And So, The End Is Near...

The end of another year, that is; and as we stagger drunkenly towards the precipice of 2010, it's time to reflect on the year that has been 2009.

The apex of the year was, indubitably, the Irish Six Nations Rugby Grand Slam, our first in over sixty years, and only our second ever. My money is on a repeat performance in 2010.

By contrast, the nadir will have been Ireland's failure to qualify for the football World Cup in South Africa, of which the less said, the better.

That being said, the year held highs and lows for everyone, many of which remain, naturally, subjective. It was a year of achievement for many, a year of challenges for others, a year of opportunities for all, some taken, some not.

Personally, there were certain things that I wanted to say this year but didn't, and certain things that I did say which perhaps (on mature reflection) might have been better considered.

I was going to end the year with a joke, but perhaps a song instead, courtesy of Mr. Bear McCreary and Sahneknuffi



Maybe 2010 will be the year we make contact...

Happy New Year, everyone.

In Keeping With Tradition...

...I'd like to wish everyone out there the compliments of the season, and hope that you'll extend and enjoy the traditional goodwill that is supposed to encircle this tiny world of ours at this point in its march around our star.

Be excellent to each other, and incredible to yourselves...

A Spot of Seasonal Coffee...

It is our custom, in the company where I work in my secret identity, for us to serve a festive Irish Coffee and perhaps a mince pie to our colleagues in the IT Dept and certain selected guests from outside IT.

The event began as a small, in-the-room thing before we broke up for Christmas, but word got out and before long it was department-wide, to the extent that it's now part of the pre-Christmas social calendar.

The guest list runs to about 120, including former colleagues who've moved on to other things, supplier reps we deal with during the year, and friends.

Glasses are generously supplied by a local pub, and the glassware is washed before and after by our Canteen staff. Everything else is supplied and organised by ourselves on a completely unofficial, under-the-radar basis, and the whole thing takes place in two hours on the Friday before Christmas.

It's a fun event, and I enjoy organising it, but what I especially enjoy is the theme, devised each year by Jennifer, Dave and Enda, and usually involving my face and Photoshop, and only unveiled as the event commences.

In previous years I've been Yoda, The Grinch, Santa Claus, Mr. Incredible and Dr.Evil (complete with Mini-Me). The one I liked best up to now was me as James Bond, but this year's production beat it into a cocked hat.

This year, they did Star Trek.

Paramount Pictures Corporation
in association with
Coffee Entertainment
Present
A Bad Robert Production
 
Star Trek: Infection
 
Based on characters and situations created by Gene Roddenberry

Captain’s Log, Star date 7276.3:

"Following an unscheduled layover on Bobulus 4 for repairs, during which the entire crew attended a banquet hosted by its leader, Chancellor Bahb (a former member of the Klingon High Council), it appears that most of the crew are experiencing alarming changes in physical form. The changes appear to occur in three stages, and already, Bones and I have reached stage two (total hair loss); we have ordered resized uniforms in anticipation of the final transformation. We initially thought Lt. Commander Spock had escaped infection, but he is beginning to look incredibly  familiar.                                                                             

Uhura is at an advanced stage, and seems to be losing her mind; she has begun to randomly quote Shakespeare, and insists that all communications systems are backed up hourly.

She has been banned from wearing short skirts.

Many of the crew have had their ID details tattooed on their foreheads to aid identification. The ID’s were structured using a cleverly designed naming convention (my ID is KRKENT01). Bones has been able to link the contamination to a strange concoction of whiskey and coffee served by Chancellor Bahb.  On Federation orders, we are now proceeding at warp speed to the planet Earth, in an attempt to prevent a mass infection, rumoured to be planned for Star date 7278.4 (18th Dec. 2009 earth time). 

While there, we have been ordered to ensure that all those infected are given the antidote, which is only attainable from a mysterious location known as the Palace of Gins.

Captain’s Log, supplemental:

Found the Palace of Gins.........God I love this town.....MUHA.....MUHA..........

MUHAHAHAHHAAHAAAHHAAAAAAAA!!!!"

But it all worked out in the end...

What they'll come up with for next year, I have no clue, but I bet it'll be just as good...

TV Meme...

I haven't done a meme (memed? been memetic?) in a while, but today I came upon this one. I wonder what my viewing choices say about me?

Taken from The Urban Recluse, who got it from SamuraiFrog

Rules:
- Bold all of the following TV shows which you’ve ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime.
- Italicize a show if you’re positive you’ve seen every episode of it.

24 

7th Heaven - Sunday evenings in my parents' house -strangely compelling...
ALF - stupid, but fun...
Alias
American Gothic
America’s Next Top Model 

Angel - I've seen most of it in reruns, and all of the final season (Smile Time was a favourite)
Arrested Development
Babylon 5
Batman: The Animated Series - never missed an episode, though RTE/ITV cut it to bits or mis-scheduled it...
Battlestar Galactica (the old one) - I have it on DVD
Battlestar Galactica (the new one) - ditto
Baywatch - I am human, after all :)
Beverly Hills 90210 (original)
Bewitched - a classic...
Bonanza - another classic.
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Legal - "Denny Crane." No more need be said.
Boy Meets World
Brothers And Sisters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - multiple times
Californication
Chappelle’s Show
Charlie’s Angels

Charmed - wasn't as good after Shannen left...
Cheers
Chuck - never got into it...
Clarissa Explains it All
Columbo - "Just one more question..."
Commander in Chief
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm - I've never been able to sit through a whole episode without wanting to smack Larry David about the head. Repeatedly. In the same league as Seinfeld.
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
DaVinci’s Inquest - a great show, usually only seen late at night on cable.
Dawson’s Creek
Dead Like Me - interesting concept, but it kind of lost its way, I thought.
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dexter
Dharma & Greg
Different Strokes
Doctor Who - I'm rewatching the Tom Baker years now...
Dragnet - showing my age with that one :)
Due South - "Thank you kindly."
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond - not me...
Facts of Life
Family Guy
Farscape
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Frasier
Freaks & Geeks

Friends
Fringe - I don't get it, though...
Futurama
Get Smart - another classic
Gilligan’s Island
Gilmore Girls

Gossip Girl

Grey's Anatomy
Grange Hill
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Happy Days
Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
Heroes
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House - didn't like it at first, but it grew on me...
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Invader Zim
Invasion
Hell’s Kitchen - not if I was bleeding out my eyes...
JAG
Jackass
Joey
Kim Possible
Knight Rider
Knight Rider: 2008
Kung Fu
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
La Femme Nikita
LA Law
Laverne and Shirley
Law and Order
Law and Order: SVU
Law and Order: CI
Leverage
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost - picked it up again last season after a Bob-imposed hiatus
Lost in Space - "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!!"
MASH
MacGyver
Malcolm in the Middle
Married… With Children
McLeod’s Daughters
Melrose Place
Miami Vice
Mission: Impossible
Mod Squad
Monk
Mork & Mindy
Murphy Brown
My Life As A Dog
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
Mythbusters
NCIS
Ned Bigby’s Declassified School Survival Guide
Nip/Tuck
Numb3rs
One Tree Hill
Oz
Perry Mason - Ironside, yes - Perry Mason, no...
Power Rangers
Press Gang
Prison Break
Private Practice
Privileged 

Profiler
Project Runway
Psych
Pushing Daisies
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)
ReGenesis
Remington Steele
Rescue Me
Road Rules
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Sanctuary
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seaquest DSV
Seinfeld - the least funny show I've ever seen three episodes of...
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Slings and Arrows
Smallville
So Weird
South of Nowhere
South Park
Spongebob Squarepants
St. Elsewhere
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Starsky & Hutch
Superman
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor
Taxi
Teen Titans
That 70’s Show
That’s So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Amazing Race
The Andy Griffith Show
The A-Team
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Big Bang Theory
The Brady Bunch - but of course...
The Cosby Show - Sunday evenings
The Daily Show - more truthful than Fox News
The Dead Zone - mehh...
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls
The Honeymooners
The Jeffersons
The Jetsons
The L Word
The Love Boat
The Magnificent Seven
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Monkees
The Munsters
The Office (US)
The Powerpuff Girls
The Pretender
The Real World
The Shield
The Simpsons – I got sick of it being on five hours a day...
The Six Million Dollar Man - let's see them remake that...
The Sopranos
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Twilight Zone
The Waltons
The West Wing
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Third Watch
Three’s Company
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Unfabulous
Ugly Betty
Veronica Mars
Weeds
Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
Will and Grace
Wings
Xena: Warrior Princess

So how about it? Anyone out there want to have a go?

Anybody?

Bueller?