List #781: A Few Favorite Things from 2012

A Few Favorite Things from 2012

1. Portland visit in the Summer
2. New Puppy at Mom's House
3. Community, Season 3
4. Return to Ravnica
5. Brussells Sprouts
6. Dad's 60th Birthday Party
7. Boot Hockey at Christmas

List #780: Goals 2012 Report Card

Goals 2012 Report Card  (see this list)

1. Get back to being in good shape   (OKAY)

2. Read more books (and get caught up with WoT)  (READ MORE, DIDN'T GET CAUGHT UP)

3. Out of bed by 6:05 (EXCEEDED)

4. Bake Muffins  (NO)

5. Be better at my job (SOMEWHAT)

List #779: Winter Sports Engaged In During the Break

Winter Sports Engaged In During the Break

1. Hiking/Dog-walking
2. Boot Hockey (pike lake)
3. Downhill Skiing (spirit mountain)
4. Ice Skating (woodland)
5. X-C Skiing (hartley)

List #778: Favorite Christmas Gifts Given This Year

 Favorite Christmas Gifts Given This Year

1. Cajon Bongo (brother)
2. Jingle Bells (sister)
3. Return To Forever CD (dad)
4. Duluth Pack Scout Pack (gf)
5. Story People print (mom)

List #777: 7 More Favorite 7s

 7 More Favorite 7s  (see list #700)

1. ROY G. BIV (is a colorful man)
2. 7 Samurai
3. The Magnificent 7 (cowboys, not gymnasts)
4. Fmaj7
5. The 7 Kingdoms of Westeros
6. Up
7. "7th of a 7th Son" by Iron Maiden

List #776: 5 Reasons I'm Proud to be American

5 Reasons I'm Proud to be American

1. The First Amendment (which allows me to write this list, and, someday, it's counterpoint)
2. The path to our Nation's Capitol building is lined with institutions of learning and repositories of knowledge
3. The ability to vote
4. We invented jazz
5. It is theoretically possible for anyone to find success

List #775: 5 Reasons I know I'm a giant child

5 Reasons I know I'm a giant child
1. Construction paper, Crayola crayons and markers are my art supplies of choice
2. I love tag
3. Dinosaurs!
4. I still get super excited on Christmas Morning (and have trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve)
5. I would eat kraft macaroni and cheese for every meal if I were allowed to.

List #774: 5 Reasons I know I'm Old

5 Reasons I know I'm an old man

1. I have no desire to ever drink Mt. Dew again
2. I still think that it's important to read things that are more than 140 characters long, with the purpose of gaining Knowledge
3. People that can't be quiet and sit still for a movie, shouldn't be going to movie theaters
4. I don't think that print Newspapers are obsolete
5. My "phone" makes telephone calls

List #773: How to Build 100 EDH / Commander Decks

How to Build 100 EDH/Commander Decks*

1. Don't Be Hung Up on Perfection:   Not every deck is going to be an hyper-optimized pile of staples

2. Play "Bad" Cards:  your decks will get boring if every deck has the same staples.  Use this opportunity to try out "less good' cards

3. Proxy (fairly) --  Some cards that are good enough for a lot of decks are big $, and you might not have stacks of them.  To me, fairly means you can proxy something as long as you own at least one copy of it, but no more than 3 non-dual-land proxies per deck.

4. Restrictions = Creativity:  not every green deck need be "Ramp to Fatties". Giving yourself restrictions can lead to more ideas for decks...  Mono-blue beat-down,  creature-less green,  all one-drops, Samurai tribal, Ice Age Block Constructed etc.   

5. Sleeves are for Wimps:  or people with extra time and money to keep decks in the right sleeves.  I'd rather spend money on more cards, than on 10,000 sleeves, but your mileage may vary.

6. Play for Funsies:  see #1.  If you are tournament-hustler Spikey McSpikerson, you're probably only going to optimize one deck to KILL and win all of the prizes and money and glory.  Building in bulk, not all of your decks are going to be optimized to win, (or at least not win in the same old way).  Be happy to play for the game to pull off an awesome play, or be part of epic games, or just to sling cardboard with your friends.

7. Build for Art Sometimes:  an extension of #4.  Some of your decks might be exercises more than anything else. Try building a Rainbow Stairwell, or Tag-Team decks, or 'drafting' out of your deckless-cards (see #9), keeping a few "teaching" decks is a good idea too.

8. Have a Lot of Cards:  it helps if you've already got a ton of cards to build from. any card that isn't in a deck should make you want to put it into a deck or make a deck for it.

9. Play Favorites:  some decks are worth going back and tweaking with the newest cards, others can be built and finished. Keeping all of the decks up to date would be foolish, costly, and time-consuming. On the other hand, keeping a few favorite decks as fresh as possible, is also important.

10. Don't Go Bankrupt Trying to Do it All at Once:  My initial goal was just to have one of each possible combination (including no-color and 4-color). Once that happened I thought about going for two of each legal combination.  The idea of shooting for 100 didn't come up until about #65.

*As of this posting, I have about 80 complete, with 5 more in the works (and 5 more Guild Wars waiting for Gatecrash)

List #772: Comics I Currently Buy

Comics I currently Buy, in order of excitement to read

1. Fables

2. Invincible

3. American Vampire (and mini-series)

4. Walking Dead

5. Fairest (fables spin-off)

6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 9

7. Angel and Faith (and other Buffy Spin-offs)

8. Uncanny X-force

9. Dial H-for Hero

10. Unwritten

11. Edison Rex (digital)

List #771: Favorite characters on Freaks and Geeks

Favorite characters on Freaks and Geeks

1. Bill

2. Mr. Weir   (because's he's a nuanced TV dad)

3. Nick Andopolous (because one day he became Marshall)

4. Sam Weir

5. Lindsey Weir

6. Daniel Desario  (mostly because of the finale)

7. Mr. Rosso

8. Millie

9.The Gym Teacher  (because he was basically an alright dude)

10. Harris

List #770: Favorite things to do with Tortilla Chips

Favorite things to do with Tortilla Chips (assuming they will be eaten)

1. Put hummus on them 

2. Melt Cheese on them 

3. Eat rice with them

4. Eat them Plain

5. Salsify them

6. Crumble on top of Mac'n'Cheese

7. Put them in soups

8. Eat all other left-overs with them

List #769: A Few Things About the Digital World that Bother Me a Lot

 A Few (among many) Things About the Digital World that Bother Me a Lot

1. the balkanization of media outlets (why can I buy DC comics from comixology's website, but not their "app")

2. privacy vs commerce  (I am Google's product)

3. idiots who write comments on youtube, amazon, etc. (no comment)

4. proprietary formats (this is better)

5. net neutrality being threatened 

6. the appification of the internet and the death of the web. 

7. leasing things in the cloud instead of having them

8. the "bleed" of the major tech companies in their quest for dominance (Facebook should not be a search engine, Google should not be a social networking site,  apple should make cool devices,  Amazon should sell content and products)

List #768: 5 Reasons I lost interest in Heroclix

5 Reasons I lost interest in Heroclix

1. too many new sets or different releases of sets

2. too many rule changes (especially the TK rule changes)

3. too many new or more complex special powers

4. too many Must Have pieces as prizes for highly competitive tournaments only

5. E. D. H.

List #767: Reasons why "Community" might be my favorite show ever

List #767: Reasons why "Community" Might Be My Favorite Show Ever (As Proved By Comparisons To Other Shows I Enjoy (or just other shows))

1.   It plays with Genre in the medium of Television Sitcom  in a way similar to how How I Met Your Mother occaisonally plays with Structure in the same medium... except all of the time and better.

2.  After watching the first episode or two, I thought it was going to be a throw-away, background, fill-the-time-between-shows-I-want-to-watch kind of show, (or maybe just another dumb vehicle for some former/peripheral stars like Chase and McHale) but like the similarly brilliant Veronica Mars it soon became something far better than I ever could have predicted based on the first two episodes.  (and I really hope that the miraculous announcement of another short season doesn't end up as only-just-really-pretty-good as VM did)

3.  It was a show that did adventurous and wildly different things each week, but, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer,  it did so while still having the heart of the show be about character development and relationships, just using the monster/trope-of-the-week as the flavoring.  It's like every week was a "Once More, With Feeling"...  (and several times, even better)

4.  There is no TV (ex/fake)lawyer I'd rather hear speechify than Jeff Winger (except maybe Boston Legal's  Alan Shore)

5. Its consistency in both seeming absurdity and reference to its own continuity rivals Arrested Development (and the aformentioned HIMYM)

6. Its characters may have unlikeable qualities, but that makes them that much more interesting (so SUCK IT! Seinfeld)


7.  It's not going to be the same  if the visionary writer behind it all isn't on the show next year,  like a Sorkin-less West Wing


8. Lets be really honest now...  Abed/Inspector spacetime shows more about multi-dimensionality and character develpment,  than that other, 1-dimensional, 'somewhere-on-the-spectrum' guy on that show that's in the exact same time-slot   could ever figure out with 5 PhDs in Physics  and unfinity equations that the writer had to hire a paid physics consultant to write on the whiteboards.

8a. And also, really,  name a character on Big Bang Theory that you actually care about in some way?  Name a character that's had any development or growth, or that isn't a one-note (albeit funny) gag character, (except for maybe Penny).  Don't me wrong;  BBT is highly watchable (I record it) and is, like most things Chuck Lorre makes, good for some cheap, obvious laughs, but, for a show about "geniuses" it's surprisingly dumb... makes me think that Obama's right about the value of Community College.

9. "Remedial Chaos Theory" did everything right with alternate timelines that Lost struggled with, and if last night's episode was truly the last one (which I will consider it to be, if next season is Harmon-less), it did everything right with a final episode that  Lost, or The Soprano's didn't.

10.  It's a show where the Place (Greendale) is as central to the focus as the Characters are, and it's a show with students, teachers and staff at a school that isn't a "Show about School",  (and it's got Michael K. Williams saying "A man's gotta have a code").  Plus Dan Harmon even pretty much admits that he's heavily influenced by The Wire  (and last night's episode totally ended with a Wire montage) :

"And so whether I like it or not, and as risky as it is, I need to lay some plans at the beginning of season three that we’ll build to at the end. And I think that’s going to be a sweeping enough change to accomplish. I’ve been studying The Wire over this break and observing the art of the opposite of modularity, which is serialization. That’s not to say that season three of Community will be season four of The Wire, but it is to say that beyond Modern Family and beyond Parks And Rec, the ingredient that will keep Community alive to season four exists somewhere in The Wire. [Laughs.] I don’t know how to explain that, but I know it has something to do with the way they end their seasons with these glamorous montages and needle-drops of these stories that seemed disparate and all operate on some theme."  --Dan Harmon, Onion AV Club

(11.  Alison Brie is even more adorable than on Mad Men)

(12.  James Franco (of Freaks and Geeks) is the "White Donald Glover" ... much respect to Childish Gambino)

List #766: "About Google"

List #766: "About Google"

"Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful TO ADVERTISERS AND SHAREHOLDERS"

"Our Philosophy: 10 Things"

1: Focus on the user"S INFORMATION and all else will (We don't 'Follow' here at G, we '+1')

2.It’s best to do one thing really, really well, AND THAT THING ISN"T WEB SEARCH, IT TOTES SOCIAL MEDIA

3: Fast is better than slow." (yeah, they're still fast, can't complain)

4. #4: Democracy on the web works. democracy means 'we tell you what you want, right?

5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer. WE CAN FIND YOU ANYWHERE THANKS TO GPS !

6: You can make money without doing evil... you just can't make it any more while doing good

7.There’s always more information out there. AND WE KNOW YOU"VE BEEN HIDING IT FROM US

8: The need for information crosses all borders, so we'll put our stuff in the hands of national-level domains. China will be good, right?

9: You can be serious without a suit, or any other clothes for that matter if you're hot (since we'll be watching you 24/7)

10. Great just isn't good enough, so we've decided not to be great anymore.

List #765: A Few Thoughts on the Future of These Lists

List #765: A Few Thoughts on the Future of These Lists

1. I've completed my second full year (with a ~35 list interlude in 2010

2. They are still fun to write, but less so now that Facebook doesn't import them

3. I may shift it to a different hosting service if Google is still ticking me off

4. I will probably not do them daily for 2012

5. It would be nice to get to #800 and restart in 2013

6. I was less diligent about daily updates the second time through

7. I enjoy getting comments

8. My requests for audience participation went largely unanswered

9. I might work on the Nic-ipedia again

10. Thanks for reading. Happy New Year.

List #764: Thoughts on the Hunger Games Books, pt II

List #764: Thoughts on the Hunger Games Books, pt II (now that I've finished them)

1. Is it wrong that I thing a 'Hunger Games' video game would be really cool

2. I think the real-life video-game aspect is what makes it likeable by boys too

3. The third book was the least good. The second book got much better at the end.

4. The movies might be too intense

5. The third book moved to quickly.

List #763: Favorite China Mieville Novels

List #763: Favorite China Mieville Novels (in order)

1. The Scar

2. Perdido Street Station

3. Kraken

4. Embassytown

5. Iron Council

6. The City & The City

List #762: Things I Dislike about Google's Privacy Policy Switch

List #762: Things I Dislike about Google's Privacy Policy Switch

1. I now need to log out of Gmail (and thus every other google service... like this blog) every time I want to do a non-diluted search on the search engine.

2. "If you choose to keep using Google once the change occurs, you will be doing so under the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service." --Translation: "Dear User, We're too big to fail, and you can't live with out us, so Eff You"

3. "If you’re signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries – or tailor your search results – based on the interests you’ve expressed in Google+, Gmail, and YouTube... -- Not "Can do," but "Will do"

4. I like having my gmail open on my laptop. I also work in a library where I'm often doing and demoing Google Searches for students (Like "Here's how to find the best part of google -- advanced search -- since those Effers hid it). Those searches don't represent my interests, why should they pollute my own YouTube searches?

5."...We’ll better understand which version of Pink or Jaguar you’re searching for and get you those results faster:" --Okay, but what about when I want the OTHER version of Pink or Jaguar? How does it save me time when I have to retrain the almighty GoogleBot?

6. I have close personal friends, to whom I talk about close personal things. I sure don't want YouTube to think that I want to see videos on a Health or Personal Hygiene problem I might be asking my mom about, or a love-note to a lady.

7. It's making Google too much like an iPhone: everything rolled up in to one package, so when you lose it, you're effed.

8. It's made me drop nearly all of my google services that I formerly liked (except you can't drop them now) like Google Docs and stuff.

9. It's made me think about quitting the blog (or trying to import it to another place somehow); getting a totally different email address (hassle), and making a separate account so I can view Youtube privately (and also then deleting all of my youtube uploads... sorry ukulele brothers fans)...

10. ... Except I haven't found better alternatives

11. There aren't opt out features. (Google overlords, you're going to be able to harvest all the personal data from people who are too dumb to think this stuff matters, why do you need mine)

12. There's nothing that can be done to stop it. and even adding "google's privacy policy sucks" to every google transaction I do" is just going to make my personal google experience less good and not send them a message

13. There's no easy-to-find ability on any of their "help' or 'contact' pages to voice concerns or opinions.

List #761: A Few Things I like about Rush

List #761: A Few Things I like about Rush (the band, not the Limbaugh)

1. "2112"

2. "Take Off" by Bob and Doug McKenzie, feat. Geddy Lee

3. Geddy plays a Rickenbacker

4. "Limelight," "Spirit of Radio," "Tom Sawyer"

5. They are Canadian

6. They are one of two things in the world for which Ayn Rand had any positive influence (the other is Debate Evidence).

7. The title of the Song "By-Tor and the Snow Dog"

List #760: Favorite Kinds of Tape

List #760: Favorite Kinds of Tape

1. Book repair tape

2. Masking tape

3. Duct tape

4. Audio tape

5. Glow-in-the-Dark tape

6. Scotch tape

7. Hockey tape

8. Painter's tape (the blue stuff)

9. Double-sided tape

10.Packing Tape

List #759: New Slogans for Google

List #759: New Slogans/Mission Statements for Google

1. -Don't +Be +Evil {except that won't work quite right anymore}

2. Don't Be Evil; The Big 'G' is Watching You...

3. Don't Be Evil Unless Facebook Is Too, Because We Should Probably Copy Those Guys

4. Don't Be Evil Where People Can See It

5. Being A Valuable Research Tool That Works How Users Want It Too Is Evil. Don't

List #758: Good Things About January 24th

List #758: Good Things About January 24th

1. A lot of great people were born on this day

2. Found out my Cousin got engaged (2012)

3. Made good noodles (2012)

4. Good Day for Phone Calls (multiple years)

5. Marks the Beginning of the last week of the year.

List #757: Favorite Milks

List #757: Favorite Milks (currently)

1. Whole

2. Soy (plain or vanilla)

3. Skim

4. Chocolate (1 or 2%)

5. Almond

6. Rice

List #756: 5 Things I Like About Tofu

List #756: 5 Things I Like About Tofu

1. The texture (if it's firm)

2. How it absorbs flavors

3. How it tastes if you fry it with Nutritional Yeast

4. That it's good added into stir-fry

5. When it doesn't try to pretend to be other things.

List #755: 5 Thoughts on peacocks

List #755: 5 Thoughts on peacocks

1. I liked going to the zoo because they would roam around freely

2. "The Flaming Green Peacocks" was the recommended name of a Middle School IM soccer team I was on. It got censored to "The Flaming Green Machine" by our illustrious principal.

3. The same name was used on a classic mixtape of 9th grade

4. NBC has the best shows on thursday nights

5. I like that shade of blue

List #754: Favorite Kinds of Tacos

List #754: Favorite Kinds of Tacos

1. Regular style double decker see List #167 for details

2. Choco-Tacos

3.Fish tacos with purple slaw and corn tortillas

4. Turkey tacos with black beans

5. SNL Digital Short style

List #753: 5 Small Devices I Am Thankful For

List #753: 5 Small Devices I Am Thankful For

1. Nail Clippers

2. Paper Clips

3. Refrigerator Magnets

4. Tiny Screwdrivers

5. USB drives

List #752: 5 Thoughts on The Hunger Games

List #752: 5 Thoughts on The Hunger Games

1. The first book was pretty good, and I liked the action scenes

2. The second book started out too slowly (long boring train ride). I started it last year around this time, I will finish it eventually.

3. I haven't seen the movie trailer. I will maybe see the movie.

4. It gets people reading, so that's good

5. I have a different book named "Catching Fire" that's about food.

List #751: Good Things about the Twilight Series

List #751: Good Things about the Twilight Series

1. It got a lot of non-readers to read books

2. The films have disproportionately cool bands on the sound tracks (like good enough that I bought one of the soundtracks, and songs off of a few others)

3. Nothing Else.

List #750: Online Services I Currently Have Beef With

List #750: Online Services I Currently Have Beef With (or at very least a distinct love/hate relationship)

1. Google: hiding advanced search; "Social" Search is opt-out rather than opt-in; weird dropdown tool bar on some of my browsers; over focus on trying to 'beat' facebook when Google is a search engine; forcing a location for search; for creeping towards evil

2. Hulu+: for not streaming to Roku any of the stuff I'd actually pay money to have on my TV (since I have multiple ways to watch it on a computer screen, all of which are free and most of which are legal)

3. Facebook: for making Google worse (see #1); for the inevitable switch to that white-hot mess of unreadable Timeline; for eliminating blog importing; for general exploitation

4. Amazon* (only because the Kindle Fire isn't quite what I hoped it could be... Amazon Prime rules, and renting/on-demand movies on the Roku are great)

5. Barnes and Noble Nook: for not being awesome for libraries... again, that's really Big Publishing's fault, not theirs

6. iTunes: for generally being more expensive than amazon's mp3 store. (I have gift cards, but i still feel it's wasteful to spend $1-2 more on an album, or .30 more on an individual track)

7. Bing: For not having an Advanced Search link in an immediate and obvious place on their home page; for requiring a set location for search results; for trying to do too much thinking for the user.

8. Any online service provider that supports SOPA.

List #749: 5 Wishes for My Mom on her Birthday

List #749: 5 Wishes for My Mom on her Birthday

1. That she likes the presents I got her

2. That she is out to dinner somewhere fun

3. That the rest of her month goes good at her job

4. That someone buys her a lottery ticket and she wins $500,000

5. That the rest of her year is super great

List #748: Favorite things about Afghan food

List #748: Favorite things about Afghan food

1. The rice that has cinnamon

2. Pumpkin with yoghurt sauce

3. The bread

4. Lamb

5. Cardamom ice cream

List #747: 5 Favorite Things about Flying

List #747: 5 Favorite Things about Flying

1. It's a great time to read books

2. It is a time for drinking cranberry juice and/or ginger ale

3. I can sleep on a plane, so it's kind of like teleportation

4. Window Seats

5. Airline pilots are skilled and capable individuals (and I don't have to drive)

List #746: 5 Reasons a Certain Someone is Really Awesome

List #746: 5 Reasons a Certain Someone is Really Awesome

1. She puts up with me (which is awesome)

2. She meets pretty much all of the qualifications

3. She's an excellent teacher (and quite patient)

4. She's super easy to get a long with

5. She's daaaang cute

List #745: Mail I Got Today

List #745: Mail I Got Today

1. The front part of an envelope from my cousin

2. A 1 month late shipment from Star City Games (empty, wrapped in tape, covered in mold)

3. A lightly crushed mailing box with a Limited Edition Heroclix Nazgul (intact)

4. A Roku (totally not missing Verizon Fios)

List #744: Some Uses for Nutritional Yeast

List #744: Some Uses for Nutritional Yeast

1. Put it on popcorn!

2. use it as breading for Tofu

3. Put it in Smoothies

4. Spill in a suitcase that also has some glitter spilled into it; make an off-color joke about Ke$ha

List #743: Favorite Sweatshirts

List #743: Favorite Sweatshirts (all time and current)

1. tan University of Michigan (totally falling apart)

2. plain grey "uniform" hooded

3. navy blue Carleton, hooded

4. black "proctor peer helpers 'Tiffany'", hooded, (too small)

5. red Hamline Swimming and Diving "Nat", hooded, odd pockets

6. blue and green tie-dye "Just Ski It"

7. red Potbellied Stallions logo, hooded

List #742: A Few Significant Accomplishments

List #742: A Few Significant Accomplishments (but not all of them)

1. Making it to the State Geography Bee in 7th Grade

2. Graduating in the top 5% in High School

3. Winning a Band award in HS

4. Graduating from Carleton

5. Getting my MLIS

List #741:Things I'm Going to Finish in the First Quarter of the Year

List #741:Things I'm Going to Finish in the First Quarter of the Year (or be caught up with)

1. The Hunger Games Books

2. Achewood

3. Breaking Bad

4. Walking Dead

List #740:Current EDH Commanders

List #740:Current EDH Commanders/decks (by color ID)

1. W - Khemba, Kha Regent

2. R - Heartless Hidetsugu

3. B - Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief (99% Foil Vampires)

4. U - Empress Galina

5. G(/W) - Rhys the Redeemed (mono-green token craziness)

6. W/U - Kangee, Aerie Keeper

7. W/G - Jasmine Boreal (knights' Fair Lady)

8. W/R - Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer (mega soldier beatdown)

9. W/B - Teysa, Orzhov Scion (complicated combos)

10. W/B - Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter (Life Gain and Loss)

11. U/B - Oona, Queen of the Fae (mill-discard)

12. U/G - Momir Vig, Simic Visionary (graft proliferation)

13. U/G - Experiment Kraj (Elf(slime)Ball)

14. B/R - Olivia Voldaren (blood!)

15. B/G - Sisters of Stone Death (Snakes on the Ramp)

16. R/G - Lady of the Mountain (Pauper Giants)

17. W/U/G - Rafiq of the Many (voltron)

18. R/W/G - Uril, The Mist Stalker (voltron)

19. U/B/R - Thraximundar (zombies... soon to become Lord of Tresserhorn)

20. G/B/R - Xira Arien (eldrazi invasion!)

21. U/W/B - Sharuum the Hegemon

22. R/U/G - Riku of Two Reflections (yours, and more)

23. R/U/G - Animar, Soul of Elements (sliver-myr overload)

24. R/W/U - Ruhan of the Fomori (Chaos coin-flips)

25. U/G/B - The Mimeoplasm (auto voltron)

26. G/B/W - Ghave, Guru of Spores (Doubling Season Shenanigans)

27. U/G/W/R - Jenara Asura of War/Razia Boros Archangel (tag-team high-flying)

28. R/G/W/B - Kresh the Bloodbraided/Hazezon Tamar (tag-team horde)

29. WUBRG - Karona, False God (ALLIES!)

30. WUBRG - Child of Alara (Honden Bringers)

31. WUBRG - Scion of the Ur-Dragon (dragons, duh)

32. WUBRG - Reaper King (Lords of the 'lings)

(R/U and RBW not currently represented.)

Bonus List: In progress

1. Oros the Avenger (Graveyard HAAAAATE)

2. Jenara Asura of War (flyers)

3. Lord of Tresserhorn (slow zombies)

4. Zedruu, the Greathearted (maybe)

List #739: 5 Foods I Want to Make This Year

List #739: 5 Foods I Want to Make This Year

1. Matar Paneer (from scratch)

2. Some really good Muffins

3. Re-invent "Breakfast Soup"

4. Duck

5. Barbecue Sauce

List #738: 5 Thoughts on Wine

List #738: 5 Thoughts on Wine

1. It's nice with dinner

2. I like the "50th anniversary gala" wineglasses from my school

3. There are 3 kinds of wines: Red Wine, Sweet WhiteWine from Germany, Wine that doesn't taste great

4. There's also Ice Wine (which I once inadvertently, but afterwards quite happily, paid $27 for a tiny glass of)

5. I choose wines based on whether the bottle is cool or not (I'll drink it even when it supposedly tastes like vinegar)

List #737: Favorite Albums of 2011

List #737: Favorite Albums of 2011 (albums I first heard in 2011)

1. The Joy Formidable "The Big Roar"

2. Los Campesinos! "Hello, Sadness"

3. Childish Gambino "Camp"

4. Low "C'Mon"

5. Florence & The Machine "Ceremonials"

List #736: List #395 -- 2011 Goals -- reportcard

List #736: List #395 -- 2011 Goals -- reportcard

1. Be better at my job --- MOSTLY

2. Go on a date (hopefully more than one, but let's not get greedy)* --- HECK YES

3. Run 5k in under 26 minutes* -- NOPE 27:59 was the best

4. Get caught up on the "Wheel of Time" books* ---NOPE, 1.5 remaining

5. Finish a song* --- YESSS

6. Add Sauce-making to my kitchen repertoire -- ADDED A FEW, BUT NOT ENOUGH

7. Make a cheesecake* -- YES, HELPED WITH #2

8. Make my bedtime and wake-up time 15 minutes earlier* --- EARLIER BEDTIMES, NOT WAKEUP

9. Have better variety in workouts -- MOSTLY

10. Play more Games -- NOT ENOUGH

11. Be less negative -- MOSTLY

List #735: Goals for 2012

List #735: Goals for 2012

1. Get back to being in good shape

2. Read more books (and get caught up with WoT)

3. Out of bed by 6:05

4. Bake Muffins

5. Be better at my job