Farewell to 2015
One last post for the year:
- Finished 59 books this year, one short from last year. Going downtown to visit with my sister and my niece really helped. The best book series I picked up this year was The Expanse series. It's a space opera at its finest. I need to get cracking on book three, but I have so many other books to read from my book club. Second best series I picked up this year was the Thursday Next series. I love the alternative 1985 England that Thursday lives in. Third best series I picked up this year was the Russell Quant series. Russell is a gay P.I. who works in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and he has such breezy and geeky attitude that's fun to read.
Last book I finished this year was Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond. It's written by a local author; one of the book club ladies picked it up at the literary con that's held here every August. It has a fun steampunk setting and a plucky journalist as the main character. The weird thing about the book, though, is that it reads like the second book in a series. There's all this backstory and references to past events, but as far as I can tell, this is the first book. Maybe the author didn't want to do an origin story. There are some witty character names, too. Colonel Muster, Professor Plumb, nods to Clue of course; Windsor "Windy" Jones, professor as Indiana University; a take on Indiana "Indy" Jones; and Hercule Hornblower, a Belgian detective who uses his "little grey cells" to solve crimes but mostly falls asleep; Hercule Poirot, if Poirot was narcoleptic.
- Completed 13 knitting projects. I say that's pretty good, considering I only picked up knitting at the beginning of the year. Best project, hands down, has to be my Fourth Doctor scarf. It wasn't the most complicated project (that honour goes to the Mass Effect scarf I knitted for my sister), but I ended up with something that is so iconic. Plus, thanks to that project, I'm getting paid to knit two more. :-)
My sister keeps bugging me to learn sock knitting, but I don't know when I would get around to that. I want to learn how to read charts and do more colour work first. I also want to knit Amy's scarf and fingerless gloves combo from "The Pandorica Opens". Why do I want to keep knitting scarves? You'd think I would be sick of them by now.
- Got laid off this year, but let's not dwell on that.
- Had a fun vacation cruising around the Mediterranean. Venice was the best port; so much history and culture there. Pompeii was the best excursion, but visiting Trogir is a close second, if only because it was a filming location on Doctor Who.
- The comic book expo was crazy busy and fun this year. Meeting Ming-Na and Hayley Atwell was the best part of the weekend. I don't see the expo getting a lot of big name guests next year. The Canadian dollar is super crappy right now. Though, who knows. The expo team has pulled off huge last minute surprises before so I wouldn't put it past them to do it again.
Things to look forward to next year:
- Cruise around the British Isles in May with Amsterdam and Paris thrown in. Sadly, the cruise is no longer stopping in Wales, which makes me very sad. The port would have been in Northern Wales, presenting me with an opportunity to visit Portmeirion, the filming location of The Prisoner. I may need to head back to Wales in 2017.
- 50th anniversary Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in August. I attended this con a few years ago and the company that runs it really knows their stuff, so this one should be a blast. I expect Paramount and CBS to do a ton of stuff for the anniversary next year. And man, Star Trek Beyond better not suck. This is their last chance to get it right.
- Plus other miscellanea, like superhero movies and TV shows.
As usual, nothing extremely exciting, but there's nothing wrong with that.
- Finished 59 books this year, one short from last year. Going downtown to visit with my sister and my niece really helped. The best book series I picked up this year was The Expanse series. It's a space opera at its finest. I need to get cracking on book three, but I have so many other books to read from my book club. Second best series I picked up this year was the Thursday Next series. I love the alternative 1985 England that Thursday lives in. Third best series I picked up this year was the Russell Quant series. Russell is a gay P.I. who works in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and he has such breezy and geeky attitude that's fun to read.
Last book I finished this year was Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond. It's written by a local author; one of the book club ladies picked it up at the literary con that's held here every August. It has a fun steampunk setting and a plucky journalist as the main character. The weird thing about the book, though, is that it reads like the second book in a series. There's all this backstory and references to past events, but as far as I can tell, this is the first book. Maybe the author didn't want to do an origin story. There are some witty character names, too. Colonel Muster, Professor Plumb, nods to Clue of course; Windsor "Windy" Jones, professor as Indiana University; a take on Indiana "Indy" Jones; and Hercule Hornblower, a Belgian detective who uses his "little grey cells" to solve crimes but mostly falls asleep; Hercule Poirot, if Poirot was narcoleptic.
- Completed 13 knitting projects. I say that's pretty good, considering I only picked up knitting at the beginning of the year. Best project, hands down, has to be my Fourth Doctor scarf. It wasn't the most complicated project (that honour goes to the Mass Effect scarf I knitted for my sister), but I ended up with something that is so iconic. Plus, thanks to that project, I'm getting paid to knit two more. :-)
My sister keeps bugging me to learn sock knitting, but I don't know when I would get around to that. I want to learn how to read charts and do more colour work first. I also want to knit Amy's scarf and fingerless gloves combo from "The Pandorica Opens". Why do I want to keep knitting scarves? You'd think I would be sick of them by now.
- Got laid off this year, but let's not dwell on that.
- Had a fun vacation cruising around the Mediterranean. Venice was the best port; so much history and culture there. Pompeii was the best excursion, but visiting Trogir is a close second, if only because it was a filming location on Doctor Who.
- The comic book expo was crazy busy and fun this year. Meeting Ming-Na and Hayley Atwell was the best part of the weekend. I don't see the expo getting a lot of big name guests next year. The Canadian dollar is super crappy right now. Though, who knows. The expo team has pulled off huge last minute surprises before so I wouldn't put it past them to do it again.
Things to look forward to next year:
- Cruise around the British Isles in May with Amsterdam and Paris thrown in. Sadly, the cruise is no longer stopping in Wales, which makes me very sad. The port would have been in Northern Wales, presenting me with an opportunity to visit Portmeirion, the filming location of The Prisoner. I may need to head back to Wales in 2017.
- 50th anniversary Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in August. I attended this con a few years ago and the company that runs it really knows their stuff, so this one should be a blast. I expect Paramount and CBS to do a ton of stuff for the anniversary next year. And man, Star Trek Beyond better not suck. This is their last chance to get it right.
- Plus other miscellanea, like superhero movies and TV shows.
As usual, nothing extremely exciting, but there's nothing wrong with that.