Wow, it seems less and less like twelve months has passed, each time I set out to do one of these posts. Below are links to what seem to me to be the best posts from this blog, as they appeared in 2008. This was the year when I ended up ceasing blogging for more than three months because I got bored of the whole thing, so I won’t make any promises about 2009. But for now, here’s the good stuff you may have missed.
:: I call special attention to my Fixing the Prequels series, which actually began in 2007. But the bulk of the work on The Phantom Menace took place in 2008, and I’ve begun addressing Attack of the Clones. I also call special attention to the 2008 edition of Ask Me Anything!, a game I now play every February (since that is this blog’s anniversary month — and it’s coming up again, so start thinking of questions!). Additionally, I finished off my 100 Favorite Movies list in 2008. When I returned from blogging I changed the appearance of the blog; one idea for the redesign that I rejected can be found here. Finally, I started my weekly musical selections series, Something For Thursday, in 2008.
Rating my upbringing
An unpublished essay on grief
A Quiz about Reading
What I thought of the Republican presidential candidates
On the passing of Jim Beach, my first music teacher
Another Quiz-Thing about Books
Three, count’em, Three Quizzes!
February:
The Best Bond Women
Giants 17, Patriots 14!!!
A very weird quiz
“Lelawala”, my failed entry in this year’s BuffNews short-fic contest
A “post something from the nearest book” meme-thing
Another quiz-thing
A quiz-thing about the Bible
Anticipating Indiana Jones
Weight Loss: the Journey Begins
Happy Birthday to the Wife
March:
A Kid-Lit quiz-thing
Farewell to Brett Favre (Hey, how could I have known?!)
George and John
Gary Gygax failed his last saving throw
Eliot Spitzer pissed me off.
So how white am I, anyway?
A quiz on libraries (with some bonus opinionation)
A quiz-thing, in pictures! (Unfortunately, subject to link-rot. I may re-do this one just to fix it.)
Arthur C. Clarke, gone into the Stargate
The Dyson vacuum cleaner guy bugs me.
Easter Eggs
“Weygand” or “DeGaulle”?
Another quiz thing!
FOOB: Creepier by the day
April:
Top Ten Supporting Characters on Seinfeld
Six Things quiz-thing
Weight loss: the journey continues
Top Ten Episodes of Magnum PI
I catch Ken Jennings being wrong!!!
So how bad was the Star Wars Holiday Special, anyway?
Some favorite poems
May:
The One-word quiz
Science 50, Ben Stein 0
100 Things That Annoy Me
Ten Classical Music “Warhorses” I Could Do Without
God, not another quiz….
Defending the Ark
75 Things Men Should Be Able to Do
Ten Neat Little Details in Pulp Fiction
Yup, another quiz!
June:
100 Things I Love
On Chick-flicks
On Richard Bach
Dustin Jae Fleming, 1970-1988
Remembering George Carlin
On the AFI’s annual list show
On EW’s lists of movies and books
Boom de yada!
July:
Movies that make me cry
On EW’s list of teevee shows
On the passing of Rick Tibbott
The Years of my life in music and movies (a meme-thing)
In which I eviscerate someone who says mean things about Star Wars
Sterling Ren Faire, 2008
August:
This blog remained silent for the rest of August, and then all of September and October. But then, on a Tuesday night in early November:
November:
President Obama
How I spent by blogcation
The Top Ten dumb things said by Republicans in 2008
The Top Ten dumb things John McCain said or did
Final thoughts on the Election
Film music for scary nights
On the Great Pumpkin
A Halloween Quiz
Another Reading Quiz
I hate Nicholas Sparks and will show it by reading all of his books
I like the old Great Bird better than the new Great Bird
The James Bond Blogathon: the Gunbarrels
The James Bond Blogathon: the Music
Ooooh! A quiz!
More EW pop-culture list fun!
On the Star Trek trailer
Thoughts on Firefly
Thanksgiving (with an assist from Randy Pausch)
Wal-Mart likes stampedes.
December:
The meeting of the James Bonds [I loved this post! -Ed.]
The latest iteration of the “Have You Ever…” quiz
The Seven Things quiz, come ’round again
From the Books: Hollywood by Garson Kanin
Ten Places You Should See Before You Die
A Christmas Quiz
Movies I hated, by alphabet
Pizza Hut Memories
These are posts where I discussed specific books:
Finally, some writings on specific movies:
The Philadelphia Story, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End
Enchanted; Blade Runner: The Final Cut; Saturday Night Fever; A Prairie Home Companion
And there we have it: the best of Byzantium’s Shores, 2008. Thanks for reading!
Kelly, I am proud to say that I read them all.
Thank you.
You forgot “The Balance in the Blood”. Any hope for seeing part 5 in the near future? I think the story is quite gripping and definitely should be on the “best of” list.
Best of luck for 2009 from one of those who read your blog but very seldom comment,
Johanna
Yeah, the concluding parts of that tale will appear early in January, on consecutive Tuesdays.