grassmonk.net

2012 is upon us, and I dated the check right the first time!  Also, I still write checks occasionally.  Like 5 or 6 times a month.  That seems weird.  Also, this paragraph would be better if I had published it just after the new year, instead of three weeks later.

My 2011 goals could have faired better, and I assume that I will be equally both as ambitious and non-achieving in 2012.  Without further ado, here is my 2012 list.

Household Projects

• Remodel the other bathroom

Books to Read

• The rest of the Book of Mormon
• Snuff
• The Mistborn Trilogy
• The Hobbit
• The Lord of the Rings
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• Ender’s Game
• Speaker for the Dead
• Xenocide
• Children of the Mind
• Shadows in Flight
• A Memory of Light
• Possibly the other Wheel of Time books

TV Seasons to Watch

Haven’t seen before:

• Hey, Vern, It’s Ernest!
• The Office seasons 3 – 7

Have seen before, but haven’t yet watched my DVDs:

• The Big Bang Theory seasons 1 – 4
• The Closer season 7 (once it’s released)
• Life season 2
• Mad About You seasons 1 – 5
• Smallville seasons 1 – 10
• Spider-Man: The New Animated Series

Currently airing/will air this year:

• 30 Rock season 6
• The Big Bang Theory season 5
• Castle season 4
• Chuck season 5
• Dexter season 7
• Fringe season 4
• Homeland season 2
• House M.D. season 8
• The Office season 8
• The Mentalist season 4

Movies to Watch

From last year:

• Cowboys & Aliens
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
• The Muppets
• Puss in Boots
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
• Tower Heist

New this year:

• The Amazing Spider-Man
• The Avengers
• The Bourne Legacy
• Brave
• The Dark Knight Rises
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Justice League: Doom
• Men in Black 3
• 007: Skyfall

Movies/TV I [try to] watch at least once a year

• Batman Begins
• The Dark Knight
• The Bourne Identity
• The Bourne Supremacy
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
• Firefly
• Serenity
• (500) Days of Summer
• Iron Man
• Iron Man 2
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• The Matrix
• The Matrix Reloaded
• The Matrix Revolutions
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
• Spider-Man
• Spider-Man 2
• Spider-Man 3
• Star Trek
• Superman Returns

Unwatched DVDs/Blu-rays:

• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Chicken Little
• The Karate Kid
• Kung Fu Panda 2
• The Legend of Zorro
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
• Pinocchio
• Rocky
• Sherlock Holmes
• Stardust
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
• Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
• Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
• Star Wars: A New Hope
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
• Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
• Thor
• The Truman Show

DVDs/Blu-rays I haven’t watched since 2009 or before:

• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• A Beautiful Mind
• Beverly Hills Ninja
• Big Fish
• Billy Madison
• Chain Reaction
• Cinderella
• Daredevil
• DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp
• Dumb and Dumber
• Ernest Rides Again
• Ever After: A Cinderella Story
• Fantastic 4
• The Fifth Element
• The Fugitive
• Fun With Dick and Jane
• The Great Mouse Detective
• Happy Gilmore
• The Hobbit
• Howl’s Moving Castle
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• The Jungle Book
• Jurassic Park
• Kermit’s Swamp Years
• The Kid
• Kung Fu Panda
• Lady and the Tramp
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
• The Little Mermaid
• A Lot Like Love
• Mary Poppins
• The Mask of Zorro
• Meet the Parents
• Meet the Fockers
• Mission: Impossible
• Mission: Impossible III
• Mr. Deeds
• The Muppets Take Manhattan
• The Musketeer
• National Treasure
• National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
• A Night at the Roxbury
• Oliver & Company
• 101 Dalmatians
• Peter Pan
• The Rescuers
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
• Signs
• Sleeping Beauty
• Speed Racer
• Spirited Away
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Star Trek: Generations
• Star Trek: First Contact
• Star Trek: Insurrection
• Star Trek: Nemesis
• Superman II
• Superman III
• The Sword in the Stone
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• The Three Musketeers
• The Transformers: The Movie
• Transporter 2
• Treasure Planet
• Waterworld
• The Wedding Singer
• The Whole Nine Yards

Movies I haven’t seen for a while, and have a hankering to watch again (hello, Netflix):

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Good Will Hunting

Video Games to Play

• The Legend of Zelda
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
• Lego Batman 2

Blogging

• The remaining poetism commentaries
• More regular posting in general

Other

• More regular guitar practice and learning lots of songs
• Still not joining Facebook

Sometimes it feels like I did more stuff outside of my goals list than inside.  Here is a reckoning of part of that, with some commentary as I deem, not fit, exactly, but something.  This list also doesn’t include movies from my 2011 list.

Books

I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to my kids.

TV

Hadn’t seen before:

• The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (season 1)
• Caprica (season 1/the series)
• Dexter (season 6)
• The Guild (season 4)
• Homeland (season 1)
• Mr. Bean (the series)
• Mr. Sunshine (season 1/the series)
• The Office (seasons 1-2)
• Phineas and Ferb (seasons 1-2, part of 3)

My friend Ben got us watching Phineas and Ferb.  The whole family loves it.  Often my 3-year-old and I will watch an episode on Netflix on my phone before he goes to bed, and when we finished the available episodes, we decided to try out The Avengers, which another friend had recommended to me a year or so ago.  My boy loves it, and I think it’s a pretty fun show, too.  He loves it so much that he wants to be Captain America, complete with pretending various household objects are his shield and throwing them vigorously about the house.

My sister has been telling me for a couple of years to watch The Office, and a few weeks ago I finally started watching, after having enjoyed Steve Carell in a number of movies.  I don’t know how I wasn’t interested in the show before, because it is funny, at least up to where I am–the middle of season 3.

I always say that I’m watching enough shows as it is and I can’t be adding more, and I always lie.  In addition to The Office, this year I also started Mr. Sunshine, because I enjoy Matthew Perry.  Only nine episodes aired before it was canceled, though apparently there are four more on the DVD release that I’ll have to watch sometime.

After watching Battlestar Galactica, I got the Caprica DVDs from Netflix.  It was a good show with some interesting elements, but ultimately not as fun as BSG.

The Guild is a hilarious web series and I watch the seasons on Netflix when they come out.  Hopefully season 5 will hit shortly.  I love Felicia Day.

I heard about Homeland on a TV site, I think, but had no interest until I found out it stars Damian Lewis, who I loved on Life, and also Morena Baccarin of Firefly fame (and I guess V, which I haven’t seen).  With those two, I gave it a shot and loved it.  Claire Danes is also good in it, and the guy from The Princess Bride, Inigo Montoya.  The only unfortunate part is that it’s on Showtime, which means too much swearing.

Had seen before:

• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Saturday Night Live, various “best of” compilations

Movies

Hadn’t seen before:

• Bad Teacher
• Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
• Despicable Me
• Grown Ups
• most of Hackers
• Juno
• The Men Who Stare at Goats
• The New Guy
• RED
• Tron
• 12 Monkeys
• Wake Up, Ron Burgundy!
• Zombieland

A co-worked recommended Zombieland to me based on my expressed like of Emma Stone.  I did not like Zombieland, except for the part with Bill Murray, which was awesome.

I had no desire to see Grown Ups but watched it with my sister and her husband while I was visiting them last April.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be, but Adam Sandler has still fallen far from his ’90s days.

I watched Juno because I had heard it was good and Ellen Page is in it.  It also has Michael Cera, who I’ve liked watching in just about everything I’ve seen him in.  And J.K. Simmons, who is awesome all the time, always.  The movie was okay, but not what I’d hoped for.

Hackers was one of those movies that it seemed like everyone but me had seen, so I checked it out on Netflix streaming.  It was pretty bad.  I couldn’t press through to the end and gave up with about half an hour to go.

I had never seen Tron (the original) that I can remember, so we watched it before watching Tron: Legacy.  Both were pretty lame, though the original was less lame.

Wake Up, Ron Burgundy! is a movie compiled from deleted and alternate scenes cut from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.  It was surprisingly entertaining and coherent, for a given definition of coherent.

I watched Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop after reading Eric D. Snider’s review of it, and liking Conan when I do watch late night talk shows, which is very rarely.  It was a pretty good documentary.

What possessed me to watch Bad Teacher, I know not, but it was not very good and I regret it.

Had seen before:

• Big Trouble
• A Bug’s Life
• Dumbo
• Elf
• Ernest Goes to Camp
• Ernest Goes to Jail
• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• Home Alone
• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
• Hot Rod
• The Lion King
• Ratatouille
• The Santa Clause 2
• WALL-E
• Up

Video Games

First time plays:

• Donkey Kong Country Returns
• Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4
• Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7
• Metroid: Other M

Replays:

• Metroid Prime
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii

So how did I do on my goals for 2011? I’m guessing not so great.

Household Projects

Let’s go with 1.25/2.  We successfully remodeled one bathroom, with the other one untouched and in need of some love.  We also got the tile backsplash in the kitchen done, which was really the big thing that needed doing.  We still need to finish the touch-up paint on the cabinets and eventually to redo the floor, but it’s much better than it was at the beginning of the year.

Books to Read

I read one and part of two others of the books on my list.  I’d call this a big fail.  I managed I Shall Wear Midnight, part of The Book of Mormon with my family, and most of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with my children, but it couldn’t seem to hold their interest long enough.  I really need to step up my game in 2012 as far as reading goes.

TV Seasons to Watch

Haven’t seen before:

I made it through four items of this part.  I tried to watch Monk, but it just didn’t grab me and I stopped watching after eight episodes.  Veronica Mars was removed from Netflix streaming before I could get to it, and I didn’t get to The Flintstones or Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.

Have seen before, but haven’t yet watched my DVDs:

I made it through 3.5 of these.  The Big Bang Theory is still sitting on my shelf, now joined by season 4, as is Mad About You.  Spider-Man didn’t actually belong in this section, since I have watched it before, but I didn’t get to it this year.  The others I watched with the exception of Life season 2, which I started watching just after the new year.

Currently airing:

I got through all of these except for Bones.  I lost interest somewhere in season 4, but pushed through to the end of season 5.  I haven’t had any desire to watch past that point.

Movies to Watch

From last year [2010]:

Watched them all.

New this year [2011]:

I watched nine out of thirteen in this category–eight in 2011, one this month–and plan to watch the remaining four at some point.  I already bought Kung Fu Panda 2 but haven’t watched it yet, I’m planning on possibly seeing Mission: Impossible theatrically, and I will catch Cowboys and Aliens and The Muppets on DVD.

Movies I watch at least once a year:

Apparently I don’t watch all of them once a year, because I only made it to 16 out of 23.  (To be sort of fair, Firefly is a TV show and takes longer.)  This time I missed Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Spider-Man 3, and Superman Returns.  We’ll see how 2012 goes.

Unwatched DVDs/Blu-rays:

I made it through 30 of 39 in this category.  Still missing Chicken Little, The Karate Kid, The Legend of Zorro, Nausicaa, Pinocchio, Rocky, Sherlock Holmes, and Snow White.  I returned The Wizard of Oz so that’s off the list.

DVDs/Blu-rays I haven’t watched since 2008 or before:

Wow, there were 70 movies in this section.  I watched 14.  I guess there will be carry-over.

Movies I haven’t seen for a while, and have a hankering to watch again (hello, Netflix):

I scored 3/6 here.  The Karate Kid movies were removed from Netflix streaming (and I didn’t even watch the one I have on Blu-ray yet anyway), and I didn’t get to Eternal Sunshine.

Blogging

Complete fail.  I am not surprised.  Maybe Twitter would be easier for me.