liv: A woman with a long plait drinks a cup of tea (teapot)
[personal profile] liv
And my now traditional (for six new years running!) review of the year, because I don't like the standard survey one. 2009 was a very eventful year, with lots of new experiences and life upheaval, but overall really positive. Essentially, I escaped from a less than positive job, spent some time flailing about the transition, moved countries and started a new job which I hope will become a staple theme of my life for many years to come!

Also, 2009 was the year of Dreamwidth; I got involved in volunteering from very early in the year, ended up with an account whose low number I'm ridiculously proud of, and started teaching myself programming so I could work on making journal styles modern and usable. It's hard to see my renewed enthusiasm for blogging reflected in more frequent updates, because all the moving has meant very limited internet access for the second half of the year.

Significant events Books I think I have officially fallen off the reviewing bandwagon. I read 61 books in 2009 and reviewed, um, 28 of them. Eek. I haven't even been keeping a proper list of the books I have yet to review, it's all on scraps of paper and there are loads of gaps. Hopefully this will get better when I actually have regular internet access.

Music I'm somewhat meh about music this year. With all the moving around and transition, I've spent the majority of the year living in places where I couldn't really listen to my own music, and I haven't had enough internet access (spot a theme?) to buy exciting new stuff. The musical high point of the year was the VNV Nation concert; thank you so much for making that happen, [personal profile] redbird! But I've mostly been rediscovering old favourites that happened to be on my little mp3 player, so. Also, getting somewhat into more directly folky stuff, not just the old staple Steeleye Span but also Broadside Electric, Pentangle and people who write their own settings of Childe.
  • Delays: Valentine
  • Solas: Darkness Darkness
  • Presidents of the USA: Peaches
  • Placebo: English summer rain
  • Kate Rusby: A rose in April

LJ / DW posts Wow, I didn't intend it that way, but there's a definite theme to all of these. It's been a year of learning about marginalized perspectives, indeed.

Creative writing
My posts
Wonderful friends
People I love and wish I'd seen more of
People I'm really glad I got to know
New to the Dreamroll (I could cheat and count everybody, cos I've only newly moved to DW, but more seriously, people I've met primarily through the DW community:)
Since we seem to be indulging in nostalgia with the calendar change, here are my previous review of the year posts:

(no subject)

Date: 2010-01-07 12:32 pm (UTC)
nanaya: Sarah Haskins as Rosie The Riveter, from Mother Jones (Default)
From: [personal profile] nanaya
Ooh, thanks for this. I hadn't read [personal profile] nextian's post, as I don't know them, but I thought it was a very interesting series of musings.

It has something to do with the way that atheists talk about the Judeo-Christian tradition, as though it made any sense, and something to do with the way they talk about the Christian tradition, and forget us altogether.

This pisses me off so much. One of my most hated conflations. But then, there is such a lot of stupid when people start talking about religions they've never experienced.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-01-09 01:26 pm (UTC)
nanaya: Sarah Haskins as Rosie The Riveter, from Mother Jones (Default)
From: [personal profile] nanaya
I think I'm in agreement with you. I'm generally agnostic about "cultural approptiation" too (since I regard non-tangible "appropriations" as being a combination of post-colonialist attitudes and general crapness, and think "appropriation" is a poor word which should be reserved for e.g. the Elgin Marbles and other such tangibles - it should be something it is POSSIBLE to steal).

But! "Judeo-Christian" is often use in really annoying, ignorant ways! And that pisses me off. Jews & Christians not being identical is hardly arcane knowledge, after all.

(no subject)

Date: 2010-01-07 06:56 pm (UTC)
mathcathy: number ball (Default)
From: [personal profile] mathcathy
I'm really pleased to have met you too - and hopefully will see lots more of you this year and beyond.

Also, kudos for you for being so open with your life in public (this and more especially your decade post).
I write a yearly review, and then "private" lock it so that I am the only person who can ever read it.

Soundbite

Miscellaneous. Eclectic. Random. Perhaps markedly literate, or at least suffering from the compulsion to read any text that presents itself, including cereal boxes.

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