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Is there anything I should have done in 2005 that I haven't? Any cultural jokes that need to be made? I always think of them too late...
New-year Quizzes
If you're in need of something to do this evening, I recommend the 2005 round-up quizzes from www.freequizzes.co.uk. They're not actually free, despite the name, but I've been using them all year for various occasions and they're always pretty good. The occasional question needs rephrasing so it sounds ok when read out loud, but the topics are interesting and they're of just the right difficulty, I think. The quizzes are immediately download-able, too.
My Review of the Year
To put it bluntly, my 2004 was shit. 12 months ago I was very glad to see the back of it. Was 2005 any better? This feels terribly indulgent, but I like going back over the last twelve months as there are always things I'd forgotten about. So, in no particular order...
Highlights
Live 8 - spectacular in every respect. I have many fond memories of that day, and it was one hell of an experience. Overall, the Make Poverty History campaign achieved a great deal. It may not have managed every goal to the levels they'd hoped for, but the sheer force of will changed the political landscape of the year. The 14 poorest countries' debt was cancelled, and millions are better off as a result.
Discovering blogging - despite having written a blog for more than a year, I didn't really discover blogging as a phenomenon until the first months of 2005. I can't believe I was so far behind the times on this one! I've made some great blogging chums, found out how to use feeds properly, discovered podcasts and generally learnt a lot.
Discovering Flickr - I'm definitely addicted to flickr! I love posting my photos and reading what people think of them. It's also one of the few online communities where the trolls are almost unnoticeable.
Completing NaNoWriMo - it may not be very good, but it's a 50,000 word novel written entirely by me. The biggest discovery was that it wasn't too hard. Ignoring the calibre of the content, physically writing the thing was easier than I'd expected.
Megan - my sister's puppy is insane, but eminently lovable.
Gliding / flying a plane - I took part in both of these as part of the Spice activity group, and they were great! When I'm rich, I'll definitely be learning to fly 
Dancing - Lynsey and I started learning ballroom and latin dancing on the 4th of Jan, and have been going every week since. The feeling of satisfaction you get when you manage something tricky is great! Many thanks to Lynsey for putting up with me treading on her for all these months...
Katie Melua in concert - It was entirely down to Ed that I attended this, and I had a great evening.
Wandering around London in the sunshine - Nod and I headed down to London for a comics convention, then met up with Ed and Simon and walked around London embankment before coming across an anti-war march in Trafalgar Square. I just remember it as being very pleasant. The day was definitely memorable, for a number of reasons.
Paris - I went to Paris for a weekend for Dad's 50th birthday. I'd never been before, and it was fascinating to walk around. Unfortunately I lost half of my photos due to a faulty memory card.
Learning the guitar - I picked up a guitar 'starter pack' on a whim in January, and have enjoyed it a lot. I started having proper lessons in June-ish. I think moving to an electric guitar will help with the problems I've had with some chords.
Getting help for my various social problems - the life coaching has helped a fair bit, and hopefully I'll continue to improve. I'm definitely far more confident and less prone to worrying than I was a year ago.
Moving house - Moving to my lovely flat in Stratford is undoubtedly the largest change of the year! I'm scared about keeping myself above water financially, as well as being lonely, but it's still very exciting!
Lowlights
Join Me - Although I still love the idea of Join Me, the voice of the online community was increasingly one devoted to getting drunk and being snide. I slowly became disillusioned and drifted away. I started forgetting the Friday ROAKs, too. I know that the forums were eventually moved to a new location and the more vocal members banned, but it was too late for me by then. I'm sad that I don't feel as enthusiastic as I once did, as it was a great thing.
Spice - The activity group I signed up for in the summer. Unfortunately I convinced myself that everybody else at the gliding and flying meetings had hated me, never plucked up the courage to take part in anything else and let my membership lapse. I think I need to go with somebody else so I don't feel quite so out-of-place.
Exam results - My A-levels didn't go quite as planned. In hindsight, trying to complete the Maths a-level in a year was too optimistic. Also, I ran out of motiviation in late spring, and struggled to keep working. Still, the C in physics was good.
Funerals - A friend of my age from school died from cancer in February, and a month or so later a teacher from my old magic club died in a fall while mountain walking. Both funerals were very sad.
Friends moving away - many friends finished university and scattered across the country.
Conclusion
Holy crap, this was a busy year! Overall, it was definitely not shit 2006 should be mighty different, hope it's a good one!
Timing is everything
Fun thing I found out today that won't mean a thing to non-UK readers: this year's leap-second will be added to the end of tomorrow, which means that the pips on BBC radio will be extended by a whole extra pip! There are already people who complain about the pips being delayed on digital radio due to the second or two needed for compression. This'll really spoil their new year.
I was feeling kinda down this evening, but a shot of Scrubs cheered me right up.
XP, USB Drives and Mapped Network Drives
For more than a year I've been coming across a problem with Windows XP, USB drives and mapped network drives. Each computer here has four mapped network drives, which are assigned the letters F:, G:, H: and I:. When I plug in a USB key Windows tries to assign F:, fails and gives up. Disconnecting the network drive and reinserting the key (or going into device manager and hitting 'populate') was the only way to fix it, and this was tiresome. However, it's one of those problems that you forget about as soon as you've solved it.
I finally remembered to look up a solution today, and there isn't one. The official Microsoft response says that you should use as high letters as possible for mapped network drives. I've moved them to W: onwards, and the USB key can now happily use F:.
The problem apparently occurs with all types of removable media, so hopefully somebody will find this useful.
Isn’t film great?
Just watched The Family Man on C4. I was in exactly the right mood, and enjoyed it muchly. It's only half 10 now, which is weird. I'm used to finishing watching films and it being time for bed. I watched The American President until early in the morning a couple of days ago, despite having seen it at least three times before. I'm just a sucker for anything by Aaron Sorkin. Speaking of whom, I received West Wing Series 6 as a christmas present, and it's sitting in its wrapping in the lounge, desperate to be opened. I'm planning to limit myself to one episode per week so it lasts longer
Feed is b0rked
If I knew why, I'd fix it. I've updated the relevant plugin, and hopefully it's a problem with feedburner, now...I'll give it a few hours and see whether it solves itself.
Update: It appears to be a problem with the feedburner plugin and an apparent bug in the WordPress redirects. I think it's fixed now. Rather than change settings that would break links, I've disabled the plugin entirely and used the instructions from here to get it working again, although it'll need patching up once a proper fix is announced.
Upgrade Complete
Well, that went fairly smoothly. Other than a slow FTP program, I haven't come across any major issues. There was one display problem which was easily solved. Woo! Please let me know if you notice any problems. It's certainly swish behind the scenes.
Upgrading to WP2.0
Going to try to upgrade to WP 2.0. Things may break, and I may use the default theme while fixing plugin problems.
BT ADSL Modem IP Weirdness
My sister's wireless network has been playing up for a few weeks, and looking at it today I found out why. She has a BT ADSL modem, into which is plugged a Linksys router1. I originally helped her set it up over the phone, and after finding that the BT modem IP was 192.168.0.1, told her to configure the Linksys as 192.168.0.2. She had all sorts of problems with random disconnects, and it turns out that the BT modem demands the use of 192.168.0.2 as well. Weird. Setting a higher IP for the Linksys has, I hope, solved the problems.
- odd setup I know - she was originally on cable so just needed the Linksys, but then moved to an ADSL-only area [↩]
Hello!
Hey, thanks for coming! I'm Andrew, and this is where my headthinks come to breed. They often meander around humanism and photography, but they're flighty and you can't trust them, so anything is possible.
Do feel free to email me - I get lonely:
Your hair looks swish, by the way - have you done something new?
Recent Comments
- vicky: going up this weekend having done all the welsh peaks except 4 snowdon, cant wait
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: what, how can u live in the 21 c and say that, probably a sexist thing
on Climbing Snowdon. - vicky: da iawn laura, cant believe what im hearing, all this fuss, anyway love the site, and i agree, normal people who swear and curse clomb mountains cos we live in the...
on Climbing Snowdon. - Andrew: Did a few quick test shots to check the light levels, then balanced the camera on the arm of a bench, set it for a 20s exposure and hoped for the best
on ISS. - lynsey: Wow, how did you take that photograph?
on ISS.
