Reflecting on the year 2009
Reflection on the year 2009, checking progress of the goals, and some numbers.
Journal
2009
85 posts
Merry Christmas
I appreciate the full Christmas story more each year. God became man in the person of Jesus.
Christianity
Up
Up (2009), directed by Pete Docter, tells the tale of Carl Fredricksen, an old man who ties balloons to his house. Ed Asner voices Carl with gruff heart. He lost his wife Ellie. Christopher Plummer acts as Charles Muntz, the explorer gone wrong.
Movies
Christmas by Rebecca St. James
Rebecca St. James's 1997 release, bright, well-built pop songs. I came to it well after release and have returned to it since.
Music
Monthly update #0235 • November 2009
Monthly update 235 • November 2009 • 2009-11-01 - 2009-11-30
Monthly Updates
Privacy Roundup #0040 • November 2009
November 2009 was the month privacy controls met their critics, as Google, Facebook and Twitter rewrote the rules while watchdogs, courts and lawmakers pushed back on surveillance.
Privacy
Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
In Gone Tomorrow, Reacher spots a potential suicide bomber on a New York subway, triggering a hunt for Al-Qaeda connections and a corrupt politician.
Books
Until the Whole World Hears by Casting Crowns
Casting Crowns' 2009 album is earnest pop rock about telling and showing grace, anchored by Glorious Day.
Music
Memento Mori by Flyleaf
Flyleaf's 2009 second album is heavier and more ambitious, a loud meditation on death, dreams, and grace.
Music
The Phantom of Manhattan by Frederick Forsyth
In Frederick Forsyth’s thrilling sequel to Gaston Leroux’s classic, The Phantom of the Opera, the mysterious Erik, the Phantom, escapes Paris and starts a new life in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.
Books
Asterix and Obelix's Birthday by Albert Uderzo
It is the thirty-fourth book in the Asterix series. The village celebrates fifty years of Asterix with a golden book of memories and adventures.
Books
Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot
Switchfoot's 2009 record is a lean rock album about holding firm in the storm, fierce in sound and steady in hope.
Music
Privacy Roundup #0039 • October 2009
October 2009 saw harvested webmail passwords spill onto the open web, the Sidekick cloud erase a million phones, and lawmakers water down PATRIOT Act reform.
Privacy
What is ioupsd?
If you see ioupsd running on your Mac, here is what this UPS monitoring process does.
Mac
Monthly update #0234 • October 2009
Monthly update 234 • October 2009 • 2009-10-01 - 2009-10-31
Monthly Updates
The Moscow Vector by Robert Ludlum
In Robert Ludlum’s The Moscow Vector, co-authored with Patrick Larkin, Covert-One's Jon Smith hunts a deadly virus killing Russian leaders before a hardliner can seize the Kremlin.
Books
It Is Well by Kutless
Kutless trade their rock edge for a warm 2009 worship album of hymns and modern songs about faith holding firm.
Music
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol follows Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon as he races through Washington, D.C. to save his mentor from a mysterious attacker seeking a Masonic secret.
Books
Forget and Not Slow Down by Relient K
Relient K's 2009 album is bright, bittersweet pop punk about moving on after a break-up without letting it stop you.
Music
Monthly update #0233 • September 2009
Monthly update 233 • September 2009 • 2009-09-01 - 2009-09-30
Monthly Updates
Privacy Roundup #0038 • September 2009
September 2009 saw Facebook bury its Beacon tracker, courts and regulators press Google over books and voice data, and researchers show how location and friend lists quietly betray the people who generate them.
Privacy
Masters of Chant Chapter VII by Gregorian
Gregorian's 2009 album recasts well-known rock and pop songs as solemn choral chant, calm and strangely moving.
Music
Icon by Frederick Forsyth
In Frederick Forsyth’s Icon, a political thriller set in a chaotic 1999 Russia, a group of Western powerbrokers stumbles upon a dangerous plot.
Books
Monthly update #0232 • August 2009
Monthly update 232 • August 2009 • 2009-08-01 - 2009-08-31
Monthly Updates
Privacy Roundup #0037 • August 2009
August 2009 turned location, tracking and old-fashioned card theft into front-page worries, as a record breach indictment, a Twitter blackout and quiet browser snooping all landed in the same month.
Privacy