A Look Back at 2009 | Onelargeprawn

This is it – the last post of 2009. Time flies like an arrow (and fruit flies like a banana) and this year really has raced by. On one hand I’m happy to see 2009 draw to a close, it’s been a bit of a rubbish year, but on the other hand there were some great moments and I’m sad to see those go.

It’s that time of year when bloggers around the world review the year and recap their favorite stories of 2009. I’m lucky if I can remember what happened last month but thank the gods the Internet has kindly reminded me of highlights of the last 12 months. I have included a few of those moments and my general thoughts about the year after the jump.

Notable news from 2009:

Barry Obama makes it to the White House and is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. He goes on to win a Nobel Peace Prize. The first lady wins one too, for looking like Sigourney Weaver.
Illustrious and innocent until proven guilty Jay-Zed (Jacob Zuma) is elected president of our beloved South Africa.
An Airbus 320 crashes into the Hudson River in the United States care of a flock of unruly birds.
A red dust storm sweeps across Australia. It’s like Mad Max but minus all the action.
Formula One driver Felipe Massa is struck by debris during a race and fractures his skull. It’s the smallest things that can do the biggest damage.
Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew. The search for the black boxes still continue.
Speaking of anniversaries, it’s 60 years of communist rule in China, the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, and 64 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Less notable is our blog’s first birthday.
A new strain of H1N1 influenza virus dubbed “swine flu” goes pandemic with 12,220 confirmed deaths worldwide.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes Iran’s ninth president. The election is marred by violence, voting irregularities, and blocking of communications. With Facebook filtered, tech-savvy Iranians turn to Twitter to pass on information about the turbulent election.
Susan Boyle goes viral. The singer’s performance in the reality show “Britain’s Got Talent” has been viewed over 83 million times on YouTube. Notable mentions in the “sudden rise to fame” category include Nadya “Octomom” Suleman, “Balloon Boy” Falcon Heene, and Miss California USA Carrie Prejean who kept her title despite the leakage of racy photos.
2009 saw the death of the king of pop, Michael Jackson. He died at the age of 50 after suffering from cardiac arrest. It is estimated that one billion people watched the memorial service. Other celebrity deaths include Farah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, David Carradine (autoerotic asphyxiation!), Bea Arthur, Jade Goody, Keith Floyd, Walter Cronkite, and Brittany Murphy.
The Hubble Space Telescope gets a one billion dollar makeover and now takes fantastic deep space photos.
Imma let you finish but here are the top ten memes of 2009.

…and the list goes on. If you’d like more pictures and less monotonous text, I highly recommend Boston.com’s The Big Picture who look back over the past 12 months through photographs. If moving pictures are your kind of thing, Waving Goodbye to 2009 is kinda fun, but I prefer JibJab’s annual year in review video.

If we go a little more closer to home, you may have noticed it was our blog’s first birthday earlier on in December. After a slow start, I’d like to think I have gotten better with my writing and now, with over a 1000 posts done, writing for Onelargeprawn is great fun. Let’s take a look at the 10 most popular posts this year by the number of views – they tend towards the sexy end of the scale and I blame that on our U.S. visitors who clearly like crumpet ;-)

10. Dispatchwork: Rebuilding the World, One Lego Block at a Time

9. The 10 Most Expensive Cars in the World

8. Bar Refaeli Makes Cover for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition

7. 365 Days of Stormtrooper Photos

6. Dasha Astafieva is Playboy’s 55th Playmate

5. Nikon D300s Perspectives

4. Living Room PC Case Mod is Tiny, Cozy

3. Heavy Melons: World’s Biggest Breasts Set at 38KKK

2. Dead Fly Art

1. EVOL’s Stencil Art Buildings

Our competitions have proved popular as well. We have given away some awesome stuff in the year and if you happened to be one of our winners, I hope you’re enjoying the prizes. A massive thanks go out to these companies who took the time to reply to our e-mails and donated the gear.

If you’re reading this and would like donate some prizes to upcoming competitions, then please get in touch with us – feedback@onelargeprawn.co.za. Do note that we cannot accept adult videos, credit loans, or pharmaceutical drugs as competition prizes.

This post has gone on long enough, I’d very surprised if you’ve read all this drivel, but if you have, please accept my thanks – hey it’s better than a kick in the pants right? It’s time for me to end off, abrupt as it may be, but it’s been an interesting year. Whether it’s filled with amusement, frustration, or depression, at the end of the day it’s always about looking forward. On behalf of myself and the other writers at Onelargeprawn, we’d like to wish you a very happy new year! Thank you for the support you’ve given us in 2009, I hope you have had an entertaining time with us, and here’s to an even better year in 2010!

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