Plans,-Kpis-&-Reviews on A Geek's Life

43. Disciplined Execution

Fri, 19 Aug 2022 06:04:02 +0000

The Year of Being 42 went reasonably well, all things considered. I survived another swing around the sun out in the corner of the world I am now, with a sense of acceptance beginning to predominate. There are still days on which I ask myself why / how I ended up here but whatever misgivings I have tend to recede at month end. In this regard Re:Think, which was the theme for last year was useful, aided by the status game lens, picked up from reading the book of the same name by Will Storr. His argument, that we are all (created, evolved?) to play social status games has been useful for clarifying things both in a work and relational context. I now know that my primary game is one of success. I used to think that I was driven by the inner prestige bestowed by being a purveyor of niche, technical subjects in the workspace. The reality , as I am finding, is that the raw numbers at the end of the month are intensely motivating, not least if the costs of diapers, baby milk and toys are anything to go by. I am definitely not a player in the (physical) dominance or (spiritual/ moral) virtue status game. A highlight of the year has got to be having L & S out with me for the greater part of eight months or so. For all the late nights, befuddlement at my inability to contextually interpret tears and the feeling of being run into the ground, the appreciation of just how much effort goes into child care is one that I will go away with. Rethinking is not done by any means though, rather it feels like it will be a recurring decimal in my life for a long time yet.

Rebuild Better - Revisited

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 14:50:43 +0000

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

No sooner than the year begins does it seemingly end, the flight of time - ponderously slow in the moment - somehow seemingly fast when the view is backward, over its long arch. It truly is a trick of time. As 2020 morphed into 2021, what thoughts I had came together around Rebuilding Better, the premise being that 2020 had been a year of significant disruption - and deconstruction - with 2021 a fresh chance to begin again, to put together what was broken in a better way with twelve objectives concretely describing that for me. Now that 2021 has morphed into 2022, it feels like a good time to revisit all that, so here goes.

The Year in Reading - 2021

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 05:23:36 +0000

It’s that time of the year again where I reflect on my reading over the course of the year. My previous attempts are linked here.

\\\*

I have a litany of reasons to give for the paltry return of fourteen books completed this year, as big a drop as could be from the twenty-three I put way with consummate ease last year, chief of which was the welcome disruption L brought to our lives this year and all that came with it. The chief effect of that was a a significant number of unread books, all the free time I had in the latter part of the year being eighty minutes each day on the bus to and from work on work days. The vast majority were thus audiobooks, the experience of which I tried to improve by taking copious notes in Notion. Of the lot, a few stood out for various reasons. I plan on re-reading a few in hard copy in the near future, real life permitting. So here goes:

42: Rethink

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 18:34:57 +0000

Rodin’s Le Penseur. Image from the US National Gallery of Art

When I set about thinking about the year of being forty, it seemed a no-brainer that it would be centred around delving deeper. The premise was that as the worst kind of failure is one of depth, actively looking to ensure I had depth in all critical aspects of my life was key as I came into my decade of being forty something. As to why I think failures of depth are the most critical, I think that both the one who fails and the one who is failed are left with the lingering after taste of what might have been. For one, the chance of a lifetime disappears before it even begins. For the other the time and energy expended/ invested ends up being for nothing. Both face the opportunity costs, lost irretrievably. For the year of being forty-one, rebuild better was the key, given COVID and how it had intervened specifically in my life with regards to a new job.

2021: Rebuild, Better

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 08:56:14 +0000

Back in May of 2020, Nassim Nicholas Taleb tweeted about the pandemic - and the disruptive forces it brought to bear on the world we knew - being a trigger for one to do a total reset and adapt. For better or for worse, we all have had to reset through 2020. When I started thinking about 2021, the sense of evolving past the reset into something new was hard to shake. As such for me, 2021 feels like a year in which I need to focus on Rebuilding, but doing it Better.

The Year in Reading 2020

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 02:20:00 +0000

It’s that time of the year again where I reflect on my reading over the course of the year. For a more wide-ranging review of the year in books, check out the coverage at The Millions here . My previous attempts are linked here.

Coming out here dominated my thoughts at the turn of the year, which was how it found me digging into Richard Templar’s The Rules of Work . True the overwhelming sense at the time was of anticipation but there was enough uncertainty around how well I would navigate bridging a credibility deficit that looking for help came to mind most readily. In my notes from that first reading, I detect a sense of holding back against what seemed like rules promoting blatant self promotion. With the benefit of hindsight, and a big dollop of reality to boot, my view of the book is a lot more considered. There are certainly gems in there, which is why I intend to return to the book in the new year.

The Year In A Song (or Two)

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 10:35:00 +0000

In keeping with last year, I thought I’d go through the list of songs Spotify thought I listened to the most from my 2020 playlist to try to tease out some themes and recollections behind them. Here goes:

Fighting For Us - Anthony Evans: I popped into a church end of year event in Croydon at the behest of my friend O, where Anthony Evans did this song amongst others. It turned out that he’d just lost his Mother to cancer which put his turning up at all into perspective. I came back to this song quite a few times over the course of the year.

2020: Delve Deeper - The Plan

Fri, 10 Jan 2020 17:25:04 +0000

One of the unintended outcomes of my year of living intentionally was revisiting my life plan and rejigging it to incorporate a Codex Vitae and annual (Life) plans. The framework remains the same: three interaction spaces (personal, professional, and public) and seven life domains (spiritual, physical, relational, financial, vocational, mental, causes and charities) across which the health of my life is measured. The idea is to, on an annual basis, review the health of my life using the seven domains to identify ones that need focus in addition to the three interaction spaces. The output of this exercise then is 10-12 goals which form the main objectives for the year.

2020: Delve Deeper

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 16:19:00 +0000

One of the biggest disappointments of 2019 for me was interviewing at a company across town and failing to land a job there. It was a company I had admired for some time, the role itself was to be the team leader for a small group of technical specialists overseeing a North sea portfolio and the pay was better; an added incentive. The interview itself started off well I thought but somewhere around three-quarters of the way through, it delved into territory I wasn’t overly familiar with. Part of it was a failure of preparation; I hadn’t taken the time to get intimately familiar with the company’s portfolio and thus prepare for any potential curveballs. The more I mulled over the disappointment, and let time do its thing, the clearer it became to me that this had ultimately been a failure of depth. I knew enough about my subject, had built a reputation in my locality and knew enough about the company to give the perception of competence and suitability on the surface. It was when the screws were turned and the veneer was stripped back, that a lack of depth - somewhat dodgy foundations if you like - proved my undoing.

The Year of Living Intentionally - Revisited

Mon, 30 Dec 2019 22:02:14 +0000

\\\* 2019 was my Year of Living Intentionally; the central idea being to stop living life on the huff but instead to define a plan and live by it. Five key themes came out from that period of reflection; Learn, Prepare, Engage, Diversify and Measure, with fifteen discrete actions identified across those themes. The screenshot above is of the dashboard that tracked the key metrics from the year. All told, a few great ones, several meh ones and a few epic fails. Data apart, I think the big benefit from this for the year is the visibility of my performance. I now need to build a practice of regular assessments and reviews to enable the Act-Check portion of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.

The Year in Reading 2019

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 09:10:38 +0000

It’s that time of the year again where I reflect on my reading over the course of the year. It wasn’t the most productive year of reading proper books (the web has cannibalised that for good for me I’m afraid) but a late spurt in November and December brought some redemption. For a more wide-ranging review of the year in books, check out the coverage at The Millions here. My previous attempts are linked here .

Life In A Song (Or Two)

Mon, 16 Dec 2019 17:12:56 +0000

\\\* The data is in, Planetshakers were both my artiste of the year and of the decade if Spotify’s number-crunching can be believed. Compared to 2018, I listened to 36% less music, although I suspect that had more to do with listening to a lot more podcasts than I did last year (thanks to switching to an Android phone and Pocket Casts), streaming more radio and the occasional YouTube binge. What would be fantastic would be a service that aggregated my listening across all these platforms and thus enabled me to delve deeper into the underlying trends to my listening.

Quarterly Review - Q3 2019

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 16:59:27 +0000

Went Well

Transition to new role at work
Restarted a weekly Thankful Thursdays feature on here, in a bid to build an attitude of gratitude
Significantly increased my monthly run distance peaking at over 100km for July & August
Came through my regular BP checks in August without any need to adjust meds etc
Interviewed for AOC role, waiting to hear back on a potential offer, also waiting to interview for a senior M&C role at an oil major in the next few days.

Didn’t Go Well

Spiritual life is still out of sorts,
Suffered occasional bouts of panic, negative self talk and lack of self confidence both at work and my personal life. Need to get a regular meetup and support set up with an older wiser head/ mentor (eg Pastor W?)
Didn’t write as much as I thought I would. Need to establish a series of rituals to make this happen semi-automatically
Relationship with S appears stalled, with us both living our separate lives and not bonding as well as we should, current living arrangements being the primary cause I believe.

Year Objectives and Status

The 11 things:

By Degrees: Lessons from My Decade of Being Thirty Something

Sat, 31 Aug 2019 10:23:32 +0000

The year I turned thirty, I was a student battling to put finishing touches to my master’s degree dissertation and pondering what the future had in store for me. That the success or failure of that year, and the year before that, came down to that singular task was the result of an unanticipated turn of events which turned what was a leave of absence to return to full-time study into having to leave my Nigerian job. Grad school, my response to the year before that, had made sense in my head largely because it seemed a low risk, given there was a reasonably high likelihood of returning. I, as it would turn out was ultimately mistaken.

Stripping, (TV) Binges and Thinking About Thinking

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 19:53:03 +0000

By some unexpected twist of fate, I found myself heading into Central London on the hottest day of the year, a fairly tropical 37 degrees Celsius, and that for the first time since last December. The destination was the Nigeria High Commission on Northumberland Avenue, the plan to get my expired Nigerian passport renewed. To get here I had had to jump through several tortuous loops, not helped by the fact that my trips down to England are scheduled months in advance with impromptu trips being aggressively minimised due to the costs. My takeaway from my dealings with the appointment’s system was that the (re)scheduling system could be significantly improved - first, you sign up via a third party web service, pay the booking fees and then get randomly assigned a date, one you can only change to a more suitable one by emailing back and forth, no less than six in my case – which meant in addition to the heat I very much had my mind prepared for a terrible experience which could potentially take the whole day. It might have been my low expectations, but the experience was far less stressful than I expected, sans the slow pace at which things trundled along from picking a ticket to getting called for an initial review and then submitting my biometric details. If there was a silver lining, it was that the slow pace of things – and the very many other Nigerians there for similar purposes – increased the likelihood of running into people I had not seen in a long time; 20 plus years and two kids in one case. That the most unsettling thing from all of that was wondering what the scrawny lad I ended up sitting across from on the tube from Charing Cross to Waterloo was up - to whilst reading from 2nd Corinthians 1 in a huge bible - is a miracle of sorts (events at the High Commission didn’t leave me mentally drained as they have in the past) or perhaps only the symptom of my low expectations.

The Monthly Wrap: March, Much Ado About Nothing (Much)

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 03:48:48 +0000

Highlights

Broke 50km distance for the first time in 2019
Kept up my daily devotional streak, thanks to the CoE’s Lent Pilgrim app
Completed a book! (James Clear’s Atomic Habits). Still behind on the year plan though

Lowlights

Habit streak tracking still patchy at best
Finances ended up a mess - home improvements were unbudgeted for but perhaps add value to the house (not quantified though)

Next Month Focus Area

2019: The Year of Living Intentionally

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 19:42:44 +0000

\\\*

If I had to boil down the essence of the year of being thirty eight into one word, it would be coasting. It felt like I lurched from one crisis to the other, my actions driven more by the need to fight whatever fire glowed brightest than any form of plan or structure. As I stand here on the cusp of turning forty, I feel like something needs to change significantly - a fool at forty is a fool forever they say. That, and that t here is someone who is significantly affected by my actions only makes it more imperative that I get my SH*T together soon.

My Year in Reading 2018

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 11:40:26 +0000

It is that time of the year when others - more (or better) read than I - share the highlights of their reading from the year. As with last year , I’ve commissioned myself -unbidden, besides perhaps a desire to record the key themes that drove and/or came out of my reading - to weigh in with the highlights of my own reading.So here goes.

Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury was all the rage on the airwaves at the turn of the year, which is how I ended up grabbing a copy for myself and digging in. As I plodded through it, I found the mix of fly-on-the-wall behind the scenes reporting and qualified conjecture curiously engaging, drawn by the lurid details behind public events and happenings in what at the time had been a Trump presidency that seemingly lurched from one PR disaster to the other. A few themes ran through Fire and Fury - the Trump team being surprised by the election win and thus poorly prepared to lead, the hold of Stephen Bannon and the alt-Right and infighting amongst various factions of the administration. Despite strenuous denials at the time, the events of the year - multiple firings, leaks, indictments, evidence of Russian activities and prison sentences - would seem to give credence to the viewpoint of the book, more so as the year draws to an end.

Remembering November

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 05:48:46 +0000

Key Events

Came through several important meetings at work with varying results:
- Area Review: One I could have done without but feedback was they went well.
- CCMT: One completed
Had my annual performance review. Feedback is that I need to improve my visibility. Personally, I feel like I need to decide what I want to do (stay/leave/move into data science?)
Was chased by the verification folks on some review items for a recently completed project. Personal follow up on welding and how pressure equipment design codes handle MDMTs required.
Attended a two day seminar on non-intrusive inspection. The data analysis section seemed particularly interesting, given my interests in data science/machine learning.

December Goals

31 Days Of Journaling, Day 10: The Hero's Journey

Sat, 10 Nov 2018 03:05:46 +0000

Photo by Brett Patzke on Unsplash

---

The Hero’s Journey makes for interesting reading, showing how in 12 stages the boy becomes a man as he journeys through a life. Although based on myths, the underlying idea behind this framework is that these myths work because they represent how we understand how life happens to us. Vogler’s model, which the folk at AoM espouse, is an abridged version of the original in the Joseph Campbell book (The Hero with a Thousand Faces) and identifies 12 steps (from the Wikipedia page) as below:

100 Days Of Ascent, 1 - Certitude

Tue, 02 Oct 2018 06:03:20 +0000

Psalm 120:1 I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me.

For the first of these 100 Days of Ascent, it is perhaps fitting that the starting point is a place of certitude, a statement of fact: I call on the Lord and he answers me. No ifs, no buts, no maybes; just a clear statement of what is. The word translated call is the Old Hebrew qara, which carries the connotation of a loud, expressive sound, not a quiet muttering. The Lord is referred to by his name YHWH here, the independent, self existing proper name which I suppose speaks to his power, majesty and essence. This then is an interesting juxtaposition, a cry in a season of distress to the all powerful God, who in His answering deigns to respond to the cry of one puny human.

September

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 18:29:28 +0000

beach\_morning

book

DataScienceConf

food\_CDI

food\_CDI2

lounge\_CDG

---

In the end September sped past,

Winging It

Thu, 02 Aug 2018 11:54:10 +0000

I am seating in a meeting, listening to the folk around the table drone on about some subject now lost to memory when it hits me – in the way I imagine an out of body experience might – just how much of what is often dressed as expert opinion is little more than strongly expressed opinion. Far from thumbing my nose down at others, it is a farce I very much consider myself as a contributor to. That sense of winging it, making things up as I go along, is one which has come to define the first half of the year for me; from the vagaries of the aforementioned work situation to the minutiae of doing life, spread as it has been between the grey, dull granite of the ‘Deen and the leafy, colour-suffused greenery of the Wey country.

#NaPoWriMo18

Thu, 29 Mar 2018 22:26:42 +0000

Offshore Nigeria, back in the day. For the prompt Rise/Set. --- It is now a mere three days to the start of National Poetry Month this year, three years since I last participated. Back then in addition to the prompts from the NaPoWriMo website, I had La Reine and Tolu for company, two poets who are far more deserving of the label. I plan on jumping in this year, the idea primarily being to participate, rather than hammer out high quality poetry. Fingers crossed.

2018: The Goals

Tue, 02 Jan 2018 11:54:00 +0000

It felt like I coasted through 2017 in many spheres of life with the main (only?) thing of significance that occurred being getting married to S in October. I’d like 2018 to be a vastly different one, filled with energy and intention and delivery. The seven focus areas in my life plan apply, with a few (Spiritual, Physical & Health, Financial and Personal Development) being focus areas.

A successful 2018 for me is one in which I:

My Year in Music, 2017

Thu, 28 Dec 2017 17:31:27 +0000

Although according to Spotify I spent the equivalent of 17 days - and then some - listening to music, no one song defined the year for me the way What A Beautiful Name It Is defined 2016, and the Nine Fridays of Summer. Of those that I listened to the most, Todd Dulaney’s Victory Belongs to Jesus, came closest for the sheer number of times I listened to it on repeat, but that lacked the personal connection that joining in with the crowd roaring the chorus to (in my opinion one of the songs of Hillsong Conference 2016) What A Beautiful Name It Is had.

The Year in Music

Thu, 28 Dec 2017 17:31:27 +0000

The Year in Reading

Tue, 26 Dec 2017 17:37:12 +0000

After many years of having thoroughly enjoyed the annual parade of opinions of books over at The Millions, I decided to have a go myself this year. Far from being a celebration of a year in which I read deeply and widely, it is a light reflection on all the things I managed to read this year. Enjoy! ---

Of the myriad of things I most deeply wanted to achieve this year, two loomed large in the personal development domain; to read more and write more, which was why I entered the year clutching my copy of Patty Dann’s The Butterfly Hours close to my chest. In my head, writing more - and by extension, better - required tools for tuning my craft, which was why this book, with its promise of personal memoir married to prompts, seemed the perfect fit. It helped that all nineteen reviews on Amazon were 5*. I did enjoy the book, albeit more an an example of easy reading memoir than a collection of prompts. I suspect that had a lot more to do with me than the book. If it is any consolation, I returned to it several times over the course of the year, it along with Dinty Moore’s Crafting The Personal Essay being fine examples of the sort of creative non-fiction I would like to churn out.

The Year in Reading 2017

Tue, 26 Dec 2017 17:37:12 +0000

The S Files: Coming Up For Air

Tue, 26 Sep 2017 17:49:25 +0000

The morphing of what began as an interesting way to spend my summer Fridays last year into full scale wedding planning has left me feeling ragged and in need of a time out; the colours, people and costs involved being mind boggling for a bloke who has built the last few years of his life around his me time. Far from feeling like chickening out, I’m more grateful than miffed, seeing as becoming a husband and a father are key components of my life plan.

Being Thirty-Eight

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 17:34:45 +0000

It feels intuitively like the last year was my shittiest one yet - pardon my french - the sense being that all of the metrics which I have typically measured myself by are well south of where they should be. Most obvious is the flab around my waist, undeniable evidence that the 92kg reading on my scale is as factual as can be. There are other things of course, not least the sense of listlessness, the feeling of drifting and the increasingly dispassionate nature of my spiritual practice . A year ago I was certain that the year of being thirty seven would be my best one; the S bounce being a big part of that assessment. Reality though has been a less certain, more topsy turvy version of what I wanted it to be.

2017 - The Objectives

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 08:04:53 +0000

The following are what I consider my main focus areas and objectives for 2017, derived from the Life Plan. A number of these are long running things I have failed to resolve over the years. Here’s hoping 2017 is a much better year.

The Life Goals Restated for visibility: 1. Be the best husband, father, brother, son and friend that I can be 2. Excel in the Corrosion, Materials and Asset Integrity Engineering Discipline 3. Live in, and contribute to life in, a great church and a great city

A Good Year Of Sorts - A Playlist

Fri, 23 Dec 2016 13:00:59 +0000

It feels like the sort of thing that one knows intuitively; that music and memory are inextricably linked. Finding out that there is a whole slew of science (Google search) that supports this is intensely gratifying, in the same way I imagine that someone who stumbles on a hastily put together recipe for quick delicious food must feel if that recipe ends up being celebrated by what I suppose is the more discerning palate of a Gordon Ramsey or a Jamie Oliver. Time and time again when I reflect on a song from yesteryear, I find that the where, who, what and when are indistinguishable from the song of the time, particularly where it was a song that I had on repeat for what feels in retrospect like days on end.

A Question of Gaps

Fri, 25 Nov 2016 04:42:33 +0000

I am big on putting together grand plans, ones which go to a great level of details to spell out the things I want to do and achieve. Where things have fallen down over the past few years has been in the application; the hard, long slog that is the doing needed to bring the plans to fruition. It would appear that in this regard I am like most people, particularly as this relates to New Year’s resolutions. This gap - this disconnect between what I want to do and what actually happens - is most obvious in the area of my spiritual practice. As an example, getting to a place where a daily time of prayer and bible study is embedded in my daily routine is one of the key things I have wished for over the course of the last few years. This has tended to be more a source of frustration than inspiration in my case, especially as these failings drive a sense of cognitive dissonance.

In Five Years' Time...

Sun, 16 Oct 2016 06:16:04 +0000

Alongside the overarching life plan, and the 2017 goals (the Year of Being 37) here are the wider targets I’d like to be and to have achieved by 2020.

Spiritual
- Serve in a leadership capacity in my local church (FOL Aberdeen or elsewhere if God’s plan takes me outside Aberdeen over the next few years), primarily focused on teens, young adults and single men.
Physical & Health
- Eat using an Low Carb, High Fat model
- Weigh 80 (+/-2) kg and 20% body fat
- Run a mile at least three times a week
People & Socials
- Meet and marry a woman who makes me happy and who has life goals I can contribute to
Financial
- Grow net worth to > £500k
- Save 10% of net earnings year on year
Work and Career
- Be a regional Corrosion & Materials TA/Lead Engineer or equivalent at a Oil Major
Mental & Personal Development
- Start and significantly progress a Corrosion & Materials related PhD
- Publish a book of essays or poems
Causes & Charities
- Visit the kids I sponsor with Compassion UK and World Vision
- Add another two kids (co-sponsored with my family)

Nine Fridays of Summer: The Not-Quite-A-Milestone-Birthday Edition

Fri, 19 Aug 2016 11:27:06 +0000

Months ago - when it became apparent that my birthday this year would fall on a work day - I made a mental note to take the day off. The act of making that official - signing into the absence management software we use at work and requesting the day off - never happened, which was how I ended up stuck behind my desk at work on the day. That the only slot for a meeting I had been trying to set up for months opened up on the day, the Friday before, didn’t help either.

Of Things Around My Neck

Tue, 05 Jul 2016 19:48:32 +0000

It was with a mixture perhaps of Joy - Zadie Smith might disagree - and most certainly relief that I read the final lines of Kelly Sundberg’s It Will Look Like a Sunset, turned the page and realised I had finally finished reading my copy of The Best American Essays for 2015. It - the niggle at the back of my mind constantly reminding me I was yet to complete any of the books I’d started this year - had begun to feel like a thing around my neck. The 13 book target for the year - measly as it were - is now about as achievable as skiing in Kaduna, I suspect.

Times, Seasons and A Hundred Juggled Things..

Fri, 01 Apr 2016 13:38:54 +0000

It feels like a trick of time, a sleight of hand drawn from the very top tier of a Houdini play book, but the facts – borne out by the calendar I have open in front of me, and the worn pages in the notebook I bought a couple of months ago - tell a different story; a record, as stark as it is of just how much time has passed in 2016 already.

#61 - The February Wrap - Of Life, and Steady Habits

Thu, 03 Mar 2016 22:16:36 +0000

What has quickly become apparent – as this year of living earnestly evolves - is that far from being the wild, giddy, excited life I half expected when my thoughts began to initially crystallise, it is one that is lived in increments; steady habits being the under-girding behaviours which hold everything together. That sense – of slow, steady if ponderous, progress – is one that has been consistently underlined and reinforced all year; by the book I am currently reading (Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life), the ongoing series at Passion City on Habits and various conversations, the last of which occurred over the weekend with the older guy friend/ mentor O. The general gist of the book and the series is that change is only possible if there is an overarching vision of the future that frames the daily actions that we take, providing an incentive that keeps us plugging away at them.

#50 - Debut

Sun, 21 Feb 2016 23:30:06 +0000

On the day this challenge hit the halfway mark, I ended up spending the bulk of my Sunday evening prepping for, and interviewing, the truly delightful Sam Hibbard; an Aberdeen based Christian singer/song writer whose new single In The Waiting, dropped a couple of weeks ago. I definitely got the sense the wee lad - he’s still not 18 - is going places. It was great to get to chat God, Music, Youth and just catch up in general. First time behind the mics for me too, looking forward to more of these this year. I might have to come up with a funky DJ name if this continues.. :)

#23 - Going Analogue

Mon, 25 Jan 2016 20:32:23 +0000

My quick wander around Union Square leads me to WHSmith where I trawl the shelves, ultimately failing to find a notebook that calls to me. I do find this A5 sized one with gridded out sheets at Paperchase, one that reminds me of studying Maths in my (Nigerian) primary school days. Truth is my current task management set up (Wunderlist on my phone and Mac) leaves a little niggle - an inability to order tasks n running order. As a work around, I have pulling through the day’s tasks into Notes on my phone, a sort of live action tracker, which is where this new setup shines, replacing the notes app on my phone with a proper notebook. I hope, once the shine of a new notebook and erasable pen wears off that I can continue to do this… Fingers crossed.

#16 - Work (Talk) Shop

Mon, 18 Jan 2016 21:03:28 +0000

Yet another day spent in a workshop, hammering out the finer details of the support we’ll need to provide for an upcoming project. This time away from the office; sequestered in a building on the corner of Market Street and North Esplanade West. I could get used to this; talking about work as opposed to doing work…

#4 -Of names...

Wed, 06 Jan 2016 21:11:20 +0000

At the coffee machine, catching up with the new, younger engineer who shares my first name, he asks me what my surname is. I give him the anglicized, easy to pronounce version which doesn’t satisfy him. He asks me how I would pronounce it - cue five attempts, after each of which he fails colossally to reproduce the sounds I make somehow ending up adding, subtracting and transposing syllables through his various attempts.

1 - First Run

Sun, 03 Jan 2016 21:54:15 +0000

My first run since I cracked a couple of bones in my foot last October went without incident, all fifteen minutes of it. I took my usual route, up the Beach Boulevard and then towards the Beach Esplanade; the long, straight stretch of which I have come to love for the sense of exhilaration I get as my feet pound the ground in time with whatever song I am listening to.

100 Days Of Being

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 22:57:35 +0000

This year, instead of a bucket list of things I am hoping to achieve, I chose to identify 12 things, key changes which in my opinion if implemented in my life would deliver the biggest value. The intent is to focus on one for each month, the idea (referenced in this Matt Cutts TEDx talk) being that focusing on one change for a thirty day period gives one a fighting chance of making lasting change.

Lessons Learned...

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 21:07:23 +0000

A Year of Lessons Learned - some at great cost - in no particular order:

Doubts not dealt with at inception are unlikely to go away of their own accord, they are more likely to fester and then lead to a cataclysmic event;
It is almost never ever about you alone, people can (and probably will) get hurt by the fallout of your (in)decisions;
The health, quality and colour of the grass across the fence are notoriously difficult to predict, one is perhaps best minded to live by the dictum ’ a bird in hand is worth two in the bush’ ;
Mutuality - another notoriously difficult thing to predict - is everything;
There is nothing to be gained from overthinking things;
Time is perhaps the greatest contributor to clarity and healing;
God does still come through, only He does have a peculiar sense of timing.

For 2016?

2015 Goals

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 16:59:19 +0000

Three main achievements will make 2015 a ‘perfect’ year, to all intents and purposes, viz:

Spiritual growth as evidenced by a regular routine of bible study and prayer
A new Technical M&C role at an oil and gas operator
Getting married

The wider goals and targets I’m looking to achieve for the year though, aligned with my personal SWOT analysis and the refocused Life Plan are:

Spiritual
- Achieve 80% Daily Bible Reading and Prayer - explore the Lectio Divina process
- Average 6 (of 8) church days per month
- Attend FOL Morning Prayers twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) – 80% target
Physical and Health
- Get fitter – YE target is 15% body fat, weight under 80kg
- Get blood pressure below 140/90 consistently (explore potassium replacement/ supplements as a quantified self project)
- Average 6 hours of sleep/day >80% of the time
- Use the gym 3 times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) – target 80%
- Track sodium and attempt to bring within recommended limits
Social and People:
- Track B contact time (Target > 1 hour per day); track completions in Habit List
- Host a hangout for my 2015 birthday (Aberdeen)
- Drag my London Blogger peeps today for a meal over summer 2015 (CaramelD, Simeon, NoLimit, ToniAnni, Aloted, MizKeji)
- Maintain weekly phone calls home to Dad
Career & Work
- Become staff M&C Engineer at an O&G Operator;
- Attend monthly industry working group meetings – target 80% of months with a meeting (one of ICorr, IMarEST or AFBE) – track in Habit List
- Deliver Work Projects
  - TI Anomaly Risk Review
  - TI Vibration Fatigue Strategy and Implementation
  - ECE Project
  - Procedure Updates - Integrity Risk Screening (PoF Guidance, DAF Risk Assessment)
  - MU Integrity Management - Inspections and Topside Pressure System Integrity
Financial:
- Save 30% of net earnings,
- Reduce total spend; 2015 YE target of £35k
- Grow net worth by 50% (total - investments + savings + pension growth,+ assets, etc)
- Rebalance net worth and elements; buy a house, build ISA back up to 10k, invest excess in index funds
Mental and Personal Development:
- Deliver on a 25 book reading plan (Aim to cover Christian Classics, Literary Classics, Popular Fiction, Current Christian & Non-fiction with 5 each per category)
- Blog here at archive.rustgeek.me at least once a week (Plan is to post something >500 words every Tuesday)
- Learn to write VBA for Excel and Macros
- Learn to play a musical instrument - need to decide between the acoustic guitar and the saxophone, target is to present something at eXpressions 2015)
- Attend Structural Integrity course at Imperial College
Causes & Charity:
- Catch up on my first fruit offering from pay rise in Q1 2013 (as a one time gift if possible at the end of February)
- Write to Moises and RosieMarie twice each during the year
General, Projects and Bucket List Items
- Complete a modified Whole30 or Ketogenic Diet for an entire month
- Walk or run 5 miles daily for a month
- Read 5 Booker Prize Winners (Bucket List)
- Attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
- Watch the Ball drop in New York’s Time Square

Year End Review - 2014

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 22:03:03 +0000

General 2014 was an emotional wringer of a year, perhaps the most difficult one I’ve ever had, thanks in part to losing H, and O, but also because of difficult transitions at work. All in all, it’s been a largely forgettable year, with spots of delirious joy in between. Here, in each of the seven focus areas undergirding the life plan are a little bit more detailed thoughts on how my 2014 went with a (R)ed, (A)mber or (G)reen indicator.

2014 in (Personal) charts

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 14:25:46 +0000

2014 Actions...

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 19:44:45 +0000

A review of the goals I set out to achieve in 2014.

Learn to drive, buy a car: Completed (Passed driving test in April, bought a car in October- completed)
Buy a house: Progressed (Made an unsuccessful offer for a city centre apartment. Waiting on feedback on further developments as winning bid seemed to have fallen through, definitely one to focus on in 2015)
Improve professionally: Completed (Certified to API 571 - Advanced Corrosion and Materials in April and NACE Senior Corrosion Technologist in December, wrote API 580 exam, waiting on results in Q1 2015)
Find two mentors, meet once a month to catch up and review where I am: Progressed (Held regular meetings with O through the year, met G twice and K once, another action to follow up and KPI through 2015)
Travel: Completed (8 London Trips, 2 Manchester ones and an enforced Nigeria trip; failed to complete my Great North American Road Trip for the 35th, one to chase up next year also)
Develop a daily practice of prayer, bible study and meditation: Progressed (Bought NIV Devotional Bible and tracked completions in Habit List)
Blog for 30 days straight: Completed (Used the Art of Manliness 30 Days to a Better Man challenge as a template)
Save minimum of 30% of net earnings, reduce annual spend to pre-2013 levels (£30k): Failed (Car purchase, helps for family and travel to Nigeria made saving especially difficult)
Communicate and Engage the people in my life better: Progressed (Call Dad once a week now, need to give B the focus she also needs as we progress,wrote to sponsored children once each and sent a Christmas gift to RosieMarie)
Deliver on the 30 book reading plan: Failed (Managed 16 of the 30, should do better)
Community Engagement - Church Publications, Tech and Young Adults Group: Completed (Delivered four articles for the publications team and helped with video edits and script delivery for the Broadcasting/ Tech team, c0-sponsored the Young Adults Christmas party)
Get fit and lean: Failed (Up to 90kg in weight and measured body fat at 23%; epic fail)

All in, there or thereabouts with three clear failures (savings and the reading plan). Clear focus areas for 2015 already standing out then I guess.

Building the Life Plan - My SWOT Analysis

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 15:31:30 +0000

Key 2015 Actions

Attend one professional meeting per month - ICorr, IMarEST or NACE Aberdeen - to build professional network and create opportunities to volunteer (AFBE)
Learn VBA programming for Excel
Speak up more/ contribute more vocally at meetings - aim to contribute at least once per work/team meeting
Explore options to close pipelines/subsea/design skills gaps

Rethinking the Life Plan

Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:52:06 +0000

Several times over the last couple of years, different pieces of my life plan have been documented; seven priorities, three life goals and five core values to name a few. A milestone birthday and the looming end to the year felt like triggers for a thorough review of these various bits and pieces, the objective being to meld these bits and bobs documented at different times into a coherent whole - if that was indeed possible. Thankfully one of the guidance documents that under pinned some of the earlier envisioning activities was Matt Hyatt’s Creating Your Personal Life Plan, which I still had a copy of. That provided some of the high level guidance for this review, modified to better fit my thinking of where I am at the moment. So here goes.

Turning Thirty Five - The Strategic Five Year Plan

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 23:40:41 +0000

Turning thirty-five could not have come at a less opportune moment - given the summer of loss that we have had. The silver lining though is that it offers an opportunity to pause, take stock and ask oneself what the focus for the next few years should be. My life plan has come together in bits and bobs over the last few years - three life goals, seven priorities and five core values, a tad incoherent if the truth must be told.

KPIs and Reviews - June 2014

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 18:56:42 +0000

#27, 28, 29 - Better Man in 30 Days

Sun, 29 Jun 2014 19:57:20 +0000

Day 27 - Start a Book: Currently ten books into my thirty book plan for the year. Have two on the go at the moment - Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World and Zadie Smith’s On Beauty. Hopefully I manage to complete them by the end of next month.

Day 28 - Write a Love Letter: Very much work in progress. I suspect this is one I will have come back to again and again. What is clear is that it wasn’t love at first sight by any account - I am far too rational for that - but over time I find a bond building, and increasing joy in the simple things.

Day 28 - Write a Love Letter

Sat, 28 Jun 2014 19:50:30 +0000

when i first saw you it was not love at first sight - but somehow i sensed it was the start of something momentous. for the first few weeks my mind was elsewhere - stuck in a pain induced haze from the last one i thought could be thd one - against my better judgement. truth was i was stuck in an infinite loop, a bullet train headed to no where but

Day 26 - Take The Marine Corp Fitness Test

Fri, 27 Jun 2014 09:19:03 +0000

Day 26 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Take the Marine Corp Fitness Test

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Managed the 3 mile in 29.5 minutes (includes the very leisurely 3 minute warm up), 46 crunches in 2 minutes and a barely there 4 pull ups for a total of 95 from a maximum 300 points possible. Not great but better than I thought given how a certain HIIT youtube video kicked my ass on Day 24.

#24, 25

Wed, 25 Jun 2014 17:03:52 +0000

Took day 24 a tad too far - no thanks to this video(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNZe01hqMW8).. Knackered! No debts of any description so will pass on Day 25…

Home stretch!

Days 22, 23

Mon, 23 Jun 2014 22:41:12 +0000

Day 22 - Improve your posture and Day 23 - Learn a manual skill

---

I didn’t need the prompt to tell me I had terrible posture. Managed to set up my chair at work as intended - to provide better support to my lower back and at the right height. Hopefully I begin to reap the dividends of improved posture, not least a less prominent keg.

On manual skills; I installed ceiling fans for fun in my undergraduate days and still know my way with a soldering iron, a legacy of my previous pastime - tinkering with the innards of dead radios. I happen to also be the go to guy when my buddy O needs to set up a new bed or move stuff around in his house… Could use a few more automobile related skills as I haven’t changed a flat tire in nearly six years. Have to but that Z4 roadster first (and win the lottery before that or something).

Day 21 - Write Your Own Eulogy

Sun, 22 Jun 2014 17:39:58 +0000

Day 21 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Write Your Own Eulogy

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Born in the late seventies in the shadows of the Somorika mountain range in the then Bendel State of Nigeria, the few months he spent there before high tailing it across the country to Ife where his mother was studying for a degree set the tone for the rest of his life - pretty much not bound to any physical location but an aspiring global citizen. Seven or so months in Ife were followed by a couple of years in Imeri, then Igueben and then Benin where his academician father was studying for a PhD. The back end of the eighties saw a move to the adjoining town of Ekpoma where he would spend the bulk of his childhood.

Day 20 - Perform Service

Fri, 20 Jun 2014 22:52:47 +0000

Day 20 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Perform Service

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Falls on the day when I volunteer with the Tech team at church… Obviously from behind :)

Day 19 - Schedule a Physical Exam

Thu, 19 Jun 2014 16:27:28 +0000

Day 19 of the Better Man in 30 Days Challenge - Schedule a Physical Exam

---

I am required to get an offshore medical every two years which covers quite a few of the items specifically referenced on the challenge viz blood pressure, weight/BMI, vision, lung function and audiometry. ECGs, bloods and urinalysis get taken six monthly for other reasons hence I consider the challenge covered between both. The main exclusion is the probing and probing of the man parts for potential prostrate problems.

Day 18 - Find Your N.U.T.s

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 19:32:45 +0000

Day 18 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Find Your N.U.T.s

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Your Non-negotiable, Unalterable Terms that is. For me these are inextricably linked to the Core Values from Day 1- Faith, Family, Continuous Improvement, Mentoring and Health. Soooo, here goes:order:

Living out a real world faith - continuously seeking ways to translate the undergirding principles of love and consideration for others, and social justice - will be the single most important thing that will guide my relationships with others;
I will honour my daily spiritual practice and journaling;
My family, and adequately fulfilling the various roles I play in it - Son,Brother, (future) Husband and Father - will always take precedence over other considerations;
I will schedule regular (monthly at least) time to go through plan-do-review cycles for each of my core connections and the roles I play in them - friends and family, professional and within the wider civil/social context;
I will take care of my body - eating well and exercising.

Day 17 - Talk to Three Strangers

Tue, 17 Jun 2014 18:01:36 +0000

Day 17 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Talk to three strangers.

---

One of the more difficult challenges for me, given spontaneity and friendliness are not exactly my forte. Just about pulled through though I think

Ran into a (relatively) new (Nigerian) start in the building I work at whilst on my way out to grab lunch from M&S. A quick search in the people directory - and a dive into LinkedIn - turned up an interesting factoid - even though his current job description is as far away form it as it possibly can be, his first degree is in Materials and Metallurgy.
Chatted up the sales attendant at M&S whilst she was running my items though the scanner. The lunch time shift can be draining given it is as much of a revolving door/capacity optimisation exercise as there can be. I swear her eyes lit up when I asked how her day was (I might have imagined it only though).
Blew over an hour on a good natter with the office mates, something I’ve not done a lot of lately given all the (far more) serious things that have been on my mind lately..Totally claiming this as in my humble opinion it fulfils the spirit of the challenge :)

Another one I should work a tad harder towards improving on..

Day 16 - Create a Budget.... and catching up

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:56:57 +0000

Fell behind on the Better Man in 30 days challenge thanks to a quick trip down south to sort out passport issues amongst other things. Methinks I’ve largely caught up now.

Day 9 - Take a woman on a date: Caught up with J at at the Rodozio Rico over the weekend. No selfies were allowed, this will have to suffice as proof.

Day 14 - Write a letter to your father: A bit of a mixed bag here really given the fact that age and time have mellowed the quite strong views I held to in the past. Doesn’t help that like me he’s not really an emotionally engaged person. Loads to be thankful for but quite a few areas we could have done better at. Fingers crossed going forward I guess

Day 14 - Write a Letter to Your Father

Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:34:40 +0000

Dear Dad,

My earliest memories of us are of me perched on my small chair looking up to you whilst you swotted into the early hours of the night, huge coffee mugs making their procession down your throat with the regularity of clockwork. It must have been back in ‘85, as in my memories I see Gracie . there too, right in the middle of your PhD years back in Benin.

Day 13 - Declutter Your Life

Fri, 13 Jun 2014 23:11:56 +0000

Cleaned out the closet and identified a couple of bags of old clothes that need ditching. Plan is to leave them out for any of the charities who send bags around from time to time. Paper and mail, and electronics need doing. Solid if unspectacular start - the hard work here starts now I think.

Day 12 - Create Your Bucket List

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 17:55:52 +0000

Day 12 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Create Your Bucket List

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Currently working through my bucket list - aptly (if I say so myself) tagged 40 things by 40 seeing the 40th birthday is the next major birthday on the horizon - and no I am not 35 yet.. Closed out a few things already some of which include making CEng, losing 20kg and taking a boat ride down the Chicago river. A few stand out as sore points on which I have made zero progress whatsoever on - visiting the children I sponsor via WorldVision and reading every book that has been awarded the Man Booker prize being prime examples.

Day 11 - Give Yourself a Testicular Exam

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 19:40:28 +0000

In ship shape…. As far as I can tell…

Day 10 - Memorize 'If'

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 19:13:19 +0000

Day 10 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Memorize ‘if’

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Two upsides to exercising the memory stood out from the prompt - improved writing and a more interesting personality. Unfortunately, I am blaming my mental fatigue from the last month of swotting exams for my less than stellar performance on this challenge. The plan - if I can call it that - is to keep plodding away at it till the end of the month. If I succeed, and I work up the courage, I just might place a recording of the poem from memory on here..

Day 8 - Start a Journal

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 21:18:47 +0000

Another one which was on the plan for 2014 in any case - middling performance not withstanding. The app of choice is DayOne - on my Mac, iPad and iPhone. The choice of time is first thing in the morning, hopefully that will help set the tone for the day and help kick off the day introspectively.

Fingers crossed, the next few weeks will tell how this latest iteration goes.

Day 7 - Reconnect with an Old Friend

Sat, 07 Jun 2014 22:55:55 +0000

Day 7 of the Better Man in 30 days Challenge - Reconnect with an Old Friend

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The challenge was to reconnect with an old friend, by letter, email or phone (not Twitter). Cheated (slightly) as I did my reconnection over iMessage. A tad more in keeping with the spirit of reconnecting than a letter given the back and forth of instant messaging I think.. Or not.. Claiming this as done though, regardless. :)

Day 6 - Update Your Resume

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 20:35:40 +0000

Day 6 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Update Your Resume

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Another apt prompt - given I’ve been feeling like I could use a job change for a while, and I have only just received pass notification from another exam in April. Another day, another review which shows I am headed in the right direction but am still missing some critical research skills… That PhD can’t be put off for much longer at this rate :(

Day 5 - Cultivate Your Gratitude

Thu, 05 Jun 2014 21:31:49 +0000

Day 5 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge – Cultivate Your Gratitude

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Quite a few things to be thankful for, in no particular order:

Friends who consistently come through. Needing to make a significant wire transfer earlier this week, a quick call to a couple of old chums resulted in a speedy resolution. Top lads C and O.
Family - warts and all. And mine, myself included, do have warts!
J whose patience with my stuttering, complicated self is a refreshing breath of air;
Work - and the opportunities it has presented over the last ten years and counting. A certain stint somewhere in my past still keeps opening doors. Grateful.
The internet and how easily it provides solutions - stumbled on an excel tutorial on spark-lines which might have saved a side project I am working on. Not one of the things I miss about those heady Eket days it must be said.
(Not so) Little children, particularly F, my friend O’s precocious daughter. Hanging with her gives me hope for the future. I am not too damaged to make a half decent dad.
Success in one more exam, no lengthy post nominals to append to my name unfortunately but small steps in the right direction I think.
Health - no new major scares (as far as I know).
Great work conversations - currently talking an old work friend through a weighty decision. That she and I are still in contact nearly five years after we last worked together is so much more reassuring given my current work situation.
And Nandos – ’nuff said.

Day 4 - Increase Your Testosterone

Wed, 04 Jun 2014 18:19:31 +0000

Day 4 of the Better Man in 30 days challenge - Increase your testosterone

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The ‘symptoms’ pretty much describe me at the moment, even though I like to think the drivers are slightly different for me, given I am chasing a lot of things at the moment. In an ideal world, #9 would have been the perfect shoo, but real life dictates, and I went with actions 6, 7, 8. Lunch was a Boots salad bowl whilst dinner was grilled chicken topped up with almonds as a snack.

Day 3 - Find a Mentor

Tue, 03 Jun 2014 18:09:24 +0000

Day 3 of the Better Man in 30 days Challenge - Find a Mentor

—

In thinking through today’s challenge, I realised there is a shed load of historical mentors I had to acknowledge - the Artful dodger (so nicknamed by his own father no less) whose MO always seemed to be to stay just on the right side of the law at all times (he was the inspiration to go into engineering), OO, the social studies teacher who intervened when yours truly was nabbed trying to pilfer a book from the secondary school library, Dr K at the Steel plant where I interned in 2000 who sowed the seeds of an appreciation for materials in me and DEL and MMK who held my hand as I took my first shaky steps as a rust geek back between 2003 and 2008. All that is part of why mentoring and mentorship are core values I intend to hold on to dearly both as a giver and a recipient.

Day 2 - Shine Your Shoes

Mon, 02 Jun 2014 20:34:02 +0000

Day 2 - Shine Your Shoes

Shining my shoes is usually not top of my to dos on any given day, given I consider them functional items of clothing rather than providing any aesthetic value. Notwithstanding, in the spirit of the challenge I decided to give my favourite, battle hardened Doc Martens some love.. From the looks of it, there’s still some life left in those beasts. Given my sense of pride and accomplishment upon completing today’s task, I suspect I’ll strut about a tad more than usual in the office tomorrow. :) Or maybe I’m just being overly enthused with my dodgy technique..

Day 1: Define Your Core Values

Sun, 01 Jun 2014 20:42:46 +0000

These have gone through several iterations in the past, but having taken time again to consider this the five below stood out as my core values. It’s obvious I need to work on several of these to make them front and centre, given the reality of my life in certain areas doesn’t reflect these values. But don’t they say a problem identified is half solved?

Faith: God, faith and how these interact in the real world and translate to personal and worldview integrity.
Family : Nuclear and the future family :)
Continuous Improvement: In three main areas - professionally, relationally and in delivering on the stated objective of contributing to life in the civic space. The intent is to actively seek out opportunities to learn both formally and informally for self improvement and a broadened knowledge base; challenging myself in the three main areas identified above.
Mentoring: As someone who has benefitted greatly from the input of knowledgeable others both in my personal and professional life, taking an active interest in the lives of others with the aim of improving them is something I want to do more of.
Health and Healthy Living: The ‘rigours’ of being a hands on rustgeek demand that I pass a medical exam every two years. The numbers from the last check in 2013 were a real wake up call - no thanks to shed loads of pizza and salt. That prompted a rethink and serious action to get the weight and junk food binges down to good effect. Getting healthy, staying healthy, leveraging technology to identify and eliminate risk factors and all the little decisions that feed into that has to be be more of a focus going forward.

Intermissions....

Sun, 01 Jun 2014 16:06:21 +0000

Time and time again one finds himself back here, searching for what, one knows not. Between life, work and the issues inherent in them, my big resolve to do life in 30 day chunks limped along before dying in March. What little time to breathe I had was spent swotting for a couple of exams, critical components of the personal development plan for the year.

Coming into June, I thought the Better Man in 30 days challenge from the Art of Manliness represented a good, meaty challenge to get my teeth into, a potential keystone habit if you like. For one, manliness and man-making represent a key strand that runs through and undergirds the Life Plan. In addition, blogging for an entire month was also one of the ideas for a thirty day challenge at the beginning of the year. Thanks to the two twitter BFFs - OluSimeon and SingleNigerian, any doubts I might have had about going through with the plan have been nuked thanks to public accountability.

30 Day Challenge #2: Use the Paleo Diet

Sat, 01 Mar 2014 09:19:44 +0000

Getting fit and lean is one of my key deliverables for 2014. The health effects being obvious, given my borderline LVH diagnosis from 2013, and an increasing desire to ditch my keg for a veritable six pack (hello ladies :). The general consensus seemed to be that the Paleo diet was a great way to achieve the calorie restrictions required to achieve that, whilst I work on defining the exercise component to that. Over the course of the 28 days of February, I managed 20 completions, slightly improved over the January numbers for challenge #1, but still far short of the full complement.

30 Day Challenge #1: Daily Prayer and Bible Study

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 20:25:00 +0000

Challenge #1 was to develop a regular routine of prayer and bible study in the morning before heading out to work. The idea was to leverage the Hillsong Maximised Life Devotional - the plethora of social options by which it was delivered an incentive to complete this task. Overall though, I only managed 18 completions from 30, my longest streak being 4 days - terrible.

Given the above, the plan for February is to continue with this challenge as well as add the Paleo diet to the list of habits for February 2014. The key expectations are to stay off sugar, grains and cereals, legumes, dairy and wheat, drink 2 litres of water daily, and Nandos (phew).

2014 - The Plan

Fri, 03 Jan 2014 00:33:52 +0000

The prospect of poor health, a milestone birthday of sorts and all round malaise kicked off what was a great plan (in my opinion at least) to deliver change over the course of a year, which as I am wont to do, I tagged with the lofty title ‘ The Year of Living Dangerously’. It started off well – at least with regards to chasing up 52 small changes but the initial enthusiasm seeped out, prompting an attempt to gee myself up for a restart.

2013 - The Plan

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 19:39:33 +0000

Develop a daily practice of meditation, prayer and journaling
- Complete 40 consecutive days of prayer
- Make morning prayer meetings @ FOL three times a week (M, W, F)
Weigh 80kg
- Gym thrice a week (M,W, S)
- Improve eating habits - cut down on eba, soup and rice
- Use myfitnesspal.com as food journal
Save 30% of Net earnings
- Min of £1k per month
- Target 12k extra saved this year
Improve Professionally, get Chartered engineer status
- Receive feedback on IMarEST CEng application
- ASME Level 2 Plant Inspector/ NACE Snr Corrosion Technologist certification
- Register for a PhD in corrosion, materials and or welding (Newcastle/ Manchester/Cranfield)
Get a driver’s license:
- Pass theory test,
- Get a driving teacher on retainer
- Get 20 hours practice in
- Get full driver’s license
Resolve long term settlement options
- Base plan - Remain in Aberdeen + progress professional development opportunities(see #4 above)
- Only seek to leave Aberdeen if US/ Canada/Australia opportunities open up
Resolve my dating conundrums; target being in a stable committed relationship by YE 2013:
- Clear all people I’m currently stuck in the friend zone with, gain clarity (Mo, Fola, Ese etc
- Gain knowledge about Dating and Relationships the Godly way;
- Prayerfully pursue the woman God has prepared.
Find a spiritual mentor
Take 2 main trips
- Nigeria
- US (Depending on where I am with Project M by Q3 2013)
  - Oklahoma ?
  - Houston
- Spain or Portugal
Complete a writing project - the3six5N
Buy a house (2 bed)
- Requirements: 2 bed room flat, city centre apartment, parking space, etc
tba

2012 - The wrap

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 23:59:34 +0000

Dickens most eloquently captured the paradox that was the year I had in that most evocative of openings to A Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. We had everything before us, we had nothing before us,

2012: The Twelve Things Wrap

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:06:01 +0000

2012 was to be the the year of just 12 things. If I learned anything it is that life’s far removed from the order and clarity of an excel spreadsheet complete with target dates and milestones. Most importantly perhaps was that I gave living a good go in 2012, whether that was a success or not is a whole other conversation.

So here goes:

Develop a daily practice of meditation, prayer and journaling: I struggled with this all year - and for a variety of reasons, not least because work ebbed and flowed through the year, God and I didn’t see eye to eye for the larger part of the year and my 2012 was an emotional roller coaster. I did improve over 2011, but real work, and focus, are required through 2013 on this. Thankfully, I stumbled on this post on the Justin Taylor blog. That should come in handy I suppose.
Lose 20kg: I lost 7 kg - returning to the weight I was in 2008 when I left my Nigerian job. Walking to and from work each day certainly helped, but the big kick came post November when I joined a gym and cycled twice a week for 30 minutes. Losing the remaining 13kg has to be a focus area for 2013 - if I do not end up adding a few more thanks to the swathe of Christmas parties and the associated gin and tonics and rich pudding I had to down all through December.
Read (and review) 25 books in 2012: I read the books - a grand total of twelve - and bar three barely there reviews, this was a colossal failure.
Call parents and siblings once a week: This was the one area I excelled in. A particularly testy November/ December required a lot more phone calls to the family than I am used to. The one small positive from all that is that we have bonded and grown together as a family.
Save £1,000 a month: Plan was to cut out the soft loans which I typically never got back and scaling back on my gadget buying sprees. I did pretty well here until December - and I am blaming the emotional turmoil of navigating my season of detox for the retail therapy I needed to pull through. :)
Get Chartered Engineer status: Ended up gaining professional membership of two institutes. Spending the greater part of the year waiting on a slot for the professional review interview meant this slipped. A chance opening in December ensured I did get the PRI sorted, January should bring confirmation of what the decision is - hopefully it’s a pass and I can check the CEng box after 8+ years of working!
Get a driver’s license: This was about an EPIC fail as possible - I never even got to take the theory test.
Resolve long term settlement options: I flip-flopped on this. At some stage I was certain that the future lay in Canada, and I actually seriously began interviewing for a role in the cold, wintry realms of Fort McMurray. Then L happened, the details of the role I was chasing didn’t quite fit what I wanted (more tailored towards someone with refining and sour gas corrosion experience as against my oil/gas/condensate/offshore pipelines experience and I fell out of love with the idea of (yet another) move. In a sense there was resolution, I am more likely to remain in Aberdeen, unless something significant happens to change my views, which given the history is not unlikely.
Resolve my dating and meeting issues: I did end up de-cluttering my head - in a round about way after nearly eighteen months of moping around. Strangely, it took meeting L, and getting to enjoy her company, to give me the jolt I needed to let go and realise there was a whole sea of smart, likeable women out there. Small mercies, even though it doesn’t look like L and I will work out after all.
Complete FAN integration: Plan was to reengage with the Youth group at church as a way to get some more activity into my life. I did end up leaving this late - the year end party was a blast, and I did sign up to get more involved. Fingers crossed.
Re-engage with FOL service: 2011 was a year to forget - 2012 was marginally better - even though God did find me in early November. Hopefully 2013’s a lot better with my rengagement with the technical/ media team and the Youth group.
Find a mentor: My friend O became a defacto mentor through the course of the year as I pulled my CEng application together and worked through my girl issues, as were Izz and Dee my wing-women-in-chief. On the work front MrG was more pain and bother than help, but it was all in good spirit and helped to ease my various work related transitions through the year.

All told, again a fairly reasonable year - a few misses/ near misses but overall ending in a better place than where I started the year… Hoping 2013’s a lot better too, and the momentum from the last two months of the year carries over. :)

2012 - The Year of the Detox

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:07:30 +0000

Although a year and some ago I thought I had truly gotten over the pain of the EJ debacle, I still managed to spend Christmas stateside attending a wedding, hanging with mutual friends and kind of hoping I would run into her. Neither happened, and when push came to shove I couldn’t bring myself to take the short hop across town to the city where she now lived. Coming into 2012 then, the targe t was to resolve a number of the other friendzoneships I had somehow gotten sucked in over the years.

2012 in Twelve Things

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:55:14 +0000

In what is going to be a first for me, I will cross over into the new year aboard an airplane, albeit one headed homeward. It certainly is a far cry from how 2011 started, but perhaps this unconventional start will afford me the chance to pause and ponder a few days early, and agree on 12 things for 2012 all aligned with my seven priorities for life. Here goes:

Develop a daily practice of meditation, prayer and journaling: Taking time out to examine life, capture things as they happen and improve daily has to be a key component of my daily routine going forward. The seven priorities are great on paper, but unless progress on the continuum towards achieving them is measured and recorded, I suspect the end of the year will come, and I will still be where I am as of today, stuck in a rut. Target: 4 of 5 days a week of reading the identified text in the Our Daily Bread app.
Lose 20kg: I am overweight – no amount of faffing around can gloss over that simple fact. I tried for a month, before slipping back into my my routine of Nandos, large potions and baguettes at work. Losing weight has to be a focus in 2012, the target is to lose 20kg for a return to c. 80kg weight and a healthy BMI. Target: Walk to and from work daily, take 2 days in the week to eat only fruits (seedless grapes, bananas and apples only), stay off coffee, eat half of what I would normally eat.
Read (and review) 25 books in 2012.
Call parents and siblings once a week: Quick phone call to Dad/Mum every two weeks; hopefully I can catch the siblings weekly for a quick chat.
Save £1,000 a month: The YE spend data for 2011 was abysmal. For a net (ex. taxes) increase in pay of c. 600 pounds, I ended up doubling my expenditure versus 2010. Some of it was unavoidable – the house move in late 2010, increased bills and rents hit for the full year 2011 versus the one quarter in 2010, but large swathes of cash remained unaccounted for. The plan is to move 1,000 each month from my net pay prior to any expenses coming through, as well as refuse to get involved in providing soft loans to the lads.
Get chartered engineer status: I didn’t make a lot of progress professionally in 2011. There were no conferences attended or certifications gained. This is a focus area for 2012 – I am looking to get at least one of either the C.Eng designation or complete my NACE certifications before YE 2012.
Get a driver’s license: I have had a provisional drivers license for over a year already. The focus in 2012 will be to use the 1st quarter to write and pass the theory test, and the summer months to practice for and pass the practical test for a full drivers’ license. Given my traumatic car crash from 2008, and the fact that I haven ‘t driven since then, I suspect this will not be a trivial pursuit.
Resolve long term settlement options: 2012 will be crucial for me as I decide where I will lay down my long term routes. TheBZ would be a good place, but the increasingly louder anti-immigrant rhetoric is a niggling issue at the bottom of my mind. Canada seems to be a longer term option – one that I will explore to a greater extent in 2012.
Resolve my dating and meeting issues: I am at a stage where I can truly say that I have let got of my EJ issues. Having said that there remain pockets of memories I need to ditch finally. The target through 2012 is to bring myself to the place where I can truly say I have forgotten and moved on, a position where I am free in my head to meet and date again. 2012 in this regards has to be the year of de-cluttering.
Complete FAN integration: Given my constant moaning about how mind numbingly boring the little city I live in is, that I am not taking advantage of what opportunities there are to meet people is a shame. Through 2012, the intention is to reconnect with the Youth and Singles group at church once a month.
Re-engage with FOL service: My service in the group I work with in church was shocking in 2011. Granted, part of it was a busier, less controlled work load, but my worldview issues also contributed in no small measure. The plan in 2012 is to reconnect and reengage with the group, and be useful once again.
Find a mentor: I’m looking to get more intentionality in life, a mentor would definitely help for the accountability bits here.

Seven Priorities for Life

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:37:05 +0000

I spent the weekend going through Michael Hyatt’s cute little e-book Creating Your Personal Life Plan. In no particular order, below are the things I feel need to be priorities going forward:

God: World-view, faith, God and how these interact in defining a moral compass for me is a crucial part of my developing fully into the sort of bloke I need to become. It is time for me to start engaging my various proclivities which are preventing me from gaining the clarity of thought and direction that I need.
Health: Whilst I have not had any major health scares, truth is I am overweight by some. A few years ago, I had blood pressures that were way out of the ‘safe’ and ’normal’ zone [Thankfully, I passed my last offshore medical in flying colours]. Keeping fit, counting calories and staying health has to be one of my priorities going forward.
Family: Whilst I remain single at the moment, deep in my heart is a longing to meet someone, find love and raise a family together. Two dimensions stand out here - finding the one and being the sort of bloke she’d want to be with. These both have to be priorities going forward - engaging the ‘knowledgable others’ in my circle and being open enough to solicit, accept and implement honest feedback where it is offered on areas where personal improvement is required.
Personal Development: Learning continuously, and always reviewing where I am versus where I should be has to be a key component of my life. Big things are expected of me, and getting those done depends on continuously improving and finding the over arching knowledge and foresight required to grow into those big roles. This will have two facets: Career, in which I develop into a globally recognised Corrosion/Materials/Integrity Engineer, and personally where I progress and develop my public speaking, and writing skills.
Friends: Given the large number of acquaintances I have, the few real friends I have (and I would count O & I as the two stand out ones at the moment) who time and time again have proven they are worth their weight in gold, and more, deserve some reciprocal attention. They are going to have to be priorities going forward - they’ve earned it!
Finances: Finances are a key part of fulfilling the responsibilities that I will have as a Father, Husband, Son and social justice campaigner. Learning how to manage and grow my money is a critical part of the me I will become.
Service: One more priority is taking all the gifts and blessings that I have been given and pouring them all out in service to others. The details of this are not exactly clear at the moment - especially considering the significant evolution my world view is going through at the moment - but finding the time and the place to make a difference for others ’less blessed’ as to be a priority going forward.

The 2011 Plan

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 14:17:08 +0000

This is slowly becoming a yearly thing on this blog. The 2009 and 2010 Versions are linked. Since 2010 I have opted for focus areas rather than a list.. So here goes the 2011 plan.

God/Faith: Failed to make any headway in this regards last year - It’s a new year.. Let’s hope we fare better this year with resolving the God issues and getting back into a church community.
Work & Career: I safely navigated getting back into work after a poorly thought out decision led to me quitting my last job. This year the focus is on chasing a couple of certifications to boost my profile as an independent contributor. This is slightly complicated by the Girlfriend being stuck in North America. This year I intend to get my professional membership of at least one UK and one North American Engineering body sorted.
People and Socials: Last year was the year I splurged on social media connections. This year, I need to have a strategy for social media interaction. The goal of this strategy is to focus on sharing information, keeping the loose chatter to an absolute minimum. For real life connections, I have been blessed with having a couple of old friends from undergrad in my city, so as a minimum, I should hang out with them once every couple of months..
Health and Weight: 2010 was the year, the bulge finally beat me. The keg ballooned out of control. I bought a home treadmill in my attempt to regain control. This year, I hope to win the battle - running thrice weekly on the treadmill.
Family: The family connection hasn’t been great up to the end of the year. This year I hope to call the parents and siblings at least once each week.
Financial: The numbers from last year indicated I saved approximately 25% of my gross earnings - in spite of significant expenditure on trips to the US and gadgets. This year, I hope to up the percentage to 30%. In conjunction with a promised pay rise at work, it should be a good year - if I avoid splurging on any new gadgets.

2010 - The Plan

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:54:00 +0000

Last year was about a laundry list - 20 things I wanted to get sorted by year’s end. I did Ok.. Never got to learn french and missed out on the distinction..This year I want to have focus areas - key directions in which my energies will be focused.

Career: Manage my transition to a new job/ new city; target getting confirmed on the job and a raise by year end.
God and Faith: Get back into the regular church thing - sort out my niggling God issues.
Weight and Health: Get a full physical exam - for info - and shed the excess weight sharp-ish.
Love and Loving: End my girl hiatus; actively get back into the meeting and friendship scene again.

One more, which doesn’t count as a specific goal I think, but which is needed nonetheless, is to toughen up. I fear for the past few years I have grown too soft, more altruistic than is necessary. 2010 is my year.. of living dangerously..

The 2009 Master Plan...

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:24:00 +0000

2008…What a year…Seems like it was only yesterday when my friend and I drove to church to attend the New year Service and to get the year rolling……Lots of stuff have happened to and around me.. Wonder what the highlights were tho…

On a personal note heading back to school ranks up there… One humid March evening, I finally decided I’d had enough of working on the edge; after spending the 4th straight weekend at work trying to troubleshoot a pipeline problem…. Got home that night,and started the online application that has landed me on the MSc program I’m currently on…..apparently to the distaste of my bosses - who told me they thought I was doing fine without the MSc and that it was unnecessary….Who cares? I needed to keep my sanity……My cause can’t be helped by the fact that a number of chaps also decided to flee in my wake too… duh…