THE RULES:

1. We will post every other day, alternating days between each of us.
2. We MUST post on our day – nothing past midnight EST or it counts as being late.
3. Posts can be about anything or anything. A funny story, an observation, personal information, etc. However, there must be SOME content to it. Can’t just put up a picture of something and call it a day. (Unless…)
4. Unless… you made the picture. Video, audio, visual, text – any and all is an accepted format.
5. Days missed or late posts will result in punishments (see more below)
6. On our “off” days, we will link to the our competitor’s post (if it’s up within a reasonable amount of time)
7. Spamming friends, twitter accounts, Facebook with links to the posts is more than encouraged

PUNISHMENT

1. It is up to the punishee to pick their final punishment.
2. Punishment options can be picked from either the punisher’s suggestions, or if any commenters have suggestions.
3. Must be blog-related (i.e. will be in post form, though can be any of the aforementioned acceptable formats) and please, nothing too illegal, TMI or dirty. We are “professionals” here, after all.
4. Punishment must be done within 48 hours of missing a deadline.

STARTING
Tomorrow – Wednesday, June 9, 2009 with Emma

ENDING
Thursday, July 9, 2009

The running joke in the office today is that it’s Tie Thursdays – a little bit of an inside joke between one of my partners and I, as I had to wear a tie for another event today and he didn’t want to feel left out. Thus, we’re both sporting ties. We’ve also joked about having Fedora Fridays, although we’ve not quite pulled that one off yet. With two alliterative themed dress days, I figured that wasn’t quite enough, and jokingly opened up suggestions via Facebook and Twitter as to ideas for the other days of the week.

The rather extensive list below is what I received from my network. Note: none of these are my idea. If you do plan on adopting any of these, let me know – I’d love to see pictures from a few of the suggestions!

Monday:
Monocle Mondays (love it!)
Mumu Mondays (suggested twice)
Macho Mondays
Margarita Mondays (“when you come in still smelling like booze from the weekend”)
Moccasin Mondays

Tuesday:
Tie Tuesdays (suggested twice)
Tunic Tuesdays (I may just adopt this one…)
Tank-top Tuesdays
Twenties Tuesdays (“where everyone dresses like they’re from the 1920s)
Temporary Tattoo Tuesdays
Bikini Tuesdays (doesn’t follow the theme, but would scar my officemates! I like it.)
Trance Tuesdays

Wednesday:
Wellington Wednesdays
Wanghanger Wednesdays (uh… don’t ask.)
Commando Wednesdays (I think my partner Verne already follows this… just sayin’)
Wacky Wednesdays
Wife-beater Wednesdays (the clothing item, natch)

Thursday:
Thong Thursdays (suggested four times. Seriously.)
Tie Thursdays

Friday:
Fedora Fridays
Fondle-the-New-Girl Fridays (again, don’t ask. Thanks, Ben!)
Formal Fridays (suiting up is a bare minimum)

Saturday/Sunday:
Sweater-vest Saturdays (this would be good if Andrew Louis worked out of here; he and I would have it covered)
Snuggie Sundays

Good times. Any other suggestions? Leave them in the comments!

Of course, that got me thinking. Between some time to read, the revival of this blog, and the culmunation of the golf season, I’ve been devoting more time to my hobbies than I was before. Consequently, I’m coming out of a weekend feeling more relaxed than I have been in a long time.

I’d been spending most of my time recently either working or going to social events, but it seemed that ended up draining a lot of my energy. Don’t get me wrong, I love what it is that I do, and going out with my friends and fellow community members is a blast, but sometimes you need to take time for yourself. Hobbies let you learn, provide enjoyment, and engage your mind in different ways than work or social interaction can. They also help you take your mind off of whatever issues it may be dwelling on for a while, and this time can result in new revelations as to how to resolve these issues.

So, for everyone feeling stressed or drained, I suggest finding time to re-engage in an old hobby you’re neglecting, or find something new. Learn an instrument, pick up a new language, go play a sport; you’ll find that taking the time away from what it is you’ve been doing will result in you feeling reenergized and motivated; making you more productive overall.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a few more chapters of Emergency to read.

Now that I’m out of the downwards spiral my career attitude was going in, I couldn’t be more motivated. Going back to the freelance side with a whole new mindset, at a time when there is a lot of excitement in the local community, couldn’t really offer any more promise. Since Thursday morning, I’ve had a lot of leads come across, set up a meeting or two for potential work, and been lucky enough to have been offered a space to work out of. My severance package keeps me fed and housed in the short term, so I’m able to go out and look for these really interesting things.

What is probably going to be the best part of all of this will be the ability to gain new skills. I’m looking to work a whole bunch of “odd jobs” – web design, eMarketing, social media, writing, and many other things – that will challenge me in different ways, and that will enable me to learn a whole ton of different skill sets. (If you’ve got anything you think I might be useful for, let me know.) It’ll also help keep things interesting, and let me do things I may not have known about, or that I possessed some sort of talent in.

Will things be easy doing this? No way; I’m going to have to work harder than ever. However, after the last 2 months of work where I felt like I was losing my soul, I can’t be looking forward to this new challenge any more.

Just a couple of things on my mind this afternoon.

Firstly, my buddy Josh is embarking on an adventure of his own starting in May. His is truly without borders – a one-way ticket booked, and nothing solid planned save wandering. He put it very eloquently in his blog entry about it, which can be found at http://bootsandabackpack.blogspot.com. (Sorry for the lack of link, that seems to be the one downside of this app.)

Secondly, thanks to everyone who have reached out with advice or information for me regarding my last post! Ironically, it served to prove the networking post true, as you never really know whom in your network may have these pieces of information. I have read and considered everything that has been put forward, and will use the information in formulating my attack plan.

I want to reach out to you, though, in a time when you’re getting out of the holidays and “back to the grind” and ask you what motivates you in your current occupation? What is it about what you do that keeps you coming back for more, or that verifies you’re in the right spot for you? I suspect that given some of my readership I’ll get varied answers, which I hope to see. Please leave your answer in the comments, or send me an e-mail to dan at danhocking dot com. Thanks!

So who am I? If you’ve found this page through my social media profiles, or are just unfamiliar with me, let me introduce myself (note that a lot of this content is also on the About page.) My name is Dan Hocking, and I’m a 20-something young professional living and working in Toronto, Ontario. I’m a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, and am currently making a living working as an Account Manager in the IT Recruitment business. I’d be lying to you if I said that this is something that I envision doing for the rest of my life, but I’m pretty happy with it and my situation right now. Previously, I’ve run my own consulting company (doing mainly web development and design, with some marketing consulting thrown in), and during my time at university, served 2 years as an Executive at one of Canada’s largest student governments. I’m an avid golfer (with a 3 handicap as of the end of the 2008 season), and a member of the world’s largest fraternity, Sigma Chi. I’m also a geek; my first “job” was when I was in the 6th grade, and was paid to tutor my principal twice a week on how to use his computer. The frat boy and geek sides both clash and compliment each other well, with friends from either side wondering where the other comes from. I’m interested in all sports, read a lot of articles online, and have… very strong opinions on a lot of subjects. As some of my friends have described me, you either love me when we agree on something, or hate me when we don’t – and I’m okay with that. That sums me up fairly effectively for now; you’ll learn more about me as the posts come out, I’m sure.

So why am I starting this again? A few reasons, mainly – I’m in the process of working on some projects that I’ve had on the go for years, but would actually like to see through to completion. This blog is one of them – for those of you who were my long-time readers, I started blogging originally on whinerack.com (currently pointing to a parking page, but I own the domain still) more than 7 years ago, and kept it going for a decent amount of time. It served a purpose during that point of my life, but a few things happened (and some ugly things got exposed to me via my blogging) that caused me to shelve the whole blogging concept at that point. I’ve blogged on this domain semi-regularly before, but not for over a year. I have always enjoyed writing, and am continuing to branch out my social media networks, so this goes hand in hand. For now, this site will serve as somewhere for me to express my (varied) opinions, while also containing information about me that would be usable in other places (like a Google search, for example). Comments are always welcome, and in fact encouraged. I have some very strong opinions, so seeing discussion based on some of those may prove interesting.

For now, I’m going to end it there – feel free to leave comments or offer suggestions for me. Otherwise, welcome to my home on the web; please come back often.