Vakkotaur

In the area I live, one good independent restaurant closed, and a Wendy's opened closer. The local Shell stations closed, eventually to be reopened by different management. The small grocery store also closed, likely getting out while the the getting is good as there are plans for a "super" Wal-Mart.

I lost two friends, one a coworker who was always cheerful even when dealing frustrating annoyances (mainly of Microsoft's commission). The other, Egg, I only knew on-line.

I also found some things losing import or impact. While I still read Slashdot, it's not a big deal and I seldom even bother with the comments as most simply aren't worth my time. I've found I've even stopped caring about meta-moderating there. I'm still interested in renaissance faires, but not nearly to the degree I once was. I only went to MNRF once and that was enough.

I did go to the Jubilee faire in or near Peoria, IL and had a reasonably good time. I think that was as it was a bit new to me and I got to meet some friends I hadn't seen in some time. As someone put it in another's LJ, it's not that faire isn't faire anymore, but that Iowa faires aren't Iowa faires anymore. Iowa used to have have a few small really fun faires that have now pretty much all receded into history though I had heard talk of one coming back. The current Iowa faires, at least one(s) I could reasonable attend, don't have the same feel. The last fall IRF was not something that left me wanting more.

By contrast, Jubilee was pleasant, and Siouxland -- even with the rain and mud -- was still fun. It wasn't just that I had a fairly good time, it's that I could tell others were also having a good time despite the low turnout, the rising water, and the endless mud. The performers were having fun, and not slogging through a job, even if they were slogging through the site. That sort of thing is infectious in the good way.

I went to a waterpark for the first time. It was nice enough, but I found I wanted deeper water than it offered.

I also went to the Big Island Rendezvous (which is so big it had to move off of the island years ago) again this year, my third or fourth visit. It's a nice diversion and I got to meet a friend I normally would have seen at faire. I also saw Tanglefoot, which I'd only heard about until then.

I had some computer trouble early in the year, which was traced to a failing CPU fan. Once that was replaced things were pretty stable once again. I did try a number of Linux distributions and eventually settled on Ultima Linux for a laptop and switched from Mandrake to Fedora for my main machine.

I decided to get a permanent LiveJournal when it was offered, mainly as then I'd get all the paid account features and no longer have to be concerned about renewal. The bump to 100 possible icons was a bonus and I'm still only just starting to take advantage of the possibilities there.

There was a little automotive trouble, but while it was enough to make me leery of using the car, it wasn't something that just left me stranded. That problem got taken care of, and likely a few more problems were averted with a good dose of preventative maintenance. I now have an mp3 player, if a simple one, for the car which has made longer trips seem to pass that much more quickly. The 100,000 mile mark was crossed and while I won't predict that I'll see the 200,000 mile mark before changing vehicles I'm not about to rule that out, either. I have yet to install a Christmas present in the car, an XM receiver, which will also make longer trips seem to go by more quickly. The XM set is set up in the house for now (it can be in the house or the car and is moved fairly easily) and is already getting good use.

The fading Iowa fares are being replaced, at least for me, by furmeets. Rocket City FurMeet is my "I won't miss this" furmeet. It's small, it's friendly, and as I've said before, it's the furry equivalent of Siouxland (which is my "I won't miss this" faire). I'm already registered for next year and the only reason I don't have the hotel room booked is that I'm waiting for the RCFM folks to do whatever they do with such arrangements. This year I was able to hang around on Monday and so went to space museum in Huntsville, which I enjoyed. I also got a chance to at least sample fursuiting. Even with a full suit, which is hot, and with few folks around to see it, it's quite a feeling. I can certainly understand the desire to do more. I now have it myself. The post-RCFm house party was another reason I was glad I stayed the extra day. Midwest FurFest was good overall, though had a few problems there. Fortunately the worst of those has been nicely resolved. MFF itself was made that much better by my encounter(s) with the rocking fox(es) and my encounters with and invitations from the RCFM folks who were there.

Looking ahead, my current plans for 2006 include:

RCFM
Siouxland
Jubilee
MNRF (at least once)
MFF

I do need to decide if I care to add PenguiCon to the mix. I'm not sure I can afford it in time and expense, but it's much more likley than LinuCon which is farther away and thus a greater expense.