2012 Year in Review Part 3: The Best (and Worst) of 2012!!!!

Happy last day of the year. While all of you are out partying and living it up on this last day of 2012, i am sitting at home, finishing up this blog post. I'm sharing my opinions on the Best (and the Worst) of 2012! There are three Super catergories: Books, Movies, and Music. These three will be split into smaller catergories. So, here we go!

P.S. This is going to be a long post.

Best Book I Read This Year: The Night Circus-Erin Morgenstern (Fantasy)
Best Book I Read This Year That Was Older Than I Am: Stranger in a Strange Land-Robert A. Heinlein (Science Fiction)
Best Book I Read That Was Published This Year: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore-Robin Sloan (Fantasy, Mystery)
Best Series I Started This Year: Sandman Slim series-Richard Kadrey (Urban Fantasy)
Book I Didn't Think I'd Like, and Ended Up Loving: City of Thieves-David Benioff (Historical/Humor)
Book I Thought I'd Like, but Ended Up Hating: The Law of Nines-Terry Goodkind (Fantasy/Thriller)
Worst Book I Read This Year: The Dark Tower Book 1: The Gunslinger-Stephen King

Not going to go in much detail here, because most of my readers may or may not have read any of these books. If you want more details about a certain title, contact me and I'll do my best.

Best Movie: The Avengers. No contest.
Best 3D Movie I saw this Year: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Movie that Most Disappointed Me: Flight.
Best Movie I Watched on DVD This Year: The Muppets. :p
Movie I Most Underestimated: Pitch Perfect.
Best Original Movie: Looper.
Best True Story Based Movie: Argo.
Worst Movie: Gone.

So, All I need to say here is that everyone should see Argo, The Avengers, Looper, Pitch Perfect, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Flight will not be what you expect, so you may be diappointed like I was. As for Gone...If you see it on the shelf, just walk away.

Best Country Albumn I Heard: Eric Church-Chief.
Best Soundtrack: (tie) Pitch Perfect. The Hunger Games.
Best Country Song: Springsteen-Eric Church.
Best Country Song From a New Artist: Cruise-Florida Georgia Line
Best Non-Country Song: (tie) Payphone-Maroon 5. Some Nights-fun.

So music is a little harder for me, as is made apparent by the ties. I have nothing to really say here, as this is all somewhat self explanatory.

Happy New Year to you all! Check back in a couple days as I list off 15 Movies to See in 2013!!

Until Next Time...:p
W.

2012 Year in Review Part 2: This Was the Year I...

Welcome to Part 2 of my 2012 Year in Review! With this post, I'm going to highlight some of the big things that happened to me this year.

2012 was the year I... Got a Cellphone and a New Car.
Before this year, I was still not quite connected to the world. And so, I finally decided that the time had come to buy a cellphone.
So that's what I did. :)
Also, I had finally had enough of my old car continually clunking around, and so I purchased a new car that is much better! :)

2012 was the year I... Saw 'The Avengers.'
I saw it six times in a theater, even road-tripping all the way to Sumner with Bob to watch it. Do I regret seeing it so many times? No. And if you still haven't seen it, well you're only punishing yourself. :p

2012 was the year I... Unfortunately Learned I Really Can't Trust Anybody.
I used to be a naive person, and believed almost everything anybody would tell me. This year, however, I caught more people in lies than I ever had before. The saddest part was that most of these people I counted as friends, so I guess I can't even trust my friends. How sad is that?

2012 was the year I... Really Started Listening to More Music!
As some of you know, I used to be a straight-up, country music fan all the way. Over the past few years, I've broadened my horizons a little bit, and started listening to more pop and such. The most amazing thing was, that i recently read through all the song titles on a NOW CD, and I actually knew ALL of the songs on it just by the title. For me, that's pretty freaking awesome!!
Oh, and favorite song for the year, you ask. Check back, next post! :p

2012 was the year I...Decided to Read 100 Novels I had Never Read.
That may seem like a pretty miserable goal, but it's one that I thought seemed realistic for me. I don't have as much time to read as I would like, but I still find plenty of time for it.
As for whether I reached my goal: The year isn't over yet. I currently haev completed 94 books, so my goal is still possible, but getting more and more unlikely as the days pass.

2012 was the year I...Returned to Cedar Rapids.
This probably isn't a big deal to most of you, but before this past October, it had been nearly ten years since I had last been in the city of Cedar Rapids! My Co-Assistant Manager was kind enough to let me hitch a ride with them to go to Cedar Rapids, where I promptly bought...books. A ton of them. :p Half Price Books is by far one of my favorite stores ever!
And I ate at Arby's for the first time, so that was cool.

2012 was the year I...Revived this Blog! :)
This blog that your currently reading, was first published in January of 2011, and I promptly forgot about it.
Back in May, I came across it again, and started to write posts for it again, eventually posting on Facebook and Twitter when I updated it. Thanks to doing this, and the increasing number of Facebook friends using Blogger, my blog has continued to increase in pageviews, and I want to thank you all again for making it possible! I hope you keep on checking in throughout the new year! :)

Until Next Time...;)
W.

SNOWpocalypse

Uh Oh
Here we go
Look outside and
see the snow
Blow
All around
Burying everything
in this old town.
Watch as the temperature dips
Brace yourself-it's a SNOWPOCALYPSE

That pretty well sums up the weather around here over the last day. Lots of snow, lots of wind, and one super huge mess.

After last winter, which was a very tame winter, I guess I got out of practice on shoveling snow, because after today I am freaking exhausted. I'm really hoping that we don't get any more huge snowstorms this winter, because I'm not sure I could handle it.

And with tomorrow being the ned of the world (not going to happen) maybe our demise will be by snow. Isn't that just peachy?

Well, anyway, short blog post I know, but I'll be getting back to my 2012 Year in Review next week. I hope you check back for that! :)

Until Next Time...:)

W.

Thoughts and Prayers to Connecticut

This is a sad day people.

I was sitting down for dinner today, when the local news showed footage of a shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. An elementary school.

Immediately, after hearing the news that at least 18 kids were killed by a crazy guys with two handguns, I thought I was going to be sick. That someone could do this to a bunch of little kids just blows my mind. It's unfathomable.

And so close to Christmas too. It's heartwrenching, and I can't imagine what the families of these young children are going through. No one should EVER have to go through something like this.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of all the victims of this horrible event. I urge you to join in with your prayers.

And to the shooter, as you rot in hell, I hope you are proud of yourself. In taking all these innocent lives with you, you are now easily one of the most hated men to ever walk this Earth.

#PrayforNewtown

Until Next Time...:'(

W.

2012 Year in Review Part 1: Summer Superhero Showdown

Hello all!

2012 is quickly rushing to an end. This month on the blog, there will be some specific posts looking back on the year that has come and gone. Starting with this post, in which I will detail you about superhero movies.

The superhero genre is a giant moneymaker in Hollywood, and this year proved no different as three superhero movies fought their way through the box office this summer: The Avengers, The Amazing Spider Man, and The Dark Knight Rises.

The Avengers
Stats:
Domestic Earnings-$623,357,910
Worldwide Earnings-$1,511,757,910
Runtime-2 Hours, and 22 Minutes
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, and a mild drug reference.
My Comments: A movie doesn't get much bigger than this. You have Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America in one movie. Having seen it six times on the big screen, it is easily my favorite superhero movie of all time.
With an entertaining and engaging plot, Humour and action well balanced, and a great cast of actors, if you haven't seen this movie, what the hell are you waiting for???

The Amazing Spider Man
Stats:
Domestic Earnings-$262,030,663
Worldwide Earnings-$752,216,557
Runtime-2 Hours, 16 Minutes
Rated: PG-13 for sequences of action and violence.
My Comments:The shortest of the three, and also the lowest grossing, The Amazing Spider Man was a reboot. It became one of the lowest attended in the series, most likely because it was a reboot. Having never seen the original trilogy, (I know, it's sad, right?) I can't compare to the original. I enjoyed this movie, however I thought it seemed to drag in places. It did have some humourous moments, though, so I'll give it that.

The Dark Knight Rises
Stats:
Domestic Earnings-$448,103,268
Worldwide Earnings-$1,081,005,456
Runtime-2 Hours, 45 Minutes
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language.
My Comments: While 'The Avengers' made the most money, The Dark Knight Rises made headlines in other ways. It was the longest superhero movie of all time, clocking in at nearly three hours in length. It also, unfortunately, is known for the Theater shootings that took place at a midnight show in Colorado. (My heart goes out to the families.)
This was not my favorite movie in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. I'm still not exactly sure why, but it just doesn't live up to The Dark Knight in my mind. Maybe I'm just weird that way. :p

Overall winner: The Avengers. No contest. Coming in 2013: Iron Man 3, Man of Steel (Superman), The Wolverine, and Thor: The Dark World.

Until Next Time...:)
W.