From tomorrow the Year of the Dragon begins—it is my year (just think the next Year of the Dragon will be when I turn 36, omg), so I hope that it is a very good one. I forgot how coveted a dragon baby is, how much luck they supposedly bring. After all, a dragon trumps all the other animals, really. Which isn’t exactly fair. At dinner tonight, my dad was like “yeah, right, you bring me luck.” Heh, tough love to the end, as always.

In honour of my zodiac, I worked on an illustration for several hours in my down time last week, which eventually turned into a wallpaper.

It was my worst and toughest academic year yet, but equally just as rewarding (well, at least, I try to remind myself of the rewards, 43 cushions later). It was the year Australia voted in* its first female Prime Minister. It was the year a Queenslander hacker brought too much attention to himself by leaking a heck of a lot of alarming cables. It was the year Bruce Wayne returned as the Batman, and DC Comics went nuts, or rather, Grant Morrison was permitted to go nuts.

All things considered, it was just another tumultuous year. So here’s a summary of what made 2010 for me.

You may have also noticed over the week that I’ve overhauled Evening Hour ‘s layout a lot. I’m slowly converting this blog into a review blog, since it’s all I seem to be doing anyway. It’s still under construction so there may be errors or blank spaces here and there. Watch this space!

* = “voted in” in the truest sense is questionable, as former PM Kevin Rudd was ousted by his own people, rather than the public, therefore we really had no choice…

I wish everyone a happy lunar new year, a year of joy, good will and prosperity. As we usher in the Year of the Tiger, I hope this will remind us all to appreciate this endangered animal’s livelihood, and to continue to protect the few that prey the jungles of the world, so that there may be many more in the future.

I didn’t really do much on new year’s eve. As with many other Chinese, I had a relatively big ‘nian ye fan’ (New Year’s Eve dinner) with my folks, then we waited until 11pm (8pm China Beijing time) and we watched the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, an annual program broadcast by CCTV (the China government’s puppet, in less flattering words :P) throughout China and the world via satellite until about 2/3am. This is a ritual that goes with New Year for many, many, if not all, Chinese and their families. I couldn’t keep my eyes open at 2:30 so I didn’t see the final countdown. No big deal for me anyway. This event holds little resonance with me as the years go by. The day when I’ll pay attention is when China is no longer Communist. Last year’s …

So by some divine providence we are blessed today with both Chinese New Year and Australia Day. Let it be known this may only happen once in a hundred years. Now you might be thinking (or rather, I might be thinking too deeply) how do you go about celebrating both? Which holds more precedence over the other? The answer isn’t all that clear-cut to me, although one friend on Facebook promptly replied it’s all in the “red and gold envelope, baby!” True. Money is a very nice incentive for well, anything. I haven’t had lucky money since I turned 18, but today mum presented me with a red envelope! :D And in it was … a $20 note, that is, in American dollars. So that’s about $30 Australian. Not that I’m going to use it since I’ve never even seen an American $20 note. I’m glad to say that I think Australia’s note system works better, at least with the colours and the texture of each note’s design. And don’t forget those ‘windows’!

Money aside, I spent my Australia Day listening to the audio of We Can Be Heroes and cleaning my room and organising my visual diaries. I’ve accumulated eleven …

Jingle Bells
Batman Smells
Robin Laid an Egg
The Batmobile Lost a Wheel
And Joker got away, hey!

*sighs* The old school Batman comics were so good, at least Batman could have a good chortle every now and then. Double entendres and dated fashion and all. ‘Twas good times. Pooh. I’d be singing along with Joker in the B:TAS episode, “Christmas with the Joker” if only my Volume 1 DVD order had arrived, NO THANKS to you EZYDVD. I saw it in JB the other day but didn’t get it just in case my order processed. Meh.

What I would do to be in Catwoman’s or Black Canary’s shoes right about now:

How does Batman spend his Christmas, anyhow? Rounding up drunken thugs? Wish he’d come to Melbourne and “fix ‘em all up”.

Happy Holidays, everyone!