Looking back at 2008

RELOADING!

Let’s see now. 2008 for me will be the year that I preferred not to really look back on. I had a lot of plans for the year gone by but something unusual happened – I made a mistake, actually come to think of it I made quite a few. None that I’m proud of either.

At the start of the year I had planned to get me a CAR, except at present as I write this I still rely on public transport aka the wonderful BUS to take me to work. Except that despite the fact that my workplace is not that far from my house – journeys to work take just over 1hr 30mins. Now for those who have the luxury of having cars in this godforsaken already rammed to the brim country of ours, I really admire the fact that I haven’t heard any reports of drivers going POSTAL whilst stuck in a jam. By the time I reach my office in the mornings I practically want to kill the first person who I see – who happens to be our lovely security guard. I can’t win – if I get a car I’ll still be stuck in a jam, if I take the train I’ll end up squashed against someone with the biggest set of melons ever, if I use a bike then motorists will want to run me over.

Last week I watched Top Gear: Vietnam Special where the team travelled to Vietnam (where else?!) and had to do a set of challenges on SCOOTERS. It got me thinking…Motorbikes…they don’t get stuck in traffic!

Things at work were going pleasantly for the most part until I made a shed load of mistakes mid-way through the year that I knew I’d pay dearly for. I fell for someone whom I thought was the perfect person. I then found out the hard way that I was being lied to. It hurt – a lot, but then again I made my mistakes too in a lot of places. I am normally a well controlled person emotionally and mentally but I lost track of everything during this stage and almost ended up resigning from work until five little girls and a blessed friend close to my heart gave me a wake up call. These events pretty much put a dark shroud on 2008 for me. I had planned to do a part-time course from work from September 2008 but that slipped by. Great.

Lastly, for some reason I have started using CAPSLOCK a lot to highlight key words on IRC, which happens to stand for Internet Rely Chat for those who think that instant messaging started with pathetic MSN. It has been around since like er forever and I’ve been using it non-stop on a daily basis since 1997 to keep in touch with gaming pals who I have known for years. Anyway lately I have picked this habit from out of no where and it came to a head recently at the end of the year when I sent off two memo’s that had a lot of key words in CAPITALS. I mean wtf man?

In no particular order the highlights of my year were:

1. I said I would, with the release of GTA IV and Condemned 2 on the Xbox 360 slow down on gaming and I have. I only bought 3 games for the console in 2008! It is mostly a media player now and as a result I tend to watch TV serials and Films instead!

2. The Apple iPhone 3G arrived on the scene and gave the phone industry a colossal wake up call. I have never seen such a sharp overhaul of phones from every phone manufacturer in my life as they responded to the threat. The phone has a lot of flaws but at the same time has a very powerful OS at it’s core. 2008 was the year in which mobile phones were all given a kick up the backside. 2009 will be the year in which we see super-powerful smartphones arrive. It will be ultra competitive out there as the big boys battle it out.

3. 2008 was a year of comedy on the internet. Facepalms, Motivational Posters, LOLCats, LOLDogs, FAIL!, BucketWalrus and all sorts of animal related comedy seemed to grace websites and forums. ICanHasCheezBurger is a good place to see what I am banging on about.

4. The latter stages of 2008 saw the Netbook’s arrive! Fueled by low power CPU’s such as the Intel Atom, ultra portable netbooks crashed onto the computing scene and scared the pants out of everyone laptop manufacturer. So everyone decided to bring out their own versions! Expect their popularity to soar in 2009 as Dual Core Atoms hit the scene early on in the year.

5. 2008 saw me getting three warning letters from the local council because I had accidentally installed a super powerful floodlight in my garden, which kept being triggered by an army of rampant hedgehogs. Neighbours were not amused. I then kept getting the warning letters from the council despite having resolved the brightness of the thing. Four months of constant bickering eventually sorted that out. If you’ve seen the Transformers movie where Bumblebee at night shines a powerful beacon of light into the sky at night…

6. Five incredible little nieces (sort of) who kept me on track through the latter stages of the year. Their constant ability to make me smile and laugh with their silly mannerisms kept me strong when I was weak. You girls mean the world to me, now look after my godamn XPS laptop!