Haven't posted anything for a while. Lots of projects on the go and lots of exciting things happening at the moment that have taken me away from this blog lately. Hoping to start posting regularly soon but in the meantime here is a combined top ten for August and September.

Protoculture feat. Shannon Hurley - Sun Gone Down (Alex M.o.r.p.h. & Chriss Ortega Remix) -
Beat Service - Outsider -
Paul van Dyk ft Hemstock & Jennings - Nothing But You (Super8 & Tab Remix) -
Mat Zo - The Lost (Original Mix) -
Gareth Emery & Ben Gold – Flash -
Dash Berlin ft. Jonathan Mendelsohn - Better Half Of Me -
Avicii - Fade into Darkness -
Nadia Ali, Starkillers & Alex Kenji - Pressure (Alesso Remix) - Sebastian Ingrosso & Alesso - Calling (Original Mix) - Grace - Not Over Yet (Max Graham vs Protoculture Remix) - Andy Moor feat. Sue McLaren - Fight The Fire (Official Music Video) -

As I mentioned before music is one of my big passions. I even tried doing the DJ thing before I started my professional career and loved it. Anyways as music is such a big part of my life I naturally listen to a lot of it and am always looking for new and interesting songs. So I thought I would start posting the ten songs I listened to the most during the month for others to enjoy as well. For July I was listening mostly to Trance music; however, my music tastes vary quite drastically and I pretty much like any kind of music, so feel free to share your favourite tracks as well.

So here are my ten most listened to tracks for July in no particular order:

1) Drift (Original Club Mix) by Funkagenda and Adam K

2) Hymn 2.0 (Original Mix) by Sander van Doorn

3) Apollo Road (Original Mix) by ATB and Dash Berlin

4) Earth Hour (Original Mix Edit) by Dash Berlin

5) Little Bad Girl (Instrumental Club Version) by David Guetta

6) Rapture (Avicii New Generation Extended Mix) by Nadia Ali

7) A Night Like This by Kyau & Albert

8) Koko (Original Mix) by Sander van Doorn

9) Winter Stayed (Armin van Buuren's On the Beach Mix) by Triple A - Love the 4 / 8 beat patterns used in this song

Hello and welcome to my first blog post :).

So I have been putting off starting a blog for a while now, even though I believe it would be worthwhile starting one. There are a number of reasons why I have been putting it off: too busy at work, changing jobs, moving, etc.... However, the main reason that I have been putting off starting a blog is that I didn't know if I should start a professional or a personal blog. Answering that question took me a while to figure out...

I thought that starting a professional blog would be a great idea. This is because I come across a number of interesting articles and blog posts about IT security, project management, etc... that I think people would like to read, and I would like to comment on as a risk management professional and network with other professionals in my field. However, I also enjoy many other things outside of my professional life, such as music, technology, hockey (huge Vancouver Canucks fan!!) and so on. Therefore I was wondering if I should start a personal blog as well; somewhere that I could expand upon my Twitter posts (there is only so much you can say in 140 characters) and network with friends and other individuals with similar personal interests as me.

Needless to say I was in a bind. I didn't think I had enough time to start one blog and I couldn't decide if I wanted to start a personal or professional blog. Then one day I was chatting to a friend of mine and she suggested that I start a hybrid blog. One that discusses the professional topics I like to comment on as well as the other interests I have. I was a bit hesitant as I like to keep my professional and personal lives somewhat separate, although that seems to get harder and harder the further I progress in my career. Anyways, I decided to bite the bullet take her suggestion and run with it - so here we are :).

So now that I have thoroughly bored you with the story of how I came to the decision to start this blog, it is time for a brief introduction of me and an idea of what you will find on this blog.

My name is Ashiq and I currently am working as an internal audit and risk management professional for a publically traded company in the retail telecommunications space. As mentioned above I like music, technology (huge geek with consumer tech) and watching hockey. I also enjoy playing golf and squash, I am an avid reader, enjoy cooking, and I love to travel.

This blog is going to be about anything I find interesting. So expect to see posts about world affairs, politics, IT security, consumer technology, music, hockey, travel, books, and pretty much anything else I find interesting and want to share with people on any given day.

I hope you like the content I will share here and I hope to post every few days so keep coming back :D.

~Ashiq