The 2000s: My Personal Top 5 Things
It’s December 2009. A few weeks from now the year comes to an end, and with it, we usher in 2010, and the start of the second decade of the 21st Century. I could talk about all the things expected in this coming decade, and what it means for you and me, society, and humanity as a whole, but that can be done later anyway. No, instead I’m going to bore you by giving you a list of what were, to me personally, the most important moments, events, or things of ‘the noughties’.
(Originally this was going to be a top 10, but I couldn’t think of enough major stuff, so I had to drop it down to 5…)
5 – Going to Forbidden Planet for the first time. It’s a Megastore filled with wall upon wall, shelf upon shelf of comic books and graphic novels, books, DVDs, collectables, posters, and just in general amazing stuff. Need I say more? It truly is Geek Heaven.
4 – Spending the weekend at MCM. October 23rd-25th 2009. For those who don’t know, London MCM Expo is a convention held every May and October at the London ExCel Exhibition Centre. It’s similar to Comicon, and what-have-you, only it’s British. Anyway, this wasn’t the first time I’d been to MCM, rather it was my 3rd outing to the expo; the first being in 2006 or something with my brother, who didn’t even want to be there. I didn’t get to stay long that time, but it left me wanting more. In May 2009 I got a chance again, and I went up with friends, again for only one day. Although fun, it was let down slightly by the travel. Finally, this October we went up again, but this time for the entire weekend, and in doing so it became better by several orders of magnitude. We had time to hang out, we got to really explore the expo and buy overpriced swag, and we got to have a walk around London; and then return to a fancy apartment in the evenings. London also has a habit of closing the underground or DLR on the weekend of the expo, but that just turns the journey into part of the fun! A few cosplayers wandering around London, trying to find their way. Soon those few cosplayers have turned into a living wave of excited geeks and nerds all heading, in a round about way, to the docklands. So yeah, MCM’s always fun, and I’m looking forward to the next one in May; especially since it’s the last before everyone goes off to university.
3 – Seeing Zebrahead live for the first time. Thursday 16th October, 2008. Doors opened 8PM. Headline act was Zebrahead. Now, I’d lived a pretty sheltered life, especially when it came to music, so I’d never actually been to a gig until that night. The show was in Portsmouth, and I went by train with a few friends from school, they’d been to countless shows before, they knew what to expect, they had the shirts, I did not. When we got through the doors, we were greeted by a small, cramped, and dark venue. By the time the main act came on, we were squashed in like sardines, hot and sweaty, and blinded by the stage lights, and it was awesome; and it was a night that I’ll never forget. I’ve now been to 5 gigs, 3 of which had Zebrahead playing, 2 headlining. I also have a further 3 already booked for 2010, two of which with Zebrahead headlining within the space of 2 days, the 3rd being Green Day at Wembley, it’ll be my first arena gig!
2 – Rediscovering Ska. The start of this century was a dark time for me, musically. I wasn’t really listening to anything in particular, I had maybe a few odd wav and mp3 files on my pc and nothing more. The later half of this decade had me picking up more and more music, and as of right now I have over 40GB of music, or just under 10,000 tracks, and over 20,00 scrobbled plays since January 2009 on last.fm. The genres of music I have is increasingly diverse, but it’s built upon a solid foundation of wonderful, incredibly uplifting 3rd wave and ska-punk. And let me tell you, if having a music library that resembles the collective soundtrack of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.
1 – The seating plan change in GCSE French. “What?” I hear you say, “how is this seemingly unimportant, completely trivial thing the biggest thing for you this past decade?”, you add. I’ll tell you how. I’d say that had it not happened, nothing else on this list would have happened either, most likely. You see, such a simple thing meant I was sat next to someone who I would become friends with, and through our discussions, would have a large influence on me. They’ve introduced me to a lot of amazing music, they’ve always had something interesting to say, they never fail to make me smile, and they’ve changed me – for the better, I’d say/hope. So that’s why a simple moving of seats was so important, because it meant I got to know someone who even now is really important to me, and who I still enjoy talking with, and spending time with, when I get the chance.
So yeah, it’s not the major events like 9/11, or world cups, or wars that have the biggest impact; it’s those seemingly little things in life, the things that make you happy. Even when things get bad, there’s always those little things to remind you of why you’re still there. I look forward to discovering what little things await me in 201x.
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 pm
GCSE FRENCH. AND SPANISH.
oh, you. what an epically good time that was.