Wow.  Has it been nearly a month since I last blogged?

Well – I’ve been busy.  It’s probably a few blog posts in itself, but it’s been a messy few months, and I’m just trying to get organised.  Needless to say, I stuffed up and am now running about like a headless chicken, trying to get everything on an even keel again.

Which neatly leads into the main topic of this particular posting.

I’m near to hitting the ripe old age of 30, and people have been asking why I haven’t organised a birthday bash of some sort…  It’s because, long-term, I think I’ve stuffed up, and really need to get things in shape.

Not to piss all over everyone else’s 30th birthdays (there’s been a spate of these this year due to all my similarly-aged university acquaintances), but I personally don’t feel that birthdays are major events.  Now don’t get me wrong – there are folk out there who enjoy having a bash, and it’s a nice excuse to get some far-flung friends together for a party.  However, a birthday – to me – is about celebrating achievements.  Let’s face it – unless you’re particularly stupid, careless or horrendously unfortunate, then getting to 30 years of age is hardly a difficult achievement.  We should be striving to achieve great things (within our means), not sitting back in satisfaction at the mere passage of time.

So – achievements, then.  Alas – looking at the last 30 years, I’d give myself a C grade in terms of what I hoped to achieve by this stage.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not bitter, or complaining, about the standard of my life.  Overall, it’s very nice – and I’m certainly very fortunate to be in the tiny percentile of folk around the world who do not need to worry about basics such as food or shelter.

However, given the environment, opportunities and education I have been fortunate enough to receive – well, I’ve done a pretty piss-poor job of building upon all of this.  I’m not talking specifically about any financial goals (although they are fairly important), but – at this particular moment, I can’t single out any particular thing that I’ve done in recent times that I’m really proud of as an achievement.  It’s fairly, well, disappointing.

All due to a lack of effort on my part, though – it’s not like I’ve been really pushing to do something charitable, or have made any great effort to earn a fortune.  I’ve been coasting along so far, which has been enjoyably relaxed and entertaining.  But with some hindsight, I wonder if perhaps I’ve squandered 30 years of opportunity…?

I’m sure everyone gets this feeling when they hit the “middle-age” band, and I’m certainly going through this now.

But as I said – this isn’t really a rant.  More of a chance for some in-depth introspection.  I had an idea around the blog that I’ll try over the next period…

Given that I’m nearly 30 years of age, I thought it might be an interesting exercise over the next 30 days to post what I feel are 30 positive, and 30 negative, aspects of my life – one of each per day.  This takes me nicely into the New Year, which is quite well-timed.

Other than the first couple of thoughts – I have no idea what I’m going to write.  I’ll make it up as I go along…  It’ll be a long process but, at the end of this, I’ll hopefully have a better idea of what I’ve achieved in life, and what can be improved.  If you have the patience/boredom to read all of it, you might get to know me a little better as well.

So… here goes…