surfacing

[dianora2]

If nothing else, I should do that end-of-year meme I always do considering it's, you know, January 4th. Oy.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Met James Callis and Michael Hogan and Joshua Jackson. Went to Calgary. Had minor surgery in a delicate area. Had all sorts of horrific invasive procedures that I'd hoped to never experience. :P Etc.

2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Not really, as health problems derailed them in March or April. Will try to make smiliar ones for this year.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
ratmmjess had a baby but it was his wife who actually gave birth. :D

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thankfully.

5. What countries did you visit?
Canada.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A date. This was my same answer from last year, LOL.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Election day. And probably November 7th, the date of my surgery.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Moving into a bigger and better apartment. Getting promoted. Being my nephew's buddy.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Putting a little weight back on. Procastinating too much. Not writing enough.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Ha ha ha ha. Every single day since March/April, yes.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Hmm. My Coach boots? And the money spent on Dragon Con photo ops was worth every penny. Oh, also, a print of the Canadian cover art for THE DARKEST ROAD by Guy Gavriel Kay, autographed both by the artist Martin Springett and by Guy. /geek (I WILL NOT SAY GUITAR HERO AAAGH.)

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
The American people for electing Barack Obama. Anyone who donated time or money to charity this year. Progressive bloggers.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
John McCain and Sarah Palin. Congress (both parties). Private health insurance companies. Wall Street. Blagowhatever. The traditional media. Sexist "pundits." Tourists. Etc.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent and dining out, same as every year.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Meeting James Callis and Joshua Jackson. The election results. Lost. The announcement of a new Rock of Love, LOL.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Errrr.... probably anything sung by David Cook. I probably listened to his cover of "Always Be My Baby" the most. Oh, and "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder: Sadder.
ii. thinner or fatter: About the same, maybe a few pounds fatter.
iii. richer or poorer? Richer, I guess, but my rent is higher so it evens out.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sleeping. Exercising. Reading for fun. Responding to LJ comments. Also: more not feeling like shit would have been good.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Feeling like shit. Going to doctors.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it at the parents'.

21. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
Spent it at my house with friends.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
No.

23. How many one-night stands?
Nil.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Hmmmmmmm. Probably Lost.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Sarah Palin, only because I didn't know her this time last year.

26. What was the best book you read?
Ugh. Ummmmm... Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Scion, though I was most emotionally moved by Ann Brashares' Girls in Pants. *g* I confess I read mostly magazines last year....

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I'm a musical idiot, so....umm... I'm going to say "So You Think You Can Dance" for this category. It introduced me to some new songs I really dig.

28. What did you want and get?
A new apartment. A promotion. A raise.

29. What did you want and not get?
Plenty.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
Favorite? God, I don't know. Probably WALL-E or Sex and the City. Actually, my favorite was "The King of Kong" which was watched on Netflix.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Turned 36 and had a group dinner with friends.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less health problems. Hey, this is the same answer as last year!

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Try to dress a little more like a grownup.

34. What kept you sane?
Television, my kitty, LJ, going to the Outer Banks.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Jamie Bamber.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Healthcare and the election.

37. Who did you miss?
My usual answer: All my friends who don't live in NYC.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Probably counteragent, who is delightful and I would like to hang out with again. *waves hand in the direction of yahtzee63 to make that happen* Also I have a new co-worker who is a lot of fun and I like a lot.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
It doesn't make sense to spend more time worrying about something than the length of the actual event. And just talking to someone really does help.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"Life is shit, life is shit, the world is shit, the world is shit, and this is life as I know it." -- "Life is Shit," The Dead Milkmen. *g*

I finally ran into my super yesterday and was able to give him his end of year tip (my first time ever doing that!). We talked for a little bit and then he wished me a Happy New Year and held his arms out. I was like, uh, okay, and so we hugged. It was weird yet adorable at the same time. LOL. He's such a sweetie. Have I mentioned I am happy to be here?

Other news in brief:

Confessions of a Teen Idol is AWESOME. Seriously, you need to check that shit out. Eric Nies has LOST HIS MIND.

Rock of Love 3 is OFF THE CHAIN, as the kids say. It also featured something that may just top someone shitting on the floor in Flavor of Love 2. Well, I'm not sure anything can top that, but this chick tried. So.....they were all in this bar, doing shots, and the shots were in test tubes. And this one girl, apparently, and obviously they DID NOT show this, but what happened was, she put the test tube up her vagina and I think another girl did the shot out of it.

NO REALLY.

The best part was they couldn't show what was happening, so they just show all the other girls' reaction shots and it was HILARIOUS. Total horror and shock and OMGWTFery. So funny.

To Bret's credit, he did wind up eliminating both the giver and taker in the shot situation. Apparently he actually does have SOME standards. Who knew?

Gotta love seeing Sharon Osbourne smack a bitch.

The new Doctor Who: eh. He does not pass my attractiveness standards so I will not bother watching. Which is fine, as I didn't really want to anyway and that's one less TV show to worry about. I have been laughing about the fandom explosion over his being so young, though. It's pretty simple, really: the Doctor only has 12 generations, yes? And he's number 11? So they need some guy who's young and hungry and hasn't done much who will be INSANELY GRATEFUL and will stick around for many many seasons, instead of someone who is established and in demand and who will leave after a couple seasons to go do Shakespeare or whatever. ;) It's a business, folks. Ah well, despite this seeming to further confirm my suspicions that the Doctor will be turning into Captain Kirk, I really do hope he's good for the sake of all of you who will still be watching. Let me know how it goes.

In more pressing fannish news for me, I finally caught up on the BSG webisodes, hence I felt the need to upload airings' awesome icon.
So....they can't just have Felix be gay, he's gotta be bisexual? Laaaaaaame, PTB. Lame. And it goes to show, you can never trust an Eight. Also, I guess Jane Espenson watched the "Midnight" episode of Doctor Who, LOL. Not that it was original then either, by any means, but it's just a wee bit too close. Not to mention everything that happens is so telegraphed it's like I have Samuel Morse sitting on my shoulder. Also, Tigh is still XO? WTF? Also also, how adorable is Hoshi? Awww. Love he and Racetrack on the rescue mission. Gaeta with his fake leg is FULL OF WOE. I'm actually really digging he's getting so much to do with this. Yay. And....that's all I've got.

BTW, I believe I will be doing that bsg_100 idea, so more on that very soon. Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll!

I also finally watched the last episode (but not last forever yet, right?) episode of Dirty Sexy Money. So, killing off Carmelita smacks of authorial convenience, no? Oy. And, I get the sense this is around when they figured out the show was cancelled, so it feels like they're jumping ahead and acclerating stuff. Everything with Brian was awesome. And I love Jeremy SO MUCH, I can't believe they are taking Jeremy Darling away from me. Waaaah. I still would rather see him with Lisa than Nola, though the way Lisa is acting lately, maybe not.

yahtzee63 wrote a V story for Yuletide! Eeeeeee! It is Ham Tyler POV but it's also about Juliet and it is awesome and it is here. And jesshelga recced this Calvin & Hobbes fic, which may be the most depressing thing I have ever read. You've been warned. In brighter news, you can find a Scully/Kara Thrace fic (with underlying M/S and K/L) here. Thanks to dashakay for that rec.

Boeing Boeing closed today. Along with a lot of other Broadway shows closing this month. It's kind of amazing how many are closing right now, wow.

Hey, John Taylor of Duran Duran is going to be on Samantha Who. I know some of you will be excited about that.

Article on Kristen Wiig in NYT today.

CakeWrecks has pictures of some awesome dragon cakes today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY nicole_anell! Hope it was a great one.

And yes, I am among the legions who does not want to go back to work tomorrow. Especially since I have a doctor's appointment, too. Happy New Year. Sigh. OK, time to play some more Guitar Hero before bed. (I made it to Hard, woot!)

Comments

[kate-spencer.livejournal.com]

Vh1 has totally sucked me in again with Confessions of a Teen Idol... so much love! David Chokachi seems a little diva-ish but we'll see.

I was totally horrified by the vagina shot. I didn't know that even existed.

[careyleah.livejournal.com]

"Life is Shit," The Dead Milkmen.

They really had a way with words, didn't they? Ah, soundtrack to my teen years.

So....they can't just have Felix be gay, he's gotta be bisexual? Laaaaaaame, PTB. Lame.

I'm curious about this. I haven't watched it, so I'm just wondering what about it is making you feel like it's badly done? (Or something else?) Frankly, I'm into the idea of a smart show I like acknowledging the possibility of bisexuality. Unless they're doing it in a really faily way.

[dianora2.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I'm into the idea of a smart show I like acknowledging the possibility of bisexuality.

Of course. But they do already have canonical bisexuals -- the Sixes. You know, the hot chicks. :P In the webisodes, Felix is with Hoshi, but he also has flashbacks of getting it on with a random Eight on New Caprica. So it's like, well, the guy can't just be gay, he has to also be able to make out with the hot Asian chick. Why can't he just be gay? Like they're afraid of going that far? I don't know, something about it rubbed me the wrong way. Apparently it's okay for a woman to be a lesbian (c.f. Cain), but we can't have a man restrict himself only to other men when there are hot Cylons around. (And Hoshi doesn't count, since he's barely a character.)

So....yeah, that's what made me feel like it was badly done. *g* I think that if bisexuality were more widespread and accepted in this universe as par for the course (which would be nice, but, it's not), it wouldn't rub me the wrong way so much.

[careyleah.livejournal.com]

Oh, good point about the Sixes, I'd totally forgotten about that. It does kind of always seem like it's okay to show women "experimenting" and not so much for men, doesn't it? Hmmm. Thanks for indulging me!

Edit: I didn't love my wording there. I'm leaving it, but I guess what I really meant was I was agreeing with you about lesbianism somehow being less threatening and therefore fair game.

[juliedarling.livejournal.com]

I sort of agree. I actually can't think of a lot of bisexual characters on television (13 on House is the only one that immediately comes to mind); they tend to be either gay or straight, and sometimes spontaneously switch from one to the other (e.g., Willow Rosenberg). So I kind of liked that a TV show was able to acknowledge that bisexuality exists. In webisodes, at least.

[careyleah.livejournal.com]

The Willow story was really the one I was thinking of - I'm still bitter about that (among other things about Buffy). If they hadn't constantly hit you over the head with the "gay now" stuff, it would have different I think. It's been a while since I watched all of Buffy, but I think it was pretty clear she did/could still have romantic feelings for Oz. I mean, I definitely know people who had straight relationships at one point and now identify as gay - I wouldn't call them bisexual just because of past experiences, but I think Willow's arc was a really a wasted opportunity to explore the idea of bisexuality. If they felt the need to harp on her sexuality, which they obviously did! (tl;dr This is what happens when I am on vacation and stay up too late!)

[juliedarling.livejournal.com]

No, I'm totally with you! What was so irritating about the Willow arc was that the storyline with Tara treated Willow's relationship with Oz, not to mention her lifelong crush on Xander, like they meant nothing, even though both had been incredibly recent, and it wasn't like she had a long period of questioning or transition or anything. One second, she was madly in love with Oz (and had a brief clothesfluke with Xander), and the next, she was in love with Tara, and was like, "gay now!" It never seemed to occur to her, or the writers, that she might be bisexual, which was like, "What?" Falling in love with one woman after a lifetime of being in love with men (including being in love with and sleeping with a man only months before) = gay in Buffyverse. But you know all this. It's funny that our heads were in the same place. Braintwins!

Sorry to hijack, Dia.

[prophetkristy.livejournal.com]

You can probably guess how excited I am to have Gaeta-centric webisodes :-D And so much WORD about the lameness of the stuff with him and the 8. You suck, PTB. (I liked Jane's work on Buffy and Firefly, but not so much with BSG.) And Hoshi and Racetrack are sooooo adorable.

(I had the same thought about Tigh. Seriously, he BROKE the Old Man and he's STILL not fired? What would it take, him showing up naked to the CIC? [ew.])

Wow, apparently this was just a "yeah! what she said!" post. Great minds, eh?

Those cakes are AMAZING. I see how far my cake decorating skills have to go. (hopefully, no one will ask me for a unicorn-iin-captivity wedding cake.)

[bexatious.livejournal.com]

I played some of Lz's GH tonight. She has it for the Wii but it's the exact same game as yours and so I was able to redo all the songs I did already from you AND I beat Tom AND the encore AND I am up to the next level AND I got a killer outfit in the shop.

I think I am naturally gifted.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec!

I am mightily unsure about the Eleventh, fetal Doctor, but I'm going to give him a shot. With ABC slaughtering my shows right and left, I've got time in my schedule.

[juliedarling.livejournal.com]

SHUT UP MEGAN IS AWESOME (http://www.clipser.com/watch_video/648105).

Enjoyed your meme!

[ozzyols.livejournal.com]

CakeWrecks has pictures of some awesome dragon cakes today.

Holy Mother of Pfaffing God!

I want!!!!!!!!!!

[kiss-me-cassie.livejournal.com]

Oh dear lord, I did not know there WAS C&H fic (why this never occurred to me, I do not know) but that was... sniffle. It was right and wrong at the same time.

Also? I, too, hope you have a much healthier and less icky 2009. You deserve it!

[counteragent.livejournal.com]

*waves* hello, there! You are also delightful. :D

"So You Think You Can Dance" for this category. It introduced me to some new songs I really dig.

My husband and I LOVE that show. We shall have to squee together next season.

I am back in the States on the 13th ish; perhaps we can make Yahtz schedule something fun for late Jan/early Feb?