Happy New Year !! (New Year's Resolutions and Notable Cultural Items for 2013 )

First - a reference to 2012 Accountings and the New Year Resolutions of 2012:

If I can find a way to control the stress...I think I will have accomplished something. The anxiety I felt this year was almost crippling. I was literally sick before both plane flights, a first. I'm rarely sick before flights - but I let anxiety get the better of me.
And anxiety kept me from advancing career wise, as well as going to numerous meetup groups and social functions. It's hurting me. I need to find a way to fight back. To control it.
Therapists don't help (been there done that), this is something you have to do yourself.
Find a way to reduce stress. To let it roll over you. Not worry over the uncontrollables and the unknowable variables.

Also I get so angry at things I can't do anything about. Like the frigging heat in my building and political crap. Irritability. And yes, part of it is due to perimenopause, but a lot of it is stress related. Writer's bloq is stress related. If I can find a way to diminish the stress - without alcohol (which also helps with the tremor by the way - does away with it completely) and/or chocolate...I'll be ahead of the game.

So my main or number one NEW YEAR's Resolution? Find a way to safely de-stress in a heathly manner that furthers my life, not diminishes it.

I actually resolved this believe it or not. I found a way to de-stress and regain control over my own body and my life. I accomplished my new year's resolution.

But in order to do it, I had to hit rock bottom first.

( how I turned my health around, reduced stress, and regained control over my body )

My New Year's resolution for next year - is to continue down this path. To build on what I began. And to greet each new challenge with optimism. And to do it one step at a time. I learned this year that if you focus really hard on one really important thing as opposed to trying to focus on multiple small things, the rest will come.

Notable Cultural Year End Stuff (or rather whatever I remember)

( the Six Books that I remember )

( Notable Movies of the Year or the one's I remember )

( Notable Television Shows )

Happy New Year's Everyone. Looking forward to whatever 2014 brings my way.

(no subject)

Low-key New Year's this year - which is a good thing since there's a huge snow storm headed this way. It's slated to hit tomorrow at 1pm. Lovely.

Here's a TV Meme that I swiped from londonkds.

What shows did you start watching this year?

Too many to count. There's a lot of television shows. These are the ones that were memorable.
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What shows did you give up on this year?

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Which TV shows did you mean to get into this year but didn't?

Did I say there were too many tv shows on?
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Which shows do you expect to check out next year?
Treme - heard wonderful things about it, and its similar to the Wire in its construction, which remains amongst my favorite picks for best show ever. It's about New Orleans post Katrina, and depicts the rise and fall of music within that city.

Contiuum - if I can find the reruns.

The 100 - about a bunch of juvenile delinquets sent to a hostile Earth to determine if it can be re-settled, while spaceships containing settlers hover above.

Killer Women - a female Texas Ranger hunts female serial killers. Looks intriguing. By Sofia Vegra.

Intelligence - science-fiction political thriller - about a man who has been enhanced by an computer chip. Stars Josh Holloway from Lost, Marg Helgenberger, and the gal who used to play Ruby on OUAT. I like the cast.

Sherlock - Season 3 is supposed to premier sometime next year.

Which shows impressed you the least this year?
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Which shows impressed you the most this year?
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2013 Fandom Meme - because what is a new year without memes about the old one?

[Speaking of memes - one last plug for the January Talking Meme - pick and topic and sign up HERE. Picking a topic for someone to discuss is admittedly not as easy as it looks - I struggled finding ones for the folks on my flist.]

This was swiped from selenak.
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TV Slut is Tired.

I think I've over-dosed on tv today. So far watched:

* The Pick-Up Artist - 1987 movie by James Toback, starring Robert Downy Jr, Molly Ringwald, Dennis Hopper, Harvey Kietel, Danny Aiello, Victoria Jackson, and Christine Baranski of all people. The cast is better than the film. And they are all so young. Downy Jr is almost too pretty - at the age of 21. It was his first real movie role. Off-beat story.
It's about an elementary school teacher who keeps attempting to pick up women in NYC, and falls for a young woman who is attempting to save her father from mobsters.

* Sleepy Hollow - two episodes today, three more to go. Rather hilarious in places.
Favorite bit was Abby and her boss disillusioning poor Icabod regarding his buddy Thomas Jefferson, while they are laying a trap to catch the headless horseman. Apparently there's DNA evidence backing their claim that Jefferson fathered several children with Sally Hemmings, his slave, and to make matters even worse? He took credit for Icabode's line about journalists. Icabode's response? "You really don't know people, do you?" LOL!

* The Tomorrow People - they really need to dump the stupid love triangle, its not working. Other than that I found it entertaining. Rather like the characters of John, Russell, Astrid and Jediah. Cara, I'd like to smack upside the head. And Stephen is a bit dull except when he's with Astrid, Jed, and John.

During these shows - I tell the tv, oh please don't kill off that character, silly writers, I like that character, kill off that other one instead. (Any one else miss the days when you knew with an absolute certainity that they were not going to kill off your favorite supporting characters?? The leads tend to be safe (well except in Game of Thrones, Dexter, Breaking Bad, Once Upon a Time, and oh dear, I've lost count.) OF course in some of these shows, people don't exactly stay dead.)

* The Arrow - In the Arrow, no one stays dead for long, so it's hard to get upset when they kill folks off. They really need to stop using the plot-twist that the villain isn't really dead like Oliver thought - it's getting old. Right now my favorite villain is Rah As Gul, the head of the league of assassins, who has yet to be seen. Except wasn't he a Batman villain? And the Flash, who was introduced as a possible Felicity love interest, strikes me as a tad young.

* Marvel Agents of Shield - attempted to watch the Bridge...got bored, gave up. It didn't hold up well against the others. Lacks good quippy dialogue - which is a big surprise in a Whedon series. Because you know, that's what Whedon is good at.

Now, I burned out and not making it very far into Almost Human.And more shows are premiering soon. Too many to keep track of. Or decide between.

Of the new ones? The following caught my interest:

* Tricia Helfer (Six from BSG) on Killer Women.
* Helix - a Syfy channel horror sci-fi series about an outbreak in a drug lab at the Artic Circle. Ron Moore is producing. It references Alien and is supposed to be scary.
* Strain - the vampire series based on Guillermo Del Toro's novel about a vampire breakout (vampirism as a disease).
* Intelligence - Josh Holloway as a cyberman.
* Outlander - based on Diana Galabadan's time traveling series - premieres on Starz.
* The 100 - about the 100 teens sent to Earth
* Death Comes to Pemberly - PBS
* True Detective on HBO - starring Woody Harrleson and Mathew McConaughy - and it's an anthology series, so each arc is about 10-13 episodes, with a whole new cast for the next one, like American Horror Story.
* The Leftovers - based on the fictional story about those left behind after the rapture, for HBO (not to be confused with the Christian series The Left Behind).
* Turn - AMC - starring Jaime Bell, about Washington's spies during the Revolutionary War
* Resurrection - ABC -which appears to be an US remake of the French series The Returned. (Wish they would just show The Returned - want to see that one.)

Here's a listing : http://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/2014-film-movies-tv-preview

Gave me a headache. Golden Age of Television my foot - more like Pop Culture Went Crazy or Exploded.