Happy New Year

Welcome to Two Thousand Thirteen!  Here’s hoping that this year brings peace and prosperity to all those reading this post and greater understanding and civility among people in our nation and world.

I thought I’d write down some goals (not resolutions) for the coming year:

Write – I always wish to write more and will endeavor to do so.  This includes writing on this blog, in my journal and hand-writing correspondence to friends.

Bike – When the weather warms up, I plan to resume riding my bike regularly for commuting and errands, including dropping off my daughter at child care.  I also plan to write more on my neglected Bike Commuter blog, participate in longer community rides, and teach my son to ride his pedal bike.

Sleep health – I will work on getting to bed earlier, getting better sleep, and waking up refreshed at a  consistent time (and getting to work on time).

Faith – I am going to resume regularly attending church services starting by seeking out a new faith community.  I hope to build on this with more time spent doing volunteer work and social justice.

Sing – I’d like to build on the success of 2012 participating with SingPositive, JP by singing in more choral settings, perhaps with other groups.

2012 Year in Review: Memorable Events

I started a tradition back in 1996 of making a list of the most memorable events of the year.  My definition of memorable can include both the positive and the negative, but generally it’s the good things that make the list.  That first list in 1996 had exactly twenty items, so I’ve made the list a top twenty every year since.

• Sing Positive, JP – a year long highlight as my son Peter & I sang and formed community with other JP residents of all ages.  We performed concerts in May (part 1, 2, & 3) and December with special appearances at Wake Up the Earth and the Lantern Parade.
• Discovery Museums – my mother visited in February and we took Peter to the Discovery Museums in Acton where Peter explored the small but creatively-designed rooms of the childrens museum and woodworking in the workshop at the science museum.  We returned to this new favorite place several more times over the course of the year.
• Breaking the ice on Jamaica Pond –  After brunch at The Haven, Peter and friend Jordan strolled around the pond on a chilly day and cracked ice and chucked rocks.
• Wilson Mountain hike – We got an explored nature with a spring hike to the top of Dedham’s Wilson Mountain which included “rocky fun time” clambering up the boulders along the trail.
• Red Sox games – This wasn’t a great season for the Old Town Team, but Peter & I enjoyed a four-game Sox Pax where we sat in the bleachers for a (a very hot) Patriots Day, Memorial Day, a Wednesday in June, and a Monday in August.  The Sox won three of the games and Peter got to run the bases with the other kids at the final game.
• Mets game -  My other favorite team also played poorly this season but I did make it to join friends for the Banner Day game,  one of the 20 wins for Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey, and wept after Johan Santana threw the Mets’ first no-hitter on June 1st.
• Kay’s Baptism – Family descended on Boston in late April for our baby girl’s baptism including all the grandparents and her namesake Aunt Kay.
• Fathers Day at Wachusset Meadows - I was a very lucky Dad who got to snuggle with his kids, have a delicious lunch, walk through the beautiful Wachusset Meadows, and then stop at a roadside ice cream parlor.
• Tall ships in Boston - Another exciting outing with the kids, visiting tall ships at the Charlestown Navy Yard.
• Day Trip to Lowell – We made a mid-July outing to historic Lowell taking a journey by boat along the canals and river and then catching a Lowell Spinners baseball game.
• Summer Olympics in London – I was really inspired by the crazy but beautiful opening ceremonies and enjoyed watching various events with Peter on my computer who then went on to reenact the games with his preschool classmates.
• Summer Arts Weekend and Esplanade Playspace – Peter, Kay & I enjoyed a performance by Dan Zanes & Friends, watched some Irish step dancers, and then played on the new playground along the Charles River.
• Circle the City - The Greenway and several streets in Downtown Boston were closed to auto traffic so we enjoyed strolling, biking, playing and dancing in the street.  They should really do this every Sunday.
• Farewell to Child Care – Peter said goodbye to his friends and teachers at Soldiers Field Park Child Care at a bittersweet goodbye circle.  It was time for him to move on, but sad for all of us to leave many good people behind.
• South End Tour of the Month - I served as one of the guides for another magnificent Boston By Foot neighborhood tour that attracted 125 people on a Sunday in late August.
• Canobie Lake and White Mountains - We enjoyed a great family vacation to New Hampshire featuring a visit to a charming amusement park, climbing up the Flume Gorge, visiting the longest candy counter in Littleton, and soaring up Cannon Mountain on the aerial tram.
• Kindergarten – Peter started attending K1 at our local Boston Public elementary school and instantly having a great time making friends and learning new things.  As a family we’ve enjoyed playdates and picnics and making the school part of our everyday life.
• Weekend in Washington - Peter & I flew to our nation’s capital for the Columbus Day weekend staying with our friends the Rossos and visiting museums and the National Zoo.
• Hurricane Sandy – We were fortunate that in Boston, the hurricane just meant staying cooped inside for a day with only downed sticks and leaves (and a billboard near Forest Hills station) knocked over, but this storm hit close to home with the extensive damage to New York City (where my family is from and many friends and family still live) as well as New Jersey and Connecticut (two states where I used to live).
• Peter’s Birthday Party – Peter turned 5 with a cast of thousands joining him at the YMCA for games, a moonbounce, and baseball-shaped cupcakes.

Previously:

• 2011 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2010 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2009 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2008 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2007 Year in Review: Memorable Events

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 46,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 11 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

 

Six Years

Today marks six years since I made my first post on this blog.  I feel like I came late to blogging, yet here I am still plugging away long after the blogging trend has past.  Somehow in that time I managed to make 1,393 posts.

And yet I feel bittersweet about this anniversary as I hoped to do so much more with this blog.  I’ve not been very active of late, at least for the past year or so.  The list of book reviews I want to write alone is intimidating, not mention all the other things I want to write.  And that is the problem, in that I have so much I want to share on this blog, and yet I hardly ever do.  I rarely seem to have the time and when I have the time I have no energy and when I have the energy I have no inspiration.  Nevertheless, I’d like to keep going and see if I can become a more frequent, and more importantly, substantive blogger.

Knowing people are reading helps, so if you still manage to read this blog regularly, let me know what you like or what you’d like to read.  Or just say hello.  Feel free to leave a comment or contact me on my Tumblr or Twitter accounts.

And even if you have nothing to say, but you keep reading this blog, I thank you for traveling with me thus far.

2011 Year in Review: Memorable Events

I started a tradition back in 1996 of making a list of the most memorable events of the year.  My definition of memorable can include both the positive and the negative, but generally it’s the good things that make the list.  That first list in 1996 had exactly twenty items, so I’ve made the list a top twenty every year since.

The most memorable event this year by far is the birth of my baby girl and second child Kay on November 19th.  Everything else pales in comparison.  Here’s a photo of Kay with my son Peter.  The rest of the list follows in chronological order.

• Snow -We had an interesting winter with several heavy snowstorms in a short period of time.  I even got to go up on the roof of our house to shovel some off.  The snow was fun, especially seeing it through the eyes of a three year old, but it got very tiresome when it wouldn’t melt away.
• Salem – a fun day trip North of Boston by train featuring the Peabody Essex Museum and candy!
• Boston Breakers Game / Red Sox Game – I took Peter to a Breakers’ soccer game and was surprised that he was actively engaged in the game.  So by his request I took him to Fenway for his first Sox game as well.  Looking forward to more sporting events in 2012.
• JP Children’s Soccer – Peter started playing children’s soccer in the Spring.  It looked like so much fun that I pushed my personal comfort boundaries and signed up to coach in the Fall.   I was surprisingly successful coaching 3-4 year olds to at the very least get some experience with the ball at their feet.  Of course, the players’ favorite game was Chase the Coach.
• Drawing Class – I took a drawing class at the Eliot School in JP, hoping to learn perspective and found I could draw a pretty good tea pot.
• Wake Up the Earth - One of JP’s great annual events.  Peter & I dropped by to watch the parade after soccer practice and ended up participating in the procession by bike.
• Bike Rides – Peter & I participated in three organized biking events: JP Spring Roll, Bikes Not Bombs Bike-A-Thon, & Hub On Wheels. All were fun, but the BNB event was the most memorable for taking us through parts of Boston I’d never seen and for the vibrant post-ride festival.
• New York in June – Peter & I spent 72 hours together in the city that never sleeps visiting the Central Park Zoo, the Staten Island Ferry, Citi Field for a Mets game, the Intrepid Museum, the High Line, and lots of playgrounds.
• Visit to Harvard Depository – kind of geeky, but I enjoyed a special tour of Harvard Library’s offsite book and records storage warehouse and wanted to take home a Raymond order picker of my very own.
• Wicwas Lake Lodge – Our magnanimous friend Craig invited us to spend a long weekend at a lake house in New Hampshire with another family.  There was much running and giggling and splashing in the lake.  The kids had fun too.
• Visit from a friend – Our friend Sara and her family passed throw town and spent the night on a sultry evening.  Peter and her daughter broke the ice with stomp rockets and then jumped on the bed together.  It was a good sign that Peter was ready for a sibling.
• Two Parties in One Day – In the morning we went to a third birthday party featuring a performance by Wayne Potash.  In the afternoon, our downstairs neighbors hosted a bbq in our backyard.  Nice to have a party so close and not have to set up.
• Davis Square Tours – This walking tour had to contend first with Hurricane Irene and then with the street bands of HONK! Fest, but it turned to be one of the best tours I’ve ever lead in an exciting neighborhood.  This Boston By Foot will return on July 29, 2012.
• Trapp Family Lodge – The hills were alive with the sounds of Peter as Susan’s parents treated us to a long weekend at this rustic mountain retreat in Vermont.
• Old Sturbridge Village – Peter kept asking about life in the “olden days” so I did what any history geek would do: I took him to a living history museum.  And he loved it.
• Occupy Movement – This is an odd choice as I never spent a night in a camp but was inspired by the people who did and tried to share the best articles, stories, and opinions on my Delicious, Twitter, and Tumblr feeds.  More thoughts on Occupy here
• High School Reunion – In 1991 I graduated from a small Catholic high school in Connecticut, the last class to graduate before the school closed.  20 years later we got back together with spouses and children for a play date, a dinner, and a tour of the old school (now an elementary school).  It turned out better than I imagined, and I had positive thoughts going in.
• Promotion to Processing Archivist – In November, I started a new position at my library adding archival processing responsibilities to some of my earlier duties and moving from assistant to professional.  Oddly, this is the type of job I thought I’d like when I started library school, but I took an interesting, circuitous route to get there.
• Holiday Week – The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is always eventful and we took advantage of visiting the Museum of Science, Boston Common, The Children’s Museum, The New England Aquarium, The Christmas Revels, The Larz Anderson Auto Museum and Park, and Edaville USA.

Previously:

• 2010 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2009 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2008 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2007 Year in Review: Memorable Events

2011 Year in Review: Panorama of the Mountains Blog Report

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 47,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

New Bicycle Blog

I’ve started yet another blog, this one about bicycle commuting, aptly named Bike Commuter through the Boston Biker blog network. I’ve been thinking about starting a bicycle blog for a long time and have dragged my feet about it but with spring coming in, this is as good of a time to get started.

I don’t ride as much as I once did, but I hope to get back into more regular commuting and I intend to use this blog as a way of keeping me in check.  I also feel that my many years of experience as a bicycle commuter could be helpful to others.  Boston feels like a scary place to ride a bike, but I’ve found my experience riding in the city Here’s what you may expect to read on the Bike Commuter blog:

• Ride Log – stories about my experiences biking in and around Boston.
• Tips -  suggestions for how to make your ride in the city safe and enjoyable.
• Advocacy – political action to support bicyclists and bicycle facilities (I may sometimes venture into overlapping issues related to walking, public transportation, and urban planning).

Things you won’t see on this blog:

• Athletic pursuits – if you’re into bike racing, endurance rides, and/or mountain biking, I salute you, but you’re probably not going to find anything you’re interested in.  This blog is more geared to the everyday person who uses a bike to get around.
• Rampant consumerism – much of what is on the internet about bicycling is geared toward convincing you that you need to spend money on the right bike, the right accessories, and the right clothing if you want to be serious about riding a bike.  This blog is here to convince you to get a bike that works, put on it what you need, wear what you have on and get on the road.

If you’re interested in bicycling or just like to read things that I write, subscribe to the feed at http://bikecommuter.bostonbiker.org/feed/.

 

2010 in review (according to WordPress)

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 45,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 5 days for that many people to see it.

 

In 2010, there were 231 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1172 posts. There were 390 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 396mb. That’s about 1 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was October 28th with 247 views. The most popular post that day was Book Review: The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, google.com, books.google.com, twitter.com, and search.aol.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for favorite books of all time, the blind side book summary, the blind side book review, jesus before christianity, and cadillac mountain.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Book Review: The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis October 2008
7 comments

2

100 Favorite Books of All Time (10-1) March 2009
3 comments

3

Book Review: Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan, O.P. March 2008
5 comments

4

Book Review: The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham January 2007
4 comments

5

Saint Brigid February 2007
1 comment

2010 Year in Review: Memorable Events

Each year since 1996, I’ve made a list of the twenty most memorable events in my life of  the year just past.  The events may be good or bad,  silly or sad, life-changing or mundane, but mostly just memorable.

1. Firehouse – We took our firefighting-obsessed 2-year old son in January on a visit to the East Cambridge Fire House where a friend of ours works.  There were many shrieks of delight and jumping up and down in excitement.  Peter enjoyed it too.
2. Max – In February we adopted a 4-year old, black domestic short hair cat from a local family who had to part with him due to allergies.  A gentle and forgiving cat, Max has quickly become a beloved member of our family even if he does wake us up every night by scratching a the kitchen cabinets.
3. Lenten postcards – I gave up Facebook (and some other social media) for Lent and instead updated my status by sending out a postcard to a different person each day from Ash Wednesday to Easter.  Although I only received 2 postcards in return it was a lot of fun to connect in an “old-fashioned” way.
4. Professional development – work this year included managing a massive project to prepare archived case studies for scanning as well as attending the New England Archivists meetings in the spring and fall and a couple of recent ARMA Boston events.
5. Patriots’ Day Weekend -  Three generations of my family enjoyed watching the runners in the Boston Marathon as we ate doughnuts.  I also saw the BSO at Symphony Hall for the first time that weekend.
6. Wake Up the Earth Parade – stilt walkers, dragons, cute kids, drummers, left-wing political banners, and chickens on bicycles.  Must be spring in Jamaica Plain.
7. Amsterdam – a wonderful family trip courtesy of the Boston By Foot Flansburgh Traveling Fellowship.  Blog posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6, 7, & 8) and a photo album begin to sum it up.
8. Bicycling – this year I got back on my bike for commuting to work, this time with my son on board in a child seat.  We also enjoyed renting bikes on vacation in Amsterdam and Martha’s Vineyard and the great Hub on Wheels community bike ride in September.  Peter also got very good at riding his own balance bike.
9. They Might Be Giants family concert – They Might Be Giants were one of the rock bands I ever saw in concert.  Nearly twenty years later I took my family to see them in a fundraiser for Boston By Foot.
10. Audubon Nature Festival – Whoo cooks for you, whoo cooks for you all!
11. Boston Pride Parade – we went to celebrate peace, equality, and justice and Peter left with a lot of loot.
12. Independence Day Weekend – another visit from my Mom, The Greater New Bedford Summerfest, swan boats, the zoo, a Ben Franklin tour, and splashing in the wading pool.
13. Football at Fenway – seeing the beautiful game take over the lyric little bandbox was the highlight of a soccer-filled year where I watched almost every game of the World Cup, saw the Boston Breakers in action, made a commitment to following the sport in the US and Europe, and even played a little soccer with my son.
14. Boston By Foot Avenue of the Arts tour – For the first time, I participated in proposing, researching, and writing a tour of the month for Boston By Foot which went off successfully in July and will return on October 30, 2011.  As an added bonus, I took a tour of Symphony Hall while researching the tour.
15. Pee Paw’s Birthday – a week long trip to North Carolina to celebrate my father-in-law’s 70th birthday.  The best part was seeing my son and nephew playing together.
16. Providence – my son and I took a day trip by commuter rail to the Rhode Island capital and had a fun day at the Providence Children’s Museum.
17. Martha’s Vineyard – we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary with a family vacation to the island town of Oak Bluffs.
18. Topsfield Fair – Enjoyed a day out with my wife, son, and mother at America’s oldest fair in October.
19. Thanksgiving – more family travel to North Carolina and Virginia so that Peter could visit with all his grandparents and play soccer with his oldest cousin.
20. Christmas holidays – a beautiful Christmas tree, an indoor playground, religious observance, dinner with family and friends, the Christmas Revels, a ton of snow, visiting with friends, the New England Aquarium and the Edaville Railroad.

Previously:

• 2009 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2008 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2007 Year in Review: Memorable Events

30 Posts in 30 Days

Blogging has been sluggish of late.  A common problem I know, and I deliberately avoid being the type of person who apologizes for long intervals between blog posts.  The thing is I haven’t lost interest in blogging.  I think about it a lot.  But in those rare moments I find time to write, I freeze up or let myself get distracted.  I think I’ve reached a point where I don’t think I have enough time to write the posts I want to write as well as I want to write them.   To use a cliche, I’ve allowed perfect to be the enemy of the good.

To kick start this blog again, I’m going to try to write 30 posts in 30 days inspired by The Travelin’ Librarian blog’s Michael Sauers who picked up the idea from the Australian Libraries Interact. I expect some of these posts will be short and rushed and pretty crappy, but also think there may be a few diamonds in the rough.  At any rate, I may get my book/beer/movie reviews and photoposts out more regularly again.
Wish me luck.