Shadowcasts

Sunday, 14 April 2013

Ding Dong we are all dead!

I think what annoys me the most about this new facebook campaign is not the obvious Thatcher debate, nor the fact that most of the people buying the protest song were not alive when she was in power.

No what annoys me is that people don't actually have any real passion of their own to preoccupy themselves and adopt a nonsense cause to express themselves on mass...in some ways all those people who tried to get the song to No1 are already dead themselves and need the song to go to number one to validate their existence! Thank god for Duke Dumont :)
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

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Sunday, 13 January 2013

Dead icons won't age but we do!

10-john-lennon-stand-by-me

 

The image above is a photo of John Lennon which was used as the cover of is "Legend" Greatest Hits collection. It was released in October of 1997 and I purchased a copy in arround 1999. At the time I would have been 22. 

John Lennon was assasinated in 1980 at the age of 40. When i bought the "Legend" CD Lennon had been dead for 19 years, if he had still been alive he would have been 59 years of age. I would guess that in the photo hes around 35 years of age. 

Like I said when i first bought the CD Lennon I was 22 and the man in the photo was older than me. He was at least 10 years older if not more. I looked at him and saw a hero a "legend", someone to look up to and aspire too.

In the last 10 years ive done alot of growing up my self and i cant remember the last time i saw this image untill yesterday. It was in a shop window in Birkenhead. I had to stop because suddenly the image looked different. I was looking at a man around the same age as me, he looked younger and i felt older than the last time i had seen it. In 10 years time i will be looking at it again and this time he will be a younger man. 

In that simple moment of reflection it dawned on me that our Dead Icons never age but us the living do...not that this any major relevation it was just the first time i had noticed it.I doing so its made me reflect on my own gradual aging process and how important it is to make the most of my good health whilst i still have it. Thats all :)

 

 

 

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Monday, 31 December 2012

My New Year's Resolutions

Looking Back on 2012

Greatest lesson of 2012 was to accept that you cant do everything, so stop trying and instead focus on the important things.

Hardest thing of the year was realising that I was spending alot of time focused on the wrong things.

Favorite memory was the day me and Emma had in Oslo walking round the city and parks.

What I loved about 2012 was the summer especially the Olympics.

Things i've achived this year :

  • Walked on average 10,000 steps a day
  • Not Got injured
  • Lost 20lbs of weight
  • Got my base fittness sorted.
  • Been incharge of two projects
  • Organised a stag doo.
  • Almost sorted my diet out! - Ongoing using Food Boxs idea
  • Almost sorted out my monthly budget! Using Money "Envelopes" idea

Looking forward to 2013

i wish learn some form of programming skill, play round with a coupe of Rassberry Pi's build a few apps and stuff.

Want to get better at Running.

Biggest Goal is to save enought money for me and Emma to get Married.0. GET MARRIED ASAP, BY WHATEVER MEANS POSSIBLE

1. Push my Fitbit average from 10,000 steps per day up to 15,000

2. Loose 3 Stone 

3. Push my sleep average up from 6 to 7 and half hours sleep. 

4. Run a little everyday + and train for a marathon or 2

5. Do some mixes and upload to Soundcloud

6. Improve flexibility to help with my running.

7. Write some sort of eBook about my food box principle.

8. Do that push up, squat, dip , pull up challange that I keep saying i will do.

9. Make some music

10. Read more Fiction and Non Fiction

11. Start doing some digital art work.

12. Stay positive

13. Eat Breakfast every day

14. Gain focus on important things atleast 3 key things a day.

15. Save more, spend less - sort a budget out

16. Track my food, drink and water - Drink more water less alcohol 

 

 

 

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Wednesday, 31 October 2012

I hate Newsletters!

What I hate about newsletters is they tend to just be one way traffic. They pretend to be personal but in reality they are anything but. I got one today from the magazine iCreate with the opening lines ...
"Hello Phil

The iPad mini is out this week and hopefully you're as excited as we are."

This really annoyed me and initially I didn't understand why.The Truth is I'am not excited about the iPad mini and iCreate don't really care if i'am or not...to be honest I struggle to understand why they are excited about it..other than they feel they need to be to keep their foot on the bandwagon. God forbid we are still really excited about the iPads we already own...god forbid anyone for being satisfied with any Apple product they own, not when something new and shinny and less flawed is on the market, does it have NfC...never mind maybe the next one will!

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Saturday, 20 October 2012

Blackberry saved the day when i was in Antarctica, still got a lot of love for them!

 

Halley_1
Playing around on my Blackbery Playbook (which was a gift from my dad), just discoverd that I can load the Posrerous web interface and upload a picture from my picture directory, just like it would be if I was on my Mac.I know that currently the jurys out on Blackberry, but this is really cool and I cant fault them. This is not the first time I've been impressed by their versatility as me and BlackBerry have history.

I think back to when my Macbook hard drive froze up in Antarctica and as a consequence it effectively bricked my iphone as I couldn't connect it to anything with out loosing my content. All I wanted to do was change some music, upload some stuff of my external harddrive, stuff I'd bought of Apple, but because of their rules I couldn't.  Since then I haven't spent another penny on music or movies from itunes and I intend to keep it that way. 

In stepped my BlackBerry Bold...up until then it had been just a work phone. But in my time of need it allowed me to listen to music, watch movies and all the stuff I planned to do with my iphone. No fuss...it just got on with the job...drag and drop. I think I probably would have gone mental if it wasn't for that phone...don't forget..i had no laptop and was completly reliant on the charity of others when it came to using a computer.

Since then I've returned home...ditched the iphone and I've moved onto Android..which is alright. The operating system allows you to do lots of really cool stuff but it does seem to be a bit random at times..i do like it though, but yet to me BlackBerry is like that slightly awkward freind who you quite like, but who lingers a bit too long sometimes just in sight, until it becomes annoying cause they are not making any effort to engage with anyone so you go over and you stop and chat and you remember that this person is actually alright. Its the same way with BlackBerry you just have to ignore the negative press, the stuff they make is actually not that bad, in fact I would go as far to say that my BlackBerry experiences have been the best of both Apple and Android (if you have ever experienced using their tactile qwerty keypads iam sure you will agree that they are such a better interface than anything else on the market). My only real gripe is I just wish they had more developers on board and the application weren't so expensive. 

 

All that said I do hope they linger for a while longer as I now realise I do enjoy my little stop and chats with my slightly awkward friends. 

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Monday, 13 August 2012

Marginal Gains!

P288

Marginal Gains: this is the lesson I learnt from the Olympics . When asked what's been making the difference for the Team GB cycling team , Chris Boardman said it came down to "Marginal Gains" ...lots of small changes that came together to make a big difference.

When asked after the 5,000m whats been the key to his success Mo Farah said that he started doing the small things that make a difference , Ice baths , sleeping in the afternoon. Obviously he still been doing over 120 miles a week but it's been the small things that make a difference.

It got me thinking if small things make a big difference then this can work in the reverse. It's the small things that can sabotage your efforts, that one occasional beer or burger. My future focus is therefore going to be on identifying Marginal Gains as well as Losses.

Two things I did today to work towards my goals (gains) : had a after work walk and resisted the urge to go for a run (rest).

Two things I did today to detract away from my goals: didn't push my steps above 10,000 which is my daily minimum. Also drank 3 330mm beers which where coors light ...but still !! Not Good!

Got to keep an eye on this theory!

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Tuesday, 24 July 2012

A quick reviewing my Crappy Day which turned out ok in the end

Fitbit_dashboard

Early Start Up just before 6 (Crappy because I was supposed to be off - this should have been a Lie in)

Went For a 20 Min Run 1min Run 1 Min Walk x 10 - Ok so thats not crappy!

Did some work at home - Drawing up As-Built Drawings (Crappy because I was supposed to be off)

Drove to Leigh and did some work (Crappy because I was supposed to be off) from 2:30 to about 4 then went shopping at the trafford Centre until 6:30pm

Then got stuck in Traffic for 3 Hours : Official end to Crappy Day

Weighed myself …I've lost 10lb since start of July (Result)…not such a crappy day after all :-)

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