Some of the topics I studied in my final semester included Gothic lit, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, country music and serial killers. Bored one night, I assembled a list of my favorite TV couples. Consumed a lot of caffeine through pop, energy drinks and coffee. Studied sketch comedy through reruns of Saturday Night Live and premature endings through reruns of Law & Order. Decided that if I had time to get into them, I would really enjoy ER and Castle. Practiced cartooning for Pop Market. I completed a 5K, went on a couple dates, and met a coatimundi. I was successfully murdered (in a play) and watched a lot of hockey. Survived the capstone presentation and graduation. Interned at the Okmulgee News Network for Valerie. Started writing about NASCAR for a racing-news website called Frontstretch in October. Spent more time around the Creek Nation than I would've wished, and sent out far too many job-application emails. .
I got Caleb hooked on Parks and Recreation, which I'm kind of proud of, and taught him how to use Spotify. Joined Instagram in late May. Missed camp, but spent some time with a camp friend. Went hiking in Arkansas, and unsuccessfully tried to line dance on Black Friday. Read roughly the same amount of fiction and nonfiction, and watched more movies than usual. Followed the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. through the Framework and into space.
Read through the letters of E.B. White and the complete short stories of Flannery O'Connor. Read about 160 books this year, distributed pretty evenly across fiction and nonfiction. These ranged from graphic novels to philosophy, memoirs to horror, theology to business.
Made progress on a couple nonfiction projects, and did a lot of editing to fiction and poetry. Wrote a handful of short stories (which can be found on the writing blog), adapted a flashfiction project into a one-act play, and taught myself how to navigate a crime map.
According to Spotify, I listened to 6,196 minutes of music, in 756 songs from 391 different artists and 18 genres. The song count sounds a little low. The top five artists/bands were Owl City, Brad Paisley, Relient K, Bon Jovi and DC Talk. The top six songs were Collin Raye's "One Boy, One Girl" and "I Can Still Feel You," Avril Lavigne's "Keep Holding On," Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer,"Relient K's "For the Moments I Feel Faint," and eLi's "The Lumber Song."
The Collin Raye songs were mostly for my capstone project, but the others are a good summary of how the year went.
President Donald Trump caused mayhem and controversy on what seemed a weekly basis, many elite Hollywood and national-news-media people were fired for being Bill Dexhart. The public further lost interest in the NFL after numerous players protested the National Anthem.
Saturday Night Live had trouble adjusting to how to react to Trump, and decided to fire most of their best (in my opinion) cast members.
The Penguins won the Stanley Cup (over the Predators), the Warriors won the NBA Finals (over the Cavaliers), the Patriots won the Super Bowl (over the Falcons), and the Astros won the World Series (over the Dodgers). Martin Truex Jr. dominated the NASCAR Cup Series season and won the championship.
New installments of Star Wars and the DC Extended Universe were released. The MCU rolled on with two "good but not great" films and a mostly-fantastic introduction to Spider-Man.
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma hit the Gulf Coast and most of Florida, there was a solar eclipse in August and a mass shooting in Las Vegas at a Jason Aldean concert. Someone shot up a church in Texas.
It was another difficult year. Maybe next year will be better.
No comments:
Post a Comment