One Big Library.

Monday I gave a whole-day pre-conference at code4lib 2010 in Asheville called "Hacker 101/102" and "Hacker 201/202". The morning ("Hacker 101/102") seemed to go well - the thirty or so people who attended seemed to move smoothly through the material, asked a lot of great questions, and offered a lot of positive feedback. Here are the slides (also attached as a pdf) from that part, which give a full tour of basic programming concepts using Processing:

Hacker 101 - Intro w/Processing

View more presentations from Dan Chudnov.

The afternoon session ("Hacker 201/202") started off poorly, as I'd not figured out the "what platform can we use to move a little further with this stuff" problem and we all stumbled around trying to get some stuff going on our desktops. Fortunately Mark Matienzo was there to give a tour of pymarc and Mike Giarlo was there to fix my crappy example code and many other people helped each other out when I was fumbling. The latter part of the afternoon was saved by dropping the "let's get this working" bit and instead opening discussion up to why unit testing is a good idea, with a tour of how pymarc unit testing works, and a walkthrough of the Kohana web framework by Eric Palmitesta and a similar discussion of what Django offers from me.

Surprisingly the room didn't empty in the afternoon, and I'm just sorry that I hadn't thought things through better. Running into problems getting language libraries installed and running on diverse platforms is, in a way, the kind of stuff that all of us deal with all the time, even very experienced folks. So it was kind of natural that that would happen. Unfortunately running into that kind of frustration is the kind of stuff that keeps newer developers from progressing past the basics, and before I attempt a session like that again I'd prefer to have a radically different strategy that builds up confidence in a more controlled way. I just don't know what that is yet. I hope that at least it was reassuring to the 50 or so attendees in the afternoon session that this kind of crap does really happen to all of us and the first thing you have to be willing to do is stop beating your head against the wall and ask somebody else for help. Many participants did exactly that and made progress getting things going, so I hope that small set of victories will help in some way.

In any case I'd like to think the morning was a full success and I'd like to give a Hacker 101/102 pre-conference session again for sure. We still have the list we set up for the pre-conf and I hope participants will share their thoughts on how it all went here or on the list. I also hope that everyone will consider asking for help when getting stuck on whatever folks get stuck on back at our regular jobs, either on the preconf list or on the code4lib list or whatever forum might be appropriate.

NBC's staff appears to have done everything they can to turn me into somebody who no longer cares about the Olympics. Two years ago at the summer games they had this great deal wherein for the cost of swallowing my pride and installing Silverlight I could watch nonstop live Handball and Skeet Shooting and I LOVED IT. Seriously. Go Iceland! I couldn't get enough Handball. And Field Hockey. And Steeplechase. Every "mid-major" event type was streaming live, as it happened, and my simple ol' Verizon DSL connection was all I needed to view it. Wonderful. I never enjoyed the Olympics more than 2008.

What happened?

It's two years later. I've updated Silverlight and presumably it hasn't gotten worse. But I cannot watch the Olympics. When I tune into the local NBC affiliate I get one of three things: Bob Costas, Al Michaels, or Mary Carillo hosting some bizarro talk show about "Moments" and the Cold War; tape-delayed over-produced jingoistic hagiography of Lindsey or Shaun or Evan (all of whom seem wonderful when they're competing but I am only allowed brief glimpses of that smothered in extreme closeups of them crying or swearing afterward); music videos by indie rock bands I like in heavy rotation starring car companies and household products. I am tired of talk shows, hagiography, and bad music videos.

I go online. nbcolympics.com won't show me anything live if I don't have a cable subscription, which I don't. CBC and CTV and BBC and EuroSport and a half-dozen other overseas networks honor their contracts and won't show me anything when they recognize my IP must be coming from the US. I can't find good illicit streams, not that I know many places to look, and presumably if there are any they're being shut down as fast as they appear. I've considered ordering a Canadian VPS just to web proxy video streams but that just seems pathetic.

So here's what I'm reduced to: about 30-60 minutes of biting my tongue watching terrible coverage of whatever sport is deemed appropriate for prime time at night until I explode in anger and frustration and leave the room. Following incredibly helpful people from other countries who share my passion for sports but I've never met before like @ompairuka to get decent updates of sports I care about. Watching the occasional replay of, say, Sidney Freakin' Crosby winning an early match for Stevie Y's home team in a shootout (OMG DID YOU SEE THAT oh you did? good for you because NOBODY WOULD SHOW IT TO ME DAMMIT) when nbcolympics.com deigns to offer it after it happens. Ranting on twitter, and, finally, here.

I'm heading off to a busy conference on Sunday and I probably won't have time to catch much more of this, though maybe if the hotel rooms and bar have CNBC or USA or whatever it is I don't have that show live hockey I'll probably forget about the whole meeting and my talks and spend all my time retreating from this horrific lawyer-mandated hallucination-riddled Olympics withdrawal to feast on Nicklas and Jaromir and Sergei and Marty.

I'll repeat, with emphasis: Hey NBC, shut the hell up, get off the stage and out of the way, and let me see the Olympics already! Ask me for money and I'll pay it. Just let me see some live Hockey and Curling and Biathlon and Skeleton. Please?

Love, a fan.

unalog is online again.

Registration isn't available yet, so if you're looking for an old school social introvert bookmarks app, drop me a line over email or DM @dchud with a username/pass/email and I'll get you an account.

This was a very good year for new music. Here are some of my favorites:

Allen Toussaint, The Bright Mississippi. We saw him at the Silver Spring jazz festival. If you were ever looking for a record to use to introduce a non-jazz fan to jazz, this could be it: it's immediately accessible, it's dripping with talent and experience and emotion and That Feel, it references and looks back to tradition while keeping a forward-moving vibe, and above all else Allen Toussaint's playing has this incredible measured-groove touch that I can't get enough of. Do yourself a favor and go get this.

Beirut, March of the Zapotec. Didn't see him. In the past I haven't liked his music much, but I love this part of his 2009 record and have listened to it constantly. This happens once in a while -- I don't like Bright Eyes but I loved "I'm Wide Awake". There's something about the arrangements and vibe and how his voice fits into it all that makes me think I've been missing something.

"La Llorona" New Official Beirut Video from Owen Cook on Vimeo.

Califone, All My Friends are Funeral Singers. I love everything this band does. We saw them at the Rock and Roll Hotel, and it was a terrific show. I just can't believe there weren't more than 100 or so people there. If you get a chance to see them, don't miss it.

califone - funeral singers from Califone on Vimeo.

Do Make Say Think, Other Truths. Saw them at Rock and Roll Hotel, another great show. I couldn't find any videos from this record but here's one of a favorite song from an earlier record, 'You, You're a History in Rust.'

No. 4 Do Make Say Think - "A With Living" from Retread Sessions on Vimeo.

One of the best things about the DMST show was that the opening acts were basically the same musicians in different configurations. One of these configurations was a set of performances of music/recordings from Charles Spearin's Happiness Project. Do yourself a favor and open that link up in another tab, stop reading this, and go check that out. You'll be glad you did.

Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest. Call me a fanboy, I can take it. Hell, ask my family, one of my favorite impressions to do is Michael McDonald, and they released a remixed track with him (!). Check out this video of Grizzly Bear (sans our friend the Doobie Brother) playing in a cab.

Metric, Fantasies. I like every record they put out more than the one before. I saw them in Ottawa at the civic center on a stage, which, essentially, is a hockey rink. I don't understand why they aren't the biggest pop band in the world. Maybe it's better we keep them our big little secret. The kids of the friends I attended the show with mishear the line and chant "everybody just wanna play the wii, play the wii, play the wii", maybe somebody should tell Emily.

METRIC - Sick Muse - OFFICIAL VIDEO from Metric Music on Vimeo.

Neko Case, Middle Cyclone. I liked her earlier records okay but went a little nuts over this one. Still can't get enough of it.

St. Vincent, Actor. I first heard/saw her in a take-away show but was a bit disappointed by the production choices on the first record. I love her sound stripped down with just a guitar. This came out and grabbed me from the first "paint the black hole blacker" backing vocal and I've been hooked since, elaborate arrangements and all. It also made me hear the previous release with new ears, and I like it a lot more now too. Still, love that tight feel of just her and her guitar.

St. Vincent Tour Videos // 01 from Alan Del Rio Ortiz on Vimeo.

Those are my favorite full records of 2009.

I also really liked Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion, particularly "Summertime Clothes" and though it's cliche to say it, "My Girls". The video does the song justice.

Animal Collective "My Girls" from Chad von Nau on Vimeo.

I liked the new Akron/Family, "Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free" a lot, too, particularly "River". We saw them at the Rock and Roll Hotel, another great show there.

KEXP Session 16.1 - AKRON/FAMILY from More Dust Than Digital on Vimeo.

We live just 5-6 blocks from Rock and Roll Hotel, this tiny little place so many of my favorite bands play. We also saw Apostle of Hustle there, which was a great show with only maybe 40 people in the crowd. They put out a new record this year but I somehow never did hear it. If I did, though, it might be more prominent on this list since I like the earlier ones so much.

I like the latest Dirty Projectors record a lot, too, but none of it as much as the track they did with David Byrne on the Dark Was the Night charity compilation, "Knotty Pine".

Some artists I like a lot came out with new records that never quite stuck for me. A.C. Newman, M. Ward, the Dodos come to mind. I'll give them all another shot, though. The new Fiery Furnaces convinced me that I will just never like them.

There were a few year-old records I listened to a lot more in 2009 that seem worth mentioning again: Joan as Police Woman's 'To Survive', Juana Molina's 'Un Dia', and Deerhunter's 'Microcastle' all stuck in my ear repeatedly.

The National (#1) and Spoon (#6) didn't release records this year, but they are both at the top of my last.fm charts for 2009. Good money's betting on their new records to be my favorites for 2010, easy.

I spend a ton of money on music all the time, and I also download a ton of music all the time for free. Usually I find a way to spend money a "legit way" on artists I spend the most time with, either by buying their records or seeing their shows or, preferably, going to their shows and buying their records from them at their shows. Sometimes I look back and see that I haven't spent a single dime on my very favorite stuff, and this year I want to correct that.

I have never "purchased" a Neko Case or St. Vincent record, nor paid to see either of them perform. I might see St. Vincent in a few weeks, but I might miss her. In any case I don't like not supporting artists as directly as I can.

So: the first five people living in the US or Canada who read this and write me privately (not in the comments! use my email address, i'll use my inbox to judge who's first) with their snail mail address will get a copy of the new St. Vincent or Neko Case records sent to them by me, purchased from the most obviously preferred sales venue available on the artists' own promotional websites. Say which record you prefer. Limit one per person, and I'll do three of one, two of the other, so if you're the fourth person to ask for one you'll be out of luck.

...still you're surprised, 'prised, 'prised, when I eat ya...

Funny how sometimes the story of a year plays out in the photos you choose to share.

This is how it started.

Happy new year, indeed. This is what I'd done:

Broken fifth metacarpal. It healed okay, I think.

I spent the better part of January and February healing up from the hand and serving on a DC grand jury. No pictures of that. There was one major highlight in that period, though:

What a day! Broken as I was (the hand, and my back had gone wonky a few days before inauguration) and cold as it was I'll never regret being there, it was one of the most exciting things I've ever seen.

I must've started feeling better by the end of February.

Though maybe I was just being foolish.

Manon caught in the act, with her new camera:

I've grown to prefer shooting black and white film. Here's the red filter in action:

And again with the red filter. It's still hard sometimes for me to believe these places are so close to where I live. We're half a block from the park, and we'll probably move before long, but while we're here, it's wonderful.

Due to additional broken bones in my family, passover was just the two of us. I think we've perfected the meatless seder, and next year maybe we'll have a big group. Here's what I look like with a mouthful of horseradish - the good kind.

In April a very cool project I'm lucky to get to work on sometimes launched a major rewrite. You can do weird mashup stuff with it now like this:

Springtime also means baseball season. The Nats weren't very good but did show signs of life, especially Zimmerman's hitting streak, and the Six Weeks of Healthy Nyjer Morgan. We saw Randy Johnson's 300th win this year, which was fun despite the deluge in which it occurred. The Nats might be actually competitive next year, we'll see. I still haven't had a chance to see the Tigers in DC yet, though, maybe they'll come one of these years.

The Wings had a good run, and even though I saw them lose in person twice (Caps, Preds) it was still a great season for them. They came oh so close:

With the Wings ultimately losing, the highlight of the hockey season for me was seeing the playoff game when Ovechkin and Crosby had matching hat tricks. Probably the most exciting thing I've ever seen at a live sporting event, and that's saying something. I don't have a picture of all the hats on the ice after #8's third that night because I was deliriously screaming at the time. Imagine a lot of drunk people in red hugging and screaming a lot, and hats flying everywhere for ten minutes.

We started ordering local vegetables from a CSA-like service, and it immediately changed how and what we eat, both for the better.

Not that I'm a strict vegetarian, though, or strictly kosher, just mostly both. A highlight of visiting my brother in Austin in June was a trip to Cooper's BBQ:

Another highlight of visiting Austin was visiting my favorite Ben Shahn painting again:

Eastern Market, which burned up shortly after I arrived in DC, reopened after reconstruction, with a big ceremony and big crowds. Strong neighborhood, here.

I even got to say hello to Mayor Fenty that day, and shook his hand just after taking this. Seemed genuinely amicable.

After fourteen years of disuse I started studying Japanese again. I have a long way to go but it's been interesting firing up those language-acquisition and mid-deep-memory sections of the brain again.

We saw Jandek! Seeing the Corwood Rep in person made us want to take things back up to a meta level.

After a few years away I was able to return to my favorite professional conference, Access, in Charlottetown, PEI. It was a great time, though things get kinda rough there sometimes.

At that event I met a very cool librarian who skates on a roller derby team in Toronto. I was in Toronto for another event a few weeks later and got to see her and her teammates and a roller derby bout for the first time. Bill took a picture of us. I love the positive energy, collective/DIY feel, seeing women in a contact sport (which I mean literally... as a boy I did everything, soccer, football, basketball, baseball, street hockey, dodgeball, "indoor nerf soccer with combat", etc., and my sister realized she loved contact sports the first time she tried one in *college*. not fair! girls can/should kick ass, too, and all power to them when they do, whether they're 4, 14, or 44.), and seeing a reinvigorated sport gain popularity. There's a small but growing league here in DC, too, and they skate right down the street from us at the Armory. It's been great fun to watch them, and almost as much fun to learn a few things about sport photography.

I was pretty excited to see their bout today, in fact, but it got canceled due to a blizzard.

...which brings us up to December 19.

Thanks for reliving 2009 with me. There's lots left out, here, namely pictures I should have taken of family and friends who visited us, several more xrays and injuries of various levels of acuteness that made it a fairly painful year, and any of the shots I somehow never took during a fun vacation in Ottawa and Montreal. Oh well, next year.