Insert typical "Best of 2008" post here

Okay ~ you've read the rest now read the best ~ the definitive list of the good stuff from the year that was 2008 ~ skidooosh!


Best films of the year ~
The jury is still out on this one since I haven't seen Milk yet or a few other contenders such as Slumdog Millionaire. But hey I liked WALLE ~ but didn't everyone?


Best Books ~
Lots of great reads this year - just going by what I read and not publishing date ...
{tbd}

Best in TV ~
Mad Men - OBVIOUSLY! Without a doubt ... Number ONE!
But also enjoyed The Wire, Breaking Bad, Doctor Who, Skins, Psych and
The Office was okay - but getting stale - and just recently started watching Chuck and 30 Rock which are funny at times ... Also I enjoy that silly sitcom with Neil Patrick Harris - How I met my Mother - it's silly but fun to watch ... AND the last season of Project Runway was great too ...



Best personal obsessions ~

This was not only the year I discovered the simple pleasures of the pencil,
but also the year that I discovered and fell in love with Japanese dollar stores and the many pleasures contained there with in - from the wooden toys to the strange candies to the cool erasers and notebooks to the many options in bento boxes and chopsticks! There is no end to the fun I tell you ...

Best Music of 2008 ...

* The Dodos- Visiter
* Vampire Weekend - self titled
* Deerhunter - Microcastle
* The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
* High Places - Self titled
* No Age - Nouns
* Jay Reatard - Singles 2008
* Los Campesinos! - We are Beautiful, We are Doomed
* Blitzen Trapper - Furr
* Fleet Foxes - self titled
* Also ~
* Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll!!!
* The Supreme Genius of King Khan & the Shrines
* Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (Legacy Edition)
* Weezer (Red)
* Los Campesinos - Hold on Now, Youngster…

The mind wanders & picks up tinker toys along the way...

So I'm thinking about the year that was, and looking back as we tend to do as we prepare to begin another one, and I am pleased to say that it was damn fine year in many ways. Oh sure, we're all doomed to poverty and endless economic suffering for years to come ~ but hey, we went places and accomplished things as well this year. So here's my quick recap of the year in retrospect (before my brain erases all the files and says - What trip to Tahoe?)

In January, we went to Tahoe and had a blast in the snow with my parents & Teri + Elijah and the Goodrich family (we even watched the NFL play off game & some great flix like The Last Mimzy).

I coached my first Odyssey of the Mind team at Glenview, problem #3 - The Muses!

I survived my last year of teaching preschool at Ducks Nest with a crazy bunch of four year olds that became very dear to me...

The kids survived and had fun at several summer camps over the summer ...

We also had a great trip back east in July ~ I got sunburned in Michigan, spent time in Metamora, traveled by car to Canada & we rode the Maid of the Mist by Niagara Falls ~ swam in my brother's pool ~ had lots of Salmon!

Began working for Sanrio!

Became obsessed with pencils in September ~

Went to Gerry Beyer's wedding at the Cliff house ~

Bought a Toyota Prius ~ AND ...

Got hired as a permanent employee of Sanrio as a fulltime web designer!

Yeah ~ you could say it was a good year - and it was!

On the moon

Yes ~ it is time for me to get back to it! It will soon be 2009 ~ the time to begin a new comic strip featuring a clumsy robot and his adventures among the stars. M-bot and his alien friend, Udu (he's the green one armed alien with the big space helmet guy) shall indeed have a promiment place here in 2009. Look out!

Panda Power!

Christmas this year at our house could have easily been renamed "Panda-mas" ~ complete and utter Panda-monium! We have many many panda toys and products ~ from the panda bento box to the panda raincoat to a solar powered panda nodder! There is no lack of pandas in any department, we even have panda chopsticks!
We found this crazy source for panda stuff ~ Tokyo Jazz Panda not to mention all the cool shops in Oakland and such. Sally is still crazy about pandas. Her tiger phase lasted about a year and a half, who knows how long this panda trip will be? Only time will tell. Well enjoy the photos.

Happy Holidays!

Please enjoy this animated flash movie I made for Sanrio ~
http://www.sanrio.com/holiday2008/

Holly Jolly and some tinsel too

It's that time once again, to find some holiday music and make festive and what not. For me it's gotta be the Sufjan Stevens album - Songs for Christmas or The Three Suns - Ding Dong Dandy Christmas. Also David Sedaris's The Santaland Diaries set the mood as well as watching the Christmas story or any holiday claymation by Rankin/Bass. It's been a long time since my last post on this sad sack of a blog, but hey I am working like a mad man these days, so it's okay.

For more holiday music that will blow your mind, check out this incredible blog called Ernie (Not Bert) ~ tons of great music for free!

Bodhi Day

Namaste! My nifty keen Life in Hell Calendar tells me, today is Bodhi Day! (December 8th) It is the day that Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened as the Buddha. Learn more!

Happy Chester Greenwood Day!

Happy Chester Greenwood Day! Yes it is time to celebrate the inventor of the ear muff ~ It all began in 1873 with some cold ears ... I am not sure why this special day celebrating the man and the invention of ear mufflers or "Greenwood's Ear Protectors" came to mean something to me but it's nice to have fuzzy warm ear muffs on when you're out and about with a proper hat on & it's freezing cold outside. I speak not from experience, since I live in Oakland, California ~ where the temperature remains in the high forties during our coldest days in the winter. But the rest of you - enjoy thine ear muffs!

Bark at the Moon!

Happy Birthday, Ozzy Osbourne! YEAASs! Let us honor the dark lord of RAWK, the prince of darkness himself, OZZY! Don't deny your roots people. I began my adolescence with Ozzy, Motley Crue and the like ~ Yes, it's Ozzy's 60th birthday! On a personal note, I've written O-Z-Z-Y across my knuckles many a time during Junior High and I'll never forget camping as a Boy Scout and playing BARK AT THE MOON as loud as possible at midnight ~ So many great songs like Crazy Train, Iron Man, Mr. Crowley, Suicide Solution, Warpigs, I Don't Know, Bark at the moon, Paranoid, Over the Mountain, Miracle Man - not to mention some other Black Sabbath classics like Fairies wear boots & Sabbath Bloody Sabbath of course. Happy Birthday, Ozzy! (Cue flame throwing demoniod robot creature ... now!)

Thanksgiving story

Yes this is my first post in over a week ... What can I say ~ it's that time of year when life gets hectic and overwhelming all at once, aah yes the holiday season! So I had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Chris & Kip's this year, astoundingly magnificent I should say except for the fact that I sat next to Jake (SICK BOY) during our private screening of Quantum of Solace (We have a friend on the Academy awards viewing list - Sshhh!) And after Friday's traditional turkey leftovers and multiple slices of pie & watching The Duchess by the warm fire, I began to feel not so well. Saturday and Sunday were spent trying to sleep with an anvil inside my head, the sinus pain was awful. Luckily I recovered enough to hop back to work on Monday ... Well that's my story.