Keeping track of my progress for 2020 reading challenge on the BBS.

total 54 books, 18,401 pages

January (4 books, 1618 pages)

1: Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

2: Welcome to the Occupied States of America (First Contact) by Peter Cawdron

3: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

4: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

February (5 books, 1759 pages)

5: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

6: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

7: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

8: Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

9: Storm Front by Jim Butcher

March (5 books, 2028 pages)

10: Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

11: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

12: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

13: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

14: Provenance by Ann Leckie

April (6 books, 1735 pages)

15: Maelstrom by Peter Cawdron

16: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick

17: The God Engines by John Scalzi

18: The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World by A.J. Baime

19: The Last Emperox by John Scalzi

20: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

May (4 books, 1272 pages)

21: Forever Free by Joe Haldeman

22: Homeland by R.A. Salvatore

23: Exile by R.A. Salvatore

24: Sojourn by R.A. Salvatore

June (4 books, 1124 pages)

25: Neuromancer by William Gibson

26: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

27: The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore

28: Streams of Silver by R.A. Salvatore

July (4 books, 1284 pages)

29: The Halfling's Gem by R.A. Salvatore

30: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

31: The Sandman Audible by Neil Gaiman

32: Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

August (5 books, 2105 pages)

33: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

34: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

35: Specials by Scott Westerfeld

36: Extras by Scott Westerfeld

37: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

September (3 books, 1433 pages)

38: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

39: The Lost World by Michael Crichton

40: Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

October (6 books, 1407 pages)

41: The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

42: The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack

43: The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

44: Murder by Other Means by John Scalzi

45: METAtropolis by John Scalzi, Jay Lake, Tobias S. Buckell, Elizabeth Bear & Karl Schroeder

46: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

November (2 books, 686 pages)

47: The Last Campaign by Martin L Shoemaker

48: The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

December (6 books, 1950 pages)

49: Up From Slavery by Booker T Washington

50: Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos

51: Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos

52: Angles of Attack by Marko Kloos

53: Chains of Command by Marko Kloos

54: Fields of Fire by Marko Kloos

Final thoughts on 2019 reading list. I stumbled on Blair Braverman's twitter feed and she writes great stories about mushing. Her autobiography was pretty good. I read a lot of Scalzi - I discovered him in 2018 with Red Shirts and ate up almost all of his work in 2019. I was also into the show The Expanse and read all those novels. Having begun reading in 2018 again in earnest this was my top year for reading in a long time. I originally only expected to read 10-12 books. I more than doubled my goal.

Top 5 for 2019:

1: Children of Time - new and interesting book - humans have pretty much extincted themselves and left some type of gene-enhancing tech on a planet of spiders.

2: Agent to the Stars - a fun romp in LA with a hamfisted attempt at first contact by a really ugly alient species

3: Kraken - Mieville is one of my all time favorite authors - writes novels that stick into my brain goo and I am always sort of thinking about them

4: What If - XKCD wrote a book with drawings and jokes and it was interesting! I even know some people who had their questions answered in it.

5: Lock in/Head On - is it a series if it's only 2 books? An interesting concept with a buddy cop sort of feel.

Some vague disappointments - hyperion was a hard read. the sequel was even worse. It's considered high sci fi and I just couldn't get through it. Same with my trouble with Dune in 2018. Mortal Engines had a cool concept but the characters were flat and unlikeable.

Expanse series was good - very heady and the show follows the novels pretty well. I got a kick out of The Churn - a novella but it was the only one of the companion novellas that interested me enough to read them.

January

1. Welcome to the Goddamn Icecube - Blair Braverman

February

2. Lock In - John Scalzi.

3. Head On - John Scalzi

March

4. The Android's Dream - John Scalzi

5. Leviathan Wakes (Expanse book 1) - James S A Corey

April

6. Caliban's War (the Expanse Book 2) - James S. A. Corey

May

7. Abaddon's Gate (Expanse Book 3)  - James S A Corey

8. Cibola Burn (Expanse Book 4) - James S. A. Corey

June

9. Nemesis Games (Expanse Book 5) - James S A Corey

July

10. Babylon's Ashes (Expanse Book 6) - James S A Corey

11. Persepolis Rising (Expanse Book 7) - James S A Corey

August

12. Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse Book 8) - James S A Corey

13. The Churn (Expanse Novella) - James S A Corey

September

nada

October

14. Mortal Engines - Philip Reeve

15. Predator's Gold - Philip Reeve

16. Infernal Devices - Philip Reeve

17. A Darkling Plain - Philip Reeve

November

18. Kraken by China Mieville

19. Hyperion by Dan Simmons

20. Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

December

21. Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

22. The Last Dance (The Near-Earth Mysteries Book 1) by Martin L Shoemaker

23. Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

24. What If by Randall Munroe

25. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

10 years modding the BBS.

Oh look, my account is almost old enough to drive

update: UOTD finally 1/4/18 lmao!

Edit: 10th (b)anniversary of review modding passed in February! Neat!

my NG account can now make fun of all the 'newbies' if it made it's own account at 13. 

Strange to think that soon enough Newgrounds would have been a part of my life for more than half of it. 

it's been a little over a year since I got a house and some horses. We've been slowly making improvements to the property and this holiday we rented some machines and dug a big ass trench and added water lines out to the pastures since we've been ruining hoses like crazy.

First we dug the trench

The other machine there is an augor for drilling some post holes but it was crap. It went about 18" deep and hit some clay and wouldn't go any deeper. They refunded me the rental for that one. The trencher was great. Ran about 300ft of Pex pipe 18" deep. 

When I got to the pasture the horses were currently in I had to rope off the corner so they wouldn't break a leg in the hole while I was working.

Serenity Firefly Class Horse tried helping

When all was said and done it took a couple of days, $250 to rent the trencher and $150 in Pex pipe, fittings, posts and connectors. It was hard work but it was a lot cheaper than hiring a plumber to do it!

Now we've got automatic water in both pastures and a wash station in the main one and we can keep the hoses from getting ruined all the time and reduce some of the tripping hazards around the house. 

Pico day was a blast again. It is now part of my yearly travel plans. @tomfulp is a sweetheart for hosting the party and having such a kickass website I like to spend (too much) time on! 

As a fan of art and music and games and animations and stories it is a real treat to rub shoulders with the likes of krinkles, tom, mindchamber and stamper  - giants in the community - but the best part is talking to and just seeing so many new young kids. I saw so many little circles of younger artists making connections with each other and probably plotting the next 21 years of NG content! How awesome! 

These last 2 years I have found myself spending a couple of weeks following all these new artists on twitter, facebook and newgrounds and my content feeds are getting so cool! 

So today was the last day of my 2015 supporter subscription and I renewed - of course. Since it's always a pain in the butt when my bank sends me a new card every time somebody sneezes on an ATM I chose the yearly membership - but I upped it to $35 because I don't want newgrounds to lose out on that tasty monthly subscription. 

I really hope it goes towards fostering even more new artists so I can meet more cool people next year.

Still 1/2/16 my time 

13 years 

I purchased the 2015 NG Supporter upgrade today. 

I neglected to for a couple of years and I feel bad (sorry @tomfulp)

Newgrounds means a lot to me and I'm glad I'm able to support it. You can totally re-enable ads if you want those hundredths of a cent that I account for in your ad revenue, Tom! 

I had a blast at Pico day and met or reconnected with some really cool artists and I want NG to stick around to support them and they can make a living off their art. I think I'll have to start making a list who all has a Patreon for when I win the lottery (after sharing with @sevenseize of course because she'll buy the winning ticket for me)

I made it to Pico Day and I gotta say it was a blast! I didn't take many pics and I can't remember names so I won't try to tag all the amazing young artists I met for the first time or old NG buds I got to meet in person for the first time or friends I got to see again after too long an absence. Although i got in on Friday night I didn't have it in me after a very long day of travel to head to the office - I didn't even think anyone was there until @cosmicdeath called me to say she was there and it was packed.

Saturday had even more people. I showed up at 11 or 12 and there were already so many people! Everyone was wearing name tags and I still can't remember names too well. Tom threw a great party while Tim was awesome on the grill. At some point Evark showed up and we hung out and accosted johnnyutah and strawberryclock like starstruck teenagers. 

Sunday was very chill and a ton of fun. With fewer people it was easier to have conversations and just hang out with people who were still there. We went to a pizza place and a barcade in the city and it was the coolest place. Later we went back to the office and people played video games and watched Robocop. 

Monday I hear people were still at the office but I took a day out to see some sights on Philly. I went to the Mutter museum, the Liberty Bell, Liberty Hall, the museum district the City Hall train station and the art museum to see the steps Rocky ran up. I actually was there in 2008 for mod meet - we raced up the steps and I think rucklo beat all of us because he's hella ripped. It was a pretty chill day after 3 days of chaos. I took the 'quiet car' on the train back to the hotel and it was very nice. 

I was thrilled to finally be a part of a NG event again. I used to really like NG meetups but they haven't been happening as often anymore. I hope to attend Pico Day again next year. I've been following new people on NG and twitter all week since I got back.