It's been an interesting journey this year with many notable events colouring this lap around our Sun. While I usually only brush upon a subject once or twice in my blog it would seem that it has inspired at least two of my readers to look further into some of the topics I've shared my view on and create blogs of their own.
- In January the world said farewell to Heath Ledger, one of Australia's most famous and talented actors. The Internet turned 25 years old, Apple was making headlines with record breaking sales, we were still excited about Wii and LG finally fixed our air conditioner after six months of waiting for them to honour their warranty.
- February saw the purchase of a new Epson printer - the worst I've ever owned, we got a huge storm and the Writers Guild of America ended their 100 day strike.
- March was a big month. We launched the Cilla's Garden channel on YouTube, I watched a Queen tribute band called Killer Queen for the second time at the Gladstone Harbour Festival - they rock, and the guy that co-created Dungeons & Dragons - Gary Gygax passed away. Sadly, this was also the when our loyal and faithful Great Dane, Merlin, passed away.
- I didn't have much to say in April. I was missing my dog.
- May started with a bang when some construction guys came around to measure vibrations in the ground from explosions they were setting off nearby and we finished paving around our house!
- June was mostly tech news stuff. FireFox 3 and iPhone 3G were released. Bill Gates goes on something of a farewell tour preceding his retirement from Microsoft and I discovered the Potholer54 Made Easy series of science videos on YouTube.
- July was a big month with my sister Kathy walking down the aisle with Adrian in a larger-than-life fashion with an incredible church wedding. My very good friends Greg and Nat tying the knot in a special ceremony on the beach.
- August and September saw more tech news. Google launch street view in Google Maps and the Chrome browser. Apple introduce a feature into iTunes called 'Genius'. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was turned on and worked.... sort of... then they turned it off to... sort of... fix it.
- New tech releases continue into October with the release of OpenOffice.org 3 and Google add maps of The Great Barrier Reef to Google Maps. We also saw the loss of another canine friend - Steve's staffie, Beavis.
- November brought a new President-elect to the United States of America in Barack Hussein Obama. Mick and Anna had a baby daughter - Zoe. I did two recap posts....oops...
- In December I decided to speak out against the Government's proposed mandatory web filter which attracted some comments from new readers.
So lives both wound onto and fell off the mortal coil. Governments changed - but somehow managed to stay almost exactly the same. Technology surged ahead in leaps and bounds with Google, Apple and the open-source community leading the charge.
Of course there was plenty of other interesting stuff that I didn't write about. NASA did some fantastic stuff throughout the year. I learnt about these cool dynamic architecture buildings being built in Dubai, amongst other wonders of engineering. Leaps in hydrogen fuel-cell technology have allowed us to build cars that run on hydrogen, with water as it's only emission.
Like every year though, not all news in good news. Further effects of global warming are becoming much more apparent. Wars still plague our race. It's not just the wars you hear about either. There are wars in Africa being fought by children with AK-47 rifles, fighting over land, food and water. PNAC have reinstated their crazy neo-con website. The Zeitgeist continues...
But this is the season to be jolly. It's the time of year to be with family and friends, to celebrate the good times and to remember those that are no longer with us. Eat, drink and be merry.
I would like to thank all my regular readers for taking the time to visit D'gar HQ. A special thanks to those that have taken the time to leave comments, especially those observers that have been bold enough to voice an opposing view. There is no better way to celebrate free speech than to listen to someone who sees things differently.
Have a very safe and happy holiday.
Best wishes,
Jon.
D'gar HQ.
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