2011 in Review
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
The best way I can understand what happened in the year that just past is by looking at the year ahead. That's an odd sensation. What is that? Oh, my. That's fear. I started down a strenuous, but clear, path when 2010 turned to 2011. As this year begins that path will fade only 5 months from now and I have to take back over for what happens next. Who knew 2011 was such an easy year? Didn't feel like it, but I know better now.
2011 was also, of course, very joyful. If it was a highway I was undoubtedly racing from rest stop to rest stop as fast as I could, Styrofoam coffee cups piling high in the passenger seat. Thank goodness Michelle and I planned a special excursion along the way, like pulling into the parking lot of the surprise day at the amusement park, and got married in October (to each other, even!) Camp Fowler was, in a word, perfect;
The Chapel
even though the skies drizzled and the temperatures drifted to lows somehow colder than it is even today. Check this out, the weather being as affecting as it was, pulled the guests together, and as a wedding community, refused to let it be a factor in our enjoyment of the weekend. I can not think of anything more "camp," I can not think of anything more "us."
And I can't say I didn't enjoy the rest of the road trip either. If I take my 2011 education experience and compartmentalize it; it was downright amazing. In my master classes I made new friends, and not just any new friends, the kind of new friends that one makes at Camp Fowler. The kind of people who remind you that you're not the only person trying to change the planet for the better. Funny people, musical people, people I will miss now that school is over. In my elementary internship I made a difference. I befriended nearly 400 children and tried to learn every one of their names. I changed some of my understandings about children and human development. I was supported and cared for as a member of a team of professional educators, and my decision to become a teacher was resolutely reinforced.
Now I enter 2012, 30 years old, (Did you catch that? I snuck it in behind my wedding), and I'm no closer to feeling that mature. 2011 showed that I can follow a complicated plan, and I can follow it pretty well. 2012 will have to prove that I can make my own plan.
One of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced…
...is playing live music, that I've created, for an appreciative audience. Sometimes I forget how lucky I have been to have experienced these performances. Here is my band Nebulae Apothecary playing Jordan's epic 'Lavender Bells' for a Sacandaga String Band audience live at the Boght Arts Center in upstate, NY.
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I'm not taking the time to guarantee it plays at the moment. I'm actually in the midst of homework and this track came up on iTunes. I had to share it.
Post of value
In the wake of turning 30 yesterday, getting married only a week ago, and the stunning collapse of the 2011 Red Sox -- Well, posting content to the internet purely for the sake of posting content to the internet seems absurd.
Then I stumbled upon this marvelous link that not everyone has a chance to find in his or her own wanderings of the more secluded alleys of the internet. Since there is no real way I can spend the time to possibly draft an all-inclusive memoir post I realized that this is the next best thing. Sharing something wonderful I've found with folks who will, to varying degrees, care. Here!
Here is a gallery of shots from inside Fenway Park. It's not just any Flickr gallery, however, it's a gallery of photographs collected from Twins 3B Michael Cuddyer. Two ways that this gallery is truly special. First, these are modern digital photographs of America's oldest ballpark taken from a vantage point of the highest access possible. A real treat. And second, Cuddyer obviously enjoys photography as an amateur hobby. I'm trying to put it into words and failing -- but, as a sports fan, I find these photographs insightful to the human element. I will let the pictures finish my thought.
Update: That was quick
It's helpful to have a birthday in October.
The website has been given another year of life. However, if any friend or family wants my help starting a website, the offer still stands.
The Heathernet is shutting down… unless
Starting in August my web host starts to fill my inbox with reminders that my bill for the year is coming up in September. I always dutifully archive the reminders in my "Dreamhost Management" folder inside Apple Mail and think, "I'll have the money later." And it's true, I've always had it.
The problem is that this year I would be paying that bill with my student loans, and I'm just now realizing it. There was a time when I was buying iMacs and big cars and websites and cameras and all sorts of glorious stuff because I was always going to want it as a TV producer. Turns out that was pretty foolhardy. An elementary teacher doesn't need a vanity blog.
Which is too bad, because of course I'm pretty vain, and I love this thing. I've tinkered with websites since I was a sophomore in high school... this is my ship in a bottle.
But, I think I have to shut down this project on September 12th, 10 days from now.
Unless, unless... unless you'd like to end up in the same situation? Attractive offer, eh?
See, the problem in the first place is that I decided to be all fancy and buy web hosting. Plenty of y'all good folks have fancy internet blogomophones that work just fine because you're letting a blog network host your website. It's what I'll do once this Heathernet shuts down, I'll move it to a blog hosting service and carry on.
But here's the neat things I get now:
- Complete control
- Personal domain name (http://www.theheathernet.com, http://www.heathahnert.com)
- Personal domain name email (heath @ theheathernet . com)
- Geek points
So, would you like one of your own?
I will happily build and host your blog-based website and add it to the already proud Heathernet network (See: http://www.drivesafe-savemoney.com, http://www.jordanwhitestudios.com, http://www.nebulaeapothecary.com).
Hm, it's something I like to do anyways, why not get paid for it? Here's the plan:
- Hosting: $10/yr
- Domain names: $10/yr/per domain requested (if you want both a personal and professional name like me)
- Design: Free or Donation based
Design, FREE? What? Yeah, about that, I'm no longer a professional web designer. CSS, PHP, bla bla bla, warp drive, it's all left me in the dust. I don't have the time to actually "design" anymore. What you're going to get is the same thing I give myself: A WordPress theme that has been slapped on and tinkered with to match your personal taste. See Nebulae Apothecary and my Mom's driving school websites in the above links and you'll get what I mean.
If you have an existing blog, we can probably look into moving it. If you have a more advanced idea about how you'd like to share my website, let's talk. If you're really nice and just want to give me money? Well, maybe. The Heathernet only provides one person a service... that would be me. I can't see anyone paying for it.
But an opportunity to share my website with friends? Bring it on.
Email me if you're interested in having a website.
Summer Report
A week from today is the first day of school here in Connecticut and I will be returning along with the children as an elementary school intern.
We know the question well, "How was your summer?"
We know the answer too, "It was alright."
That's the standard answer I've had since I left Camp Fowler in 2008, when my usual words would have been, "It was the best summer, yet, camp is the greatest!"
If I take a moment and breathing Summer 2011 in, however, I must learn to modify my words.
It was a summer that I should not be too quick to dismiss, for it may have been the best I've had since I left camp.
It was quick, of course. In the mornings I helped set wedding plans in stone while I spent the evenings working at Dunkin Donuts. Each weekend was occupied. That's not an exaggeration.
With busyness comes adult growth. I have seen more of my friends this summer than I have in three years. I have reconnected with people and personalities that hold deep importance in making me who I am today. I have visited two great American cities and spent a weekend in the mountains. I have met a new niece-by-friendship who has captured my heart and filled it with hope and happiness. I've played music and I've read books.
I have learned that I am someone who does not go out of my way to enjoy life, I often prefer life to come find and enjoy me. It's selfish, silly, but--when you consider my young adult years were spent at an Adirondack playground where everyone I knew wanted to be--forgivable. With Michelle's help I have become a better person this summer.
I wouldn't spend the summer before our wedding any other way.
The Naked Now
When FOX allowed Joss Whedon an intellectual property blank check so that he could create Firefly, his vision was profoundly unique and decidedly un-Star Trek. The Alliance, Whedon’s Starfleet equivalent, is portrayed as unwanted big government, both bumbling and oppressive. Gene Roddenberry’s starship crews were harmonious visions of a utopian future while the crew of the Serenity must struggle to get along and to survive. No replicators there. Perhaps that’s why Firefly (and also Star Trek’s own DS9) is part of my beloved television show pantheon. It took something I understood very well, and showed me a different way to look at it, and, rather than railing against my established conventions, I embraced the new layers that allowed me to love more deeply.
Now what does that have to do with The Naked Now, a terrible episode of television that I bid you not to watch?
Remote
It was beat up and ugly, the remote. It was old, too. Older than both the boys, which would make their parents wince if they'd ever thought about it long enough to do the math, but no one in the house would ever think that long about the remote. It was, after all, just a remote.
Encounter at Farpoint: Parts 1 & 2
Image via Wikipedia
There’s no way to pin down the exact date in time where I first saw an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Likewise, there’s no way to quantify the day I moved from seeing an episode for the first time and becoming a Star Trek fan. Twenty years ago, a nice round number and as good a guess as any, I was nine years old. I would have wrapped up fourth grade, a year of intense bullying and not entirely coincidental first signs of academic faltering—the worst year of my young life. TNG was wrapping up its fourth season and had just wrapped up arguably its best season ever. It was officially established as a worthy successor to the original and already stood on its own as one of the best science fiction shows of all time. We were meant for each other.
Like many real stories of true love TNG and I did not immediately find each other. Our start was rather auspicious in fact, like trying onion rings for the first time—it takes time to establish how great is the good and how awful is the bad. Perhaps my ability to overcome my first experience with TNG it is proof of just how drawn to the show I was.
I remember distinctly walking into the family TV room, an adult show on the TV, my father in his chair. My queries were answered patiently, I learned the show’s title, and maybe I gleaned some concept of… concept. Whatever I first learned as my dad explained Star Trek to me was short lived. My first viewing was cut very short. The episode on the screen was a repeat from season one, the infamous Conspiracy, and I had just stepped into the scene most infamous. Moments into my first viewing of Star Trek, a man was ripped apart by phaser fire, exposing an alien bug living in his exploded torso. I left the room, shaken.
Brain full
I knew this day was coming and man, am I ever glad it is here. It is the first day of the summer where I can sit here... and reflect. Since my employment at Target came to an abrupt stop, while I was already taking classes for my graduate education, then immediately turned into my first trimester, which quickly became my second trimester, and then the summer was upon me without even a sniff of possible employment -- I wasn't sure I was ever going to slow down and, well, think.
Oh yeah, and Michelle is planning our wedding.
So, where to begin? Hm, here's this:
Heath’s Twitter
- World Series champ Sox P @gehrig38 tweets Penny Arcade artist @cwgabriel cause they're complementing his video game. Hobbies collide! 1 day ago
- I would think CNN would know what Obama looks like by now. http://t.co/y8wsRe8m 2 days ago
- Found H. W. Bush's third state of the union on CPAN2. Find it fascinating. He just claimed the end of the cold war. I was 10. 3 days ago
