Janus
Wow, it's hard to believe that we're 10 years away from Y2K now... and yet somehow I'm not sure that a century really gets rolling until about 20 years in. Perhaps because it's so awkward to refer to the 00s and the 10s? Much easier to point to the 20s, 30s, etc. (Speaking of which, I wonder if the 20s will be "roaring" this time around?)
In any case—perhaps because of the turn of the decade, perhaps because it feels like the economic and social problems we're having now seem unlikely to resolve themselves in a single year—I find myself looking not just back at the past year and forward to the year ahead, but back at the past few years and forward to the next few years. 2012 looks promising.
Sorry, I wasn't really going anywhere with that; it's just the state of my brain on this New Year's Day morning. Or part of it, anyway. The rest is consumed with mulling over my best experiences of the past year and decade, and with whether I want to do another 365 photography/Flickr project this year. I think I will miss doing such a project if I don't, and yet there were times this year when it felt like a chore, or that I didn't make an effort to get a photo that really captured the day (and was sorry for it later). It often happens that when I'm really living in the moment, I don't think to photograph it. (I should write a whole separate post about that, if I haven't already—about how I get the best photos of an occasion when I'm not really participating in it, and conversely, how if I'm really enjoying myself and am actively engaged, I get no photos at all.)
For 2009, I decided late that I *would* do a 365 project (or maybe I decided early, but forgot that I'd decided?), and ended up with a photo of the Beaner for the first day instead of the self-portrait I'd intended. From then I resolved to stick with the self-portraits... but there were some days, as I said, that my heart wasn't in it. And then there were other days where I felt like what I was *doing* was more important than my face, or where the day wasn't about me at all. More Beaner photos, more family photos, more locations shots. Apparently, I resist themes... or sub-themes, as it were, since 365 is already a theme. 365 days in the life seems good enough.
Here's my 365 set from 2009. If you have the patience to watch the whole slideshow (why you would, I have no idea; I'm only up to April myself as of this writing) and notice that some days are missing, it's because almost any photo with the Beaner in it is marked Friends & Family only. Although for all I know, embedding the whole shebang here will cause that setting to be ignored.
It's weird to look back over the year and see myself drinking coffee (I haven't had coffee in months), microwaving meals (ditto), looking a little chubby (I lost about 5 lbs. when I moved to a mostly-raw + cheese + chocolate diet), enjoying unemployment. I'm also glad I chose to include video occasionally (but sparingly). OK, I'm sold. This is a really nice way to capture a year. Onward to 365 for 2010!