2011 in Review

My face when 2011

The year's over. How the hell is the year over? Witchcraft is afoot, I know it. I think it's really still February, but the mind control rays from the Tee-Vee got us thinking it's New Years Eve. Gotta boost that economy with extra Christmas shopping when it's really a week after Valentine's Day. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Mainly because I'm going out with my wife this evening and I have great expectations of frivolity tonight so I'll play along with the ruse.

I'm gonna say something now that I haven't said in years. This was a good year. You heard me, 2011 was a good year. Not for baseball cards, heavens no. Cards sucked absolute donkey balls in 2011. Sure, the Flagship was solid as usual and I did enjoy the shinies and Transmogrifier. I'll readily admit that. HOWEVER..... Heritage was drab (I'm beginning to think Ben Henry was right when he proposed dropping the Heritage line after 2009). Bowman ALWAYS sucks and there was no Stressbork to cause hysteria amongst the collecting community. Allen & Ginter was disappointing as hell save a couple of insert sets. Lineage almost broke me. Then there's Chrome and Finest and some other junk that no one even remembers anymore and out of all that you got what? A flagship that was ok, some shinies and a few insert sets I guess. And no Upper Deck for the first time since Reagan was President. And Maybe an unlicensed set from Donruss (which is now Panini) and Leaf (Which is no longer Donruss) but I can't even remember if those came out this year or if they are scheduled for 2012. 2011 sucked for cards. If you'd like to make a counter argument, feel free. I'll be happy to listen but I don't think you'll change my opinion.

No, 2011 was just a good year in general. The economy sucked, riots broke out all over the world, the United States Government has decided its mission statement is to actively destroy the nation using any means at their disposal and between pollution, climate change, methane deposits melting in the Arctic, peak oil and nuclear plants melting down we and all our descendants are all pretty much screwed forever. AND I LOST MY FAVORITE HOCKEY TEAM. AGAIN. But other than that, 2011 wasn't all that bad! It didn't seem that bad to me anyway.

A lotta good music came out this year. I made some new friends. I got to share Pokemon with my son and Ponies with my daughter. I finally read a book by Hunter S. Thompson (not that one, but I have it on hold at the library now). I saw the last Harry Potter film and I can now put that whole series behind me forever (I will not forgive JK for killing off Fred). I have come to terms with the fact that I am a gigantic 14 year old boy and will always be so and I don't care who the hell knows it anymore. I've gotten over the massive funk I've been in for several years and am currently working on a whole new set of neuroses to overcome. I've started a hobby that is about creation, not consumerism and accumulation. I'm slowly but surely getting my crap together. I'm enjoying my work. (More importantly, I have a job. way too many people can't say that). Family is doing well. The Braves were really, really good for five months. See? Not a bad year, at least in my neck of the woods. Most importantly I can see this and freely admit it for once. The world isn't terrible, everything doesn't suck.

A lot of blogs are posting the successes for failures of their collecting goals right now. I guess I did ok. I've stopped buying a lot of crap, I've gotten slightly more organized (slightly) and I think I've finally given up on Football, Basketball and especially Hockey. Thanks, Gary. One stated goal was to get wantlists up for every Topps set from '52-'07. I got up to 1980 and that's good enough. I've actually got a few other lists together but I haven't posted them because I don't need people sending me stuff right now. The ones I have up are enough. I also wanted to complete some team sets and some series from older sets and I was able to get that dome. Pretty good year I guess, collecting wise. My goals for 2012 are also ambitious, but I think I can do it if I try. That's for another post though.

One other goal I set for myself. Back on September 1st I decided I was going to do some drawing every day. the drawing eventually came to include sketching with pastels and painting. I have managed to keep this up and do ze Art every single day since then whether I wanted to or not. And trust me, there were days I had no interest in doing anything, especially art. But, I kept it up and I can definitely see marked improvement from when I started 4 months ago. Plus, I'm enjoying myself which is really the point, ya know? I had a couple of other goals in mind when I started drawing. I wanted to do drawings/paintings for the family for Christmas. That didn't happen. I'm getting better, but I'm not quite there yet. I also wanted to do a full size painting for the first time since 1990. I had bought the paper and brushes two years ago and never got around to it. Truth be told, even though I've been painting smaller things this month I still had a mental block on doing a big one. Last night I said hell with it, paint something, dammit. I had a few beers, watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to jazz myself up, splooched some paint on the palette and Got 'er Done. Behold: The Great and Powerful Trixie.

What, you expected the Mona Lisa? Fine. Just for you, since you've put up with my insanity all year.

I think she looks nice with a stache, goatee and boob job. Enjoy your New Years, everyone. Go out and buy a ticket and take that ride. See you next year...