Best and Worst of 2003

Since this is my first post of 2004, I thought it would be nice to review the past year and tell you about my personal favorite things of 2003. Now, don’t expect an unbiased report here, these things are what I enjoyed about the past year.

Movie – The best movie must go to, you guessed it, The Return of the King, hands down. Certainly the Lord of the Rings series is the film epic of our time, surpassing all my expectations. Worst movie has to be The Matrix Reloaded. If you’ve seen it you know why.

Book – This one is tough, but for non-fiction I think it has to go The Grace of God and the Will of Man, edited by Clark Pinnock. It will change your outlook on life. C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy receives the best for fiction. Lewis writes gripping stories with impeccable style, so if you haven’t read this yet, you should. Worst book goes to my textbook for my Chemical Kinetics lab. It certainly is the most pathetic excuse for a textbook I have ever seen. Blech.

Music – For the solo category, I have to pick Classical Cool by Bill Kanengiser. This incredible CD is a monument of contemporary guitar music, a fantastic recording. For the group category, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet wins it with their latest work, Latin. LAGQ is the premiere guitar group in the world, and this album displays exactly why.

Government/Politics – Americans for a Free Republic easily takes the award for best government/politics in 2003. Reminding us that sound economic policy and small federal government is the foundation of a free nation, I eagerly await the day that their ideas will come to fruition in the USA. Worst goes to Federal Government Bloatation, which will probably get the award every year until AFR gets people in office!

Professor/Class – Starting with the worst prof of 2003… Dr. T[edit]! Thank you so much, I learned NOTHING. Best prof goes to Dr. Sitton for being such a good teacher and friend. The worst class award goes to Intermediate Quantitative Analysis Lab, because those TA’s were just ridiculous. Sitton’s Separations class gets best class for the year.

Game – Settlers of Catan, that wonderful game we love to play so very much, easily gets best board game of the year. Jedi Academy receives my favorite computer game of the year. Any game that allows you to play with double-bladed lightsabers has to be awesome.

Events – Gencon was far too much fun to not mention it as some of the most fun I had all year. Other events include skiing in Wausau, Wisconsin, moving to Kansas City and working for Honeywell, getting an apartment at UMR, and winning fourth place in our undergraduate research competition (only chemist to win!).

Person – Would a best and worst of 2003 list be complete without a PERSON of the year? Of course not… This year I have to give the award to Kirk Hanser, my guitar teacher, for being one of the greatest friends I have. I am so thankful for every opportunity I have to learn from him.