..aaron..'s photostream

I love fall. It's my favorite time of year. Nothing really comes close. For me, a sunny, 50 degree day surrounded by intense fall colors is as good as life gets. Sometimes I think it's ok that it's so short, because if it were longer it wouldn't be what it is.

The problem this year, though, is that I feel like I missed the best part. By the time I got back to the US there were already so many leaves on the ground. What's more, I'm so crushed with work that I have little time to go outside and enjoy what's left. I'm left feeling a little dispirited about that.

Web Directions South 2011 was a super fun event. I met so many smart and fun people in my field. Towards the end of my talk I was making a point about the noise from DSLR camera shutters. I fired a few shots from my camera back at the audience. Here's what it saw.

I'm kind of an airplane nerd. I've loved airplanes since I was a little kid. All I wanted was to be a pilot.

The Sydney airport has an observation deck. This Airbus A380 was taking off just as I happened to be up there.

Every year on Dec 25th, about 6-8 of us sing Christmas carols to the elderly patients at St. Paul Home. Some of them barely know what's going on while others are fully engaged in holiday cheer. The real fun starts when we hand out little bells for them to ring. One elderly lady raised her bells as high as her frail arm would allow while we sang Deck the Halls.

One of the songs we sing, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), is an all-time favorite of mine. But every time we get to the line "and so I'm offering this simple phrase to kids from 1 to 92" I feel really awkward, because there are folks in the room that are clearly older than 92. I certainly don't want them to feel excluded from any phrases we offer.

On the way out I always peer into the dome mirror where the hallways meet and wonder what I'll look like when I'm 92.

Left to right: My aunts Donna (70) and Marilyn (74), my mother (66) all at my cousin's home on Christmas Eve.