Happy New Year!
I'm going to spend a fairly quiet New Year's Eve at the apartment of some friends. This is a good thing, since I spent the midnight countdown last year puking into a bowl. Pro Tip: Mix your own drinks at parties. Sometimes when you ask for a gin and tonic, your friends will give you a lightly-tonic flavored glass of gin.
In honor of the beginning of a new year, here are some of my top 5's from 2009:
My top 5 personal moments of happiness:
5) Star Trek reboot.
Now, I know this sounds silly for a personal highlight, but I was seriously excited. Also, my friends in the States were much bigger Star Wars nerds than Star Trek, and I had forgotten how much I had loved Star Trek growing up, and how big a part of my life it was. My mom was a huge Trek fan, and we had tons of toys, VHS tapes of the shows, and even the collectible plates. The new movie, complete with my favorite actor, brought back all of those good memories.
4) Completing NaNoWriMo. For years and years and years, I've wanted to write. This year, I told myself that I had no excuse for not doing this, signed up, and wrote 50,000 words in one month. I wrote a steampunk-esque novel that needs an ending and tons of reworking, but dammit, I wrote something.
3) Finally getting my Bachelor's degree. This took forever, what with changing my major half a dozen times, transfering universities 3 or 4 times, etc. But, I finally buckled down and got a degree in a field that I find endlessly fascinating. Now hopefully I will be able to translate that degree into a career sometime in the future.
2) Seeing my family again. I had gone for almost 3 years without seeing my mom at all, and having only had short visits from my dad and youngest brother. It was nice spending a couple of months back in Washington with them, and catching up. I still wouldn't want to live across the street from any of them (my brother excepted) but I'm glad I saw them before I moved across the Pacific.
1) Moving to Japan. Holy hell, this was a big move. Packed up, got on a 9 hour flight, and moved to Japan. Now, I have a decent job, plenty of cash to make my student loan payments, and an opportunity to see a new part of the world.
My top 5 favorite new (to me) shows of 2009:
Haha, there are a lot here. I have a lot of free time here in Japan, and fiber-optic internet connection. I have watched a lot of new shows this year, sometimes watching several years worth of past episodes to catch up, or simply watching shows that had come and gone already.
5) Merlin. I starting watching this show after hearing about it on livejournal, and I'm glad I did. While it's not my favorite show, I enjoy the actors and the production values. Sometimes the stories can make me cringe or wish that they had done something different, it is always an enjoyable watch. Arthur and Merlin are just adorable together.
4) Leverage. This became one of my favorite new shows, thanks mostly to this man right here:
Hardison is one of my favorite television characters. I started watching Leverage because of Christian Kane and Gina Bellman, but Hardison became my favorite character in just one episode. Why do I like Hardison? Oh, maybe because he talks about torrenting the latest Doctor Who episodes, or he casually drops Star Wars into a conversation. I am also eternally grateful that in this show, it's the black guy who's a nerd, and the white guy who's a physical fighter. My biggest problem with this show is actually probably the fandom--it's almost entirely centered around Christian Kane's character, instead of this guy who is like 100x more awesome.
3) Being Human. Oh, how I love this show. A non-sparkly yet smoking hot vampire? Check. Adorable werewolf with issues? Check. A ghost with a mystery? Check. Oh, it's amazing. I thought the season one ending was a bit weak, but that in no way has prevented me from highly anticipating the new series starting next month. I seriously love all three of the main characters, and a lot of the supporting ones as well ( although I wish a few had stayed around longer.)
2) Life on Mars.
I started watching Life on Mars because I adored John Simm on Doctor Who. He's even better in this. I devoured the entire series in two or three days. I was hooked on the story, the characters, everything. It completely captured my attention. I stayed up until three in the morning watching this show, and then got up a eight to watch some more. It's not nearly as lighthearted as I usually prefer, but I found that I didn't care about that overly much.
1) The Big Bang Theory
This show rocks on toast. I love it love it love it. Sure, there are flaws. The non-nerd vs nerd stereotypes are sometimes too broad, and they have a tendency to sacrifice character development for laughs, but it is still the best sitcom since Arrested Development. The chemistry between some of the actors is simply amazing, and Jim Parsons is an amazing comedic actor. Each episode is filled with nerd humor and references and it's laugh-out-loud funny. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I'm feeling more anxious about the one month break between episdoes of TBBT than I am for the final 10th Doctor episode of Doctor Who. That's how much it's consummed my life.
I might make more lists later, but I now I need to head out for the New Year's Eve festivities.
Live long and prosper in 2010, everyone!
In honor of the beginning of a new year, here are some of my top 5's from 2009:
My top 5 personal moments of happiness:
5) Star Trek reboot.
Now, I know this sounds silly for a personal highlight, but I was seriously excited. Also, my friends in the States were much bigger Star Wars nerds than Star Trek, and I had forgotten how much I had loved Star Trek growing up, and how big a part of my life it was. My mom was a huge Trek fan, and we had tons of toys, VHS tapes of the shows, and even the collectible plates. The new movie, complete with my favorite actor, brought back all of those good memories.
4) Completing NaNoWriMo. For years and years and years, I've wanted to write. This year, I told myself that I had no excuse for not doing this, signed up, and wrote 50,000 words in one month. I wrote a steampunk-esque novel that needs an ending and tons of reworking, but dammit, I wrote something.
3) Finally getting my Bachelor's degree. This took forever, what with changing my major half a dozen times, transfering universities 3 or 4 times, etc. But, I finally buckled down and got a degree in a field that I find endlessly fascinating. Now hopefully I will be able to translate that degree into a career sometime in the future.
2) Seeing my family again. I had gone for almost 3 years without seeing my mom at all, and having only had short visits from my dad and youngest brother. It was nice spending a couple of months back in Washington with them, and catching up. I still wouldn't want to live across the street from any of them (my brother excepted) but I'm glad I saw them before I moved across the Pacific.
1) Moving to Japan. Holy hell, this was a big move. Packed up, got on a 9 hour flight, and moved to Japan. Now, I have a decent job, plenty of cash to make my student loan payments, and an opportunity to see a new part of the world.
My top 5 favorite new (to me) shows of 2009:
Haha, there are a lot here. I have a lot of free time here in Japan, and fiber-optic internet connection. I have watched a lot of new shows this year, sometimes watching several years worth of past episodes to catch up, or simply watching shows that had come and gone already.
5) Merlin. I starting watching this show after hearing about it on livejournal, and I'm glad I did. While it's not my favorite show, I enjoy the actors and the production values. Sometimes the stories can make me cringe or wish that they had done something different, it is always an enjoyable watch. Arthur and Merlin are just adorable together.
4) Leverage. This became one of my favorite new shows, thanks mostly to this man right here:
Hardison is one of my favorite television characters. I started watching Leverage because of Christian Kane and Gina Bellman, but Hardison became my favorite character in just one episode. Why do I like Hardison? Oh, maybe because he talks about torrenting the latest Doctor Who episodes, or he casually drops Star Wars into a conversation. I am also eternally grateful that in this show, it's the black guy who's a nerd, and the white guy who's a physical fighter. My biggest problem with this show is actually probably the fandom--it's almost entirely centered around Christian Kane's character, instead of this guy who is like 100x more awesome.
3) Being Human. Oh, how I love this show. A non-sparkly yet smoking hot vampire? Check. Adorable werewolf with issues? Check. A ghost with a mystery? Check. Oh, it's amazing. I thought the season one ending was a bit weak, but that in no way has prevented me from highly anticipating the new series starting next month. I seriously love all three of the main characters, and a lot of the supporting ones as well ( although I wish a few had stayed around longer.)
2) Life on Mars.
I started watching Life on Mars because I adored John Simm on Doctor Who. He's even better in this. I devoured the entire series in two or three days. I was hooked on the story, the characters, everything. It completely captured my attention. I stayed up until three in the morning watching this show, and then got up a eight to watch some more. It's not nearly as lighthearted as I usually prefer, but I found that I didn't care about that overly much.
1) The Big Bang Theory
This show rocks on toast. I love it love it love it. Sure, there are flaws. The non-nerd vs nerd stereotypes are sometimes too broad, and they have a tendency to sacrifice character development for laughs, but it is still the best sitcom since Arrested Development. The chemistry between some of the actors is simply amazing, and Jim Parsons is an amazing comedic actor. Each episode is filled with nerd humor and references and it's laugh-out-loud funny. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I'm feeling more anxious about the one month break between episdoes of TBBT than I am for the final 10th Doctor episode of Doctor Who. That's how much it's consummed my life.
I might make more lists later, but I now I need to head out for the New Year's Eve festivities.
Live long and prosper in 2010, everyone!