Review of the Year 2005

So, here we are on the last day of 2005, so it occurred to me that I should review the resolutions that I made back in January, and attempt to pick out a few other interesting bits and pieces for you!

My 2005 new year resolutions were as follows. So how did I do?

1) Buy an Apple Mac computer. I don't know what sort, but I will buy one in 2005.
I achieved this one. In fact, not only did I buy an Apple Mac, I bought two! Following the San Francisco Mac Expo in January, where Steve Jobs unveiled the Mac Mini, I was so smitten that I ordered one straight away. The, at the beginning of May, Apple unveiled their new iMac G5 models, and (despite having bought a Mac Mini only a few months earlier) I ordered one. I then sold the Mac Mini to colleague for a very respectable price. The new iMac arrived with the new operating system - OSX 10.4 Tiger - installed.

2) Successfully pass all my assessments and become a Special Police Constable.
I achieved this one too. I started my training in March and was sworn in at the end of May. And I’ve been loving it ever since!

3) Buy that expensive pair of shoes that I keep harping on about. Loakes probably.
Nope, didn’t manage this one. Couldn’t be bothered really. The closest I got was a nice pair of Clarks.

4) Weigh eleven stone. I shall do this with the help of resolutions five and six (see below).
I’m still only ten stone. I didn’t manage this because I didn’t achieve resolutions 5 and 6.

5) Eat breakfast.
Not exactly. A breakfast bar and occasionally a banana was as close as I got.

6) Go to the gym at least twice a week.
I gave up going to the gym. Too many other commitments on my time unfortunately.

7) Go skiing. Not sure where or when, but I do rather fancy it.
Yeah, I did this one and it was fantastic! We went to Les Gets for a week in March.

8) Organise my CD collection.
I have had several attempts to organise my CDs, all of which have been moderately successful, but here we are at the end of 2005 and they all still seem to be muddled up.

9) Avoid buying gadgets that I later regret and sell on eBay.
A better year than 2004 for this one, but not great. I bought an M-Audio Fast Track in February, but then sold it two months later on eBay. It just didn’t work very well.

10) Update this website regularly.
It was going quite well, but then I had a bit of a hiatus in the middle of the year. But here we are, back again.

Other highlights of 2005 included:

We discovered geocaching - essentially treasure hunting using GPS. And very good it was too (if a little cold). I still haven’t (a whole year later) decided whether to buy my own GPS unit.

In February, I acquired the gadget to rule them all - an iPod. And it has been absolutely awesome. I love it. I still haven’t filled it up, but that’s beside the point.

I also upgraded my mobile phone to a Sony Ericcson k700i - and I’ll be upgrading again in about three weeks. Don’t know what I’m going to get yet.

I sold my mountain bike on eBay in June and got a very healthy £1100 for it. I bought a road bike instead and, whilst a very different experience to mountain biking, I think I like it more. I may still get another mountain bike in 2006. Not sure yet.

After my blogging hiatus over the summer as I busied myself with policiing, cycling and a spot of freelance web design, I moved the blog to a new location, hosted at Blogspot.

I put some more RAM in my iMac which speeded things up nicely.

The Xbox360 was released a few weeks ago, but because I didn’t get my arse into gear and pre-order, I was unable (like a lot of people) to get hold of one. Ah well, I’ll get one in 2006.

And that’s about it really. Not particularly exciting, but 2006 promises to have a few surprises in store. Hopefully.

See you next year!

Brave New Music World...

Well, that's it. Christmas is over and done with. Not much to report really.

However, I did take my first tentative steps into the world of the iTunes music store today. Mrs Lacey bought me a £15 iTunes music voucher, so I bought my first track just a few moments ago.

Now a while back, I pontificated on this blog about the fact that I didn't want to buy music online and that I'd rather buy a real CD. Each to their own obviously, and I know some people get all their music via iTunes. However, I think I've discovered the perfect niche as far as I'm concerned. There are a few tracks that I love but I don't want the entire album, and iTunes is perfect for this. For example, the track that I just bought is the Michael Buble/JXL Remix version of the Spiderman theme tune (weird eh?!). Now there's no way that I want any of the other tracks from the Spiderman soundtrack, but this one tune is just fantastic.

So there you have it. I've purchased digital music. Only £14.21 left to spend now!

It's taking over my (half) life!

I got Half Life 2 for Xbox for my Birthday, and I've spent quite a few hours playing it over the past few days. Needless to say, it's absolutely awesome. So far, it's easily up there with Halo as one of the best games I have ever played. If it maintains the current standard, I think that it may even surpass Halo as my favourite ever game. Half Life - the original game - was amazing, but this is better. Once you've played with the gravity gun, you'll wish you had one in real life! I love it. Once I've completed it, I shall report further.

360 degree feedback

So then... the Xbox 360 launch day came and went. And here I am, without one.

It would appear that my "early adopter" zeal may be starting to wane. Although I do want an Xbox 360, I'm not in any desperate rush for one. And at the moment, there doesn't seem to be much of a compelling reason to upgrade. I'm - at present - quite happy with my current Xbox, and there are some good games around for it at the moment.

If I had a high def television, and/or there were some absolutely killer titles that I really wanted to play, I'd probably be more enthusiastic, but as it presently stands, I'm not really that desperate. Sure, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Perfect Dark Zero look like good games, but I can't help feeling that I wouldn't really be getting my money's worth if I was playing them on a standard definition telly.

Maybe the price will come down, or an absolute "killer app" will arrive, or maybe I'll splash out on a high-def screen. But until one of those things happens, I'm content with my big, black, obsolete, old, ordinary Xbox. And Half Life 2 is on my Christmas list, so that's definitely something to look forward to.