My 2013

A lot of stuff went down in 2013.



Best Book: 
The best book I read this year was definitely "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. I would recommend it. And if you really aren't the book reader type, (you know who you are. I hope you feel my disapproving scowl as you read this.) the movie was a great adaptation. The book was better, but the movie left nothing too important out.
Also "The Oath" by Frank Peretti. I'd recommend anything by him, actually. But I read "The Oath" in June. :)
Worst Books: 
The worst book I read this year was "The Book of Blood and Shadow." Just don't read it. Just don't. I stayed up until three in the morning to finish the book, and it ended so horribly I basically threw the book against the wall and went to bed angry. Don't read it.
A close second is "The Fault in Our Stars."
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Best Movies:
I saw a lot of memorable movies this year. However, I can't remember anything before May. SO, therefore, the best movies that I saw were "Frozen", "The Hobbit pt 2", and "Ender's Game."
Everyone I know liked Frozen. See it.
You might not like The Hobbit if you're a stickler about the books. Peter Jackson still tells the story brilliantly, even though everything in the movie isn't strictly in the book.
And "Ender's Game." I really enjoyed that movie. The kid who plays Ender was a great actor. And again, even though the movie is fairly different from the book, the story is still told well enough so one can understand it without reading the book.
Worst Movies:
"Iron Man 3." Gosh. It could have been SO GOOD. I really don't like it when someone other than the hero defeats the bad guy. And then how he destroys all the suits... What's up with that?

The more I think about "Man of Steel" the more I decided that I didn't like it. Although the guy who plays "Superman" was really good, as was Amy Adams, the acting couldn't hold up the unrealistic collateral damage, the cheesy camera shots, and horribly corny jokes.
See it. It wasn't horrible. But it wasn't great.
My brother brought up that compared to "Superman Returns" "Man of Steel" was excellent.

Also "The City of Bones." I saw this movie when I was about halfway through the book. The book sucked, and so did the movie. I can't really describe why it sucked. So just trust me on this one.

EDIT: "The Host" was also a horrible movie. It dragged on forever and the story could have been amazing but instead it was just some strange romance.
I talked to a lot of people my age who liked it, but I just couldn't get into it.

Most Okayest movie I saw:
"The Great Gatsby."
Also, "World War Z."

There were a lot of movies I finally saw in 2013 that didn't come out this year or I didn't see in theaters. All of them were pretty good.

• Like Crazy
• 500 Days of Summer
• The Dark Knight trilogy
• The Way Way Back
• X-Men First Class
• The Wolverine

SEE ALL OF THEM.  
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Best Album:
Icon For Hire's self titled album. Plus, since I ordered it early, they sent me Laffy Taffy with it. But the actual album is excellent, and way better than their first one.

Worst Album:
Not really bad, just kind of a let down, was RED's "Release the Panic." I like it, it just wasn't as good as I was hoping.
Also, the Jonas Brother's album that never came out because they broke up. :P

Most Okayest Album:
 Panic! at the Disco "Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die." Not horrible, but not good, either. Brendon has an amazing voice, but this album is super auto-tuned and the lyrics just aren't as good as their past stuff.
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Best TV Show:
The best show that came out this year was Agents of Shield. But I don't watch that much TV. There's probably better shows out there.

I recently got in to Sherlock on BBC. I highly recommend you watching that show. NOW. DO IT NOW

Worst TV Show:
Sleep Hollow.
That show creeped me out so bad......
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Best thing that happened to me:
I went on this missions trip to San Jose, Costa Rica with my class.
The whole trip was awesome but one of the best parts was when I played soccer with this kid named Jefferson.
A close second is this independently owned bookstore trip I took with my Grandma. We went to like 6 stores. It was awesome.
Also, I finished my NaNoWriMo novel at 51,086 words! Woot Woot!

Worst Thing that happened to me: 
As with good things, there's always bad things.
Probably one of the saddest things that happened to me was in January when a good friend of mine told me she didn't believe in God anymore. I still pray for her.

Also, on a less serious note, I had to go back to the orthodontist and also to the physical therapist and also to the oral surgeon to figure out my TMJ.  That, my friend, sucked.
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Other stuff that happened:

• I started a blog.
• I got a laptop
• My friend and I made plans to go to Europe in 2016. 
• I decided that I want to be a Lit teacher.
• I learned how to play the ukulele. 
• My taste in music completely changed from rock to punk back to rock. Now I like both.
• I learned some card tricks.
• Also, I just want to note that I went to my first haunted corn maze this Halloween. Never. Again. I mean, I'm glad I did it. Now I know to never do it again

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Some Stuff God Taught Me:
God taught me a lot of stuff. But these are the things that come to mind first that I had to be reminded of throughout the whole year:

1) Nothing you do for God is useless. (1 Corinthians 15:58)
2) God knows more than you. So when bad stuff happens, trust him and read Isaiah 40.
3) Sometimes you have to grit your teeth and obey a teacher, even if they're wrong or rude.

Resolutions:
Be healthier/run more.
Write every day. Finish editing my NaNo novel, write another one in April.
Get a job.
Get my driver's license.
Read. :)
Memorize scripture
Memorize that thing Gandalf says at the beginning of The Hobbit when Bilbo says "Good morning."
"Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"


Well, thank you for reading this if you read this far. Which I don't know why you would have.

Happy New Year! :)

-Amanda