Before my blog went into flames in a fiery death, I had “promised” in another entry that I would look back at the year of 2006 and highlight some of the events/things/what-nots that I felt was worth mentioning, so here we go.

The below are in no particular order, I am only writing them down as they pop up in my mind. There are several other categories that I would have liked to bring up but have not done so due to the insufficient number of potential candidates.

Greatest Event of 2006
St. Louis trip in August
My brief stay in St. Louis last year was possibly the most fun I’ve had in a long time. While hacking on code in Eclipse for Eclipse gets my blood pumping too, it was just wonderful meeting my high school friends once again face-to-face after not having seen each other for such a long time. We had a lot of things to talk and catch up on and just as much nothingness to have idle chats over. It was just great for me to be in everyone else’s company and I hope those of you that were there and are reading this felt so too. I’d like to thank all those involved for taking time out of your summer schedules to spend it with this Canadian-Chinese.

Worst Event of 2006
St. Louis trip in August
I’ll never forgive myself for directly or indirectly causing Mark to crash his car on the highway. Mark, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gone to St. Louis. This wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t get us all together. Maybe I’ll forgive myself some day when I refund Mark for the expenses in some way, shape, or form.

Most Stunning News of 2006
Sun commits to open source with Java
I don’t have the numbers of course, but I think this news really took the technological world by storm. I certainly did not expect the choice of GPLv2 (with or without the linking exception) or any of the licenses from the FSF for that matter, but there you have it. Vista may have been released to OEMs in November as well, but I think that’s hardly as huge of an issue when you consider the impact that this decision has caused to the software development community. Sun Microsystems will forever have its name in history books for what it announced on November 13th of 2006.

Most Stunning Japanese Animation of 2006
BLOOD+
BLOOD+ was arguably one of the most underrated pieces of work in the midst of the higher profile shows last year such as Fate/stay night and the rabid explosion caused by 『涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱』. I think BLOOD+ showed the Japanese animation viewing community (or those that actually bothered to watch it, har har) that modern series were still fully capable of awesomeness despite a perceived decline in quality from some fans these days. Of course, it is important to split ourselves, those that don’t live in Japan, and those that actually do reside in Japan. I don’t know what the animation viewing community in Japan thinks, but the general perception “here” is that shows just aren’t as cool anymore as people reminisce about Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion (well, until 『涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱』 came along).

Getting back to BLOOD+, Production I.G consistently pulled twists left and right whilst slowly unravelling the plot bit by bit, keeping its viewers glued to their television screens. I think episode 32 in particular will be one that will remain in infamy. While BLOOD+’s animation quality faltered at times, the story it told really cannot compare to any other series that I had the pleasure of watching last year. Since resuming the act of watching Japanese animated series on a regular basis about a year ago, BLOOD+ remains the only series that was so exciting that I downloaded raw TV rips with no subtitles just so that I could find out what was going to happen next.

Most Disappointing Japanese Animation of 2006
BLOOD+
Surprise, surprise, what’s this all about? It comes down to its ending, of course, of which I have complained over and over again many times in previous blog posts. Believe me, I’ve tried to convince myself that ending is “okay”…but no, I just can’t get over it, it is not “okay”. It’s one thing to have a predictable ending that’s pretty bland, but it’s another altogether when you gather up the suspicions of the fans and the amazing build-up over its span of the previous forty-nine episodes and then throw out this curveball ending on the last episode that just ruins all the tension. Despite how disappointed I am with the ending to BLOOD+, it will always have a special place in my heart.

Most Disappointing Song of 2006
Emily Curtis - maybe tomorrow~ending medley
I fell in love with this song the first time I heard clips of it being played in one of Xenosaga III’s trailers. I am, after all, a sucker for Yuki Kajiura’s compositions and an even greater sucker for vocal tracks in general. I really believed that this song had the potential of getting ahead of Sweet Song (Xenosaga II Ending Theme) in my list of great video game vocal tracks which also happened to be composed by Kajiura (I think I see a trend here…). Regrettably, the whole medley bit really just didn’t do it for me as I do not personally feel that vocals have any place in a medley piece. They just sound too out of place amidst the epic themes that have been added into the mix.

And there you have it. The regular blogging program will resume in the next post, so until then, it be good bye for now, my dear readers.