Health and fitness

Growing up I was always a pretty energetic kid, that energy probably came from the sugar that I was main lining in my veins, it may also have been because of my issues with sitting still and paying attention. I never wanted to/could sit still for long, I was always up and running about my house and out my back, playing on the swings or on the climbing frame that I used to have(which was probably a death trap by the way).

I always wanted to be outside playing which must have driven my parents mad, i'll always give my parents the credit due to them, I wasn't an easy child, there was only so much they could do to keep me in check, the rest was on me.

Even into my teens I was always outside with friends skateboarding or cycling or any number of things that kept me in good shape and off the computer and out of the house.

During those years growing up I always had a pretty bad habit of eating far too many sweets, my teeth can attest to that fact. Even though I was running about a lot and keeping active to some degree I was still my weight in sweets and drinking sugary drinks. Most people know that you can't out exercise a bad diet, sooner or later it's going to catch up with you and you're going to start putting on the pounds and getting winded walking down the street. That point came when I was around 18 or 19.

With the freedom that university and student loans gave me my diet really took a nose dive binge eating territory. I remember what I would have when I made it onto the Jordanstown campus each day. Each day consisted of me eating Subway sandwiches followed by chocolate, drinking large Redbulls and calorie dense hot chocolates. You have to understand, this was what I was eating when I was at University, what I used to eat at home was probably much worse, if I was hungry at night, or even  just bored and wanted something to do I would put a pizza in the oven and eat that. This could be 12 in the morning or even later but i'd basically be having another dinner, no wonder I put on weight. I also used to spend a lot money going to the local Chinese takeaway, I basically became a regular, the same now that i'm becoming a regular at the off license, but that's a topic for later.

It was probably around that time that I injured my shoulder, an injury that still plagues me to this day, among other ailments.

The strange thing about my shoulder injury was how I got it. I wasn't doing anything strenuous, I wasn't doing weights or twisting and turning in the wrong way. I was lying on my side in bed and was rolling my shoulder when I felt a sharp pain, it only lasted a second but it was something worrying. I don't remember it hurting too much at the start but as time went on I started having issues carrying things with that arm, I couldn't hold things for long so after a while I went to the doctor and got prescribed Naproxen, an anti-inflammatory drug which was supposed to have helped, as far as I can remember it didn't exactly work, i'm pretty sure it gave me insomnia for a week or so while I was taking it, maybe it was one of the side affects of the drug, maybe it was just me.

After that I guess things progressed, I carried on with my life and with my injury which eventually progressed to the other shoulder, so it wasn't just a fluke, my shoulders were that out of sync. While it progressed the issues it caused got worse, I started having even more problems with getting to sleep, getting comfortable and doing everyday things. A smart person would have gone back to the doctor but it took another few years before I did that, why oh why did I wait so long?

When I went to the doctor the second time I had blood taken to check to see if I had any other underlying issues that might have caused my injuries, whether it was something that could affect my joints like arthritis or some other condition.

X-Rays were next, a further check to see whether I could have any onset symptoms of arthritis, also fortunately negative.

The physio came next, this was were real progress was made in finding out was going on in my body. I wish I had only got a referral to the physio sooner, or even if I was just more active in my teens, all of this pain and discomfort may never have fucked with my life.

The physio told me that I control issues with my shoulders, that they were doing much more work than they should have and that I needed on to do some work on them to get into working order again. I had a few appointments with the physio where she showed me a few different stretches and exercises I could do to strengthen my shoulders. I managed to stick with them fully for those few appointments but after that I got lazy and failed to stick with the routine, routines just never seem to work for me, maybe i'm just too free spirited, or too lazy, or both, there could be countless reasons for me not being able to stick to the routine set out for me, doing the exercises 3 times a day, they only would have taken me 10 minutes at the most but that seemed like too much effort to me. I manage to do them now and again but I just can't seem to get back into doing them regularly like I should be doing. My shoulders are suffering for my laziness.

During the long period where I was jobless and goal-less I got a gym membership, those first few months I didn't have a clue what I was doing, I just did random sets of weights with no goal in mind. I had no idea about what kind of physique I might want to try and attain, I guess starting from scratch at a gym can be quite a daunting experience for some, especially so if you're like me and don't ask for help.

I finally found an app I could use that gave me a rough idea about exercises that I could do, I managed to get into a routine, a shock I know but for almost a year I was going to the gym regularly, at least 3 times a week, more if I had the energy. I was probably in the best shape of my life at that time, my shoulders still weren't in the best of conditions but I could see the progress that I was making, both visually and in the increased range of weights I was lifting. If only I could have maintained that for longer, looking at me now it seems like i'm a lot further back than from where I started, getting closer to my heaviest weight in at least 6 years and looking almost as bad as I did back then.

With all the free time I have at the minute I should be going to the gym as often as possible, that's not the case though, I seem to just sit about and do nothing worthwhile, I could be out exploring the world but no, I sit in and browse the internet aimlessly or sit on my Playstation for hours on end. It needs to change, change is good, I should be accepting that I need to change things but i'm far too comfortable where I am.

Ideas

Ever since I first started journaling all those years ago I always struggled to write something original, I felt like I was always coming back to the same topics, writing about the same things each time, bitching about things not changing.....

I guess it's about time I try and create some structure to my writing, I don't want to be writing about the same thing for years and years, i'd feel like I wasn't getting anywhere. I guess when I was younger I didn't exactly have a whole lot going on in my life so there wasn't too much to write about. That's only slightly the case now though, I think in some cases i've matured quite a bit and in other aspects of my life I probably haven't changed too much.

Even though in real life it may not seem like I have much to say I know that online or even just on paper I feel like I can write quite a bit, even if it's just rambling, that's still something to me. I've never been structured in my writing though.

There are so many different topics to choose to write about, getting coherent ideas on paper or in a blog is going to be a new thing for me. Structured writing is a must have for any journalist or fiction author, it's an essential skill for anyone that has to write for a living, or even just for communicating ideas.

If you were trying to read instructions for building something you don't want them to be garbled, you don't want to have to jump between pages to get to the right step.

I feel like I can say my whole life has been one big unstructured mess, from the start line to where I am now I don't feel like i'm in front of everything, i'm meeting one hurdle after another just a little bit too late. I should have predicted some things sooner, I should have known that I would need to make some decisions that could affect my future yet I put them off for too long.

I have a list of ideas that I would like to write something about, I think I could make a good enough attempt at them. I know i'll make mistakes and there may be times where i'm not making a whole lot of sense, that's ok, I know i'm going to make mistakes and I know that my writing not be the best or I might not have anything ground breaking to say, that's also ok, my opinion matters.

My city

Do I even know how to describe Belfast accurately???

I guess it's worth a shot. 

Going from memory I really only know why local area to a certain degree. I think when tourists come here they're more than likely going to have a better understanding of my own city than I will.

Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland, many people would have an issue with me calling it Northern Ireland and not the North of Ireland but to be honest I just stick to it's proper name, tourists who don't know much about Ireland aren't going to understand the issue some people have with what to call our country, let alone the issues that have been raging on for hundreds of years probably.

I don't think I could accurately explain the issues myself so it's probably best for me to just stick to what I know, which isn't a lot mind you.

Compared to other cities around the world Belfast isn't that big. I actually had to Google what the population for Belfast is, According to Wikipedia the City of Belfast has a population of 532,928, it's safe to say that most of the population of the country is situated in and around Belfast. Even though i've spent my whole life in Belfast I know for certain that there are whole areas that I haven't been to or heard of. I've probably ignored or haven't thought about 2 whole compass directions of my city( I don't know if that makes sense but fuck it). I couldn't tell you where North and East Belfast start or meet let alone how to make my way between them. It's sad that I would need a map to make my way to certain areas of my city.

A friend has put up a lot of photos  on Facebook  where he has been going to all of the cultural parts of Belfast and doing some of the more uncommon things. I wish I could do that more. I think if I have the time tomorrow, oh who am I kidding? Of course I have the time.... Anyway I think I might make a wee visit to the Ulster Museum, it's not something I would have ever thought about doing when I was younger but I think it's about time I do some exploring of my own city. I could probably go to the Titanic Museum as well if I get up early enough. 

The thing i'm looking forward to the most about finally having my driving license is the freedom i'll have to explore my city like I never could have before, or at least had the inkling to. 

If someone asks me something specific about a place I want to have the answer, I want to be able to direct people to certain sites and even give my own recommendations about where to go and what to do. At the minute all I can do is shrug and say I don't know or I can't tell you much about that place.

I've lived in this country for all of my 28 years and I haven't seen or been to somewhere that's only a few miles away from me. 

Decisions, decisions.

I haven't worked a whole lot recently, all of this free time has made me question whether I should move on or not from this job. I don't know whether it's rewarding enough for me, this lull in work is definitely making me think it's not worth it to stay. The other part of me is thinking I should just tough it out and try and work with what i've got.

I've almost gotten my driving license now so i'll be able to fully come on to the supervisor track in my work, I think i'm firm enough in my position that it's worthwhile to go ahead and progress as far as I can while I consider looking for another job or even trying to find a part time course to do while i'm working. I'm still at the point in my life where I have no idea what to do with the rest of it. I'm getting closer and closer to 30 and i'm still as clueless as I was when I was 16. I can keep looking and hope that i'll stumble on something that i'm unexpectedly good at, or I could stay on track with this job.

I can do a lot of bitching and whining and questioning about what my life but it's not getting me any closer to figuring out what the right career path is for me. I've had this conversation 1000 times with myself and I haven't gotten any closer to the truth.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!!!

Time

It seems like i'll be having a lot of time off for the next few weeks, there doesn't seem to be a lot of work at the minute, with only a few sparse days each week i'll have plenty of time to myself. I really should try and be productive and do what I can to be productive and maybe learn something new.

It seemed like when I didn't have a job I could keep myself occupied for hours without getting bored. That's not the case now though. Having to try and plan my time accordingly is still a major problem for me. I'm just not an organised person at all, maybe it's because I have some ADD issues or maybe i'm just lazy in general, I just can't stick to a schedule and I can't keep myself from getting distracted. Getting distracted is one of my biggest flaws, who knows what I could get done if I managed to sit down and make the effort to read or to listen to a podcast or watch some type of informative video. I can do half of those things at a quarter attention, I try to do them all at the same time, that's where the dilemma is.

Looking back at my childhood I was always easily distracted. I was medicated for a few years, I was taking Ritalin during Primary School and into secondary school. Should I have kept taking it as I got older? I don't know the answer to that question but in my opinion the answer is probably yes, a great big resounding yes as well.

When I was young I couldn't sit still to do anything,  I always wanted to move around, I never wanted to sit still and do homework, i'm surprised I managed to do any homework at all. I have to thank my parents though, without their help I probably wouldn't have finished primary school on time and I definitely would have been held back even further in secondary school.

Now that i'm a lot older I wonder if I would be able to make it through school again, would my issued be even greater than they were when I was younger? Has my attention span taken an even bigger dive? Maybe it's because i'm always tired now because of work or I have too many devices on at once, I can only take in so much at one time, I can't keep track of what i'm doing anymore. I try and read an interesting blog post or news story and I find another one that interests me as well so I change to that while leaving the other one unfinished.

That's the way things go with some books as well, I have a mountain of books that I haven't finished or haven't even made an attempt at yet. I just buy book after book and then just ad them to the pile.

I guess it does seem like i'm making some progress with this blog post, usually I would have been distracted by something and moved on leaving this unfinished but I guess today i'm sticking to it.

I want to get back to the gym and lose the pounds i've been gaining, or at least just try and get slightly less unfit and make myself look slightly more flattering to look at.

Getting a proper nights rest is probably a good start though, my sleeping pattern is always going to be fucked up and I know i'm not doing myself any favours by staying up any later.

My return!

I knew this would happen, I knew I wouldn't be able to maintain this blog for long without a long break. It's like my written journal, it seems like I only write whenever I can't think of anything else to do. I should be able capable of a whole lot more than this, it's been almost 4 months since I last wrote in this, that is if my maths is correct...

So what have I done in that time? I could have said I was far too busy with work and with my life to write in this blog but that would be a lie. I mean sure i've had a few weeks where I haven't been able to do a whole lot more than work. I guess I just didn't make the time to write more. Even without work i've had plenty of time to do more than just play on the Playstation and watch TV, I really haven't done much more than that though.

I guess the biggest update I have for my many readers( crickets....) is the fact that i'm in the process of getting my driving license again, i'll get the test eventually, 5 attempts down, I have another few in me for sure..... I got back into doing driving lessons with the encouragement of my boss in work and a few suggestions from friends. I guess I sort of just jumped back into them again. The crazy thing about it though is the fact that I still knew how to drive, I had all the gears down fine, control wasn't an issue, learning all of the maneuvers again was and still is my biggest concern, as well as the observation and trying to eliminate all of the dumb mistakes i've been making. It was the dumb mistakes that made me fail the driving test so many times before in the past. Those small lapses in judgement however minor ended up being major. I haven't crashed the car yet but there's still plenty of time.

I'm still going at my job, i've been at it for over a year and a half now, and to think the longest job i've had before this one lasted only 3 months or so, i'm not a failure yet! I went ahead and put my name forward for supervisor training, I haven't exactly had a whole lot of training yet though. It's mainly been a few hours in a classroom type setting going over bullet points and reading from a booklet, not exactly the most interesting stuff.

I've also been somewhat interested in the technical side of things when it comes to doing the PFS, at this point i've only just been observing the supervisor doing it with me, I guess i've picked up a few things but i'm far from being at the point where I could do all of the computer stuff on my own, that's probably still a long way off.

Onto my social life, or what passes for a social life for me these days anyway/

I guess I haven't exactly been that social these last few months, other than birthdays and the odd night out I haven't really gotten the chance to be social with my friends. I don't know whether playing Playstation games and talking over a microphone counts as being social.

A big shocker for some of my friends would be the fact that I went on a date a few days ago. It wasn't that successful but at least i'm getting myself out there again. The last date I had was a few years ago and that really wasn't that successful either. I guess I can't really go on one date every few years and expect that things are going to miraculously go my way. I need to get out more, a lot more/

I guess on the social aspect me going for the supervisor training is a big plus, I mean it could still end in a major major failure and emotionally cripple me but I guess i'm getting more of a chance to talk to other people in a more professional way.

What do I believe in, what are my passions? Part 2

Since I tend to ramble a bit whenever I write I felt the need to split this post into two parts, I felt I could have written a whole book in the first post.

Right so were was I?? Khan Academy yes, I feel like this is a great resource for a lot of people, especially me. It seems like I didn't learn anything in school because everything I see on this website seems extremely foreign to me, or maybe I just wasn't paying attention, you can blame the ADD on that.

I made it through all of the Crash Course:World History videos, I know for sure that it was beneficial, it gave me a lot of new topics to research and there was plenty of humour in it too which helped quite a bit with getting through all of the serious stuff.

After that course I decided to try and brush up on my mathematics skill which I found to be severely lacking. I didn't really need to learn how to add 1+1 but I wasn't far off it. I didn't get to any material that I couldn't manage. Sure I saw some stuff that was a bit of a challenge but I managed to comprehend some of it in the end. Whether I can remember anything I learned is another matter though, That's my main problem when it comes to learning new skills or trying to learn some new information, my level of retention isn't that high. I don't know if there's much I can do to combat that, I wouldn't know if I was getting any better at it though.

I have plenty of notebooks at my disposal but I never bring them with me or write in them frequently enough to make much of a difference. Notebooks or notepads can definitely be beneficial for me when it comes to work and doing the PFS for Tesco. There's plenty I need to learn about that job before I could be considered knowledgeable.

Since i've procrastinated for so long I think this could end being a 3 part post, unless I just ramble on for another 10 minutes or so which could be very likely, i've been known to do it in the past.

What do I believe in, what are my passions?

So what's new in my life since I last posted over 10 days ago??? Hmm, let me see, oh yeah not a whole lot! After a tough few weeks of work I had the weekend off to relax and this week shouldn't be too bad work wise so I can at least have some time to myself and maybe actually get a chance to go to the gym or read, I haven't made much time for myself to read lately and i'm getting even further behind when it comes to all of the magazines i'm subscribed to. Hopefully I can get up to date on everything I read but that sounds unlikely at this rate!

Apart from work I haven't done a whole lot since last time. I finally had another night out with my friends, it seems like i'm only out for special occasions like birthdays or engagement parties, I guess that what happens when you get older and your friends and family start to plan for the rest of their lives beyond university and the day to day things. I did have a good time out on Saturday with my friends, even though it was sort of a typical night out I will still appreciate those types of experiences with my friends, just going out to a bar and having good conversations with people and listening to music. 

Is that all that has happened in my life in the past 10 days??? I got new glasses! My vision is getting worse again so I had to get another eye test where I found out that I needed another pair of new glasses, the change was quite noticeable though. The optician showed me what my old prescription was compared to the new one that I would have, there was a definite change and I knew it wouldn't be fun walking around for another year or so before I could tell it was getting bad enough for me to make my own appointment for an eye test rather than getting the reminder that I was due for one.

Now that the day to day updates are done I think it's time to get more serious. I know I probably don't think or talk about current issues enough, there are a lot of things I don't have an opinion on or maybe I just don't know enough about a subject to have anything new or worthwhile to say about them.

I guess I should really start by talking about what does interest me and what subjects I want to know more about.

I know when I was younger all I really read in my free time was Military Fiction books about war or action and adventure. I know I was barely touching the surface when it came to good literature. Those fiction books wouldn't win any awards, they were easy reads without a lot of depth, I was comfortable with what I was reading so for a long time I didn't try to branch out into anything more complex. At some point though I started reading less Military Fiction and more true stories about the military and real battles which actually required me to try and make sense of what had happened in the world before my time.

Looking back over 10 years ago my bookshelf was mostly filled with Military fiction and non-fiction. I guess military non-fiction is still classified as history so at least I was getting some understanding about the world. 

I don't know how but after a while my interests changed to general history and even science. I knew that I would never have a great understanding about all of the topics that I was reading about, that's still the case now, however I knew that what I was reading interested me and I always felt that there was more and more to read, more fascinating new topics to learn about. I read books about archaeology, nature, physics, space, you name it I probably would have read something about it. Here's where the problems began. I would always move on far too quickly from subject to subject, I started leaving books unfinished because I saw another one that interested me, I still have this problem, I know that there are quite a few books in my library that I haven't finished or even started!!

Basically me when I was younger, this video perfectly describes what I was like when it came to books in my teen years. it's still a fairly accurate representation of what i'm like to this day, i'm 28 now you would think I would be able to narrow my focus to a few topics that interest me, but no, I still find myself going from topic to topic without getting a good enough understanding of the fundamental issues and the basic concepts of things like science or nature. There is one video series that I actually made it to the end of that I found very interesting, Crash Course World History, like the title suggests, it's a crash course, John Green the who created this series takes you through thousands of years of human history, starting with The Agricultural Revolution, Ancient Egypt, the major religions of the world and ending with Globalisation. 

Although i've read books covering some of the topics in this series there was and still is a lot more I can learn, there are still countless videos and courses that I can participate in, I know that I need to get back to using Khan Academy, it was a great resource for me for a while. My maths skills were rather lacking so I decided to start their Mathematics course from the very beginning, luckily I did manage to master that, I managed to count to 10 without having to use my fingers, so I have that going for me....

End of part one!

Free Time

I wrote in my last post about the fact that I might not have a lot of free time to myself if I do manage to make it onto the supervisor course for my job. I have the weekend off of work and so far i'm not making good use of my time off. I did manage to go into town and trade in some of the games that I wasn't playing anymore, there were a lot of them, I managed to make about £70 off of them, it all went into my Game card so at least I can't spend it on something other than a game. I know I need to use my money more efficiently now that i'm saving. Saving for what I still don't know!

When I was in town I also bought some things which I guess can be considered to be very adult purchases. I bought face cloths! Apart from the usual toiletries like deodorant and toothbrushes and the like, i've never really bought much of my own things for the home. I've never bought pillows or furniture or anything like that. I guess now that I have the money i'm thinking about the things that might actually make me more comfortable at home, the essential things that most functioning adults might buy on a regular basis, we all know i'm far from being considered fully functioning adult though, that's a well established fact. 

I have a sad existence if i'm so proud about buying face cloths, like it's some major accomplishment in life. To be honest I don't buy much apart from games and books, maybe clothes the odd time. I should definitely start taking a look and see what things i've been missing out on buying and see if I can brighten my room and life up a bit, it definitely needs something more. My room still does look like a teenager lives in it. 

I wonder what my first apartment will look like if I ever move out of my parents house. Hahahahahahahaha, me move out? Honestly though I do wonder what kind of place I could see myself living in. I guess i'd want to live somewhere relatively spacious with all of the traditional amenities. I don't want to live somewhere where I have to share living space, utilities or a kitchen with other apartments like you might see in university dorms. I wonder if I could have actually managed to survive on my own in a place like that? You hear stories and see it on TV all the time, the college/university dorm life. Is that something I could ever do? Is it too late for me to experience that? I know I can still go to university but would I ever go and life on campus in a place like that? I really don't know. I guess it could still happen.

I know I would definitely like some roommates if I moved out. Sure you can do whatever you want if you live alone but I know that I would lonely far too easily if I just lived by myself. I know I would want to live with at least one or two other people.

I've definitely lived a sheltered life if i'm thinking about these kinds of things for the first time. I've been spoiled for far too long if I haven't experienced these kinds of things for myself. What other things have I been missing out on? I know for definite that I don't consider myself an adult just yet, I may be getting there somewhat but I still have a long way to go before I can considered to be independent.

I definitely want to be able to drive. Driving sort of just went to the back of my mind after I failed my dring test a few times. I guess at the time I didn't really need to be able to drive. I do now though, it would greatly benefit my life in a lot of ways. I really want to just take a drive along the coast or even just take a drive though the parts of Belfast i've never been to before, I still feel like I know my city at all. There are tourists who've probably seen more of my city than I have and I live here for god's sake!

Late nights and early mornings

January was a very busy month for me when it came to work. I didn't have much time to myself at all, I still don't to be honest though. I guess i'll probably have less time to myself if I do actually go on this supervisor course for my job. It seems like there could be a lot of late nights and calls at all hours to come in and run stores. I guess that was the one issue that was putting me off going for the supervisor position in the first place.

So what has changed?

Well.... I guess I finally realised that I needed to get more out of my job and maybe see if I can make a career out of it, if not then I guess I want to have something more to show for all of the time i've spent in this job. I want to be able to say that I have more responsibilities that can show that i'm capable of more. I've been doing the garages in Tesco for about 5 months or so now and i'm beginning to want to know more about how to run them rather than just counting them and then just forgetting about them. I want to know how the checks work and whether or not there are areas I can improve on. I know I definitely need to improve one aspect for sure, I suck at showing the Tesco staff how to use our machines to count. If I did a better job at that then maybe I might get more recognition for my abilities. 

I know I could be more professional about my job. I could be more chatty and maybe start to ask more questions about how well the garages do for sales and how long each member of staff has worked there for and what their responsibilities are.

I'll definitely need to try and present myself in the best way possible if i'm going to try and convince someone that I can be an effective supervisor and I guess an effective communicator of ideas.

I know I need to ask Bridget more questions about what goes into the PFS counts. I don't want to seem like an idiot to anyone and now know what i'm doing. I didn't exactly make a good impression in the PFS the other day. I managed to take exactly the wrong tickets for the shop floor and the back room, they were both clothing tickets, I could have been done with the garage even sooner if I hadn't made that fuck up. 

There's still plenty of thinking for me to do about my future aspects with this job. I know that I don't want to make any rash decisions, not that i'm known for that or anything...

Reconsideration

It's come to that point in my job that i'm thinking about what's next. I work for a stock taking company, i've been working there for over a year now and I think I want more out of the job than what I have at the minute.

I guess when I was less experienced I had no real thoughts about where I would be at this time, I didn't know I would still have this job a year and change down the line. I never would have considered going for a supervisory role, that was something that never occurred to me at all. To be honest I never thought about being a supervisor before. I guess that was because i'd never been in a job long enough to actually make it to the point where I could consider myself experienced enough to actually apply to be a supervisor or want more out of a job in such a specific way as becoming a supervisor or a member of management.

For those not in the know about the specifics of stocktaking, here's a little bit of an idea.

1) A client approaches the company and requests their services in auditing their stores. The client will of course have their own internal auditors but it won't be anywhere near as in depth or detailed as an outside company could be.

2) The auditing company will not try and sugarcoat the results of the audit, the good, the bad and the ugly will always be revealed in great detail. The client could be trying to hide losses to the big bosses. The store might not even know its shortcomings or if there is a problem with the competence of it's managers.

3) Preparation is key when it comes to stock taking. The last thing you want is to come to a store and find that no work was done beforehand to prepare for the coming audit. It puts the counters and the person running the count at a serious disadvantage. Being prepared even just partially can greatly increase the effectiveness and accuracy of the count and help things run smoothly. No one wants to be there longer than they have to.

I guess what I really need to think about is if i'm actually capable of becoming a supervisor. Do I have the knowledge, the skill, the communication skills to effectively lead other people and represent what my company needs in doing it's job in satisfying a client?

That will be my main concern going forward if I actually put my name forward for consideration for the supervisor training.

28

It's that time of year again, my birthday. I talked before about the fact that my birthday was coming up. It happened, i'm 28 now, I don't know whether or not I feel any different than I did before. I guess 28 is another year closer to 30. I hope by the time I reach 30 I have more to talk about than I did before. I feel like I go over the same topics over and over when I write in my journal or just in general.

I guess if I talk more about current events then i'm going to have more to talk about, the problem with that though is the fact that I don't always know the full facts about a subject so I don't want to come across as uninformed at best or completely ignorant about a subject.

I want to be able to talk about a subject at length knowing all of the facts and be able to have the knowledge to actually talk at length about a certain subject. I want to have the facts at hand to back up my position and be able to be confident about talking about a subject and be clear about what I say and what I mean.

Since I started on the subject of my 28th birthday I feel it's right to finish on it as well. I always veer off course when it comes to writing and journaling but I do manage to make it back to get back on track eventually.

I definitely could have made more of a plan for my birthday. It was unfortunate that my birthday just so happened to fall on such a busy weekend. With two engagement events happening in such a short space of time it was obvious that I couldn't fully celebrate my birthday like I wanted to. I'm not going to make a big deal of the fact that friends of mine had other plans for tonight, things happen, I guess if I had said sooner that my birthday was coming up this week then maybe some people would have been able to make it tonight. I am happy about the decision I made tonight though, I could have left and went to a club, I might not have enjoyed that though or maybe I would have, I can't complain about tonight though, I had a good time with my friends, having to decide whether to go out or to stay put was a bit of a dilemma but I think I made the right choice in the end,

I'm signing off now, I had a good night and a good weekend. This coming week is going to be a fun one for work so i'm glad I got to spend the weekend with my friends socialising and relaxing because I know i'm not going to get the chance for a while.

Two-for-one

This will just be a quick addition to my last post.

Since i'm new to blogging I still need to try and find a good length for each separate post. In my journaling on paper or on my laptop topics just seemed to come to me at random, there were many twists and turns, I started writing about one topic but then rambled for a few sentences and then somehow ended up writing about something else.

The good thing about having a blog is that I can just write about one or two topics and then publish it and then carry on. I don't have to break up my posts too often. I can also edit them where I see fit to suit my needs and what i'm feeling at that time.

The more I post the better i'll be at sticking to a certain topic, that is if I can pay attention for long enough and not get distracted by flashing lights and shiny objects, it's been known to happen.

I hope to be able to spend some time thinking about what i'd like to write about and get an idea of how often I should be publishing something new. I don't want this to end up like my journal, another failed venture after another. If I can be consistent then i'll be happy.

Another revolution around the sun.

Today is my 28th birthday,one year closer to 30 I know. When I was younger I always used to love celebrating my birthday, I would have my friends over to my house for a party where I would eat far too much food and cake and then go out for another adventure somewhere.

Things aren't like that now though. I think somewhere in my late teens or early twenties I started caring less about my birthday, maybe it's the fact that I don't really like to organise things or be the centre of attention, I never really was like that anyway but I guess I became less interested in making a big deal about the day. I still like to go out and have fun with my friends in a bar or club or even just going out for food somewhere, that's really all that I need these days to make me happy.

In general though I like smaller groups to go out with, I find that I can have better conversations with people when there isn't a big group and you can really pay attention to a conversation without getting distracted by others.

I'm not entirely sure about what's going to happen on Saturday when I go out to celebrate my birthday. It'll also be a friend's engagement party, even though he got engaged quite a while ago he hadn't had a proper celebration with friends. These two events just so happened to occur on the same night which is kind of a bummer, I don't want to seem like i'll be taking away a whole bunch of my friends if we do decide to go out somewhere else after the engagement party but he did say it was my birthday as well so I shouldn't feel bad about going out and celebrating that as well.

I'm glad that I have most of this weekend off work, I can finally relax for once and try and enjoy the time off. I'm working on Sunday though which is going to be a fun experience if i'm hungover from the night before. I've heard that HOF is a fun store to count, the staff will be standing beside you and they will immediately recount the area that you just finished, that seems nice.......... sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm.