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For the last eighteen months, through the initial stages of writing my own book, I've become increasingly interested in knowing why I like the fiction I do: not just novels, which I'm still fairly new with, but also my longtime TV and movie viewing habits.
One of the things that came out of this was "top" lists for TV shows: simply identifying and ranking my favorites. For television, I made the first list in 2006 and it's been updated since. Here is what I've dubbed the official 2008 list (the first one published outside of my MySpace Page):
| 2008 All-Time Top 15 TV shows | |||
| Rank | Show Title | Year/ Genre | Chg. from '07 |
| 1 | Sliders (esp. seasons 1-3) | 1995-2000/ Science-Fiction | same |
| 2 | Lost | 2004-now/ Sci-Fi Mystery | same |
| 3 | Stargate SG-1 (esp. seasons 1-5) | 1997-2007/ Science-Fiction | same |
| 4 | Stargate Atlantis | 2004-now/ Science-Fiction | same |
| 5 | Star Trek: Voyager | 1995-2001/ Science-Fiction | same |
| 6 | Star Trek: The Next Generation | 1987-1994/ Science-Fiction | +1 |
| 7 | Reboot | 1994-2001/ CGI Adventure | -1 |
| 8 | Kino's Journey | 2003/ Anime Adventure | +3 |
| 9 | Doctor Who (new series) | 2005-now/ Science-Fiction | +1 |
| 10 | Cowboy Bebop | 1998-1999/ Anime Space-Western | -2 |
| 11 | Paranoia Agent | 2004/ Anime Horror-Mystery | (new) |
| 12 | Ghost In The Shell (TV) | 2002-2005/ Anime Cyberpunk | -3 |
| 13 | 24 (only seasons 1-4) | 2001-2005/ Action-Drama | same |
| 14 | The Outer Limits (modern) | 1995-2002/ Science-Fiction | same |
| 15 | Outlaw Star | 1998/ Anime Science-Fantasy | same |
Last year, I discovered music videos on YouTube 
along with some good sources of Christian music . With the resulting influx of new and old favorites I found my efforts expanding into why I like certain kinds of music (favorite genre: alternative metal). A few months ago I created the first list for music:
| 2008 All-Time Top 30 Songs | |||
| Rank | Artist | Title |
Year/ Genre |
| 1 | Foo Fighters | The Pretender | 2007/ Alternative |
| 2 | Chevelle | I Get It | 2007/ Alt. Metal |
| 3 | Breaking Benjamin | The Diary of Jane | 2006/ Alt. Metal |
| 4 | Hinder | Lips of an Angel | 2006/ Post-Grunge |
| 5 | Foo Fighters | DOA | 2005/ Alternative |
| 6 | Sixx: AM | Life is Beautiful | 2007/ Rock-Metal |
| 7 | Payable On Death | Find My Way | 2003/ Post-Hardcore |
| 8 | Demon Hunter | Fading Away | 2007/ Metal |
| 9 | Breaking Benjamin | So Cold | 2004/ Alt. Metal |
| 10 | Fuel | Hemorrhage (In My Hands) | 2000/ Post-Grunge |
| 11 | Stone Temple Pilots | Plush | 1993/ Grunge |
| 12 | Björk | Army of Me | 1995/ Electronica |
| 13 | Jimmy Eat World | Big Casino | 2007/ Alternative |
| 14 | Skillet | Rebirthing | 2006/ Hard Rock |
| 15 | Alice In Chains | I Stay Away | 1993/ Grunge-Acoustic |
| 16 | Payable On Death | I And Identify | 2003/ Alt. Metal |
| 17 | The Color Red | Smile | 2000/ Alt. Metal |
| 18 | Payable On Death | Wildfire | 2003/ Alternative |
| 19 | Three Days Grace | Never Too Late | 2007/ Alternative |
| 20 | Linkin Park | Bleed It Out | 2007/ Alternative |
| 21 | Linkin Park | In The End | 2001/ Nu Metal |
| 22 | Red | Break Me Down | 2007/ Rock-Metal |
| 23 | Real Life | Send Me An Angel | 1983/ New Wave |
| 24 | Payable On Death | Sleeping Awake | 2003/ Alt. Metal |
| 25 | Seventh Day Slumber | Break Me | 2005/ Rock |
| 26 | Payable On Death | Waiting On Today | 2003/ Alternative |
| 27 | Payable On Death | Freedom Fighters | 2003/ Alternative |
| 28 | Payable On Death | Will You | 2001/ Post-Hardcore |
| 29 | Stone Temple Pilots | Big Empty | 1994/ Hard Rock |
| 30 | Seal | Newborn Friend | 1994/ Soul |
My plan for now is to update the TV list every July and the music list every two years (the latter is a chaotic thing to rank, if I re-did it today I'm sure there would be several differences). Next year, after I've read more, I plan to start a list for novels and probably a fourth for films. The 2008 TV list is very similar to the original '06 one, except revealing the trend toward more anime (1 in 2006, 4 in 2007, 5 this year). With almost all of my viewing having switched from off-air/cable to on-demand/online (YouTube, SurfTheChannel 
, etc.) since '06, I've started to take a more pro-active approach toward my Top 15 list. I've recently started using what I've learned about my tastes in fiction to hunt down new series to topple long-standing (and pre-list) favorites like the Outer Limits, Stargate SG-1, and even Sliders. Just this past week, the effort led me to a 13-episode anime called Haibane Renmei , which I liked enough to think that the 2009 list will be very different. Oh yeah, there are non-anime TV shows, too. I'll consider them, too... I guess. If enough of these shows get nominated in the next few months, I'll probably do an early/non-July update later this year.
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