2008: My Year in Review

2008 was a landmark year in my life. It was a year of transition: ends, beginnings, redefinitions, and, most of all, getting back to the core of who I am and what I want out of life. Looking back over my tangible accomplishments, it's also been a fairly productive year.

1. I wrote or rewrote five screenplays totaling 489 pages and 93,500 words.
2. I wrote five pieces of short fiction and one free-verse poem, totaling 10,300 words.
3. In the last two months of the year, I wrote the first 90,000 words of a novel.
4. I wrote some nonfiction essays and brainstormed/planned a number of others.
5. I wrote 88 blog posts (make that 89, I guess, including this one).
6. I started jogging, kept coaching little kid soccer, and took fencing lessons.
   
7. I participated in and won ScriptFrenzy for the first time and also served as the municipal liaison for the Kansas City area.
8. I participated in and won NaNoWriMo for the fourth time.
9. I reached my goal of reading 24 books a year for the second year in a row.
10. I watched 151 movies and learned a lot about the art of cinema.
    

Beyond the accomplishments, the year sneaked in a number of valuable lessons as well. Here are my Top 3.

1. Appreciate the present, and do not cling to what is not so. I've learned to better appreciate the ebb and flow of life. Things come and go, and we cannot control it all. There is beauty in every phase of life, even in the moments of melancholy.
2. Do something every day that moves me one step closer to my goals. Even if it's something minuscule, I try to do at least something. No day should be wasted.
3. Most importantly, I made the decision to be authentically and unapologetically me. After many years of trying to fit the mold of what I thought I should be, I realized that what I should be is, simply, me. It has been the most freeing decision of my life to date.

So, with 2008 behind me, I've set up some goals for the coming year. I like to call them New Year's Initiatives rather than resolutions. Eleven worked well for 2008, so I'm going with that for this year, too.

1. Finish the first draft of Fairytale Redux.
2. Adapt a novel for the screen.
3. Edit/re-write SoS.
4. Rewrite M. Valentine.
5. Write a stage play or a comic book script for ScriptFrenzy 2009.
6. NaNoWriMo 2009.
7. Visit a place I've never been before.
8. Read another 24 books.
9. Finish a themed short story collection.
10. Write another spec screenplay.
11. Film a short.
    

So, cheers to 2008 being over, and here's to 2009 being the best year yet. Happy New Year, everyone.

2008: The Year in Movies

I saw a total of 151 movies this year, which, if you're counting, comes out to about one every two and a half days. Out of those, 46 were new releases. Below are my ratings of those new releases, along with an explanation of what I tend to mean by those ratings.

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THE BEST OF THE YEAR

5 stars
(Must See)

Wall-E
Nixon

4 stars
(Should See)

Definitely, Maybe

Bigga Than Ben
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Penelope

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ALL THE REST

3 1/2 stars
(Worth Seeing, But Not Groundbreaking)
Iron Man
Hellboy 2
What Happens in Vegas
X-Files 2: I Want to Believe
Bottle Shock
Wanted
Hancock
Tropic Thunder
Burn After Reading
The Duchess
High School Musical 3
Mamma Mia!
Bolt

3 stars
(Take it or Leave it)

Cloverfield
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Baby Mama
Made of Honor
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Kung Fu Panda
Get Smart
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
Hamlet 2
Ghost Town
Australia
Twilight
Yes Man
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Seven Pounds

2 1/2 stars
(Only See if You're Interested in the Genre/Actor/Some Other Factor)
There Will Be Blood
The Other Boleyn Girl
Leatherheads
The Tale of Despereaux

1 star
(Avoid!)
Prom Night

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BEST RATED RENTALS/PURCHASES

Additionally, I thought I'd list the 4- and 5-star rentals/purchases. If you haven't seen these, they're worth adding to your Netflix queue.

5 stars
Ordinary People (1980)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
Once (2007)
Harvey (1950)

4 stars
(or a strong 3 1/2 stars)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Rear Window (1954)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Tootsie (1982)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
The Lion King (1994)
The Full Monty (1997)
Wilde (1997)
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Almost Famous (2000)
Hedwig & the Angry Inch (2001)
Amélie (2001)
Conversations with Other Women (2005)
Shopgirl (2005)
Angel-A (2005)
Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut) (2005)
Joyeux Noël (2005)
Children of Men (2006)
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
Eastern Promises (2007)
Meet Bill (2007)
Ratatouille (2007)
The Orphanage (2007)
Stardust (2007)
The History Boys (2006)
Return to Me (2000)
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Son of Rambow (2007)
Then She Found Me (2007)
The Visitor (2007)
All the President's Men (1976)