On My Birthday This Year
I got to see my photo hanging at a local show. My mother-in-law took this replica picture of me in front of it. 
Musical Recommendations
Today, I saw a couple of the people I follow on twitter discussing music. We had discussed music before and I knew I liked their taste. In fact, @A_Silvers had a stint at one of my favorite record labels. *
So, I asked for their recommendations. It’s old school, but I feel the results were of high quality, so I’m sharing them here for you to benefit too.
Big thanks go out to @A_Silvers and @emenel for helping me generate a list of new music to explore.
*It was Twin/Tone Records in case you were curious.
Up Late Again
In anticipation of a trip to the Virginia/Bethesda region of our country, I’m up late, again. I can’t help it. I get excited when I get the chance to get together with my co-workers. Adventures await, so I’m off to bed now – really – this time. Travel is an adventure indeed. Wish me luck.
Almost There
I’ve had a second job for awhile. It’s a volunteer job. I’m on year two of co-chairing the IA Summit. We almost have the program ready this year. It’s been a long road but I think we’ve pulled together a great event that people are going to get value from. Working at my second job has definitely taken valuable blogging time this year, so I’m glad to see that I’m managing to push both forward at the moment. New habits for a new year, I guess.
So soon, the program will be live with registration, this is the Christmas morning anticipation I missed out on this year.
Inspiration From a Childhood Favorite
Lately, I’ve been seeking sources of inspiration around drawing. I picked up some old Ed Emberley classics again and have been recreating the objects he teaches in my sketchbook. It’s been a very useful and meditative activity.
The drawings pictured to the left are the images I made following the instructions from the book Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book – Make A World.
In Honor of Two Great Men
Two of the most influential educators in my life left this mortal coil in 2009. Professor James Gremmels and Dr. Raymond Lammers. My English and Theater professors at the University of Minnesota, Morris, MN.
I took a class my freshman year of college that the two of them co-taught. It was a critical thinking class topically based on Theater and English.
It was one of the most important and transformative experiences of my life. However, it was not just that class that I have to thank them for the gifts of the educators in our life are vast.
Dr. Lammers always had faith in me. He pushed me. He challenged me. He made me feel that I could be great. I was encouraged to dream but also to work to make that dream come true. He instilled in me a sense of the discipline it takes to truly make your creative vision come true.
Professor Gremmels was important in a different way. I worked with him at the old time letter press. We would spend hours setting type and printing on an old fashioned printer. His patience during those hours and his guidance taught me that life was not always going to go my way. I had to work with it. His teaching was also very important. His classes were filled with his love and energy of the subject. He breathed all kinds of life into old text and his love of Moby Dick gave me a perspective on the work of Melville that came from a scholar who loved his work.
In honor of all the people that make a difference in your life, I am grateful to both of these great men for the gifts they gave to me. I honor them by remembering them.
And a Happy New Year
Of course I had to get a blog post in before the end of the year. I thought I would do this instead of sending out the holiday letter. The holiday letter is a good tradition as it makes you sit down and review the past year.
The big trend I resisted this year with regard to blogging was the fact that people kept saying, ‘people don’t blog, they micro-blog now.’ I was resistant. I kept saying, ‘it’s not true!’ Well, it happened to me. I saw my behavior change. I used Twitter more and more – pretty much daily – and left my blog behind more often than I would have liked. But this is a guilt free zone, I’m mainly just observing the behavior.
The year was full of lots of adventure. It was a year of planning. We created plans for a house remodel. I created plans for the next IA Summit in Phoenix. I created plans for how I want to grow with EightShapes. I created plans for how I want to grow my photography work. On all fronts things have moved forward. It’s been kind of insane-but that is life and it’s about living it.
January was a big month. We started Gumption, LLC. After one year of being a co-owner, it’s been easy to see that we should have done this a long time ago. Even though I took a job with EightShapes later in the year, I’m still part of Gumption doing my photo work.
February was spent planning and preparing for the IA Summit and lining up all kinds of speaking sessions for the spring. It was a big year for ’social media’ and I got out there trying to help ‘demystify’ some things for people. It struck me that I was seeing the cycle in play. 10 years ago people were experiencing the same level of overwhelmedness about the Internet. You’ve seen what the past ten years have brought. In ten years, ’social media’ won’t be something we talk about just another way that humans connect.
March was the big IA Summit. Memphis was the city. Graceland was the fun activity. The rest was all about meeting peers, colleagues, co-conspirators and coming together to learn and share. The Peabody hotel in Memphis was a beautiful and amazing place. It allowed all the IA people to gather in the lounge before and after dinner and during breaks. It was an amazing experience to be on the other side of the event as well as I stepped in to help Samantha Bailey who was the 2009 IA Summit Chair person.
April was a whirlwind of speaking about social media, supporting clients and recovering from the IA Summit. However, recovery did not last too long as planning for 2010 needed to get started.
May brought on changes as well. A trip to San Fransisco for Google I/O and visiting San Fransisco friends. Another very exciting change: EightShapes offered me a full time job and I officially joined ranks.
June-September – well it was summer and it was as usual a great few months of epic dog walks, long days and all the joys of summer.
In September, after a trip to Chicago to hang out with the lovely and amazing Tesia, I attended the IA Institute IDEA conference for the first time. It was exciting to finally make it to the event after years of not being able to go. I like the format and found it to be a lovely and intimate setting to meet up with colleagues, learn and discuss.
October brought one of my most exciting events of the year. The Photography Salon that I attend, hosted by local Minneapolis photography artist Wing Young Huie, put on a show. 23 Salon members gathered on a Saturday to hang our work. A week later we gathered and welcomed the public to an opening that brought out over 500 people. The show hung for a month. It was an incredibly important milestone for me in my artistic photography career.
November and December brought the rush of holiday and family and crossing things off to-do lists. The end of the year is a marker and it makes us do crazy things for closure, for renewal, to give us a sense of a fresh start.
The end of a year. The end of a decade. I’m looking very forward to the ’10’s.
Happy New Year + New Decade World! Let’s use all this new-fangled fancy technology to do some good in the upcoming decade and beyond. That is my wish for the world.
Peace out.
Conference Trip -Twitter as Diary
This is the stream of tweets starting when I left Chicago for the conference. I thought it would be fun to make a blog post to capture the stream of consciousness that captured my IDEA 2009 experience. It was the first IDEA I have been able to attend since its inception a few years ago.
- At the gate in Chicago -2 flights til Toronto- excited to attend @IDEA09 6:03 AM Sep 13th from Tweetie
- @russu absolutely-so many stories-when do you arrive in Toronto? 8:10 AM Sep 13th from Tweetie in reply to russu
- dear @livlab when you return from your run i have a present for you (i’m at the Sheraton) 3:07 PM Sep 13th from Tweetie
- I’m heading to the Sheraton lobby now… RT @livlab: #idea09 peeps: when will lobby congregation commence? (via @mcarvin) 3:39 PM Sep 13th from Tweetie
- finally met @theguigirl in real life AND she shared some bacon chocolate with me too #luckygirl 7:40 AM Sep 14th from web
- Good thing @nathanacurtis brought all those extra scissors for @eightshapes workshop – #idea09 10:07 AM Sep 14th from Tweetie
- And safe travel when they let you out. RT @livlab @semanticwill sending antibureaucratic thoughts your way. 11:33 AM Sep 14th from Tweetie
- RT @gumptionthomas Facebook as landlord: “Sure, you can move out. But you need to leave your pictures, clothes, and furniture behind.”4:57 PM Sep 14th from Tweetie
- do you have data in a google product?-YOU own it & they want you to be able to get it in and out easily
The Data Liberation Front (the Data Liberation Front) - Thanks to the volunteers #idea2009 8:19 AM Sep 15th from Tweetie
- Tip for event MC’s be like @russu – bring your own laugh track 8:21 AM Sep 15th from Tweetie
- @halvorson location…location…location – hope it was a really good egg 9:13 AM Sep 15th from Tweetie in reply to halvorson
- Second speaker showing video I’ve already seen – #amitoopluggedintouserexperience? #idea09 9:25 AM Sep 15th from Tweetie
- ‘neither too chaotic or too routine’ that’s what humans thrive on #idea09 11:11 AM Sep 15th from Tweetie
- Intriguing framework of architecting posed by @cwodtke illustrated by ‘our boys’ #idea09 1:09 PM Sep 15th from Tweetie
- @akalata how about 7 in the lobby? we can go out side 4:39 PM Sep 15th from Tweetie in reply to akalata
- when someone adds you to their mafia family PLEASE stop clicking on the link – bad things happen when you click the link #justsayin 4:40 PM Sep 15th from Tweetie
- frack! i have no flight home after this trip to Toronto due to the confusion of a necessary rebooking! #madscramble 6:28 PM Sep 15th from Tweetie
- ok – so now i have a flight home BUT i have to leave in the morning OR pay $900 to get there on thursday #traveliscomplicated 7:15 PM Sep 15th from Tweetie
- @livlab at this point, it’s probably best to just ride the wave of social constructs discussion and late night burgers and fries #idea09 3:34 AM Sep 16th from Tweetie in reply to livlab
- when i arrived home from #idea09 yesterday I closed my eyes for a little nap – 17 hours later I have awoken – good morning! #whyidonotnap 6:59 AM Sep 17th from Tweetie
Vacation Trip-Twitter as Diary
Recently I took a week off. I stayed home for the first part, traveled to visit a friend in Chicago for the last half. When I was done with vacation, I headed to a conference. I wanted to play around with the idea of Twitter as diary, so I created this post and the next one as documentation of my adventures. It’s just an experiment.
- last day of ’staycation’ phase of vacation – heading to chicago tomorrow for phase 2 to hang with the amazing @tesia_k 9:42 AM Sep 9th from Tweetie
- you know you’re a little geeky when you enjoy spending some of your vacation time upgrading your blog #packingprocrastination 1:52 PM Sep 9th from Tweetie
- You build your life one moment at a time. Appreciate those moments. #foundinoldblogpost 2:09 PM Sep 9th from Tweetie
- @russu people that know where to look almost know everything at all times – almost – but not quite 2:50 PM Sep 9th from Tweetie in reply to russu
- RT @redmolly23 @evoljennifer @russu I call those people “librarians.” 3:20 PM Sep 9th from Tweetie
- At the gate-Leaving Minneapolis for Chicago – @tesia_k will see you soon – mpls will see you later 8:27 AM Sep 10th from Tweetie
- At the Empty Bottle watching experimental music & participating in interactive art with @tesia_k 11:50 PM Sep 10th from Tweetie
- MN artists: E.G. Bailey, J. Otis Powell!, Chastity Brown share 911 memorial track 9:27 AM Sep 11th from Tweetie
- @Armano I’ve been rediscovering Jane’s Addiction recently as well-fun to unearth good music 9:47 AM Sep 11th from Tweetie in reply to Armano
- @russu DO IT 7:52 PM Sep 11th from Tweetie in reply to russu
- Watching motion graphics videos with@tesia_k 12:18 AM Sep 12th from Tweetie
- Today will include art, critical theory & discussion of said art, & Matt&Kim tonight at the Bottom Lounge -all beginning with epic coffee 7:59 AM Sep 12th from Tweetie
- b4 the internet, my friends and i always JOKED: ’spies are everywhere-listening to your conversations’-now it’s literally true 8:43 AM Sep 12th from Tweetie
- OH: I was really having fun at the museum until I chipped my tooth on the sculpture. 1:57 PM Sep 12th from Tweetie
- Time for the symposium 2:03 PM Sep 12th from Tweetie
- Stuck in chicago traffic because everyone is downtown waiting for U2 to arrive 4:53 PM Sep 12th from Tweetie
- Amanda Chapel opened for Matt & Kim-never heard of her-she was amazing #mustbuyamandachapelmusic 8:53 PM Sep 12th from Tweetie
Digtial DNA
What does your persona look like online? A nifty web tool goes out to find all the references to your name and creates a digital DNA. The one challenge is that all the people that share your name get grouped into it. I happen to be lucky as I have not found another Jennifer Bohmbach who has a web foot print. Click the image for a full size version.
My Photo Blog
- Call Me February 4, 2010A lovely anachronism.
- Savannah Stairway February 3, 2010
- Pedestrians Cross Here February 2, 2010
- Tools of the Trade February 1, 2010Looking for something to photograph today, I thought I’d take a closer look at my photo lights.
- Clouds Can Paint the Ground January 31, 2010It’s like the clouds are shadow paint.
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