In Washington Square Park in Old City Philadelphia today.

A great long weekend in Birmingham, Ala.

Some adventures:

• Good People brewery
• Avondale brewery
• Vulcan Park, James McKnight journalist made the recommendation
• Bottletree Cafe for its flea market
• Jazz hall of fame
• peanut depot
• alabama theater
• pepper place
• Hot and Hot Fish Club
• Ollie Irene
• J-Clyde for last dinner

http://bhamweekly.com/birmingham/article-2591-blue-collar-bbq-and-breakfast.html

http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/202068

http://governor.alabama.gov/cabinet/perry.aspx

https://twitter.com/#!/christopherwink/status/169144844856463363

https://twitter.com/#!/christopherwink/status/168914659896852480

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I had never been in a wedding before — indeed, the first wedding I ever attended was just this past August.

It was an honor to be a groomsman for my cousin’s wedding to his beautiful wife, with whom he has a child that I am proud to call my god daughter. It was a great weekend event.

We’ve spent the past few New Year’s Eves in Philadelphia, so we decided to do something different.

We visited friends in Manhattan, seeing the ball before escaping to Brooklyn for midnight, bocce ball and fireworks.

Let’s look at the next year and remember last year by way of 12 months of goals. See my professional goals for 2012 here.

Above, that’s a photo of my colleague Alex Hillman with his famed ‘JFDI’ tattoo: just fucking do it.

2012 Resolutions

• JANUARY: Do food better –whole wheat pasta; every other fries/chips; less food waste; new food each month; buy new types of food each month from the supermarket.
• FEBRUARY: House stuff — Photos on stairway; Linen closet; bedroom bookcase; basement reclamation; Clean out closet/clothes, and donate unused
• MARCH: Be funnier — Do another standup open mic; Tell a new joke each week
• APRIL: Be fitter — Prepare for the Broad Street Run, do 10 pushups everyday, push for more basketball and running.
• MAY: Write more creatively — Complete a finely, polished short story and set it aside for a new one; do this multiple times. Put together the story arc for a screenplay. Participate in a Story Slam
• JUNE: Smaller memorable trips — Take a helicopter ride and weekend trips.
• JULY: International Trip — Get abroad, meeting a goal of at least one global trip every year so long as I can afford it.
• AUGUST: Domestic Trips — Visit my sister and go somewhere I’ve never been before in the country.
• SEPTEMBER: Big Philly Things to Do — City Hall peak tour; Quaker meeting house; Girard Trolley to the Zoo; join the neighborhood Compost Co-op
• OCTOBER: Speak smarter — Always speak slower, be more to the point, talk less, particularly in interviews and swear less.
• NOVEMBER: Play some music — learn to play a single song on the guitar
• DECEMBER:  Improve your finances — Max out Roth IRA, put some in a traditional IRA, refinance mortgage to 15-year, have more than $5,000 in my savings account (with goal of having a six-month emergency fund), too; Have paid down my student loans to perhaps be finalized in 2013; Donate to a charity; donate to This American Life.

Review of 2011 and such below.

Cool stuff I did this year not part my resolutions below:

• Participated in a Broetry Slam
• Freddy Adams Tournament
• Philly Geek Awards
• Gaul Street Block Party
• My first police ride along
• Couchsurfing in St. Louis
• I went to Wing Bowl 19

How did I do on my 2011 Resolutions?

1. JANUARY: Record my experiences — That means journaling privately at least once a month and returning to chasing this List of mine.
2. FEBRUARY: Firmly plant my home — Drivers license, car insurance, license plates and the rest have all been transferred to my Fishtown home, in addition to better furnishing and bringing everything to my house. Feels like home.
3. MARCH: New meals Monthly — While not always faithful, I’ve done some new cooking, including sushi and chocolate banana beer bread.
4. APRIL: Basement clean out — My basement is as clean as I’ve ever had it.
5. MAY: Organized Health — I played dodgeball and, while the Broad Street Run was sold out, I did play lots of basketball, including a tournament, and did some running.
6. JUNE: Upstairs direction — I have some bathroom direction and linen closet and bookshelf movement, though I haven’t finished painting.
7. JULY: International trip — Ireland!
8. AUGUST: Road trip — Utah and Colorado!
9. SEPTEMBER: Philly transportation basics — I did the El and the Ben Franklin Bridge, though still haven’t made it on a trolley.
10. OCTOBER: Stand-up Comedy — I finally made it onto a stage here.
11. NOVEMBER: Take part in National Novel Writing Month — I did some writing and have something of a story together, but I can’t say I really rocked this out.
12. DECEMBER: Finish lingering scrapbooks — Bleh, I made some progress, but I need to finish this in 2012.

With friends and family, I tailgated outside of the Eagles-Jets game, scarfing beer, bratwurst, chips and, yes, hot tea.

The game was a hoot too — a 45-19 win for the Eagles to keep their slim playoff hopes alive in my first full NFL game.

I picked up some lessons for tailgating:

• When it’s cold, you need a lot more charcoal than you realize.
• Plates, forks, cups, tongs and other utensils do, uh, help.
• Thermos of hot water for tea is a good idea, but need travel mugs (and whiskey)
• Blankets were a great choice, in addition to thermals and jackets and hats and gloves
• Lots of meat: at least three for each person
• Hot dogs, bratwurst and sausages with great rolls were good choices
• Bring some tin foil of peppers and onions
• If you want to see the whole game, stop tailgating an hour before

The Fishtown Fish came in fourth place out of 10 teams in the 2011 Philadelphia Sports Network co-ed dodgeball league.

Led by Captain Patch, the nine of us league-first-timers started 0-2 but were then undefeated through the rest of the weekly Thursday night season, until we lost our last meaningless game, going an overall 4-3-1.

Played at the 12th Street Gym in the Gayborhood neighborhood of Center City, the matches are played six versus six players at a time, each side on one half of a basketball court. Hit someone with a ball, that player is out. Catch a throw, the thrower is out and you bring one of your players who was out back in.

Some lessons and strategy we learned while playing our first season. Yes, this is serious stuff.

1. Get opposing players out in descending order from most talented to least talented, because with more people on the court, it’s easier to get a better player out, due to confusion, etc. Also keeping a weaker player in the game is someone who might make a bad throw to catch.
2. Strike as one, against one person, calling out what opposing player everyone should target.
3. Throw low, as those balls are harder to catch and can rise but still hit the target. This is particularly important for slower throwers, as an easy catch not only gets the thrower out but can bring someone else on.
4. Catch only what comes to you, not worth lunging or taking the risk. Still catches are big momentum turns, so do try, but focus only on bigger, slower balls. A catch is doubly valuable when it brings a player on and gets another player out, so the risk is less worthwhile if all of your players are still on the court.
5. Watch the quick release throws from the other team to hit that player when everyone is first racing for the balls at the beginning of the match.
6. Bigger, slower balls are better for blocking than throwing. Big balls are easier to catch and so are harder to get someone out with.
7. Have a regular, easy, fair subbing system, so everyone gets same times out, the talent is spread and everyone feels like he’s getting equal opportunity.
8. Throw against the wall, rather than diagonally across the court whenever possible so the balls have a better chance of rolling back if you miss.

It’s hard to figure a reason to keep so many trophies from my childhood — many for swimming, soccer, basketball and others for wrestling and baseball — so I’m likely going to trash these cheap, plastic keepsakes of participation in youth sports.

If I’m going to ditch them, I figured I’d capture them somehow. Video below, preferring digital clutter over the real thing.

Above, nine years worth of swim team trophies.

Below another photo and a video.

Still, after years of conversation, I wanted to do a little trespassing and see the viaduct for myself. Photos here, video below.

Last week I signed up for a spot at the open mic night at Helium Comedy Club in Center City. As a first timer, I was given a three minute set and it went well enough that I didn’t even get the red light. See quick video below, reminding everyone that I’m just telling jokes.

There were some punch lines I was sure to avoid.