Day: January 7, 2005

JHN 2004 in Review, part 2

Continuing my trip through my archives for 2004:

July

Blueberries in summer. Microsoft.com blog portal launches, complete with OPML support. I’m an NPR Phonecam Challenge winner. I get namechecked on NPR. RSS begins to roll out across Microsoft.com community pages. Trip to Portland.Sonic Youth. Eating at Salumi. Optimism, or reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer while watching The Day After. The hottest day of the year. Denbigh Presbyterian burns. I ’fess up about our Boston move. How I sold our house at my ten-year reunion…in a bar…over a fax machine. The plan for my cross-country drive.

August

1600 miles in two days. Roadtrip photos. Gootllysac. Completing a cross country drive—3000 miles—in four days. We buy a house in Arlington. Fridge installation after kitchen demolitions. Missing the herb garden. New house likes and dislikes. On going to the Mass RMV four times. Wireless printing redux.

September

MFA photos. The great glass pumpkin. The existential Red Sox. Wireless tunes. The first presidential debate, and my fantasy question for George W.

October

The Long Tail and the blogosphere. PJ Harvey plays the Avalon. Dexter Gordon review. Sub Pop goes RSS. Dirty tricks. Blogging style. Pros and cons of blogging the presidential race. Hell Night. Ending the drought: Red Sox victory. Carl Perkins. Walking through Boston with George.

November

Blogger for hire. Delicious Library. Resignations. Review of the Frank Sinatra Show with Ella Fitzgerald. On not doing home improvements right before a dinner party. My first Thanksgiving dinner as lead chef. Boston late fall photos.

December

The Pixies with Mission of Burma. Bobby Timmons. Photo gallery. Votes, Bits and Bytes conference. Justin Rosolino at Club Passim. Google v. Gutenberg. Walking around Asheville. Global Voices covenant. Thawing out.

JHN 2004 in Review, part 1

It always takes longer to write these things than I think, but I thought I’d take a look at 2004 before we get into double digit days in 2005. All in all, it wasn’t a bad year on Jarrett House North. New houseblogging, new photos, cross country drive, my beginning and end as a semi-official corporate blogger, blogger for hire… ah hell, here’s the highlights reel for the first half (second half coming shortly):

January

We land on Mars. My phonecam photo to be published in the Guardian. It snows in Seattle. MSDN launches blogs.msdn.com. I have ten subscribers in the feeds.scripting.com community. Mars is warmer than the northeast. Lots of CSS learnings. Sail to the moon.

February

Last ski trip in the Northwest. Dave Winer visits Microsoft. Google Valentine’s Day toolbar. Prodigal dog. Rosemary. Generation gapped. Compassionate conservatism. Esta visits a shooting range.

March

On knowing the Black Dog. Trent Lott blog case from Harvard’s Kennedy School. Elvis Costello plays Benaroya Hall. AMS gets acquired. Remember when Al Qaeda blew up Madrid? Lego Death Star. Hindemith and Shaw and requiems and me. Learning to pray. Faster than a speeding bullet.

April

Sloanblogs (still a very short list). On Nirvana and seismic shifts in popular music. I call Bush out: “Bush ought to be a man, admit that he and his cabal of true believer advisors were wrong, wrong, wrong, and resign. He is unfit to be our president.” Justin Rosolino’s new album. Finding weird free music online.

May

Fifteen cubic yards of mulch. Accountability escapes us over Abu Ghraib. Why RSS succeeded where CDF failed. Robert Kellogg and Elvin Jones, RIP. We go house shopping in Massachusetts.

June

Shooting with the Nikon Coolpix. UVA class of 1994 10-year reunion, and photos around the Grounds. How Hermione stole Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I call for a virtual Bloomsday in 2005. Doc Weinberger visits Microsoft.

R.I.P. Will Eisner

It’s been hard to write this one. Will Eisner was such a living legend of the comics field for so long that it’s hard to admit he’s really gone. Especially when unimaginative, fourth-rate artists continue to haunt the pages after his departure. When will we ever see his like again?

Best eulogy: Michael Barrier: Will Eisner: Moved by the Spirit. Best celebrity eulogy: Neil Gaiman. Best obituary: New York Times. Best retrospective of Eisner’s work: his own site.

JP makes good

Just got word via email that a friend from University of Virginia, John “JP” Park, is now a published author: Understanding Maya was just released and represents a collection of the same training in the 3D animation application that JP has done at Sony (during Spider-Man II, the Polar Express, and the last two Matrix films, among others). You can get the book from Amazon.

It’s always good to see an old friend do well. Congrats, JP!