Best of 2012

It’s time again for my self-selection of the best stuff I’ve done here this year. Enjoy this trip down memory lane…or ignore it completely! I have no control over what you do, folks!

As always, some stuff took place as month-long ‘festivals’ of posting: Ask Me Anything! took place in February and August. In April I participated in a daily blogging challenge called A to Z. And I just made up a new one, Gimme a Title!, which is still ongoing.

I think I produced some nice bloggage this year, even if my output was actually down quite a bit — according to Blogger (whose stats I have no reason to doubt), 2012 saw the second fewest posts overall out of all eleven calendar years in the books. (The lowest was 2008, when I actually took three months and stopped blogging entirely.) I’m not sure what to forecast for next year, but I’ll note that my decline in posting here wasn’t due to boredom or ennui, but because I was actually really busy with other stuff, such as producing a novel that is slowly grinding toward submission time. I am in no way bored with the blog at this point, so I plan to keep right on going!

And without further ado, here we go.


Favorite photos, January to June:

My favorites of 2012 I

1. It’s a proto-book! (2), 2. Reading, 3. The Rains of Orchard Park, 4. Hot Dogs and Potato Wedges, 5. Flags, 6. Fence at Knox Farm, 7. Existential Crisis, in overalls, 8. A place to clip things, 9. Two cats, one box, 10. The Goose family IV, 11. The Goose family I, 12. Supermoon, 13. Lunch of Champions!, 14. Ceiling at the Reinstein Library, 15. Niagara Falls after dark X, 16. Niagara Falls after dark V, 17. Niagara Falls after dark II, 18. Spl-lat, 19. Antique Mall VIII: My Toby jug!, 20. Antique Mall III: Toby mugs, 21. Antique Mall I: The Toby jug, side view, 22. DONE!!!, 23. Trimming, 24. Relaxing in the Overalls, 25. Casa Loma, 26. St. Lawrence Market: the upstairs, 27. St. Lawrence Market: Pork souvlaki, 28. St. Lawrence Market: String quartet, 29. Ontario Science Centre: Planet Earth II, 30. Casa Loma: Ceiling in the Solar, 31. Firefly Cupcakes, 32. Page One: A Princess of Mars, 33. Shea’s Buffalo at night, 34. A Pile of Doorstops, 35. Death by Kitteh, 36. Reading

January

Asimov on Libraries
Photos of a President
All Things Pie
My dream store
A collection of random complaints

February

Ha ha, Brady lost the Super Bowl
Whitney Houston, alas
On Ten Years of Blogging
A story in which one of the cats pisses me off

March

Losing a cell phone battery and not really giving a crap
On seeing Les Miserables live onstage at long, long last!
Ralph McQuarrie becomes one with The Force
On Bounty-gate
Cul de sac
Fifty most-hated movies?
Hot Pepper Jelly

April

Much of April’s blogging was devoted to the A to Z Challenge.
An open letter to Castle
On the completion of the first draft of Princesses In SPACE!!! (not the actual title)
Lester Bangs talks to Dick Clark

May

Junior Seau
Some pie-in-the-face stuff
ROWR: Virginia Hankins
On fifteen years of marriage
I’ll always love you, Donna Summer!
Save Every Building!

June

Kathryn Joosten
True geek confessions
John Constable
A Transit of Venus

Favorite photos, July to December:

My favorites of 2012 II

1. Betcha can’t guess what it says when you squeeze it!, 2. Finally, that itch is scratched! #McRib, 3. White trash! (Still hate that name.), 4. Henry VIII and Katherine Parr (Queen #6 of Henry’s, and the one who eventually outlived him)., 5. LGM ornament, 6. Retro rocket ornament, 7. Wonder what would happen if TimmyHo’s ever announced a withdrawal from Buffalo…. #TimHortons, 8. Hippie Santa, 9. Dark and Stormy #rum, 10. Cooking in Carhartt #Carhartt #overalls, 11. I like rum. Rummy rum rum. Here it goes down. Down into my belly. #rum #MisquotingAnchorman, 12. Upsidedown self #overalls, 13. Snow in the Southern Tier, 14. Snow in my Hair, 15. A koven of kittehs, 16. The mustering clouds of winter above the old OP train station, 17. This is what #NaNoWriMo looks like, 18. [Insert pun using the word ‘mount’ here], 19. A little Tgiving afterdinner entertainment…., 20. Julio and Mr. Shakespeare., 21. EC Fair XV, 22. EC Fair VI, 23. Carhartt I, 24. Pumpkinville: Happy wife, irritated Daughter, 25. Ramen with fried egg, 26. Long hair and overalls, 27. With the Pie II, 28. Marie Callender’s Coconut Cream Pie: Awaiting my Face, 29. With the Pie I, 30. My oh my, the tie-dyed guy is pied, 31. Guess what happened to me today…., 32. Sunshine on my shoulder, la la la la…., 33. Shoppin’ for Yarn, 34. Sterling Renaissance Festival 2012 IV, 35. SQUIRREL!, 36. Manuscript 2

July

One of the worst pieces of writing I have ever seen.
Ernest Borgnine
Frozen Pizza: Mmmmm!
What editing looks like
A brief reaction to a mass shooting
More selections from the White House Flickr stream

August

F*** Chick-fil-A
I join the Tablet Generation
Sticking the Landing (on Mars!)
So say we all: Thoughts on Battlestar Galactica
Thoughts on ‘Manbabies’
Another frozen pizza: Yummm!
The Many Faces of Monti Carlo

September

I didn’t blog much in September as I was focusing on my first pass-through of the PRINCESSES manuscript. Most of that month’s real content was answers to Ask Me Anything!, so see the link above.

Neil Armstrong

October

On writing and productivity
In what’s become an annual ritual, The Wife propels coconut cream pies into my face. Oddly, I enjoy this.
The Greatest Event in Television History
Joining the Instacrowd
On writing tools through the years
Memories of Weather
Darth Disney takes over the Lucas Alliance

November

More thoughts on Disney taking over Star Wars
An open question for Buffalo Bills fans
A salute to Mabel Normand, inventor-of-legend of the pie in the face
Cover art for Princesses (in my dreams!)
International Overalls Weekend, 2012 (Carhartt overalls are awesome!)
Being thankful
King Tut

December

Winter in the Southern Tier
What the heck is up with Star Trek these days?!
Grumpy Cat tells me how it is
How a local business irritated me and lost my patronage
How Superman’s Butt Saved Christmas

Books I blogged about this year

Restaurant Man,
Joe Bastianich

The Long Walk,
Brian Castner

Ready Player One!,
Ernest Cline

Heart of Darkness,
Joseph Conrad

Life Itself,
Roger Ebert

Coming of Age in the Milky Way,
Timothy Ferris

License to Pawn,
Rick Harrison

Making Piece,
Beth Howard

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and other concerns),
Mindy Kaling

Origin,
Jessica Khoury

11/22/63,
Stephen King

Re-reading A Song of Ice and Fire,
George RR Martin
Preliminary post
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance with Dragons

The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie,
Wendy McClure

Sacre Bleu,
Christopher Moore

Across the Universe,
Beth Revis

A Million Suns,
Beth Revis

Habibi,
Craig Thompson

Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier,
Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Air,
G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker

Star Wars: The Marvel Comics series

Uncanny X-Men: The “Dark Phoenix” Saga

Movies I blogged about this year

American Graffiti

The Avengers

Contact

Friendship 7

Hear My Song

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Inglourious Basterds

John Carter

The King’s Speech

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

Prometheus

St. Elmo’s Fire

Skyfall

Space Battleship Yamato

Thor

TRON Legacy

2001: A Space Odyssey


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