Best Things of 2025
Dec 1, 2025
For some Reaons that I’ll get into in my end-of-year reflection (assuming I’m even able to get around to that), I’m quickly approaching a point of no return, past which I’m unlikely to be able to find time to post my usual recommendations.Best Things of 2024
Dec 29, 2024
Fun stuff! Fun stuff! Fun stuff! Fiction The Angel of Indian Lake, Stephen Graham Jones Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton Black Hole, Charles Burns Crook Manifesto, Colson Whitehead The Fraud, Zadie Smith The Goose Fritz, Sergei Lebedev Land of Milk and Honey, C Pam Zhang Ripley’s Game, Patricia Highsmith The Secret Hours, Mick Herron The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff The Witch Elm, Tana French Non-Fiction Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech, Brian Merchant Image Objects: An Archaeology of Computer Graphics, Jacob Gaboury The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle, Anna Schectman Movies A Different Man I Saw the TV Glow Janet Planet La Chimera Problemista TV Shows The Franchise, season 1 Girls5Eva, season 3 Justified, seasons 1-3 Limited Series Baby Reindeer Over the Garden Wall Ripley The Sympathizer True Detective: Night Country Podcasts The Big Picture (but only if/when Amanda Dobbins is on) 5-4 Good Job, Brain!2024 Year in Review
Dec 28, 2024
At Work I find myself less and less inclined to do this half of my reflection - perhaps to consider it “half” of my life - each time this annual write-up rolls around.Termites! At the Film Club
May 23, 2024
For about the past year, I’ve been attending the “Far Out Film” club at a local public library, which as been an absolutely delightful way to both nudge myself back out into adult social spaces in a COVID-ravaged world and get back in touch with the film snob tendencies at the root of so many of my major life decisions.Best Things of 2023
Dec 26, 2023
These are all things that I enjoyed this year! If you have not enjoyed them yet, I hope you do! Addendum: if you want the full-full rundown on the year in film, do check out the 2023 “EMOs” on my other blog: https://bestfilmsofourlives.2023 Year in Review
Dec 22, 2023
At Work I wrote quite a bit last year about feeling stuck in a holding pattern at work, and boy did that feeling continue for quite a lot of 2023, until…August?Best Things of 2022
Dec 22, 2022
While I’m definitely going to continue with this rundown of all my favorite things read, watched, played and listened to in the past year, a definite trend I have to shout out: the movies are back, baby!2022 Year in Review
Dec 17, 2022
At Work To be perfectly honest - weird year! Living on grant funding has always been a bit squiffy of course, wondering where exactly I’ll be this time next year, or the next.Puzzling
Jan 16, 2022
No, this is not a post about Wordle, and yes, this is a post about Wordle. Even before the latest viral word game swept across our social feeds, I was considering writing about my personal turn to constant puzzling in the pandemic (more inspired by the longevity of the previous viral word game that swept across our social feeds, the New York Times/Sam Ezersky’s Spelling Bee, which I am still dutifully shuffling through every day even if Twitter has largely moved on).Best Things of 2021
Dec 21, 2021
Comparing this year’s recommendations to last year’s, it’s obvious that at least one difference for me between 2021 and 2020 was an ability to engage more significantly with new (to me) books, TV, and movies, including a few actually challenging works, rather than just slapping the same reruns and absolute trash nonsense on the screen to numb out.2021 Year in Review
Dec 19, 2021
At Work What would a year look like where I actually stopped, slowed down, or otherwise invested myself less in work? That was sort of the running question in the back of my mind throughout 2021.Adventures in Recreating iTunes c. 2005
May 24, 2021
I was an early adherent/adopter of Spotify - I want to say sometime in 2011, as a student in college, I think pretty much as soon as it was available in the U.Zakharovich
Apr 30, 2021
A week of vacation has knocked loose a few thoughts about what, were I actually given the time, energy, and empty brain space to do something, what would I actually want to do with those blessings.What is a Blaseball?
Mar 27, 2021
Blaseball is one of those things - like small-plate restaurants or monthly subscription boxes or cryptocurrencies - that really really likes to explain itself. So I’m already slightly annoyed at myself for writing this, since a quick search for “blaseball” (and you truly must include the quotation marks, to have any hope of relevant results) is more likely to give you ten different “what is blaseball” articles than it is to take you the actual Blaseball site.Lists
Feb 27, 2021
When I was about 15 or 16 years old, I vividly remember spending the better part of a winter break from school compiling a monstrous list of every movie I had ever seen.Best Things of 2020
Dec 28, 2020
My adolescent enthusiasm for awards shows and year-end movie lists has devolved, inexorably, to whatever 2020 is/was. Some things brought me joy - many just passed the time. Rather than a detailed breakdown, here are some recommendations, the best things I watched/read/listened to in this awful year.2020 Year in Review
Dec 14, 2020
Every year I see Ashley Blewer write her “annual report” and think, that’s a great idea - I, too, often feel burned out from blending endless personal and professional projects and forget to reward myself for the many things I do accomplish!Macroblogging
Nov 9, 2020
Did you know that social media sites like Twitter and Instagram are sometimes called “microblogging” platforms? I like the idea of modularity and microservices and breaking down my life and work and thoughts into digestible pieces as much as the next person.