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…

You know, Melbourne has an awful lot of brilliant independent bookshops, galleries and cultural avenues that I don’t know half about. Well, not really, I just don’t have the means to go to said places. I wish I lived next to Hoddle St, Bridge Rd, Chapel St, Brunswick St, Gertrude St or Clarendon St. Pooh. No, I live in a working-class suburban hole.

The Royal Melbourne Show is in its final two days, and the Melbourne Anime Festival (better known as Manifest, such a clever name, eh) has just kicked off. I cannot afford either, nor do I really care for it nowadays… although I should like to go to the latter just for all time’s sake. Or when I come up with a snazzy costume to wear. Perhaps next year. I was checking out the Show’s website which lists the assortment of showbags. Once upon a time, I eagerly waited for the Herald Sun to publish the exclusive liftout. It still does, of course. Just the other week on a busy morning peak-hour train to the city I was stuck between a delightfully hyperactive school girl and boy who were ecstatic when an old man gave them said liftout from …

Video of the Week: Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times. I was watching this on telly the other day and it got me all nostalgic for Chaplin’s stuff. Plus we were covering Nazi propaganda in theory the other day and I was reminded of The Great Dictator.

Yesterday’s Friday Five:

Are you going to school this fall? If not, what was the most recent year of school you completed?
I’m already in school! I have roughly a month and a half left to go. Why is it always assumed the person answering this question is from the Northern Hemisphere? I mean, the South does exist you know! It’s not the New World!
If yes, what kind of schooling are you doing (middle school, high school, undergraduate, graduate, etc.)?
I am a second year undergraduate.
Are you someone who enjoys/enjoyed going back to school?
Yes, I always love school. I love learning and challenging myself, although in recent years (especially as I got older… I got more weary about the whole concept of institutions)
Do/did you like back-to-school shopping? Why or why not?
Oh hell yes. All the NEW stationery one could buy!
Are/were you a good student?
Yeah, I think I am, when I’m not procrastinating. I’m persistent, I work hard—when I …

I really want to update this blog more and liven it up but I really am quite lazy despite my occasional bouts of hard work and no play. I mean, I’m so lazy I can’t even make my own WordPress themes, even though I am more than capable! (That said, WordPress is a bit of a bitch to understand despite its generally good usability reputation; maybe I’m just abnormally slow on the uptake) I’ve been thinking about creating another blog purely for book reviews (among all the reviews I ever write these are the most frequent… unless I count my NetFlix reviews) so that they could be integrated into my LJ community, The Book Affair, but I like to snark and use copious amounts of unwarranted profanity in my book reviews. I don’t know why; it just seems to go hand in hand with books.

Anyhoo in a pathetic attempt to stretch my word entry in today’s post here’s my response to the last Friday Five (28/8) on LJ:

How many times a day do you…

Brush your teeth?
Twice a day. Once when I wake up, and once when I’m about to go to bed. I know it’s not ideal to brush your …

Stole this meme off someone’s blog!

If someone new were in your car, what song on your player would you be quickest to skip out of embarrassment:
Probably the Harry Potter soundtrack/s or Pussycat Dolls or something like that. Nah, I like whatever sounds good–and if my fellow passengers can’t get over that, then they fear my wrath!

What song or songs is/are most “atypical” on your player?
Hard rock music? Heavily manufactured so-called pop music? I dunno—I don’t consider my player to have much “atypical” content. I’m an eclectic kind of gal.

What song(s) on your player turns you on?
Hmmm. (Nearly) anything that Alex from Clazziquai Project sings. Probably “Last Tango” from the “Love Child of the Century” album. He has one of the sexiest crooning voices ever.

If you wanted to get a member of the opposite sex in the mood, what song would you program to come on when they are in the car?
OMG. Hopefully I wouldn’t need to “program” a song just to get a guy interested in me… I’d imagine my irresistible wit, charm and beauty would ensnare my male conquest. Yeesh. I dunno, maybe something by Kylie or Goldfrapp or Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman”. Some slow jazz/bluesy song or …