2009 - What I Did

Two year end bits. One is about what I planned, the other about what I did, in that order.

In a post entitled "2009 - What I'll Do" I said the following:

- Eat better

Overall in 2009 I have eaten better than I did in 2008. No question whatsoever.

- Exercise

I have exercised every other day since some time in May with only very few exceptions, which is a huge win.

- Play the piano.

I played the piano a little, not a lot. I'm gradually learning not to worry about these non-failures. I haven't wanted to play much. What matters more is that when I do
want to play again, I pour more effort into it than I did last time so I make more progress.

- Improve my guitar skill level.

My guitar skill level has definitely improved. I remain fairly amateur but still get a little better. I only really noticed this last week. Skill at being able to work
out songs is something that's also improving, and as I like to play other people's music a lot, that's a good skill to have.

- Finally get a proper living room sound setup.

I chose not to get a living room sound setup but rather concentrate on my studio setup. This is a low priority now.

- Figure out my next career step.

I didn't figure out my next career step, but enjoyed my job a lot more than last year. I'm a little bored of it at present but big challenges are due this year so i'm not too worried.

- Make more of an effort to better understand important, but far away, happenings.

So hard to gague. I think so, yes. I could still do better.

- Cook more varied meals.

I can't say I hit this one. I have been rotating the same few meals all year. I did try a new dish this week though, so there's still hope. It's so hard to cook creatively
for one.

- Isolate myself less at work at lunch time.

Didn't do it, although weighing up how cold the car is at lunch time now I did stop going outside last week and just ate at my desk. The problem with this is it's something i'm against doing. I need to find a solution to this.

- Move into a terraced house giving me more space.

I moved into a terraced house giving me more space, although I only have access to the top two thirds of it, as it's an apartment/flat/duplex. At the time this was the right decision and
living here has been mostly great so far. It's the only place i've ever lived that other people have enjoyed being in. I am now thinking about maybe buying, although I know
realistically I need to weigh up buying low with a minimal deposit or buying potentially less low in the medium term with a better deposit. I continue to argue with people about
renting vs owning and nobody ever has a rational response, being far too tied up in the concept of dead money for no gain, ignoring the warm shelter whist forgetting that their
£130,000 house is likely to cost them nearly twice that in the end whether prices rise or fall. That, the interest payment - that IS dead money, for them at least.

- Try harder to meet people.

Failed.

- Try harder not to have that argumentative tone in friendly conversation.

Trying much harder and succeeding a lot more. Slipping slightly recently but ready to rectify that.

- Get into the local music scene.

There isn't one that I want to be a part of. Priorities change, and the truth is I just don't care enough about doing this.

- Visit more of the UK. None of it is that far away.

New places in the UK in 2009... I saw a lot more of the Cornish coastline than before, despite it being in a fairly familiar area. I do pay a huge amount more attention to my surroundings now than I did a year ago.
I've become very interested in houses, though i'm not entirely sure in what capacity yet. I would still like to get around the country more.

- Educate myself better on libertarianism in order to better explain it to others.

I hope I never said I was a libetarian. Many do and may feel embarrassed some day. It oversimplifies. It's a great ideal, but so are most. That's where they get their name. If anything i've learned to accept
that if the world at large can't collectively find solutions to the problems of people, places, ownership, worth, greed, power and corruption, then I shouldn't expect to be able to find
an answer alone, if indeed there is just one answer. I'm hugely concerned about the size and scope of governments all over the world, and sickened by their reactionary decision making rationalised
in the face of reason and with an unfathomable lack of opposition or even outrage. I would like to think that a breaking point exists beyond which the real world, the people of
that world, will awaken and take it back. We've not been doing this civilisation thing
for so long that nothing can ever change, despite the fact that this is exactly what the powerful would want you to believe.

- Throw out every VHS cassette.

Didn't do it. Got rid of the pre-recorded ones but the others remain boxed. There's no benefit to getting this done in any particular time frame.

- Weigh less than eleven and a half stone.

I hate this one. How is it that a grown man does no exercise for a year and maintains his weight, then takes on a semi-daily exercise routine and finishes the year at the same weight he started?
Several answers. First, Christmas. After all the food I find myself weighing 1-2 pounds under 12 stone, but a few weeks ago one morning before all that I weighed 11 and 8.
This was the closest I came to the goal. I do find I eat more with all the exercise. It makes me hungry! Regardless of weight, I am a little trimmer than I was, leading me to conclude that I've gained some muscle. The health benefits vastly outweigh
the lack of weight loss to me, although i'm fairly convinced that if I continue as I have been and return to my normal, somewhat balanced diet, i'll see that magic 11:7 some time before the
anniversary of this regime, some time in May.

- Put away less alcohol. It's becoming less enjoyable.

Definitely the least alcohol i've consumed in any year since I started drinking, although in many ways this relates more to a less active social calendar. It works either way.

- Clean up more.

At times I did but at others I didn't. Right now I should.

- Find the best view in Leicester/Leicestershire.

Found it. Unsurprisingly it was from Bradgate park. Think I said this in the half-year review. Haven't been in a while after somewhat exhausting the walks around the area during my footsteps challenge in the summer.

- Stop using standby.

I did start turning the standby on my TV off when it was walked past. Now it's in the corner it doesn't get done. I'm not entirely convinced this makes a huge difference. Need to read up.

- Don't cave in to climate change propaganda beyond career supporting lip service.

Done, although it's becoming increasingly difficult to fight this tide without upsetting people. They're not like a fucking religion, they are a fucking religion. I'm not into arguing about it. Just remember that when carbon credits become a real currency, it's currency derived from nothing of value and makes no sense (and no, betting on or against doom is not tangiable nor does it have value).

- Walk more and further.

Done and I'll continue to do so.

- Code something outside of work. dotnet, java, python, whatever, just do it.

I went all year without coding anything outside of work, but then started looking at the Android SDK 2-3 days ago, so technically i'm doing this one.

- Keep plants alive.

Despite my continued neglect, all my plants continue to thrive and people continue too complement me on how well I keep them alive. Honestly, I think most people must not realise
that plants can drown and are overwatering, because watering them about twice a month, if that, seems to be working for me, escpecially in the colder weather.

- Visit Japan.

Didn't happen. Too expensive this year. It's in my top five place to visit, but not top 3.

- Learn every country on the map.

I have no idea why I thought I wanted to do this. Needless to say, I didn't.

So, that's what I wanted to do and roughly how I stuck to it. How to look back? In the interests of doing a retrospective glance a little differently each year, this year i'll be making notes from 12 months of my blog and personal gmail account. The first bit of each month is about what I blogged, then what I can decipher from the emails.

January

* Hate Filled Facebook
* My Problem with the Windows 7 Taskbar
* Getting my goat, grinding my gears...
* 2009 - What I'll Do

In which I set out some goals for 2009, bitched about Seagate and Freecycle, complained about the Windows 7 taskbar and discussed uneasily the sheer visibility of pure hatred on Facebook.

First Film: Chinatown - held on to it for weeks then realised it was the wrong film, some Bollywood movie. Didn't actually watch it. Poor start.
Joined freecycle got rid of old red dwarf and simpsons videos. Never used the service again, but got pissed off that they seemingly signed me up to a new realcycle service. Still not quite clear on this, but the mail has stopped.
ASDA credit card reward went down to 1p/litre fuel discount making it only just worthwhile, but a good credit builder nonetheless.
Brand new terabyte Seagate drive reported bad sectors in first days. This means the last two hard drives i've bought were faulty. Replacement, same model, has been stellar though.
Bought a new in car FM transmitter that didn't last, mainly because I tried to wire it directly to my car battery, which melted it. Volts, Watts and Amps are all different things, and all are important!
best film: Casino. I'll be revisiting this sooner rather than later.
Weird music order: Heaven by Bryan Adams, Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who and Common People by Pulp. All good though.

February

* Senseless Censorship
* QUICK: Jade Goody
* QUICK: Android - Does No Compue
* QUICK: Odds On, Nine through Twenty One
* QUICK: Wikipedia and Facts
* QUICK: Decession or Repression.. Who Cares?
* QUICK: Changing Desires
* QUICK: The more I like it the more I wanna spoil i...
* QUICK: It would have been my fault, but...
* QUICK: Lost
* QUICK: Silent Cameras
* QUICK: Somewhere between 140 Characters with a Fac...

Where I introduced QUICK posts including the dilemma of linking facebook and twitter updates, the possible outlawing of silent cameras, opinion on lost season 5, the act of driving and almost crashing in snow, tv spoilers, perfect homes, prime ministerial tounge slips and wikipedian circles... Even a rare poem, leaving just enough time for an early days rant on android, press coverage of jade goody and senseless tv censorship.

First Film: Nixon. Only okay. A little long and probably for people more familiar with the Watergate scenario.
Music: Freebird by Lynard Skynard. Old and overplayed but definitely needed in my collection.
Best Film: Serenity. In a 2-3 weeks period spanning moving house I watched all of Firefly and Serenity. Everyone that likes TV needs to do likewise. Holds up very well.
Futurama "ended" for the second time with the "Into the Wild Green Yonder" feature. Nobody really believed it was the end this time, and it wasn't. New TV season in 2010.
Late February out of nowhere I saw an apartment I liked on Rightmove, viewed it and rented it, all in the space of 12 hours, though it felt like a week.

March

* BT in 2009
* QUICK: The Sky is Falling. Pun at 11!
* QUICK: English Food

The month I moved house, leading me to eat too much takeaway whilst pondering the concept of English food, squeezing an insanely good deal out of Sky and sitting at home whilst I should have been working whilst BT screwed up very literally every single aspect of my first ever customer relationship and line installation with them.

First Film: Logans Run. A classic which I should have seen years ago.
Bought more Philips Earhook SHS8000 earphones, then £12. Only ones i've ever truly liked and now sell for £20, which is still a good price.
Continued to waste money on soon to be disused Nokia N800, buying a 16GB SDHC card. No doubt i'll find a use for that before too long though.
Best Film: Chasing Amy, though this was a close thing with Logans Run.

April

* Not QUICK - Android Netbooks...
* Chemical Inbalance
* Red Dwarf: Back to Earth - Part Three
* Facebook Exploitation
* Red Dwarf: Back to Earth - Part Two
* QUICK: Not Bad 4 - 1 Not Good
* Red Dwarf: Back to Earth - Part One
* QUICK: Android - Compete!
* QUICK: Android - Second Time Lucky?

Easter brought further sighs about Android appearing to gain no traction, lacking handsets and being misaligned with netbooks, a detailed look at the first new Red Dwarf episodes in ten years, some rare eBay gains and a look at the growing shift of facebook towards exploitation. Somewhere in there was also a "low end diatribe" which though slightly embarassing to read, i think is quite honest and well written.

First Film: Hancock. Not bad.
IKEA dining chairs found on eBay for bargain price saving approx £60. Good as new. Best eBay purchase ever.
5m HDMI cable purchased to replace fraying 3m one. Still in use, though has loose connection somewhere. Spend a little more perhaps.
Best Film: Funny Games - horrifying though.
Finally saw Chinatown, the non-Bollywood version. Not as amazing as expected, but still good.
Dell extended 2 year warranty purchased - not something i'd normally do. Knocked down the price a little. Questionable worth. We'll see.
Notable Film: Sex, Lies and Videotape.
Music: Kings of Leon's Only by Night album. Like a little but haven't listened to most of it much.
First ever pair of adult slippers purchased. These are now used for cross trainer workout.
Cross Trainer purchased. A very, very good decision. A wagon I haven't even come close to falling off yet. *

May

* adult acceleration syndrome
* Light Bites for a Lingering Hangover
* My LOST Predictions - Keep the theory simple and g...
* QUICK: End of the World Music
* QUICK: More.
* QUICK: So VERY FUCKING CLOSE Sweatband Fitness
* Bank Holiday Bank Schmoliday (A Good Weekend)

The marriage month kicked off with a high/low holiday weekend of weddings and engagements. Next came courier woes relating to my now much loved cross trainer followed by a nod to the agnostic and the associative powers of the mind. By the end of the month I was having a final look at season 5 of Lost and firing off fairly random shots at ministers, divorces, empty walls and things that break, capping off with another rare not so poetiic piece.

First Film: Rear Window
Best Film: Rear Window
Wireless N card for desktop machine purchased - failed dismally to make good use of. Became disillusioned with Linux for weak driver support compared to Windows.*
Watched Natural Born Killers as if unseen, realising in the last few minutes that I'd seen at least some of it. Still weirds me out.
Music: 21st Century Breakdown by Green Day. I can't deny liking it, much as it's flawed, though I overplayed it in the summer so it's been on the back burner lately.
Mass pack of guitar picks finally purchased after making do with stubby worn ones for too long.
Trainers ordered online for first time ever. Very good saving.

June

* Tethering (Pie and Shakes)
* deja vu
* Nobody Is Interested in Hearing About Your Dreams!...
* Green

The half-way point in 2009 marked a downturn in my blogging. The year ends with more written than in 2007 but only 2/3 as much as in 2008.

In June I loosely reviewed Green Day's new album, had a very strange dream, worried about my memory and gaped in disbelief at what cell/mobile companies thought tethering was worth on top of already unlimited data plans.

First Film: Jackass 2.5
New Nokia car charger purchased - foreshadows the last Cornwall trip with the N800 as my entertainment device.
First trip to Cornwall - last time staying in the hostel and practically no surf anywhere.
Red Dwarf back to earth DVD disappointing with editing flaws and barely distinguishable director's cut.
Best Film: Silence of the Lambs, finally saw it! Pleased to know i'm not so desensitised as to not find this a freaky film.
iPhone purchased Pay as You Go for £440. Regrets, i've had a few, but not choosing PAYG or spending £440. Android remains my future, i'm quite sure. For now, iPhone is a fantastic device well worth what it cost.
Best Film: The Sting

July
* Sunday Review
* QUICK: How to Shoe-Horn a Celebrity into a Simpson...
* Nice Ideas That Don't Pan Out... iPhones and OpenZ...

Early on this month I wrote more than needed to be written about BT Openzone, a very dull subject. Once that was out of the way I took the piss out of the increasing instances of unattempted writing on The Simpsons before seeing how I was doing so far on my goals set in January.

First Film: Jackie Brown. Need to see this again and pay proper attention. Not my favourite QT.
Second trip to Cornwall - some surf. First time camping in years and first trip ever to Newquay.
Finally bought some wall art for my new place.
RSS Player for iPhone purchased, cutting my ties with the Nokia N800 and gPodder (much love though both deserved). RSS Player is infuriatingly bug riddled and response from the developer seems very selective, but it is more fit for my purposes because it's on the phone. Nokia N800 now in a box, disused.*
Office 2007 purchased legally for £9. Great deal! Saw the future, the ribbon, the confusion and to this day barely used it. Office 2003 is rich featured and well laid out. When 2007 gets pushed to large companies like the one I work for, it'll cause major pain. Forget Office 2010 - is any large enterprise really using Office 2007 yet?
Windows 7 pre-ordered for £44. Great deal. The EU, which will ultimately destroy/segregate Europe or perhaps destroy the entire world, actually saved me some money here with it's over-zealous anti-competition bullshit.
Curtain rail fell down.
Best Film: Ghost Dog.

August

* Nokia Internet Tablets Past and Present - Half bak...
* Friday Focus: Windows 7, BT and Ubuntu

In the late summer month I wrote very little. I do recall at this point I was actively engaged in a footsteps challenge which led me to walk around the local area many nights each week. It seems that all i had time to write about was the bargain price of Windows 7 in the EU, the resiliance of Ubuntu and the lack of resiliance of the BT ADSL network to provide anything like the service promised.

First Film: Man on the Moon. Saw it years ago. Had an impact then, and now.
Third trip to Cornwall. Much more surf but very strong winds making the sea difficult.
Windows 7 pre-ordered for £69. Good deal, not great. Realised i'd need a second copy and i'd never get it legally for less after release. Technically wrong as I can today upgrade my Vista for £63, but that wasn't going to be an option originally. Full version now £90.
Best Film: Jerry Maguire, which i'd never seen before. Loved it.
LoveFilm envelope saga - a lesson in not spending too much time on something so trivial, even if you sort of win in the end.*
Dell XPS M1530 battery died about 14 months in. Replaced for approx £70 which was somewhat less than quoted after much negociation. Almost put me off Dell, but am now somewhat more accepting of the reality of laptop batteries constantly on charge.
Boxee tried and liked. Looking forward to beta in early January 2010.
Notable Film: 21

September
* Emptying the Mental Crap Shoot - Volume.. 3?
* Brain Stew 2009
* Linux is not ready for the Desktop part 8192
* QUICK: 4GB iPhone Smelling Wrong

September began with me boasting about calling the 8GB iPhone model rather than the rumoured 4GB one, despite the fact that my lack of courage in my own convictions meant I didn't post it when I actually thought of it. Oh well. We then visited Ubuntu with some apt animal analogies, culminating in the usual point about Linux and the desktop. An old point was then made about the tech media failing to own up to it's own tendancy to over-hype the unknown, before a bunch of other smaller points were recalled from the drafts folder.

First Film: Man on Wire. Spectacular to see. Vertigo inducing.
Best Film: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
Built a new desktop PC to replace old Athlon 64 machine with a Core 2 Duo, about 6 months before they become end of line and no doubt a new socket appears. Impeccible timing.
DPD lost package saga - well meaning people eventually turn it around to minimise inconvenience, both OcUK and DPD lost and gained points here. Came out about even.
Notable Film: Rachel Getting Married.
Broke down and got a Tesco clubcard! Seems quite lucrative given I only buy lunch there at weekendds.

October
* Fake Sunday Night
* Vuze - Look What Happened/Former Friend/Fall From ...
* Competitive Nature
* Content Overload Worsening
* From the "A morning Radio DJ shouldn't be able to ...

With the leaves turning red for about 3 days before being sludge on the ground (notice these get longer each passing month) I talked about why I like Chris Moyles (mostly about me), the then fact that I was trying to consume entirely too much media, and a confession of my competitive nature. Before it was all over I swore off Vuze for it's Ask Toolbar bullshit and wasted a little more time worrying about wasting time.

First Film: Tropic Thunder. Good, not great.
A (the band) announce reunion tour - tickets for Birmingham bought.
windows 7 arrives, twice as ordered. One still remains in the box as the Release Candidate continues to hum away on the new machine. Must get around to that soon.
Asked to be an Usher at wedding next year. Nothing wrong with that!
Home diabetes test reveals i'm perfectly normal. I just drink a lot, and piss a lot.
Finally got some headphones for studio setup.
Finally got some monitors for studio setup.
Have become disillusionied with my studio abilities and with sampled sounds. New setup still very handy though.
Best Film: Lakeview Terrace, better than Crash.

November
* 29
* IMDB comments vs YouTube comments - Both Bad.

In my birthday month I first tried to work out whether Youtube or IMDB led to more inane comments. It's really still too close to call. I also discussed turning 29, mostly in a positive light.

First Film: Love Actually. I like these RC things. Why pretend I don't.
Finally ordered enough socks that I won't ever run out in the course of normal life.
Finally got rid of old bed linen for something new.
Best Film: In Bruges
Music: Saw A (the band) in Birmingham. Fantastic.

December
* Personal Finance. Skip if you Wish!

So, in the final month of the year I blogged only once about my new personal finance tracking. That's not quite true of course because i'm also posting this which is huge.

Music: Saw A (the band) in Nottingham. Even better.
First Film: Role Models. This one worked really well.
Best Film: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. How did this stay off my radar until now?
Notable Film: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Uncomfortable Film: Notes on a Scandal. Most peoople don't need to see this.
Amazon Prime trialed. Like the idea, but don't spend enough with Amazon themselves as opposed to their Marketplace to be worthwhile. Worked for getting Christmas gifts in time.
Music: Paramore, Brand New Eyes
Last Film: Wanted - Better than Expected.
Tonight: Avatar in 3D at the DeLux.
Next DVD: American Teen
Portable speaker egg called X-Mini purchased. Perfect solution to showing drowning out iPhone speaker, yet in all my searching these never popped up until now.

Trends?

I'm still mostly writing when I want to complain about something rather than when I like something. That still needs work, but at least i'm complaining less now, even if it means not writing anything.

Overalls?

Not terrible. I don't need to give myself a score. Still something of a holding pattern, that much is clear. Need to break some habits. I have some ideas, but this is the 31st, not the 1st.