The clouds call me to me.

This weekend was the unleashing of a months work, I had spent the last month planning and arranging a surprise birthday for my lovely girlfriend, I had invited her friends and picked the venue etc.
She had a lobster with candles in for her cake (She loves sea food) and we all had an amazing time, even if I was stressed and over heated (was a VERY hot weekend in London, more so in a suit)  I still enjoyed and even relished in the challenge of making it all work.

It also reminded me just how much I like having adventures, more tales to tell my kids, so now I'm trying more than ever to start crafting the money I'll require to fund such a lifestyle!

I've got as much ready myself and even paierd with other artist's to create a more dynamic online store, I'm just waiting for the website, seems even if I've shaken the bad flea from the last attempt something is preventing me from getting this moving, and the amount I am trying to get in contact with the new coder it might seem almost like I'm very demanding, but I'm not, I just want to get everything finally launched and the products available online where they belong.

This week I'm going to Try my hardest to get SOME progress with the online store, I refuse to give up and I refuse to let up until I get some progress, this my dear readers may come across strong but believe me, in business you can only rely on other parties for so long, sometimes you got to grab the bull by the horns, snap them off and shove them deeply into the bulls ass.

Some point this week, as a treat IF I can achieve the Website progress, I will be having a camping adventure, maybe even by myself, so I can get some time to myself and evaluate some of life's aspects.

I'm hoping the weather remains as it is, if so I'm sure it will be a great and welcome break.

As I mentioned Earlier, I've been promoting products and collaborating with other artists, the Offical Rocket punch blog can be found > HERE <

The biggest problem was when I headed to the London MCM Expo, it seems people just do not care about copyright rights for the products they sell, so many people selling other companies logo's and designs without prior permission.

I was half contemplating on doing the same, I would make a lot of money, but after a lot of thought, I'm going to stick with my morals and company integrity. I may want to make profit, thats the main goal of most buisness's but I want to preserve my morals, I want to provide a quality product without stepping on those games and Tv shows that actually provide the initial interest and clientèle.

My products are more of a silent nod towards them, not a copy.
I felt I needed to air this, as some people might wonder why, with a market saturated by people ripping each other off why I'm not following suit.

You might agree with me, or think it's foolish to sacrifice income for base morals, but that is just how it is.

It all started with my first ever print, I wanted to test the quality of the heat press and the quality and finish of the industrial heat transfer paper, the finish was amazing, and thus was my first T-shirt ever printed.

You might remember seeing this a long time ago on the blog, I was just thinking about how far I've come, I could be very established by now if not for the whole website fiasco, but I learned an important lesson, leave  professional jobs to a professional.

I'm thinking of Framing this T-Shirt, it was the first in line, and lead the way in the direction I'm still following today even with all the issues and hurdles I've had to jump.

Recently I've started learning Traditional Mahjong, and I'm not going to lie to you, I'm still not 100% with all the scoring patterns as it is quite complex where scores can even go into the millions if you have not set a score limit.

What I will say is that it is VERY addictive.

Now I don't mean Mahjong solitaire, that is the most common mistake, that is a 1 player game, nothing like mahjong and calling it is the same as calling snap poker because it uses cards.

Anyway I won't rabble on too much about it as I'm certain its not everyone's idea of a fun game.
Where am I going with this?

Not sure... I'll move on!

That feeling of vastness, the open road and the uncertainty. All these things are for me the signs of a great adventure.

If I had to say what one thing makes me feel adventurous it would be the big billowing clouds on a hot and sunny day, where the clouds themselves look like snow topped peaks on the horizon, for me that is the loudest call to the adventure for me.

Have a great day readers!!

A Personal Tale

Hello Readers! I thought I'd talk about some things I've been up to and trying to achieve this week. Why? Well because I'd like to keep you people in the loop!

But firstly I'd like to give you something to listen to when reading todays post, something easy on the ears and a little relaxing, I want you to be relaxed... ARE YOU RELAXED YET?
NO!?
Ok, here, this is for you!

 

Today I created the basic frame of the Facebook page for my buisness, it looks ok, this will be one of the main ways I get updates and new products out to customers, you can find the page >HERE<!

I'll be posting up onto the FB page daily, just posting updates on the buisness progress etc so you won't actually be able to purchase any items until the main site is complete, and that is the next topic!!

The main site, something that has been in the centre of all my problems, issues seem to gravitate around it and due to some bad choices on people to actually help create it it's taken me nearly a year to get going.

Since August last year I had everything set up:

Suppliers, and a good relationship with them.
Machinery to produce the items.
Models to use for photographing the goods.
Designs ready to print.
A solid marketing platform and strategy.

What I didn't have left was much money, and apparently a good choice in friends.
Due to my lack of funds, and a lack of E-commerce knowledge I'd need someone to make the site for me, and through my desperation I asked a friend at that time if he could help me.
I was assured that the project was simple and shouldn't take more than a few weeks, those weeks passed and then the deadline was pushed to November. This was frustrating, but because this was a favour being done for me out of someone's own time, I couldn't really complain and besides I was thankful for having the ability to get things rolling and start making money.

Every deadline was pushed further and further away, each time a new excuse was made, and each time my patience and understanding nature where misled.
A few times during the whole ordeal I asked the person if he just didn't have the time to do it, as I was contemplating learning how to do it myself, and I would have. But again, the usual reassurances where given and I lapped them up like a fool.

So, the person had made little attempt to make the site, I had provided everything the person asked for near enough when it was asked of me. I offered a way out, and even asked it this was too much to do.

In the end, I was gifted with the money to make this happen myself, and I contacted the person stating that I had gotten money and would now look elsewhere since he had done nothing for- wait for it- 8 whole months, this is a person who claims to be a professional in the field.
Anyway, the person basically told me that if I'd told him money was involved that it would have been done sooner.
Sadly the deluded fool must have thought favours  require personal gain, the reason he was even asked was because of my lack of money... what a fool.

When you make a promise or favour to another person, that is what it is, its your word that you will do what you've stated to do, this had not happened for 8 months, and I was expected to PAY this person for 8 months of no work? so that he would do it!
To cut a long story short, I have nothing to do with the person in question, there is no need to surround yourself with people that are unreliable and selfish.
And readers, when someone tells you they will do a favour for you but keep putting it off and even say they are ok to do it when you ask them if they still can... what do you do?

In my eyes, a favour should be made in the idea that it will be undertaken, and if you can not do the task, then state that you cannot do it any longer.

This may of sounded like a little rant, but up until now I've kept this behind closed doors, I was so disappointed with the person in question it's even worse when I think back to all the selfless favours I've done for that person, even shared my home with him for half a year to help him out.

I've lost what little respect I had left for the person and sadly know that his blind and selfish attitude towards life will take him nowhere nice.

The main site is being done by another person whom is a professional, but actually works for a large well known company and has a lot of experience with E-commerce, plus a impressive list of coded products.

This new guy will hopefully be working on the website very soon and I'll be finally able to get things rolling hopefully before mid summer.
The pleasure I have knowing that this could get done and to finally have the buisness I've worked so hard towards, is almost too much to think about!!

This week it's mostly about the website as well as creating new designs!

Some Great tips!! 7 not-so-obvious habits to increase productivity!

Sourced and copied from >HERE<

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1. Monday – Ignore The Unimportant

I firmly believe that the art of ignorance should be taught in schools. We live in such an information-rich society, our focus is so deeply challenged by dozens or hundreds of stimuli each and every second, that we have a really hard time focusing on what really matters.

Especially on Mondays, when all the previous week unprocessed stuff seems to crash on us, try to apply this. Focus only on what matters. If you have a presentation to finish in one hour, cut out everything – and I mean: EVERYTHING – that is not connected to it.

Slash out Twitter, Facebook, email. Turn off the music. Close the door after putting a big sign with “Abandon hope all ye who enter here” on the other side. In time, you’ll become better at this. The hidden frustration that “you’re missing something” will fade away.

2. Tuesday – Reward Yourself Constantly

Each tiny task that you finish is an achievement. We forget too often that our big successes are in fact big chains of small tasks performed on a daily basis. So, in order to keep this chaining process running, put a little reward at the end of each small task.

Tuesdays are great for this habit, because they’re the first link after the week hast started. Just do something nice at the end of each task. Listen to your favorite tune or read your favorite blog (and that would be, of course, Stepcase Lifehack) for the next five minutes.

As much as we won’t want to admit it, that Pavlov guy was right. And I’m not talking about the dogs here. I’m talking about you. Because you gotta be your own Pavlov and the dogs will be your productivity habits. Train them constantly. And, if need will be, feed them some sugar every now and then.

3. Wednesday – Negotiate The Expendable

It’s the middle of the week, and, by now, there must be some garbage accumulated. Some stuff that you don’t really need to do, but, somehow, it’s still in your to do list. It’s a perfect time to negotiate that stuff. Does it really need to be on your to do list?

The pressure of constantly doing, delivering, accomplishing made us forget that we do have this option too in our arsenal. I’m talking about negotiation. “Talk” with the task. Or with the person at the other end of the task. Does it really need to be done right now?

I compare this negotiation process with taking out the water from a gulf. If you’re lucky, you will see an ancient shipwreck. That’s your task. It’s not a yacht anymore, it’s a shipwreck. You will start to realize that what you thought is important, may not even be there anymore. It’s just the ghost of the task.

4. Thursday – Reuse Past Approaches

This comes from a long history of programming. I’m still doing it, this programming thing, by the way, because I enjoy it so much. Just try to look at what you have to do and compare it with previous experiences. Like “Have I done this before?. How did I do it?”

Thursdays are perfect for that, because you now must have a consistent “week work history” to dig through. And, allegedly, you’re also pretty much at the top of your potential. From now on, it will start to go downhill, somehow.

So, try to identify similarities in your work before you will do the same thing twice, just because you don’t remember doing it before. Pay attention to the circumstances, because they’re never the same, but isolate what you can repeat.

5. Friday – Ask For Help

If I would have a dollar for each time I didn’t ask for help when I should have, I would certainly be a millionaire. Seriously. Being “productive” has this aura of “I’m doing all the stuff by myself. I’m so cool.” Well, maybe you’re cool, but you don’t have to do anything by yourself.

You have a unique set of skills. Other people have their own unique set of skills. If you combine your set with their set, it’s absolutely obvious that you will get far better results than by using only yours. It’s just simple mathematics here.

And Fridays are perfect to test this habit, because, admit it, you’re a little bit tired. And it’s also a good pretext for some social interaction. Isolate some task that you know somebody else may be doing better than you and ask for their help.

6. Saturday – Switch Workplaces

Ok, we don’t have to work on Saturdays. As I told you, you can just put this tip on any other day of the week. But I chose Saturdays because they are perfect for traveling. Short trips around the town, seeing some new places, meeting some new people.

Try to do the same with your workplace. See if you can work for a day somewhere else. From home, or from a coffee shop. Or even in another office. Or, if you can’t live your office, on a different chair. Just change something in your surroundings.

All our habits are shaped by our surroundings. The more you’ll change the surroundings, the better and more consistent your habits will become. This constant stimulation will summon energy resources that you didn’t even know you have.

7. Sunday – Change Deadlines Into Livelines

I kept this from my GTD routine, you know, the weekly review. I did this on Sundays, trying to project the next week. I still try to have a look at the week just before it starts.  And now, a little bit of explanation about the word “liveline”.

I stopped use the word “deadline” long time ago, because it has “death” in it. The “task slasher” approach. I don’t do this anymore. Because crossing off tasks from your to do lists will eventually end up with crossing off your entire life from your to do lists. Rushing straight to your own death, one crossed task at a time. Change this perspective. A deadline is not the end. Make it a liveline. Make it a beginning.

And by that I mean something connected with something else. A new start. Think in terms of new beginnings not in term of endings. If you really need to reach the end of something, use the word “milestone”. And replace “deadline” with “liveline” every time you can.

It will be enlightening, believe me. :)

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Another Chilled out drum and bass song, I like the mix of energy and relaxation the melodies offer.

Lastly, as a little and somewhat pointless treat, here is how to make your very own DUCT TAPE WALLET!!

Thanks for reading, I appreciate you taking the time out to read the Blog, hope you learned something new, PEACE!

Something a little... Different.

So it's been a long time since I last posted, and for once this was deliberate.

I had come to a point where I thought I had nothing more to say, and instead of just feeding you forced information I thought I'd take a leave from the blog until I had something to say again.

Well It occurred to me that maybe this blog could be aimed at not just healthy living and life changes. I have parted a lot of my wisdom but it is not infinite.

I realised that recently I've been learning a lot of other aspects of life, not just improvement but things like integration to environments and how to be efficient, and while i don't claim for a second that you the readers do not know most of what I've discovered I will however, like usual, impart this knowledge in the hope  that you might learn at least one thing. 

Since writing this blog I've always wanted to reach out and if only 1 person has learnt only one thing from this entire blog then it has still been as successful as I'd had hoped.

Time to unleash a couple of new topic headers!! Designed to help with the difficult economy we are facing today. 

There are thousands of ways to save cash, but I feel that the most important of them all seems so horribly obvious that it needs re-addressing.

Kikojui Cash Saver rule #1


LEARN TO MONITOR YOUR INCOME VS YOUR EXPENDITURES!!


You're probably shouting at the monitor right now, saying "WE KNOW" well you would be very surprised at how many people do not realise the power of this technique.

Now, to illustrate this easier, I'll tell you how to do this in a simple way, I'll make an example.
-----------------------------------------------------
(Example) INCOME PER MONTH:

Wages: £700 (after TAX)

Money owed by friend £50

Total: £750
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(Example) EXPENDITURES:

Rent: £500

Bills: £50

Food: £50

New Clothing / Treats: £50

Meals Out (Takeaway / restaurant): £100
--------------------------------------------------

Total Spent £750

--------------------------------------------------

Money Saved that month £0.00


Sometimes we think to ourselves where did that money go? I thought I had more.

It's the little expenditures where we spend money without thinking about it's impact on the total money earned.  Those few takeaways, or packs of cigarettes (you shouldn't smoke anyway :p) and little treats all cost money and all build up.

Looking at this list, we could say if we only cut back on 50% of the takeaways and meals out you'd be saving £50 a month, that's a massive £600 pounds Saved a year, from one small cut back!!
Stop buying new clothing / treats each month and make it every other month and you'd save another £300.
Pushing the total Yearly saved amount to £900 Saved.


Kikojui Cash Saver rule #2

Save money each month, no matter how small!


Some people have the mindset that it's ok to spend all of your wages just before the month is over because they will soon have money again.
And while this is in fact true it is unwise to assume you might not have a need for a reserve amount of money in case of emergency.

Many things in life can and do pop up, causing a strain on a months wages, be it medical bills, insurance, tax's, bill increases or even quarterly bills, things that are not factored into a normal months wages.

So to be prepared for these events it is ALWAYS wise to have money in reserve that would not be touched unless needed, and if you managed to have a large excess of this money you could use it towards a holiday or other luxuries you might desire.



Kikojui Cash Saver rule #3


Make your money work FOR you!!

Spending money is nice, BUT instead of spending all of you're money you should try to at least INVEST some of your leftover money, be it in stocks and shares or just buying commodities like gold or land that don't really change much in value.

A little well placed investment can double your money or better, so it might be nice to buy that £1000 suit you always wanted but it would feel a lot better if you earned £2000 from a £500 investment. You would be getting that suit from money that your leftover money generated.

Now with all things nothing is certain with stocks and shares, gold's value changes from time to time but it's a safer way to tie up some spare money.
Gambling is not really investing, something worth remembering.

So be wise with the money you have left over and try and make that little money work for you!

I'm currently in the process of working out the mechanics of making our new flat (I move around September time) more economical in the electricity department, and also maximize the available space.

I turned my attention towards our friends in Japan, more so in Tokyo where space in the housing there is very limited indeed! I'll be posting my findings as I discover them.

First thing I've been thinking about is a wall bed for the bedroom, the bed would effectively be stored away during the day using minimal space, this a very effective way to re-gaining the lost space a bed would normally take up while providing storage space with the shelving etc

Ever been on your way back from shopping, and you have some carrier bags and they are cutting your hands off and uncomfortable?

Small but effective fix, take a small object with you (pen knife / pocket metal torch / something cylindrical and small) And when you're carrying plastic bags from a supermarket (I'd suggest bags for life personally as they are stronger and have multiple uses) use the object under the bags handles to save them from cutting into your hand, the longer the object the more bags you can comfortably hold!!


That's all for today's post, no idea if people need to know this information but I like to think somone out there will get some use from this.

Have a great day you beautiful, beautiful readers!!