Last week I went to see Harmoncountry, which is Dan Harmon’s (TV show Community creator) Harmontown podcast on tour. I had a lot of fun. You can listen to the Portland episode here.
Last summer, my #1 show ended. My #2 show at the time, which became my #1 show, was Fringe.
I remember watching the first 2 episodes when they aired, but I gave up on the show after that. Because people said the show got better and I have to watch everything J.J. Abrams produces, I started recording it again. After the season ended, I caught up on the episodes I missed and I loved it. Not all of Fringe was great, but it had a lot more good than bad. It had great characters, great acting, and imaginative story lines. Fringe should have gotten a lot more recognition than it did.
Fringe aired its last episode Friday night around the time I was leaving for Vegas. I have a history of missing Fringe finales. I watched it this morning. I was very satisfied with how it ended. I’m glad that the show made it to 100 episodes and was brought to a satisfying conclusion.
I’m going to miss having new episodes of Fringe on my TV. I think a re-watch is coming soon.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m not 100% sure what inspired me to read this book. I think it was the selection for a local book club I wanted to get involved with, but I think they changed their mind about this book because I haven’t seen any mention of it recently.
The main character wakes up in a park in London surrounded by bodies. She bruised and doesn’t remember who she is. She discovers that she’s a super-powered person and that she’s a member of a very old secret British organization that protects people from supernatural threats.
The Rook is definitely a page turner. I like that there’s a lot of humor in the book. It’s one that I would really like to made into a movie one day. I only have 1 issue with the book. The main character knew she would lose her memory and wrote letters to herself. The letters give the reader background on the organization and all the key players. These letters showed up way too frequently and sometimes went on way too long. Whenever the momentum started to pick up, I would be forced to read a long, boring letter.
In spite of that I highly recommend it to people who are fans of books like these.
I don’t think I’ll be posting these blurbs here anymore. Check out my Goodreads page if you want to know what I’m reading.
Once again, I looked at my last.fm profile on New Year’s Eve to see what music I listened to the most during the year.
Top 10 Artists
1. Revision 3 [podcasts]
2. Jay and Jack TV [podcasts]
3. Foster the People
4. Fiona Apple
5. Pearl Jam
6. Nicki Minaj
7. The Smashing Pumpkins
8. Rob, Chris, Robin, and Boston [podcasts]
9. nerdist [podcasts]
10. Mumford & Sons
10. HBO Podcasts [podcasts]
Top 10 Songs
1. Nicki Minaj – “Super Bass”
2. Foster the People – “Houdini”
3. Foster the People – “Helena Beat”
4. Foster the People – “Pumped Up Kicks”
5. Foster the People – “Call it What You Want”
5. Foster the People – “Waste”
5. Foster the People – “Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)”
8. Fiona Apple – “The First Taste”
9. Foster the People – “Life on the Nickel”
10. Birds of Tokyo – “Head in my Hands”
10. Foster the People – “I Would Do Anything for You”
10. The Naked and Famous – “Young Blood”
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Monarchy of Roses”
The Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become by Robert Kirkman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a step down from the past few volumes, but only a small step. There was a little too much whining from Dale and a little too much talking about how much Rick has changed. We did see a certain character return that I had been hoping to see again, so that was good.
I had a lot of fun with new tech in 2012.
In March I got a 3rd generation iPad. It was my first iPad. My boss, another co-worker, and I went to Best Buy and got in line the day they went on sale. It was kind of an impulse buy because I had decided to get an iPad 2 since the price was going to go down. I love my iPad! I hardly go a day without using it. It’s one of those things that you don’t think you need, but once you have one you can’t live without it. I think everyone should get one of these. As it turns out, I don’t mind reading on this as much as I thought I would. I never use that Kindle that I bought last year anymore.
A few months later I bought a Nexus 7 because I wanted to learn Android programming and have a real device to test on. I do like how open Android is, but I still prefer iOS, probably just because I’ve had so much more experience with it. Sometimes I still don’t know what to expect when I press a button. It wasn’t until last week that I got a chance to start learning Android programming.
On another sort of impulse I decided to go to the Verizon store on the day the iPhone 5 went on sale. I was fed up with AT&T’s service and decided to make the switch. And I had the urge to get a new phone and it would be another year before I was eligible for an upgrade with AT&T. I am very pleased with this phone except for the fact that I needed new charging cables.
I pre-ordered a Wii U the day I heard that pre-orders were being taken. I love the gamepad and I love the Mario game that I got. My biggest problem is how slow everything is. I didn’t mind the long update before I could even play it that much because it gave me time to read the manuals. But you have to wait so long for anything to load. I really do need to spend more time using it, though. Maybe I’ll get more used to it.
I won an iPad mini at my company’s Christmas party, which I have written about previously. I’m really digging this little thing and I had no interest in it before. It’s so light and it’s just the right size. My only problem is that it doesn’t have a retina display. The text is very small in the Kindle app, so I have to read on my big iPad.
I wonder what I’ll get to play with next year. New consoles?
Leading up to Christmas, there were times when I was really into the season and times when I wanted it to be over. Of course, the traveling was what I was dreading. I hate flying and driving gets old after a while.
I flew to Mississippi on the 23rd. This is the first time I’ve flown United. I had already made plans to fly to Jackson months before I knew everyone would be in Georgia for Christmas. I was going to cost around $1000 to change the flight to Atlanta, so I figured I would drive the rest of the way since I had already planned to rent a car. I spent the night in Jackson and drove to Decatur the next day. I had a blast in Georgia. I hadn’t seen my sister, brother-in-law, and niece in a little over 2 years and my mom since February. My niece is almost 3 now. She is adorable. I never got tired of her calling me “Uncle Will”. She wore me out a few times. I don’t see how parents do it. Seeing her joy at opening her gifts made me happy. It was great seeing everybody again and getting caught up.
The day after Christmas it was time to return to Portland. I drove back to the airport in Jackson. I ran into a high school classmate at the airport. Our plane was late leaving Jackson due to the plane arriving late in Jackson due to bad weather in Houston. I think we made up some time in the air, but it wasn’t enough. Between leaving late and being stuck waiting for a gate to open up after we landed, I missed my connection. I rushed through the airport as fast as I could. When I made it to the gate for my next flight and handed the lady my boarding pass, word came over the walkie that the door had closed. It was too late in the day for another flight. I was put on standby on the first flight out the next day. I didn’t like the fact that the customer service guy made it sound like it was my fault that I missed my connection. United put me up in a room in Houston, but I had to pay for most of it because my missed connection was caused by something beyond their control. This will probably be the last time I fly United, though other airlines would’ve probably done the same thing. I got a seat on that flight the next day and was glad when I finally made it home. Overall, a great Christmas, but I may be trying to convince everyone to come to Portland next year :).
What did I get this year?
The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain by Robert Kirkman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this volume. It starts out focusing mostly on Rick and Carl, but other characters come in later. We find out the fates of the characters that we were unsure of at the end of the last volume and we meet some new ones. It seemed mostly like a setup volume, but it was still great.
The Walking Dead, Vol. 8: Made to Suffer by Robert Kirkman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another great volume. It started out in the Governor’s camp right after our survivors escaped and showed the intervening time from their point of view. It quickly got the point where the last volume ended. There was a lot of action and the death toll was high. The fates of a lot of characters are up in the air. Once again, I can see elements that the TV show borrowed but changed up a little. My goal is to get caught up on the comics before the show resumes in February.
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don’t think I can say anything that hasn’t already been said.
I wanted to reread this and The Hobbit before the first Hobbit movie was released. It’s the first time I’ve read it in a long time and I really enjoyed it. The whole time I was noting all the things the movie makers left out, moved around, or added. I had forgotten so much. It’s a slow read, but I was never bored. I even read all the appendices again.
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