Well, it looks to be that time of year again. The tree is trimmed, the presents are wrapped and we’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of a certain bearded, fat man who sneaks into our house while we sleep…

Wow…no wonder I never slept as a kid on Christmas Eve. I was TERRIFIED!

But, I digress. It’s also that time of year when the blogosphere is abuzz with end of year lists. So, naturally, I thought I should join in on the fun. So, without further ado…

Top 5 Geeky Things I Loved in 2009

2009 was not a great year for a lot of people, at least economically. But it sure was a great year for being geek. Lots of things to be happy about this year like…

1. Blackest Night: This is how a comic event should be done. For over a year, the build up to DC’s next big event had been growing and growing. With as much hype as the series had been getting, one had to wonder if even the legendary Geoff Johns could live up to the fans expectations. Then, in July, after a long (and sometimes painful) wait, Blackest Night #1 hit that stands and we knew that we were in for a treat (though, I shall still be sticking needles into my Geoff Johns vodoo doll until I know the final fate of the Hawks!). While the series still continues in the beginning of 2010, I’m can say that everything I read for BN in 2009 has been utterly phenomenal. From seeing what an unrestrained Aquaman can really do, to the Black Lantern Silver-Age Era Justice League, to Black Lantern Batman right on to Mera finally being realized as one of the coolest characters in comicdom, Johns has made Blackest Night one of the coolest comics of 2009



2. Geek TV Makes a Come Back: There have always been a small handful of geek-related shows on television over the years. From Hercules and Xena; from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel; from Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, shows have cropped up here and there for those of us with geek-love in our hearts. But this year seemed to be a treasure-trove of geek-themed television. With returning shows like The Big Bang Theory, Smallville, Lost, Chuck, Fringe, Supernatural, True Blood and more, the fall 2009 season brought us some great new shows like FlashFoward, Eastwick, Glee, The Vampire Diaries, and V (and that’s not even counting the great original series on Syfy like Eureka, Warehouse 13, Stargate Universe and Sanctuary). Sure, some of the new shows have already been given the boot (Bye, Eastwick. I think I’ll miss you most of all), some have even been pulled for reworking (no FlashFoward or V until March of April of 2010!), but geek television has come a long way. I can’t remember the last time the major networks had at least attempted this many shows that had such geek-fueled themes. And 2010 looks to be just a promising, with the final season of Lost, new shows like Past Life and Human Target, and, of course, the much anticipated Geoff Johns written Smallville: Absolute Justice. Yep, geek TV seems to be here to stay!



3. Batman: Arkham Asylum: From the moment the trailer for this game was released, I couldn’t wait to play it. Of curse, as with Blackest Night, the cynic in me came to the forefront. I was preparing to steel myself against the inevitable letdown that would surely follow the massive amounts of excitement I felt. Gods above, I love being wrong (which seems to happen more often that I thought. Hmmmm….)! With incredible gameplay, fantastic graphics and some of the coolest video game casting in a while (I mean, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles as Batman and Joker respectively? C’mon! You can’t beat that!). The game has a surprising amount of depth in terms of story-telling and levels of play. To be completely honest, I have yet to finish the game to 100% (I’m missing a Riddler clue somewhere!) and I love that fact. I continue to go into the world of Batman and play. And with the news of the sequel in the works, my Xbox is going to be running nonstop for a long while!



4. Star Trek: Wow…the fact that this is even making this list is shock for me. See, I was so against this movie. Yep, I am one of those die-hard Trekkies who just hated the idea that they were going to reboot Star Trek. Sure, I said, you can reboot a show like Battlestar Galactica or even V, but Star Trek? No way! And when I got my first glimpse of the new Enterprise…well, to say I was pissed would have been an understatement (I still maintain that those nacelles are WAY too big!). And don’t get me started on Abrams and reboots (I never bothered to watch any of the Mission: Impossible movies after the first one). But, for the sake of my love of all things Trek, along with some not-so-gentle nudging from friends, I decided I would go see what they had done to my precious show. You know what they did? They made it freakin’ AWESOME! Were there flaws? Of course there were. Plot holes? You could drive a truck through some of them. Did I care? NO!. Not since Star Trek: First Contact have I had that much fun at a Trek movie. It had humor, it had emotion, it had action…it was exactly what I hoped for. And they even managed to do a reboot that technically didn’t reboot a thing. Now, if I could just find the Guardian of Forever and jump forward to 2012 so I can see the next movie already.



5. GeekSpeakBlog.com: Okay, I’m gonna go there. The geekiest thing I love about 2009 was that we finally got our blog launched. I had been thinking about a site like this for a long while but just never seemed to find the time. Thanks to joys of 2009′s economic situation, I suddenly found myself with a bit of free time on my hands and decided I was going to go for it. With the help of my partner-in-crime, GeekGyrl, we’ve managed to keep the site going. And 2010 is going to see GeekSpeakBlog.com grow even more. We have some plans for new, ongoing content, a design tweak, a very cool GeekSpeak merchandise store and so much more! So keep coming back to GeekSpeakBlog.com!