[Before posting here, please make sure you have read How to Help Us Ferk Up 2018.]

Happy New Year to You All

Traditionally, I try to bring in the new year by doing some or all of the following: attempt to pass on my gratitude to members here who serve others so diligently, review the last year and outline plans for the next 12 months. In the thread linked at the top of this post, I'll be outlining what needs to be done to make this site outstanding. (I thought we'd be there by now but had no idea on how many resources were required!) One thing you'll find in that thread as I write it is, either immediately or eventually, a place for you.

Let's make this thread a good read - humourous, interesting, philosophical - whatever you like!
What struck you in 2017? (brewing-related or not)
Any demands on 2018?

I'll get the ball rolling in my next post below. All the best,
Pat

[On reflection, the below is one example of exciting brewing things we can ferk in 2018 but, without members' offering specialist skills will be unable to....]

Non-Brewing (IT) Stuff Stole my 2017

In the spirit of humorous, interesting and philosophical...

Information Technology delivered staggering blows to me in 2017 (and late 2016). I can sort of laugh now but not quite as it cost so much time and money to finally realise that everything is a problem in IT (unless you are specialised in that area). In the last 18 months, I have had to not only learn countless programs but also deal with the interactions between them. I feel as though I've done ten university degrees! Even everyday software we use constantly changes and has the most appalling help. For a bit of fun, just today, after solving a lot of more important IT stuff, I thought I'd try and solve a trivial one. You can see my attempts towards the end of Page 4 of this MS thread.

Also today I spent an hour and a half following up incorrect billing on my internet connection and an important extension that I use here.

The glass half-empty side of me trembles when reflecting on 2017.
The glass half-full side of me reflects on how I now know a lot of IT stuff. A bit like brewing info - I now know when I here sense and when I here nonsense. That's a big win.

Brewing! Some Great Stuff!

Putting IT horrors aside, 2017 was pretty big for me personally. Critical things that have been annoying me for years but never could get quite right, finally came together*. It's hard for me to define them but I suppose you could say it's finding or creating the right info and equipment, making sure that the right info and equipment is delivered to the right user at the right time and that the info and equipment does not become redundant as the user's need change.

That's a bit of a mouthful but hopefully, with you (member/reader) contributing your skills and resources, by the end of the year, we'll see just how beautifully all these things work together.

And to finish in the spirit of humourous, interesting and philosophical... getting to this stage required an immense amount of ignorance, naivety, passion, stupidity, faith, intelligence, diligence, time, money etc. I'm not the only one who has contributed in all those essential areas, there are heaps more. Diligence displayed in the My First Post thread is what amazes me most though.

Cheers,
Pat

[mention]ShorePoints[/mention] : A potato masher is a must so no harm done there. I'm not going to ask what an Arduino is otherwise I'll probably buy one
[mention]mally[/mention] : Lol. As I was waiting, I was tempted to write stuff like, "Can you hold on a second? My baby is crying and I need to give it more whisky." But, there was no need, Microsoft provided all the humour

[NOTE: This new skin allows "mentions." Just type an "@" and the username. If all the IT components are holding together, the user you have mentioned should receive a notification and/or email.]