That which can be taken...

I remember reading somewhere that once a man gets past their fear of death/dying that they somehow gain an insight to life that lets them live worry free from that point onwards in some sort of magical life where they can now accomplish anything because they fear nothing...

I'm going to share a little secret with you, which may or may not already be apparent but I think I reached a stage long ago where death and dying didn't really seem the worst that could happen and I think that while most of the time I don't really want to die, I'm not really afraid of the when or how... (if that makes sense?)

Despite reaching this awareness, it seems that the whole "what can you take from someone who doesn't even fear death itself?" with the answer being "quite a lot actually..."

There is a famous story about a Polish Jewish man who as a single last act of defiance against his Nazi captors attempted to take his own life before being sent to his death via the gas chambers, the sick irony being that he failed to succeed in his attempt and was then put in the infirmary to "recover" (not sure about the logic behind that) and whilst he was healing the war ended and he was ultimately released and saved from the horrors that his brethren weren't so "lucky" to avoid.

Just to make it clear, I don't think death or dying is in anyway not a huge tragedy and can appreciate how devastating it is to those around the person. I just think there are some things that are worse than not being alive...

I'm pretty sure I did have a point somewhere that I was trying to make, but I think I've lost it, in any regard the above is merely a (very) small sample of some of the random crap that permeates my conscious thoughts.

Maybe I'll share some more, maybe I wont... the one thing I do sometimes fear is having all my freedom (or perceived freedoms) taken away from me, which might cause me some restraint in these matters.

Alas I digress...

Poopin Diamonds...

Poopin diamonds... or when stress gets too much to handle...

They say that Diamonds are just coal (or carbon) that have been under immense stress for a very long time, it is with that knowledge in mind that I put forth that very soon I shall be pooping diamonds...

The tough thing with stress is that for the most part, the people around you don't even really know how bad you're suffering unless you literally break down before them...

For the majority of today I've had a constant head-ache in my temples, I know it's because I'm stressed about everything that is going on at the moment, but I don't know how to ... just relax...

I believe writing about it is sort of therapeutic ? but at the same time I feel like I'm constantly whinging/bitching about everything that's going on ... perhaps I should just man-up and just give up already...

I'm fairly confident if people could read my mind I'd be locked away in a small padded room by now, so I do find myself being quite careful about how much I do actually "share"... so it's kind of a tough balancing act between "releasing by writing" and worrying I'm sharing too much...

hmm that's enough for today... lets see how tomorrow turns out.

Nuclear Fission (or when 1 become 2)

Unfortunately, again it has been quite some time since my last blog update... and even then my recent thoughts committed to "paper" have been my rather interesting experiences with my camera purchase... (if you're interested in the story it starts here and here is part two and then there was part three here and then finally part four here)

I'm not quite sure how to write it, but at around the same time my partner of the last six years ended our relationship, what does any of this have to do with Nuclear Fission you ask?

Well it's been quite a distressful time for me and I've probably not coped very well to be honest, but something that came to mind was how in nature when you force something apart, there's usually a very violent and powerful reaction...

Just like the reaction that powers Nuclear Bombs with their devastating capacity to do harm so too the end of the relationship started a very powerful reaction that nearly ended with as much violence as the aforementioned chemical reaction...

Since then I have tried to recover from my emotional Chernobyl and there has certainly been some good days and some bad days...

I have recently taken up regular exercise, in an attempt to:

a) get fit & healthy

b) lose the small (but very annoying) belly fat that has started to accumulate

c) release natural Endorphins (see this)

I think when you go running, (at least for me anyway) there's a certain point where you know you've pushed yourself so hard that you're physically exhausted and feel like you might just fall over and die, (okay so that's probably just me) and when I get to that point I'll embrace it... because when you're right there on the edge of oblivion... nothing else really matters... The single voice of reason drowning out all others is just BREATHE! or possibly PLEASE STOP RUNNING NOW K?

So that's kind of where I am at, at the moment... I'm not entirely sure if that is a good or a bad thing but I think I'll keep running anyway...

An Update (The Letter Part 2)

A few days ago I posted a candid account of my experiences thus far with B&H Photovideo (which can be found here).

Since then they have been in contact with me (primarily through email as the time difference makes any other communication quite difficult) and have taken on board most (if not all) of my concerns.

They are currently re-lodging a request with Fed-Ex for the refund that was promised, personally I suspect that it will not be successful, but I think the lesson here is to not use Fed-Ex for my international shipping requirements in future. They are decent at getting something from A to B, but add in any requirement of actual customer service in there and they fail quite terribly (which is a shame really as it's the "last-mile" that most clients get to see)

In addition to this B&H are going to cover the cost of returning the defective camera to them, including the return import fee, as I mentioned I was quite surprised when this was offered during the initial RMA process (as it's not documented on their RMA website) but I am pleasantly surprised they are following through with it.

Interjection:

I feel having worked quite closely in a customer service field myself has given me some appreciation for (and value of) actual good customer service. The company I worked for prided itself on being the very best at what it did and there was a real cost associated with that, especially when a consultant would promise the customer something we might not be able to deliver upon, but we would then endeavor to satisfy anyway simply as reassurance for our customers that we deliver upon our promises (essentially what good customer service boils down to).

/Interjection

Now, B&H were recommended to me by a good friend of mine and despite the order being quite large I had confidence in their ability to deliver. In addition to this I had heard they were very good if you do run into any problems. Which is why I purchased from them rather than some HK discount operation...

When I received my camera and it was faulty all of that seemed to fly out of the window and despite the problem having very little to do with B&H (it says a lot more about Canon's quality control more than anything) the outcome could have been quite the nightmare, if they hadn't handled the situation so professionally and with such empathy.

The RMA process was quite straight forward, I simply described the defect and indicated that I wanted a replacement unit and not a refund a few days later (the time difference adds about 24 hours to any responses either direction) it was approved.

Since then I've been in contact with the B&H customer service department a few times and they have really done an exceptional job of looking after something which, considering the physical distance between us probably could have been easier to just fob-off.

I think I need to summarize this post before it becomes a novella, but I think quite simply if you are going to be buying any photography gear, B&H will be able to help you, not only that, in the event you do have any problems they'll be there to make sure they are resolved.

TL:DR version

- Awesome customer service (or lack of) does have an explicit cost (either to you or the retailer)

- B&H have really gone the extra mile to make sure I'm happy and my issues are resolved.

- When buying online ALWAYS consider the customer service/returns side of things as-well as it could cost you a lot of money.

A Letter ...

Here is a letter that I recently wrote to the Customer Service department of B&H

To (name withheld),

I appreciate there is very little chance that this letter will ever reach you, however remote that chance is I still feel the need to explain my recent experience with B&H PhotoVideo.

I've always enjoyed the subtle art that is photography and recently felt the need to make the jump from a simple point and click (Canon PowerShot A720IS) to something with a bit more customization and control, I've always liked the Canon brand and felt they offer a really good quality product albeit at a premium so going with an EOS was an easy decision. I narrowed this down to the 550D and the 60D and after physically holding both of these the 60D with its superior ergonomics won me over.

Now it just came down to where I should buy it from and after much deliberation and a few recommendations from friends, it seemed B&H could offer me the camera I wanted with a very nice lens and at a price that was definitely within my budget.

As this was quite a large (expensive) online purchase, I was understandably very anxious about the whole process and would have loaded the track-n-trace site nearly 100 times before it arrived here in Perth. Due to some terrible customer service practices from Fed-Ex the package was delayed by 12 hours unnecessarily and so I took it upon myself to lodge a complaint with their CS team and was offered a refund of the P&H to give me some reassurance in the Fed-Ex brand.

Then; disaster struck, as the very expensive camera I had purchased (with the intention of using it for some great Christmas happy snaps amongst other things) was defective and for some reason was producing very terrible images and so begun the RMA process.

Now I should point out that every customer service rep I have spoken with, has been excellent, friendly and knowledgeable even if they cannot directly 'fix' the problem I was experiencing.

Part of the RMA process one of the representatives mentioned to send the package back to B&H as cheaply as possible with tracking and to include a receipt of the costs so that this could be covered, I was quite pleasantly surprised as the information on your website regarding the RMA process didn't mention this anywhere.

Today I received my replacement camera, after having to pay yet another hidden fee (Australian Customs are thieves!) and I'm really wondering why I bothered with all of this in the first place. That $1399 Camera + Lens which looked like an amazing deal didn't include:

- the $193 in P&H (which I was later offered to be refunded but then Fed-Ex global reneged on)

- the $243 in Import Duty and Tax (which I am happy to admit is my own fault for not investigating more, but still comes as a bit of a shock when added to everything else)

- the $163 in P&H to send it back (defective return, which was promised to be covered by B&H but doesn't seem like it will)

- finally the $55 to re-import something I had already paid import duties on.

Would I buy from B&H again, maybe ... if the item is under $1000 and warranty isn't likely to be an issue (e.g. camera bags, memory cards, etc) but with all the drama's I've had with this purchase it certainly makes you pause for consideration.

In summary, I appreciate that it is unrealistic for B&H to test every single camera body that it sells and that I am the one in a 1,000,000 case where a camera is DoA (defective on arrival), but hopefully you can take some of this feedback on-board to ensure a better experience for international buyers (perhaps a step in the buying process that could alert the buyer to some of these issues and to check before proceeding).

Finally I am really in love with this new camera now that it is working and can't wait to really get into the amazing/challenging fun that is DSLR photography,

I honestly thank-you for taking the time to read this far (if you do) and hope you can appreciate just how frustrating this entire ordeal has been,

Kind regards,

(me)

------------------------------------------------

At some points there I really wanted to break down and cry, especially when I had to send back my new camera to be replaced as I knew there was next to no chance I'd have it for Christmas.

Would I recommend buying a camera online, mmm probably not after what I went through but I would honestly happily buy again from B&H just keep the order under $1000 so you don't get stung with Import Duty + GST and also use USPS as your postage option!

I'd be interested to hear others experience with online purchases regarding semi-expensive consumer gear?

New Camera Woes - The Camera Strikes Back

In-case you missed Part-1 of the Camera saga you can find that here http://shaddowofadream.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-camera-woes.html

If you're like me and kind of lazy, here's a tl;dr version

- Wanted a DSLR

- Found online retailer with a good price

- Shipping company really dropped the ball at the end of the journey

- Camera itself ended up not actually working properly anyway

- Lodged RMA with online retailer

Okay now that you've caught up, I can start explaining how much more fun this tale becomes....

So the online retailer, who I'm happy to divulge at this point in time is B&H Photo/Video based in NYC and for their part have been exceptionally understanding and helpful in all aspects of the purchase (with the slight exception of sending me a faulty unit, but that isn't entirely their fault).

So they reply to my RMA request saying yep, camera looks defective, send it back and we'll organize a replacement (YAY), they even comment that they will cover the cost of shipping it back to them, despite the website saying otherwise (here's hoping they actually follow through with that!)

So now I just needed to find someone willing/able to post my package to the US for me that can do it fairly quickly (the RMA has a 10-12 day expiry on it), cheaply (in-case they don't follow through with reimbursement) and that I could track/insure (it is a $2000 camera after all).

My initial thought was to try Australia Post, they are usually fairly reliable and their online prices don't look too terrible... and I can track and insure it too, wonderful...

-I feel I need to interject here-

Anyone who has never been to an Australian Post outlet might not quite comprehend the sheer frustration of the queuing system, I'm not sure what it is but it seems every single Australia Post outlet is ALWAYS busy

-End Interjection-

Where was I, okay so I went to Australia Post and lined up like all the other complacent sheep in the store, waited my turn (felt like eternity, was probably only 10 minutes) only to be told by the kind cashier that since my package contained a Li-On battery they would not be able to send it for me (more details on that here)

She mentioned if I wanted to send it I'd have to remove the battery from the package and send it separately, something I'm fairly sure that B&H wouldn't appreciate in their RMA process...

After heading back to work with my continued defeat in tow, I tried calling a few other international courier companies (DHL, Fed-Ex etc) only to be told the exact same thing, it seems Lithium batteries were seriously scary shit!

There is one shipping company which is allowed to send Li-On batteries but their prices aren't exactly the cheapest, so... I've contacted B&H again and asked them if they are okay if I just send the camera sans battery and they can just dock the battery out of the replacement kit, however given they are about 23 hours behind me I wont find out until tomorrow morning....

The real icing of the cake in this situation is that if they don't declare the replacement camera properly I'll likely have to pay import duty & GST again, so to heed that off I'm going to try and make it super clear that they do that for me.

tl;dr

- It's okay to send Lithium batteries INTO the country via air, but you definitely can't send them back out again, no no!

New camera woes

I think I've always had some interest in photography and in the more recent years purchased increasingly better (and more expensive) hardware to accommodate.

Quite a few people I know have their own Digital SLR's and I've always been a little jealous of the amazing photo's that they can produce and so I decided that I would make the move from simple point-and-click photography into the scary realm of SLR.

After a fair amount of research I narrowed down my choices to two Canon bodies, the EOS 550D and EOS 60D and after considering the pros and cons of each I felt the 60D probably offered the best long term choice.

From here I started looking around at various places that sold cameras, both online stores (within Australia and international) and also retail stores. Unsurprisingly the online stores completely smash the retail stores for price competitiveness, with the difference being nearly $800 for exactly the same product...

Then it was simply getting approval from my better half (yay) and then placing the order, which I finalized on the 6th of December. The online retailer (based in New York City) estimated that delivery of the package would take about 4-5 working days.

Now that the order had been placed, I was anxiously watching the tracking page for any updates, no matter how seemingly insignificant and then on the morning of Friday the 10th the package arrived in Perth, I was pleasantly surprised that it got here so quickly and I'd be able to play with my new camera over the weekend...

Little did I know that I would encounter problem number 1, that being the complete inability for the shipping company to pass on information between its various internal departments. I called the customer support team early that morning to let them know to call me on my mobile number once it got released from customs.

After 6 hours had elapsed and the end of the business day was fast approaching I was getting noticeably frustrated at the lack of updates, so I again called the customer service line who repeated they'd call me once it had processed through customs, at this point I felt I should just call customs myself and find out wtf was going on...

Another 5 minutes wasted on-hold and the companies customs department informs me that the package was cleared at 9:30 AM this morning and they've been trying to call me all day to pay the duty/GST...

So after 3 calls and about 45 minutes of life wasted on hold, I finally had my item released and ready for pick-up (YAY!)

Little did I expect Problem Number the Second, as my work had their Christmas function on, I couldn't exactly unbox my (very expensive) new camera and play around with it so I waited until the following day (today) and methodically unboxed everything, made sure it was all there and put my camera together for its first use...

The result is below...

Now at first I thought it might just be my lack of experience with a DSLR and the myriad of settings now at my finger-tips, but no after some more experimentation (and confirmation from some nice guys online) they confirmed my camera body is borked and definitely should NOT be producing those results....

So here I am now, with an amazing camera, lenses and tripod all ready to "enjoy" my new toy but completely unable to do so....

I've since lodged a RMA request with the online vendor and I believe that will work out okay as they have a really good reputation but at this stage it feels like I've bought a brand new Lamborghini and gotten a flat tire halfway home....

Things that make me RAGE!

It's been quite a while since my last blog update, which I'm going to put down to simply lack of motivation to keep up with the 30-day thing... anyway enough about that...

Today's post is going to be about something that inevitably makes me RAGE, much like the very angry looking fellow to the right...

Now I don't know about you, but when I'm driving along (and doubly so during peak hour traffic) there are a number of things that are probably quite minor in the scheme of things but really get my blood boiling...

So here goes; by the way if you know you are guilty of any of these bad habits please take a moment and appreciate how much of a dick you actually are ....

• Turning from the middle of the lane.

Okay so you might be driving a whale sized vehicle, but seriously if you are turning right on a busy 2 way (one-lane) street, pull the fuck over to the right hand side so we can at least attempt to sneak past on the left hand side... guess what Mr Fail most roads are actually designed with this in mind, this is also true of those who feel they must turn SUPER WIDE when turning to the left thus forcing all of those behind them to slow down to a snails pace....

• Driving 10 to 20 km BELOW the signed speed limit

Note this doesn't apply to school zones or during mass traffic or other times when its actually too dangerous to drive at the listed limit, but I can understand driving at 60 in a 70 zone if you've never driven the road and aren't quite sure what the limit might be, but Mister... if you drive past that sign and don't increase your speed you're just playing with fire. Okay okay, if you're a bit lost or don't quite know where you're going... PULL THE FUCK OVER don't drive at 40 in my 60-70 zone...

• Trying to "jump" the queue in a fail-merge zone

Anyone who's lived in Perth for a decent amount of time is quite aware for some reason the "lets merge like intelligent people" gene was left out and a result most of the time when someone needs to merge its a huge clusterfuck, I mean seriously people how fucking hard is it... let one person in from the left then one from the right (imagine how a zipper works people)... but merging doesn't really make me rage, I just accept that most people obviously don't need to be a brain surgeon to get their drivers licence... no what makes me really mad is the rude fuckers who notice there is a cluster-fuck merge up ahead and then try to zoom up the (left/right) side to jump in front 50 metres...

Seriously if everyone just "took their turn" we wouldn't have half the problems we do... but nooooo you think zooming ahead and then FORCING your way in with your massive 4WD urban-tank will get you home just that iddy-bit quicker...

SHIT, just writing about it is making me mad...

Anyway there are other things that make me mad when I'm driving but those 3 in particular really fire up the demon inside...

What do you think, am I just a rage-a-holic or are some drivers really mentally retarded?

Also what makes you mad, and how do you deal with it?

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