Toting up what I did in 2014
Books:
Well, the reading of traditionally published fiction and non-fiction was not great. Librarything.com tells me that I read 32 books, with 8 of those being the installments of Meljean Brook's Kraken King serial. The favorite by far was Cary Elwes's memoir of the filming of The Princess Bride. Brook's Heart of Steel was maybe the best fiction I read.
Movies:
I'm blanking here, because I know I saw more than three.
Snowpiercer - clearly the screenwriters have never actually ridden a train; the idea of a train in perpetual motion in a frozen world is really hard to swallow if you're a regular train commuter.
The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies - I saw the first of the trilogy but not the second; I didn't feel like I missed anything. Way too long, as a function of Tolkein's bloviating. Also, the lack of women was ridiculous. I'm a little afraid of how bloated the Temeraire films may be, if they are ever made, since I feel like Novik is an author (on a smaller scale) who desperately needs to be edited and paced better.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - I watched the first two films via Amazon Prime and In Flight Entertainment. They were not terrible? And I think the movies convey some things much better than the books, which by the third was painful to read.
Television:
China Beach - Out on disc at last! Available at Netflix. Amazing music, good writing and acting. Sadly, I don't think the show could be made today. An alcoholic woman as primary protagonist? The other primary protagonists all flawed women? But I love it. Only the cost of the disc collection (~$200) kept me from putting it on my holiday wish list. If I get a tax refund, maybe I'll give myself the discs as a gift/reward for saving the rest.
Major Crimes
All the hockey (this is all asimplechord's fault)
Theater and music:
November 19, 2013 Frank Turner
December 20, 2013 No Man's Land - Captain Picard and Gandalf doing Pinter's play; I really wanted to see Waiting for Godot but-.
December 21, 2013 First Date - meh; some pretty ugly/judgy stereotypes of women who should appreciate a Nice Guy more. (I thought they were all in January but when I looked at the ticket stubs, I was wrong :( Please tour again in the US soon, Frank Turner.)
June 29, 2014 Private Lives - really liked this play but the references to casual domestic violence are dated and uncomfortable.
August 10, 2014 Panic! at the Disco - Brendon Urie singing Bohemiam Rhapsody. That is all.
November 8, 2014 As You Like It at Shakespeare Theatre Company
Museums:
National Museum of Natural History - the butterfly pavilion!
Walters Art Museum
Carnegie Museum of Art
Chicago Art Institute
The Field Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - really good exhibits on El Greco, Cezanne, and Jewels from the Al-Thani Collection
Sports:
Okay, look, like I wrote above, I blame asimplechord for the hockey portion of this, which is...most of this section. I bought tickets to the Penguins game in DC last season, which put me on the Capitals' TicketMaster list, which is shared with the Capitals marketing team. Who called and pointed out that they have a partial season ticket plan, six games or more, with set packages or I could pick the games I wanted. Well... I don't even like the Capitals, although I appreciate Ovechkin's talent (and his constant interference and embellishment, which seldom gets called) and am entertained by his very yellow skate laces. But I do like the Penguins, who visit twice, and some other teams (Nashville is my Western Conference favorite), so I bought a partial season plan; I really appreciate that the plan price gets a discount, so the tickets cost less than what I'd pay for resale or even single ticket purchases through TM.
March 10, 2014 Capitals v Penguins
April 26, 2014 Penguins v Blue Jackets
May 2, 2014 Penguins v Rangers
May 26, 2014 French Open, Day 2
May 27, 2014 French Open, Day 3
July 13, 2014 Orioles v Pin Stripes
August 3, 2014 Orioles v Mariners
August 9, 2014 Orioles v Cardinals
September 1, 2014 Orioles v Twins
October 9, 2014 Capitals v Canadiens
November 8, 2014 Capitals v Hurricanes
November 29, 2014 Chicago Wolves v Rockford Icehogs
December 11, 2014 Capitals v Blue Jackets
December 22, 2014 Capitals v Senators
Travel:
Pittsburgh (April, May)
Paris, Nice, and Rheims (May)
Chicago (July, November)
Rehoboth Beach (September)
New York (November)
That looks like a lot of travel, and it is, but Pittsburgh and New York were daytrips or a single overnight, while Chicago was with family. Paris was the real splurge, in terms of time (two weeks) and money (airfare to Paris in May is ridiculous but the airbnb apartment was very economical), but I'd saved and not traveled in 2013 for it. Careful planning and use of holidays still left me with some leave to use or lose in December.
Goals for 2015:
Read more.
Write more.
Move my GK fic to AO3 and delete that LJ account.
Visit all the Smithsonians. There's no excuse for not visiting, given proximity.
Figure out professional goals; I feel like I've topped out in my job, and although I like it, I don't want to stay too long because I'm comfortable. I did that in my old job and then had a hard time shifting gears.
Travel more to new-to-me places.
ETA: Be better about food. Not diet, because that ship has sailed for the most part. But about being conscious of what is in the pantry when buying groceries. I bought huesos de santo cookies, which I love but restrict access to because who really needs to eat that much marzipan -- I cannot resist marzipan in any form. And when I was putting the box in a "safe" place in the pantry, where I don't look or reach often, I found an unopened box of them already squirrelled away. And actually out of date by a month. I'm going to ignore that expiration date and let myself eat a serving a day anyway. They are made of ground almonds, they can't be that bad.
Well, the reading of traditionally published fiction and non-fiction was not great. Librarything.com tells me that I read 32 books, with 8 of those being the installments of Meljean Brook's Kraken King serial. The favorite by far was Cary Elwes's memoir of the filming of The Princess Bride. Brook's Heart of Steel was maybe the best fiction I read.
Movies:
I'm blanking here, because I know I saw more than three.
Snowpiercer - clearly the screenwriters have never actually ridden a train; the idea of a train in perpetual motion in a frozen world is really hard to swallow if you're a regular train commuter.
The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies - I saw the first of the trilogy but not the second; I didn't feel like I missed anything. Way too long, as a function of Tolkein's bloviating. Also, the lack of women was ridiculous. I'm a little afraid of how bloated the Temeraire films may be, if they are ever made, since I feel like Novik is an author (on a smaller scale) who desperately needs to be edited and paced better.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - I watched the first two films via Amazon Prime and In Flight Entertainment. They were not terrible? And I think the movies convey some things much better than the books, which by the third was painful to read.
Television:
China Beach - Out on disc at last! Available at Netflix. Amazing music, good writing and acting. Sadly, I don't think the show could be made today. An alcoholic woman as primary protagonist? The other primary protagonists all flawed women? But I love it. Only the cost of the disc collection (~$200) kept me from putting it on my holiday wish list. If I get a tax refund, maybe I'll give myself the discs as a gift/reward for saving the rest.
Major Crimes
All the hockey (this is all asimplechord's fault)
Theater and music:
November 19, 2013 Frank Turner
December 20, 2013 No Man's Land - Captain Picard and Gandalf doing Pinter's play; I really wanted to see Waiting for Godot but-.
December 21, 2013 First Date - meh; some pretty ugly/judgy stereotypes of women who should appreciate a Nice Guy more. (I thought they were all in January but when I looked at the ticket stubs, I was wrong :( Please tour again in the US soon, Frank Turner.)
June 29, 2014 Private Lives - really liked this play but the references to casual domestic violence are dated and uncomfortable.
August 10, 2014 Panic! at the Disco - Brendon Urie singing Bohemiam Rhapsody. That is all.
November 8, 2014 As You Like It at Shakespeare Theatre Company
Museums:
National Museum of Natural History - the butterfly pavilion!
Walters Art Museum
Carnegie Museum of Art
Chicago Art Institute
The Field Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art - really good exhibits on El Greco, Cezanne, and Jewels from the Al-Thani Collection
Sports:
Okay, look, like I wrote above, I blame asimplechord for the hockey portion of this, which is...most of this section. I bought tickets to the Penguins game in DC last season, which put me on the Capitals' TicketMaster list, which is shared with the Capitals marketing team. Who called and pointed out that they have a partial season ticket plan, six games or more, with set packages or I could pick the games I wanted. Well... I don't even like the Capitals, although I appreciate Ovechkin's talent (and his constant interference and embellishment, which seldom gets called) and am entertained by his very yellow skate laces. But I do like the Penguins, who visit twice, and some other teams (Nashville is my Western Conference favorite), so I bought a partial season plan; I really appreciate that the plan price gets a discount, so the tickets cost less than what I'd pay for resale or even single ticket purchases through TM.
March 10, 2014 Capitals v Penguins
April 26, 2014 Penguins v Blue Jackets
May 2, 2014 Penguins v Rangers
May 26, 2014 French Open, Day 2
May 27, 2014 French Open, Day 3
July 13, 2014 Orioles v Pin Stripes
August 3, 2014 Orioles v Mariners
August 9, 2014 Orioles v Cardinals
September 1, 2014 Orioles v Twins
October 9, 2014 Capitals v Canadiens
November 8, 2014 Capitals v Hurricanes
November 29, 2014 Chicago Wolves v Rockford Icehogs
December 11, 2014 Capitals v Blue Jackets
December 22, 2014 Capitals v Senators
Travel:
Pittsburgh (April, May)
Paris, Nice, and Rheims (May)
Chicago (July, November)
Rehoboth Beach (September)
New York (November)
That looks like a lot of travel, and it is, but Pittsburgh and New York were daytrips or a single overnight, while Chicago was with family. Paris was the real splurge, in terms of time (two weeks) and money (airfare to Paris in May is ridiculous but the airbnb apartment was very economical), but I'd saved and not traveled in 2013 for it. Careful planning and use of holidays still left me with some leave to use or lose in December.
Goals for 2015:
Read more.
Write more.
Move my GK fic to AO3 and delete that LJ account.
Visit all the Smithsonians. There's no excuse for not visiting, given proximity.
Figure out professional goals; I feel like I've topped out in my job, and although I like it, I don't want to stay too long because I'm comfortable. I did that in my old job and then had a hard time shifting gears.
Travel more to new-to-me places.
- Istanbul was tentatively on my travel list, but the suicide bomber there yesterday has me rethinking that.
- If not Istanbul, then maybe Canada - Montreal, Toronto, or PEI - or the Pacific Northwest.
- Chicago definitely; probably July and November again since those travel dates are for specific reasons (holiday, escaping ArtScape in my neighborhood).
- Pittsburgh is scheduled for a weekend when there are back to back games; I've acquired tickets, a hotel reservation using points, and a MegaBus fare (because I'd rather not drive and they had a $1.50 sale!). Which is the middle of Indian Wells, dammit, so no California for me again this year. If I'd realized, I would've done the 2-3 January back to back weekend. Poor planning of my part. (Which, wow, apparently I'm all about food and sporting events when it comes to travel. I did not realize that until I had this written out.)
ETA: Be better about food. Not diet, because that ship has sailed for the most part. But about being conscious of what is in the pantry when buying groceries. I bought huesos de santo cookies, which I love but restrict access to because who really needs to eat that much marzipan -- I cannot resist marzipan in any form. And when I was putting the box in a "safe" place in the pantry, where I don't look or reach often, I found an unopened box of them already squirrelled away. And actually out of date by a month. I'm going to ignore that expiration date and let myself eat a serving a day anyway. They are made of ground almonds, they can't be that bad.