BISness time

Since it's near the end of the year, I've decided, for the first time ever, to have a year-end "awards" blog. The awards categories are pretty much arbitrary and made up by me, and they will be awarded based on my opinion. This may seem unfair, but it is my blog after all.

Anyhow, I present the first BISdom awards:

The Sports Class:

Team of the Year:

Boston Celtics. Any team that can make the NBA socially relevant deserves an award.

Runner-up:

UNC men's basketball. This is based on my hope/prediction that they will win the championship in April. (Starting out real well with the bias.)

Athlete of the Year:

Michael Phelps.

Runner-up:

Albert Pujols. (Again with the bias.)

Surprise of the Year:

ACC football. The good teams were bad, and the bad teams were good. Then, at the end, it pretty much worked out as expected, except for Clemson.

Runner-up:

The Tampa Bay Rays.

Fantasy Player of the Year:

Bryan. He not only managed all of the leagues, but he has done at least fairly well in all of them. Plus, he's currently on top in his football division and the NBA league.

Runner-up:

Jon. He won the regular season in the baseball league, sort of sucks at football, but is in second place in the NBA league. Besides, everybody sucks at football.

The Entertainment Class:

Movie of the Year:

The Dark Knight. This is one of the better movies of the decade. Plus, it's Batman.

Runner-up:

Wall-E. This won't be a very popular pick, but that's only because most of my friends refuse to see it because there isn't much dialogue. It's still a great movie.

Show of the Year:

30 Rock. I still say this is the best show on TV right now.

Runner-up:

Chuck. I'm mildly surprised by this one myself, but Chuck has had some great moments. Plus, it's taken an overused concept (the spy show) and made it worthwhile again.

Most Fun Game of the Year:

Saint's Row 2. This game uses the GTA formula but has fun with it. Plus, it's not all uppity like the GTA games.

Runner-up:

Gears of War 2. This may be a good point to mention that I thought about giving video games their own "class" of awards. But I'm not entirely thrilled with the formatting of this blog anyhow, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Gaming Moment of the Year:

Beating level 20 on Horde in Gears of War 2. This is the infamous "stay home and have fun playing video games or go to see Miley Cyrus in Bolt" moment. Bryan, our cousin Nathan, and I decided we'd have (infinitely) more fun playing Gears of War 2 than watching Bolt with the rest of our family. We were right, and it ended in one of the greatest video game moments of my lifetime: beating level 20 on our "one more try," last ditch effort, "we're already late" play. It was definitely worth it.

Runner-up:

Beating level 49 on Horde in Gears of War 2. This was a very similar moment to the first one but includes Matthew, a harder level, and a lot more strategy. Theoretically, beating level 50 should go here, but it was pretty much a cake-walk after 49.

Game of the Year:

Fallout 3. I'm a sucker for Bethesda RPGs.

Runner-up:

Gears of War 2.

The Social Class:

Newcomer of the Year:

Karlie. I've known Karlie for more than a year now, but she's just started hanging out with the rest of my family and friends, so I'm considering last year her redshirt year.

Runners-up:

Jessica and Kaity. These girls are friends with my cousin Emily (Dunn). This year they rode 8 to 10 hours to boring-ass Deersville, Ohio just to hang out with our family. Plus, they had to put up with my mom and my uncle Dave, so they deserve a lot of credit. And they were a lot of fun, too.

Most missed:

Matt and Jamie. This isn't really fair since they live in Boston. But this year proved how much more fun Wilmington could be if they lived here.

Runners-up:

Daniel, Jon, and Charles. This is more fair because these guys used to be around all the time.

Best Trip:

Trip to St. Louis Cardinals games. This award pretty much picked itself.

Runner-up:

Ohio family reunion. I never would have guessed that this could be so much fun or that Matthew would be involved with both of my "best trips," but it happened.

2^nd Runner-up:

July Ohio trip. This was a great trip because I got to hang out with my other cousin Emily (Sherrick). Plus, we got to watch fireworks from my grandma's driveway (while I was watching Cards/Cubs on my laptop).

News of the Year:

Hunter's engagement. I don't think anybody really expected this.

Runner-up:

Austin bought a house. And he will be missed.

Best Party:

Matt and Jamie's wedding. This involved a week at an amazing beach house, a great wedding/reception, and a bunch of beer. And I got to feel like a mooch the whole time.

Runner-up:

The Pig Pickin'. This party would probably be in the running for this award every year.

Moment of the Year:

Austin's trip to the Fairy Circle. Can't really explain it.

Runner-up:

Jenny's pizza going in the sink. I can't really explain this one either because I was not all that sober at the time. But, somehow, Jenny and I put most of a piece of pizza into her sink.

Leftover Class:

Best Day of the Week:

Friday. Fridays included a lot of Rock Band, NBA Live, quarters, landmines, and fun.

Runner-up:

Thursday. Thursday has long been one of the best TV nights. This year saw more of the same with shows like 30 Rock, Sunny, and The Office. It was a good night.

Best Class:

The day my classes wrote blogs in class. This was a great assignment because it forced them to write and then actually talk to each other.

Runner-up:

The day we played video games in my science fiction class. My class created a Fallout 3 character and played some Portal.

Biggest Scrumpt:

That one time I washed my car. It didn't really help. I fear that the dirt is now a part of the car, like its muffler or its fuel tank.

Runner-up:

The fair, maybe. I don't know: I had fun, but I also felt dirty afterwards.

So, those are the first BISsies. I'm sure I've left some stuff out, and they seem a little end-of-the-year heavy, but I remember all of that better. I'm posting a QotD in hopes that you'll all rant about snubs and give your acceptance speeches. So, do that. Also, this may be the last blog of the calendar year, so happy holidays and all.

Question of the Day:

What award would you like to see next year? Also, feel free to post any differing opinions you might have about the awards this year.

My take: I really wanted to do a "Picture of the Year" award, but I don't have many pictures on my computer, and I couldn't find the one I really wanted: the picture of Jenny giving the camera the middle finger. It really captures Jenny's essence. Well, not really, but it's a really fun picture.