What Affected Me In 2010

Just thought I'd go over the year's stories and determine what affected me and what didn't.

Not many news stories affected me personally in 2010.  Wikileaks?  Nope.  BP oil spill?  I shake my head, but am not surprised.  The rescue of Chilean miners?  Good for them, but it wasn't anyone I knew down there.  The cost of fuel going up, and how it directly impacts grocery prices affects me, but that's about it.  Nothing really big happened this year as far as trickling down to create much of a ripple in my life.  Celebrity deaths, on the other hand, bothered me a bit.

The death of Leslie Neilsen.  That one was a big one.  Star of many and varied movie and television roles, he will be best remembered by me as "Frank Drebin, Police Squad."  I know he wasn't planning on any more "Naked Gun" movies, but he was still a bright spot on the Canadian comedy landscape.  His passing depressed me, but not as much as John Ritter's did back in 2003.  That one apparently got to a LOT of people.

Speaking of comedians, Greg Giraldo's passing shocked me.  I had just seen him as a judge on the most recent season of "Last Comic Standing," and he had also attended some of the Comedy Central Roasts, some of which are currently airing on the Comedy Network here in Canada.  Odd to see him there on the stage knowing he's passed.

Of course, the biggest celebrity death this year was that of Micheal Jackson.  His death didn't affect me much.  I had, as almost everyone in North America had, but won't admit it, owned "Thriller" back in the day, and had the next two albums as well, "Bad" and "Dangerous."  However, I had moved on musically long before the molestation stories started up, and paid little to no attention to him after my early University years.  What got my attention the most was a news report showing the interior of his mansion after his death.  The 'ghost' seen walking in the room at the end of the hall still freaks me out a little due to it being a live news broadcast that caught it.  I apologize for the lack of spelling displayed by the poster of the video, but it's the only one that I've found that slows it down without leaving the sound on, nor does it have a screaming fright face popping up to stop your heart at the end of it.

On first glance, it looks like someone walking outside the window of the far room and casting a long shadow on the wall with the fireplace.  However, upon closer inspection, specifically when the video shows it frame by frame, the shadow figure also shows down the hall to the intersecting corridor between the camera and the far room, meaning that in order to make that particular image one would have to be in the middle of the corridor actually crossing it, just as the figure seems to do.  I'm not saying it is the ghost of Micheal Jackson, or even necessarily a ghost at all, but it sure is fucking weird.

The Vancouver Olympics were incredible, great television from CTV.  So much better coverage than the CBC had been doing for a number of years (I remember when the CBC did good work televising the Games, but they had fallen apart for the last three or four before they lost the bid to televise them to CTV).  Already looking forward to their coverage of the Summer Olympic Games from London, England in 2012.  You know, as long as the impending end of the world doesn't mess with them or anything.

Topping my list of movies for the year are "Paranormal Activity 2," "Iron Man 2," "The Expendables," and of course "Inception."  I've only listed movies I've seen, in case you are wondering where the hell "Toy Story 3" is.  Well, I have it on Blu-Ray thanks to Scott, but I have yet to watch it as I am depressed enough as it is without viewing a movie loudly being touted as a real tearjerker.  Once I feel up to it, I'll watch it, and if necessary I will come back and edit this blog at that time.  So there.

New television shows that I've enjoyed this year include "No Ordinary Family," "Rookie Blue" (a Canadian cop show filmed in Toronto very obviously), "Blue Bloods," and "Outsourced."  Also liked "Mike & Molly," the new "Hawaii 5-0," and "Raising Hope."  Some others looked really promising, but fell by the wayside in this household.  Titles such as "The Event" and "Running Wilde" were off our list early.  And, as usual, some really good shows were cancelled way too early, like "Undercovers," and "My Generation."  Oh, and I'm ignoring the fact that we also watch "Hellcats,"  me for the hotties in skimpy cheerleading uniforms, Andi for the storylines.  Yeah, right.  I suck.

Musically, not much to say.  I love The Lonely Island, and got their first CD this Christmas (thanks again to Scott), but other than that I really didn't grab on to any new music this year.  See my previous blog post for info on why.

Video game titles are too numerous to mention here, but I do certainly agree with the VGA top honour going to "Red Dead Redemption" as Game Of The Year.  I am one of those people who don't finish games because, well, now it's done, there is no more of that title left to play.  Scott does the same thing.  With RDR, however, I had to finish it just to see where the story ended, and it was worth it.  I'm now starting on what may be considered the best of this year's DLC (that's DownLoadable Content for all you virgins) which is Zombie Apocalypse for RDR, so we'll see how that goes.  Tough as nails so far, or as Scott would like to hear, tough as "Thompson's Teeth - teeth so strong they can chew other teeth!"

So, that's what affected me, personally, in the year 2010.  I am looking forward to a few things for next year, but I guess that'll have to wait until tomorrow's post.  Until then, Happy New year to all, and to all a good afternoon, or morning, or whatever, depending on where you are reading this from.  If in fact anyone IS reading this, as nobody actually read my blog for the last 22 hours.  Whatever, maybe I'm back to writing for myself again already.

Last Non-Holiday Day Of 2010

So, here we are on what is basically the last day of the calendar year which isn't somehow directly or indirectly related to a holiday.  Nobody who is working today is getting off early due to what tomorrow is, nobody who was working yesterday is being given today off as a special prezzie.  Nope, today, just like most days of every year, is just a normal, boring, middle of the week day.  It isn't shiny like Christmas, sorrowful like Easter (if you discount the eggs and bunnies), scary like Halloween or green like St. Patrick's Day.  People aren't declaring their love today, like they do on Valentine's Day; nobody's parent's are getting special treatment like on Mother's or Father's Day.  No, today is just Thursday, and that's just how it is.

Of course, if you are high school age or younger, or attend University or College, it is in fact in the middle of your Christmas break, but that still doesn't give the day any special meaning or anything.  Thursday.  Its just Thursday.  Pathetic little nearly the end of the week Thursday.  It isn't even a special weekday either.  It isn't Hump Day or T.G.I.F. even.  It used to be special, Thursdays did.  Once upon a time, it was Must See T.V. night, but then things changed and Thursdays aren't so important anymore.  Even Survivor left Thursday for Hump Day's greener pastures.

So, what I'm simply stating is that today is no big deal in any way, shape or form whatsoever.  Two days from the end of the year, and you might as well be a Tuesday in July for all the world cares.  Poor, disgusting, shabby little Thursday before New Year's Eve.  I pity you.

But hey, at least you aren't April 28th.  That'd be REALLY depressing.

My Secret (No Longer) Love of Coronation Street

To those of you who know me, you know that I am a huge fan of television.  I certainly watch a lot of it, and I ensure that when I am watching certain programs I ignore phone calls, people at the door, burning embers drifting past my nose, etc..  To me, what makes good viewing is intriguing storylines, humour, interesting locales - and if you can manage to throw in a few hot women, I'm all for it!

When I was younger, like 35 years ago or so, I used to have a hell of a time trying to figure out what to do on Sunday mornings.  I used to be up the same time as I would be for school, about 7am, and there just isn't a whole lot for a five-year-old to do that early on a morning when the parental units are trying to get sleep.  Keep in mind that this is the 70s we're talking about here, which means television channels didn't air overnight, stores weren't open for shopping, and about the only thing to watch was religious shows or farm reports.  There were only two things available to be viewed that were of any interest, and I had to choose one of them.

Those who know me also know I hated my mother.  Loathed her, despised her.  Threatened to do her with a sword if she ever came around my home again.  The last time I spoke to her, two years before she died, I dis-invited her to my wedding, and then told her I wished she had had an abortion so that I would never have had to have her as my mother.  Celebrated with an impromptu pool party when I was informed she was dead.  These things on their own might seem shocking, disturbing, and very hateful - and they certainly are.  I'm not going to go into depth here at this moment, but if anyone ever reading this wants to try and understand how I could be this way to her, send me an e-mail at gutrend@gmail.com or comment below asking for more info.  Otherwise, for those I haven't alienated, let's keep going.  I'm bringing this up to explain that I wasn't always like this with her.  When I was a kid and didn't see her for the spiteful, vicious, abusive person she was, she made huge impressions upon me which I am still feeling the repercussions of to this day.  I can honestly say that, even without a psychiatrist, I am aware that 95% of the person I am today is as a direct result of my mother's influences, and how I either embraced them or fought against them.

As a little aside, I'll explain that more fully.  My mother, and again I'm not getting into specifics, demanded high marks from me in school - so, I purposefully barely passed, skipped classes voraciously, and under-achieved like a fiend.  Someone noticed this and I still got into U of T regardless, don't know how, but there it is.  My mother hated electric guitar - so, I fell in love big time with heavy metal music.  My mother hated my posture - I still slouch.  She wanted me involved in sports - I'm 340lbs, a hundred pounds overweight based on my height and frame, and it is contributing negatively to my heart condition (though not the cause of it).  My mother hoarded crap and made it a rule that I could never have friends over to the house - I keep things as tidy as I can when living with two people who often don't give a shit, and wish I had friends to come over daily, or at all.  There are things that she did when I was younger and more impressionable that stuck with me as well, and some of those are in fact good things.  She created my love of music in general.  She was an avid television watcher (both a good and bad thing, it can be argued).  She for a very long time didn't like the majority of our family, hence I only have interactions with my cousin - and she alienated the family against me by lying about certain events and flaunting her ongoing extramarital affair by bring the douche to every family event she could.  She was an avid reader, and I can't keep enough books in the house.

However, the one thing that she did when I was very young that is related specifically to this entry is this:  she HATED Coronation Street. With a passion.  No idea why.  So much so, in fact, that the second the theme would start playing on CBC on those early Sunday mornings, she would throw it to any other channel just to avoid hearing it.  She got me to hate it to, so on those mornings when I was awake and alone, I'd end up watching whatever black and white movie was on CityTV that early.  Didn't care for most of them, but that's how I grew up.  Hating Coronation Street into my 30s.  Until one day...

It was again a Sunday morning, I was awake and alone.  I was flipping channels and saw Corrie there on CBC and I thought to myself that with all the things I had been doing for most of my life to spite her, why don't I look and see why she hated this show so very much.  So I did.  I've been watching the show faithfully ever since.  For those readers whom also watch Corrie, I started with the following plot lines:  Molly and Tyrone were getting ready to get married, though Tyrone was trying to make a big production of the ceremony and had no money to do so; Tony Gordon and Carla were together, and Maria was seemingly crazy, accusing him of killing Liam (if only I had tuned in early enough for Liam's murder); David and Tina were together and Gary Windass was trying to win her from him.

Now, I'm a rabid fan of the show.  So is my wife, and we can't even wait until the omnibus on Sunday mornings to watch them - we tune in and/or record each episode at 6:30 every night Monday through Friday.  Not only that, but I also read ahead.  Yeah, it irks me that we're ten months behind the British airing of the shows, and at some point I hope we have the means to watch them 'live' as it were, but that would also mean a lot of recording for 10 months so that we could catch up all at once and be on top of the episodes.  Well, it isn't like I'm doing much else, but we still need a proper station to broadcast the current run to us.  I'm even looking into whether we'll be able to see the shows from Britain when we are in the Dominican Republic.  They get channels from all over the globe down there, so if we can get CBC and ITV down in the Caribbean, then all we need is a DVD recorder and a proper Tivo, and we're off to the races!

For now however, I'll just have to content myself that I know what's about to happen with George's obsession with keeping Simon away from Peter, when Gary will be coming home and the change in him and why, whether Sally will ever find out about Molly and Kevin, whether or not Steve and Becky are going to actually conceive again, or whether Tina will really be staying together with Jason or whether there is someone else in the wings...and of course, waiting until October for the 50th anniversary show, complete with incredible pyrotechnics and all!

The best part of it all?  Simple.  If my mother had ever taken the time to watch the show, even once, she would have loved it.  So, guess that's a point in my favour, hmm?