2 more years, 119 more dedicated threads of 100 emails each

Or sometimes 99.

So, as a follow up to this entry, here are the email thread titles from the past two years. And if you can spot all the references, you are insane.


Personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon.
Seize the moment, 'cause tomorrow you might be dead
Aye aye, good girl, prostate probe and no jelly!
The kind of woolly-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten.
Macaroni and cheese: It's what Americans eat when they want to commit suicide slowly.
Stop saying the things I say to you!
Make sure Fluffy's getting enough love
Quirky, but there it is
You try chatting with a cranky hamburger
D'you know, I once hit a bloke for speaking French
... and a sinister need for carrots.
Which one of your sorry friends has telekinesis?
I'm here to kill you, not to judge you.
As nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot
We're your arch-nemesises...ses.
I'm not just a sex goddess, you know.
He's completely insane... and a bit magnificent.
Handcuffed to a serial contrarian
Damsons in distress
Dysfunctional
We can't run, that would be wrong. Could we hide?
Ha ha HA! Mine is an evil laugh... now die!
There's four directions on this map but you're only going one way.
Dude, did I say "harsh your melon"?
Blah blah polysyllabic blah.
I am happy drinking my own internal milk
Alright, so I bounce
Jelly baby?
Ooh you public menace
You can't rule the world in hiding. You've got to come out on the balcony sometimes and wave a tentacle.
Our rats are low.
And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.
Voldy's gone mouldy
I'm good and pure and science turns me on
Oh jealous would involve piano wire
Perhaps a little kara-tay technique will put you in your place
Nothing like a monk with a grudge
There's a hole in the world. Feels like we ought to have known.
Anyone needs me, I'll be in the supply closet eating sugar packets.
A bitca?
Chuck your boyfriend, have a sandwich
Bite Me
Toilet Snorkel
I'm dead inside!
Waffles lurking everywhere
A fulsome pair of funbags
You look like a fish when you talk
Making the world a weirder place
It's not my cow. It's a sheep with a pitchfork. Unfortunately, it goes quack.
Opaline towers as high as small moons. Glaciers that rippled with insensate lust.
Covering your tracks with the judicial application of bacon and beans.
That is salt in the wound for poor Mr Muggles.
Ennui is the new gunk
I'm not a cargo jet, Parkman!
Hello, square one, nice to see you again.
Fair play to you, not many men can carry off a decorative vegetable.
Have you killed many people?
They were just out to get me because I threatened to kill them.
All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again.
I surrender to Destiny.
The Devil Wears Primark
You never want to be on time for a ritual, the chanting, the blood rites... they go on.
Yes sir, Captain Tightpants.
The absence of balloon animals.
I retract my pachyderm
I'm 'aving hoops.
I always say there's a time to take off the noose and put on the kettle.
We could release a single.
So large that other smaller breasts will want to orbit them
I'll take away your bucket
I rarely wear clothes indoors. Hope that's cool.
Tinker, tailor, soldier, twat.
You can't prune a tree with a shotgun.
It's a cunning plan actually.
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.
-- Suicide by paint, inadvisability of --
You were my favourite construct
P.P.S. I can kill you with my brain
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea
Anyone notice a battle with your alter ego going on here?
Are you my mummy?
A Blessed in disguise
Clearly she's disturbed. I mean... clearly.
Oh my god! What can it be? We're all doomed! Who's flying this thing?!
You were all backlit and evil-smoking like that guy on the X-Files
The day he gets hit by a bus, I believe in God again.
Politics is the only thing more boring than blood samples
What's up with that frakking gimble?
That's a Dundee Cake and five Macaroons. And your target is... Toad-in-the-hole.
Now that you mention it, I have started bottling my own urine.
I love you so much, I almost forgot to brood!
The Hammer is my penis.
If god asks, I was with you
We totally had sex.
There is nothing either good or bad...
I'm very seldom naughty.
Since Angel lost his soul, he's regained his sense of whimsy
Not Everything is Significant
If you're not a friggin' tard, you will prevail
Now he must check the time whenever he wishes to copulate.
I trust you. Well, more than three gun-toting maniacs, at any rate.
Who brings a T-Rex to a vamp battle?
If a vampire offers you soup, what does it mean?
No, not the hair! Never the hair!
I think I've figured out how to steer by gesturing emphatically.
Inappropriate Touching!
I know she can't type or file. Until today I had some hope regarding the phone.
I'm a submarine!
I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn.
OMG LOL ROTFLMAO WTM I finally got a tuba!!!!!
Yes, yes and merrily we go. Reduce atmospheric nitrogen by 0.03%.
You think you know what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.
What a crazy random happenstance
Your powerful sexual chemistry is too distracting
You've seen one nova, you've seen 'em all.
So, angel's on top again?
It makes a noise. That's sonic, isn't it?
Spit goes "clink"
The small concealable weapons always go to the far left of the place setting.
So I guess a pity frak's out of the question, then?
We've invaded Britain. LOL.

My 2008 in neat little categories

My annual post...

Books

I had a terrible year for reading. I don't know why but I had a long period where I thought I would never enjoy a book ever again. The start of the year was great: Lies of Locke Lamora and American Gods were fantastic. But my favourite book of the year is Keeper's Child. It gets the prize simply because I was thinking about it long after I finished the book. It was also written in a style I don't often find in books and the freshness appealed to me a lot. Plus no other book this year had me as emotionally involved (well... actually Locke Lamora comes equal to it in that). I think I also read and highly enjoyed To Say Nothing of the Dog this year. But then came about seven months of not finding a single book enjoyable (I feel tempted to blame the AA reread for that since everything pales to that book with the exception of AQ...). Now I am actually into two books (The Last Watch and Nation which are both superb but I haven't finished them yet. Actually Nation reminds me a bit of Keeper's Child).

Update: I finished Nation in 2008 and adored it. Fantastic book. It felt like a new (dark) style for Sir Terry but retained his some of his humour

Television

Battlestar Galactica usually fills this position as my favourite show of the year but this season (4) has not captured my enthusiasm in the same way as it used to. The rewatches with skit have been fun though. Talk of disappointing seasons, Dexter season 3 wasn't a patch on the previous two seasons. However, as I watched it on iTunes, I saw Dexter season 2 in 2008 (broadcast on Showtime in 2007) and it really did amaze me. It had the same affect on me as Angel and indeed Assassin's Quest. It made my life brilliant by its mere presence. I was getting by with less sleep and I couldn't stop the feeling of happiness from engulfing me. The guests were perfect: Lundy and Lila. The twists and turns of the story were powerful and the pacing perfect. Dexter's transformation over the course of the episodes was quite phenomenal (indeed, he arced well in season 3 as well) and I have fallen in love with the character so badly.



Mentions should also go to Doctor Who which had a great series with Donna Noble as the companion (except for the final three episodes which I find quite forgettable...) and Torchwood which successfully lightened the mood in its second series making the characters more likable and the dynamic more effective... and hence making me realise that actually the dark and despairing tone of the first series was quite superior and under-rated. The problem with Torchwood was though that only two of the cast could act well and the lead was actually abysmal...



Finally, although my personal vote goes to Dexter, I think that the most perfect shows were Mad Men (second season) which is a work of art with its beautiful sets, directing and cleverly nuanced dialogue plus the highly original and subtly drawn characters, and Lost which, as a result of the writer's strike, produced a condensed season 4 absolutely full of action, answers, scifi and epic love.



Films

I've not really watched many films this year. I saw superhero films only essentially: Iron Man, Dark Knight, Indiana Jones 4 and Wanted. I think Iron Man was my favourite and Dark Knight the best... but honestly, I was not overly inspired by any of them. I watched Atonement on a flight and thought that pretty good for something without big action sequences...



Personal Event

It is always Hobbling related, isn't it? Well, this year I went to Olympic National Park in the state of Washington with our very own Mr Cooper who put me up and put up with me for a longish weekend. It was fantastic. I love the states and I love their National Parks and this one has to be the best... Forest, rainforest, beach and the most amazing snow covered mountains ever... I will never get over how quiet it was up there (and yet how much you could hear from far away...). Absolutely amazing. And the other parts to the trip were great too. Mr Cooper never talks about Carolyn enough who is a truly amazing person. And the community of his town is wonderfully nuts...



I also saw Rian again on that trip (always a great pleasure) and I returned to Silicon Valley to reunite with friends there. Such a fantastic time. I really miss everyone...


Theatre

So this year I saw a few things of note including Speed The Plow with Jeff Goldblum and Kevin Spacey, Revenger's Tragedy with loud music, lots of blood and a rotating stage full of darkness and er... rape, Hamlet starring the Doctor and Captain Picard and also various things at Edinburgh. The best thing I saw was one of those things at Edinburgh: Ben Moor's Not Everything Is Significant. The wordplay, density of ideas and metaphysical and metaphorical story just inspired and amazed me. Pre-order the book now! Speaking of Edinburgh, it was great to finally make it to Scotland and see the beauty of the highlands as well as attend the fringe festival which has been an ambition of mine since I realised what comedy was.