It’s that time of year where every magazine and website does a retrospective, regurgitating old material with no shame. I didn’t want to miss out this year. Digging into my Google Analytics logs I found the following…

Ten most read pages this year:

1. Installing Oracle 10g XE on CentOS 4. This page was actually 35% more popular this year than last despite the ageing versions of both Linux and Oracle
2. Sri Lanka. This has been one of my most popular pages for years, although it took a 50% dive in page impressions this year due to the loss of a single referrer
3. Oracle on Linux Installation Howto
4. Minolta Dual Scan II film scanner review. Another surprise given the age of the scanner and the rise of digital cameras
5. Belkin WiFi (Skype) Phone review
6. Photobook Group Test (Part 1)
7. Printing-1 Photobook Review (Part 1)
8. Photobook Group Test (Part 3)
9. Sophia Smith
10. Photobook Group Test (Part 4)

Somehow part two of my photobook group test slipped out of the top ten.

Wishing you and your family happiness and peace, turkey¹ and chocolate this festive season, whatever your faith or lack thereof.

The above image, by the way, was taken in Reykjavik, Iceland a couple of days before Christmas 2006.

It all started ten thirteen years ago. In November 1998 I went with a friend to Amsterdam, and now every November since I have spent at least a few days out of the country.

For the record, those trips were:

• Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1998)
• Abu Dhabi, UAE (1999)
• Thailand (2000)
• Oslo, Norway (2001)
• Malta (2002)
• Charlotte, NC, USA (2003)
• Cuba (2004)
• Brussels, Belgium (2005)
• Lille, France (2006)
• Jordan and Egypt (2007)
• Lisbon, Portugal (2008)
• Vienna, Austria (2009)
• Amsterdam and Den Haag, The Netherlands (2010)

It never started as a challenge and you can’t deliberately start a tradition, but I’m keen to keep this one going for as long as I can. Even if it is a little silly.

George W. Bush stars in the latest (and little publicised) in the gory Saw movie franchise. In it he discovers some interesting new “enhanced interrogation” techniques and finds that getting out, with no recourse to legal representation or trial, is, quite literally, torture.

Full news on her own website, but today B said her “Affirmation of allegiance” and gained British Nationality. She was a little unhappy about having to pledge allegiance to the Queen so I’ve made a minor edit to the original picture.

I commented that a lot of our government clearly have not had to make such a pledge themselves. If they too had to respect democracy and freedom I think we’d be hearing rather less about 42 days in gaol without trial and ID cards. (End of rant.)

Somehow the idea of replacing the head of Hellboy with that of the last Deputy Prime Minister and MP for Kingston upon Hull, John Prescott, amused me. Even the slogan kind of works.

I hesitate to say that it happens often, but people do sometimes talk about special abilities or super-powers, even if it’s phrased as a “party trick.” Today I realised that I have what might best be described as a special inability.

I took a quick wander into Wimbledon, the nearest town to where I live. It looked gloomy outside and the weather the previous day had been windy and a little chilly. I decided to wear a jumper and my jacket. It didn’t take me long to realise that I had misjudged the weather and that I was very warm.

On the approach to Wembley there were a gaggle of vendors selling glowing rabbit ears and furry wands. We speculated whether this was where Gwen Stefani bought the wardrobe for her tour. They probably sell the same merchandise for most gigs here, but there are few other artists that I could imagine actually wearing such cheap and cheesy accessories.

Of course she didn’t, at least until about two thirds of the way through the set when she launched herself into the audience, alternately running around and standing in the crowd to sing a verse. At one point she borrowed some rabbit ears from a fan. Very fetching.

Do you remember where you were when you heard that Diana had died? I do. I woke up on the Sunday and switched on the radio over breakfast. Nothing but slow, miserable songs on Radio 1. And Capital. And Heart. Indeed, every channel I tried — and there are a lot in London. The occasional announcement that “due to recent events it wasn’t appropriate to continue with the usual programming” did little to enhance my understanding of what had happened.