2010, in the words of the proprietor.

With a tip of the chapeau to Cath over at VWXYnot, from whom I've borrowed the idea, here's a quick recap of the Ricardiblog for 2010. The first sentence of the first post from each month.

It's a pretty miserable collection, truth be told, with three months missing entirely (although, in a strangely recursive way, we could put "With a tip of the chapeau to Cath over at VWXYnot..." in as the first one for December, I suppose). A New Year's resolution for 2010 suggests itself - try to be a bit more consistent with posting. Although I did fire off half a dozen at Life Science Tools of the Trade, and I will soon be posting sporadically at another, as yet undisclosed, location. Stay tuned.

Anyway, here we go, sorry set of sentences though it is:

January: "Happy New Year, to anyone who might still be reading."

February: "Just a quick guerilla post to point anyone who might be reading at a worthy initiative - the Scientia Pro Publica blog carnival, which as I understand it is a regular initiative to bring interesting science to the attention of the general public."

March: "Time to brag a little."

April: Um, er, apparently I didn't post anything in April.

May: "A post?"

June: "The recent G20 summit in Toronto, truth be told, was only a minor inconvenience to me."

July: "I'm excited." [Ok, this is the first sentence of July - the first post per se consisted only of a photograph.]

August: "Saturday." [Hm. That's not really a sentence is it? The next one is the much more long-winded "A much earlier mandatory photography meeting than the previous day, and a quick brief for today's assignment - shots in the paddocks, the areas where the race cars live and are worked on, when they're not on-track."]

September: Argh, didn't post anything in this month either.

October: "There is a protest brewing, if I can mix metaphors so early in this post."

November: "One by one they left behind the bright fields of innocence and stepped into the darkness of experience." [I didn't write this, but it's a sentence. And there were no other posts in November to draw from.]

December: Um, er, I'll get back to you on that.

2010

A winter scene, on the way home.


Happy New Year, to anyone who might still be reading.

The annual trip down to the other end of Lake Ontario is over, the slew of Christmas presents packed into two vehicles and transported back home, and calm has descended on Chateau Ricardipus for the time being. Back to the Land of Wireless Internet™ again, which makes just about everything easier. Blog posting, obviously - but also looking up trivia ("where on Earth have I seen that movie actor before?" being a favourite question around here), uploading photos to Flickr of course, and even (*shudder*) doing work. From home. On a Statutory Holiday.

Our next, biggest challenge will be re-synchronizing ourselves with the school/work day schedule by Monday morning. No more sleeping late, lounging about in pajamas until mid-day, and snacking throughout. No more staying up to watch movies. Back to the daily routine, which, to be honest, is looking like a nice option after two solid weeks off.

And for the new year? Well, given recent events, I'm hoping for less travel, at least to the US, since border crossing has once again escalated into a complicated gauntlet of security checks, restrictions on what you can and can't be reading/working on/playing with on the plane, and other general Scroogeiness. And just when I'd perfected the "shoes and belt and pockets" security-check dance. No, in the near future I'm hoping for nothing more exotic than a trip to Montréal, for which I will once again take the train, an altogether much more civilized experience than negotiating airport security these days.

Or perhaps somewhere I can drive, since I rather enjoy transporting myself. Armed, as always, with a camera, and the potential for some diversions along the way. Like that last trip home, where I detoured along the Loyalist Parkway for the first time in many, many years, revisiting the Glenora Ferry, which I remember as being a highlight of family trips when I was young. I'm pleased to report that some things, in keeping with the Christmas theme of tradition, never change.


M.V. Glenora, coming to take me home.

All the best for 2010, everyone.