DJ Paine

i could write pages and pages here on my experience with Telstra Bigpond over the last 2 weeks. it wouldn’t be pleasant reading. i will sum it up:

Telstra Bigpond is horrible. Every part of the experience was shoddy. The only upside was when i actually got normal customer service. In light of that i want to to point out the two people at telstra who have kept me going this long with them {2 weeks}. The original sales guy who was funny and promised me the moon {at least 30 MBS download!} , and Andy and his crew on the @bigpondteam twitter account who actually cared enough to try and help. *Note to Andy* i picture you in front of a PC with a twitter search open bring you the latest results for Telstra and Bigpond – what a depressing job! i cannot imagine seeing the endless complaining on twitter that comes up about bigpond and telstra! good luck man}. Everyone else i have dealt with at Telstra was pathetic.

anyway.

The proof is in the pudding as they say and in this case the pudding is SPEED. So as i have the both Telstra Cable and AAnet ADSL on here at the paine HQ at the moment, i’ve run some tests:

this is a speed test from University of Queensland:

TELSTRA BIGPOND EXTREME CABLE:

AAnet ADSL2

——————————————-

this is a speed test from OZspeedtest:

TELSTRA BIGPOND EXTREME CABLE:

AAnet ADSL2

——————————————-

this is a speed test from speedtest.net:

TELSTRA BIGPOND EXTREME CABLE:

{sunshine coast}

{sydney}

AAnet ADSL2

{sunshine coast}

{sydney}

——————————————-

this is a speed test from Speakeasy speedtest:

TELSTRA BIGPOND EXTREME CABLE:

{from Seattle}

{from Atlanta}

AAnet ADSL2

{from Seattle}

{from Atlanta}

——————————————-

so what would you do if you were me?

correct. cancel telstra.

in case you didn’t realize, i am a massive Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant fanboy….

watch it on youtube

is it just me or is this the prototype for EVERY single christian rock song in the late 80′s early 90′s? even the lyrics….
i still like marky mark’s version better. i bought the Boogie Nights soundtrack just for his version of this song.

my mate mike came and hung out with us…. if you don’t know this amazing singer songwriter, you should. www.mikemccarthy.com.au

Well week one is done… and it has been surprisingly hard! Harder than what i thought it was going to be because every time in the past when i was “going for it” it has been easier to give up certain foods {or even fast for a week or two}. i guess i am/was way more “addicted” to all the junk i’ve been eating than i thought… i cannot tell you how many times i have been craving snacks, fast food, hamburgers, chocolate etc etc.. but i feel i have gotten over the “hump” – i’m not craving it all as badly now, which is a relief. for the first time in my life i feel i have some sort of tiny inkling as to what an addiction might feel like. thank Goodness for will power, prayer & an amazing wife.
so this week was all about retraining myself with eating. eating a proper amount at every meal. not skipping meals, not eating too much, not eating the wrong things and also having proper “in between meals” things. trying to kick start my broken metabolism. i have only drunk water, no soft drinks, no milk shakes etc. no junk food. i did have one Subway footlong chicken and salad sandwich, but i got the water & yoghurt as the “meal deal”…
The Results:
i weighed in this morning at 122 Kilograms – 268.9 US pounds – 19.2 UK stone. i have lost 6 Kilograms in my first week. {that’s 13.2 pounds – 0.9 stone} which is pretty darn good considering i really haven’t done any exercise yet. i now have about 34 Kilograms to go until my goal which sounds a heck of a lot better than last weeks 40.
i am into week two now so today {while watching Australia’s first ever live TV coverage of The Oscars} i put together my christmas present which is a bicycle. This afternoon after drummond was home from school we went down to the petrol station and pumped up the tires of our bikes and then went for a ride around the park at the end of our block. my first note after my riding experience is that the people who make bicycle seats must not have a bottom themselves. That is severely painful on the old rump. i will be stopping at the local bike shop this week and pricing out a seat that is made for human beings with working nerve endings….
So this week’s challenge is to incorporate a descent ride every day into my routine. Let’s see how i go.

IT BEGINS! 
So i was a day late in getting moving but i finally did a weigh in, measure up & some photo snaps as well. Please let me note from the get go that if you have decided or are thinking of joining us on this DO IT 2009 journey, i don’t expect you to post photographs of yourself online… not everyone is brave like me {or should that be crazy enough like me?}. Also i understand that you are probably not ridiculously good looking / attractive as i am… {i’m talking to you Ev}. But for me i will weigh in, measure up & snap some shots every monday morning. Once a week expect an update on the DO IT 2009 front.
 

THE STARTING POINT:
So here is my statistics as of February 15th 2009:
i am 183 Centimeters / 6 Foot tall.
i am 36 years and 11 months old {mark your calendars for march 18th}.
i currently weigh 128 Kilograms / 282.2 US Pounds / 20.1 UK Stone.
Around my hips/waist i am 125 Centimeters / 49.2 inches.
Around my stomach {measuring tape around starting and stopping at my belly button} i am 138 Centimeters / 54.3 inches.
Around my chest {man boobs} i am 125 Centimeters / 49.2 inches.
According to the Body Mass Index my BMI score is 38.2. And that puts me squarely into the “Obese” section according to that chart.

THE GOAL:
by the end of 2009 i want to get down to 88 Kilograms / 194 Pounds / 13.8 Stone.
that means i gotta loose 40 Kilograms / 88 Pounds / 6.3 Stone.
roughly that is 31% of what i currently weigh! nearly one third of my body. wow.
So that is where i am at as of now.

THE PLAN:
this week i am concentrating on two things: cutting the addiction to eating crap / drinking anything other than water. and putting my new bike together. – For christmas i got a massive box from benita – it is a men’s pushbike i have to put together {from benita “here you are my love…. hint hint”}. more serious exercise will be introduced in the coming weeks…
i might even visit my doctor and get some blood tests for all my current state of health.

JOIN IN:
there are a few dudes around the world that are kicking into this DO IT 2009. we would love you to join in too to keep us and your self accountable and record your journey. If you don’t have your own blog {or don’t want to post about weight loss on your current one} just head over to WordPress or Tumblr and start up a new blog for yourself, or even just get yourself a Twitter account & post your updates! please tag it all with #DOIT09
if Facebook is your thing; check out our DOIT09 Facebook Page {short URL www.bit.ly/doit09}

LET’S DO IT IN 2009!!

over the last couple of weeks the weather in Victoria – the state i lived in for a decade, got married in & saw my first child born – has been shockingly hot. 45, 47, 49 degrees celsius {that’s hotting up to 120 Fahrenheit}… and that leads to bad BUSH FIRES.
over the last 24 hours we here in Australia have all been watching on as Victorian bush land has just gone up in flames… and then the death toll started to climb…
most of these places that are going up in flames, i have been there. most of them i was there photographing their schools and their kids and their sporting teams back when i contracted out for Southern Cross Master School Portraits… i remember these places and these wonderful rural victorian communities…
this morning i had a phone call from my right hand man Jolane. It was tragic news: his wonderful girlfriend Laura had just lost her cousin and two others in the fires around Yarra Glen…
my man Simon from the funk lab asked me to pray for his brother in law who was racing out to his family’s property to help fight the flames…

anyway here is everything you need to know, and help with this worst fire tragedy ever down here in Australia…

LEARN:
wikipedia – 2009 Victorian Bushfires.

ABC australia’s coverage of the Bush Fires

News.com.au ‘s coverage of the Bush fires

DONATIONS:
RED CROSS DONATIONS

Salvation Army Donations

LISTEN / RADIO COVERAGE:

LISTEN to ABC national news radio online
local radio station 774 has a twitter feed

MAPS:

a google map showing where there is active fires in victoria

Google Map of Fires – mash up from the CFA

ONLINE / TWITTER:

@RicRaftis from twitter has created a Victorian Bushfires Blog/Site

search the hashtag #bushfire on twitter search

The CFA {Country Fire Authority} has an RSS feed of their statewide Incident Summary

and one last thought….
up here in my home state of QLD there is thunderstorms and flooding…. sigh

Like half of you out there, i’m too fat. i weigh too much and i do practically no exercise. Like most of you out there i keep meaning to get around and do something about it but i never quite find the time…..
i present to the world DO IT 2009

What is it?
this is an open challenge to the everyone online. Lose Weight. Lose Inches. Do It. Stop procrastinating and we will do it together. This is not a diet or a way to do it, this is just using your existing blogs, websites, social networks, twitter accounts, whatever we can to keep each other on track.
No prizes, no trophies, just everyone encouraging one another and keeping each other in check. Whatever that takes, Do It. For me it will be having a great time communicating online with everyone who wants to be involved.

February 14th 2009 is the D-DAY.
you have 10 days to get your stuff in order. eat all the bad junk food you want. get it out of your system {or would that be in your system?} because come Feb 14th 2009 you WEIGH IN & MEASURE UP. Pull out the measuring tape and get it around your waist, get it around your stomach, pull out all your stats and publish it somewhere, anywhere. it could be on your own blog, facebook, myspace, flickr, twitter, whatever. I have been talking to a few friends around the world and we thought about creating a special blog or website, a service or something… but it came to me a couple of days ago: with tagging, linking, hashtags, facebook etc why bother creating something like that? why not let everyone just Do It? and we can all link to each other, we can all tag and hashtag our journey as we DO IT in 2009!

Online:
join us on Facebook on the Do It 2009 Page.
{short link is www.bit.ly/doit09 }

come and be my friend on Facebook.
on Twitter www.twitter.com/djp72

the twitter hashtag is #doit09

the flickr / vimeo tag is doit09

and all my blogging about it will be found here: http://www.djp72.net/blog/tag/doit09/

that’s it.
get ready.
and please TELL SOMEONE. Invite your friends and family to join us.
i’ll see ya back here or hear from you on Feb 14th.
In the meantime read up online about healthy ways of losing weight and work out exactly what is your GOAL. Together we can Do It in 2009.

long time no post. there has been a LOT of stuff happening since i last wrote on this blog… way back on November 9th 2008… for instance on November 15th we met this new little guy named Judah Joseph Paine…

and we also went on a big family car trip down to Geelong & back…
much to write about… lots happening. in the meantime follow along onTwitter, or my catch all Tumblr.