Second Anniversary Hoopla!

Two years ago today, I realized that anything done for the first time unleashes a demon. Later that day, I posted a mission statement. (It could only go up from there.)

One year ago today, I had a celebration of...well, me, I guess. And very soon afterward I declared what I believe in. During my Summer of Unpleasantness, I explained the purpose of Antick Musings.

I used to blog for my old employer (at thebookblogger.com slash sfbc, starting May of 2006) with long lists of vaguely SFnal links and some commentary, then I blogged here in exile after things changed, then I did some link-blogging at ComicMix, and finally I ran out of energy and time. (Though I do still review at ComicMix as well as here.)

I haven't written much about my two sons this year -- Thing 1 (who is 9) and Thing 2 (who's 6) -- though occasionally I do point out how smart one of them is, or what good taste one has, or even how competitive the other one is. (I did dig out some old "Advice for New Parents" not too long ago.) My boys played a cameo role in my description of Christmas morning, which was mostly about me and my brother. I also gave far too many details about my heart troubles. And, as required on the Internet, I did once post photos of the family cat.

One of the main recurring themes of Antick Musings is picking on David Itzkoff, which continued through my second year. I was particularly taken by what he said about John Scalzi's The Android's Dream. Oh, and he's wrong about SETI, too. And the rest of the NYTBR doesn't have very high opinions of us, either.

I also finished up the Book-A-Day Project at the beginning of this year, after 200 days straight. Also at the turn of the year, I listed my favorite books of 2006.

Speaking of books, I did some book reviews here this year, including such wonderful books as Lemony Snicket's The End, Matt Haig's The Dead Fathers Club, Steven Erikson's Midnight Tides, Alastair Reynolds's Zima Blue and Other Stories, Barry Malzberg's Breakfast in the Ruins (OK, so "wonderful" is not le mot juste in this case, but it's an important and necessary book), On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher, Charles Stross's Halting State, and Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End.

I also did some reviews I'm inordinately proud of (generally because they're stunts of one kind or another), like Powers Vol. 3, Bill Bryson's The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Donald Westlake's Adios, Scheherazade, and Max Barry's Company.

And, like everyone else in the free world, I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this summer and wrote a book report on it.

But the review that gets the most hits -- pretty much one a day, even a year later, is Playboy: The Celebrities. (Having the names of a bunch of celebrities and the word "naked" really gets you that Google traffic, I'll tell you. It's not what they're looking for, and they don't stick around, but they trickle in every day and then trickle right back out.)

Oh, speaking of the ways people get here, periodically I look at the search terms people took to get to Antick Musings, and I'm often appalled.

I also reviewed some movies -- though I'll admit I know much less about them than I do about books -- such as Flushed Away, The Notorious Bettie Page, Shortbus, Casino Royale, Children of Men, Ratatouille, and, of course, the deathless Mr. Bean's Holiday.

I presented my humble attempt at adding a new verb to the English language, "to bentley."

I lost a job (insert hollow laugh), then found a new one.

For a few weeks this summer, I read almost nothing but Loren Estleman detective novels.

I've done some interesting things this year:

• measured my to-be-read shelves
• celebrated my then-boss, Ellen Asher, the longest-serving SF editor of all time
• blogged a "you should blog this" moment
• tried to determine if the Harry Potter books were urban fantasy
• my Boskone report morphed into a call for a new SF movement
• thought up several captions for a New Yorker cartoon
• provided a Schoolboy's Guide to the New Wave
• responded to Mundane SF
• wondered why the SF short story is so gloomy nowadays
• took a long, long time to get home one night
• explained ordering to the net
• an attempt at explaining the entire male gender
• admitted I was a fan
• thought about cover art
• led by example

I listed my favorite fantasy works of 2005, as a side-effect of my stint as a World Fantasy Awards judge. (And I posted a note about how much I enjoyed being a judge as well.)

On more SFnal topics, I wondered about the universe of John Scalzi Old Man's War and sequels. And I had a proposal for fixing the Hugos. I asked what I should do with a series of books I was doing at the old job -- as it turned out, I didn't even get to finish up the ones I'd already acquired. I explained, on RAH's centennial, what was good about Heinlein. Oh, and I handicapped the Hugos, badly.

Since this is a blog, I had to generate some controversy. Some of the things I complained about were:

• the idea that SF is dying
• the people complaining about character redesigns in Archie comics
• Marlene Barr
• second acts in American life
• emotion as an argument trump
• Darkover
• people who hate the "sexism" of Eclipse 1
• "the death of the mass-market paperback"
• the changing of the guard in fantasy
• the Quill Awards
• "buzz"

And I did far too many memes as well. Here's a random sampling:

• far too many questions
• myself as a South Park character
• Kids' books
• One Word
• SF Book
• bible knowledge
• more questions, about 2006
• my death
• how evil are you?
• images
• LOLcat
• yet more impertinent questions

I celebrated National Poetry Month by posting poems by A.E. Housman and William Carlos Williams.

Remember the Butt-Biting Bug?

All in all, I posted 841 times in the past 365 days...and it seems like I linked to about half of those posts above. Now I move into year 3, which I hope will be less eventful than the second one was. I hope you'll stick around for it.