Paul Goscicki

It has all started when NBC acquired Universal Pictures (May, 2004) and Conan O’Brien (of the Late Night with Conan O’Brien fame) dug up the archives of Walker, Texas Ranger. He has carefully chosen about a dozen clips from various episodes and showed them to the public, having lots of fun in between. Shortly thereafter someone made the list of the so called Chuck Norris facts and that’s when it all really started. Over the course of one year the trend became so huge, that Chuck himself issued an official response.

Funny thing is, that at first I had though it was only a local, Polish meme, as there’s a huge Polish list of Chuck Norris facts (over 500). It’s such a popular trend in Poland, that even people not using computers talk about it. Only lately I’ve found out the true source of it all.

All hail to Chuck Norris, who has counted to infinity. Twice.

Continuing from the previous post, listing top 10 movies of 2005, here is the top 25 from the music industry. The thing with music is, that the more recent the tune is, the more I like it. No matter how good the track was half a year ago, it looses when you compare it to any half as good new track. Usually it’s because I’ve been listening to the older one too much. That’s why there are so many new tracks in the list (new for me, that is). More appropriate name for the list could probably be something along those lines: “top 25 recent tracks”, but since it’s the time of summing up the year 2005, it’s called the way it is.

1. Juanes – La Camisa Negra
2. D!nation – Shut Up and Dance
3. Venice Beat ft. Tess Timony – In The Year 2525
4. Stereophonics – Maybe Tomorrow
5. Darin Zanyar – Step Up
6. Anggun – Saviour
7. Elize – Automatic (I’m Talking to You)
8. Asle Pres. Frost – Wait for Me
9. Ringside – Tired Of Being Sorry
10. Shaggy ft. Olivia – Wild 2nite
11. Rihanna – Pon De Reply
12. Mosqitoo – I Feel You
13. Pachanga – Loco
14. Kanye West ft. Jay Z – Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)
15. Björk – Army of Me (Casey Stratton Remix) (recommendation from Greebo)
16. Leonoff ft. Płyny – Ne Positiva Situacjone (link)
17. Royksopp – What Else Is There
18. Natasha St. Pier – Un Ange Frappe A Ma Port
19. Peja/Slums Attack ft. Sweet Noise – Ile Jeszcze?!
20. Danzel – Pump It Up
21. Bob Sinclair – Love Generation
22. Hurt – Załoga G
23. Timo Maas – First Day
24. Royksopp – Only This Moment
25. Prezioso and Marvin – Rockin’ Deejays

That was a good year when it comes to music.

Encouraged by Dzentelman, I have prepared the list of top ten movies of 2005. Those had the biggest impact on me. Some have crushed me, others simply took my breath away. This list is, of course, entirely subjective.

1. Hotel Rwanda
2. Crash
3. Million Dollar Baby
4. Garden State
5. Sin City
6. Broken Flowers
7. Heights
8. Taegukgi hwinalrimyeo
9. Bin-jip
10. 2046

What is surprising (well, maybe not really…) is that most of those are American movies (70 per cent, occupying all top positions). They may not be Hollywood movies per se, as each one represents a class of its own, yet still they are not in any way foreign. And I’m known for my tastes in European and Asian cinema. How strange.

PS: Some of those are listed as 2004 movies on iMDB, however, I had the chance to watch them in 2005, so they have their place in the above list.

This year, let’s make something different. How about a list of New Year’s goals? Just for a change. Not that I did not make lists like this one in the past, it’s just that I have never shared one with the whole wide world. So here it goes:

1. Increase my income by at least 20% (might be hard as the stock market was surprisingly generous last year),
2. Make my diet a little bit more vegetarian (increasingly),
3. Try out the 5–Day Juice Fast (drink only fresh fruit/vegetable juice for five days straight),
4. Become an early riser,
5. Try, for at least 14 days, polyphasic sleep (Wikipedia definition) – this one’s huge…

I’m keeping my fingers crossed in order to achieve at least some of those goals. And just so there is no confusion, yes, Steve Pavlina is my personal role model and a true hero. I’m very proud to be following his footsteps.