Potpourri

You know, like the Jeopardy category that could be about anything and everything? So is this week's post. Also, in case you couldn't tell, the Grad School Beast has finally resurfaced after it's long winter break and snow day hibernation, and it's hungry for some student attention. So the "weekly" posts may become less wonderful as the semester continues, but I'll do what I can!

So! Captain America!

Patriotically smashing into theaters this summer!

Now, granted, I'm not as familiar with the Captain America mythos. All I know is that he was a WWII hero and the first Avenger, so the movie can't really ruin anything for me. The casting all looks pretty good too, Hugo Weaving and Tommy Lee Jones are both set to be in it. But who's going to play the Captain himself?

um, hi. Imma war hero 'n stuff

Now, if he could look more like this for the role:

I could see it better. Rugged looks good on him, makes him look older and whatnot. But military is all about clean-shaven, and Captain America was a military hero, sooo....

iz me again. hai. 

But you may or may not recall the role he already played in a major Marvel franchise:

Yep. Somehow, I feel like playing two major dudes in different Marvel universe films will cause some kind of breach in the Marvel-space-time-continuum. And one more breach would probably just be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back, because the Marvel universe is pretty precarious as it is. 

But enough about that. I have a question for you, internet: Did you see Inception? And if so, did you get it/enjoy it? It was never supposed to make perfect sense, the whole point is for it to be kind of a mind trip that leaves you questioning, but wasn't that the best part? I ask because I had an encounter with some non-nerds the other day. I was a little shocked, as I've somehow imagined the whole world was populated with nerds on some level. Apparently that's not true. Inception came into discussion, and these are just some of the heated complaints that suddenly flew around the room:

"Oh man! I can't believe I wasted my life!"

"It was so boring!"

"I just didn't get it! Why did he keep spinning that thing?"

"I tried watching it, but I just ended up texting the whole time."

I wanted to cry a little. I always thought that even non-nerds could appreciate some nerdy things on some level, why else would Spiderman and Star Wars have been so huge, right? Nope. My faith in humanity was killed a little bit that day. So to feel better, I obsessed over the soundtrack (yeah Hans!), particularly this one:

Quite possibly one of his best tracks ever (and why he didn't win the Globe, but Social Network did, I'll never understand)

Speaking of the Globes, what's up with the Social Network? No, I haven't seen it yet, but did it deserve best film score, best screenplay, best director, and best motion picture-drama? Especially if that meant beating Black Swan and Inception? It didn't even stay in theaters for very long, it acted like it was a bust movie, and now all of a sudden it's expected to win every Oscar it's been nominated for (which is like all of them, apparently)? What happened? 

Me too, baby, me too

Finally, in the world of the Hunger Games movie, Debra Zane has been recruited to be the casting director for the movie. They aren't holding any open casting calls as of right now, if you had high hopes, but they are working on the cast. So far, we just know that Hugh Laurie is unavailable to play Haymitch, which makes me sad. Also, Lionsgate has announced the opening date for the movie: March 23, 2012. Why is this brilliant? You may recall a certain other wonderful movie releasing about the same time last year, How to Train Your Dragon. It works because all the other big young-adult movies of the year like to be released in late summer or November, so now the Hunger Games won't have anything to compete with. Smart Move, Lionsgate, smart move. 

Well, that's all I've got for this week. Tune in next time for some more average nerdiness!

Ashley: "Oh yeah, didn't you notice the lettuce growing on my balcony?"

Britt: "How did it survive the snow?"

Ashley: "It's iceberg."

*and yet, if someone had written that into a sitcom or something, it just would have been corny*

The Post That Will Not Be About Something Medieval, I Promise!

Looking back through some of my posts recently, I realize that I've been on a bit of a medieval kick lately, between the dragons and Robin Hood and King Arthur and even more King Arthur. So it's time to branch back out to that little bit of everything that I'm supposed to be about. But first, I have a single complaint. The Golden Globes come on tomorrow night, right? I looked up the nominees to see what's up. For the most part, all stuff I could expect...but then I got to "Best Original Score." Can anyone tell me why in the name of all that is good and right in the world John Powell was not nominated for How to Train Your Dragon, but Danny Elfman for Alice in Wonderland was??? Granted, I understand what Inception is doing there, Hans Zimmer is da man and all, and I haven't yet seen the others, but geeze! Where's the love for John Powell??

See? You even made baby sad :( 

Ok, the pout-fest is over now. Let's move on. Today is all about anime. Woo! But first, I need you to understand something about me, as a disclaimer of sorts. I will read/watch/listen to almost anything in this nerdy world of ours except for romances. Or rather, anything but modern romances. I'm ok with the old fashioned kind of romances that require sword fights or possibly explosions before the romantic part is possible, ala The Princess Bride or any superhero movie with a love interest. But romance for romance's sake, like The Notebook or anything else that Nicholas Sparks vomits up? Can't stand it. Usually. Exceptions: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre (does that even really count as a romance, in the end? It's an awfully pragmatic conclusion...), Moulin Rouge, and this anime, Kimi Ni Todoke. 

This is about a highschool girl, Sawako, who is generally rather shy, socially awkward, and comes across as gloomy. Because of that, people started calling her Sadako, the creepy girl from The Ring, and believed that she could see ghosts and cause unfortunate things to happen if you stare into her eyes for more than three seconds. Meanwhile, all she wants to do is be able to successfully say hello to her classmates without disappointing all their expectations about her supernatural powers. But she meets Kazehaya, the popular boy in her class, who slowly helps her make some friends and be seen as a good luck charm rather than the school curse.  Ultimately, of course, she begins to understand her feelings towards Kazehaya, deals with some nasty rumors, meets her first romantic rival, and is all the while simply adorable in her naive little way. Youtube didn't have any clips of the episodes, just various versions of the theme song, so here is the full first episode. Watch it!

Their whole little puppy-love-tension thing is just so cute in that chivalry-is-not-actually-dead kind of way. Also, I feel like it clicks with people who ever felt like the outsider for whatever reason. Stop making me try to explain it. When I talk about it, it just sounds like every other romance I've avoided watching, yet it hooks you in a way that all those other movies couldn't. Bottom line, it's kind of adorable, and if I like it, anybody with half a romantic bone in their body would probably devour it. 

But enough with the romance, eh? Frequently when you think of anime, there's something supernatural going on. Or at least, there is when I think of it. So then there's Pandora Hearts, which initially hooked me in with the theme song. 

Pretty much I've listened to this on repeat more often than I'd care to admit...

Pandora Hearts focuses on the young Oz Bezarius, heir to one of the noble houses. On the day of his coming of age ceremony, all Hell pretty much literally breaks loose, and Oz is sentenced to the Abyss. What was his crime? Apparently, his very existence. He escapes by making an illegal pact with a powerful Chain named Alice. The whole show has this twisted Alice in Wonderland thing going on, but with classic animeness (and when you think about the original Alice in Wonderland, you know you can expect something rather trippy). I'm not gonna lie, it has a lot of the "what the crap?" factor going on, yet that's part of the hook; you keep watching it just to see if it all  ever gets explained or make sense. But also, you experience everything through Oz and Alice's perspective; Oz is a pampered and inexperienced kid thrown into an adventure bigger than he is, and Alice supposed to be this powerful thing who can't remember anything about herself other than her name. There's espionage, nobility and secret society power plays, apocalyptic explosions, time travel, and general mind trips. Oh, and also this scene where everybody gets drunk

Yep. That's pretty much it.

Well, I'll stop there with two opposite extremes. Tune in next time for some more average nerdiness!

What Avalon High Can Teach Us About Writing Fantasies

Pretty much, it's all the negative extremes.

Welcome back! To all the other academic types out there, I trust you had a nice winter break before the school grind kicks back up. To everyone else... 'sup.

So guess what?

Yep

Remember the King Arthur vs Robin Hood post where I said I couldn't bring myself to watch Disney's interpretation of Meg Cabot's terrible book? Well, I brought myself to watch it. Here's the short version: the book was better (which generally isn't a surprise, but you already know how I felt about the book). If you actually cared to see it, then you should just skip ahead, for fear of spoiler alerts and whatnot. Otherwise, read on!

Generally, the movie followed the book fairly decently at first. Allie Pennington (wrong name, but I'm following) is a new student at Avalon High thanks to her parents, the traveling professors of medieval literature. She meets the captain of the football team/class president/teacher's favorite/all around Arthur-like character, Will, his girlfriend Jennifer, and his best friend Lance (all good so far). She also meets the resident nerd, Miles, who seems to keep having visions of the future (Merlin was the teacher, but I'm cool with making him one of the kids), and Will's evil stepbrother, Marco. Eventually she learns that Jenn is cheating on Will with Lance, and Marco seems to have a vendetta against Will. Starting to see the connections yet? So does Allie, once she learns of a prophecy predicting the return of Arthur and his court, unless Mordred can destroy Arthur first.

But then we get to the end, the twist, the big surprise. Remember, according to Meg Cabot, the surprise was that Ellie was the return of Elaine of Shallot/The Lady of the Lake, whose love made it possible for Will to deal with Jenn and Lance's affair. She also provided Arthur with the sword that became Excalibur and enabled him to defeat Mordred. Well, Disney decided that Cabot's version wasn't empowering enough for young girls, so they would change a few things. Just a few. Things like the fact that Marco was some kind of undercover agent to protect Arthur, not Mordred reincarnated. That role went to.....the teacher! Of course! What? But it turns out that it doesn't matter that Marco wasn't Mordred, because Will wasn't Arthur in the first place. Oh, of course...what?? Well then who is? Allie is!

Huh???

Allie is King Arthur reincarnated? How does that even make sense? What happened to the love triangle you just worked so hard to set up? What does that make Will? Allie's the new kid, how is she supposed to lead the way to victory? Victory over what, 'cause it sure ain't the football finals anymore! What is going on?????? Granted, now changing her name from Ellie Harrison (which sounds more like Elaine) to Allie Pennington (as in Arthur Pendragon) makes more sense, but that's about it. 

This is why I have to side with Meg Cabot on this one. Sure, she took a liberty there with Elaine/the Lady, but the backbone elements stayed the same. Some versions of the legend suggest that the Lady of the Lake returned after the fatal battle to reclaim Excalibur, subsequently bringing Arthur to Avalon where he either died or recovered, so Cabot's happy ending isn't really as far fetched as it could be. Whereas, for whatever reason, Disney took such pains to set up this story where Will is King Arthur personified, the love triangle has been recreated, he has a vengeful half brother, and everything fits together perfectly until they turn around and smash it into tiny pieces! Who cares about Lance and Jenn if it's not the cause of Arthur's downfall? Allie wasn't invested in their relationship, she was the new kid! Will's "knights" were supposed to be the football team. Who are Allie's "knights"? The four friends she made so far? 

Don't get me wrong, I didn't so much have an issue with Arthur being reincarnated as a chick. Whatever, it's a new age, Allie Pennington could easily have worked as a character. In fact, that's a story I'd read in a heartbeat. But in that case, at least shift the other necessary characters and their interactions to match, so that the legend stays mostly intact. As it stands, Avalon high is another movie about teenage drama (except, it's not even that dramatic) that they pinned King Arthur references to and called it a day. 

So that brings us to a golden rule about writing a fantasy: Stick to the rules. 

Which rules? Well first, natural laws should still apply. Of course, you can't necessarily be a stickler on the physics or else dragons would never leave the ground, but you better give me a darn good reason why there's no gravity on your magical island. The reader needs some thread of normal to hang on to in order to fully suspend their disbelief. The more unbelievable your cast of characters, the more natural the environment needs to be (obviously, this doesn't necessarily apply to science fiction, which is a different breed entirely). Think about Tolkien's Middle Earth or Lewis's Narnia; both were full of fantastic creatures and races, but lived in worlds with predictable seasons (unless a Witch was involved), realistic environments (that looked like New Zealand), and functional architecture (no one tried to build any upside down pyramids). 

Further, there are specific rules in mythology and legends. Oh sure, you have more free reign than in other genres, but there are specific elements in a story, creature, or character that let us recognize what they are. For a story, it's generally the characters' relationships and interactions that give them away, such as King Arthur and the betrayal of his wife and best friend, or the confusions and misconceptions between the four lovers in Midsummer Night's Dream. It's why we can recognize that the Lion King is Hamlet, She's the Man is Twelfth Night, and West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet.

Creature-specific rules can be bent, sure, as long as the backbone element is still there. What's a dragon, essentially? A lizard with wings. Whether it has four legs and wings, hind legs and wings, breathes fire, ice, lightning, or cotton candy is all up to the author, as long as it is clearly a dragon. Some creatures have less room for creative license than others, however. For example, this

does not equal this:

Honestly, I wouldn't have pegged the Cullens as vampires if it wasn't already spelled out for me, because they just don't fit the profile. They're more like...elves. Undead elves with odd eating habits. 

you know you can see it

Twilight defenders out there ask: But what about Blade? He was a daywalker and such, didn't he break the rules? 

My response: You saw Blade? (I'm not even going to assume you knew about the comic) Then why are you defending Twilight? Also, no; Blade created new rules for a new creature. All of the vampires in Blade were still clearly vampires, the rules remained intact. Blade suggested half-vampires, complete with half-power and half-weakness. New creature, new rules, but still comparable to the creature it was derived from. We are meant to believe that the Twilight vampires are 100% original blood-sucking terror...that sparkle. 

Finally, you can recreate an established creature if all connection to the present world has been severed. Stephanie Meyers could possibly have gotten away with her version of werewolves and vampires if she hadn't based the story in Washington. If we the readers are to believe that a creature exists in real life, then it needs to follow the rules set for them in our current mythology. We would never watch a dude turn into a wolf in broad daylight and call it a werewolf when all existing legends suggest that it must be something else. Why, then, would characters make these assumptions when they are supposed to have access to the same myths we have?

Only in a world of your own creation can you also create the rules for each creature. Tolkien, for example, completely recreated the image of an elf. Prior to Lord of the Rings, elves were primarily small and somewhat mischievous, or they liked to sneak into shops at night to make shoes. Tolkien presented elves that were tall, beautiful, graceful, and powerful. But it only worked because he first created a world with none of our preconceptions, then established the rules himself. No one in Middle Earth knew about North Pole elves or the shoemaker's elves, such concepts couldn't exist. One character could turn to another and say "Hey look! It's an elf!" and we the reader would have to wait patiently to learn what an "elf" was in this particular world. 

So there you have it. Whatever "it" is. 'Till next time, I leave you with this completely unrelated video!

Just Kidding!

Now that I've already posted that "I'm not posting anything" disclaimer, I found the time and necessity to make a post for New Years. Happy New Years, by the way. I've been watching some of the talk show type things doing their "A look back at 2010" specials, and I noticed that nobody seemed to want to do anything about the fact that we're about to start a new decade! The 2000's are over people, we're about to step into the teens again (but the twenty-teens now, which are older and more mature than the nineteen-teens were), and I felt it was necessary to take a look back at the last 10 years. So let's get started, shall we?

Who can forget the tension of Y2K? I was still being an elementary schooler, not really caring whether or not the computers would be able to track my stocks properly when the year turned over (I felt I had kept them secure enough, after all), but I do recall the mounting panic. And thennnn, nothing happened. I don't think there has ever been a more anti-climactic January 1st.

Since the Academy Awards honor the movies from the previous year, but are held in the next year, it's entirely possibly I'll mix some stuff up and be off a year while talking about various movies, for which you shall forgive me (because I said so!). But anyway, this was the year that Gladiator won the academy award for best picture, Russell Crowe won best actor for the same movie (and now I realize why he seemed out of place in Robin Hood: he needed Romans!), Julia Roberts was best actress, and Traffic won Steven Soderbergh best director. But the academy aside, 2000 also gave us X-Men, Meet the Parents, The Contender, and of course Castaway

Don't look at me like that, Wilson!

Billboard has lists of the top 100 songs for each year, and I'm not going to list all of them because that would be ridiculous. But the number one song for 2000 was Breathe by Faith Hill, but it was also the year for 3 Doors Down, Destiny's Child, Santana, Brittany and Christina, N'Sync and those Backstreet Boys. 

2000 marked the beginning of the intense and seemingly never ending custody battle over a little boy between his American relatives, his Cuban father, and both of the respective governments, said to be the biggest dispute between the two countries since the Bay of Pigs (which seems a tad exaggerated to me, to be honest). Meanwhile, a concord plane exploded during takeoff for the first time ever, which soon ended the use of all concords (in France anyway, where the original exploded, not sure if everyone else agreed). It was a happy year, to be sure. Anything else? Oh yes, it was election year here in the US, the year of the recount, the hanging chad, and "good lord, Florida, just pick one already!" Finally, after all of the hooplah, George W Bush became president, and Al Gore decided he preferred global warming and inventing the internet anyway.

This was a heavy year in the US, the year that terrorists hijacked some planes and crashed them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers. A fourth would have hit the White House, had it not been for the bravery of the passengers who decided it would be better to die overpowering the terrorists and preventing further tragedy than to allow the crash to continue as planned. This was the year that the major Bad Guy status officially went from the communists to the terrorists (and I use officially quite loosely here, but Russian-Cold-War style characters in the media certainly seemed to make way for a wave of middle eastern terrorist types). It was the start of the war on terror, and one of the rare times that the entire nation was truly united, however briefly it lasted.

In the meantime and on a lighter note, the number one song was Hanging By a Moment by Lifehouse, and this was the year that Peter Jackson gifted us nerd-types with the first installment of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The snooty academy snoots preferred A Beautiful Mind for all the awards, but at least LOTR was nominated, and put up there with Moulin Rouge, Shrek, and Bridget Jones' Diary. This may have been the first year that Animated Feature Film was taken seriously as a category, but don't quote me on that. It also marked the beginning of Daniel Radcliff  et. al's decade long childhood in the Harry Potter world.

You're a wizard, Harry...and will be for the next 10+ years!

2002 marked the first total solar eclipse in whatever time span is generally between solar eclipses, but you couldn't see it properly unless you happened to be in Africa at the time. Jimmy Carter won a Nobel Peace prize, Halle Berry became the first African American woman to win an Academy Award for best actress (for Monster Ball), and Michael Jackson said hi to some fans by waving a baby around off a balcony.

"Hey look! I has kid!"

(bad taste? Well, it was still dumb...)

This was the year of sequels, with Hollywood sending us Star Wars II, Lord of the Rings II, Harry Potter II, and the Santa Clause II, all in 2002, which was clever on their part in retrospect. Chicago was awarded best picture, Spirited Away won best animated feature (hooray Miyazaki!), and How You Remind Me by Nickleback was declared the number one song (well I certainly don't remember that song, but billboard seemed to like it).

With the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad, we all got excited at the thought that it was finally finished! Woo! We won! It's over! Except it wasn't. The space shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry to the earth's atmosphere, all due to a loose outer tile. Meanwhile, the Martha Stewart issues gained some real momentum as she got indicted for embezzlement, and the great SARS scare began on the other side of the world (no, I'm not suggesting that the two events were related....or am I? No, not really). But it was a happy year for us bio-nerds, as the Human Genome Project was officially finished, and the human genome was declared to be sequenced to 99.99% accuracy. Woo!

science jokes!

And finally, making it a year I shall never forget, the Florida Marlins won the World Series after soundly defeating the Yankees. Yeah Marlins! (they were subsequently traded away, and have barely won another game since. Sad times). In movies, Buddy the Elf taught us the true meaning of Christmas, the king returned in Lord of the Rings, we all met the infamous yet strangely lovable Captain Jack Sparrow, and then we found Nemo. Peter Jackson and Return of the King finally won best director and best picture, and 50 Cent claimed the number one song title with In Da Club.

In case you couldn't guess/recall, the 2004 Summer Olympics were held in Greece, a big deal since that's where they originated from and all. The internet planned to rejoice when Facebook was officially launched, but quickly learned of the website's procrastination powers. Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake performed the Superbowl Halftime show, which nobody would remember if not for Janet's infamous wardrobe malfunction. Lance Armstrong won his 6th consecutive Tour de France, and Florida (and surrounding areas) were beaten to a pulp by Hurricanes Charley, Ivan, Frances, and Jeanne (personally, I recall 2004 as the year of evacuation road trips, blue roofs, and generators, all of which seemed a lot more exciting as a kid when it mostly meant road trips). But as much as it sucked in Florida (and surrounding areas), Indonesia had a much rougher time when that giant earthquake caused that even gianter tsunami. Yeah...I'll stick with hurricanes, thanks. 

Girls across the nation watched the Notebook and then swooned. Or something. I was busy watching Harry Potter do magical things again, Jason Bourne make his supreme comeback (hehe, pun), and Nicholas Cage go on a good treasure hunt before he made another string of terrible movies. Also, The Incredibles. Best animated feature film. 'nuff said. Million Dollar Baby pretty much dominated the rest of the awards, while Usher's Yeah made top song of the year. 

The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics declared 2005 to be the World Year of Physics, which is just so nerdy it makes me smile. Hurricane Katrina was late to the previous year's Stomp On North America party, but tried to make up for it with an extended visit to New Orleans. Needless to say, that didn't end well. President Bush started his second term, and male citizens in Saudi Arabia were allowed to vote for the first time. 

The Academy awards were mostly given to socially controversial films released this year, such as Crash and Brokeback Mountain. As for other movies, Narnia showed us what happens when you mix a lion, a witch, and a wardrobe and let simmer for approximately 2 hours (you get a movie! who knew?), Batman began, and Harry Potter came back with his goblet of fire. The Star Wars saga ended, for better or worse, with Revenge of the Sith, and we all stepped back to take a long look at our prides and prejudices. Mariah Carey sat on top of the billboard chart with We Belong Together. 

The first bird with Avian Flu was found this year, and Al Gore came back from his internet workshop to inconvenience us with his truths. Pluto began it's swift decline out of planetary status, suddenly declared to be merely a dwarf planet. The Iraqi Special Tribunal officially sentenced Hussein to death, and North Korea decided to let us know all about their continued nuclear weapon hobbies. 

It was a fairly widespread year for movies, with releases including everything from Cars and The Santa Clause 3 to The Prestige and V For Vendetta (Remember, remember, the 5th of November!). The Departed won best featured film, and Daniel Powter sang about his Bad Day enough to put him at the top. 

This was a magical year, the one that marked my highschool graduation. Ok, other stuff happened too. The final Harry Potter book was released and sold out faster than you can say Avada Kadavra, with the book in general causing one of the largest nerd uprisings since the last one. The writer's guild went on strike, resulting in one of the weirdest seasons of television in a while as everybody else in the studio scrambled to find reruns and acceptable excuses for shows to keep the public entertained. Yet it gave rise to the fantastically wonderful Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, which should be a part of everyone's life. 

Otherwise, Bourne issued his famous ultimatum, Harry Potter joined the Order of the Phoenix, and Juno had a baby. The Academy declared their love for No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, and Beyonce declared that you're not Irreplaceable (sorry, I'm just the messenger). 

Gas prices went extra nuts this year, Fidel Castro finally resigned, and there was a total eclipse of the heart....I mean moon. A star exploded somewhere, and if you happened to be stargazing it was officially the farthest object to be seen with the naked eye. Medvedev replaced Putin as Crazy Dude In Charge of Russia, and we waited to see if he would be a better kind of crazy. Meanwhile, Bill Gates decided to end his 30 year position  as chairman of Microsoft, and somewhere you could here Steve Jobs rub his hands and chuckle maliciously. Michael Phelps set a new record, winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, and the world didn't end after the Large Hadron Collider was turned on for the first time. Financial crisis ensued when certain banks decided to give out loans willy nilly and whatnot, and Barack Obama became the first African American president after the election. 

Heath Ledger gave us one last brilliant performance as a truly demented Joker in the Dark Knight, and then died for several alleged reasons that I don't think anybody ever actually agreed about. Slumdog Millionaire stole the show at the Academy awards, and Twilight...well, was Twilight, much to the thinking populace's disdain. Prince Caspian ruled Narnia, and Tony Stark built that immortal iron battle suit, all to the tune of Flo Rida's catchy tune, Low. 

Remember the Swine Flu? H1N1? You bet you do! This also marked the year that Michael Jackson died suddenly, taking everybody by surprise. I'm starting to suspect a celebrity serial killer is on the loose, or some kind of conspiracy. Or perhaps both. President Obama won a Nobel Peace prize for....being president? Still working on that one. The Large Hadron Collider was turned on a second time after needing some repairs and adjustments. And again, the world did not end.

In Hollywood, Avatar made a mark with it's amazing visual effects annnnd....was there a plot? But let's not forget about Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek (which unlike a lot of purists out there, I rather enjoyed, thanks very much), and Up. The Hurt Locker won the Oscar for best film, and I still haven't seen it. Meanwhile, Beyonce and her single ladies topped the music charts for the year.

And finally, we get to 2010, the last year in this wacky decade. It was kicked off with a devastating earthquake in Haiti, shortly followed by an even bigger one in Chile. Not the best way to start off a new year. An oil platform exploded in the Gulf, causing all kinds of environmental, financial, and general humiliating issues. And about a week ago, we saw the first total lunar eclipse during a solstice since 1638. Also, I moved to grad school; a major headline in the world to be sure ;)

In the movies, we learned how to train dragons, watched the end of the Toy Story saga, and saw the first half of the final movie in the Harry Potter lineup. There was also Inception, Scott Pilgrim, another Narnia movie...pretty much a great year for movies all around. The Oscars haven't happened yet, but here's hoping Pixar's animated film winning streak will be stopped by the wonder of dragon training. But then, I may be biased. Just a little. The Billboard list hasn't been made yet either, so here's hoping Bieber isn't on top. Or near the top. But watching the Twilight phenomenon...he probably will be.


Anyway, this has been more post than any one blog post needs to have, but it is here and complete. Here's to a new year, a new decade, and all kinds of new opportunities for some average nerdiness. Happy New Year!