It’s that retrospective time of year again. Looking back over all the highlights of the year and recording them for posterity.
Albums:
- Antics by Interpol
- Everybody Makes Mistakes by Starflyer 59
- Good news for people who love bad news by Modest Mouse
Quite simply, I’ve not been so excited, enthralled and addicted to an album as I have with ‘Antics’ in a long time. ‘Everybody makes mistakes’ didn’t actually come out in 2004, but I didn’t manage to get a copy until this year, and I’ve played it to death, so in it goes. Then end track “The Party” is a perfect song to finish the day on. Honorable mentions go to Wilco’s “A Ghost is Born”, Tanya Donelly’s “Beautysleep” (again, not actually released this year) and ’I am the Portuguese Blues’, also by Starflyer 59 (which was released this year).
OS X Browser
- Omniweb 5.1b4
- Safari (+ Saft + PithHelmet + Stand + Safarisource)
- Firefox
Ah, Omniweb how I love thee. The latest beta build is an almost perfect balance of features and performance. When I use other browsers, it just makes me pine for its doing-anything-with-them tabs, form editor and oodles of other things I can only do in OW. The interface isn’t perfect, but hopefully that’ll be improved in the future. Safari came in at a very close second. Depending on which day you ask me, numbers 1 and 2 can change places). Sorry Firefox, you’re not quite there yet on the mac, although you’re close. Maybe after 1.1? Camino has possibilities, but is still too bare bones for me. I’ve been really impressed by the latest Opera, with its combination browser/email/rss reader, but while being fully featured, it looks like a dogs dinner.
Site design I wished I’d come up with first:
Blog Posts
- A story about someone else’s ass - Dooce.
I cried with tears of joy - Screen Grab confab - Cameron Moll.
Fascinating insight into peoples work. - I would RTFM if there was an FM to FR - Design by Fire.
Andrei, I wish you blogged more often.
Events:
- The very first Geekend
A very special time, and we’ve even managed to fit in 2 more before the year was out. Nice to finally meet you all chaps. - Firefox
I had no idea what I was getting myself into. - Being called the 13th most influential design blogger. I’m nowhere near, but it was flattering all the same, thankyou Cameron.
finally…
Thankyou Samantha and Daniel. You’re the highlight of every year
Looking forward:
Before the year is out, the family of Hicks is heading out to Sydney for two and half weeks. Its 0 degrees as I write this, and 42 over there. I’m just gonna melt, but I can’t wait. I love living in England, but the weather can really lower your spirits sometimes. It can be like living in Bladerunner - always dark, always raining.
So…
Using the same categories, name your top 3’s!