Third Annual Year-End Awards
2006 was a big year for me. Lots of things happened (as it does every year), which is why I do these year end awards. So without further ado- here is my latest list:
Best Movie of the Year: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
1st Runner-Up: Crank
2nd Runner-Up: X-Men 3: The Last Stand, The Protector, and District B13 (TIE)
I'm totally agreeing with Henry's own best movie picks. For pretty much the same reasons. Borat was probably one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and Crank was an awesome action movie that gave the crowd everything they could have wanted. Will it stand the test of time? Who knows? But I know I had a blast watching it in the theater with a group of friends and cheering at different things Jason Statham's character did.
Second Runner up was a three-way tie between three very cool action movies. I'm a huge comic book geek so I had to put X-Men 3 in there. I thought it was a very good action movie, but it could have used 25 minutes more in order to develop the plot more. Both The Protector and District B13 were foreign martial arts and/or Parkeur movies. The action in each of them was just jaw-dropping. The chase scenes in District b13 are insane, and the fight scenes in The Protector (especially the one near the end with Tony Jaa vs like 30 henchmen) will have you cheering and rewinding the DVD (once it comes out) to watch the scene again.
CD of the Year: The Living End- State of Emergency
1st Runner-Up: Foo Fighters- Skin & Bones
2nd Runner-up: Lostprophets- Liberation Transmission & Hoobastank- Every Man for Himself (TIE)
This was an easy one. From the moment the first track on the latest Living End CD started I knew it was gonna be a mainstay in my CD player for a long time. I picked up the CD the week it came out back in July, and it's STILL in my car's player. It's that freakin good. You should all go buy a copy.
The first runner-up came out of nowhere. It's a live CD of the Foo Fighters from their recent acoustic tour. I went to the show when it came to NY and it was awesome, and the CD is a great representation of how great that tour was.
Second runner-up was hard to call. Lots of artists that I like came out with new albums this year, but most of them were a bit disappointing. The Hoobastank album isn't as good as their original two albums, but I do like it and the same goes for the Lostprophets' latest album.
Book of the Year: 24 Declassified- Trojan Horse
I actually didn't get to read as much this year as I had been the past few years (due to me being a lot busier in the school's I work in). I read a few Star Wars books, but I don't even recall the titles to them at the moment. This 24 book was really well done though, and totally seemed like it could have been a season of the show. So it gets my vote.
Speaking of TV shows...
Best TV Show of the Year: 24
1st Runner-Up: Scrubs
2nd Runner-Up: Heroes
24 is going to keep winning this award every year if they keep having seasons like the last two. They really went out this season, killing off major characters left and right- proving that NO ONE is safe, which kept the drama and suspense at an all-time high.
As I mentioned in a recent post, I just recently discovered the show Scrubs. And boy I didn't realize what I was missing! Scrubs is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. Something in pretty much every episode gets me to bust out laughing. And while some shows like South Park and My Name is Earl do deliver big laugh out loud moments, they're not as consistent as Scrubs is.
The final runner-up is my favorite NEW show. I actually didn't even know about Heroes until about a week before it was going to air. I saw some commercials on another channel and I thought "hmm... this looks like it could be interesting." And then I read some articles about it on ign.com and it sounded really cool. And even though it started off a little slow, it really picked up as each episode went by. And by the time the episode "Hiro's" aired, I was hooked. The show has a great ensemble cast, and the writer's of this show actually know how to introduce mystery's and drop you actual clues along the way. Heck, they even give you ANSWERS and PAYOFFS, unlike another largely popular show that got me really annoyed this season (COUGHlostCOUGH).
Video Game of the Year: Suikoden V
1st-Runner-Up: Guitar Hero 1 & 2
2nd Runner-Up: Lego Star Wars 2
Honorable Mention: Wii Sports
This award gets harder and harder for me as I wind up playing fewer and fewer games as the years go by, b/c I don't have the time to play as much as I used to. But I made a lot of time to play Suikoden V and it was well worth it. This game was just MASSIVE. I've beaten the other Suikoden games on an average of 30-50 hours, this one took me around 90+ hours to finish! I didn't even start the collecting of the 108 Stars of Destiny until over ten hours into the game, which is just insane. And the cool thing was, that as long as the game was, I was never bored. The action is really good, and the story was one of the best I've seen in an RPG in a long while (probably not since Star Wars: KOTOR).
I just got Guitar Hero 1 & 2 for Christmas, but I've already lost a good many hours to those games, which is why I've placed them as the 1st Runner-Up. I always wanted to learn to play guitar so I could jam to some of my favorite rock hits, but I never made the time to learn. Well this game finally lets me do that, without the extra time it takes to learn an instrument (although I wonder if my skills on this guitar would translate well over to a real one).
Second runner-up goes to Lego Star Wars 2 b/c the first one was really fun, and they improved almost every aspect of that game for the latest version. It's a really cool game to play, and me and Ariana have been having a blast with it, especially over this Christmas break.
And finally, I'm putting in an honorable mention of Wii Sports b/c it's got my whole family (and as of the New Year's party a few friends) addicted to it. It comes with five sports games in it, including: bowling, baseball, tennis, golf and boxing. The fun comes in the unique way you have to play the games (using the new Wii-mote controllers). Only reason, this didn't get an actual placing is b/c it's not really a full game. It's more of just an introduction to the Wii to teach you how to play, just in a really fun way. But seriously, even as it stands right now, that game alone is more than enough reason to buy a Wii. And I can't wait to play the new Zelda... I have a feeling that game may be next year's V.G.O.T.Y.
Normally at this time I'd present the "D'Oh! Moment(s) of the Year" awards. But as I said earlier, I had a pretty good year. So instead I now present to you my "Awesome Moment(s) of the Year' awards:
Awesome Moment(s) of the Year: Getting engaged to Ariana while we were on vacation in Puerto Rico
1st Runner-Up: My huge birthday party at Chelsea Piers Bowling and Red Rock West
2nd Runner-Up: Getting into and starting graduate school at Lehman College
Honorable Mention: My job's program being refunded by the Federal gov't and thus not being out of work.
I think the winner of this category is pretty self-explanatory. It was just about the biggest moment of my life, and will lead to many great changes in the coming years. I don't think I could be happier than I was in those moments. It's going to be quite a fun adventure getting prepared for married life, and I couldn't be more excited for it.
As for the 1st runner-up, if I hadn't gotten engaged this year, this probably would have won. I mean I knew my party would be fun (free bowling with all my good friends and going to the equivalent of Coyote Ugly afterwards, how could it not)? But oh man, did I have an even better time than expected. What made it an even bigger moment was that everyone told me that they had just as awesome a time as I did, and I think the consensus will agree it was the craziest birthday party of the year.
Second runner-up was also important b/c it bring about some changes in my life as well. I'm finally on track to becoming a professional school counselor! And the program seems to be a lot of fun so far. I was really upset for awhile with how everything turned out at Fordham, but who knows, maybe this was God's plan for me all along? It seems to be working out well so far, so I am really grateful to God for that.
Another thing I'm grateful for, is that my job's program was refunded by the federal gov't. We're SUPPOSED to have four years, but we'll see how it goes year by year. But at least we got funded for at least one more year, which was a blessing b/c it would have been crazy to be job hunting just as I was starting grad school. So things worked out well there.
And of course, last but not least. The award I always save until the end:
Concert of the Year: The Living End @ Avalon
1st Runner-Up: Foo Fighters Acoustic Show @ Beacon Theater
2nd Runner-Up: Dave Matthews Band @ Randall's Island
It was another slow year for concerts for me (I don't even think I made it to 12), but the ones I did go to really stood out, which made this year's award hard to decide on. I could give every other concert an honorable mention (especially the Lostprophets, Zebrahead and the second Living End shows).
The winner of this category was never really any doubt though, just b/c of the experience I had that night as a whole. I've already done an entire blog about it, so I won't go into detail again, but I defintely had a blast.
I also have a blog about the Foo Fighters show, so I won't say too much on that one either, other than they really surprised me with how good many of their songs are when done acoustically.
The second runner-up got that spot more for the overall experience at the show. First, I got to go for free b/c Stevo had an extra ticket (that's always a plus). Then we got to the show early and tail-gaited for a few hours which was a lot of fun- especially watching Stevo get drunk and come up with some classic quotes. And finally, the show itself was just really good, as DMB played just about everything I wanted to hear.
So overall, I had a great year. Lots of memorable moments, by myself and with family, loved ones and friends. I just want to thank all of you for being so awesome, and I'm blessed to have all my friends in my life. You all truly make it very interesting. :-)
Best Movie of the Year: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
1st Runner-Up: Crank
2nd Runner-Up: X-Men 3: The Last Stand, The Protector, and District B13 (TIE)
I'm totally agreeing with Henry's own best movie picks. For pretty much the same reasons. Borat was probably one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and Crank was an awesome action movie that gave the crowd everything they could have wanted. Will it stand the test of time? Who knows? But I know I had a blast watching it in the theater with a group of friends and cheering at different things Jason Statham's character did.
Second Runner up was a three-way tie between three very cool action movies. I'm a huge comic book geek so I had to put X-Men 3 in there. I thought it was a very good action movie, but it could have used 25 minutes more in order to develop the plot more. Both The Protector and District B13 were foreign martial arts and/or Parkeur movies. The action in each of them was just jaw-dropping. The chase scenes in District b13 are insane, and the fight scenes in The Protector (especially the one near the end with Tony Jaa vs like 30 henchmen) will have you cheering and rewinding the DVD (once it comes out) to watch the scene again.
CD of the Year: The Living End- State of Emergency
1st Runner-Up: Foo Fighters- Skin & Bones
2nd Runner-up: Lostprophets- Liberation Transmission & Hoobastank- Every Man for Himself (TIE)
This was an easy one. From the moment the first track on the latest Living End CD started I knew it was gonna be a mainstay in my CD player for a long time. I picked up the CD the week it came out back in July, and it's STILL in my car's player. It's that freakin good. You should all go buy a copy.
The first runner-up came out of nowhere. It's a live CD of the Foo Fighters from their recent acoustic tour. I went to the show when it came to NY and it was awesome, and the CD is a great representation of how great that tour was.
Second runner-up was hard to call. Lots of artists that I like came out with new albums this year, but most of them were a bit disappointing. The Hoobastank album isn't as good as their original two albums, but I do like it and the same goes for the Lostprophets' latest album.
Book of the Year: 24 Declassified- Trojan Horse
I actually didn't get to read as much this year as I had been the past few years (due to me being a lot busier in the school's I work in). I read a few Star Wars books, but I don't even recall the titles to them at the moment. This 24 book was really well done though, and totally seemed like it could have been a season of the show. So it gets my vote.
Speaking of TV shows...
Best TV Show of the Year: 24
1st Runner-Up: Scrubs
2nd Runner-Up: Heroes
24 is going to keep winning this award every year if they keep having seasons like the last two. They really went out this season, killing off major characters left and right- proving that NO ONE is safe, which kept the drama and suspense at an all-time high.
As I mentioned in a recent post, I just recently discovered the show Scrubs. And boy I didn't realize what I was missing! Scrubs is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. Something in pretty much every episode gets me to bust out laughing. And while some shows like South Park and My Name is Earl do deliver big laugh out loud moments, they're not as consistent as Scrubs is.
The final runner-up is my favorite NEW show. I actually didn't even know about Heroes until about a week before it was going to air. I saw some commercials on another channel and I thought "hmm... this looks like it could be interesting." And then I read some articles about it on ign.com and it sounded really cool. And even though it started off a little slow, it really picked up as each episode went by. And by the time the episode "Hiro's" aired, I was hooked. The show has a great ensemble cast, and the writer's of this show actually know how to introduce mystery's and drop you actual clues along the way. Heck, they even give you ANSWERS and PAYOFFS, unlike another largely popular show that got me really annoyed this season (COUGHlostCOUGH).
Video Game of the Year: Suikoden V
1st-Runner-Up: Guitar Hero 1 & 2
2nd Runner-Up: Lego Star Wars 2
Honorable Mention: Wii Sports
This award gets harder and harder for me as I wind up playing fewer and fewer games as the years go by, b/c I don't have the time to play as much as I used to. But I made a lot of time to play Suikoden V and it was well worth it. This game was just MASSIVE. I've beaten the other Suikoden games on an average of 30-50 hours, this one took me around 90+ hours to finish! I didn't even start the collecting of the 108 Stars of Destiny until over ten hours into the game, which is just insane. And the cool thing was, that as long as the game was, I was never bored. The action is really good, and the story was one of the best I've seen in an RPG in a long while (probably not since Star Wars: KOTOR).
I just got Guitar Hero 1 & 2 for Christmas, but I've already lost a good many hours to those games, which is why I've placed them as the 1st Runner-Up. I always wanted to learn to play guitar so I could jam to some of my favorite rock hits, but I never made the time to learn. Well this game finally lets me do that, without the extra time it takes to learn an instrument (although I wonder if my skills on this guitar would translate well over to a real one).
Second runner-up goes to Lego Star Wars 2 b/c the first one was really fun, and they improved almost every aspect of that game for the latest version. It's a really cool game to play, and me and Ariana have been having a blast with it, especially over this Christmas break.
And finally, I'm putting in an honorable mention of Wii Sports b/c it's got my whole family (and as of the New Year's party a few friends) addicted to it. It comes with five sports games in it, including: bowling, baseball, tennis, golf and boxing. The fun comes in the unique way you have to play the games (using the new Wii-mote controllers). Only reason, this didn't get an actual placing is b/c it's not really a full game. It's more of just an introduction to the Wii to teach you how to play, just in a really fun way. But seriously, even as it stands right now, that game alone is more than enough reason to buy a Wii. And I can't wait to play the new Zelda... I have a feeling that game may be next year's V.G.O.T.Y.
Normally at this time I'd present the "D'Oh! Moment(s) of the Year" awards. But as I said earlier, I had a pretty good year. So instead I now present to you my "Awesome Moment(s) of the Year' awards:
Awesome Moment(s) of the Year: Getting engaged to Ariana while we were on vacation in Puerto Rico
1st Runner-Up: My huge birthday party at Chelsea Piers Bowling and Red Rock West
2nd Runner-Up: Getting into and starting graduate school at Lehman College
Honorable Mention: My job's program being refunded by the Federal gov't and thus not being out of work.
I think the winner of this category is pretty self-explanatory. It was just about the biggest moment of my life, and will lead to many great changes in the coming years. I don't think I could be happier than I was in those moments. It's going to be quite a fun adventure getting prepared for married life, and I couldn't be more excited for it.
As for the 1st runner-up, if I hadn't gotten engaged this year, this probably would have won. I mean I knew my party would be fun (free bowling with all my good friends and going to the equivalent of Coyote Ugly afterwards, how could it not)? But oh man, did I have an even better time than expected. What made it an even bigger moment was that everyone told me that they had just as awesome a time as I did, and I think the consensus will agree it was the craziest birthday party of the year.
Second runner-up was also important b/c it bring about some changes in my life as well. I'm finally on track to becoming a professional school counselor! And the program seems to be a lot of fun so far. I was really upset for awhile with how everything turned out at Fordham, but who knows, maybe this was God's plan for me all along? It seems to be working out well so far, so I am really grateful to God for that.
Another thing I'm grateful for, is that my job's program was refunded by the federal gov't. We're SUPPOSED to have four years, but we'll see how it goes year by year. But at least we got funded for at least one more year, which was a blessing b/c it would have been crazy to be job hunting just as I was starting grad school. So things worked out well there.
And of course, last but not least. The award I always save until the end:
Concert of the Year: The Living End @ Avalon
1st Runner-Up: Foo Fighters Acoustic Show @ Beacon Theater
2nd Runner-Up: Dave Matthews Band @ Randall's Island
It was another slow year for concerts for me (I don't even think I made it to 12), but the ones I did go to really stood out, which made this year's award hard to decide on. I could give every other concert an honorable mention (especially the Lostprophets, Zebrahead and the second Living End shows).
The winner of this category was never really any doubt though, just b/c of the experience I had that night as a whole. I've already done an entire blog about it, so I won't go into detail again, but I defintely had a blast.
I also have a blog about the Foo Fighters show, so I won't say too much on that one either, other than they really surprised me with how good many of their songs are when done acoustically.
The second runner-up got that spot more for the overall experience at the show. First, I got to go for free b/c Stevo had an extra ticket (that's always a plus). Then we got to the show early and tail-gaited for a few hours which was a lot of fun- especially watching Stevo get drunk and come up with some classic quotes. And finally, the show itself was just really good, as DMB played just about everything I wanted to hear.
So overall, I had a great year. Lots of memorable moments, by myself and with family, loved ones and friends. I just want to thank all of you for being so awesome, and I'm blessed to have all my friends in my life. You all truly make it very interesting. :-)
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