Best of 2022

I usually try to wait until very close to the end of the year before I make a "best of" post. I do this because it's quite often that I come across something really good in December (this is my only real issue with Spotify's Wrapped, which I love: it happens at the beginning of December, so it misses a whole month of listening). Anyway, here are my favorite things I watched/listened to/read/did this year. None of the lists are in any particular order

Music

• Hell on Church Street - Punch Brothers
• Illmatic - Nas
• People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm - A Tribe Called Quest
• The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest
• Midnight Marauders - A Tribe Called Quest
• "Earfquake" - Tyler, the Creator
• Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers - Kendrick Lamar
• "Lavender Haze" - Taylor Swift (a nice little nod to Mad Men here in the title)
• All The Truth That I Can Tell - Dashboard Confessional
• The Score - The Fugees
• "Cath.." - Death Cab for Cutie
• "Electric Feel" - MGMT
• "GET A LIL BAG" - Tobe Nwigwe
• Three main genres I got really into this year: 90s/early 00s alt rock, 2000s indie, and 90s hip hop

Movies

• Vengeance
• The Batman
• Nope

TV

• Severance
• The Bear
• White Lotus
• Stranger Things
• Dave
• Better Call Saul Season 5

Books

• Dune - Frank Herbert
• Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert
• The first three books in The Expanse - James S.A. Corey
• Go ahead in the Rain - Hanif Abdurraqib
• Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents - Lindsay C. Gibson
• As always, I'm reading to the kids every night. Currently about to finish Order of the Phoenix with Lyla.

Podcasts

• Ezra Klein's interview with Maryanne Wolf
• Dissect's season on Inside by Bo Burnham
• Serial's season on The Trojan Horse Affair. Felt a little whodunnit-ish, and was a fun listen.

Everything Else

• Inside on Switch
• Axiom Verge on Switch
• I've been weightlifting three days a week since August. Started with StrongLifts and recently switched to GZCLP. I feel stronger, healthier, and better than I have in a long time, even with the running I was doing before. I took a break from running because of some hip issues, but I'm excited to see how running and lifting can complement each other when I get to the new year.
• I really took the plunge this year on no social meda / self-hosting and getting into indie-web spaces. I'm still trying to figure out what this can look like for me. I really hate being on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I think TikTok is a really awful service that hijacks our brains. I love RSS, the idea of federation, the ideal of an open web.
• We visited Schlitterbahn a couple of times. On one of those visits, Paisley and I got to go and hang, just the two of us. That was a blast.
• Went to see Mae perform The Everglow in February, and saw Dashboard Confessional in August. Both shows were amazing.
• We got a dog. Really.
• We finally removed all the carpet from our whole house. Long overdue.
• I got a pretty bomb ass tattoo. Not quite a half sleeve, but it covers most of my upper right arm. Very pleased, and it's beautiful.
• We got to spend a week in South Padre with Elaine's brother and his family. I love the beach more than most things. Also, boogie boarding, good drinks, good food, and a large amount of relaxation.
• I'll forever look at 2022 as the year that Elaine (re)discovered her obsession with scratch-off tickets.
• My best friend since high school moved to TX in the summer. We have gotten to reconnect a ton, and that's been really amazing.

Personally, there were also some really difficult points in the year. I'm still struggling internally with some family issues. To be honest, I think this will require therapy, and that's been a really hard step for me to take.

On top of that, whatever was left of my faith after leaving Life in Deep Ellum in 2021 feels (at worst) completely gone or (at best) entirely dormant. I have a hard time even remembering what it was like to be a person of faith. Prayer feels largely unnatural. I do not have any kind of feel or sense of "God's presence" as I (think) I used to feel it. Largely, my experience of the world feels unaffected by whether I believe that God exists or not, or whether I am a follower of Jesus or not. I don't want to get too deep into this, as I think it warrants another blog post or set of blog posts. It is sufficient to simply say that my faith is not what it once was, and that's not something I feel I can force. I also don't know if I even want to find a way back to that. Maybe someday. Not right now.

A final note: last week, I accepted a job offer at Green Line Digital as a data analyst to go work on a friend's team there. My final day at SAGU will be January 6th. And while one should never say never, I don't anticipate I'll be coming back this time. Fully remote work, a healthy pay bump, better benefits... it's gonna be a good thing for us overall even if the transition takes some getting used to.

Overall, I'm thankful for the year, hard parts included.

Tagged: music, yearly review, reading, movies,