Hiya.

My name is Tony Ballinger, and I'm a web designer living in Oak Park, Illinois.
When I'm not designing for the web, I enjoy music, go to concerts and play with gadgets.

2009: The Year in Review

January 1st, 2010

I have a reasonably awful memory. So when I say that 2009 was a pretty decent year, I’m basing that on what little I remember from it. In fact, compared to what I’m hearing from my friends and family — comparatively speaking, my year was awesome.

Cooper is awesome.

Gotta be honest here — there are many days where I doubt I have the patience to be a parent. Being a parent of a infant/toddler is a bit like having a rude house guest that can’t speak — and who isn’t moving out. That said, Cooper is a pretty easy going guy. His language skills are picking up a bit, he recognizes a handful of letters and numbers and at this point, he knows how to use the iPhone better than my wife.

Work was good.

Things were good at work, even with the whole global economy collapse. Despite layoffs at many of the larger creative agencies in the area, we didn’t lose any staff due to the scaled back budgets at many of our clients. If anything, web work picked up a bit as budgets shifted from offline to online.

Music, music, music.

What would a year be without music? This year I flew to Australia to see Brian Eno perform live, which was one of those things I had high on my bucket list. I also saw Broadcast, Depeche Mode, The Breeders, Metric, Nine Inch Nails (twice!), Echo and the Bunnymen (in the studio!), Arctic Monkeys and more.

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