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Movies and Books: 2018

2018 had me reading less, but seeing more for both movies and live performances. I definitely think some of the former had to do with a lot of work in the teaching realm, but I’m hoping to rally a bit in 2019. Maybe? We’ll see.

Movies:

  1. Phantom Thread
  2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
  3. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2018: Live Action
  4. Love, Simon
  5. Annihilation
  6. Black Panther
  7. Thoroughbreds
  8. Isle of Dogs
  9. Il Boom
  10. Outside In
  11. Deadpool 2
  12. Avengers: Infinity War
  13. Ocean’s Eight
  14. AFI Docs Shorts Program 3
  15. The Gospel of Eureka
  16. The Liberation
  17. Alone in the Game
  18. When Ladies Meet (1933 version)
  19. Wild Strawberries
  20. Eighth Grade
  21. Never Goin’ Back
  22. Crazy Rich Asians
  23. Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
  24. The Wife
  25. The Heiresses
  26. The Children Act
  27. A Star is Born
  28. First Man
  29. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
  30. Beautiful Boy
  31. At Eternity’s Gate
  32. Green Book
  33. The Favourite
  34. Cold War
  35. Non-fiction
  36. Diamantino
  37. Eva
  38. Aquaman
  39. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
  40. Mary Poppins Returns

Plays/Performances:

  1. Blame it on Bianca Del Rio
  2. Miss Richfield 1981: Born Again
  3. Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer Tour
  4. Hamilton
  5. Garbage: Version 2.0 20th Anniversary
  6. Anything Goes

Books and Graphic Novels:

  1. Saturn Apartments Vol. 6 by Hisae Iwaoka
  2. Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
  3. Here by Richard McGuire
  4. Saturn Apartments Vol. 7 by Hisae Iwaoka
  5. Shoplifter by Michael Cho
  6. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
  7. Full Bleed Vol. 1 edited by Dirk Wood
  8. Doctor Who: The Eyeless by Lance Parkin
  9. The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang
  10. Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris
  11. Moonstruck Vol. 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle
  12. Spinning by Tillie Walden
  13. Gemma Bovery by Posy Simmonds
  14. Epileptic by David B.
  15. Full Bleed Vol. 2 edited by Dirk Wood
  16. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
  17. Less by Andrew Sean Greer
  18. What Did You Eat Yesterday? Vol. 12 by Fumi Yoshinaga
  19. Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman
  20. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
  21. The Descent of Monsters by JY Yang
  22. Time Was by Ian McDonald
  23. All Systems Red by Martha Wells
  24. Check Please! Vol. 1: #Hockey by Ngozi Ukazu
  25. The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo by Drew Weing
  26. Japanese Notebooks: A Journey to the Empire of Signs by Igort
  27. Gumballs by Erin Nations
  28. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
  29. My Brother’s Husband Vol. 2 by Gengoroh Tagame
  30. I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land by Connie Willis
  31. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — Creating a Champion by various authors

Previous Years’ Tallies:

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Movies and Books: 2017

This year’s media consumption had less movies, less books, less graphic novels… and more live performances. So that’s something, at least. But I think that teaching three classes in addition to everything else really sucked up a lot of my free time, as well as just have some less free time overall. Something to get better about in terms of priorities, clearly.

Movies:

  1. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
  2. Hidden Figures
  3. Elle
  4. 20th Century Women
  5. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2017: Live Action
  6. Colossal
  7. AFI Docs Shorts Program: Labors of Love
  8. Dina
  9. Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press
  10. AFI Docs Shorts Program: The Unexpected
  11. Wonder Woman
  12. The Big Sick
  13. Atomic Blonde
  14. Baby Driver
  15. Dunkirk
  16. Ingrid Goes West
  17. Girls Trip
  18. Beach Rats
  19. Blade Runner 2049
  20. The Florida Project
  21. God’s Own Country
  22. Lady Bird
  23. The Lego Batman Movie
  24. In the Fade
  25. Goran
  26. Pin Cushion
  27. The Shape of Water
  28. Call Me By Your Name

Plays/Performances:

  1. Fun Home
  2. Wig Out
  3. Mean Girls
  4. The Pajama Game
  5. Crazy For You

Books:

  1. The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters
  2. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
  3. The Swan Riders by Erin Bow
  4. Sorry Please Thank You: Stories by Charles Yu
  5. Crosstalk by Connie Willis
  6. The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
  7. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne
  8. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
  9. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
  10. Air by Geoff Ryman
  11. Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
  12. The Good Times are Killing Me by Lynda Barry
  13. Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
  14. The Massacre by James Cooray Smith
  15. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
  16. Cocktails at Seven, Apocalypse at Eight: The Derby Cavendish Stories by Don Bassingthwaite
  17. Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente
  18. Lust & Wonder: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
  19. The Target Book: A History of the Target Doctor Who Books by David J. Howe
  20. Doctor Who: Only Human by Gareth Roberts
  21. Doctor Who: Sick Building by Paul Magrs
  22. A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
  23. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
  24. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
  25. The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang

Graphic Novels:

  1. Emma Vol. 4 by Kaoru Mori
  2. Peanuts: A Tribute to Charles M. Schulz by various creators
  3. Patience by Daniel Clowes
  4. Emma Vol. 5 by Kaoru Mori
  5. Beyond: The Queer Sci-Fi & Fantasy Comic Anthology by various creators
  6. Hellbound Lifestyle by Alabaster Pizzo
  7. My Brother’s Husband Vol. 1 by Gengoroh Tagame
  8. Monstress Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
  9. The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances by Matthew Inman
  10. Beanworld Vol. 4: Hoka Hoka Burb’l Burb’l by Larry Marder
  11. Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 29: Two Hundred Jizo by Stan Sakai
  12. The World of Edena by Jean “Moebius” Giraud
  13. The Leaning Girl by Benoit Peeters and Francois Schuiten
  14. The Theory of the Grain of Sand by Benoit Peeters and Francois Schuiten
  15. Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 30: Thieves and Spies by Stan Sakai
  16. Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 31: The Hell Screen by Stan Sakai
  17. Zenith: Phase 1 by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell
  18. Zenith: Phase 2 by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell
  19. Tune: Vanishing Point by Derek Kirk Kim
  20. Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano
  21. Vattu: The Name & the Mark by Evan Dahm
  22. Vattu: The Sword & the Sacrament by Evan Dahm
  23. Saturn Apartments Vol. 4 by Hisae Iwaoka
  24. Saturn Apartments Vol. 5 by Hisae Iwaoka

Previous Years’ Tallies:

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“Why don’t you still run full marathons?”

A co-worker asked me this question and made me pause, in part because while I’ve had a short answer on hand the past couple of years, there’s a little more to it than that. The short answer is that I gave them up in 2013 when I went back to graduate school and I didn’t have the time to properly train for them. Training runs in the 14-23 mile range eat up a lot of your time, after all.

What I think people who don’t run marathons realize, though, is that it’s not just the time for the training run, but rather the time surrounding it. On Sunday morning I ran a half marathon, which meant that I had to go to bed early the night before, eat some fairly bland foods, and then be prepared for being low-energy the rest of Sunday. It also meant that I left one celebration early on Saturday, and then by the time I’d rallied for another one scheduled for that afternoon, it was getting too late in the day and I’d run out of “free” time before I had to start eating that bland dinner and getting ready for bed. And similarly, I knew that I would need to skip a convention I’d planned on attending on Sunday entirely because I would be tired enough that the potential stress would be magnified.

This was a half marathon. Now turn that into a 20 mile training run. It’s exhausting, only even more so. In my 20s and 30s it was tough. Now the idea of running 20 miles makes me want to just collapse. I hate missing my friends’ big moments, my own downtime, and so on. Having that happen every other weekend when the training runs get longer just eats up my life that much more. And as I grow older, I value that free time so much more. I feel bad that I missed a good friend’s birthday, that I missed seeing once-a-year visitors at a convention that I used to run, that I cut out early of another celebration. Heck, I feel bad that a lot of things I wanted to get done around the house on Sunday didn’t happen (but not THAT bad).

Every now and then I think about tackling “one more marathon.” And maybe if it was a really special race (one friend has talked about the London Marathon, for example), I’d consider it. But right now, I just can’t muster up enough enthusiasm. I think this weekend was a good reminder for me on why I had to, sadly, give them up for a while. Fortunately, the trade-off of seeing friends and having more free time is incredibly worth it. I’ll take friends over a new full marathon in a heartbeat.

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Uberlist 2016: The Aftermath

As I start working on my 2017 Uberlist, it seemed like a good idea to look back at what I tried to accomplish in 2016. Life has a funny way of surprising us, and 2016 was full of a lot of personal surprises and changes that meant that a lot of what I had planned went out the window. Still, I did successfully hit a few of my attempted items.

1. ADMIN: Finish writing my 2016 Uberlist
6. HEALTH/RUNNING: Regularly three days a week
9. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 10-miler/half marathon
10. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 750 miles
11. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 846 miles
15. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 160 lbs.
16. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 162 lbs.
17. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (1)
18. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (2)
19. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (3)
20. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (4)
21. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (5)
27. HOME/REORGANIZING: Sort through pants and donate excess
28. HOME/REORGANIZING: Sort through the gift box
33. LEISURE/CAMERA: Complete 1 Second Everyday
35. LEISURE/CANNING: Make new type of jam
45. LEISURE/FILMS/AFIDOCS: See full-length doc
46. LEISURE/FILMS/AFIDOCS: See shorts compilation
55. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Bike Shop/Coffee Shop
56. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Doctor Who set
57. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Toy and Grocery Store
62. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Jackie’s before it closes
68. LEISURE/READING: At least 5 book club selections
69. LEISURE/READING: At least 20 prose books
71. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2009
72. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2010
73. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2014
78. LEISURE/READING: One from the Mieville stack
86. LEISURE/TV: Transparent S2
87. LIBRARIANSHIP: Apply for NLM Associate Fellowship Program
88. LIBRARIANSHIP: Find a new job
89. LIBRARIANSHIP: Pitch adjunct teaching
91. LIBRARIANSHIP: Volunteer with Lubuto 12 times
92. LIBRARIANSHIP: Volunteer with Lubuto 20 times
93. PERSONAL: Wear sweaters more often
95. TRAVEL: Big vacation with Charlie (not listed)
96. TRAVEL: Florida/visit parents
97. TRAVEL: Gallifrey in February
99. TRAVEL: Lost River
107. WORK/REORGANIZING: Clear out books for eBay or donations
111. WRITING: Regularly contribute reviews to CBR
116. ZENITH: Be happy

Not a bad list of accomplishments at all, and items 88 and 89 both happening and being successful really wiped out a lot of other attempts. But that said, it makes me want to focus a bit more on the items I didn’t finish and see what’s worth keeping and what goes away for my 2017 list.

Which is, at its core, why I like the Uberlist: the process of coming up with the list alone makes me think about priorities in life and what I’d like to be doing in the year ahead. That’s always a worthwhile endeavor.

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Movies and Books: 2016

This was in some ways a very good year; I saw more movies and read many more books than last year! It also seems to be the year I’ve more or less given up the ghost on tracking any serialized comics in Goodreads (which is how I keep up with what I’ve read each year), as well as tracking zines and such. I’ve also read a lot less serials now that I’m writing far fewer articles about them, which is certainly part of it. A few got added into the list, but the attempt to do so slacked off tremendously the further into 2016 I went.

Anyway, a nice tally of films and books, if nothing else, and I’m hoping to continue that progress into 2017.

Movies:

  1. Carol
  2. Brooklyn
  3. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2016: Live Action
  4. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2016: Animated
  5. Hail, Caesar!
  6. Max Max: Fury Road
  7. Zootopia
  8. Marguerite
  9. Hello, My Name is Doris
  10. Midnight Special
  11. Captain America: Civil War
  12. Love & Friendship
  13. The Lobster
  14. The Lovers and the Despot
  15. Obit
  16. AFI Docs Shorts Program: No Borders
  17. Under the Sun
  18. Looking: The Movie
  19. Finding Dory
  20. Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
  21. Star Trek Beyond
  22. Kubo and the Two Strings
  23. Hell or High Water
  24. Captain Fantastic
  25. Steel Magnolias
  26. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
  27. Moonlight
  28. The Handmaiden [아가씨 Agassi]
  29. Being 17 [Quand on a 17 ans]
  30. Manchester by the Sea
  31. Mother [Ema]
  32. Frantz
  33. Arrival

Plays/Performances:

  1. Bianca del Rio’s Not Today, Satan
  2. Carousel

Books:

  1. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
  2. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
  3. The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon
  4. When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
  5. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
  6. Tropic of Sunshine by Patrick Youngblood
  7. Drag Teen by Jeffrey Self
  8. Lady Susan by Jane Austen
  9. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
  10. In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker
  11. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
  12. The Evening and the Morning and the Night by Octavia E. Butler
  13. The Black Archive: Ghost Light by Jonathan Dennis
  14. What the Witch Left by Ruth Chew
  15. The Mystical Beast by Alison Farthing
  16. Naming The Flowers by Kate Wilhelm
  17. Look Away by George Alec Effinger
  18. Thebes of the Hundred Gates by Robert Silverberg
  19. Superman: The Unauthorized Biography by Glen Weldon
  20. Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell
  21. All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay D.C. by Craig Seymour
  22. Arabian Wine by Gregory Feeley
  23. This Census-Taker by China Mieville
  24. Get in Trouble: Stories by Kelly Link
  25. The Black Archive: Image of the Fendahl by Simon Bucher-Jones
  26. Lion Time in Timbuctoo by Robert Silverberg
  27. The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
  28. Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
  29. Three Moments of an Explosion by China Meville
  30. Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin
  31. Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald
  32. More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin
  33. Stoner by John Williams

Graphic Novels:

  1. Killing and Dying: Stories by Adrian Tomine
  2. Wizzywig: Portrait of a Serial Hacker by Ed Piskor
  3. Scheherazade: Comics About Love, Treachery, Mothers, and Monsters edited by Megan Kelso
  4. Second Avenue Caper: When Goodfellas, Divas, and Dealers Plotted Against the Plague by Joyce Brabner and Mark Zingarelli
  5. The Best American Comics 2009 edited by Charles Burns, Jessica Abel, and Matt Madden
  6. The Best American Comics 2010 edited by Neil Gaiman, Jessica Abel, and Matt Madden
  7. Emma Vol. 1 by Kaoru Mori
  8. The Wicked + The Divine Vol. 3: Commercial Suicide by Kieron Gillen and assorted artists
  9. Doctor Fate Vol. 1: The Blood Price by Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew
  10. Curiosities: An Illustrated History of Ancestral Oddity by Mike Yamada, Victoria Ying, and Jonathan Ying
  11. You Don’t Say by Nate Powell
  12. Black River by Josh Simmons
  13. Our Expanding Universe by Alex Robinson
  14. Rutabaga the Adventure Chef: Book 2: Feasts of Fury by Eric Colossal
  15. What Did You Eat Yesterday? Vol. 10 by Fumi Yoshinaga
  16. East of West Vol. 5: All These Secrets by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta
  17. Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton
  18. Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride by Lucy Knisley
  19. Bitch Planet Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro
  20. Trash Market by Tadao Tsuge
  21. How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman, Fabio Moon, and Gabriel Ba
  22. Snow Angel by David Chelsea
  23. SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
  24. Yotsuba&! Vol. 13 by Kiyohiko Azuma
  25. Nemo: River of Ghosts by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
  26. Al-Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon by Mohammad al-Mohamed Muhammad
  27. Mae Vol. 1 by Gene Ha
  28. Get Jiro! by Anthony Bourdain and Langdon Foss
  29. Elfquest: Wolfrider Vol. 1 by Wendy Pini and Richard Pini
  30. Elfquest: Wolfrider Vol. 2 by Wendy Pini and Richard Pini
  31. Elfquest: The Discovery by Wendy Pini and Richard Pini
  32. Elfquest: Dreamtime by Wendy Pini and Richard Pini
  33. Elfquest: The Searcher and the Sword by Wendy Pini and Richard Pini
  34. Elfquest: In All But Blood by Wendy Pini, Richard Pini, and company
  35. Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
  36. Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoet
  37. What’s Your Sign, Girl? edited by Robert Kirby
  38. Emma Vol. 2 by Kaoru Mori
  39. To Terra… Vol. 1 by Keiko Takemiya
  40. Guardians of the Louvre by Jiro Taniguchi
  41. Alphabet edited by Jon Macy and Tara Avery
  42. The Omega Men: The End is Here by Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda
  43. Hilda and the Stone Forest by Luke Pearson
  44. Emma Vol. 3 by Kaoru Mori
  45. Angel Catbird Vol. 1 by Margaret Atwood and Johnnie Christmas
  46. Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier
  47. The Best American Comics 2014 edited by Scott McCloud and Bill Kartalopoulos
  48. Rosalie Lightning by Tom Hart
  49. Bread and Wine by Samuel R. Delany and Mia Wolff
  50. What Did You Eat Yesterday? Vol. 11 by Fumi Yoshinaga

Previous Years’ Tallies:

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My Favorite Moment of Comics Journalism

In the early ’90s, I was a freelancer for a magazine about comic books called Wizard. For a couple of years I would regularly get assignments from my editor (Patrick Daniel O’Neill, who had great patience) to interview people. I got to interview Wendy and Richard Pini, whose series Elfquest got me into comics back in 1980. Alan Davis, whose drew Excalibur when it was my gateway into superhero comics. Joe Quesada early in his career, and so on, and so on. They eventually took all of the interviews in-house, and while I wrote some small news articles for a few more years, it eventually dried up. But there was one interview that was quite possibly my favorite one, which never saw print.

Image Comics logoIn 1993, Wizard published a special all about the X-Men family of comics (Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty), which sold well enough that some other special one-shots were planned. The next one was to be a special all about Image Comics, which in the early ’90s was a relatively new company with a lot of creators who had defected from the larger publishers to write and draw their own titles. I was asked to interview a group of the “second wave” creators; not any of the original founders, but some of the writers/artists who had started comics at the company when the doors had opened up a bit. The special was eventually cancelled, and it was just as well because one of the creators in question was not returning phone calls and I’d been told his presence was a must. (This creator also had some serious problems with getting his comic out the door and I suspect he was afraid to be called out on that.) But for the interviews I did, there was one that still makes me laugh my head off. We’ll call this creator John.

I was a huge fan of John’s comic (we’ll call it Doe), one of the best of the “second wave” of titles at Image. And long before Doe, he’d done a lot of other noteworthy comics; he wasn’t a flash in the pan. So I was pretty psyched to interview him. I’d read all of his series at Image, and even some ancillary material that also existed. Big fan. I’d talked with him briefly to set up a time, and late one evening I called him back up at the appointed hour.

At first I was simply happy with how well the interview was going. He was relaxed and chatty; I’d interviewed people before who were very guarded and gave one-word answers to questions. (On the bright side, those early experiences taught me how to both ask questions that couldn’t be answered so briefly, and also how to draw out additional statements from them when confronted with such.) But as the talk progressed, I noticed that he was… really relaxed. And getting even more chatty. Around the halfway point I started to ask myself, “Is John stoned?”

A few minutes later, I responded to something he said with a reference to the ancillary material that I’d read, and he said, “Wow, you really do like this comic. Do you want to write an issue?” I laughed in response. “No, really,” he said, and I could almost imagine John leaning towards me as if he was in the room. “You should write an issue. I want you to write an issue. It would be amazing.” Well, yes. It would be amazing. I laughed a little nervously and said that I’d love to do so, and the interview continued as his behavior got a little more erratic, but hey, he was still answering questions and giving overall rational responses.

The next day, John called me. This was the first time that had ever happened. “So, Greg…” he slowly said. “Um… what did I say to you last night?”

“Well John,” I said with an unseen smile on my face, “you said I could write an issue of Doe.”

There was an uncomfortable-for-John silence, which I finally broke with a laugh and, “But I won’t hold you to that, of course.”

I could almost hear his shoulders sag in relief. “Oh good,” he finally said. We talked for a few more minutes, I mentioned the high points of the interview, and he seemed pretty pleased with it. He even gave me advice on how to try and get ahold of the incommunicado artist (“Pretend you’re from a record label, he really wants to be a musician!”) and by the time we ended the conversation he seemed really happy.

As I said, the interview never ran because the special was cancelled, and it’s a real shame because I had enough from John alone that it could have been a great solo interview. But today an art book by John that I’d ordered ages ago and forgotten about suddenly showed up in the mail, and I had to start laughing at the memory of it all. Because for a brief 14 hours, I had an offer to write an issue of his comic. And while there was no way to have ever worked that into the interview, it was and still is the most unexpected moment I’ve ever had in all of my years of comics journalism.

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Uberlist 2016

It’s been a long time since I’ve tackled the Uberlist. I first heard about this via the far-more-talented-than-I Kelly Sue DeConnick. She and her old roommate Nikol Lohr made New Year’s To Do Lists back in 1998 instead of New Year’s Resolutions, which is sheer brilliance. In 1998 they had 98 items on their lists (“98 Things To Do In 1998”), and every year since then they expanded the list by one. Since is 2016, there are 116 items on the Uberlist, because there’s nothing very uber about a 16-item list. My first attempt was back in 2003 and I participated through 2008, where life got in the way and I never finished figuring out what I’d even accomplished and what I hadn’t.

In the words of Kelly Sue:

I think I only accomplish about 30% of the list in any given year (one year, I didn’t finish MAKING THE LIST) and generally by June there are a good 10 items that are no longer applicable or even desirable, but it’s a fun thing to have nonetheless, and it keeps me focused for the first few months of the year. Then I forget all about it until about, oh, say, NOVEMBER, at which point I scramble about trying to remember where I put last year’s list.

I enjoy the process partially just for the making of the list; it lets me think about things I’d like to do as one year comes to a close and another one begins. I’m never too worried about what does and does not get done; in some ways it’s a list of wishes and desires, not of things that I simply must accomplish. And it’s fun at the end of the year to look back at what seemed important or enticing at the time. It’s simply not possible to do it all; I’d never expect myself to.

With school over it felt like a good way to try and remind myself of goals and ideas I had dangling. On some level this one’s a little less original than others, with a few items repeated to count for multiple times achieving the same goal, and a bunch of items either finishing up projects/games or finally tackling specific books, but at least it’s a completed list. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully next year’s list can be a bit more robust and varied as I cross off items this year.

(Oh, some items are slightly truncated in terms of writing what they are, because I have a printed copy near my desk and squeezing 116 items onto a single page, even using three columns in landscape mode, is difficult. Also there are a few items that I’m not posting onto the web and have redacted accordingly.)

Anyway, let’s see what happens.

  1. ADMIN: Finish writing my 2016 Uberlist
  2. HEALTH/BIKING: Bike a 50-miler
  3. HEALTH/BIKING: Regularly in non-frigid months
  4. HEALTH/EXERCISE: Go to MadFitness twice a month
  5. HEALTH/EXERCISE: Try kayaking
  6. HEALTH/RUNNING: Regularly three days a week
  7. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 5 or 10k race (1)
  8. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 5 or 10k race (2)
  9. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 10-miler/half marathon
  10. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 750 miles
  11. HEALTH/RUNNING: Run 846 miles (beat 2015)
  12. HEALTH/SWIMMING: Start swimming again
  13. HEALTH/TRIATHLON: Run a triathlon
  14. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 155 lbs.
  15. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 160 lbs.
  16. HEALTH/WEIGHT: Be under 162 lbs.
  17. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (1)
  18. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (2)
  19. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (3)
  20. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (4)
  21. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (5)
  22. HOME/ENTERTAINING: Cook for friends (6)
  23. HOME/REORGANIZING: Clean out filing cabinet
  24. HOME/REORGANIZING: Clean up “Olympian” external HD
  25. HOME/REORGANIZING: Frame vintage Italy map
  26. HOME/REORGANIZING: Hang new art on staircase wall
  27. HOME/REORGANIZING: Sort through pants and donate excess
  28. HOME/REORGANIZING: Sort through the gift box
  29. HOME/REORGANIZING: Transfer Ben’s VHS to DVD
  30. HOME/REORGANIZING: Transfer Charlie’s VHS to DVD
  31. LEISURE: Do things with friends more often
  32. LEISURE/CAMERA: Complete #366photos
  33. LEISURE/CAMERA: Complete 1 Second Everyday
  34. LEISURE/CANNING: Make blueberry jam
  35. LEISURE/CANNING: Make new type of jam
  36. LEISURE/CANNING: Make sour cherry jam
  37. LEISURE/CANNING: Make strawberry jam
  38. LEISURE/CANNING: Make tomato sauce (1)
  39. LEISURE/CANNING: Make tomato sauce (2)
  40. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Akira Kurosawa DVD (1)
  41. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Akira Kurosawa DVD (2)
  42. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Yasujiro Ozu DVD (1)
  43. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Yasujiro Ozu DVD (2)
  44. LEISURE/FILMS: Watch a Yasujiro Ozu DVD (3)
  45. LEISURE/FILMS/AFIDOCS: See full-length doc
  46. LEISURE/FILMS/AFIDOCS: See shorts compilation
  47. LEISURE/GAMES: Join a gaming group
  48. LEISURE/GAMES: Learn how to play Settlers of Catan
  49. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Disney Infinity: Guardians of the Galaxy
  50. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Disney Infinity: Star Wars: Rise Against the Empire
  51. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Disney Infinity: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  52. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Disney Infinity: The Incredibles
  53. LEISURE/GAMES: Win Professor Layton and the Last Specter
  54. LEISURE/GAMES: Win The Witcher 3
  55. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Bike Shop/Coffee Shop
  56. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Doctor Who set
  57. LEISURE/LEGO: Put together Toy and Grocery Store
  58. LEISURE/LOCAL: Go to an amusement park
  59. LEISURE/LOCAL: Go to DC United game
  60. LEISURE/LOCAL: Go to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens
  61. LEISURE/LOCAL: Go to Nationals game
  62. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Jackie’s before it closes
  63. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to La Casita Pupuseria
  64. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Quarry House
  65. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Rose’s Luxury
  66. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Urban Butcher
  67. LEISURE/LOCAL/EATING: Go to Velatis Caramels
  68. LEISURE/READING: At least 5 book club selections
  69. LEISURE/READING: At least 20 prose books
  70. LEISURE/READING: Be better at tracking (on Goodreads) comics read in 2016
  71. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2009
  72. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2010
  73. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2014
  74. LEISURE/READING: Best American Comics 2015
  75. LEISURE/READING: Get better about donating
  76. LEISURE/READING: Jane Eyre
  77. LEISURE/READING: Lucky Jim
  78. LEISURE/READING: One from the Mieville stack
  79. LEISURE/READING: One from the Murakami stack
  80. LEISURE/READING: Read half of stack on dresser
  81. LEISURE/READING: Read or donate new series Doctor Who novels
  82. LEISURE/READING: Saturn Apartments
  83. LEISURE/READING: Vagabond backlog
  84. LEISURE/TV: Daredevil S1
  85. LEISURE/TV: Orange is the New Black S2
  86. LEISURE/TV: Transparent S2
  87. [REDACTED]
  88. [REDACTED]
  89. [REDACTED]
  90. [REDACTED]
  91. LIBRARIANSHIP: Volunteer with Lubuto 12 times
  92. LIBRARIANSHIP: Volunteer with Lubuto 20 times
  93. PERSONAL: Wear sweaters more often
  94. TRAVEL: ALA Annual or Midwinter
  95. TRAVEL: Big vacation with Charlie (not listed)
  96. TRAVEL: Florida/visit parents
  97. TRAVEL: Gallifrey in February
  98. TRAVEL: Iceland
  99. TRAVEL: Lost River
  100. TRAVEL: Spain
  101. TRAVEL: Weekend getaway (not listed)
  102. WORK/LEARNING: Learn Captivate
  103. WORK/LEARNING: Learn DSpace
  104. WORK/LEARNING: Learn PHP
  105. WORK/LEARNING: Learn Python
  106. WORK/LEARNING: Look into PMP certification
  107. WORK/REORGANIZING: Clear out books for eBay or donations
  108. WRITING: Finish a short story
  109. [REDACTED]
  110. [REDACTED]
  111. WRITING: Regularly contribute reviews to CBR
  112. WRITING: Submit for publication a short story
  113. WRITING: Write a new short story
  114. [REDACTED]
  115. [REDACTED]
  116. ZENITH: Be happy
by

Movies and Books: 2015

Another year gone by, another tracking of books and movies and such for the year. I know I missed a lot of graphic novels when you count the collected editions (since I read a fair number for review purposes in serialized formats), as well as for the various zines I’ve read. I’d said that in 2014 that it was a hectic year in terms of school and tracking fell to the wayside a bit. That was not only true for 2015, but also for reading and seeing films in general. Ah well! Hopefully 2016 will be more productive.

Movies:

  1. The Imitation Game
  2. Mr. Turner
  3. Early Summer [麦秋 Bakushū]
  4. The Housemaid [하녀 Hanyeo] (1960 version)
  5. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
  6. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2015: Live Action
  7. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2015: Animated
  8. Bigger than Life
  9. Saint Laurent
  10. Inside Out
  11. Tangerine
  12. Grandma
  13. Big Business
  14. Black Widow
  15. The Grifters
  16. Room
  17. A Royal Night Out
  18. The Wait [L’Atessa]
  19. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  20. The Danish Girl

Plays/Performances:

  1. Quiz-O-Tron
  2. Welcome to Night Vale: The Investigators
  3. Bianca Del Rio’s Rolodex of Hate

Books:

  1. Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
  2. Blindness by Jose Saramago
  3. How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Friendship, Theft & Musical Theatre by Marc Acito
  4. Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman
  5. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  6. The Reference Interview Today: Negotiating and Answering Questions Face to Face, on the Phone, and Virtually by Dave Harmeyer
  7. Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
  8. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
  9. Information Technology Project Management by Kathy Schwalbe
  10. City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
  11. The World of Ice & Fire by George R.R. Martin, Elio M. Garcia Jr., and Linda Antonsson
  12. Basic Research Methods for Librarians by Ronald R. Powell
  13. Collection Management Basics by G. Edward Evans
  14. Remembrance of Things I Forgot by Bob Smith
  15. The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
  16. The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

Fiction Magazines, Chapbooks, and Zines:

  1. Kinfolk Vol. 14
  2. Kinfolk Vol. 13
  3. Lucky Peach #16

Graphic Novels: Continue reading Movies and Books: 2015→

by

The 4-0 You Want

I suppose there’s something apt about having to be in my 40s to finally achieve a 4.0, but better late than never, right?

GPA

It’s been a long two years (and technically I’m still waiting on an approval on my graduation portfolio), but it’s a wonderful feeling to be more or less done. I made some wonderful new friends in graduate school and I learned a lot to boot. Some classes stood out more than others, of course, but there’s only one class choice that I genuinely regret and I consider that a real victory.

I’ve half-joked about writing a book on how to go back to school in your 40s and who knows? With ebook self-publishing what it is, that may happen. But I’ve got a lot of other things still on my plate too; two years worth of pleasure reading to catch up on, all sorts of games that are waiting to be played, and (lest you think there’s nothing but frivolity ahead) plans to work my way through the LIS 7440 Scripting Languages for Library Applications syllabus. We’ll see how far I can get through that last one, but it would be good to learn PHP if nothing else.

It still feels strange to not have classes kicking in at the end of the month, though. I won’t miss the lack of free time, but I must admit that I will miss the chance to learn something new and to interact with some really great fellow students. In the meantime, though, I’ll enjoy getting my life back, or some approximation thereof.

by

Returning to Biking Home from Work

It’s been a while since I’ve biked home from work: April 2011, to be precise. That was when I used to live in Arlington, and while it was a convoluted route (due to a general lack of bike-friendly routes in McLean) it wasn’t too bad. Recently I decided it was time to try and bring that option back on the table, so after a lot of scouring of maps and checking out some areas in person, I found a method to get me from McLean into downtown DC in one piece. (Getting from there to home has many options.)

Biking Home

On the whole, it wasn’t a bad route, a little over 19 miles. There were only three parts where I found myself audibly groaning:

  • Within the first quarter mile, the sidewalk/path used to get out of downtown McLean safely became completely overgrown with plants. I had to go extra slow because it was like being in some sort of awful movie set in a jungle. Getting hit in the face with mammoth weeds, no thank you.
  • For the last little stretch in Virginia, there’s a route specifically for bikes to get down from the Military Road area to Chain Bridge. It’s probably a 60 degree incline. Maybe more. Not for the faint of heart. Fortunately it’s also very small. Next time I may actually walk my bike down it.
  • Finally, I made the decision to cut across the National Mall and then go home on the Metropolitan Branch Trail, instead of just hopping up the Rock Creek Park path to Blagden and then heading home that way. So many children on the Mall. So many school groups. All of them hogging all available points of egress. Next time I’m skipping the Mall.

I’d like to keep doing this once a week until the weather gets to be too hot. It’s a good way to get some extra exercise, and I need to start biking more often. For now, this will do.