January 1, 2007: Two Bests, 06

The Best Photos of 2006!
The above image was created by giving each photo in the best of 2006 equal opacity.

And as an extra treat, I read through every single blog on this site in 2006. A lot of great stuff. What's not included: a lot of the Creative/Academic writings that were posted, which are equally as great but outside the scope of this summation, and for which you should check out the blogs of Dave J, Jason C, and Joel F. Here are my favorite entries, from each of the blogs:

Bess W - clean sheets.
A statement of intent for a soon-to-be traveler. Can a blog be motivation for action? Ooh, or better yet, once motivated, will she blog it all? We will have to see.

Bryant - stinkasaurus rex
Some blogs are best described as Koans. The sentiment is universal, words efficient, happy sentence(s).

Dave J - Every day I'm hustlin'.
The best personal writing floats freely between subjectivity and objectivity. Even given Dave's recent goal of purely conceptual writing, he always manages to slip in a few, wonderful tidbits (bittids?). I'm probably not the best judge of Dave's writing, as I have the extremely lucky privelege of hearing his ideas, pre-publication (in blog form, or otherwise). Bias aside, this blog weaved together several ideas and joke patterns with factual information, wrapped up in poesy. If there was an ideal "form" for blogs that retain subjectivity, it would likely look like this.

Jason C - Into the 2 Dub 6.
Jason may have single-handedly saved Wandyteeth as a community, with his October/November 30 days of blogging challenge. At some point he started signing his blogs ("luv"!), posting sounds from his band Moon Crew, posting paintings, and writing because it is good. This blog precedes all of that, and as he notes, could be interpreted as a "downer". For me though, the concluding ontomontapeia predicts all the great stuff he has done this year, and I wonder if his new year's assessment of human life has changed at all.

Jmac and cheese - Shit.
Some people say that a great blog takes time and is neccesarily arduous, but I think this proves otherwise.

Joel F - That Boy Needs Therapy
A lot of the internet proves difficult to translate into the real world, absent another real person. The rare instance of real world emotion concerning the internet tends to be transcendent. "The lessons are different, but they definitely mirror each other" is an important note; change happens, but it is interesting to see how said change might have been nascent all along. His story of illegal parking and Ginger's note only underlines this fact. I laughed out loud.

Liz G - BibbityBoBi
Quality in blogs is often more important than quantity, best put by Bess W. A journey into the strange world of queer labels and self-self-assessment "But that -- there! -- is it self-censorship?" My favorite part is the capitalization.

Naimul - Macchiato: also slang for repeat offender
I always wonder whether or not references should be treated as secret doors from the conservatory to the billiard room or happy creative accidents. Does the diligent writer seek out diligent sleuths or diligent transcribers? You'll have to ask Naimul, because I expect that he will drop many more nuggets of mystery. Know that there are no such things as synonyms, and sometimes images in a blog are references the writer himself may not even perceive. I'll leave that one to be deciphered.

Rob - I hope your stepson doesn't eat the fish
"I asked him 'What is the point in writing if I can't share it with other people?'. He told me that is a great question, and there is only a personal answer." Rob's confused response to a strident start; I am a sucker for writing about the process.

Ryan S - So You Want To Be Famous, Huh?
Taking the zeitgeist of Chuck Norris with him, Ryan cooks up a plan for straight-to-video celebrity. Not sure that this ever panned out. Not sure that it needed to, either.

Supple Towel Cuddle - Stats & Pot
Semi-scientific, quasi-forensic, rambling analysis of a uniquely Omahan police incident. Ramble, in this instance, is a great thing.

Tim M - the drawing & winner...
Tim's epic winner selection video/images; I would obviously favor anything community inclusive, but something about this was magical. A moment of slowed down internet time!