Year in review 2009
Jan. 7th, 2010 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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
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,
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.
LJ / DW posts
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:
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
- I left Sweden for good, very sad to leave the country where I was starting to feel at home, and of course my lovely Swedish friends and community. But I was very glad to escape from the drawn-out misery of the job, even with no real future prospects at that time.
- I visited New York, Montreal and Berkeley / San Fransisco (which I never got round to blogging, oops!)
- I spent a gorgeous month getting properly into text study at a yeshiva.
- I celebrated Passover by leading the first Seder in Copenhagen and the second in Stockholm.
- I got a new job, moved to Stoke-on-Trent, and bought a house [
]
- Michael Chabon: The Yiddish Policemen's Union
- Lois McMaster Bujold: Memory (which is mainly brilliant because it's the culmination of a truly wonderful series).
- Scott Lynch: The lies of Locke Lamora
- Martha Cooley: The archivist
- Alaa al Aswany: The Yacoubian Building
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]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- Delays: Valentine
- Solas: Darkness Darkness
- Presidents of the USA: Peaches
- Placebo: English summer rain
- Kate Rusby: A rose in April
LJ / DW posts
nextian: whose stories are they? (Jews and cultural appropriation)
compilerbitch: This made me cry (trans issues)
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cereta: On rape and men (My response is still my most popular post of 2009.)
deepad: I didn't dream of dragons (SF and representation of ethnic minorities)
hatam_soferet: Why should we be excluded? (The daughters of Zelophehad and Jewish feminism)
Creative writing
j4: Towpath diverged in a wood (poetic prose)
jack: How Magog, Tricia, Sarah and I met the Bicycle-eating Railings (original fic)
gnimmel: Christmas cards (illustrated, spiral-shaped story)
-
redbird: The family tree (science popularization)
-
papersky: When we were robots in Egypt (poetry)
My posts
- Comparisons are odorous (whiteness and ethnicity)
- Power imbalances and the internet (indirect response to RaceFail)
- That "mixed" relationship thing
- I'm probably going to regret posting this (abortion and disability)
- Parable (gender)
Wonderful friends
People I love and wish I'd seen more of
People I'm really glad I got to know
khalinche
mathcathy
daharyn
- AF locally
ravingglory
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)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 11:56 am (UTC)When it comes to Judeo-Christian I'm generally not that offended, I usually attribute it to ignorance more than malice. Though, to be fair, there is a point where being massively ignorant of everything about a significant cultural minority in your society pretty much amounts to racism.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-09 01:26 pm (UTC)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)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-09 11:59 am (UTC)I don't think I deserve kudos as such for being quite open in my blogging. I made the conscious choice that I would write about pretty much anything, but make an effort to keep my online identity separate from my real name. That should avoid people making judgements about me by finding something out of context by Googling, but that's the only danger I have to worry about. If I were in serious danger of getting fired for doing anything outside the corporate identity, or was hiding major secrets from my family, or had a specific person who wished me direct harm, I would have to be a lot less open.