It’s been just over four years exactly since the last Harry Potter book came out (21 July 2007). I still remember the time as clear as day – waking up at 6am on a Saturday, on one of the coldest July days, dressed in Gryffindor garb to meet up with my friend to be part of the phenomenon, and completely disregarding my other obligations, like homework. I even ended up being on the ABC’s evening news, though I didn’t know about it until after my friend told me. What a day! The following week I caught a nasty cold as I recall it – now that’s commitment.

Do you remember what you were doing on that 21st day of July in the year 2007? Celebrating Harry Potter, I hope.

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…

EDIT: At about 5pm today (30th Nov) I wrote beyond my 50,000th word! Huzzah!

So I finished up my Honours year on October 28th, to be precise, and I felt totally at a loss as to what to do after the gruelling semester. This should have been a positive thing, given how tired I was, but I hate being idle, particularly when it comes to intellectual stimulation. It was around this time the Twitter grapevine was murmuring about the upcoming National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short, where anybody can participate in this annual event to write 50,000 words during the 30 days of November. I remembered that this was always something I had wanted to pursue, but given how utterly unprepared I was for such an undertaking, and so creatively worn out, I hesitated.

Most people were excited, but I was terrified about making yet another huge commitment so soon after Honours. But I had some Twitter buddies who had just opened an account for starters, and so, encouraged by that, I did the same. And here I am, just below the 50,000 word mark! Unbelievable—yes, it really is. If at the beginning of the month you’d told me I’d …

We have progress on the design theory essay front! See below. (Alright so it’s not much at all, but it’s a good start, methinks. Three days before it’s due. Meh.)

After sifting through the contents of all these books (and that alone took me three days straight), it took me about an hour to write up a draft of the introduction, and then another two just to spruce it up. In between I watched Blade Runner and a few episodes of ye olde Batman: The Animated Series, after what feels like the zillionth time. *coughs* Yep, I am a bad influence on myself. Just as well I’m not writing my essay exclusively on television itself—I’d be glued to the box if I was! Then again, I do intend to add in a short paragraph or two on The Chaser guys’ antics and the blandness that is Mediawatch.

Oh, I love Alfred so dearly. He is such a great supporting character. There is that perpetually dry, acerbic wit and the stiff British upper-lip thing that entirely endears me to him. Plus, the man has gone through so much shit, what with Bruce being entirely insane and all. And he hardly gets any …

OK, I am in the middle of my mid-semester break and I am struggling, and I mean, STRUGGLING, to finish this theory essay. Correction—the beginning has not even been conquered. I mean, I have barely done my readings for it. It’s not so much the fact that the topic is difficult because it’s quite straight-forward (but perhaps in aforethought, it’s pretty complex); I just don’t know how to go about starting it. As you do. And it’s not like I’m not interested in this topic because I am—war propaganda and advertising; lots of juicy, gory, exciting, frightening stuff.

Real progress:

0 / 2,000
(0.0%)

Oh dear, oh dear.