I'm not much of an athlete but I try to keep fit, both to aid in my ultimate frisbee performance and to offset the amount of beer I drink. Drinking a standard drink a day is healthy, but to drink more you have to pay it off with Beer Credits, which are earned by doing exercise.

I find it hard to find the time, energy and drive to get out for a fitness session, and probably average less than once a week. There are two different sessions I've been doing on my local oval:
- One is two lap warmup and stretch, followed by ten laps which each contain a half with sprints and a half of jogging, broken up by a minute or so of core exercises in the middle of the two halves.
- The other is a warmup and stretch followed by about 5 minutes of intervals - fifteen seconds sprinting, fifteen jogging (5 minutes sounds easy, but try it).

The first takes about 45 minutes and the second about 20. For both I have to get up early and can't be arsed to do after work.

Today I tried something different. When I got home this afternoon I went out for a street run. I did three short, identical laps with no breaks, aiming for a faster time for each - a total of 17.5 minutes. It's good because it's short and I can fit it in before dinner so will hopefully do it more often. If I can continue to do the harder sessions once a week or so I should at least retain the fitness I gained from the mixed nats campaign.

What I learned:
- I don't know my fitness and how hard I can push myself over short distances very well.
- The first lap is the most difficult to push hard.
- A good route.
- A time to beat.

Well the home wine was a bit of a failure. It certainly made alcohol, but it wasn't the most tasty. Maybe if it had been given a few months to age it would have been drinkable.

Anyway, I've moved to something I know I can do - homebrew beer. My second batch has just been brewed, and the first is being consumed as we speak.

For the unitiated in homebrew beer, it's very simple. You spend about $80 at KMart and you get a kit with everything you need for the first brew. You get a kind of concentrate that you add sugar, yeast and water to in a 23 litre sealed bucket, then let it go. The hardest things are making sure everything is sanitised and bottling it at the end. Each batch after the first costs about $20 for 20 or so litres.

It's about three weeks from start to drinking, but I find the longer it's left the tastier it gets.

The first batch was a lager which isn't brilliant, but certainly drinkable and competitive with many a beer. To my second batch I added some strawberries, but probably not enough to make much of a difference to the flavour.

I've just been for a delightful run as the sun was rising. I wouldn't normally be awake at that silly hour, but fire waits for no man.

We woke up at about 4 to find the laundry, which is a shed a few metres from the house, well ablaze. Millerine called 000 and we tried to wake the neighbours but had no luck there. There's no garden hose or anything so we filled up a couple of buckets and soaked the very flamable fence which blocks the view of our flat from the shed. There was no chance of putting it out because, as I said, it was already well ablaze.

Anyway the firemen came and put the thing out, but our laundry is just a shell now. Apparently it was packed full of asbestos so we're to keep away from it until the agent gets it cleaned up. All very exciting.

We didn't have anything of value in there other than a washing machine which was rented anyway, so the only problem is that the electricity in the kitchen isn't working because it was on the same fusebox as the laundry. So the one time I'm awake early enough to make a cup of tea, I can't. Bugger!

I've just gotten back into reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and this in turn has gotten me thinking about religion again. The issue to ponder is not whether a god or gods exist, as that's an easy one. Either they don't exist, or they just don't matter. If you believe, for example, that the christian God exists, just think about it for a moment....

Right! Now we're on the same page, the issue is whether or not it's ok that other people follow these weird religions (and by weird, I'm including christianity and catholicism). It could be argued that religion has sent millions to their deaths through war and silliness, but I don't really think that's a good enough reason to ostracise religious types. There are many cases in the past where religion has been a cause for atrocities, even recently, but just because Serbs and Croats love killing each other for petty reasons doesn't mean it should affect how we treat their fellow believers. I don't for a second think that christians are more likely to be more ethical individuals than atheists, but I'm having second thoughts as to whether the opposite is true.

The recent World Youth Day makes for a useful case study. I wasn't there, but I hear that it set the city alive in a positive way. It was much like the Sydney Olympics, except everyone was nicer. I also know quite a lot of religious people, and they're alright once you get to know them.

A useful thing to consider would be why intelligent people follow these religions. There may have been good reasons in the past, but in this day and age when there's enough evidence against it I believe it's because of social pressure, and it's easy. People grow up being told it's the way things are, their family is into it, their friends are into it, and their community is into it. For those who put in enough thought to struggle with their faith it's just too hard to escape, and why would you want to. For many of them, believing in God means being part of a community, and it's a fun hobby. Something to be interested and involved in. Other people have stamp collecting, cars and ultimate frisbee. They have God.

The main difference I guess is that stamps, cars and ultimate are real. Spending your life believing that something exists when it doesn't seems a bit silly. Let's not ostracise them for being religious, but educate people and hope they gradually start to move to hobbies that aren't as silly.

In my few months in Estonia I was given the opportunity to do a bit of frisbee coaching. I was a little out of practise so it was hard work to begin with, but was much easier (and more rewarding) by the end.

My first stint was coaching about 30 Estonian kids, a range of ages but around 10 years old. For the most part they didn't speak any English, the teachers weren't all that helpful, and not all the kids were particularly keen. There were a couple of kids who seemed to be friendless and devoid of any coordination, and there were a couple who didn't want to be there. They needed special attention and I just didn't have the manpower to give it to them. It was bloody hard work.

Then in July eleven Estonians attended a tournament in Prague, for which I played captain/coach. We had only four training sessions and they started off rusty, but by the last it was running like clockwork. At the tournament we had a new defence and a few endzone plays working beautifully, and a bit of improvement in our execution of everyday things like cutting and marking. It was mostly drops, silly throwaways, and some terrible throwing options which prevented us from finishing in the top 4. In fact our offence was sometimes terrible, but the execution of our defensive strategies allowed us to do OK in spite of this.

Most importantly, my coaching is improving and I'm learning more about what it involves to be a good coach. Coaching requires practice and hard work, and quite a lot of problem solving (which I enjoy). You need to keep up with current strategies and "best ultimate practice", then fit it to the group you are working with. Each situation offers different problems and requires a bit of imagination to solve it.

And I'm loving it.