#oneaday, Day 160: Tuesday Tweetup

It was another Tuesday Tweetup today. I know it's Saturday. But… look, just don't argue, all right?

It's always curious to meet these people in the flesh after, in some cases, not having seen them for quite some time and in other cases, never having met them at all. Despite a relatively low turnout, though, it was a good evening in the gorgeous weather at Victoria Country Park. There was picnicking, complete with ant invasions. There was drinking. There were doughnuts. There was flinging a frisbee around a bit slightly half-heartedly. And there was a scavenger hunt around the park, which was good fun, even if no-one quite got the concept that there were some items on the list which weren't intended to ever be found. A snow globe? In a country park? Don't think so.

Victoria Country Park is really nice, actually. I've never been there before, but there's a really nice mix of wide open space, foresty goodness and waterfront beachiness. I actually wish I'd taken more photos than I actually have, but never mind eh. I know where it is now, so I can always pay it another visit on an occasion where I'm not expected to be sociable.

It was nice, though. As I've said many times before, social situations like that often make me feel all awkward and weird, but the people at this meet? Awesome. Set me at ease completely. It helps that I know a couple of them very well, of course. But I even found myself getting along well with some of the new people. At least I think I did, anyway. Didn't make that much of a dick of myself, I don't think!

Anyway, tomorrow will be spent writing, writing, writing as a result of that trip I took the other day. I have lots to do. But it should be good, and hopefully lead on to great new things. Let's hope so, anyway. Fingers crossed and all that.

Sorry for the crap entry, I'm pretty tired. I'll leave you with some photos taken with the new iPhone camera so you can take a peep at the quality. The digital zoom is blurry and crap, but digital zooms always are. The regular pics are pretty damn sharp, though – I'm impressed.

#oneaday, Day 159: Obligatory New Phone Gushing

I picked up an iPhone 4 today. Cheap, too, thanks to the contract I went for. I was already on a £45 a month contract, so continued with that and got a new iPhone 4 16GB for £29. Nice. Plus I can recycle my old 3G and get at least £150 for it, so that'll be good too.

The new phone is absolutely astonishing when coming from the ageing 3G. I'm not sure if it was the OS updates or that apps were just getting more and more sophisticated, but the 3G was really starting to struggle with a lot of things. Even doing simple tasks like sending a tweet were causing momentary pauses, requiring you to wait before it would respond to an input. Some apps were better than others, but unfortunately some of the apps I was using most frequently were the most severely affected.

No such issues with the 4. While I was waiting in the queue at the Apple Store, a former colleague came up to me and showed me how quickly apps started on the new phone. It was impressive stuff. It's noticeable with games, too – I tried out Warpgate earlier, a game which stuttered and juddered all over the shop on the 3G. On the 4, the loading is so quick that it really doesn't need loading screens any more.

The biggest wow is the screen, though. It really is not an exaggeration to say it is pin-sharp. You can't see the individual pixels. Unless you look really, REALLY closely, but then you're just the guy pressing his nose against his phone. It's particularly noticeable on text. Everything has a lovely smooth-edged but sharp look to it, which makes text beautifully readable. The high resolution also means that web pages can be viewed zoomed out and still be readable, too.

Gave the camera a brief try tonight, but not a serious one. It certainly seems good, though, and the preview image on the screen looked ludicrously sharp. The flash seems to work well, too, and the iMovie app is neat. Not sure if it's £2.99 neat, but it's cool to be able to trim and edit video, including adding stills and audio, on your device. And for a dinky little phone to shoot 720p video? That's pretty awesome however you look at it.

In short then, it's great. I haven't spent a significant amount of time with it yet, but I very much like what I've seen today. Those of you still with a 1st gen or a 3G iPhone should definitely make the upgrade. If you've got the 3GS, I'd say it's less pressing, though the extra speed, the lovely screen and the enhancements to the camera are all very nice indeed.

And I haven't seen any evidence of the "you can block the antennae with your hand" thing yet, but maybe that's just because I naturally hold the phone in a way that doesn't cause that problem!

Yeah, I'm an Apple geek. Sue me. If Android had got to me first, I'm sure I'd be a fan. But as it is, I've never felt the need to even look at an Android phone. The iPhone does what I need it to, and it does it well. I'm sure Android does some things better; but frankly if that's the case I'd rather not know!

#oneaday, Day 158: Executive Lounge

Day of firsts today. My first press trip. My first visit to a developer. My first bit of freelancing for a large and well-known video games website. My first trip business class.

Actually, "business class" might be stretching it a bit. Since FlyBe only appear to fly to Scotland in aircraft best described as sheds with wings, "business class" means you get to sit at the front. Oh, and you get a voucher for a free drink and a free snack. However, you don't appear to get another coupon for the return trip.

You do, however, get to use the Executive Lounge, which offers moderately-comfortable seating and free food and drink. It's quite nice. Yes, that's "quite nice". As in, if I'd had to pay for this trip myself, I wouldn't have paid the extra.

Yes, this was also my first fully-expensed trip. Nice.

Anyway, I won't be talking about the thing I went to see today, at least not until I have written the articles I have to write about it. But suffice to say it's very good, the demo doesn't really do it justice and it's a hoot in multiplayer. So you should buy it when it eventually comes out in a couple of weeks.

My flight home has been delayed. This means extra time for free stuff. I'm just starting to feel a bit sleepy now so will probably get a brief bit of kip aboard the plane. Though I'm not counting on it.

#oneaday, Day 156: Could It Be...?

Today was, I hesitate to say it, a good day. Yes, I woke up a bit late and had trouble getting out of bed before 10AM, but things picked up a bit from there. First thing that happened was a certain website that I'd expressed an interest in freelancing for several months back emailed me back enquiring about my availability. I responded that I was very much available. As a result of a rather lengthy exchange, as it turns out, I'm taking a little trip tomorrow to go and cover something. Further details as events warrant. But that's very exciting, and could potentially be something of a big break. Let's hope so.

Then, a little later in the day, I received a lovely Facebook message from someone who shall remain nameless to spare her blushes. She said some nice things about some of the things I've written in the past and, as she said in her message, it's always nice when someone compliments and appreciates your work.

Of course, it wouldn't be a normal day without something rubbish happening, so I lost my passport and have a horrible feeling it might have accidentally got thrown out with the trash when I cleared out my car of teaching crap the other week. If you're wondering why my passport was even in my car in the first place, it's because schools are very strict on seeing official ID when supply teachers turn up. Quite right, too, otherwise any idiot with a beard could turn up and start shouting at children. Still, after some frantic and panicked research, it seems that for domestic flights photo ID in the form of a photocard driving licence is enough to prove you are who you say you are. So that should—hopefully—be all right. If it's not, then, well, you know what tomorrow's #oneaday is going to be about! And I will, of course, be applying for a new passport with due haste. Unless it randomly turns up somewhere as these things are wont to do.

I also updated to iOS4 last night. Because I'm still using a 3G, I don't get a lot of the cool new features that secretly I don't really care about, like multitasking and a background to my Home screen. I do, however, get folders, and that's been a godsend. Whereas once I had six pages of apps that were once organised but as new ones were added and old ones deleted gradually got more and more disorganised, now I have one Home screen with everything on it. I tweeted it earlier. I can't be bothered to go and find the picture again so if you're that interested in other people's iPhone Home screens, go rummage back through my Twitter feed for today.

So anyway. Tomorrow and Thursday should both be very interesting. More news as it happens. Or more likely, after it happens. Right now? I am very sleepy after trying to play doctor on someone else's poor crippled iPhone. We failed in our efforts, sadly, so the fine people at the Apple Store WestQuay are getting a visit from them tomorrow.

#oneaday, Day 155: Waiting for the Awesome

A thought occurred to me in conversation with a friend today. It concerns the structure of one's life, and how all our lives seem to be a sequence of "big events" with long stretches of abject tedium and/or unpleasantness in between. Abject tedium sometimes isn't a bad thing; it helps us appreciate the exciting things in life, after all. But the unpleasantness? That I can live without.

These "big events" are what everything always leads towards. And it's the waiting for them that gets so damn frustrating. Right now, I confidently predict that my next "big event" will be getting a job. This will be closely followed by moving to somewhere I can actually afford that is near aforementioned job. This will be followed by starting said job. From there? Who knows.

There's also an alternative route, of course. Fail to get job. Run out of money. Get kicked out of house. Turn to life of crime and eating rats. Die in a gutter outside Greggs after being stabbed for small change by someone with more street smarts.

I'm hoping the "alternative route" won't happen. But it's a genuine concern, I won't lie.

It's these "big events" that define who we are, though. Whether they're positive or negative has a huge impact on how we feel. My last "big event" was a very negative one and as such I'm still reeling from the effects now. But I'm hoping that's a signal that the next "big event" will be a good one. And it will be onwards and upwards from there. It's not an unreasonable assumption, I don't think, because when you hit rock bottom there's not many other places you can go besides upwards. And I have been at least taking positive steps to try and kickstart that motion, even if the whole thing is ultimately completely out of my control and will only happen when the great Playhead of Life flicks over into the next bar. Mixing metaphors, I know. But… oh, just shut up.

Despite not being a religious man (despite my primary school's best efforts) I actually have quite a belief in the power of "fate", or "Fate" with a capital F if you really want. Some things are supposed to happen. Other things are not supposed to happen. "Fate" is just the sequence of those "big events" happening one after another, leading to an eventual conclusion somewhere. Sometimes we get to make a decision, and "Fate" takes a different path. But sometimes, more often than not, we have to follow the path that's been set for us. We're all playing a game of Heavy Rain, in essence. We may take different paths to get to our destination, and sometimes our paths have different consequences, but there's no cheating the basic storyline of Fate. There's a beginning. And there's an end.

It may be something of a cop-out to attribute all the stuff in between the beginning and the end to Fate. And perhaps it's not. Perhaps we do have more free will than that. But right now, while sitting here waiting and waiting for something wonderful to happen as a result of all the many, many efforts I've made to try and force something wonderful to happen? I'm running out of ideas. So if anyone "upstairs" has a grand plan, would they kindly hurry up and get on with it, please?

#oneaday, Day 154: Person Specification

I applied for eleven jobs today. Most of them were in similar fields and required similar skills, but irritatingly, most of them were different enough from one another to demand a different cover letter focusing on different aspects of the "person specification". By the end of the whole miserable experience I felt like I'd said absolutely everything about myself in every possible way it is possible to say it. Or at least every possible way it's possible to say it in a way appropriate for a job application. There's something of an expectation for more "formal" language when applying for jobs, and it's easy to fall into the trap of babbling on about being "passionate" and "dedicated" without actually really meaning either of those things. I believe I avoided that particular problem, but it's still a pain to have to "hold back" at times.

So tonight's #oneaday, then, is my unedited personal statement that isn't for any employers. It's for me, and no-one else. Except the last bit. Which is for anyone who wants to hire an awesome person.

I'm Pete. I'm a computer geek, writer and musician, and I also like video games. I stay up late in the evening to work on things that other people wouldn't bother with because I'm that sort of person. I like working on new projects, particularly creative ones, as the last 154 days of this blog will clearly demonstrate. While working on something that demands consistency rather than quality doesn't always produce the best results, I think that my dedication to the project as a whole, even when through suffering what I firmly believe is the absolute worst time of my life ever, has been a stand-out example of how great I really am.

I love to write. I can spell, I can punctuate and I can write in lots of different styles. The style I use on my blog here is a conversational one. I sometimes break the rules a bit in the name of humour or characterisation. But I know how to use English properly, too. The other sites I've written for in the past each demand very different styles due to their different audiences. Over the years, I've written for teenage console gamers (the Official Nintendo Magazine), twentysomething PC gamers (PC Zone), parents with child gamers (WhatTheyPlay), older gamers with a fondness for older games (Good Old Games) and current games enthusiasts who like to stay abreast of what the industry is up to (Kombo). And numerous others besides. I've found it pretty easy to adapt my style to each of these sites, and believe that's another example of me being pretty great, really.

I can play the piano, too. I may not be a proper bonafide virtuoso like some people I know, but I can play things well, with expression and emotion. I can channel the things I'm feeling into what I'm playing, so I can really get the emotions of the music across, with a personal twist. I'm a great sight-reader, too, and can pick up a lot of piano pieces very quickly without having to practice a lot. Okay, if they're difficult, they might not sound great right away, but they will at least be recognisable.

I can type at 85 words per minute. This means I can churn out writing incredibly quickly, and accurately too. This skill was very helpful during E3 week, when we had to get stories up on Kombo in a matter of minutes in many cases. I managed to hammer out some good quality articles just a few minutes after they happened. This, too, is pretty awesome.

I'm also a great friend. I'm patient, calm and understanding in most cases, but I'll defend the people I love and the things I care about to the death. I'm a great listener and will always empathise with someone else's plight, even if I don't really like them, or even if they've wronged me in the past. I'll never deliberately cause someone hurt or upset because doing so makes me feel bad too. I believe that this is one of my best qualities, and I'd hope that my friends agree.

Generally speaking, then, I'm a pretty good person who has a lot to offer the world. So, basically, if you're reading this and you need someone awesome on your team, whatever you might be doing (so long as it's not something pointless and boring) you should definitely hire me and pay me a generous salary and benefits package. And give me a company car.

Because, frankly, I think I deserve all that stuff after everything that I've had to put up with. I know my problems pale in comparison to some people – everyone has an example of someone who's worse off – but speaking purely selfishly, I think, no, I know that I deserve some things to go well. So why don't you help me out a bit?

#oneaday, Day 153: Hopeless Romantic

I watched the finale of The Office for the first time in ages tonight. That's the original UK version of The Office, for the curious, meaning that the finale was the second part of the series' Christmas special. I am totally going to spoil the shit out of that episode, so if you're one of the very few people who haven't seen it before and care, you might want to skip this post.

The chemistry between Tim and Dawn is the centrepiece of The Office's narrative. Everyone remembers David Brent and his stupid Comic Relief dance, but it's really a story about two people trying desperately to find one another and always seeming to have something in the way.

The tension between Tim and Dawn is built up throughout the course of the show's two seasons marvellously. The pair of them hang out together a lot, they joke around, they share a mutual love of making office douchebag Gareth's life a misery and it's abundantly clear that both of them are completely smitten with one another. And yet neither of them are able to say the words to make it happen. Dawn because she has a fiancé (yes, that is the correct spelling for the male partner, I checked and everything) who is woefully inappropriate for her. Tim because despite his sweet nature, he lacks in self-confidence thanks to his life situation.

In fact, that's not quite accurate. Throughout the course of the main series, Tim does ask Dawn out twice and she flat out says no. The most heartbreaking of these moments is at the end of the second season where Tim, in the middle of a "talking head" shot, speaking to the "documentary crew" who are supposedly filming the show, tears off his microphone, goes to tell Dawn how he really feels and gets knocked back. The audience don't hear this exchange, we just see it through a window, partially obscured by a blind. It's a genuinely heartbreaking moment to witness.

Throughout the series, Dawn in particular makes a point of touching Tim, whether it's a light brush on the arm, or holding his face tenderly while she gives him a kiss "for Comic Relief". Whatever she says out loud, her actions say something different, much louder.

So when she returns from Florida in the Christmas special, some years after the original two seasons, it's clear that Tim still has feelings for her and wishes things had gone differently. Yet throughout the course of the two finale episodes, it becomes clear that Tim has no idea how to go about dealing with this situation, particularly as the fiancé is still on the scene and never far away from Dawn during their time together.

In what appears to be their final moment together, I really feel for Tim. He is talking to Dawn, clearly struggling for what to say. He does a big and obviously fake cough at one point, and stares after her as she leaves, looking around the office, obviously completely crushed inside but not wanting to show it at all.

And then a little while later, the real ending happens. Dawn, riding in the back seat of a taxi, her fiancé asleep in the front, opens her "Secret Santa" present, which it transpires is an incredibly thoughtful gift from Tim. It moves her to tears.

We cut back to Tim, who is still at the office's Christmas party, obviously trying to have a good time and not really succeeding, when Dawn reappears unexpectedly, grabs him and kisses him. It's such a beautiful moment and a wonderful feeling of "resolution" for the series. A genuinely happy ending.

In the meantime, while all this is happening, we've also seen the comically tragic figure of David Brent growing as a person more in the space of half an hour than he managed in three years thanks to a special someone. By the end of the whole thing, we have felt sympathy for someone who initially seemed to be odious and annoying; and we have felt hope for his redemption.

In short, the whole thing is a fine example of how to do a finale perfectly. Wrap up every little loose end and make it very clear that "This. Is. The. End." And that doesn't have to mean a main character dying, or the world ending, or anything like that. A simple resolution of the threads that have been running throughout the series is all that's needed for a satisfying conclusion.

I love this ending for several reasons. Firstly, I just love a happy ending. Secondly, I feel for Tim, and Dawn for that matter. I've experienced the situation they've been in and know how difficult it can be, and how wonderful those few tiny little gestures can feel. To see two people who obviously deserve to be together finally get together is utterly heartwarming and never fails to bring a smile to my face. And it ends there – we don't need to see "what happens next", whether it works out, any of that – that's the end of their story.

In case you hadn't noticed, I am a sucker for a happy ending. Particularly a romantic happy ending.

There's some games that have done this sort of thing well, too. The Persona series is particularly good at it thanks to the Social Link system that runs through the last two entries in the series. Each Social Link is a complete story in and of itself, with the player's character being someone who is there for someone else during a period of change, growth or hardship. With the games centred on teenage life in Japan, sometimes this is as simple as a character growing up and learning something about themselves. At other times, it is about a burgeoning romance. At others still, it is about someone accepting a fate which is coming for them, like a terminal illness. But by far the most satisfying thing about those games was not necessarily reaching the end (though the endings to both are awesome) but reaching the resolution of these little mini-stories throughout. Seeing other people brought to a state of happiness by the actions (or simple presence) of another is a good feeling, and Persona, like The Office, plays on that pleasant feeling beautifully.

Did I seriously just compare Persona to The Office? That's late-night writing for you. Oh well. There you have it!

#oneaday, Day 152: After Midnight

What is it about the middle of the night that brings the mind to life so? Whether it is dwelling on the incidents of the day – good or bad – or feverishly expressing some sort of creative muse, the hours after midnight always seem like the perfect time to do this. For me, at least.

Or perhaps it's not necessarily the hour, but simply that time when your body relaxes and your brain realises it has no pesky motor functions to take care of. In other words, it's free to think.

Whether or not your brain feels it necessary to sit and think a while depends on what came immediately before, of course. Spend a busy day doing activities that exhaust your body and mind and you'll probably drop straight to sleep. But have an evening that's just pleasant and you'll have some time to reflect on that pleasantness before sleep. Similarly, negative events often monopolise the brain, particularly when it doesnt have anything better to think about.

Perhaps it's the mind keeping score, a mental totting up of the goods and bads. Awarding of XP. Achievement unlocked. That sort of thing.

Or perhaps I just find it more difficult to get to sleep than some other people and I'm just making this nonsense up to make myself feel better.

Either way, I wish you a very good night.

#oneaday, Day 151: Lawful Good

I am Lawful Good. I play Chaotic Good whenever I play D&D because it's the most fun way to be Good, but in reality I am Lawful Good. I don't like breaking laws, rules, anything like that, and I'll go out of my way to ensure I do things "properly". I like to help other people, and I like to make sure that they're happy and safe.

So when a temptation to do something from outside that alignment presents an opportunity, I find it very difficult, and usually impossible, to take it. Even if the action in question is justifiable.

I'll present a hypothetical example. Let's say you saw, I don't know, let's say a Facebook status message that riled you somehow. Perhaps you know it's a lie. Perhaps you want to add something to the conversation that the person who posted it wouldn't want you to. Or perhaps you want to say something that you know is true, but will hurt the other person. Some people would be able to just post that message, say their piece, whatever they need to do. But because I know that doing so will have consequences, and will make someone else feel bad – even though I'm not a particular fan of the person in question and probably shouldn't care whether or not it makes them feel bad – I won't do it.

Sure, being this way makes me a super-nice person. But it also means that things that potentially need to be said get left unsaid. Making snarky comments often doesn't achieve anything, but at the same time, keeping things bottled up inside isn't good, either.

I even find it difficult to respond to someone who insults me directly. You've heard the examples of the assholes in the street who think it's amusing to yell stuff at me. One time I managed a barely-audible "fuck you" at the passing piece of shit, and nothing happened. Even thinking about saying that caused me a considerable amount of anxiety, though, as I felt I had no right to say that. Weird, non?

There are those who say that in order to get ahead, you have to be ruthless, or at least assertive. One of the steps along that path is saying what you mean and then dealing with the consequences when they happen; not refusing to say anything in fear of any potential consequences, most of which probably won't happen.

This whole post is an example of overthinking things. The hypothetical situation above of course happened, and two people out of the, err, two I spoke to thought I should have posted the snarky comment that I really wanted to. But I haven't, and I won't. Because being Lawful Good won't let me do such a thing.

#oneaday, Day 150: Milestone

[PETE takes the stage. He walks up to the podium, not looking at the audience, not least because he isn't really expecting anyone to be out there.]

PETE: (squinting at the bright lights in his face) Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming. It's a real pleasure to see you all here. Even if the bright lights on the stage mean that I can't actually see any of you. Regardless, it's a pleasure to know you're out there.

[PETE pulls out an old-style white plastic Apple Remote and clicks it at the screen. Nothing happens. He clicks it again.]

PETE: Oh, right. (pulls out iPhone and starts Keynote Remote app) There we go.

[A slide with the big number "150" appears on the screen.]

PETE: One hundred and fifty days ago, I joined a very exclusive club. A small collective of bloggers who made a very simple pledge: to wake up each day and, at some point before they got into bed and fell asleep at the end of the night, to write something on their blogs every day. This "something" didn't have to be good. It didn't have to make sense. It didn't have to be "for" anyone. The purpose of the exercise was twofold.

[PETE taps his iPhone. The next slide appears with a crude stick-figure drawing of him sitting at a writers' desk, scribbling in a book.]

PETE: One: to prove we could do it. To prove that it was possible to express your creative side at least once every single day, even if the final product was complete garbage.

[PETE taps his iPhone again. A crude drawing of him with a thought-bubble above his head appears.]

PETE: And two, to awaken those otherwise-latent skills that we all possess. Those skills of creativity, and imagination. Those skills to spin a magical tale with words, whether it's about actual magical things like unicorns and robots and monsters even though robots aren't really "magical" as such, or about the mundanities of everyday life.

[PETE taps his iPhone, this time with a flourish. Another crude drawing appears, this time showing several faces displaying different emotions.]

PETE: (starting to pace across the stage away from the lectern like a university lecturer) Sometimes these posts are funny. Sometimes they are silly. Sometimes they are nonsensical. Sometimes they are serious. Sometimes they are angry. And sometimes they are very sad. (stops and faces the audience, spreading hands wide, a bit like Jesus but less religious) All of them are valid expressions of something. All of them reflect the essence of that day. Even if they don't mention anything about what happened.

[PETE taps his iPhone. An image of a calendar appears on the screen.]

PETE: (pacing back towards the lectern) 150 days might not be a huge proportion of your life in the grand scheme of things. But a significant number of things can happen. In the one hundred and fifty days since I started posting on here every day, many things have happened. When I began on the 19th of January 2010, I wasn't to know it, but I was at a crossroads in my life.

[PETE reaches the lectern and leans on it in a Phoenix Wright style.]

PETE: I wasn't to know that some one hundred and five days after I began that my whole world would be brought crashing down. I can't pretend that I wasn't expecting it to happen, but I wasn't expecting it to happen in quite the way it did. Nor was I prepared for the amount of pain it would cause, and still does.

[PETE slams his hands on the desk, clearly channelling everyone's favourite Ace Attorney.]

PETE: But I wasn't about to give up. I felt like shit. I was angry. I wanted to destroy things. (slams fist on desk and hunches over it like Edgeworth when he gets pissy) I wanted people to hurt. I wanted people to hurt as much as I do, and more so, so they'd understand. (pauses, stands, calmer) I still do feel these things, sometimes more than ever. But I was not going to give up, and am not going to give up.

[PETE taps his iPhone, and a crudely-drawn stick figure image of several different people appears on the screen.]

PETE: New people came into my life at just the right time. They helped me understand things, to see some good in myself at a time when all was darkness. They gave me courage, gave me strength, spurred me on to try new things. Other friends proved themselves to be true friends instead of just acquaintances. The disastrous collapse of one relationship led to a new-found closeness in many others.

[PETE taps his iPhone again, and a photograph of PAX East appears.]

PETE: Right as I reached the point of no return at this crossroads – it had one-way streets in all directions – I discovered something. That it's OK to be me. As I set off down the road I'm still on – which is winding, twisting, turning and regularly plummets into a crevasse – I was a new person. Or rather a person I'd always been. But more aware of it.

[PETE points out into the audience dramatically.]

PETE: One thing you can always be sure of in these last one hundred and fifty days is that it's been all me, for better or worse.

[PETE slams his fist on the desk again.]

PETE: And one of the things that one of the new people in my life taught me, or should I say reminded me, was that not everyone goes together. Not everyone likes everyone else. If we did, sure, it'd be easier. But that's not the way the world works, either on a tiny person-to-person scale, or on a huge nation-to-nation, culture-to-culture scale. And acceptance of that fact is what makes living that little bit easier.

[PETE taps his iPhone. A picture of a chav appears on the screen.]

PETE: I don't like this guy. He's a twat. He thinks I'm a twat, too, and thinks it's amusing to insult me in the street even though I'd never seen or spoken to him before in my life.

[PETE taps his iPhone again. The image shatters.]

PETE: But it doesn't matter. He is long gone. (pauses) Not dead. I didn't kill him. Though I quite wanted to at the time. No. I have never seen him again since. And if he can't deal with who I am, then he can go fuck himself.

[PETE emerges from behind the lectern again.]

PETE: Given that the eventual goal for everyone involved in this little experiment is to write something every day for a year, the number one hundred and fifty is actually not all that important. Halfway through day one hundred and eighty-two? That's important. That's the halfway mark. But one hundred and fifty? It's a symbol. A milestone. Perhaps a new beginning, perhaps not. No-one can say. All I can say is: thanks for being there every day.

[PETE pauses for a moment.]

PETE: Also, you can blame Alex Connolly for telling me to make a speech. Good night everybody.