1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
Got out of my comfort zone in entirely new ways. Kiwiburn. Performed contemporary dance, upside down, in front of 500 people. Made electronic circuit boards in the kitchen. Worked in government. Got insulted in a press release. Learnt to program microcontrollers. Crowd control in Civic Square while wearing a purple tu-tu. Was invited to speak on climate change at a company and a conference. Kicked someone’s arse. Made Old School Techno – On Fire! Mark 2. Discovered more things to do with ratchet straps. Put retaining wall posts in upside down. Attended the Budget lockup. Was quoted as one of NZ’s rocket scientists. Chainsawing with a big chainsaw. Broke an extropian. Played hockey with stitches in my head. Learnt to spin staff. Learnt to solder surface mount components. Designed the Mitochondrion. Built most of the Mitochondrion. Redesigned the Mitochondrion.

Yeah, it was a year for doing new stuff.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Don’t need them. I have enough resolve. Your resolve? Sorry, I ated it.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No. Well, only my boss.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries new places in NZ did you visit?
Whakamaru. Flock Hill. Life has been gleefully free of travel.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
More time. More visits from UK mates. A house. A great big report on life cycle analysis. Mad Python skillz. Aikido. Steves and matrixes. More miles on the bike.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Pretty much the whole year.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Calming down. I was going to say the Mitochondrion, but it’s not done yet. But it’ll take less than 12 months, so that counts as a year.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Well, there was this gravel road, down South…

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major, but there was the usual copious facial bleeding due to hockey.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A Picaxe. I’m pretty chuffed with the 9532s as well. Oh, and the nail gun. And I didn’t buy it but the black Kyocera ceramic knife.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Those who I’ve got so much closer to. You know who you are.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
They might appall me, but I just don’t care. La la la ignoring you coz you suck

14. Where did most of your money go?
Small black things with legs in ziploc bags.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Soldering. Aerials again. Things other than studying.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
Justice vs Simian – “We are your friends”
Skream – “Nemesis”

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Smugger.
ii. thinner or fatter? Wider.
iii. richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Aikido, where “more” equals “any”. Cooking. Pushed myself across the barriers between people. Danced more. Also, slept more, which rather clashes with dancing more. Taken photos.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Interwebbing. Flying.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Etching, filing, hacksawing.

21. What LJ users did you meet for the first time?
Erm… too complicated.

22. Did you fall in love in 2006?
Yes, with technology.

23. How many one-night stands?
Mainly, I lie down at night.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Look Around You.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Yes, but only for trivial reasons.

26. What was the best book you read?
Ah, yeah, books. I failed on books this year.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Dubstep.
D&B stepping it up another notch or ten.

28. What did you want and get?
Scared.
The things I made.

29. What did you want and not get?
More pics of me. But then, I am that underground. All my friends to have less hassle than they turned out to have.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Umm… Daywatch?

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I had a stealth birthday this year. So stealthy that I can’t even remember what I was doing myself.

32.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More time. Also better hardware debugging tools. Frankly, just more power tools in general.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
More pockets than you!

34. What kept you sane?
Being entirely happy with who I am and what I’m doing.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
None. Also, huh?

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Climate change, as usual.

37. Who did you miss?
, but she is back now.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I don’t know about “best”, but there are some who are examples to the rest of us.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
It is possible for a man to have too many degrees.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
“Because we are your friends
You’ll never be alone again”
and
“Harder better faster stronger”

Yes, have found the 11th, 12th and 13th bug in this circuit board. 11th and 12th were fairly trivial, need fixing but can’t explain the baffling wierd behaviour that I’m getting. So, more poking, more proding, more mumbling to myself and occasionally swearing. Finally put fact number 4930 together with assumption number 357 and brain went “boing”. Turns out the pull-up resistor arrays are actually bussed, not isolated, so parts of the circuit that shouldn’t be connected are connected. That explains some of the wierd problems going on.

Hmm… don’t think it explains everything though, but it’s going to be a bugger to test without the new bits… Still, there is progress today, so now I can go and kill my brain with beer.

(Also, damn you Cringle, for your holiday thing! Now I have to wait more than two days for my tiny, tiny little parts to arrive.)

Does anyone have a laser printer at home that I can use a few times over the holidays?

My brain has been churning through the critical path to get the Mitochondrion done, and final noticed that the laser printer I use at work, I can’t use, as work is switched off. All of it. Bother.

I will need to print less than ten pages, hopefully only on one occasion. And some of it will be printing on plastic, but it’s special, non-melting (and really expensive) plastic.

[EDIT – one constraint removed, no printer needed now, thanks to all that offered]

Mitochondrion progress

There’s a blog called Purrcast, which is just audio files of cats purring. Download one of the mp3s. Connect computer to stereo. Turn volume up to “Apocalypse”. Play.

Also, , demands a psytrance track with this as the bassline. It’s got everything – rhythm, sub-bass, instinctual responses in the cerebellum. In fact, this could replace “Funky Drummer” as the world’s most over-used break. So get in there first, I reckon.