A December Meme: First Things First....

I've been missing in action for a few days...it's finals week and very hectic, so I have a few posts with a story left hanging, which shall resume soon as things settle down (for Christmas holiday, right). So I don't have time for this, this or this, which has been moving through the tubes and seemed harmless enough: take the first line from first post of each month and string them together...it seemed a nice way to look back in my new world of geoblogging, since I started Geotripper last January. So here goes....

January: I hope that this blog will be a clearinghouse for information on geology, earth science education, and the exploration of the beautiful places of the earth! (comment: my very first blog entry)

February: If anyone wonders why I teach at a community college, and why I don't dabble much in research, it would be because I have a scientific version of attention-deficit disorder: as soon as I start concentrating on one subject, something interesting pops up somewhere else, and I explore it for a few weeks, and then get distracted by something else. (comment: for some reason, this entry, concerning marsupials and Australia has been my most-visited post on a continuing basis)

March: Death Valley and environs is an unendingly fascinating collection of naked rock exposures.

April: Was this done in a few weeks? (comment: I waded into the creation science bizarro-world in this entry; the picture was of Grand Canyon)


May: I kind of started this photo-essay about Yosemite Valley by promising myself that I wouldn't be showing the hundreds of pictures that I've taken of the most familiar sights in the park, like El Capitan, Half Dome, and Yosemite Falls.

June: I need to echo the comments of Chris at Highly Allochthonous about the extraordinary picture of the descent of the Phoenix onto the surface of Mars.

July: Still decompressing after a "long" trip of two weeks through geologic time on the Colorado Plateau. (comment: the beginning of my "long" sequence on the history of the Colorado Plateau)

August: John Shelton passed away on July 24th at his home in La Jolla, California.(comment: I have been reminded several times this past year of those who paved the way for our education, and the heritage they left behind)

September: Today we make a return to our series on the geologic story of the Colorado Plateau. (comment: I didn't think my series on the Colorado Plateau was going to last for months! I bet you were moaning about that too)

October: Welcome to one of the most unusual (and most isolated) parks in the American Southwest, Goblin Valley State Park. (comment: yes, the series continues, but heck, I'm enjoying it and it is MY blog)

November: I was in Yosemite Valley yesterday with our campus Geology Club; it was raining, rather heavily at times. (comment: the story of a really special day in one of my favorite places)

December: Well, yeah, except that it isn't the Cedar Mountain Formation, and it's not on the Colorado Plateau, and it isn't a park of any kind. (comment: one of my favorite opening lines as the title of the post referred to parks, the Colorado Plateau, and the Cedar Mountain Formation; this is false advertising at its best. Still, the beginning of the story of one of my finest field experiences)

Almost an entire year blogging! It has been fascinating to watch the growth of the geoblogosphere during this time, and it has been a lot of fun communicating about our earth with the those who work closely with it.