What did 2008 bring for me? Well, a lot, I guess. This post turned out to be longer than I thought it would be. To be honest, half this stuff I've already mentioned here over the course of the year. However, like a low-budget sitcom episode where you have flashbacks from previous episodes, I will dare to repeat myself: I feel that putting everything together in one post will put things in perspective.
WoW
December 2007, I started playing WoW with Pat. I continued to play for the first several months of 2008, grinding my shaman Foluzar up to the mid-60s. My interest petered out at that point, and I stopped playing WoW for a while.
Harvest
I was also the OM IT Row Leader for Japan Harvest. In truth, half the time I had no idea what I was doing, and I spent a lot of extra time running around just to make sure things went right on the project. Harvest finished with an excellent cutover though, so in the end I can say that I picked up a lot of good experience from this.
Singapore
One particular high note in the Harvest was spending a month working in Singapore. At first I was hesitant, because it meant the uncertainty of travelling alone and the sadness of leaving Tesla and Pat behind. It worked out great though, particularly with HP paying for the trip. I didn't get to save any of the pocket money, but I got a lot of books, comics and food out of it.
Obama
One of the things that took up a lot of my mindspace was Obama's election. I read Dreams from my Father a couple of years ago, and felt a connection. I watched Obama as he struggled through the primaries and the general, savored each victory and raged at each loss. Obama made me believe the crazy idea that maybe there are a handful of people out there who are genuinely interested in making this thing work. I despair at the thought of trying to find honest men in the fetid swamp of Philippine politics, but for Hope, I'll give it a shot.
Loss
Speaking of filth, my wallet was stolen this year, at the Luzon bus stop/overpass. Huuuge loss. Ironically, I went home early that day because I was feeling sick; now I actually feel safer commuting late at night.
Boardgames
On the lighter side, 2008 also brought Boardgames. Celsus already had a huge bunch of Settlers of Catan, but finding Gamecrab introduced us to a plethora of board games, most of them good. Puerto Rico was the runaway hit from our first play (although the lack of random/expandable elements stops it from being highly replayable). From Po's shipment, I got a bunch of other games too. Carcassone is pretty, simple, and easy to get into, while having it's own subtle grace. Blue Moon City was enjoyable the first few times I played it, but unfortunately I never got around to playing with my copy yet! San Juan has a superficial resemblance to Puerto Rico, but is a good game in it's own right; unfortunately it's overshaowed at the office by the very similar Race for the Galaxy. I really wanted to buy Descent, but the NG price increase stopped me. In the end, I'm glad Arnold bought it, because it's much more suited to the Ameritrash crowd at work - Descent really has issues with downtime and game length. I'm looking forward to 2009 and the new games that it will bring in.
Essential X-Men
I've always loved the X-Men, and when I saw these books in Singapore, I had to have them (I was flush with my per diem, after all). They're just in black and white, but this is truly the good stuff.
TF Animated
Transformers Animated was released this year, meaning a new show and a new line of toys. The cartoon is pretty decent, although around half the episodes are fluffy filler. The toys had the same clean, stylized look of the show, directly contrasting with the fiddly look from the movie. The style makes it doubly wonderous that they transform so well. I bought a bunch of these, and they're just great. I should take some pics.
Busou Shinki
A cute little toyline that's fun to play around with and display. Well, I guess it's not a time sink, really, but I spend a solid chunk of cash on this, so in the list it goes.
LEGO
One of my bigger hobbies this year, I actually started on Lego because Pat asked me to look into it. Good thing, too: this means Pat pays for half the stuff, which is a rare bonus. A thoroughly enjoyable toy experience, in a year that I got with a lot of toys. Only downside is, the price difference between the US SRP and the local prices are so huge, we ended up ordering a lot online - an activity whose timing disrupts my spending patterns.
Ikariam
This browser based game takes just a few clicks at the start and end of each day, but still it's pretty engaging. Honestly, I can't believe I'm still playing this. It must be that good.
Other Games
The DS is still going strong, although I tend to play 10 minuite games now (like Layton, N+ and Ninjatown), instead of playing RPGs (I am sure I blame WoW for this). As for card games, well, nobody plays the WoW TCG anymore, and while Magic started strong with Morningtide, I stopped being interested after that. Considering that the office is a full proxy environment, that's a bad sign.
WoW: WotLK
Did I already mention WoW? Well, I'm going to mention it again, because when Wrath of the Lich King released this November, everyone scrambled to upgrade... myself included. With a brand new Death Knight on a new server (Dark Iron), I might actually hit cap this time.
Onwards!
