Stuff I Liked (and Didn’t Like) in 2012

Back when I worked at a different magazine (no longer in business) we always did that thing that magazines do to fill space to inform the reader: the year-end review. I miss those halcyon days of arguing whether the year’s “Worst Plot Twist” was a child a woman didn’t remember giving birth to, or a the latest perfect doppelganger in town. So I’m going to indulge a little a make up a Best/Worst List of Stuff I’m Interested In – which, if you’ve been reading along at home, could be just about anything.

Worst Stalled Negotiations: Forget the so-called “fiscal cliff” – we still haven’t had any NHL hockey! I hope the league owners will realize what greedy idiots they have been in the coming days and back the hell off their unreasonable demands. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is the devil.

11 TV Shows I Enjoyed in 2011

Doctor Who

After posting thoughts about 11 movies I loved and loathed in 2011, I realized I should do the same thing for TV shows. This isn’t a list about “quality” TV – although all the shows on this list are well-made – these are the shows that I enjoyed watching; felt like rushing home to watch; or was willing to actually program the DVR to see. These are the shows I liked the most. These are my opinions, and I feel comfortable with them.

11 Thoughts About 11 Films From 2011

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2

With just about two weeks of 2012 under our belts, I figure we now have a little perspective on 2011, so why not take a look back at some of the cinematic achievements — good and bad — of the year?

I limited this survey to 11 films because I don’t want to ramble on at length. Wherever relevant I linked to my full reviews of the movies mentioned. This is by no means an exhaustive list of the 2011 films I have opinions about; these are just the movies that leaped immediately to mind. There may be more where this came from. (I hope that sounds like a promise, not a threat!)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 raked in $1.3 billion dollars at the box office last year, marking one of those rare times when a film’s financial success was commensurate with its artistic success. I really enjoyed this fun adventure flick, which seemed to contain all the action that was missing from the lugubrious Part 1. This movie reminded me of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as far as being a suitable wrap-up to an epic series. The characters reached a natural end point, and viewers felt satisfied that a complete story had been told.

My Favorite Photos of 2011: Green Lantern Kitty

Here we have perhaps my favorite favorite photograph — more than the cyclops shark and more than the frozen bubbles — an actual living cat glowing with bioluminescence. Yep, this cat glows with internal light.

Now, before you go turning off your room lights, this kitteh is special. Scientists splices his genes with the cells that make a certain jellyfish glow naturally. The result is an unearthly greenish aura around this cat — who, I stress, was not harmed by the process.

My little green buddy looks ready to join the Green Lantern Corps!

My Favorite Photos of 2011: Hockey, anyone?

Continuing my theme of really cool nature/science photos I enjoyed in 2011 (such as the one-eyed shark), I couldn’t resist mentioning a series of shots taken by Emmanuel Coupe as part of the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2011. Mr. Coupe focused on Abraham Lake, in the Canadian Rockies in Alberta, Canada. These are my favorites.

Frozen bubbles

Sunset

Blue ice

My Favorite Photos of 2011: Cyclops Shark

With the year rapidly coming to a close, I wanted to do some fun posts to wrap up 2011, so I thought I’d take a look at the year’s best photographs — according to me. These are the pics I liked the most or that affected me in some way that made them memorable. There’s no particular ranking to the photos, and I don’t particularly care what official photographic organizations think of them.

First up is a photo that freaked me out when I first saw it back in June: The cyclopean albino shark fetus. The mysterious, milky mutant instantly went viral. However, this looked SO fake that I couldn’t believe the photo was getting wide distribution; there was no way it could be real, right? A shark’s eyes are located on the sides of its head, so even if it had only one, it wouldn’t be in the middle of its nose on the front of its head, right? The pale thing even resembled a ghost more than a real shark.