2007: My 'Best of' list

[nosh]

Best movie seen:
Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka)
2007: My 'Best of' list
I watch a LOT of movies and would hardly rate any over an 8. I give 'Grave' a full 10 without any hesitation. It's a work of dedication and genius and is undoubtedly THE most powerful movie I've seen. I'm generally considered a cold b*****d by most people who know me but I feel no shame in admitting I had tears streaming down my face the first time I saw it. It still haunts me and I still choke up whenever I go back to watch a scene or two. Highly recommended if you don't mind seeing something beautiful but not necessarily upbeat.
(I'm referring to the 1988 animated version, Japanese audio with English subs )


Best book read:
I'm not much of a reader, and I certainly wasn't in 2007. My pick for this year is Frederick Forsyth's The Afghan. Not the greatest book I've read by far but a page-turned nonetheless. It's about a guy infiltrating the Al-Qaida. I guess contemporary themes are always interesting. I'd rate it a 6.5/10


Best thing on TV:
The Sopranos - Final season.


Best website discovered:
Like the best movie category, this one's a no-brainer. DonationCoder!! 
A big thanks to mouser & the rest of the DC gang - regulars, semi-regulars, software authors,
spammers (some of whom also belong to category 1 'regulars' - i keed! i keed!  ) & anyone who posts here.


Best software discovered:
X2 wins. Hace MMM & Foobar2000 follows close behind.


Best hardware/gizmo bought:
Going from a 15" CRT to two 21" LCD monitors was truly an eye-opener (it's the season of giving, all cheap puns shall be pardoned!)


Please feel free to add your own categories if you like.

I have just three more things to say before I end...

Spoiler

Grave of the Fireflies - WATCH!!!

Spoiler

Grave of the Fireflies - WATCH!!!

Spoiler

Grave of the Fireflies - WATCH!!!!!!!!!

[mouser]

I put very heavy weight on recommendations like this from people I know.. I'll be watching it.

Dual LCDs -> I agree, it's the only way to go.

[nosh]

Great! I was referring to the Japanese lang. version with English subs, BTW. There is a version dubbed in English but I don't know how well the impact of the original voice actors would carry through there. I've modified my original post to reflect this.

[tomos]

good list nosh, cheers

[nosh]

Thanks. Where's yours? 

[p3lb0x]

Great! I was referring to the Japanese lang. version with English subs, BTW. There is a version dubbed in English but I don't know how well the impact of the original voice actors would carry through there. I've modified my original post to reflect this.

-nosh (December 26, 2007, 10:44 AM)

I have watched the movie and i agree its a most watch (cant remember which version i saw)

[tomos]

Thanks. Where's yours? 

-nosh (December 26, 2007, 02:11 PM)

ahhhh,
Nosh throws down the gauntlet 

I've actually been thinking a bit about that since reading your post
and while you havent a chance of a best of 2007 from me (one year always merges into the next )

I can actually say the best book I've read this year
but unfortunately it hasnt been translated into english yet but here it is for anyone in german
Ich bin dann mal weg. Meine Reise auf dem Jakobsweg
by Hape Kerkeling, currently one of the most famous comedians in germany - this reasonably "serious" book though, if a bit surreal at times, about him walking from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compestella (Lashiec-Land I believe) in Galicia


actually after looking at a list of all films released here (germany) in 2007, of the ones I've seen, the highlight for me was:

Full Metal Village
which is actually a very low-key documentary (made by a south Korean woman Sung Hyung Cho) about a huge heavy metal festival in a very small village in north Germany
Probably well worth seeing subtitled as well, but remember, fairly lowkey in spite of the odd blast of heavy metal!

Best software discovered:
will have to be shared between Filehamster (backup/versioning) & SQL-Notes (organiser/database/notetaker on steroids - which is looking for a new name if anyone has ideas)

howzat

[zridling]

Wow, thanks for the recommendation, Nosh; I added it to my Netflix queue. Here's my 2007 BEST OF short list.
________________________________________________
BEST MOVIE I SAW
The Bicycle Thief (1948)

BEST TV I WATCHED
Cowboy Bebop

BEST BOOK I READ
Dinosaurs in the Attic: An Excursion into the American Museum of Natural History

BEST SITES DISCOVERED
think or thwim
Chess Teaching
PoopReport.com

BEST SOFTWARE I USE
XYplorer File Manager
Finally making the switch (right now, it's SimplyMEPIS Linux)

BEST TECH BLOGS OF 2007
nixCraft (Linux)
i started something (Windows)

BEST TECH ACHIEVEMENT
OLPC, one laptop per child

BEST FAILURE
MS-OOXML Fails to Gain ISO Approval

[nosh]

tomos: Not bad at all! 

I've always liked German cinema, BTW. Not watched too much of it but I remember ones like Alice in the Cities, Zuckerbaby, Martha, Lola Rennt...

zaine: Thanks for your input. It's 3 AM here and I'm off to watch some trash (Saw 4) for a change.

[zridling]

Same here, I subscribed to the German channels on DishNetwork here in the US until a couple of months ago. I really enjoyed following their actors around the world in Hollywood movies, TV series, and other films. Too bad that Dish jacked up the price so I could no longer afford to subscribe.

[tomos]

BEST TECH ACHIEVEMENT
OLPC, one laptop per child

-zridling (December 26, 2007, 03:29 PM)

I saw in some mag that you can buy one of those "OLPC, one laptop per child"
and the price you pay pays for a second one which is given to a kid somewhere

I'd love one of them - I think there really nice design



ah, [url=http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php]here it is:

Since November 12th, OLPC has been offering a limited-time Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. .... For a donation of $399, one XO laptop will be sent to empower a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child in your life in recognition of your contribution. Up to $200 of your donation may be tax-deductible (your $399 donation minus the fair market value of the XO laptop you will be receiving).

"one for the child in your life" = ME!!

[jgpaiva]

Best Movie:
The Departed

Best thing on TV:
The Unit I would have voted for heroes, but the last episodes weren't as good as expected.

Best website discovered:
FreeRice Loved the idea

Best software discovered:
vim, the editor i use for almost everything right now

Best hardware/gizmo bought:
Samsung 205bw so damn good that i'm considering to buy myself yet another 20' lcd

[zridling]

jgpaiva, vim? Damn, and just as I was getting into emacs, you had to ruin it.

[jgpaiva]

  zaine!
Emacs is said to be as good as vim, or even better. I don't think you won't be well seved with that one.

The reason i started using vim, is because it is included in every default linux instalation (wereas emacs isn't) and it's a bit lighter (thus faster to open) then emacs.
But emacs is said to include almost a whole OS inside, thus, it should do everything you thow at it

[app103]

I don't really watch TV or movies, so I don't recall any I could name.

Best blog discovery:
Gene Expression

Best software discovery:
Newzie

Best new rule to live by:
tea = housework

Best guitar video watched on youtube:
Erick Turnbull

Best free coding music:
Kitaro

[f0dder]

I've never watched entirely through grave of the fireflies (pelbox: iirc our version has japanese audio with english subs, the way it's meant to be), simply because it's too sad :/

[suleika]

Best new film I saw in 2007:
Das Leben der Anderen (although I saw only 6 or so new films this year).

Best TV:
The Wire.  Actually the best thing I have ever watched on TV.  I'm in acting (as my profession), and I am in awe of the writing, directing and acting in this series.

Best book I read:
Half of a Yellow Sun.  A close second is McGee on Food and Cooking. 

Best websites I discovered this year (functional):
Leo German-English dictionary, lexicon and all-round massive resource.  A close second is Library Thing.

Best website I keep returning to
Donation Coder Forum

Best newly launched online app:
Skoach (scheduling and task management for ADHD-ers -  I use it rather unorthodox-ly for visualising how task-chunks can be arranged in my day)

Best online app I keep returning to since nothing else quite does what it does as well as it does it:
voet cranf 8 color synthAxis (colour-scheme creating tool - quickly create palettes based on relationships between colours, arrange them on the screen to compare them, generate new colours.  The only thing missing is a text-based export function.)

Best software I discovered (freeware):
IDimagerLite (digital image manager)

Best software I discovered (not freeware):
miTaggedMarks (bookmark manager with tagging facility)

[iphigenie]

Best Film:
Days of Glory (aka Indigènes) - only saw it in 2007 even though it came out in 2006

Best Book I read:
"I can't wait to get to heaven", Fannie Flagg.

Best Book I reread:
"The warrior's apprentice" - Lois mcmaster bujold (an old favorite)
"The bean trees" - Barbara Kingsolver (another old favorite)

Best websites discovered this year:
Bookmooch (bookmooch.com) to feed my book addiction & Librarything (http://www.libraryth...om/catalog/iphigenie) to document it and increase my wishlist
DC was 2006 so cant count

Best new software bought this year:
not bought much besides upgrades/renewals of stuff I already had.

Best new free tools found this year:
aimp2, teracopy,

Best old software in 2007:
my usual list,


Best "mainstream" game bought this year:
Lots of good ones this year but "team fortress 2" just has to take the cookie

Best "indie" game bought:
Depths of Peril, by Soldak

Best "indie" game not bought:
Dominions 3, by Illwinter - I would pay the $40 but the $25 shipping just put it beyond reason. That and how crap I am in the demo. Will probably buy it this summer when i go to the US just to support the developer.

Best new game not played:
The list is too long, I shall vanish for now in shame