2008: Another Year Goes By

January 2008 saw the death of Tasha, my canine companion for just over 17 years. Her kidneys and liver started to fail and rather than letting her suffer the vet put her to sleep. Almost a year later and I still feel sad. January also saw some minor tweaking to the blog and a late Christmas Party for the SASRA FRP & Wargames Club. We're doing the same again this year. There's an LRP booked at the venue for the Friday night and we will hold our party on the Saturday night. If the LRP doesn't go ahead we will also be having a LAN party. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure in January and prescribed medication for it. I also had the toenails removed from both big toes and then proceeded to stub them about 15-20 times before they were fully healed. The world of entertainment saw the death of Heath Ledger and the release of the first of a series of proposed Dragonlance animated films. Gaming saw Microsoft giving away the XBox Live Arcade game Undertow away for free in recompense for the problems users had suffered over the festive period in 2007.

February 2008 saw the 50th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster when 23 of the 44 people on board British European Airways Flight 609 died during its third attempt to takeoff from a slush-covered runway at the Munich-Riem airport in Munich, Germany. I won an iPod Nano, coutesy of Dom Ramsey at MoneyBlogger. I purchased, and completed, Crackdown for the XBox 360. I attended, and enjoyed, a Lord Of The Rings marathon. My network printer died but I managed to find a replacement for what could best be described as next-to-nothing.

March started off with the annual SASRA FRP & Wargames Club 24 hour event; which, incidentally, we're not running this year. The 2008 event was a lot of fun. However, it was very tiring. March also saw the first of a whole raft of PC problems that needed sorted for various members of my family and friends. I've pretty much lost count of the number of times I've ended up reinstalling PCs over the years. One of my favourite musicians of the 1990s; Jeff Healey, passed away in March. As did D&D pioneer Ernest Gary Gygax and sci-fi author Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE. John Hewer, who portrayed Captain Birdseye, also passed away. March saw me install Ubuntu, for testing purposes, onto my laptop. Sky followed up their successful adaptation of Hogfather with another success; The Colour Of Magic. Going Postal is apparently next in line. March also saw the release of The Byron Review.

April saw the fifth anniversary of this blog and the end of the first part my Ratkin story. However, the month started off with myself in a foul mood, with a huge, pounding headache. Luckily, an early night and some peace and quiet soon sorted that out. April saw the rlease of Ikaruga onto XBox Live Arcade. However, I still need to get round to purchasing it. April also finally saw the release of the Optimus Maximus keyboard. The Hardy Heron release of Ubuntu found it's way into the wild in April and Microsoft released Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.

May saw the dressings come off my toes for the last time. The football season came to an end with Manchester United being crowned the champions of both England and Europe. Petra joined the family in May; she's an American Bulldog. Dad got some bad news in May; he would need to have his other leg amputated.

June started off with me putting together a new PC for Colin. I also spent a fair portion of the month playing GTA IV. The Boston Celtics became NBA champions for the first time in 22 years and Spain won UEFA 2008. June also saw the 500th entry on this blog.

July saw an official announcement from Blizzard that Diablo III was in development. I sat down to start watching Dexter in July and am now hooked. It's such a brilliantly written series, full of such dark humour. July also saw me start dietting; a process I would continue to revisit throughout the rest of the year. I also managed to catch up with Chrissy in July; and have spent a fair portion of the year since then with her, Geoff and the kids. My kid sister, Catherine, spent some time in hospital. I also spent some time in July helping Mark redevelop his Manchester United website. A group of freinds and I went to see The Dark Knight in July. Heath Ledger should get a posthumous Oscar for his performance as The Joker. We also saw You Don't Mess With The Zohan; a brilliant comedy starring Adam Sandler.

August started off with me chopping off my long hair. Other than the Olympics the only other thing of note for August was visiting Alastair and his family in Folkestone. However, I discovered a week or so later that he and his wife of 13 years were splitting up.

September saw Dad having his other leg amputated. Whilst he was still in hospital I made some Flapjack; enjoyed by everybody who tasted it. I sold my HP Compaq laptop to my sister-in-law and purchased myself a new Dell Studio 1535. However, I am planning to sell that sometime in the next month or so and replace it with a Dell Studio 1735.

October saw me having to reinstall my PC; the first time in almost a year. The previous time was due to an upgrade. I'm planning on upgrading again in about a month or so and will need to reinstall again. October ended with a Halloween jaunt to Rheged and Keswick with Chrissy and her kids.

November started with the sound disappearing from my PC. Adding a soundcard solved the problem. Chrissy's five-year-old daughter won a poetry recital. I renewed my web hosting agrrement with Compila. I spent some time babysitting Chrissy's kids whilst she was in London. I turned 39. Barack Obama was elected as the next president of the USA.

December started with me feeling ill and forgetting my wallet when filling up the car. Chrissy's daughter's Christmas play was a lot of fun. Manchester United were crowned World Club Champions. The run up to Christmas saw me back and forth to the shops but Christmas itself was a lot of fun. I've done two lots of baking in the last couple of weeks and my Mince Pies, Jam Tarts and Scones have gone done a real treat. I caught up with a couple of old friends and finally, I rounded out 2008 by having a few glasses of Jack Daniels whilst nattering to a couple of friends.