As is tradition, my year in review. Deliberately slightly out of order, though everything should be in the right month. Mostly.

January

Spent New Year's Day unloading the last of the van with the help of H. Followed by Chinatown dim sum. Lots of unpacking in the months to come.

Dishwasher FTW.

Getting set up at the new job: yay big monitors and new whiteboards.

Sudden but lovely C visit: saw Seabound and De/Vision. Great concert.

Locked my keys in my car while it was running as I tried to clean snow off. Broke in with the help of the across-the-street metalworking shop.

Brutally cold out.

Chicago History Museum. Cafe Jumping Bean, Cafe Mestizo (since closed).

Sunday Trib, green tea, grits. Groove.

"Just got called 'a most delightful breath of fresh air' by a faculty member I started working with. Sometimes it's good to be the new guy."

Chicago Symphony: one of the performers from the symphony found my iPhone shot on flickr and faved it.

Uncle passed me an old TV of his. I've joined the league of evil TV owners.

Found a Whole Foods nearby and almost fainted in front of their cheese selection.

Stopped in on Chicago SF, which was fun. Fun bunch of folks, good conversations, etc.

Flickr meetup, then checking out the Zhao B Art Center, where a rehearsal for the Chinese New Year parade was taking place. Plus a very goth birthday. Yep.

Had a tiny, remote mardi gras courtesy of Rev.

February

More setting up of the new place, nicknamed the GoldPeach in my head. Hung curtains. Very exciting.

Had to take a written test to get an Illinois driver's license. Perfect score. But: really? Written test? Yep.

Had my first "I don't recommend this, but I'll do what you say" moment at the new job.

Art Instituting. Got used to the CTA some.

Gene Siskel Film Center. Joined. Good stuff. I need to go back again. Hit up a movie in English, then Swedish, then French (those last two in the same day). Had some linguistics issues in my dreams.

Created a presentation for work that went swimmingly, as far as I could tell. Though ran over and had more material yet to go: would get through more of it later. Then that night: flat tire times two. Tire then spare. Front assembly had dropped into the wheel well and was carving up the tire on one side. In the cold, snowy night. No cabs to be found. At least got it to safe spot and took care of it the next day.

Developed a mostly-hate relationship with our CMS. Read My Stroke of Insight by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor for work. It's good, but her speeches are better.

Started losing my voice on a semi-regular basis.

Went to Capricon: fun but bizarre. Stayed up and danced until way too late.

"Discovered a box w/old negatives, prints, and photo gear. Realized that some of my best work is undigitized and not available online. Hmm." Have since started rectifying that.

Got involved to one extent or another around here somewhere. This got messy eventually.

Started corrupting H with my scent addiction. And hanging out again pretty regularly with her (and her dog), both at her place and Millennium Park and other fun stops around and about.

March

Experimonth: The Eyes of March. Month-long experiment in taking a picture a day. And, in most cases, did a lot of whittling to get to that shot. Kinda stressful after awhile.

Had a very meta March. Started debating how I use various spaces.

Right away, the first of some rocky bits on the involvement end occurred.

Did the big pirate exhibit at the Field Museum with H and etc, which was tons of fun. Also got a membership while I was there. Totally worth it.

Started a new game with some random folks and managed to make a few good friends out of the deal, even though that game dissolved when the host got married and moved to Texas. Boo.

Uncle went in for pretty serious surgery. Was immensely worried for awhile. Visited a few times, etc.

Hit up the first of The New Colony's performances due to a twitter connection, which led to a bunch of freelancing for them, which has been fun. More museum-ing. Allergy issues. Photowalk with a new friend.

Won a t-shirt from Manny's Deli on twitter due to stopping there for corned beef and cabbage that day. Fun times.

Outing with the SF group for Watchmen.

Simone's opened in my neighborhood. Awesome spot.

The Jill Bolte Taylor lecture happened: I took pictures. Went well.

"This is where my wired life bites me in the ass. I assume folks can send a signal one way or another."

Drama. Dramadramadrama. Also: awkward. Awkwardawkwardawkward. Some was popcorn drama. You know, flamewars. No big. Other drama was very personal. This all didn't cease until April sometime. Needed a FFS sign.

"Look, at the moment we live in mea culpa hell. People are so sorry so often and so quickly... Except for in small chance mishaps, 'sorry' is an obnoxious trivial word. . . . the main reason we ought never apologize for such a thing is that it's just too easy. It is so facile, so self-satisfying, so meaningless." - Elizabeth Wurtzel, Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women

"I have scars on my hands from touching certain people." - J.D. Salinger

Reliving this month enough to write about it was painful. That is all.

April

Had to lock things down online in certain cases. Annoying. Also had an odd, separate bit of involvement that started this month.

The Flourish conference happened early in April, which was great. Met some great folks and also found out about PS:One, which becomes more important later. Went to my first meeting later this month, when it was still a completely empty space.

Needed a FFS sign for much of the month. "I seem to lack punctuation when I'm in complete disbelief" "excuse my complete lack of grasp of English/there are gaps where words should be"

Second Fridays Art Walk. Started debating getting a pet. Digital Accessibility Expo.

Couple events at Version Fest '09, including a neat little family-style supper club deal. Had my first Earl Grey ice cream. Amazing, though strange.

Got reacquainted with lightning storms, one of which struck about a block away from my place.

Flew back to State College for the TLT Symposium. Fantabulous, as usual. Got to reconnect with folks, learned a bunch of new things, etc. Also hit up an outdoor concert incidentally happening at the same time.

"The good thing about cities is that there's a ton to do. The bad thing about cities is that you can about kill yourself trying to do it all. "

Rev was in town for a bit, which was fun.

Outings: H's bellydancing exhibition. Also Museum-ing at Science and Industry with some SF folks. And one of their meetups.

Went to my first PS:One meeting, then others.

May

On May Day, planted an indoor herb garden, some of which is still alive and I'm frankly shocked at that fact.

Cinco de Mole, a mole fest in my neighborhood. Great stuff. That night, a Chinatown run and then a close encounter with Journey to the End of Night.

Commencement at work. Grads all excited and me taking a ton of photos.

Mitch Altman stopped by PS:One to run a workshop making TV B Gones and more. Fun stuff. Learned how to solder.

Cousin in town: got into some late-night trouble (and caught up with each other, of course) at a bar in Wrigleyville.

Gained a meerkat angel: Gabe. And later in the month, a tarantula and gecko: V and Sajj.

Was being courted in a bit of an old-fashioned manner during May, which was strange. For me.

Nerdloft buildout at PS:One.

Faculty/staff photoshoot. Good Morning America taping at one of our labs. Took photos, some of which turned out quite well.

Mental note: "Consistency must sometimes give way to readability."

Just listing now:
Gem and jewelry show. Disappointing.
BPAL meet n' sniff.
Memorial Day cookout.
Photowalk with Thomas Hawk.
NIN concert.
Windy City Rollers.
Modern Wing opening, Art Institute.
B's birthday.

June

More shooting for The New Colony, this time for Tupperware.

Flyering for Geek Prom. Second Friday Art Walk in Pilsen.

Social Media Summit at work. Great to connect virtually with colleagues.

Then Geek Prom. Various other parties and gatherings, some more notable than others.

Shedd Aquarium with H.
Father's Day and such.
A tour of Lake Geneva on the Lady of the Lake.
CSA and Farmer's Marketing.
More work on the nerdloft and workshop.
Printers Row Lit Fest.

Serious computer issues started.

Kept finding flickr photos I've taken via everyblock. Placed a bunch as well, pretty much continuously.

Had a sudden leak from the attic into my bedroom. My landlord showed up to help deal with it at around 4 in the morning. I was amazed.

Rediscovered swimming. Wish I'd stuck with it longer. Though winter makes it a bit of a pain.

July

Whirlwind. 4th of July in the middle of Lake Geneva on the Lady of the Lake. Worst place to take firework photos ever, but fun anyway.

Then back to PA for Arts Fest, People's Choice and friends. Had more photography fun at the club. Pirate Day and all.

Taste of Chicago, briefly. More street photography.

Then EduWeb.

Dying with the slowness of my computer at home.

Pink Party.

Sick off and on.

"Despite rather a lot of things, I'm really quite in love with my life right now. It feels really strange to articulate that." Took some photos of that soft morning to try to explain. This hasn't changed, really. Despite some things, but still. Loving it.

August

Very tempted to just sum up this month with: shenanigans.

Fiesta del Sol.

Comic Con.

A pick-up/drop-off favor for an old friend, which ended up with a bunch of experience waiting for buses at Midway.

PPPWRS and victory party.

Learning Retreat. Great conversations: just wish they'd been followed up on.

Got onto the Mac bandwagon when I replaced my desktop.

Watched Moon Machines with PS:One folks.

PS:One hackathon: did some soldering. Outings with some of those folks.

Covered a bunch more work events.

Driver issues on the work machine.

September

Which turned out to be a bad video card.

Continuing drama, but not mine, thank goodness.

Renegade Craft Fair.

Joined the CNSC bookclub.

Discovering that there are good beers out there, finding new good (cheap) wines. Lush is helping. Oyster and wine tasting there.

Buen Provencho Pilsen tour. Good stuff.

Various and sundry meetings, various and sundry parties. Destruct-o-fest. Second Fridays, as per usual.

Thomas Hawk included a couple shots of mine in his Chihuly gallery.

Think Geek meetup. Got to introduce myself by adding "excuse me, I'm adjusting my monkey" (there were a few stuffed Timmy giveaways).

Chicagohenge day, which the weather spoiled. Caught Critical Mass for the first time and photographed some of the team that came out from one of our departments at work. Plus other work projects.

Pilsen Open Studios weekend. & unofficial.

Capture My Chicago contest started.

"bah. I have a sledge. I fear no hammer." Hosted a ridiculous twitter hashtag party by accident on September 25-26. Silliness.

Weirdness from downstairs neighbors. Who had a pet duckling. For example.

Wedding reception for a friend. Did some photo work.

Got a grad assistant at work, which was lovely, and has been massively helpful.

October

HighEdWeb. Great conference: honored to be the official photographer. Also took my own shots of the fun and games.

Welding class at PS:One, which I finally joined officially. Yelp events. Various other parties.

Freelance photos for Calls to Blood, which landed in the Chicago Trib and other places.

Power outage at home while doing last-minute cramming for guest teaching a 9 am class. And then the carbon monoxide detector wouldn't stop going off and I couldn't get it open. Another late-night landlord save.

Adler After Dark.

Costume creation and helping others with Halloween costumes.

Diamond exhibit at the Field with H. Member's night.

Plotting.

Biking in Critical Mass in costume on the Friday before Halloween, immediately followed by Nerd-o-ween. On Halloween proper: Robothaus Halloween.

November

Plotting paid off.

Summer/fall was nutty, schedule-wise. Things have calmed down some for the winter now, though, it seems.

Sick several times in these months. Ear infection this time.

Did a day in the life project.

Furniture rearrangement: moved V to the spare room. Whee. Freelancing. Gløgg. CNSC book club, as per monthly these days.

Started lightning talks at PS:One.

Skipping between far too many gatherings in a month: speed reading class, a friend's party, a soup luck (rather than pot luck), flickr meetup, Second Fridays, birthday party, etc.

Hosted a long-overdue housewarming. Followed by front doorknob repair. "I suspect they were trying fix the way you had to pull it up rather than push it down... but that led to the bolt homing without being able to release it from the outside. ha"

Re-read House of Leaves.

Hackathon, with some chainmailling. Internet memes class.

Hacksgiving. Thanksgiving, with family silliness.

Constantly meeting cool new people.

Convocation at work. Early and long day, after a lot of prep.

December

Arduino workshop at PS:One. Also Pecha Kucha, at which I presented a geology talk. Trip to a hackerspace in Detroit, with a long stop in Ann Arbor to visit L.

"I can be stubborn. and stupid." Been through the wringer a bit, but only off and on. Bit of Murphy's Law. And Finagle's Law. And a lot of Wikipedia. Folks close to me have been terribly supportive, and for that I owe them all. H, Reg, N, other J. You know who you are.

Helped E by taking a few shots of her project to get onto Make and Hack-a-day.

Final design show for a friend who goes to the university I work for. Second Fridays again. More meetings/parties/gatherings, etc, which I'm entirely tired of linking up, frankly.

Dad visit, touring around Chicago. Photowalk and family and city history.

Brewery tour in the burbs. Cousin and her kids came through town.

Building a TARDIS at PS:One: I helped with the painting.

Thank you Warren Ellis. "Walking away from something for a few days or a week is sometimes the best possible thing you can do for a piece." And "the thing about distance from a thing — and this is actually not bad advice for any new writer — is that it gives you essential and often surprising perspective once you’ve been away from it for a few days."

Fender-bender in which I lost my mirror. Entirely the other guy's fault: he admitted such. Spent weeks in a rental. Things still aren't up to par.

"Danish Jul dinner all cooked up: fliskesteg, rødkål, kartoffler, ris ala mande (all dad's work)." Then Christmas Day shenanigans with family.

Productivity time at home: doing a bunch of scanning of old photos (my good work, my crap shots, as well as family photos), shrink-film sealing the windows and hanging the 11 pieces of art I'd made frames for. And the help was immensely appreciated.

And then internet connectivity issues. Lame. Then spending a ton of time not at my place. Quiet New Year's, a big change from years past, when I was usually at the club job, either on-duty or not.

Quite the full year. Nor, certainly, has everything stopped. Quite the opposite. But that's where the year ends, at least. So here, arbitrarily, ends this summary.