Year In Review 2005: Life

Another year has come and gone and it’s that emotional time again when we look back at the fun and happy times of the year.

The spring saw more of my second term of University and I finally quit Greggs after 4 years! I can't say I miss working there though I do miss the staff; I quit at the right time and doubt I would ever go back. Not because it's a bad place to work but because it's not really a satisfying or rewarding job to do and I can't be creative.

The spring also brought to me my biggest computer revolution ever when I got a Mac Mini, after using OS X for a few months I was totally converted into the Apple lifestyle. I got my first iPod for my 20 th birthday in March, it was only the flash based Shuffle but it is a lot easier and nicer to use than my previous MP3 player.

After Easter I had my second year exams, the University work load had been a lot more intense in my second year and things were getting a lot more interesting, I started to get to know more people and the last 6 weeks or so at University were very fun and entertaining even though it was the exam period.

University finished and we all went home, I went straight on holiday to Spain with Laura and we had a great week getting drunk and sun bathing in Salou. I got some really good photos and started to get more interested in film and photography.

A few weeks later I went on holiday again this time to Portugal with my parents, it was a good holiday and I got loads more good photos.

Filming

The long summer days went quite quickly and I was chilling with Shannon one morning online, we hadn't really planned to do anything but somehow we got onto the idea that it would be cool to make a short film. We considered various ideas for a few minutes before settling on filming the shit areas of Shrewsbury and putting together a short comedy documentary (a docucomedy).

The film was an instant success on ImAFish and even though it only took us a day to film and edit the feedback was great, people loved the sarcastic comedy and cheap filming and it inspired us to think of new and bigger ideas.

Blending

I had toyed on the idea of pimping blenders ever since I saw the rustler adverts and microwave pimping but I had never considered actually producing anything. We pitched our idea to some of our friends and they thought it had potential, Nej said he would love to star in it and Mal said he would provide the camera and film; It would leave me and Shannon free for directing and playing extras. We spend hours pimping blenders with spray paint and household items, most looked pretty pimped out especially with the “IBE?? (in blender entertainment).

Filming took about 3 weeks as everyone's schedules were packed with work but we finally got the whole docucomedy filmed and edited. Editing was a lot easier than Shit Shrewsbury as I had just brought a new iMac G5 to replace the Mac Mini. By this time I was a hardcore Mac user and my PC days were gone, no more viruses or awkward crashes. Fortunately the iMac comes with some simple tools for editing video and producing DVD's so it was fairly simple leaving us to be more creative.

The blending documentary was as good hit but not as successful as I had hoped I think I could have edited some of the middle bits better and possibly a better quality Microphone would have improved the quality of production.

Creamfields

One of my highlights of the summer has to be Creamfields, I saw many of my favourite DJ’s including Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren and Eddie Halliwell.

The summer ended and for once it was different, I had actually achieved something rather than just lazing about all summer it was a good feeling and I was motivated going back to University.

University

Year three started much differently than the past two years, instead of a slow start we were working straight away on coursework. Being the final year there was much more stress on success and finishing with a degree! Things were different in other ways too I was spending a lot more time on campus rather than at home and was chilling with people I had worked with on my course the previous year but not necessarily chilled with before.

Radio

I had often joked with Benjie about doing a Radio Show on the University station but we never tried it before. This term was different and we got our slot on a Monday night between 6-8, the show quickly became a success with our great tunes and hilarious comedy links. The station reached new highs with on air dating and satirical news content.

Christmas
Finally Christmas has come round and it’s snowing at last (as I type this) and I have my second iPod – this time it can play video too!

It’s going to be a busy year as I graduate in the summer and will have to find a job!