2009 Winners and Losers
Dec. 23rd, 2009 07:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hkellickI've been thinking about this year. i will definitely do a Year-in-Review post when I return (as I have every year since.. 2001 or so, I believe.)
But.. it's been a year.
Below, in short, is a small list regarding the year.
Video Games
I did not exactly go nuts for video games this year.
Not too many losers this year, video game wise. We didn't buy too much due mainly to price. A few winners, though
The Beatles Rock Band - We don't own it, but we sure wish we did. Rock Band is a great game all it's own, but add someone as accessible and well known as the Beatles and you have a GREAT Game. The Beatles Rock Band is the penultimate in Guitar Hero/Rock Band games.
The Sims 3 - It's far far too easy to waste time in this game. They've really rethought what they wanted to give you out of a Sims experience and the new game really is a lot of fun. Big winner this year.
But the biggest winner of this year, video-game wise was Guild Wars. OK, I bought the game last year, yes, and started to play it, and then dropped it. This year, I restarted, finished one campaign, got involved with people I'm comfortable being chatty with and it's become a huge part of my schedule (much to K's chagrin. We're working on that balance thing.)
Music
I did not exactly go nuts for music this year either. A few downloads here and there, but not much...
Losers: Barenaked Ladies - This year, Steven Page and BnL split mutually. It's arguable if the resultant band is as good. Steven Page wasn't just a singer, he had alot of the band's personality. Their new album comes out next year. We'll see.
Winners: Mashups - My primary source of new music this year. Mainly because they're free. ;D There were some really good ones this year.
The Beatles - This was a big year for The Beatles. Apparently a game came out this year and it spurred interest in the Beatles Catalog. A Beatles Catalog which I don't have (legally) and would like to get, now that they're remastering. I have two albums so far (Magical Mystery Tour and Sergeant Pepper) and am hoping for more for Christmas. And of course, we also got the Love soundtrack too. :D
I won't mention Michael Jackson. Yes, his death spurred interest in his music again. He's a winner. Just not a big personal winner.
Web Site
Web Sites are like friends. Some you read for a time, some you read for a reason, some you read over and over and over and over.
Losers: Calorie Count - I left the site. Twice. It had to make it onto the list eventually. At first I left because I was burned out on being a mod. Then I came back without being a mod and left again because things weren't working out after all. CC is a big loser this year.
Winners: Dreamwidth - There is seriously no point into getting into what Dreamwidth is or why it exists. My wife had beta'd it and then I got in on it. It's miles better than livejournal (for one, it's a whole lot less dramatic.) and it's a good place to post my personal journal entries. Lack of Drama? Good Code? Plus, I personally know the creators? ;) WIN!
Wikia - Whether it's poking through the Diablo Wikia to find out what the plans are for Diablo 3, the Spore wikia to figure out how to win an adventure or poking around the Guild Wars Wikia (which I spent far too much time doing.), Wikia kept getting read over and over and over again.
The Order of the Stick - A friend quoted a comic in my direction. I looked at it and read it, all of it. i don't follow too much webcomics but Order of the Stick is amusing. It's about D&D and it's about more than D&D. As a geek, I love it. :)
The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee - Everyone loves kitties! Laurie Cinotto fosters them and posts all sorts of pictures of itty bitty baby kitties playing, romping, snuggling and being waaaaaay too cute for work. If you're a cat lover at all, you could spend alot of time poking through the page and the various backlog of kitten pictures!
Other - Not Easily filed or too small a grouping
Losers: My Gallbladder - Apparently my gallbladder had been going for a while. We suspected some of the ugly back aches I'd had in 2008 were actually my gallbladder. In early January, it finally decided to try to quit. After a trip to the emergency room and emergency surgery, my gallbladder lost.. the rest of me. And I probably won, long term.
Baker - This is two fold. The first is the simple fact that Baker used to have the contract to do all LOMC cases nation-wise and they now only have three regions. The fact that they're losing (and have lost) alot of good people due to the restraints of the contract.
The second half has everything to do with a very difficult year as a team lead (which I no longer am) and an employee working here. The beginning of next year, my group and I will be working out of DC, which I also think will transfer into Baker's loss.
Winners: Las Vegas - We'd never been to Sin City before, but whenzorkian got married there, we agreed to try to get there. We only got to spend one day along the strip, but it was a vivid, memorable (and exhausting!) day and I wanna go do it again! We gambled, we went to Hard Rock Cafe (for my first time), we saw "Love!" It was a great day. :) And I'd totally, totally go back for a little longer.
Oh, and there's a good chance the n00b was conceived there. >;)
Family - Nothing brings a family together quite like the prospects of being able to oggle over a new baby. Both of our families are over the moon with excitement about being grandparents, great grandparents, uncles and aunts, etc. It's helped soothe over some of the tension that happened around our wedding, which is a major win.
On top of that, a bad event last fall led to my brothers and I actually sitting down and having a much-needed conversation about the past and how things may have gotten to where they have gotten to between us.
This has been a very positive year in terms of our relationships with our family and I'm NOT having conniptions of dread about going in to Buffalo tomorrow to see everyone, which is very telling.
Dancing - This belongs in both categories, I feel. We worked hard and made it to Bronze II. Then in the span of a couple of months, K couldn't dance anymore. Our instructor left and we realized we no longer had money to pay for lessons. But the dance experience still feels more positive than negative and once we have the money, I think we can remember most of what we learned (maybe with a bit of refresher.) I know we'll pick this back up when we can.
Local Friends - It wasn't so very long ago that K's friend Jennifer came down to DC and though Jennifer, K met Lynne and then through Lynne, we met Amy. But it was Lynne who helped us snag the nifty place we live in now. And it was about 11 months ago that we went over to Amy and Matt's house for Obama's Inauguration (and stayed all night playing video games, an event which happened numerous times after.) The timing is great, what with us deciding to stay here and make a family here, to really have a couple of close friends that we both can comfortably drop in on and be sociable with. :)
My Plans - Top of the things I wanted to accomplish was to have my own family. Last year I netted a wife. Next year, we'll have a baby. My plans for world domination are going well.
But.. it's been a year.
Below, in short, is a small list regarding the year.
Video Games
I did not exactly go nuts for video games this year.
Not too many losers this year, video game wise. We didn't buy too much due mainly to price. A few winners, though
The Beatles Rock Band - We don't own it, but we sure wish we did. Rock Band is a great game all it's own, but add someone as accessible and well known as the Beatles and you have a GREAT Game. The Beatles Rock Band is the penultimate in Guitar Hero/Rock Band games.
The Sims 3 - It's far far too easy to waste time in this game. They've really rethought what they wanted to give you out of a Sims experience and the new game really is a lot of fun. Big winner this year.
But the biggest winner of this year, video-game wise was Guild Wars. OK, I bought the game last year, yes, and started to play it, and then dropped it. This year, I restarted, finished one campaign, got involved with people I'm comfortable being chatty with and it's become a huge part of my schedule (much to K's chagrin. We're working on that balance thing.)
Music
I did not exactly go nuts for music this year either. A few downloads here and there, but not much...
Losers: Barenaked Ladies - This year, Steven Page and BnL split mutually. It's arguable if the resultant band is as good. Steven Page wasn't just a singer, he had alot of the band's personality. Their new album comes out next year. We'll see.
Winners: Mashups - My primary source of new music this year. Mainly because they're free. ;D There were some really good ones this year.
The Beatles - This was a big year for The Beatles. Apparently a game came out this year and it spurred interest in the Beatles Catalog. A Beatles Catalog which I don't have (legally) and would like to get, now that they're remastering. I have two albums so far (Magical Mystery Tour and Sergeant Pepper) and am hoping for more for Christmas. And of course, we also got the Love soundtrack too. :D
I won't mention Michael Jackson. Yes, his death spurred interest in his music again. He's a winner. Just not a big personal winner.
Web Site
Web Sites are like friends. Some you read for a time, some you read for a reason, some you read over and over and over and over.
Losers: Calorie Count - I left the site. Twice. It had to make it onto the list eventually. At first I left because I was burned out on being a mod. Then I came back without being a mod and left again because things weren't working out after all. CC is a big loser this year.
Winners: Dreamwidth - There is seriously no point into getting into what Dreamwidth is or why it exists. My wife had beta'd it and then I got in on it. It's miles better than livejournal (for one, it's a whole lot less dramatic.) and it's a good place to post my personal journal entries. Lack of Drama? Good Code? Plus, I personally know the creators? ;) WIN!
Wikia - Whether it's poking through the Diablo Wikia to find out what the plans are for Diablo 3, the Spore wikia to figure out how to win an adventure or poking around the Guild Wars Wikia (which I spent far too much time doing.), Wikia kept getting read over and over and over again.
The Order of the Stick - A friend quoted a comic in my direction. I looked at it and read it, all of it. i don't follow too much webcomics but Order of the Stick is amusing. It's about D&D and it's about more than D&D. As a geek, I love it. :)
The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee - Everyone loves kitties! Laurie Cinotto fosters them and posts all sorts of pictures of itty bitty baby kitties playing, romping, snuggling and being waaaaaay too cute for work. If you're a cat lover at all, you could spend alot of time poking through the page and the various backlog of kitten pictures!
Other - Not Easily filed or too small a grouping
Losers: My Gallbladder - Apparently my gallbladder had been going for a while. We suspected some of the ugly back aches I'd had in 2008 were actually my gallbladder. In early January, it finally decided to try to quit. After a trip to the emergency room and emergency surgery, my gallbladder lost.. the rest of me. And I probably won, long term.
Baker - This is two fold. The first is the simple fact that Baker used to have the contract to do all LOMC cases nation-wise and they now only have three regions. The fact that they're losing (and have lost) alot of good people due to the restraints of the contract.
The second half has everything to do with a very difficult year as a team lead (which I no longer am) and an employee working here. The beginning of next year, my group and I will be working out of DC, which I also think will transfer into Baker's loss.
Winners: Las Vegas - We'd never been to Sin City before, but when
zorkian got married there, we agreed to try to get there. We only got to spend one day along the strip, but it was a vivid, memorable (and exhausting!) day and I wanna go do it again! We gambled, we went to Hard Rock Cafe (for my first time), we saw "Love!" It was a great day. :) And I'd totally, totally go back for a little longer.Oh, and there's a good chance the n00b was conceived there. >;)
Family - Nothing brings a family together quite like the prospects of being able to oggle over a new baby. Both of our families are over the moon with excitement about being grandparents, great grandparents, uncles and aunts, etc. It's helped soothe over some of the tension that happened around our wedding, which is a major win.
On top of that, a bad event last fall led to my brothers and I actually sitting down and having a much-needed conversation about the past and how things may have gotten to where they have gotten to between us.
This has been a very positive year in terms of our relationships with our family and I'm NOT having conniptions of dread about going in to Buffalo tomorrow to see everyone, which is very telling.
Dancing - This belongs in both categories, I feel. We worked hard and made it to Bronze II. Then in the span of a couple of months, K couldn't dance anymore. Our instructor left and we realized we no longer had money to pay for lessons. But the dance experience still feels more positive than negative and once we have the money, I think we can remember most of what we learned (maybe with a bit of refresher.) I know we'll pick this back up when we can.
Local Friends - It wasn't so very long ago that K's friend Jennifer came down to DC and though Jennifer, K met Lynne and then through Lynne, we met Amy. But it was Lynne who helped us snag the nifty place we live in now. And it was about 11 months ago that we went over to Amy and Matt's house for Obama's Inauguration (and stayed all night playing video games, an event which happened numerous times after.) The timing is great, what with us deciding to stay here and make a family here, to really have a couple of close friends that we both can comfortably drop in on and be sociable with. :)
My Plans - Top of the things I wanted to accomplish was to have my own family. Last year I netted a wife. Next year, we'll have a baby. My plans for world domination are going well.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-23 01:43 pm (UTC)I keep telling you, that was the FOLLOWING weekend, around our anniversary. Trust me. s:)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-23 01:47 pm (UTC)I'm still saying Las Vegas. Even if it isn't true!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-23 04:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-23 04:30 pm (UTC)It might change once I have real picture of the n00b and I.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-23 04:10 pm (UTC)(Though ours was obviously our dating anniversary, not our wedding anniversary.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-24 05:49 am (UTC)I'm also excited that the pool of Children Born of Chaotic is growing. I expect lots of good posts on how to do this whole thing so that when I consider it in a few years, I have footsteps to follow.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-24 05:47 pm (UTC)