Bill Riddell

Rocking & Writing – The Backdoor to Success

Red Door by tuey

I’ve always looked for the more unconventional, less traveled path to get what I want. Very few people look beyond plan A; as a result, the conventional path often becomes overpopulated and hard to find your way through.

Today I’m going to share some interesting lessons from the music and book industries on the merits of finding your own way to success, rather than following the horde.

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Rocking to the Top

Listening to the radio the other day I heard an upcoming Australian pop singer talking about how she got her ‘job’, a record deal with a major label, and how other aspiring singers and bands struggle to get noticed.

They face a lot of crowded channels to get a record deals. The official channels are clogged and so are the unofficial ones. For every muso you hear of who gets a deal based on their myspace page there are hundreds of thousands of others with no luck.

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Tropic of Cancer – Book Review

I had been encouraged to read Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer by quite a few people over the last year or two. It sounded, good so I succumbed and ordered the book. The novel sat for several months in my anti-library until it called out to me a few weeks ago.

At first Tropic of Cancer failed to live up to the hype. Expectations about a book far too frequently lead to disappointment, and I nearly tossed the thing aside 90 pages in.

Foul language and debauchery aside, the book can be dull. Miller’s writing, to me, is not conversational; its stream of conscious and I could feel my interest waxing and waning like the moon. At times it is frantic and erratic, Miller is scanning the world and options before him. But then he finds a focus, the mind quietens and becomes more lucid. Life unfolds and so to does some semblance of a story.

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Le Tour de Armchair Cushion – Part 2

A Spectator Spends 4 Days Chasing Down Lance Armstrong from the Discomfort of his Own Bedroom and Stationary Bike by Bill Riddell

Here is the final part of my Tour de Armchair Cushion diary, where I try to keep up with Lance Armstrong during the Tour de France.

Instead of just spectating I am using the cushion from my usual sports going armchair to pad my butt from the rigours of pursuing Lance on my stationary exercise bike; watching him and the 170 riders hurtle through the French countryside.

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Le Tour de Armchair Cushion – Part 1

A Spectator Spends 4 Days Chasing Down Lance Armstrong from the Discomfort of his Own Bedroom and Stationary Bike by Bill Riddell

scarlatti2004

Over the past few years I have slowly been building a keen interest in the Tour de France, the worlds most famous cycle race. It was started just over 100 years ago in order to increase the circulation of L’Auto, a sports newspaper (now L’Equipe). It worked, the inaugural 1903 race more than doubled circulation.

The race has continued, pausing only for the two world wars. L’Equipe still covers the tour passionately while its parent company, the Amaury Group (EPA), manages the event.

This time last year I was on a health kick and rode along on some stages, shedding weight as I went after spending the previous year’s amassing an impressive collection of body fat. Since Christmas last year I had largely fallen off the bike, pardon the pun, as my weight slowly crept up and my fitness slowly declined.

It was time for action, an Armstrong style comeback.

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Money Matters Part 2 – Investing Saves You Credit or Something Like That

It’s time for part two of some of my theories, thoughts and personal rules regarding all things money. You can track down part 1, right here.

Take or leave my advice, it’s up to you. I’m not rich – I don’t even have an above average income. I am however a great saver (though I do have incredibly low overheads – mostly by design) with some quite healthy lifetime financial habits.

In this, my final missive on the things money related, I will cover the basics of personal finance that so many people ignore at their own peril – saving, investing and using credit and loans correctlly.

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Fast Facts About Me

After my last case of sharing and caring, I thought I would pass on some more bite sized nuggets of information about me that you really could do without.

My kidneys are messed up. One is far too big and in totally the wrong place, the other is far too small though in the correct position. They are the perfect metaphor, like me they are quite strange but still seem to work just fine.

I was diagnosed with benign intracranial hypertension – or something like that. It’s more fun to say than it is to explain, that’s a job for another day. I really wish it had a better acronym, BIH is kind of lame – not like AIDS, SIDS or even SARS. Fortunately my own acronym initials, BAR, are much more exciting – they have their own code and also serve alcohol.

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Money Matters Part 1 – The Art of Buying the Right Things at the Right Price

This is part 1 of 2, where I’m going to share with you some of my theories, thoughts and personal rules regarding all things money.

Take or leave my advice, it’s up to you. I’m not rich – I don’t even have an above average income. I am however a great saver (though I do have incredibly low overheads – mostly by design) with some quite healthy lifetime financial habits.

“It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.” – Albert Camus

Essentially I don’t just look at the cost of an item, I look at the value of it. Basically it’s about weighing up the cost of an item with the quality and taking into consideration how you will use it to determine the value.

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Short Story – The Renovator

I am really excited to share my first short story. I’ve been writing since I was a kid but school work aside this is the first work of fiction I have completed. The idea had been rattling around in my head for a few years and I have spent a the previous months wrestling with the idea and trying to make it work.

You can read the story below or download the PDF version. Feel free to share the link to this page or the PDF with your friends or print it out, however it is not to published online or elswhere without my written permision.

It is just under 1,900 words or about 5 pages and should take between 4 and 8 minutes for an average reader. I would greatlly appreciate your thoughts and comments, I hope you enjoy the story.

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Life Lessons

Today I present to you a handful of life lessons. Each one of these topics were destined to become a blog post in their own right, but most have sat as rough outlines for over 6 months on my computer.

Since I’m clearing house, rather than delete what was already there I have joined them together, added a bit of polish and here is the result.

I’m sure you will get something out of it and it will push me to create some more original posts for you to read, rather than stretch the contents below out for a month or so.

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Clearing House

I’m officially clearing house, not my personal belongings, but my backlog of draft posts.

I had well over 50 drafts in various stages of completion (from a few lines of notes, to dot pointed outlines and a few 600+ word drafts).

Basically it could have been as much as a years worth of blog posts. However something went horribly wrong!

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