End of Year, late!
Jan. 5th, 2008 01:16 amSo I watched the ball drop, I felt kind of sad for Dick Clark, and I didn't even think about the end of the year until, well, today! Which is a lot of days into the new year already! Feels almost too late to wrap things up. But here are my end of year thoughts:
Best movies seen in the theater this year: Children of Men, No Country for Old Men, Zodiac, Sweeney Todd, Sicko, Gone Baby Gone, Sunshine
Best Netflix or borrowed: The Station Agent, Devil Wears Prada, Little Miss Sunshine, The State Within (Jason Isaacs!), Season one of Dead Like Me
Best books I read this year: Spin, Robert Charles Wilson; Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly; The Dresden Files (whole series), Jim Butcher; The Naming of the Dead, Ian Rankin; Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill; Generation Loss, Elizabeth Hand; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling; Crooked Little Vein, Warren Ellis.
Best trip this year: Wisconsin, to WisCon, with Suzanne and kid, driving across many states with too many deer.
Best albums adopted this year: Muse Black Holes and Revelations, Humanwine Revolta Silenziosa, Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Rodrigo y Gabriela (eponymous), Iron & Wine (several), White Stripes Icky Thump
Best sports: Red Sox! Patriots! A good year to live in Boston!
Favorite new tv series: Chuck, Reaper, Pushing Daisies, Mad Men, Dirty Sexy Money, Moonlight, Life
Favorite returning tv series: The Wire, Criminal Minds, Dr. Who, Battlestar Galactica, Nip/Tuck, Ugly Betty, Supernatural, ER, Men in Trees, Bones, and CSI:NY — because I love to see them pose around the city, especially Gary Sinese and guilty pleasure Carmine Giovinazzo.
Best DVD purchase: the four disk Blade Runner set, because, well, it's Blade Runner! The final cut! No really, we mean it, FINAL. The last time we recut this thing, we swear!
Best purchase: My new bed; second best, my new TiVo, which lets me record two things at the same time.
Best gift: My new monitor! Shiny!
Best book i haven't finished yet: The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner. No good reason for not finishing, just fell down behind the bed. Have retrieved it now, will finish soon!
I also: renewed my passport. Cat-sat for Rita for a month. Watched someone get a tattoo. Took some good pictures. Got rated as "exceptional" in my review at work and got an excellent bonus and a decent raise. I changed my room around and I like it. I stuck my feet in two Great Lakes and saw Niagara Falls again. I went to the zoo. I went to a Red Sox game. I read 70 books. I spent some time with most of my friends. I waited in line on release night for the new Harry Potter.
But of course it wasn't all good. My cat Harry was very sick, and then Harry died. My friends each had some kind of major trauma this year, some of them more than one. A couple of family members are very sick; one is trying to survive breast cancer, and another is having difficulty healing from surgery. I fought with Mom several times. I got pissed about everything to do with politics almost the entire year. Several people I admire died: Kurt Vonnegut, Fred Saberhagen, Ingmar Bergman, Norman Mailer, Max Roach, Molly Ivins. There was that horrible Virginia Tech killing, where Michael Bishop's son Jamie died (and 34 others). My storage unit had a flood and we had to move stuff really fast, plus I lost a pile of books and didn't get any insurance money. China and pet food and children's toys. The environment. The war. Health care.
But despite that I am still hopeful about this year. We could actually elect a decent president. World politics might improve. My friends will hopefully have a better year.
I'll try to do my part to keep me happier: I will take more pictures, read more books, watch more tv and movies, and listen to more music. I'd like to get to a few shows this year. Maybe I'll look for a new job. Take a short trip.
So goodbye 2007, hello 2008. Try not to suck, will you? Thanks.
Best movies seen in the theater this year: Children of Men, No Country for Old Men, Zodiac, Sweeney Todd, Sicko, Gone Baby Gone, Sunshine
Best Netflix or borrowed: The Station Agent, Devil Wears Prada, Little Miss Sunshine, The State Within (Jason Isaacs!), Season one of Dead Like Me
Best books I read this year: Spin, Robert Charles Wilson; Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly; The Dresden Files (whole series), Jim Butcher; The Naming of the Dead, Ian Rankin; Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill; Generation Loss, Elizabeth Hand; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling; Crooked Little Vein, Warren Ellis.
Best trip this year: Wisconsin, to WisCon, with Suzanne and kid, driving across many states with too many deer.
Best albums adopted this year: Muse Black Holes and Revelations, Humanwine Revolta Silenziosa, Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Rodrigo y Gabriela (eponymous), Iron & Wine (several), White Stripes Icky Thump
Best sports: Red Sox! Patriots! A good year to live in Boston!
Favorite new tv series: Chuck, Reaper, Pushing Daisies, Mad Men, Dirty Sexy Money, Moonlight, Life
Favorite returning tv series: The Wire, Criminal Minds, Dr. Who, Battlestar Galactica, Nip/Tuck, Ugly Betty, Supernatural, ER, Men in Trees, Bones, and CSI:NY — because I love to see them pose around the city, especially Gary Sinese and guilty pleasure Carmine Giovinazzo.
Best DVD purchase: the four disk Blade Runner set, because, well, it's Blade Runner! The final cut! No really, we mean it, FINAL. The last time we recut this thing, we swear!
Best purchase: My new bed; second best, my new TiVo, which lets me record two things at the same time.
Best gift: My new monitor! Shiny!
Best book i haven't finished yet: The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner. No good reason for not finishing, just fell down behind the bed. Have retrieved it now, will finish soon!
I also: renewed my passport. Cat-sat for Rita for a month. Watched someone get a tattoo. Took some good pictures. Got rated as "exceptional" in my review at work and got an excellent bonus and a decent raise. I changed my room around and I like it. I stuck my feet in two Great Lakes and saw Niagara Falls again. I went to the zoo. I went to a Red Sox game. I read 70 books. I spent some time with most of my friends. I waited in line on release night for the new Harry Potter.
But of course it wasn't all good. My cat Harry was very sick, and then Harry died. My friends each had some kind of major trauma this year, some of them more than one. A couple of family members are very sick; one is trying to survive breast cancer, and another is having difficulty healing from surgery. I fought with Mom several times. I got pissed about everything to do with politics almost the entire year. Several people I admire died: Kurt Vonnegut, Fred Saberhagen, Ingmar Bergman, Norman Mailer, Max Roach, Molly Ivins. There was that horrible Virginia Tech killing, where Michael Bishop's son Jamie died (and 34 others). My storage unit had a flood and we had to move stuff really fast, plus I lost a pile of books and didn't get any insurance money. China and pet food and children's toys. The environment. The war. Health care.
But despite that I am still hopeful about this year. We could actually elect a decent president. World politics might improve. My friends will hopefully have a better year.
I'll try to do my part to keep me happier: I will take more pictures, read more books, watch more tv and movies, and listen to more music. I'd like to get to a few shows this year. Maybe I'll look for a new job. Take a short trip.
So goodbye 2007, hello 2008. Try not to suck, will you? Thanks.