Many Hats

Welcome to Ren’s semi-coherent-yet-not-really-cohesive reflection on the year 2011.

Trips taken: 10.

Jan: BOS -> SFO

Feb: SFO -> ORD

April: SFO -> LAX

July: SFO -> LAX -> SAN

August: SFO -> BOS -> YHZ -> BOS

September: SFO -> LAX

October: SFO -> BOS -> YUL -> BOS

November: SFO -> LAX

December: SFO -> LAX -> BOS

New places: Montrèal. (Technically, I was there before when I was six or seven, but I don’t remember a damn thing; therefore, it counts.)

Best TV show I discovered: Veronica Mars. (Supernatural gets an honorary mention.)

Best 2011 TV show: Game of Thrones. (Honorary mentions to Parks and Recreation, Community, Parenthood.)

Best older film I discovered: Short Circuit. (Really, this goes under the “Why the heck hadn’t I seen this before?” category. Honorary mentions to How to Succeed in Business, Charade, Hudson Hawk.)

Best 2011 film: It’s a three-way Hugo / Midnight in Paris / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy tossup.

Best book I read: Name of the Wind. (Plenty of good contenders, but this one hit all the right notes.)

Best game I played: Portal 2. (7 Wonders wins the non-existent board game category.)

Best gadget in 2011: The trusty MacBook Air. My favorite gizmo two years running.

Best new gadget: The iPhone 4S. Combined with the right apps, this thing let me routinely leave the MacBook Air at home while keeping me in business—no easy feat.

Tech trend I hate: All these damn patent lawsuits. You can tell me they’re necessary, and important for defending portfolios, but gosh if it doesn’t take all the wind out of my sails.

Best new activity: Roller skating. (Unsurprisingly.)

Thing I did a lot of: Figuring out who I wanted to be, where I wanted to be, what I wanted to be doing, and how I wanted to get there. All that exciting soul-searching stuff. Also, I read so very many more books than I had in recent years, which made me unendingly happy to do.

Thing I wish I’d done more of: Fiction writing. When you’re writing news and how-tos for 8 hours a day, it unsurprisingly becomes more difficult to sit back down at the keyboard after dinner and pound out a chapter. Also, I wish I’d kept up with my daily post-it lunch sketches—those were fun.

Thing I didn’t get around to doing at all: Finishing my EP. I’ve had a six-song record sitting around ready to go for about six months, but I’ve yet to mix some songs or get the takes I want for others. It’s not that I particularly want a career in music, but I think these songs are halfway decent and would love to share them with people. Also, theatre.