Twenty-ten

Top 5 Books I Read (Or Re-Read) This Year
5. Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time #2,025)
4. The Way of Kings
3. A Game of Thrones (and the rest of A Song of Ice and Fire)
2. Dune
1. Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies really wowed me. As grim as the book gets, the writing is, well, awesome. I can't believe that they have kids read this in middle and high school, because I feel like I can barely appreciate how excellent the writing is--otherwise it's just a morbid story about crazy kids on an island.

Top 5 TV Shows I Saw This Year
5. Make It Or Break It (the writing on this show is secretly great)
4. Lost Season Six (a letdown in the end, but still good)
3. The Sing-Off (American Idol + talent - (everything we hate about Idol))
2. Survivor Heroes and Villains (best strategic reality show season ever)
1. The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is gory. Definitely gory. If that bothers you (and I'm still trying to decide if that should bother me more than it does), skip this. Otherwise, this show is brilliant. Good writing, good characters, excellent production values, and some very memorable moments in just six episodes. The pilot was especially enthralling.

Top 5 Movies I Saw This Year
5. Tangled
4. How To Train Your Dragon
3. Despicable Me
2. Toy Story 3
1. Inception

Inception is brilliant on three or four different levels. I have a lot more to say about that later. The other four were all just good, in pretty much all senses of that over-generalizing word. (I still haven't seen Social Network or The Town.)

Top 5 Twitter Feeds
5. day9tv (I follow him for Starcraft news, but he is reliable for funny quips)
4. VeryShortStory (good idea, done well enough consistently enough to be interesting)
3. FakeAPStylebook (genuine humor thick with irony)
2. jimmykimmel (funny, usually supplies excellent links)
1. RandyTayler

RandyTayler is the brother of a webcomic author that I don't read but know about because he's on a podcast I listen to about writing. This guy is way, way out of the way. But he is hilarious. Frequent tweets, all worth reading, self-defacing humor and, well, he's bald. If you use twitter, follow RandyTayler. If you only have a twitter account that you never use or access, follow RandyTayler--he'll give you a reason to. If you don't have twitter, get it and follow RandyTayler. He's the first guy to make my twitter feed worth refreshing.

Top 5 Videos I Saw This Year
5. “Just A Dream” cover by youtube singers
4. Doodling in Math Class - Infinity Elephants
3. The World's Reaction to Landon Donovan's Game-Winning Goal
2. Noteworthy - How Great Thou Art
1. My Life of Starcraft - Day[9] Daily #100

Sean "Day[9]" Plott uploads videos of himself commentating on the strategy behind professional competitive games of Starcraft. This video, however, talks about his life as a professional Starcraft player--how he grew to like video games, his relationship with his brother, the love and support of his family, the roller-coaster ride of the tournaments he played in, and how the whole experience has affected him as a person. Intriguing, hilarious, sincere, and at times emotional, the length of the video is totally worth it if you're mildly curious about pro gaming at all.