With 2007 fast coming to a close, I thought it would be a good time to come up with some plans for 2008. This is not a comprehensive list; I hope to achieve a bit more than just this, but it will be interesting to look back a year from now to see how I got on. It’s probably also obvious this list reflects some of the immediate things on my mind (my N800 should arrive later this week and Zelda on the DS arrived for Christmas).

• Hack around with the N800 - lots of thoughts on this, too many for this post.
• Get the MythTV box fully up to date - its running an ancient version on a hand-built Debian kernel and X server which makes any update near impossible to apply. Fortunately, a stock Ubuntu these days has all of the hardware support that was missing 4 (!) years ago.
• Finish Zelda on DS and Wii - progress on the Wii has been held up by kitchen renovations. Zelda on the DS is my favourite game for a very long time, although it will have stiff competition from Super Mario Galaxy when I finally get around to buying it.
• Renovate the bathroom - how hard can it be to move a doorway, build a walk-in shower and re-plumb the entire thing?
• Decorate the dining room and living room - say goodbye to the Artex ceilings and walls.
• Read more of the books I should have read
• Take more photos.
• Blog more - I’ve lost the momentum over the past few months. It feels as good a time as any to pick it up again.
• Visit our friends in Scotland and the Shetlands - that really is a long way North.

As for New Year’s resolutions, well, I’ve got a couple more hours to think of them.

Only 7 months after the wedding, we have finally gotten around to putting the ‘official’ photos online. These are a combination of photos taken by my Dad and ones added by our friends to the flickr pool. The hard-copy of the album was done at Christmas, but it has taken a while to figure out what we wanted to do online; there didn’t seem to be an obvious choice for maintaining the look and feel of the actual thing. So, enjoy some hand-crafted html and javascript - would you expect anything less?

I blame Roo. Having had a look at some of his Perplex City cards last week, today I went and got some of my own from Season 2.

Here are today’s stats:

• 3 packs bought - initially I bought 2, but when Jo went back to the till to buy another book, I added another pack.
• 18 puzzle cards and 3 ‘warm-up’ sudoku and hitori cards.
• 15 cards solved - particularly pleased with #161.
• 4320 points gained.
• Ranked 1124 at the time of writing.
• Close to solving the 16th card (#164) - I know the reference, just not sure how to get an answer to fit.
• Unsure where to begin with the 17th card (#235).
• 18th card available for swaps (#004).

This is an addiction. I am an addict. I need more cards.

[ update: for a list of my available swaps, check out the list. ]

After two and a half years in my flat, Jo and I have decided its time to move on. Where exactly has yet to be determined, although we do plan to stay in or around West End.

Since Jo moved in after the wedding, we have struggled for space and found ourselves frequently taking trips to the local charity shop with bags of clothes and other assorted items.

When I bought the flat, the plan had been for the 2nd bedroom to become an office. Unfortunately I have barely spent any time in there; it became the dumping ground for anything that didn’t fit elsewhere. It was quite a task last Sunday to de-clutter the surfaces so it would be ready for viewings. I just hope the estate agent doesn’t open any of the wardrobes…

It seems a bit ironic that it’s the prospect of selling the flat that has lead us to tidy it this much.

More details on the flat are available here.

Its over a month since the wedding and I have yet to put up the ‘official’ photos of the event to the flickr pool, although there are over 200 photos available to see. Actually, some have their privacy settings turned on, so there may be less than that visible to the general public. Regardless, there are plenty of great photos that really help to relive the event.

The ‘official’ photographs were taken by my Dad who did a great job of sticking around to the very end. Jo and I have been poring over a couple CDs worth of images he has since sent us to try to put together the official Wedding Album. In particular, we wanted to find the image of us that we could send with christmas cards to all the aunties and uncles who didn’t come to the wedding.

For quite a few of the photos, I have had to spend some time in the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program; the linux equivalent of Adobe’s Photoshop) touching up the images to make them just right. This has including doing minor things like removing red-eye to quite major jobs like swapping around heads from different photos to get everyone looking the same way with ‘nice’ smiles and no grimaces. I am particular happy with the results of our main portrait.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the before and after images. Play spot the differences - there are 8 to be found. (With apologies to Meg and David for having removed them so callously - oops, thats give away two of the differences.)

As a mark of respect for a member of the original Spitfire design team who passed away recently, the Spitfire Society arranged a flypast of Hursley House on Friday 8th December.

Spitfire Flypast at Hursley, UK - Google Video

I forgot my camera, so my phone stood in. The video quality isn’t great, but it does give some sense of the event. There were plenty of photographers out on the lawn, so I’m sure Flickr will soon be flooded with photos from the event.

Hursley was where the Spitfire engines were developed - long before IBM got there.

Tonight my parents treated Jo and I to our first opera; the Welsh Nation Opera’s production of La Bohème at Southampton’s Mayflower theatre.

It was a very impressive production, although the orchestra did drown the leads on occasion.

The lesson I learned tonight, taken from the programme:

There were girls who did and girls who didn’t and the rule of thumb was that those who succumbed rarely made it to the final curtain.

Apparently, Mimi is a girl who did.

By this time tomorrow, I’m a married man.

Today has been a long day of chores; suits picked up, cravats replaced with the correct ones, tables laid and nerves calmed.

Keep an eye on flickr, we’ve setup a group for the day.

Today, after 5 (and a bit) years, I said goodbye to IBM System & Technologies Group. I wasn’t at all sure what today would be like - I have experienced plenty of other people leave; the obligitory leaving presentation by the manager, the traditional drinks at the Dolphin and the card signed by everyone our secretary could badger. But it all went well in the end.

As this is the first full-time job I’ve had since leaving university, the thought of coming into work after my honeymoon to a completely new job in a new part of Hursley is simply weird.

I have made many great friends in the Storage group and have really enjoyed working on the SAN Volume Controller. I’m sure I will be back to visit there - a lunchtime without a crossword just wouldn’t be the same.

So, as of November 27th, I am an employee of IBM Software Group in the Pervasive and Advanced Messaging team. I’ll work out what that actually means when I get there.

As careful readers will have spotted, I’m off on my honeymoon on Monday, which gives away the fact that I am getting married on Saturday. More on this in the near future (if last minute organisation/panics allow).

Just call me Nick “one-major-life-event-at-a-time-isn’t-enough” O’Leary.

First name Jack.