And so it begins… Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself:

1. I was born at Torbay hospital on June 18th 1974 and grew up in, what at the time was purported to be, the largest village in England, Kingsteignton.
2. I have worked almost my entire career in web design and development… everything from web design and interaction design to being a “knowledge management consultant” which still amazes me as when I graduated design school in 1995 the world-wide web as we know it today barely existed.
3. I enjoy watching movies and TV (on demand as regular TV drives me insane!), something that along with a propensity to procrastinate and more recently the addition of my two beautiful little boys has a rather negative effect on my productivity. I can only imagine what I could do with a little focus.
4. I listen to a broad and diverse, often disturbing range of music… but I tend to fall back on the cheesy bordering on awful as it seems to  work best for helping me focus on what I am doing. This will no doubt be evidenced on days 10, 15 and 30 of this exercise.
5. I have lived in New Zealand for almost 12 years, most of my adult/professional life.
6. In January 2011 I will marry for the second time.
7. Having worked for myself in the past I long to do it again, even more so now that I have a young family at home… but it scares me sh*tless!
8. My absolute favorite TV show is The West Wing so I am really looking forward to seeing The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin is the writer of both).
9. I really want to learn to play the Piano and have repeatedly tried over the years, and as recently as last year… having purchased a $3000+ keyboard a couple of years ago I really should follow though on this!
10. I think Italy is one of the most magical places on earth, having spent just two weeks there on our European holiday a few years ago. I would love to return and spend more time there… and learn Italian.
11. Those that know me well know I love to RANT! The subject is not always important…  but life can always be trusted to offer plenty of opportunity!
12. I love to drive… I just wish they would stop ruining all the good roads (Rimutaka Hill) by straightening them or applying lowest-common-idiot-denominator speed limits.
13. I use Ellipsis way to often when typing and instant messaging… as evidenced by this post… this very fact even! I think it reflects the way I talk in the real world, or at least how I think.
14. I cannot begin to describe the love I have for my two boys… words simply fail me… for a change.
15. I miss my family… I wish I were able to spend more time with them.

Wow… that was harder than I imagined… 15 “Interesting” facts about myself… are they in fact even interesting? I’ll let you be the judge… this really made me think though , it’s not until you sit down to write a list such as this that you realise just how un-interesting you really are… or at least how much you take everything for granted.

Because I haven’t managed to motivate myself (or made/found the time at least) to write on this blog for the past few months I’m going to jump on the meme bandwagon (via dwnz) and try for #30DaysOfMe… 30 posts over 30 days about, well… ME! How boring and self indulgent can this get… I guess we’ll see!

Here’s how it will (should?) go:

• Day 01 – A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
• Day 02 – The meaning behind your Blog name
• Day 03 – A picture of you and your friends
• Day 04 – A habit that you wish you didn’t have
• Day 05 – A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
• Day 06 – Favorite super hero and why
• Day 07 – A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
• Day 08 – Short term goals for this month and why
• Day 09 – Something you’re proud of in the past few days
• Day 10 – Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
• Day 11 – Another picture of you and your friends
• Day 12 – How you found out about Blogger and why you made one
• Day 13 – A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
• Day 14 – A picture of you and your family
• Day 15 – Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
• Day 16 – Another picture of yourself
• Day 17 – Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
• Day 18 – Plans/dreams/goals you have
• Day 19 – Nicknames you have; why do you have them
• Day 20 – Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
• Day 21 – A picture of something that makes you happy
• Day 22 – What makes you different from everyone else
• Day 23 – Something you crave for a lot
• Day 24 – A letter to your parents
• Day 25 – What I would find in your bag
• Day 26 – What you think about your friends
• Day 27 – Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
• Day 28 – A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
• Day 29 – In this past month, what have you learned
• Day 30 – Your favorite song.

Lets see how far I get before I fall off the {band}wagon! I’ll take bets on the first missed/late post… anybody?

I’ll also be taking the the opportunity to give the site some much needed love, upgrading the theme and implementing some additional functionality.

Look out for the first post later today in the next day or-so!