Major Blog Entry: 3.5 years into this blog!

Hello everyone! Woah, 3.5 years already! So much has changed I don't even know where to start!

I just read my previous Major Blog entry (FYI, I do a blog entry every 6 months to kind of evaluate my life and just talk about what I think of things...), and it's interesting to note that back then I was struggling with the idea of not letting time slip out of my hands. Like I'd often find myself engrossed in my work to the point it'd be 3 hours and it's only when my stomach starts growling do I realize all this time has passed by!

But with my recent discovery of the pomodoro technique I have learned to be more focused without the worry that I'd end up being so focused I burn out. The idea of working on one thing for 25 minutes straight is great! It lets me stay focused without the worry that I'd neglect other important tasks. Also, now that I plan the next day the night before, it makes a big difference because I don't find myself wasting time thinking what next (well not as much). The only issue is sometimes when I'm in the zone, 25 minutes isn't enough and it's hard to pull myself away from what I'm doing because of a 5 minutes break. In fact, 5 minutes is often not enough for me after 25 minutes, I need a good 10 minutes before I feel rested.

Another major change is the setting up of my Phillips LivingColors system. I used to have it at a constant color transition but I never really enjoyed it then. Now I set it at a certain color (anything except green) during the day while I'm working (usually purple or pink) and green is reserved for the nights. The lovely sounds provided by naturesoundsfor.me is great when I'm lying in bed winding down after a long hard day, reading my RSS feeds, e-books or even books. I'm currently nearing the end of 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot. I hope to finish it in the next few days then move on to the lovely Sun Tzu For Success!!

Speaking of reading, check this out, I ordered another Kindle for my mother so she no longer needs to use mine which means I can finally start enjoying my kindle without having to worry about sharing it and stuff... and of course, drum roll

I got a Samsung Galaxy S Android Phone. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I finally did it, I finally got myself a new phone and with that, I have the enjoyment of Kindle and Paperdroid on the device! Woohoo!! Reading galore! Not to mention it's got swype and of course lovely Gmail access that will actually allow me to deal with emails even better. I'm still working out the best way to work with ActiveInbox labeling with my phone.

But nonetheless, I've only been using the phone for a day and I'm already in love with it, I see why so many productivity geeks are into it! :D Not to mention it'll save me time in the long run really.

I can't say tooo much about the phone because I have yet to use it much more, perhaps in the next entry? :P

I've also gone nuts with my workouts and drumming. Nuts in the sense I used to have a pre-planned routine but now I've realized the power of mixing things up to keep it fresh and always forcing myself to learn, adapt and thus improv. I am working on the famous George Kollias 16 week speed+control workouts and so far so good. There are days when I feel my ankles are just tired but currently I'm clocking a stable 160bpm and hitting 170bpm on good days (feet). I've been combining that with exercises from The Evolution of the Blast Beat By Derek Roddy and so far so good. Of course there are other books as well but these 2 are the major contributors to my drum workouts.

My gym workout on the other hand has just been a whole load of balanced randomness. Basically I know what the workout needs to include but I don't know what exercises I will do till I get to the gym. In other words, for example, I know I will need to do some full-leg workouts today, will it be the front squat, back squat, lunges, step box, leg press, etc.? Who knows, the decision is made partly based on what is available and partly based on what I can do. It's no point trying to hit a lunch when I can barely walk from fatigue leftover by the previous set.

My band's been doing good also. We had to let our old bassist go because the band's direction was starting to not match his and it was no point keeping someone who didn't have the same view on the band as the rest of us. However, things have picked up really well ever since that. We've grown as a more focused band with everyone working well on their own things rather than "er, I don't know, I just was following you" attitudes. We've already got 2 new songs that I'm really proud of and hopefully after a while, when we have enough new tracks, and find a proper bassist, we'll be hitting out on gigs like before. I do miss playing live, it's a whole different game! :p

My comedy career has grown yet even more, with the recent Karma Komedians show, I confidently hit 37 minutes straight in English! :D I was quite happy with that, especially since most of the audience members were Indians, I could whip out some only-Indians-will-get-this-joke material :P I can't say my writing has been super stable, but I can say that at least I've got a proper system to work with rather than just writing ideas here and there. Evernote, you are awesome. There are still a few things to iron out but hopefully once I get my groove of daily writing back, I'll be able to keep up the new material like before...

My web stuff has also grown with new technologies and new clients. I've been trying to upgrade my skills and currently am re-learning Dreamweaver CS5 and oh my goodness, there is so much stuff I missed out!! In fact, I'm really happy to see myself move away from working with Flash so much and preferring HTML and javascrīpt over Flash. Yes, javascrīpt but in the form of jQuery really.

Well, so 3.5 years into this and things are stable. I feel like when I first started this blog, I was a teenager struggling and now I've grown into a man who knows what's going on. Sure there are still goals to achieve and stuff, but I feel like now I can see the even bigger picture of realizing that a goal not achieved isn't the end of the world, it's just a goal that has yet to be achieved! I guess in 6 months I'll hopefully have yet another perspective on this matter.

Now I'm off to go smile a bit, because you know what, just doing that can improve your mood. Go figure? :P