My own self

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, I find them dumb and inane. What kind of moron doesn't live every day with the intent of being the best they could possibly be? Anyway, my condescension aside, if it can motivate people, yay them and more power to them, but it's not for me. Not the serious kind.

So what about some frivolous ones? Maybe with a list of silly little goals, I'll do things I otherwise might not. Maybe it will serve as a reminder of a goal to stretch towards, rather than playing one more game of Hex Empire, searching frantically for a map so hideously imbalanced that you might not crush the AIs within minutes. So here goes. A totally unplanned, totally on-the-spur-of-the-moment list of fun things I'd like to do in 2013.

* Read at least 2 non-fiction books of more than 200 pages [HALF-CHECK! January 21st: "Abraham Lincoln"]
* Finish the remaining 20 or so pages in the word-a-day calendar I bought in 2009 and still haven't finished
* Write down the good quotes from what remains of the calendar
* Watch at least 1 TV show that stars Patrick Warburton in at least 9 episodes
* Play the Game of Thrones-board game at least four times [Quarter-check March 15th]
* Make a genuine effort at getting Obdormio to continue work on Olympian Dirtbags and have at least two new strips ready for publishing at year's end
* Watch at least 10 of these 35 movies:
In Bruges http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Bruges
Gran Torino http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Torino
Midnight Run http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Run
Chronicle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronicle_(film)
District 9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_9
The Grey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grey
The Sting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sting
Tinker Soldier Tailor Spy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_Tailor_Soldier_Spy_(film)
Unforgiven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unforgiven
All Dogs Go To Heaven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Dogs_Go_To_Heaven
Rob Roy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Roy_(film)
Long Kiss Goodnight http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Kiss_Goodnight
The Usual Suspects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Usual_Suspects
Sky Blue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_Days
Pride and Prejudice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_%26_Prejudice_(2005_film)
All the President's Men http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_President%27s_Men_(film)
The Seventh Seal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seventh_Seal
Super http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_(2010_American_film)
13 Assassins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_Assassins
Assassination of a High School President http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_a_high_school_president
Beginners http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beginners
Sliding Doors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliding_Doors
Slither http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slither_(2006_film)
Time Bandits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Bandits
Unbreakable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbreakable_(film) [CHECK! March 5th]
Unknown http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_(2011_film)
Hanna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_(film) [CHECK! February 16th]
Hostage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostage_(film)
Grosse Pointe Blank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grosse_Pointe_Blank
The Road http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_(2009_film)
Limitless http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitless
Marie Antoinette http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette_(2006_film) [CHECK! January 25th]
Jumanji http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumanji_(film)
RocknRolla http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RocknRolla
The Last Unicorn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Unicorn_(film)
* Check out at least 2 superhero cartoons I had not previously seen from end to end
* Read through that collection of Tarzan novels I bought in 2011 and barely started [Read 3/8 novels as per April 30th]
* Write a short story [CHECK! January 5th: "The Man and the River"]
* Strike at least three dramas, two comedies and two non-drama non-comedy shows off of my neverending to-watch list (this does not include any new 2013 shows I might check out) [As per April 30th: 3/3 dramas (Lonesome Dove, Elizabeth I, House of Cards), 1/2 comedies (The Tick), 1/2 non-drama non-comedy (Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra).
* Go to the theatre at least thrice to see something that isn't based on a comic book, fairy tale or part of an existing movie franchise [ÜBER-CHECK! January 16th: "Django Unchained", January 25th: "Les Misérables", February 5th: "Wreck-It Ralph". Later also saw "Cloud Atlas"]
* Rewatch Amélie with my girlfriend [CHECK! February 22nd]
* Make at least 12 new strips for my own shitty half-dead webcomic
* Read at least 2 books by Neil Gaiman [Half-check! February 28th: Smoke and Mirrors]
* Remember to yet again profusely thank the guy who introduced me to Frank and Sadie Doyle [CHECK! March 4th. By linking this video]
* Revisit this list to remember to do all of this stuff


Happy New Year, everyone!

It has been pointed out to me - quite needlessly, but also flatteringly, and accordingly I don't mind at all - that there's been a sad amount of updates in this weblog of mine these last few weeks. Months. And what there has been, I'll usually reply with mindful self-deprecation, has been little amusing quotes. No posts of substance.

My posts of attempted substance have usually centred, with some few exceptions, on TV-reviews. I have no capacity this autumn to do many of those. Nor do I have the time to do book-reviews (heck, I don't even have the time to read non-curricular books), comic-reviews, movie-reviews... or, for that matter, the odd nonsense and musings on fanciful topics. I'm in the middle of putting an (unwanted) end to this university education of mine with an attempt to do twice the amount of courses you're intended to. I'm simultaneously digging through the bureaucracies of two countries, trying to figure out the whys and hows of next year without getting anything fatefully wrong. And, people, I still watch all that TV I don't take the time to review.

But tonight, I found myself with the urge to post, as it were, and so I'll do a composite post of what I am, have been, and will be watching this autumn. Some of it's started, some of it's already over, and some of it won't come around for quite a number of weeks yet. So please, come with me down the rabbit hole of much too much American television.


The story so far
As the summer was ending, and my Kings-abstinences were finally starting to subside, a lovely show named Easy Money was also waving its last goodbye. Having only ever gotten to finish eight episodes, this excellent little drama about a family of loan-sharks only managed to get four of them on the air last autumn. When the network finally started dumping the remaining four at the end of the summer nearly a year later, I was delirious to revisit the Buffkins and their morally ambiguous lives. Four weeks later, I was once again left hanging, all the more bitter this time for the certain knowledge there will never be more.

Then the beginning of the autumn proper was marked by the exit of True Blood's second season, which impressed me by being a good step above its predecessor. While I'm still not crazy about the show, it has solidified itself as a show in the upper end of the middle-tier of shows I deem good enough to bother with. Back when I first saw the pilot, I'd honestly not expected it to ever creep up to the midle-tier at all. So congratulations to Alan Ball and company. May your days be many and conveniently clouded.

Finally, Mad Men started back up. And while at first, I was still feeling like before about the show (everything is exquisite beyond belief except the dramatical confrontations and pay-offs), I have by now, especially in light of the most recent episode, started thinking that woah, the show might even be starting to do the big pay-offs right. While I can't claim to watch them all, I have to say, Mad Men is very likely to be the best made show in current American TV. If it is actually starting to improve in the one area I felt it was lacking, the sky's the limit.

Apocalypse, nowish
Boom. Mid-september hit, and so did premieres. Dexter, starting next week, and How I Met Your Mother, already on into its autumn roll, are both stockpile-shows that I'll catch up with come late December, but they're far from alone. New shows and returning shows, September's been a rich month for TV. Almost too rich - they're raining down on me so fast I ended up quoting an Angel-episode just to find a title for this section of the post.

In chronological order, as it were, this month of fresh TV started with Glee. I saw and liked the pilot this spring, and despite its dreary high-school premise, my fondness for musicals combined with the show's great humour is quickly bringing it up among my favourites this fall.

Another newcomer was Community, a half hour sitcom about a lawyer whose college diploma has been discovered as a fake and who ends up having to attend a crappy community college or face disbarment. So far, the two episodes have entertained and shown promise, but the great jokes, while there, are still too far between for a show that tries to be an outright comedy. For a drama, this show'd be hilarious, but for a sitcom, I feel it is a bit lacking. Still, when it's good, it's good, and I'll likely end up following it all fall in the hopes it will get better yet.

On the same day as Community leaped into the fray, Fringe came back with its second season. Crime procedurals don't really enthuse me much, no matter how much the try to disguise themselves as science fiction. But with a couple of really charming characters in a really distinct and unique father-son-relationship combined with an admittedly flawless execution of the plots-of-the-week, the show remains good enough to be worth the bother. With a little luck, the show will trap itself in its own mythos like Lost did, only quicker and with less obvious fillers on the road there. Not among my favourites this autumn, but given my standing investment of an entire season, I'm more willing to follow it further than I otherwise would be. Odds are that by Christmas, I'll have committed to this one for good, even if its basic structure is rather underwhelming.

Then followed another new sitcom, Bored to Death. With only one episode under its belt as of yet, this laid-back HBO comedy centres on a young author stuck with a writer's block on his work with his second novel. He turns to weed and white wine for inspiration, and his addiction eventually makes his girlfriend leave him. In desperation, he starts an impromptu career as an unlicensed private investigator. Yet another show I'm not sold on, but again one that seems to hold some promise. In particular the main character's best friend, a kid comic book artist trapped in a man's body, was hilarious. The show can also boast Ted Danson as a regular, which helps with the draw. Depending on how overwhelmed my TV-plate gets, this one might get the boot, but for now, I'm sticking with it out of curiosity.

Third and last of the new sitcoms I've tried this month is Accidentally on Purpose, where Jenna Elfman stars as a movie critic in her late thirties who gets pregnant on a one-night stand with a much, much younger man. The show was consistently funny - more so than Bored to Death or Community - but had less charm and identity. The pilot felt like it could have been an episode from any given sitcom of the last ten years, albeit a well-written one. However, one should not ever judge a show by its pilot, and once again, I'll be back for at least one more.

House M.D. is also back this month, and true to form, Hugh Laurie's magnificent as the title character. With the exception of a small Robert Sean Leonard-cameo, the remaining regular cast is absent in the double-episode season premiere. While I don't mind the regular cast at all, this is extremely good - because it also means that the premiere doesn't follow the show's regular episode formula. By the sixth season, the medical procedural with the House-twist has gotten incredibly old, and the only reason I'm still watching is because House himself is so compelling. The show, then, is by far at its best when it breaks this formula, and for two blessed hours including commercial breaks, it did so here. Stellar job, people. I can only hope and pray it'll retain a fragment of the awesome when it returns to predictable form next week.

On the very same day, Heroes returned, joining Fringe as the bottom of my barrel of expectations. Interestingly, my low expectations combined with a quite decent episode and Robert bloody Knepper made me quite happy with the premiere. If they keep going in this direction, the season could at least measure up to "volume 4" (the second half of season 3), which was rather decent too. In all honestly - anything that avoids the utter miserable crap that was "volume 3" will be appreciated. I'd even take the aimless-feeling season 2 again if we could avoid that. The trick to enjoying this show seems to be low expectations and accepting that Hiro simply will never die no matter how many stupid things he does, and I'm getting there. At least on the former half of that sentence. And as I said, the premiere was very decent indeed. Downright good in some aspects. I'm finding myself strangely up for more.

The third component to my barrel-bottom is traditionally Smallville which, despite its gradual improvement over the last four seasons (it has started season NINE now, if you can believe that), can never really shake my old, first-four-seasons' worth of "good LORD, this show's bad"-impressions. Admittedly, those first four seasons also had some really awesome nuggets of pure gold sprinkled in, usually involving Lex and Lionel Luthor. With both those characters gone by season 9, it is odd to see how the show can have improved so much on its average episode, and at the same time also never really reach the heights of those stellar masterpieces here and there that originally committed me to the show. Even so, all my prejudices aside, there is nothing to do but admit hands down that by now, for the most part, Smallville is a downright good show. And with the addition of the charming Callum Blue to the cast this season, I might almost forget how much I miss Lex and Lionel. Almost.

Final among the September Arrivals is also the one I've been looking forward to the most. In fact, I just watched it in the middle of writing this post. Dollhouse. An unabashed Joss Whedon-fan I might be, but the first five episodes of season 1 were really nothing special at all. Luckily, the show improved vastly starting with episode 6, and the thirteenth episode was nothing short of epic. This season premiere had a lot to live up to, and in my book, it did. Keeping everything that was good about episodes 6-12 alive and building it to new heights was exactly what I expected and wanted from this premiere, and it was exactly what I got. That, and razor sharp dialogue, great emotional moments, and wonderful characters. I even got an episode plot that wasn't standalone so much as it was a season plot cleverly disguised as a standalone. And Jamie Bamber being awesome and British and mean. And Amy Acker and Fran Kranz blowing my emotional equilibrium with every single scene. And Alexis Denishof as a Republican politician on a righteous rampage. And a hundred other, awesome little things. And beyond it all, looming in the horizon, chillingly conspicuous in its absence of overt reference, was episode thirteen and the both sad and scary taint it puts on every single little plot-development. As last season ended, I was hopeful about the show. As the thirteenth episode got out with the DVD, I got quite enthusiastic. Now, I'm sold for good. This show will be my favourite this autumn, I'm almost sure of it. Now let's just hope that episode 2 won't let down my soaring expectations.

Tomorrow, tomorrow
So is that all? Oh no. Oh no no no, is it ever not. Next month comes Star Wars: The Clone Wars back with its second season, a digitally animated show that in the latter half of season 1 quite surprised me with its (for Star Wars) rather complex stories and ethical dilemmas. I find myself almost embarrassingly excited to see if season 2 will make it even better. Also new in science fiction franchises next month will be Stargate: Universe, the Stargate-series' try at doing a Trek'y show with a darker frame than the predecessors in the vast SG-continuity. While I'm not a big fan of the old two, I've seen every single episode, which amounts to an ungodly amount of hours. There is no way I'm not following that continuity to its end now. Also? Robert Carlyle! So yeah. But still, my expectations are rather low, and checking this out is almost more of a duty I have to my standing previously mentioned ungodly commitment of time to this universe than it is any real interest.

Also in October is the final piece in the Battlestar Galactica-puzzle, as The Plan is released on DVD a good many months before it'll apparently air on Syfy. Seeing as I'm obviously a huge fan, and also wasn't as disappointed by the show's ending as many others were, I'm quite besides myself with anticipation for this promised answer to (hopefully all) remaining little nagging questions.

Finally, Legend of the Seeker will start back up towards the end of the autumn. Can't say I'm at all excited. I love the books, for all their flaws, but season 1 was as big a departure from those books as Quack Pack is from The Life and Times of $crooge McDuck. Entertaining in its own, cheesy, blatantly Xena-esque style and way, but not at all what I was wanting. Nor really a show quite suited for my tastes. Still, there is very little by the way of fantasy shows on air, and I sort of feel I should take what I can get. There's also the undeniable fact that season 1's very best episodes were in many ways rather good, even if the season as a whole was an insufferable cheesefest. So I might end up caving to my completism and deciding to follow this show yet another few steps further. We shall see.


-------

There. My autumn in TV-shows. I'm sure some additional surprises will turn up along the way in one form or another. Of shows airing this autumn, I should probably also check out Entourage, but with the six season head-start it has, that's severely unlikely to happen. Of other old shows, I'm coupling the new stuff with my first ever rewatch of Ally McBeal, where I'm currently mid-way in the penultimate season, and my first structured watch-through of the eminent Batman: the Animated Series. I've recently finished its spin-off Justice League: Unlimited as well as the British The Office, the miniseries State of Play, and a rewatch of the brilliant West Wing, so if you're interested in hearing what I think of any of these things, you should give a shout-out in the comments as I like mentioned probably won't find the time and energy to write proper reviews. (There should be some of West Wing already, though, if you're up to doing a little search).


Hopefully, there's one person out there who actually bothered to read all this. If not, well, that's another hour of my life wasted, I suppose. Cheers! And thanks for reading.

...anyone who for some obscure reason would want to read anything I put through my new Twitter-account c'n do so here instead, in the top right box-thing.

...which one of these things I will post about next. 'Cause as my list of things to post about is ever-growing, I find it more and more tricky to summon the willpower to sit down and attack it head-on on my own.

Read more...

So, inspired by this and this, I've made my own list of Twelve Objects of Recommendation from my entertainment-year 2007. Why Twelve? 'Cause I like the number. Plus, that makes one for each month, which is nice and symmetrical.

From least to most recommended, here. We. Go.


12. Night of Knives
I know that technically, this isn't better than a lot of stuff that didn't make the list. Still, this is one of only two novels I've read this year that sucked me in without taking more than 200 pages in doing it, and that earns it a certain amount of extra points for sheer excitingness.
Plus, Kellanved!

11. Buffy the Vampire Slayer 8x5-9: No Future For You
Brian K. Vaughan managed what even Joss could not - he made me feel like Buffy the Vampire Slayer was back. Alright, Joss did a splendid job making me feel like the character of Buffy was back in The Long Way Home, but it never quite felt like an episode of the show. This did. Plus, Faith and yellow submarine-sweaters and everything.

10. Studio 60 at the Sunset Strip
The little show that couldn't, Studio 60 has slipped into the enormous and growing masses of brilliant tv-shows cancelled before they could shine properly. Still, this show got a lot of shining done in the little time it had. That the story about the tv-show that struggled against the network was cancelled itself probably came as no surprise to anyone, but you have to admit, it's a delicious piece of irony.

9. The Prestige
A chilling, intriguing, intelligent and captivating movie about stage-magicians getting out of hand, and a really, really good way of opening my movie-year when I saw it in theatres in January.

8. Garden State
This movie is simply lovely in just about every way. (And Natalie Portman has never looked prettier than she does in this one.)

7. Bone
I finally read Bone! Obviously, such an epic masterpiece is a shoe-in on this list, and one of the motivations for making it in the first place. Everybody who read Donald Duck-comics growing up and remember some of the best ones with fondness should give this a read, and probably at least half of the rest of you should, too!

6. Battlestar Galactica, season 3
Not quite the level of brilliance it had during seasons one and two, but pretty damn close in my opinion. I've said it before and I'll say it again; Best show currently on television.

5. West Wing
What is there to say? The presidental periods of Jed Bartlett cannot be ignored when it comes to good American television. I mean, they even referred to the BSG-episode about the possible assasination-attempts on Laura Roslin as "their West Wing-episode" - that's how iconic this show is. Despite a less-than-brilliant middle-bit, it starts out gloriously and ends brilliantly, and asking for more than that is just plain greedy.

4. Rome (season 2)
They actually managed to make it better than the first season, which impressed me a lot. There's more politics here, and more intrigue, and the young Octavian does as splendid a job as the ice-cold manipulator as Mark Anthony does as the self-confident warlord.

3. Lies of Locke Lamora
This year's big surprise - not that it was good, I was expecting that, but that I actually got around to reading it. I read it right before New Year's and it thus barely managed to be the second book to truly captivate me all the way through this year. Thanks to Mr. Lynch for that.

2. Sin City, all volumes
Absolutely wonderful stuff. Truly. If you liked the movie, you should be obligated to reading this.

1. Deadwood seasons 1-3
The fact that this is at the top of my list says more than enough about it, in my opinion. If you have to know more, you can read my reviews, linked above.



Honourable mentions: Pan's Labyrinth, The Fountain, Midnight Tides, Veronica Mars' final season, Heroes' second season, I, Claudius, Scrubs' sixth season, Rose, The Long Way Home, The Pride of Baghdad and Neil Gaiman's short story Monarch of the Glen. Some stuff was excluded from consideration, like Angel: After the Fall due to not being out in any completed form yet.

like I had, the (first?) big arc of "I'm a Marvel and I'm a DC" is ended and it was, if I might say so, quite awesome.

This whole posting-at-least-once-a-day-with-a-quote-thing I've been doing appears to be flooding my weblog.


It isn't. It's just that it makes it embarrasingly apparent just how rarely I have anything else I bother to post about.

But don't you worry! There'll be one on the Elizabeth-movies before the end of next week, promise. There's also likely to be one on "Reaper" once I get up to date on it. And there might even come one on the "Day Watch"-movie, but no promises there. Oh, oh, and of course, there's THIS one. Which totally isn't a quote-of-the-day-post at all!

Which, like, ROCKS. In sheer contrastyness.

It's a tiny decision, and one unlikely to affect anyone but me in any way, but seeing as it will render some old posts in this weblog rather in nonsensical conflict with any posts yet to come on the topic (and there will be posts yet to come on the topic, believe you me), I'll post it here anyway.

Especially seeing as if I were to deny myself writing all the nonsensical stuff which only holds relevance to me, I'd never write anything here.


So, the decision?

I'll consider each full-story an episode of Buffy Season 8, and reference them accordingly. So, by 8x3, I'll mean third story ("episode") of the comic, not the third issue. I'm thinking the arcs will vary in length, in fact I know they will, so that could mean any number of issues.

So, henceforth, "issue two" is NOT the same as "8x2". "8x2" is second-episode-of-the-season, not second issue. If I mean second issue, I'll specify second issue. 'Key?


I do realize this is highly nonsensical, as mentioned. Following this logic, I should not refer to any cliffhanger-ended episodes of the regular seasons as entire episodes either, but hey, I totally am. I guess my reasons for doing this is mainly 'cause I feel like the issues are much to short to be abbreviated the same way as the episodes of the show was without some changes. The season opener of Bs8 isn't just issue one, it's issues one through four, so, to me, that means they are episode 8x1 together, not that they're episodes 1-4. Especially considering this comic-book seems likely to run for at least fourty issues, this way of referencing them makes sense to me, if no-one else in the entire world.

That's much ado about nothing, eh? Well, that's what you get for reading ramblings of nonsense. I warned you, didn't I?

After writing this post, I decide to search through my weblog for other posts with Zorro in them, to add the new tag I made to them.

And I found this one.

Seeing as the quote is incredibly randomly chosen from an incredibly random episode, this is weird. XD

I've finally gotten around to fiddling a bit with the options on this weblog, and the menu to the right is a bit more thought-through now. Hopefully, the list of recent comments is a nice addition that'll be appreciated.

This is from Caroline's LJ, and I post it here as when I filled it out, I found it ended with a question on whether or not I'd re-post it so she could fill it out, too, but anyone else who feels like bothering with it can fill it out too.

---

1. Can you cook?

2. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator?

3. What talent do you wish you had?

4. Favorite place?

5. Favorite vegetable?

6. What was the last book you read?

7. Are you Dirty or Clean?

8. Any tattoos and/or piercings?

9. Worst habit?


HERE COMES THE FUN ...

1. How did we meet?

2. What's your philosophy on life?

3. Negative or Optimistic?

4. What was your dream growing up?

5. Worst thing to ever happen to you?

6. What was your first impression of me?

7. Tell me one weird fact about you:

8. What’s your favorite memory of us?

9. Is missing. Make up something if you want.

10. Have you ever kept anything from me?

11. What do you think of me as a person?

12. Do you think I'm sane or insane?

13. Would you cry for me if I died?

14. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

15. If you could change anything about me, would you?

16. How do you fall asleep?

17. Ever gotten angry with me?

18. Would you go on a blind date if I set you up?

19. If you had one day to live, what would you do?

20. A million bucks… what would you do with it?

21. What is your worst fear?

22. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

23. Can you sing or dance?

24. In one word, how would you describe me? Be honest....

25. Will you repost this so I can fill it out?

Or, hopefully, anyway. I'm not handing out guarantees.

Is this post late, you say? Is this not in keeping with the fine standard I set last year? And what about the Prime Minister Speech Review? Didn't do that one this year, either. Nor did I do the review of the King's Speech which I wanted to do to make up for last year.

Fear not, gentle reader.


Oh, and fear not, violent readers, I hadn't forgotten you, either, I'm just favorizing my gentle one.


Anyway, fear not.


'Cause I've got me some explanations.

I was at my grandfather's this New Year's Eve and Day. So, no internet. Zap. Zilch. Nil. Nada. Splonge. Bupkiss. Bippers. I might have made up some of those words. No net, though. Net-depravement is big around those parts.

He lives in a valley so secluded you had to transport your cars there by boat 'til 1989 'cause there were no roads.

Anywho.

No net, no immediate ability to Report On My Thoughts and such. Also, I've been busy. Busybusybusy. As in the kind of state where you're, you guessed it, busy. (Good guess, by the way, were you peeking ahead?) I've had other stuff on my mind. Plus, this whole (non-)blog-thing isn't as new and fancy and interesting now as it was a year ago. Then again that's life. ("That's liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife! That's what all the people saaaaay." That commercial has killed my taste in music)

The Prime Minister's Speech, that one I would have done a post on. Had I fracking watched it. I just caught the last five minutes. Probably a blessing in disguise, it's not like they ever say anything new. I caught the King's Speech, though, naturally, I'd be a poor sod of a monarchist if I didn't catch the one time throughout a year the King actually speaks directly to the people. But it's been so long since, now, I can't remember enough of it to comment properly. It was the same old same old with the thematic twist of the year, as usual, but I liked it. It dealt a lot with xenophobia and common decency and that kind of thing. Very humane. Sappy, but that's the point, I guess. Kudos to Harald and his speechwriter(s?).

Just for the record, though, I caught the national anthem after both speeches, and the King's song before his speech, and I rose and stood through all three. I might be a closet nationalist. I might just like the song. Or I might just think it's plain cool to revere something which is purely symbolic.

So, the year. Interesting thing, the year. It's a natural cycle. It's not man-made, like the second or the hour or the century or the millenia. There actually would be such a thing as a year even if we hadn't made up a name for it.

Sorry, I digress. I meant "the PAST year", not years in general, and by believing that was obvious, I seem to have misled myself, 'cause apparently, it wasn't. I need to stop taking everything I write literally.

So, the past year. Well, it's past. And it was a very good one. For me, anyway. They hung Saddam, though. Doesn't seem like the kind of thing you can do. I mean, he's even in the South Park-movie. He's like Cæsar; you just can't picture the guy die. Sure, he's a swine, but even so. He's like an icon. Doesn't ring right, his being dead. Like you kind of can't really believe it. It's scary, that, realizing how frail human life is even when you're the world's possibly best known genocidal maniac. If HE can die, everybody can die. He didn't lose his cool, though. Kudos to him. I'm generally opposed to execution as a form of penalty - I figure that nobody can really know what it entails without having died themselves first - and I kind of think imprisonment for life is the worse sentence anyway. Apparently, though, the Iraqi government was clear on this being to spare the people of him, not to punish him, so, that's a moot point. I just can't quite wrap my mind around his being gone. Even though the world is probably a slightly better place for it.

Other people I have never known, met or really wanted to meet have died this past year, too. The only ones of them to make an impression on me, though, were a couple of actors and the like. Right now I can only remember Sverre Holm and Peter Boyle. Thanks, guys. You've made me laugh.

So, that's the morbid section of this post. Me, I'm good. Good year. Better than good. No major bad occurancies in my immediate family, me included. Good health. Good life, rather good economy. Good getting-my-civic-service-postponed-indefinetely. Good studying. I'm regretting I didn't take an additional course in spring, 'cause one of the two I did take turned out to be far less work than I could have ever dreamed, but still. I re-took an exam in March, and improved my only post-high school grade below B, a D, to a B. One of my prouder moments, that. I had two more exams in June, one in an interesting subject where I got really lucky with the questions on the exam, and one in a dreadfully boring subject where I wrote my bachelor's assignment and somehow did extremely well without having read more than 10% of the curriculum. Summer was nice, but uneventful, maybe. Other than making my webcomic. Of which I'm rather proud, to tell the truth. Otherwise, this summer, I took a short trip with my family like we usually do in summers, and beyond that, I mainly just worked. I'm starting to tire of working where I work in vacations and weekends where I'm home. I'm starting to grow more comfortable there, yes, with the people there and the assigments there and so on, but I'm tiring of it. It's so dreadfully boring. Anyway, on to the autumn, where I took three *very* interesting courses, making for my academically most interesting term since spring 2005, and the two I've learned the results of yet turned out really well, too. January 17th will prove whether or not the third one followed suit. I have hopes. ("He's got HIIIIGH hopes. He's got. HIIIIGH hopes. He's got high apple pie in the sky hopes!" I love Goofy) If it does, it'll be pure awesomity. Personally, too, it's been a great year. I'm very lucky, I have a very easy life and no major worries, never really did have. I hope it'll last a long while yet. I've grown more social, too. This spring, I kind of regressed, I didn't share courses with anyone I know and I didn't really make much contact with the ones I knew outside my courses from before. Right before summer, though, it changed, and I made an effort to keep it up the first few weeks this fall, and voilà, it held. Suddenly, I find myself socializing almost one day or so every week. It's crazy. Nice people, too. Not a lot of people, but very nice people. Obviously. I'm way too picky to keep up seeing people I don't think are very nice. And I incresingly realize, I know a lot of very nice people online, too. You know who you are, but thank you for making my year that much better for having chatted with you and listened to me. So, great year. And in the humble beginnings of October, it got even better. Sure made me glad I don't keep this weblog in Norwegian.

I hope next year will be as good. Or possibly even better. I've signed up for some courses in Latin on top of my full-time studying history, so academically, it's suicide, but I'm hoping it will be a good year even so. This far, it's looking pretty promising.

To all of you out there reading this, happy new year. I wish you all the best. And thank you for all you've done for me in the old one. ^^ Keep flyin', people. I implore you. As does Mal.

Oh, and if any one of you tries making jokes on how late this post is, there will be fatal beatings administered.

I added some countdowns to the page.