2012 in review
previously:
2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006
As you may have gathered from recent posts I have had a pretty darn excellent 2012. Best year I've had for quite a few, in fact. Maybe I am finally getting the hang of this adult caper.
Goals review - schemes and plots for 2012
things I definitely want to do
* find work at least moderately enjoyable even if Damian leaves
I think this was a success. If anything my opinion of it has improved quite a bit.
* speak at PyCon in Hobart (pytest funcargs?)
Success!
* talk to parents at least once a month
Er, fail.
* spend Christmas with Rod in Canberra
Success.
* keep 1 square metre of vege garden going
Fail.
* trial a vegan diet
Fail.
* go to the dentist!!!
Success!
* do a meditation course
Fail.
* save $10-20k - put maximum useful amount to First Home Savers Account at end of financial year
Success.
* catch up with Bek, who lives in Melbourne (no excuse)
oops, fail.
* organise a GGD workshop with high school girls to construct the LUV MakerBot
Fail.
* volunteer my tech skills with 3CR in some manner
Success. I joined their Web team and mostly attending mostly-monthly meetings. I like where it is going though.
* (towards the end of the year) start making plans to have a radio show with Donna and other cool Melbourne OWOOTers.
Er... no that hasn't happened.
* fix my websites that I no longer maintain by running wget over them and replacing them with static archives. be a better sysadmin for my friends.
Fail :(
* keep studying Spanish
Success!
* plan a trip to a Spanish speaking country (with Anna?)
Fail. I thought about it a lot though.
* complete a sprint distance triathlon (virtually complete: signed up for Elwood on 19 Feb) - 500m swim/20km ride/5km run - so, I dunno...maybe do two? :)
Super success! :D
* complete the 10K run in Run Melbourne in the middle of the year
Success!
* do running training over winter (instead of giving up and hibernating as I usually do)
Success!
* go to Sydney in Feb or March and do an ocean swim (and also hang out with my Sydney peeps)
Failed here.
* go on a few more rail trail weekends
Bit of a fail, I blame my friends for moving away and being in car accidents :P
* go on some weekend rides with my leet new road bike
Um, not exactly success, but I took it to Apollo Bay for the training camp at least. Apart from that it was basically dormant over winter.
* do something (????!) about dire lovelife.
Well I certainly tried a bit harder than in the past, did a few brave things and got a bit of practice at rejection, so pat on the back for me. Success.
things I would be happy if got done
* do Machine Sewing 101 at CAE or a sewing shop
* do an intermediate bike maintenance workshop
* go to Easter ConFest
* move off Dreamhost onto my own server for my websites
* Blog more than once a year
** set up a partial blog food for planet vegmel
* go 100% vegan
* go to Perth, enjoy being in Perth, visit friends
* visit Alison in Condobolin (train adventure?!)
* host a cards/500 night
* visit grandparents/mum's family twice
* find some nice St Kilda based community groups with friendly peeps
I only succeeded at visting Alison in Condobolin, the rest were fails. Lucky I was realistic about this lot :)
things I would like to do in an ideal universe but realistically don't think will happen this particular year
* crochet attack
* coding for all manner of open source projects (incl. Zookeepr)
* Arduino, NanoNote, Android...
* overflowing garden of vegetables
* learn a new programming language
* visit a Spanish speaking country
Realism also abounded here and none of these happened.
LJ/calendar recap
January
- I went to Confest! With Kate and Mike and Sarah, and Chris was there also.
- Wangaratta-Myrtleford return (110km) bike tour with Di. Loved it!
- Went to LCA in Ballarat!
- AdaCamp! Organised a Girl Geek Dinner to complement it at CERES.
- Hosted a surprisingly great group dinner at Ren Dao.
- Australia Day 1.4k swim at Brighton
- Somehow fitted some OKCing in here I believe
February
- Went to my cousin Emma's wedding. She is only a few months older than me and when I was under 6 she was my BFF. aww.
- Went to Di's sister's wedding.
- Went to a Quaker memorial
- Did my first sprint distance tri
- Did my first corporate tri
March
- Went to MQFF
- Volunteered for Ironman Melbourne.
- Went to the dentist for the first time in maybe six years and had to get 9 fillings over 3 visits. :(
- First 5K under 30 minutes
April
- Another triathlon
- 90km bike tour trip around the Bellarine Peninsula with Kate, Mike and Sarah.
- Hit up the comedy festival big time
- Had a bold conversation and the world didn't end.
- MOAR OKCing
May
- Met Russell via OKC. Mixed success.
- Actually kept doing tri training even though it was almost winter.
June
- Few dates with a guy named Ian. Meh.
- Held the second Cold Nights, Hot Drinks party (now my second tradition after quiet/boring/anti NYE party)
July
- Helped a friend get aquainted on OKC and she recommended me to check someone out who turned out to be Robin. Oh.
- Turned 29 and had a wonderful birthday surprise from Di :D
- Reconnected with Robin
- Did my first 10k at Run Melbourne!
- Went on two weeks holiday visiting family and friends in Emerald, Sydney, Condobolin and Canberra. INCLUDING playing and winning my first poker tournament. I have no need to go back to Condo, my name should be well known there now. :D
- While I was away dannipenguin was hit by a car while bike riding and TBH this impacted many of my plans for the rest of the year. I'm pretty sure it was worse for her though. :P In seriousness - HORRIBLE.
August
- Went to a steampunk event called Steampump 3
- Lanie Laaaaane
- Went to PyCon in Hobart and spoke about pytest.
September
- Went to my first tri training camp with my club in Apollo Bay. Loved it.
- Day of bushwalking around Mornington Peninsula with Robin, Susan & Jen.
October
- Spent 8 days in Indonesia with Kate!
November
- Signed up for the whole series of Gatorade triathlons, bought a wetsuit and tri bike shoes
- So happy
- 'Nother triathlon
December
- Sussan women's fun run, my second 10k
- Another triathlon, and my first " podium" - bronze medal in the Athena category
- Went to Hobart with Robin before heading to Canberra for Christmas and Wangaratta for post-Christmas.
This recap is brought to you by Google Calendar, Facebook Events and the Gmail search function. Other things that happened fairly regularly were roller derby and squash and bouldering!.
Consumption:
Movies
- Sherlock Holmes 2
- John Carter (wow, regrets)
- ? something at Moonlight Cinema with Michael.
- The Avengers
- The Hunger Games
- Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (MQFF)
- Jamie and Jessie Are Not Together (MQFF)
- Fjellet (The Mountain) (MQFF)
- Wrinkles (Arrugas) (Spanish Film Festival)
- Hysteria
- The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito)
- Chinese Take-Away (Un cuento chino)
- The Sapphires
- Moonrise Kingdom
- Take This Waltz
- The Cat Disappears (El Gato Desaparece) (La Mirada)
- Cousinhood (Primos) (La Mirada)
- The Sessions
- Pitch Perfect
My top picks from this are Wrinkles (charming and heart-warmingly funny) and I guess Take This Waltz for the thought provocation. I really should get The Sapphires soundtrack. I also found The Hunger Games quite enjoyable (haven't read it).
TV
Only Community and Glee.
Live music
- Dreamboogie
- Lanie Lane
- Ingrid Michaelson
- Concert for the Kimberley at Fed Square (Clare Bowditch)
- LABJACD
This is a paltry list. I don't know why. memory fail and/or attendance fail. and no festivals? :(
Art/performance things
- Queer Nerd, Midsumma
- Pushy Women, Bike Fest
- Ichijoji, tohm's art exhibition
- Deanne Smith "Livin' The Sweet Life", MICF
- Felicity Ward "The Hedgehog Dilemma", MICF
- Hannah Gadsby "Hannah Wants a Wife", MICF
- Claudia O'Doherty "The Telescope", MICF
- Ben Lomas "The Vicious Cycle", MICF
- Jennifer Wong "Ouch & Other Words", MICF
- Va Va Boombah's first performance (fat burlesque)
- "Triage!" by Zulei Khan, caberat at the Butterfly Club
- MSO Romeo & Juliet
- Wadaiko Rindo performance (Japanese drumming)
Good stuff here!
Recorded music
- Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
- Lanie Lane - To The Horses
- Florence + the Machine - Ceremonials (*)
- Kimbra - Vows (*)
*=technically from Dec 2011, but I listened the hell out of them in 2012. I purchased/listened to a few other albums but these 4 are heads and shoulders above everything else, in fact the "Most played" playlist in my phone's music app just has all the tracks from Vows and Ceremonials. The Fiona Apple album is magnificent, also.
check it:
the Holly Throsby is mostly from when I was more lonely earlier in the year, it's the musical equivalent of stabbing yourself with an incredibly cute looking pin. or something. :P
Runkeeper graphs/stats
2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2006
As you may have gathered from recent posts I have had a pretty darn excellent 2012. Best year I've had for quite a few, in fact. Maybe I am finally getting the hang of this adult caper.
Goals review - schemes and plots for 2012
things I definitely want to do
* find work at least moderately enjoyable even if Damian leaves
I think this was a success. If anything my opinion of it has improved quite a bit.
* speak at PyCon in Hobart (pytest funcargs?)
Success!
* talk to parents at least once a month
Er, fail.
* spend Christmas with Rod in Canberra
Success.
* keep 1 square metre of vege garden going
Fail.
* trial a vegan diet
Fail.
* go to the dentist!!!
Success!
* do a meditation course
Fail.
* save $10-20k - put maximum useful amount to First Home Savers Account at end of financial year
Success.
* catch up with Bek, who lives in Melbourne (no excuse)
oops, fail.
* organise a GGD workshop with high school girls to construct the LUV MakerBot
Fail.
* volunteer my tech skills with 3CR in some manner
Success. I joined their Web team and mostly attending mostly-monthly meetings. I like where it is going though.
* (towards the end of the year) start making plans to have a radio show with Donna and other cool Melbourne OWOOTers.
Er... no that hasn't happened.
* fix my websites that I no longer maintain by running wget over them and replacing them with static archives. be a better sysadmin for my friends.
Fail :(
* keep studying Spanish
Success!
* plan a trip to a Spanish speaking country (with Anna?)
Fail. I thought about it a lot though.
* complete a sprint distance triathlon (virtually complete: signed up for Elwood on 19 Feb) - 500m swim/20km ride/5km run - so, I dunno...maybe do two? :)
Super success! :D
* complete the 10K run in Run Melbourne in the middle of the year
Success!
* do running training over winter (instead of giving up and hibernating as I usually do)
Success!
* go to Sydney in Feb or March and do an ocean swim (and also hang out with my Sydney peeps)
Failed here.
* go on a few more rail trail weekends
Bit of a fail, I blame my friends for moving away and being in car accidents :P
* go on some weekend rides with my leet new road bike
Um, not exactly success, but I took it to Apollo Bay for the training camp at least. Apart from that it was basically dormant over winter.
* do something (????!) about dire lovelife.
Well I certainly tried a bit harder than in the past, did a few brave things and got a bit of practice at rejection, so pat on the back for me. Success.
things I would be happy if got done
* do Machine Sewing 101 at CAE or a sewing shop
* do an intermediate bike maintenance workshop
* go to Easter ConFest
* move off Dreamhost onto my own server for my websites
* Blog more than once a year
** set up a partial blog food for planet vegmel
* go 100% vegan
* go to Perth, enjoy being in Perth, visit friends
* visit Alison in Condobolin (train adventure?!)
* host a cards/500 night
* visit grandparents/mum's family twice
* find some nice St Kilda based community groups with friendly peeps
I only succeeded at visting Alison in Condobolin, the rest were fails. Lucky I was realistic about this lot :)
things I would like to do in an ideal universe but realistically don't think will happen this particular year
* crochet attack
* coding for all manner of open source projects (incl. Zookeepr)
* Arduino, NanoNote, Android...
* overflowing garden of vegetables
* learn a new programming language
* visit a Spanish speaking country
Realism also abounded here and none of these happened.
LJ/calendar recap
January
- I went to Confest! With Kate and Mike and Sarah, and Chris was there also.
- Wangaratta-Myrtleford return (110km) bike tour with Di. Loved it!
- Went to LCA in Ballarat!
- AdaCamp! Organised a Girl Geek Dinner to complement it at CERES.
- Hosted a surprisingly great group dinner at Ren Dao.
- Australia Day 1.4k swim at Brighton
- Somehow fitted some OKCing in here I believe
February
- Went to my cousin Emma's wedding. She is only a few months older than me and when I was under 6 she was my BFF. aww.
- Went to Di's sister's wedding.
- Went to a Quaker memorial
- Did my first sprint distance tri
- Did my first corporate tri
March
- Went to MQFF
- Volunteered for Ironman Melbourne.
- Went to the dentist for the first time in maybe six years and had to get 9 fillings over 3 visits. :(
- First 5K under 30 minutes
April
- Another triathlon
- 90km bike tour trip around the Bellarine Peninsula with Kate, Mike and Sarah.
- Hit up the comedy festival big time
- Had a bold conversation and the world didn't end.
- MOAR OKCing
May
- Met Russell via OKC. Mixed success.
- Actually kept doing tri training even though it was almost winter.
June
- Few dates with a guy named Ian. Meh.
- Held the second Cold Nights, Hot Drinks party (now my second tradition after quiet/boring/anti NYE party)
July
- Helped a friend get aquainted on OKC and she recommended me to check someone out who turned out to be Robin. Oh.
- Turned 29 and had a wonderful birthday surprise from Di :D
- Reconnected with Robin
- Did my first 10k at Run Melbourne!
- Went on two weeks holiday visiting family and friends in Emerald, Sydney, Condobolin and Canberra. INCLUDING playing and winning my first poker tournament. I have no need to go back to Condo, my name should be well known there now. :D
- While I was away dannipenguin was hit by a car while bike riding and TBH this impacted many of my plans for the rest of the year. I'm pretty sure it was worse for her though. :P In seriousness - HORRIBLE.
August
- Went to a steampunk event called Steampump 3
- Lanie Laaaaane
- Went to PyCon in Hobart and spoke about pytest.
September
- Went to my first tri training camp with my club in Apollo Bay. Loved it.
- Day of bushwalking around Mornington Peninsula with Robin, Susan & Jen.
October
- Spent 8 days in Indonesia with Kate!
November
- Signed up for the whole series of Gatorade triathlons, bought a wetsuit and tri bike shoes
- So happy
- 'Nother triathlon
December
- Sussan women's fun run, my second 10k
- Another triathlon, and my first " podium" - bronze medal in the Athena category
- Went to Hobart with Robin before heading to Canberra for Christmas and Wangaratta for post-Christmas.
This recap is brought to you by Google Calendar, Facebook Events and the Gmail search function. Other things that happened fairly regularly were roller derby and squash and bouldering!.
Consumption:
Movies
- Sherlock Holmes 2
- John Carter (wow, regrets)
- ? something at Moonlight Cinema with Michael.
- The Avengers
- The Hunger Games
- Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (MQFF)
- Jamie and Jessie Are Not Together (MQFF)
- Fjellet (The Mountain) (MQFF)
- Wrinkles (Arrugas) (Spanish Film Festival)
- Hysteria
- The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito)
- Chinese Take-Away (Un cuento chino)
- The Sapphires
- Moonrise Kingdom
- Take This Waltz
- The Cat Disappears (El Gato Desaparece) (La Mirada)
- Cousinhood (Primos) (La Mirada)
- The Sessions
- Pitch Perfect
My top picks from this are Wrinkles (charming and heart-warmingly funny) and I guess Take This Waltz for the thought provocation. I really should get The Sapphires soundtrack. I also found The Hunger Games quite enjoyable (haven't read it).
TV
Only Community and Glee.
Live music
- Dreamboogie
- Lanie Lane
- Ingrid Michaelson
- Concert for the Kimberley at Fed Square (Clare Bowditch)
- LABJACD
This is a paltry list. I don't know why. memory fail and/or attendance fail. and no festivals? :(
Art/performance things
- Queer Nerd, Midsumma
- Pushy Women, Bike Fest
- Ichijoji, tohm's art exhibition
- Deanne Smith "Livin' The Sweet Life", MICF
- Felicity Ward "The Hedgehog Dilemma", MICF
- Hannah Gadsby "Hannah Wants a Wife", MICF
- Claudia O'Doherty "The Telescope", MICF
- Ben Lomas "The Vicious Cycle", MICF
- Jennifer Wong "Ouch & Other Words", MICF
- Va Va Boombah's first performance (fat burlesque)
- "Triage!" by Zulei Khan, caberat at the Butterfly Club
- MSO Romeo & Juliet
- Wadaiko Rindo performance (Japanese drumming)
Good stuff here!
Recorded music
- Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
- Lanie Lane - To The Horses
- Florence + the Machine - Ceremonials (*)
- Kimbra - Vows (*)
*=technically from Dec 2011, but I listened the hell out of them in 2012. I purchased/listened to a few other albums but these 4 are heads and shoulders above everything else, in fact the "Most played" playlist in my phone's music app just has all the tracks from Vows and Ceremonials. The Fiona Apple album is magnificent, also.
check it:
the Holly Throsby is mostly from when I was more lonely earlier in the year, it's the musical equivalent of stabbing yourself with an incredibly cute looking pin. or something. :P
Runkeeper graphs/stats