Well, that was a year, apparently. I'm always shocked by how fast these things roll around. Last Winter is a blur, now, but I'll do my best to recap. First up, of course, are the New Year's Resolutions. I like making these, and I do try to stick to them. Last year, apparently, I chose these three things:

• Go out more
• Learn about whisky
• Get more things done

So how did I do? Point one: big fail. I barely went out at all this year, it seems. I did get out to a few club nights here and there, and I made an appearance in a few pubs, but really, I completely failed to improve my social presence. I'm going to carry this one over to next year and get a bit organised, if I can. Points for non-drinking out-ness though: during NaNoWriMo I went out to coffee shops to meet writer-types in very civilised surroundings. More on that later. Point two, whiskey: I did ok on this, having bought a few bottles of whiskey and enjoyed them, but I could have done much better. I learned that I am not yet into the deep, peaty flavours that come from Islay, but I prefer a smoother taste. I am not yet up to speed on the various distilleries or how you go about making a good whiskey, but I have increased my knowledge, so that's good. Point three: getting things done. I totally won this resolution. Since last year, I have produced five open-source code projects and a novel, as well as a whole heap of excellent work for my employer that I'm really proud of. I've also cooked a number of really interesting, challenging dishes, visited one new city (Paris), worked through a few TV series, read a few books that have been on my list for a long time, and completed all but one of the games that I bought. You saw it right! I wrote a novel! 50,000 words of sheer drivel, in the bag. NaNoWriMo was a weird experience, and it was hard work, but I did it. I'm super proud of that. I met some awesome people along the way and gained a new level of respect for people who write books. Those guys are crazy. The year started with a monumental hangover. I don't think I've been that ill for a long, long time. I think it's rum that does it to me, which is a terrible shame, as I love it, but when you drink a whole bottle in a few hours, you have to deal with the consequences, I suppose. From there it went uphill massively. Highlights included Valentine's Day in Paris and being stupidly smitten (I'm catching up for my lack of teen romance now), my first weddings, and a lot of wine. I went to visit the Badger brewery in Blandford Forum, which was a lot of fun and very educational, and I started wearing glasses, which I happen to think, suit me very well. I was awful for music this year. I was pretty much entirely out of the scene - I find myself listening to a lot of old music these days, like The Jam and The Clash. Sorry, new guys, but you can't come close to the good old days. Music is getting worse. It was a bad year for books, too! I did read a few that I've been meaning to for a while now, though, like Time Traveller's Wife, The Vampire Lestat, and Catcher in the Rye. It was good to cross those off the list. I started trying to read faster, but it turns out that speed reading is hard. I saw a few good movies, and swore off cinemas after too many run-ins with talking people and mobile phones. In 2010, I'm signing up to lovefilm to continue my cinematic education elsewhere. I may invest in a projector at some point. Now, 2009 was, at least, awesome for games. I played through a lot of stuff, and really put time into them, which is something I've been really bad at in the past. I completed every game I bought apart from Fallout 3, which I found really disappointing - Fallout is not built to be an FPS. My highlight of the year was probably Call of Duty 4 - I know I'm late to the game, but that single player is amazing. Modern Warfare 2's single player is poor in comparison. Brutal Legend was almost really good but just didn't know what genre it wanted to be. League of Legends has me utterly addicted, and I expect that to carry on for a while. I struggled a lot to figure out what I wanted to do with my life this year. I'm fairly happy with the way things are going, though. I like my job, and it's what I want to do for the foreseeable future. My social life has been a bit poor this year, though - I need to get myself out more. Resolutions for the year, then? Get fitter, care more about my personal appearance, go out more, make good things. Hello, 2010. Sometimes I feel like I've spent my whole life waiting for a certain moment, some kind of sign or trigger, but this year I've learned that you make your own moments: the only way you get anything done is if you get out there and do it.