy Murdock.
Early on Sunday morning I watched my first match of World Cup Soccer. England was playing the USA. Was impressed by the resilience of the US team. After being rolled by Stevie G in the first four minutes, they maintained their composure and really took it to an All Star England team. They were rewarded for their pressure with an equalizer. The draw is a victory for the US. England on the other hand pretty much lost two points. Their goalkeeper, Robert Green, was criticized for missing an easy save, but England started slow and didn't convert their chances. England did play a lot better in the second half, but a few of their stars went missing.

Birthday dinner at the Docklands

Saturday night I went to Briony and Bronwyn's Birthday dinner. It was down at Bhoj Indian Restaurant, which is at Docklands.Tim, Kate and Ali joined us and it was fun night had by all. The meal was good too.

Run two laps of the Tan really slow

Last Thursday went to a quality training session of running. It involved running two laps of the Tan. We were required the first 3km at around 10km race pace and then use the last 800m as a jog recovery before starting the next lap.
Even though I haven't been running much over the last seven months, I thought I would be able to run 3km in around 13 minutes. How very wrong I was. The first rep saw me clock of time of 13:46. This was a bit of a shock and so the second rep was a little faster at 13:24. Very disappointing. Still I have to start somewhere.

Ridley Scott's Robin Hood

Went to see the new Ridley Scott film, Robin Hood. It was better than expected. Cate Blanchett was fantastic as always. She seems to be getting more elegantly beautiful with age. Am not a huge Russell Crowe fan, but he didn't do anything to make the film bad. Ridley seems to like to work with Russell, so I expect to see Russell as one of Ridley's first choice for any leading role in his films.
The plot essentially revolved around the making of the legend of Robin Hood. The ending felt like it had purposely left room for a sequel, although I doubt they will make one. The movie is a reboot of the franchise in the same way Batman Begins rebooted Batman.
Am excited to read that Paramount are considering to make a Les Grossman film. Les Grossman is the character played by Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. His scenes were easily the best in the film and Tom recently reprised the role during the 2010 MTV Movie Award. Can't wait.

First run of June

Still recovering from a virus, but it's been so long since I've gone for a run, so I went for two 7km runs. Both took a little less than forty minutes. Afterwards, I went to a Bikram Yoga class. My legs were pretty trashed after close to three hours of working out. Sunk two bottles of Gatorade, but was still thirst afterwards. Struggled to sleep at night as well.

Loral Langemeier

Went to see Loral Langemeier speak tonight.
Had no idea who she was, so was pleasantly surprised by her presentation.
Essentially, she was trying to promote entrepreneurship, as well as her three day course.
She's written a few book (with the help of a professional writer), so I'm keen to at least take a look at one of those.
Generally, I agreed with what she had to say and she presented well.
Suspect that her three day course is a little like Tony Robbins' Wealth Mastery Course.
As with all courses, it's not the actual course that matters, but whether the participants actually apply with that they have learnt.

Hawks new game

Went out to the MCG to see my Hawks play on Sunday. It had been three weeks since I saw them drag themselves across the line against a pretty ordinary Richmond outfit. In that time, they had managed to put a winning streak together by winning their next two matches.
A very small crowd of a little over 20,000 turned up to watch Hawthorn hang on to beat Port Adelaide. Somehow in the second half, they squandered a decent lead to almost lose the match. The Power struggled early with their shots on goal and that helped the Hawks a lot.
Both teams were quite bad with mistakes made over and over again.
There was a difference between the game strategy employed by the Hawks on Sunday and the one I saw in the Tigers match. Not sure if it was because they were forced to play wet weather football, but the Hawks were more willing to bomb the ball forward and hope for their forwards to win the contest. Against the Power, this worked, however, I feel that against quality opposition, this strategy might be dangerous.
What was most pleasing, other than the winning streak continuing, was the Power were caught holding the ball a number of times. It's been a while since the Hawks have tackled with that sort of intensity.

Lost! See You In Another Life, Brotha

Last night I watched the final episode of Lost. It was a good episode, but not the best episode ever made. There were lots of unexplained questions that will never be answered, but I didn't mind. The strongest scenes in Lost have always been the scenes which showed the one on one relationships between the various characters and this episode aimed to show most of these. It was also fun to see many of the past characters we have come to love return for the final episode.
The problem with showcasing all the one on one relationships between the characters is that there was a lot of these, but they weren't as powerful as say the scene where Desmond and Penny were reunited.
In the end, whether you loved or hated the final episode of Lost, it will be sorely missed.

Hawks win two in a row

After a terrible three point win against the still winless Tigers, the Hawks seemed to be playing like the Hawks of old as they routed the Blues by 50 points at Etihad Stadium this afternoon.
The talk is that the Hawks may be back. This seems a bit premature and I'm going to reserve judgement.
We seem to have the wood on Carlton and they haven't won many matches against Hawthorn of late. According to the AFL Footy Record, the Hawks have won 11 of its past 13 matches against the Blues. That is now 12 of 14.
In The Age on Saturday, there was an article by Garry Lyons entitled, "Not A Happy Team At Hawthorn."
After the win against the Blues, I suspect that they are at least a little bit happier.