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And so we're now approaching the end of 2011, the year in which the most happened in the history of the world ever. Charlie Brooker - whose year review I've yet to watch - referred to it as an end-of-series special from the pen of a madman, with multiple story arcs unexpectedly coming to an end.
On a worldwide scale, there were earthquakes in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, hurricanes here and in Scotland, revolutions in Egypt, Libya, across the middle east and on a smaller scale in London and cities across England as well. Osama Bin Laden is dead, and so are Muammar Gaddafi, Dennis Ritchie and Steve Jobs (who really don't deserve to be placed alongside the other names on this list). And recently, Kim Jong Il's gone as well - reportedly of a heart attack, which seems a suspiciously human explanation for a nation which repeatedly made up stories about him in exactly the same way that mentally challenged people on the Internet might share facts about Chuck Norris.
On a more personal level, it's been no less hectic. I think the list of my friends who didn't change their jobs or entire careers this year was shorter than the list of people who did - I myself went through that process in April, having been wonderfully comfortable but then getting an offer out of nowhere just when it looked like I might suddenly need it. And now I'm being moved up to being apparently in charge of at least a couple of people. I learned to drive again, we bought our first car, I released a game that I'd been working on for four years, and we organized our first Christmas together. We went to two friends' weddings, another friend contracted cancer that he thought was backache and was then cleared of cancer a few months later, my parents' elderly next-door neighbour died, his wife moved into the flat previously owned by a family friend who also died, my brothers started new university courses, my sister got engaged, and so did another university friend (compressing these spectacular occurrences into one, as it was to each other).
We're going to go out for an early dinner and then spend a quiet few hours until midnight watching things that Britain saw five hours earlier, hoping for no more massive world events in the year's last few hours in the western timezones. I wish everyone a calmer new year than the last one - if there's anything I want to say to everybody, it's to thank them for their continuing companionship despite my rapid transformation into being such a miserable old git, accelerated all the more by my transition into my ancient late twenties. I hope to keep everyone who's close to me for many more decades.
On a worldwide scale, there were earthquakes in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, hurricanes here and in Scotland, revolutions in Egypt, Libya, across the middle east and on a smaller scale in London and cities across England as well. Osama Bin Laden is dead, and so are Muammar Gaddafi, Dennis Ritchie and Steve Jobs (who really don't deserve to be placed alongside the other names on this list). And recently, Kim Jong Il's gone as well - reportedly of a heart attack, which seems a suspiciously human explanation for a nation which repeatedly made up stories about him in exactly the same way that mentally challenged people on the Internet might share facts about Chuck Norris.
On a more personal level, it's been no less hectic. I think the list of my friends who didn't change their jobs or entire careers this year was shorter than the list of people who did - I myself went through that process in April, having been wonderfully comfortable but then getting an offer out of nowhere just when it looked like I might suddenly need it. And now I'm being moved up to being apparently in charge of at least a couple of people. I learned to drive again, we bought our first car, I released a game that I'd been working on for four years, and we organized our first Christmas together. We went to two friends' weddings, another friend contracted cancer that he thought was backache and was then cleared of cancer a few months later, my parents' elderly next-door neighbour died, his wife moved into the flat previously owned by a family friend who also died, my brothers started new university courses, my sister got engaged, and so did another university friend (compressing these spectacular occurrences into one, as it was to each other).
We're going to go out for an early dinner and then spend a quiet few hours until midnight watching things that Britain saw five hours earlier, hoping for no more massive world events in the year's last few hours in the western timezones. I wish everyone a calmer new year than the last one - if there's anything I want to say to everybody, it's to thank them for their continuing companionship despite my rapid transformation into being such a miserable old git, accelerated all the more by my transition into my ancient late twenties. I hope to keep everyone who's close to me for many more decades.
