The 2005 Roundup

The 2005 Roundup
Wow – what a year 2005 has been for me! If I had to sum it up in a few words, well… I just don’t think I could! Paragraphs yes, but not words. This year has, overall, been a bit of a life-changing one for me. I have learnt a lot in 2005, and while I don’t really ever make any new-year resolutions, I know there are a lot of personal goals & milestones that I have achieved this year – both in business, friendships, health and wealth.

Work & business
This area was an interesting one for me in 2005 – for I’ve only ever had one job in my life… until this year, anyway. I was forced to leave Networkers after 6-and-a-bit years, due to the company (v1 anyway) having gone into administration. I could have stayed on, since the company has now sort-of reincarnated & moved locations, but I was getting bored there, and I felt I had reached my wage maximum there – thanks to the lack of money they had. That said, I’m still actually doing work for them – designing their monthly electronic newsletter, so that’s a bit of extra money on the side.
In around April (I think?) I got a job up north and have been very happy there. It started off a little slow / boring, as it wasn’t entirely what I wanted (but I needed a way to pay the bills, so it was good enough), but it has improved dramatically since then. I’ve been flown to Canberra on business trips, taken out for lunches many times, and the boss has a lot of respect for what I do – so it’s good. I’m also earning 8K more per year then I was as Networkers, so I’m quite happy in that department too.

Another area that has grown a little is my own company. After leaving Networkers, I started my own web hosting company on the side (I’d always kinda done staging / events + web & logo design, but never hosting on my own) and although the first few months ran at a loss, currently this area of my business is running quite well. There is also some further room for financial growth here, as my hosting infrastructure is only running at 20% capacity at the moment. That said, I already have 2 more hosting clients lined up for early 2006 – so things are looking quite good.
2005 was also saw some growth on the Events side of my business. Mid year, I organised & ran the technical side of Boost Juice Bar’s annual staff party, which was a huge success. I was also involved with 6 dance concerts, a product launch in Canberra and the big Opti-Minds event in early October.
I designed a number of websites & logos during the year too – including djandypanda.com, pflagbrisbane.org.au, narelleshannon.com.au and redcliffeselfstorage.com.au – just to name a few. Collectively through my own company and my fulltime job, I’ve spent over 1200 hours on design work – be it logos, business cards, website, letterheads, posters and so on… something I’m pretty happy about.

Music & Social life
I’ve spent many hours this year in-front of my DJ gear at home practising and mucking around with music, and a breakthrough (albeit a small one) came some weeks ago when I was asked to mix sets for a weekly radio program on the Switch network. As you probably already know, you can hear the ‘Switched on, with DJ AndyPanda’ sets on the radio most Friday nights, or listen to these and other mixes I’ve done on www.djandypanda.com.
Unfortunately I don’t have the time to be a ‘proper’ DJ and do actual gigs (apart from the Boost Juice party earlier in the year), but at least I can spare the odd hour once a week to practise & mix new music. I suppose the fact that I don’t drive / don’t have a car means it’s hard to cart gear around, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter anyway.
Socially, I believe that I’ve become a better person this year. I remember a time about 3 or so years ago when I’d hate going to parties, hate socialising with people I don’t know, disliked being in big groups and so on – but this has changed dramatically over the last few years; more so in 2005 as I have had a chance to properly improve my social communication skills, and become more comfortable in new environments.

Health, Fitness & Spirituality
As frequent diary-readers will remember, early in the year was not so good for me. The on again off again sickness that 3 doctor’s couldn’t identity eventually disappeared, and still no one really knows what it was; I think it ended up being a toss up between Ross River & Glandular Fever. Currently I’m feeling good, and enjoying life.
My current weight is 67kg (up from 64kg earlier this year, but I have grown in height about 1.5cm too). which I am happy with. Of course, my weight fluctuates depending on what I’m doing and what’s happening in my life, but as long as it stays between 65kg & 75kg, I’m happy. I’m still underweight given my height, but I like my body at the moment. With some further exercise, muscle development should be easy, given there is no fat to ‘burn down’ first. The winter months are preferable to me for exercise, thanks to the temperature – but with the air-con on, I do try and do some weights and sit-ups at home at least 2 nights a week after work.
Spiritually, I feel that I am right on par with my sign (Virgo). I fit the typical Virgo description to a T – shy, caring, honest, genuine, down to earth… you know the drill.

Love & Relationships
This has been an interesting area for me this year. Apart from a 3 week ‘relationship’ (if you could call it that) with Will mid-year, the year has seen me on my own. Interestingly though, it hasn’t been a problem. I’m not sure why, but perhaps I’m waiting for someone or something? Maybe it’s something to do with my age? Maybe I’m over the whole ‘wanting to fall in love’ thing for now, and just want to have some fun before wanting to settle down again in a few years time? I really don’t know…
Whether it’s an issue of waiting for someone, or not being able to move on, I’m not sure. My last long-term relationship was with Jono; it lasted about a year or so (and finished about a year or so ago too), but it seemed that perhaps I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was. I had a number of problems moving on from a previous relationship & this issue would rear its’ ugly head at the worst of times, until Jono & I decided to call it quits. It’s no good being in a relationship wishing you were with someone else, and as I’d found, trying to mould you current partner into what your last one was, doesn’t always work.
Being single for a year doesn’t mean I’ve missed out though; as it seems my focus, for the moment anyway, has shifted from finding someone to settle down with, to just finding someone to have some fun with. Again, this is something that, come 3 years ago, I was completely opposed to the idea of. I’ve learnt a lot about people & relationships over the past year, and while each & every one has provided me with some fantastic memories over the years, the most treasured come from someone who I will always love & respect – the only person outside my family who I’ve shared the most amount of love, feelings & emotions for & with (if that makes sense?). He knows who he is

Living & Learning
I currently enjoy where I live; the area is handy to everything – including the city, the neighbours are friend (I actually work with one of them several times a month). As a city, I really love Brisbane, and don’t think I’d ever move from here. It has excellent shopping districts, a good public transport system, I feel safe & welcomed wherever I go, I am treated with respect, all of the friends I have in Brisbane are fantastic, and the tourist & marketing campaigns arte truthful, and work effectively.
In terms of learning, I’m [slowly] doing my MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) course through work (they’re paying for it too , and in 2006, I will attend a number of sound & lighting courses to get my accreditation; in particular I would like to have a rigger’s license. I think I should also get around to learning how to drive a car soon too… I even know which car I want to get

This Website
Everything has grown this year (except for old people – I think they shrink?) – and this website is no stranger to growth. This diary page has blown out to a 1.5mb HTML file (and that’s just the text & code – no images included in that figure! …I must really do something about that), and if I counted all the words, I’d say it’s also the biggest ever. New sections this year have included web stats, my website history, recipes & dining guides (Health & Lifestyle) & PodCasts.
For members, this year also saw an extension of content, including members-only recipes and (for the first time ever), the inclusion of some x-rated personal photos. Member content in 2006 will continue to grow, with audio versions of some diary entries, even more recipes (now that I have a decent camera to take photos of food with!) and more photos for members.
This year (figures as at 26/12/2005), I’ve had a total of 1,450,222 hits (60,323 unique visitors), who downloaded an insane total of 55.997 gigabytes of information (pics, movies & text) on this website alone! This brings total hits since the site’s inception (as at 26/12/2005) to an amazing 6,575,791. I really didn’t think that many people would want to read my ramblings and look at the photos I post on here! I guess it shows really how vast-reaching the internet is.
Interestingly, the most popular page for 2005 was, believe it or not, my Tamworth page (it ranks really well in search engines), from when Brandt & I visited the town for the Country Music Festival in early 2002.

Christmas & the Festive Season
Christmas this year was just fantastic! I feel that the lead-up plays an important part to getting ‘into the spirit of Christmas’, and this year’s lead-up was probably one of the best I’ve had in a while. I’d had friends over for barbeques, went on Christmas-light bus tours, went out to dinner with friends, spent time with family, and so on.
Being from a German background, we celebrate ‘Christmas’ on Christmas eve (well, the gift-giving part of it), and we did so again this year at mum’s place – starting off with the good-old gift giving [followed by gift-opening], then a delicious dinner, consisting of marinated schnitzels on the barbie with salad, fresh bread rolls, and many other nice things. We drank lots & watched a DVD, chatted for hours, dipped in the spa, played with rhino-beetles and ended up heading to bed around 1 or 2 in the morning.
On Christmas day, we woke around 8:30 in the morning, and I cooked plenty of bacon & eggs on the barbie for breakfast. This was followed by more drinking and fun in the spa with ice cubes & the hose. My bro, his fiancé and I left mum’s place around noon, they dropped me home, and they went on to their place to prepare for the dinner feast that evening.
Gift-wise, Christmas was great this year… everything I got was either what I’d wanted, or some I found very practical.
Beautiful chocolate tall-vase with twig things to go in it (hard to describe)
Candles & candle-holders which match the colour of my chairs
Glass [bathroom] scale
Kylie DVD
Batman & Robin (original TV series) DVD
Framed photos of mum & I, and one of my bro & his fiancé
$100 Coles-Myer gift card
Boxing day was also great; mum & I went to Myer, Target, JayJays, City Beach & Harvey Norman for some fantastic sales. Myer was absolutely packed (there’s a video in Misc Stuff). Tomorrow (Tuesday) mum & I will go into the Valley to check out some of the sales on there, and will get some home wares as well.
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In other news…
It’s been a busy past few days, so don’t forget to check out these other areas of the site which have also been updated recently…
Misc Stuff – Christmas Lights Tours (photos & movies)
Misc Stuff – Christmas Dinner (photos)

Misc Stuff – General stuff in December (photos)

Recipes – Marinated summer salad

New members-only photos

Thank you & goodbye!
Well, that’s it from me for another year – stay tuned for the 2006 diary page, which will be created early in the new year when I write my first entry – probably after NYE 05-06 (I’ll put a note at the top of this page when that happens, so ChangeDetection users will know when the 2006 page is up).
Thank you so very much for reading my diary during the year. Thank you to all of my friends & family for your love & support. Thank you to all those (members) who threw a bit into my tip-jar… your money has gone into creating a better website, buying equipment such as a digital camera and a proper weatherproof outdoor CCTV camera (with focus & zoom) which will, come early 2006, be rigged up to record the wonderful city of Brisbane – live on the net 24/7. Thank you also, to everyone else who comes & goes on this website – whether it’s old school friends & teachers doing a search on my last name, people looking for photos of Kasey Chambers or girls in body paint, I seem to attract them all here somehow.

And – if you’ve made it this far, thank you so very much for reading. I wish you a safe & happy holiday season, and I hope you see yourself into the new year with a celebration to top all others!
From the keyboard of Andy Pudmenzky, signing out for the last time this year, Merry Christmas & love to you all!
Thank you, and goodnight.