31/12/2009 (Day 3.365) - The End

31/12/2009 (Day 3.365) - The End
“But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.”
Sherlock Holmes – ‘The Three Garridebs’

There’s a lot of description today, so I’d get a cup of tea or something before you start.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin ….

The thing is, I had all kinds of good intentions about today. The end of Year 3 of my 365 Days. A big day. Time to do something special. I had considered a shot showcasing all of the props I’ve used in the last three years. Then I thought that I’d adopt the alternative approach, and just do a simple self-portrait and allow the text under it to speak for me.

What I’ve ended up doing is something silly and just a little bit disturbing. And, in some ways, that seems the best way to finish the year, because it’s what I’ve spent a lot of the rest of it doing. I was inspired by today’s group picks for The Rogue Players (Awkward Posing) and FGR (Evildog tribute). The former is obvious. The latter is covered in that I’m copycatting this shot – if a dog can do it (even with Photoshop) so can I. The ‘bubblegum’ is a balloon, but the hair’s all mine. The shot I’m copycatting is very much a Flickr cliché, and we all love clichés. There’s still so many I haven’t done yet, either.

And the title? Well, this is it. The End. After three years, and 1096 pictures, I have decided to stop my 365 Days project. I like to think I’m quitting whilst I’m ahead. Inspiration is waning, but I hope I’m still managing to produce some good pictures. I hope that I’m making people laugh. Or at least smile. Or, perhaps, beg to be taken to pictures of kittens. Sometime I hope I’m making people think. However I know that I can’t keep up the standard for another year, and I don’t want to start something I can’t finish in a satisfactory manner. Maybe I’ll find another project to occupy my time and provide work for my camera, or maybe I’ll take more of a break and just post random things from time to time. I don’t know. At the moment I have soldiers that need painting and plenty of real work to be getting on with, and I should really devote my daily self-portrait time to those things instead.

The biggest thing that’s got me through the last three years is YOU. The comments, support and inspiration from other Flickr members have reminded me that the thing was worth doing on a regular basis, and I have appreciated them all. I’m not much of a contact myself, though, for which I apologise. Perhaps with more time I’ll spend less time updating my own stream, and more time visiting yours. But I’m basically very lazy, so I wouldn’t count on it. I do try. Really.

On to the year itself. This was our first full year in Australia, and I hope that the pictures have reflected a little of what it’s been like to set up life in a new country. In the past twelve months we’ve set up a new IT training business, moved house (reluctantly), suffered a family bereavement and drunk a lot of coffee. I’ve managed to find a local gaming group and help stimulate it back into regular activity, and have begun to involve myself in the local transgender scene. I’ve worn sunglasses, frocks, bunny ears, a warthog, a tiara, masks, hats and (far to frequently for some) nothing at all. Lego, Sherlock Holmes and Godzilla have made regular appearences, and I didn’t let a couple of significant Charles Darwin anniversaries pass un-noticed either. I’ve consumed pies, chocolate, pea soup, tea and more coffee. I haven’t had a haircut all year. More than this, I have learned to be comfortable with who I am. My wife Catherine is probably my most frequent guest-star, and I must thank her for agreeing to do silly things for me, and for putting up with the siller things that I’ve done. Both of my children have also appeared this year, although generally they’ve had the sense to steer clear. Otherwise guest stars have been few and far between - one of our customers agreed to be in one picture, and our friendly neighbourhood cafe owner reluctantly appeared in another. My niece is in a third, and there’s a couple of my wargames associates too. The lovely Eve appeared by proxy.You’ll note that I’ve not provided links to any of these things; it’s a pathetic attempt to get you to trawl the set looking for them.

As before, here are the geographical extremes for this year’s set. All pictures were taken in Australia and, with a couple of exceptions, within New South Wales:

Most Northerly - Day 3.197 (Katoomba)
Most Southerly - Day 3.289 - (Bateman’s Bay)
Most Easterly - Day 3.38 (La Perouse)
Most Westerly - Day 3.52 (Canberra)

And here are the popularity stats. I have excluded Days 3.91 and 3.198, as they were part of group efforts to seduce the Magic Donkey, so their stats were artificially enhanced.

Most Views - Day 3.101
Most Comments - Day 3.261
Most Favourites - Day 3.261
Most Interesting - Day 3.86

At the time of writing 34 of this year’s pictures have made Explore. A few are still there.

Some personal favourites:

My favourite for the year: Day 3.150 - Rachel getting ready to go out

Day 3.56 - A glorious, unrestrained, moment.
Day 3.87 - An ‘inspired by’ shot which became the featured picture for this year’s set.
Day 3.94 - A rare case of a shot that came out pretty much how I planned it in my head
Day 3.102 - A tribute to my best friend
Day 3.108 - Grease!
Day 3.177 - When mucking about on Photoplus pays off
Day 3.199 - Basically just me.
Day 3.266 - The strangest event of the year.
Day 3.310 - And, finally, the big cover-up

Since I’m finishing up, perhaps an overview of the three years is in order. You can see Year 1 here and this is Year 2.

And here are the 100 Most Interesting pictures across the whole three years. The third year makes up nearly 50% of the total. Sometimes it surprises me what’s made it into that set.

At the other end of the scale is this set, showing my 20 Least Interesting self-portraits.

As you can imagine I have taken thousands of pictures in order to get the few gems that you’ll find in those three sets. Sometimes there are choices to be made as to which picture to use for a particular day, which leads me on to the 365 Rejects set - the pictures that almost made it. There’s actually one or two good shots in there.

OK. I’ve gone on enough. It only remains for me to do what I’ve done on all the other pictures for this year – a year ago today I was celebrating 366 Days.

Have you read this far? Well done!

"One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine"
The Doctor, saying goodbye - ‘The Dalek Invasion Of Earth’.
Image by Kaptain Kobold

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