Review
- Turmeric Ashwagandha Herbal Tisane: ✅ (fine, still like the original turmeric best)
- Earl Grey Masala Chai: 👎 (odd flavor combination)
- Bidiots: where you create “fine art” and then bid on art at auction
- Push the Button: where you have to figure out who the aliens are on the ship
- Assam Exotic Black Tea: ✅ (fine, black tea, not actually exotic)
- Vanilla Spice Masala Chai:👍 (yum!)
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: the in-depth segments cut deep but also discuss opportunities to do something about it.
- Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: a little less what-can-you-do-about-it and a little more in-depth. These could be heavy, which is probably why it’s now cancelled.
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: I would occasionally watch the previous night’s intro portion of this show while having my breakfast. I find Colbert (& his writers) to be the funniest of the late night hosts. Also, lately, the moments where you can hear his wife (or their interactions) are charming.
- Late Night with Seth Meyers: Like the above, it was an occasional morning watch of the intro portion of the show. He pulled no punches on calling out problems in the USA presidential administration, to the point where I’m frankly surprised he’s been able to stay on the air.
- Endeavour: It’s Inspector Morse when he was younger, and they do a brilliant job of creating the setting of each episode (which is really a movie): visually, historically, and audibly.
- Criminal: the premise of these series is that it’s a very sparse set of the interview rooms and a couple hallways, yet they are able to do so much with it. ( note: check for 4 different countries and languages; there are multiple versions with different stories)
- Ted Lasso: this is my top recommendation from this year. On top of being very funny, I appreciate how much maturity and humanity people show each other, even in the face of most of the characters going through something incredibly difficult.
- The Repair Shop: this is an incredibly charming show about a shop where people bring in their antiques, family heirlooms, and broken items to be reconditioned. It’s a brilliant spot of light in a throwaway consumerist culture, and there are wonderful moments of joy.
- The Good Place: a hilarious show that introduces and mashes up a lot of philosophical concepts and questions
- Watchmen: full disclosure, I hadn’t seen the movie or read the comics before watching this spinoff TV show, but am familiar with their basic story line and themes. This was an incredible production that explores a number of both contemporary and timeless problems.
- Fargo: like Watchmen, I haven’t seen the movie, but I am riveted to every season of this show. What I like most about this show is the juxtapositions: beauty & horror, fortune & reversal, education & gallows humor, and much more.
- The Mandalorian: yes, it’s full of fan service, but it’s really well-done fan service that re-explores many tropes in fresh ways.
- The Boys: these comedy-horror comic book characters made it to TV, and it presents a scathing critique of various power structures.
- Community: I wrapped up this series this year. It’s intelligent and funny, but you really do have to watch from the beginning in order to understand the characters and their dynamic. Troy & Abed will always have a special place in my heart for the way they portrayed nerdiness in a more authentic and laughing-with rather than laughing-at way.
- Alone: I generally shy away from “Reality Shows” due to vapidity, repetition, and manufactured melodrama. I will often check out survival shows, though (hey, Eagle Scout here!). What I like about this one compared to some others is that you can see how they setup for the long haul, giving us a chance to see how challenges and priorities shift over the duration of their stay. (Of course, it’s also relevant to my theme of Resilience.)
- Knives Out: as I mentioned earlier, we enjoy murder mysteries in this house. This was a great twist on those tropes. (I feel like it’s this generation’s Clue)
- El Hoyo (The Platform): this minimalist dystopian horror film offers several critiques of the current age.
- Sweet Himalayan Detox Green Tea: ✅ (ok, but do not oversteep this as it gets really bad)
- Turmeric Ginger Herbal Tisane: ✅ (ok, but we preferred day 2 which also had some ginger)
- Earl Grey Citrus Black Tea: ✅
- Sweet Cinnamon Spice Masala Chai: ✅
- I preferred the former and my spouse the latter.
- Turmeric Spiced Herbal Tisane: 👍(very interesting with multiple other flavors included)
- High Mountain Oolong Tea: ✅
- Himalayan Green Tea: 🤢 (super astringent without much flavor)
- India’s Original Masala Chai: 👍
- ship was a good one with classic design
- no idea who the character is
New Year’s Eve 🍺. Wow!
Sixth day of Christmas
🫖:
🧱: my favorite so far! The Falcon was a little challenging and impressive.
🧩: newish puzzle, started previously
2020: Comic Review
To view other 2020 review posts, visit the main post here.
I’m not someone who typically reads many comics. But this year, a couple things had me reading more.
After having had Saga recommended multiple times, I started the series, and enjoyed the first couple volumes.
Second, after learning about the “complete marvel reading order” from a friend, I signed up for Marvel Unlimited and setup a “just the essentials” comic box on CMRO and started going through the key classics. I saw the introduction of the Fantastic Four, Ant Man, The Hulk, Thor, Spider Man, and some others. My favorite of the early comics ended up being the Tales to Astonish series, which often included an Ant Man short comic, a couple other short comics, and a two page story. I also read the Alien 3 comic adaption.
Overall, I read 25 comics this year.
What comics did you read this year? Any recommendations?
2020: 🃏, 🎲, & 🕹 Review
To view other 2020 review posts, visit the main post here.
As you may already know, I enjoy games. Especially ones with a social element, or where we get to create some sort of emergent story together. In the year of the pandemic, a lot of traditional card and board games were harder to play (unless you took them digital or used tabletop simulation software).
Pandemic Gaming
For a handful of pandemic get-togethers, we played some Jackbox Party Pack games over Discord. Ones I particularly enjoyed include:
On that note, Among Us became another hit this year, with not too dissimilar play. I played this with some groups online, as well.
At home, we played some classic Hand & Foot, a rummy-like game where you have two hands (a hand and a foot, get it?). I’d link to rules, but like many of these classic card games, it seems like every family has their own version, and ours doesn’t match the varieties I’ve seen online.
Role-Playing Games
On the role-playing games front, I played a variety of things this year, as online games continued to work well. We typically play online with just a video conferencing tool and then Rolz for our chat & rolling.
My local game participated in a playtest for Torchbearer 2nd Edition. Torchbearer and Mouse Guard are a tight version of the Burning Wheel engine. I had not played very much of Torchbearer 1st edition, because our group is often playing different kinds of adventures than what it was best suited for. But 2nd edition is honing many things and introducing tools to facilitate more types of playstyles. I’m very excited about what Luke & Thor have created and am looking forward to this release. (Watch for our names in the credits!)
When the playtest was over, we took our setting (Mauragaaqtuq) back to core Burning Wheel, starting our 4th game in the setting (the 4 being: a long BW campaign, a one-shot LARP, the TB playtest campaign, and now another BW campaign). I’m really impressed by the richness that the players (aided by system components such as Wises, Circles, and Beliefs) have added to the setting. We just started Season 2 of Mauragaaqtuq: Murder of Crows.
My already-online game group with friends from Puerto Rico and Chicago (which also got our start years ago, playing Burning Wheel in the Wheel of Time setting….yes, of course we called it “Burning Wheel of Time”) has tried a few things this year.
First, we had a game set in Shadows of Esteren but using the Blood & Bone system. This was tough, as we were trying to simplify and not do a lot of homework, but it was tough to do in practice. The game engine took a lot of nods from things that worked in other games, but IMO failed to deliver them as a cohesive set.
Next, we went on to playing a fantasy-historical game set in a mythic version of Tyre. We used the hidden gem of a game engine Dominion Rules, with some added house rules. This is my favorite open source game, and still feel like it has a lot of potential many years after its release. Alas, this did not last as there was some COVID burnout.
Now, we are on to something new…err old. We’re using Palladium 1st edition and engaging classic dungeon-delving in a published module. Palladium Fantasy is new to me (though I’ve done a little Rifting back in the day), and I’m not big on the “old school” nostalgia (partially because “old school” for me isn’t Palladium and original D&D but West End Games' Star Wars, and partially because the “scene” is rife with miscreants and vice-signalling), but I’m having fun because the group is fun and I’m leaning into the randomness and weirdness of the setting and system.
Over break, I got to play the Labyrinth Adventure Game with my niece and nephew, and this was a blast. It’s a beautifully produced product with a simple system & great scenes that offer a lot of replayability for zany adventures to get back things stolen by the Goblin King. In contrast to many RPGs, there is plenty of excitement and adventure without having to focus on fighting.
As for live action games (or LARPs), those were mostly cancelled this year (and for good reason), but some communities continued to get together in chat and audio events. I played in a handful of these events on Discord, with my One World by Night main character, but obviously it is not the same.
Video Games
I tend to play non-twitchy open world-type games. This is both so that I can listen to podcasts or audiobooks while I play, and because I don’t need the adrenaline from twitchy games. (I get enough of that working in cybersecurity, TYVM.)
As in years past, most of my video game time was spent in the Bethesdaverse (e.g. Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, particularly, the “online” varieties this year) and the Borderlands franchise. I’m mostly on Elder Scrolls Online recently (add me for Mac/PC/Stadia: @groten), as I’ve got some family and friends who are playing, too.
I played some Disgaea as well, and though I love this game, the menus and repetitive motion mean that I can’t play very much at a time without sore hands/wrists, so I end up quitting before getting through the postgame fun. I hope they will come up with some improvements on that for future games.
What did you play this year? Any recommendations?
Fifth day of Christmas
🫖:
🧱: simple but fun characters today
🧩: new puzzle, had three difficulties within it (by piece size). My spouse did the harder parts.
🍊: garland!
Preview of the complete minimalist day/adventure/survival-pack for @lukeforis @odd @pilchuck
It may look bulky, but this is a small pack and very light.
(Pack is the Osprey Daylite)
2020: 📺 & 🎥 Review
To view other 2020 review posts, visit the main post here.
When it comes to screens, I prefer to do something that requires engagement from me. Thus, when I’m in front of a screen for enjoyment, I’m often reading or playing. When I’m watching, I prefer something humorous, challenging, or both. I generally don’t like passive entertainment.
With the diffusion of shows and movies across streaming services (and Netflix & Apple TV not playing nice together), I started using [JustWatch] (https://www.justwatch.com/) to track “to watch” lists. JustWatch let’s me have a single watch list, and go to wherever I can stream (or rent or buy) the show or movie.
This year, I continued my quixotic quest to “watch all the sketch comedy”. Here are some of the new (to me) ones I that I recommend:
We like to watch “funny news” at our house. My favorites are:
At our house, we also enjoy some murder mysteries and “police procedurals”. Here are the couple that stood out for me this year:
Here are other shows that I recommend:
The Big Screen: I didn’t watch a lot of movies this year (who did?), but here are the two that stuck with me:
What did you watch this year? Any recommendations?
Fourth day of Christmas
🫖:
🧱: red stormtrooper?
🧩: 🎆!
🍊: mohawk time
Third day of Christmas
🫖:
🧱: I’m impressed how much detail can be created with such economy of pieces.
🧩: spouse is leaving the 🎆 for later
New 🍊
📚 Finished Reading: How to Invent Everything by Ryan North
Recommended. A rare ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book for me!
Informative and delightfully amusing on almost every page.
Second day of Christmas
🫖:
🧱:
I’m calling these “But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!”
🍊:
Now with pomanders!
First day of Christmas
🫖:
🧱:
Sunday Quote
Trader Joe’s (Unibroue) Vintage Ale 2011 has also aged incredibly nicely. 🍺
Dug into my Trader Joe’s Vintage Ale collection, opening a 2013 release.
The way it’s smoothed out makes it almost taste like a cola! 🍺🥤
🎧 Klank - Still Suffering is still one of my favorite 90s industrial(ish) albums.
I’ve seen a lot of Borscht recipes (from my Mennonite peoples) but this is the first one I’ve been excited about: https://honest-food.net/ukrainian-borscht-recipe/
Sunday Quote
Preview of my end-of-year music report.
Note: I only re-started scrobbling partway through the year, so numbers are lower, but will pick up again next year. 🎶
Laphroaig Càirdeas 2020 🥃:
I like peaty whiskies and I like wine-finished whiskies and this is both.
It’s their yearly special release, so the price point is not where I’d buy up a bunch. Very tasty, and even better with a splash of water to bring the ABV back to around 80.
