I had a wonderful year. I got to travel, read a bunch, cook a bunch, play new video games, attend theater shows, watch movies, spend time with friends and loved ones, and best of all get a puppy. I’ll try and keep this write-up at a surface level, since I’d rather finish it instead of only getting halfway.

Travel

Peru

I travelled to Peru in June with some friends. We did the one-day Inca trail which was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the hike up from the river to the classic viewpoint of the entire city. The “monkey steps” right before the end are a lot of fun; they’re just really tall steps.

Prior to that, we did a one-night trek through Lares, a less-trafficked part of the country. It was stunning. There were alpacas and other farm animals all along the trail, beautiful mountain scenery, and a fun, knowledgeable guide to tell us all about the area. The trekking company, Sam Travel Peru, pulled out all the stops. They cooked us delicious, healthy meals, and we slept in the most posh tent I’ve ever experienced.

For the other half of the trip, we stayed at a jungle lodge near the Amazon river. It was a nice balance, because we mainly relaxed on hammocks and did boat excursions out on the water. The jungle is truly alive, in a bigger sense than “there’s a ton of wildlife throughout it”. The sound of birds among the trees was incredible, there were so many unique sounds. I also had the best mango of my life there :)

Washington D.C.

I visited DC for a weekend. The museums were world-class. I particularly enjoyed the National Portrait Gallery (and the other museum that’s in the same building). There was an exhibit on all the presidents and short blurbs about what they were known for. Trump’s blurb talked about January 6 for a bit, and later this year he forced them to take it down. I’d like to think we’ll collectively refuse to forget it, but since (at least in corporate media) we’ve memory-holed GW Bush’s crimes, I’m not holding my breath. Regardless of all that, it was an impressive tapestry of those who did their part in shaping American history and culture.

The Natural History Museum was amazing. It really scratched that science-y part of my brain that always enjoyed reading National Geographic and marveling at the rich biodiversity of our planet.

Both of these museums were free to enter! That shows that there have always been those who want to enrich our collective understanding of the world. I’m grateful for that.

Media

Reading

I read the following books:

• Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
  • Please read this if you ever stop to think about how certain jobs simply should not exist
• Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcolm Harris
  • Kind of felt like pop history, but I got a lot out of it. I appreciate that the author avoids a dispassionate voice and picks a side
• American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by Chris Hedges
  • Chris Hedges blog posts today can get extremely doomy-gloomy, but I often think he’s right. His book from almost twenty years ago does a great job predicting the rise of the Christian right. Look who’s in charge of the Pentagon today…
• The Golden Gate by Amy Chua
  • Awesome whodunit that presents the Bay Area from minority viewpoints in the 1940’s, near the end of WW2
• Rich Girl Nation: Taking Charge of Our Financial Futures by Katie Gatti Tassin
  • The author is a total personal-finance nerd, and she passionately places that in a larger economic/societal lens
• Mort by Terry Pratchett and Sourcery by Terry Pratchett
  • I love these Discworld novels. I preferred Mort over Sourcery, since I felt like I was a bit lost in some parts of Sourcery. The characters are all great though
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
  • Cozy sci-fi! Set in a future, post-war San Francisco, it follows a group of robots who open a noodle restaurant. I wish it was longer!
• Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow
  • I am a Cory Doctorow stan. While he can get repetitive in his writing between posts, this book is a great sum-up/intro of what he’s been talking about for years
• Death’s End by Cixin Liu
  • This is the end of the Three Body Problem Trilogy. It was overall a really fun, imaginative take on humanity working over the course of hundreds of years to avert extinction. It got totally out there as centuries passed, and I was here for it.
• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
  • Great story and I liked the setting! I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I did not finish the sequel, unfortunately
• Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
  • Sex with aliens, but not in the way you’re thinking. I totally respect Butler for taking a big swing with this, and I liked parts of it. However, I didn’t like it enough to read the rest of the trilogy
• Chasing Shadows: Cyber Espionage, Subversion, and the Global Fight for Democracy by Ronald J. Deibert
  • Saw Ron talk at a book signing. He’s been instrumental in the citizen-led against cyber-mercenaries. Crazy stories about his time at Citizen Lab
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
  • A sci-fi classic. I’m glad I finally read it! I can totally see how it’s influenced other sci-fi stories
• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
  • Holy crap, read this if you’ve ever thought, Man, that Mark Zuckerberg sucks
• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
  • A mind-bending novel where the main character joins an expedition into a mysterious abandoned zone. Loved it, though I won’t read the sequels after hearing they’re not as good.

Movies, Games, and Theater

Favorite movie: Sinners. Such a fun, unique movie. I wish it wasn’t billed as “horror”, otherwise I would’ve seen it in theaters where it would’ve been twice as good.

Favorite video game: Hollow Knight on the Steam Deck. Getting ready to join the hype train late for Silksong.

Favorite musical: Les Misérables. Such powerful ensemble songs. It made me cry and hope for a better world.

Board Games

I had a lot of fun playing board games with friends this year. “Azul” is a go-to game, but we also really liked “Wingspan”. For a fun, quick group card game, try “Trio”, also called “Nana”.

Honorable mention for a new game I was gifted for Christmas, “Ra”. It’s a fun auction + game theory style game, though I think it’s a bit too long. Maybe we all just play it too slowly.

Puppy

The puppy we got this summer has filled lot of my free time. I was actually apprehensive about that happening, but like all dads who say “No I don’t want a dog”, I have fallen in love with this dog.

I won’t post a pic because I’m a relatively private person (also because he’s way too cute), but he’s been a lot of fun for me and my partner. I even had fun making him a website where I post a photo every day. 6 months in, I’m still posting a photo/video every day, and friends/family still check in on it :)

Conclusion

Overall, I’m very grateful for my health, friends, family, safety and comfort. I’d like to do more work this next year with writing down my thoughts, since that’ll help me express them in person more. That probably won’t be online writing, but we’ll see!