A lot of things happened in 2012. The Mayans predicted the world would end, MegaUpload was shut down, a few dictatorships were toppled, countries went bankrupt (how can that even happen?!), I went on vacation, etcetc. It's been an eventful year, both personally and in the world (though I don't really read the news so I don't know that much about the latter), and I guess this is the time to talk about it.
In 2012 I've been feeling mostly happy. Our fridge broke, someone tried breaking into our summerplace, I finally bought a Nintendo DS, I finally went to the dentist (and overcame my phobia, I think), I posted my first video to CDB, I've been playing Oni, Doom, Serious Sam, Advance Wars & GTA. GTA 5 is coming soon. I've been messing around with computers a bit. At the start of the year I installed Windows 98 on an old laptop, then I uninstalled it. I've linked two computers to the same screen, bought an old computer, and then another old computer, and then... there was no more room under my bed. Also, I bought a PS2. Actually I bought 3 of them, but I haven't gotten around to posting about that yet. I also bought a ton of PS2/GC games, and recently I've been selling a bunch of old GC/PS2 games. Not the same games, though.
Dan Bull & Ronald Jenkees both released new albums this year! Or wait, maybe Dan Bull released his last year, maybe I just posted about it this year... but they're both worth checking out. Though IMHO Jenkees wasn't as groundbreaking as he has been earlier. Otherwise there's been a lot of hype surrounding Yelawolf & Slaughterhouse, two artists/groups (one's an artist, the other a group) that I follow diligently. Rittz is also someone to keep an eye on, though he should really hire someone who works with SEO because finding his albums, videos, etc is harder than it should be. Karmin also made it big, as did Walk Off The Earth with their cover on 'Somebody That I Used To Know' (both great). I get most of my updates on music through YouTube nowadays, if that doesn't show in what I mention. Only during vacation did I listen to readio (IOW the music that 'normal' people listen to). Overall I've been introduced to a lot of new and unknown artists (good ones too) through the Promo Bay, another neat innovation the net brought us this year.
Speaking of the net, a lot of sites have been changing this year. Google had a major overhaul, for both better and worse. NG did too at the end of last year, and I didn't like their redesign at all. I wrote a detailed complaint, they said I'd get over it, I didn't (or does it take 2 years?). I've not been very active at NG this year (because I've been busy elsewhere, not because I don't like the design), though I've been depositing my EXP as usual; catching up now at the end of the year. I'm probably a faster typer now than last year. Google had a neat April Fools joke (as always), and... that's all I can think of right now. If you want links, check the link section... that I'll hopefully have time to update with new links soon.
Studies? Creative Writing & Webdesign. I've been trying to get through the 3rd (out of 4) assignment on 1 out of two remaining webdesign courses today, right now, like before I gave up and started writing this. It would've been fun to have finished all courses before the new year (and a lot of other projects... like this site), but oh well, at least Creative Writing is done! Deadline is Jan 20, so there's still time for the rest. Creative Writing was one of best courses I've read in a long time btw, and I'll be starting on the sequel (along with another two minor web design courses) next semester. Yeah, so no job yet. Speaking of jobs, Steve Jobs passed away. RIP.
On an unrelated note, Naruto had a filler arc, Bleach ended, and One Piece is still going... but unfortunately it's going a bit slow. I started watching a new anime this year: Fairy Tail, of which I've posted a lot of summaries and will resume the postations of as soon as I can. I've also started watching Detective Conan and Toriko, and the firstly mentioned one took a long time to catch up on. To think there was an anime out there with hundreds of episodes which I still haven't seen! Yeah, no longer. I reworked my anime list too, formerly very outdated and slow to load due to the high amount of images. I was going to say there hasn't been much activity on the anime front this year, but with Detective Conan, Toriko & Fairy Tail... there must have been. 500 episodes x 20-something minutes? No wonder time's been flying...
As for movies, I went to the premiere of Iron Sky and watched Skyfall a couple of weeks after premiere; both were great movies! The anticipated sequels for this year weren't all that they were hyped up to be, though. It was fun seeing Arnold in Expendables 2, MIB 3 was a kick of nostalgia and Dark Knight Rises was good but they were still not in Inception-class at all. As for Silent Hill, I haven't seen it yet! Maybe there's hope! 2012 has otherwise been a good movie year. The last one I watched was Dredd (not reviewed yet), and it surpassed my expectations. Great movie, much better than the Stallone version, though I did like that one too. The original writer partly directing the movie probably has something to do with it. :) Red Tails, Skyfall, Looper, CZ12, Lockout, 21 Jump Street & John Carter are all recommended titles! There's also Danny Trejo's second debut as main character in Bad Ass, and he's on a roll! I also discovered Tim-Man, a Swedish martial artist (more like master). I watched two movies with him yesterday, and they were both great, but that's another (or two other) post(s). I'm probably forgetting a lot of great movies, because I Recall watching a lot of good movies this year!
In the real word, dictatorships have been toppled, but online democracy is being trampled on. At the start of the year we had a brief victory with SOPA, but then they shut down MegaUpload... and a great deal of other websites. Will 2013 be as intensive a year as this one? Will Internet remain a center of culture and freeness of speech or will they shut it down?
About the Mayan prophecy btw, I was almost hoping that something would happen, that a natural catastrophe might unite people and ignite a change in the way the world is steered, because the way it is now, it's all wrong. But, maybe the change has happened. In Greece people are riding bikes like never before, where cars used to be a sign of wealth and status and bikes were not used much. And then there's all the toppled dictators, and GOG introduced support for MAC as well as PC, and Windows 8 is selling worse than Vista did when it came out, so maybe there is justice after all! Or am I just rambling? ;)
About the Mayans, maybe their prophecy was linked to the sun storms? Because they're becoming more powerful this year, and they are dangerous, maybe not as much to us as to all of us as our modern society with power grids and hardware that can easily be affected by the suns magnetism. Thinking about how the Mayans worshiped the sun and moon, and even developed a calender based on the sun and moon that was more precise than the one we use now, this sounds highly plausible. To me, at least. What do you think? What will happen to the world from now on?
I look to the new year with exhilaration and hope, and look back at the old one like: Damn! It's over already? I still haven't sorted all the blogposts from 2005! Or converted my MP3s back to 320 kbps (from WAV sources)! Or organized my old flash files! Or made a full backup of my email! Or finished the assignment I'm working on! ARGH! No matter, tomorrow, I'll have 365 new days to finish. :)
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