Back in 2007 I had a crazy idea to skim my flickr stream and pick a few photos from each month to try and illustrate how I spent the year. I found it to be pretty cathartic and gave me a whole different impression of the year I’d just experienced. I liked it. So I did it again in 2008. And then in 2009 it was kind of “a thing” so I did it again. And then again in 2010. I really like doing this. It’s a pain in the ass, but it’s awesome to reference.
I’ve been slow getting to it this year for no good reason, I can’t believe it’s April already. Gah. I’m sorry. So here it is. The first photo I posted in 2011 was this one of Ripley and Lucky cat just waking up. I guess that’s a good way to get this moving
Which I think must have been followed by a hike up to Runyon Canyon with the family based on my pics. I had a beard.
We then ventured up to Seattle to eat donuts
And drink some coffee
And upon returning I helped construct one of the most legendary pieces of furniture in hackerspace history, the MacBenchPro
In February I made Ripley some kind of fort that he thought was cool for close to 5 minutes
And finally got the bike I’d ordered a year and a half earlier, though it wasn’t exactly as I’d ordered it.
I drank more coffee
And we launched Coffee Common at TED in Long Beach
In March Ripley turned 1 year old. And eat a bunch of vegan cake.
And then I made a to trip to Florida for a funeral of an old friend who died unexpectedly. Which really sucked. But I got to see some of my favorite people who I don’t get to see often, which was really awesome.
It was a weird cathartic kind of homecoming
From there I bounced over to Austin, Texas to talk about online activism at SXSW and had coffee with another old friend
And then back to LA just in time to cheer on the LA Marathon runners. From a coffeeshop.
Rips had just started walking and they had just opened the meadow near the Silver Lake reservoir so it seemed like a good idea to let him run around there a bit
And then then I went to Japan for a meeting that I thought might impact my year, but may have changed my life
Safecast was born. In May I headed up to Portland for a planning meeting
And spent way too much time at my hotel wondering if I could ever be a bathrobe kind of guy
Back in LA I gave my first talk about what we were doing with Safecast at the first Farmhouse Conference
And then had some coffee
And was in awe by how grown up I thought Ripley was looking
By the end of the month I was back on the east coast and visited my friends in upstate NY
And then back to the city to finally see one of my favorite bands of all time play live
In June I headed up Cambridge to visit the MIT Media Lab and keep planning with the Safecast folks
Back in LA I found that Tara at built Ripley a castle. Well, she’d ordered it. Someone else had to build it.
but he loved it.
July brought more coffee
and my bike FINALLY the way I wanted it
And Rips beat the heat with some arts and crafts
And popsicles
In August I was back to Japan for more Safecast presentations and work
We talked to locals and went deep into areas where people hadn’t been for a while. With good reason.
But we met some new friends
And more progress was made. Then back to LA. With a new camera.
That takes some nice pictures.
Aaaanannnd… more coffee.
September. Holy moly. This was exhausting. The month started off in Linz, Austria for Ars where we were showing off some of the Safecast tech
Then to Vienna
But just long enough to say Hi before heading to
Dubai. Where were hung out just long enough to eat and then get on a bus to
Oman, where we got on a boat and went diving within eyeshot of Iran.
From there I swung back through Tokyo just long enough to see some protests
And then home. Our new home. Since we just moved.
But then, boom – off to Ireland for coffee
Just kidding, I was there for Funconf and Safecast
Yes, that was in a castle.
Then back to LA, where Rips was finally big enough to get some new old toys
In October I was back in Cambridge to talk about Safecast a bit more at the MIT Media Lab fall event, lots of friends were there which was great
Wait. That last pic – Crystal wasn’t in Cambridge, she was in NYC, because I went there too. But only for like, 12 hours. I didn’t even bring a bag on the plane. I had to speak at Web 2.0 but had to be back in Cabridge that night. So be it!
I got back to LA in time for coffee
and hanging out with Rips
The dude is getting huge. It’s nuts.
November. Back to Japan.
And back to LA. Remember when I thought Ripley was getting big before?
He’s totally a little man now. It’s unbelievable. Happening right in front of my eyes.
And then people started occupying
December was a Mr Toad’s Wild ride.
Rips is now closer to 2 than he is to 1.
And we went on a trip to the east coast. Starting in Poughkeepsie
And then to NYC
We AirBnB’d it, and found a convenient place, but had a lot to think about.
Then we went to Florida where we thought we’d get a nice photo of Ripley and Santa.
He thought otherwise. So we spent the day at Disney.
And then went south to Sarasota, and the #1 beach in the world.
The end of the year and the end of our odyssey brought us back to LA, just in time to give all of our posi travel mojo to a good friend about to embark on an adventure of her own.
In retrospect, 2011 was all about journeys. Both physical and emotional. Here to there, and back again. Over it, through it, and into it. And motion beats stagnation, so here’s to whatever the next 12 months brings…
—
So there’s one wild card to this, and that as I’ve been shooting more on film, the more photos I’m getting developed months later (with no exif data) so it’s confusing, and I have probably 12 rolls of film from 2011 that I haven’t developed yet. I just noticed that I didn’t post a single photo to flickr in Jan or Feb in 2012, though I know I took a lot of photos, so next year this will be a major pain.
Comments (1)