Month: January 2007

So, all the way at the end, I hear that it’s De-lurking Week.  I’m always curious about who, if anyone, is reading this thing.

If that’s you, then let me know who you are, where you are, what you do, and why the heck you’re reading.

I’m reading this book on the counterculture of the 60s & 70s and its interaction with the beginning of personal computing, and two things have struck me so far that seemed worth sharing.

1. I love this quote: “a bicycle for the mind” in describing Alan Kay’s vision of the Dynabook. (basically, a laptop) The elegance of it just hits the happy place in my head.
2. If I were ever to go to school at Evergreen, and take an individual contract, I’d spend my year creating an interactive map (?) of the people and organizations of the history of computing. I’ve read at least half a dozen books in the last couple of years from one angle or another: some histories of one era or another, or organization, or particular person. This book is so dense in names that I feel I’m not quite grasping all the relationships.

Back to your regularly scheduled surfing, then.

The weather reports are saying we’re going to get snow. And maybe thunderstorms.

This is the craziest winter ever.

Yep, it’s only January 9. Two months and two weeks to go.

How’m I holding up? As well as could be expected, I guess. Actually, the more extreme weather doesn’t hurt my mood at all. (except for sleeping in the cold) It’s those long stretches of dark & rain without end. November was tough that way — most rain ever recorded. Ever.

But the very darkest stretch of the year had the distraction of leaving one job and starting another.

Once the turning point of the solstice passes, I get a little jolt of optimism.

We may be getting snow (snow!) but it ain’t getting any darker.

Update, Jan 10: an inch or two overnight, and it is snowing right this minute (8:15 am) quite steadily. Very happy, this morning, to be riding the bus.

January: “african or european swallow?” — which for quite a while drove lots of search traffic, and is also I think a pretty good description of biking in the fog.

February: “like a well-cooked piece of asparagus” — continuing the pop culture theme. 🙂 Biking continues, and gardening begins again. Plus yoga. (I need to find a class down here.)

March: all about the SXSW.

April: I blogged quite a bit about biking, but I’m linking to “too much to read” anyway. Because it seems the most internet-like thing that I wrote that month. Also, April was the beginning of the reconstituted Snapping Links category.

May: “vanblog“, or the anatomy of a mood crash. in a similar vein, see “mean and mopey” — although the whole month wasn’t like that.

June: “politely disagreeing with Joe Clark” — I just like that it starts with “unintentional irony warning.” Depression pushed back up against me hard in June, and this is a well-put start to it.  (At the end of the month: “item the first” was my admission that I needed to try medication again. It worked really well.)
July: “plugged back in” — I always enjoy Webvisions, and last year I paid my own way and went camping besides. The start of a really happy stretch of summer.

August: bookending the month; at the beginning, a poetry prompt, “poetry thursday: that song” — I would like to get back into the writing prompts. at the end, a bit of worrying with “back on the bike” as I looked towards fall and winter.

September: “not sleeping” — which is a reasonably good description of the “oh my god too busy” angst that comes over me on a fairly regular basis.

October: “Maddy is missing” — not really a post as such, but in all honesty the most intense thing that happened to me all year. As a counterpoint, I offer “good, take 2” which is one of the poems that came from Sunday Scribblings and/or Poetry Thursday.

November: “life on Venus” — the start of two very crazy months of weather, plus my first post from my phone/PDA.

December: as y’all know, I started a new job…and wrote about my “first week” — was damn nice. (it has continued so.)  Also, in a work-like mode, I wrote “my accessibility story“.

So that was 2006.  Alas, so far in 2007 I haven’t written anything of note; I’ve just been too busy!

Friends by Tenacious D cross-fades really nicely into Different People by No Doubt.  That is all.