​ A very Gamemaniac3434 Christmas: Stuff of the year-Part 1

As the year draws to a close, and a J-term class draws near, I reflect on this period of videogames and an assortment of other goodies and find it to be a satisfying one. I’ve been working harder at school than ever before, from summer to fall to winter and hopefully a graduation in spring. It’s been a long hard year, but it’s been a really good one for me personally-better than 2014 by a country mile. I’ve learned a lot, done a lot and gotten to enjoy some fine content over this year of ours and it’s time to recap what I liked. Hope you enjoy my look back at the year that was 2015!

-As a note, this ones not going to focus on games-I’ll save that for part 2. This one’s going to be focused on personal stuff, movies, music and books.  -

Personal Achievements-Schooling and Bacteria

This year was a hard one-the fall semester beat me down more than any semester before, consuming my free time and filling my hours with studying and last semester I had two Organic Chemistry classes to contend with-also known as some of the most hated and difficult courses any microbio student takes. But I managed to get through them, and this semester especially with Biochem was probably my best one yet. Between those classes, I also got to do some really fun stuff in my major, the kind of stuff that helps keep things in perspective and help keep you going. I grew a strain of myxobacteria-large complex bacteria that send out scouts, and use slime to help propel themselves forward towards poop to eat up the nutrients and other species of bacteria that live on the poop. We named ours, appropriately, the Wolfpack and won a race along a track made of a smear of “sacrificial” bacteria-I shit you not, that’s what we called them.

I also grew up some bacteria that secrete a florescent pigment-meaning that under exposure to a black light, the bacteria and the pigment around and on them glows. Some of you might recognize this as my old profile picture, before I switched to my avatar. This year was also the year I got into the Dtoid community more than ever, blogging more, talking and commenting more and becoming part of a community that I fucking love. This place is great, and I love that I’ve been able to get into it so much and meet so many cool people-hopefully that rings true for the new year.

Movie of the Year-The Best

Mad Max Fury Road is a glorious example of action movies at their finest, a tour de force that is almost pure action. While some weird editing-the speed ups that happen periodically-do hurt the final product, it’s a damn fine movie. The practical effects make the movie feel more real and alive, the story tells through showing and is generally an interesting exploration of Furiosa as a character, as well as Max to a lesser degree and the movie is just so damn fun. It’s crazy, it doesn’t take itself all that seriously and it’s a damn fun ride to say the least, and it’s the movie I enjoyed most this year-even if it isn’t perfect it’s just so much fun. After seeing trailers for dark and gritty DC movies, as well as other dark and gritty movies it just feels so good to have fun. 

Movie of the Year-The most surprising: The Force Awakens

After seeing months and months of people getting way too excited and screaming and losing their minds over this movie, months and months of it getting merchandised to a stupid degree, and months and months of not being able to escape the damn thing anywhere I really wasn’t in a mood to go see it. Still my family wanted to, and I acquiesced when I finally realized it wasn’t the movie that I hated-it was everything surrounding the movie. I went in with an open mind, and honestly was pleasantly surprised to see how it turned out. I didn’t love it, but it’s a good solid movie with some clever stuff in it and its good enough to make me slightly interested in what’s coming next from a more competent director. The practical effects and appropriate CGI make the movie much easier to get into and it’s an enjoyable ride while it lasts. I do think it could have ended a bit sooner, and I still would have preferred it focusing as little as possible on the older characters-but it was well done and good enough for me to keep an eye out for the second one.

Book of the Year-The Unnoticeables

I haven’t read as much this year as I would like, but I did read through a book by one of my favorite authors Robert Brockway. He’s an editor at Cracked.com, and if you enjoy his writing there and the general style of the site then I would highly recommend reading his stuff. The book is basically about cosmic horrors messing around behind the scenes of three different characters lives, and while the book is primarily a comedy there’s some pretty creepy shit in it. I enjoyed it immensely, found it to be funny and creepy here and there, and it appealed very much to my sense of comedy. Would recommend giving it a read if that sounds up your alley.

Album of the Year-Lamb of God: Sturm und Drang

This year was a great year for metal all round, with a new Iron Maiden album, a new Five Finger death punch album and a kickass concert, a full metal album by Miracle of Sound, and probably others. But ultimately this album was my favorite of the year. Written while the lead singer of the band was being held in a Czech prison, it’s their most brutal and emotional album yet. The music is great, the first soft vocal song the band has done-overlord-is surprisingly good given the normal “dirty” vocals the band uses and it’s filled with rage-which is exactly what you want from a metal album. It’s probably LOGs best album so far, and it’s a damn joy to listen to.

And there you go, my look back at 2015s stuffs. It’s been a fun ride, and probably tomorrow I’ll post the main attraction-my top games and game-type stuff of the year. Thanks for reading!

- “If you don't like bacteria, you're on the wrong planet.” ― Stewart Brand

LOOK WHO CAME:

Gamemaniac3434   

Seymour   5

Rudorlf   4

Gajknight   4

CelicaCrazed   3

Elsa   2

absolutfreak   1

GodEmperor Paige   1

Malthor   1