My Favorite Things (2012)
I figured that if people want to know about Oprah's "Favorite Things", they also want to know about my favorite things. But, I'm not going to give away iPads or anything else. However, I will be giving out my number (ladies?). And, I've left off all of the obvious things from the list. I'm incredibly thankful for my job, friends, and of course my lovely wife. But, you guys don't want to read that stuff, so I'm trimming the fat (not a fat joke, nooooot a fat joke guys). So here are my favorite things of 2012:
If you do any kind of design work, you need to be on that Dribbble.com game. Very talented designers from all disciplines post previews of projects they are working on and it is a great place to go for inspiration. I go there almost daily, and our office even has an amazing screensaver that is made up of the most recent shots that people are posting.
If you are a Spotify fan, that's fine, you can pick your poison with this one. But really, I will never go back to iTunes. That would be the worst. thing. ever. Why would I go back to a time when I couldn't listen to Hanson's "MMMBop" on command or share the latest Kid Cudi track with a friend, without actually owning the song or having to waste my time illegally downloading it. Nope, not gonna do it.
If you liked Words With Friends, iPhone or even the new board game (don't get me started on that), you will love Letterpress. It is like Scrabble mixed with Risk mixed with meth. Yeah, it's that awesome. Go download it, fo' free.
These have been one of my most favorite things lately. Since my beloved Thunder traded totes my fave player in James Harden, I've started gushing a little more over Russell Westbrook. My wife has loved him since the beginning, for more than just his ball skills (read: he is kind of cute), so I guess it has rubbed off on me a little. Anyways, he has been throwing down like a boss recently.
I've been a fan of their blog for a bit, but I had never listened to their daily podcast before. This season I've been listening to it around the clock. It's amazing!! It is like listening to a more well-informed version of my friends and I talking about sports. I creepishly want to be best friends with all of them. I love that they primarily talk about their awful hometown team, the Toronto Raptors, and keep their listeners well informed of the record of their rec-league basketball team. If I had a sports podcast, I would want it to be exactly like this. If you want a taste, here is a video they made about Chris Bosh last season. Pretty solid.
So recently, I went shopping on Black Friday, like a dweeb (I said recently, and I meant it). Well, I snagged a pair of "cords" at the GAP for really cheap. You guys, holy crap! It is like wearing a pair of fashionable sweat pants. These are the most comfortable things ever. So comfortable that they jumped into the #5 spot on my favorite things list, after only wearing them like twice. They would probably be at the top of my "most comfortable things of 2012" list, if I had one. George, on Seinfeld, always said he would drape himself in velvet if it was socially acceptable. I might just do that with corduroy. Good job corduroys, keep up the good work.
4. Yahoo! Fantasy Football
I live for some Fantasy Football (is it a proper noun?). I spend most of my free time making web apps that do nothing more than entertain me and my league comrades. This year, I'm playing in a handful of leagues (humble braaaaaag) and one of them uses ESPN to run the league. It's the worst. It is embarrassing how bad ESPN is at Fantasy Football. And that's why my favorite thing isn't just Fantasy Football, but specifically the Yahoo! version. They do an amazing job, and it just keeps getting better every year.
When I first started watching "The Walking Dead", I wasn't hooked. I watched the first 3 episodes, and walked away (nailed it!). Fast forward to like a month ago, and I decided to give it another go. Holy smokes, this show is fantastic. If you aren't a zombie person, get over yourself, because you are totally a zombie person, you know it. This show has something for everyone. Girls, you like make-up right? O man, the make-up they put on these zombies every show is out of control. The first 2 seasons are on Netflix, get to watching people!
2. The EA Sports FIFA Franchise
Yeah, kiiiind of a blanket statement for this one. But, I have been playing FIFA since the beginning. Back when it was just FIFA International Soccer, not even a year on it. It is the best sports video game around. Even though some think it is boring to watch soccer, it definitely isn't boring to play. The games are short, and there are almost no stoppages, so you are pretty much manning "the sticks" non-stop. And they always do a great job with the soundtrack. Remember when they used Blur's "Song 2" for the intro, o man, of course you do.
JURASSIC PARK IN IMAX 3D ON APRIL 5TH, 2013!!!!!! I know it doesn't come out until 2013, but it is that good, that it tops this year's list. This movie pretty much defined my childhood, maybe even my life. Anytime I see a large clearing that leads up to a forest (in Oklahoma there are tons, ok), I think, "aw man, what if a T-Rex blasts out of there, what am I going to do?". When I took up playing the trumpet in Jr. High (street cred alert), the Jurassic Park intro was the first song we performed as a band. And when I went to visit my wife in Costa Rica (where Jurassic Park is set), I felt a little closer to home. I saw this movie numerous times in the theatre, when I was like 7. I had to hide behind the seats during most of the scenes, because I was horrified. So on April 5th of next year, I'm going to watch it again, and I'm not hiding this time, hopefully.
Since top 10 lists end with 1, and not 0, that concludes my list of favorite things. Hopefully, the world doesn't end in a few weeks. I'm doing everything I can to prevent it, mostly by playing OldSpiceSavesTheWorld.