After watching this, I suppose it's a good a time as any to write an obligatory end-of-year thank you post. I've been wanting to do this for a couple weeks now, just waiting for the end of year to come, and it has come and gone, so this post slightly overdue. I'm just going to go ahead and mention names but this is always cause for concern because you're worried someone is going to feel left out. HECK it's the one time of the year you're thankful for the people around you, might as well acknowledge them properly. The following is in no particular order.

In 2009, I'm eternally grateful for the people around me, and (dare I say) the books I've read, things I've experienced, and internet memes I've participated in :p

heh ok serious tiemz.

Easy things first! To geeru and michele, thanks for being a phonecall away and for entertaining me when I'm insanely bored/ worried/ angsty. I love being able to squee with you guys about anything, and knowing that you will squee back. Thank you for letting me whine on end. You've always been witty and enjoyable to be around, and even though it's been a little busy this year, I appreciate that you've taken time out to just chat and catch up. Thanks for reminding me to do my math/chem/ various bits of undone work, and for pulling me back on track when my obsessive fangirling gets the better of me. You've always been the loveliest people ever, and I never hug you enough xD, so here's one. *hug*

To POOKY/ mustardrabbit: you've been an awesome friend this year, and I'm amazed we've managed to keep in touch till now. I'm aware tumbleweedrabbits has been revamped, and looking forward to another year of epic photos and videos :) It was a pity I couldn't come see you this year, but in the meantime, we'll still make lots and lots of plans to go tour europe, share an apartment, visit melbourne, etc. I love love love your sense of art and photography, and your tastes <33

To kimberly/ ifancyharrypotter (awesomesauce username, by the way): I never imagined that singaporean nerdfighters existed till I met you. It was so coincidental, the way we met in youtube comments, that I attribute this to good karma. A year ago I could never squee with someone about mugglecast and other nerdfightery things, but now I can. I never knew so much about good tv shows--I'd almost lost faith in good television, but you have convinced me otherwise! The penpal thing was a great idea, and it's so cool to receive stuff in the mail, and basically just lots of handwritten awesome. Good luck for the coming school year, especially with Math-- I'm sure you'll do well :) What do you think about leakycon 2011? ;)

To hailee/ iAmortentia: This time last year I remember being so super excited about the collab channel we were planning :D haha and that time we were kind of certain it would happen... but it didn't. But! In the process of finding participants, we met lots of awesomez people, yes? And I remember being so excited when you youtube-messaged me xD It's been great, looking forward to an email from you every now and then, and writing an email back. I like hearing about your life and school-- it's very interesting to know about how school is like in the US. Cultural exchange, if you will. Although, judging by our interests, it's not as if we're very different from each other :D Looking forward to SKYPE (darn time differences) and more collabs, if you know what I mean ;)

To Anke, Lisette, Lotte, Ilse, Lidewij, Sanne and Jonneke (The bwfnl girls in ORDER :D) It was so so great spending 2009 with you guys. Even if I only started watching in march/ april, getting to sub for your channel made me feel as if I was really participating and contributing to a piece of youtube, so that was awesome. AND I got to know a bunch of other subbers-- princeword/Martin, Zoe, Thekla, who led me to other people... and the rest is history. It's so exciting, learning more about the Netherlands from your channel, and especially spending p4a with the european nerdfighters-- Heleen, Tom, Lidewij.... p4a was mostly better this year because I had a bunch of people to spamwow WITH, and unabashedly hang out together on twitter. Because of you guys, I'm *actually* considering spending a summer in NL/ europe to meet up... and to check out the art/culture/ lifestyle. All the best for videos in 2010, I can't wait for more stuff from your channel! (tbh, yours was one of the few channels that actually survived for the whole year-- other collabs I subscribed to kind of petered out halfway-- YAY for staying power :D)

To Nerdfighteria! and the community, thank you for giving me hope and, to quote a song-- "peace and love and happiness in everything (I) do". Because of you, I've realised that you can be a respectable, working adult and STILL be freaking awesome, and do what you like. Honestly, before this, I thought growing up meant getting a boring job that you hate and not having time to spend on doing what you like. (Naive, I know ><) This meant giving up on producing anything creative, and giving up on being proud of what you do. After meeting people who are actively pursuing their interests, I've realised that majoring in, say, Conservation Biology is a realistic possibility, and now I have a clearer picture of what I'd like to do in the future. To explain, the mindset here/ amongst my peers is that you won't get anywhere unless you pursue a professional degree, i.e. medicine, engineering, finance, architecture, law-- other options are just a waste of money and time. There's also the view that academically strong people take on only these degrees, and the rest aren't as capable. I'm really grateful to Nerdfighteria because you decrease worldsuck, and I'm honoured to be a part of what we stand for :D

--I'm going to start getting synonyms for "awesome", I seem to have a poor vocabulary--

To the people from writer's fest, even though you might not read this, you've made me very happy :) to annjie, shuian, jiamin, loki, darran, debby, kiru, gekyong+ volunteers, you know who you are! Thanks for showing me an amazing time and recommending me lots of books and... eep. It was just very remarkable to have met so many book nerds (like me heh) who read even More than I do, and who believe in bringing writing to the people, and who believe in learning lots about authors, especially from different cultures. I also learnt lots about local writing, and through this/ because of this? I can talk to @sarahcoldheart on twitter, thereby meeting even MORE book people in singapore. You all are incredibly funny and I take immense pleasure in your company, and you've also taught me about... organising things, common sense (of which I am sorely lacking), and working in general. I really hope we can meet up more and partake in entertaining (illicit? xD) activities in the year to come :D

*phew* okay done. covered all the bases.

THANK YOU EVERYONE! *slinks away in drunk stupor*