Saturday, December 31, 2011

Get thee behind me, 2011!

Well, we're about to file away 2011 in the books. What kind of year was it? For me and my family, it was a decent year. For the country, it was a pretty volatile year. Who knows where things go from here, huh?

In February of 2012, this blog will have been in existence for ten years. That kind of excites me and frightens me, at the same time. When I started this, I figured I'd have things to say for about a year. Maybe two, tops. And then I'd move on to something else. Instead, here we are. Wow.

So here's some of what transpired in my little corner of the Interweb in 2011! Links to individual posts that are favorites of mine are below, but I'd also call attention to several posting series: Page One, in which I used photos of the first pages of books to launch meditations; Saturday Centus, a weekly exercise in microfiction that also involves a wonderful group of talented folks; and my glacially-paced X-Files rewatch effort, X-Files Case Reports. I also continued to enjoy my Something for Thursday series of music posts, and my even more sporadic (and thus horribly inappropriately named) Beatles Song of the Week. Finally, I only managed to produce a single post in Fixing the Prequels: Revenge of the Sith, but I'm thinking I need to get that one done in 2012.

As far as other sites go, I still have my Flickr stream for photos (favorites below), in two mosaics, one for the first half the year and one for the second). I enjoy taking pictures, and sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't invest in a better camera and try taking a serious approach to it as a hobby. Maybe...but I'd also like to take up geocaching, and I can't get every gizmo I want! (And I suspect a new laptop will become necessary in 2012...this poor machine of mine dates from 2007, which makes it long-in-the-tooth for laptops). I also launched a Tumblr blog, Driftwood Upon the Bosporus, but I can't really claim to be particularly enthusiastic about it. Tumblr tends to be more pictorial than I generally favor -- although I like pictorial stuff just fine, I like words more -- and I'm pretty ingrained here. So my Tumblr efforts tend to be, well, of the non-exciting variety. I tend to post occasional bits of political snark there, as well as cool photos when I'm in the mood. And this generally boils down to people (mostly beautiful women) wearing overalls or getting hit with pies. Go figure.

Anyway, here we are: 2011 in review.

THE FIRST HALF OF 2011

Selected Photos

2011 Faves I

1. Overalls weather!, 2. Lester...., 3. Happiness is a Fountain Pen and some paper!, 4. Hooktail, 5. Wavy, 6. Crocheting, 7. The Central Terminal, 8. Two Headlines, 9. Oil lamp, close up, 10. Off to Arrakis!, 11. French chess!, 12. Nose to nose!, 13. Sea Dragon II, 14. You're lucky you're on the other side of the glass, Bub., 15. Lion fish, 16. Colors in the wild!, 17. Jellyfish I, 18. Gasp!, 19. Shark Porn, 20. Show me the tin can...., 21. Looking up the tracks, 22. A couple. In Pittsburgh., 23. She's hamming it up., 24. PPG Place, 25. Mellon!, 26. We've come a long way since "Pong", 27. Head to toe, 28. Athos, Porthos, Aramis, 29. Perusing a book, 30. Chopstick practice I, 31. Back to Blustery, 32. Moon over Orchard Park, 33. I heart Lee overalls!, 34. Double Denim, 35. Monte Cristo sandwich, 36. It's breathin' smoke!


Selected Blog Posts

January

On Shakespearean Doorstops
Whipped Cream Day
Odd stuff about President John Tyler
On snow and nomenclature
Music students: the next generation
Challenger, 25 years later
Memoriam: John Barry
My bookshelves

February

A Tale of Two Meals
Oh well, better luck next year, Steelers
Happy birthday, John Williams
How to Drain Your Flagon
Double denim: I like it
On to Middle Earth
A picture, in words
On The Wife's birthday
On On Her Majesty's Secret Service

March

Fun and games at the Antique Mall
Breakfast of Champions
On mnemonic devices
For Japan, after the quake
A Teevee Quiz

April

My greatest Sabres playoff memory
The people at the gym
Record Store Day
Thoughts on the teevee version of A Game of Thrones
Wrenches

May

Obama gets Osama
Long Live the Central Terminal!
100 Things I Love About Movies
Racehorse names I'd like to see
Buffalo: For Real? Fer Chrissakes!
I will always hate Boston Rob
And I'll always hate Tom Brady, but that photo cracks me up
On Wicked

June

100 Teevee Memories
Thoughts on a concluded teevee season
Lebron James: Loser!!!
All that tilting, and yet, the windmills endure
Oh, James Newton Howard, NO!
My Overalls Hero
Rainbow Over New York
As you wish, Peter Falk
Someone spoke ill of the Prequels? To the Geekmobile!

THE SECOND HALF

Selected Photos

2011 Faves II

1. The pizza of Emperors!, 2. HOT WOK, 3. International Overalls Day V, 4. Scarf and Overalls, 5. Library Cat, 6. Writing: lubricating the brain, 7. Western New York sunrise, 8. Taffy's after dark, 9. Pumpkinville 2011: From the hayride, 10. Pumpkinville 2011: Wife at the fence, 11. Ithaca: Hmmmm...., 12. Ithaca: shopping for yarn, 13. Ithaca: Waffles and Fried Chicken, 14. Distortion in progress, 15. Happy Birthday to Me! VII: Piefaced Me, 16. Happy Birthday to Me! VI: At last! The pies finally go in my face!, 17. Happy Birthday to Me! V: Double Denim, 18. Happy Birthday to Me! IV: Making a wish, 19. Happy Birthday to Me! The candles in the pies, 20. Sleepin' and Huggin', 21. Stretching!, 22. Stir-fried garlic chicken with noodles, 23. Basking in the Autumn!, 24. Pancetta Lettuce and Tomato, 25. Is it her? Is it? Is it her? Oooh I hope it is!, 26. Mixing Mythologies on the Midway, 27. Midway at Dusk, 28. The Lights, 29. 0813112132, 30. Flashlights IX: Stanley folding tripod light, 31. By the Shore II, 32. Lobster Loft I, 33. First step into the sea!, 34. TOB 2011: Waiting for the Kid to finish!, 35. TOB 2011: Eating!, 36. Chicks! I

Selected Blog Posts

July

On lighting
On the perils of public screenings
Cheez balls!!!
At the Taste of Buffalo
Octopus's Garden
The late, lamented CueCat
A dispatch from vacation at the Jersey Shore
A dispatch after vacation at the Jersey Shore
My marriage was destroyed by Gay People. Or not.
From the books: Mike Royko

August

Someone's notion of the top 100 F&SF books
Farewell, Harry Potter
The funniest picture I saw all year
A two-word food review
Admitting my flashlight fetish
Dispatches from the County Fair

September

Prognosticating the Bills
Charting the writing progress
Music for Talk Like a Pirate Day
On the break-up of REM
Bills 34, Patriots 31
On the occasion of turning 40
Obsolete Things
Nirvana? Never mind.

October

A right proper birthday celebration: a Bills win, a trip, good food, and pies in my face
4-year-old kid learns who Luke's father is
On the origin of Melba Toast
Tea party: good patriots; Occupy: dirty hippies
The NOOOOOOs of Star Wars
We pie-in-the-face fans have to stick together, you know.
The October storm, five years on
Memoriam: Kent Hull
Wow, that is one big star

November

More progress writing
Obama the Stoner
International Overalls Day
My 2012 Classics Challenge list
On That Day

December

Shiny in the Black: A "Firefly" Christmas, part one
Shiny in the Black: A "Firefly" Christmas, part two
Shiny in the Black: A "Firefly" Christmas, part three
Shiny in the Black: A "Firefly" Christmas, part four
Screw Red Letter Media!

Books blogged about in 2011

Iain M. Banks:
Consider Phlebas

Leigh Brackett:
The Starmen of Llyrdis

Lois Macmaster Bujold:
Young Miles

George Carlin:
The George Carlin Letters: The Permanent Courtship of Sally Wade

Ian Christe:
Everybody Wants Some

James S.A. Corey:
Leviathan Wakes

Richard Dawkins:
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Sammy Hagar:
Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock and Roll

Frank Herbert:
Dune

Jonathan Kay:
Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground

Stephen King:
Lisey's Story

Demetri Martin:
This is a Book by Demetri Martin

Ben Mazerich:
Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History

Mike Resnick:
Legends of Santiago

Amy Krouse Rodenthal:
An Encyclopedia of Ordinary Life

Patrick Rothfuss:
The Name of the Wind

Courtney E. Smith:
Record Collecting for Girls

Ryk E. Spoor:
Grand Central Arena

Steve Turner:
The Band That PLayed On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic

SK Waller:
With a Dream

Sam Wasson:
Fifth Avenue, 5 AM

Movies blogged about in 2011

Armageddon

Beowulf

The Big Lebowski

The Blues Brothers

Die Hard
Die Hard 2: Die Harder
Die Hard With a Vengeance


Green Lantern

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2

How to Train Your Dragon

Iron Man

The Muppets

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Robocop

The Social Network

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader



1 comment:

Roger Owen Green said...

I'm impressed that you can do such a thorough summary of the year. I can't because I'd be too bored rereading what I wrote, too disorganized to categorize them (other than movie reviews). Besides, I just don't think in 12-month blocks that well, except when forced to. What were the best albums of 2011? I actually couldn't tell you offhand even what 2011 music I bought other than Paul Simon, and Adele (was Elvis Costello this year? See, that's what I'm saying.)
WV (I swear): angst