It’s nearly 2008. I think my favorite part about the last couple weeks in December is looking back at the past year, and seeing what came out of it that was definitely worth the time and effort put into it. So here it is - the my tops lists:

Top 10 albums:

1. LCD Soundsystem - 45:33
2. Rascal Flatts - Still Feels Good
3. Craig David - Trust Me
4. Pinback - Autumn of Seraphs
5. Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
6. RJD2 - The Third Hand
7. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
8. The Six Parts Seven - Casually Smashed to Pieces
9. Elliot Smith - New Moon
10. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Runners up definitely - Feist, Radiohead, M.I.A and Of Montreal
Actually, i think this list of top albums might actually destroy mine… Not only is it a good list, but it’s also 100% Canadian. Woo! Feist!

Top 10 songs:

1. Apologize - Timbaland ft One Republic
2. Hot Stuff - Craig David
3. Toy Solider - Britney Spears
4. Alaska - Camera Obscura
5. The Way I am - Ingrid Michaelson
6. Bartender - T-Pain ft Akon
7. +81 - Deerhoof
8. Blueberry Tree Part II - Husky Rescue
9. My Moon My Man - Feist
10. The Past Is a Grotesque Animal - Of Montreal

Top 5 movies:

1. The Lives of Others
2. Little Miss Sunshine
3. Sweeny Todd
4. Amazing Grace
5. Surfs Up… fo reelz

Top 5 personal moments:

1. Moving home from BC… I miss BC a lot, but it is good to be home. And it looks like I’ll be here for a while, and that’s okay.
2. Getting alcohol poisoning. …I know, it doesn’t really sound all that good, but honestly - it made a good story and has terrified me into drinking less and less each time I go out.
3. The CFI leadership conference. It opened my eyes to a lot of things, introduced me to a lot of people and gave me an opportunity to converse with a lot of open minded, like minded people my age for a few days.
4. My first night out with Future Shop folks. Shit. Show. I established quite the name for myself that night. Gah.
5. Getting to meet Baby AJ! The birth of Baby Ella!

Top 3 games:

1. Oblivion!
2. Guitar Hero 2 - seriously, 3 isn’t really that much better. There are some good songs, but… meh.
3. Bioshock!

I hate halo 3 and the orange box. …so i dont even want to hear it. call of duty 4… it’s more than decent though. As is Assassins Creed, but I haven’t played it enough to put it in a top list.

Top 5 TV shows:

1. Heroes!
2. Flight of the Conchords
3. Planet Earth
4. Yo Gabba Gabba
5. The Office

Top 4 under-reported news stories:

1. Somalia … for some reason, few people knew about the + 1 million Somalians fleeing from their homes - while the UN sits back and watches.
2. Mansions in Luanda … Post-Civil war Angola had an economic growth rate 12.5% higher than China’s 11.5% rate. Thank you oil reserves!
3. 100 000 troops … Lined up along the Ethiopian and Eritrea border, just waiting to have at it, much like the crisis that happened there in 2002.
4. More reasons why teachers need to have background checks, character tests and need to be watched closely. Seriously.

Top 5 books:

1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
3. The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
4. Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery
5. Busting the Limits of Time by Martin Rudwick

Top 5 environmental stories:

1. Walmarts green appeal. …They’re still not perfect. They still encourage suburban sprawl. They still suck money out of people. They still pay employees shitty wages. But they are doing great initiatives for the environment. That is all.
2. Moving from “environmentalists kill the economy” to creating green jobs to increase economic growth. Creating new economic sectors that cater directly to the hippies. Solar panel companies, organic farms… the new green economy should create over 6 million jobs by 2015.
3. The world’s 15 greenest cities
4. The Great Biofuel Hoax
5. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its 4th Assessment Report in which it declared that global warming is “unequivocal” and that it was “very likely” that most of the observed warming was caused by man. More than 2500 scientists worked on the report. The panel’s work was recognized with a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which it shared with Al Gore.

Top 5 natural disasters:

1. Bangladesh Cyclones

2. Mexico Floods

3. Hurrican Felix

4. Greece Forest Fires

5. Peru Earthquake

I had a nap at 8 pm and rolled out of bed at around 11:30, that was probably a bad call because now it’s 4:30 am and I’m still not a bit tired. I have written a 3000 word essay on women and Islam for a class that I had last semester. :S oh dear.  Long story. And I called my friend from camp who I used to be completely and utterly attached too. Her and I lived together for 2 or 3 summers in a row and did everything together. Then we drifted apart a bit - but it turns out she works midnights at some random hotel in London so I called her and we chatted. I miss her. Other than that, I’ve decided pm napping is a pretty bad idea! So here’s the random 10 for this week… followed by a lot of links.

1. Eisley - Beautiful
2. Tanacious D - Keilbasa
3. Bouncing Souls - Kids and Heroes
4. Spearhead - Stay Human
5. The Roots - Rolling With Heat
6. Dirty Pretty Things - Deadwood
7. Pink Floyd - Speak to Me
8. Oscar Peterson - Blues for JR
9. Gin Blossoms - Till I Hear It From You
10. Yeah yeah yeahs - While My Guitar Genty Weeps (yeeea!)

I love ellen. I watched her all last summer, every single day. I would wake up JUST to watch Ellen. I never worked until usully 2 pm… but I would wake up at 10 to watch Ellen. And this clip at Pandagon had me roaring, I was worried I was going to wake up Dan, but man… it is SO funny. I LOVE ellen. Lesbians are the best. And on a more serious note I like the post that preceeded that video - I realize that most people probably read pandagon, so my linking without any personal analysis is pretty pointless… but this is my not caring face — … Here is my personal analysis - listen to the album "Impeach My Bush" by Peaches.

So last week there was the big "blog for choice day" that I didnt blog for until the following day and it wasn’t really a big post on it. Anyway, Jessica points out that they’ve been "outted".. by this site. Honestly, I wish I would have posted on pro-choice day just so that I’d have had a better shot of being listed on the baby killers list. …

Honestly, this whole … using graphic pictures, and telling us that we’re killing babies is seriously getting old. We’re not killing babies. It’s not a baby, its a bunch of cells. Abortions save lives. How about instead you attack the government that actually is killing hundereds of innocent people every day because of the wars they’re starting. Or how about concentrating some energy on aids, or combating epidemics in the world instead of wasting your time preaching your slanderous nonsense to people who have scientific evidence that they’re doing nothing but preventing the growth of cells to better accomodate for a life already in progress.

Gordo’s Thursday links are my absolute favorite post that shows up on his blog every week. Seriously. My favorite. Followed by his video post… because it wastes my time and I like my time being wasted. Anyway… this week he linked to the most adorable videos I have seen in a long time. It makes me miss my invisible friend so much. Lily was the best friend a girl could have had. I wish I had been a little more creative and given her more of a personality and look, but we still had a lot of fun together.

Anthony sent me a post of his on religion  that is WELL worth the time to read. He had me hooked on the first sentence.

For someone who doesn’t believe in God, I think about God a lot.

I just love atheists who are willing to talk about god, and religion without being arrogant and jerkish and intolerante. And in the comments Brent reminds me of why I loved reading his posts so much (so I need to start doing that again, I will blog roll him. he was on there, but when the new one got put up i forgot to make him a button.)

That is NOT a bad thing. Our material universe is unfathomably huge and
indescribably fascinating all on it’s own - without adding magical
fantasy-land fairy tales to it.

And speaking of Brent he has up a video much like Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans (heart!) it’s not QUITE as funny, but it’s still pretty darn funny. My favorite part is "how many sides does a triangle have…?" "There’s no sides,… one?" Its like that quote from I <3 Huckabees "Have you ever transcended space and time?" "Yes. No. Uh, time, not space… No, I don’t know what you’re talking about."

Also from Gordo, but at Liberal Avanger (just to toss up the links a little bit, he posted it at Appletree too) he did what looks like a good post on Cheney, I didn’t actually read it, I just looked at the pictures. And ps - the bedrocktruth fellar in the comments is a douche and a half.

SO MANY LINKS!

At republic numero uno Adorable Girlfriend has a post up about parenting that is absolutely silly. I’m going to have to go ahead and agree wtih AG that people who make kissing seem like a horrible thing to do … are idiots. And telling boys that girls have cooties? Come on now. Why not teach them about sex? And about gender differences? About what they should and shouldn’t ignore? …But just meanly telling them "no!" … That doesn’t explain anything.

And at the next republic there is a fantastically written post about Africa and homophobia. The best is the "the devil made him do it" part. You know, I always figured my gay friends had been taken over by the devil.

And finally, because I can, I am going to steal this mini meme from Kathy.

This Moment: roaring
Your Shoes: Cons!!
Craving: oranges
The State of Your Home: shit-hole (is that one or two?) … dirty
Annoyed By: chewing
Noise In the Background: soundtrack (for requiem for a dream)
Really Want To: travel
Thinking About: *blushes*
Smelling: moisturizer
Favorite Product In Office Supply Aisle: staplers
Don’t Ever Want To: drown
Your Eye Color: blue
The Weather: …overcast
Have Never Tried: decluttering
Think Everyone Should Try: singing
Last Vacation Destination: Ontario!
The Last Thing You Had to Drink: Water
Your Bad Habit: stumbling
What You’re Going To Do Now: blog

That was suprisingly hard for me to do. I’m one of those people that writes like… a paragraph for questions like that because I think one word answers are so boring.

This post by Marc at Punkass is wicked. I never thought I’d actually find a reason to tell people that I had seen Rosemary’s Baby for the first time 2 years ago - but yeah, I saw it, and I’m fuckin’ stoked that I’ve actually found someone else who saw so much in it in terms of patriarchy.

In Rosemary’s Baby, this cult of satanism is nothing more than
a cult of patriarchy. Rosemary’s discovery of its machinations is
really a discovery of the way she’s been used and controlled by the men
around her. Had she wised up sooner to the total disregard men of
authority have for women, she might’ve been able to save the world. But
she didn’t, and her misguided trust in those men and the institutions
they built for themselves allowed the anti-christ to be born.

Stellar.

Oh and PS I realize that I didn’t post for "blog for choice day" I feel pretty bad about it. But I couldn’t… get myself in the right frame of mind to do it I guess. I have a lot of really great stories I could tell about abortions in my life with friends, family and myself - some are completely heartbreaking. I really should have blogged about it, but every time I started a post I didn’t feel like I was doing my thoughts justice. Maybe I’m just self deprecating a little too much - but please know, I am pro-choice, and I did try to make a post, but… it just wouldn’t come out. I have posted about it before. I just can’t find the post.

I hadn’t realized how many movies I haven’t seen until I saw this year’s Oscar nominations. …I plan on spending the next 3 or 4 days watching all the movies that are listed. I do think that everything Little Miss Sunshine was nominated for should win. Like Alan Arkin as best supporting actor and DEFINITELY Abigail for best supporting actress - that little girl was so freaking good in that movie.

I’m really excited to watch Pan’s Labyrinth. The girl who was cutting my hair yesterday (yea yea, i’ll put pictures up when I get home this afternoon. I have to stay at work until 2 because of a stupid meeting I have with my boss. Maybe I’m getting fired.) said that it was really good. And my supervisor said it was the only movie that had actually made her emotionally uncomfortable… So I’m excited to watch it. I love movies that mess with the audience’s head.

I am really disappointed that The Devil Wears Prada was nominated for so many awards. The movie was f’n horrible. My exact words to my mom when we left the theater were "The only good thing about that movie was when the girl got hit by the car." And 2 guys 3 cars over agreed. Horrible movie. Although - Ann Hathaway should be the new Queen of the world, once Julie Andrews dies.

I also hope that Gore doesn’t win the documentary shit just because of all the hype around it. Jesus Camp is much more deserving. It’s not that I value revealing the truths of religion and its effects on kids more than I value exposing global warming and showing the truth behind it - its just that Gore’s documentary was so basic. And it didn’t have anything new, shocking or horribly interesting. People just had to wait for someone famous to come along to tell them what to think about climate change and to give them the facts in the most common way possible. Jesus Camp is at least original, and moving.

Also, I don’t want Pirates 2 to win for visual effects. Although I *loved* the movie because of my infatuation with Johnny Depp and his… dirty pirate ways… I kept thinking through the entire thing "wow, the visual effects are horrible"… Because it’s just so animated. At times they were sort of cool, but most of the time it just reminded me that I was watching a Disney movie.

Anyway, within the next week I’ll be watching The Queen, Babel (even though I hate I hate Brad Pitt…), Pan’s Labyrinth,  Flags of our Fathers, The Departed, Dream Girls and Cars. I guess my L Word trip will have to be put on pause for a little while… so will studying. err.

But this time it’s not from me. Its about the newest environmental movie, only this one is for kids.
I have yet to see it, but I will eventually get around to it… It apparently gets the environmental message right, but doesn’t even come close to getting every other message in the world right.

Here’s my Happy Feet genesis theory: A bunch of movie
executives got together and decided that if they dumped every cartoon
convention into a Big Movie grinder, they might end up with a hit.

Judging from the last couple of weeks’ box office totals,
they were right. Alas, their cookie-cutter
cartoon-with-an-environmental-message also comes with a few
unadvertised messages — and socially irresponsible ones at that.
Apparently, all females in the South Pole are hip-swaying,
breathy-voiced, man-crazed pushovers, all Mexicans are short, and all
African-Americans are superfly playas. It seems Antarctica is a land of
overwrought stereotypes as well as overwrought singing.

It seems like the easiest way to get laughs and applauds out of people these days is to make fun of someone else. To push a stereotype to its limit. Apparently, its true even for kids movies. …So we’re starting this crude and unethical humor at a younger age … That’s just great. I think the best way to tackle racism and sexism is to actually expose the kids to it as humor in a fun loving movie! I’m sure this is also a really great way to get them to see environmental issues seriously as well… /saracasm.

Now… It would be different if parents would sit down wtih their kids and explain things to them but in this world of go-go-go mentality that never happens. It’s a lot easier to stick the kids in front of a screen for an hour and a half while yuo get supper ready and then shove KD down their throats so that you can go and finishing refinishing the bathroom while they’re stuck infront of the TV again than to have a sort of crummy looking bathroom and a real relationship with your children.

How are people suppose to learn that the most recent form of humor is hurtful and dangerous when its simply being normalized. The majority of people aren’t going to step back out of a social setting for a moment and really think "hmm, did that joke have any racial stereotyping in it?" …no. They’re going to laugh. And at some point, its going to happen when someone of that stereotype is around… and its hurtful.

And from there it just gets worse. …Everything starts as a joke. Like when two kids are play fighting and then one of them actually gets hurt so the lash out and then it turns into real fighting.

Sorry, I haven’t even seen the movie… I will eventually I’m guessing, I can’t even imagine how much I’ll rant about the movie if this is how much I’m ranting before even seeing it.