Queue a stock phrase about how it’s been too long, a few references to humanoids and other such miscellany. Yeah, I’m an old man now. 20 years young. Feels no different to being 19, except more people are gonna look daft when they ask me if I’m over 18 (I’m looking at you team leaders in work!). To be fair, the hardest thing about this whole entry was picking a song title that suits my mood for my broadcast. Oh yeah, hi there ham and eggers. Welcome back to the show. They’ve brought back Gladiators, the Krypton Factor and other old stuff…all we need now is the return of the Crystal Maze, You Bet and this blog. And to my own surprise, the blog won.
My last blog entries have been my annual Album of the Year blogs. I would like to have done another usual end of year blog like I have done in years past. As you can tell seeing as this is my first proper entry in however long, the zest for blogging I had back in the day. I could put that down to a number of things really. People’s habits have changed. When I started doing these entries all those years ago, I expected to do them all the time, which I often did. But now, with facilities like Twitter and Facebook’s status updates, they serve the purpose of blogs in a far easier to read chunks than a monologue like this. It’s been an interesting journey anyway. Years back, spending all the time on the internet was considered a “nerdy” “geeky” thing, but now it’s just commonplace. That’s not a criticism. It’s just me reminding people of that fact! Haha. In fact, just look back over those first few blogs from 2004. Man, I was a conceited and whiny little bugger wasn’t I?
One thing I haven’t forgotten is how to waste everybody’s time with links to loads of stuff mind.
To borrow a line from Ol’ Blue Eyes, 2008…it was a very good year. It was certainly an improvement over 2007, which was probably my personal nadir. I have a lot to be grateful for. I’m still in (relatively) good health; still have a job, still in college. It’s been tough at times. Certainly, my motivation for things has lacked totally for college some days, but hey, it’s gotta be done. It’s not been easy to say you’re from Bridgend in the last 12 months, with the reputation of suicide town. As I said in my last entry, whilst Bridgend is not the greatest, most vibrant place to live, it is still home, so when complete strangers come in and immediately start painting a false picture, you tend to get pretty angry about it. Things aren’t going to get any better either, with the economy still in the toilet. But, it’s home. It’s where I’ve grown up.
It’s been quite unusual to be around Bridgend lately. I say this because all the people I feel close to and comfortable with appear to have drifted apart. I expected this. Yeah, honestly, I did. I knew that when I didn’t go to University at the same time as everybody else, I’d fall completely out of the loop, and that’s pretty much what’s happened. I feel incredibly alone. That sounds daft. I’m alone. But I feel isolated from everybody else (this is going to sound incredibly emo, but fuck it). I know that I’m only a text/comment/e-mail away, but I think that other people tend to forget that. That sounds so condescending I know, but whenever I speak to someone, they seem really eager to end any conversation with me and move onto speak to somebody else. It’s just infuriating.
After saying all of that, summer was pretty good. There were a few piss-ups, not quite as many days at the beach as we would have hoped mind. I blame global warming. Can we get a refund on that? We need a damn good summer this year mind. Especially after this summer, it really is the end of an era seeing as I expect people to be heading down their own respective career paths at the end of it, and we’ll only meet up for the occasional drinks or reunions etc. Christmas was certainly better and one of the best holidays I can remember. Christmas was a great time to see all the old gang back together and enjoying ourselves. New Year’s Eve was certainly an event and I’m glad I went. I’m sure everyone else is as well.
The Batmobile still rides into the night in 2009 as well, which is a miracle seeing the amount of times my co-driver has wanted to get rid of it. It still needs work done to it to get it fixed (the speakers need sorting for a start), but hey, it’s a car. It has an engine and four wheels (amongst other things). My biggest purchase of the year was my new HD TV. It supplements my PS3 rather beautifully. This blog will probably be the first thing to tell you that I wasn’t sold in HD at first, but really, once you play something like FIFA or Gran Turismo in high-def, it’s really worth it. Speaking of my PS3, don’t be afraid to add me on PSN (BiggieEllefson) and challenge me to a game of FIFA, Madden, NHL or SmackDown. HD does make a big difference, but, don’t pay over the odds for a TV, give it time and the prices will come down. Blu-Rays for example are about the same price DVDs were when they first came out, and now DVDs are getting to be dirt cheap on the internets.
In terms of sporting endeavours, I really should have put a bet on. The Packers got the ball rolling with a good start, almost getting to the Super Bowl. But, from then on in…Wales winning a Grand Slam (and me being in the Millennium Stadium when they lifted the trophy against France), my Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup once more, Lewis Hamilton winning the F1 World Championship in the most dramatic fashion I have ever seen any race end, also giving us the great video ever. Oh yeah, there’s this team who play in red in Manchester who won the Premier League and almost killed me in the Champions League final. Now, we’re champions of the World. Not a bad accomplishment. And, I finally got to visit the Theatre of Dreams and saw my team play, which is an experience I will never forget. If that still makes me a glory supporter, meh, I won’t change your opinions now will I.
2009 will certainly be different, not least of which because the Packers are nowhere near the Super Bowl, not even winning our division. I’m not the optimist, as you all know, but I do think that this season was to be expected after the departure of Brett the Jett. I do think that with some smart draft decisions, the Packers can contend in one of the weakest divisions in the NFL. United have every chance of winning the Premier League, we’re still in the FA Cup and have an interesting fixture with one José Mourinho in the Champions League (the bad omen is the last time we met one of his sides at this stage of the competition, Paul Scholes had an onside goal disallowed, and Porto had a phantom free kick that got them through and went on to win the whole thing).
The Red Wings have a great chance of repeating as Stanley Cup champions, becoming the first time since we did it in 97-98 to repeat as champs. Winning the Winter Classic was a great start to the year (Babcock starting a new fashion trend was another thing), but the San Jose Sharks (about 3 years after I predicted they’d start getting good) are destroying just about everything (excluding the Wings) and the Bruins have sprung a big surprise to be top of the East.
Hamilton could also repeat as F1 Champion, but this season will no doubt be overshadowed by the sport’s financial dilemmas that have already lost the sport one team and may lead to the soul of the sport being sold even further up the river by Mad Max and Bernie the Evil Elf. Wales look in a good position to win yet another Grand Slam, but are they in danger of becoming the New Zealand of the Northern Hemisphere, by peaking too soon? I really think for a country which is as passionate about a sport like Wales is with rugby, the World Cup should really be the aim now. Of course, there’s a Lions tour this year that will dominate the summer, and hopefully it goes better than the 2005 tour. Living with Lions was on Sky Sports over Christmas, and I forgot how great the 97 Lions team was. Fantastic documentary as well.
I’ve covered my thoughts about 2008 in greater depth in my album of 2008 preview and results, but I do need to touch on a few things. I only went to one gig all year, and that was Boyz II Men at Hammersmith in London. Surprisingly, it was better than I anticipated, and I knew more songs than I thought I would as well. I really got into the X-Factor this year as well, something that was helped by Diana and the fabulous Cheryl Cole. 2009 has some promise – there are new albums due from Heaven and Hell, Paramore, Red, Chris Cornell, Rush, KISS, Dream Theater and some band called Megadeth too. And they are just the ones I know of right now! I may even surprise you and put somebody other than Megadeth at number one this year (highly unlikely, but hey, place your bets now!). My only planned gig at the moment is the Priest Feast, although if AC/DC or Metallica tickets come up, I’m there.
I still didn’t get my band going in 2008 either, and I don’t expect I will in 2009. I can’t believe it’s been almost 5 years since Angels Fallen East was first getting together in my garage mind. That’s mind blowing. I still play the old mistress once in a while, but not as much as I used to. For someone who has music playing constantly, you would think, maybe, I’d play an instrument more often. I dunno, I just haven’t found that impetus anymore. I used to write lyrics a lot as well. I say lyrics, it’s a bunch of words with slots for where guitar solos fit in, but I haven’t even done that lately. They aren’t terrible lyrics either *honks own horn*. I’m not going to be winning any song writing awards soon, but I’m proud of them. Is that me being just lazy or something else?
So, that’s this jolly journey through Edwardtopia done for another year, see you sometime in 2011, by which point…nevermind. If I get bored anytime soon (quite likely), I might get back to blogging. Until the next time humanoids.