Bisan Unsa Lang 2011! Or Here’s My Love to 2012!

Welcome readers to our 2011 wrap-up! As has been the tradition of this blog, a few hours before the calendar resets to January with an additional number on the fourth digit, this post will once again give you the best (or maybe worst depending on how this post will turn out) of 2011.

I do this not only to oblige/entertain my avid readers (I have three ‘rabid’, dear readers out there. Hope you’ve a great time, in good health and cheer, enjoying and drinking the devil’s piss right now, as I am), but also to entertain/encourage myself, see where I am right now and where to go from here, what I’d done so far and what to do next, those kinds of things.

That said, let’s wrap up 2011, mm?

5 Best Posts of 2011

[Note: I’ve written 24 posts overall in 2011. This one included. That means I average 2 posts per month. Not much there, ain’t it? Disappointed, of course. No excuse. I must up that number in 2012. My first New Year resolution. Check.]

1.       How I Shafted My Day Job (Well, Almost)

2.       Welcoming a Summer of Nerdy Solitude

3.       This Must Be Written Fast

4.       Freaking Ingenuity

5.       Okay Now, I'm Over a Hump, What's Next?

These are the posts that best represent my 2011, or what it was like.

Books I Have Read in 2011

1.  The Paladin of the Lost Hour (Harlan Ellison)

2. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

3. Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)

4. Dubliners (James Joyce)

5.   Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (Judy Blume)

6.  Galloway (Louis L’Amour)

7. Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)

8.  Kafka On The Shore (Haruki Murakami)

9.  The Sky-Liners (Louis L’Amour)

10. Woody Allen: A Biography (Eric Lax)

11. The Art of the Deal (Donald Trump)

12. Neuromancer (William Gibson)

13. The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)

14. Here Comes, There Goes, You Know Who (William Saroyan)

15. Rickles’ Letters (Don Rickles with David Ritz)

16.  Now and Then (Joseph Heller)

17. To Have and Have Not (Ernest Hemingway)

18. The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler)

19.  Farewell, My Lovely (Raymond Chandler)

20. The Lady in the Lake (Raymond Chandler)

21. The High Window (Raymond Chandler)

22.   A Treasury of Business Quotations (Michael C. Thomsett)

23. Rickles’ Book (Don Rickles with David Ritz)

24.  The Element of Style (Strunk and White)

25.  No Doors, No Windows (Harlan Ellison)

26.   Codex (Lev Grossman)

27.  Go Tell It On The Mountain (James Baldwin)

28.  King Lear (William Shakespeare)

29. Don’t Shoot, It’s Only Me (Bob Hope with Melville Shavelson)

30.  The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)

31.  Without Feathers (Woody Allen)

32.The 4-Hour Workweek (Timothy Ferris)

33. Serenade (James M. Cain)

34. Love’s Lovely Counterfeit (James M. Cain)

35. The Butterfly (James M. Cain)

36.  On Becoming a Novelist (John Gardner)

37. Literary Reflections (James Michener)

38.  Writing Down the Bones (Natalie Goldberg)

39.   The Louis L’Amour Companion (Robert Weinberg)

My goal is to read 100 books this year. Again, I hit the eagle while shooting the moon.

Best Comic Books in 2011

1.  Hellblazer (#1-#285)

2. 100 Bullets (#1-#20)

Best Movies, Documentaries, or TV Series I’ve Watched in 2011

1. Dreams with Sharp Teeth (Documentary)

2. Deadwood (TV Series)

3. Games of Thrones (TV Series)

4. On the Waterfront (movie)

5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 

6. Steve Jobs: One Last Thing (Documentary)

7. Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts

8. Rome (TV Series)

9. The Sopranos (TV Series)

Created a Biz Website

RetirementPlanDB.com

I’ve something to do with that website. It’s a start-up that can hopefully earn some income this 2012.

There you’ve them. And oh, I am still working in the same call center company as staff writer, and also accepting freelance gigs on the side.

It’s now only 12 hours before ushering in 2012! Happy New Year! Your first slug of the wine (or beer) is mine. See you on the other side, my dear friend! Cheers!