Day Nineteen - Whats in a name

So I was thinking that perhaps the reason that my blog updates have been more and more sparse recently is that perhaps I quite like having a preset subject each day and don't want it to end too soon...

Or perhaps it's just that I'm lazy and haven't set aside some time to actually write about my day (or the subject matter on hand).

The optimist in me says its the former but the realist in me knows that it's probably the latter, what do you think?

Anyway today's post is meant to be about nicknames, but that's boring since my nickname is almost always just my last name with +Y tacked onto the end, not very interesting subject to talk about I'm afraid.

Tomorrow's post is .... a bit interesting subject again I believe whom ever wrote this initial list was single and such some of the questions don't really make much sense, but I shall see how I go.

Day Eighteen - Plans,Dreams and Aspirations

If you have been following on from the start, you'll know that this post is quite a few days late... which if you read my day Eight post is one of the small goals I set myself.

Strangely enough I found the topic surrounding this post to be rather difficult to write about, not because it is a particularly tough subject but because I (refering back to day four) have a really bad habit of self doubt and find it difficult to write long-term goals and dreams down because the little-voice inside my head keeps reminding me how silly, dumb, unachievable etc said goals are...

Despite all of these hurdles I do want to continue with my #30daychallenge so I will persevere (hah I make it sound much more difficult than it should be)

So Plans, Dreams and Aspirations...

First and foremost I want to be able to retire comfortably without having to break my back, which means I want to have enough passive-income so that I can stop working and go travelling and all the other things people do when they retire (I'm not sure what else that really entails)

Obviously between now and the time I do actually retire I will have to work out how to acquire said passive-income but I will keep working on that for now...

What are your life aspirations (do you have any?)

Day Seventeen - Swap Places with

Continuing on from my #30daychallenge which you can read about here

Almost fully twenty-four hours late (whoops) I figured it's time to do today's post, and then I'll back-date it so it looks like I haven't really cheated (or I could just leave it as is...)

Well I was thinking about this question for a while, "who would I swap places with and why?" and I thought to myself...

You know I've done this whole guy thing for my entire life it'd be interesting to try out what its like to be a female at least for a day...

Following from that I figured I don't quite think I'd like to see penis, so it would have to be a lesbian, (what can I say girl-parts are just better...)

Once I had that figured out, who I wanted to swap with for a day became pretty bleedingly obvious.

So in-case you haven't worked it out just yet I would quite like to be Ellen for a day, which I think would be cool for other reasons than just I get to see Portia de Rossi naked (but that's pretty high up on the list)

What do you think, who would you swap with for a day if you could and why?

Day Sixteen - Another Picture of Myself

Now up-to Day 16 of the #30daychallenge and todays post is Yet Another Picture Post (YAPP)

I'm starting to think that who ever came up with this challenge ran out of ideas of stuff to write about and hence put a heap of picture posts in...

Ah well, today for your enjoyment I present to you a photo of me...

I was borrowing a friends hat at the time and someone obviously thought it would be funny to get a photo of me... and now you all get to see it aren't you lucky...

Tomorrow's post (looks) yep that should be slightly more interesting than Yet-Another-Picture-Post!

Day Fifteen - 1st Ten Songs on Shuffle mode

So continuing on from my cheating post yesterday (which I technically posted about an hour ago) I am now up to day 15 of the #30daychallenge or thats what I'd say if this was twitter... but it isn't so I get heaps more than 140 characters...

Anyway since I don't have an iPod (well I technically do but I never use it and it's not charged) so I'm going to use my iPhone which isn't loaded with all that many songs so I'm not so sure this will be interesting but hey what ever right...

Song #1 - The Prodigy - Omen (Original Mix)

- I quite like this song, it's closer to their original dance/electronic stuff than the "metal" / rock stuff they started to move into.

Song #2 - Armin van Buuren - Ocean Drive Boulevard (from ASOT 383)

- Don't really have much to say about this except it's a fairly good track and it's part of ASOT-383 which is AWESOME!

Song #3 - Tuneboy - Re-Generate It (original mix)

- First time I've really listened to this song, I think it's from a compilation I've loaded on /skip

Song #4 - Armin van Buuren - Walk The Edge (also from ASOT 383)

- Another song from ASOT 383, sorry for being boring but I'm pretty sure I warned you at the start...

Song #5 - Dash Berlin - Till the Sky Falls Down (Radio Mix)

- One of my favourite all-time dance songs, even if it is a little sad

Song #6 - Da Hool - Meet Her at the Love Parade

- Hmm I'm pretty ashamed that this is actually on my phone

Song #7 - Cert, Mitiska & Jaren - You Never Said ( Dash Berlin remix)

- Probably my 2nd favourite dance song of all time (or at least up there!)

Song #8 - Bloody Beetroots featuring Steve Aoki -Warp

- Song is pretty good the first few times you listen to it but less so the more you hear it...

Song #9 - (ASOT383) - Big Sky (Tune of the Year 2007)

- Another pretty good trance track!!

Song #10 - Dash Berlin, Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren - Man On the Run (Radio Edit)

- Again another of my very favourite trance songs!!

So there you go, not much variety there but given I have probably a total of ~100 songs loaded on my phone it's not surprising (I have about 200+ podcasts so thats how I get music fix on my phone at least) ...

Let us know what you think,

Day Fourteen - A picture of you and your family

Don't really have any recent photo's of me and my family so i'll have to come back to this one at a later stage.

#cheating

Day Thirteen - A Letter to someone that hurt me recently

Continuing on from my 30 day Challenge, todays post calls for something a little unusual, well I guess most of the days post requests could be considered unusual but I digress...

Yesterday one of my work colleagues asked me to assist him with a problem he was having, fair enough I thought I like solving problems and generally being helpful, so how can I help you here?

Turns out we have a back-log of paperwork that goes back about 5 months (3-400 pages worth) and he wanted me to help out with the data entry into a rudimentary database (excel spreadsheets were never designed for this!)

So I approach it much like I would approach any problem, that is try to understand the root cause (i.e. why these weren't entered in the first place) and see if we can address that issue rather than the symptom...

Dear Colleague,

I appreciate that you don't fully understand my workload and how it seems I'm not actually 'busy' but if you come to me with a problem, I'm going to try and solve it the best way that I can...

I realize that this might not be the outcome you were initially expecting, but I hope that in-time you will understand that this approach is worthwhile.

Perhaps we can come to a compromise where-by we satisfy your original request while still addressing the underlying problem so that it doesn't become a problem in future, but I feel that will only delay the resolution of the real problem.

Finally I'd ask that you don't insult my intelligence when you try to play the "I'm experienced" card as essentially it seems like what you're trying to say is "you should do it my way instead because I think your way is bad"... I would much prefer if you just said that outright so that I could address your real concern(s).

I hope you appreciate my point of view in this matter, however I'm more than happy to discuss it further if you would like.

Regards,

Me

Day Twelve - How/why Blog

It seems I am now up to Day 12 of the 30 day challenge, with the first eleven days behind me, the daily habit to write doesn't seem as difficult as I first imagined.

Today's topic seems slightly redundant but I'll run with it:- How you found out about blogging and why you have one?

How I found out about blogs in the first place, I think it was about 2 or 3 years ago and MySpace was going and LiveJournal (which would count as my very first blog) and it just seemed like an interesting idea: Write down your idea's and thoughts and put them out there for the world to review (or not as was more likely the case)

The Why, is probably a little more complicated, but makes me consider my very first blog post (here at least) which was quoting Descartes Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) or in my post "I blog, therefore I am".

Having a small place of my own where I could write down my thoughts, feelings, concerns, joys and a whole gamut of other emotions helped me to get some grounding or I think for a short while allowed me to do a brain-dump and try and work out what was going on...

Since then I've abandoned the project and recently re-started it, with the new goal (why) to try and improve my writing skills over time by forcing myself to write more frequently.

Those who have been following along with my 30 Day Challenge, hopefully have seen some improvement (or can leave some feedback in the comments)...

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post, which should prove super difficult!

Day Eleven - Another Picture Post

Today's post is meant to be Yet Another Picture Post (YAPP) as I've mentioned before I'm not exactly one to get in-front of the camera as I don't think I am particularly photogenic... so I'm usually the one taking the photos (for better or worse!)

Most of the photo's I have are from social gatherings with my old work, which bring back fairly sad memories so I'll rather not post any of those...

Instead I'm going to post kittens... I hope you don't mind

Hang around for tomorrow's post... hopefully I can give you something more interesting than Kitties

Day Ten - Music Influences

So checking on our Day Zero list, we can plainly see that today's post is mean't to be all about music and stuff that I listen to when I'm happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad (wait is that the entire list...)

This post is going to be quite tough (mostly because I've cheated and haven't had any time to think about what I'm going to post) but I digress...

For me music plays such a large role in how I'm feeling at any particular moment, it can be really difficult to define just one song (or even a genre) that I listen to at any time (or perhaps it's because my emotions are like a roller-coaster most days)

Happy:-

Probably anything dance/electronic or just with a decent beat (Tiesto - C'mon is very good)

Sad:-

Some sad songs or rather songs I listen to when I'm sad (Pearl Jam - Last Kiss, Pink Floyd - Wish you were here, Powderfinger - These Days) I could probably list 100 songs...

Bored:-

Not really sure of any songs I listen to when I'm "bored", mainly just turn on the radio and settle for what ever the masses wish to deliver at that particular time, mind you some of the "pop" songs of late really shit me

Hyped:-

Any dance songs, (Youtube Playlist) Pendulum, Tiesto, Armin ... anything with a really decent beat is good!

Mad:-

Any heavy metal/rock gets a good going, Metallica, Pantera, Rammstein, Offspring (old stuff) can be good too...

the list forgot Love songs:-

Again there's certainly some dance songs I quite like here, but still find myself coming back to Guns N Roses.

Now you know a bit more about my music tastes (or lack of) feel free to write a rage reply about how everything I like is shit and I should listen to "insert latest craze here" instead!

Day Nine - Proud of

So this post is a few days late now (edit: so I cheated and back posted this), which if you're following on from my previous post, you may realize that I'm missed my own goal the very day I set it... poor form on my part I know.

Alas a few things happened over the weekend which I shan't repeat here as it's not really the place for it.

Going back to my original post, (should I call it Day Zero - The Beginning ?) today's post is meant to be about Pride or rather something I am rather Proud of...

Well one thing in particular I am quite proud of is the house renovations that have been taken place the last few weeks (months?) at my house, with the new kitchen finally being installed and more recently the new floor tiles that have gone down the house is finally looking kind of nice (what ever that is)

Anyone who has done house renovations before will certainly know that while they are being done it's not really all that fun, but when it's all coming together that's when you sit back and go... "mmm"

So if anyone is actually following my blog (or reads it after I spam it to my twitter account), given that I'm technically still 2 days behind should I back-date this post and do Day Ten and Eleven anyway?

Day Eight - Short Term Goals

If you have been following my blog posts for any time now you'll know that I'm currently undertaking a 30 day challenge

Today's post calls for me to write up some short term goals for the month and why...

Goals and setting them has always been a bit tough for me as I'm either too ambitious and fail miserably or I set the bar so low that I achieve them within a day or two and then wonder what I'm meant to be doing for the rest of my time...

But here goes:-

• I will keep posting daily as part of the 30 day challenge for the remainder of October
• I will utilize my new chin-up bar at least 3 days a week for as many repetitions that I can do in any one go (x3) for the next 2-3 weeks
• and while I'm at it I may as-well track my progress (or lack of) here or somewhere else public so I'm held accountable.

Umm, that's all I could really think of which is pretty lame really... if you have any other suggestions for me please let me know in the comments section

Day Seven - Biggest Impact

So following on from yesterday's post, in which I declared my everlasting admiration for all things Super and Hero like... todays post is about those thing(s) that have had the biggest impact on me...

So I have been thinking about this one for a little bit today and I have to admit that I'm drawing a blank at the moment, which is a slightly disappointing as I'd hoped to have something interesting to write each day...

Without naming names (or posting pictures), there was one person in particular at my old job who everyone looked up to (even the owner/managing director of the company) and was a massive inspiration to those around him.

I'd have to say he had a rather big impact on me, by giving me some of his time to listen and develop me into a better leader and highlighting area's for improvement in a way that didn't make me feel inferior...

So yeah Mr X thank-you for listening to my random rants and trying to point me in the right direction (whatever that is) I very much appreciate it!

Day Six - Favourite Superhero

Yesterday's post was hopefully an interesting insight into somewhere different (Adelaide lol!) but for today's offering I'm meant to post my favourite superhero and why.

Having grown up with a large variety of different cartoons and comics this one is fairly difficult to answer with just the one person...

I could go with one of the fairly easy offerings, Superman, Batman or Spiderman but I think that would be just too easy...

Depending on your definition of Superhero, I was considering one of (or all?) the X-men (Wolverine is so bad-ass) or perhaps Iron-man (he has an awesome flying battle suit made of win)...

Just now I thought of doing something completely different but I'm not sure anyone would know who he is any more... (With your powers combined, I am Captain PLANET!)

I think the appeal of most Superhero's is that they aren't real and get to break most (or some) of the conventional rules of society...

So ... with all that in mind I think Mr Tony Stark does win the day... even if he has a "broken heart" he has bucket loads of money, seems to attract women like a magnet and has a freaking flying robot suit!

Other 30 day Challengers

So it seems the 30 day challenge thing is fairly popular at the moment, (does that make me trendy, wait nevermind)

Here is a short list of people that I know are doing the challenge, if you are reading my blog and are also doing the challenge feel free to leave a comment and I'll update this post.

So in no particular order::

- @shaddowofadream (me)

You're already on my blog - http://shaddowofadream.blogspot.com/

- @tiffanyff (Tiffany)

http://tiffanyff.blogspot.com/

-@sebsharp (Sebalicious)

- http://www.bunny-fu.com/

@Shelly1912 (Shelly)

http://wordofsoia.wordpress.com/

@CarlyMayCarnage (Carly)

http://carlymaycarnage.livejournal.com/4430.html

@daftgiraffe

http://giraffedlychallenged.wordpress.com/

@cathroxx (Cathy)

http://cathyzaikos.blogspot.com/

@mrsisterchris

http://christhepike.blogspot.com/

@dryeyedcrab

http://dryeyedcrab.blogspot.com/

@rachelhatesjazz

http://www.rachelcapers.com/

@SandraHeartsU

http://un-marriedhousewife.blogspot.com/

Edit: found another one

@jaso32

http://thejaso32challenge.blogspot.com/

You should probably read all of them now :)

P.s. If I have you listed here and you'd rather I didn't please let me know and I'll quite happily take you off "The List!"

Day Five - Places I have been

So hopefully you've now caught onto the fact that I'm posting daily...

Or perhaps this is your very first time here, if so I recommend you start back at Day Zero or you could just scroll down and work it out ... but whatever floats your boat really.

So today's challenge post is a picture of somewhere you've been and ... uh ... well that's all really but I'll try to include a bit of story with the pictures so they make sense too.

So back in May of 2009 my girlfriend and I were graciously invited to go to South Australia (Adelaide) for the Harcourts Conference (lots of really great speakers and interesting Property topics)

Anyway here is the first picture...

I took this from our bedroom window (7th floor of the Hyatt?) because I thought it looked like a funny smiley face... (tell me you can't see it now!)

This next photo I took because I kind of like sun-sets/rises, it's not the "best" photo I've taken but I quite like it because its the first one I took outside of Western Australia

This last photo is a view looking out from our room and I think is quite nice.

So there you have it, I went to Adelaide, had some amazing food and listened to some very talented motivational speakers on a broad variety of topics, and I took some random photo's that look like smiley faces to prove it.

Stay tuned for tomorrows post which should prove super interesting ;)

Day Four - Bad Habits

Well if you have been following my posts for the last few days (or even if you haven't feel free to go back and have a read) you would know that I'm currently undertaking the 30 day challenge

Todays subject matter is all about Bad Habits (no not the Offspring kind, but damn that song brings back memories!)

I'm pretty sure I have more than 1 bad habit but I'll try to just focus on the one for today...

For the longest time I have always had rather large (excess?) amounts of self doubt, you know that nagging voice in the back of your head that makes you really wonder if you can actually "do it" yeah amplify that by about a thousand.

Now you're probably thinking what a lame habit to write about, but as far as habits I wish I didn't have that's pretty much top of the list.

Sometimes it feels like I'm constantly in internal dialog mode, trying my best to anticipate the situation, preemptively counter any arguments and just generally talk myself out of things...

I'm certain that I wasn't always this way but sometimes it's tough to "switch off" that voice as it definitely seems reasonable most of the time, but I have been told it's probably a good idea to work on it regardless.

I know I promised a 100% sun-safe post and hopefully you're reading this inside somewhere, if not you can't exactly blame me...

Stay tuned for tomorrows post which will include 23% more me...

Day Three - A picture of you and your friends

So continuing on from the 30 day challenge (original post here) today's offering is meant to be a picture of me and my friends...

Unfortunately I don't really have all that many photo's of me and my friends (either I have no friends or no photo's or both you decide...)

Trawling through my facebook photos (all of which are quite old now) I think this one will be suitable...

On the left hand side is a good highschool friend of mine (Damo) and I'm in the background (hiding as usual) and to the right is Damo's brother in law (Will).

We went out to Spring in the Valley and played some SupaGolf last year and finished it off with some food and drinks at a restaurant (winery?) was a pretty good day over all.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's update which I promise will be 100% more Sun-safe or something like that....

Day Two - Meaning behind my Blog name

In-case you missed the original post here, I'm trying to participate in a 30 day "Challenge". With the main challenge actually taking the time out each day to update my blog (with some fairly set parameters thankfully!).

Yesterday I revealed some (hopefully?) interesting facts about myself and today's challenge is to describe the meaning behind my blog name.

Shaddowofadream

It's actually the nickname/alias that I have been using for quite some time, note I'm well aware I spelled shadow wrong with the extra D there, but it's actually been quite useful as time goes on with others registering shadowofadream prior but hardly anyone seems to go for shaddowofadream.

The idea behind the nickname/alias is fairly deep (poetic?) but the idea originally was that I had very grandiose dreams of greatness but for what ever reason I was destined to be but a shadow of them.

As time has gone on I think there's probably other stuff I could attribute it to (every dream we have leaves behind a shadow of ourselves?) but thats why I originally chose it (some 5-6 years ago now it seems).

Tomorrow's post will be interesting...

Day One - 15 Interesting Facts

So continuing on from yesterdays post, I'm participating in a 30 day challenge (that is post a blog update every day for 30 days).

Today is Day 1 of the challenge and asks:

Day 1- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself:-

While it's not exactly recent, its probably the most recent photo of me, I will obviously have to get a new photo eventually...

15 interesting facts about myself (this one is going to be tough, mostly because I don't really think I'm all that interesting but I'll persevere)

1. I'm the second child from my parents, but the only one that isn't technically a bastard (born in wedlock)
2. I was born without a fully formed Anus and subsequently had to go into surgery pretty much straight from the womb.
3. When I was younger I had pure yellow blonde hair but has transitioned into light brown as I grow older (will have to find that photo of me and link it here)
4. I consider myself to have green eyes, but others say they are probably closer to hazel
5. I tried my first alcoholic drink at 15 (goon) and hated it so much that I never touched any alcoholic substance until I was 17 and a half (Bourbon)
6. I have never tried any illegal drugs, ever and don't plan on starting any time soon
7. The only problem I've had with my weight is that I find it very tough to put any on and have been "skinny" or small build for my entire life.
8. Despite this I have tried numerous times to put muscle mass on with weight training and gym sessions (and have seen limited success)
9. I'm an avid gamer and thoroughly enjoy playing most computer games (with Team Fortress-2 and Starcraft-2 being my current vices)
10. I have a dragon tattoo on my right shoulder which I got shortly after my 19th birthday, funded entirely by the Burswood Casino.
11. I'm missing 1 vertebrae from my lower spine which causes my back to curve to the right quite a bit and also gives me slight back ache constantly.
12. I'm a massive fan of Italian food and cooking, but don't particularly like any sea-food
13. My first car was a 1983 Ford Falcon XE, and cost me $1000.00 I had it less than a week before it was written off (car ran a red light and side swiped me) neither of us had insurance!
14. When I was 11 I had a massive kidney operation and I've since been left with a massive (10cm+) long scar on my left hand side, which matches a similar scar I got when I was just 11 months old on my right hand side.
15. Up until a few years ago I had never left Western Australia, with my first interstate trip being to Melbourne for a week and then shortly after I visited Adelaide for a week. One day I hope to travel much more.

Hmm well that wasn't as difficult as I first thought, but I'm not sure any of that is interesting or just lame... let me know what you think (or not) :)