Serendipity

Last year was, without doubt, a year of unexpected events, of surprises, of serendipity. Who could have thought that an off the cuff comment from Gary Turner about #joiito would have had me using IRC again for the first time in years? Or that that would have lead me to becoming friends with such a wonderful group of people? Who would have thought that I would have bumped into Lee Bryant on the plane on my way to BlogTalk, thus providing first-hand experience of the world of professional blogging? Who would have thought that a chance meeting with Stowe Boyd would have me writing for Corante and doing all sorts of other blog-related stuff?
At the beginning of the year, my plan was pretty basic. Get through it. 2003 was such a spectacularly awful year and I was still recovering from it, so actually making a more detailed plan wasn't on the cards. Instead, nature took her course – a chance bout of insomnia lead to taking part in AKMA's project to gather readings of Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture. That lead to me interviewing Larry, then meeting him after the LIFT lecture in London, and then writing about MP3s for The Guardian. And so it went – happy coincidences that lead to interesting places.
Something that was no where near as planned as as it should have been was Nothing Travels Faster Than Bad News, the film I helped make with my friend Vince. We really should have spent a lot more time working out logistics for it, but we managed to get it shot anyway. Should be cut together some time soon – watch this space. Lots of fun to do, too.
There's a bunch of other stuff that happened last year too, and a whole load of really cool people that I've had the pleasure to meet and hang out with.
It has been, truly, a serendipitous twelve months. In a last, final act of generosity for the year, the universe arranged something really quite wonderful and unexpected. It's frustrating, crw being on the other side of the Atlantic and all, but y'know, I don't mind. The ocean might be a pain in the arse but it's not an insurmountable barrier, and anything worthwhile is difficult.
As for this year, 2005, I have no specific resolutions. All I want is to keep doing the stuff that I'm doing, build on all the achievements of 2004, and spend a lot more time with crw. Let's hope serendipity is on my side one more.