As I Xi It v2.3

Hmn… should’ve used a graduated ND for this one.

Well, with the last few days of 2008 left, I thought it’d be appropriate to write a retrospective blog post. I don’t particularly like writing these things since they make me feel a little sad having to think about the good times and bad over the last twelve months.

Like most years, this has been a rather interesting year. This was the year that Xiao and I managed to finally visit Anja and her cows!! It was a great weekend spent in Cologne/Bonn where were did some of the touristy things and met Anja’s cows. It wasn’t all plain sailing travel-wise since when Jac, Kamil, Vincent and I travelled all the way to Wales in search of puffins were only turned away because the sea was too choppy. I guess there’s always next year.

Another interesting thing of note this year was the arrival of Cici, my black and white tuxedo patterned male cat with a girly name! He settled in fairly quickly and really has become of the family. In his spare time he enjoys catching birds, sleeping, eating, watching bad Chinese soaps with my parents in the evenings and attention seeking, especially when I’m on the computer and am actually doing something constructive!!

In terms of blogging, I’ve switched from a photoblog to a more conventional blog. I prefer the current style since I reckon it’s more visually interesting. I’ve also become more willing to experiment with the various bits of WordPress and have found some very useful plug-ins which I wished I’d found sooner!

This year I also became reacquainted with customizing the themes/visual styles for my computer(s). The last time I did anything of the sort was briefly back in 1999 when I was using Windows ‘98 SE. Now all my computers have desktops to match their purpose.  Also this year, I added a netbook to my family of computers. Not really a necessity, but I like its portability and its a surprisingly capable machine despite its miniaturisation.

Work-wise it has been fairly sedate. Research and writing a series of reports. Then there was a bit of a lull period and then I found out I’d been booted off!! Economic recession and jobless. Great. It didn’t last long though, I managed to find a PhD which should engage me intellectually for the next couple of years. That has lead to the greatest change for me this year – leaving leafy South Kensington where I’ve become so familiar with for the past four years for the hustle and bustle of Bloomsbury for the next three years. A part of me doesn’t really want to go, I was quite comfortable where I was. I suppose change is good once in a while.

As an individual, I’m not entirely sure if I’ve grown. I might have, but its been so subtle that I haven’t realised. It’s often difficult to be objective about one self.

Photography-wise I haven’t shot as much as I had in previous years, but I belive that I’ve got some pretty good images. It might finally be time for me to select my panel of photos for my LRPS. Gosh, I’ve been saying that for the past two/three years, I might finally get round to it in 2009! With that note, I’ll leave you with a series of 12 photos from the last 12 months.

It seems the most popular photography subject at the moment is the cat. He’s taken to having a snooze on the bed in the spare room. He just struts around like he owns the place.

Looks like Cici is quite fond of my overpriced diary with elaborate felt covering. He kinda engulfs the whole thing when he’s sitting on it. I hope he doesn’t leave it smelling of kitty poo. Eeewww.

Here’s an homage to King of the Hill featuring Cici!

Cici’s Window from Xi on Vimeo.

My old Logitech Notebook mouse was starting to skip a bit and the cable kept on being snagged on things when I used it out on location, so I thought I should get a new mouse to go with my new netbook.

The Logitech VX Revolution is considered by some to be the “mutts nuts” of notebook mice and it’s certainly one of the best notebook mice I’ve used. The build quality is on par with the Logitech MX510 which I use for my desktop. It’s got oodles of buttons including my favourite forwards and backwards buttons for more efficient web browsing. The cool features of note for me are the zoom slider and the metal scroll wheel with hyper-fast scrolling. You can adjust the traction of the scroll wheel with the flick of a switch underneath from clickety-click to smooth frictionless free wheeling (not official Logitech terms) great for uber long documents. The only issue I have with the mouse is the stiff zoom slider, but I think with use it should ease up.

Being a wireless mouse, it’s got a USB receiver which is quite small (not as small as those in Logitech’s Nano range) and tucks into a hole at the rear (*insert tawdry orafice joke here*) which also switches off the mouse at the same time. There’s also an eject button to get it out. It all makes for a very compact and neat package. If one wishes to leave the receiver plugged in, there is an independent on/off switch too.

Ergonomically, it fits the contours of my hand and is as nice to use as my MX510. It uses a laser sensor as opposed to an optical sensor or even a trackball (remember those??!). It’s nice and responsive which is what you’d want from a mouse. You can tweak the mouse behaviour with the included SetPoint software. Overall, its a great piece of kit.

Together with my new mouse, I also picked up a Belkin Mouse Trap. It looks like a taco with a zip and I suppose the orange innards makes it look even more taco-ey if you flipped it inside out. It’s basically a circular piece of neoprene with a zip around the edge. You can use it to store various bits and pieces like a mouse, USB stick, pen and a cable. If you’ve got one of those flat, credit card sized mice, you could probably tuck in a tiny netbook power adapter as well. It’ll be a snug fit, but possible. When you open out the taco mouse trap out, it becomes a mouse pad. For about a fiver (£5), its a useful addition to any travelling netbook/laptop set up.

In the mice line up pic in the gallery below, I am aware that the MX510 on the left looks exactly like its predecessor the MX500. Reason being that I found my old faulty MX500 and swapped the case out since the blue MX510 was looking a bit worn and decrepit. So now, its a MX510 in MX500 clothing. From the looks of it, the current MX518 appears to have the same casing as the earlier MX’s so it’s probably switchable, of course this will void your warranty.

I’m ever so cute!