2013 In Review

The majority of this post contains information that I blogged about throughout 2013. I may have included additional in real life tidbits that haven’t been mentioned previously.

January

I reviewed the Last Resort series finale. I still think it is one of my favourite television series from the 2012-2013 television season. I wrote a couple of blog posts regarding the #SaveBCFIlm campaign, here and here.

February 

I made predictions on who would win what for the Oscars. I got Best Director, Best Sound Editing and Best Original Score correct. I plan on doing them again.

March

The family adopted an Airedale Terrier named Archer (finally)! He’s my little rabble rousin’ shit disturber but I love him for it. Emmadale and him get along famously. I’ve nicknamed him Archer the Turduckendale. MMmmmm… Turducken…

I also went in to write my permittee exam for the director’s guild. I didn’t pass it on the first attempt.

April

I read my favourite novel of 2013, A Dog’s Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron. I even wrote a review about it. I would also read the sequel and the series’ conclusion later in the year titled A Dog’s Journey. Both are really great reads. I have several other novels on my shelf by the same author that I haven’t gotten around to reading yet.

In April I began my annual Stanley Cup prediction series Stanley Is Coming. I think it’ll be making a return this year. Maybe if the Canucks even make the playoffs?

June

I wrote an opinion piece on posting spoilers on social media and what the etiquette should be. Someone even mostly agreed with me. If they fully agreed with me, the fabric of space-time continuum would have been torn into oblivion. Looking at you James!

I also wrote about who should replace Matt Smith as The Doctor on the hit television series Doctor Who. I suggested John Hurt, Wil Wheaton, Alex Kingston, Lenora Crichlow, but I really wanted Patrick Stewart (make it fucking so!). But ultimately the role went to Peter Capaldi.

I also made my second trip to Seattle, Washington to watch my Vancouver Whitecaps FC play the Seattle Sounders FC. Sadly the Caps would lose but I still had a great time with friends.

I also loss a schoolmate and good friend. I’ll miss him.

July

I was super busy with work but I got my first tattoo! Ready to see it? This is it! 

 

It represents the three things that I love: Airedale Terriers, Metro-Vancouver and the Vancouver Canucks. No regerts (hahahahahaha!)…

August

At the beginning of August I trekked to Portland, Oregon to catch the Vancouver Whitecaps FC on the road against the Portland Timbers. They would lose on the road but I had so much fun! I got to drink a lot of craft beer! See a dear good friend and meet his family. Also gotta see Star Trek in the Park! Sadly, I didn’t get to go to Voodoo Doughnuts or Big Ass Sandwich but my friend and I are going again in 2014, so I’ll make sure I get to check those places out. 

Also after the game, a moron from Calgary, Alberta (cheering for the Portland Timbers) came over to our table – my friends and I were minding our own business, having a couple pieces of pizza and he red cards us all. What a wanker! We all gave him a hard time from being from Alberta. What a tool.

I also blogged about the tattoo I got above. Oops, forgot about that. 

I rewrote that permittee exam for the guild and passed! Yahoo!!!

I also signed up for Extra Life 2013.

I also wrote a blog post about who should replace Christian Bale as the Dark Knight and not Ben Affleck.

I also went to Penny Arcade Expo 2013 and had a lot of fun! 

November

I more than doubled my $300 goal for Extra Life in 2013 and plan on doing it again in 2014. I am so pleased with myself and many other Extra Lifers who raised estimate $4 million USD for Children Miracle Network Hospitals across North America. Here in British Columbia we raised an estimate $57,000 for BC Children’s Hospital. I am so happy.

December

I got an Xbox One and wrote my second ever video game review for Ryse: Son of Rome. I think I may do it more often.

Christmas was good. It was small, just family. I miss my Granddad. Miss you Granddad. Christmas, just isn’t the same without you.

 

The Last Resort series finale

For those who aren’t familiar here is some background on this television series: the Last Resort was a military fiction drama television series airing on ABC in the United States and Global in Canada. The series was based on the crew of a fictional Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine the USS Colorado. They pick up a US Navy SEAL team returning from a covert clandestine operation from Pakistan. When they leave Pakistani waters, the crew of the Colorado is ordered to fire a nuclear missile strike against Pakistan that could ignite World War III.

 

Captain Marcus Chaplin played by Andre Braugher  refuses his crews orders. The crew unable to return to the United States in fear of being charged with high treason come to call the fictitious island of Sainte Marina in the South Pacific. The show follows key members of Captain Chaplin’s Colorado crew: Lieutenant Commander Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman, Underworld), Lieutenant Grace Shepard (Daisy Betts) and Chief of Boat Command Master Chief Petty Officer Joseph Prosser (Robert Patrick, Terminator 2). Joseph Prosser is one of Chaplin’s primary antagonist alongside Julian Serrat (played by Sahr Ngaujah) who is the leader of an organized crime syndicate that believes he runs the island.  This show was excellently well casted and I wouldn’t have done anything else if I were the show’s casting director. They were all strong actors who portrayed their characters believably.

Midway through the season Captain Chaplin allows a Chinese dignitary on the island who establishes an embassy/consular office on Sainte Marina. Since he’s in dire need of an ally for political support, food and supplies for his crew and the island inhabitants he’s desperate to put a deal in place. In the finale we find that the Chinese of course manipulated the predicament they were in and send several Chinese vessels to break the US-led blockade of the island.

The series also has a secondary plot back in the United States that follows the story of Kylie Sinclair (played by the beautiful Autumn Reeser) and Sam’s spouse Christine Kendal (played by Jessy Schram). Kylie Sinclair plays a lobbyist for her family’s defense manufacturing company that has expensive equipment that makes the Colorado unique. She learns the truth and the conspiracy at home that goes up to ladder of the Executive Branch of the United States government.

Chaplin returns to the Colorado  in hopes that they’ll intercept the Chinese. He has been made aware by his XO Lieutenant Commander Kendal that there’s a contingent of his crew plotting mutiny led by the COB Prosser. Prosser takes over the Colorado and replots course for the US-led blockade of Sainte Marina… But… the mutinees get mutineed by another element and replots course for the Chinese. Chaplin and Sam break away from being held captive in the crew mess for engineering where they are able to change the heading for shallow waters. Sam is able to break into the communications to request that the Colorado be destroyed.

When the Colorado is beached on the coast of Saint Marina the crew surviving the mutinees manage to escape. Captain Chaplin refuses to leave with his XO Sam and that he won’t allow the Colorado be destroyed due to her imminent destruction. The series ends with the crew coming home after sensible information comes to light about corruption.

While it received an average 5 million viewers in the US, ABC decided not to order a full 22 season or renew it for a second season. They allowed the series to continue it’s full thirteen episodes with a conclusion. While I was disappointed that this show wasn’t picked up for a second season or it’s back nine, I’ll have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the series finale. It gave closure unlike a huge cliff hanger most shows get treatment for.

Thank you Shawn Ryan.