"It Was A Very Good Year"

Virtually anyone with a digital soapbox does a year in review sort of thing about this time. It's just one of those conventions that you can't really escape. Even I'm not immune. We all just seem to have this affinity for and desire to summarize the year and our achievements, happenings, and highlights/lowlights.

Of course, that all begs the question of how one goes about reviewing the past twelve months. I could give the blow-by-blow monthly review, but that requires that I remember not only the things that happened back in January of this year, but that I remember what happened when. And, given my memory, that's nigh impossible.

So instead, I'll just lump things into categories.

Academic

Academically, quite a lot has happened for me this year. I participated in another Phi Alpha Theta Conference back in early March, and again took home the Best Graduate Non-American History Paper prize. Of course, this time around, the folks from OU really didn't pay me much attention. But I don't care about them (or the fact that I'm not listed on the History Department website while every other graduate student is or has been. Americanist bastards).

The other big academic happening this year was, of course, the completion of the Master's degree this month. To say that finishing up my first advanced degree was a great relief would be a gross understatement.

Personal

This was the year of weddings. Granted, so was last year, really, but that's hardly the point. I attended four weddings this year (and could have attended about three more, if I'd had the time and the forewarning). Among the lucky newlyweds were my OU friends Jess and Dom, Ozarks buddies Heather and Sarah (in separate weddings. To men. C'mon, they were getting hitched in Arkansas, people, and you know the hillbillies ain't about to allow same-sex marriage anymore than the foolish farmers of Oklahoma), and Dim Bulb cohort Adam. I was in two of the weddings, ran sound for another, and shuttled alcohol for the fourth.

Meanwhile, though, I'm still single. This is sorta just the way things are, I think. Amazingly, this doesn't really bother me anymore.

This was also the year I got really close to Beth...just in time for her to graduate and head off for grad school in Florida. To say that I have no sense of timing is to understate the case to comical proportions. Really. My sense of timing is attrocious.

Music

As the numerous album reviews on this blog can atest, I'm a huge music fanatic. My life is constantly filled with music, whether it's in the form of making music, listening to it, or simply appreciating it. 2004 was a decent year for music, and the year saw a few great releases from some well-established acts. Here's my top ten for 2004, in no particular order...

Wilco - A Ghost is Born: Wilco's lastest teems with musicianship and nuanced performances. The album took some time to warm up to, but the rewards were well worth it.

U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb: U2 reminded everyone of why they're one of the biggest bands in the world, returning to bombastic form. And it was very, very good.

Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Volume 6, Live 1964: Dylan on the verge of revolution. He's warm, funny, in fine form, and gives folks a befuddling taste of what would come less than a year later.

Old 97s - Drag It Up: After a couple of albums of slick pop, the Old 97s return to their trademark gain-drenched alt-country.

Norah Jones - Feels Like Home: Simply beautiful and relaxing, Norah's sophomore album is a simple, mellow affair sure to leave you feeling blissful.

Pearl Jam - rearviewmirror: Pearl Jam's 2-disc best of set rocks hard and reminds you why they're one of rock's giants.

Mutal Admiration Society - Mutual Admiration Society: Americana and folky bluegrass that goes down smooth and satisfies an itch I didn't even know I had. Glad it finally saw the light of day after languishing in the vault for four years.

John Mellencamp - Words and Music: Reminds you why John Mellencamp is one of the best roots rockers out there. Damn-near definitive.

Cake - Pressure Chief: Cake returns with another irony-drenched release chock-full of of good times, "hey's," and half-spoken lyrical delivery. Magic.

Mark Knopfler - Shangri-La: Beautiful, mellow, and gritty. Mark Knopfler just keeps getting better with age.

Artistically

This was a pretty big year for Dim Bulb. We more than doubled our readership over the course of the year, peaking out around 170 average visitors per day. I'm still trying to figure something out though: who found our site by searching for "hot boy pron"? I mean, I'm sure they were sorely disappointed when they discovered that we did not, in fact, have any such thing, but it still begs the question of why Dim Bulb even came up as a result for such a search. Maybe some questions are best left unanswered.

I actually grew quite a bit as an artist over the past year. Look at the sort of stuff I was capable of back in January, and compare it to now. The character designs are firmly in place, but my ability to draw different poses and even a few new angles (though I'm still rather rough in that area) has greatly improved. The style has gotten less sketchy (which is fine, since the sketchiness was becoming a bit of a crutch, really).

All in all, 2004 was a big year. Lots of things happened, some things changed, some did not, but life has definitely been interesting for the past 12 months. Who knows what 2005 will bring.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Blur, "End of a Century"