
{"id":792,"date":"2013-01-27T21:40:46","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T21:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stefangeens.com\/?p=792"},"modified":"2013-01-27T21:40:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-27T21:40:46","slug":"2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/2013\/01\/2012\/","title":{"rendered":"2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"context\"><span class=\"sg-marginalia-250\"><a title=\"Home cooking, Stockholm by Stefan Geens, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/stefangeens\/8421320748\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Home cooking, Stockholm\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8332\/8421320748_1d18d09d22_m.jpg?resize=240%2C180&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/span>2012 began with a new year&#8217;s resolution \u2014 to learn how to cook \u2014\u00a0and throughout the year the results of my efforts were regularly foisted upon friends, none of whom appeared to suffer visible ill effects<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>One emergent theme for 2012 was visiting \u2014 in many cases revisiting after many years \u2014 European cities. In February a skiing holiday in Switzerland with friends was twinned with a visit to Zurich (cue the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kunsthaus.ch\/en\/\">Kunsthaus<\/a>) and Bern. A work visit to Malm\u00f6 led to a jaunt across the \u00d6resund to Copenhagen (cue the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.glyptoteket.dk\/\">Glyptotek<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smk.dk\/\">National Gallery<\/a>). A birthday party took me to London in April, and June saw my annual pilgrimage to New York (cue <a href=\"http:\/\/personaldemocracy.com\/conferences\/nyc\/2012\">Personal Democracy Forum<\/a>) and Washington DC. Late July saw me spend a <span class=\"context\"><span class=\"sg-marginalia-250\"><a title=\"Looking up in Prague by Stefan Geens, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/stefangeens\/8421331382\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Looking up in Prague\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8369\/8421331382_3a48b380d1_m.jpg?resize=240%2C179&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"240\" height=\"179\" \/><\/a><\/span>weekend in Prague on a whim<\/span>, and in October I touched base with friends in Berlin:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Berlin Mauerpark karaoke by Stefan Geens, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/stefangeens\/8421347218\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Berlin Mauerpark karaoke\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8238\/8421347218_aaf5fa79c7_z.jpg?resize=584%2C126&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"584\" height=\"126\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In November I finally made it to Bilbao (to visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guggenheim.org\/bilbao\">Guggenheim<\/a> after trying all these years), while a layover in Frankfurt led to a brisk walk through that city. November also saw me visit old friends in London (cue a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.barbican.org.uk\/artgallery\/event-detail.asp?ID=13613\">great photo exhibit at the Barbican<\/a>) and December, finally, saw a return to Amsterdam (cue the renovated <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stedelijk.nl\/\">Stedelijk Museeum<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"context\"><span class=\"sg-marginalia-150\">See the 590-megapixel panorama <a href=\"http:\/\/gigapan.com\/gigapans\/120854\">full-screen<\/a>. Two other panoramas are <a href=\"http:\/\/gigapan.com\/galleries\/10223\/gigapans\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Family was also in the picture, of course: Easter was spent in Antwerp (with a family excursion to the newly opened <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mas.be\/\">MAS<\/a>), and my parents and sister and her family came to Sweden in July, to spend a week on the island of Ut\u00f6 in the Stockholm archipelago, where we rented a house and some bikes and went exploring daily. I visited with my sister and her family South of London in November, and of course the entire family reunited in Antwerp for Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>As for what I actually did&#8230; <span class=\"context\"><span class=\"sg-marginalia-250\"><a title=\"Studying Chinese by Stefan Geens, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/stefangeens\/8421326954\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Studying Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8328\/8421326954_2f7817fb1d_n.jpg?resize=239%2C320&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"239\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/span>My Chinese slowly got better, via Skype lessons with my teacher Rose in Shanghai<\/span>. Together with the digital design agency <a href=\"http:\/\/soderhavet.com\/\">S\u00f6derhavet<\/a> we pitched to build Sweden&#8217;s new digital identity, and in June we won the contract. By October this collaboration had resulted in me working there full-time, including on a number of other big Swedish clients.<\/p>\n<p>Midsummer was spent on the island of Sand\u00f6n, where I <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.flickr.com\/photos\/stefangeens\/sets\/72157630287596710\/detail\/\">inaugurated my new camera<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"context\"><span class=\"sg-marginalia-150\">View the entire <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.flickr.com\/photos\/stefangeens\/sets\/72157630287596710\/detail\/\">set of photos taken over midsummer on Sand\u00f6n<\/a>, or view the <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.flickr.com\/photos\/stefangeens\/sets\/72157632622601461\/detail\/\">set of candid shots from 2012<\/a>.<\/span><a title=\"Gate towards midsummer twilight by Stefan Geens, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/stefangeens\/7443164260\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gate towards midsummer twilight\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5321\/7443164260_4f43e6fe6d_z.jpg?resize=584%2C584&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"584\" height=\"584\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In July I was invited by Sweden&#8217;s national geospatial agency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=td26MS9wbSU\">to discuss location-based services<\/a> at Almedalen, Sweden&#8217;s annual political talking shop in Visby, on Gotland. In September I helped the Swedish Institute with their Young Leaders Visitors&#8217; Program, giving a talk on cybersecurity. I continued <a href=\"http:\/\/ogleearth.com\/\">blogging about Google Earth<\/a>, although at a much reduced pace, but also did some research for Google in that space. In December, unexpectedly, one of my 360-degree panoramas was enlarged to room size and used in an <a href=\"http:\/\/2012.nimifestival.it\/\">exhibit about Japan in Florence<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"NIMI 2012, Florence by Stefan Geens, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/stefangeens\/8421352848\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"NIMI 2012, Florence\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8472\/8421352848_7e75fa51ac_z.jpg?resize=584%2C388&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"584\" height=\"388\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The weirdest thing that happened me this year is that I was apparently bitten by a tick while on Ut\u00f6. An initial fever died down long enough for the visit to Prague, only to return with a vengeance. It took several visits to the doctor and then seeing double before a lumbar puncture confirmed <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tick-borne_encephalitis\">tick-borne encephalitis<\/a>. As a result, most of August was spent overtired and feverish on the sofa, channel-hopping between the Olympics and Animal Planet.<\/p>\n<p>And that, as succinctly as I can put it, was 2012. Meanwhile, 2013 is well underway. My new year&#8217;s resolution this year: <a href=\"http:\/\/ultimibarbarorum.com\/2013\/01\/01\/im-never-touching-swedish-money-again\/\">To never use Swedish cash again<\/a>. It&#8217;s proving far too easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2012 began with a new year&#8217;s resolution \u2014 to learn how to cook \u2014\u00a0and throughout the year the results of my efforts were regularly foisted upon friends, none of whom appeared to suffer visible ill effects. One emergent theme for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/2013\/01\/2012\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7eNhC-2012","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}